Housekeeping

Spring break is over o! I go back to that........place! today. Ice block/freezer, dead zones excuse for a state. I'm still not over the fact that the closest walmart super center to me is 30 minutes away.

So what did i do with my 10 day break?

Fun stuff: Nada, Zilch, Nothing.

Sorry, i lied. I played with my niece. Her middle name is "fun stuff". She made it worth while sha. She's a lot of fun and if i wasn't going to be a doctor i would probably be doing something in psychology related to child development. So i'm fascinated to no end just watching her do stuff. I totally understand why mothers go on and on about their kids. I would too, but you guys would be sick of me. She calls me Maama and it's the cutest thing i ever heard. She calls my mom and my sister Maama too. I guess everyone is Maama at this age.

Oh and i watched a Nigerian movie : Blackberry babes. I stayed up till 5.30am watching that shit even though i had a 9am hair appt and the stupid movie did not even end. After watching part 1 and 2, i thought that would be it, but noooo!!!! There's part 3 and 4. Naija pple sef. Ahn ahn!!. The movie was interesting enough and i wanted to see how it ended. I no know say na so Naija pple don craze finish because of blackberry. I had one for like a day in 2006 or 2007 and i took it back because i just wanted a simple phone. I don't even want a blackberry even now and no one cares what phone you have in these parts. Nigerian pple always take everything to the extreme, but that's another post for another day. 

School stuff: I spent 2 days doing CITI training. My research mentor is making me go through the IRB approval process for the research i'm doing this summer. The last time i checked, i was a med student not a PhD candidate. He said it would be good training for me. I agree, 100%.....but!!!!! Come on! Most of my classmates did not have to go through this mostly because i guess they are not starting original projects and if they are they don't have a hard core mentor like mine. That man dey make me vex sometimes sha, but he is a nice guy and he came through for me on a fellowship grant i applied for. I left it till last minute cos i had exams and he still bent over backwards to make sure i met the deadline (although he had subtly threatened me sha about not getting it done on time).

I spent another 2 days doing Pathway stuff that i have put aside until spring break and i'm not even done. I still have at least 3 papers to read and write a reflection on, and i have to go through different HIV agencies and summarise my findings. My school ehn? I feel like slapping them sometimes, like we don't already have enough to do.  I have to add that, everybody's pathway experience is different. First of all, there are 5 pathways to pick from. Clinician Educator, Physician Scientist, Master Clinician, Urban and Community healthy and Global Health.

I picked Urban and Community Health which coincidentally has the dubious honor of being the most hard core in terms of requirements. Now after picking your pathway, you have to come up with your Individualized learning plan (ILP). See groove. I'm already complaining i have too much on my plate, you guys now want me to use my hand to add more. Do i have a choice?  My focus is on HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness, so most (all) things on my ILP are related to that.  We have a mid term report due on the 25th where your pathway advisor (whom you had to look for by yourself, by the way) "grades" your progress on your ILP. Madame Sting had only done 10% of the stuff on her ILP. So since i loved myself, i decided to do enough to get to at least 33% which is the minimum of how much i needed to have done by now.

I had a couple of people i wanted to go to lunch with this spring break. Mostly people from my former lab, but i didn't even let them know i was in town. Funny how i lived in ATL for 7 years and i don't have friends here. I'm just a weirdo. It was partially a conscious decision sha plus stuff happened early on that just made me sick of people and withdraw into myself. It was all book and work. I must get into med school blah blah. If i could do things differently, i would have found a balance cos med school wasn't worth the sacrifice i made. Moral of the story: Always find a balance.

On the friendship level, I kind of feel like i've given up on that. I have a hard time trusting "friends" cos many of them have DISAPPOINTED me. I just take things for what it is and go with the flow. I try to run from drama which is the main reason i don't have a lot of close friends. I don't think it's worth the headache. But! It would have been nice to have some female friends in ATL sha, i would have been forced to go out the house at least once.

Block 3 and Block 4 coming up: It's going to be a battle. Bloodbath at XYZ medical school. I have to be on my p's and q's. I really can't afford to play. No be the one wey i dey do last block. So on that note, i have scheduled posts up on till April. So yeah, i spent a day writing blog posts. I have about 5 scheduled (i no try, una dey pay me? :). Also, i've been on twitter for a hot minute, i've never gotten into it sha but i think it would be easier and faster to twit than to blog. So if you would like to be in the know about the random thoughts and rants of my life, follow me @nigerianscorpio. There's also a button at the top right of my blog.....oya click on it and follow me. Thank you :)