Post-Transsumm

It ended May 19, 2011 

Our Php 9,000-worth 20-day transition summer was really worth it! No regrets, no apprehensions, just plain worth it. 

If you're reading this as part of the considerations that you have to make before choosing a med school and writing a 3-page essay together with a 20-day transition program disses you on choosing ASMPH, well I've got some reasons why I chose this despite those requirements. 

For the past 20 days, I have met all types of people. People who I know I won't EVER get along with. People who are really intimidating. People who will make you laugh with everything they do. People whom I will spend the next five years with in building our dreams. 

1.  You'll be randomly grouped for the transsumm. But what actually happens is that, the transsumm group that you will have for the summer will be the "trans"(transcript) group that you will have for the next five years! Hello! So you better pray for funny, witty group mates and pray for patience as well, because there will always be a chance that you will have group mates who will really get to your nerves.

Group 10 - Count-to-Ten (my five-year group mates <3)

2.  The first 7 days will be divided for your PH and MBA modules. Don't worry these aren't heavy loads, these are just introductions or glimpses of what you should expect from the curriculum that ASMPH offers.

3. OH! OH! OH! Be ready for some serious journal-writing! Yes, they will have to put you through "Dear Diary, today.....". Oh! A tip! At the end of the transsumm the best journal-writer will be awarded so you better make your journal unique or really emotion-drawing ;P

4. You will also get to experience TMC (The Medical City) rotations. Here you will get to know how the non-clinical and clinical stations work. Our group was divided and 3 of us got to tour at the Nutrition Management Services and the Pulmonary Laboratory.

5. After that you will be fed to the crocodiles in the government arena aka Immersion. There you will be assigned in a particular urban area where you have to acquire information on the different health programs and health problems that the area experiences. Of course, you would have to deal with the different stakeholders in the area and I guarantee that it is really stressful....

Girl in pink: "Wala ang lahat ng hinahanap nyo dito nasa Tagaytay" <--Oye!

Chief Nurse who didn't allow us to interview her at first but with the "charms" (naks) of "Coco Martin" we were able to get her to talk haha :))

After gathering all the data, you have to gather the community members and present the data to them.

You might also have the chance to experience an UBA moment (ultimate bum around) if the officials are really hard to talk to. However this would also be the UBE of your group :)

... but of course it will always be fun!

Tricycle rides :))

Boodle fight prepared by the community leaders :)

6. The ASMPH council also prepared the ORSEM and O-night for the incoming YL5. (not much to say about this haha). By the way, the ORSEM is named TAYA to signify that: "lahat kaming pumili ng ASMPH ay tumataya sa layunin at pangarap na binubuo nito". 

7. The TEAM BUILDING! These days would require some effort but it would be fun. You'd get to hang out with your group mates and old friends! Tsismis galore! In my case, I got to learn Pusoy Dos! The games are fun and tiring but overall the team building was really fun! 

7. Lastly, after all the activities, we "graduated" from the 20-day transsumm. For the graduation, we were tasked to creatively introduce ourselves to our dean Dr. Bengzon. And so we did...we prepared nothing but funny stuff. Stuff which the dean did not understand haha. It was okay though, we were not aware that he wanted something which summarized the whole transsumm and how we were prepared by this program to transition into grad school - med school. 

WARNING: It is also during this day that Fr. Ampil and Dr. Bengzon will give you very long speeches! haha But there will be a lot of things that you would get from these speeches most especially from the one by Dr. Bengzon. 

The two things that I will not forget from the speech by the dean would be: a.) Relationship (or building relationships) is the currency of medicine and; b.) The brain is the prime organ in the body and it functions to serve all the other systems of the body. He who is prime must give priority to those who are served (Bengzon, 2011). 

8. ULTIMATE LAST! You will be able to experience nights which you would miss once the real battle starts. These nights will be truly cherished and missed. Too bad I missed all of them because of some things I had to finish with UP but I definitely would not miss the next one! 

Cheers to ASMPH Batch 2016. May we all find the strength and passion to finish the dream that we are about to complete :) 

Photo credits: Jonnecker Kingsu and Maki Eduardo (sorry I stole some photos heeee ~~~)

Uniform-Fitting Day

Yaaaay! Hooray for uniforms!! After four years of not having a uniform, I am really happy to have a uniform again because it's so hard for me to choose what to wear every time I'd go to school. Especially transferring to a new school, I think not having a uniform would mean bigger expenses for me :))

Got some pictures of Kimer and PJ

First Day

As I was so excited for this day and was not able to sleep the night before, I became zombie-like. I forgot to bring a notebook and pens. Instead, I brought a camera. Hooray!!

True enough, the first day was really the hardest. First, prepping up for school was hard. Coming from a public university we can wear almost anything that we want to wear. Hence, my closet (maybe as well as some batchmates from different UP campuses) was in TOTAL SHOCK haha. Goodbye to shorts and saying hello to pants and maybe skirts!

Second, the moment we were mingling with each other my nose almost bled. I thought it was just a stereotype however, and I don't mean to insult or anything, most of the people were really speaking in straight English. It was really intimidating. Coming from a national university, rarely did we converse in English. Not much of an issue maybe, but it made it really harder for me to mingle as they might "judge" me hahaha <--- define praning.

But of course, it's just the first day and positive for the 19 (18) more days of the transsumm :)

To end, meet my groupmates for the whole summer :D

Dating a Med Student

My college friend and I were wondering if we'd find "something new" in medical school, and we are really hoping to find "one" there. However, as I was browsing through the different blogs and sites where ASMPH was tagged, I was able to pass by this one blog which made me lose hope :)) I want to share it with everyone else as I found it really interesting and funny at that.

 "How to Date a Med Student" - themuffinman.multiply.com

1. Don't expect to see them. Ever.

2. Accept the fact they will have many affairs. With their books.

3. Learn to hide your “ew, gross” reactions when they tell you all the stuff you never wanted to know about your bodily functions.

4. Support them when they come home after each test, upset because they failed—and gently remind them after they get their well above passing grade how unnecessary the “I’m going to fail out of medical school and never become an MD” dramatics are.

5. Each week they will have a new illness. Some will be extremely rare, others will be more mundane. Doesn’t matter. They will be certain they have it (no second opinions necessary.) Med school can, and will, turn even the sanest into a hypochondriac. Date them for long enough, and you’ll become one too.

6. There will be weeks you'll forget you even have a boyfriend—friends will ask how he is and you'll say, “What? Who? Oh....right. He's well...I think.”

7. They'll make you hyper-aware that germs are everywhere and on everything. Even though you used to walk into your home with your shoes on, and sit on your bed in the same clothes you just wore while riding the subway, or sat on a public bench in, you'll become far too disgusted to ever do it again. Believe me, it's going to get bad...you'll watch yourself transform into the anal retentive person you swore you'd never become. And when you witness others perform these same acts that, before you began dating your med student, you spent your entire life doing too, you'll wince and wonder, “Ew! How can they do that? Don't they know how many germs and bacteria they're spreading??!”

8. Romantic date = Chinese take-out in front of the TV on their 10 minute study break.

9. A vacation together consists of a trip down the street to Walgreens for new highlighters and printer paper.

10. Their study habits will make you feel like a complete slacker. For them, hitting the books 8-to-10 hours a day is not uncommon, nor difficult. You'll wonder how you ever managed to pass school on your meager one hour of studying per night.

11. They're expected to know everything. Everything! The name of the 8 billion-lettered, German sounding cell that lives in the depths of your inner ear, the technical term for the “no one's ever heard of this disease” disease that exists only on one foot of the Southern tip of the African continent. But ask them if your knee is swollen, or what you should do to tame your mucous-filled cough, or why the heck your head feels like someone's been drilling through it for oil for two weeks straight, and they won't have a clue.

12. “My brain's filled with so much information, I can't be expected to remember THAT!" will be the standard excuse for forgetting anniversaries, birthdays, and, if you get this far, probably the birth of your first-born.

13. You'll need friends with unending patience who pretend never to get sick of listening to your endless venting and complaints. Or, you'll need to pay a therapist who will pretend never to get sick of listening to your endless venting and complaints.

But take this all with a grain of salt. It's not like I'm speaking from experience or anything..

http://tehmuffinman.multiply.com/journal 

 See! So if you're just like me and my friend, hahaha this blog is just like a big meteor shattering the cloud of all your mundane and happy thoughts about med school and "finding something new".

New Site New Phase

Entering a new phase - Med School. I wanted to create something where I can throw in everything about what I will be encountering there. So what's with the flying lantern photo? Well just like what I've watched in one K-drama, the flying lantern festival happens annually where they get lanterns, write whatever their wishes are and let it fly. Since I haven't flown a lantern before, this very first entry will be my "lantern". 

ASMPH please be nice and satisfy all my expectations. I hope I can be a better student and become the best doctor that I can be. Please make it a happier journey compared to my pre-med phase. 

So what to expect in this blog: blaaahs about Med school and just about anything under the sun.