by Juliane
I started reading the postdoc guide book here. Since then I have found out that I can just google postdoc guide book BUMC to find it and don’t have to follow the links on the GMS postdoc website. Much easier this way!
The next part of the guidebook is called getting settled.
There are a lot of links that could be updated, but the guidebook was written in 2011 and a pdf is hard to update, so it might not be really necessary for the small stuff.
Information about the ID office has been updated on the linked Transcomm website, but not in the guidebook. Main changes: The price for a lost card is now 40 dollars, and the office is no longer open between 9.30 and 12.30.
The next part is copied and linked from BUMC-IT, so I highly recommend to just follow the link and not rely on the information in the guidebook, since as before there have been updates. Maybe there should be a disclaimer somewhere: information was correct in 2011. The year is present on every page, so I guess for reasonably educated people with a PhD that should be sufficient.
There is a useful table with location of banks and ATMs around the medical campus, which helps people new to the US to choose the bank where they want to open a bank account. This is great and useful.
The next part is about food and there are really quite a few places to eat without leaving campus. I didn’t even know MG’s or the Fuller café and I have been at the medical campus for three years now. I will definitely check them out now.
What isn’t mentioned are the varying food trucks on the corner Concord/Harrison streets and Flour on Washington Street. There is however a little ad for Flour as well as for Jae’s Eatery, which is on Columbus Street.
If we start making listing food places as far as Columbus Street, we should also mention Mike’s Diner and Equator in Washington Street and Orinoco at the corner of Concord and Shawmut streets to name just a few. There are certainly more nice affordable restaurants within walking distance from the medical center and often their lunch menus are the same price or marginally more expensive than the food in the hospital cafeterias.
Also as of this year city convenience on Albany street morphed somehow into a subway and from what I heard the sandwiches are less good but the service is faster.
The next page is about libraries and computers, I liked the part that helps BMC postdocs to get access to the BU library. It is worth to visit the Alumini medical library just for the view from the 12th floor. You don’t need a library card for this.
This page also mentions BU IT. BU IT is great, they even fix personal computers, however they charge more than some commercial companies and are relatively slow. What is great about BU IT is the HUB-program, that allows BU employees to buy the newest version of Microsoft office for 10 dollars. This information should be added to the guide book!
This completes the getting settled part, which definitely needs some updates, but is a nice starting point for postdocs, who are new to Boston.