Salt Lake City

I have been pleasantly surprised by SLC. Yes, the LDS presence can be felt. Today while touring one of the hospitals, a man asked if we were missionaries. We thought he was kidding, and jokingly answered "yes!" He then enthusiastically praised us for our service to the church. A little weird. Most of the people in the residency program however, are not LDS. And all are very nice. Everyone here is happy. They love the fact that they can be on a ski lift 30 minutes after leaving the hospital. They have great teaching. One benefit of the LDS presence, is their money. There is a lot of Mormon money in this city, and they have invested a good chunk of it into their hospitals. The only real downside to the program here is the lack of reputation. I think I could get an excellent education here, and I could get a fellowship in whatever I chose to go into (currently hematology/oncology is winning), but I don't know if I could get that fellowship wherever I wanted to. So Univeristy of Utah is in the running, but Seattle is still in the lead.

On another note, my travel plans have been changed. Oregon Health Sciences in Portland has offered me a last minute interview--this coming Monday. Instead of flying directly to Chicago from SLC, I will now be flying back to Seattle on Sunday and driving to Portland. I'll interview there on Monday, and return to Seattle in time to catch a flight to Chicago on Tuesday. Exhausting, but OHSU is one of my top choices and I'd hate to miss out on interviewing there.

I'll try to get pictures of some of these places, and post them when I have a chance.