Moving around during the third year of medical school is definitely not any easy job. It’s scary not knowing where you will live or who you will live with or what the city will be like. It has been quite the adventure! I’m ending my third year here, in Des Moines, Iowa, right where my medical school career began. Crazy how the year is coming full circle.
I was in Detroit, Michigan for the last four months rotating in a small community hospital three miles from 8 mile, where Eminem grew up living the hard life. (I have to include that in my description of my Detroit adventures, understandably so.) Detroit was an adjustment at first and later a bittersweet goodbye; coming back to Des Moines has been a welcome delight.
My car full of my belongings rolled in on a Saturday afternoon and by the evening I was already sipping a glass of wine at Trostel’s Dish. There might be exotic restaurants in Detroit, but there’s nothing like this classy tapas bar where the food and company are enlightening, and the service reminds one that while we Des Moinkers understand sophistication, this is still the good ol’ Midwest.
Monday morning I remembered how much I appreciate the commute times here. My drive to Methodist Hospital was literally four minutes and probably four miles in distance as well. It took me 20 minutes to travel from 11 mile to 12 mile back in D-town. While I don’t mean to patronize, that’s one mile. On the way home Monday I stopped at Gateway Market and had a blast filling up my little basket with trinkets. Everything from the Pierre Robert brie to tomato focaccia found its way into the confines of the little plastic bin I was carrying around. I managed to snack on a few samples as well!
Zanzabar’s was visited shortly after that, where my taste buds welcomed back my favorite drink – the Mocha Mex. I realized how much I craved that kind of place with such friendly service, like they had known me for years, and the smell of freshly ground coffee filling up the small little shop.
I can’t compare the two cities as they are so vastly different, but I will say that coming ‘home’ has been a remarkable treat. There is still so much I look forward to doing during my four months here. I really cannot wait to re-explore what I had missed so much while away.
-Neesha Dhanak, D.O. class of 2009
