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: