School/Family Balance

Well, after spending most of the early morning doing homework and contemplating whether I should attend any of the many evening social events for UCSF pharm. student (clubbing and mixers are a pass, but what about more mellow social gatherings?)and considering that life has all of a sudden gotten much harder for my wife, I'm in a quandary as to what to do. One bright spot is the new dog. It may be another furry mouth to feed, but she is a real gem -truly housetrained, calm, not a ounter grazer. In short, wonderful.

Not working out today

As a ommuter, every morning I need to decide what to pack in the backpack. Ideally, I would pack the night before or have some kind of checklist. In reality, this process consists of stuffing a hodgepodge of things into the bag at the last minute. Today, I had my workout stuff all ready to go, but it failed to make it into the bag as I hurried out the door to make the 7:47 bus. The bus was 6 minutes late so there, in reality, was no hurry and, I suppose, that having the extra time to study is worthwhile, but I really wanted that break in the day.

First Impressions

I'm in the third week now if you count from the start of student orientation. Overall, I am having a wonderful time. Some real surprises are the amount of help offered to each other within our class and this definitely extends to the second years who have been giving of themselves non-stop, it seems, since before school even started. OSACA has also been unfailingly helpful and friendly. Many, most of the third years are doing the same, but it is obvious that by the fourth year, you are starting to break away and our focused on your own career.

Most positive experience so far: the campout was a blast and definitely worth it.

Most negative experience so far: the amount of money that this is going to cost is daunting so I hope this is worth it especially given the callousness the school treats issues of money for the students (re: student health insurance, UC Regents fee hikes, numerous nickle and dimed costs). From UCSF's point of view, I'm sure they still see it as a bargain - cheaper than private school, one of the best (if not the best) schools in the country, and relentless budget pressure. On the other hand, they seem to lack any sensitivity to the student side of the issue perhaps because they know that financial aid generally provides 100% coverage for need (conveniently considering student loans almost as if they are grants).

Why Blog?

Here I am on the Transbay bus commuting to school and they have WiFi! That's a good enough reason.