Day 1: Orientation

We had orientation today. The usual lectures about infection control, library, occupational health and safety and introduction to electronic discharge summary (and admission!!) program.

That took up the whole morning. We had a hospital tour at the end. The hospital looks big from the outside but it's totally deceptive! It's claustrophobic small. When you enter it, you think "Oh, that's it?".

There are only 8 beds in the Emergency Department and it looked peaceful and quiet when we passed through. But according to EVERYONE, it is a very busy Emergency. The corridors are super narrow. Enough for 1 single bed and one person at the side to pass through. Let's just say it's a one-way street. Even the MAIN staircase is a one-way street.

The hospital is 102 years old. There's a mini museum at the entrance. And portraits of old doctors and nurses gracing the corridor walls of the hospital. Back when nurses in 1905 when nurses still wore those starched uniforms and stupid hats and covered more body parts than usual these days.

After our orientation we were told by the intern coordinator that we got accepted to have a proper family accommodation for $70 a week. So, we moved!

This is the house from the outside. From outside it looks decrepit.

But it's not too bad on the inside. Too bad the heater is only in the living room. It has 2 bedrooms. The windows provide nice view but on the downside let cold draughts in. Brrr.

View from the front door. The roof in the distance; that's the hospital. Yep, maybe a 3 minute walk? (5 minute walk for me). Even so, one requires full winter coat, gloves or even a poncho in this kind of weather. Heavy rain every 5 minutes. We even got hail on one occasion.

 Balls of ice beating mercilessly on the ground, we caught a few. Alhamdulillah our car was under a garage. Kalau tak, ntah2 kemik kereta!! One of my friends new Honda Accord got pelted with hail and suffered dents.

See the white specks in the grass? That's the balls of hail. Layth and me were quite jakun. But couldn't get a good picture to capture it all.

Everyone except Baba went home in the afternoon. Layth has kinder tomorrow and I have a few things to settle and some things to buy. I'll be back in "wallagul" (Layth-speak) on Wednesday night because I have the Thursday morning shift. Layth may or may not follow me.