Aaaalmost there!

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And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

My brain isn't fully processing this idea that I'm leaving in 31/2 weeks! I feel like I'm ready to go...but also that I have SO much to do.

I don't think it's going to start seeming real to me until I start packing.

I still have to...

-figure out what I need to bring/not bring (hooray for having a friend who's been doing this for -about 6 months already for packing advice!)

-actually pack it

-see what shots I need...and get them

-get my travel visa...lucky for me, one of the missionaries I'm working with has a friend in the Kenyan Embassy in Washington, DC. Unucky for me, they decided to change the cost of visas starting Jan 1. Somehow, that translates into, visas that continue past Jan 1st are now more expensive...and instead of processing your visa we will mail you the stuff back, and tell you to send it to us again on January 1st. That's cutting it just a liiiiiiittle close!

faaantastic.

I still haven't heard ANYTHING from ANY medical schools...but, as always, I have no control over this situation so I have no choice but to learn patience and trust God.

Which brings me to this:

A quote from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest (I highly recommend reading his daily devotional at myutmost.org!!)

I read this the other day:

"Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers than by the world. God is made a machine for blessing men, and Jesus Christ is made a Worker among workers.
The idea is not that we do work for God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us - "I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine." God wants to use us as He used His own Son"

and I found it quite interesting. I think a lot of times we (or at least I) trust God with something partly because it might be his will, but a bigger part simply because it's the situation I think should happen, and doesn't God want me to experience the situations I want to experience?? (haha...)

Now....of course there are times when what I want and what God wants are the same (I think), like with this medical school thing. I truly believe that this is what God wants for my life, and I really want it too. So I trust that God's going to work it out so I get into medical school. But why do I trust that? Is it because that's the plan I picked for my life and God's being nice and giving me what I want? Or is it because I'm trusting that it's His will, and He's going to make it happen because it's His will? I think it should be more of the latter than it is in my head.

So what if I also want to go to medical school for completely "selfish" reasons. If I really felt God was calling me to do something I didn't really want to do would I be praying for His will to be done as much as I do now? I can say from experience, not really. And that, Oswald Chambers says, is how we make God into our blessing machine, instead of making ourselves into His workers.

So of course there's a balance to this...we shouldn't stop praying for the things we want in life...but when you have a realization you've got to take it to an extreme at first so that you can settle back into moderation and learn from it, so that's what I am doing. :-D

Random interjection- I think I'm going to name my first son Oswald, and call him Ozzywaldo as an embarrassing childhood nickname. It's still better than Yelliepoopalasaloo or however you spell that. (Thanks MommaJayne)

On another side note, I still have not finished putting away all my stuff that I brought home with me, and tonight Dad said I had to finish by tomorrow night so that my sister could have space to start packing her suitcase for our cruise. Which means that the cruise is SO close! :) Don't be too jealous though, I've heard Florida's supposed to be in the 60s when we get there. Nicer than NY but not really cruise weather. Oh well, I'll be in 100 degree weather soon enough!

Also, I really, really miss Cornell! It's better now that most of the people who were there have gone to their respective homes, but for a week or so every time something from Cornell popped up on facebook I had this terrible "AAAH I'm MISSING OUT on something!" feeling. Guess I'd better get used to it.

Also, there is a ladybug bouncing around among the light bulbs in the fan in the living room, and it reminds me of that time they infested my bedroom and we vacuumed about 200 of them out of my room in one night. That was a fun day. Especially with the smell they give off when they die. :-p

Alright, enough of me babbling. Good Night!

Hello Newcomers!

So I just sent this link to about a million people on facebook, so hello to all of you who have never been here before!

In case you haven't heard, or you forgot, or you just want to hear it again, here is what's going on here:

On January 12, 2011 I am flying in an airplane or two to Nairobi, Kenya, where I will be participating in medical missions...stuff...for 6 months! I'll be working with missionaries who are already there, who work to set up clinics all over Kenya and organize teams from other countries to come in and do short-term medical trips.

I'll be doing...basically whatever they let me do! A little this, a little that, a little surgery, maybe? :-P

I'll be coming back in July of 2011 and if all goes as planned, going to medical school starting in August of 2011.

I'll be keeping this blog to keep all of you people back home (or off on their own adventures in Uganda- Hi Heidlebergenshchmergenstein!) so check back every so often to see what I've been up to! I'll try to update as often as I possibly can, but no guarantees what the internet will be like once I get there so keep your hopes up, but your expectations moderate. :-P

Thanks for reading! :)

Chriiiiiiiistmas, Chriiiistmas tiiiiime is heeeeeeeeeere

Ok not really. But almost.

Hmmmm updates from the last blog:

In case you hadn't seen on facebook...as many of you HAVE, turns out my car was totaled....which was really just a HUGE blessing in disguise! The new car I got has power locks, and power windows, and cruise control! I should have hit a bus earlier and I might have enjoyed these amenities sooner! ;) It's a newer Corolla, and it is dark-ish red, so of course I named him Hemo The Magnificent, after a movie about the circulatory system I had as a kid. (blood being red, and all)

A few weeks ago I spoke at our large group Chi Alpha meeting on Friday night...the first time since my high school graduation I actually stood up in front of a group of people and talked for that long...I basically spent the whole week before stressing out over what I was going to talk about and how I was going to talk about it, but it ended up going well. (thanks mostly to spending an hour on Wednesday talking over it with Matt where he helped me put it into a structure) I spoke about a lesson that I have learned multiple times in my college career, and I'm sure will learn many more times in my life- about waiting on and for God.

We need to have patience and wait for God, doing things in His timing and not jumping the gun on Him...and we also need to wait on Him- actively submitting ourselves to His will and being alert attentive to His desires and His will so we can do it at a moment's notice.

I didn't make a fool of myself in the venture so that was good. I still haven't heard the audio but I don't think I want to. :-D

The rest of the semester has gone by SO FAST! I cannot believe there's only one week of classes left at Cornell! We're planning the Christmas Party for next Saturday and I am quiiiite excited for it! It's always a good time and one final chance to hang out and say goodbye to people. It's my second "last" Christmas party, but this time I'm really going to be leaving.

The other day I was driving in Ithaca and I saw a street sign, and thought to myself "Oh, I didn't know that was the name of that street. File that one away in my head" And then I realized that I was leaving in 2 weeks, and that information didn't really need to be filed away since it wouldn't be useful to me shortly.

that was WEIRD, because I've never been this close to leaving Ithaca before...I've never lived somewhere any significant amount of time, gotten to know it, my way around it (some of you know just how HUGE of a feat that is for me! :-P) built connections there, gotten a feel for the town...and then left. I've never moved before, so this is a strange idea for me. A little piece of me will always be there I guess. straaaaaaaaaaange.

I go through this weird thing every time I leave Ithaca too...as soon as I leave, I wish I was back in Ithaca because I know there's still fun things going on there, people I'd love to spending time with. But when I'm home I also loooove being with my family, and especially this time of year when we have so many family gatherings and fun things to do planned. Whenever I am in one place and enjoying it I feel like I'm sort of betraying the other place. I guess my life is going to be full of things like that, as long as I keep going places and enjoying myself there.

AFRICA IS COMING SOON!

I'm leaving JANUARY TWELFTH!

My passport has been sent out for my Visa...now all I need to do really is get my shots and pack my suitcase! :)

But first...the first ever (and according to Mom, LAST) D'Ambrosio family cruise is coming up- leaving NYC Christmas Day and sailing to the Bahamas, I can't wait for that either. :-D

Life is Good!

I know, I know, I'm slacking...

So it's been over a month since I last wrote!

Partly because I have been doing lots of things...but a partly because I don't really feel like the things I am doing make for really exciting stories, especially reading Heidi's Uganda blog and hearing about grasshopper sandwiches, rescuing cows from drowning, sleeping in mosquito net tubes, etc. So my life wouldn't make a great thriller or adventure story, but some pretty cool things have been happening nonetheless.

So what have I been up to??

Highlights/updates

So as I expected, we did a muuuuch better job of keeping people around after the first week this year than we have in the past. Most of the freshmen who we saw several times over the first week and came to XA the first night are still committed to the group, which is awesome. Small groups are going really well.

The second week we had seventeen people show up!!! but that number has settled down to about 8-10 each week. The first couple weeks we spent mostly getting to know each other, and had most people share their testimonies. I've never heard such a great group of them- story after story of amazing things God did in peoples lives and families, of how he pursued after hearts until people found true unconditional love in him. It was encouraging for me to hear, and I was especially thankful that a couple girls who didn't have much of a church background and are interested in seeking God got to hear such awesome personal stories about him.

My group is going through Luke, looking at Jesus' teachings/parables. It's been really great so far, we've had a lot of really good discussions, and I've been impressed with everyone's willingness to open up and share their thoughts...which has been a struggle in small groups at times. We've really been encouraging them to read the section beforehand and come to small group with questions and their own thoughts and things to discuss.

Chi Alpha started doing this thing on Saturdays where we play pickup soccer on one of the fields on campus, as a way for us to hang out with each other, but also meet new people. There's serveral non-XA people who've been playing regularly with us, which is pretty cool.

It was interesting for me because I haven't played soccer basically at all since the Kent Rec team in 3rd and 4th grade...and I missed half the year in 3rd grade because I was recovering from open heart surgery. But I've had more fun than I was expecting to have once I got over the "I don't want to play because I'm not actually good at this" thing...which is something I'm (unfortunately late in my life) starting to learn...I'm a perfectionist and I don't like to do things when people can see me unless I've established some level of mediocrity at it. Sooooo I'm trying to learn to suck it up and put myself out there and try new things and realize that nobody actually cares if you make a fool of yourself, at least you tried and maybe learned something.

This weekend is our Fall Retreat and i'm sooo excited because 1. EMMY is coming to be a nanny for Matt and Tracy's almost-2 year old daughter, so I get to see her little self and 2. I just always love retreats, good things always happen when we set aside a whole weekend to pay close attention to God and what he's doing. There's about 20 students from Cornell going, and about 50 people total, and Jim Bradford, the Assemblies of God general secretary is going to be the speaker. I've heard him before and he's great, so I'm looking forward to it. :)

I STILL haven't heard anything from medical schools...but I don't know when I'm supposed to hear anything from them...so I don't even know if that's fine or bad (as in, i'm missing paperwork or something) So I should probably do something about that...

I was home the other weekend for fall break and went into Manhattan with my parents to talk to an Air Force recruiter. DON'T think I'm crazy! People keep telling me "I can't see you running around with a gun or flying planes" and I say "Well good, because I can't see that either, and that isn't what I'm going to be doing!!'

There is a scholarship program where the Air Force will pay all your tuition, books, small equipment fees, plus a stipend, for medical school. In turn you work in an AF hospital, as a doctor, in whatever specialty you want, for 4 years. At the end of 4 years you can decide if you want to stick with the Air Force or go into the civilian system. Chance of deployment overseas in the first 3 years: no guarantees, but basically zero.

so I am applying to this program, so I can go to med school and be a doctor in the Air Force instead of a doctor in a civilian hospital, not fly planes. :-P

Here's a funny story to end this very long overdue post:

Monday, I was driving through campus to take my giant laptop, which decided to stop working, to Best Buy so they could look at it, when I stopped at a stop sign. I was in a significantly agitated mood since I had just had an agitating conversation with my sister, which resulted in me hanging up on her (anyone surprised?) (it wasn't illegal she was on speakerphone, I had both hands on the wheel the whole time!!) Anyways. so I was at the stop sign, and there was a crosswalk after it, so there was a good amount of road between where I was and where I would need to be to see if there were cars coming. So in my agitation I ...forgot?...to actually pull forward enough to see what was coming at me, and made the right turn. Turns out a TCAT bus was coming my way. (here's a tcat bus:http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sustainablecampus.cornell.edu/gettingaround/images/tcat.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sustainablecampus.cornell.edu/gettingaround/buses.cfm&usg=__tpZbBt0RsayAcDgbw_j_rNkcu5Y=&h=157&w=210&sz=38&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=ZTsFWZ3PjGZwyM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtcat%2Bbus%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1014%26bih%3D487%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=149&vpy=98&dur=1142&hovh=125&hovw=168&tx=136&ty=75&ei=8azATP_2MML58AbnhIDlBA&oei=8azATP_2MML58AbnhIDlBA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

We made contact.

The Bumper ended up on the sidewalk

The driver's side headlight was smashed

The driver was perfectly fine, not a bump, not a scratch, not a whiplash

The entire driver's side of the car was perfectly fine

The car was even drivable!...though it made funny rattling noises because the hood wasn't sitting well on the frame.

So the car is at the doctor's for now and I'm just peachy. :-D

Lesson learned? Emmy put it well in her facebook status: "Don't yell at me, you'll hit a bus"

Thanks, sister.

oh! and a reminder...if you want to comment, just "sign in" anonymously so you don't have to make a google account, just remember to sign your name so I know who you are. :-D

Commenting

Now everyone should be able to comment...if you click on the comments, and the where it give you the option to comment and sign in, just choose "anonymous" and you should be able to do it without signing up for a google account.

Back to Cornell!!

WELL

I just finished my first week back at Cornell...it has already been a growing experience, I think.

I went on vacation to the Outer Banks, NC with my family the week before, and left thursday to drive home, then left for Ithaca Friday morning. So I had juuuust finished getting all moved in and unpacked and we headed off to a retreat for the leadership team of Chi Alpha. That was a great time, getting to hang out and catch up and bond, but we also learned a lot...we talked about the importance of devotionals, and doing it right, to your ability to be successful as a person and especially a leader. It was inspiring to me to make sure I'm doing the "do it right" part...I've never had a problem with making sure I was reading my Bible every day, but I've often fallen into reading it just to get it done, and not having enough energy left at the end of the day to pay enough attention to get as much out of my time with God as I should. So I'm trying to do what I've been avoiding doing for yeeeeears and move that time to the morning instead of the evening.

I've also started this new Chi Alpha program called "Menternship"- a combination between "Intern" and "Mentor" - it's an online class, sort of, where every week we watch video talks, listen to podcasts, and read articles on a certain topic, then have a chance to discuss message-board style what we are learning with other Menterns and instructors, and then apply it practically. So that's going to be an awesome growing experience as well!

This first week was just about insane...we had stuff going on every day, of course, to try and meet as many incoming students as possible and get them involved in a fellowship. We made a lot of contacts and for I think the first time ever, saw the same people over and over again the first week. Normally the first and second chi alpha meetings are two different groups of new people coming through, but I'm pretty sure that isn't going to happen this year, we have done such a good job following up with the people we met. I'ts very exciting! ;)

The first week was hard for me personally because although I wasn't doing anything I hadn't already one before...this was, after all, my 5th orientation week..I felt personally responsible for everything going well, and that added a lot of stress to my day. A good night's sleep and some realizing that I need to be less of a control freak made it much better. :-p

So I think that's going to be the theme of this year- not being a control freak and patience. Both of these are very very strong in the opposite direction- that is, I am an impatient control freak. I have had many many instances where both of these have been put to the test...and that's probably good because in Africa nothing goes as planned and nobody acts the way you want them to, so I'm gonna need it.

However, I really, really, really don't like when God teaches me lessons...at least during the learning part. It's borderline painful at times. But how do we learn if not put to the test? And so I go on.

SOOOO EXCITING!!

Sooooooo TODAY my darling Mommy Dearest and my darling Daddy Dearest and I sat around the phone and had a speakerphone conversation with the missionaries that I have been emailing back and forth about my trip to Kenya.

It was awesome to get to talk to them in person and ask questions and instantly get an answer, and ask clarifying questions and instantly get an answer, and just ask as things popped into our heads. Mom and Dad LOVED it because they were doing all the worrying I probably should have been doing but was too excited to do, and they got a lot of details they'd been concerned about getting.

But I just got EXCITED.

SO SO SO SO EXCITED.

Plan so far: Sometime at the beginning of January I fly into Nairobi and meet up with my host missionaries, and go with them to live in some sort of missions compound (from what I've gathered it's a group of houses/apartments/guest house-type things) for a little bit until I get accustomed to the area and how things are run, and then start getting involved in one of the many clinics they are working to set up. My host missionaries work with Kenyan doctors and other medical people to set up permanent medical clinics all over Kenya. Several are in the Nairobi area, within an hour or so, and a few are scattered farther away. I'm going to spend about a month in each of 6 different locations just working with the doctors and doing whatever I can.

In March there is a missions conference in Mombasa that I'll get to go to as well.

And the best part (rather, the part that I got MOST excited about tonight!) is that my visa, a tourist visa, only lasts for 3 months. so at some point, I have to leave the country and come back in. So I could go to Uganda, and then come back. And guess who's going to be in Uganda? HEIDI!!!

Now. before you get SUPER excited for me, realize that she's going to be far, far away from Kampala, Uganda (the place I'd likely fly into)

BUT.

If MY visa expires, that means hers is going to expire TWICE. And she's gonna have to leave the country TWICE. Now maybe, juuuuust maybe, between me leaving once and her leaving twice, we could actually SEE EACH OTHER in Africa!

how cool would that be? :)

So that's what I'm praying for this week. :-P

Yet Another Facelift

Feel free to ignore any and ALL posts below this one, as there is a great chance that only one of them are interesting to any given person, and it simply won't be worth your time to read the other 15 or so posts. Unless you're really bored. Or stalking me. And if the latter is the case I'd prefer you not read them anyways.

Anywhoo.

Once again I have revamped the blog...changed the title and the background and the layout, in preparation for an onslaught of new visitors (my high school English teachers would be so proud of my use of and ability to recognize hyperbole there!) (And I'm assuming you didn't even notice, since you just got here anyways, but since you're behaving and not reading all the old posts, I had to give you SOME history, right? :-D )

So I sent/am sending/will send letters or some other form of contact (wahoo facebook) to lots of people in my life telling them all about my plans for the next year...I will copy and paste the official answer to the question "What is Danielle going to be doing for the next year?" riiiiiiiiight here:

Last winter, I attended the World Missions Summit - a conference where thousands of college students

and young adults were challenged to give a year of their lives to missions, and pray about doing so for a

lifetime. Before I even arrived, I knew that I wanted to give a year, and the summit was a great time for me

to see what opportunities God might have out there for me. On the last night, I signed a card pledging to

spend a year doing missions after college, before my post-graduation plans to attend medical school.

As you may already know, I recently graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Biology.

While in college, I got involved with a Christian organization called Chi Alpha, which is a ministry that

gives students the opportunity to grow and serve God during their college years, reaching out to others on

campus and allowing students to encourage each other and enjoy fellowshipping together. Joining Chi Alpha

was the best decision I could have made; it is the place where I found an amazing group of friends who

helped me to grow as a person and in my relationship with God. Because of the huge blessing Chi Alpha

and its pastors, Matt and Tracy Herman, have been to me, I have decided to spend the next six months

working with them in Cornell's chapter of Chi Alpha through the Assemblies of God U.S. Missions program.

My responsibilities will include meeting weekly with several girls individually for discipleship, leading a

small group Bible study, participating in a mentorship program, and doing various administrative activities.

I am ecstatic to be able to go back to Cornell for a semester and have no classes, but more importantly, to be

able to spend my time investing in the lives of other young adults and giving back to the ministry that has

given so much to me! I feel that I have grown so much deeper in my relationship with God during my time

at Cornell and have learned so much more about life, and so I am excited to be able to share that with the

students who are still there!

Additionally, in January, I am planning to go to Kenya, East Africa for six months working with the

Assemblies of God World Missions. While there, I will be travelling to various free clinics in the Nairobi

area, and one in the rural northeast area of Kenya. These clinics are run and staffed by missionaries. I will

be directly involved in the medical care of the patients in any capacity that I am able. This will be my third

trip to Kenya, and by far the longest of the three, and I cannot wait to go back! The last time I was there,

after driving around the city of Nairobi, I told my dad, “The more I see, the more I love this place…I just

want to lie down on the ground and give Kenya a hug!” Medical missions is one of the best ways to minister

to people, because it provides a fantastic opportunity to talk with them while showing them the love of God

in a very real and tangible way. It seems fitting that we should use meeting their great physical need as a

way to help to meet their great spiritual need.

So there you have it. That's my life plan until juuuust about exactly one year from today.

College

College is a social experiment

I'm convinced.

They take a bunch of people

who THEY have INDIVIDUALLY SELECTED

and put them all together on this campus

make them live together, work together, eat together, study together

all without the comforts of home, all without their families, all with few if any of their former friends

for 4 years these people live, enjoy, suffer, hang out, work, pull all-nighters, and do EVERYTHING together...become each others' best friends, and even each others' family

and then they leave.

what it took 4 years to knit together, we rip apart in an instant. and it hurts! and I hate it!

I wouldn't trade my experiences here or my friendships I've made here for anything, but it kills me to think how such an important and life-changing period of one's life is just over in an instant. I'm dragging mine out and it's going to be painful enough...it'd be even worse if I wasn't coming back in the fall.

I'm gonna miss this life!

UNREAL

Well. One week from now I will officially be a college graduate!

I just finished filling out my AMCAS application the other day, but can't submit it until June 1st

The hardest part of the application process was actually deciding which schools to apply to!

It was really tedious/annoying typing in all the basic information, and then going through and inserting EVERY SINGLE college and AP class I've EVER taken...even though they are going to get a copy of my transcript! But it must be done...

My personal statement was a breeze, since I'd already written it last year for the health careers evaluation committee.

Hm...for one second lets pretend that people actually read this blog. If I was a freshman or in high school and I was going to apply to medical school what would I want to know?

1. TAKE AP CHEMISTRY. Biggest regret of college was that I didn't take AP chem in high school. It would have made my freshman year SO much better!!

2.If your college tells you medical schools don't like it when you use AP Bio credit, I'm pretty sure they're lying. I've not seen ANY school that doesn't say it will give you credit for anything your undergrad institution gives you.
With that said, I recommend one semester of college bio, even if you got a 5 on your AP, just to make sure/refresh your memory/learn a few new things/sometimes if you're a nerd like me Bio is just FUN!

3. Take several upper-level bio classes. This is an unwritten requirement anyways, and absolutely required if you AP out of intro bio

4. Little known fact: most med schools require a letter of evaluation from a health careers committee. At Cornell, this meant submitting a personal statement and resume-type form, and having an interview with a faculty member (randomly assigned). The faculty member writes a letter of evaluation (not recommendation...though it is supposed to cast you in a positive light) and then there is a committee of important people who edit the letter for consistency across the letters. They also collect your recommendations from faculty members and put all these letters together in a packet and send them to AMCAS (American Medical College Admissions Service- an online common application) and AMCAS sends them to all the places you tell it to submit your application to.

5. The above process is sort of annoying, but necessary. If your school has a committee and you don't use it, medical schools will think you are weird and not like you.

6. 90% of what I learned my 4 years of college has had nothing to do with academics, other than academics created a stressful environment which sped along all my other life skills-learning that I did. I learned how to study, how to make friends, how to be a friend, how to function as a human being, how to fix problems, how to stop creating (as many) problems, how to realize that you're an idiot and do something about it, how to realize you're an idiot and not do anything about it- then rinse and repeat...the best thing you can do is find a balance of meeting people and spending a LOT of time with them, and doing your work. When you graduate even if your GPA is as pathetic as mine, you will be glad you made the friends you did rather than spend your life in the library. Who remembers sitting in the stacks reading a textbook? I don't know. But I know I'm gonna remember sledding down the slope. That slope is a 70 degree angle. It was fun. And we could see the people in the library studying.

7. So back to medical school related things...

So you log into AMCAS, you type in all the stupid things...name, parents names and jobs and ages and siblings and all their info (Why do medical schools care if I have a brother in high school or not? I mean, I love the kid, but who else cares?)

Then you do that annoying thing where you type in ALL your classes, and click through a bunch of questions...all very easy silliness

Then there is a section where you enter every medical and non-medical thing you have done since freshman year that could POSSIBLY make ANYONE on an admissions committee think you're cool or important or talented or a nice person.

Then you submit your personal statement

Then they ask you to choose schools from a list

Then you scramble for your MSAR book and say to yourself "crap...where am I gonna apply?"

Then you will call your parents to ask them, since they know everything.

The following conversation will ensue:

Father Dearest: "Danielle, you have to apply to at least one school you're almost certain you're going to get into!"

Danielle: "Dad, there isn't any school I'm that sure I'm going to get into. Med school isn't like college like that. There's schools in Alabama that have lower GPA requirements...but I don't want to go to school in Alabama!"

Father Dearest: "What if your future husband is in Alabama?"

Danielle: "I don't want to marry someone from Alabama!!" (No offense to anyone from there...it's just...a very different world in the South and I don't have a particular desire to be a part of it. :-D)

Father Dearest: "What if your husband is someone from New York who didn't get into school anywhere else?"

Danielle: "I don't want to marry someone who didn't get in anywhere else either!!!"

Father Dearest: *laughs at me*

so...that wasn't much help

so I proceeded to list 7 schools....5 in NY, 1 in PA, and 1 in California, just for fun, because THAT would be a sign from God that my husband was at medical school...if the only school I got into was as far away from home as I could possibly be and still be in the continental US.

So now the application is just sitting there in limbo land waiting for June 1st.

Now. I am both super excited and super depressed about the approach of that day

because it means the end of THE most amazing for years of my life. I have decided to return to Cornell to work with Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship as an intern-sort-of-thing in the fall, until December...and I'll go to Kenya in January. So I'm going to get to be back here with no classes, which i'm psyched about.

but I'm gonna miss my Heidi! We've been best friends and roommates since sophomore year, I told her that I didn't know if I could survive at Cornell without her, I've never done it before!

So we'll see how that works out.

Anatomy, how do I love/hate thee

WELL

I got my MCAT score

and I decided not to tell anyone...except like 3 people. But it was the national average of accepted people. so if you really want, and you assume I got my info from the same place you're looking, you could figure it out.

It's not bad (it being the average) I would have appreciated it a little higher (seeing how I'm trying to get into med school here) but it's ok. My mom suggested taking it again...I'm not sure how I feel about that just yet. Another "we'll see".

I am currently taking a break (and by break, I mean, I'm finished for the night and for some reason not going to bed yet) from studying for my anatomy lab practical.

this class is the best and worst ever

best because ...well, it's anatomy, and in a sort of masochistic way I LOVE being forced to learn anatomy. and worst because that includes memorizing the origin, insertion, and actions of thirty something muscles in oh...2 days. names i've known for years...never bothered with the attachments or actions. bad idea Danielle!!

So I'm sitting in my apartment living room surrounded by my skeleton (hello there, Donatello, it's nice to see you with your skull cap on today! That is a rare occurance! I see your patellae have fallen down again...don't worry, I'll fix them again...eventually)

and my Netter's flashcards and my anatomy coloring book and this AMAZING website getbodysmart.com and my anatomy coloring book and my lab manual...driivng myself crazy copying and recopying lists of muscles

and I love it.

just...not the fact that I have to be tested on it TOMORROW.

And I found out today that if you get the national guard to pay for your medical school you only have to do 2 weeks/year and 1 weekend/month for 1.5x as many years as they pay for you, I think.

which is much nicer than a solid 5 years...so i'm going to look into that, because...well...the idea of $200,000 of debt is just not that appealing to me, ya know?

Hi Emmy!

oh yes!

Africa!

So I emailed some more...got in contact with some people...told them what I wanted to do, they said there might not be enough for me to do for 6 months, maybe try three? I was not a fan of that Idea, so I told her I'd really like to do 6 months...then I got an email a couple days later saying that she had realized/found/something more stuff for me to do so 6 months is not a problem

WAHOO!

so I will (as I understand it to be now) go to the middle of nowhere-ville, a Muslim area with no electricity or running water and a hole-in-the-ground potty for 2 months, then 2 other places in Nairobi, a slum and a not-slum? for 2 months each.

You can see how well-informed I am.

I'm working on that.

One thing I've learned in this whole process is that missionaries are slow emailers. I don't know if And it's not because of bad internet connections. because even the ones that are stateside are slow. I've been waiting 6 months for one of them to email me back. :-P

ok. it's really late...that's enough of that.

maybe when this is all over I can sit down and actually learn the muscle attachments for fun!

So it's been forever and a day (basically) since I last posted...but like I said, my life gets interesting in spurts.

and even the spurts aren't that interesting.

Mostly what inspired me to write this post was that my sister started a blog. (congratulations to you, Emmy) And when i tried to follow hers i realized she could then see mine. poop. oh well.

So update on my life:

I took the MCAT a couple weeks ago...It wasn't bad. not terrible, not enjoyable...though the testing center I took it at was really nice. I ended up with extra time at the end of all but one of the sections, and I didn't take my whole break any time so I finished in 5 hours. That's a really long time when you think about it...but ptobably only a few minutes short of what it could have been.

anyways.

I had spent basically 1% of the amount of time I should have spent studying for it. I used the Examkrackers review books, which i really liked...I started physics while I was at school, though i didn't actually get through that much because I have SUCH issues doing things in advance. When I got home, I'd go through spurts of productivity...do a whole Orgo review in one day...then go the rest of the week putting in maybe a half hour total. I am SO bad at time management it kills me.

so...took the MCAT...waiting a month for my scores...which will NOT be announced anywhere...

this semester my goal is to review my notes after class every day. maybe not each day right after class, but within a day or two, before the next lecture...so that when I start studying for things I won't be attempting to completely relearn stuff.

it should be easy-ish because I LOVE my classes this semester (at least...2/3 of them)

I'm FINALLY taking human anatomy and physiology and a lab (unfortunately, no human cadavers are here at Cornell, but we're doing animal organs) and I am IN LOVE with my textbook. amazing, amazing photographs of cadavers and what not. :)

also Histology, which is really interesting and useful for med school as well.

What's really nice about these two is that there is a significant amount of overlap right now...to the point where I could have followed along in Histology with the notes I had taken in anatomy earlier that day and been perfectly on track.

I'm also taking genetics, which isn't as fun...it's ok...but it's required to graduate.

The lab is sort of cool, we're breeding flies with known mutations (known to the professors, not to us) with other flies with known mutations (known to everyone) to try and figure out whether the traits are dominant or recessive, sex-linked our autosomal, etc.

time consuming.

but interesting.

No real update on Africa so far...I have been in email contact with some people but haven't heard back from anyone yet, so i'm just waiting on replies. Hopefully this will all get settled soon so I can stop wondering!

ok. I have to go. ciao.