An akward introduction

He smiled.

"For the compliment: thank you, very much. I happen to think that your hair is absolutely gorgeous." He grinned and gave her a wink. "If you pick up any more classes, I'm not seeing how you're going to have any time at all to decompress and just relax."

"My hair? I've always thought it's a horrible color but never been able to choose what color to make it." then a pause "But thank you for your compliment." with a look at her schedule.

"I'm at 16 credits, working 25 hours at the computer lab, picking up hours when I can and now doing languages with you. Not a medical student's craziness but crazy enough." with a coy grin at him.

He laughed.

"Your hair is a lovely color. And if you keep telling me that, half of our lesson is going to be shouting Russian curses at bad video games."

"Oh promises promises. I can curse pretty good in Russian too." with a laugh and grin at him. "Thank you." shaking her head as her cheeks went red thinking of something but obviously not sharing.

"So should I start Rosetta stoning it or how do you wish me to prep for our first lesson?"

He leaned forward.

"No. No Rosetta Stone. If I'm going to teach you this language, I want a clean slate to work with, so that you aren't getting confused by two different teaching methods."

She leaned towards him, naturally mimicking his movements, which in most gives a sense of comfort and intimacy but not on a threatening level, and she was obviously doing it subconsciously. "Very well my tongue will be unpolluted till we meet again." with a soft chuckle. "Anything else I should know?"

He laughed.

"No, that's all, I think."

"Okay any more questions for me?" with a lean towards him still, sipping her drink and licking the salt off her lips again.

He leaned forward a bit, then smiled.

"Tell me about yourself. What are your hobbies?"

"I use to love to ride horses, ballroom dance, and do gymnastics. Now I seem to just study, work, and go to class." with a grin at him. "I work and go to bars, shoot pool badly and still love Mango and sticky rice from the amazing Thai restaurant buried about 3 blocks from here." with a look at her drink as she spoke.

Glancing at him, "In a perfect world I'd take Professor Lawrence up on what he wants me to learn. But I won't make enough to pay off my school and live at the same times." with a look at him, as she slowly took another drink.

For the first time, he picked up his drink and took a sip from it. He was listening to her intently, so it was an absentminded drink. Almost as though now the business was done, he could drink and just kick it and chat.

He smiled, wanly. "Isn't that the way of it, though? Unless you have a full academic scholarship, you're pretty well just trying to frantically tread water to keep from drowning."

"I've got a partial that covers part of my books and about one class. But it's better than nothing, but at this school very few work study kids or if they are they are really picking and well I keep getting nights at the computer lab." With a chuckle. "Or someone is preparing me for 3rd shift."

Looking at him "how close are you to done? And where are you looking to do your internship?"

He winced.

"Ouch. A partial is good, but it really means 'I-strip-for-lunch-money' to a lot of folks. And no, that's not in any way an insult -- it's what people have to do to survive. Hell, I've done it." Yes, he said that. "We'll see about getting you a bit more free time. And I've got a year and a half left -- I'll probably intern at the local one here, PSL General. Then move on to do my residency at U-F."

"Do they have a pediatric surgery program locally or in U-F?" she was obviously curious, realizing she never thought of it before, and with a smile at him. "I think I'd make more stripping for lunch." with a chuckle "But the "good Catholic" girl in me can't do it. Not overly religious but those early teachings I just can't get beaten out of me." with a soft laugh and a gentle running of her finger along the salted rim of her drink.

He threw back his head and laughed softly.

"Nooo, no. See, you don't beat something like that out of someone. You encourage them to do it with positive reinforcement. There's a big difference there. And no, there's not a local pediatric surgery unit -- that's only at U-F."

She grinned at his comments about beating it out of her, "Well let's say it was beaten in to me quite often. I asked too many questions, or so said Sister Anna Maria." with a nod to him "So do you start with "adult" surgery and then go to specialize from there or do you do pediatrics and then move into surgery from there? If I'm being too nosy you can tell me to stop." with a lick of the salt from her finger, while she looked to him for his answers.

He smiled at her.

"I hate nuns. That said, the way that it works is that you start with pediatrics and work your way up. Eventually, I'll look into adult surgery as well, but for now, pediatrics is what I would like to specialize in."

She nodded about the nuns, gently rubbing her knuckles in memory and then a question popped into her head "Now let's say you wanted to do pediatric neurological surgery's would that be an additional specialization?" taking a sip of her drink.

"And are you done book work and just doing rounds or are you doing both? And is that typical or does one normally do one or the other?" because medicine was far more interesting than international business.

He smiled at her questions.

"Well, those are two different things. Neurology as a whole is a specialization by itself, and a really important one. It takes a special kind of person to be able to work with such a vital organ as the brain. So it would be a specialization within a specialization to be a pediatric neurosurgeon. I'm still in classes, so it's still all book work for now. Obviously, we work with cadavers and so there's hands-on training as well, we just haven't started working on live patients yet."

"Have you assisted with a live one or helped?" with a grin at him as he was still answering her questions. "Or is that what the internship will be?" she again was tracing her finger on the salted rim, watching him and waiting for his answer. She was currently oblivious to anyone else, as he had her full attention and she figured better ask now while she could in English.

He smiled.

"That's what the internship and residency will be. For now, they don't want me murdering little kids accidentally."

She chuckled "Very true, but if you don't get to watch a real surgery how do you get experience? Is that the residency period?" with a warm smile at him, as the drink was putting a touch of blush to her cheeks, and she was still gently tracing the rim of her glass.

"Sorry your choice of academia is much more interesting than mine." with another lick of her fingers for the salt "Or seems so to me." with a sip of her drink while she watched him.

He laughed softly.

"That's the internship, actually. Watching the surgery doesn't happen until you're in a hospital. Residency is assisting and occasionally performing the surgery with someone who is an expert."

"So then when do you do the actual surgery?" looking at him curiously it was very complicated it seem. "I am thinking you are the one with the much harder schedule" with a warm smile at him "Sure you can fit me in." it was an honest question.

"Here I am complaining about Economics and well just tell me to suck it up. Put my big girl panties on." with a soft laugh.

He smiled.

"Toward the end of the residency, and of course, when we begin practicing medicine ourselves. Currently, my schedule isn't all that bad; I can fit you in easily."