First one down

I had my interview today. It went very well. We spent the morning getting an overview of the program, touring the hospital, going to working and attending rounds, attending morning report and the noon conference. The afternoon consisted of 2 half hour interviews. Both went well. The first was more or less to get a feel for what I was looking for in a program and how I would fit into the culture of the hospital. The second was more focused on my application, but we ended up talking about random things like running and boating. I loved the program and I'm pretty sure that they liked me. I still can't say exactly where I will rank them since I haven't gone anywhere else yet, but I'm fairly certain that they will rank me high enough so that if I rank them #1 or #2 I should get in there.

I was originally concerned about the fact that this is a community hospital rather than a university based hospital. I am planning on doing a fellowship in gastroenterology after residency. This is increasingly becoming a very competitive fellowship. From what I've heard, if you want a competitive fellowship like GI or cards, you need to attend a university based program. This program has actually placed their residents very well into both GI and cards and are great about allowing their interns to start research which is almost unheard of at community hospitals. I really can't rule out this program at all, and after learning about the program and talking to the residents, it may actually be the program to beat.

Tangentially, I left for my interview this morning at 6:55. I never know about traffic in this city, it can be great one day and then horrible the next. I was expecting a 45 minute drive and ended up with a 25 minute drive. Anyway, as I was leaving the apartment, I saw a guy out running in the cold. Usually not something I would notice, except that it was only 6 degrees and the wind was bitter. Windchill was -11. Despite that I actually love living here. Without the wind it is actually very refreshing to step outside into the cold. It could be 0 degrees and still be very nice as long as there is no wind. When it comes down to it, I really love living here.