I'm alive. I swear. It's been a while since my last post and the snowball of exams, activities, and traveling have taken a toll on my blogging. All I can say is that M2 year is certainly more busy than M1 year!

Since last year I've been serving as the President of the Latin American and Native American Medical Student Association (LANAMA), and this year my time commitment has certainly increased. The year started with recruiting incoming medical students to LANAMA, as well as ensuring all our events and activities go smoothly -- it has been time consuming. Balancing student activities and school is a talent that I'm working hard to perfect! Although LANAMA takes up a lot of my time, I feel blessed to have an amazing, hardworking executive board that works to make all our events a success. They make my job so much easier! Below are a few pictures from a few LANAMA activities from this year.

As for school, since my last post I've successfully completed the cardio, respiratory, and renal sequences; celebrated my BIRTHDAY (more than once!) with my family and friends; and I've now moved on to a relaxing two weeks of Clinical Foundations of Medicine!

Although I'm excited to be in CFM, the sleep deprivation from finishing my Renal final late Sunday night finally caught up with me yesterday when I completed a full history and physical exam on a standardized patient at 8 a.m. I was so tired I could barely remember the steps of the physical exam! Even though I watched the physical exam videos and brought in some notes, I would read my notes, walk over to the patient, and immediately blank out on what I had just read two second earlier. FAIL. Not surprisingly, my CFM instructor later commented on how I over relied on my notes. DOUBLE FAIL. Well, not actually a "fail," but certainly embarrassing and evidence that I need to try harder. I have another opportunity to do the full history and physical exam next week, so I have to practice, practice, practice... and sleep!

On another note, my 25th birthday was just two weeks ago! I remember thinking "wow, 25 is OLD" and here I am now, finally 25! My mom and brother flew up to Ann Arbor from Panama just for the weekend to celebrate my big day with me. I showed them the usual AA sights like central campus, main street, and the famous Zingerman's Deli. My mom absolutely loved Zingerman's. She bought seven loafs of bread, four coffee cakes, and a pound of cheese to take back home! She forgot one loaf and the cheese, so I certainly benefited from this food shopping spree! My mom also helped me organize a small wine themed birthday dinner at Vinology (FYI: I've always dreamt of becoming a wine sommelier). A few days later, I was surprised with a second birthday celebration at a LANAMA pot-luck! Here are some pictures from my dinner and pot-luck.

As the world knows, traveling is my passion so next week I'll be flying to San Juan, Puerto Rico to meet up with my family and see some friends, so expect another update with photos soon! Hopefully by then I will be caught up on sleep and I'll competently complete a full physical in less than half an hour! Wish me luck!