A Day in the Life Of...

I will be gradually compiling pics that depict my days here at school. Since each day is a little different, it'll take a little bit. I will be including pictures taken by myself and our class historian Elizabeth Garza (who is also my personal friend), so I must give her props for helping to make this blog post possible. : )

Mornings

Every day begins with coffee. I started out with just a cup in the morning and tea the rest of the day, but it's now 2 cups a day. Breakers has the best coffee (the little stand Julie runs in the basement of the dental school). Unfortunately, she's not usually up and running by class time at 8 am, so I started going to McDonald's...2 cream 2 sugar. The lady learned my order. That's prety sad.

More recently I have made a few cups of joe at home before leaving for school. It works on some days. Most days, McDonald's here I come.

Class

I sit in seat #54 and Alex is seat #55. He's a good seat buddy. Now that I have an empty chair on the other side most of the time, he's my main man.

Garzas in front

Room 6

door to the room

This is basically my view from my seat. Ben and Melodie. Chatting away between classes.

The next few pics are histology lab. Actually kind of a relaxing time. Dr. Svoboda turned the lights down low and Dr. Opperman walked us through the slides with her oh so soothing accent.

Please note in the above picture that I am packing up to leave. While everyone else is still studying. Thank you, Dr. Shippen, for getting me ready to histo so I could leave early! : )

Lunch

A tribute to lunch. This is Ben Morgan's lunch as made by, well, a boy. We threw a few peanuts in to top it off, but, seriously. I guess it all ends up in the same place, right?

Please note the can of Ranch Style Beans and the can opener accompanying it. This was NOT staged. Sadly enough.

Lunch area

Cafeteria

Studying

Studying at the Garza's doesn't look like it would be the most productive thing in the world, but that's just Rudy. Liz and I can get it done. Just to explain...we were studying for the 2nd Growth and Development test and "Dr. Buschang" showed up.

Studying in the library is also a good thing. This is what Ben looks like studying in the library.

This is what Harrison looks like studying in the library.

I was guilty of doing this once. So far. It's really hard to do with insane amounts of ping pong going on behind you and Sports Center blaring on the TV overhead. But dental school will make you tired enough to catch a few winks between classes on the couch.

I admit that this is staged, but many a winks are caught during breaks here at #54. Not necessarily on my computer.

See, I'm not the only one. Alex ignores my snoring.

This was taken at the very end of gross when we learned the anatomy of injections. This is a "mental block" being demonstrated on a real, yes real, human skull. It really creeped Erik out to have a skull in the house and he was glad to see it go. Who knows what the cats thought.

A Day of Rest

Today is MLK and I needed a break! For some reason (some might attribute it to post-holiday blues) starting this semester has been more than difficult for a lot of us at school. A girl that I honestly don't talk to much just sat down next to me one day and told me she was homesick. The "can I still specialize?" woes are hitting pretty hard for those that fall in that category. I just feel pretty blah and not very excited about much of anything. And classes that shouldn't be all that stressful are hitting us harder than even gross did. We have got to calm down and take a break. There's way too much competition and not enough practical learning.

Unfortunately my body is responding to whatever this is (and shouldn't be) by apparently losing all rhythm to its natural cycles. Please, Lord calm me down, because I sure don't need this scare every month. Talk about stress.

So for now, I'm trying to take it slow. A little quilting, lunch with mom and Lisa, a little Gilmore Girls (thanks, Sarah!) and maybe, just maybe, a little studying. Later. I do have a test on Friday.

Just Call Me Dr. Mann

Finally, we, the first years, get to feel like dentists. Albeit small steps, we are picking up the tools of the trade for the first time to actually USE them instead of just put them in a drawer. Now, the once menial dental assistant tasks of mixing stone and making casts are the highlights of our days (ok, I admit I really enjoyed the quiet hum of the vibrator and trimmer as I escaped into the lab at the dental office). And I still do. But tomorrow, we get to use our handpieces. To prepare extracted teeth. And then fill them. Like real dentists. Ok, I know real dentists work on teeth in real people's mouths, but it really is the little things that get us through the endless weeks of first-year-dom. In a year and a half it WILL be real people. Kinda scary, huh?