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.

uluru part one

Take a deep breath, and prepare yourself for this epic Outback tale.

Day One

Eerie view from the plane

We flew into Alice Springs, and from the plane I could already see that we were in the middle of nowhere. I could see nothing but miles and miles of red desert, with a few roads breaking up the monotony. It did NOT look like a hospitable land, even from a few thousand feet above. And upon landing on the ground and exiting the aircraft, the relentless heat hit me like a punch in the face--it was stifling and caused sweat to begin pouring forth from my every pore--this, I realized, would be my home for the next five days whether I liked it or not. (I did end up liking it, but it was really touch-and-go for that first excruciatingly hot day.)

After checking into Toddy's Backpackers hostel, we wandered the 15 minutes it took to get to town, and there we saw very little. Trust me when I say that there is nothing of merit in Alice Springs save a few small museums and one main street. There was nothing in the centre of town except for a few tourist shops, two cafés, and lots and LOTS of Aborigines lounging around in the middle of the day and in the middle of all that late afternoon heat. (Later we would find out these Aborigines were disowned by their respective tribes for alcohol abuse--which did explain why some of them yelled unintelligibly at us as we walked by. It's pretty sad to think about, really. Remind me sometime to write up my thoughts on the treatment of Aboriginals in white Australia--it's pretty horrific.)

a doctor-in-training makes her way to a museum on medicine all the way across the world...

fully equipped RFDS plane

First stop of day one was the Royal Flying Doctor Service Museum (guess whose idea that was). Only after visiting RFDS did I have a notion of how incredibly isolated and deserted most of Australia is. Let me explain. The premise of RFDS is to send doctors in planes all over the remotest regions of Australia, because in most of the Outback there isn't a hospital even within hours and hours of driving. Essentially, it's a flying ambulance service that responds to calls of distress from cattle ranches and tiny towns. ("Oy! Send someone out here--a bloke's just fallen off his horse and broken his leg in three places!" or "Oy! Send a doctor, quick--my wife's about to pop a baby!) The planes are equipped from top to bottom with all necessary medical instruments and a small gurney; I was most impressed by how much they could fit on that tiny plane. (FYI, visiting RFDS also helped to re-inspire my interest in medicine. Which might make a good story one day when I am a ballin' doctor.)

The next stop was the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame (again, guess whose idea that was). It was a very well designed museum housed in an former jailhouse that showcased Australian women who were pioneers in their respective fields, i.e. medicine, public service, film, aviation, etc. But the other half of the museum consisted of rather jumbled exhibits on fashion, irons and ironing boards, kitchen tools, lace doilies--you know, all the material objects traditionally associated with women. Don't get me wrong, it was a lovely museum. Kind of like visiting my non-existent Australian grandmother's house.

The story continues soon... no worries, the actual Outback gets much more exciting than this. Alice Springs just sucks.

Stay tuned for Day Two and a good story about how I woke up in the middle of the night scared out of my mind...