For those faithful followers of The Pioneer Press, I am sure you have gathered that medical school is mostly just a lot of studying, test-taking, and blog-writing. Well, fortunately I have the opportunity to share with you the brighter side of Medical School. Welcome to the Pioneer Press, Spring Break 2k16 Edition!

While there are many exciting aspects to being in a ground-breaking three-year medical program, the one very obvious drawback is that most of the time-saving involves cutting out those useless breaks. With that in mind, many of my classmates and I took full advantage of our recent week off.

I should probably back-track and introduce myself. I’m Alex Sliwicki. I grew up in Neenah, WI and graduated from UW-Madison with a degree in Biochemistry. Coming from a large school, I was definitely nervous about transitioning to such a small class size. Those fears were quickly resolved upon starting in July as I met and formed friendships among my classmates. While the classes are great, the highlight of my education so far has been the time spent with our community preceptors. The early exposure to direct patient care has been motivating and put all the studying into perspective. Outside of school, I enjoy watching Bucks basketball, running, lifting with my personal trainer (Brandon Stradel, M1 MCW-Green Bay), and camping/being outside. This has led me to help form a Wilderness Medicine interest group with my classmate Kirsta Hoffman. The 2 club has been a great way to learn wilderness first aid skills with classmates, as well as get together to camp and snowshoe (the snowshoe trip ended up being more of muddy hike).

Back to the Interesting Stuff

For my Spring Break, I decided to get in touch with nature and strengthen ties between the Green Bay and Milwaukee campuses by backpacking in Canyonlands National Park (Utah) with my close friend Matt Mischo, an M2 from MCW-Milwaukee.

 We spent our week climbing rocks, trying not to fall off rocks, hoping to not contract any of the parasites/fungi I had been examined on the week before, and wondering if the pack of horses we found were wild or not. Jared Metropolis relaxed and prepped for his geriatric rotation at The Villages Retirement Community in Orlando, FL. Matt Wheeler enjoyed mastering TurboTax and the adventure of filing taxes back home in Superior, WI. Christy Prill escaped the cold and went to Punta Cana where she enjoyed sun, sand, and literature that wasn’t a medical textbook. Merlin Caldwell ate fresh coconuts, hiked, and snorkeled off Waikiki, HI. Finally, Storm Dorrough and Dan Finn explored Chicago and snapped a coveted photo with “The Bean”.

It pains me as I write this that it is currently cloudy, raining and 40 degrees F in Green Bay. But hey, Pharmacology exams and OSCEs are interesting and exciting too, right?