Interview Trail Part I...

Wow. 4 states in 3 days! We just got back from a whirlwind trip to Oklahoma City and Kansas City for my first two pediatric residency interviews. We left Monday morning for Oklahoma c

City. Lucky for us, most pediatric programs pay for our lodging which is awesome! So we got to OKC and found our hotel, the Sheraton downtown, right near Bricktown. We had some time so we walked around Bricktown. It is really neat! There is even a little riverwalk area! Very cool. Here are some pics from Bricktown:

Later that night we were invited to dinner with some of the residents at an OU physician's house. It was an interesting evening. There are many stories to tell, but it would take forever, so I will move on to my favorite part of Monday night...we got to see Meredith and Nathan!!! Yea!!! So exciting! It was great to visit with both of them! They drove us around Nichols Hills where they live, and also took us to see Chesapeake, where Nathan works. What an amazing place! It was all decorated for Christmas, and the entire campus looked like THIS:

Yea for friends! So glad to see you Meredith! Miss you!

I interviewed Tuesday in OKC, then we hopped in the car and drove to Kansas City! On the way into town, we stopped to eat some authentic KC BBQ at Oklahoma Joes, a famous BBQ joint in a gas station! It was awesome. Then we headed downtown to find our hotel, the Westin Crown Center. AMAZING. We had a corner room with a balcony (too bad it was 29 degrees). This is the Christmas tree at the hotel!

While I interviewed on Wednesday, Jordan took a little trip to Lawrence, KS, home of the Jayhawks, his favorite college BB team! Here a few pics from his trip!

The campus. He said it reminded him a lot of Fayetteville.

When we left Kansas City, we headed home but took a short detour through Tulsa to eat dinner with our friends Stephen and Mary. So good to see them! Sad I don't have a picture to share, but my camera battery died early!

Now the low-down on the actual interviews...

OU Children's (OKC): The dinner the evening before the interview really set the tone of weirdness for the interview. The program seems to be on the way up, but not nearly as good as ACH. They had an awesome new 10-story clinic building connected to the hospital, which was great. I didn't feel like I would fit in very well with the residents there.

Children's Mercy (KC): We missed the dinner the night before. Breakfast the morning of the interview was in the cafeteria at the hospital, and I have to say that it was the coolest cafeteria ever! It was set up like a diner with all the bright neon lights and red retro chairs! Very fun! The facilities seemed very nice. I think the program itself is very similar to ACH. They do less Heme/Onc in the first year, which is a bit of a negative to me because I like Heme/Onc. They just finished expanding their ER to 75 beds, which is huge. (Could be positive or negative, depending on how you look at it! More patients for great exposure to various problems, but more work and craziness when you are working in the ER!)

Overall I have to say that I thought Children's Mercy in Kansas City is very similar to ACH. It was great to have something to compare it to!

We are off to Louisville next!