West Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh
- Why I'm in Pittsburgh
- The atmosphere- dorm room
- The other med students
- West Penn Tavern
I drove down to Pittsburgh on Monday afternoon. I had never driven more than 3 hours at a time by myself and it felt like an accomplishment to drive over 5 hours to get here. I'm at the West Pennsylvania Hospital to finish up the second half of the internal medicine rotation. I'm in Pittsburgh as opposed to Philadelphia because of an unfortunate lottery number. I was dreading coming here. I was going to have to live in dorms and not have access to my own kitchen or bathroom (COMMUNAL!!!) The dorm rooms are drab and although I have my own room, there's much to be desired at the School of Nursing dormitory.
Nevertheless, this is an experience I haven't really had. I was in the suites at Rutgers and we generally didn't have our "doors open" like we do here. The ladies in my hallway are from Temple as well and they are people I don't generally hang out with; it was like meeting freshmen. There was a guy down the hall playing the guitar and students in the lounge chilling out and watching TV. We all have our own schedules but generally reconvene in the evenings to have TV dinners and watch primetime television and argue over sports, entertainment, the latest Britney hairdo, or catch the latest episode of The Office or why on earth America loves or hates Sanjaya.
And as today is Thursday night and as I have tomorrow off (astoundingly like college), I suggested getting a drink at the local tavern. The others readily agreed even though some of the others had an early and busy day tomorrow. I have to admit though most of their responsibilities seemed pretty lax. We walked out together around 8:30pm and hit the first bar in sight.
The West Penn Tavern was the corner bar and looked as though it had come straight from North Philly with us. It was the classic dive bar with cheap drinks, a crazy old jukebox and of course no credit card machine. We LOVED it. It was going to be our Thursday night bar. With Elton John wailing on TV for his 60th (?) birthday celebration, we got together by the video game machine and played a few dozen rousing rounds of erotic photo hunt (pun intended) and some silly word games. By the time 10pm hit, the local hoodlums had shown up pumping up the jukebox to the latest hip hop hit. The white kids and their associates (myself and the asians) felt it was time to adjourn to someone's room and celebrate with terribly cheap champagne. I have to say, being at the bar was admittedly probably the coolest I've been.
As we walked back to the dorm, I felt a sense of comraderie I haven't felt in a long time. And although, at the end of the rotation, we will probably all part our ways and only greet each other at group events, it will be nice to know I had a bond with some of the people at school that I never would usually spend time with. As much trouble as I had dealing with that at the end of every rotation, it's something I've just realized comes with the territory of third year; the fact that transient friends are often and to build long lasting friendships takes several years. And that that's perfectly okay.
- The atmosphere- dorm room
- The other med students
- West Penn Tavern
I drove down to Pittsburgh on Monday afternoon. I had never driven more than 3 hours at a time by myself and it felt like an accomplishment to drive over 5 hours to get here. I'm at the West Pennsylvania Hospital to finish up the second half of the internal medicine rotation. I'm in Pittsburgh as opposed to Philadelphia because of an unfortunate lottery number. I was dreading coming here. I was going to have to live in dorms and not have access to my own kitchen or bathroom (COMMUNAL!!!) The dorm rooms are drab and although I have my own room, there's much to be desired at the School of Nursing dormitory.
Nevertheless, this is an experience I haven't really had. I was in the suites at Rutgers and we generally didn't have our "doors open" like we do here. The ladies in my hallway are from Temple as well and they are people I don't generally hang out with; it was like meeting freshmen. There was a guy down the hall playing the guitar and students in the lounge chilling out and watching TV. We all have our own schedules but generally reconvene in the evenings to have TV dinners and watch primetime television and argue over sports, entertainment, the latest Britney hairdo, or catch the latest episode of The Office or why on earth America loves or hates Sanjaya.
And as today is Thursday night and as I have tomorrow off (astoundingly like college), I suggested getting a drink at the local tavern. The others readily agreed even though some of the others had an early and busy day tomorrow. I have to admit though most of their responsibilities seemed pretty lax. We walked out together around 8:30pm and hit the first bar in sight.
The West Penn Tavern was the corner bar and looked as though it had come straight from North Philly with us. It was the classic dive bar with cheap drinks, a crazy old jukebox and of course no credit card machine. We LOVED it. It was going to be our Thursday night bar. With Elton John wailing on TV for his 60th (?) birthday celebration, we got together by the video game machine and played a few dozen rousing rounds of erotic photo hunt (pun intended) and some silly word games. By the time 10pm hit, the local hoodlums had shown up pumping up the jukebox to the latest hip hop hit. The white kids and their associates (myself and the asians) felt it was time to adjourn to someone's room and celebrate with terribly cheap champagne. I have to say, being at the bar was admittedly probably the coolest I've been.
As we walked back to the dorm, I felt a sense of comraderie I haven't felt in a long time. And although, at the end of the rotation, we will probably all part our ways and only greet each other at group events, it will be nice to know I had a bond with some of the people at school that I never would usually spend time with. As much trouble as I had dealing with that at the end of every rotation, it's something I've just realized comes with the territory of third year; the fact that transient friends are often and to build long lasting friendships takes several years. And that that's perfectly okay.