It RAINS in New York!
01 June 06Right now, I’m back in my room, enjoying a moderately cold San Pellegrino (not cold-cold, but cold enough for a $25 fridge!) and I’m listening to the thunderstorm outside—surreal. New York is nothing if not intense! Thunder so sudden and so violent that twice I wanted to bolt out of my room like a little rabbit and huddle with anyone else that might be in the hallway. All of a sudden, I was four years old again.
Today was extraordinarily boring; had lectures from IT, and the reference librarian (a little Russian lady with an accent so thick you could eat it with a fork.) I was glad I did a semester of information architecture/information management at SJSU, because I was able to catch all the little Boolean search operations she was doing—I wonder if anyone else caught it…but as I looked around, most folks were making to do lists, reading the assigned reading we were to have done before arrival, or looking up stuff on their PDAs.
Then we took our New York state required child abuse certificate course—that was rough. I got choked up and wanted to leave crying when I saw some of the pictures—what really got me wasn’t so much the wounds, it was the sad little expressions on all their faces—childhood should be fun, childhood should be carefree, childhood should be innocence…these faces were telling stories of pain. I felt my eyes well up with tears and I wanted to leave the room, but thought that people might think I wasn’t cut out for this program. So I sucked it up.
Then, there was a BBQ in our honor—and I made the mistake of nursing my first beer, because when I went back for a second one, they were all out. The wait staff spoke no English, so as with most of this part of town, I had to rely on my Spanish. I even heard two Asian guys yesterday on the street talking about “una negrita” (a dark skinned girl”) all in Spanish!
There was a DJ and he played Sinatra and Dino to start out, and ended up playing the Ramones at the end. The last song was “Let’s Go!” so we took it as a clue to go and walked back to the dorms en masse. Actually, the song reminded me of my physics prof, who was playing it in his office when I went in to say goodbye. That and “Lobotomy.” So, I said this and everyone thinks I’m some kind of freak for thinking my physics prof is some kind of cool guy—LOL.
Let me dedicate some time to the friends I’ve made so far.
Arik (you and I would have said “AH Rick”, but it’s pronounced “Eric”) is the first person I met here—a very cool dude, funny, smart, and from the Bay Area. So far, we seem to always find each other when it’s time to sit down and eat, or stand around and wait—two things we’ve done a lot of here.
Shannon is another ETP anesthetist (there are only five of us!) he’s a former chemical engineer, very bright, very genteel.
Rebecca is “the other architect” and we had been hearing about each other for two days, and today at the barbeque she finally found me and sat next to me. I had been scanning the room looking for her because someone had pointed her out to me during the orientation but I wasn’t able to see her any time we were out of orientation. When we laid eyes on each other we hugged and greeted each other like we had been old friends—funny how a career in common (and the leaving of it!) brings people together!
Juliet is also from San Fran, and a very quick-witted gal. Angela, (I forget from where) and David, from Seattle are awesome. Hugh, from NY, NY (hilarious, and a roller derby enthusiast of recent discovery) Katie from Petaluma/Marin is super funny as well, and witty—in all, I can’t tell you how many bright, intimidating, funny and dedicated students there are here—I’m honored to be in their midst! It’s quite a different experience to community college where people don’t know what’s due, when, have to ask the professor things that are on the syllabus—not just once, oh no…several times.
Here they have thrown us very little info, and they occupy all our time, so getting anything done is quite a feat. I know I have books I have to get, but I have no idea where to get them—must do this tomorrow—all I know is that it’s a store on Broadway, next to a barbeque place—thanks! That should narrow it down! (no spoon feeding or coddling here!)
There’s Eric, who’s in-laws are from Buenos Aires, Gil, whom I emailed after getting his contact info from Judy Wolfe one of the times I called in a near panic attack (“am I REALLY going to come out of the ETP anesthesia program capable and competent enough to work as an anesthetist!?”) so she told me to contact Gil, who’s a former Lawyer, and he’s just finishing his first year now, and is heading off to ICU experience for one year (where I will be a year from now!)(Heh...we hope!)
Oh, and hey—I went up to the eleventh floor lounge and discovered we have a billiard table—so there will be much practicing before returning home to take up my smack-talking physics prof’s invite to “continue getting schooled, this time in billiards.”
Nice—it’s going to take some time ‘til I can get my skills back (as if! I’m not 15 anymore!) But at least I won’t totally get my clock cleaned. What was I thinking? playing pool with my physics prof? Someone who eats, sleeps and speaks in math? Am I nuts?Should be fun, though.
I bought some post card rate stamps today (after finally registering!) They looked lonely in their little machine, waiting around for someone to rescue them. Maybe I’m the lonely one, wishing that I had someone to send post cards to. There’s George, and my in-laws, my niece and nephew… possibly Dr. Reyes and Dr. Hansen (since I didn’t get a chance to say g’bye.)
I’d like to have a chance to run all the errands I have got to, let alone do things like find some postcards and write them! I have to pick up my books some time soon—(400 bucks for JUST this semester!!!) and I need to go endorse my Sallie Mae loan check, and find out what the hell is going on with my local internet connection—still no access! I have to find out about the Columbia ID and the Presbyterian hospital ID badge because I need them for getting in and out of buildings, thru checkpoints, onto the free shuttle that takes us to the Morningside campus…
Just as I was writing this, there were three pop sounds outside—sounded a bit like gunfire. Out my window, though I am on the 4th floor, the building is much higher on the side my room is on, so I’m probably more like 20 stories up.
I wonder what sort of group activity will go on this weekend—surely someone’s going to be going somewhere to do something—I hope I can find a small group to go chill with for at least one evening, because we’re headed for a rough semester starting next week.
posted by sketchmonkey @ 4:14 PM
2 Comments:
Very best site. Keep working. Will return in the near future.
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Nice! Where you get this guestbook? I want the same script.. Awesome content. thankyou.
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