Yay! It’s so exciting to hear about your progress! Glad to hear you’re all having fun in Rochester.
You are right, this is THE place for fishing, hunting, boats, all that stuff. Hopefully it will stop raining and being cold soon and you’ll get to experience some actual Rochester summer! If you have free time before school starts or whenever, you should check out northern Minnesota and the North Shore. Closer to where you are, you are not far from the river bluffs which are really pretty too.
Keep us posted about school! Which building are your classes in? Are any of them in that cool big art deco building?
Yeah my hubby is quite excited about the fishing opportunities here. I guess most of my classes are in Guggenheim building, the talles bldg (I think) and it is glass. I am not sure which one the art deco is unless you are talking about the new Gonda building it is just gorgeous! I will keep you posted…
efex,
Keep us posted on how things are going! I look forward to doing the same in January in St.Chris (though OUR biggest accessory will likely be an UMBRELLA!!) Good luck,
Kathy
Yeah, Congratulations!!! You’re on your way!!!
It is getting closer and closer and I am so very looking forward to it. Our unpacking is done and our house set so that is good.
I spent some time the other day at the medical school looking over the list of required books. The list is long but from talking to various medical students most of the books are really not necessary and we can actually check them out from our library. There is a lot of stuff that is required to fill out prior to our orientation. Mayo does an excellent job in always trying to improve things for medical students. We had to fill out a personaly type and I think the other one was a job type test. This will allow us to maybe determine which specialties we are best suited for. It is things like this that makes me realize how fortunate I am to be here…
Okay guys it is getting closer 
we have our schedule for orientation week (all of next week) and there are lots of activities planned. Over and over all the med students that I meet are telling me how awesome this place is…it is nice to hear this from seasoned medical students. Overwhelmingly they all say that one of the major benefit of attending medical school here is the huge range of opportunities that we will be presented with. These range from shadowing any specialty known to mankind to overseas fellowships. I know that at every medical school there is shadowing opportunities but what I think separates my school from the rest is the willingness of these very knowledgeable and often world reknown physicians eager to let some green student observe. I also hear that they really try to get you involved while shadowing…I have met some of my classmates and they are all amazing so far! More later.
All those great things and you get to be in Rochester, Minnesota. How can it be better? 
It may be a small city (100,000) but it offers a lot and the people are great. Although much of the community revolves around Mayo, I hope you get a chance to get out and meet the incredible variety of people Rochester has. It truly is an incredible place to live and raise a family!
Larry
I am meeting more of my classmates every single day it is amazing at the breadth of experiences! over and over I am impressed by this school. Mayo above all does an outstanding job of bringing together a very diverse class in all aspects from religious to socio-economic. It seems that many of us are seasoned world travelers that have been exposed to a wide range of cultures. We are all having a potluck this Saturday at my place to meet before classes start…I am so excited. It is amazing how helpful everyone is here. I contacted some prior years to get the scoop about books and many have responded willing to let me borrow books or sell them for a steal! Over and over I cannot get over how much of a family this place is…everyone works together and posts notes, graphs, pictures for all of us to use…amazing.
Today I start orientation week and I am excited yet somewhat nervous that finally I am there. I am meeting a classmate to walk to the bus stop that will take us to the medical school. Here at Mayo the bus system is excellent and Mayo picks up the tab! so there is really no need to drive. MS1 and MS2 do not get parking privileges but we can park at a lot and then get shuttled to Mayo (shuttle service is always on time and very often) or we can get the public buses. I will keep you guys posted.
Good luck. Have fun. 
Okay…it was just awesome! my classmates are the best bunch of guys you can tell that Mayo puts a lot of thought into getting a good cohesive yet very diverse group of people! some of these guys are just amazing and have done amazing things wow. Today was mostly a “meet and greet” type of thing with some paperwork stuff to do like the healthcare coverage, computer access, name tags, etc. It was a busy day for we started at 8:00 and ended around 5:00. Tomorrow half of us do not have to go until about 12:00 while the other half get oriented to the learning center and the computer environment at Mayo. We have orientation for the whole week so this week we are still in “chill mode” but next week…he he. I had a potluck at my house this past weekend to meet some of my fellow classmates and it was a blast I just love these guys. I am so very very fortunate to have been accepted at this great institution that I am humbled. The Mayo brothers were truly something else and maintained themselves humble throughout their entire life. We met a gentleman that had been a resident under Dr. Will Mayo and it was such an inspiration to hear this man talk, that he took his time to come speak to us, I was honored. I did get teary eyed a couple of times because I am just amazed at how luck I am…
Gosh I am so tired this morning! it is like a mack track ran over me he he. Today will be a shorter day but I am meeting with my group (Mayo split the students into groups of five or so for some events) to go on a scavenger hunt. We are supposed to find a number of spots around Mayo and Rochester and document them via pictures. The more creative you get the better because then they will give prices to the three best groups ( a nice dinner). This serves two purposes…the group gets to know each other better and bond and you become familiar with Mayo and Rochester.
I just wanted to tell you that I feel like I am on this ride with you because of the updates and descriptions. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences thus far, its such a ‘prize’ time, starting and meeting and well, too dang neet!!! thx 
Sounds like fun!
Yesterday we went on our scavenger hunt and took all our pictures. It was a blast! trying to get creative while at the same time maintaining some sort of decorum…he he. We tried to get into the picture as many folks just walking by as we could. There are extra points for getting strangers on the picture, backwards picture, funny faces, etc. I also realized that the purpose of this event is not only to have fun but to get to know those in your group better. As you walk to find these places you start talking about each other and it was great to learn more about my future colleagues (sp?). Most of the morning went by doing this and for lunch (Mayo feeds us really well and very often) we went around different student organization tables and this way met a lot of the second and some third years. The advice from them was priceless and they are so very nice! they passed along names of physicians to shadow, what books to buy, how to handle medical school, and much more. Today I have extensive computer and how to access everything Mayo has to offer online training. We also get our brand new Dell laptops today. To tell you how awesome this place is…I need to get a network going at my home and a M.D/Ph.D student just gathered a group of us that need this and went over what we need to buy and how to set it up. Because mine is more complicated (two pcs and two laptops) he is coming to my house and helping me out! now that is commitment…I love this place.
It was another wonderful day at Mayo yesterday. My group received our laptops which are just awesome and we became very comfortable with the Mayo electronic environment. Mayo prides itself in not only having one of the best equipped libraries but also that everything is at your fingertips from a computer terminal or for the first time ever with our own individual computers. We then received tours of the learning resource center and we met with our advisors. Each group is assigned an advisor consultant (physician) and a third year med student advisor. These folks are here for questions, to sound off ideas on, to hang out, or just when you need someone to talk to. We had a great picnic outdoors and it was great. Later on a good bunch of us got together at a local medical student hangout until about 10:00. I just again (and you will read this ad nauseum) realized how awesome this place is and what a great bunch of folks I am sorrounded by.
efex,
girl, you need to be one of the OPM diarists!! LOL
Kathy
Thanks Kathy! Yesterday was even better OMG it was so much fun! Mayo put the MS1 class through some team building exercises and it was great. We went to an area about 1.5 hours away from Rochester and it was beautiful. We split the whole class into two groups and then each group had a guide that put us through various tasks. It was just amazing to see extremely intelligent folks and many with leadership experience come together to solve these problems. There were no egos, no my way is the best way and we accomplished all tasks and beat time records! I am just in awe really…and it takes a lot to impress me. Everyone was in it together and we worked as a team regardless of where we had come from or what we had done. I think this was an excellent idea and it brings forth sprit de corps. It will be an excellent tool that we will take with us through medical school and residency. Patient care is at least here at Mayo a complete team approach where all opinions need to be heard and thought through to then do what will be best for the patient. The motto here is “the needs of the patient always come first” and this is one of the reasons why I chose Mayo.
Yesterday we went through ethical conduct and the honor code. We were also fed again! an amazing lunch provided by the Mayo Medical School Alumni Association. Then later in the afternoon we met our gross anatomy and histology professors along with our TA’s. I am amazed at the great facilities that Mayo provides for gross anatomy. It is a beautiful new building with great locker rooms and an impeccable gross anatomy lab. Our dissection will be four students per cadaver and we were assigned to our groups. I am honored that kind hearted and altruistic folks donated their bodies so that we can learn. This is undoubtedly the best gift that I have ever received.