It has Begun!!!!

Hello All!
Things have been rather hectic since I last wrote. I have since moved to Portland and begun medical school! I started this last Monday (the 15th) and have been going through orientation activities since. I do not yet have internet at my apartment, I am still waiting for the internet peeps to arrange a time to come out to my apartment to set things up. Apparently I am incapable of doing so myself (though, they never really let me try, I was just told they were going to set it up).

This week has been fun and tiring all at the same time. I have orientation everyday for about 7-8 hours...I did not know I could be oriented on so much stuff in a given week. I have listened to 75% of it and retained maybe 1/3 of that :). One thing I do remember is this...in one of my courses, the Biological Basis of Disease, my class will go through 6,000+ power point slides, 1,000+ pages of lecture notes and seven different textbooks...all in 10 weeks. That does not sound like fun...at all...but I am remaining optimistic that it will be fun indeed.

My classmates are all super cool. The average age of my class is 26, with about 26% of my class being married. Consequently, most people are pretty laid back. We have 128 students in the class of 2015. I know maybe 60 of them???

On Friday, I will be cloaked with my white clinical lab coat and the school will make the dangerous assumption that I am ready to begin the steps towards becoming an excellent (their word choice, not mine) clinician. I think the publicity of the white coat ceremony is not only to allow our friends and family to join with us in the celebration of the start of medical school, but also to secretly tell us students, in front of 800 people "Don't make us look bad." I hope I do not do so, but at this point I can make no guarantees...only with an exasperated sigh will I say "I will do my best."

Well, this is about it for now. I will post more once I have internet functioning in my apartment. Also, I would like to apologize in advance to all of my family and friends for my coming disappearance. School is going to take a lot of time, and consequently, I may not have time to hang out with all of you at the drop of a hat. Actually, I won't have the time. So if I disappear, and you don't hear from me in months, assume that I am hunched over a desk, coffee in one hand, highlighter in another and my nose in Clinically Oriented Anatomy! Cheers!

Mark