2012 is the year of the dragon, and what better way to kick it off than to slay one? Six years after closing the gates of Oblivion, we returned to Tamriel to embark on an all new adventure in Skyrim, Bethesda’s critically-acclaimed and newest chapter in the Elder Scrolls series of role-playing games. With more dungeons, more quests, and more monsters to slay, the game already has us totally immersed in the rich, beautifully-designed fantasy world. Whether we were collecting torch bugs in misty groves, watching giants and mammoths cross wheat fields, capturing a Draugr deathlord’s soul in torch-lit catacombs, or taking down a frost dragon with our flaming bow atop a mountain at dusk, the various moments have kept us in constant awe. Perhaps most memorable was a Daedric quest where we retraced our steps after blacking out from a drinking contest. We later learned that we had stolen a goat named Gleda, sold it to a giant, and proposed to a hargraven in a night of debauchery reminiscent of the newest Hangover movie. We’ve played into the wee hours of the morning, even on New Year’s Eve when we paused briefly to watch the ball drop before resuming our adventures. Back in the real world, I remain in exile from my home institution, as I began my rotation at the Boston VA. Despite the high surgical volume and appreciative patients, the onslaught of administrative and scheduling duties have kept me in constant psychological and emotional strain. Compounded by the thick stack of licensing and credentialing paperwork, a scholarship application, a research manuscript, and a visa application for India, I anticipate a busy start to the new year.

Last weekend, Melody drove up from Boston for one last visit before the end of my rotation in Maine. With the subzero weather, we decided to forgo trekking out to Camden or Acadia as originally planned, but cozied up indoors instead, venturing out only to dine at the local digs. Over the two days, we filled our bellies with meatloaf and short ribs from the Liberal Cup, shrimp scampi and sausage spaghetti from Pastaz, french toast and lobster benedict from Slate’s, and most memorably, Laura’s Seafood Stew from Red Barn– an amazingly simple but delicious concoction of fresh lump lobster, scallops, haddock, and bay shrimps in a creamy milk and butter broth that showcased Maine seafood to near perfection. The rest of our time was spent catching up on TV shows like Glee and SNL, chasing wild turkeys and deers around the house, and engaging in such geeky pastimes as RC car racing and BB gun plinking. The rest of the work week was quite chill (pun intended). I even picked up a quart of the seafood stew on my drive back to Boston on Friday. For the holiday weekend, my parents visited from NYC, so we treated them to the gammut of Asian cuisines in Boston, from shabu shabu and Northern Chinese dim sum to Indian buffet and hearty home-made meals courtesy of Melody. I even learned my mom’s recipe for flan in exchange for a new Harvard cap for dad and smiling for family photos. I wish all holidays were as relaxing as this!

This year’s fellowship Match Day was an emotional roller-coaster that fortunately concluded with a happy, albeit bittersweet, ending. Even just days before the match, I had heard through the grapevines that my chances of matching to my top choice were slim, as our residency has been regarded to have less surgical training than other programs. Last night, on the eve before the match, I received a Facebook friend request from another applicant, which misled me to thinking that I had matched to his program. Even as I was driving back to Maine last night, I was on the phone with my wife discussing potential living arrangements depending on where I end up. Fortunately, I heard the good news early this morning from the program director at Duke herself. Phone calls, e-mails, and text messages came pouring in to congratulate me even as I was cranking through the busy clinic. By the time the day winded down and the dust began to settle, it was still hard to believe that I will be leaving Boston after 12 years in the city. Sadly, Melody will most likely be taking a job on the West coast, which will make us bi-coastal again for another 2 years. It was a tough decision, but one that will hopefully give us the best chance to be together afterwards.

After our vacation last week, I drove back to Maine late Sunday night, only to realize that I had left the house keys in Boston! Fortunately, I also found out that I had left the house unlocked all week, so I was able to get inside and avoid hypothermia. Now who said two wrongs don’t make a right? My Nook Color also came in the mail this week, which I proceeded to overclock and flash with the CyanogenMod of the Android OS, essentially converting the refurbished e-reader into a snappy Honeycomb tablet. That’s not bad for $120, especially since the HP Touchpad fire sale turned out to be a disaster, wasting me 30 minutes of my life on Ebay and still leaving me empty-handed. Luckily, the Nook performed well in a test drive during our Chandler meeting. This year’s conference featured retina guru Glenn Jaffe, and kept me well fed with both a pre-dinner at the Chart House and a reception at the Millenium Boston Hotel. I spent the rest of the weekend with Melody playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a prequel to the acclaimed game in 2000 which is set in a beautifully-rendered dystopian future reminiscent of that in Blader Runner, and mimics the stealth tactics from the MGS series. Despite the fun of climbing through air ducts, hacking computer terminals, and silently taking down guards, we hope to crank through the game quickly to get to Skyrim by Christmas.

It’s been years since Melody got to spend Thanksgiving with her folks back home, so our trip to Cali this week has been long awaited. Our plan for this “stay-cation” was simply to relax, eat, and sleep – a welcomed break after the exhausting fellowship interview season. Much of our time was spent hanging out with our niece and in-laws in Sacramento and Stockton, exploring nearby restaurants and shopping at strip malls. I also caught up on data analysis for a research project while getting addicted to Property Virgins on HGTV. Last Saturday, we drove to San Francisco to pig out at the Ferry Building Marketplace. There, we got to feel young, hip, and epicurean while waiting in line for fresh oysters, Korean tacos, bacon-infused hotdogs, and porchetta sandwiches; washed down with some chai tea milk, an ice-cream sandwich, and pan au chocolat. We ended our week off with Melody’s 2-day job interview at UC Davis, which gave me plenty of time to sit in a hotel room and ruminate over my fellowship rank list. On the flight home, we found out that our flight attendant was also an enthusiast of Skyrim, the long-awaited sequel to Oblivion from the Elder Scrolls role-playing series. We loaned him our game guidebook in exchange for a free airline snack box and eager anecdotes of his adventures as a dragon-slaying wood elf. It definitely kept our neighboring passengers listening in utter confusion and thirsty for their beverages. The exchange got us all hyped up and eager to embark on our own adventures there.

Having been a city boy all my life (Hong Kong, NYC, Boston), my transition to living in Togus got off to a rocky start. I was nearly stranded on my first grocery run to the Hannaford in Augusta when I learned that GPS navigation on my smartphone does not work without data access while roaming. My usual sources of multimedia and entertainment were also lacking, although the availability of MiFi in the house allowed me to catch up on season 3 of Lost via Netflix streaming. Fortunately, I found reprieve from the cold and solitude after returning from my interview at Duke and catching an earlier flight back to Portland to meet Melody for dinner at Fore Street. It was well worth the extra $50 airline fee for tasty wood-grilled mussels and a few extra hours with my wife. We spent Sunday exploring nearby Augusta and China (the town in Maine, not the country), shopping in strip malls and dining at the China Dine-Ah. After hearing the catchy jingle on the radio all weekend long, we could not resist the quality homestyle cooking like meatloaf and sheperd’s pie. When I finally returned home to Boston to cover call this weekend, I had tons of emails and receipts to file away, but fortunately, no ruptured globes to repair. Although the Togus rotation has been laid back so far, I’ll be looking forward to our upcoming vacation with Melody’s family over Thanksgiving.

This is the story of my mind-numbing trip aboard buses, planes, and cars across 3 time zones and 5 interviews in 6 days. Possible? Yes. Insane? Absolutely. It began last Wednesday after work with a mad dash to South Station to catch my bus down to New York, which due to rush hour traffic, got me late to the Columbia pre-interview dinner. The interview itself on Thursday lasted an epic 11 hours (thanks to my last name), which of course made me late for my next dinner with the Cornell faculty. By the time I finished my third NYC interview at NYEE, I was completely drained, although thankful to still have some time to spend with family before flying out to Chicago. Arriving early in the Windy City on Sunday, I revisited the bean at Millenium Park and had a table for one at nearby Park Grill for lunch. I spent the afternoon reading at the Harold Washington Library, supposedly the largest circulating library in the world, before the UIC dinner. I took off for San Francisco right after my interview there, which gave me a chance to check out my friend’s fancy new house as well as my first taste of Indian pizza before my UCSF interview on Tuesday. From there, I took the red-eye flight home, arriving bright and early to rendevous with my wife to pick up my luggage, groceries, and rental car for the 3-hour move up to the Togus VA medical center in Maine. After orientation (ID badge, house keys, parking permit, computer login, etc.), I settled into my new home for the next 7 weeks amidst the cold, bleak landscape. This is probably my first time living alone in such a large house in the middle of nowhere, reminding me of such horror films as The Shining (big house, isolation, cold winter) and The Amityville Horror (scary house, winter, flies). So if you start seeing some “all work and no play makes Glenn a dull boy” emails in your inbox, you may want to call and check up on me.

This year’s AAO annual meeting took place in the city of Orlando, and as senior residents, we had our first chance to partake in this magical experience. Of course, having already spent a fortune on fellowship interviews, I was reduced to sharing a room at the local Econolodge, which luckily was within walking distance to the convention center. Due to lack of call coverage back home, I was only able to attend the Retina subspecialty day – a 2-day extravaganza of mini-lectures summarizing the biggest stories of the year in a single over-sized conference hall. In between the talks, I snuck in an interview for the ARC fellowship and visited the exhibitor booths to browse the new toys and grab some freebies. Although most of the reps were only giving out candy or eye drop samples, I did get my lenses engraved by the folks at Volk. More importantly, the meeting gave me a chance to reconnect with colleagues – past residents and fellows who have graduated, as well as faculty and other applicants from the interview trail. After our first day at the meeting, we enjoyed some tapas and Flamingo dancing at Cafe Tu Tu Tango, then set out on a wild night crashing a Genentech social in the Peabody ballroom, followed by a Cornea Society party with physician-DJ’s spinning house music at the Hard Rock Cafe. Hoping to take it easy the next day, we met up with some BU residents and stuffed ourselves with Turkish lavas and hummus at Anatolia before the ride home on a taxi-van from a driver named Mr. Muzik (spelling confirmed on cab badge). Despite the short trip, the traditionally busy call through the rest of AAO turned out surprisingly quiet, perhaps due to our first snowfall this Halloween, giving me a nice break before my next wave of fellowship interviews.

Was it only 4 years ago that I packed the same black suit into my carry-on suitcase, traveling across the country to confront the myriad unfamiliar faces, each with a hand in casting the die that determines my fate? This fellowship interview season brought back memories of cliche personal statements, SFmatch anguish, airline ticket bargain-hunting, crashing on old friends’ couches, changing in airport bathrooms, insomnia on red-eye flights, and of course, the interview suit – the one that cannot be packed without getting wrinkled. Luckily, I’ve found two new gadgets that has made life a lot easier this time around: a handy portable steamer to replace shower steaming, and the Google maps phone app for navigation. The smartphone is not without its Achilles’ heel, however. Upon arriving in Portland the night before my first interview, I found my phone dying from low battery, almost taking with it my friend’s home address or phone number. Luckily, I averted spending the night in the streets, and got to share her living room with her parrotlet before my interview at Casey. I spent the rest of my time in Portland venturing to the Pearl district to explore Powell’s City of Books before having eclectic Peruvian fare at Andina for dinner. My trip continued in Altanta, which gave me a chance to hang with my cousin’s family for the weekend before my Emory interview, and was followed by St. Louis for a visit to Wash U. By the time I returned home to cover senior call for Columbus Day weekend, I was deathly ill with a wicked cold and laryngitis. Exhausted from all the traveling and illness, I had to recuperate at home with some good ol’ gaming with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Ubisoft’s next chapter in Desmond and Ezio’s epic adventure brought back the fun of climbing gorgeous historic buildings, hunting for treasure chests, and stabbing Borgia baddies with hidden blades. Sadly, the reprieve was short-lived, and I was soon taking my suit on the road again for interviews at my home institution and then UC Davis. I had little time to spend with my 5-year-old niece in Sacramento, but I’ll hope to make it up with my upcoming vacation for Thanksgiving.

Our trip to Cancun this summer was our first attempt at the traditional “beach vacation.” In the past, our trips have always been packed with activities. This time, we decided instead to splurge on a luxury beach resort near Playa del Carmen. Unsure of how long we could survive doing nothing, we opted for a brief 4-night stay with no activities planned in advance. We even saved a few bucks by traveling during hurricane season and forgoing travel insurance. But when we heard about Hurricane Irene moving up the East Coast, we knew we were in trouble. By the time I left work on Friday, we found that our Sunday flight had been canceled. We spent nearly 4 hours on our cell phones, Skype, and Twitter, desperately trying to reach a Delta representative. Luckily, we averted the crisis by arranging to fly out a day earlier, which meant frantically packing and rushing to the airport within 2 hours of our phone call to catch the flight. Arrving in Cancun a day ahead, we checked into the Courtyard Marriot near the airport, but only to realize that Melody had forgotten her contact lenses! Frantic again, we hopped onto the local bus to look for replacements. Luckily, we saw a Sam’s Club along the way and leapt off the bus in joy. With all our remaining pesos and some broken Spanish, we were able to get a new set of contacts to restore my wife’s vision. Our stay at the 5-star Rosewood Mayakoba resort was nothing short of extraordinary. Sipping our welcome cocktails, we were taken to our suite on a boat tour through the private lagoon. After docking, our butler introduced us to the amenities – private boat dock, heated plunge pool, roof deck with day bed, and both indoor and outdoor showers. We enjoyed a sea side Mexican dinner on site with classic sopa de lima and conchita pibil. On Monday, we ferried to Cozumel to visit the Chankanaab national park, where we swam with dolphins, sea lions, and even manatees! We also snorkeled for a couple of hours, though the required life vests and bouyant salt water made it difficult to dive below the surface for underwater photos. We returned to Playa del Carmen in the evening for dinner at Yaxche for delicious authentic Mayan fare. The next morning started with Melody accidentally dropping her Kindle on the floor and my erroneously deleting the cell phone settings for PlayOn streaming. Cut off from our usual entertainment, we took advantage of the resort facilities – the sculptured swimming pool, the club room pool table, and of course, cable TV, where we watched Serena Williams crush her opponent at the US Open. On Wednesday, after our kayaking attempt was foiled by stormy waves, we decided to stay by the beach, where the constant offering of free goodies like mango popsicles, strawberry slushies, cucumber eye covers, facial massage, and sunglass cleaning service (you can’t make this stuff up) kept us in utter relaxation. We returned to Boston refreshed, and thankful to have the long weekend ahead before returning to work.