Clevelanders

Well, we opened the envelope. And we're going to Cleveland! We're excited, although we don't really know a lot about the area. I know it has the Browns, the Cavaliers, the Indians, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is right next to Lake Erie and an hour away from Cedar Point. And it's cold. That's about the extent of my knowledge. People in Cincinnati aren't big fans of Cleveland, so whenever I would mention that Cleveland was on the list and ranked high (it was third) they would say "You don't want to go to Cleveland!"

We went up this last weekend and looked for places to live. We're still kind of up in the air about what we want to do. The housing market hasn't been that great up there but everybody told us that it's stabilizing. We looked at a bunch of houses and did find a couple that we really liked, but we'll see.

Renting seems to be interesting as well. It's expensive to rent and all the places were kind of dumpy. And I don't really like the idea of somebody else having control over us (raising rent, controlling when and how things get fixed, etc.) I don't know what we'll do.

For now, we're still keeping our options open and are excited about moving up there!

Changes

I'm going to dispense with the excuses and just start blogging.

The last little while have been crazy. I feel like we're growing up all at once. I finally graduating in December with my bachelor degree in nursing from Northern Kentucky University. Just last week, I got my nursing license in the state of Ohio.

Next week, Carl finds out where he goes for residency. It's really nerve wracking. I'll try to explain how the process works.

Carl has decided that's he's going to be an Emergency Room doctor. He applied to about 40 programs across the nation. Most of them where located in the mid-west, with a couple in the west. Some of the programs wanted to interview him and others didn't. I think he went on about 15 interviews. I was able to go on a few on them once I was done with school. We went to NYC city together on an interview, Buffalo, NY, and to PA. Carl also interviewed in Chicago, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Louisville, and other smaller cities.

After interviews, Carl made what's called his Rank List. He put the programs in order, from 1-16, of where he wanted to go. He had a hard time trying to figure out his list. He had to turn in his list on Feb. 23. He had a whole bunch of things he was looking for in a program, from being able to fly on a helicopter, to doing ultrasounds, to how they do the teaching.

The schools also make a list. They rank the students in order of what who they want to come. I don't think they have one student per spot-more like 10 students per spot.

From there, some computer program sticks things together. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but they say it favors the students. It takes the students list and the programs lists and pops out a match. It's like a mission call-where they tell you you're going in where you're going, you can't turn it down.

Next week, on March 17th, it's Match Day across the nation. That's when we're able to find out where we're going. It's crazy to think how our lives can change because of one little thing. I haven't applied for any jobs because I have no idea where we're going to end up at. We're going to be someplace for 3 years and don't really have much of a say in where we're going.

I am happy to go where ever we end up at. It's crazy to find out where we're going. Stay tuned to find out where!