{"id":1804,"date":"2013-08-28T01:28:40","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T06:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/updates.xephalon.net\/?p=1804"},"modified":"2013-08-28T01:28:40","modified_gmt":"2013-08-28T06:28:40","slug":"toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2013\/08\/28\/toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"ASRS 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2013.08.28.a\"<\/a>\"2013.08.28.b\"<\/a>\"2013.08.28.c\"<\/a>It’s been nearly 25 years since I last visited Toronto, and this year’s ASRS<\/a> meeting gave me a chance to return to the bustling Canadian metropolis. Getting there was no piece of cake, however, as our frugality required us to fly into Buffalo first, followed by a 2 hour car ride across the border. The Five Guys<\/a> burger from the airport did not hold me over adequately, leaving me hungry and exhausted by the time I arrived at the hotel<\/a> at 3 am. On Saturday morning, I walked to North America’s largest Chinatown for toasty pineapple buns<\/a> and a bowl of pho bo kho<\/a> before returning to the meeting. The conference itself turned out to be one of those events where one spends more time socializing than actually attending the talks. By the time I made it through the sea of my retina colleagues, the day was nearly adjourned. We walked to the dinner reception at Canada’s well-loved Hockey Hall of Fame<\/a>, and snacked on small plates while mingling beside the Stanley Cup. The food certainly did not compare to the fancy culinary spread atop the CN Tower<\/a> sponsored by Genentech<\/a> on Sunday evening. With 360<\/a> degree views of the Toronto skyline as the backdrop, we stuffed ourselves with Caribbean jerk chicken, Indian biryani, Chinese dim sum, and Italian lasagna. The night ended with a Mexican party at a bar called the Bier Markt<\/a>, which aside from the absurdity of the concept, left us memorable photos that will no doubt make their way online some day. On Monday, we joined Regeneron<\/a> reps to lunch at Canoe<\/a>, considered one of Toronto’s finest restaurant with impressive city views. I returned to the meeting to present my poster, then joined other fellows for the Vit Buckle Society<\/a> dinner at swanky Brassaii<\/a> sponsored by Synergetics<\/a>. With my growing list of financial disclosures<\/a>, I decided on Tuesday to sneak off by myself for lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar<\/a>. Here, my bar seat gave me a front row view to the creation of David Chang’s<\/a> acclaimed pork buns (too fatty) and Momofuku ramen (good but overrated). Despite all the gastronomic adventures, the meeting itself was one of my busiest, with 3 case presentations, 2 interviews, and a research poster. The fear of international roaming costs also kept me tied to the hotel lobby, which added to the exhaustion. I shared the car ride back to Buffalo with my co-fellow and attending, stopping briefly for pictures at Niagara Falls<\/a> and wings<\/a> at the Buffalo airport before our flight back. After three consecutive weekends out of town, I was ready to finally unpack my bags.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been nearly 25 years since I last visited Toronto, and this year’s ASRS meeting gave me a chance to return to the bustling Canadian metropolis. Getting there was no piece of cake, however, as our frugality required us to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}