Mr. RUSVM and a Whole Lot of Studying

Pink Sunset (view from front porch)

   So the weekend has come and gone and while I did have a few hours to myself it has been full of studying, TA sessions, and time well spent in the anatomy lab. On Saturday it was rainy and gross outside for most of the day so we went to campus to try to get some studying done. After an absurdly long time spent in the computer lab printing notes for the week, Ru and I headed over to the Multi-Purpose Lab to finish our histology lab which again took an absurdly long time. We had planned to go over to the anatomy lab, but we didn't have time since everything was taking us so long. We ate a quick lunch and went back to the lab for a TA session which was actually really helpful. We decided to walk home since our ride had to be somewhere else before the TA session was over. Anyway I will say that I never want to walk home again! After a 30 minute walk mostly uphill I was tired and did not want to study so I took a shower and attempted to take a nap before Mr. RUSVM. For those of you who don't know Mr. RUSVM is a tri-annual talent show where a male representative from each of the 7 semesters competes for the title Mr. RUSVM. My friend Mike was the rep for my class so we were obligated to attend. There were several categories and a choreographed introduction so it was pretty entertaining. I have to say that it went on way too long and it got a little boring after awhile, but overall it was a good time. In the first category they had to act out a "tale of St. Kitts" and those were pretty funny even if I didn't get some of them because we haven't been here long enough. Then they had to dress up like their favorite superhero. Mike painted his entire body green so he could be the Incredible Hulk, although I would have to say that my favorite was a tie between the Can of BOP (bug spray that actually kills centipedes, pretty sure it's illegal in the US) and Captain Planet. All of the costumes were pretty outrageous and it was pretty cool to see how gung ho some of the upper semester students are about this little competition. Then the contestants had to perform a talent. One of the contestants tried to play the improv game where someone stands behind the other person and uses their hands to control the scene and I must say that it was not funny and really made me miss the Pappy Parker Players, the best improv/sketch comedy group at Binghamton University. The last category was formal wear which was pretty funny since the guys dressed in anything but formal wear. The seventh semester contestant was dressed like an Egyptian pharaoh and had a bunch of people carry him on to stage. Of course the winner and newly crowned Mr. RUSVM was the 7^th semester contestant, but I knew that was going to be the case even before I saw the show. It was a pretty interesting night, but I wish I got more studying done.

 Today, Sunday, I took care of some household chores and then made my way to the anatomy lab to study the cadavers. I finally learned all of the extrinsic muscles in the thoracic limb. In case you don't know the thoracic limb is the front leg and the extrinsic muscles are attached to the axial skeleton (but you probably don't know what that means either). Anyway now all I have to learn this week is all the information for all the other classes as well as the muscle attachments, actions, of course all of the intrinsic muscles, oh yeah and all the bones and parts of bones in my bone box. The information is endless, but I feel a little bit better about being able to accomplish some of this stuff!