CPE day one

Interesting day -- met the 4 others I will be spending the summer with -- 3 in their 20's: one Korean American man (he came to this country when he was 12) who wants to be an Episcopal priest, one NYC native who was raised Presbyterian (Madison Ave. Presb. church) who is now Episcopalian, one son of a Methodist minister who grew up in Wisconsin, and a 35-yr-old divorced man who is a chaplain at a private school but is pursuing ordination in the UCC. All are Yale Divinity School students but me -- I have learned today to use the acronym "YDS" and refer to biblical Greek as koine (of course I knew the term, but we at PTS are not erudite enough to refer to Greek as anything other than Greek -- not sure if we are simpletons, or more cut-to-the-chase scholars!). Toured some of the hospital and met most of the DORM staff (don't you love the acronym? Department of Religious Ministries) -- but some activities were curtailed cuz "we" are moving from the "Grace" building (how apropos) to the Hunter building (hmmm) and the Grace building will be torn down (boo!) to make room for a 14-story cancer center (yeah!). Union fights exist even there, so that's what has delayed our move to this week or even later. Means we will have to learn our way around first, and then relocate and get our bearings again. It will be OK.

Finding the place was easy and the shuttle bus was good. I came from the furthest away, and I arrived 2nd this morning. The guy who came from almost as far away as me arrived 1st. I like the people I will be working with. Nervous over which floor assignments I will request -- they all have pro's and con's -- Dad wants me to work on the floor Mom was on, which I was considering doing for other reasons. I don't want to work with kids -- will have to confront that demon sometime.... Am torn between praying for a "slow" summer and getting some actual experience that will be useful to me in my new career -- don't want to "use" the patients, or their families -- or the staff (a population I hadn't considered I would be helping) -- but do want to be helpful and of some comfort....

Touring the ED (emergency room, but here they call it the emergency department) was kind of frightening. I felt like I was in the way, and I wanted to be respectful of patients in pain and worried families. Otherwise it tends to feel like a peep show. I told my folks that when I am assigned to a "case"/patient, I will feel more like I have a right to be there, so hopefully won't feel like I should hide or get out of the way. Thank goodness I don't get squeamish, like some of the youngsters said they do. They also have not seen a dead body....

Reading another great Carl Hiaasen novel -- good change of gears! Time to go for now.....