It's 12:15pm on August 23rd and I have just completed my first day of class in medical school. I have to go back down to the anatomy lab at 1:00 so we can finish up the day's assignment. We aren't allowed to be in there from 3-5 today because the PT students have their first session. I was really freaked out by the whole lab thing, but once we got going, I was just fine. I'm going to talk about it a little bit, so if you don't want to read it, just skip the rest of the paragraph. I can't say that I enjoy the environment - the smell mostly - or the process of getting through the skin and fat (ours has enough to make you not want to go on a diet no matter what you look like). She's not obese by any means but she does have some good deposits on her arms and lower abdomen/thighs. I've noticed that my cadaver doesn't smell as strongly as some of the others. Her muscles are kind of pink and not very strong (they tear easliy). The muscles at the next table are really red. We are given minimal information about the donor. We know that she was 87 and that she died from chronic heart failure. There are lots of professors walking around to help out, and you can get them do do a little of the delicate work if you ask them the right question at the right time. We were looking for one muscle today that I would have never found. I was looking on top of the sholderblade but the muscle was actually under the sholderblade. We only think it'll take us another hour today, but we're probably wrong.

We were in lab for 3 hours, which flew by, and then had an hour of embryology lecture. The professor moves quickly, but it's not worring me. Some of the students around me were a little frazzled I think. Here is where a little maturity comes into play.

One of the things that I have to do is get my out of state car exempt from the wheel tax that they have here in Nebraska. The exemption is only $5 but it has to be in the form of certified funds, which means that I have to go somewhere to get said funds certified.

Everybody here had to get a TB test on Friday. I don't have TB, but my living anatomy partner had a positive skin test. He is in the process of getting a lung x-ray as we speak.

I am going to study a little bit before lab. the library has lots of nice chairs and couches, so I'm going to go find one and see what I can do in the next 15 minutes.