When you see the Arch, you know you're there

This past Monday, I drove down to St. Louis to get a taste of the city and Saint Louis Medical School. The drive took about five hours. I saw a wind farm and a lot of corn, some cows, and I think I heard the Nelly song "Just a Dream" approximately 38 times. And one other thing: GPS navigation was invented for people like me.

When I arrived at Kim's place, I took the official tour and was introduced to her cats: Louis and Luna. Luna is Noir-esque in both look and personality: black and shy. Louis, on the other hand, tried to climb on top of me when he saw me. I didn't see it personally, but I bet he meows at the mailman. That night, we had dinner in the Central West End of St. Louis at a restaurant called Pi. We had deep dish pizza, which was similar to Chicago-style with a little St. Louis flair. After that, we drove around downtown St. Louis for a little while. We saw the Arch up close, Busch stadium, the St. Louis stars, and a Chuck Berry-themed restaurant/bar with an Ebay-worthy number of collectibles of anything from baseball cards to a toy version of the band No Doubt. Kim and I also discovered the St. Louis University newspaper, which somehow Kim had neglected all this time...

When we got back, I met Kim's roommates Bethany and Chris. Both were very nice and wished me luck for my interview the next day. After that, we all went to bed because we were getting up early in the morning for class.

The next morning, I had my first ever medical school lecture (although not as an official student yet). I felt a little awkward sitting there in my suit while everyone else had jeans and sweatshirts, but a little class never hurt anybody. The anatomy lecture went through the cross-sections of the lower leg with a professor named Organ (I am not making that up, trust me). After the lecture was finished, Kim went to anatomy lab, and I endured what was to be the most difficult part of my day- trying to find the library. Eventually, I found it, and I think after that I was pretty familiar with most of the main medical school building.

After another anatomy lecture, this time about lower body joint anatomy, I joined up with the other applicants (there were about 20 of us), and we toured the school for about an hour. We saw the student lounge, the hospital, the library, some nice auditoriums, the simulation center, the standardized patient room, and the histology lab. Then came lunch with applicants and a second year med student. We were able to ask him questions and just chat about the school and med school life in general.

Then came the fun part. After a short financial aid presentation, I went over to the children's hospital to have my interview (I had to go through two tunnels to get there). My interviewer was a very nice woman, and the entire interview seemed very relaxed. There were no big surprises. Overall, I think the interview went very well.

After my interview, I met up with Kim at the library, and we drove back to her place so I could change and pack up. We said our good-byes, I thanked her for letting me stay at her place and showing me around St. Louis, and then I was off and back to real life.

My final takeaway from the entire experience is that I believe St. Louis University is a place that I could see myself in down the road, and I hope that the school feels the same way about me.

Matt