First week of work..

Temperatures of 95 degrees Fahrenheit are not what I expected to meet after a week of being in Spokane. It is currently 23:41 here and without the balcony door open I'm quite sure I would overheat. There's that smell of heat too, its one that I can't explain yet I witness it everytime I've been to places such as Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Africa, etc.

So what's been going on here.. well the end of my first week at work consisted of getting to know parts of the billing system a lot better. Knowing how Quality Assurance works in the IT dept. Seeing how the LIS team operates here and the way they use their systems. I must admit I struggled to understand why their systems were built in such a way- but that is one to find out next week.

By friday night I was pretty much spent. Still not having fully caught up on sleep and trying to take in everything at PAML as well as living somewhere new that just happens to be around 5000 miles from home - it has been tough. I suppose the hardest thing has been having nobody my age to social with, I'm so used to being around people- either family or friends from university that I guess it feels slightly odd suddenly being a little bit isolated. I'm not saying I'm not enjoying this, I think its more of a realisation of this not being a holiday and that its going to take a little bit more time than I expected until I feel I real fit in here. I still don't think its quite hit me that this is actually happening.

During the week I learned a few things about the American healthcare system. It had never hit me before as to how business orientated things are around here. One employee at PAML made a point of telling me how Canadians were coming to Spokane for CT scans due to Canadian hospitals (nationwide) having less than 10 of them, where as Spokane alone had 3 or 4. The waiting list was a lot less and worth paying for, and of course places like Sacred Heart (the non for profit hospital here) were loving the business. It's also worth looking at : http://www.shmc.org/index.php/newsitem/1330 which is a typical example of pushing business- this thing is advertised on television, which surprised me.

In terms of American sayings there isn't too much to report as of yet. One of the first things was a 'combo' meal. In the jack in a box when I asked for a meal there was a lot of confusion, this as well as the word 'cheers'.

I'm just glad there isn't a language divide, to be honest.