Music City Mania

So once again poor Natalie had to drop me off at the Salt Lake City airport during the wee hours of the morning so I could make my 7:10am flight. However, apparently everyone else in the area decided to fly out at around that time, as well, since the security line stretched for about a mile. Sadly, I arrived at my gate just after my boarding group started to board, so I had to jump in behind everyone else like a second-class citizen despite the status my boarding pass confered upon me. We changed planes in Phoenix, and then headed to Nashville, TN! Due to my superior punctuality skills I was an "A" boarder, so I got to pick out a good seat on the plane before the majority of other passengers. I picked a good window seat and then tried to puff myself up as big as possible so as to discourage any other potential-seat neighbors from sitting next to me. To my surprise, it actually seemed to be working! People kept walking by me, searching for other seats. When I scared the last guy off (or so I thought), a skinny guy with long hair, I discovered that the people who walked by me were still looking for a seat. So, unfortunately, a large man was forced to sit next to me. I felt like crying out, "Skinny guy! Come back!" because it definitely would have made for a more comfortable flight. So it was at this point where I determined that I am an unfortunate size for traveling. I am large enough that any plane seat I am in is uncomfortable, yet I am not so big as to scare everyone away from me. Oh well.

I knew that I had arrived in Nashville when the first song I heard off the plane was "I should have been a cowboy," sung by some guy in an airport bar. I purchased my round-trip ticket from a shuttle service and waited at the curb for the shuttle to pick me up. Four of us got on the shuttle at first, and then the game of attrition began. One guy accidentally got on the wrong shuttle, and then another guy had not actually bought a ticket yet. So they both got booted off the bus (with a string of curses). The two of us surviving passengers then were finally able to leave the airport! We drove through downtown Nashville (right by the stadium where the Tennessee Titans play!) on our way to the Vanderbilt Medical Center. The shuttle driver explained all of the significant landmarks over the bus' speaker system. Both the other passenger and I were sitting right by the bus driver, so we could have heard him fine even without the speakers. One time I even asked him a question and he answered without using the speakers, and then when he was done answering my question went right back to talking over the speakers.

When I arrived at my student host's apartment, I couldn't find the key he hid for me, so I spent a good 45 minutes snooping around his apartment, peaking through the windows, and feeling under ledges. The whole time I was just hoping that the police wouldn't show up, but then I figured that the neighborhood was shady enough that the neighbors were probably already used to this kind of behavior. I finally found the key, dropped by bags off inside, and then walked around the Vanderbilt campus. I was on strict orders from Natalie to take pictures of the area, so I walked around with my camera like a total tourist. At one point I took a picture of the medical center and then looked over my shoulder. There was a medical student standing there with an evil grin on his face. He said, "It's just a hospital." So I kind of started to feel a little more self-conscious about my camera after that....

The whole campus is a National Arboretum, making it impossible to find your way to class.... The poor confused guy on the left is trying to figure out which path is "the road less traveled" since, apparently, "it (makes) all the difference."

This building puts any building on BYU campus to shame.

My interview the following day (Tuesday) went really well! There were about 12 students or so interviewing overall that day. My interview was scheduled for 9:00am, and so I checked in at the admissions office around 8:15. It turns out that there was another BYU student interviewing that same day! We later pieced together that our wives know each other and that, at one point, we were destined to hang out together. However, those plans fell apart and our destiny crumbled--or rather postponed until 9/15 and again 9/25 at Baylor at two of the randomest of all places. Anyway, so once again, it was interesting to see how well-represented BYU is at these medical school interviews!

The Medical Center. This is where I got humiliated.

An employee of the admissions office escorted me to my interview at 8:55. As we were walking across campus to where my interview would be (in the Children's Hospital), she asked me what I was studying. When I told her I was studying Russian, she asked "Ты говоришь по-русски?" ("Do you speak Russian?" for those of you who don't говорить по-русски... which is probably nearly everyone....). Then she asked if I had served my mission in Russia. I was pretty shocked, but it became increasingly clear that she was a member of the church (the fact that she served a mission in Kiev was what made me begin to suspect this... and the fact that she graduated from BYU-Idaho....). So it was definitely pretty random! I was hoping that it was a sign that everything else that day would be going my way. But was it?

My interview was with a pediatrician lady doctor in her office at their brand-new medical center. The interview lasted about 50 minutes and was the easiest and most laid-back interview so far! The whole interview really was just a conversation. We asked each other some questions, but mainly we were just talking freely back and forth. She asked me the same question that I got in Rochester: "How do you deal with stress?" I gave her the same answer, but this time made it clear that I do not suffer from chronic depression! :) I said that I can handle with external pressure really well but can be susceptable to internal pressures that I put on myself (but it was a much more refined, elaborate, and stunning answer, of course...). I am glad that I told her all of that because she commented that that was a very mature outlook. She was completely different from the last interview lady at Rochester--she actually smiled and laughed a lot during our interview! I almost started laughing when she asked me "What three words would your wife use to describe you?" When Natalie was driving me to the airport Monday morning, I asked her this very question because I knew it was a possible question that might come up. So I was just like, "Well, I don't know why, but I'm pretty sure she would say...". : ) Natalie definitely helped me score some major points, not only for the nifty words but also because the interviewer has a 3rd grade child, and so she loves 3rd grade teachers (something we had in common! Although, my interest there is only in the singular). She also laughed when I told her the story of Natalie teaching me violin lessons and how it seemed that I was totally just wanting to crawl back into Natalie's life. However, for the record, that was not the case. Well, not completely.

Overall, the interview went really well. My only potential stumble was when I was explaining what I meant by "efficient" (one of the words Natalie used to describe me). Initially I said that I was efficient in my school work. Then the interviewer asked, "Would she mean that you are efficient in allocating your time between school, church, and work? That you are able to find time to spend with her despite your varying responsibilities? That when you are home to be with her, you really are home to be with her?" I was just like, "Uh, yeah. Exac--exactly." So she threw me a bone there and totally answered the question for me! I will definitely have to use that answer next time. At the end of the interview, she seemed really happy and said that she had really enjoyed talking to me. So it was really well.

They took us on a tour of the medical center later on in the day (which is very nice!), and then another applicant and I had to leave early to catch our flights at the airport. I thought this other applicant already had a ticket for the shuttle, but I found out as we got on the bus that he did not. He did not have any cash, and the driver could not accept his credit card. However, she did not learn that he didn't have any cash until after we had left. So we drove around downtown Nashville looking for an ATM. We finally found one, but it wouldn't accept his card (stupid U.S. Bank). By this time he was starting to freak out because he didn't know how else he would get to the airport. I was sitting right behind the bus driver, so I leaned forward and asked her, "When we get to the airport, will you let him run into the ticket counter and by a ticket there with his card? You can hold onto his luggage so you will know he will bring the ticket back to you. That would make everyone happy." I was trying to stick up for the kid (it's amazing how much older a mission makes you as an applicant... everyone is so much younger!). However, apparently I am a better negotiator than I give myself credit for, because she ended up just letting him ride for free as long as we promised not to tell a soul. We zipped up our mouths and made it to the airport just in time to catch our flights.

The flight back went almost without incident (are any of my travels ever free of that?). I made the mistake of sitting in the row in front of the emergency exit row, so my chair would not recline. I then started to hope that whoever sat in front of me would not lean their chair back, or else I would be smooshed like many of the bugs that used to frequent our apartment! A lady (with a very thick southern accent) sat in the seat in front of me and her mom sat right next to her. The lady had a pillow with her and was telling the whole plane how she was going to sleep the whole way. I braced for the worst. However, I was pleased to see that for the first 20 minutes she didn't lean her seat back (I don't think she knew it reclined). Her mother, unfortunately, eventually leaned her seat back. I froze. A couple seconds later, the lady leaned her seat back, smashing me up against my lap top. The only thought that flashed through my mind was, "You're a bad example to your daughter, ma'am." So my flight back to Las Vegas was not one of luxury.

Then, as I was waiting for my flight from Las Vegas to SLC, I was facing the wall as I picked up my luggage and prepared to sit closer to my gate. As I picked up my bags, I heard someone behind me say, "Hey, you were my Genetics TA!" So it turns out that there was another BYU student coming from an interview, and I happend to be his old Genetics TA (I didn't know who he was). I had no idea that such a position would endow me with such immortality and glory. I had been looking forward to getting some homework done, but instead got stuck talking to him for 30 minutes. Then he called his wife to check in, and the first thing he said was, "I tried sending you a text message from 30,000 feet, but it wouldn't send for some reason." I thought he was joking at first, but realized that he was serious when his wife started chewing him out over the phone and he tried to defend himself. At that point I started to scoot away towards my place in the boarding line. Sweet Natalie picked me up, and my wonderful Vanderbilt adventures came to an end!

I really hope that I get accepted to Vanderbilt, as it seemed like an amazing place. Hopefully, if I do get accepted, I will get a lot of financial aid from them, as they give out pretty generous scholarships to some students! I fly out to Columbus, OH this Tuesday for a Wednesday interview at Ohio State, and then fly to Houston on Thursday for a Friday interview at Baylor. Quite the road trip! These are my last interviews for a while though, so Natalie will finally be able to get some sleep after this week!