Richmond

I. Love. Richmond.
i have to live here
i have to
I am positively in love with the city and the program

they put us up in the Crowne Plaza, on the James River, across the street from the performing arts center
met the other applicants and residents in the lobby and they took us out for coffee and dessert
chief resident was from Dallas, med school in Houston, super sweet, her husband was there, they loved richmond but were moving back to tx to be near family
an intern from NYC, med school in Philly, he was probably their best advertisement, he was just gushing with great things to say about the program and the city, super-excited about the quality of his education thus far, the support of all the attendings, the variety of electives
they have a child abuse elective, go to court, go with cops on arrests, etc
many of the residents live in the city within walking distance of the hospital, i love that!
in fact, the intern walked from his apt to the restaurant, both within walking distance of the hospital

the hospital was beautiful, clean
this was in the main lobby, my kinda place :)
hehe...

morning report, attendings and residents all knew each other, everyone talking, joking
the program has everything and more
the interviews went so smoothly, just very comfortable conversation, i enjoyed talking to them so much, it just flew by
at lunch, it seemed like everyone was there, the room was packed with residents and attendings, everyone talking
and, when the resident i was sitting next to found out i was interested in PICU, she paged the PICU attending to come eat with me!
i was like, n-n-n-no, really, that's ok (yikes!)
but the attending was sooo nice, and pleased i was interested in her career, and then the pedi ER attending came over and chatted with me

after touring the hospital, we took a bus tour of the city
downtown Richmond seemed like such a bustling, pedestrian city
everything you need right there, but big enough to have a cosmopolitan feel
business people walking from building to building, very little car traffic, food stands on the sidewalk, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, pockets of condos, close-by neighborhoods, the James River, an island in the middle, canoeing, parks
it's really beautiful, and busy, and clean, and not-too-big, and historic, and young
AND it's only two hours away from: DC (SueNah and Mike), the beach, and the mountains
i didn't wanna leave!!

I apologize for the crappy pictures, they were taken from inside a zippy, pitching bus

railroad bridge over the James River, across the street are old red brick cigar factories/warehouses, now converted into tons and tons of condos
the area down by the river is called the Bottom
I thought the garage door was pretty, not a good shot though
Bogart's, supposed to be a famous jazz club
there were tons of big statues sprinkled throughout the city, mostly Civil War
but this is Arthur Ashe...
Stonewall Jackson...
some other dude on a horse (i really wanted to stay an extra day, so I could explore on my own, instead of zipping around on a bus)
beautiful, beautiful
I love old buildings, LOVE 'em!



and check out these homes
they're kinda the Sesame Street style, all close together/connected, each a different style and color
NOT gated, still in the city, many of the big ones divided into apartments
I bet they don't have HOA (hooray!)

the resident from Houston said,
in downtown Richmond, your neighbors want to know you
they're active together, block parties, etc
whereas in downtown Houston, she felt like noone cared if they knew their next-door neighbor

i wish i knew more about architecture so I could guess the time period and connect what was happening during that time with the style of the homes/buildings

i'm smitten
Have a Nice Day :)