Where does anyone want to live, really?

I had a long conversation with a friend of a friend today, someone with whom I have been keeping in touch throughout interview season (us Canadian International Medical Graduates have to stick together) and she asked what I had decided on for housing in residency. I told her I wasn't really sure. Here are the basic decision parameters for me:

Security - I have to live in an area that isn't overrun by crime. Then again, I can't live somewhere that's extremely far from the hospital. And the area in which the hospital is situated is overrun by poverty. And assumedly crime.

Space - I have to live in at least a one-bedroom apartment. No studios, possibly a lot. Having said all that, I can't very well live in an apartment because there's no guarantee of noiselessness. A condo is not an apartment, condominiums tend to have much thicker walls and more reliable property managers than your run-of-the-mill apartments. If I lived in a condo it probably wouldn't be the end of the world. If I lived in a townhouse, though, I'd only share walls with two people instead of five, and those people presumably wouldn't be 20-something drug addicts. Preferably, anyway. If I have a townhouse then I'll have more room to put the weight rack, the bike, the guitar .... I'm not much of a furniture person, honestly.

Location, location, location - I gave up living close to the hospital when I saw the surrounding area on interview. There are two locations in which I could potentially live, one is closer to the main city and 22 minutes by highway and road from the hospital. The other is in a small town further from the city but closer to the hospital (about 14 minutes, by road).

Lots of tough decisions. I'll make them more decisively once I find out who my resident advisor is, can sit down and send them a long email asking about housing. I didn't do today's Sarnecki because I spent time planning the European vacation today, but I did manage to get in my first guitar practice session in years. No, it did not rock. I'd say this is going to take work, but I actually enjoyed running through scales. There's something about sitting down with the guitar, the ability to create music, that I unfortunately caught on to at a young age. I say "unfortunately" because I didn't know at the time that it came with practice obligations and the associated time. I don't know which hobby I would have picked if I hadn't picked music, but spare time has to go toward something. Today's sugar avoidance was tougher than yesterday's because I fared poorly on today's simulated exam, but I'm not beating myself up about it because it doesn't accurately simulate the real thing. Tomorrow's simulated exam more accurately simulates the real thing, and the target for that is 205. If I get 205 or over, I'm good. Having said that, we're trying for much more. Still haven't eaten any sugar, 2 days now. Yes I'm going to keep mentioning that, I'm just that impressed with myself.