Pi Day and more

I've been out of touch with the world for a few days because of that cabin trip, but I thought I'd post a few photos of the other fun things that have gone on during this spring break.

First off, before break started, I made it through a 10 day period of finals. I was appreciative that they spanned my four finals out over a long period of time (because having four finals in five days would have been a little insane) but it also made it drag on like crazy. Fortunately our alumni association was looking out for us and had our lounge stocked daily with water, trail mix, granola bars and of course, some candy to keep us going.

Our finals ended on 3/13, so we all got together on 3/14 to celebrate the end of finals and something much more fun-- pi day! We all decided to bake pies and showed up with a pretty good representation of pies without even coordinating who was bringing what.

We had key lime, strawberry rhubarb, pecan, apple (made by yours truly), a blondie cookie "pie" and a new kind of "pie" that turned out to be the most talked about pie of the event. Little did I know that my classmates were serious about pi day and there was an official certificate for the maker of the best pie and we all had to taste ALL of the pies and cast our vote for the best pie. We had the same number of pies as we had people, so that was a lot of pie to eat! We decided to all take a bite of pie and pass it around the table and once we had tasted them all, we would be able to get a full piece of whatever we liked best.

Here is Dani holding the coveted winner's certificate

 Now, onto the "new pi" I was talking about. This was my classmate Jake's creation-- a strawberry-raspberry jello pie. But, not just any jello pie, a jello-shot pie. He said he wanted to celebrate finals with jello shots but it was pi day so he wanted to turn jello shots into jello pi. Here is is "masterpiece":

 

The topping can only be described in texture as sheet rock...not very appealing to anyone at the table. He started out well, making a pretzel crust just like the famous Bowler pretzel jello. Then, he went wrong. He made the jello with vodka and let it harden in the fridge, but then he decided he wanted them to be "creamy" shots, so he whipped in some cool whip into the jello. This, of course, disturbed the gelatinous mix of vodka and jello and it lost it's shape. Then he decided to top the pie with more cool whip, but in an effort to make it harden more, he decided to take the crushed pretzel pieces (more like the "sawdust"-like crumbles of the pretzels) and mix that in with the topping of cool whip, hence the sheet rock appearance and texture.

We gingerly cut into the monstrosity only to find an alcoholic-berry mush that was akin to peptobismol. We hesitantly passed it around for the taste test, but I steered clear of the middle and took a big hunk of crust since I knew what was in it! Here is the disgusting aftermath of our taste test:

So needless to say, Jake's "pie" didn't win the coveted award. It turns out that my UW apple pie was the favorite of the day with a whopping 7 votes out of 9 attendees. So, Jake has convinced me that some day we will have a pie making lesson so he doesn't repeat his jello monstrosity. I told him that if he steers clear of alcohol in his pie, he'd probably have better luck!

 Then, this week I've had some amazing experiences in the OR at Seattle Children's Hospital and Harborview Medical Center. I obviously don't have any photos of that, but I got to witness the da Vinci robot at work in the hands of my mentor for my summer project, Tom Lendvay. After seeing it used on an adult it was crazy to see it in use on a 19-month old! At harborview I was able to see a huge array of surgeries and injuries while following around a wonderful reconstructive plastic surgeon that predominately repaired the wounds of trauma patients.

And, at the end of the day yesterday, I got a ride home from Tom Lendvay in his brand new baby-- a Tesla (a car that my Tom has been coveting since he learned of their existence).

 I was dazzled by the giant console screen with map and internet capabilities (not to mention that it controls basically everything in the car). So, my mentor Tom could almost pass for my Tom from the side right? Can you picture it some day--I know Tom can!

I still have a lot to do this spring break, but I've definitely had some good times. But, I've got to file our taxes, submit a few scholarship applications and complete the IRB application for my project this summer before Monday rolls around and I'm back in the thick of it. Rumor has it that the spring quarter of first year is the hardest one yet, so I'm bracing myself for a whirlwind. I'll be taking neuroanatomy, microbiology, an orthopedics elective and my "introduction to clinical medicine" course where we start learning how to use our stethoscopes, ophthalomoscopes and otoscopes--med school is becoming real folks!