Philadelphia, part 2

Unfortunately, the majority of my day yesterday was taken up by my exam. I woke up at 5:30 am and tried not to think about how it was really 2:30 back home. The exam went well enough, orientation videos and registration took almost 2 hours in itself. Most of the cases were pretty clear cut—I think my greatest problem was probably with the first patient I saw. The case itself wasn’t bad, I just hadn’t gotten into the swing of things yet, and was nowhere near finished writing my note when time was called. I have heard that they only evaluate 10 out of the 12 cases, so hopefully that one will be dropped. Since it is pass/fail, I feel pretty good about the whole thing. My school just requires us to have taken the exam prior to graduation, but passing it is a requirement for licensure.

After the exam I drove downtown. When I woke up yesterday, it was raining, and it still hasn’t stopped. Traffic was extra slow, in an already busy part of town overcrowded with tourists. I had downloaded a walking tour for my iPod before arriving in Philadelphia, and despite it being rainy and 47^o, I went ahead and did it anyway since my only other option was to get up super early and attempt it in the morning. Luck was on my side, as I diverted from the tour route to duck in to the Liberty Bell Center, and was able to see the bell 15 minutes before they closed!

I have never downloaded a tour onto my iPod before, and I think it was a nice option because I was able to get around at my own pace, without having to return to turn in equipment. Cost was approximately $15.

However, by the end of the walk my jeans were completely soaked through, as were my poor socks and sneakers. Luckily I was carrying a leather messenger bag, and cows are waterproof, so the bulk of my stuff stayed dry. Note to self: the umbrella was smart, but next time extra socks and shoes if you’re going to walk around in the rain.

After the walk, it was off to The Franklin Institute where I had tickets to a Body Worlds exhibit and an IMAX movie on the human body. Body Worlds was excellent (unfortunately, no pictures allowed). The dissections were truly amazing and somewhat humbling compared to the work we did during first year. They did not give any information about the donors, but I was kind of curious about that, since most of the bodies had excellent musculature and seemed to have come from younger persons. There were a couple of animals on display as well, shown completely by the outline of their blood vessels. My only complaint was that the exhibit was clearly male-dominated, with probably about 80% of the bodies being male. It was funny though, that uh, genitalia was either dissected and arranged to flow with the motion of the exhibit, or simply whacked off. There were also many thin slices on display, but after looking at so many CT images and textbooks, it was hard to remind myself that they were real.

Although I finished my night at 10:30, it wasn’t until almost midnight that I returned to my hotel. It was only 10 miles away, but between the crazy weekend traffic, and the rain, I ended up all disoriented and turned around. It was impossible to make out any of the lane lines in the road. I never did quite adjust to the time change and ended up having dinner at Dunkin Donuts at about 11:00 pm. My next workout is going to suck.

This morning, I woke up completely exhausted, and though I would have liked to walk around downtown for a few more hours—there are several statues I would have liked to have seen, the rain dissuaded me. I also didn’t get to the Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art—apparently Rocky ran up those steps (I don’t know, I never saw any of those movies.)

So there you have it, my haphazard mini-vacation. I don’t know that I will seek out a trip to Philadelphia anytime soon, but there’s certainly much more to do!