After our streak of bad fortune in Madrid, we didn’t know what to expect in Barcelona. Arriving at the hotel, however, we were pleasantly surprised by the ultra-sleek interior of the rooms with Bang & Olufsen telephones, flat-panel LCDs, and motorized shades. And though we didn’t reach the hotel until almost 7pm, we were able to squeeze in a visit to L’Aquarium, deemed the largest aquarium in Europe, and even a late night stroll down Las Ramblas. On Thursday, we took a Modernist walking tour with visits to Gaudi’s many architectural marvels including Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, and La Sagrada Família. Opting for food over the hour-long wait to ascend the cathedral’s tower, we kicked back at a tapas bar for lunch, where we learned that blood sausage is something we’re not very fond of. Afterwards, we strolled through Park Güell, and spent the evening browsing the various street performers and vendors at Las Ramblas again. Dinner that night consisted of a sampling of both rice and noodle paellas at a romantic seaside restaurant. Our final day in the city was much more relaxed, with brief visits to some cathedrals, the Museu de la Xocolata (yes, the chocolate museum), and the Palau de la Música Catalana. The trip back to Boston on Saturday, however, brought back the horrors of our first flight, as another hour-long delay almost cost us the connecting flight again. Fortunately, after a lot of huffing and puffing, we made the half-mile run across the airport in just the nick of time. Looking back, our Spain vacation wasn’t exactly a journey of immense satisfaction or smooth sailing. It did, however, give us a full week of time together, which should hopefully soften the blow of being apart for the next few weeks, as she begins working nights and I embark on the wonderful world of thesis writing.

Our trip to Spain did not begin under the best of circumstances. Even with careful planning, we could not foresee a flight delay which caused us to miss our connection, leaving us stranded in the Paris airport for 7 full hours. Despite losing most of day one, we caught the last portions of the Sunday evening bullfight shortly upon arrival, and even took a stroll around the touristy El Centro and Plaza Mayor before returning to the hotel. Our second day began with equally poor luck. A combination of outdated guide books and recent changes in train services led us to lose another morning to useless commutes, leaving only enough time to visit the Palacio Real that afternoon. Determined to overcome our fate, we ascended the slopes of Toledo early Tuesday morning. Though the main attraction of the small town was closed (of course), we nevertheless scored some souvenirs including a pair of Damascan earrings for Melody and some handmade marzipan for myself. Upon returning to the city for lunch, we were blessed with a most delicious Spanish stew which brought a smile to both our faces. After the meal, we ventured through the halls of the famous Museo del Prado, perusing the many works of Velasquez, De Goya, and El Greco among others, followed by a tour of the adjacent botanical gardens. Our stay in Madrid concluded with a visit to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Unlike the Prado, this hospital-turned-museum focuses instead on 20th-century art, with works by Dali and Picasso, as well as some ridiculously eccentric pieces which can only be described with one word: weird. As we flew out of Madrid on Wednesday, it was hard not to compare the city with Paris, which we visited 2 years ago. Despite the many palaces and museums in both capital cities, we felt that everything in Madrid was just a little less impressive, leaving us only a mediocre opinion of the city overall.

Not to sound paranoid or anything, but I’m convinced by this point that the Devil himself has a hand in the events that have occured to me of late. Just as I was recovering from last week’s stomach flu, the pestilence migrated up to my respiratory tract to deluge me with heavy congestion and a sore throat. To make matters worse, even while my laptop is still sitting in the repair shop, my TV suddenly died last night in the middle of a show. Cut off from my portable and multimedia computers, I figured that at least my trusty desktop workhorse was still in operation. But only hours after I commented on this, in one of those classic “spoke too soon” moments, my internet connection went dead as well. I was cautious leaving my apartment this morning, feeling as if someone is slowly trying to cut me off from the world, at least electronically. Until I can pinpoint the nature of such sinister intent, I’ll have to be extra careful with every step I take.

As if I didn’t have enough to worry about already, my luck took a turn for the worse last weekend, precipitating a series of events that I’m only beginning to recover from. It all began right before my trip to New York for my talk, when my laptop decided to die for the second time in 2 weeks. After bringing it back to the bozos who claimed to have fixed it last week, I flew down hoping to spend some relaxing time with my folks back home. Upon arriving, we headed out for lunch, but just when I sat down at the table, I realized my wallet was MISSING! I knew I had it in the car, so it was only a matter of minutes between leaving the car with the valet and walking into the restaurant that I lost it. I spent the afternoon canceling all my credit/ATM cards, and even filed a police report. Incidentally, this happened to be my first experience inside a police station, and it was nothing I’ve ever imagined. Looking around, I saw officers sitting at old wooden desks like those from a public high school. On one side were stashes of various paper forms and a typewriter (no, not a computer keyboard … a MANUAL typewriter). And on the other side, a lady was staring at a MONOCHROME computer monitor! Not exactly like the stuff on CSI. Fortunately, the talk itself went well, and I got to rub elbows with some Neuro bigwigs. Without any IDs and with a fraud alert all over my accounts, it almost feels like I’m the fugitive. I even missed my return flight amidst all the drama, and had to resort to the Chinatown death-mobile to come back home, just in time to pick up a nasty stomach flu. I guess if there’s a silver lining, it’s that I survived such a whirlwind of a week. Let’s hope that I’ve depleted all my bad karma for a long time to come.

With all the writing I’ve been doing at home, we were hoping that Winter Restaurant Week in Boston would give us a chance to take our taste buds out for a treat. But as with every other Restaurant Weeks, this one was a mix of hits and misses. Our first stop was at the highly-coveted Icarus, where highlights included a rich cauliflower soup with braised short rib, and a sea scallops appetizer with chanterelles, bacon, & potato. The second place we tried was Julien at the Langham Hotel, where the classy antique dining room setting was complemented by a mesmerizing Maine shrimp and lobster bisque. Our last stop at Ariadne, unfortunately, turned out to be a disaster. Not only did the waitress misinform us that their Restaurant Week menu was unavailable, but the food and service turned out to be overpriced and as Simon Cowell would say in his snooty accent, utterly forgettable. Otherwise, the week’s been pretty busy, but ended with a high note with a night out with Melody’s co-workers at 33 Saturday night, and a free screening of the comic thriller Lucky Number Slevin on Sunday. Now all I have to do is finish writing my review article, work on my NYAS talk, compose 6 more chapters of questions for Kaplan, and grade 120 Pharmacology exams.

Is it me or has the standing ovation become a meaningless show of approval at entertainment venues? Just as a person can’t just order a “small” coffee at Starbucks, people can’t just clap without standing at a show anymore. It’s worse than grade inflation at Harvard. Last Friday, Melody treated me out to a showing of Les Miserables, which despite being one of my favorite musicals, I’ve actually never seen before. The show itself was well done, but the true star was Randal Keith who played Jean Valjean, the role for which he was also chosen for the final Broadway cast back in 2003. Of course, despite our hopes of reserving our standing ovation for him, we found ourselves sitting among a sea of standing audience members clapping and cheering loudly. And since we couldn’t SEE anything sitting down, we both stood up, and so goes the entire theater giving a standing ovation. Nevertheless, the show’s popularity is well-deserved, and I was glad we caught it before its limited 2-week engagement at the Opera House was over. My parents also visited for the weekend, resupplying us with more delicious home-cooked goodies. Unfortunately, the comments for our manuscript has just been returned, so I’ll probably be quite occupied for the upcoming weeks.

When the cat’s away, the mice will play – especially when the cat happens to be an evil, draconic slave-driver. With the man away last week, the atmosphere in lab turned instantly lighter. We even revisited Hong Kong Eatery for some savory comfort food to celebrate the occasion. And with Melody off from her last call night of the week, we were able to spend the full weekend relaxing. Since the most important part of President’s Day weekend is President’s Day sales, we spent most of our time shopping and eating. I also found an interesting new website at Pandora.com. After 5-years of development by the “Music Genome Project”, the site offers a simple way to discover new songs tailored to your musical taste – perfect for those of us who feel jaded by the same collection of mp3s. Anyway, in case you’ve forgotten what we look like, I’ve also posted new pictures in our personal and rats categories.

I’ve never been big into watching the Winter Olympics, but the chilly weather and foot of snow this past weekend pretty much sealed our fate and made TV our sole source of entertainment. The opening ceremony on Friday night was quite a show, though it was sad that the country had so little star power after Pavarotti and Sophia Loren that they had to resort to a Ferrari Formula One racer drifting on stage as one of the “performances”. So far, there haven’t been too many upsets in the events, perhaps except Michelle Kwan’s dropout. Otherwise, the weekend was quiet and cozy with steaming home-cooked Vietnamese bun rieu – one of those noodle dishes that makes winter snowstorms completely worthwhile.

Happy Chinese New Year! It’s not often that this holiday occurs on a Sunday, and it’s even less often that it coincides with my birthday. With all the festivities stacked together, and with work taking a bit of a breather, I was able to enjoy the weekend feeling more relaxed than usual. On Friday, I celebrated my birthday with some friends over steaming Chinese seafood and spent some quality time with Melody over 8-ball at our now-regular hangout. Saturday morning, we woke up early to warm pineapple buns for the bus ride down to NY, where we spent the lazy afternoon lounging about before the super year-end meal. Finally on Sunday, I realized again the benefit of a large extended family as I collected pocket money for the next two months. Anyway, according to Chinese tradition, it’s important to stay happy and enjoy the new year because the rest of the year will follow the same way. To help you along, check out these two clips that are so outrageous you won’t know whether to burst out in laughter or cringe in disgust. The first is David Hasselhoff after an illustrious career with talking cars and bombshell babes. The second features the Dormitory Boys, the newest lip-syncing sensation since the Numa Numa guy. Enjoy!

You’ve guessed it – Jack is back! And since our favorite TV series returned to Fox last week, we’ve been hooked like Bubba on shrimp. This is perfect since I finally submitted the new manuscript to Neuron last night. It was ultimately a bit anti-climactic as two more first authors were added for political reasons. Overall, I’ve become quite disillusioned by the whole publication process, but as my friend told me, it won’t be long before I get to be disillusioned by medicine too! (Yay) Nevertheless, with this paper out of the way, I should get more free time in the upcoming weeks for more Jack, more CivIV, more Kaplan freelancing, and taking another crack at teaching Pharm again.