The Missing Months!

Well as promised, I was not very good at keeping up with this blog :( As a quick recap of the past few months of Dan's travels....Dan took 2 trips to DC in April, he spent 2 weeks in Australia in May, and then a week in the UK. He worked on a mine closure project in Australia as well as traveled to Melbourne to a conference! In the UK he did more work on his Net Positive project as well as shot a video for the project!

As for me....I finally graduated from Medical school. We were so blessed to have so many friends and family to celebrate with us!

And we bought a house in Iowa City! We are so excited to close on June 15th! It is walk/bike distance from the hospital which is exactly what we wanted! Plus it is close to the football stadium for Dan (we have season tickets for anyone that wants to come to a game!)

This week I am hanging out in San Diego while Dan is at a conference. We also came to run the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon (see pic for Dan's Rock and Roll mohawk)! We also did some surfing, hung out with friends, went to a Padres game (even though they lost to the Giants) and had some good food! My plans are to get over to Coronado Island to the beach and go to Sea World while I am here!


In July Dan will be making a trip to Uganda and South Africa so hopefully I will have time once residency starts to put up some pics from what should be an amazing trip!

Vail, CO

To get our minds off the upcoming match we decided to take a trip to Vail to do some snowboarding. Well the weather hasn't cooperated to make for good ski conditions with 50-60 degree temps. So we decided to try some new things at Vail. We went to Cinebistro- a dine in movie theater to watch The Lorax in 3D and eat some baked goat cheese that was delicious! (Hence the pic with my 3D glasses on). We also went snowshoeing on Saturday that resulted in us getting lost for 4 hours!!!! We made our way down the slope snowshoe/skateboard style.....with several falls and waist high post holes! I think I lost 15lbs during the day! But don't worry we made it up by eating some terrible for us nachos!! YUM!! And then I woke up with a nice sunburn :) The good news is....it started snowing today! We will finally be able to bust our boards out tomorrow!
Oh and as for the Match, we will be going to Iowa City for residency! Go Hawks!!!

Brisbane and Sydney Australia

Since the internet connection in Australia is not awesome and he has been busy with meetings, I have not been able to talk to Dan as much as I would have liked. We skype and facetime but there is a lot of cutting out usually :( He did send me a couple of pictures from looking out his hotel windows, the first is Brisbane and the second is Sydney. I hope to post more about his trip when he gets back Saturday and we are finally able to chat! I am really starting to miss him!

Countdown Timer to Match Day

Countdown Timer

Dan in Terrigal, Australia

Dan has started his 2 week adventure in Australia. He is doing a "tour" of Australia working on Net Positive "stuff". Obviously I am not exactly sure what his plans are for his trip to Australia but hopefully I'll be able to get a better idea as he visits different areas. But, I do know about his first stop.....Terrigal. When I accompanied him to Australia last February I spent  a lot of time in Terrigal while Dan worked at his company's production plant in Summersby Australia, just a few miles up the coast. He always stays in a really nice condo in Terrigal right on the beach! He sent me a picture of the condo....with tons of windows just to remind me of what I am missing. I love this little beach town! It is not a "touristy" place which I love! I was unable to go with Dan this year because I used all our frequent flier miles on flights to interviews :( Instead I am spending the week in Rapid City with my family!
If you haven't been to Australia I would highly recommend it! It is beautiful :)

Today Dan is hopping on a plane to Brisbane. I am really excited to hear about this area of Australia as this will be his first time there. I will post again about Dan's trips to Brisbane, Melbourne, and some other small towns in Australia.

Dan in London and York, UK

Dan spent this week in the UK. The first few days he spent in York with meetings about Net Positive- Stockholm Environmental Institute, Oxford-Brooks University, and Harvard. York is a very historical place with Old Roman Walls around the city and old Pubs (Dan visited the Black Swan Pub that was built in the 1500s), he also visited the smallest pub (which was apparently smaller than my closet!). Then he went up to London and had a few more meetings. Net Positive is a project he has been working on for the past couple years. They are working on building a tool for medium to small businesses to establish their sustainability strategy around the Net Positive model. Next he will be in Australia for 2 weeks- I am very disappointed I don't get to go this year :( I spent all our airline miles on interviews. This is a picture of London county hall and the London Eye (the Ferris wheel), where Dan stayed.

Phoenix, AZ

Finally I am done with interviews!!!!! I had my last interview in Phoenix. While I loved the program, I had a hard time "pretending" to be interested as this process has been going on sooo long. For every interview they have a dinner the night before where you are asked more than 100 times by every resident if you have any questions....and of course you must have some or you seem disinterested. The next day at the interview, you are again asked 100 times by those interviewing you as well as the residents if you have any questions. I would be happy to never again hear that phrase and I vow to never ask applicants if they have any questions! My favorite interviews were the ones where I talked to the residents about things other than medicine or the program. What I really want to know is how will I get along with the residents, not if they have covered parking!
The best part of the trip was I got to stay with my friends Mel and Dan, their dog Sheldon, and 4 month old Samuel. Samuel was a blast to play with. That is my favorite age, when they are cooing and giggling! He has the cutest giggle! I have included a picture of Samuel in the onsie Kelly and I made for him that says "I just got here and I'm already awesome!"
I had so much fun catching up with them, not to mention the 75 degree weather, and the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in! Thank you so much Miriovsky's. I think I may need an annual winter trip to Arizona if I do not end up in residency there!

Now the waiting begins until March!
PS Mel (as I know your Dan will not read my blog)- Dan is very interested in coming for spring training!!!! His first response was- the Mariners go there!

Dan in NYC

Dan just spent the last few days in NYC. He had a meeting with a professor from Harvard Business School about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and attend a Sustainability Conference. The best part was, he emailed to confirm one of his meetings in NYC, he thought it was scheduled for January 24th, on confirmation was actually scheduled for February 24th. Wow Dan!
He sent me some beautiful pictures of Madison Square Garden where he stayed and the Empire State building.

I am leaving today for Phoenix for my final interview. Finally!!!! The best part is I get to see my friend from high school Mel and her new baby Sam!

Match Process

Dan wanted to know why this website has become about my medical school instead of his travels so I have assured him that the next posts will all be about his travels :) But I would love to spend one blog describing the match process for all my family and friends because it is such a confusing process and very hard to explain....so here is my best shot!

The match process begins in July of a medical student's fourth and final year of medical school. At this time medical students can start entering information into their application on an online server. This is also the time when medical students have to decide which specialty to apply to. Then on September 1 applications can officially be sent to schools. The match website sends or submits the applications out to the different programs (selected by the applicant). Then in October and November the programs send out invitations for interviews. Programs are selective in granting interviews and therefore if an applicant doesn't get an interview they are out of the running for a spot. Medical students can choose to accept or deny these interviews but if they deny an interview, it takes them out of the running. Most of my interviews were in November and December with just a few in January. Interviews are a two day process; the first evening is a reception and the second day will include a tour and the actual interviews. 

The next step in the process is the rank list. Starting in January every student will rank the programs they interviewed with. Then, at the end of February (the 27th at midnight) the rank lists are officially due and must be submitted in the computer system. All programs will also submit a list ranking their candidates by order of preference. The match process is weighed in favor of the applicants in the sense that the match system will look at a student's list and look to their first pick, if their first pick has them ranked within the number of spots they have then they will match there (for example if their program takes six residents and they rank me in the top six then I will match there, if not, then the computer will move onto the next program I ranked). If a program has a student ranked number one but that student has them ranked five, the match process will first see if that student matches with their top four. This is why it is necessary for all applicants to make sure they rank their programs in order of their preference. All of the matching is done electronically or by computer and it tries to match students to their highest ranked program. Hypothetically the more places a student ranks should increase their chances of matching.

Then on March 12th students all across the country will receive an email informing them of whether or not that matched. Then that afternoon the match program will release what programs still have openings so that the students who did not initially match can "scramble match." This scrambling process happens in a matter of days and results in people matching at programs that they didn't apply to, interview with, or rank. This is not the process you want to go through. I know last year there were only 4 open residency spots in ObGyn across the country. This entails calling programs and basically begging them to take you. And if you don't get one of the few open spots available then you must either do a different specialty residency or just do a general rotating year and reapply the next year. 

Then later that week, on March 16th, most schools will host a match day reception where all the students will gather with friends and family. At the reception all students will be handed an envelope which contains their future. They have no idea what it is going to say, it could include any of the umteen (13 for me) programs they rank. And that's it... nine months of applying, interviewing and worrying and you find out where you are going for the next 4 years in an instant. 

If anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them! 
Michelle 

Residency Interviews

For my first blog post I have decided to talk about my path to residency. I am going into Obstetrics and Gynecology and I have done 12 interviews across the country from South Carolina to Seattle. Dan was able to join me on several of my interviews and he even got to take a picture at the big house!

Interviews so far:
University of Nebraska Omaha
Creighton- Omaha
University of Missouri- Kansas City
St. Vincent's- Indianapolis, IN
St. Joseph's- Ann Arbor, MI
Riverside Methodist- Columbus, OH
Greenville Hospital - USC- Greenville, SC
University of Kentucky- Lexington
University of Minnesota- Minneapolis
University of Iowa- Iowa City
University of Washington- Seattle
Medical College of Wisconsin- Milwaukee
PIROG- Phoenix, AZ

I spent a month doing a Gynecologic Oncology rotation at the University of Minnesota where I was able to stay with my good friend from high school Kelly! I had a great time and worked hard.
I then spent a month in Indianapolis doing Urogynecology and Maternal Fetal Medicine.
Finally, I just finished up a month in Seattle doing Maternal Fetal Medicine (high risk OB). Dan came out there with me for the month (actually he drove all the way there). It was so great to be together for a month and be able to experience the city. We stayed with an 81 year old lady who was great to talk with. Her and Dan actually became quite the buddies.
Now we are on our way home. We drove 12hrs to Bozeman where we spent a day snowboarding at Big Sky. This was my first Montana visit and I loved it! The picture below is from our drive through Montana.
Now we are able to spend a few days home with my family in Rapid City. We will drive back to Des Moines on Tuesday and pick up our Franklin at Dan's parents! We can't wait to get home!

I will blog later as to the process of the residency match since it a very confusing process. Match day is March 12th.....then I will find out where on March 16th!