@ The Happiest Place on earth! =)

DISNEYLAND IS A MAGICAL PLACE.  

For reals though.  You start to feel the magic and the excitement as soon as you exit the freeway, and then you seriously just need to dance your way through the parking lot to the shuttle. And then when you arrive, everything is just so so so happy.  You would think it's super cheesy to have dancing characters and happy music playing 24/7, but it's really not. 

Here are eight things that I noticed during my day at Disneyland on Sunday (because i couldn't think of 10):

8. Disney is probably one of the most amazing companies ever

How do they think of everything?  Everything seems so organized and planned!  They have like a bazillion workers at each ride to direct you, and they sell everything that you might possibly ever need.  They even have really well orchestrated streetcrossing processes during the parade.  Also, CARSLAND is so awesome!  It looks almost exactly like the movie! Actually, all the characters in the rides look so realistic!

7. Sleeping beauty's castle is actually pretty small.  It's so much smaller than what I remember.  (Everything is so much closer than what I remember, and I don't think I was all that much shorter the last time I was there!)

6. The rides in fantasyland are kind of scary (especially Snow White & Pinocchio)

5. You are never too old to chase after Disney princesses

4. Kids today are so civilized!  

I remember when we were younger, we used to run after the Disney princesses and mob them to take pictures with them and take their autographs.  Now they have LINES? And designated waiting areas??

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3. World of Color is so amazing.  It's like light/water shows on crack.

2. Even the food is magical!

Seafood gumbo from the little hole in the wall store in the Bayou area :) Soo delicious!!! Just like what I would imagine the Gumbo from Princess and the Frog to taste like.  Next on my list, the nice restaurant inside the Pirates of the Carribean ride!

1. Disneyland is really truly the happiest place on earth! :)

Anyway, although I'm totally exhausted and dehydrated today (although that could also be due to aftereffects of roofless...confounding factor! har har), yesterday was so much fun.  And I have an annual pass.  So I am totally down to go with you whenever (except Saturdays & holidays)

Post Exam update

Dear Readers,

I just realized that I haven't updated for almost two months!  eek!  Med school is really getting kind of crazy, so it's been hard to find time to write.  We just got out of a fairly brutal exam on Monday and Tuesday, so the last three or four days have mostly involved recovering and preparing for our third block.


this is a good depiction of how we feel about the exam;

http://whatshouldwecallmedschool.tumblr.com/post/23638955819/that-one-time-you-think-you-are-ready-for-the-exam


So at USC, we're a "systems-based" curriculum, so for the spring of 1st year and all of second year, we go through body systems (skin, renal, brain, etc).  In the fall, we do a semester of "Foundations of Medical Sciences", where we have four "foundations".  We just finished FMS2, or more appropriately named by some of our classmates as FML2.  And now we're on to FML3.  We do most of our gross anatomy dissections during our FMS's, but leave certain parts to the systems.  For example, we are doing legs & arms during our Musculoskeletal System, and Head & Neck during our neuroscience system (I think).  I really like it because they spread it out so we get to do a little bit of everything over a longer period of time, so there is an opportunity for everything to sink in (aka a chance for me to learn all the material 5-6 times until I finally remember it).  Anyways, so during these foundations, we do everything from Biochem & Genetics, to Immunology, Pharmacology, Pathology, Microbiology, etc etc.  I'm particularly looking forward to FMS4, when we do all the Public Health things, so I can finally put my undergrad skills to good use.  I've accepted that I probably will never use my History of Medicine knowledge ever again, but it was nice to learn about it nonetheless.


So after the exam, I've been trying to catch up on shows.  It's a little disorienting since I'm SO behind on everything, and some shows are on hiatus, and other ones have too many episodes I've just kind of given up.  But here are my thoughts on the few that I've kept up on:

1) The Voice:  I think this season is the best one yet!  There are a few superstars on each coach's team (Christina, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton & CeeLo), that at this point, it's really anyone's game.  They introduced a new concept called "the steal" this season, where during the battle rounds, coaches can steal up to 2 singers that are being sent home from other teams, so everyone got a chance to snatch up some good singers.  I've never actually watched any season long enough to get to the live shows, but I'm actually pretty excited to see some of these competitions go down, and see if the singers who switched teams will be so motivated that they end up winning!

2) Bones:  Bones has not been as good this season, unfortunately.  The cases are still super fantastic, but I think the drama is not as great anymore.  Bones and Booth kind of have these married couple fights, which is great that they're still together (since that is what I hoped for for the first like 6 seasons), but obviously, it does not make for good TV.

3) Once Upon a Time:  This season has been good!  Emma & Snow got sent back to the fairytale land, so this season is all about Charming and getting them back!  Also, the Evil Queen Regina has a mother who is EVEN MORE EVIL THAN SHE IS!  Also, there is Mulan, the strong Asian woman princess, and Aurora (sleeping beauty) - who is not actually my namesake, but I still identify with her nonetheless (FYI - my sorority nickname is Aurora, in case you were confused)

4) Elementary: I started this new show about a modern day Sherlock Holmes, with Lucy Liu (again, strong asian Woman) as Holmes, which has been kind of cool.  I actually just really enjoy like detective/CSI type shows, so me liking this is a given

5) How i met your Mother: Ted's going to meet the mother this season.  I can just feel it.

In kind of unrelated news, I went to CVS last week, and according to STAR magazine, Khloe & Lamar are supposedly getting divorced.  I'm not sure if I 100% believe this, but I'm hoping it's not true, because I'll be really really sad.  Like REALLY sad.  After Kourtney supposedly kicked out Scott, and now Khloe and Lamar are over, I may not have any reason to keep up with the Kardashians anymore :( I was really cheering for Khloe & Lamar.

Anyways, I need to go to bed now because I'm going to Disneyland tomorrow!  But I'll do more life updates next post (other than TV)!

Happy reading!