Beginning the last semester of the P1 year.

It has been a while since I have updated the P1 blog. The weather has been getting colder for the past few days. We are expecting another encounter with snow tomorrow. This might be a good motivator for me to stay home and study for our upcoming pharmacogenomics exam on Monday. I anticipate this semester to be quite intensive based on our schedule. There is an exam almost on a weekly basis, mainly from the course in pharmacogenomics or the IBHS series.

Another new interesting tidbit for us students in Ashburn is that we have finally moved to the new building. The new classroom can seat 46 people ideally, but the design of the room is best suited for 40 students. One row of seats doesn’t provide a good view of the presentation screen. The transition wasn’t smooth during the first week since there was no fridge, microwave, and vending machines for us to utilize. Also, the video conferencing system wasn’t working exactly in tiptop shape. The video signal would suddenly disconnect periodically. A new gimmick we have to get use to as well is that our microphones are always on. Any slight noise will be picked up and transmitted to the main campus.

During the second week of the semester, my classmates and I attended the Fraternity Round Robin event on the main campus. Each fraternity was given 15 minute for introductions and intermingling. The three professional pharmacy fraternities are Kappa Psi, Kappa Epsilon, and Phi Delta Chi. Also there is an honor fraternity called Rho Chi which, is limited to the top 20% of the class. Afterwards, each fraternity held a rush event in the following days.

Guess that will be it for this post and stay tuned for more updates.

Sleep Deprived

This week has been the toughest week of my time at pharmacy school. Last Friday, my husband and I got our puppy, Lily. She is an 8 week old golden retriever mix and is definitely a handful. We got her Friday and we had our first ICARE exam yesterday. SO, in the midst of middle of the night potty breaks, hyper playing, potty training, crate training, and manner training...I also had to find time to study for the Respiratory ICARE exam PLUS a quiz in another class on the same day. Needless to say, it was the least prepared that I have ever felt for an exam. Luckily, it all turned out ok and I was able to get the grade that I wanted...I still am surprised with myself and have no idea how that happened!

Another thing that has been going on is rush week with all of the fraternities. This past week, we handed out our bids to the P1 and P2 class to people who may be interested in joining KE. Something that seems to happen during rush is that people tend to group together with their friends and join whatever their friends are joining. A lot of joining a fraternity is about joining the one that is right for you and that you would feel most passionate about. The large majority of people decided to pledge KY and PDC, and very few pledged KE. It is kind of disappointing for my pledgemaster partner and I, but I guess it means that I will have more free time that I anticipated which is great because I need to make time for the pup. Despite the low numbers, I am excited about who we are getting and I can't wait to see what KE does this semester with our events, fundraisers, and flamingo flocking in the spring. It's always a really good time :o)

Despite the exam yesterday, two exciting things did happen that made the day a bit better. First, I got an invitation to join Rho Chi, which is the honors fraternity at our school. They only take the top 20% of the class and I am thrilled that my hard work has paid off and I made the cut! The fraternity is highly thought of in our school and I am honored to be asked to be a part of it. That means that I am now in 5 organizations, and an officer in 3 of them. I never would have thought that I would be able to handle all of this time committment, but it actually isn't that bad. I still have time for myself, my husband, good grades, and now hopefully a puppy! The other exciting thing that happened was I got asked to be a bridesmaid in one of my best friends' wedding this coming New Years Eve. I was the first of my friends from back home to get married and it is exciting that now I get to go to one of their weddings and be a part of it!

Next week we have another ICARE exam, but in cardio...which I hear is more difficult than respiratory. I plan to start studying for that one tonight, so we will see how that goes. Time to get back to class!

Last Semester of Classes

So last week was the first week of my last semester of classes ever! If you got a little confused by that last statement, I am basically saying I am almost done with pharmacy school classes! The classes that I have this semester consist of: pharmacy law, sterile compounding, patient assessment II, ICARE: GI/nutrition, ICARE: neuro/psychiatry, ICARE: musculoskeletal, institutional practice elective, and pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics III. So although this will be my last semester of classes it will not be my easiest.

In addition to classes some of the organizations I am involved in are also busier in the spring. A major example is Kappa Epsilon. This past week has been Greek Week at pharmacy school. At SU, pharmacy fraternities are not allowed to recruit new members until the spring semester. On the first day of Greek Week we have an event called Round Robin where interested 1st and 2nd year pharmacy students get a brief introduction to all three different fraternities that we have. Then each fraternity hosts an event on its own on a separate date so that prospective members get a better idea of what each one is about. Kappa Epsilon had a luau theme on Tuesday night with plenty of good food to enjoy and various activities that allowed the interested students to mingle with existing members. Although I think we should have done the limbo before we ate all that food.


Another organization I am involved with is Rho Chi. Rho Chi is an honors fraternity that recruits the top 20% of the P2 class during the spring semester of pharmacy school. In the not too distant future we will be sending invitations to these smart pharmacy students to join. This weekend we are holding a health fair in conjunction with the APhA-ASP (American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists). This health fair will be held at a local soup kitchen here in Winchester, where our target population probably does not receive proper health care. So it will be interesting to see how we can help them. I hope this will be a mutually beneficial experience, in that this under served population gets some health advice and that we pharmacy students can improve on our patient interaction skills.


Besides all this we will be finalizing our rotations for the upcoming P4 year. So as you can imagine although this will be my last semester of classes, it will be a very busy one.

Spring Semester: First Week of Classes

The semester has begun. The first week of classes was pretty uneventful...but definitely hit me hard and made me start thinking about getting focused again. All of our classes require no introductions anymore (what undergrad calls "syllabus day") - unfortunately, there are no days like that in pharmacy school. This semester we have started ICARE, which is much dreaded by the P2's. It is more intense than other physiology and pharmacology classes we have had in past and combines all aspects of our difficult classes. So far, it hasn't been too terrible..but there's only been 1 week. The classes are longer blocks of time and more frequent so the material has the potential to build up pretty easily. We will see how that goes!

Another thing that has ruled my time on the first week back is planning for rush week which is next week. Myself and another member of my fraternity, Kappa Epsilon, have been planning both our time for the night of round robin on Monday and for our individual rush night for KE on Tuesday. The purpose of round robin is for those who may be interesting in joining a fraternity to see what they are all about. Each one has a different platform that they suport and it's up to individual preference with which one you think is the right fit. After the initial night of round robin, each fraternity has their own themed party night with dinner provided on the remaining nights of the week. Ours is Tuesday and the theme we chose is Luau. Because I am a new member coordinater, it is my responsibility, along with the other coordinator, to plan this night and all that comes with it. So...needless to say we have been super busy this week designing and printing flyers, handouts and invitiation, ordering food, planning games, and much more.

Other than planning for KE rush, I have been going back to my regular hours at CVS. This semester, my weekday to work is going to be Friday and I also will have to usually work some of Saturday and a few Sundays. Another big thing is next Friday, my husband and I are going to be getting a golden retreiver puppy! We are super pumped and can't wait for this much anticipated addition to our family. My schedule at school will allow me to come home and let her out frequently and my husband also will be working from home some days of the week...so we should be able to manage with everyone else going on as well. Can't wait! Ok, time to get a head start and begin studying for the first ICARE Respiratory exam - its only 10 days away!

Winter Break!

Hello all -

Haven't written in a while. I have been caught up in the Holidays and fun times over Winter break. It has been wonderful to be relaxed and to have nothing to do in between work and errunds. My husband and I both worked for the first week and a half of break (I worked at CVS) and then we headed home for the next week and a half for the holidays. We had about 4 different Christmases with our two families and the extended part of those families all over the state of Pennsylvania (this happens when you are married). I was exhausting but fun. It was great to spend time with my brother and sister-in-law from New Hampshire who we seldom get to see.

Now there's one week left to break and I have a long list of things to do around the house. We just took our Christmas tree down yesterday and resituated the Christmas boxes in our storage space..It was sad. Things I have to do include thank you notes, cleaning the house, going to the bank, getting groceries (we are completely out), and other random things. Currently, I am on hold with the IBM parts department. My computer that the school leases to us has a dead battery. We were warned that we should replace this battery before the warrenty was up in July 2009 (1 year warrenty), but my summer was so crazy with vacations around that time that I forgot! So, I am stuch on hold and going to have to buy the replacement battery which I don't know the price to yet...

Another thing I have to do around the house is to puppy-proof it - we are going to be getting a puppy in about 3 weeks! She is a golden retriever and her name is Lily. We are super-excited and are going to be so exhausted in those first couple weeks! At least most of the rush time for fraternities will be over by the time we get her so I will have an ounce or two more of free time. My co-pledgemaster and I have been working on things over the break for the upcoming round robin and rush nights that are held during the second week of the spring semester. Each fraternity has a rush night where anyone who is interested in joining can come and meet the other members and see if that fraternity might be something they want to be a part of. Each fraternity has its own platform to offer. Our rush night is Luau themed with hula hoops and smoothies for those interested. We have to plan the whole night including the food, games, decorations, and apparel. After rush night, we send out bids and those who wish to join return the bids to us by a certain date. Then we start pledge meetings and so on. SO I will be kept pretty busy the first couple weeks of school...there may be no exams yet, but I will have rushing and a puppy to worry about instead. I can't wait!

Still on hold...I am going to work on some more stuff around the house. I work about 25 hours this week so I will have enough time to get all of these things done AND relax! I must enjoy winter break to its fullest!