My first week here in Baltimore has failed to meet even my already-low expectations. The interior of my dorm room is reminiscent of a prison, with its exposed cinder block walls, metal bed frame, vinyl mattress, and white sheets. It also didn’t help that my floor is single-sex with common showers like a men’s locker room. Meanwhile, my dining options have also been limited. On my first day here, the hospital cafeteria served sloppy joe. The following day, they had beef macaroni which looked suspiciously like sloppy joe with elbows. Since I still haven’t found a dorm fridge to buy, my diet so far has consisted mainly of Subway sandwiches. The main issue is that the hospital is surrounded by the most dangerous neighborhood in the city. I can’t even cross the street in any direction without risking my wallet or my life. On the bright side, the faculty and house officers here have all been great, and I’ve been learning tons. Nevertheless, I’ll definitely need to get out of the city for the upcoming long weekend.

Hours from now, I’ll be flying to Baltimore for an elective in Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins. It’s been years since I’ve lived in a dorm, and packing for this trip has brought back some not-so-fond memories of leaving home for college or CTY. Beyond the basics like clothes and toiletry, I’ll also be bringing bed sheets, hangers, pots, and kitchen utensils. I’ve even got my own hot plate since there’re no stoves in the building. The most difficult part, however, will be spending a month away from my wife. Today, we went to the romantic 5-diamond restaurant L’Espalier for their prix fixe lunch menu before my flight out. Our meal started with field greens from their rooftop garden and a delectable chilled watermelon soup for appetizers. These were followed by a delicate pan-roasted trout and a divinely-rich pork belly confit. Desserts included a decadent chocolate cake and an expresso-flavored creme brulee, both of which were adequately pleasing. Unfortunately, I doubt this will hold me out for a month of cafeteria food. I’ll hopefully figure something out … or die of starvation.

If you haven’t seen Chow Yun Fat’s Hard-Boiled, you’re probably wondering why he would be carrying both a shotgun and a baby on the movie poster. Last night was my first time watching this movie, and I must admit that it was completely ridiculous, but totally AWESOME! For those of you who are not in the know, this film pretty much defined HK action cinema as a genre, and elevated John Woo’s slow-mo gunplay to a form of art. Forget the fact that their M92Fs can fire hundreds of rounds without reloading. Forget the crazy premise of an illegal arms cache behind the morgue. Does it really matter? The movie was a masterpiece of bad-ass action, down to the final scene when Chow Yun Fat swings out of a hospital as it burst into flames to rescue the last baby from the labor ward (even though the baby looks waaay too big for a newborn). Anyway, it was a perfect complement to our Pan-Asian food fest in NYC this past weekend, which started with steaming ramen from the food court at Mitsuwa marketplace in NJ, followed by cold dungeoness crab, abalone soup, and fried frog legs at Ping’s Seafood, and finished with lunch buffet at Brick Lane Curry House. Hmmm, I’m getting hungry just writing about it.

After all my hard work collaborating with different labs back in grad school, one of the projects finally got published (it’s about time)! Check out this article in the new issue of Neuron to learn how your mug gets mapped during development. In other news, my applications for residency in ophtho have finally been sent. The programs I applied to are some of the most competitive ones out there, so I can only keep my fingers crossed. With these out of the way and Melody almost done with her summer courses at HSPH, we were finally able to take a breather. Last week, we went to a free screening of Rush Hour 3. Sadly, Jackie Chan’s moves have become much less impressive with age, but Chris Tucker is still obnoxiously annoying. Since the night was young, we also hopped next door to The Simpsons Movie. Some of you may call us suckers for watching something you can get on TV, but watching those giant yellow faces on the big screen was really something else – especially since it’s free. 😉

This summer’s Restaurant Week once again left our wallets empty, but our bellies full and oh-so-happy. For the first time, we got reservations for lunch at Radius. The place was round as the name suggests, and blended ancient Greek decor with chic modern design. The food itself was just as imaginative. The cauliflower and yogurt soup was a cool idea for the summer swelter, but ultimately too sour and spicy for our palates. The chilled poached salmon was more to our liking, but the flavors were too complex. The dish that ultimately stole the show was the grilled swordfish entree, which was cooked to such a perfect consistency as to take swordfish-iness to a new level. We also enjoyed their creative desserts, pairing a mango-blueberry tart with hibiscus ice-cream and a pilon de chocolat with (of all things) fenugreek ice-cream. This year, we also revisited Icarus, where I took particular notice of their delicious crisp polenta appetizer, accompanied by braised veal breast, black truffles, and parmesan. The corn chowder was thin and bland, and the grilled leg of lamb was good but underwhelming. Yet, their richly decadent chocolate cake and delicately-flavored lemon buttermilk panna cotta were absolutely to die for. Anyway, for those of you who haven’t gone out yet, be thankful that the event is extended to next week as well.

Despite spending most of my last 12 months working with patients in hospitals, it’s been a long while since I’ve actually gotten sick. Who knew then, that on the eve before the last day of my Neuro Sub-I, that I would catch a cold – from a resident! With all the fatigue and muscle aches, I couldn’t even stay awake through Shakespeare on the Commons this year. The unique rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream combined multi-color, psychedelic fairies with the hilarious antics of Bottoms and his company, which made for a thoroughly enjoyable experience… for other people. Now, as I sit here with my brain toasting with a fever of 101.5, I think I’ll just stay in this weekend, and shoot some bunny rabbids – thanks to my friends at OTBmods. AAAAAAAAA!!!!!!.

If there were a movie that was made for us, it would be Ratatouille. Reason #1: it’s about food. And yes, we love food. Reason #2: it’s about a rat. And not just any rat, a rat with a morbidly obese brother. (Sound familiar?) Watching this movie last weekend brought back fond memories of our two furry little friends, and our common love for food. The film was extremely well done, funny and heart-warming, proving once again that Pixar sets the standard in 3D animation. For lunch, we checked out the Boston Chowderfest, part of the annual Harborfest festival. The chowdaa there, however, were clearly out-classed by those we tried in Newport 2 years ago. We nevertheless had fun collecting free samples and enjoying the beautiful weather. Otherwise, the rest of my summer break was spent tuning up the new computer and finally completing my photo album for London. A selection of the pics are now up on my travel page. Enjoy!

How many ways can you prepare lobster? Bubba wasn’t there to help us with this cousin of the shrimp, so we decided to take charge. With the help of a generous wedding gift certificate to a cozy bed & breakfast in Provincetown, we spent 2 nights in the infamous town to sample the many styles of lobster preparation – with 2 types of lobster rolls, lobster Newberg, a lobster clambake, lobster arrabiata, lobster spring roll and even a lobster pot pie. The rest of the time was spent digesting, perusing the shops and boutiques, and people watching – pondering whether the drag queens were “he’s” or “she’s”. We also attempted a leisurely stroll to Race Point Beach, which turned out to be a 1.5 hour hike through the sizzling summer heat. Fortunately, that was pretty much the only “activity” on this trip, as the rest of our time was spent soaking in the sunshine, sipping lemonade, slurping creamy gelato, and basking in the hot tub. What else can you possibly ask for?

It was the last week of my intensive care rotation, and I’ve come to realize that most ICU patients just tend to deteriorate slowly over time. They start with a little hypertension and heart failure, then get some community-acquired pneumonia, goes into respiratory failure, gets mechanically ventilated, gets ventilator-associated pneumonia, becomes septic, goes into shock, then develop acute renal failure (or as we would write, a pt w/ HTN, CHF p/w CAP + resp failure, now on AC, c/b VAP, SIRS, and ARF). In ways, my aging desktop has become like my very own ICU patient. First, my data was corrupted, so I thought there were just some bad sectors. But soon, my motherboard started misbehaving, then my power supply was blown. I ultimately had to order new parts, including a new processor, motherboard, memory, video card, case, and power supply. Last week, it felt like a multi-transplant surgery as I reconnected the vital components. Finally, with a new Athlon 64 X2 dual-core 4600+ CPU, XFX nForce 590 SLI mobo, 2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 DDR2 RAM, PNY GeForce 7900GS PCI-E video, and a pair of WD 250GB SATA HDs in RAID 0, powered by a CoolMax 500W PSU, and encased in a jet black Antec tower, my computer is about to be brought back to life. Say hello to Vader. 🙂

One of the big advantages of going to a big-name school is having big-name speakers at Commencement. This year, our Class Day speaker was Bill Clinton and Commencement speaker was Bill Gates! It didn’t matter much for me though since the first speech was mainly for undergrads and the latter for alumni. We ultimately attended only the diploma awarding ceremony in the morning, and the PhD hooding ceremony in the afternoon. In retrospect, it was all kind of anti-climactic as I had already gotten my actual diploma in the mail back in November when I got my degree. Nevertheless, the Commencement exercises gave me a day off from work, and a chance to don my crimson gown and stylish black tam (poofy hat). After 4-years of blood, sweat, and tears, I guess we could at least have the satisfaction of standing out among all the other graduates with their dreary black gowns. Anyway, pics from our wedding are finally here! Go to our wedding site for links and a slideshow!