D'Backs vs. Tigers 6/19/10

Kate & I decided to go on a road trip to see the Tigers play baseball in Detroit. The reason we picked the weekend we did is because they were playing the Diamondbacks - which is Kate's favorite team! It was a LOT of driving (it's 10 hours from D.C. to Detroit), but we were able to see my mom, my kitties, and meet two of our classmates, Aaron & Darren for breakfast. 

The game was fun, we had incredible seats 25 rows up behind home plate. Kate was able to get her favorite player to sign a picture for her before the game. The picture to the right is of her waiting her turn! The funny part was that the picture he signed was a picture of him signing her t-shirt at a different game!

 
Anyway, we missed the Tigers batting practice so I didn't get any signatures. There was also a wedding held on the field immediately after the game. How much would it cost to do THAT I wonder?!

Kate is moving on the 30th to Mississippi for her post-doctoral position, so I won't see her for awhile. I am going to miss her a lot!

Home In Miami

So it has been an interesting week in the world of apartment hunting in Miami with my two future roommates (in pic on left). As previously mentioned in this blog we had been working with a realtor down in Miami to help us find places to live. On Thursday, two days before we were to leave, we got a message from the realtor's colleague that she was not going to be able to show us around, but that he would. On Friday, the colleague told us that it was "not worth his time" to spend Saturday looking for apartments with us. So, we are 5 hours from flying out to Miami with no realtor and no plans for what we were going to do. Luckily, Jessica found another realtor on Craigslist who ended up being AMAZING. He was able to find us a place on Miami Beach! 

The apartment is one of the older buildings in Miami Beach and is called Seacoast Suites (www.seacoastsuites.com). The building is part hotel and part apartment complex. The picture above is of the apartment building. The side of the building that our apartment faces is the bay side (seen below).  

Because the building is part hotel it has a resort-feel to it in that it has a little convenience store, a restaurant, and little huts outside that have different services. Our favorite is the massage station!

The other side of the hotel has a slightly amazing view....

  

Honestly, we're still in shock that we found such an amazing place, but the deal is not 100% done yet. The apartment is about 15-20 minutes from the hospital, which seems like nothing to us D.C. people. Anyway, we're hoping to sign in the next week or so and have a great place to stay for our year in Miami!!

Long Time No Post!

So an update on what I've been up to over the past few months:

1. Advocacy Days with the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry - I spent a day up on Capitol Hill meeting with staffers of several congresspeople. I got to meet specifically with people working for Carl Levin (senator from Michigan) and Jim Webb (senator from Virginia). I basically spent the day with a bunch of psychiatrists from the AACAP and we had a bunch of "talking points" we were given to discuss with staffers. It was pretty interesting to see how the process of lobbying works!

2. Washington D.C. Zoo!   I went with Kari to the zoo and had an excellent time. The zoo here is free! That is amazing to me. Although lacking penguins and giraffes, the zoo had an excellent display of big cats. 

3. Kate's Internship Graduation & Weekend of Fun! I traveled to Pittsburgh for Kate's internship graduation dinner. The dinner itself was nice, but we had the most fun on Saturday at a place called "Color Me Mine." At this place you pick out a piece of pottery (bowls/mugs/picture frames etc.), paint it as you like, and then they fire it up in the kiln. This was so much fun, and Kate and I had some pretty nice products when we were finished if I do say so myself!

4. Flag Football - I joined a random flag football team for the spring season and have had a blast playing. I've met some great new people and I really like being involved in a social league sport (it's not high competition by any means). Our team record is 2-2-1 and we have one more game before the playoffs. Unfortunately I have not scored any touchdowns though :(

Other Important Events:
-I am officially finished with the volunteer portion of my experience here in D.C. (working with kids who have diabetes). This means I will be working three or four days a week for the rest of the summer, and working on my dissertation the other free days.
-The wonderful air mattress I have been sleeping on (and blowing up every night before bed) has died. It was sad before, and now that I am sleeping on two foam pads on the floor, its even more sad. But don't despair, a replacement is ordered and on the way!
-This weekend I am heading to Miami to look at potential places to live. VERY excited for this and I will post some pics when I get back!

I actually have a realtor??

I am sitting here watching CNN cover the House vote on the healthcare legislation. Since they are dragging this out longer than the season finale of American Idol (is that possible??) I decided to take a few minutes and give an update on the goings-on with internship.

The two girls I know from DC that are going to Miami and I have decided to live together next year. The girl's names are Cat and Jessica. I know both of them but they didn't know each other so we had dinner a few weeks ago and the girls got to meet. Dinner went well, and we all seem to be on the same page in regards to living in Miami. We have decided to live as close to the beach as possible, and are looking in the Miami Beach area for a townhouse or condo. Amazingly, you can rent a place on Miami Beach for the same amount you can rent an apartment in Arlington, Virginia!

Initially we had planned on flying down to Miami at the beginning of May to look at housing. However, Cat called to check out a place we had seen online and the realtor told us that we shouldn't start looking until late June/early July. I guess we are used to getting college campus housing, where you have to have something locked up by May or you might not get anything. Anyway, Cat found out that the realtor is paid by the properties she rents out so we can use her services at no cost to us. I'm actually really excited about that because none of us really have any idea about renting in Miami. We told her our criteria and she said we would have no problem getting a place for us. We're still going to go down in early July to look at things before we commit though. 

The best news? Both girls are okay with the kittens coming to live with us! I'm sure they will LOVE the Miami humidity :)

Extra Info...

So I've also found out that the girl from D.C. I stayed with in Miami also has matched there! So three out of the five interns at the Mailman Center are from Children's National Medical Center! I am really glad to have people I know moving with me, it makes it so much easier to know at least one or two people right from the start. I probably will room with one or both of them too as the stipend that we get in Miami is not generous, which is putting it mildly ($20K a year). 

Also, my start date is not until September 1st, so I will be spending at least 6 more months in D.C. This is good as my lease in D.C. does not end until Sept; otherwise I'd be paying two rents for a couple of months if I moved earlier. So I finally know what my future will look like, at least for the next year and a half!

And I'm moving to......

Benvinidos a Miami, Florida! (I keep singing the Will Smith song for those of you who know it). I matched with my #5 choice, the Mailman Center for Child Development.  The track is working with kids with cancer, which will be challenging. I also found out that a girl from D.C. that I work with right now is going to be in the same program with me next year so it will be nice to know someone! It's farther than I really wanted to move but after having 3 feet of snow this winter I could be ready for a 70 degree winter! I told my dad that I was moving closer to him but as it turns out, Miami is only one hour closer to Atlanta than D.C. is, haha!

I am pretty surprised because it was a lower pick than I thought I would get. It looks like this year, four out of five applicants (81%) were matched to their top 3 choices and 5% were matched to their 5th choice. I really know how to beat the odds apparently, someone should take me to Vegas. :)

I am going to keep updating this blog as I get ready to move and as I settle in Miami so keep checking back for updates!

Here are some interesting statistics that show how difficult it is to get an internship right now.

Applicants Participating in the Match             3,669

Applicants Matched                                      2,823  (77%)

Participating Applicants Not Matched                846  (23% of students did not match this year)

Match Results by Rank Number on Applicant's List:
(percentages may not total to 100 due to rounding errors)

      Rank              Number of Applicants

        1                   1,295  (46%)
        2                     614  (22%)
        3                     373  (13%)
        4                     201  ( 7%)
        5                     135  ( 5%)
        6                      80  ( 3%)
        7                      52  ( 2%)
        8                      25  ( 1%)
        9                      14  ( 0%)
       10 or higher            34  ( 1%)

       Total                2,823 (100%)

It's Time!!!!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is "match day" where all internship applicants find out if they will have an internship next year. The process is done in two steps: tomorrow we find out IF we are going on internship, and then Monday we find out WHERE we are going. Last year I got the notification email pretty early so hopefully it will all be over before I even go to work! 

I was not nervous until this week, and tonight I am pretty freaked out. This is the culmination of two years of applications, an extra year of grad school, and the final step to graduating. It's a really big deal. I remember last year the shock of opening up the email to see that I hadn't matched. It was literally a punch in the gut. I think I'm reliving that a little bit tonight which is not fun. However, tomorrow could be redemption too! Then of course the wait for Monday....

This is a big weekend for me in many ways so keep me in your prayers!