[I had actually written this post two days earlier on December 31st, but without internet access I have had no way of uploading this to blogger. Fortunately, (and coincidentally!), my roommate has a niece living within our apartment complex and I am using the internet from her place at the moment.]
For us WVU PA students these last few days of our break have been somewhat hectic. We're all finally making the move to Pittsburgh and our vehicles are filled to the brim like a car full of clowns. My classmate Prashant was kind to let me use his car as transport for my various boxes and suitcases.
The place that we’ve decided on is called Crane Village. It is located about 15 minutes west of downtown Pittsburgh and has a bus line running through it. The apartment complex was running a special of $100 off per month if you signed on during the winter season. It seems that new applicants must be hard to come by towards the end of the year. I don’t remember what the average apartment goes for in Pittsburgh but for our location, it’s $695 for a 1-bedroom apartment with everything included except for electricity, cable TV and internet. One of the things that attracted us to this place was that gas was free. The heaters in the complex run on gas and with Pittsburgh being much colder than my native California, I wanted to make sure I didn’t become a human popsicle.
In the summer and spring of this year I stayed in Morgantown at my roommate Vickie’s residence. It was very comfortable and non-formal with all of the procedures regarding signing the lease. When going to a larger place like Crane Village all of your ‘t’s must be crossed and all of your ‘i’s dotted. It’s a bit of a hassle because it decreases your flexibility but hopefully it will dissuade troublemakers from moving in as neighbors. As far as signing papers and getting documents ready, moving to Pittsburgh has been very much a test of endurance.
I think that this coming year will be full of excitement. We’ll be working at a wide variety of sites so we’ll meet lots of new people and have plenty of specimens to work on. It’s also a bonus that I’ve got a reliable and knowledgeable friend with me for whenever there’s something school related that I need clarification on. Prashant is already a pathologist from India, so what he teaches me about pathology I’ll have to teach him about all of the other knacks I’ve learned over the years.
The first place that I’ll be rotating through is UPMC Shadyside Hospital’s Tissue Bank. This is a completely new rotation for our PA program, so I am in a special position to experience it before anyone else. I know that tissues left over after grossing are vital for research so I imagine it to be a place with rows and rows of huge freezers full of frozen tissues. After getting settled into our new apartment I hope to drop by Shadyside Hospital on Sunday or Monday to get a sneak peak of what I’ll be doing starting Tuesday. I’m sure everyone is at the edge of their seat to find out what the tissue bank is like, so I’ll make a special blog post about the tissue bank to ease everyone’s trepidation.
