Happy Thanksgiving!

This is my first Thanksgiving away from home, and it's certainly kind of a bummer, especially since there's very little spirit of Thanksgiving here in Dominica. Tonight, a few of my friends and I are going to go to a Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by the Ross Student Catholic Association. True, it won't be the same, and I won't have endless amounts of Filipino food to go along with the usual Thanksgiving meal, but I'm happy that I get to celebrate the occasion in some way or another. I've missed 5 Easters at home being in NY, so even though I consider Thanksgiving to be a bigger deal, I guess I've gotten used to missing out on big family gatherings and holidays.

Being the optimist that I am (and that I have to be...I could rant on and on about how negative some people can be here), I'm still thankful because if I wasn't here on Thanksgiving Day, then I wouldn't be in med school fulfilling one of my biggest goals in life. It's true. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are the things I'm thankful for.

- Family - I don't think I have to go on and on about this, but I'm thankful to have such a strong support system back home in Chicago. They're the people who I know I'll ALWAYS be able to count on no matter what happens.
- Friends - my friends in NY basically are my family, and I know that even though I'm missing out on a lot these next couple of years, they'll still always have my back.
- Gabe - he's handsome, smart, and has extremely good taste in food and fashion. my kind of guy. I'm so thankful he's so supportive of me even when we're thousands of miles apart.
- New York City - I never really thought about this before Dominica, but I'm so thankful I've gotten a chance to live in the greatest city in the world for 5 years. It's taught me so much about myself, life, society, the world...everything. Having lived in New York not only helped me to adapt to med school and Dominica in so many ways (possibly reserve this discussion for a separate blog post), but it's helped me grow into a mature and experienced person.
- Med school - it really is an honor and a privilege to be in med school and to be learning all these things, so I'm thankful that this school has given me this opportunity. It's definitely not easy, but it's not supposed to be, so I'll be even more thankful if I can pass every semester and not fail a single standardized exam.
- Bacon - I like bacon.
- Wheat beer, fine wine, and fancy cocktails - I like sophisticated forms of alcohol.
- Ninjavideo.net - you'll fall in love too.
- food and fashion - two things I absolutely love but don't have much of here in Dominica.

Anyways, I could probably go on and on about the random things I'm thankful for, but it's time to resume pulmonary phys studying. I get to eat turkey in an hour and a half, YAY!

Bacon Apple Pie

Yes! I want to make this. If you know me well, you know i LOVE bacon. Everything is better with bacon. Now considering the fact that I've done research on hypertension and cardiovascular disease and am currently learning all the ins and outs of the cardiovascular system in medical school, I probably shouldn't love and promote bacon as much as I do. But I just can't help but wish I could bake a bacon apple pie for Thanksgiving. Before you run away all grossed out, there are actually a lot of things that incorporate bacon and apples together. It's nothing unusual. Try googling "bacon and apples." Lots of recipes will come up.

Maybe I'll bake this for Christmas. Hmmm.

Feel free to read for my previous guanciale recipes.

28 days away

I'm officially 28 days away from landing in O'Hare Airport, and all I can think about is what I'm going to eat when I get home. So here's a list of some of the places in Chicago I would like to eat/drink at during my 3 week break:

The Violet Hour
Hopleaf
Aigre Doux
The North Pond
Naha
Tank Noodle
Sweets and Savories
Fox and Obel
Pastoral
Lawry's
Sun Wah
TAC Quick
Kahn BBQ
La Pasadita
Hot Doug's
Map Room
Kuma's Corner
La Casa de Isaac
Sun Wah
Francesca's
Hop Haus
Mercat a la Plancha
Hot Chocolate
Restaurant Michael
Avec
Blackbird

I've already been to some of those places but surely wouldn't mind a revisit.

Since I'm arriving around lunch time, I've decided that I think I want to go to Hot Doug's for my first meal back in the States. How about some antelope sausage with creme fraiche and fontina cheese? YES PLEASE. I need weird (but GOOD) food again. Thanks.

Need new kicks...

I'm not really into AF1's, but if they could put this color scheme (with the nylon) on Air Max 90's, this would satisfy my biannual need for new kicks.

Photo from Nitrolicious

Pro-Keds

Not to bite Gabe's bboy style for Pro-Keds, but I kinda want a pair of red or purple ones.

Photo from Highsnobbete

No lobster at "all you can eat lobster"

As a post-Mini 2 treat and Earl's birthday, a big group of us decided to go to Sunset Bay restaurant about 30 minutes away from campus. It's popular around here for having all you can eat lobster for around $30US. That's a pretty amazing deal coming from the US. Basically...THERE WAS NO LOBSTER. What a disappointment. The restaurant barely had anything that was on the regular menu. They pretty much just had "local beef", chicken, and mussels. Because of the fact that we're in Dominica, I'll excuse the fact that there was hardly anything. You kinda just have to get used to that around here.

One day, I WILL get those lobsters.

I'm back...for now

I haven't written in this blog since before classes started, so obviously you can tell it's been pretty crazy. My days are basically always the same. Wake up, go to class, eat lunch, go to class (if there is afternoon class), lab (if there is afternoon lab), or study for the rest of the day, then sleep...Repeat. It never really changes, and there's not really such a thing as a weekend.

However, things aren't as difficult as I imagined it to be. Thankfully, I quickly learned the best and most efficient study techniques for myself, and I've learned how to manage my time well. As for the latter, it's really not that difficult because there's really not much else to do on this island except study. I've figured things out pretty well that I still manage to get 7 hours of sleep every single night and talk to Gabe and my mom everyday. Some days there might be exceptions, but in all honesty, there's no reason to not get 7 hours of sleep every night. I wouldn't be surprised if this changes in future semesters though.

But yeah, things are alright. There are times when I get really homesick. I always miss my friends, I miss going out whether that be to a bar, shopping, or restaurant. I miss roaming around New York. I miss good food. I miss having free time to do whatever the hell I want. I miss A LOT of things. When I look back on life before med school, I feel like I'm looking back on a previous life. Things are just so different now, and it's sad to think I'll probably never be able to really go back to that life I had.

But there are also the times when I remind myself that it truly is an honor and a privilege to be in medical school and to be learning all the things that I am. A lot of people like to complain about the ridiculous amount of material we have to learn in a given time, but I love it. Of course, it's difficult. Med school is supposed to be difficult. Each semester at Ross is 3.5 months, and I honestly think that by the end of this semester, I will have learned as much material in one semester of med school as I did in 4 years at NYU. Ok, maybe 3 years. I guess it's a good thing I'm genuinely interested in everything I'm learning so far, with the possible exception of reading radiographs. I don't like that.

Anyways, I'm still alive, and I sure hope to God I make it through.

Hopefully, I'll continue to write more in the future...