Thursday & Friday were the first two days of orientation at school. The first day consisted of welcome addresses from the faculty, lunch, and some administrative things.
During lunch, they did a little exercise that gave us kind of a visual of the demographics of our class. When they gave a certain characteristic such as "you have at least one parent who is a physician," they asked us to stand if it applied to us. They asked us questions like "who speaks one foreign language fluently?" "Two?" "Three?" I think one person spoke 3 languages. I'm jealous. The speaker said that last year they had gotten up to 5 foreign languages! I found out I'm going to class with at least a dozen people who have been to 15 or more countries, and a good handful that have been to all the continents except Antarctica. I'm both jealous and impressed!
In the evening, the sophomore student council held an ice-breaker activity and scavenger hunt. One of the girls in my group went to Harvard for undergrad. I felt almost "star-struck," because she was the first one I had ever met. I think it's pretty cool that my career path is converging with a Harvard grad right now, and at this point in time we are on an even playing field for the same jobs.
Afterwards we went out to a bar, and there was a pretty good portion of the class there. Introduced myself to dozens of people whose names I almost instantly forgot.
Day two was 3 1/2 hours of sitting in the lecture hall being told to be professional and not to cheat. Apparently research shows that the patient's level of trust and compliance is proportional to the physician's level of professionalism. That's something that I've never thought of before. Not only does my demeanor affect my reputation, but it could also impact whether or not my patients get well based on their level of trust. I definitely left the lecture hall feeling that I need to step up my level of maturity and watch subtle things I may be doing like making facial expressions or comments that create a negative impression of myself.
One thing I wasn't expecting from our morning talks was the dress code. We're expected to look well put-together every day (no sweat pants, ripped jeans, pajamas allowed). The only jeans I've packed so far are reasonably old and scuffed up at the bottom. Looks like I've got an excuse to go clothes shopping! : )
Last night the sophomore class hosted another bar night, and I spent a few hours having awkward get-to-know you conversations (as well as one or two non-awkward ones thankfully).
My overall impression of the school so far is that the people I've met have been very nice and down-to-earth and unintimidating, and that the faculty take our behavior and appearance very seriously.
RSS Feed