My day trip from hell.

I was invited to interview for a pretty sweet CDC Fellowship position on Tuesday. The fellowship is designed to train future epidemiologists at the state and local level during a two year program. It is a great honor to be interviewed and considered for this position so I was really excited about it.

Especially when I found out yesterday that I was accepted!!!!

After being accepted into the program you go through a matching process to find out where you will end up for the next two years. Places include (but are not limited to) Madison; New York; California; Vancouver, WA; Chicago; New Hampshire; Columbia, SC, etc. There are also areas of focus to choose from which include environmental health, infectious disease, chronic disease, maternal and child health and injury.

Though the actual fellowship position can be anywhere in the U.S. the interview was at headquarters in Atlanta, GA.

I left Madison at 8:35am and arrived back in Madison at 10:55pm that night. What happened in between made these 14 hours seem like 14 days.

Ok I just said 14 days because it sounded good next to 14 hours, in reality it felt more like 3 very long days.

I arrived in Atlanta pretty smoothly, the flight was a little delayed so I called the office where I was interviewing to let them know. They said no problem, they were running late anyway. So I hopped on the Marta train and headed north through downtown Hotlanta and after about 45 minutes got off at the correct station.

From there I was to take a cab to the office. I had the address to the office. I got in the first cab I saw (normal). The cab driver had his 5 year old daughter with him (not so normal). The cab driver had NO idea where we were going, had no maps and did not seem to be in radio contact with anyone (definitely not normal). I also couldn't understand anything he said because he had such a thick accent (probably normal).

He asked me if it was near some University that I had never heard of.

I said "I have no idea, I have never been there before, but it is on *2872 Peacock Street." At the cabbies persuasion I called the office and they said yes, it is near that University. (Why he could not call dispatch or a friend with Mapquest I have no idea).

We arrived in the general location of the office. It was a very large office park with dozens of buildings with different names.

"There is building 2871, yours must be right next door"

There wasn't really a "next door" and we were NOT on Peacock Street.

"Um...we are NOT on Peacock Street", I said.

After kind of staring around and at each other for a while I said, "Ok, whatever, here is your money, I will find it somehow." I called the office again to let them know and ask if they knew where I was, they had no idea. The receptionist told me how we should have gotten there from the train station and I remembered seeing one of the street names. I realized we were way past where we should have turned.

The taxi driver was still kind of standing around with his daughter who was offering me magnets she said were made in China and telling me that Mexico is now under two different governments. "It is?" I said. "You didn't know that???" She said mockingly. I still have no idea if she was messing with me or not.

I got back in the cab and blindly told him where I thought we had to go. Out of some kind of luck I didn't know I had I saw one of the streets the receptionist had mentioned and told the incompetent driver to turn left.

"No I think we turn right." He said.

Oh no, not this time buddy.

I said "Just turn left." So he did. I saw Peacock Street and said "Ok, here we are (finally), let me out."

"Oh yes, here it is", he said as though he knew it all along.

Needless to say, I was in a really horrible, angry and frustrated mood when I arrived at my interview (half an hour late). An interview I had just flown all the way from Madison to Atlanta to attend. The only hour that mattered was the next one, so I pulled myself together, smiled and went inside.

It went really great and less than 24 hours later I found out I was accepted into the program and invited to match.

On the way back to Madison the Chicago airport closed down for 2 hours due to weather, I was stuck on the runway in Atlanta for that entire time. I did, however, make it back to Madison on time.


*Names of streets have been changed for no good reason.