The move to Portland

Lake Tahoe, California....2 days before I moved to Portland.

I made it to Portland! Jen drove her car and I drove my car - we left on Monday last week. The drive took a while but it went pretty well. My car was full, packed to the brim, exploding with possessions I have accumulated over the past years. Jen's car was full, too, and I'm so grateful to her for helping me move.
We arrived at night and met my new roommates, who are also my classmates. Anuj and Mark. Really nice guys. The cars were unpacked before long and we had a few beers before retiring for the night.
The following day I had my orientation for the summer observership I signed up for. I had been assigned to a doctor in Cave Junction, Oregon, which is halfway back to California. I deemed it a bit unfair that I would have to drive so far while the some of the other Portland-resident classmates were "stationed" closer, but I tried to be happy for the opportunity to stay with a family practice physician and his family. During the orientation, we did some mock patient interviews and learned a few basic skills for the physical examination. Family docs spoke to us with inspiration and love for their practice.

The next few days were a whirlwind of unpacking, exploring, running errands, and visiting friends and family. My brother and his fiance are on a road trip to Idaho for a wedding and they stopped by on Wednesday to visit Portland. Heather made some new feather earrings (smoobage.etsy.com); she gave pairs to Jen and I. We walked around Portland, went to a happy hour on the 30th floor of a building (cheap apps but expensive drinks!), watched an American-Brazilian samba group, and then hung out at home playing Wii, eating stuffed shells, and drinking. The next day, my best friend from high school came up from Corvallis, and we went over to Hawthorne and later to the Pearl District to try to catch the tail end of "First Thursday". We had a drunken dance party late at night and we all woke up with a bit of a hangover - we had to scratch our plans to go to the Rogue Brewery and the Tillamook cheese factory along the Oregon Coast.

Jen eating a doughnut on the wall at Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland!

Eeek - I found out that my loans didn't quite go through as planned - one big chunk of them was denied due to a delinquency in my credit report (don't worry, I got that part straightened out). I'm going through the appeal process right now....and all I can do is sit back and hope they have enough information to change their mind.....or else I'll be scrambling to pay my rent come September!

After I spent an hour trying to fix my credit, Andrea, Mark, Jen and I bussed downtown (Anuj wasn't feeling too good) to go to "Mother's Bistro", a tasty joint with tasteful new-age colonial decor. Andrea and I shared some banana pancakes and a potato and bacon fritatta - yummmmm.

A few more errands, a movie, some more Mariokart, and packing....and a Friday night of no sleep....but Saturday morning (at 5am) I awoke to prepare for the big drive back down to Cave Junction, OR. I carpooled with 2 of my classmates, Sharen and Dawn. Music and good conversation filled the 5 hour ride down to Talent, the first stop on our journey. Dropped Sharen off, drove back up the I-5 to Merlin, where Dawn's doc resided, and then back down along the 199 to Cave Junction.
Took me about 30 minutes to find my doc's driveway! This was definitely the most rural of all the rural observerships, and I was super excited!