It's Sunday, and I'm sitting in Parque Roosevelt with Jeff, laying on a couple blankets in the cool, breezy shade. We thought there would be a yoga class but apparently they’re not meeting this week, so instead we’re admiring the birds and watching kids play, talking about adulthood. At one point two little ones hurried past us with sticks pointing at a tree and jumping up and down while shouting “un ardilla!” Because squirrels are so rare here, a sighting generates much excitement. Meanwhile, a pair of tiny dogs walked by with hats on, one of them with a dazzling, glittery NY Yankees symbol - I guess they need sun protection too :p Between the yoga classes and the foofy pups, you can probably get sense that this park is located in an upper-class neighborhood. Afterwards we wandered around unsuccessfully looking for a low-key place to eat, and decided to head home, feeling somewhat defeated. Luckily we spotted a new-to-us ceviche stand in our neighborhood, which by itself made the outing worth it.
Ever since my friends matched to residency programs a couple of weeks ago, I’ve continued to think about where Em and I might end up, trying to imagine myself in a big city like Chicago or Philly where there are a lot of potential programs for us to apply to and give ourselves a high chance of being invited to interview in the same place. Em just made it halfway through a tough internal med rotation, which is exhausting for most people - certainly was for me. I'd been hesitating because of immigration issues, but I decided to book a flight to Rochester to visit at the end of April, which gives us both something exciting to look forward to and hopefully make the last stretch of time apart easier.
At Dos de Mayo, I finally recruited a couple patients to the HIV study, which felt like a big accomplishment. I’m glad to have the opportunity to interact with patients independently in this context. Sometimes I forget how privileged I am as a med student to get to know people in vulnerable moments. While I certainly get nervous, I’m proud that I can pretty competently interview and examine a patient on my own in Spanish. I connected particularly well with one of the people I met who struck me as such a kind, gentle soul with lots of reciprocal love for his family. I’ve also connected more with the residents in the infectious disease unit when there has been downtime for casual conversation, and now I feel more like one of the gang. Overall, it’s nice to have a more consistent established schedule to stick to these last few weeks, while getting time to work independently and still enjoy lots of free time to relax or have fun.
Yesterday we were hosting a friend from Rochester and we made brunch before showing her around our neighborhood and then heading to the beach to surf. The waves were too mighty for me this time, and I ended up getting knocked around a lot without doing much actual surfing. But it was still satisfyingly tiring. We also went to a hip food and drinks area on Friday, where we enjoyed some craft beers and people watched. Even though we’ve told ourselves we aren’t going to be stingy, we’ve still tended to stay home or side with the more simple places, so this was an unusually luxurious outing for us frugal souls.
Comments
Post a Comment