With only days to go before internship starts, I spent much of the past week basking in my air-conditioned room to escape the sweltering heat wave. This was perfect, as it gave me the opportunity to set up and enjoy another new toy – my PS3. Considering that I never grew up with consoles like the NES, I don’t think I could ever have imagined having TWO gaming systems in my household. I don’t have any games yet, but the plan is to replace my multimedia PC for streaming music and movies. Speaking of games, we also finally finished Super Mario Galaxy this weekend, after many adrenaline-filled hours of dodging fireballs, collecting star bits, and jumping onto moving platforms. Meanwhile, I also did some reading to pass my certification for ACLS last week. Now I’ll know how to properly yell “I’m clear, you’re clear, everyone CLEAR!” before shocking the unfortunate soul who goes into cardiac arrest during intern start week. Trust me, you don’t want to have to go to the hospital around this time of the year.

After 8 long years, my journey as a med student has finally come to an end. Now, when people approach me in the hospital, I can no longer say “I’m just a medical student,” which for me was like a level 5 circle of protection spell. Heheh. But in all seriousness, this transition is a big step in responsibility. And with great responsibility comes great anxiety. But until then, we enjoyed a double celebration today since Melody got her MPH as well. In other words, while I’m now a doctor doctor, she’ll be a master doctor – not bad for spending just one year for three additional letters in your degree. Actually, this graduation was a 3-day event, with an MD-PhD dinner, an HST graduation, and the Class Day ceremony, giving us plenty of opportunities to take photos, eat free food, and maximize the mileage from our overpriced gown rentals. My parents even took us out to No. 9 Park for Chef Barbara Lynch’s tasting menu (we swear this will be the LAST one this year). The 8-course dinner featured several highlights, including a savory seared foie gras with duck, a well-executed hangar steak, and a light pana cotta with pistachio ice-cream. Other dishes, like the over-salted skate wing and over-crisped pork belly, left more to be desired. Now, as my final days of freedom draw to a close, I’ll have to start reviewing all that medicine stuff I learned. Or else I’ll have to resort to saying “I’m just an intern.” 🙂