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Dr. Hsieh insisted on taking pictures of me at this breast cancer case
discussion. I tried to look like I understood what was going on (in
Chinese) and tried to seem attentive. Instead the camera caught me
looking just plain CREEPY. My eyes are way too focused.
Anyways besides taking Chinese and shadowing at the hospital, I've also
been taking some Yoga/Pilates classes at the local gym. Surrounded by
mirrors, I am forced to compare my granite-like stiffness with
graceful, angelic Taiwanese grandmas for 60 straight minutes, twice a
week. I liken my flexibility to that of a sphincter, except the
sphincter probably has more range of motion. But hey, it's fun! The
best part is for the last five minutes of class, the instructor turns
off the lights and we cover ourselves with a towel and sleep. I forgot
how lovely a structured nap time was. Lucky Spaniards.
I miss home! But it comforts me to know that I'm not the only one
sweating his arse off over here in Taiwan. What's up with the heat yo?
(Go see Al Gore's feel-good movie of the summer for more info.)
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| So how have I changed after a year of medschool? Studying disease after
disease has turned me into a hypochondriac. No not a "hyPERchondriac."
That word isn't even really a word. I literally just found out like
five weeks ago after using that wrong word consistently for the past 10
years. (I'm pretty sure I even used it while in a class.)
But anyways, back to my hyPOchondria. One day in lecture, I found out
that maintaing low blood pressure is really important and that 120/80
and below is good. Ok, so before, my blood pressure would always be at
around 125ish, which is not bad but not ideal. But after learning about
the scary risks associated with hypertension, I started to freak out
and I went to student health to discuss my "high blood pressure."
Irony has it that while overreacting and waiting very ANXIOUSLY to see
the doctor about my high blood pressure it actually skyrocketed to like
145. Now EVERYTIME I officially get my blood pressure checked, it spikes and reads
like I'm a 55-year-old butcher.
Ignorance WAS bliss... I miss guiltlessly eating Chicken McNuggets;
those tender, juicy, half-real pieces of meat with the Irish name
smothered in either hot mustard or sweet/sour sauce. =*(
I'm in Taipei this summer and there are sooo many McDonald's
restaurants. Thanks to the lovely U.S. of A., the Taiwanese too have
set foot on the path to becoming fat.
I love living in a foreign country and experiencing a totally different
way of life. Today I woke up, watched some of the White Sox v. Yankees
game on ESPN, got brunch at 7-11 and then read for a couple hours over
a cafe latte at the neighborhood Starbucks. So far I haven't
experienced too much culture shock yet but that's probably 'cause I'm
really good at adapting.
Besides immersing myself into the Taiwan way of life, I'm also taking
Chinese classes and interning at a local hospital. It's actually the
very hospital that I was born in some 20-errr years ago. The Chinese
way of doing things: the doctor that I was shadowing saw 26 patients in
a little over an hour!
Here are some snippets from the past year:
My beloved Ray and I at Halloween (Yup, you guessed it! I am an
androgenous math club president. I was also carrying a TI-85 tucked
into my braided belt.)
Alcatraz... the whole time I was saying "Welcome to the Rock!" in
my best very best scottish accent and making references to Andy, Red
and the beloved Brooks. Only afterwards did I realize that Ann hadn't
even watched either Shawshank or the Rock. No fun! =D
My classmates are the the best! They came out to watch us in our first
playoff IM game. We lost (by ALOT) but afterwards the winning team said
that they were jealous of us 'cause we had love and they didn't.
Eating an entire cow with the fellas and gal in LA. Guess who's getting/got married:
In Mexico during spring break:
I left the water a little less blue that day.
i'm so not hyphy:
St. Patty and Me at a Giants game. I know, I have pistacchio stuck in my teeth.
I think Ann and I are waaaay too excited about falafel:
Oh yeah, so as we left for the summer, our professors warned us that we
will start to get bombarded with health-related questions since people
will assume we are sorta knowledgeable?! Hah! NO ONE has asked me... my
friends and family know better.
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| For those of us who were old enough to have pagers but young enough to
type pager code with our pagers, we really need to keep this elegant,
beautiful (yet CRYPTIC!) language alive. I think it's fading faster
than Heath
Ledger and General Motors. I'm reminded of my "AGE" because I'm
slightly older
than most of the first years in my class. I never even had a cell phone
throughout all of college and I remember depending on my answering
machine heavily. Anyways, so I entered college with my pager still.
Pretty tight eh? My own pager "signature" was 06 (everyone had their
self-assigned 2,3 digit id.) It stood for 0 (D) 9 (P) my initials AND
even cooler, it was my little league baseball number!
So if you were really cool, you'd not only have a pager but you'd also
have voicemail on your pager. If you got a page at like Denny's or
something you'd have to shell out 35 cents to check your messages. No
one had normal voice mail messages though. You would either get your
high-pitched, cute-sounding girlfriend (or in my case, FRIEND'S
girlfriend) to say "You've reached Dave's voicemail, leave a message
and he'll hit you back...LATEZ!" And you could even put your favorite
song for your voice mail message in the background. Whenever my mom
paged me she had to listen to the first 30 seconds of Changes.... up
until 'Pac said, "pimp slap you up." I think that was when the beep
beeped and my mom was able to tell me to call her back.
So before there was textmessaging, there was PAGER CODE. No one can
tell you what pager code is, you have to see it for yourself... Once
you spent a week honing your skills of spelling out letters with
digital numbers, you could basically flirt with anyone with a pager.
There was also the code within the code: 823 (meant thinking (8
letters) of (2) you (3)) and likewise, 143 (I love you), 99
(night-night), etc. Entire civilizations have been built on lesser
forms of communication.
Oh yeah, so I moved up to San Francisco and I started my first year of
medschool. It has been great! Classes have been really
interesting and not too overwhelming, my classmates are amazing, and I
love being in the City! Moving out of my Dad's townhouse in
West San Jose into my own apartment in the Inner Sunset was as much a
shot in the arm as Teri Hatcher's agent landing her the role of Susan
Mayer or Mullin trading for B-diddy last winter. Simply put, I'm having
a lot more fun! (hence the excessive exclamations)
Here are some pictures from my last two months of Xanga hibernation:
Me and my masseuse, Luna! Don't worry it was legit...
The preschool we helped build in Thailand:
Getting smuggled across the Thai border with a group of Korean tourists:
The person who took this pic of me in a random Hill tribe in a
rainforest killed a pig with a big stick so that me and the Koreans
could have a nice bbq. It definitely made me queezy. Later that night,
I ate delicious barbequed pork!
I went on a backpacking trip through Yosemite with some of my
classmates. Erica from my class literally said, "Who's that lady with
Juan?" Juan's the dude on the right. The thing is, I think she has a
point. dangit:
Another picture with my sweet lady-like outfit. Yosemite's my happy place!
Rexy and Lexi and me eating the world's bombest Indian buffet at
Samgan. I'm trying to blend in with the wall so I can stay there a
little longer:
Rayray and Hung (welcome home!):
5111337 012381775
(sweet dreams)
40778!!! (you can try that one on your own!)
Please keep pager code alive! Do your part...old people.
| | |
| A half week ago, I left the small island of Koh Yao on which I was helping to build a small preschool and teach English. It is one of the few "untouristy" islands left in Thailand's seas. On more than one occasion I felt like I was discovering the most amazingly beautiful uncharted beaches for the first time. (It reminded me of when I first fell in love with Jessica Alba during the Flipper series and Natalie Portman after The Professional and Beautiful Girls. Or Beyonce when I still didnt know her name was Beyonce after that profound song...No-no-no. I hope that Koh Yao doesnt suffer the same fate of overexposure and exploitation. By the way, these prior obsessions might sound sketch coming from a 25 year old...but I was like 16 at the time so gimme a lil' leeway.)
After traveling around like a dorky tourist, it was refreshing to actually immerse myself into the community and culture of Thailand. I actually learned a handful of Thai phrases and bought a sarong (ie a man skirt.) The local construction workers really took to the sarong on the last night during our sendoff party. As with the rest of my life's awkward social interactions, I wasn't quite sure if they were laughing with me or at me. I think I had too much fun wearing a skirt.
Right now I'm sitting in a free internet cafe in Tokyo's Narita airport. I'm finally heading back to the Bay! I haven't fully processed my adventures yet but God has really been hammering home the importance of true, interdependent community in my life. I really saw COMMUNITY lived out on the island of Koh Yao. Everyone on that island knew each and really supported each other. There was only one cop in town. He had a gun but didnt have any bullets according to the locals. As we drove to the worksite every morning, many of the locals would wave and smile to us sitting in the back of our truck. In the evenings, we'd see all the neighbors (adults and kids alike) come together to play volleyball, football and hacky sack. As we left, it was really touching 'cause all these macho workers who could climb 50 ft coconut trees and hunt wild boars called us all part of their family.
I'm actually a quarter-century old today. I definitely don't feel OLD but I do feel like a real adult... blah! I wish I could just celebrate my birthday at Bullwinkle's but alas, Bullwinkle's has been replaced by Lawrence Expressway's hottest night club, Avalon...next to Rite Aid and right across the street from Pizza and Pipes. Even more depressing, I heard Boyz II Men had a "concert" there a few months ago. Do you think Wanye Morris still gets chicks? He must be pushing 250 now. | | |
| Oh yeah, Daniel from our GRX missions team is keeping a Xanga. Please read: http://www.xanga.com/grxthailand | | |
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