Internship Interviews

OK, so I've taken forever to blog about my internship interviews. When Lynn Frey gets mad at you for not blogging, you KNOW you're in trouble. So, here it goes, and I will obviously not go into too much detail. Just an overview here...

So if you recall, I received 10 offers for interviews and accepted 9. One of those I knew I wouldn't rank, because it was not APA approved (you need that to do a formal neuropsychology post-doc) and two others I didn't rank because they were, well, horrible. The first of these, the supervisor was a blatant narcissist (and suffered from Napoleon Complex :). The other site felt like I was in prison when I worked there...not a good place to spend a year (I could think of some fun things to do that would land me in prison for a year, and working isn't one of them). So anyway, I will be ranking 6 sites. The great thing is that all of these sites would be wonderful places to be, which makes me confident that if we get matched, we will end up somewhere great. The official list is as follows:

Togus VA (Augusta, ME)

Reno VA (Reno, NV)

SLC VA (SLC, Utah)

Dayton VA (Dayton, OH)

Cincinnati VA (Cincinnati, OH)

Allegheny General Hospital (Pittsburgh, PA)

So here's the highlights of each spot...

Maine was a beautiful place. Many people have called it the Oregon of the East coast, and I can see why. Beautiful wilderness and abounding outdoor activities. I was able to make my way to the coast and snap some shots of one of the bays. One thing that put Maine above other sites (among other reasons) was that it also offers a formal post-doc in Neuropsych., which means that I could roll right into that position if everything works out and I am chosen for that spot. This means that we could possibly stay there for 3 years instead of 1. That would be nice!

The bay at Camden from the public Library

There were a ton of islands off the coast...great to camp on in isolation :)

Reno was a nice place also. When people hear that I ranked Reno so high, they usually say "Oh", with a dissapointed tone (as if they were going there :). But the city is 30 minutes from Lake Tahoe, a certainly beautiful place. I know this is a bad picture, but I didn't have much of a chance to take any in Reno.

Taken from on top of the parking structure at the Peppermill (where I cleaned up by the way :)

Salt Lake City was equally beautiful. I had the chance to stay with some friends (Darin and Tamara). I also had the chance to see Lane and Chris down in Provo. Lane and I decided to go to the Sundance Film Festival, which is quite a unique opportunity. I was able to see some famous people, see if you can tell who it is :)

SLC is surrounded by these mountains, which makes the city seem much smaller than it actually is...beautiful!!

Lane, Oliver, and Chris (L to R)...good friends from GFU. For those who don't know, Lane is one year ahead of me, on her internship now.

That's right...me and Diddy go way back. This was taken after I agreed to let him take his picture with me...he looks happy, right?

Dayton was...well...Dayton, Ohio. There wasn't too much there, but I was very suprised that it was such a big city. I was expecting a rural town, which Dayton certainly is not. It was a nice city and they had a great program, but there really wasn't much to talk about there. But, they did have really cheap gas!

"Back in my day, I remember when gas was under $2 a gallon!"

"WOW, grandpa! That's amazing!"

OK, so it's hard to take pictures from a moving vehicle, but the Dayton VA also has a national cemetery, which was a very interesting thing to see. White tombstones as far as the eye can see...quite humbling.

Cincinnati was already blogged about. Keep with the times people. I don't want to have to repeat myself ;)

Finally, there's Pittsburgh. A great site, very prestigious, and I know I would get great training. However, it's Pittsburgh. Kinda big (!), and the freeway systems were designed by the same person who designed the Philadelphia airport (A drunk architect with no arms, rulers, or a right hemisphere). This is why it is ranked 6th and not 4th. Also, you can't buy beer in the grocery store - unamerican to say the least. I was so frusterated by the time I got there, I only took three pictures...so I guess it's good to know that there are drug free zones in Pittsburgh.

So there's much more to tell, but not in this already long post. I was gone for 3 weeks, and was VERY happy to come home and finally see Katie! I missed her a ton, and it was really refreshing to be able to see her again. And I would like to thank all those who prayed for me on this journey. It helped a ton!

Ben