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.

wine, cheese, roses, CLASSY

Okay guys, time for another lengthy post.
Let's divvy it up for your reading ease (and so I don't forget anything):

• Australia Day and Dragon Boat Racing
• Born Ruffians concert
• Wine Tour
• Australian Museum
• Valentine's Day

Australia Day and Dragon Boat Races
Note that Australia Day was January 26th, and note that today is February 20th. So.... yeah. Australia Day is celebrated Jan 26th because that was the day that the first convict ships arrived on the shores of Botany Bay/Sydney Harbour to set up colonies. The Aborigines have aptly named the day "Invasion Day." Yikes, the tension in the air was almost palpable!!
On Australia Day thousands upon thousands of people turned up to The Rocks, an area of Sydney near the bridge and the Opera House. There were tons of outdoor concerts and other events going on--it was a massive celebration of all things Australian.

Australian pride!

Random Chair Sculpture by The Rocks--how cool!

We were tuckered out fast, but look how patriotic!

Later that week as a joint celebration of Chinese New Year's and Australia Day, they held dragon boat racing in Darling Harbour. It was an incredible sight and all the boats were marvelously decorated with flaming reds, greens, and golds.

Dragon boats at the finish line

Born Ruffians concert
I sort of forget whether I went to the Born Ruffians concert or the Wine Tour first, so let's just cover Born Ruffians.

Well, Kelly and I had a little bit of trouble getting over there since we took the wrong bus down George St. instead of Oxford St. BUT! when we finally did get to the Oxford Art Factory, Born Ruffians was just getting on stage. Overall the performance was a little above average; they were energetic but not particularly captivating. The music was decent, with my favorite song being "I Need a Life" because of the catchy (ugh) chorus. The band is from Canada, and it was delicious to hear people talking without an Australian accent for once! I wanted to jump up yelling, "Hey we're from North America too! Whoo Canada!!!"

Also let's talk about how incredibly SCENESTER the kids at the show were. Australian scenester kids are pretty similar to American scenester kids in terms of looks: they're adorned with the exact same plaid, skinny pants, and boots. They wear the same amount of bangles, excessive cat-eye eyeliner, and revel in their piercings. Things are pretty much the same except that Australian scenester kids drink a lot more than kids our age (duh, because it is legal here) and they are less stupid and seem to actually be there to enjoy the music. It was a nice crowd to enjoy Born Ruffians with.

For more pics and stuff of the concert and more, visit Kelly's blog: Make War and Peace Down Under.


Hunter Valley Wine Tour
Okay, the Wine Tour. I realize I haven't really explained why (or HOW) I am taking a wine-tasting class and getting credit for it---pretty much I am awesome, that's all you need to know. It's the first year that the course has been offered in the Sydney program, even though back home in Boston there is a School of Hospitality course about wine-tasting as well. Anyway, this class is a little different because it is about the Australian Wine Industry, with emphasis on the industry. So as part of our class we spent two days in the Hunter Valley, a wine region just two hours north of Sydney. There we went around to several wineries and did tastings and walked around their vineyards.

At each vineyard we walked in to each individual cellar door (whose designs ranged from rustic to ultra-modern) and got about 7 or 8 different samples of wine to try. Trust me, I learned very, very quickly that I had to spit out the tastings rather than swallowing them--after all, my friends weren't in the best state to carry me back onto the bus either. The tastings didn't get me shit-faced (because I would not allow myself to get shit-faced on wine), but they did leave me with a tingling joviality and a terrifically embarrassing Asian glow.

Here are the places we visited (I have kindly hyperlinked you to them):
Tyrrell's
Drayton's
Tempus Two
Peterson's Champagne House
Tamburlaine
Nightingale Wines
Margan

My favorite parts of the weekend:

Amazing Hunter Semillon from Tyrrell's

1. The Semillon wines at Tyrrell's. Semillon has officially become my favorite white wine, and it's what the Hunter Valley region is best known for.

Classy tasting at Tempus Two

2. The lush, beautiful tasting arranged for us at Tempus Two, a new and up-and-coming winery that is all about the marketing and the sales of wine. Their wine labels, unlike the paper labels of most wines, are actually made of pewter. And, their cellar door plays host to AMAZING bands each year. In previous years they have hosted Elton John, The Beach Boys, Santana, and Rod Stewart.

3. Peterson's Champagne house was also lovely, and the cellar door at Margan was probably my favorite of all time because it was like being in a really nice home of a friend's, complete with little modern design pillows and sweet lighting. Tamburlaine Wines was the first and only organic and biodynamic winery we visited, and the whole place was very rustic and you could tell (and smell) the natural fertilizers being used. Finally, the tour through Nightingale Wines really showed us the behind-the-scenes making of wine:

Behind-the-scenes action at Nightingale winery

Overall the trip was a huge hit with me. I increased my knowledge of wine about ten-fold, and now I know which kinds of wines I like to drink and which I don't. Plus, I got some sweet pictures of the vineyards:

Me among the vines

Fountain in the Gardens of the Grand Mercure Hunter Valley Gardens (our SWANK overnight accommodation). Also notice how Matt is a total gay pimp in the picture.

Australian Museum
Okay, I'll keep the last few words on the Australian Museum and Valentine's Day short:

The Australian Museum had great exhibits on Aboriginal art, Australian wildlife, and Australian geology. It was VERY similar to Harvard's Museum of Natural History if you've ever been (except the Australian Museum is much more modernized--I swear some of the stuffed animals in the Harvard museum are older than my grandparents, and they definitely look in desperate need of updating).

The BEST part, hands down, of the Australian Museum was the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 Exhibition. The exhibition showcases the best wildlife shots from professionals (Nat. Geo. photographers, mostly) and amateurs (kids from as young as seven). It was a breathtaking exhibit, and made me seriously lament my point-and-shoot camera skills.

Australian Museum top floor

Valentine's Day
Finally, Valentine's Day. I have the greatest friends here who really went all out for VDay and exchanged flowers, candy, cards, and kisses, etc. etc. everything that makes Valentine's Day special. That night we went to dinner, where I had a chicken schnitzel and Sav Blanc Semillon for dinner, and then we went planning to see He's Just Not That Into You, but that was sold out so instead we saw Rachel Getting Married. I'm still not entirely sure if I liked the movie--it was great acting but not the best VDay movie. Dark stuff. In Melbourne we did eventually see He's Just Not That Into You, but I'll review that in the next post.

Some final pictures from Valentine's Day:

Gerbera Daisy from Becky, the fellow Kansan. I put the daisy in a beautiful bottle of Botrytis Semillon desert wine from Tempus Two.

And of course, roses from the boy, who was ingenious enough to arrange a local florist to deliver them:

Roses 1

Roses 2

And... that's it folks. Next time I'll cover my trip to Melbourne this past weekend, including my helicopter ride over the Great Ocean Road and how I got to see WICKED performed in Melbourne (a total random but extremely enjoyable experience)!

pre-departure pep talk

Leaving Kansas City in T-minus 9 hours.

For some reason I find all this flying around the world and leaving everything behind journey to be the most frightening thing I've ever done. Which makes me feel like such a baby because it's Australia--not even a non-English speaking country. A lot of poisonous creatures, though. Some random old guy struck up a conversation with me at Papa John's the other day as I was waiting in line to pick up my pizza because he saw that I had with me an Australian guidebook (by DK Publishing; beautiful pictures, see and buy here). Anyhow, without much in the way of introduction he suddenly launched into conversation about how Australia has the highest concentration of the most poisonous creatures on the planet, and how there's little or no evolutionary explanation for why these critters got such crazy-murderous venom lodged in their teeth/spines/spurs/you-name-it.

So my fear of being tragically stung/pierced/bitten and poisoned aside, I hope I make the most of this trip. Sidenote: I feel really proud that I was even able to fit this trip into my schedule. Seven semesters after the start of college and I have finished a major and two minors and this semester abroad is really only for the credit. I'm relieved not to be worrying about whether the classes I take will fulfill any requirements, etc. Pain in the butt, all that bureaucracy is. End sidenote. I do hope that I gain some clarity from my time abroad, especially regarding What I Want To Do With My Life (capitalized because whenever people talk about it they make it sound like a proper noun, yeesh, scary).

My main goal is to try out a non-science internship as part of the program and just break the monotony of science classes and tests and GPA-grubbing. The program is divided into two parts: the first half is spent on two classes, an Australian culture and society class and an elective of the student's choice. The second half consists of an internship in Sydney and another elective. I'm going in hoping to find an internship in magazine or book publishing/editing. Truth be told, I'm not sure what the difference is between magazine and book publishing, and/or editing of either one. Really, I'm wandering blindly into a field that I have little (read: no) experience in for the sake of stepping out of my comfort zone and seeing if I want to Do Something Else With My Life. My thought was that if I have a good experience in Australia I would take a year off next year and delay entrance into medical school. After all, what's the point of having a med school already accept me and hold a spot for me if I don't ever really ask them to hold that spot for me? Terribly convoluted sentence, I apologize. Long story short I am quite unsure about what the future holds, but my thought process is that med school can wait and life needs to be lived now. And so, that leads me to Oz.

Besides pursuing a non-science internship I also want to extensively travel and see the sites, you know, hopefully beyond the touristy garbage. After reading Bill Bryson's In A Sunburned Country (which you can buy here), I have become almost giddy with excitement to form my own opinions of the Outback. If there's anything at fault with Bryson, it's that he is too goddamn cheery about everything. Even when he's writing about being nearly stuck in the middle of the desert while contemplating what it would be like to drink his friend's pee, Bryson is utterly and uncannily radiating sunshine through every orifice. Almost enough to make me gag, but hey it was a good read overall. I recommend it (mainly since it made me laugh out loud at several parts).

It's getting to be about six hours before I have to wake up for my flight and my attention is lagging, but some final thoughts/goals/whatever:

I hope to swim a lot and catch a lot of sunshine (if only to return to Boston and become hopelessly pale again).

I expect I'll fail to feed myself and probably become frustrated with not being able to stay in contact with family, friends, and Andrei.

I want to visit Cairnes/Great Barrier Reef as well as Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and taste the Outback for myself even if that means drinking my own pee as a desperate measure.

I hope not to suck at meeting people, especially Aussies.

I don't want to die of a box jellyfish sting.

Finally,
I promise to write anyone a postcard if you leave me your address. Don't be shy now, dear reader!

Ok, more when I land on Australia ground. Thanks for keeping up with me, friends and loved ones and strangers! :)


OH, another final note: Slumdog Millionaire swept all four of its Golden Globe nominations tonight, including Best Drama, Best Director, Best Original Score, and Best Screenplay. So this news plus my previous gushing review should certainly sway you into going to see it, mmk?

slumdog millionaire

Not many movies inspire me to write, but I felt totally sucked into the narrative of Slumdog Millionaire and I can't get it out of my head. It might be that I just watched The Namesake again with my family on Christmas, but I feel such a particular kinship with Indian narratives as someone who has lived in China and then emigrated. Truly, when I see the ghettos of Mumbai in Slumdog or the uniquely immigrant struggles of the Gangulis in The Namesake, I feel like someone is knocking on the very door of my consciousness.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

For those of you who haven't seen the movie, Slumdog Millionaire is a story about a young man named Jamal who wins twenty million rupees, or the equivalent of one million US dollars, on India's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" show. He is accused of cheating on the show, but the movie unravels how he was able to answer the questions not by book smarts but by experiences he had in the ghettos.
A much better and more coherent teaser for the movie is here.

I loved that the narrative began from the present (as Jamal is being tortured and accused of cheating on the show) and then proceeds in flashbacks. The editing for the movie is incredibly well-done, and Mumbai just JUMPS off the screen with the vividness of all five senses. (One reviewer I read said that he could smell Mumbai from watching, and that's true for better or worse.)
I also especially loved how Jamal and his brother made a living as kids by ripping off American tourists--so, so, SO in tune with the tense relationship between "third world" citizens and the Western tourists who treat entire cultures as quaint vacations. And at first I thought that the emphasis on the love story would turn me off, but it actually made the movie much more charming--I was floored by Jamal's utter devotion for Latika even though time and different life experiences repeatedly tore them from each other's company.
Epic, and v. romantic.

Plus, Slumdog featured a remix of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," so 'nuff said.