White Coat Ceremony

This afternoon was the school of medicine's white coat ceremony. As I have learned from Wikipedia, it is supposed to mark our transition from the academic science portion of med school (first 2 years) to the clinical portion (second 2 years), but many universities like ours have early forays into the clinical world so they hold them earlier. Thus, I think the primary purpose of our little game of doctor dress up today was to be a carrot on a stick for our next four years. A little whiff of what we hope to eventually reach. Some of the speeches were good, others were unremarkable. And the graduation like parade of the entire class across the stage was grueling. The Prime Minister was there with his two impressive looking body guards though, so that did provide me with a brief bit of entertainment. A nice reception followed, so I was able to avoid another night of cooking. And a small group of us were invited over for dinner by a few of the vet students. All in all it was a nice night, but now it's almost Monday and there will be no relenting until midterms. The included picture is of me and a few of my fellow classmates and friends. Right - Pat my roommate from Jersey, Lower - James from NY, Left - Genc from Philly/Kosovo. Hopefully I'll have more official looking photos when friends get done sharing, and the professional hired by the school makes his available. (Disclaimer - This picture was taken before the ceremony. We've matured vastly since then. Now we always act like professionals :)