I also needed to do some tight planning as far as a study schedule this semester because I missed school this last Thursday and Friday and because of weather, I am missing tomorrow and possibly Tuesday. Then I was just invited to interview with the Cellular and Molecular Physiology department at JH (For Feb 14 and 15th), so I will be back in San Jose for just a few days before returning here. Then I will be back in school for the middle of the week before flying to Colorado and missing another Thursday and Friday of school (Feb 19,20,21).
So I got into Baltimore after an entire day of flying. On the light rail, I felt very uncomfortable. The people on the light rail didn't have a full set of teeth between the 15 of them. We were driving through some very rough and destitute areas. I was tired as well so my first impression of Baltimore wasn't great. On Friday we had our interviews. There were about 12 other people here to interview with me. We interacted a lot with the graduate students already in the program and they were so friendly and made it clear that although their first year is consumed by school, you do find time for yourself in the following years. That was really important to me, because, although I love research, I don't want to lose myself in the lab.
I interviewed with two professors which were really personable, and a graduate student that informed me since I would be enrolled in school at JH I could take any additional courses I wanted like keeping up with my Spanish. As well, when I was looking at Public Health masters program, I had looked at the School of Public Health here, but it is $50,000 for a one year program and you need to have minimum two years working experience. She told me that many of the PhD students choose to take classes through the school of Public Health. I really feel like I would get a well-rounded education here, and I would be able to combine all my passions instead of just focusing on my PhD work. The graduate student I interviewed with really made me want to take advantage of every single opportunity. Students don't have to write grants, but I really want to work on my grant writing skills and she said my boss would be overjoyed that I had that interest. She said she has to work harder than the other PhD students because she has additional tasks above and beyond her lab work, but it has also resulted in her being able to travel internationally to conferences basically everywhere.
Our whole conversation got me really excited about the school and the program. In addition, being in the hospital (even though it and the school are surrounded by a 10 foot tall fence and armed guards) made me feel like I would be working with the best of the best. The best doctors, the best med students, they have a world class eye institute, the best nurses, and the best researchers.
However, the weather reports said to expect two feet of snow from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, so our interviews were pushed from 9:30-4 to 8:30-noon. Because of this change, my third professor interview was a stand in because my scheduled interviewer didn't make it to work. That was difficult because the new interviewer hadn't read my CV, my personal statement, my recomendation letters, or any of my packet, and he had a meeting. So we just went really quickly over my schooling, but didn't really cover things like why I wanted to be part of the program or my past research experiences.
Then the snow started. We went out to dinner Friday night with just the graduate students and the events for Saturday morning were cancelled. After dinner, a few of us went to a hole in the wall bar with a lot of character. They brew all their own beer there, and the bar was just so unique. At this point I had started coming around to Baltimore. All the graffiti was covered in snow. The hotel is in one of the very nice parts of town, somehow I was able to kind of forget about the more destitute parts I had seen. When returning from the bar, it was apparent that this snow storm was no joke.
I woke up Saturday morning to about 20 inches of snow outside my hotel. Despite the city being comepletely unequipped for snowfall and therefore it completely shut down, the view from my suite was amazing!
I just kept looking at the swells on the side of the road thinking that they used to be cars. These people dug theirs out after a few hours of work! Not only is the city unprepared for snow, the residents don't have shovels or salt or anything to take care of the sidewalks or dig out cars.
So instead of leaving Sunday morning, my flight was rescheduled for Sunday night.... then Monday at 3pm, then Tuesday at 3pm. I cannot miss that much school! I got on the phone and yelled at the airline and the final verdict is that I will be taking a train to Philadelphia and flying out from there on Monday at 3pm. I was supposed to make it back Sunday at 5 and now I'll be back Monday at midnight. In addition, since the JH Saturday activities got cancelled, I've essentially been stuck in my hotel room alone for 2.5 days. I'm going stir crazy.
Today I went out walking. Unfortunately, as mentioned, none of the roads are plowed, none of the sidewalks are scraped. I thought I'd overpacked when I brought 7 outfits for two days. It turns out that wasn't a bad idea. One thing I didn't pack was real shoes. I got here with some flats and a pair of heels. Not quite suitable for the 25 inches of snow we've had total. Considering the weather reports were right and it only snowed for 24 hours, over two feet of snow was ridiculous. On my walk, moreso than ever, I really started picturing myself here.
