Medicine & Manicures

Long & overdue holiday update

Ahhhh the first full week of my extra long Christmas vacation has started!!  Just soaking it in.  You have no idea how good it feels not to have to study ANYTHING… and on a side note I’m 1/7 of the way done with PA school!  This semester flew by… I still remember our first day of class like it was yesterday- we were all nervous/excited and had no idea what we were in for.  Approximately 30 tests later, we know the ropes.

Thanksgiving break was much needed, but still too short (especially because I had to study for 3 finals, yuck!).  It was still very nice to spend some time with friends & family.  Ryan & I headed to Marion for lunch with my parents and later that evening went to his sister Jessica’s house for some more turkey & fixin’s.  I was a bum and didn’t take any pictures, except for this one.  I was very proud of my first homemade cranberry sauce- it was almost too easy.

Bogota Blackberry by OPI – perfect holiday color!
I also TRIED to go Black Friday shopping, but that didn’t turn out so well.  I don’t think I can handle the waiting in line for hours anymore.. I’m too impatient.  And I just went to a boutique.  You will never find me in a Wal-Mart, especially when customers are stabbing each other to get an Xbox One… makes me sick!  Anyways, the break ended with a fun birthday dinner for Ashton- Happy 25th!
I’m probably more excited for Christmas this year than I ever have been.  Ryan’s family & my family are both coming to town and there is also a trip planned for the Biltmore House!  Surprisingly enough I’ve never been, even though I grew up 30 minutes away, and have been dying to go for a while now.  Stay tuned for fun holiday photos! 
We kicked off some of the holiday festivities back at Campbell. On the day of our very last exam some of us sported our tacky Christmas sweaters.  I was definitely jingling a little bit during our last final, sorry guys!  We also hosted the first annual “Save the last PANCE” (cleverly named after our certification exam) in honor of the first graduating class.  The night was complete with food, lots of wine, a DJ and the fox song haha.  I hope all my classmates have a wonderful LONG break & then we do it all over again on January 2nd!
Done with our first semester!

Christmas party at Gregory Vineyards
Have a great week friends, only 15 days til Christmas!

The End is Near

Happy Monday!  I officially have 5 days of regular class left… and 5 days of finals!!  It’s so crazy to think I’m almost done with my first semester of PA school.  Time flies when you’re err…. studying all the time, but we have our share of fun.  Work hard, play hard!


Here are some highlights from our epic Friday night out in Raleigh.  PA students tend to be (very) busy and don’t have much time to go out… but we certainly made up for it this weekend. The party bus was a blast and it was nice to get all fancy for our James Bond theme. There is never a dull moment with this crew!
 
The rest of the weekend consisted of movies, lounging on the couch, and spending some QT with Ryan (can never have too much of that).  I’m also starting to get really excited about the holidays.  Not only do I have almost the whole month of December off, but I’ll get to spend lots of time with friends, family & my favorite man.  Only 8 days until Thanksgiving break y’all!

-Kristina

Civilization!

Ahh life is good. I’m currently posted up in front of my tv and am on my third show of the night.  I’m so excited for this week(end) and am so thankful for a break. Last week was our HELL week.. just horrible.  We had 3 tests, antibiotics that made us crazy, and a neuro/musculoskeletal checklist that was forever long, but we survived. Friday was definitely the most stressful day that we’ve had to date, but that just made the weekend that much sweeter.

Sarah and I packed up our bags and road tripped to Charlotte.. a weekend out of Buies Creek was much needed. I took her to some of my favorite spots- we did a little shopping, went to the UNC Charlotte football game, had a nice dinner and went out with Ryan & some friends.

Katie & Matt joined us for the game and it was a great day for football (even though we lost).  It was SO beautiful outside and I really appreciated the fresh air… seems like we don’t get enough of that these days.

Loving the foliage 🙂

For dinner we headed to Nan & Byron’s, the new hot spot in South End.  The food was great (the peppedew poppers are a must) and I loved the rustic decor.  Trying out new restaurants is pretty much my favorite pastime and I know I’ll be back to try out some more dishes & yummy cocktails.  After that we hung out at our friend Sean’s place then made our way to 5Church & Dandelion.  It was so so good to spend some time with my friends (and my amazing boyfriend of course) and get a chance to show Sarah a more, ahem, exciting part of our state!

Great times with these peeps
Now on to this week, a week to de-stress… kind of.  While we got our one and only test over with this morning (yes!), there are bigger and badder tests around the corner.  Next Tuesday is our summative history & physical checklist which consists of 175 items that we have to remember and perform on our partner.  We have done all of the exams individually, but this is the motherload- putting it all together.  I usually like the checklists but I’m not gonna lie… that’s a lot of stuff!  We also get to see our second real patient Wednesday.  Other than that, I will be working out, watching more tv shows, cleaning, and catching up on life in general.

The real excitement will begin on Friday.  My PA class is so cool that we are renting a party bus to take us to Raleigh for some shenanigans.  Sure reminds me of the good ol’ sorority days in Zeta… this should be interesting.  Have a great week friends!!

Friends, Fair & Fried Food

I’ve been sick for the past two days (boo!) but at least I can say I had a fun weekend.  On Friday night Sarah & I watched the original Saw movie. I forgot how much I LOVE those… I still remember seeing it in theaters around Halloween in high school and thinking it was pretty much the best scary movie ever. Also on the to-watch list is Hocus Pocus. It’s a classic and it’s not Halloween until I’ve watched it at least once.
It was really weird not going out for Halloween with all of my friends (miss you guys!).. We usually go really big and it is my favorite holiday after all. With so many of us living in different cities/traveling, it’s not always the easiest to plan events. There are some parties coming up this weekend, but I don’t know about dressing up after the fact.. we’ll see!
Saturday was a busy day. We started out with the homecoming parade and then headed to Raleigh for the State Fair. This was my first time going (crazy I know) and we had a blast.  Everyone told me about great the food is so my dinner consisted of roasted corn, a hot dog and FRIED snickers.. it was delicious.  We ended the night by riding the Ferris wheel and saw some fireworks.  Oh and on the way home we stopped by this haunted trail in someone’s backyard.  Sounds a little sketch I know, but they actually did a great job!
The crazy thing about this week is we only have ONE radiology test…. say what?!?!?!  This is pretty much unheard of in our PA program so I’m definitely going to enjoy this week.  Now I’m off to study bowel obstructions, breast masses, and gallstones… joy!
-Kristina

Much Needed Fall Break

Fall break is officially over (tear) and it’s back to the grind today. It was so nice to have a long 4 day weekend back at home. I spent some QT with the BF, did a little shopping, hung out with my girlfriends, went to see Gravity, ate out A LOT, and dropped by my old office to catch up with friends from work. It definitely went by too fast and I can’t believe October is almost over.  Today we get to do EKGs on each other, which should be pretty cool.  We are wrapping up our cardiology block and about to start infectious diseases (wooo!) & I think we’re all ready for a change.  Fall weather has finally arrived so I think I’ll definitely be busting out the sweaters this week!

Dinner at The Wooden Vine
Definitely don’t see this every day… a motorcycle pulling a coffin??  Just in time for halloween!
Checking out the new park in uptown Charlotte
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This is a little overdue, but a few weekends ago when Ryan came to visit, we all went to Fuquay for the afternoon for some lunch/window shopping/exploring. The best part was stopping by CupCakeBite. I had been wanting to stop in ever since school started so this was the perfect chance. Pretty much the cutest little shop and the cupcakes were amazing!
I got the last one!
Always love it when this visitor’s in town

                                 

Ryan & Jeff at the driving range
The boys hit a few balls while Sarah & I studied EKGs… at least we got to be outside!
 xo, Kristina

Happy National PA Week

Every October, PAs as well as PA students celebrate National PA Week by increasing awareness of this profession as well as promoting healthy lifestyles.  Over here at Campbell, we had several events including a bake sale & free blood pressure screenings.  The weather wasn’t ideal but we still had fun & raised a lot of money for our trip to Boston in May for the PA National Conference.
In honor of this week, here is a video that was made by last year’s class (the PA version of Thrift Shop) and this has become a tradition at our school.  I seriously can’t wait to start ours this winter!!
Campbell PA Week Festivities

 Class of 2015 at the bake sale/BP drive
Happy hump-day everyone!

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