Earthquakes, and Hurricanes, and Cardio... oh my!

So it’s back to school for the MS2s and it seems that our arrival doesn’t sit well with Philadelphia: since our return there has been an earthquake and a hurricane. The earthquake happened while we were in a doctoring lecture and I didn’t feel a thing. Very disappointing for a born-and-bred east coaster who has never experienced an earthquake... darn the sturdy construction of John Morgan!

In slightly more exciting news... Hurricane Irene came and went this weekend. The media had us convinced we’d look out our windows to see the four horsemen of the apocalypse riding down Walnut Street so I dutifully stocked up on necessities: batteries for my flashlight and some mini Snickers. But despite doomsday predictions of power outages/dangerous winds/flash floods, everyone I talked to reported much the same thing: it rained for a bit and then it was pretty windy.

Après storm my roommate and I decided to head down toward the Schuylkill river trail: a popular running/biking path that winds along the river (whenever I jog there normally I am guaranteed to run into at least 5 other med students). When we got there it was almost completely flooded and an hour later we were up to our waists in water! I hope that my MS3/4 friends are studying up because my little adventure may have left me with a case of Schuylkill-itis.

Above is a picture of the path pre-hurricaine (courtesy of Google images).

Below is me frolicking in the exact same section of the path on Sunday:

Other than that it’s been business as usual for the MS2s: we’ve dived into cardiology and are working our way through understanding EKGs. Before the hurricane we also had our annual big/little sister matching event for the Elizabeth Blackwell Society (for female medical students). We paired each MS1 with an MS2 “sister” that is supposed to give them advice about school and just be a friendly face in the hall. I adore my big sister and I’m also one of the heads of EBS so I was worried about how it would go but I think a good time was had by all and I’m excited to get to know my (2!) little sisters this year!