Turkmenistan

Currently, this blog will be used for my thoughts, pictures, and excerpts from letters I send home from Turkmenistan. I will be in Turkmenistan from October 1, 2008 until December of 2010. You can send me letters and packages using the address to the right.
Many thanks to my family for posting updates to this blog as I will most likely have limited internet access over the next few years.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Ah, Sweet Summer...

Well as it turns out summer is quickly coming to a close so I thought I should put an update as to what I'm up to.

I've been volunteering at Medical College of Wisconsin doing engineered cardiac tissue research. I'm testing the stiffness and contractibility serially for cardic fibroblast tissue that I make from various strains of rats (rats that react well to myocardial infarction to those that don't react as well). It has been slow going but I'm learning a lot!

I also took the MCAT this spring and got my scores back and decided to retake them because I didn't think the scores were as high as I wanted them to be.

Tonight I finished taking an Anatomy and Physiology course that I decided would be fun and fairly educational. It was a good distraction and I learned some stuff, mostly anatomy things, but it was fun most of the time.

My german honors project is coming along slowly. I am researching the Armenian Genocide and working toward comparing perspectives of different nations at the time of the genocide. Thus far I have the american viewpoint well done, a great book for the german (written in Fraktur) that I have had extreme difficulty reading, and a french book or two that my advisor I think is working on, along with possibly a book from a turkish point of view.

I have finally decided on the medical schools I will be applying to which means that the only thing I have left to do is to finish up my personal statement and then focus entirely on studying for the MCAT again and wait for secondary applications to come rolling in. It is all very exciting but super stressful and really expensive! For the amcas (central application agency) just to start an application is $160 plus an additional $30 per school you apply to. Each school has a price for filing their secondary application that ranges from $50 - $100, the MCAT is $230 per time. This process is becoming very expensive, I hope and pray that I get in otherwise I get to repeat the whole thing over again in a year or two. Medical schools are trying really hard to be sure you are set on becoming a doctor before you apply!

I have some short vacations planned for this summer. This weekend I'll be spending Friday night in the cities and Saturday night and Sunday in Madison. Mid August I'll be headed up to the family cabin for some very relaxing rest and quiet study time. It should be exactly what I need.

Fall is coming soon which means I get to start thinking about classes - always a very exciting time of year! I think I have some real great ones lined up for the fall but for now that's all.