i'm in ireland. studying in dublin. my course (under grad) is pretty much just (just, haha) acupuncture, not much herbal stuff. it's all zang fu, jing luo and the five vital substances in my life!
love it.

Yeah, you're crazy :P but crazy in a way that I admire. I occasionally think about the herb issue. I know it's an important modality, and many people rely more on herbs using acupuncture to compliment to the course of treatment. But I also know how noncompliant the average American is. I've listened to a number of TCM practitioners gripe about patients not taking the herbs. My acupuncturist back home gave up using herbs all together because he couldn't get his patients to take them as directed. I've decided to wait until I've been in practice a bit. If I decide then that I need the knowledge I'll go back for it. Maybe by then my school will have their herb program up and running.

I go to The Won Institute for Graduate Studies, in PA. It's a very young school, the first acupuncture class is graduating in a few weeks. We're all holding our breaths to see how they do on the boards. The Won is a pretty cool place, even with all of the lumps and bumps everyone is experiencing. Most of my instructors are American and I think that all of our core instructors have between 10 and 30 years of practice under their belts. I cant help but smile that my theory instructors are all Americans and my western phys instructors have all been either Korean or Chinese. Unfortunately, I've known few Chinese or Korean people in my life so far, so I haven't had any practice in learning their accent. I'm much better with Mexican or Lebanese accents. Ah well, my ear is finally getting attuned now that the semester is over. I knew I was in trouble the first ten minutes of class. She was talking about harmony and the endocrine system. So I'm thinking, "Hmmm, harmony. Ok, the endocrine system makes sure the body maintains homeostasis. Everything has to be in harmony, right?" Then she started talking about syloid harmony. Syloid harmony?? My classmate and I looked at each other and I said, "Oh God, thyroid hormone". The class pretty much went downhill from there :) But she's a nice lady, is super smart, and has been more then accommodating to us.

My first year comp doesn't look bad at all, only 100 standard questions and several self reflective questions. OMT Research Methods (emperical vs evidence based, critical appraisal, stricta requirements etc.), OMT (5E, simple pattern differentiation, pulses etc), Clinic Observation (intake, pulses, referrals, treatment plans etc), Western Phys (including the cranial nerves - someday I really just have to sit down and memorize those suckers), Point Energetics & Location, Nutrition, Sitting & Moving Meditation (not a practical, thank God! just stuff like qi circulation, breathing, posture etc.) I think we're allotted 3 hours for the comp, then we have to go back to class. Our school (being sponsored and run by Koreans) didn't take into account that nobody would want to be in class on July 4th, so we negotiated the day off by giving up half of our lunch breaks and having class after our exam to make up the lost time. I'm just glad that our instructor decided not to have a final in her class, instead she gave us an extra case study to do. So I only have to do a presentation that day. I do think it's weird that we have finals and a comp exam. Why not just make the comp a bit bigger?

And I totally agree, Rescue Remedy Rocks!!