I was excited to embark today on my first trip to India for my surgical rotation at the Aravind Eye Care system. Thanks to another Frankfurt airport strike, however, my flight got canceled. Fortunately, after some frantic calls to Lufthansa, I managed to catch an alternate flight through London from British Airways. Nearly 20 hours of flying later, I arrived in Madurai surprisingly refreshed and with little jet lag to speak of. For my first few days there, I had a chance to tour the fascinating complex including both the free and paying hospitals, a research facility, and a manufacturing division called Aurolab which produces their surgical instruments, lasers, and intraocular lenses at a fraction of their cost in the U.S.. Aside from doing a few extracapsular cataract surgeries and practicing suturing at the wet lab, I’ve been trying to accustom myself to the system – wearing communal slippers in the OR, scrubbing with sterile water poured from a jug, and most memorably, learning to recognize a patient’s clothing so that I could identify him or her amidst the sea of eye-patched patients lying in the vast catacombs of rooms for their post-op check. I was most impressed by the network of “sisters” here. Recruited right out of high school from surrounding rural areas, these young women are trained as patient counselors, ophthalmic technicians, and even scrub nurses, with the hope of obtaining the educational and financial independence for a better future. Beyond work, I’ve also learned to dodge auto-rickshaws on the road and bypass the stray cows and goats that wander the streets. I’ve even made a few trips to buy some button-down shirts at a local mall, as well as toiletries and snacks from a nearby grocery store. The guesthouse where I’m staying is populated by a few other foreign visitors, including a team of business school students from Michigan and a young couple doing some organic farming volunteer work. A housekeeper maintains the premises and prepares all 3 meals each day. The food actually turned out to be brought over from the hospital cafeteria, which albeit being free, accounts for the rather unsatisfying meals. Since they work six days a week here, I’ve made plans to explore some of the tourist sites here on my only day off tomorrow.

It’s been a long time since we held a cue stick in our hands. So when we decided to join a college friend for a few games of 8-ball at Jillian’s last weekend, it was not a pretty sight. After struggling to finish 3 games in 90 minutes, we decided to console ourselves at the highly touted Sweet Cheeks Q for some Texas-styled ribs & brisket. Opened by a former Top Chef star, the restaurant is conveniently located just steps from Fenway Park and had some of the largest and tastiest biscuits we’ve ever eaten, but the meat itself was overrated. This weekend, we revisited the ICCA semifinals at MIT for one last visit before we leave Boston. None of the groups managed to wow us this season, although we were glad they finally found new MC’s to run the show. We spent the rest of the weekend packing my bug spray, sunscreen, and malaria prophylaxis for the India trip. Since my flight is not until the afternoon, I plan to be a good resident and go into work for macula conference before heading to the airport.

Amidst the fervor of planning my trip to India, we were introduced to a Nepalese treat that until this weekend was a fabled delicacy that I could barely wrap my mind around. As featured in a NY Times article just days ago, momos are dumplings from Nepal and Tibet that are similar to traditional Chinese ones, but blend cumin, coriander, and other spices that embolden them with South Asian flavors. The beloved snacks purportedly drive even devout vegetarians (like the Dalai Lama) to break their habits on special occasions to indulge in their meaty innards. According to my friend, they are best made with water buffalo, although we were satisfied with using pork and chicken as substitutes. Between devouring the momos, Nepalese pulled pork, homemade chai, and our cherry clafoutis (no, not exactly following the theme), we enjoyed some good company and videos of human tetris from the land of the rising sun before braving the rain storm to return home. The remainder of the past few weeks has otherwise been uneventful, with a lackluster Madonna performance at the Superbowl half-time show and a even more dated act by Billy Crystal at the Oscars, demonstrating once again that the Academy is lagging way behind the times. I guess it’s back to Skyrim for the time being!

Back in NYC for the long weekend, we returned to Golden Shopping Mall in Flushing with my parents for yet another eating spree. Armed with chopsticks in hand and Serious Eats loaded on my phone, we started on the first floor with some hearty pork-stuffed fish balls from Old Wang Ji, then descended into the bowels of the building for Lanzhou Handmade Noodles, cumin lamb and gummy “cold skin” noodles from Xian Famous Foods, and a dozen North-South Dumplings which were out of this world. Before heading home, we stopped by the nearby New World Mall to check out the fabled food court there. What we found was far more impressive than anything we had imagined, with nearly 5 times the variety of food stands and a vast central seating area. Already stuffed from our lunch, we vowed to return here the next time we visit. On Sunday, we met up with my old friends in Brooklyn, trying not to suffer a heart attack over fish & chips, fried mac n’ cheese, and a deep-fried Snickers bar at the Chip Shop in Park Slope. After that, we grabbed some mediocre dim sum for breakfast from Grand Harmony before our bus ride back to Boston. Despite stuffing ourselves full, we still managed to catch up with my med school pal at Highland Kitchen for their Monday-night buttermilk-fried chicken special. I’ll definitely miss these foodie adventures together when we move apart this summer.

Welcome to the new and improved Xephalon 2.0! Almost 10 years after its inception, my website has long been overdue for an update. Of course, my decision to upgrade this time was actually not prompted by all that free time on my hand, but by rising hosting costs which had forced me to move the site to another hosting company and domain registrar. Of course, the transfer itself was not without its own set of issues and headaches. In the process, I’ve had to replace the antiquated Cutenews PHP script with the more popular and versatile WordPress content management system with MySql support. I’ve had to spend the past week manually converting the text-based database to the new format, which hopefully will be worth the time. So far, I’ve been pretty happy with the service at Go Daddy, although I was sad to lose IMAP e-mail support. With work and life becoming more busy, I’ve actually juggled with the idea of taking down the website all together. But for now, I’ll try to stick it out for a while longer.

We spent the weekend with my residency classmates for a ski trip to Loon Mountain in New Hampshire. It was the eve of my 33rd birthday, and being aware of my mortality, we decided to forgo skiing and opted for snowshoeing instead. The well-groomed 2 km trail took us along a quiet mountain stream with sightings of mora tapinella reminiscent of a scene from Skyrim. After refueling on hearty American fare like lobster-mac, Portsmouth pie, and mussels at The Common Man, we made fools of ourselves over a few rounds of Cranium before calling it a night. For my birthday dinner, we met up with the Harvard gang for HK-style seafood at East Ocean City. Dinner at our old med school hangout reminded me of our bygone days, but with more babies at the table this time. We felt a bit out of the loop with all the baby chat, but it was good meeting all my friends again before we leave the city this summer. Meanwhile, my team at the VA hospital celebrated the end of our rotation with dinner at El Oriental En La Cuba. Despite the flog of all the administrative duties at the VA, the patient and surgical experience has been amazing, and is something I will look fondly back upon. That said, I am also looking forward to returning to home base, where I can’t wait to get back into the groove of academic teaching and more importantly, good cafeteria food, again.

As we prepare for the big move this summer, and with many big expenditures looming on the horizon such as medical licensing and a trip to India, we’ve had to scrutinize our finances more carefully. One major decision has been to hold off selling our condo, and keep it instead as a rental property. In the process, we’ve had to look into refinancing our mortgage to take advantage of the low rates, finding a management company to look after the place when we leave town, and meeting with realtors to investigate rental prices in our neighborhood. I’m also discovering all kinds of junk I’ve accumulated over my past 8 years in this apartment, which I hope to sell off in the next few months. Meanwhile, I’ve finally gotten my hands on a new laptop which has been backordered since Black Friday. I’ve always been a fan of Asus motherboards and graphics cards, but this is my first experience with their ultrabook series. The Zenbook UX31 is purported to be a blend of form and function – featuring a sleek aluminum body reminiscent of the Macbook Air but with better performance and longer battery life. My major gripe has been the shallow keyboard which is taking some time to get used to. Time will tell how I adjust to the new form factor.

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.