Freedom!

I've slowly come to the conclusion that I'm buried far enough down in the medical school waitlists that I'm not going to make it in this year. Sooo close but so far. These waitlists are an awfully elegant form of torture... But alas, there's nothing to do now but write a melodramatic blog post or two, and then get on the ball for next year.

My first step towards getting this reapplication ball rolling? The MCAT. I had taken the test three years ago during college, but since MCAT scores are usually only valid for three years, I had no choice but to take it all over again.

It's amazing how much you can manage to forget in three years, so I knew I had a lot of chemistry and physics studying to do. For the six weeks before my test day, I literally locked myself in my office every night after work to study, and gradually plowed my way through five big fat test prep books and four practice tests.

On the test day last Tuesday, I arrived at the test center with plenty of time to spare, took the elevator to the seventh floor and was a bit alarmed to find a door that said "This way for the English Proficiency Exam." Aha! Here is a test I can pass! I thought, but have I gone to the wrong building for the MCAT?? I inquired at the front desk with much trepidation and found that I was indeed in the right place. As it turns out, I was the only person taking the MCAT in Osaka that day, so apparently they didn't feel the need to put up a sign for me. :) (On a side note, if any of you ever have to take the MCAT, I highly recommend taking it in Japan. Taking the test by yourself is about a million times better than taking it in a crowded room with hundreds of stressed out pre-meds madly flipping through flash cards and muttering to themselves.)

Even though I was the only person taking the test, the proctors were (of course) still required to go through all of the standard anti-cheating protocol. Before I could enter the test room, I had to take everything out of my pockets, get my fingerprints taken, pose for a picture, and show the proctor my passport. I kind of felt like I was going to jail.

The test itself went ok (I think...), or at least I finished all the questions in the time limit. And after five hours of toe tapping, head scratching and nail chewing, I emerged from the testing room a free woman....again. Hopefully this will be the last time for the MCAT and me. :)

Now that I'm finally done studying, I've been gradually making my way back from the depths of my office to join the rest of humanity. First, this meant catching up on grading papers at work, but I've also played sanshin in a couple concerts and gotten back into softball. I'm also hoping to start jogging every morning and learning how to cook, but so far I'm not having much success on those fronts. Must....get...out...of...bed....in the morning and run.

Oh, one last thing. Last month, one of the jazz groups I'm in played a concert at a shrine in my neighborhood, and a news crew came to film our practice and help us advertise. Here's a clip from the news. I tried to add (rough) English captions this time. Hopefully you can read them....they're not pretty, but at least they're semi-functional....I think... (Does anyone know of a better program for adding captions than Windows Movie Maker? I wish I could format these better so they don't fly across the screen so fast...)

Update: I think I've fixed the problem with the video now....probably...
Although if it still doesn't work, you can also watch it here, the full screen version!