and so it begins.

As it turned out, today's orientation chat was in fact a mere 30 minutes in duration, due in part to the absence of one of the deans (who was settling her daughter in at college...which, actually, is pretty sweet and indicative of good priorities). Additionally, it was very un-fire and brimstone: the admonition that yes, there are grades this year, was followed by an assurance that it is indeed possible for everyone to receive an 'Honors' grade in every class, as there's no curve. The acknowledgment that Boards will be upon us in less than a year's time was alloyed with the assurance that if we take them in June we'll have more than ample time to study, and a gentle chiding that it really is in our best interest to take them then (although our school, strangely, does not require us to take the USMLE; you'd think they'd want everyone to go get liscensed, but whatever) because you're REALLY not going to remember that stuff about the pentose phosphate pathway three years out from biochem. We have to register, or more accurately register TO register, in September. Getting your test date set is apparently a multipartite and esoteric ordeal, which may or may not involve setting up a bank account in the Canary Islands and/or painting the last four digits of your SSN in blood on the carpet of the registrar's office at midnight (bonus: Since this IS a medical school, the blood doesn't have to be your own, as long as you use universal precautions while handling it. As a vegetarian I'm allowed to use beet juice).

The laid-backness of the talk (which did not meet my expectations--but in a good way) was primarily due to the fact that it was Dean K giving it. All our deans are pretty chill, and indeed in all cases nice people that I wouldn't mind having drinks with, but I'll just come out and admit that I think Dean K is the bee's knees. When I've had occasion to deal with her, she's been fantastic. She's unbelievably helpful and grounded; one of those rare people that exudes NICE while also giving the impression that she is exhaustively competent and would not hesistate, if it became necessary, to kick serious ass (which here comes in the guise of the 'professionalism concern form'): in fact, not a bad role model.

The real deal starts tomorrow. Pharmacodynamics. Frankly, I'm a little scared by the sheer quantity of material it looks like we'll be covering in lecture tomorrow. We're in the army now!

Parenthetical remark count: 5