The shape of things to come

Everyone in my class has been waiting for our allocations for next year to come out.  Well, almost everyone.  Some people were not successfully allocated a full program from their desired preferences by the Big Computer so they had to meet with an actual human being and select something by hand.  Initially I was scathing and contemptuous of them, laughing "Ha ha ha!" in their faces and convinced that somehow they had brought this doom upon themselves by their unclean living and idolatrous ways.  But it turns out that they got to look at what their programs for next year were before the rest of us, so they've been laughing contemptuously in our faces and other such objectionable behaviour.  Those jerks.

But today the school released our programs on provisional bail.  Here's what I'll be up to in my eight 6-week rotations next year:

1. Elective.  Elective?  Oh my god.  I had assumed that this would be later in the year and that I would have time to organise something incredibly exotic so as to prompt jealousy and envy amongst my Esteemed Colleagues, yet easy enough that I can be bone idle.  How can I possibly tee up something between now and then?  Any suggestions?
2. Anaesthetics.  Yay!  I was really hoping to get this because anaesthetists tell lots of funny stories because most of the time they don't have much to do.  And although they have to hang around surgeons a lot, they aren't actually under the surgeon's control.  So there!
3. Renal.  This would be the All-Bran choice.  I'm doing it because I know it's good for me.
4. Chronic pain.  This will be useful coming straight after Renal, because I imagine that Renal is going to be pretty painful for me.  I suspect that at the end of this block I will either love it or hate it.  Actually, probably by the end of the first week.
5. Paediatrics.  This is one of my two electives.  I'm pretty excited about this one because apparently there's a fish-tank on the ward!
6. Holiday block.  This is where I try to recover my wits.  Ommmmm...
7. Emergency psychiatry.  By all accounts an interesting place to be.  Fingers crossed!
8. Otolaryngology.  We have to do a surgery choice, and I never met an ENT I didn't like.  Seriously, if I was to do something foolish like get interested in surgery, ENT would be it.  There's lots of interesting stuff jammed into the head.

It's pretty bizarre to look at now that it's done.  It doesn't seem to bear much relation to what I've spent the last two and three-quarter years doing.  Still, I'm sure that I'll figure it out as I go along.  It seems to have worked just fine so far.