Getting Settled In Cleveland...

(Note: I started writing this my first week here, and am only finishing it today. I put newer comments in parentheses)

This is a very delayed post, but I was going to wait to write my first Cleveland blog until I moved into my new housing and got all settled, but it's become apparent that that might not happen for another week or two, so I'm just going to write anyway. So this is going to be pretty long, but hopefully not too tedious. (This is old: I'm already partially moved in, and will finish moving the last of my stuff this weekend)

So for right now I'm staying in the UHHS Richmond Heights (my hospital) student housing. Our apartment is nice, but the whole building is typical of all the apartments in Cleveland, which is to say, old and smelly. The lobby has the exact same set of furniture (minus the plastic covers) that they had in the nursing home where I worked as an EMT, which is really funny. However this furniture is bolted to the floor, which I assume is to prevent its walking off and being exchanged for some sort of street currency (i.e. crack). And on either side of the lobby is this creepy pseudo-fireplace contraption that consists of a light and a rotor thing that casts fake flames inside the fake fireplace. The wheel that spins it makes this eerie creaking sound, and when you come in the lobby at night, it's dark other than the fake fireplace. I always start hearing Edgar Allan Poe in my head when I walk in at night. To get to our apartment, you have to walk down this long hallway that either smells like old cat food, cigarette smoke, or the combination of both, which is truly heinous.

The fake fireplace thing is much less creepy in the daylight:

So here's an update on the housing situation. I think I've found this cute little house to rent that's not too far from the hospital, and in a cute little neighborhood of postwar starter houses where I can jog outside for a change. However, the owner (who's renting it as she had to move out-of-state for a job but doesn't want to sell it) forgot to leave the key with someone here, so I haven't been able to see the inside of it. So the key should be getting here on Thursday or so, and as long as it's decent on the inside, that's where I'll be staying. I'll basically have the house to myself, which is great. (Addendum: I've seen the house, and it's pretty cool, though a bit dusty…I spent a few days cleaning/dusting and now it's a bit better..it just needed some airing out)

My window is the one that's mostly covered by the tree branches. Crazy neighbor's house is to the left:

Not that I want to stay up here one more minute than I have to, but I am really liking Cleveland so far. The people here are every bit as nice as they are in the South, which I didn't expect at all.

Example A: I've been going to this one coffee shop near the hospital every day to listen to talk radio on the computer and pretend to study. Almost every day the lady that works here (Lori) brings me hot cookies right out of the oven, coffee refills, sandwiches (which led to what will be hereafter referred to as The Turkey Sandwich Incident), and today it was cinnnamon toast. She's so nice!

Example B: Yesterday, I was checking out at Trader Joes (my delight at finding TJ's here goes beyond all description), and the lady was talking to me and asking me where I was from, etc., and then she said, "Hold on just a sec." And before I knew it she was coming back with a bouquet of flowers, and she said "Welcome to Cleveland, these are for you," and then she insisted on giving me her phone number in case I needed anything. She said "Everyone can use an extra Jewish mom, and my kids are all grown up, so…" So now I have an extra Jewish mom, just in case.

So tonight I was planning on going to an Indians game with my roommate, her boyfriend and another friend who's an intern at the Cleveland Clinic, but right now it's pouring rain and thundering, so that might not happen. I always think of the Indians as a terrible team but I think that's because of the movie "Major League" because apparently they're in first place right now. (Kept raining, didn't end up going….)

My first week here I went on a "Lolly The Trolley" tour of downtown Cleveland, which was really fun. The guide was great, but it was a whirlwind tour, with a lot of area to cover in 2 hours, so I would need to take 2 or 3 of them to really absorb everything. The city is a lot prettier and greener than I would've imagined. What was sad is that they haven't preserved their history very well. All of the historic homes/places (of which there aren't many for a city this size) were only added to the National Register in the mid-to-late 80s, and I think it's amazing that no one noticed their importance before then. There is one long street called Euclid Ave. that stretches from the west of the city all the way out to the eastern suburbs (where I am), and used to be called "Millionaire's Row." There used to be hundreds of mansions there, owned by the likes of John D. Rockefeller, etc. Now there are literally only 3 left, and only one of them is open for tours.

One neat thing the city is doing is renovating a huge warehouse district into neat lofts, and when they're finished, and more restaurants/businesses come back to downtown, that is going to be one fun place to live. They have a daily farmers market downtown called the "West Side Market" that I'm going to go to some Saturday or other, and they also have a neat area of different ethnic grocery stores that I'd like to try if I can ever find it again.

This is a picture of the greenhouse at the Rockefeller Gardens. We stopped there for a few minutes and were able to walk through the greenhouses. It was very pretty, peaceful, and quiet in there.

This is the outside garden part:

This was one of the stranger types of flowers I've ever seen. It had a puddle of water in the center, with the center part floating in it...Kind of cool.

So this week (6/25-6/29) I've been doing orientation. They gave us our long white coats with our names embroidered on them on the first day. What an awesome moment! Mine is wayyyyy too big, and can't be altered without basically reconstructing the entire coat (which would cost more than a coat does), but I still love it….I would probably sleep in it if I knew that I wouldn't have the terrible luck I always do which inevitably involves getting caught doing something silly/embarrassing. I think my intern class is going to be great - everybody's nice and outgoing, and we've already got some fun outings and road trips planned.

I start on the internal medicine hospitalist service on Monday, and I also have my first night of call that night. Thankfully I'm on with a senior resident, so hopefully it won't be too bad! I am seriously out of "work" shape after a month of vacation and a month of anesthesia (okay, so maybe I only went to ten or so days of that but who's counting?....) before that. So if you don't hear from me for a while, it's because I'm going to sleep at 7:30pm….

Last weekend I had a "Temple moment" (the irresistable urge to leave the town where you are asap) and wanted to get out of Cleveland for a bit. So I drove to this cute town called "Geneva-on-the-Lake." Surprisingly enough, t's right between the town of Geneva, and the lake (Eerie). It's a cute little kitschy town that is basically Myrtle Beach but not in the South. It had one main street that was lined with arcades, ice-cream and pizza restaurants, and putt-putt courses (including one that was "Mom and Pop's Rainbow Putt-Putt" which I would venture to guess was named before the rainbow symbol took on the meaning it has today).

There were lots of pretty white sailboats out on the Lake:

My med school graduation!

So last Friday I finally graduated from med school. I thought that going through the ceremony would finally make me feel like a real doctor, but I have to admit, I don't really feel any differently than I did from the day before. But it was fun! Graduation "weekend" actually started on Wednesday, when my friend Allison rented out a nail salon so all us girls could get pedicures together. it was so much fun! And our other friend Azadeh took time out of studying for Step 1 to come hang out with us too!

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Us getting pretty toes:

Azadeh, Allison and I:

Then a lot of my family came in from California and Georgia, and we went out to eat at PF Chang's on Thursday night after (almost) everyone got there. We got to sit at this huge private table that was sort of hidden behind the bar but in front of the kitchen, so we could watch them making everything. It's not the best place for people with otosclerosis to sit, but the rest of us didn't mind! My little cousin Matthew provided the entertainment by repeatedly sticking his chopsticks up his nose.

Me with my grandparents at PF Chang's. You can tell how Grandpa loves to be in pictures:

My Aunt Shay supervising Matthew and his chopsticks-cum-weapons:



The next morning we had to get up early to get out to the Maricopa Events Center, located in what felt like Los Angeles, by 8:30am. When I have my own med school, graduation will start no earlier than 2pm…especially if it's over an hour's drive from the school!

This is me hanging out with Megan before the ceremony. In retrospect, I probably should have put on the silly hat, because in all the photos where I'm not wearing it, I look like I just randomly decided to put on a black gown that day:

Joking around (posed) with Jennie & Tori before the ceremony, in front of the concession stand. Yes, there actually was one. At a med school graduation. Only at my school.....

Tori, Jennie & I before the ceremony (again):

With my friends Chuck and Eric before sitting down:


With my friend Abby before the ceremony:



With my friend Ruqayya after the ceremony:

Despite the early hour, my school managed to put on a somewhat decent ceremony, the one exception being our esteemed President, who was clearly winging her speech. One would think she would have taken, say, 15 minutes or so on her private jet flight from Chicago to pen something appropriate for a medical school graduation, but no. But I should thank her, as she provided a sort of impromptu psych review in that she was repeatedly inserting neologisms (something schizophrenic patients do) in her speech, with such memorable words as "strucken." Seriously….where did they find this lady? She was also blinged-out with a huge gold medallion, the origin/meaning of which no one could decipher.

Dr. G winging her cheesy speech.....Unfortunately you can't see the bling in these pictures:

Matthew enjoying popcorn during the ceremony:

Me modeling my hood after the ceremony:

With my mom & my brothers after the ceremony:

Me with my mom:

Tori, me & Jennie:

Me picking up my diploma. It would've been nice to take a picture in my cap, gown & hood with the diploma, but our cheap school makes us turn in the cap & gown to get our diploma. Nice.

So after the ceremony we took approximately a million pictures and then proceeded to lunch at Abuelos, which was really good! Then we went back to the Plaza and had a champagne toast and opened presents. The next day we just lounged around by the pool, and then went out to dinner for my grandma's 46th anniversary of her 39th birthday at Macayos. Of course they insisted on singing one of those cheesy Mexican-restaurant-birthday-songs to her, which she really enjoyed. Plethora and bulging jugular veins are usually a sign of enjoyment, right?

The young folk decided to go out to dinner on Friday night after the ceremony, and we ended up at Buco di Beppo, and we had such a good time.

Here are all the cousins together:

Jennie, Tori, Me & Megan:

James, Jackson & I with the nuns:

On Sunday everyone took off, and after dropping Jackson off at the airport at about 1, I took off for Cleveland. I didn't get very far. I only made it to Albequerque the first night. But at least it was a start.