We arrived in Florence by train at lunch time, but staved off hunger to explore the Santa Maria Novella church near the station. We instantly recognized the clean, geometric exterior which, like other buildings in Assassin’s Creed 2, were faithfully digitized in the game. Afterwards, we enjoyed an amazing lunch deal at Trattoria il Contadino, where the prix fixe menu includes homemade pasta and juicy swordfish for a mere 10.5 euro a person. Fortified, we visited Museo Galileo to get nerdy with ancient instruments for navigation, medicine, and physics, then at Santa Croce to peruse the tombs of famous Florentines including Galileo, Michelangelo, and Dante. Exhausted, we took a nap in the courtyard before a long trek back to our faraway hotel and a light dinner of Schiacciata pizza. The next morning began with a workout just short of insane – a 460-step climb up the Duomo to arrive, slick with sweat, at a beautiful panoramic view of Florence. After stopping by the Duomo Museum and checking out the impressive doors of the Baptistery, we crossed to San Lorenzo to the Medici Palace and Chapels, where we found that Ezio’s rescue of Lorenzo the Magnificent during the Pazzi Conspiracy allowed him to live another 14 years. We stopped for a low-key lunch at Trattoria Mario including a whole octopus for Melody, before checking out the Museum of San Marco and the Accademia, which houses Michelangelo’s David. For dinner, Trattoria Cibreo served up tomato bread soup, creamy mushroom soup, cheese flan, codfish mousse, and a potato gratinee. Although everything was essentially mush, it was all delicious mush. On our last day, we ran into a friend’s parents at the here.

Having soared across rooftops and scaled towers as a caped assassin in digital Venice and Florence in Assassin’s Creed 2, we could not resist visiting Italy to see these cities in real life. We arrived at the floating city (an island aptly shaped like a big fish) by water bus, where a bait and switch landed us at a hotel right along the Grand Canal. After a review of Venetian history and culture at the Correr Museum, we were mobbed by pigeons and the idiots feeding them in St. Mark’s Square. We ate dinner at Il Ridotto, where the pasta “calamari” featured shrimp gently cooked to tender, cuddly perfection. The next morning, our hotel speedboat took us to beautiful Murano, where our guide Lorenzo from Estevan Rossetto showed us some amazing glass-blowing technique, followed by some even more amazing glass-selling technique. A pricey snail sculpture caught our eye, but instead we sailed to colorful Burano to visit lace shops and enjoy a delicious al dente pasta along the canal. Unable to get the snail out of our minds, we succumbed and returned to Murano to give Lorenzo his commission. Back in Venice, we toured Doge’s Palace and crossed the Bridge of Sighs, which was sadly obscured by the surrounding scaffolds. Dinner at Corte Sconta featured a fantastic assortment of seafood appetizers and very salty pasta. On our last day, we embarked on a morning walking tour which took us across the Grand Canal via the Rialto to the tip of Dursoduro. Along the way, we passed the bustling fish market, the Frari Church, many gelato stands, the apartments of Ca’Rezzonico, and our favorite Scuola Grande, plastered from ceiling to floors with powerful Tintoretto paintings. Avoiding the high-priced gondolas, we took a traghetti back to St Mark’s Basilica, where we were ready for the non-existent pickpockets as we gazed around Ezio’s prettiest assassin’s crypt puzzle. We had our last and best meal in Venice at Alle Testiere, which proudly serves no pasta but the most perfect grilled seafood platter on the island. Complemented by a light, creamy tiramisu, it was the perfect way to end our visit.

We joined fellow hungry Bostonians last weekend to partake in the first annual Boston Food Truck Festival. Our first stop at M&M’s Ribs fed us an uninspired tray of over-done and over-sauced pork ribs. The sausage from the Sausage Guy was equally mediocre and overly filling. The true standout turned out to be Speed’s Hot Dog. The “fully-loaded” version is a large, plump weiner marinated in apple cider and brown sugar, served on a toasted sub roll with homemade mustard, onions, and cranberry relish. At first glance a sloppy-looking hot mess, it is instantly redeemed upon entering our mouths with its scintillating blend of sweet and savory flavors. We were so stuffed at the end that we could only watch in horror at Fillbelly’s belated entrance. Hoping to redeem ourselves, we stalked their Twitter thread on Friday, but was foiled again as they canceled their road tour for the evening. Disgruntled, we instead used our first Groupon for ribs and fried chicken at Soulfire. This weekend, we took a short road trip to New Jersey to hang out with some friends. Along the way, our bellies were filled with our beloved “melty pork” ramen from Santouka for lunch, sashimi and home-made bulgogi for dinner, and Sunday brunch with waffles, Spam, and eggs. An extravagant feast at Oleana with my co-residents, compliments of the ophthalmology department for our amazing OKAP scores, ended a most satisfying belly-filled week.

This year’s Shakespeare on the Common featured Othello – perhaps one of the most controversial and unsettling tragedies in Shakespare’s repertoire. It’s been nearly 20 years since I last read this play in high school English class. Beyond the racist and even somewhat misogynistic overtones, the brilliant script intricately explores the dark emotions that embody envy and wrath. Despite the heaviness of the well-acted story, the dry cool breeze that evening brought some reprieve from our hot, humid summer swelter. Toss in some tasty fried rice and noodles from HK eatery and a friendly game of 4-player Scrabble with friends, and we’ve got ourselves a satisfying summer night out.

Over the last few weeks, we took the opportunity to hit up a couple of Chowhound favorites, from the tasting menu at Craigie on Main to goat cheese raviolis and pan-seared barramundi at the Jamaica Plains Ten Tables. The meals were a bit pricey, but within the norm for fine dining of this caliber. This weekend, we returned to NYC to celebrate my mom’s 60th birthday. Now I’ve been to a fair share of Chinese seafood banquets, but this was my first time shelling out nearly $100 per person for Chinese food. At Brooklyn’s East Harbor Seafood Palace, our lavish meal included a lobster salad, dual-style fried jumbo shrimps, crab-stuffed bamboo piths, conch & geoduck with fried tofu, sharkfin soup, stewed whole abalone (the bulk of the cost), deep-fried soft shell crabs, steamed jumbo grouper, longevity noodles, egg and dried scallop fried frice, and a stewed hasma dessert (yes, that’s frog fallopian tubes). If there were an “extreme edition” for Chinese banquet meals, this would have been it. It wasn’t haute cuisine, but definitely worth it to have my extended family together and see my parents enjoy themselves after a very tough year. On Sunday, we scarfed down some old-school pastrami and beef tongue sandwiches from famous Katz’s Deli with one of my oldest friends in NY before returning to Boston.

After my last shift as a junior resident, I browsed through my records and estimated having seen between 1200-1300 patients last year in the Emergency Room alone. That’s 2500 eyes in 365 days! Yet, all that experience did little to prepare me for my new rotation at Children’s Hospital. After trying to examine a crying 11-month-old and an indomitable 3-year-old on my first day, I was already missing the days when patients actually followed directions, or at least not trying to kick me in the nuts. Second year also introduced me to the notion of “home call.”As a junior resident, we stayed in house overnight, so the threshold was low to see everyone who was referred to the infirmary. But deciding whether to drive into work when consulted from the comfort of my own bed is a whole other issue. Luckily, working closer to home means more time for fun and relaxation. Despite being on call, we enjoyed a morning brunch and afternoon barbeque with work colleagues over July 4th weekend. And after reaching the unexpected yet satisfying conclusion to Heavy Rain, we are now embarking on the second installation of the Assassin’s Creed series. This time, we take to the rooftops of Florence and Tuscany and continue investigating the mysterious plot of the Templars, all with the help of nifty poison daggers, dual hidden blades, scantily-clad courtesans, Leonardo da Vinci, and an uncle Mario, whom we believe was so named for the sole purpose of his unforgettable entrance with the line “it’s a-me! Mario!”

Traditionally, commencement celebrates the graduating residents and fellows who are completing their training in ophthalmology. However, tradition at Mass Eye & Ear also stipulates an important role for the first-year residents – the junior skit. Over the course of two weeks, my classmates and I collaborated in a momentous effort to gather attending physicians from every department (including our chairperson) to make a fool of themselves in front of a camera. More important than my hacking cough or my grand rounds presentation, the video editing consumed my waking hours. The result was a creative masterpiece in the style of “24” to parody events at the infirmary in the course of a day. Commencement festivities concluded on Thursday with dinner at the downtown Harvard Club overlooking the Boston skyline. Friday was our departmental annual meeting, with a series of research talks that concluded with yet another lavish dinner at Loeb House. To celebrate with the graduating seniors, we set out for drinks at Om followed by dancing at the Royale. Some smart talking and fast money handling (not by me) finagled a discounted cover charge before we hit the dance floor to the beat of hip hop, techno, and pop. It was my first night out in a long while, and it reminded me of how fun it used to be.

As I approach the end of my year as a junior resident, I was slammed with two nearly back-to-back weeks of ED night float. Having barely survived the ordeal, I emerged only to face a new nightmare – my desktop computer wiped out by a virus. Fortunately, this gave me a chance to re-format my workhorse computer and finally upgrade the 10-year-old operating system to the new Windows 7. This meant not only having to back up my important files onto various external drives, which took several days; but also having to upgrade most of my collection of software programs to newer versions. With new 64-bit support and my 6 GB of RAM, the new setup is running quite nicely. This time, I took care to cover my behind with three security programs and switched to Firefox for safer browsing of unsafe sites. So far, I’m liking the new interface – even though it takes a bit of getting used to. My favorite features include the slimmer and more efficient taskbar, as well as the ability to dock windows to fill just half the screen. Aside from the frantic installations and customizations, I also spent some time this weekend catching up with med school friends over homemade ribs, steak, and shrimp at their homes – an auspicious start to my upcoming 3-week stretch without a day off.

When I submitted an abstract last fall to the ARVO annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale, I was looking forward to my first exposure to vision research and to meeting future colleagues in ophthalmology. Little did I know that ARVO was in fact more popularly called the “American Resident Vacation Organization” by those who have experienced the festivities before. Unfortunately, my so-called “vacation” began with an 11-hour layover in Atlanta, having missed my connection flight due to inclement weather. I think it was my personal record for being stuck at an airport, and I ultimately relegated to eating both lunch AND dinner at Popeyes (which cured my fried chicken craving, but bodes poorly for my arteries). Luckily, day two brought a mixture of warm sun by the pool, and stimulating lectures and poster sessions. The evening concluded with 2 pounds of fresh, chunky jumbo Florida stone crabs at Catfish Dewey’s followed by some mingling time at a local dive bar. On Wednesday, we took full advantage of the beach – basking in the sun, playing catch with a coconut we found in the water, and watching pelicans dive for the schools of fish swimming in the shallow waters at our feet. Dinner was Caribbean seafood fare at Calypso, with conch chowder, conch fritters, conch salad, sweet barbequed shrimps, broiled stuffed dolphin fillet, and of course, a refreshing slice of homemade key lime pie. I was still feeling stuffed when I awoke to present my research poster yesterday morning. Yet, even as the conference was winding down, our adventure was only beginning. Believe it or not, my return flight was also held back by poor weather, causing me to miss my connection and spend … you got it … another 11 hours in Atlanta – this time overnight. Since the airport Popeyes was already closed, we convinced our shuttle bus driver for a drive-through stop at Church’s before dropping us off at our temp hotel. The adventure left me exhausted by the time we got back this afternoon, when I rolled into work with all my luggage and went straight to the operating room. I was sad – not just because the trip was over or that I’m starting nightfloat week, but because I will not have a break until my next vacation in September.

With the OKAP exam finally out of the way, my life has finally been restored to at least some level of normalcy. With “normal” being a relative term, of course, I was soon back to the daily grind of ER shifts and OR cases. With little time to celebrate or recover. Being on-call for oculoplastics also meant having to round on our inpatient service, which despite its small size, brought back traumatic recollections of internship life. Nevertheless, having spent countless hours learning the vast body of clinical minutia and esoteric pearls, the exam was like a lead weight that was finally lifted off my chest. I was glad to play my part as husband again – cleaning the apartment, helping with laundry, and even made an Ikea run for household items. We also checked out Tim Burton’s re-imaginaton of Alice in Wonderland in 3D, then returned to Ferelden with our party of four to slay the archdemon dragon. Having saved the world once again, we will next embark on Heavy Rain – the highly-anticipated PS3 exclusive that is better described as interactive storytelling than videogaming. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.