Canadian Match

We're patiently waiting for the American match day (when Nathan will find out if he matched to a residency spot) on March 11 and for the notice of WHERE he matched on March 15. I don't really understand why there is a 4-day gap between the two notices. It gives way too much time to be nervous - especially if you don't match and you go into the "scramble".

The scramble is for those students whose ranking of residency programs did not match up with the hospital's ranking for the student so the student then enters a pool where they are put into spots (often not in the place OR specialty they prefer) that other hospitals have vacant.

The Canadian match happened this week so the students who wish to stay in Canada already found out if they matched or not. If they didn't match, they are now waiting for the American match next week (now that would be stressful!).

We're so proud of how many students from Saba are getting Canadian residency spots. It's amazing how well Nathan's class is doing.

I always thought we would come back to Canada for residency because it's home but KC has always felt like a second home so I don't feel the same pull to come back to the life I was living before we started our adventure. I think it's great for those with family ties and the desire to return to their hometowns to practice, I think it shows a dedication to community and roots but we're having alot of fun with the unknown. Nathan and I even begun to joke that entering the scramble would be kind of fun - who knows where we'd end up? Of course, we want to be in Kansas City, but it we don't, we'll be okay with it.

Nathan just doesn't want to end up doing a specialty he doesn't enjoy - the location of hospital doesn't really matter.

Even though we're planning on staying in the US for a little longer, Nathan is still taking his Canadian exams. He signed up for his next exam today and he'll write it in London on April 22. It's the residency exam (to be taken in your first year of residency) but Nathan will be in America and the exam has to be written in Canada and he doesn't think he'll be able to get away so he's going to study like crazy and write it next month.

In order to sign up for a test spot we had to find some reliable internet. Because my parents live rurally, the internet isn't that reliable (and it's quite slow) so we went to St. Thomas to the library.

I love the St. Thomas Library. It's clean and well organized, the staff is great and I think they're are doing really creative things (ie. book packages and holiday ideas - Blind Date with a Book) but they don't have reliable internet either. Nathan was very frustrated by this when he studied there last year and tried to talk to the management but it never got anywhere. Here we are, a year later and we frantically have to leave the library because there was no internet access for Nathan to sign up for his test.

It's dissapointing that a resource center doesn't have internet access. It added stress to an already stressful morning but we were able to get to McDonald's in time. We had a latte date together to celebrate one more step in the adventure.