avocado juice

My parents used to make us avocado juice when we were little, all the time.

one apple, one banana, one avocado, and a cup of milk, blend all together until desired consistency

mmm, I used to love it. yesterday, I made it for myself and got all sentimental.

Here's a picture of my dad and me a couple years ago... his friend had just gotten back from Mexico and brought us these hats... I guess that's the thing to do when you've just gotten back from Mexico!

Anyway, yesterday and today have been big dinner nights. First we had the Triple Date with two other couples from med school. I made the alsatian cheese tart again but this time with asparagus instead of the bacon and it turned out better (less salty) though the asparagus was a bit hard to bite through, making it come off in entire chunks, which is a pet-peeve of mine. The main dish consisted of a new chicken recipe, chicken cacciatore. It sounded so easy but actually ended up being a little more labor-intensive than I expected. I should say time-intensive, rather than labor-intensive. Armand made his pasta with tomatoes, zucchini and pesto, which could have used more pesto, IMHO. We had creme brulee for dessert in my brand new ramekins, courtesy of Crate and Barrel! :)

It was a fun night with lots of laughter... I love it when old friends can just laugh hysterically for hours. I'm going to miss some people next year when they all spread across the country... :(

Tonight, Ben made the long trip down to HP for an O.C. marathon! James made pizza crust and we all provided our favorite toppings. YUM! James even bought a pizza stone for the occasion! We had goat cheese and spinach, red pepper and mushrooms, and olives. I've never done home-made pizza but it was fun and really really good! Definitely something we have to repeat.

Tomorrow night, I'm headed over to Monica's and she's making a roast! Talk about advanced cooking...!

Gilead

Last night I finished reading "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson. Another great great book... recommended by my dear friend Susan who shares my passion for fiction literature, amongst so many other things.

It's about a dying minister who writes a long letter to his young son. It touches upon the entire emotional spectrum of the human condition. It's very introspective; most of it's written as a monologue but it has colorful stories inter-woven seamlessly, such that you're never bored. I admit it's a little slow in the middle part but it picks up again and ends in such a peaceful way that it makes dying look more graceful than I've ever thought it could be. And it is beautifully written.

It won the Pulitzer Prize. Here are some of my favorite excerpts:

"Now, I may have been more than half asleep at that point, but a thought arose that abides with me. I wished I could sit at the feet of that eternal soul and learn. He did then seem to me the angel of himself, brooding over the mysteries his mortal life describes, the deep things of man. And of course that is exactly what he is. "For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him?" In every important way we are such secrets from each other, and I do believe that there is a separate language in each of us, also a separate aesthetics and a separate juridprudence. Every single one of us is a little civilization built on the ruins of any number of preceding civilizations, but with our own variant notions of what is beautiful and what is acceptable- which, I hasten to add, we generally do not satisfy and by which we struggle to live. We take fortuitous resemblances among us to be actual likeness, because those around us have also fallen heir to the same customs, trade in the same coin, acknowledge more or less, the same notions of decency and sanity. But all that really just allows us to coexist with the inviolable, untraversable, and utterly vast spaces between us."

"It is almost as if I felt his hand on my hand. Well, I can imagine him beyond the world, looking back at me with an amazement of realization- "This is why we have lived this life!" There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient."

"There are two occasions when the sacred beauty of Creation becomes dazzlingly apparent, and they occur together. One is when we feel our mortal insufficiency to the world, and the other is when we feel the world's mortal insufficiency to us. Augustine says the Lord loves each of us as an only child, and that has to be true. "He will wipe the tears from all faces." It takes nothing from the loveliness of the verse to say that is exactly what will be required.

Next on my reading list is "Chronicle of a Blood Merchant" by Yu Hua, also recommended by Susan.

what i'll do for $2

Spring cleaning! I know it's a week too late but I'm slowly starting to clean my apartment of all the Junk I've somehow accumulated over the years... and trust me, I have a ton. I emptied all my binders of the beautiful color-coded perfect notes I diligently took during my first two years of medical school and TRASHED it all. I was a little sad... not so much about throwing stuff away that I spent hours making, but because I realized how much I used to know and how much I forgot!

In the end, I was left with a bunch of empty three ring binders so I sold them on marketplace. :) For $2 each! I made $12 today!! and now I have some space on my bookshelf again.

My next project is going to be getting rid of all the clothes I never wear! Salvation Army, here I come!

nueva york

I'm backtracking here a little bit but I went to New York City right after the Match, to celebrate with my girlfriends and to visit my sister. It was a completely fun-filled weekend. I can't imagine a more relaxing and enjoyable visit.

Joy, Yasmin, and me, at Verlaine, enjoying our own little lounge area, waiting for our New York friends to join us!

Naty, me and Andy, reunited after all these years! We reminisced about Oxford and our crazy roadtrip in Spain...

Emily, my quartet friend who is amazing at the cello and hoping to get into her dream Phd program!

We had brunch at Eatery. I had their version of eggs benedict with smoked salmon. YUM!!! It tasted as pretty as it looked! This place got voted Best Brunch a couple years ago and they deserved it.

Later that night, we went out again, to Park. We had heard so much about the dance scene but the club part was closed for "private parties" which was a disappointment for some of us. I still had a great time, making fun of all the Asians that had invaded the backroom there.

Andy, me, Dan, and my sister at Serendipity. This picture doesn't do it justice, but Andy and I shared the strawberry ice cream with cheesecake and strawberry shortcake dessert, which was HEAVENLY. It melted in my mouth!!

On my last day in New York, we went up to the rooftop of my sister's amazing apartment building... you could throw some awesome parties up there. She lives right in the middle of downtown and that big building behind us is the courthouse where they film Law and Order! She has a gym/lounge area in the building that has access via fingerprint! How high tech and cool is that?

Other highlights of the weekend include: dining at Sapa, a fancy upscale fusion restaurant where I devoured the cod on polenta, shopping in Soho, my first deep-tissue massage EVER at Bliss, which was the most perfectly relaxing 75 minutes of my life, brunch at Bubby's with my sister where we both enjoyed the goat cheese and red pepper omelette, and finally seeing the WTC memorial area.

small discoveries

I'm currently sitting at a cute little coffeeshop on Grand Ave. It's called Sip Coffee House. There are many pros to this place- easy street parking, free wireless, a back room with decent seating, and a huge variety of teas, coffees, and a smaller selection of baked goods. I love it already and wish I had found it sooner. But this is why Chicago is so great and why I'm excited to be staying on...

This morning, we met up with Ben for brunch at Flo. We hadn't seen Ben in ages! Like 5 months. He just got back from China, of all places, which I am very jealous about. He's stopped following The O.C. so that took me a while to get over. :) but back to brunch- I had the chorizo and eggs burrito, which turned out to not be a real burrito. It was basically scrambled eggs with chorizo, onions, tomatoes, etc., with beans and potatoes, and then a small tortilla. It was good but the eggs were a little dry. The potatoes or the ketchup tasted weird... and the beans weren't like the ones at Frontera Grill. (I know that's kinda unfair...)

Armand had the huevos rancheros which he said was too spicy and maybe not as flavorful as it could have been. Ben had the polenta hash which looked pretty but his conclusion was: Lula's is better.

p.s. the coffee at Flo is intelligentsia and is great!!

Maybe not so life-changing after all...

It's been a whirlwind week and it's hard to believe that the Biggest Day of Medical School has come and gone. Luckily, we all matched into a residency program and while many of us are disappointed, some of us are ecstatic.

And I think we're all scared.

I'm currently reading "Gilead" and there is a quote which I find apt:
"I am confident that I will find great blessing in it. And that is what he said about everything that happened to him for the rest of his life, all of which tended to be more or less drastic."

last night

Was pretty awesome... we went to The Green Mill to see/hear the Kurt Elling Quartet. Even though we tried to go early, by the time we actually arrived, it was pretty packed. We got one seat at the bar so I stood for the entire first set but the jazz was amazing. And Kurt Elling is funny too. Plus there was a special guest Mark Smith who did spoken word... what a fun night! Only $7! I heart Chicago.

my favorite meal of the weekend

It's no secret that I love brunch; and Chicago has some great brunch places.

Yesterday, we went to Ina's. They have free parking! Score!
We arrived at 12:40pm and were seated a little after 1pm. Not a terrible wait, except that larger groups who came after us, kept being seated before us!

I ordered the "house specialty"- the baked french toast with apples. It's in quotes because I didn't think it was that great. Don't get me wrong. It was still tasty and I devoured the three pieces. But it was very VERY sweet, even for a sweet-tooth like me. It's topped with this thick crunchy layer of sugar and cinnamon. It's too much and makes the meal very heavy. Armand, on the other hand, ordered the hot pancakes with fruit compote. YUM. Very very think light pancakes with a tart yet sweet mix of fruit compote. Perfect.

Their coffee was just okay but they bring you the entire thermos, which is nice. They also start the table with fancy bread. The freshly squeezed orange juice is a bit pricey but worth the vitamin C.

drunken stupidity

So the other day, Chicago celebrated St. Patrick's Day. Yes, a whole week early but hey the parade needs to be on a Saturday and can't be after the fact, right? Apparently...

I was walking toward Navy Pier that evening with some friends, when a group of guys passed by us. One of them said to me "Go-ni-chi-wa"! Granted he was likely very drunk but I said "FUCK YOU." and they laughed. I don't think I'm very intimidating, even when I try to be!

My friends were more shocked than I was... but now that I'm dwelling on it, I think it's the first time anyone has ever said that to me in the United States...! I've been subjected to racial stereotype and ignorance, plenty, when traveling in Europe and in South America. I can't even count how many times I've been called "china" as an adjective, not the noun. And one time in England, I walked into a Cathedral with my white friend and after they handed him the English handout about the cathedral's history, they pointed me toward the piles of handouts translated into Japanese.

Sometimes I would get indignant. But mostly, I would attribute it to... I don't know. Ignorance? And then be super proud to be a (North)-American because nothing like that would ever happen to me in the United States! Oh, how mistaken I was! Sure, the guy was drunk and it was St. Patrick's Weekend, but we all know if it comes out when you're drunk then you probably had it in you to begin with.

Syriana

Yesterday, we went to see "Syriana." I'm not sure if I liked it or disliked it because... I didn't get it? Like what was going on with lawyer dude investigating the merger? Who exactly was he working for? and what was George Clooney doing?? What was Matt Damon's role, exactly? I won't ask more questions because I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone. But yea. I wasn't that impressed with the choppy writing? I mean, maybe I'm not smart enough to understand but I feel like the movie could have done a better job of giving the audience an Understanding of the oil industry. I would still recommend it to people but don't have high expectations.

Afterward, we met up with some friends and had dinner at Fox & Obel. It was good but a total rip-off. My favorite was the pecan pie. YUM. Some of us didn't have any plans post-dinner so we hung around and then had a personal tour of Chicago Public Radio's station on Navy Pier with Lisa. :) That was cool.

it's been a long time

No, not since I last updated but since I last read a good book, a really good book, like "The Kite Runner." I just finished it, with a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat. I have to share it with everyone I know because it's a wonderful tale of a boy who grew up in Afghanistan. Khaled Hosseini takes you on a journey, imaginative as well as literary, to get to know the Afghanistan he was born in and the Afghanistan under the Taliban rule and the Afghanistan post-September 11th. It's a beautiful story. If you haven't read it, you really must!

("Mountains Beyond Mountains" is also good but in a different way... I was inspired by Paul Farmer's existence. "The Kite Runner" is a story that is developed, psychological, and with different characters, unlike "MBM.")

I had my first dream last night about The Match. I dreamt that the ceremony took hours to pass out our envelopes. Hours. And they were passing them out in small sessions. I just kept waiting, and waiting, until my name was called... Maybe this is a metaphor for the slow painful wait that we're being tortured with right now? I didn't get to see what was inside the envelope in my dream, so I guess we'll have to wait for Reality.

it's really true

When I got back from Bolivia, I had this small package in the mail from Dr. Kahana's office:

I mean, how cool is our Program Director?!? And it's really true. There is no place like the University of Chicago and I'm going to dearly miss this place if I leave. IF. Such a small two-lettered word but such weight! The countdown to Match Day: 10 more days... and the more important countdown is to Scramble Day: 7 more days. But let's not think about that remote possibility.

I want to document... I'm not really *that* stressed out about it unless I start thinking about it and worrying about it and then I just want to cry. But the honest truth is that it's now out of our hands and whatever happens and wherever I end up, Life will go on, as it always does, and it will turn out okay, like it always has in the past. Fate. I almost don't want to know where I'm going... because after March 16th is when the Real Stress will be unleashed... I'll have to find an affordable safe apartment; I'll have to sign the contract for my first "job" (aka slave labor, euphemistically called Residency); I'll have to plan the Big Move, sell all my crap, find someone to take over my current apartment lease, and figure out a way to relocate my entire life. Talk about stressful, people. The real stress begins AFTER March 16th, not really before...

In the meantime, I'm enjoying myself and trying to spend as much time as possible with friends and loved ones. My old lab friend Martin was in town this weekend so I got to show off how wonderful Chicago is... This is an overall bad picture (courtesy of Armando) but you can sort of appreciate the grandeur that is the Palmer House Hilton! We did a walking tour of Culture and Commerce in Chicago. It was a cold cold day but we went inside lots of beautiful lobbies and marvelled at many interiors, as well as exteriors, like the Chicago Cultural Center and Marshall Field's. It was fun and educational, all rolled into one.

in as much as I can express...

I remember the first time we were in Peru, way back when. My naive little self, about 18 years old, thought I knew a lot of the World. I had been all over the country (we used to go camping a lot)- I had seen Old Faithful and Niagara Falls from both sides and the Grand Canyon- I had been all over Europe- I had seen about 10 countries in three weeks- I had even been to South Korea where I could still remember the stench of urine in some streets. I thought we were going on a family vacation, just like all the others, to Peru, mostly to see Machu Picchu, one of the modern Wonders of the World. Oh, and to see the Amazon Jungles of course.

But when we got there, I slowly started gathering the meaning of a Developing Country, for the first time. Homes made out of cardboard, all over the entire mountain, sometimes with a tin roof held down by loose rocks. I'm not speaking of the "ghetto" (in which I live currently), I'm speaking of the entire country. (or 99% of it) Mothers dressed in traditional Indian clothes, carrying large loads on their backs, and scurrying her dirty children who beg for a "propina"- a tip- from these American strangers, with such insistence and large teary eyes. I gave them my pens and pencils and shiny hair barrettes.

Bolivia is even worse. People say that it's the poorest country in South America. I wouldn't know since I haven't been to Colombia and I suspect Colombia is pretty close to being the poorest country, along with Bolivia. But it's definitely worse off than Peru and Ecuador. I can say that much for sure because it's a country without even a train system! Or even a city trolley or subway or anything. And it's not because everyone owns a car. The streets are lined with taxis and incredibly ancient cars; nobody obeys traffic signals. I couldn't believe it the first few times it happened- drivers would just whiz past red lights, some of them honking to warn other cars and some of them only slowing down a little. They will run you over and leave you to die on the sidewalk without even looking back.

The police are corrupt and take bribes because they get paid like shit. There are street vendors everywhere, selling quinoa, strange fruits I've never seen before, and even phone calls on their cell phone! During the month of February, leading up to Carnival, there is mayhem in the streets everyday from youngsters throwing water balloons at every passing girl. I'm talking about big water balloons thrown with all their strength that will hit you in the face, arms, legs, anywhere, as you're walking down the street, minding your own business. Talk about lawless.

But amongst all this chaos and disorder and poverty, is a school called CEOLI, near the airport. It's for handicapped children and provides everything from physical therapy, psychologic evaluations, medical care, teaching, orthopedics, etc. I was extremely impressed with how many students they had and how wonderfully run everything was, given that it was Bolivia and a population that most people would rather forget about. I learned a lot about Bolivian health care and its problems (which are remarkably similar to other South American countries) and the etiology of why a lot of the children ended up in CEOLI. I learned that lupus is lupus in Spanish too but pronounced loooo-poooos. My Spanish rapidly improved and now I feel comfortable again being conversational. I hope I won't forget it between now and residency!

So I had an amazing three weeks. It's weird to be back home in Chicago. I'm happy. Life is so easy here. But at the same time, I feel this enormous guilt for leaving Bolivia and moving on with my life. I feel like I should do something. I've had the privilege of witnessing an entire country in so much need, they've welcomed me and been a great host. And now I want to give something back but I don't know what I have to give.