Through the looking glass

The other weekend I went to a nail salon to get a pedicure and I just listened to the manicurist talk. She talked and told me her life story. She is originally from Vietnam and grew up in the north. Around the time of the Vietnam war her family split and she went down south. She was then married to a Vietnamese general. She came to America with him, lived in Texas for some years and then divorced him. In Texas she had her own business. She then proceeded to tell me that her friend invited her to start a business in Virginia. It was a sewing business and she was actually a contractor for the Army- she would sew on names/insignia! She then got remarried and went to Louisiana where she was in the textile industry. Her business was thriving until Hurricane Katrina. She was set up a little north of New Orleans and with the news of the storm coming she got out just in the nick of time. However she was stuck in a car in traffic for a couple of days before ultimately arriving in Houston again...

I saw this photo from nat geo's photo of the day. Beautiful doesn't describe it. I think of being free and young and knowing that there are endless possibilities out there... if you dare to achieve them. 

A little less than 2 weeks ago the Malaysia aircraft MH370 that departed from Kuala Lampur to Beijing disappeared. It has been all the talk in the news. It is horrifying. People joke around about it but for someone who travels as much as I do it is simply scary. I know more people die in car accidents... I don't need another lecture. There is something about being up in the air and the feeling of turbulence; the feeling that the stranger sitting next to you or across from you may be the last person you spend time with. I don't know why but it scares me more to fly now than before. I have visited 30 countries total; in my thirtieth year of life. Quite a milestone but for some reason I feel like I am battling with Zeus each time I check in for a flight. In regards to MH370, the anticipation and agony that they may never know what happened I would imagine could leave someone feeling empty forever. I imagine what last thoughts flashed through the passengers minds; my heart goes ou...

I haven't written in a long time but I figured there is no better time to start. I have grown a lot which is what usually what happens when the years pass. I am almost done with my pediatrics residency! 6 more months left... I recently was involved in a code on Christmas day. I guess you never know when you will be in these situations. A mother brought her almost 2yo daughter to the ER. She was limp and cyanotic. Immediately she was placed on the monitor and there was no rhythm... asystole. Immediately CPR was started. The ER attending ran the code. We all participated. The code ran for about an hour. My memory is vivid and I won't forget it. The part that is most clear was hearing her mother whimper and cry. I remember the grandparents grabbing my hand begging to keep going. I don't know why me. I wasn't performing chest compressions or pushing medications. I just happened to be the one who took off her blood pressure cuff and tape her diaper on to make her look mor...

Paris, France Dharamsala, India Machu Picchu, Peru Riomaggiore, Italy Create your own travel map .

I found a shirt with that saying and I almost bought it... wish I had now. Australia is amazing with its great vast space and beautiful cities. First off we landed in Melbourne. Spent about three days there. The first day we explored the city. Melbourne is a lot like Washington DC. It is smaller but very pretty and there is lots to do there. It has the cricket stadium and it hosts the Australian open (two events which I have missed here... Crikey!). Anyway the second day we drove along the great ocean road. Did a tree top walk called the Otway Fly walk. It was cool ascending amongst the trees! We met a sweet little boy named nikoli from France. He followed us along the entire walk and then teased us because Aleena said she was scared of the height- quite funny. Then we drove to the 12 apostles. Such a gorgeous view! I find Australia to have so many wonderful natural sights. You can just be driving along and come across mountains and rock formations that will take your breath away. The ...

Tonight is officially my last night EVER staying at Neesa's place in NYC. I am SO sad! This place has kind of become a landmark in NYC for me. Every time I come here I always end up telling the cab driver "121st and Amsterdam"... my home away from home (if you will). It is really weird how time just passes so quickly before you. I remember when Nees started grad school here and now she is about to be done... JD in one hand and a one-way ticket to DC in the other. I feel so emotional about her leaving NYC but at the same time I am so excited to have her back at home. We have had such a blast with her these past few years but good thing is that there are many more memories to come. Now if only I can somehow make the move to the Big Apple myself... hmmmm...

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo . Sometimes the nature of politics disgusts me. We live in a world where people are having more divorces than marriages. Why is it then that the government is forcing these people to take back their vows? It is plain unfair. Please sign the letter and take part in making this world a better place. Thanks! http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/divorce

Here is a letter my uncle wrote to the PM. I hope you all can understand the terror and grief people are experiencing as a result of these attacks... LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER Dear Mr. Prime minister I am a typical mouse from Mumbai. In the local train compartment which has capacity of 100 persons, I travel with 500 more mouse. Mouse at least squeak but we don't even do that. Today I heard your speech. In which you said 'NO BODY WOULD BE SPARED'. I would like to remind you that fourteen years has passed since serial bomb blast in Mumbai took place. Dawood was the main conspirator. Till today he is not caught. All our bolywood actors, our builders, our Gutka king meets him but your Government can not catch him. Reason is simple; all your ministers are hand in glove with him. If any attempt is made to catch him everybody will be exposed. Your statement 'NOBODY WOULD BE SPARED' is nothing but a cruel joke on this unfortunate people of India. Enough is enough. As such af...

I just finished packing for my trip to Europe and I took a mini break to hang out with my Ba (grandma). I went into her room to say good night and I caught her eating a caramel by her bed so she started giggling. She is so cute and funny. I love chatting with her before she goes to sleep. We always tease her about her dentures and she has had them as long as I have been alive. When she takes them off before bed I used to make her say "mathematics" because it sounded like "mafamafics". I got a kick out of that! I actually just made her do it again for old times sake. I get so worried about her and find myself getting sad when I think about how old she is. Sometimes I come home and find her sleeping (she sleeps all the time) and I will just unknowingly stare are her breathing pattern for a good 5 minutes. I am sure it is because I fear something happening to her during her sleep. I know death and illness are both natural things but I still get anxious relating these...

This Hawaiian word literally means "hole". Puka goes a long way in describing Hawaiian cuisines. Hole in the wall places are the best place to eat here. Today Marshall took me to this place "You Hungry?" and we had the traditional plate lunch. I got ahi tuna with sweet wasabi sauce. Nothing about it was healthy but I was very satisfied afterward (I was not hungry after). It was this fried tuna steak covered with sesame seeds and this green sweet wasabi sauce. I had brown rice with panko bread crumbs with it along with macaroni salad on the side. Shit was delicious! I am also in love with Genki sushi and I think we are having my good bye meal there tonight. Today, Mar had the day off and he took me to the Byodo Temple in the morning and then to Manoa falls in the afternoon. At the temple there is this giant bell you strike with a log which is hanging from the side. Apparently when you strike this bell you release bad spirits. Well me being the dumb ass that I am... p...

Vienna is GREAT! It is like a little bit of Florence and Prague with its own unique influences. It reminds me of what I am missing in America because one street will have tons of shops and it will end in front of a huge gothic church. it just makes everything that much more spectacular. Yesterday, we had started a very long but fun day. We woke up early and headed down the main street for some early morning shopping. As some of you may know, I collect logo shirts from every country/city I visit and I was determined to find something from Vienna... and I did (you will see). Then we headed to the history museum of Vienna because someone from job recommended it to me. It set the stage for most of the history of Vienna so we were somewhat prepared for the rest of the sightseeing ahead of us. After the museum we went to the Karslplatz to see the Karls church. It was very pretty with a huge green/teal dome. The inside had intricate paintings and a lift to take us to the top of the church. A...

The A's stand for Aussies and Austrians. Everyone here is awesome!Last night we went out to a bar called "torino" in venice and we stayed out pretty late. we had some wonderful wine and met some wonderful people. We met three Australian girls, one of them, named loren, who told us all about australia. she is a teacher and to get to work she has to travel 4 times a year by two planes. very crazy. she teaches in a small aboriginal community. it was fun getting to know them and we all exchanged information. The next day we woke up and left early for vienna. we arrived after a 10 hour train ride but we had the whole cabin to ourselves. we met a young man on the train who asked us where we are traveling and we said we were from america. he told us how lucky we were and how he wants to come live there one day. he said "here is the rest of the world and america is a world of its own". kind of puts in perspective how lucky we really are. anyway, vienna is HUGE! anyway ...

Apparantely, yes there is. it was actually the first established ghetto in venice created during 1516. it also was used actively during the second world war. so today i went to visit a jewish ghetto but that is not the only thing. the day started with our last shopping trip around san marco. i got some ciao ciao and ciao bella shirts... my favorites of course. and i got some cool glass rings made from venetian glass. then we went back packed up because our train leaves early tomorrow morning for vienna. after we took a long walk to the ponte rialto which looks like the paintings of venice. the canal runs through it and there are shops and restaurants all along the canal. we walked from the ponte rialto to the jewish ghetto where we saw that museum of the ghetto. it became almost quiet and scary immediately. it was interesting. then we headed to the accademia museum and saw paintings by titian and bellini. it was nice. the best part of venice is walking into the little shops and getting...

Ok so I am back at it again... Europe Part II. For those who do not know I am going to Venice, Vienna, Budapest, and Zurich. I am very excited! We left on Sunday after a fun saturday in NYC with Neesa and Arti. The plane ride was umcomfortable because the kid behind me kept kicking but it was still great b/c I was flying here! We got to Zurich and took a trian to Santa Lucia, Venice. It is sooo beautiful here!!!! The water is a pretty green and it is breezy/nice. The first night we walked to the Piazza San Marco and found a nice restuarant to eat. I got back into the groove of saying "ciao" "grazi" "prego". It is so much fun to use my limited Italian. Today we took a vaporetti (water taxi) out to the island of Murano to see the glass blowing factory. I bought a little gondola made of glass for my apartment. It was neat to see it again just like the time I went to Caracas, Venezuela. Tonight we plan on meeting a friend at this club called Piccolo Mondo. Tom...

We have officially been away from the beach for about 4 nights now and although I miss it a bit I am glad to be sight-seeing again. The Greek islands were amazing. Amit and Thy helped me learn how to snorkel better and I went out with them a few times. It was great. There was this one point in Ios where the water was about 3 or 4 different shades of blue and we snorkled out. In the shallow water it was clear blue and there were a few fish here and there but then suddenly there was a huge drop and it was dark, dark blue and there were tons of fish. It was a bit scary and I did not go out very far at all from that point but it was still cool to see. From Ios we went to Mykonos and just hung out there. The boys rented scooters and ATVs (spelling?) and we went around driving. It was pretty cool despite my fear of ATVs. There was this one really steep hill that we could not go up so I let Amit go by himself and I waited down for the rest of them. While I was waiting a nice couple offered to...

I have about 2 minutes so i will make this quick. READ the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons if you are at all bored. I have been reading so much and I got through two Dan Brown novels, one Ken Follet novel (The Key to Rebecca), and i am on to King. I am so glad I can finally read for my own pleasure. BTW i am in Mykonos right now and the water here has so far been the best. Pretty soon we will be off to Prague, Amsterdam, London and then HOME! I will update later! Neha, I am so glad you are ok. Love you all!

Yah-sas from Greece. Athens was cool but nothing can compare at this point with the beauty of the cyclades islands. the crystal clear blue and green water of differing shades set against a mountain backdrop with with and blue houses atop the ridge... simply magnificent. i can't believe i am actually here cause most of my life i thought i would only hear about greece and not really get to visit it. We are in Santorini now and we are leaving on wed. for Ios and then leaving on sat. for Mykonos. Today, we took a boat tour of the islands in the Santorini vicinity. We went to the old volcano which endured the most powerful explosion in history. to hear about the history of the formation of these islands was very interesting. the guide said it was loud enough for everyone in the world to hear it three times and that it was 100 million more times powerful than Hiroshima. i was amazed. then we took the boat to hot spring water where we actually got to jump off the boat and swim to the hot ...

Yup... the moment we landed in the city of Patras Greece it hit us! WE ARE IN GREECE! we have been waiting for this moment to come and we have entitled our Greece experience "the Greece Giddiness" (If u are reading this Lori then I plan on attacking a lot of places we have learned about in class). How is everyone? I am doing well. We are planning on spending 4 nights in Athens and take various day trips to place like Delphi, Cape Sounion, and Corinth. On the 4th day we plan on going to the Cyclades for about 10 days. We are very, very excited. I am just so happy to be here. The people are so wonderful and amazing. It has been great. We got here by ferry from the Italian port of Bari. A funny story I have to tell... I am not that big on gambling but I guess I am lucky because I won a poker tournament on the ferry and I got lucky with my first (and only) chance at the slot machines! It was fun just to say I did it (don't worry mom and dad i am not a gambler in any way). Gre...

No matter how many times I will go to visit Vatican City it still takes my breath away. I just find that place amazing. All the art, symbols, masterpieces, architecture... everything is just beautiful. It was scorching hot but we loved it nevertheless. Yesterday, we also went to the Forum, Colosseum, and the Palatine Hill. It was really cool being there after learning so much about it. Today we went to the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum, and St. Peters Basilica. Now we are just roaming around as we have to catch an early train to the Italian port of Bari because we are going to GREECE! I get so excited when I talk about it! We have actually alotted about 2 weeks in Greece so we are spending 4 days in Athens where we will be taking day trips to places like Delphi, Marathon, and Sparta and then we are heading out to the Cyclades for about 10 days. So ready and so excited! til next time... bbye!