two thousand nine, you were mighty fine

Though I haven't made an end-of-the-year post in years, I thought 2009 deserved one. It was a really special year full of highs and lows.

2009 High #1: Medical School
Well, I finally made it. I was so ready for medical school by the end of my 3 years of undergrad and now that I'm here it's fantastic (though there are some things about undergrad that I do miss terribly, namely reading and discussing literature). So far it's been incredibly inspiring and refreshing. I really enjoy the people in my class, and the second-years that I've befriended have been such sweethearts. Everyone around me is bright and teeming with this desire to learn and become good doctors that I'm constantly taken aback by their energy. Moreover, my classmates are professional, smart, and most surprisingly of all, very funny! They crack me up all the time. My classes have been going well, and something I've been exceptionally impressed with is the faculty. FINALLY, no more of this never-talk-to-your-science-professor shit from undergrad (c'mon, you mean to tell me you actually had a relationship with your cell bio professor?). The faculty here are really kind and approachable, even being scientists :)

2009 Low #1: Medical School
No kidding when they say that med school is tough. I'm currently recovering from the first half of our neuroscience block, and you wouldn't believe how many times throughout the semester that I've asked myself, "What did I get myself into?" (Hint, it was before every anatomy exam and while studying for HBM.) It's also true that med school isn't for everyone. After going through the first semester, I realize now that it takes just the right combination of smarts, masochism, and untempered and pure fall-over-yourself earnestness, with a dash of obsessive compulsive behavior. I thought I was OCD until I got to medical school and met some of my classmates. My classmates are always ahead, always striving, and always on top of things. It really opened my eyes to just how hard-working people can be, and the truth that I'll probably never be "the best" because there's always going to be someone more anal or someone who just wants it more than me. It's extremely humbling and a good lesson to be learned, I think.

2009 High #2: Australia and New Zealand
Incredible. I had so many once in a lifetime experiences: skydiving, scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef, white water rafting, rappelling down a 100-foot waterfall in the Blue Mountains, seeing my first Broadway musical, and living in one of the most beautiful, breathtaking cities in the world…Sydney. I interned at a food and travel magazine (so perfectly blissfully random), went to magazine photoshoots, escaped to the beach whenever I pleased, hauled myself to Sydney's most frenetic clubs, and once found myself vomiting pathetically into an Australian McDonald's bathroom toilet (ok, so that was a low).

2009 Low #2: Being away from friends and family
I missed my friends and family immensely when I was away for 5 months. Were it not for the miracles of videochat and cheap international calling cards, I don't know where I would have been! Of course, it didn't help my homesickness that I had The Roommate From Hell for the first four weeks, but luckily that was resolved and my second living situation was so much better with a roommate who was both adorable and funny. (The first roommate was put into a room with someone who was not so welcoming, and I can't say that I felt sorry for her.)

2009 High #3: Reunion with Andrei in the fall
Being apart from Andrei was hard while I was in Australia, New Zealand, and then China. Sometimes I would feel a physical ache being away from him, and every minute we've been together since has been even sweeter. As someone who once firmly rejected long distance relationships, I suddenly find myself thinking it could work with the right person. Which leads me to another low…

2009 Low #3: The looming future
The prospect of not being in the same city as Andrei and all my friends next year is daunting. It's frustrating that I'm firmly set in one place, but I'm not sure where Andrei or my undergrad friends will end up. Or my high school friends, for that matter. It's an unknown, and I hate the unknown.

2009 High #4: Scrubbing into my first surgery
Over the summer I scrubbed into my first surgery, a kidney transplant from a father to son. To see a white lifeless kidney that was detached from a healthy body turn rosy, healthy pink once put into a sick body… wow. Medicine is awesome---literally full of awe.

2009 High #5 (Okay, so there are more highs in this list than lows, and this is another one involving Andrei): our two-year anniversary in NYC
It was an incredibly romantic weekend, and perfect in almost all respects. Having once hated NYC, I have to say that this trip changed my mind and made me almost love NYC. Of course, still would never live there though. Boston is definitely more my type of city.

And to wrap up:

favorite video of the year
not a music video, but my favorite youtube video of the year: http://bit.ly/498Cbe

favorite song of the year
My Will is Good, Port O'Brien

favorite artist of the year
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down

favorite movie of the year
Up, no question about it. Pixar movies will always have a place in my heart.

favorite book of the year
A toss up between Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (finally, a book that makes science fun!) and Stieg Larsson's first two books of the Millennium trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire (can't help loving adventure/thriller/mystery fiction with good writing for once!!)


Well that's it for 2009. I'm both excited and scared for what the new decade will bring… and where I'll be in another ten years.

andrei's funnier moments

Today I had two humorous conversations with Andrei, one via text and the other via gchat.

#1
Background: I went with my mom to my friend Chris's Mary Kay party (like a Tupperware party but for cosmetics) and we all got makeovers. I texted Andrei about the dramatic eye makeup that Chris's friend practiced on me. He texts back:

"Oh neat.
I bet you looked super sexy.
What was that technique. Smoky eyes?"


#2
Background: I changed my fb picture to a picture of me and Andrei together, which immediately got an "Aww, cute" response of one of my BU friends. I told her that I think it's cheesy, and that I (quote) "die a little every time" (end quote) that I see it on someone else's fb. Of course I tell Andrei about this little exchange.

me: look at my profile piccccc

Andrei: on fb?

me: yeah

i think the pic is dopey

i never have pics with you

Andrei: yes

whatever

you keep that profile pic

i am gonna make mine the same one

itll be the BEST

I think Andrei is dopey. And potentially a closet gay.


In other news, I'm leaving for China at the bright hour of 6AM tomorrow. Will write when I get there, and after jetlag totally kicks my butt YET AGAIN.

pure comedic gold

Until I can get my act together with New Zealand photos and such, check out this site which is AM.AZING. My new favourite site:

http://mymomisafob.com

Leaving for China in a few days (the traveling just doesn't stop this year), and I'm feeling pumped for it. I am trying to convince my parents to take me and my brother on a side trip to Tibet, but I'm not sure they're biting. For one thing, I hear the altitude sickness absolutely KILLS. Any thoughts, China readers?

Some other ramblings--hardly anyone is at home this summer. Some friends are abroad and others are working or staying at school. It doesn't matter much since I'm not home either this summer, but sometimes I pine for those days when everyone would show up at my house and we could spend the night laughing and playing card games or Mario Party on my old Nintendo Gamecube.

Andrei is spending six weeks at UC Berkeley this summer for LSA (the Linguistic Society of America). I not-so-secretly hope that he falls in love with California so that we can move there after college. Then I'll finally buy up a sweet yellow vespa (a lá FLCL!) and ride it to work everyday. I admire Andrei so much for loving linguistics enough to spend an entire summer on it, plus the work he's already done for UROP. He also presented one of his papers at another linguistics conference earlier this spring at Cornell. He makes me way proud :)

Other thoughts in my head include how to get my 13-year-old brother to think I'm cool again (I think in order to accomplish this I may have to hone my violent video game skills), and whether I should use this blog for my China travels too.

I guess I should wrap up Australia and New Zealand before then, though. :/

a quick note from the Auckland Airport

Where am I right now?

Signed onto a free internet kiosk computer in the middle of Auckland International Airport and bringing this post to you over outrageously slow internet. One of the things that really bugs me about Australia and New Zealand is the sloth-slow internet. Can you really call yourself a first world country when I can fetch a cup of tea in the time it takes the Facebook homepage to load? I think not!

But all internet grievances aside, I'm wrapping up my five-month-long journey abroad and feeling pretty sad about it. I spent the last eight days in the South Island of New Zealand and completed a few heart-attack inducing activities and had my fill of gorgeous Lord-of-the-Rings-does-it-no-justice scenery.

Most notably, I FINALLY skydived from a plane at 12,000 feet and bungy jumped a modest 43 meters (about 141 feet) off the world's first bungy jump bridge. Not to mention taking a morning to go sea kayaking in New Zealand's famously beautiful Milford Sound.

EDIT: When I get back home I'll upload some of the skydiving and bungy pics.

new zealand epic fail

Two things I failed to do in the last 10 days:

Update this blog, and skydive! Well, the second wasn't entirely my fault. Weather was bad in Taupo (a deliciously infuriating combination of clouds, wind, and quickly fading daylight). But no worries, as they say in these parts!! I'll try to skydive over the glaciers in Frans Josef or maybe outside Queenstown some time this week when I'm in the South Island. And I'll definitely bungy-jump!!!

As for the wrap-up of the North Island, I'm still working out the photos and will grace you with them when I get back to the US! This is code for: I am exhausted from traveling non-stop for a week and I'm ready to catch up on the episodes of LOST I've missed :)

I've leave you with this youtube video of one of the crazy-ass things I've done so far, which was invented in New Zealand. It's called Zorbing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isRlb9dIJRA

(For more info also visit the trusty Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorbing.)