Finals await

So today I got up early and made myself a simple breakfast and now I'm ready to hit the books. We only have one more week of class and it's not even a full week. Thursday is my last day of class as a first year medical student. Sweet. After Thursday we have 5 days off to study for finals week. This is excellent news on many levels, but particularly on the level of what our final exam will now entail.

A week from Wednesday we have our first exam. It's not a true final, it's only over the renal system. I have been dreading this exam since I got into med school because I know how hard kidneys can be having taught "baby-renal phys" to undergrads. And I do mean baby renal. Nothing too hard, but it was still complicated! So I imagine most of my effort will go into that exam. If I get a 90 on it, I only need a 67% on the last final to honor and end the year on a truly good note. And that last final is gonna be a doozy.

It's take-home. It's to be completed online. So these are good things. But only 50% is open book, the rest is closed book, closed notes. I have no idea how many questions it is, but since it allows 3 hours for the closed book portion and unlimited (within 48 hours) time for the open book, I imagine it isn't A)easy or B)short. Hence the importance of blowing renal out of the water. And the best part about the final is that we can do it at any time we deem worthy between Wednesday at noon when our renal exam is over and Friday at noon when the final is scheduled to end. My goal, as of this morning, is to have it done by Thursday night so I can enjoy myself like crazy for one night then get my house seriously clean because we are having company!

My mom and sister are coming out at about 1 on Friday and I was nervous about getting them set up in the guest room/pull out couch after spending a week destroying the extra bedroom studying my booty off for Finals. This schedule will definitely help with that dilemma.

And in other news of seeing family, my dad is coming out to D-town on business this week and I'm picking him up to come see our house. Only my sis has seen our new digs since we moved in over a year ago, and seeing as my fam is so far away (they live on the frozen tundra up north...) I sometimes worried they wouldn't see my house for a really long time, or at least until we have kids. Then it won't look nearly as clean and nice. I was about the messiest kid I have ever met (to this day) growing up, so the fact that I can keep a house clean, even in the presence of an incredibly sheddy dog, and during med school (owing in no small part to J) makes me proud, and since I don't really have anything to hang on the fridge anymore, this will have to do!

Anyway, I'm sure I'll need lots of study breaks. Intense though the kidneys may be, they are far from page turners.

6 days and I am one quarter MD. Awesome.