I’ve been busy back at school since Thanksgiving, it is the week leading up to our first set of finals.  My first term of dental school is almost over, and I’m still in!  Going to be a rough week with 6 finals, but I have something really great to look forward to at the end, a nice warm Christmas in tropical Queensland, Australia!

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving, and the Tuesday just before was the Psi Omega Thanksgiving dinner for members.  Both were great events to talk with people I haven’t seen in wayyy too long (cousins!), and people I see wayyy too much (classmates!  just kidding, haha).   One of Psi Omega’s big productions during the year is the pre-Thanksgiving meal, and they go all out.  Countless bottles of wine, a fully catered Thanksgiving feast, and… did I mention the wine?  The event went off without a hitch, it was an absolute blast.  The housemates all cleaned up the house prior to the party, cleanest I’ve ever seen it!  That kitchen was spotless (seriously mom, you wouldn’t have believed it).  Take a look at some photos from that night.  Some of them were so classy they just had to be black and white.

This year the family Thanksgiving was at my grandma’s house in Cincinnati.  It was the first time I’ve seen some of my cousins in what must’ve been over a year!  And sadly, probably the last time I see some of them for another year… Kevin is off to Korea to teach English, I’m sure he’s super excited and nervous at the same time, but it will be such an experience!  It’s experiences like that, just throwing yourself into the middle of an unknown, that can expose your passions and surprise yourself with your own strength.  I wish him the best of luck, but I’m sorry I won’t get to see him until next Christmas, good luck Kevin!

Colleen is off to Washington, D.C. to snag a job with the federal government, Chelsea is working in Richmond, and Kenz is in college at Auburn!  Crazy how we’re all growing up and going our own ways.  It’s exciting but a bit sad at the same time.  Can’t wait to hear how everyone’s new paths are going next time we all get together, most likely Easter, or Thanksgiving/Christmas 2010!

Happy Holidays!

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This week marks the end of our two-week hiatus from exams.  Today my class had a quiz, our first graded thing in slightly over two weeks.  The past two weeks have therefore been extremely unproductive and lazy.  Some things did happen since I last posted though, for instance:

Fall has come to Ohio

Fall descended on Ohio in late October again this year.  This time last year I was in Gatlinburg getting engaged with a backdrop of trees even more vivid than these.  In the background of this picture you can see my favorite building on campus, Orton Hall.  If I’ve ever showed you around Ohio State’s campus, I’m sure I’ve pointed it out to you, and it’s unique rock foundation.  For those of you who have not been lucky enough to be given a tour, Orton Hall is the geology building on campus.  It’s foundation is made of layers of rocks, the same layers found in the Ohio stratum.  I can’t help but take pictures of this building if I happen to have my camera.  Here it is from across the oval:

My first Blue Jackets game

After talking about going to a game for years since I’ve been in Columbus, I finally made it to my first Columbus Blue Jackets hockey game.  A group of guys from school went.  We got some nosebleed seats for the game against the Detroit Red Wings.  After the first two periods we were able to move down to the ice level and watched the rest of the game from there.  We saw a couple big hits.  This guy was bleeding from his nose pretty bad, and had trouble standing up by himself.

Unfortunately it was not the greatest game to make my first.  I learned alot about the rules of hockey from some of my classmates I attended with, but the Blue Jackets didn’t fare very well.  I’ll let this picture tell the story, I think it really sums it up nicely.

Ohio State beat Michigan for the 6th year in a row!

When this guy is on your team, how can you lose?

Aspen in his spirit wear

We had a big group over to the Psi Omega house for the game.  The US Army sponsored our tailgate and brought plenty of food for everyone.  Lots of cornhole, pool, and darts were played throughout the day, an absolute blast.  Any year that Ohio State defeats Michigan is a good year for OSU football.

Tonight is the Psi Omega Thanksgiving Dinner.  Lots of food, wine, and friends, and more than likely a horrible headache tomorrow morning!  Then it is one more day of class and back to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving with the family, looking forward to seeing lots of old friends and taking a nice break from class.  All I can think about lately is innervation, drainage, and control of muscles of the face and mouth,  get me out of here!

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This past Friday was the day of Nike’s Human Race.  The event took place in 24 cities around the world, including Ohio State University’s campus.  The other two US locals were USC’s campus in Los Angeles and New York City.  The average pace time for the 3,500+ people who participated in NY’s run was 1:02:55, so I was above average!  My time was 55 minutes and 10 seconds, not a fantastic feat as track and field goes, but for me I was completely stoked.  I’ve never been a runner, and the furthest I’ve ever run in one go was just over 3 miles.  A 10k is equivalent to 6.2 miles, more than double my longest run ever.  My goal was to break the one hour barrier (and to beat Tom’s time in the Brisbane 10k from earlier this year), and I accomplished it at a 9 mph pace!

Note: This picture taken before the pain and misery of that last mile

Several members of Psi Omega from the house did the run together.  It began almost a month ago with the announcement of Columbus being one of the 24 worldwide cities for the race.  The first several hundred participants to sign up were given a one-piece full-body red jumpsuit to run in.  For our $10 entry fee we also got a t-shirt, and a racing shirt with our own number on it.  Quite a deal for $10!  And there was an after party and lots of Nike promotions leading up to race day.  Check out Nike’s overview on OSU’s performance.

The forecast for the day was 100% chance of thunderstorms during race time, and it had rained off and on throughout the day.  It appeared like the rain was going to hold off for the race until we had just crossed the starting line.  At that moment the heavens opened up on us and it absolutely poured for about one minute.  After that though the rain let up and the rest of the night (and 6 miles) was nice high 50s/low 60s weather.  But the only reason this race was so much fun (and the only reason I was able to finish at 55min) was the people I ran with.  Our group made sure we had a great time running, and we kept each other going.  We also had some great fans on the sidelines watching us and cheering us on, thanks!  After the race, the rest of the night became a huge party celebrating our victory over the 10 kilometers, and more good times ensued!  Maybe I’ll do another one of these races if I’ve got a good group of people to run and train with, but not for a while.  I am terribly sore.

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I currently live on campus in the Psi Omega house.  Psi Omega is a national dental fraternity with organizations at many dental schools throughout the country.  Our house has 20 live-in members, and over 60 members that do not live in the house.  There is something to be said for being a naive first-year dental student and surrounding yourself with 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students.  I get tips on classes, professors, techniques, and most importantly: I have a group that understands exactly what I’m going through.  They’ve been in my shoes, and they know I can’t go out every Monday night for happy hour.  But man oh man, when a free weekend rolls around no one parties like dental students.  This Friday I began working on my wax-up of a maxillary incisor.  They gave us each a tooth that had been drilled on, and we had to build up the tooth back to its normal shape with wax.  Eventually this would be used to make a crown/inlay, but this was more of an oral anatomy exercise for us.  We had to build up the missing tooth structure with correct anatomy, and it had to relate to the surrounding teeth correctly as well.  It took me a long time in class, and I brought it home to start over.

Psi Omega features a fully functional dental laboratory in the basement, very handy for dental students who do not want to make the 15 minute walk to the dental school to use the laboratory.  For me, I went down to use the bunson burner and waxing instruments to work on my tooth.  I was downstairs with two D4 housemates of mine who gave me great instruction, tips, and critiqued my work.  I finished the wax up today and had another housemate check my work.  If I lived by myself in an apartment somewhere I would not have these great resources around, plus I’d be horribly lonely!

This past Friday was our first exam in Anatomy, a class we have 3 times a week for 4 hours at a time.  The amount of material covered on this exam was staggering.  I was studying with my housemates (there are 3 other first-year students living in Psi O this year) 3-4 hours a night for 5 nights in a row prior to the exam. There is another dental fraternity  known as “D-Frat”, and every year they throw a big party the night of the first anatomy exam.  The dress code suggested floral patterns, tight pants, hats, sunglasses, and/or vests.  Combine a lot of kegs, stressed out dental students, and a goodwill run – ridiculousness ensues.  Below are some of the more appropriate photos, haha.

That outfit cost me $11.  BARGAIN!

Another exam, this one Biochemistry, on Monday.  Wash – Rinse – Repeat.  Thanks for stopping by – leave a comment!

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