AOA Annual summer meeting (Boston 2016)

This past summer, I went to my first major optometry conference as an optometry conference. Every year in the summer months, the American Optometric Association hosts a national meeting. In 2016, it was held at Boston, so me and some optometry friends went there this past July 2016. Here are some clips of what we did! It's expensive to attend a conference because depending on what school you go to, most schools don't give you a stipend to attend a conference as a student. There is usually a registration fee (ranging from $50-100, which is a good deal because as an OD, I hear you pay around $300 per day of conference, at least for the bigger conferences). However, if you look out for smaller conferences in your area, there may be cheaper, smaller scale conferences to go to on the weekend for the networking experiences.

At the conference, you can attend as much Continuing education events as you want and get to meet other practicing optometrists and get a feel for what your future will be like. The conferences also have networking events, lunches, and dinners to meet other optometrists and optometry students around the nation. Sometimes groups at the conference will also host evening socials which are fun to attend to. And of course, being in Boston for the first time, I had to explore the city~~

Wednesday 6.29
Cafe
dinner- Giarcoma (lobster dinner in Boston)

Thurs: 6.30
attend CE event at convention in the morning
Boston Tea Party
Bon mi restaurant
evening- quiz bowl event. This is a student event held annually with AOA. It's a great way for students from optometry schools in U.S. and Canada to cheer on their fellow classmate as they complete in "Student Bowl", which is basically an optometry trivia competition. We get to learn and refresh some optometry facts and "trivia", as well as mingle and network with other students.
After part/social at Hard Rock and bar .

Friday: 7.1
CE event in the morning
James Hook - Lobster rolls for lunch
Attend the residency forum at conference
Walmart reception and ICO reception inside Westin Hotel
attend the after party luxoticca live at royale and after party with other optometry students

-AOA also hosts an after social after the student bowl. This year it was at Hard Rock cafe/bar in Boston. It was cool because it was a silent disco so we were all given headphones to wear, with 3 different types of music to listen to. So when we put the headphones on, everyone can jam to the music of their liking. At the same time, if you wanted to be social and talk to other people, you can take off the headphones and still be able to hear people.

Sat: 7.2
Bee Hive- brunch
Newbury street shopping
Attend scleral event at conference at 3:30
Dinner- Myer Changs
Top of the hub bar

Sun: 7.3
USS Constitution museum
Freedom trail bunker movement
Pauli's-lunch
Beacon hill
Ned Divines pub - clam chowder
Quincy market
Ferry cruise at Boston Harbor

Mon: 7.4
Biking at esplanade
Thinking cup
Paddy O's- lunch

End of 2nd year!

I will write up a post about my 2nd year experiences in a bit.
But for now, I can't believe we just finished our 2nd year of optometry school. We are halfway to OD!

 Now I'm off to California for a one week summer break and next week we will start independent patient care 2x a week plus a specialty rotations. For summer quarter, I will have 5 weeks of cornea and contact lenses in the 2nd half of the quarter. I'm excited to start seeing more patients in clinic because this is what I came here for.

But to start off summer break, let me just say it is SOOO bad for me to come back to California. Because all I do is eat food. -__-

Here are some of my latest photo adventures along with some of my personal touch up.

Optometry School Break Adventures

After winter quarter, I decided to stay in Chicago during the break week. I had my clinic and dispensing shift on Monday and I was redoing my practical on Wednesday. After finally passing my retake my Wednesday, I decided to do some exploring in the city.  That night, me and my roommate went to visit Palmer's House in Chicago. We had a early dinner/high tea at Potter's Lounge inside the hotel. 

Palmer's Hilton House

At Potter's lounge, we made it in time for Happy hour! We tried the cheese and meat platter, tacos, and a dessert with brownie and ice cream! We also got apple ciders to top it off.

After that, we walked to Harold Washington Library and explored the 11 stories in the library. And then we walked back up to North side of Chicago to grab more desserts at Eataly before meeting up with other friends to watch Deadpool at the AMC theatre. 

At Eataly: 

On Saturday, we went out to get dinner at Shake Shack and then got more tea at this fancy cafe called Pierot Gourmet!

First day of Second year

I have finally moved into my new house in Chicago! First week of optometry school is over. It's still hard to believe we are officially second years! I got my first clinic shift last Tuesday. Unlike first year, beginning of this year has been a fun, but slow first week. No labs yet, so I've been trying to find things to do in during the afternoons off. My housemate is a first year and I cannot believe how anxious and overwhelmed I felt during the first week of school from the large amount of notes we will be receiving from Human Anatomy and Micro anatomy alone.

We had Blind spot, which is basically a club fair where all the clubs table at the gym and get students to sign up. There is free pizza, soda, and beer as well as prize raffles! (Unlike undergrad, graduate schools are allowed to serve beer at school-sanctioned event. We are officially adults ;)).

We also had ICOlympics which is basically a competition of different sports and eating contests between the years. It gets 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th years pitted against each other as they try to out-win the other years in games. There is also free burgers, salad, drinks, and ice cream. We also get T-shirts, color coded by years. (1st-red, 2nd-green, 3rd-blue, 4th-red)

2014: This was last year when we were first years.

2015: This year as 2nd years, repping green color now!