Fuhgeddaboudid

It's been about two and a half weeks since I landed in NY.
I landed here with only: a US working visa - no money, no veterinary license, no social security number and no car.

As of today, I have: a US working visa (and a questionable one at that) - no money, no veterinary license, no social security number and just barely, BARELY got my car yesterday.

What can I say? It would have been easier for me to find work and money if I'd rafted here from Cuba. Not to mention the fact that no one would then sue me if I touched their animal.

That's right. With no license, I am prohibited by my workplace to touch the animals or present myself as a doctor in any way. My name is not to appear in any of the medical records and I am certainly, CERTAINLY not allowed to talk to clients.

Clients in the area I am working in are, how can I say this nicely . . . "special." I believe the official word that they use at work is "litigious."

Litigious is a euphemism for: they'll sue your ass off any chance they get- and when they have your ass, they'll want your soul too.

Welcome to NY baby.

The current graduating intern class has no less than 5 lawsuits against them. We were told in our orientation session that we WILL be sued and that we will just have to deal with it.

Every day, we show up to work and ask where our supervisor is.
"Oh, Dr. P? He's in court again today for one of the interns."
"Wasn't he there yesterday too?"
"That was for a different intern."
"Right."
"He's going to be gone on Monday too."
"Perfect."

I should have clued in when I went to go apply for my liability insurance with the american vet association and there was, in capital letters on their website:

Professional Liability (Malpractice)- click here for professional liability rates and application (EXCEPT FOR NEW YORK).
NEW YORK veterinarians: CLICK HERE FOR YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIABILITY RATES AND APPLICATION

Oh yeah. It's so bad here we have our own set of liability rates and application form.

Sigh.

Fortunately, I'm not the only one in my internship class that doesn't have her license yet. There're 9 interns altogether and 3 of us still don't have our license. Mostly it's because two of us are foreigners (the other girl is from Bermuda- again, we regret we did not ship ourselves into the country in an illegal cargo container on a boat from China) and the third girl graduated from a vet school in the Caribbean.

In the meantime, I had to sell my soul to the DMV to finally get my new car registered (I spent 4 hours trying to get my car registered but I'll spare you all the details. Suffice to say I now spit on the ground whenever someone mentions the DMV). Ptew!

I got to bring my baby home yesterday and I've spent most of my time (when I'm not at work trying not to get sued or yelled at) staring out my kitchen window at my little Honda Fit on the street and gushing at it.

It's not been the smoothest transition but I really can't complain too much. Sure, I don't have a license. And sure, I'm not going to get paid until I get my social security number. But hey, at least I'm a real vet now. And the other great thing is that I live literally a stones throw from a Dunkin' Donuts (not quite as good as Tim Hortons of course, but by golly I'll take it).

Sorry for the whiney post. I promise the next one will be more positive.

I just woke up and drove to work for a 7am lecture only to find out it was cancelled and had to drive my ass back home. My shift tonight is from 5pm till "midnight." I put the quotation marks around midnight cus last time, I got home at 3am.

Damn it. I'm whining again.

Take care people. Thinh and Ngoc, can't wait to see you guys! I hope I can get some time off to get into the city to see you in the fall. I'm not directly in NYC but I'm a mere 45min train ride away.

And Wayne, I'm wondering why the hell I went into vet school too.