Fresh starts: a second first attempt

Now that my tumultuous third and fourth years of medical school are now over, I have now moved onto New York - Long Island, not the city - to start the next chapter of my life as a resident. Yesterday was the first day of what may be my last orientation (in the near future), and I met the other 38 excited, yet very scared SCH interns-to-be. I walked into the room, and recognized some faces from Facebook, but none of those that I had already met had yet gotten there. It has been 4 years since I last had to introduce myself to a brand new group of people that I would spend an extended amount of time with, and 7 years since moving to a completely new city, but this somehow felt different. I felt as if these would be the people I would form bonds with that wouldn't be like others - that residency would be like a rite of passage that we are going through together.
As the day went on, we had a line of people parade into the room to tell us how important the work we would be doing would be, and how important it was for us to build trust in our patients, etc, etc. You get the picture. The kinds of things you already know, but almost a sort of pep talk before we actually start doing it for real. But for 8 1/2 hours, interspersed with short meal breaks, even those who were excited became tired. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, having sat in a shirt and tie all day for pictures, which would be the final part of the day. As soon as the cameramen came and started, I happened to be standing near the area where they set up, went first, and got out of the door as soon as I could. Later, I'd learn that one of the program directors actually stopped them because they came too early, and the Child Life department did a presentation about what they do before the cameramen returned for most of the others. At that point, I was sure glad that I had been first, because I, like my colleagues, was exhausted. And this was just the first day of orientation.
So this would be a fresh start for me, a way to wipe clean the slate of the last two exhausting vacationless years, aside from a couple of 3-day weekends. And although my first one won't be until August, I still already feel refreshed, and ready for the hospital, to tackle the challenges that come my way in the next 3 years. And a fresh start to my blog, which I haven't touched since the aforementioned years of medical school. Hopefully a good way that I can keep my medical school, business school, college, high school friends and family members in this busy life.
Today (now, what is yesterday), we didn't start until 1 PM, which was nice, but then had to go through more presentations which were not of much practical use, until about 7 PM when we were recharged with a pizza dinner, and then had some practical workstations for Day 1 of our PALS course. It was very reminiscent of the training that we got during our "bridge week" before starting 3rd year rotations, except this time, we will be assessed and tested on how well we respond in emergency situations. Another exhausting day, as we didn't get out of the hospital until about 10:15 at night. Thankfully, we won't restart until 4 PM today, which may give me time to actually finally sign a lease for a place to live for the next 3 years. Living out of a suitcase is fun for a while, but I imagine that when I am on call every 4th night, or sometimes every 2nd night, it won't be the best thing to come home to.
In other noteworthy events, I was able to take a drive to explore a bit of my new surroundings last night, to get to know some of the surrounding areas while I still actually had some time. I wasn't able to find a great sports bar just yet at which to catch my beloved Philadelphia teams (especially since I am now in rival country), but found some trendy areas with nightspots and restaurants. Not quite NYC, but it will have to do when there is limited time off to actually get out of the hospital and/or home. I was also able to take in a quick lunch with a few of my fellow interns at the nearby Skyline Diner, after the recommendation that we NOT go to our hospital cafeteria. Thankfully, our meal allowance is now money added to our paycheck, so that we are not required to use it there.
I can say with full confidence that I miss the Cleveland places that I've frequented so often in the last seven years, but am very much looking forward to this new start... in all aspects.