Looking Back: Part 3

MD3, it started out so great, it was like a breath of fresh air. Bonaire is also beautiful then. I was learning to balance my study life and my fun life, I definitely was feeling a little burnt out. 

Nothing says tropical island like a pina colada.

Then good ole SJSM flipped the script on us. Block 1 was great with the exception of Pharmacology, or shall I call it Sharma-cology. Other than that we were all feeling great, we were so optimistic and we had pretty much full attendance, since the profs engaged us and we respected them enough to attend their class, but then our Dean of Students Dr. Kenue left, Dr. DJ who taught us anatomy and pathology left, and finally Dr. Ashwin was no longer a prof for us either. 

Block 2 aka script flip, or what others would affectionally call "shit show."With all those profs gone they had a lot of shuffling to do. Dr. Aftab was moved to teaching us pathology, Dr. Praveen moved over to teach us psychology, and that left an open position for our microbiology prof. Enter Dr. Gugnani. Now, I should mention here, I actually though about doing a master's in micro as a backup to medical school, so micro is my thang. Here we are sitting in class anticipating the new prof. He walks in coughing up a storm and then starts lecturing. Which would be great except: A. I can't understand him through his thick accent, B. I am trying to figure out why he is yelling at us for no reason, and C. Ew, WTF is that white stuff in the corner of his mouth. 

We quickly figure out that Dr. Aftab doesn't know what he is teaching. He is completely out of his depth. The thing about my class is, if the prof earns our respect, we are a great class for them to teach, if not, we are hell for them to try and control. 

Additionally, many of us, me included, felt that Dr. Gugnani was disrespecting us. So our class of nearly 80 students staged a walk-out for his class, he walked into a class of 6 students, who were hold outs. Allegedly, he apologized, but it didn't really change his attitude much. However, our class quickly learned that Dr. Gugnani knew what he was talking about when it came to microorganisms, and many of us respected that he didn't spoon feed us questions and answers like many of the other profs. So my advice for his class is to pay attention if you can understand him, you're set for the exam, if not, study for that class, if you know your stuff you will do well on the exams. I should know, I made As across the board in that class, and I'm proud of it because I worked for it. 

Path was another story. Dr. Aftab previously taught us micro for Block 1, and for the most part we had a great impression of him from that, but that was short lived once he was moved to teach path. Now, I really wanted to give him a change, however, when a professor will argue with you against a textbook and what a textbook has to say, just because it's be daring to challenge something that you say is correct when there is proof that it is in fact not the case. I lose all my respect for you. During lectures, we started to notice when he said that something was a "bedtime story" (his term for something not that important), it was actually a very important concept and that it was called a "bedtime story," only because he could not explain it to us. Talk about frustrating. By Block 4, I was over it. He came in every day after the exam for 5 days with new ways to insult our class. Saying that we were arrogant, and that we think we know more than him. My favorite was him saying that we relied on Robbins (the gold standard in pathology textbooks) too much and that it was not a textbook, but a review book for when we review for the Steps. WHAT? This book is at least 3 inches wide and is used in US med school and you're going to tell me it's not a textbook. Not only are you going to tell me that, but because I am fighting for points I deserve, you take my curve away except for that one question that I argued with you about? I realize that he was thrown into teaching us pathology, however, he in no way has to the right to belittle the class, nor does he have the right to say that the gold standard textbook is incorrect. 

FYI, have fun learning immunology in 1 and a half weeks. Yeah, a "topic" that is actually a class on it's own we had to learn in 1 and a half weeks. 

This part of my journey also included July 4th, and being an American it was weird to have to go to class that day, instead of staying at home and BBQing with family and friends. Bonaire did have something to make it feel a little like home. They had a FIREWORK SHOW! It was like 5 minutes max, but it was still nice to see made in China things blow up in the sky. Of course everything runs on island time and I thought I had missed it since I caught the glimpse of testers. 

July 4th Fireworks

75% complete, you have no idea how surreal it was, the next 4 months flew by. I also added people to my Bonbon family.