It's been a really long time since we had a break, and now it's finally Thanksgiving recess. The first two weeks of school was somewhat relaxed though since there were no lecture exams. I say somewhat though since I did have to do my retakes for the RGP analysis/modification part of 12 station, and the extended BIO part of my OHP II proficiency from last quarter. I'm proud to say that I passed both retakes! The RGP retake was pretty nerve-wracking since there is absolutely no subjective part in the testing - it's either you get the correct analysis of the parameters or you don't. Failure on the retake results in an extra quarter of clinic after graduation - and yes that means an extra quarter of tuition! I am so thankful that I passed that very stressful retake.

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For the past couple of days, there have been multiple fires in the LA/Orange County area, and it so happens that two of them are pretty close to where our school is and where I live. Just a few blocks away is the cutoff for the evacuation for one of the closer fires in Brea, which is just a few miles north of here. The smoke has been pretty bad, since it has been blowing into Fullerton from three areas (Brea, Diamond Bar, and Yorba Linda)...the air quality thus has been poor, well at least it feels that way since you're constantly breathing smoke even though you're indoors. Lots of ashes have been strewn all over the streets as well. Many homes and other property have been destroyed, and several thousand residents have been displaced due to the evacuations. Since the immediate area is still considered secure, school is still in session, and the clinic is still open so we students have no choice but to stick around despite all of the smoke. Well, what can I say, that's one of the realities of living here in Southern California. Even though the weather is mild all year round, the combination of dry air, dry shrubbery/grass, and the Santa Ana winds make fires a frequent threat.

The end of this quarter is somewhat bittersweet. It's nice that the hardest quarter of optometry school is done with, and now winter quarter involves only three core classes, clinic, and the first part of our board exams (NBEO Part I) along with board review classes. It's also great that I got over two extremely tough finals (Strabismus and Ocular Disease II) - that is, on top of OHP II and Geriatric Optometry, which were still tough but not nearly as bad as the former two. Strab was a 3-hour long test and 91 questions - by the time I was on #60, I was getting really antsy and my brain started to "hurt" since this test was heavily analytical and not much rote memorization. Also, after sitting there for 3 hours straight, your neck starts to get a little sore and so you get even more uncomfortable sitting there for what feels like forever!

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