I'm Katie, I'll be your tour guide this evening

Apparently the BlogGods heard my post, and I didn't get sick. I just felt yucky for a couple mornings, and then it passed. Sweet.

Anyway, the last week or so I've been standardized patient-ing to study for Step 2 CS. It's this big, scary test, where you have to see 12 patients for 15 minutes each, then write a doctor note about your encounter, tell them what you think is wrong and the tests you want to do. You run a lot of tests. I wouldn't really do them in real life, because it is wasteful healthcare to run tons of tests when you're already sure of the diagnosis, right? The complaints were fairly straightforward (lots of "my ___ hurts" type thing), and I felt like it went OK.

Hopefully. US medical students have approximately a 96% pass rate, so I'd better freaking pass.

Basically this is a test to weed out foreign students who haven't quite mastered the English language, or those people who are jerks, and probably for those people who aren't good at acting.

Anyway, enough about the tests. My mom, dad and I went down to Atlanta to take this test (not included in the $1000, mind you) and we attempted a little sightseeing while down there. It was sort of a pathetic attempt, but an attempt nonetheless.

• We visited stone mountain, which was some random big mound of granite in the middle of trees, in the middle of Atlanta. Apparently there was a lot to do there for 1) kids, 2) hikers, and 3) people when it is not raining. It was pouring off and on so it was sort of a bust.
  
• While I was taking the test my parents tried to go to the Jimmy Carter museum (I was sort of thankful they did that without me because as hard as I try I continue to loathe US history). Unfortunately the museum is closed for renovations until October, but apparently if you rap on the windows and doors they will give you a free book and some 1/2 price passes to come back. (This was according to a random lady on the sidewalk, not my parents, until they found out she is actually the curator of the museum.)
• So, instead of the museum, my mom and dad went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, where my dad used his "photo skillz" to take ~150 pictures of flowers. Supposedly it was a nice place.
• The day after my test, I had really wanted to go to the Coca-cola museum because I'd heard lots of things from it. We actually drove over to where it was supposed to be (after checking two maps AND the Garmin) and walked around only to find out that they moved 2 years ago and obviously we were dumb tourists who just paid $5 for parking to go nowhere. So we tried to go to this place called The Underground while we there, because supposedly it's all historic and full of little shops and restaraunts and everything. Except it was all on lockdown at 9:15 in the morning.
  
• So, we left there and went to the World of Coke. It was pretty fun - there was tons of coke memorabilia, art, and advertising. There was only a little about the actual history of coke, which I would have appreciated more of. Then you got to taste-test 63 flavors of coke from around the world. SIXTY THREE. I should have known that was a mistake. They actually weren't "coca-cola" flavored, which made me sad, they were more like Fanta, Nestea, and fruity drinks. My favorite was Greece's Pineapple Fanta (like a fizzy pina colada! yum!) and the absolute WORST was Beverly from Italy. It was SO disgusting, bleh!
  

After trying 63 flavors of syrupy-sweet carbonated beverages I decided it was probably a good time to take a bumpy, windy car ride home. Ugh, stomachache! My parents didn't seem quite as affected by this disturbing concoction churning in our stomachs, but we eventually got some lunch to settle it down a bit and made it home safe and sound.

Now, I'm just lounging around before doing the 5 MILLION wedding planning things that I need to get on, like, now. I'm sort of ready to just elope. Maybe I'll play Chris' new Wii sports resort instead. ;)