In the Land of the Buckeyes

I've moved into my summer home in Columbus OH and had a short, yet full, first two days on the job at the Ohio State University Hospital doing my first unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE).

I am living with my hometown friend Anne and very near my bestest college friend Kristy which brings much excitement to being here for more than a visit. Anne's house is fabulous, where I am living, as is Kristy's apartment, where I will spend much time, and I already anticpate a slightly painful transition back into my seminary "suite." Pushing the young age of 30, I most definately have a taste in my mouth for a place of my own and a real world life. Two fun perks of residing with Anne are Nigel and Wally. Nigel and Wally are the bunnies of the house and sit behind me in their cage as I write, probably still wondering who I am and how long I will be here invading their space. Wally does not like to be touched while Nigel is a little more social, but they are they best of friends for each other. Cute seems too small a word to describe them.

I am finding Columbus itself to be a fine place to live. My most notable observation is that it seems to be a weird, yet pleasant combination of the North and the South. For example, there is Giant Eagle (North) and also Kroger (South)...there is White Castle (North) and also Waffle House (South). Odd, but a nice combination of all the places I have called home on this continent.

And don't let anyone tell you Columbus has traffic. Traffic? You call this traffic? This I repeated to myself as I drove to and from work both yesterday and today. Surely if there was an accident, a traffic jam would occur, but regular "rush hour" not so much. There does seem to be an annoyingly common habit of unnecessary breaking.

With only two days under my belt I am very happy with my choice of CPE placement and my group. There are currently four students including me, with one more hopefully on her way. I am the sole non-Lutheran, non-Trinity Seminary Student for now, but when our fifth member (hopefully) arrives that will no longer be true. We've done lots of orientation activites, begun attempting to learn our way around the enormous hospital systems & hallways, and met the majority of the chaplaincy staff. My unit assignment is general medical and surgical which includes things such as infectious disease, neurology and much more. In addition to a M-F 8:00-4:30 schedule, I will be on-call one night per week and 2 Saturdays, 2 Sundays throughout the summer. This is a very short and sweet summary of the beginning which has been a lot of information thrown my direction and a nice easing in to the program. I look forward to what lies ahead as the summer progresses!