Sex and the City

I've mentioned a bit, that I feel like I'm living in a monastic life. I go to work, pop by the gym, then come home and read. Aside from chanting and eating by candle light (and no brown robe), I feel a bit monkish.

 

That's not really a bad thing. But I have been feeling a bit stir crazy.

 

I went to Pretoria today to haggle with the medicine board to give me my damn license, which finally happened (after being up there for 4 hours) and decided to avoid the rush hour traffic and stopped off in town to see Sex and the City. FINALLY. Of course I loved it. Sadly there were only 4 of us in the theatre. It was a nice escape, and for a while I completely forgot about the day-to-day stuff that has been occupying my mind. And I realized that I've settled into this different pattern here. I'm kind of enjoying the simplicity of the day-to-day life. There is also something else different about knowing that I'm here for just a year. Before coming here, a year seemed soooo LONG. But really, I think the time is going to fly by. When I moved to Dublin and Western Mass, I had remember having goals of having a great social life, creating a great group of friends, etc etc etc. But this time, there that drive isn't so strong... I suspect I will make a few good friends in the year, but I'll leave it up to fate, not going to go out looking for these things.

Before the movie, I walked around the mall (which is boring when one doesn't have an income and every expense is calculated), and decided that I was going to get caught up on some pleasure reading. I need some balance, and can already feel a bit of medical fatigue with the amount of medical reading I've been doing each night. Also, I've burned through a lot of internet time (300MB a month) and when I logged off this morning realized that I had already spent 16 hours on-line since June 23. There are so many more productive things to have done w/ those 16 hours.  So I picked up "Eat, Pray, Love," which was recommended by Randall back in February...

 

I'm not sure where this post is headed, but I'm going to try and close the loop.

 

I read a few pages while waiting for the movie to start. The introduction got me excited, thinking that I'm doing a similar task... Taking a year off and learning. Learning more medicine. But learning about what makes me tick. Feeling much different with this move, than moves in the past. [Aside: some people object to me calling this a year off, given that I'm working quite a bit, but to me it is a year off for many reasons]. Part of me wonders if I really am as mobile as I think. Am I really cut out for traveling and working? Or am I more a homebody and looking to settle in Denver? The answers that I thought I knew a few weeks ago are blurred now. Last night I was thinking about applying for a post-residency spot working w/ a pediatric HIV/AIDS program run out of Baylor which places pediatricians in Lesotho, Swaziland, and a few other countries, and what an amazing year that would be (and that is a paid job).

 

And then I find myself watching Sex and the City. Clips from New York, and thinking of the great trips I've had there over the past year, the friends who drove me there 3 weeks ago [and saw me off at the airport], and then the pendulum swings.

 

This is what I know. It's late, and I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I may strike off at night and head into town to check out the Craic (google it, it's an Irish word), or I may come home and bounce between reading about travels, or traveler's diarrhea and other infections.