philly

We ran away from school for several days to go on an adventure in Philly. (Translation: There was a family med conference in Philly where Scotty wanted to run for VP, I wanted to run for Secretary, Trish had to go since she was the president-elect, and Bethany wanted to come for moral support/the conference in general.)

As president-elect, Trish got a free room and travel reimbursement, so Bethany and I bummed room and board off of her. Scotty offered to drive us since he’s a wonderful human being. He even found us a rainbow along the way! (I’ll hopefully obtain all the pictures Bethany and Trish took at some point, but I guess that’ll go in another post. :O ) I didn’t know any of them all that well before this trip, but Scotty decided to set the tone early–what happens in Philly stays in Philly.

On the way to Philly!

We left after student clinic on Wednesday evening and got there somewhere before midnight. One of the things I was most excited for was the fact that the hotel we were staying at was right next to the Reading Terminal, which is pretty much full of any genre of food you could ever want in your life.

Sleeping quarters for me/Bethany. Trish had the other bed. The room was pretty much as big as Bethany’s entire apartment. No free internet though, because that’d make life too convenient. :'(

Bethany and I went there the next morning and had breakfast at the Dutch Eating Place. Trish joined up with us later, but we had to cut our adventures short to attend the conference, since that was technically the reason why we were allowed to skip school to go to Philly in the first place. :x We listened to a lot of lectures and physician panels on the first day and talked to a bunch of different residency programs. I was rather overjoyed to discover that there are actually at least two dually accredited programs in CA. *-*

We went out to McGillin’s Olde Ale House for dinner on Thursday, which is apparently the oldest bar in the city (and possibly the 5th-oldest bar in the country[?]). It was open mic night and the songs one of the guys came up with were pretty hilarious. Somewhat disturbing, but hilarious.

On Friday, there were a couple more panels/lectures and after lunch, we had a “Shotgun OMT for Family Medicine” lab where we learned different techniques for MSK ailments patients would commonly present with and worked with students from other schools to treat each other.

We also had 4 different hands-on labs (sterile techniques, IUD insertion, joint injections + suturing)!

As of 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, I was running unopposed…but the board exploded the next morning and they had more applicants this year for all the positions that they’d ever had before. (Sigh.) I wrote and delivered pretty much my first speech ever; I had to cut down 2 minutes the morning of the elections since there were so many applicants, so that was all sorts of fun. (In case I never mentioned this before, I’m terrified of public speaking and avoid it whenever possible.) I’m glad I made myself do it though. :]

Scotty said he was really proud of me, that my speech was great (which means even more because he apparently used to be a speech coach) and that he couldn’t tell that I was nervous while I was up there. I didn’t win, which was disappointing in the sense that the people elected this year seem really cool and it would’ve been awesome to have the opportunity to work with them. On the flip side, I’m completely okay with not winning for a variety of reasons:

• A good number of people approached me afterward to tell me they’d voted for me and wished that I’d won (and said that I’d given the best speech [of the candidates I’d been running against]! :)
• Scotty won for VP!
• I was nominated to be the head of one of the committees, so I do get to be more involved with the organization despite having to leave the main campus for rotations next year.
• See below!

Trish is the reason why I was so okay with not getting the position. :O Losing meant that I got to spend the day exploring Philly with her! :] Next year’s conference is in Las Vegas, which I have pretty much no desire to explore, so hopefully I will win next year.

We started up a “Philly wishlist” 2 months ago and packed it with a billion places we wanted to visit. (They were all eateries. All of em’. Other than one spice market, but I’m not sure that really counts because it’s technically still food-related.)

She made me a chocolate care package! :D :D! + got me a cast iron grill pan from Target. My life is complete.

After we located each other in the Reading Terminal, we went to:

• Miller’s Twist (Reading Terminal)
• Beiler’s Bakery (Reading Terminal)
• The Head Nut (Reading Terminal)
• Dim Sum Garden
• Franklin Fountain
• Erawan Thai Cuisine

This means that someday, I need to go back so we can go to the Four Seasons Juice Bar, Green Eggs Cafe, Ishkabibble’s, The Spice Market, and Ho Sai Gai. :O …And let’s be real–probably several more places in the Reading Terminal Market.

We wandered around and saw the Liberty Bell as well as the outside of Independence Hall/Congress Hall/the West Wing.

We also acquired a Martha somewhere along the way! :D! (I haven’t seen either of them since we graduated from UMDNJ.)

Our food adventures in collage form!