"Well med school was fun, but you know we're getting expelled tomorrow, right?"

Classes started this week and so far it's been fine. Better though is the fact that the next 2 weeks is what we here call "Camp Einstein". The second year class is in charge of orienting the first year class to med school. Technically speaking it started 2 weeks ago, but there were only a smattering of first year kids here at the time. Now that classes are in full swing, the whole first year class is around. The next 2 weeks are plump with events like the booze cruise around Manhattan Island, movie nights, beer-pong tournaments, etc. -- your basic get-to-know-you kinds things. Last night was probably my favorite event - The Around the World Party.

I'm sure you've heard of these kinds of things. The first year kids are divvied up into about 7 groups and each group is assigned about 3 or 4 second year students as guides. They then make the rounds to various second year student apartments that represent a different country. At each apartment, the groups spend about 20 minutes drinking some kind of appropriate drink. In Greece, they served ouzo, in Spain they had sangria. Other countries that were done were Japan (sake bombs), Ireland (Irish car bombs), Thailand (Redbull and vodka - apparently Redbull is of Thai origin), and The Caribbean (rum and Coke). My roommate Dr. Shock and I did a country as well - Mexico. We decided on serving margaritas and tequila shots. So we were discussing what kind of decorations to put up. We covered the obvious - piñatas, Mexican flag, balloons, streamers. All of them seemed like fine ideas, but they just weren't us. Our friend EgyptianShorty told us we should put up one of those caution signs that shows the family running:







She said they are all over Southern California because the immigrants were running across the freeways and getting killed. Putting that up does sound more like us. Then it hit me. We needed to make a fence that the first years had to jump over to get into and out of Mexico. Once we had the sign made and the fence up, Dr. Shock looked at me and said "Well, med school was fun, but you know we're getting expelled tomorrow, right?" I guess one could make the case that the decorations were a little insensitive to the plight of the Mexican Immigrant. Fortunately, everyone that night saw the humor and subtle social satire that we intended.

TB-2, the final diagnosis

It's official, I don't have TB. I did however pick up a little toenail infection while in the east. I don't know how that could have happened...perhaps I got it while I was walking through monsoon-spawned floods pouring out of open sewers. I guess, considering the worst I could have brought back, I should be pretty happy. The treatment for these things is this goo called Penlac. It's some antifungal drug suspended in what seems to me to be nail polish. So now every day, after I bathe, I have to brush this stuff on my toenails. It makes them very shiny, kind of like girls' nails when they are painted. Plus, it is recommended that you wear sandals or flip-flops to keep the sun on the nails and keep your feet dry. So basically I am walking around with painted toenails on display all day. I have to say though, I look fantastic. I may adopt this look even after the problem clears up.