East Coast Extravaganza; Part One Chicago

I went on a 5 month  pilgrimage of medical school called audition rotations.  Its basically where I show up to different hospitals, for one month at a time, and show myself off.  I attempt to make myself look like the most genius of all in comparison to all the other medical school brats trying to do the exact same thing.  My overall experience of this whole charade is something that I would say is a test to my ability to adapt.  My chosen route was Chicago in August, New Jersey in September, Florida for October/November, and with a mini trip to Philadelphia and D.C.   Given the tardiness of this post, here are some highlights.

I've never been to Chicago nor can I say that I ever was dying to come. I didn't know that Chicago was such a culturally diverse, clean, and earth friendly city.  The people enjoy summer concerts that are dense with the qualities of the human spirit and they enjoy running outside in the open air. I enjoy the food.

My first weekend in the windy city was a welcoming Cubs game.  Now I'm no huge sports fan in general, but when someone invites me to a ball game outside in a beautiful weather where you can day drink and eat a couple of dogs, I'd be crazy to say no to that.

Chicago river.  Goes right through downtown.  Beautiful day.  Beautiful kayakers.

I visited the famous bean with my new pseudo roomate Stu.

 Chicago skyline from a boat.  I mean really if you are going to visit Chicago in the gorgeous summer weather when it is not freezing cold over lake Michigan you have to take a boat ride. 

 As a former McDonald's employee I can only say that this is the most impressive one I have ever seen!  I mean I would really not be disappointed if I got taken on a date here. 

 From the top of the John Hancock.  Believe it or not, this picture was taken from the ladies restroom.  Sorry guys, your tough out of luck for this viewing.  It's a sexist view only.

 Millennium Park during a summer concert.  Awe how romantic.

Millennium Park by day.  A great place for a stroll, and a great place to be lazy, people watch, and grab a Chicago dog.

 Okay, it seems weird but I'm obsessed with grocery stores.  And I found one I loved in the Chi town suburbs.  It was called Mariano's Fresh Market.  And yes, I had died and gone to organic food store heaven every time I walked in.  I loved it so much I sat and studied and read for hours there.  They had a juice bar and a hot food bar where I would pig out.  They had organic fresh made gelato.  They had organic meats beautifully displayed in all its grass fed glory.

As much as Chicago was very much a city where I understood the people in all their organic, juicing, yoga, running, fitness type of language, there were many things about Chicago that I didn't care for. 
I hated that everywhere I drove in the Chi-Land would take me 30 minutes to get to anywhere.  I didn't like the terrible traffic going into the city.  I know the weather, as fabulous as it may have been was short lived.  I hated being in the suburbs.  There are some die hard sports fans in Chicago.  I mean death by Cubs, Sox, or Bears with a big axe sort of weirdness.  I absolutely loved Garrett's popcorn.  Oh man.  It was like eating crack.  Best damn popcorn I have ever had in my life.  

Leia Mais…

The World is my Oyster

My new passport arrived today! Let the new adventures begin. :) 

Leia Mais…

Hello World from Philadelphia

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I'm back from being off the radar for a solid 3 years.  What can I say?  Med school displaces your entire life like that.  I've been locked up in a dark room with my nose in the books and I have emerged as somewhat a social outcast.  And sadly, my passport is expired.  I haven't been able to leave the country for the whole past year.  But not to worry, that situation is going to be remedied very soon!  I am in the last year of Med School officially starting July 1st.  As a senior, there are going to be so many trips this year, I'm going to feed the travel bugs that have taken a long slumber inside me.  I have a busy year with 4 audition rotations planned, meaning that I will go to 4 different hospitals of which I am interested in doing residency and work for 1 month at each.  Also, I will have interviews all over the place for residency positions.  The best thing of all about this upcoming year is that I will have 1 month vacation as well as 6 weeks between graduation and starting residency to do whatever I want.  Yup, its time to get excited!

Current situation is this:  I'm in a Starbucks in downtown Philadelphia.  Its early afternoon.  I took a red eye flight from Las Vegas last night and am adequately sleep deprived.  The sole purpose of this trip is to take my COMLEX PE exam.  This is the only place in the country you can take the exam. Thus, it seems this is the D.O. physicians pilgrimage to be taken at some point in their very early career.  It also seems that I should be studying right now.

This is the best place ever! Homemade artisan foods some made by our Amish friends, and just a great atmosphere. 

Dutch apple dumplings at the Reading Terminal Market. Omg deliciousness!

You can't go to Philly without gettin a chez steak! #KingofSteaks

And of course a freshly filled cannoli for dessert in the neighboring Italian neighborhood. 

Leia Mais…

Arashiyama, Kyoto

I woke up in the morning in my little capsule bed, and decided that I would go to Kyoto today and explore a temple and possibly a monkey zoo.  The train ride to Kyoto from Osaka is only about 45 minutes.  You can easily base yourself in either city and travel back and forth.

Arriving at Kyoto station, I navigated to find the correct train to take to get to Arashiyama station.  When finally reaching the station, it was located in what seemed to be a residential area.  I followed the crowd of other tourists passing the cute Japanese style homes to reach the main street where I found the Tenryu-Ji Temple.  The most popular feature of the temple is the beautiful zen garden complete with a pond loaded with koi fish.

Taken while walking towards the temple.

The Tenryu-Ji Temple

Its beautiful Zen Garden.

At the north gate of the temple towards the mountains, you can exit to find yourself at a bamboo grove.  I found myself walking through in awe and marveling at the size and natural flow of these trees.

Walking back down from the temple grounds and mountainside, I found myself inspired by the picture perfect images of the scenery easily a good representation of Japan in its magical and unique culture.

In my Lonely Planet it lists a monkey zoo in the area, which is not very advertised and not easily found.  I managed to find the place thanks to a small sign that had a picture of a dancing monkey on it.

This is the stairs and entryway leading into the monkey park. 

In order to see the monkey's you have to climb some stairs to the top of the hill where there is a feeding area.  Now this was an interesting concept, the humans are caged in, and the monkey's are free to roam!

The baby monkey is so cute!

Here are a few more pictures I snapped just viewing the cherry blossoms.

Leia Mais…

Osaka Castle/Cherry Blossom Season 2010

Everyday that I've been here, I walk around asking the same questions: "What in the hell are they doing/eating/wearing?".  Today I went to Osaka Castle expecting it to be a sightseeing adventure, but it turned out to be a people watching adventure.  The Osaka Castle park was filled with cherry blossom viewers.  Turns out I didn't even go inside the castle because the line to get in was a mile long and I was having more fun watching all the festivities on the Castle grounds.  I took so many photos, and for the first time, I will be posting a video in my blog because the one I have will make you laugh.

This is Osaka Castle as I viewed it from below.

 

Girls lined the sidewalks selling photos of their favorite pop stars I'm guessing.  You can buy a fan with a photo of your pop idol on it. 

These dogs were so ADORABLE!  I couldn't help myself and snapped about 2 dozen photos of them.  Mind you the communication block, I believe they were having a Chihuahua gathering.   There were about 25 of them all dressed up and some had their toes painted. (Lol.)  

Last one I promise....LOL!

This is one of those things that you have to laugh out loud at.  A guy was walking around with his dog in this cart.  He controlled the cart by remote control.  In the back of the dog, there were two live birds chilling on the pole.  

 

Of course I had to put some food pictures up, because as always there were food vendors selling all kinds of things to put in your belly.

 

Leia Mais…