Scrabble

One of my favorite ways to totally geek out is by playing scrabble. The thing about scrabble is that it's hard to find someone to play with. I've even gone to scrabble clubs, where I promptly get my butt kicked because I don't know every two letter word or "q" without a "u" word in the dictionary. However, tonight, I found a formidable and yet not too formidable player in my friend, C (who I happen to share my weekly CSA goodies with).

Here is our board at the end of the night:


You can't make out the score card too well, but I won by only 2 points. 2. And that's after starting out with a zinger such as "ripened" (though the "n" was a blank).

I think that nicely sets it up for a rematch. We're playing for best 2 out of 3.

Inspiration

My friends and I took a day trip down to Santa Cruz/Capitola yesterday and got inspired by all the beautiful jewelry. We promptly stopped by the bead store on our way back and started beading (after eating, of course).

Here is our pre-beading mania meal:

And here is our bounty!

Made by Miss K:

Made by myself:

Evolution, Schmevolution

My dear friend Eric is now wheeling and dealing amongst the big fish and has gone out and published his own book, and gotten a superb article (and even more superb pictures) in Sierra magazine! 

And to imagine, at one point in high school, I used to "edit" his work - ah, the good ole days.

Happenings

It's been such a long time since I've updated you, dear reader(s). Unfortunately, not much has happened. Let's see what I have been up to:

• Work
• Camping at Kings Canyon National Park
• Work
• My friend Kelly's wedding in San Diego
  
• Sleep

Unfortunately, as I am typing this, my TMJ is acting up. I find myself clenching and unable to stop myself. And it's not like sitting at the local Barnes and Noble is really stressful or anything. And I just did my last call night on OB for two months, which is exciting. It was a crazy night, where I got 6 deliveries! Now, my next rotation is outpatient medicine, which is practically a vacation given that I don't take call, meaning my nights and weekends are my own! How out of control is that? With all this time, I have so many plans. I want to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Santa Cruz, spend some time in San Francisco, find a local pool, organize my papers at home, catch up on readings for residency, go through my surgical curriculum, and so many other things! Ahhh, the excitement!

Long time, no see

My reasons for not posting as of late: I work 80 hours a week, I have no internet at home, and did I mention that I work 80 hours a week? Yeah, those are lame excuses, I know, but when all you do it work and sleep and maybe watch a few hours of West Wing on DVD in between, there isn't much to blog about.

I have to say that my experiences thus far have been pretty cool and very rewarding. I have delivered many babies, experienced the joy of helping women bring babies into the world, and considered the societal circumstances that make 17 year olds mothers. There have been many long hours, many sleepless nights, and hopefully it's all worth it. It's hard to imagine that it's almost a month in, though. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that I still have 3 years and 11 months of this left - I just don't know how I will have the energy to do anything but sleep and work. Now, I can see how residents have no life.

On that note, I am determined to have a life outside of work, but it's admittedly very hard. Besides the fact that I'm completely spent at the end of everyday and am working random nights and weekends, it's hard to meet people. I have always been in situations where friends were easy to find. From high school to college to medical school, there has always been a network from which I could find friends. Now that I'm "working" (I don't know if I could say that I'm even getting paid - I calculated my hourly pay to be around $4 an hour, at an astounding rate of half the minimum wage in California), there's no network of ready-made friends. Yeah, I can always be friends with people from work, but you have to get over the boundary of seeing them at work, which is effort-free, to making plans outside of work, which is definitely not effort-free. The alternative is to reach out to pre-existing friends, like from high school, college, and medical school. But unless they're a few minutes' drive away, it's really hard to make plans (and if they're also residents, it makes it infinitely harder).

So, now my goal is to find new friends. I don't really have a strategy as of yet on how to do so. I may need to come up with one eventually though, especially if I plan on making friends outside of the medical field, which is a goal of mine.

Walking, talking, and chewing gum

I have been in Hanoi for two days now and I can say that's enough. I did a self-guided walking tour of the old quarter and found it to be not much of a tour at all. All of the sights were either impossible to find (we went down two random alley ways, at the advice of our guide books, only to wander into people's homes) or closed. Not as much fun as I would hope a walking tour would be. Then, we had dinner with a friend and his fiance, which was good.

Today, Megan and I did the museums, including paying our respects to Bac Ho (a.k.a. Ho Chi Minh). Then, we did a tour of the Museum of Fine Arts, which was nice, but no one was there. Then, a tour of the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which, frankly, was much more propoganda than I could handle. In the afternoon, we headed to St. Joseph's Cathedral, which is the cutest neighborhood in town. It's old, with nice boutiques, and has the feel of a neighborhood (no other part of Hanoi or Saigon has this feeling). We had dinner at this street stall that sold some deep fried goodness, the contents of which I could not make out.

Then, on a typical cyclo ride we go! We took a cyclo through the old quarter for an hour. I'd have to say that the old quarter is much prettier at night - maybe it's the decrease in hawkers and you don't really see all the grime of the city. We wanted to find some bia hoi to finish off the evening, but as is typical, when we were looking, we could not find it. Oh well.

Tomorrow morning, we head out to Halong Bay and I'm stoked. I'm tired of being in a city and tired of people trying to sell me something. I need to just chill, relax, and lay out - which is what Halong Bay is for. It's our one indulgence on the trip, as we're going on a 3 day, 2 night tour on a luxury boat. So, forgive me if I don't update in the next few days (other than to update on where I matched).

Oh, I have to add a note on the northern Vietnamese accent - specifically, that I cannot understand it. For people who don't speak Vietnamese, it's hard to imagine how two people speaking the same language cannot understand each other. However, for those who speak Vietnamese, it's easy to understand. The north has different words for things (kind of like "soda" and "pop") and they pronounce nearly every consonant differently than the south. I have spent half the time talking to people here asking them, "Can you repeat that?" or "What did you say?". It's really annoying. And I know that my Vietnamese isn't that good, so that just adds to the fun! I'm definitely not saying one is better than the other - just that it's very hard for a southern girl in the north.

Harvard Finals Clubs

I had never heard of them before, but my friend gave me a short intro: Harvard does not have fraternities so they have "Finals Clubs" instead. Or so I think. It was loud when the guy was trying to explain it to me, but hey, we were basically at an undergraduate frat party.

Now, you may ask, how did a graduate student end up at an undergraduate frat party at Harvard? Well, the evening started out calm enough - we were simply having a dinner party at my apartment and then we decided to go out to a bar in Harvard Square. Then, we meet a guy (who was ambiguously gay) at the bar (6 girls, by themselves, will attract a lot of attention, let me tell you) who offered us champagne. Then, next thing we knew, we were following him to a Finals Club party going on.

It was pretty much like any other party, except with Harvard undergraduates in suits. And really, I was not planning on drinking tonight, but after the champagne, it all went downhill. Next thing I knew, I was claiming that I was an undergraduate student, named Christine, who was roommates with a medical student. I really come up with wonderful stories when I go out.

But that's the posting for now. All in all, it was a calm night.

cape cod adventures

So yesterday a few friends and I went to Cape Cod on a Zipcar! Yeah, even after my first adventure with Zipcar (did I tell that story?), I decided to give it another whirl. This time was much more successful than last and we had an awesome time. We went to Hyannis, Dennis, Chatham, and ended the day in Provincetown. The beaches are beautiful (though a bit rocky and filled with broken shells) and the towns are just so quaint. However, I can't say that it's too quaint because it's outrageously expensive to live anywhere on the cape.

But yeah. Lots of pictures are up here.

another saturday night at home

So boston night life seriously needs a makeover. I went out last night to two totally different clubs and had two totally different experiences.

First, I went out to club cafe, in the South End area of Boston (equivalent to San Francisco's Castro district) with two (gay male) friends. I had never been to a gay bar so this was quite an experience. It was actually very pleasurable and very cool. And I realized that gay men are wonderful. Well, at least the ones that I know. But I have to say that boston's gay male population is significantly different than san francisco's. First of all, my "gay-dar" does not work here. Out of the guys that were there, I would not be able to spot more than just a few of them as gay if they were in the general population. After spending about two hours there, experience gay men in their mating habits (and seeing a friend get up the courage to approach another man), I had enough for one night. So, as the group went off to a club, I decided to join some other people at a bar.

The bar, named Whiskey's, was horrendous. Not only did I have to wait nearly 20 minutes to get in, there was noone there of interest to me. They were all drunken college students and we were crammed in there like sardines. It was terrible. I left after 20 minutes. Then, to aleviate my frustration at the nightlife in Boston, I decided to walk the mile and a half home. It was a nice walk (granted, I had bandages on both my feet because of blisters I got wearing a new pair of shoes earlier in the week).

But as I sit here on a Saturday night with absolutely nothing to do, I wonder if all nightlife just sucks. I mean, it can't, can it? The clubs here are either all college students or full of stuck-up people with money and nice cars - groups that I would rather not associate with often. I want something where I can go, talk to some random person, and them not feel as though I'm picking up on them or that it's strange that some random stranger talking to them in a bar. I find people in Boston to be rather defensive and it's difficult to meet new people.

So, that's my rant for tonight. I'm off to read or something. I just bought Fear of Flying by Erica Jong and I'm excited.

everyone, look!

just a quick posting to say that everyone should read an article in the la times by my friend, eric! it's his second article for the la times and isn't he just awesome? wow, i'm gushing.

you'll need to register for the article, so use this one:
login / oopsies
password / oopsies

enjoy!

ah, nice butt!

i went to the nutcracker today and i have to say, some of those dancers had the most awesome bodies i have seen in quite awhile. granted, the only bodies i see are medical students in winter coats (and even then, i can't say that they're hot). but gosh, there was a dancer who had a butt that looked like it was made out of rocks. it was cut so much i thought that i could make a plaster cast of it and keep it for anatomy to learn all the butt muscles.

sorry, had to rant about nice bodies. talking about bodies, i feel like mine is falling apart. 5 hours of sleep too many nights in a row is bad. well, until i realize that this is my life for the next 40 years.

oh, and kerry, my friend from california here at tufts, made an astute observation as we were walking to get dinner. "god, even mud can freeze. it's damn cold in boston."

so margaret left this morning. i'm sad. we had so much fun this weekend. for recapping purposes:
* we went to legal seafoods, a big seafood restaurant here in boston, and managed to get a free meal. when i opened my roll, there was something green and mushy inside. i picked it out and margaret and i started to pick with it. the waiter saw this whole event and came over, asking if anything was wrong with the roll. i told him and then he took it away. when he came back, the manager came with him, apologizing for it and our food was on the house. pretty awesome. however, i'm hoping that the green thing was a bean, otherwise, it coulda been something much worse. ah wells. i did eat the rest of the roll.
* i took margaret to see the arnold arboretum . it was a beautiful place, if it weren't for the fact that it was raining like crazy. in the end, we spent about an hour there, not seeing much as we were covered by our umbrellas. then, instead of going into downtown, we decided to bake an apple pie instead. yeah, we're smart. turns out the next day was beautiful.
* went to this wonderful dive bar called wally's in downtown where my roommate is a bartender. it's so cool. it's TINY (smaller than my apartment, and trust me, that's small) but wonderfully cool because there aren't any white guys there. oh, and live jazz every night. awesome stuff.
* duck tour! it was so much fun, and you're even allowed to quack in public. and i never thought people would quack back, but they do. i tell you, boston is one odd town. i found out lots of cool stuff, but totally forgot everything as that's how my crazy mind works.

ah, we did lots of other stuff. margaret freaked a second year medical student at a club (which she called 'an intellectual meet market'). we went apple picking at honey pot hill farms. i wrote a public health paper (sorry, not fun, but significant part of the weekend).

but alas, all fun has to end sometime and she left me this morning. i'm sad. it was wonderful having her here and i'm hoping she had fun. we had quite a whirlwind weekend as i don't think we sat down at all without doing something or planning to do something.

and this is an open invitation for all the other people out there who want to visit boston! come on out! i can take you places! especially if you don't come when i have tests!!!

but yeah. oh, cubs are up. and red sox lost. life can't be that bad.