Orientation

Had orientation yesterday and today...actually tomorrow and friday too. Mostly just met a lot of people. We had to introduce ourselves, which included naming our BS degree and what we like to do for fun and it became pretty entertaining. One guy identified himself as "the oldest guy" there and he was a competitive cyclist. So when it was my turn, I mentioned that I was also a cyclist but not a competitive one so I would probably get dropped by the "old guy" if I went cycling with him. That got a few laughs. A bunch of people just played off of other people's responses. For example, one girl mentioned that she liked cooking but burns most of her stuff. Well later on this guy gets up and says he likes to cook too but HIS efforts resulted in "deliciousness" instead of burntness.

Most people also mentioned drinking beer as their favorite activity as well as being a fan of some sports club or another. Some people were original, for example, most of the kids there were understandably nervous so what do they do? They looked at the list of students that were given to all of us as they spoke (we went in alphabetical order based on that list). This guy gets up and says that he liked how everyone seemed to forget their names and had to read it from the list...ok you had to be there. Then the very next guy gets up and sort of falters, pretending he forgot his name. That got a few laughs.

One girl was actually getting married this Saturday. Can you believe that? Entering a medical program right after a wedding, that's tough. The academic in charge advised "No Honeymoon" (classes start next monday). There were actually a lot of people who were married and they were fairly young. The old guy is about 35 and he was married too.

About the program, they actually attempt to help you a lot if you're having trouble. For example, one year they had a student that didn't do so well and they recommended that he take a year off and try again next year and they would hold his seat. He did when he came back he kicked butt. Then there are the remediation exams, in case you fail your actual exams with a D. Passing the remediation exam lets you get off with a passing C.

The course load will be about 70% of the medical school's load and we are graded only against the medical school people. The other 30% are for classes such as Gross Anatomy, which takes up a lot of time and costs a lot of money to procure a cadaver. Unfortunately, I don't get to dig into a cadaver until at least next year.

I'm sort of excited for it. It's gonna get busy again with studying. Not so excited about the high pressure sales tactics...I mean exams.

Also today I went cycling with a new friend from school. We rode out to Manayunk which is a small trendy town where most of the shops are along Main St. That was fun, except it was hot and I didn't drink enough water. We also found this road called the Wall, where it got pretty steep but not very long. That was fun too, I almost died, that is I got tempted to dismount and walk it up the hill, which is a cardinal sin in cycling...very much frowned upon. Coming back we rode along the Schuylkill (pronounced schoolkill) river and that was scenic. I'll take pics next time.