Suddenly I see

That line from the latest KT Tunstall song keeps coming back to me when I'm in anatomy lab.

So school is in full swing, and ... I think I'm going to like it here. Don't get me wrong -- there's plenty to gripe about (the administration at Columbia is infamous) -- but I've met some awesome ppl who I think I'm going to like learning & working with. I guess I'll start off with the bad news.

The organization here is terrible. The latest in a string of examples: the hot water in the entire building was out yesterday. The interruption was only supposed to affect the tower next to us, but it wound up over here, too, and they didn't tell us. On top of that, it was supposed to be fixed by 5 pm yesterday, but it wasn't. A lot of ppl (myself included) were taking cold showers after anatomy lab yesterday. The hot water didn't come back until just now, nearly a day later. ::Shakes head::

One good thing to emerge from the chaos is the built-in solidarity not just within my class, but with the classes ahead of us as well. Med school has often been compared to drinking from a fire hose with respect to the volume of information we're expected to take in, but so many upperclassmen have come forward with advice on how to learn & integrate the stuff we're taught. (Their number one pearl: "Don't cram anatomy.") Besides that, there's a whole club dedicated to helping us first years with our classes. It's called the Student Success Network, and it's made up of second years who have just been where we are now. They hold review sessions and mock lab practicals for us around exam time.

Living in New York is a trip, too. Honestly, half the time I don't even remember I'm living in New York b/c we're so far uptown. I haven't been south of 72nd street in almost 2 weeks. But when I read the NYTimes now, I feel more connected to the headlines pertaining to the city. There was an article in this week's Sunday Magazine about Mayor Bloomberg's plans for developing Lower Manhattan, and I took the time to read it b/c for the first time I actually cared.

I like how close & (relatively) convenient everything is. After being a hard-core commuter for 4 years, I'm loving how all of my classes are a 5-10 min walk away, how the grocery store is also a 5-min walk away, how the gym is in the basement. Certainly there's a price to be paid for such convenience. I'm already starting to think about housing for next year ... renewing my contract in Bard might not be such a bad idea, w/the housing crunch in the Tower apartments. And prices in the city are generally inflated. After paying $1.99/lb for spinach (and that's considered cheap), I'm sorely missing the dirt cheap produce at the Asian Food Market. :/

I can't sincerely say that I love New York yet, but I'm ::not disliking:: it more and more, if that makes any sense.