Temporary Shower

Happy New Year! It has been so nice coming home to family/friends after a vacation away. I have decided nobody should come home from a vacation just to start working right away! Dave and I celebrated Christmas with my family and his. We had several game nights (one more to come tonight) and we ate a lot. In the words of my sister, we have gained a “layer of winter fat”. Here are some pictures from Costa Rica So much eating every day!!! Weirdo and her boyfriend Too fat for a two-piece haha Sad to leave I have slowly started to study again but I really have very little motivation. After getting some rest and reflecting back on the last few weeks, I think I was definitely burned out. I really am not doing too bad overall but I think I could afford the break I talked about in my last post. Haha….the competitive side of me still wants to regain my motivation and try for honors in surgery but I think for my mental health in the long run, I should probably slow ...

I wrote this post on monday but didn't have time to upload pictures till now.... This weekend I went down to southern Utah with Dave. We originally wanted to do a 3 mile hike in monument valley but we left late so decided to forgo the extra 2 hour drive just for a 3 mile hike. Instead, we got to Moab around 4pm Friday and decided to do a 2 mile hike to Corona Arch. Dave had never been and since it was a relatively easy hike, we both had a lot of fun.   Our ultimate destination was Mesa Verde so we drove further south and camped right outside the park at a KOA in cortez. I have never booked a KOA before (though I think I stayed at one with my parents). The campground was very nice and clean and the options ranged from full sized cabins to camping spots (with electricity and water!). We opted just to camp but seeing the Teepees made me think that next time, we can try something different. Dave got the campfire going while I set up camp but since it was already 8 and the...

So I have been busy...with work politics, a family vacation, a new boyfriend, and more work stress. I just got back last night from a trip to Seattle with the family. It was a lot of fun but I am sad to be back. We went to Mt. Rainer and Olympic National Park...then I cut it short and flew home by myself. The thing is, I had a big CNV experiment today and lab meeting tomorrow followed by wedding rehearsals and the wedding on Saturday. A labmate is getting married and I get to be a bridesmaid. She is having a pretty non-traditional wedding but it still should be lots of fun. I will try to post pics. I think I am both stressed and jet-lagged. I flew home pretty late last night and I have a lot of work-related stuff I have to do and many of them are small things like filling out insurance forms etc....I hate small things. They pile up and make me stressed. On the bright side, I like to make lists and cross things off so lots of small tasks = lots of things to cross. I guess I am ra...

I have been trying to keep busy lately with volunteering, book club, kick-ball, writing papers, etc. but sometime it is hard not to still feel the lost of my friends. I know I still have some good friends here but they are all busy in clinic saving lives and shit so I've been trying to distract myself. Some days, it goes better then others and today was ok. I met with my PI to talk about figure order for my paper....did some experiments in lab....went out for a drink with a friend...and came home to skype with another friend. Though it has been hard, I am looking forward to certain things...aka...volunteering tomorrow night for the CARE fair, and planning my next trip. Varsh and I are thinking of going to Portugal + Morocco or maybe just Morocco. A few years ago, we were in Seville, Spain which is fairly close to Morocco. We were crunched on time so we didn't end up going and a part of me has regretted it since so I am ecstatic about the possibility of going this year. What I ...

Lately I have been thinking about justice. Diseases of the human body are unjust: non-smokers get lung cancer, viruses are non-discriminatory, and hospitals are full of infections that make patients worse. I wonder if acceptance of such things has made us immune to injustices and it saddens me to think that I am a part of a population that turns a blind eye to the unjust plight of others. I loved Burma when I went there and I was fortunate to stay with my friend's family who were very well-off and very devote doctors yet they employed young girls as maids. Though I understand these girls could have been met with a worse fate, their lives are not easy. Waking up at 6/7am every day, they do the majority of the housework, cooking, cleaning, etc just to have a roof over their heads. I remember that on my third day there, the heat overtook my senses and I became physically ill. I awoke the next day with a fever but what surprised me more was the child maid (14 years old) sleepin...

I know I haven't written in awhile but after my grandmother's death, I just didn't feel like doing much of anything, then I got sick, work got busy, bf came home, etc etc. Now I am just updating :) Last month was good (besides the sick part). I went and saw both Avenue Q and In the Heights with Alex (both very good plays). I tried running more, going to the gym more, and have managed to finish all the experiments I need for a paper. Now I'm trying to decide what to do next work wise and stressing about my department RIP (Research In Progress). I had thought that after giving so many talks, I would be less nervous but that is not true. I still like to over prepare, give tons of practice talks and invited people that can help me answer questions I don't know. On the family front, Baby celebrated her fifth birthday. My parents had a big party for her at the little gym and she seemed to have enjoyed herself. Lil also celebrated her birthday but sadly, I wasn'...

It has been awhile and all I have done is play (with work squeezed in between). Here is a recap: First I went to Zion with Alex to teach wilderness med again. We skipped Angle's landing because my friend Ashlie's bf had a busted knee but then we decided to do east rim trail and it was not only steeper but longer then angle's landing. Many hours later, we were exhausted but it was beautiful: Then Alex and I went to Lava Hot springs in Idaho where we spent a weekend relaxing. The hotel we stayed at had a gigantic hot tub that we filled up with mineral water. Alex brought rose pedals and we soaked for a long time.....loved it/him! We then went to San Francisco for a friend's wedding. Alex and I had a good time eating and just hanging out with Lilly: After we got back, we decided to be super active: And this past week, I went on a road trip with my roommate and her friend. We went to vegas, yosemite, napa, monterey, and back to vegas where...

So the weekend after I got back from Hawaii, I went to Moab to help teach the Wilderness Medicine Course there. It was my first time teaching for Wilderness Med and I had a great time. We basically ran through various scenarios with the students to see how they would assess different situations. My scenario was fairly easy: man went on hike and had too much water so was hyponatremic (low sodium). Alex and my friend Ash (a fellow instructor) came with me. We stayed in a hotel Friday night and went to Canyonlands Saturday afternoon for camping/hiking. I forgot to refill my tank so my car was low on gas by the time we reached Canyonlands but lucky me...we found a gas station near needles outlook and the lady there told us about a nice camping spot since the ones in the park were full. It was exciting because we had to go off the road, through a fence (the lady told us where the fence can be lifted up) and drive on a dirt road to get to the campsite.....my poor car barely made it. Post ...

Wow....time flies. I went to Maui last week with my parents and it was AMAZING! We spent two days on the "Road to Hana" hiking to colored pools and waterfalls. Baby is at an age where she like to do everything herself so we had to convince her to hold our hand while hiking by telling her that she is protecting us. lol. We then went to a nice condo on the beach and spend one day swimming/eating/relaxing (culminating with a show) and then another day snorkeling. I've never been snorkeling before (well...at least not via boat out to various hot spots). It was like a mini-cruise filled with food and maitais. Hehe.....I had a lot of beer and maitais and saw a lot of pretty fish (underwater pictures soon to come). On my last day, we went to another beach and baby built sand castles while my dad and I swam. I only wish Lilly could have joined us but I think we be going back someday. Coming back to SLC was hard (esp with my parents staying in Maui for another week). Alex tem...

So...a lot has happened since I last wrote which isn't even THAT long ago. I went to Stanford this past weekend for the annual LMSA (Latino Medical Student Association) conference.....yes I know I'm not Latino but I have many friends who are. Besides, my roommate and her boyfriend are very involved in the program and I like to volunteer for LMSA from time to time. Long story short, when the opportunity to go to Stanford presented itself, I went and had a blast! I got to see Lilly for a few hows :) She was able to show me some of her beautiful campus. Then I attended a few lectures for LMSA followed by a banquet in which many Latinos recounted their struggles in our education system and their desire to succeed. I found that though I am not Latino, I connected with their stories. I think any immigrant going the medicine has somewhat different goals. For most of us, there is a desire to help our communities and people from our own ethnic backgrounds. We realize that not only w...

So moab trip was great (see pics below) and my journal club went decently well. They told me I have to use more scientific language and order my introduction better but overall I think the department was impressed I picked a hard topic on a model organism I know very little about. Up next is a trip to St. George. I am only kindof excited now about the weekend trip because Lilly called tonight to talk about her major/being premed. She seems set on quitting it all which is fine but I guess I was a little upset because a) she is so close to finishing and I just don't want her to lose opportunities and b) it's my birthday and the call kindof ruined it. I immediately started worrying about how my dad would react....he has sacrificed a lot for Lilly and I. The one thing he wished for us is job security and by having Lilly do premed, he hoped that at least she will have something to fall back on and she is just so darn close. sigh Besides that, I had an amazing birthday. Experime...