Bits of Shiny

So it's been a long forever since I've last posted - and since my last post I've finished up my pre-med work at American University, taken the MCATs, graded my last lab report as a Chem TA, interviewed and got accepted into medical school, moved to West Virginia, survived the first two years of medical school in Lewisburg along with passing the first step of the national boards, served on a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic, went on a safari in Tanzania with my mom (took a selfie with my EKG book and a wild leopard in a tree!), fundraised for the next year's service trip to the Dominican Republic, directed and acted in the V. Monologues, performed Danse Macabre for the school's talent show, moved to Petersburg WV to do most of my third year clinical rotations, met the most amazing guy, moved back to DC, studied and passed my second step of the national boards, and am now in full-fledged gypsy-traveling fourth year medical student mode.



There are moments when I am amazed that I'm actually in medical school and doing things like suturing up a man's face, delivering a baby, holding someone's hand and calming them down through the few moments before they are intubated, and in lots of very banal moments where all I can think is - 'you've mixed me up with someone who knows what they're doing... but I'll do my best to be what you need in this moment'.  Only because I know that I'm surrounded by others that have done this for years and that I have no fear about asking for help, am I starting to get a bit more comfortable with the uncertain world that is working in medicine.

Since summer I've lived and worked in Baltimore, DC, Philadelphia, Hartford (CT), and am currently living in Phili and working in Camden, NJ - at least for the next two weeks.  I'm applying to residency programs and interviewing all over the place, and on the weekends either traveling to interviews or new rotation sites, or working in the hospital to make up 'missed' time from my rotations while I was off interviewing.  In the hours I'm not in the hospital or clinic, or when I get a few spare moments, I find myself studying not for exams, but because medicine is a humbling field and there is .always. more to learn, more to re-learn, to understand better, more to improve upon.  That in addition to remembering the little details: to reserve the rental car for the interview on Friday, get my massively busy attending to fill out the school-required evaluation form and fax it in, to get those groceries, figure out where I'm living and what my commute to the new hospital will be, how the new computer system at the hospital works, learning a new hospital layout every few weeks, how my new attending and team run rounds, and all the little details of general life that seem to pile up alongside my laundry.

However, amidst the standard chaos that is life and being a traveling medical student, I have found the most understanding defiantly romantic man and so on the few days that my reeling and spinning slows we find ourselves together.  Wonderful adventures follow: hiking and exploring wherever I've seem to land, eating all kinds of wonderful foods, meeting friends, playing fiddle at SCA events, swing dancing at Glen Echo, Mobtown in Baltimore, or in downtown Phili in a public park.  On the harder weekends when I've been trapped by the pressure from the mountain of 'things I don't know' he's been there with his own computer and we've quietly, separately but together, pounded away on our work with the simple joys of sharing a meal together or punctuating a small measure of progress with a kiss as one of us stretches and grabs a glass of water.  He has also been there when the weight and severity and horror of what I encounter in clinic or in the hospital forces its way through my mental barricades - when I come home and find it crashing in on me - somehow kept at bay until I have closed the door of my apartment.  These are the moments when it helps immensely that we share the same field.

I never expected to fall in love with someone in the medical profession, as I am a decently geeky person, and in general most doctors aren't the same flavor as geek as someone who gets amused by things like positive anymore (http://microsyntax.sites.yale.edu/positive-anymore), or Firefly, or fiddling, or swing dancing, or the miriad of other non-medical things I find fascinating and wonderful in life.  It's not so say that it's not possible, but I thought it very unlikely.  Then Jeffrey and I met - and to say things went well after that point is a serious understatement.



To give you a bit of background about him if you don't know him: he's a full fledged physician-scientist working at a .very. well known institution in Baltimore and despite all of that, incredibly humble.  Since he's tackled his own path to being a physician he understands what I'm going through as he's been there.  His schedule between research, clinic, and being on call is equally insane - although with the additional pressure of being an attending physician fighting both for his patients as well as fighting for research funding.  But whatever his academic and career successes, he is at the core, one of the most genuinely kind and gentle people one could ever meet.  He is geeky in equal measure as I am, evidenced that our first date we went geocaching and our third date we were playing fiddle at the Maryland Renn Faire with some of his awesome friends.  (Btw, he met my Dad for the first time that day - dressed in full garb bouncing in with a box full of dresses borrowed from his friends for me to wear to faire.)

We have been both been been blessed with fantastic families and amazing friends - who we don't get to see as often as we like - but in time I hope all of you will meet him.

So while I'm unlikely to be better about about updating this journal regularly I figured I'd take a moment and stop in.

Life has continued to take me on this wonderful chaotic mess of a journey, but I've been loving the adventure.



I wish you all calm seas, a carrying wind, and a song in your heart.

Greetings all!  

It was pointed out to me that my most recent post was still of a snow covered DC.  Spring has exploded most beautifully, and the spring semester has also come to an end.  I managed to get all my grading and studying done, and the summer semester has already begun!

This is a video that I finally took off my camera and thought was adorable enough to post. 
YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ncsKzkrdA

It's hard to believe that we're expecting thunderstorms this afternoon when you have this kind of beautiful morning sun.






Mochi, however, decided to go into her favorite place in my apartment. 





Have I mentioned recently that I love my kitties?

The snow has stopped, and everyone is trying to dig out.  I personally love snow, as you wander around a neighborhood and people smile at you, greet you, and are so much more neighborly!  It really brings out the best in people. :)  

Looking at the conditions of the roads, I'm pretty convinced that we won't be having classes tomorrow.  But who knows.  I'll be studying for the MCAT one way or the other.  

Some photos taken at 10am on Sunday, Feb. 7th, 2010:


A car buried on Albemarle street.


Albemarle Street looking towards Wisconsin Ave.



Yours truly, standing in snow.  Those boots go up to just below my knee.



A bit of scale.  That is a ruler of a standard 12 inches or just a bit more than 30cm, for those of you in metric.



Benches by Janney Elementary School.



Yuma Street folks digging out.


Looking up 42nd by the intersection with Albemarle.


 Thankfully, not my car.


Wisconsin Ave and Albemarle Street. 

I am thankful to have power, water, kitties, covered parking, and food.  And what's more, lots and lots of science to keep me from boredom.  :)
Hope you all are well!

 Well, I have officially begun to study for the MCAT itself.  Mochi, however, is confused.



She's wondering, why there're no cats involved in an MCAT.  So here she is, remedying this obvious flaw.  



Later today, she was showing me where the cation was.  (ba-dump)



Furthermore, being a stylish kitty, she's discovered that she likes Puma shoe boxes.  


Penelope is still good, but spent most of today sleeping.  :)  

Well, the weather is against me. As expected, the 10:00pm flight out to Buenos Aires was delayed until tomorrow night. So it’s another night in the hotel near the airport. Luckily the food is tasty, the beds are comfy, and the heat works.



Look! Snow!


And me pouting about missing the night flight.

Fourth of July weekend was a great whirlwind of family, studying, and fun.  My Cioci (Aunt) Ricki and Dziadziu (Grandfather) came down for a visit.  We went to a picnic and then watched the fireworks.  Dziadziu cracked me up by blowing the bubbles on the table.  For a while he was aiming them at Cioci Ricki.  :) I adore them both!  

The fireworks were beautiful, but as usual, difficult to photograph.  So I gave up and just enjoyed them.  Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend!









This evening Penelope was meowing at me while I was writing my lab report.  So I picked her up and plopped her on my desk to show her that there was no fish up here and also nothing fun was going on.   Naturally she sat on my notebook and started purring.  She's the best lab partner.

This is a cute kitty video I found on youtube.  Not only does it give you an idea of what a reasonably nice Japanese room looks like in a home, but the kitty is way cute!!!

Stalking Kitty!

Dear readers,

Sorry for the lack of messages recently, especially since I've been in China.  I'm a little convinced that the Chinese government has somehow blocked live journal from working in mainland China.  However, from Hong Kong I can finally access it!  Wooot!

However, as tomorrow I'm flying back to the States I can't do a huge update.  So yet again, this is a message saying that I'm planning on updating, but it might take a wee bit of time to get everything arranged and in order!

This is a picture from the journey of part of the Forbidden City in Beijing.  I'm sure you'll see it much better on TV when the Olympics get in full swing, but what can ya do?



So look forward to more updates soon!!! 

For now, I'm homeward bound!!!! 

Yay!

Greetings fair journal readers!  I apologize for the false promises of Thailand updates.  I've been very busy getting ready to come home, and the Thailand updates have been shoved to the back burner of my neighbor's cousin's vacation house.  However, in a rare fit of updating fun I bring you my weekend!

This past Sunday (6/15)  Laura and I headed on out to our favorite city, Kyoto.  We were in search of something I had heard about and had always wanted to try: Nagashi somen.  Somen is a type of noodle, and nagashi is a style you eat it.  Somen is usually eaten in the summer cold with a light broth, and it's a favorite of mine.  The nagashi part means that it's delivered to you by means of a bamboo tube and a current of water!  You wait at a place on the counter for the noodles to go shooting down and you catch them with your chopsticks, dip them into your sauce and enjoy! 

Laura found a good looking place in Kibune (a bit North of Kyoto) and we had a blast catching them and not only were we eating nagashi somen, but we were doing it on top of a river!!!  It was the coolest eating experience ever.  Anyone who's been to Japan in the summer can attest to the severe heat, and so the river really helps provide a natural air conditioning.  I don't want to think about how many bugs would be there at sunset, but for a lunch treat, it was very reasonably priced (about 1,200 yen) and relatively bug free.

We traveled back down to Kyoto and met up with Elysaar around Sanjo in Kyoto.  We wandered around a bit looking at the markets and shops.  Then we decided to enjoy some more cheap kaiten zushi (conveyorbelt sushi) and then headed over to our new favorite parfait store. 

The store has over 150 parfaits!  Elysaar and I enjoyed translating the sometimes useless descriptions.  I finally decided on a raspberry chocolate parfait.  It was heavenly! 

We retired to our very nice hostel.  It was more like a hotel than any hostel I've ever seen or heard of. 

Here are the pictures (and a cool video of the noodles):

http://picasaweb.google.com/Elzkitten/KibuneAndKyoto2008_06_15





After having a Sunday dedicated to delicious, and less common food, we woke up on Monday for another taste of adventure!

Laura, Becky, and I had taken maiko photos on one of our first trips to Kyoto, and it was a lot of fun, but Laura and I both kinda wanted to try it again with a different studio.  Being the amazing weekend planner that she is, Laura found and made reservations at a really cool, professional studio that included a professional photographer with the package that let you go outside.  So we arrived at the studio at around 10 after a light breakfast. 

They have you change into a undershirt/dress thing and white socks that have the big toe separate.  (Kinda like basic toe socks)   Then they put the make up on, they put the kimono on, and then a wig.  The whole dressing process takes about an hour or so.  Then we got to wander around with the professional photographer for a bit.  After they were done we had a half an hour to wander around and take our own pictures, as well as pose with other tourists.  It was fun having our pictures taken with so many Japanese tourists.  I guess a tall, blue-eyed maiko isn't exactly a common sight!  We had so much fun wandering around in our platform sandals.  I was a bit afraid I'd topple over, but I managed it ok.  The photos came out great and it was totally worth it! 

The makeup is removed with baby oil!  Then after it's all off you wash with facial soap.  I still feel like my face is recovering from the whole process, but it was worth it!

Then we wandered around a bit, had an amazing tofu lunch, and then some kinako ice cream.  I was dead tired from walking around in the shoes, and from walking around the whole place in normal shoes.  So we decided to head on home.

This weekend was probably my last in Kyoto until I come back in the far more distant future.  It's an amazing city, and I'll miss having it just one short 35 minute shinkansen stop away from my home city.

Enjoy the pictures!!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Elzkitten/Kyoto2008_06_16

Before I start the series of Thailand updates (sorry they're late, I've been kinda busy recently), I'd like to show off that I figured out how to use the photo stitch setting on my camera and my computer.  Here's a taste of the pictures I took in Thailand, and me being proud of myself: