The Smeller's the Fellar!

It's me. I know it now. I'm the one with all the bad luck. I remember traveling to Finland with my mom, it took us about a month to get there and I thought "Wow, never travel with HER again". But last week's adventures in Houston got me wondering if it really was her. After this last trip though, I know it for sure- it's me. If you ever see me walk onto your plane, get up and leave. Rent a car. Hop on a bus. Pedal a bike. Build yourself a blimp and you'd get there faster.

I had an interview in Pennsylvania last week. Lucky for me this time, all the flights were wide, wide open and I had no problem getting on. The adventure started when the captain claimed to smell something "a little funny". They stopped the movie, flickered the lights on and off, and had everyone turn off their laptops, all in attempts to locate a funny smell.

For some reason, turning the lights on and off didn't work and they decided to make a distressed landing in Nashville. The pilot got on the p.a. to explain, "...no big deal, when we land don't worry yourselves about the fire engines that will be lining the runway, they're just going to make sure we're not on fire or anything".

So...we landed. And sure enough, there were firetrucks and ambulances everywhere. EVERYWHERE. We paused on the runway while they all drove around us acting official. At one point something must've happened because all the cars drove about 100 yards away just as fast as they could. I'll admit I was a little worried at this point. Finally the fire engines escorted the plane to the airport and we all got out and waited for information. And waited. And waited. There were rumors we'd be spending the night.

They never did find anything wrong with the plane. After a few hours we all just filed back on and continued our journey. I think it was all a little excessive - turning off all the electrical systems, a quick landing surrounded by fire crews, and hours of waiting just because the co-captain passed a little gas.

Lake Erie College of Medicine. Meh. It was gorgeous out in Pennsylvania, but the city itself felt a bit like Ogden. I didn't know this, but it's actually the biggest medical school in the country. One thing I really liked about it was their progressive curriculum. You can choose from a few different learning "pathways" that might be best suited for you. For example you could sit in lecture just like most schools, or you can choose a "problems based" pathway where you meet with a team of students and a medical case is presented. A member of the faculty guides the team to the appropriate questions and information, and all the students learn the material as it pertains to that particular case by asking questions or researching possible explanations to each case. So for each medical condition that is presented, the problems based students have to figure out the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology in order to grasp what's going on. Kind of a cool idea.

Anyway, I liked the school, in fact, I can't think of a single thing I didn't like about it, but to be honest, nothing really blew my socks off either.


A.T. Stills called me when I was in Nashville: I got accepted. Rocky Vista called me today: I got accepted. I'm 3 for 3. With about 30 applicants for each seat nationwide, we are REALLY lucky to have any acceptances this early. Let alone 3. Goodness.

--Jonathan