Phileosophie

I have learnt so much in the past 3 weeks. The most recent week has been a dream come true - working with DrF, observing him, getting to know him a little and learning from him. This AM his Fellow was busy so I was the only person with him while he saw patients in the clinic! This apparently has never happened before because he is always accompanied. It would not seem spectacular to anyone else but to me it was a huge privilege, to be the only person to help with the foot rest and sphygmo. Yea, so you may laugh at me, but we all have different dreams. We also had an ECG tutorial this afternoon with DrZ and I feel like I have learnt a lot in this aspect as well. I was able to answer most questions today as compared to previous weeks when I did not understand what the other students were talking about. I also received a lead about an academic topic that I have been interested in for a while but have been quite stumped with so I will pursue this further. I love being here in New York.

Today has been just incredible. Not mind-blowing or stuff like that but you know, to be able to wake up every morning and be excited about work - to want to work so much with the people you have to work with, to have the privilege of observing DrF and learn bits about what makes him the best cardiologist in the world (unofficial title but as far as I know, no other cardiologist has his qualifications, experience and awards) - all this is just remarkable and somehow all this has happened to me. I rarely stop and think about how all this has happened because I don't want to figure it out and mess up the train of fortunate events but my life has really been incredible, and if you look at where it all started - this could have happened to anyone. But it happened to me. My housemate left for Germany this afternoon and I really loved staying with her - she was welcoming when I arrived, friendly, and a really lovely person (also very pretty and I have to say good looking housemates

I try to spend time outside hospital and my apartment every weekend. After all, these 3.5 months are going to fly by and I didn't come here just to do more medicine. This weekend I test-drove my new down-filled winter coat from Landsend. It kept me remarkably warm and is without a doubt the warmest coat I own. I need to find some snow boots ASAP as snow is expected any moment now and the ground will be too sludgy for normal shoes. Bouchon Bakery. This picture belongs to ulterior epicure . Gorgeous macarons. I had a chocolate hazelnut. A girl behind me said the caramel ones are awesome too. For another review of the bakery click here . This picture belongs to theadirondackchick.com.  Today I also finally had the chance to try a macaron and coffee from Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle. They were very good, which isn't surprising since the bakery is owned by Thomas Keller who also owns the ultra pricey Per Se upstairs. I then met a waiter

Edit: This post is not in chronological order. Whoops! Lion King happened a while ago, Santacon was in the AM and Il Bastardo/UCB was in the PM. So as promised here's an update: Watched The Lion King on Broadway with the Google folks. I love visiting my friends at Google HQ. The food is great and the HQs are such fun buildings to be in. My mum and brother watched the Lion King in Sydney a few years back and seemed to love it but for some reason I always imagined it as a play with people in mascot costumes so never watched it myself. However when my friend offered to PAY me to watch it with them I thought it was an offer too good to resist! Mufasa (right) & Scar (left) in a heated disagreement. The verdict - it was enjoyable. I was particularly impressed by the young actors (Aubrey Omari Joseph & Chondra La-Tease Profit). I think it's great to see young people pursue their passions and receive amazing world-stage sort of opportunities. Unfortunately we often

There is a doc at hosp who looks like a younger, thinner Adam Sandler, one who looks like a taller, thinner Wilson (from House MD) and one who looks like a rugged Darren Criss. Must be an American thing. Adam Sandler (left), Robert Leonard (center), Darren Criss (right).

To every problem, is a solution because if there isn't a solution, then it wasn't a problem to begin with. I have certain principles.. well, I've got lots really. They're just ways of life that I've conjured up or collected along the way to help me navigate this one life we have. One of these principles is to know when I should follow the path of least resistance. By this I don't mean that we shouldn't work hard or walk the long and narrow.. I just think that life has its way of guiding us to a point of best fit. There is no one thing that we were meant to do in life. There are options and personally, I've always found it hard to reconcile the options in my life because all seem pretty exciting but sometimes, when life closes a door, it is simply saying, walk through the other. Sure the sting of having one door shut (sometimes in your face) may hurt a bit, and sometimes it is a little embarassing. But think of how much time we will waste if we h

I started on the ward today. I dont think they call it a ward here because 'everyone has individual rooms'. We call it a ward in Sydney anyway.. just one with individual rooms. So the first real day was nice. Students are generally friendly and most seem to be visiting students. There is only one home-student on my ward. Perhaps they are all off on winter vacation or something. There are also two lady doctors from India who are here on an observership - which isn't too different from what I'm doing to be honest. I was under the impression that I would be allowed to do stuff but some doctors seem to have a MSH student-only policy. I'm not sure if this is correct because as far as I know, that's the difference between an observership and an elective - one gets to do hands on. The doctors in general are welcoming and friendlier than doctors in Sydney. Doctors in Sydney are nice but Australians usually appear disinterested and fairly unimpressed with most things.

I finally got some $$ from the bank, which is releasing my money in trickles. I can finally afford toiletries - yay. Might even be able to pick up comfortable shoes at some point. The weather was just brilliant today. After a slightly rocky start at hospital (in the midst of exam prep I had forgotten to fill out some forms) I had the rest of the day off and decided to take a walk through Central Park. While at the park, a cute little Indian toddler took a liking to me and started following me around so I struck up a conversation with her mother. Central Park in autumn (taken from http://alwayslookingoutthewindow.blogspot.com)  Anyway, I ended up at Wholefoods at the basement of Time Warner Centre where I finally found dark soy sauce. I'd almost given up hope since Gourmet Garage and Associated only carry light soy... while at the Asian food aisle, an older gentleman struck up a conversation, asking about some varieties rice he wanted to try. I subsequently found out he ha

New York is a city that grows on you. I have been here a week now and am getting acquainted with the more interesting parts of this city. Yesterday my new friends Pierre and Reinaldo took me out for brunch at Garage in the West Village. Apparently brunch is a 'very New York thing to do'.. except that brunch in New York lasts from 11AM to 3 in the afternoon! I quite liked the place - a live jazz band played on the ground floor and for $6/- you get 2 hours worth of alcohol (Mimosas, Screwdrivers, Bloody Marys or.. in my case, OJ). The food was good as well - I had a lobster sandwich while the boys had variants of egg. We then strolled along the Hudson River which was a lovely break from all the steel and glass that makes up Manhattan. Reminded me of RK, a New Yorker I'd met in Sydney who had enthusiastically showed me on a map where he lived (facing the Hudson River). At the time I couldn't really appreciate the reasons behind his enthuasiasm.. after all, he was fac

I went out and ran errands this morning, then came back for a 'nap' which lasted till 1130PM. Dannnggiit jetlag. You're not being cool. I am watching the Lion King at 8PM Friday which means I *should* be awake for it but at the rate I'm going.... Anyway.. I also met a cute banker today... and then he invited me to a party on Saturday. Which was nice. But then he reassured me that I didn't have to worry and he wasn't going to "hit on me" because he was gay. -_- oh well. Still over 3 months to go.. haha

Hollywood is in the business of selling dreams. They don't tell you how to get there but for a few hundred each year you can buy temporary hope which will tide you over till hopefully one day you make it.

You know, for a trip as anticipated as this one I really don’t think I have anything substantial to say… yet. The thing is, life in America isn’t as comfortable as it is elsewhere. Perhaps it is because this is New York and New York isn’t supposed to be comfortable. But I’m not really sure why tourists visit Manhattan. It doesn't seem to be a city for tourists. Maybe I am just being sombre because I'm kinda on my own here. Life tastes better when it's shared. I feel like I just haven’t really gotten my head around Manhattan yet so I’m going to give you a 1 st impressions run-down in point form. Shops – there are thousands of shops here. And clothes can be quite cheap. Yesterday I spotted a pair of walking shoes that I’ve been thinking about for ages. It would have cost maybe $70 in Australia but was only $21 here. Shopping however seems to make up most of what there is to do in Manhattan but there aren't many shopping malls... it's mostly little shops