I can’t believe the first week of block two has finished, it has honestly flown by. The amount of information thrown at you in the first week is intense; you feel overwhelmed and any confidence you have often disappears during this week and you spend the next four years to claw it back.
I had an eye test and a haircut this week, it’s definitely been a case of new block new me and I’m excited to collect my new glasses on Monday and complete the look!
The week was lecture heavy on Monday, 7 lectures on 7 completely separate topics. Lecturers change too, which means you have to constantly adapt to new teaching styles. I’ve definitely learnt from last block about the time constraints, I’ve been trying, and I am sooo close to being on top of my lecture notes (by the end of the day I’ll have cracked it!).
I’ve been trialing a new lecture note system that’s been reducing my time searching for information when attempting to learn it. I’ve been using Microsoft OneNote to make lecture notes in online queue card form. These have subheadings for easy location and arrows linking related concepts. It’s been very helpful for recall of concepts and as I begin to move from listening into learning I hope the positive connotations I have will continue.
Adding to the chaos this week was the loss of my usually free Wednesday morning. I usually use my Wednesday to adult and get all my ‘catch-up’ work done; without it, I found myself running out of cooked food pretty quickly and was in need of some more to be cooked. When I finally found the time to do this… irony hits. Our oven broke.
So, when the baker loses her stress mechanism, in her most stressful week of the block… it doesn’t bode well… I also think I was feeling a little lost to not be able to cook food. Apparently according to my housemates its normal to cook a corn on the cob in the microwave, I remain unconvinced; at least I can add it to my lists of life experiences. I’m looking forward now that the ovens bake to christening it with a collection of bakes and foody recipes.
Today the plan is to cook as many meals as I can for the next week and really get on top of the pre-reading. I do not want to be behind like I was on block one, it made me feel really crappy about myself towards the end.
This week we started learning about the respiratory system, how we gain the ingredients for our body to function. As I have gained a vast amount of information, I’ve also learnt something simple.
Remember to breath…
You always need to take a moment to breathe and reflect. To take a breath and allow your body the chance to catch up with your busy life. Maybe I may find a moment or two to take a leaf out of my own advice. You never know, I may make it through med school!
abigailgrows 