Things So Far

Hey Everyone!

Well I have been in St. Paul (White Bear Lake, Maplewood, and Woodbury) for almost a week now. The time is going by so fast, and it has been a crazy experience thus far. I would be dishonest if I told you that it has been easy, and that I have loved every minute of it. In fact, it has been an extremely hard week for me, but things are getting better. My job is definitely a new experience. It is extremely hard to go into a fast paced environment, such as an emergency room, and try to teach someone how to do a job that requires a lot of work and practice. I consider myself a patient guy, and my patience has been tested this week. Who woulda thunk it! I now have a completely new appreciation for teachers.

I am currently working at St. John's Hospital in Maplewood, MN. It is a part of a group of hospitals entitled, Health East. The main emergency room, that sees the high acuity patients, is 14 beds with some overflow, and the other part of the emergency room dedicated to much more minor cases is 9 beds with additional overflow. It is a completely different environment than the 17 bed emergency room that I worked at in Waterloo. I have worked with three different doctors now, and they are far different, and much less open than the doctors that I worked with in Waterloo. One of the registration nurses has taken a liking to me and calls me "scribe," even though she now knows my name. I have never had my name made fun of so much in my entire life. Apparently "Preston" is quite the name up here. One of the doctors told me that I should be a butler or a lawyer with a name like Preston. He also thinks I should be a butcher or a professional body guard. If only he knew how much of a teddy bear I was......I'm definitely not going to just throw that out there.

I have learned several things already living in a booming metropolis. Some are quite funny, and others are, meh.

1) Make friends with the receptionist at the hotel you stay at.....they have coupons for free things. When I checked in to my new hotel yesterday the receptionist must have taken a fancy to me because she gave me a coupon for a free large pizza and a free drink at the restaurant that is attached to the hotel. Ballin! I actually used it today, and the pizza was very good. My waitress told me she hadn't seen one of those coupons in quite some time.....I felt special ;) The receptionist also told me to come to the night club she worked at because they were having a Marilyn Manson (spelling?) concert.....I attract the weirdos. I gratefully declined, of course.

2) Do not wear khakis, a button up shirt, and wear a back pack in downtown Minneapolis during business hours. You will be under-dressed. People were looking at me like I was some sort of alien...and I kind of felt like it. I literally had people coming up to me asking me if I was lost, and of course, I was.

3) Do not watch horror movies if you intend to live in a big city by yourself. I was looking behind me every step I took in the parking garage, and I might as well baracade my hotel door every night. For my friends reading this....that is why I refuse to watch horror movies.

4) Buy a GPS. I never believed in GPS until this week. If driving around with an Iowa license plate doesn't already make me a target for angry Minnesotans, not knowing where I am going would definitely get me killed. My GPS has now become my best friend, and I will love her til the day I die.

5) Don't try to make friends with the one nurse that looks like she could beat up Chuck Norris. She will shut you down faster than you can ever imagine. It's best just to smile and nod.....show no weakness.

6) Only go to a hospital that has a slushy machine. Yes, the emergency room that I work at has a free slushy machine. Legit!

7) Hanging out with yourself is not always a bad thing. Today was my day off, and I decided that rather than sit in my hotel room and think about how much I missed everyone at home; (correct usage of the semi-colon, Sarah?) I would go out and explore. Explore to me ended up being eating lunch at the restaurant attached to my hotel, buying a couple books at Barnes and Nobel, reading at Starbucks, and going to see a movie. Call me Curious George ;) The things that you see and hear, that you normally wouldn't, can actually be quite humorous. Being left alone to my thoughts usually scares me, but it was actually kind of nice just to enjoy the quiet today. Oh, I found my next job and possible life long career today. The mall in Maplewood has a train that is free to move around the entire mall. There was a kid my age driving that bad boy......totally taking his job!

Well that is pretty much all I have right now. I miss you all at home, and hope to see you all soon. I hope you guys are enjoying your summer and experiencing your own adventure.

Preston "Scribe" Sereg