Orientation week was great! I had the opportunity to meet most of my classmates before school started which makes things much more comfortable in case you ever need help from your peers (There are 75 students in my class if I haven't mentioned this before). As a class, we were lectured on what it takes to be a professional, what to expect this school year, financial aid, and how to adjust to the big move. One of the guest lectures was from a fellow who works for Proctor & Gamble. He spoke to us about Crest and how their products, in his opinion, were the best in the industry. It made me laugh because, not even a week in to school we were getting swooned by vendors! He even gave each of us a free professional electric toothbrush with a bluetooth monitor that smiles and winks at you when you've brushed for the suggested 2-3 min! The most exciting part of orientation week for me was being introduced to our equipment :) ... and I still need to get insurance for that stuff....
At the end of Orientation week we had our White Coat Ceremony. Family and friends attend, and watch you walk across the stage to receive your white coat. Unfortunately, my family could not make it. Which is understandable considering its a 9 hr flight or 36 + hr drive. Regan and her mom did however attend which was very comforting =] They arrived the day before the ceremony which was Aug. 5th, after making the long road trip over (I'm sure they really enjoyed the bonding time together). I spent the weekend as their tour guide, even though I don't know very much about the area! It was fun. My apt is approx. a 2 min walk to a neighborhood called Little Italy. It has cobble stone/brick roads and lots of small shops and of course, Italian Restaurants up and down the street.
Eventually Regan's mom had fly home back to reality, but we had a good time while she was here and I had to start school. Its been two weeks since school started and its been a little overwhelming. The classes so far aren't necessarily difficult but there is a lot of busy work and studying. To my understanding, the way semesters work is we have 9 or so classes for the duration of the semester and we take those classes in blocks, a few @ a time for a few weeks or so. Then we take those finals and move on to the next subjects. Right now, one of our classes has been very dry :-P...... For the most part, everyone is hanging in there but we can't wait to move on!
One of the highlights of my experience so far is Dental Anatomy Lab. In this class, we are instructed to wax up a particular tooth and we have a week to complete it. Our first project so far has been one of the maxillary central incisors, your top right front tooth. You have a few tools, a flame, and wax sticks and you want to make an exact replicate of the tooth that fits "perfectly" in to your typodont, a model of the mouth. At first, it was really challenging because we were given a lecture on the anatomy of the upper front teeth but we were not instructed on how to use our tools and how to build the tooth! We were thrown to the wolves! For me, sitting in lab for a couple hours and doing this is sort of therapeutic though. Growing up, I really enjoyed sketching and I would do it to relax my mind.. so being in lab isn't much different for me.
I know there is SO much I've left out about my experiences so far because there is so much to tell but to sum it all up: I'm really enjoying this journey so far. My classmates are enjoyable and school... well.... is school. Having Regan with me has been a joy also. I truly appreciate her desire to move out here to be with me, it means the world! Between studying and her searching for jobs we haven't had a ton of time to explore Cleveland but we have plenty of time to do that! ......Oh! I forgot to mention that I was elected to be Class President which is TRULY AN HONOR. I hope that I can serve this class of highly talented individuals and that they won't regret putting their faith in me :) but thats enough for now, I need to study. I will get better at blogging, I promise! Here are a few pics
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