Drugsssssss

Saturday and Sunday were devoted to pharmacy.

At 7:45am, I left the house and headed off to the BART station on foot. I took the 7:58am Bay Point train. Along the way, I tried to read the novel that I bought but every time the train stopped I found myself looking out to check the station name. It was the first time I was traveling out of the city on BART alone, so I didn't want to miss the stop. I had to switch to the Richmond train in Oakland, which turned out ok. I thought I was going to get lost. However, it turned out a bunch of people were heading to East Bay too and I ended up following the crowd. The map online told me that I was to get off at "North Berkeley." There wasn't a station named "Berkeley" on the map, just "Downtown Berkeley" and "North Berkeley." I was afraid that Berkeley only had one stop, so I got off.

Since I emerged onto the streets of Berkeley at a place where I didn't initially plan to be, I was confused. I ended following the crowd of people that looked like students I could have looked at the map but I thought it was a little better to go on an adventure. After walking about 2 blocks, I hit campus. I stopped at a campus map to see where I was, but there wasn't a "You are here" mark, so I continued to walk directionless. I love the feel of Berkeley! I probably wouldn't have gone there even if I was accepted, but the bustling town and enriched academia has a better personality than Davis. The one thing I didn't like was that the school buildings didn't have huge yellow signs blaring out which building was which like Davis. The names of halls and such weren't really noticeable. I somehow ended up where I was suppose to though.

After signing in and getting some coffee (that was good coffee...and I usually don't like coffee), I headed towards the elevators. It was a luck that I went to the north elevators instead of the south (wait..was it north and south...might be east and west..w/e) because I bumped into someone I knew. YAY! It's nice to meet new people but it's nicer to talk to someone you are already familiar with. After the welcoming, everybody headed back down to the first floor. I decided to go to the pharmacy policy meeting. I've only recently become interested in health insurance because of what happened with my case. I didn't even know about Medicare Part D until this meeting. I had a couple of question swarming in my head but they had nothing to do with health policy, so I didn't ask. Ah well, I'll learn about when I go to pharm school. For the second time slot, I headed to the student panel meeting. I've already been to a few pharmacy student panels, so I didn't have any questions. Next was lunch and networking. The sandwich, salad and pasta made me hella full. I wanted to finish most of it because I didn't want to carry it home and I needed to make the event worth the $16 I spent on it. Talked to a few Cal people when eating, then went out to the balcony to get brochures, cups and pens from the organizations and schools attending. Then, went back down to the first floor for the USN meeting. I wish I networked before I ate because USN's table was packing to go downstairs when I got there. If I knew that their presentation was on information that was all on their website then I would have gone to pharmacokinetics instead. The representative for USN didn't seem enthusiastic representing the school. USN is still considered my second, if not top choice though. There was a little break after that meeting. I decided to go to the faculty panel instead of Massachusetts, since I was betting all the info they were going to provide would be online too. Plus, their school wasn't on my list. What the faculty said was really insightful. There's always different stories compared to what the students have to say. With students, they just tell you about school and schools doesn't really differ a lot. People that are already in the industry have more personal stories. It really differs from person-to-person since there are so many categories of pharmacy. I really connected with the story of the only female pharmacist on the panel. Research sounded interesting too. I'm highly interested in the clinical aspect of pharmacy but I'm still keeping my options open. I don't have to commit to one field once I'm done with school, so all the more reason to do pharmacy. :) The symposium ended with a raffle (didn't win :( ) and a certification of completion distribution. I got a little lost exiting campus, but it wasn't hard getting back to the BART station.

Sunday was the PhAMLI award thing. My mentor wasn't present and I could have cared less. I didn't really get to know her, since I didn't go to any of the events besides the picnic. I really wanted to shadow, but my mentor never emailed back on what day she would be willing to let me see campus. I don't know if I should do PhAMLI again just to get a second chance for the mock interview (didn't have time this year) and to shadow. I plan on renewing my membership with APhA and PhAMLI's fee is included. I would have to go to the picnic again and the awards. I don't know if I have time. We'll see. Arghh..I joined AMCP this year too but I haven't done anything. I wish I was at Davis because they're coming to do a mock interview next week :(. Maybe I'll head out to Stockton if they have another campus event.

I've been thinking about getting a pharm tech licence because it seems impossible to get pharmacy experience unless you're a pharmacy student or a pharm tech. I'm really confused on how to go about that because each state has different policies.