Interviews, Part 1!

Well, we've returned home after a week long trip, seemingly around the world!  In 1,813 miles we've traversed: from Daphne to New Orleans and back; Daphne to Starkville, MS for the State game; Starkville to Gadsden, AL; Gadsden to Charleston, SC; Charleston to Augusta, GA; and finally from Augusta back home.  And all in a week!  This trip included interviews at Ochsner (New Orleans), USA (Mobile), Medical Univ of S. Carolina (Charleston), and Georgia Health Sciences University (Augusta).  I don't want to reveal too much information about these, but so far I can tell you I don't yet have a clear #1 choice - probably because I'm just almost halfway through the interview process!

At the State-Bama game.  The Bad Guys won, but we had a good time anyway!

I will say that, while the traveling can be somewhat stressful, the interview process for residency is MUCH easier than interviewing for medical school.  There is really no stress in the interview whatsoever.  You get granted an interview because the program wants you to come there; so the interview is really about seeing whether or not you fit in the program.  Out of all my interviews, the hardest question I've had to answer is "so tell me about what it was like growing up in Gadsden".  I can handle that!

Stuart was able to go with me on all these visits.  He was a great driver/dropper offer/picker upper and really helped me to be more calm.  And obviously to not get lost!  It's also important that he comes since he will be moving wherever we go to as well!  He also gets the fun job of checking out the cities while I'm at my interviews for 7 hours or so.

Unfortunately we didn't get to spend too much time in New Orleans or Augusta, but we did get to hang out a while in Charleston.  This was really by design, since I had never visited there and Stuart told me it was an awesome city.  Well, he was right!  Charleston recently got voted as the #1 tourist destination in the United States, and it's pretty apparent why!  Obviously there's a lot of history there as Charleston (Fort Sumter specifically) was where the first shot of the Civil War was fired.  A ton of the original architecture is still in place and open for touring.  The city is small enough to be walkable, but big enough to provide lots of activities and (most importantly) delicious restaurants!  There's lots of outdoor parks and the city is so dog-friendly they will let you bring your dog into stores and restaurants (provided they aren't attack dogs)!

Here are some pictures we took while roaming around the city.  Enjoy!

The Cooper River Bridge; designed to look like sails on a boat.

USS Yorktown: an aircraft carrier built around WWII and fought in the Battle of Midway, Korea and Vietnam. And a sailboat for size comparison.

Not a good view, but this was our B&B

Carriage Ride!  Yes, we were cheesy tourists, but that's ok!

The Mills House Hotel; where Robert E Lee stayed and could see the battles out in the harbor.

Charleston street with the city's oldest steeple in the background

Closer shot; the only one of Charleston's 128 steeples to survive the Civil War and not have been hit by a cannonball

Hmm ... wouldn't mind living here!

We could call this the "millionaire mile" I guess.  These homes go for around $17 million.

The harbor

Remaining cobblestone street

The Customs Building - where the Deceleration of Independence was first read to Charlestonians.  They actually booed because they knew if they declared independence from Britain that their economy, mainly consisting of exports to Britain, would plummet.