Orientation: A Review

This should probably be, and will probably turn into, a long post. Babbling ahoy.

Anyway, Orientation started last Monday. It began well enough. Dean Kanter has a bone-dry sense of humor and was quite entertaining. As the week dragged on, the niftyness began to wear off. The three sessions on "Diversity" were terrible and lasted far longer than I had ever imagined. Apparently, this is an NIH mandated requirement for medical schools. The sexual orientation one was interesting enough to keep me awake, but I couldn't take the gender one and made a run for it after the panel, but before the video and small group discussion sections.

Otherwise, I'm settling in okay. On Tuesday a poorly planned two hours break (in addition to over an hour of lunch) gave me and a group of people time to investigate the gym facilities. I have to say, I'm impressed. I guess as a runner, I never was really exposed to any atheletic facilities but Wash U's (all my college races were outside - usually in fields or country clubs). Wash U obviously didn't emphasize sports because their AC looks positively shabby next to Pitt's huge stadium. They also have a second gym with a rock climbing wall, more exercise equipement, a pool, and all kinds of stuff. This is addition to the fieldhouse and a few other listed facilities that we didn't track down. Basically, I can work out any time of day and the main two gyms are right next to the Medical School. Literally, you walk outside our building, cross the street and there is the stadium with the nice machines. Given that I'm in class far more than undergrads, I will probably end up using this stuff in non-peak hours. I figure once the snow arrives and it gets dark early, I will end up using the gym instead of braving the outdoors. Class is going to make it difficult to run in the daylight hours. And hey, I have a locker. Right next to the AC. It's like it was predestined. They also have some classes - typical stuff - kickboxing, aerobics - and nifty stuff - rock climbing, kayaking.

The people are okay. I'll admit, I was pretty overwhelmed and still am, to some extent. I looked forward to it, and then finally got there and realized all that had happened was that I was back to the beginning. I finally found my niche at Wash U, but now piffft. All gone. Then I was kind of sad and homesick for both Home and St. Louis. Things are getting better. I have a better grasp of the layout of my immediate area. I've been experimenting with biking and running routes, which is very, very helpful. I'm slowly getting to know some people. I went running with various classmates and it looks like a regular running group will form. We are going hiking and swimming tomorrow. Things will work out, it'll just take me some time.

The house is going well, I never see anyone. They are very, very busy. But that's okay. I cleaned the microwave and the stove today, which made me happy. Kinda sad, I know. I don't mind cleaning dirty things - it's just the cleaning of basically clean things that kind of annoys me.

My one major grip so far is the grocery stores. So far I have been to two Giant Eagles and Foodland and I'm not happy with any of them. I'm good with food for the week, but I'm going to try the Whole Foods store next week. Whole Foods is actually the closest grocery store, but I always think of them as kind of expensive. I will give them a try, if it's outrageous, I'll try a third Giant Eagle. I'm just not satisfied with the level of cleanliness at the stores I've been at so far. The first Giant Eagle was terrible - I wouldn't even buy milk from them because their food didn't feel cold to me. The second Giant Eagle was okay, but kind of far away and lacked some food items I want. Foodland also struck me as kind of dirty (not impressed by the deli people sneezing and not changing their gloves) and small. I've been disappointed with the produce as well. No Barilla pasta either! I'm sure there is a good, not so expensive place with a decent selection somewhere, I just have to trial and error until I find it.

All in all, it's been a productive week. I have most of my books (Nik has the rest, but I hestitate to take things without asking and he should be back soon) and I'm reasonably familar with the school. I also found out Pitt has a Jew-specific scholarship fund, which I managed to apply to this week - I ended up re-using my med school application stuff so it didn't take that long. Apparently there aren't that many Jews in my class, so I'm hoping to get a little something for it. They can pay part of tution or just pay for your books. I'd like to get the books one, since I don't think I will qualify for tution money.

Well, this did turn into a long post. My work here is done.