News from the West Coast

Hey guys,
How are you doing? Hope that you are all doing well. I am doing great as well. I am now settling into northern california.

Sacramento is a nice area to live, but I have not been able to find my social niche yet. The hospital is good, and the department where I will be working (orthopaedics) is pretty well reputed. My apartment is perfect, except that it is not the safest in the world, all the other tenants seem to have tattoos (all of sacramento for that matter) and it can be a bit loud, but the location is unbeatable. The place is 1 mile from work, so I just bike there and walking distance from cool bars and nice parks.

I have been exploring San Francisco and Southern California quite a bit. Indeed, I have been visited Einar a couple of times already. My current rotation is kind of a crazy one. I am taking care of the emergency room and the patients that are admitted, so kind of the stuff that you see on TV. Lots of motor vehicle collisions, stab wounds, beatings, shootings, a surprising number of shootings...The craziest part about it, is that it is shift work. So I work 5 nights from 6 pm to 8 am, then have a day off, followed by 2 days on from 6 am to 6 pm, a day off and start all over again. As you guys can probably gather, I don't know when to eat or sleep anymore, so I am just trying to do as much from either as I can.

This routine has had unexpected consequences, at least unexpected by me. Last week, I had a day off and decided to drive to San Franscisco (about an hour away). On my way back, I was starting to feel tired and stopped half way through to rest. I considered taking a nap, but couldn't really. Since I only had 40 more miles to go, I decided to make a push for it. I was driving and about 13 miles from my place, I opened my eyes and saw my car going 80 mph heading towards the left median of the highway. The bushes hit the car, I quickly swerved right, then (I think) my right front tired blew up and the car started spinning. Despite my attempts at controlling it, the car must have done about 4 360's. I remembered time was going extremely slowly and I found myself getting ready for a collision and thinking this is exactly why I bought a Passat with 6 airbags.I was fortunate in several ways.

For one, the accident occurred later at night and there were no other cars on the road. Also, the car found its way to the right shoulder as if guided by the hand of God. To all observers after the accident, it looked as if I had just pulled over to the shoulder. My car did not get mechanically damaged, but there is significant damage to the left side of the doors and both rear and front bumpers. So long story short, my car was totalled because labour is super expensive here, apparently $70+/hr vs $40/hr in MN. I am debating whether to keep the salvaged car or to just take the money and run. Not quite sure yet. Well, that's my story so far.

I hope you guys are doing well and I look forward to hear from you.
Take care,Jose