Well my first full week of work is on the books, and things are going well so far.
I am getting used to the electronic health record, which is the hardest adjustment for me. Everyone at work is friendly and helpful. It'll be fun to see the hospital change and grow as it expands and moves towards being fully operational.
In my free time this week I have been spending a lot of time reading by the pool. Our pool overlooks Clear Lake, which flows into the Houston Bay. It's a nice, relaxing place - sitting by the pool and watching the water. Sarah, our new friends (Sydney and Abby), and I have been exploring different restaurants and a few bars in the area. I'm amazed at how cheap some things are here. Gas is $2.65/gallon near us, which for my truck means about $15-20 less per tank to fill up. Also, food and drink is definitely less at most restaurants. We've been good to find the specials and follow them around to save even more money.
I felt very left out of Halloween this year, as I had to work Halloween night and I have been so busy that I didn't really have time to figure out a costume or find a good place to go on Saturday. I will have to make up for that next Halloween. The day after we went up into Houston to explore a bit. There is a beautiful little park in the city that has an enormous wall of water that is flowing at 11,000 gallons per minute. It was really quite spectacular. Afterwards we found (thanks to Yelp) a neat bar with this giant patio. The bar doesn't serve food, but right next door was this delicious restaurant that does take out and has a drive through. We basically called it the McDonalds for rich people. It had amazing hamburgers, sandwiches, and you could even get a $30 prime rib. So we ordered some food from there and walked it back to the patio. Later we went over to a hip part of town that is near Rice University. There were a lot of restaurants, bars, and it seemed like a bunch of shopping. We had a beer at a bar there that I had actually been to one night during a HOBY training a few years back. The bar looked fun and once we were inside I recognized everything. We called it an early night and made the half hour trek back to the Webster area. I wish we lived a bit closer to Houston so we had easier access to nightlife, but I am glad that we're near the water. It's peaceful.
You all will probably shoot me for saying this - but it's getting cold here. I can't believe how quickly we have acclimated to the climate here. 65 degrees feels chilly. But I did tough it out today and sit by the pool in the 65 degree weather. I wore a sweatshirt. The photos of snowcapped mountains at home are really making me a bit homesick for Sugarbush and skiing. I thought to myself the other day... "What was I thinking leaving Vermont for the first half of the ski season?!" Maybe I'll have to fly home for a long weekend of skiing, visiting, and eating local/organic food. This area is big on the chain restaurants, it's hard to find good/local food. Also, I have yet to see one recycle bin. We asked our apartment complex manager if there was a recycle bin we could put our returnables in and she said "Oh, I don't know where one is. I don't recycle." It has been hard for us to just throw our plastic, glass, and paper in the trash. I'll be looking soon for a recycling center.
Overall things are going well. I am getting settled into a routine and am learning my surroundings.
Hope everyone at home is well and not freezing to death!
