Well, The Glovers are off to Europe, and it started poorly from the beginning. Having been so proud to work a direct flight from Dallas to Paris, we were somewhat disappointed as we sat at the Gate in Lubbock “International” Airport as our plane from Dallas departed. Rain delays in DFW sent ripples to outlying airports, where we experienced an inbound grounding. Once the grounding was lifted we had burned so much fuel sitting on the runway that we had to return to the gate to refuel. Once we refueled, the inbound grounding was back in effect. At this point, we feared it was likely we would not get out of Texas that night. Luckily, the iPhone paid for itself. Although, the American Airlines operator told me we were out of luck, I had searched the flight schedule on their website and found a later flight connecting through London Heathrow on British Airways. After 45 minutes on the phone, we were all set with our new itinerary.

Aside from the mass chaos of London Heathrow (i.e. 300 meters of gateways, 3 flights of stairs, 1 escalator, customs, more walking, a 10 minutes bus to the other terminal, security, and more running) everything else went smoothly. We arrived safely at 16H, instead of 9H as planned, but were grateful to have made it to Paris on the right day.

We eased into Parisian life slowly with a nice walk around the Montparnasse neighborhood and a lovely dinner at restaurant name La Place. The food lived up to its name. We had a delicious meal of Escargot, beef tartar, Magret de Canard (duck), and a pear crumble.

Well, we Glovers haven’t blogged in a while. However, we have had many people ask us about Match week and we thought we’d give you an idea of how it works. Throughout the week we will update you as we know more information. Match week is as follows:

 

Monday Morning (3/16/09): This is the day we find out IF we matched. Sometime before 11 A.M. we should get an email that tells us the answer to that question. This is probably what we are most nervous about because if we do not match then we enter what is called “the scramble”. On Tuesday we will race against the clock and other scramblers to match to places that have unfilled spots. As a couple it would be very difficult to find openings in the same town in our respective fields. We are both very nervous about the Monday morning email. If you know us at all, Stephanie is the type that wants to have a Plan A and Plan B in case this happens to us. Of course, if you know Mark, then you know he doesn’t want to even discuss it until it happens. We truly compliment one another and that has made this process easier for us.

 

Thursday Morning (3/19/09): This is actual match day. At 10:45 in the morning our Lubbock class will meet together and eye our hermetically sealed envelopes sitting in the middle of the room. At the Stroke of 11:00 A.M. a bell will dong and we will all rip them open at the same time and find out where we will be for residency. Across America medical students open their envelopes at the same time. So match day starts at 12:00 eastern and adjusts accordingly for each time zone. I know there will be so much emotion in that room in just about a 30 second span. We cannot wait to see where not only we end up but all the wonderful friends we have met in medical school. Everyone has worked hard and we hope the best!

 

Thursday evening: We will have a “Match Day” Dinner and celebrate the end of a crazy week.

 

Finally, a question we often get is “will you guys be together in the same town”. Fortunately, there is a couple’s match to ensure that we won’t be apart. Finally, in case you have been under a rock, Mark is going to be a general surgeon and Stephanie is going into Pediatrics.

On Friday March 13th Mark turned 26. We aren’t huge birthday people but we usually have our favorite cake and a nice dinner. Mark luckily had the day off and we just vegged out. He had his usual Italian Cream Cake that he orders up every year. That night we went to Abuelo’s for dinner. Here’s a photo from our date: