Back to Class

It's shocking to us how tiring it is to be back in classes for hours at a time. Some folks are here for 9 hours of class per day, no breaks. Gah.

After 2 hours, I fuzz out and have a difficult time concentrating on what is going on at the front of the class room. For example, right now I am in class. Half the class is reading the newspaper (on their laptops or paper versions), the rest are sometimes paying attention to the lecturer.

The OSCE last night went well enough. One of the downsides of being involved as heavily as I am in curriculum and the medical community, is that my examiners were all people I know from outside class. It's one thing to humiliate yourself in front of strangers, but another all together to do so in front of people you have been working with as a colleague for four years.

This morning I had my first residency interview. One of the out of province schools came to us to interview which is wonderful. I get to save money on a flight out there to apply, though, I have dumped all my out of province offers. Applying in the first place was terrifying and I was sure that I would be the person in the class who didn't get to match because I let the interviewing committee know that I'm just an impostor and don't really deserve to be here. Then I got interviews everywhere I applied. Not everyone did though so I realised that I really was a competitive candidate.

I've decided to save my money from the flights and go south on a cheap vacation while the rest of the class continues their interview tour around the country. This had the dangerous effect of making me feel *too* comfortable in my interview and talking quite loosely rather than following any sort of clear plan when answering questions. I hope I'll stay competitive anyway.

I feel a strong draw to the oceans of the Maritime provinces. There's something magical about practising medicine on the coast. The hospitals in the small communities are run by family doctors with other specialities acting as consultants only. This seems like real medicine to me. Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman real medicine. I would be able to learn an enormous amount of medicine in the short two year residency.

When the rank list is due, I'm going to have a very difficult time choosing how to rank my choices.