Day 2 – No, I’m not lost!
I found out pretty quickly how to become a morning person… move to Hawaii. With the time zone switch, I woke up at 4am!!! 4am!! I can’t remember the last time I saw earlier than 6am!! A good thing about being 5 hours behind, is that everyone I knew was up… so I decided to call scot, mom and send out a couple texts to keep me occupied!
Eventually, 7am rolled around and it was time for Clinic to start. To be honest, I had no idea how to get to the clinic even though Dr Anderson showed me… it looks a lot different in the daytime! But, with my cute purple dress, and my Corporette heels, I started to head in the direction I thought the clinic was in. So many yellow buildings that look so much alike! I was pleased to eventually run into a building that looked familiar and I made it!
The first day of clinic on a military base is getting you clearance and access to the base/computers as well as showing you the office/medical records. Dr Crussana (the other doc on the base who is in charge of the externs) took me over to Pearl Harbor (where the main office is) and got me all checked in. Then she showed me around and I began to scribe and see patients.
4pm is quittin time. Time to explore! I got my cloth grocery bag and headed to the Marine Mart. About a 10-15 minute walk (depends if you are headed in the right direction or not… I had to ask a few times) and I knew I wasn’t going to want to make that walk once a day to get food, so I decided to stock up! I got 2 Subway footlongs to eat the next few days (good idea in theory but turns out they get soggy… boo!). After wandering up and down the aisles of the quickie mart, eventually a worker asked me if I needed help… I told him I was just shopping. He smiled and walked away. About 10 minutes later, he asked again and laughed saying most people are in and out. Not I! I explained I had just moved here and was trying to decide what I needed. He thought that my indecision was pretty funny. But with my bag getting filled to the brim, and carrying cups, TP, and chips… I checked out (after explaining my authorization papers… pain!) and headed on my way back.
About 1 minute into the journey, it started to monsoon on me! But hahahaha, I remembered the umbrella that was left by a different optometry student. Jokes on me… it was broken and just flopped in the wind. Yes, I was that girl, carrying groceries, trying to remember my way back home, in flip flops and a sundress, holding a flopping broken umbrella, walking back to my dorm room home. Not quite the welcome to Hawaii I was hoping for!!! Lol, oh well… it makes a good story!
Moral of the day: Check directions and your umbrella
Day 3 – Always wear your helmet!!
After work, I thought I would go and explore the base… well at least try to. So… first I had to find the bike. Previous optometry kids have left certain goodies behind for the rest of us to enjoy. These include a surfboard, a boogie board, snorkeling gear, books, random useful things, and a bike. I heard that the bike was a little old and somewhere locked up with a helmet attached. Picture me, standing downstairs at the bike rack, trying my key to every bike available… and no success… so I try again… still nothing… SO I call Christine… no answer… I call Mark… no answer… Then finally Hanna (yay Hanna!) picks up to give me some direction to which one it was. Last time she saw it, it did have a bike lock but described what I pictured as the opt bike. The tires were flat… so I figured even if I was stealing some poor guys bike, he wouldn’t really be missing it. I pumped up the tires, put on my helmet (must be on at all times on base) and started my crawl up the hill. I had a hand drawn map, and didn’t really remember the way to the Officer’s Club… so I had to ask for directions. I was going the right way, even though I could walk faster than the rusty, breakless, broken pedal bike that wouldn’t shift gears would take me. At the top of the hill (following the hand drawn map that had 3 buildings on it (and I was in a neighborhood… more than 3 buildings) I ditched the bike. I kept the helmet on ½ because I forgot about it, and ½ cause it was raining on me… again. Right when I think I am going in the right direction, and found the General’s house, a cop pulls up. Yay for military police. :\ She asked me why I was loitering around. I said I was trying to find the General’s house to find a path to this beach I had heard about from this letter that was written and left in my room (every student writes a hello, here is what you need to do on base letter for the upcoming student). I ended up asking her directions to a restricted beach I wasn’t suppose to know about… oops. Turns out she told me that I was in the right spot… but it was restricted so since she caught me, I would have to leave. Haha, but I didn’t get in trouble because I think she felt bad for the dumb gal walking around with a sundress and helmet on. The funniest thing was she had to ask me why I was wearing a helmet because the bike was still back a block or so, lol. Anyways, I go back to my bike, ride back down the hill with minimal breaking system, and called it a night. Day 3, still no beach… darn!
Here is a pic from up top the hill…
Moral of the day: Don’t loiter around the grand poobah’s house if you don’t want to get caught by the MPs.
Have a great day everyone… more stories to come!
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