Done with interviews! Part 3

If you've actually read parts 1 and 2 of this series, congratulations; you're more of a glutton for punishment than I would have thought. But never fear, we're almost to the end!

Date: January 7, 2009
Program: Temple
Social Event: Happy hour at Penang, a Malaysian restaurant in Chinatown. When I was younger and we lived in Princeton, we would go to Edison, NJ, to the original Penang. It's a great restaurant, and I've never been to the Philly one, which opened about 5 or so years ago. But wait! Some quick Googling just now turned up the fact that they are different restaurants, but with very similar logos. This is the one I used to go to in Edison, which also has a location in Princeton and Bethesda. And this is the one in Philly. Regardless, what I actually need to tell you is that I didn't make it to the dinner, because the bad weather in Philly prevented my flight from leaving Chicago on time. I was actually pretty happy, as you might remember, although I was sad to miss out on the Malaysian food.
Breakfast: More pastries, including muffins and donuts.
Lunch: Wraps, potato chips, soda, and delicious brownies. This lunch was notable for the fact that as I was surveying the wraps, the vegetarian one all of a sudden looked extremely delicious, and I chose it. This is notable because, although I love vegetables, I am first and foremost a meat eater, and I always always always reach for meat when I'm out of the house. In the case of sandwiches, I first lean to roast beef, then to turkey. But this time, those grilled zucchini were calling my name, and they were really good. Afterward, I had a turkey wrap to top it off.
Where I stayed: Marjorie's apartment, for the last time of the season. She and her roommate were both gone.
How I got there: Southwest to Philly. I haven't flown Southwest to Philly too much, because from Louisville you have to stop in Chicago (whereas US Air and Continental both go nonstop from Louisville to Philly); I usually save Southwest for flying nonstop to BWI from Louisville. However, this time it was cheaper, and I decided I didn't care that it was going to take me an entire day to get from one city to the next, and it ended up working out for me, since I got stuck in Chicago and missed the social event.
Other notable events: I ran into Matthew, from the Drexel and Sinai interviews, again, and he gave me a ride back to Marjorie's apartment at the end of the day so I wouldn't have to ride the subway and walk in the rain; also, we discovered that we would be interviewing at GW together in two days! I had dinner with Duc at St. Stephen's Green and I had a really good chicken quesadilla that had great spicy poblano peppers in them. That night was notable because I had nothing to do -- no social events or pre-interview dinners -- and got to watch Top Chef and relax. At the end of the night, I got ready to take a shower, and a series of events unfolded that involved my legs suddenly breaking out in crazy hives. I popped some Benadryl, hopped quickly into the shower, and started freaking out because the hives were spreading up and down my legs (but not anywhere else on my body). I couldn't figure out what had caused it, but dug around Marjorie's medicine closet for some Benadryl cream, went to bed still slightly itchy, and woke up totally normal. The pattern made it seem like it was a contact dermatitis, but the only thing that had contacted my legs were my pantyhose from earlier in the day and my jeans, which I had been wearing for hours already by the time the rash started. Two days later, when rehashing it all to Eric yet again, it finally hit me: When I was getting ready to take the shower, I took off my jeans, then started absentmindedly scratching my legs while gathering up my toiletries from around the apartment. I still had poblano residue under my fingernails, so in the five minutes I was scratching, I deposited all that pepper oil onto my skin. The funny thing was, when I finally figured it out, I suddenly flashed back to a memory of me sniffing my fingers before taking a shower, and thinking that they still smelled (in a good way) of quesadilla. So there's a lesson for you: wash your hands before you scratch anything, and always after eating spicy peppers.
Cost of interview: $189, for the flight to Philly, WiFi in Midway Airport (hey, I was bored), and a couple of cab rides.

Date: January 9, 2009
Program: George Washington
Social Event: TGI Friday's by GW. Potato skins, crudite, and wings -- the usual. Of note, the program director was at the social, and was very social! I don't think that happened at any other interview dinner.
Breakfast: I grabbed breakfast from the hotel (banana, yogurt, coffee), and grabbed a croissant from the platter of pastries at the interview. Later in the morning, while we were waiting around for our actual interviews, there was another spread put out, including cheese (which I sat right next to), crackers, brownies, cookies, and more crudite. I ate more cheese that morning than I have in a while. But how could I resist -- they had babybels and laughing cow cheese in addition to the usual cheddar and swiss.
Lunch: They bussed us out to INOVA Fairfax hospital, where the residents do a significant number of rotations, and fed us lunch there. Lunch was weird: salad (fine), some sort of mystery meat that looked like stir-fried beef, but nothing else that resembled Chinese food, like rice; then there were some roasted potatoes. It was an odd combo. However, they did have fruit salad and really good cheesecake. On the downside, though: diet sodas only. Seriously, what is up with offering only diet sodas!?!!?? Are you assuming that's the only thing people drink (obviously not true)? Or are you insinuating that I should be drinking it (in which case, I take offense and get huffy!)? I hate hate hate diet soda. Yes, I fully realize that regular soda is full of empty calories, but I don't drink a lot of it, I only drink Coke for the caffeine, and I make up for it by limiting my calories in other ways (not that I've given you any evidence of this...). So that's my gripe about programs that only serve diet soda. Given how good breakfast and the snacks were, it was disappointing that lunch was so bad.
Where I stayed: Residence Inn on Vermont Avenue, just north of the White House. Driving around DC made me remember how much I love DC. Yeah, Philly's nice, but I really really love DC. Sigh. The Residence Inn was nice, although they only had wired, not wireless internet, but they did provide ethernet cords, thank goodness. The bed was really comfortable, but the towels were thin, scratchy, and small. There were tons of choices for breakfast, but I was rushing out and could only grab a banana and yogurt. Of course, the whole point of the Residence Inn is that it's for extended stay guests, so there's a kitchen and all that in the room, but I didn't need any of that. I got a good price for it on Priceline, though!
How I got there: Rented a car from Philly, and drove back to NJ for the night after the interview was over.
Other notable events: This interview was memorable because I didn't know I was going to have it until the last minute. I was supposed to interview at Abington on this day, and for a variety of reasons, I really didn't want to go, but was forcing myself to. GW was the only program I had heard nothing from (at least Hopkins and Pitt were nice enough to let me know I was rejected), and I assumed they were just too rude to inform me of my status. However, two days before Christmas, I got an email from GW inviting me for an interview on January 9! I accepted without hesitation and in the next breath sent an email to Abington to cancel. It was good, because I still had my crappy Temple interview to go to, but I was re-energized for January. (And don't worry, I wrote on my anoymous feedback form that they should tell people who are on the wait list that they are on the wait list so they don't wonder.) At the interview I saw Matthew again, as I knew I would. Saw another girl from Penn State who I had met before at Christiana. Saw another girl from Wayne State who I had met before at Christiana. And saw another girl from a Carribean med school who I had met before at Einstein. And so ended my six degrees of Kevin Bacon interview season experiment. I interviewed with Matthew 4 times, which was the most of anyone. I interviewed with Beth from Jefferson three weeks in a row, which was a lot of fun. I interviewed with Lisa from Penn State three times as well, and with a bunch of people twice. And a lot of people were concentrating in the same area as I did -- a lot of east coasters, and a lot of Philly and DC people. I didn't interview in NY at all, or I would have intersected with another whole set of applicants, I'm sure. I'm really sure I'm going to end up with co-interns who I met on the interview trail, and I'm excited to see who they turn out to be! Everyone I met was, for the most part, really nice and cool and smart. There was only one person I can identify who I would dread working with -- he goes to Johns Hopkins and I ran into him at both Maryland and Pennsy. He's an ass, for sure, but he's the only bad apple I met all season.
Cost of interview: $292, for a rental car to DC, Pricelining the Residence Inn on Vermont Avenue for $80, and the flight back to Louisville.


So there you have it. Ob/Gyn interview season 2008-2009, completed. I can't share my favorites with you yet, because it would be really embarrassing if I didn't match at any of them, but I hope you've enjoyed reading what I can share with you at this point. I'm the first person I know (who's not doing the military match, at least, which already had its match) to be done with interviews -- as of Friday, most people had 1 or 2 more to go. On the down side, I started in mid-October, whereas most people start in mid-November. On the up side, I am now DONE, whereas internal medicine goes well through the rest of January, and ER goes through February.

Now I just need to make my rank list, reconcile it with Eric's rank list, and submit at the end of February. Pretty soon I'll go over the rank algorithm with you -- it's pretty interesting, and mind-boggling to think of a computer running through the algorithm for every residency applicant in the country! For now, it's relaxation time and working -- but not too hard -- on internal medicine.