The end is nigh

The end is indeed nigh.

In just a few more short weeks, I'll have been done with pathology, and 50% done with second year of medical school. A number of upper classmates mentioned that at the end of this term, you'll like a mini-doctor. For whatever reason, that feeling hasn't hit me yet.

Maybe it the lack of putting theoretical knowledge to practical use. While I understand how and why things go wrong, as well as what it'll look like when it does, I can't help but feel incomplete without the knowledge of what to do about it.

I think it's going to take watching some House, M.D. episodes to start feeling like I know my stuff.

Well, Paget's disease won't learn itself. Adios.

Freedom, sandblast, scuba diving, and work piling up

So, midterms are finally over last week. I did OK in physiology, though not as good as I would have liked. A in both immunology and neuroscience. Some simple silly mistakes, but I suppose an A is an A, and the main point is learning from my mistakes.

Feels good to be free from studying, if just for a few days. Almost didn't know what to do with myself the days after. So much free time without having to study, feels great, but somewhat oddly disturbing.

Sandblast, alas, is like drinking on the beach with free alcohol. Naturally, it was great. Didn't sprain my ankle this time around, so about 100% better than last time.

Finally going to get scuba diving done, with people buying the books and confined dives scheduled. At the same time, more work is already piling on. Having gone through a lot of respiratory physiology, as well as a number of motor pathways, meaning that I will definitely going have to study quite hard to make up time away from diving.

But hey! 7 weeks until I will get started on summer Asia trip! I'm so excited. Out of my skin!

The most expensive apricot I've ever bought

So, after a long, long hiatus, I've decided that I should really start blogging again. So here goes.

Today is thursday. Which means, the biggest supermarket (that's the closest to campus), IGA, gets their weekly shipment. Thus, an on rush of students are going to IGA to, well, buy out the entire store. I've literally not seen milk for the better part of a month, until I decided to start shopping on thursdays.

As Grenada is an island, it means most, if not all food are imported, especially when you want to eat processed food that is so readily available back at home. And, I also like a bigger selection of fruits, besides the standard mango, starfruit etc. And, alas, this brings me to my point. I've bought the most expensive apricot in my life. @ ~$48ECD per pound, my tiny little apricot came to a whopping $11ECDs. Yep, I spend close to $5CDN on a fruit.

What has this taught me?

I have expensive tastes.

Advanture, continued.

Day 1 in Grenada:

Problem #1: AC in my room is broken. Solution: Move into another room that's empty. After settling in, chatting with some new arrivals and friends, and having a bit to drink, I decided to explore the campus by night. It's a pretty nice campus. Next to the ocean, with a little hill seperating most of the administration buildings and library from most of the dorms. Behind the Founder's Library (seems like the biggest library), you find yourself on the tip of a cliff sorta thing, over looking the ocean. Quite a sight at night, listening to the crashing of the waves; very surreal.

So, as I was laying in bed, thinking I would totally want to get up early, get registration done, then get myself a phone or what not, when I realized that I've been looking at a pretty bright window for a while now. Turns out, not only did I oversleep, I overslept by 3 freaking hours. Awesomeness.

So, after much adieu, I got up half past noon, managed to go to the bank and exchange some cash for some spending money, and actually got myself registered. By then, it's already 5 PM. Ran into a mate I met on the plane into Grenada, grabbed some grub ($9 for a meal! Ok, it's about the same on campus back at UBC, but still...) and started the night.

Turns out, the mandatory week is probably to help people get more booze into their livers. Bunch of us (wish I could remember their names, but after meeting hundreds of new people, names are hard) went down to a pub close to campus called Banada's. Nice pub. Got at least three bars, with a dance floor too. Drinks are decent, 6 EC (East Caribbean dollars, about 2.25 CDN per EC) for a beer.

Long story short, I eventually ended up back at my dorm for some sweet nothings with T.

Day 2 in Grenada:

Capital of Grenada tour first thing in the morning! Well, ok, I almost overslept that one too. But, manage to wake up about 15 minutes before busses leave (never underestimate the convinience of living on campus), and actually showered etc and caught the bus. Went to St. George's, saw the old fort(where my camera decided to run out of battery), the spice market, the fish market, and a nice mall that seems to cater mostly to cruise ship passengers. Pictures to follow.

Afterwards, got a stack of text books (by last count, all 11 books and various manuals), and caught a bus to Concord falls. Long drive there, took about an hour, and when we finally got there, it was pouring rain. Nevertheless, took a jump, about 8 feet, into the fall, and boy was it refreshing. The humid heat, combined with some fresh, cooling mountain rain water, is very, very nice. But, because of the run off from the top of the mountain, we were told to get out of the water after about 5 to 10 minutes. Oh well. Another fall to come this saturday, where I will make sure to take more dips.

After a quick dinner at the Sugar Shack (sorta a fast food place on campus, with spagitti meatball special!), attended a couple of workshops that were of questionable value. On the other hand, enough time to let the food settle, and utilize the school gym. Pretty small, but not alot of people; went for a jog around campus too...even at night, the humidity is very stiffiling.

Wanted to do some laundry too, but people were hogging it. Went to this place called "The Owl"...42 EC per pitcher of beer. That's 21 bucks (almost) for some beer. Not fun. BUT, the karaoke got people going, and it ended up being alright afterall.

Now, I'm looking forward to more advanture tomorrow. Pretty sure my alerm is going to be useless again, but let's play the wait and see game.

My trip

My trip:

Start time: 12:30 PM, PST, Aug 10^th.

End time: 11:00 PM, EST, Aug 11^th.

Total length: 36 some odd hours.

Seattle:

It took an unusually short time to reach SeaTac airport, though that might have something to do with the fact that I slept through most of it, while being nagged by mom for the rest. The check-in, and baggage drop for the first leg was also extremely uneventful. Didn’t want miss my flight, for whatever odd reason, I went through the security check-in well ahead of the actually boarding time. Two things surprised me: mom took it very well, and dad was a little emotional. I had always thought it would be mom that cracks up, but I think that might be a misunderstanding on how dad expresses his emotions.

SeaTac airport has a little tram system! I had always thought it was a small airport, similar to YVR, but it is actually quite large. After some trekking around, I made it to my gate, waited for a long time to get onboard, and watch Delta ask for volunteer passengers to stay behind, cause they overbooked the flight (both mine, and the one before as well). Can’t say I’m very impressed with that; would be choked if my seats weren’t reserved by my ticket.

The flight was pretty normal. As usual, tried to nap onboard, without much success; instead, watched a bunch of different shows with the onboard TVs.

Disembarking at JFK was an interesting experience. The airport itself is HUGE; it has 8 terminals, with an AirTrain system connecting the airport with the NYC subway system. Very well build, though the AirTrain system is very difficult to decipher. The tracks are clearly marked, but not the direction; announcements about the next stop are only made once the door closes, which, in my opinion, is kind of counter-productive. Fun note: AirTrain is build by Bombardier, which begs the question; will the new skytrain line to the airport be a similar build?

After a very uncomfortable night, where I watched Bride Wars, listened to a lot of music, and finally a half hour nap later, I went to check in with American Airline. I had thought that at 5 AM, I would have ample time to check in with the airline, cause, come on, it’s 5 bloody AM. Wrong. There was two huge lines, one for Caribbean flights it seems, and another for domestic. It took some 45 minutes before I managed to check my bags. With that done, I went to explore the airport, and hurt for some New York style pizza. After much hassel, I finally found this pizza joint. One slice, $4...suddenly, I missed Fresh Slices 99cents slices. In addition to that, the two slices that I had ended up adding up to 1000 Calories. Yep, you heard it right: 1000 Calories. So, before most of you who read this is up and running, I’ve already consumed half of your daily caloric intake. Awesomeness!

The flight to Barbados was similarly uneventful, with the exception of that I have actually managed to sleep about 2 hours on board. Pretty impressive, if you ask me. The approach to Barbados was very, very nice. Imagine: sky blue ocean, unbroken shore line, sail boats that look larger and larger as we approach the run way. Barbados seems to have no single city; instead, houses, complexes etc seems to stretch from the shore, all the way in-land, as far as the eyes can see, one giant metropolis. This view is further cemented when I took off (more on this later). Barbados international is pretty nice as well. Not as open aired as the one in Punta Cana, but has its own charms. A small, busy airport, with almost as many people trying to help you with your luggage; at least, here it seems that you can actually say no, and have that respected. After a bit of lugging around, accompanied swiftly by some sweat (it is freaking humid! Almost as if I was somewhere tropical!), I managed to dump my luggage with LIAT. I prompted ate, and went into the lounge, where I proceeded to sit for the next 8 hours. Wow, simply, WOW. It’s freaking ridiculous. Original flight was supposed to board at 19:40; that didn’t happen until 21:40. So, I ended up not getting to my new home until nearing 11PM.

Some redeeming qualities: it’s a propeller plane! The head rest is freaking plush and soft, much better than either Delta or American Airlines.

Taking off at night on a propeller plane, with the drone of the engine next to you, it can easily conjure up images WW2 pilots mounting a night raid. Sitting there at the window, it wasn’t hard to imagine myself as a navigator, or a gunner on a bomber (maybe I watch too much documentaries?). The plane took off, and was soon in the clouds. The lights of Barbados sprawl as far as the eyes can see, reminiscent of maybe old Europe landscape, with clouds occasionally engulfing the plane, or flowing under it.

The novelties of it, however, soon wore off. The sounds, and the vibration of a propeller plane is unbelievable. Don’t know how I was able to sleep, but I actually managed to nap for 15 minutes on board. All in all, it was actually a bad delay. Met some new friends, going to school here, got some more info, so it all worked out in the end.

Being as smart as I am, I forgot to pack on an Ethernet cord. So, after unpacking (and again, meeting my new neighbour L), I went for a walk around the campus to explore, armed with my trusty LED flashlight. It’s a pretty damn big campus. Lots of dorms, and lots of big buildings. I think most of the lectures and what not are pretty much centralized in a few big buildings, and the rest is just good for you to get some studying done. I got to admit though, kind of disappointed with the lack of star light. I expected a bit more than I could see in Vancouver, but alas, that is not the case. The walk took me to the edge of the campus too, facing the ocean. Pretty glorious sight, and likely would be even more impressive if I managed to see it in the fullness of day light.

Really wish I could share this moment with you people (you know who you are), but especially you T. Miss you guys lots.

If it seems like alot of rambling, it probably is. It’s 2:40 AM, and I’ll be up in another 6 hours (or less), but I really wanted to commit this down on paper before sleep erode any of the details.

As for the rest of the adventures, to be continued.

What is real?

Recently found this blog, http://ricebunny.xanga.com/ with tutorials on many beauty, and fashion advices for women, mostly make up related, etc. It certainly does give a more detailed look at the machinations of the female world, and perhaps, just perhaps, finally allowed the men out there to understand the endless hours waiting for the women to come out of the washroom (also gives the phrase "powdering my nose" a much needed clarify).

However, it does make me think about what is real, and what is superfacial. As a society, we seems to be so wrapped up with appearances, and it's hard to distinguish what is genuine anymore. At the same time, what is defined to be genuine? Does putting on make up presents a misrepresentation of the true self? On the one hand, one can argue that really, it's not who you are; but at the same time, "I think, therefore I am". Afterall, if a maked up face is what you present to the world, isn't that what the world perceives as the real you? Who is, is looking back at you in the mirror first thing in the morning?

But, enough about this, E's wedding was gorgerous. There really seems to be a sense of unity in the air, and between the two families. I'm really happy for her. Sad too, to see another friend likely disappearing into the wider world.

The dinner menu was exactly the same as T's cousin's wedding last week, at the same restaurant. I found that rather hilarious. I got seated with a bunch of people from cow's town. Flames fans, yuck. It did make for some very interesting conversation though.

The day ended at Moxie's, and some good afterhour drink conversations ensued. Although it was a good day all in all, perhaps it was rather marred. Lots of things happened, and it really got me thinking, that maybe I need some time to do some serious self reflection. Hopefully, I can do better by everyone, and myself in the future. Ok T?

The day of reckoning is approaching like a freight train. Some really mixed feelings, excitement, anxiety, fear, happiness, all rolled into one. Ahhh, can't say enough to put it all into words. Better dig deeper into the rabbit hole.

Windy dats

I don't know what it is about windy days...whether it's the rustling of tree leaves against each other, or maybe the far away echo of shouting children, but they always put me into a melacholy mood.

Not that it's a bad thing.

On the contrary, I feel almost as if that I need these sad, slow days. They let me slow down, take stock of my life, and generally enjoy the heart sore. It is much too odd to comtemplate the irony of enjoying melancholy, so I won't.