Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The Adventure Begins: Settling In
First off, I'd like to share some lessons I learned while flying to Alaska:
1. You can almost guarantee a good day of flying when lacrosse is on the plane's tvs.
2. Denver hasn't figured out that you put sugar in sweet tea.
3. If you can manage to get both seats next to you open, it makes it really easy to lay down and sleep.
4. Befriend locals or frequent visitors on the flight for great local advice.
5. Patience is definitely necessary when dealing with an airline that almost sent half of your flights luggage back to Denver.
Considering the sun never really sets here in the summer, it definitely confused my body when it was still light out at 11:30pm. Luckily, I managed to get a little shut eye despite the constant light. I do miss my batcave back home, but I do know Hurley will take good care of it for me while I'm gone.
I've basically spent the first day settling in. Unpacked and organized everything which took much less time than packing (thankfully). We got acquainted with Fred Meyers (aka Alaska's Hyvee), the UAA library, and the trail around a lake across the street. Pretty sure I'll be spending my mornings off journaling lakeside.
We also headed to Elmendorf Air Force Base this morning to get our clearance badges - which was quite an experience. We managed to crack a smile out of the military personnel when we tried to enter the wrong gate and had to U-turn it. Once we received our badges, we headed to the medical center to check out where we'd be for the next month. We were able to meet our preceptor a day early which she said was pretty rare for students to show up early (brownie points?). She also gave us a tour of the pharmacy which is setup pretty differently for a the hospital inpatient/outpatient pharmacies I've seen. Also, we found out we get to sit in on surgeries which will include amputations. It was interesting to see doctors in camo fatigues and boots wearing their white coats. But I think the best part of the morning was finding that we get 3 day weekends to enjoy Alaska - WIN! So we've started planning the places we want to visit and activities we need to budget for.
As for tomorrow, I'm looking forward to my first day of rotations!!!
1. You can almost guarantee a good day of flying when lacrosse is on the plane's tvs.
2. Denver hasn't figured out that you put sugar in sweet tea.
3. If you can manage to get both seats next to you open, it makes it really easy to lay down and sleep.
4. Befriend locals or frequent visitors on the flight for great local advice.
5. Patience is definitely necessary when dealing with an airline that almost sent half of your flights luggage back to Denver.
Considering the sun never really sets here in the summer, it definitely confused my body when it was still light out at 11:30pm. Luckily, I managed to get a little shut eye despite the constant light. I do miss my batcave back home, but I do know Hurley will take good care of it for me while I'm gone.
I've basically spent the first day settling in. Unpacked and organized everything which took much less time than packing (thankfully). We got acquainted with Fred Meyers (aka Alaska's Hyvee), the UAA library, and the trail around a lake across the street. Pretty sure I'll be spending my mornings off journaling lakeside.
We also headed to Elmendorf Air Force Base this morning to get our clearance badges - which was quite an experience. We managed to crack a smile out of the military personnel when we tried to enter the wrong gate and had to U-turn it. Once we received our badges, we headed to the medical center to check out where we'd be for the next month. We were able to meet our preceptor a day early which she said was pretty rare for students to show up early (brownie points?). She also gave us a tour of the pharmacy which is setup pretty differently for a the hospital inpatient/outpatient pharmacies I've seen. Also, we found out we get to sit in on surgeries which will include amputations. It was interesting to see doctors in camo fatigues and boots wearing their white coats. But I think the best part of the morning was finding that we get 3 day weekends to enjoy Alaska - WIN! So we've started planning the places we want to visit and activities we need to budget for.
As for tomorrow, I'm looking forward to my first day of rotations!!!
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