home sweet home
quick summary of my great vacation back home:
long flight, delays
met up with nearly all my friends
ate home cooked food (YUM, but healthy thanks to mom)
baked gingerbread cookies and cheesecake with friend
went shopping
watched DVD
made desserts for thanksgivings dinner (apple pie--YUM!)
ate hot pot (best i've ever had, YUM YUM YUM)
ate at friend's house (YUM)
ate out lots (japanese sushi, chili's lettuce wrap--best i've ever had, jack-in-the box milkshake and fried chicken strips--oh sooo good i love milkshakes!, americanized chinese food...YUM YUM YUM YUM!)
walked Chopin for nearly 2h in the rain
got tutored by brother while walking dog
played badminton
studied (yup, can't avoid it)
slept
all-in-all, it was AWESOME and way too short! one month til xmas!
Homeless and Hunger Auction
Wow, I’m almost home! 4 days away! As much as I’m looking forward to going home, I also dread the travel. Never traveled during “the busiest travel day of the year,” and I don’t know what to expect but L-O-N-G lines and waits, lost luggage, etc. Not very convenient to fly out here since there are no large airports nearby. Oh well, at least I get to see family/friends and eat home-cooked food for 4 days! Yay!
Yesterday we had our medical school’s annual Homeless and Hunger Auction. It’s really a great idea—students, faculty, and businesses donate services or items to be auctioned off, and all proceeds go to charity. People get really creative, and we had people donating dinners with faculty, movie nights, clean-your-room, give-you-a-massage, bake you any goodies you ask for, break-dancing lessons, dog-walking services—you name it, somebody offered it! You can look at this year’s 400+ donations at http://www.yale.edu/hhauction! . Last night was the closing of the silent auction that has gone on for week (I won a ride to the airport for $17, which is half the price of the shuttle!), and the live auction. Now for a dinner for 8 with one of our anatomy professor (includes 2.5 lb of any cut of beef, and beer of your choice) went for a whopping $800!!! This professor also auctioned off his bowtie (he’s famous for wearing white shirt, black pants daily, and the only thing that always changes is his bowtie) for $300!!! Isn’t that insane?? And a night for 6 out in NYC (with private museum tour and dinner) with the head dean of the med school went for $1050!!! I mean, where the heck do students have this money?? Absolutely crazy, but lots of fun to hear people bid while half-drunk!
Super-Size Me!
I saw “supersize me” yesterday. I was debating between this free screening, and going to a “XXX hypnotist show”. I chose the movie ‘cuz it was free, and hypnotist shows are more fun only if you know the person being hypnotized so you can ask them later if they really were hypnotized. The move was great—very funny, very true. For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s a documentary about a guy who goes on a McD’s diet for a month, eating 3 meals a day there. He has to eat everything on the menu once, and must supersize his meal if asked. He started off perfectly healthy: 6’2, 185#. After his first supersize meal (which took him 25 min to eat), he vomited—it was gross! At the end (btw, he has a vegan gf), he was 210#, his liver was failing (the 3 doctors he saw told him to stop his diet by week 3, as his fatty liver was likened to that of an alcoholic!), his libido was down, he had mood swings and depression, he was addicted to McD’s (would get withdrawal symptoms), he had heart palpitations, etc. Crazy, huh? Of course, his diet is drastic with 3 meals a day (about 5,000kcals!), but still—one month of fast food sure can do quite a bit of damage. They also showed a bunch of other interesting things like how proportion sizes have changed (8oz used to be a small coke, now it is kiddie size), and school cafeteria food. All in all, it was entertaining yet informative—good thing I rarely eat out at fast food, and if I do, I don’t opt for burgers and fries. Just not very palatable to me. In fact, I guess I’m lucky in that I don’t really like burgers, fries, or sodas…too bad tho that I LOVE sweets, all the desserts in the world!! I probably eat no more than 4 burgers a year, and less than 2L of soda the entire year. Matt (who I saw this movie with) on the other hand, LOVES fast food and would live off burgers and fries if he could. His gf wanted him to see this movie, but afterwards he said he doesn’t think it will change his diet as he doesn’t eat McD’s excessively like this guy. For those of you who haven’t seen it, I do recommend it!
It snowed! and my philly wknd...
I meant to update my blog right after my trip to Philly, but got caught trying to catch up with work that I didn’t really have time until now (which, btw, is in the middle of psychiatry lecture on alcohol addiction). We left last Fri after picking up this MD/PhD student from my dorm that I offered a trip to (she was visiting her aunt in new jersey). It was FREEZING that morning, and I heard on the news that it may snow! Already! But nope, when we left, it was just POURING rain, and it continued to pour for the four hour drive through NY, NJ, and to PA (4 states in one day!). But guess what—it SNOWED at Yale! I missed my first snowfall of the year! I heard it was enough to cover the cars, about 1-2”. And I saw remnants of it when I got back Sunday. Oh well, people said that I shouldn’t be too sad to miss it because there will be plenty more soon enough!
Anyway, on the drive there, the MD/PhD girl kept insisting that her school is not a “free-ride” just because she doesn’t pay for tuition, and has a decent stipend (due to PhD portion of her degree). She says that she has to spend extra 2-3 years doing research for Yale, which she could have spent working as MD and get more money. I guess she sorta has a point, but it sure is nice going through school without hefty loans, and have spending money.
We got to PA earlier than expected, and went to hotel first. This time, they housed me with Radu (the really good badm player), and Christine (this girl he dated for 3 months, also my doubles partner and the sister of my mixed partner James). I felt really odd ‘cuz I wasn’t sure what was going on with them exactly, and I didn’t want to be “caught up” in any of the acts. But that’s where they put me (though I could have gone in the other room with 3 guys, heh), so oh well. We watched the Peterson’s trial until they announced the verdict (talk about being tough! Why do they keep adding to his sentence instead of just saying it all at once in one long verdict? Guilty….guilty of first degree….guilty of first degree and second degree…guilty of first degree with circumstance and 2nd degree..geez, it’s like extending the torture!
So Friday evening was just all singles, and I waited and waited and waited to play. Turns out my opponent never made it there, and so I won and advanced to semifinals without even touching my racket! Saw some good OCBC players (from so-cal) all the way here, including the former crush Bob. Heh, now I don’t even care. I remember being obsessed with it wayyy back in high school! Oh, and guess who Matt and I met from Cal! Good old Senor Fred, who was our teammate long ago. He moved to Puerto Rico, and now plays for their national team, which supposedly is pretty bad (avg level B/C). That was great seeing him again—haven’t seen him for like 4 years! =) So that first day, I ate like a pound of trail mix while nervously anticipating the game that never happened (I haven’t played singles in two years, so I was very anxious!).
Next morning, I got a egg/cheese English muffin sandwich at Dunkin’s! I’ve been craving one of these for awhile, and always too lazy to go. =) so it was yummy…but still not as good as McD’s. No meat I guess. Today is women’s doubles and mixed doubles competition, with singles at the end. I didn’t warm up adequately, and Christine and I lost to relatively easy women’s doubles team. It was very frustrating. Then came our mixed, and this is where all the drama begins. First off, I think I mentioned before that I do not think I play well with James, and that I hope this is the last time I have to play with him. He thinks we work great, and that we should train together as a team. I totally disagree, and was hoping to find a way to separate from him. So during our first game, he’s like “Why do you keep coming back [on the court]? You need to stay up there and get that!” I was confused…cuz our mixed-style is more doubles-style and I cover the back 40% of the time. So I guess I repeated the “mistake” that I thought was supposed to be our rotation, and he’s like, “Why aren’t you rotating correctly? You Can’t do that!!” I said calmly, “I don’t get it….how do u want me to rotate?” Then in the middle of our game, with opponents (and some spectators who later told me they heard) watching, he yells, “What don’t you get? Stay up there and get your shots! Those you YOURS!” Well, to be honest, I don’t remember anything he said…I was just thinking, dude, what the hell is wrong with this guy? NOBODY yells at me on the court, who the hell does he think he is? And then my brain closed on him, and on the game. I lost all interest, I did not care, I did not even want to toss him the birdie. I kept my mouth shut after he yelled at me because I knew that if I opened it, it would be VERY dangerous what words might fly out. He quickly apologized for yelling at me between games, but I didn’t care anymore. So anyhow, we lost an easy match, and I was now in a pissy mood. Now the best thing for a pissy mood is to pull out the books, so I actually got some studying done. =) then I hear our next mixed game announced and then quickly cancelled, and James walked over to quickly say, “We’re not playing anymore.” I’m like, “We’re not?” and he says, “No.” Believe it or not, he decides to FORFEIT the rest of our matches without even consulting with me!! I got sooo mad ‘cuz I NEVER forfeit, not even if I have leg cramps, injuries, whatever. No excuse! I paid $20 to play with this guy I care barely stand, and no matter what, I wanted to get my $20 worth of badminton competition experience! I was willing to go out there myself, and play one-against-two so that I get my money’s worth! So I got soooo mad (fuming by now), and told Christine (my WD partner and his sister) about what he did. She was appalled too—she has similar competitive do-not-quit personality as me, but also said that James will not listen if I talked to him. But I didn’t even want to talk to him, nor look at him, for the rest of the weekend! Just wanted to vent…dumbass guy. In short, I got killed in singles (but won $40 for making it to semifinals), and won A consolation in women’s doubles in the easiest match ever. But the absolute BEST part of this weekend is the fact that I will never again have to play with that cocky punk!! =D I guess thinks work out for the best in the end. Oh yea, and I took off back to CT Sat night instead of Sunday, since I could not get much studying done there and the less I have to see of James, the better. However, Matt Christine and I got lost 3x, and didn’t make it home itl 2am (5h drive).
what a weekend!
i'm updating from my fun fun fun weekend in boston! this was the first weekend i completely took off from school, getting myself 2 hours away from yale! although i brought my microbio notes to study, i only opened it for a total of 30 min the entire wknd! instead, i just sat around, watched great badminton games, played some great games (and not so good ones as well), talked to people, and had a relaxing time. i thought i would be crazy-stressed when sunday night came (didn't get home until 11pm), but i was surprisingly calm! i felt at ease, fully relaxed, and ready to put in some serious time to studying again! like one of my classmates said, her trip to boston really put a new perspective on school again. kinda like a re-energizer! a booster shot! anyhow, the tourney went pretty well--the Connecticut team (that's my team) came in 4th place out of 8, which is the best we've done in years. I played in all 3 events, but it was TOUGH--lotsa excellent players, esp from NY. I was paired up with random partners at some times, and I got soooo annoyed! that is my problem--i can get pretty bad in sportswomanship at times, esp if my partner continues to mess up. i tried to hide it, but by the 30th time she hit out or in the net, my face showed my frustration. i tried to turn around to hide it, but it's soooo hard! esp when we should have won...if they just stop hitting to her every time! poor lady. sigh! but it was great exercise, had 2 doses of chinese food (yummmmm), and just very relaxing in general. I've pretty much decided that i do NOT play well with James (the guy who wants to be MX partners with me), and i do NOT want to continue playing with him. I figured this out day one, when he was being egotistical and annoying as always. But i'm not good at saying 'no', so i gave it a try. and NO MORE! ok, fine, one more. he asked me to play Mid-Atlantic Classic in Philly in 2 weeks, and now i'm going 'cuz this past wknd was so much fun. He's not a bad guy, but we are just SOOO incompatible! different styles, he's ALWAYS trying to give me advice, and he's not consistent and just can't cover me! I need a guy who is hella good so i can have confidence standing at the net, and not worried about getting myself smashed in the head (which happened 2x this wknd..)! Anyhow, the good thing is that our team captain, Radu, also had a chance to play MX with me. He's HELLA good, at least in singles. His MX game is a bit slow, but he sure can cover! And he asked me to play MX with him at a future tourney! yay! so now i have someone else to play with, a reasonable excuse! too bad radu and james are good friends, but oh well, it's my choice now!
so i'm updating now 'cuz i've finally finished my microbiology exam on fungi, molds, parasites, and worms. did you know some worms in your intestines are 10m (30 ft!) long and can live for 25 years?? anyhow, since i played all wknd, i promised to focus all week to do decently on my exam! I put in 4h at the library on Monday, then 4h at home to type up 13 pages of notes to memorize. Then spent next two days (about 16h in all) memorizing away! Oh yes, i've also been taking LOTSA naps! i think that is my new thing: take naps (long ones, like 1-3h!), wake up, be more productive, and sleep later around 2-3am. so it's like taking two long naps, but i feel more restful than ever when i wake up in the mornings.
oh, post-exam break is over! back to class! next exam will be the biggest killer--pharmacology of all the antibiotics, antifungals, antiviral drugs.....AAAUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!
