Orientation...is...almost...over...

It has been a week since I've arrived in Cleveland. It was the opposite of what I expected. I thought there would be snow by now, but it turns out it was blisteringly hot (with tons of humidity). Apparently Cleveland only has extreme weather, so once it cools, I'm sure there will be snowflakes a fallin'.

Orientation is the most mind-numbing process known to man. Between HIPAA and watching 10,000 faculty members introduce themselves to the class, it's been quite a slow week. But finally we are approaching something that resembles the educational process. Today, for about 30 minutes, a professor talked about public health. Then it was off to get in line for TB skin testing. Though the lecture was boring, I'll take what I can get. (I never thought I'd long to start school).

My classmates are very diverse. We have hipsters, jocks, preps, nerds, and tons of other stereotypes. We have one lawyer, a couple PhDs, and a handful of people over 30 (one over 40). The ethnicities range from lots of white, asian, and Indian people to ten black people and five Persians. The Persians were very excited to find each other. Since one of the five was the first person I met at school, I subsequently was able to meet the rest of the Persians and hear them swap Persian stories. Apparently, Persians either live in California, Oklahoma, Texas, or DC. And they have secret handshakes that they won't do in front of non-Persians (no matter how much I asked!)

There have been 5,000 mixers and I am damn tired. Those with the stamina to party hard have surely been rewarded, and those of us who are mild partiers still had the opportunity to wake up with headaches.

I was sorted into the Wearn Society. This means I'm either in Slytherin (because my adviser looks like Snape!) or Ravenclaw (our color is blue!). Either way, it's not Hufflepuff, so it's good. And our adviser has a ponytail. And our motto is "Feel the Wearn." So basically it has been great here at Hogwarts School of Medicine.

Peace out until next time. It's intro to anatomy and histopath tomorrow! So...it has begun.

The difference between Case and Lipscomb...

hellz yeah

It is very hot in Cleveland today

Today marks my first 24 hours in Cleveland. I woke up bright and early to await my mattress delivery and alas, it was delivered. Now I can sleep in the un-air conditioned 90+ degree sweltering madness on a mattress. Yipee!!

So yeah, the heat here is all the rage and is a great ice-breaker for us students who don't know each other (ie, everybody). There will be some awkward mixers this week, with some tonight. If I have the energy to drag myself to the awkwardness I shall. It's like QuestWeek all over again! But this time I probably won't sleep through everything.

Today we received computers. I have my beautiful MacBook Pro.



The aluminum casing is shiny. And the Magic Mouse is pretty nifty too. I can swish my fingers across it and things happen on the screen. 10 points for Apple. Good job!

Last night my Windows laptop must have realized that I was replacing it, so it let out its swan song. It screeched and screamed, and decided to have several catastrophic failures. The monitor would just not turn on...the browser would not load webpages...and even Free Cell didn't work. Well, bye bye to that piece of crap and hello to my sleek new baby.

First post, and Best Coat's "Boyfriend"

Hello all. I've decided to start blogging, as you can see. The purpose of this blog is to serve as my way to chronicle my journey through med school, life, etc, in the greatest city God has given to man:

Cleveland.

Look at it. In all it's glory. The rusted post-industrial architecture long abandoned by human beings. The murky waters that house sewage-mutated aquatic beings of majestic beauty. Oh the joy of Forbes' number 1 most miserable city in 2010 (up from #4 in 2009!!). I can't really combat this, since this the only time I was in Cleveland was for my interview at Case, and it was raining. My suit got wet. Regardless, it's the place for me. Forbes probably doesn't know shit anyway.

So while I was deciding on the name for my blog (which shall not be explained for newcomers by the way), I was jamming to this tune by Best Coast called "Boyfriend". Listen below.

Best Coast - Boyfriend

I don't know anything about this band except that I just now listened to this song on Pitchfork (yeah, call me a worthless hipster). But damn, it's right up my alley. Most of the time Pfork just posts lame dancey/trancey stuff. This, on the other hand, is fuzz-pop goodness. I'm very particular about female vocals, though I'm not sure why. Some subconscious sexism? I hope not! (For the record, I would have voted for Hillary if she got the nomination). But the girl who sings here really has a great voice. The lyrics aren't stupid but they're cute (sometimes that's hard to do) and the lush guitars with surfy elements really get my groove going. All in all, great song.

Well, I've got work tomorrow in my last week of working at the Vanderbilt. So I better sign off. I hope I don't forget to update this thing.