Starting my first rotation

After a long 2 weeks of non-stop orientation, I will be starting my first day on the job tomorrow. Yes, we start rotations on a Saturday. The last Saturday of every month is the day of change-over. And I am starting out on Cardiology. Am a bit worried as I have never done Cardiology as a rotation before in the UK, but it should be a good learning experience. How hard can it be, right? It's either chest pain or shortness of breath. It's either heart attacks or heart failures. Will see how it goes.

In terms of settling in, I haven't been able to properly unpacked yet. The main reason is because the current tenant of the house we are renting only moved out today. I was staying in the basement of the house until now. I didn't really mind it much as I was glad for the company of the current tenants as his wife was an excellent cook and they had 2 very lovely and adorable children who kept us entertained throughout. Furthermore, they are leaving most of their household furnitures, electrical appliances and kitchen utensils to us for a small fee. In the US, majority of houses are unfurnished, unlike the UK. Thus, this helped us tremendously as we did not need to buy anything. I did buy myself a new twin-size bed, though. Namely because I have no use for a queen-size bed.

Also used the time during the orientation period to sort out house-keeping stuff such as opening a bank account, obtaining a social security number and taking the US driving test. I had to take the theory test first and fortunately, I passed with a score of 33/39. Phew! One more mistake and I would have failed. Granted, I didn't even study for it. Just walked in and took the test. Now have to take the practical part but shall postponed it first until I feel confident driving on the other side of the road.

All in all, things look okay for the moment. There is a strong community of Malaysian-Singaporean people here and we often meet-up for cook-outs. And I must say, they are excellent, excellent cooks. My craving for chinese food is easily satisfied during these outings. Yummy!

A new beginning

It's in the early hours of the morning and I am still busy packing. Once again, I am overweight! And for the life of me, I cannot understand why.

I only had 30kg weight limit when I packed for the UK. Now for the US, I have a 46kg weight limit for check-in baggage and an 18kg weight limit for hand carry. And I still am overweight! Argh! This is really frustrating!

It's a long, long flight that I will be taking to arrive at my destination, which involves 4 flights and 5 airports with a total journey time of 30 hours. I will surely miss the non-stop direct flight from KUL-LON that I have been taking for the past 8 years. Luckily, I have a friend who will be starting the same training as me and we will be taking the flight together. As we will be sharing a house together, the time during the long journey will be spent getting to know one another better.

Somehow, the realization that I will be starting my postgraduate medical training in a new country with a completely different medical system, hasn't hit me yet. I think I am taking it as a holiday still. Maybe I am in denial. Maybe I am scared. I don't know.

All I know is that this is something new. Something unknown. An unchartered territory. It will be a struggle, it will be a challenge but it's something different. Am I making the right decision? Was it wise to pack up and leave my training post in a London hospital for an equally excellent, maybe better or worse, training post, in a small town somewhere in the Midwest of USA?

Only time will tell.

However it turns out, no regrets.

Wish me luck!