Entirely Different

The hospital's symbol of a woman nursing the child

My first day at Etfal State Hospital was very welcoming.

Tolga's Mum accompanied me to Şişli (pronounced as shish-li). Şişli is the district of the hospital. I was nervous as hell. I was afraid my workmates wouldn't like me, I would be incompetent, maybe alienated or something nasty will happen. I didn't know why I was so pessimistic but I guess I'm always like that :P

I'm just so glad that everything turned out the opposite of what I expected!

Now an official medical assistant at the Internal Medicine Department, I'll be working with 8 others and 2 main doctors. Being the only Asian (from the Far East) ... can't say I can escape from the stare/observation of the public. I have to constantly remind myself not to dig my nose bite my fingers LOL

Everybody speaks English and I'm saying perfect English. I'm not sure if it's so good for me because I won't be able to improve my Turkish! Medical terms are similar to English/Latin, I mean better than some Russian words that go way out of line. Everyone is friendly, pretty easy-going and they seemed to enjoy learning my name or how to get it right :)

The Head of the Hospital, Prof.Yuksel made such a drama about my engagement with the hospital, I thought it was a bit too early in the morning. He's such a funny man. Any more spotlight on me, I think I WILL be alienated sooner nor later. In the picture above, my department is on the 6th Floor on the left. Oooohhh.. and guess what. Lunch for doctors and hospital staffs is free.

5 days a week, 8am-4pm. No over-time.

Yeahhh, I think I can handle that fine. Just need to brush up on my Internal Medicine knowledge ;)