Spring Break!

These snowy pictures were taken twelve days ago, but it's already spring break! (Fortunately it has gotten above freezing the past few days.)
The walkway over Argo dam that I take on 50% of my runs.
Looking at the downstream side of the dam. A dam was first built on this site in 1830 to provide power for a mill. That mill burned down and was replaced in 1914 with a power-generating dam. In 1959 power generation was ceased, but today the dam still backs up the Huron River to form Argo Pond, a small recreational lake used by over 600 rowers from Huron and Pioneer High Schools, the University of Michigan, and the Ann Arbor Rowing Club.
A diver descends into the icy water from the Argo Dam walkway to clear out a dam intake valve in early February (picture from the Ann Arbor newspaper).

Argo Pond, frozen solid.
This is Barton dam, the next dam upstream from Argo (Ann Arbor has 4 dams total on the Huron). It was originally built in 1912-13 and generates 4.2 million kWh of electricity per year for the city of Ann Arbor.

I wonder how much electricity it generates when it's frozen.
Ice climbing, anyone?
Ducks and swans apparently don't mind the cold.

In the last month and a half we completed the GI, endocrine, and immunology sequences, all of which were challenging due to the large amount of new material. But to be totally honest, medical school so far has not been tremendously intellectually stimulating. I'm thinking back to college math problem sets or biology journal clubs or even writing political science papers, where I actually felt like I was problem-solving and thinking logically, rather than blankly staring at my notes, trying to squeeze one more fact into my brain that I will likely forget ten minutes after I take the test. What's more, college assignments usually resulted in some kind of finished "product" I could call my own, whereas in medical school we just file into the library at the end of each week, log on to a computer, choose one of five options a couple dozen times, and hit "submit." Fortunately we have a "Clinical Foundations of Medicine" Week after spring break where we will learn some more physical exam skills, which I also enjoy. Then we have a three-week sequence on the central nervous system, which I know will be fun because the brain is an endless, fascinating frontier.

I'll be sticking around Ann Arbor for the one-week break, catching up on some reading for my summer lab rotation and writing a rap or two for the spring Biorhythms show in May. Meanwhile, the Smoker--the musical in which students lampoon the medical school faculty (it's been occurring annually for nearly 100 years!)--is coming up in two weeks. I have a small acting part and am in one short dance.

Michigan hockey won a 5-4 thriller in overtime tonight versus Western Michigan. Go Blue!