March to my Goals

I can not believe that it's almost March! Time is marching by way too fast. Why can't we slow down or stretch time like Herr Eisenheim did in the movie "The Illusionist"? Great movie, BTW. I just started a new rotation today, my last and final one as a medical student!! It's a light month time-wise, actually, it's practically vacation as I'm off half of the week!! In light of my spare time increasing by 50%, I've set myself some goals for this new month. They are fun, productive, and achievable, like all goals should be!

1. Read Philip Yancey's "The Jesus I Never Knew." We are using the video and workbook versions for our small group Bible study on Saturday nights. Reading of the actual book is optional, but I really enjoyed the chapter I read while preparing to lead the lesson last week, so I decided to read the book along with our weekly lessons. I realize I gain so much more from reading the book along with the video, workbook and group discussions. I found an used book at Half-Priced Books for $8. This would be the first book that's non-medical I've read in many years and I'm really looking forward to it.



2. Study for Clinical Skills exam that's scheduled for April 2 in Philly. This is the last hurdle I need to pass before graduation. The day-long practical (hands-on with trained patients) exam cost $1,000 not including airfare and hotel! I must pass it or. . .let's just say I will be in a very sad state indeed if I fail!

3. Get back into step aerobics! Actually, any group exercise classes will do-- resistance training/weight-lifting, cycling, kickboxing, etc. Having been out of the aerobics class scene for quite a while, I really miss it. I just signed up for a 2-week free trial at Bally's. The picture is from the web but I have that exact same step, one that I used during my teaching days.

4. Finally, pick up knitting. I've been wanting to learn to knit for a long time. Now that I've got my feet wet in cooking (something a lot more practical and benificial to my hubby), I can feel good about learning to knit (something I consider purely fun and for myself). I have found various classes ranging from one-on-one to semi-private for $10-$15/hour. Luckily, I have two good friends, Lee Lee and Juei who are pros at knitting and they've graciously agreed to teach me! I also just found out that wooden or plastic knitting needles (but not metal ones) shorter than 31 inches are allowed on airplanes so I can knit during my long overseas flight to Asia in April and May!

These Shoes Aren't Made for Walking. . .

. . .but who says that has to be the reason why we wear shoes?

This season it's all about the peep-toes, wedges, platforms, and espadrilles.

Cats, Dogs, and Endorphins

What a beautiful day today is! Basking in sunshine, I was able to jog in a T-shirt and shorts this afternoon. You know how people say that after you've been running a while, you body releases a shot of endorphins that gives you a "running high"? Well, I want to know " where are my endorphins??!" Unlike those mythical runners who get high, I have to work for every second of my jogging!

Aside from endorphins, I felt like I was missing somthing else crucial while running. A dog!! I'd so love to have a leash in my hand, along with my key and iPod! If I had a dog, I might not even miss endorphins. I think a dog would be the best jogging companion. No worries about whether he/she is bored, no pressure to chit chat, no question about who will set the pace, and rain or shine, a dog will always agree to go for a walk or run with you. I fell in love with a specific breed of dog, the maltipoo, some time ago but I have been debating back and forth whether to get one or not. Maltipoo is a maltese and poodle mix, it's actually not considered a true breed, rather a designer dog. They have the cutest teddy bear face, although some will look more poodle or more maltese than a mixture. For many reasons it's not practical for us to get a dog right now, but I can dream, can't I?

Look at that cute teddy bear face!!


Jessica Simpson and her maltipoo, Daisy, the most famous maltipoo in the world, I'm sure

A less famous cutie of the non-canine variety. I'm also pretty sure torby (tortoiseshell and tabby mix) is not a designer breed!

No matter what fancy toys we get for kitty, she always manages to find fun in unlikely things, here it's the string from hubby's robe. Kitty, for now you are our only furbaby, aren't you lucky?

Making Baozi

I bought a steamer recently, one that's made of stainless steel, not the bamboo kind. A steamer has always been a very important piece of kitchen gadget in my house because my Dad's favorite food is Mom's steamed buns and baozi (steamed buns with meat filling). I have been eager to make baozi and this past Sunday I did! I grew up watching my mom making steamed buns from scratch so I know it takes a long time. Well, for me, it turned into a day-long affair!! Although I did take breaks while patiently waiting for the yeast dough to rise.


The rised dough. I decided to use 50% whole wheat flour and 50% white flour in case you're wondering about the odd color. This combo turned out well for taste and skin integrity.

The filling, pork and veggies. I used white Chinese cabbage and also mustard greens for the added intense green color.

Ta da!! The cooked result several hours later. They are not white like my mom's, the brown specks are due to the whole wheat flour. The round-shaped ones are prettier but I quickly found out that the moon-shaped baozi can contain up to 30% more filling so I made more of those. More filling = more taste.


Uncooked dumplings. I started with 2 lbs. of ground pork, which makes a LOT of filling, so I made over 50 dumplings and will freeze the leftover filling. I would have made more but became too tired. I used ~30% whole wheat flour in the dumpling dough. From past experiments, I found that 25-30% of WWF will not change the taste, texture and integrity of the dumplings much so I'm sticking with that. More WWF will make the dumplings too grainy-tasting, not to mention the skin cracks during cooking.

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As for the baozi, for first-time making it, I give myself a 80%. There's a sweetness to the dough skin which did not go entirely with my veggie and pork filling. The recipe for the dough is, afterall, for char-sui bao, which is a sweet and tangy BBQ pork filling. I will try using an all-meat filling next time, it should work better with the "sweet" skin. Or maybe I'll add more salt to the dough to even out the sweetness? I know the sugar is important b/c that's what the yeast eats. Hubby liked it but he's more of a dumpling person, it turns out.

Match Day Explained

What is Match Day?

http://www.southalabama.edu/matchday/ "This annual event, known nationwide as "Match Day", is the culmination of a process that begins in the fall when senior medical students start applying to residency programs through a national computer system. Students are then invited to interview at the discretion of each program. The NRMP has strict rules regarding communication between students and residency programs; no one can be “guaranteed” a position. Students electronically rank the programs in their order of preference and residency program directors across the country do the same.The “Match” refers to the process by which the students' and the program directors' rank lists are overlapped resulting in the selection of students for residency positions. There is also a “couples match” that strives to coordinate the match of couples to the same geographic area."

A technical explanation from the NRMP (Nat'l Residency Matching program)
http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/about_res/algorithms.html
How the Matching Algorithm Works
The NRMP matching algorithm uses the preferences expressed in the rank order lists submitted by applicants and programs to place individuals into positions. The process begins with an attempt to place an applicant into the program indicated as most preferred on that applicant's list. If the applicant cannot be matched to this first choice program, an attempt is then made to place the applicant into the second choice program, and so on, until the applicant obtains a tentative match, or all the applicant's choices have been exhausted.
An applicant can be tentatively matched to a program in this process if the program also ranks the applicant on its rank order list, and either:
the program has an unfilled position. In this case, there is room in the program to make a tentative match between the applicant and program.
the program does not have an unfilled position, but the applicant is more attractive to the program than another applicant who is already tentatively matched to the program. In this case, the applicant who is the least preferred current match in the program is removed from the program, to make room for a tentative match with the more preferred applicant.
Matches are "tentative" because an applicant who is matched to a program at one point in the matching process may be removed from the program at some later point, to make room for an applicant more preferred by the program, as described in the second case above. When an applicant is removed from a previously made tentative match, an attempt is made to re-match that applicant, starting from the top of his/her list. This process is carried out for all applicants, until each applicant has either been tentatively matched to the most preferred choice possible, or all choices submitted by the applicant have been exhausted. When all applicants have been considered, the match is complete and all tentative matches become final.

This should answer your question, Andy!

Eating Yee Sang and CNY

We celebrated Chinese New Year with friends at Adrian and LeeLee's house on Saturday night. It seems we've adopted a new tradition for CNY in the last few years, the tossing and eating of Yee Sang! Just what is Yee Sang? After enjoying this dish with our Malaysian friends for a few years now, I decided to find out!

It is basically a colorful salad made of shredded veggies and raw fish served with plum sauce dressing. Yee sang is "yusheng" in pinyin, or 鱼生 in Chinese. It literally means "raw fish," but "yu" can also mean "over abundance" or "excess" and "sheng" is also "birth." So the element of word play here provides the basis for eating raw fish salad in order to bring in good luck and prosperity for the new year. One source says the dish originated from southern China 1,500 years ago, but most people seem to agree that it actually was invented or at least was made popular as a CNY dish by Chinese immigrants in Singapore or Maylaysia. As far as I know, this is not a CNY tradition in mainland China, but is practiced widely in Maylaysia and Singapore.

Ingredients: finely shredded white daikon radish, carrots, pepper, chopped shallots, crispy fried noodles, roasted sesame seeds, pomelo, cilantro. . .

Just before eating, thinly sliced pieces of raw salmon and plum sauce are added.

Then, everyone gathers at the table, each equipped with a pair of chopsticks.


Let the tossing begin! The higher the tossing the better b/c the act of tossing ("lo hei") symbolizes the gathering of prosperity for the new year. While tossing, people are also to speak 吉祥话 (Jíxiáng Huà), auspicious wishes to each other.

What a fun and very yummy tradition!

The part of China where I'm from, eastern China, we eat dumplings during CNY. I celebrated only but a handful of CNY before coming to the US, but some of my best memories of China was the CNY celebration at my grandparents' home. My grandmother would put a clean coin or red date in several dumplings. Whoever gets a dumpling with the special filling is said to have an auspicious year. This was a big deal for the kids, and we would eat many dumplings in the hope of biting into a coin! Hmm, sounds like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

Other memorable traditions of CNY include wearing new clothes for the day, getting "hong bao" (红包, red envelops with money) from aunts and uncles, and of course, the fire crackers! How I'd love to pass some of these traditions to my kids one day.

Happy Chinese New Year!!

The year of the pig!!

Roses, Chocolates, and Lobster

Red roses for me and Godiva's All Dark assortment for my chocoholic hubby. He loves dark chocolate now, which is good for my health-conscious piece of mind!

Kitty seems to like the roses, too. Okay, Kitty, I'll share 'em with you.

Can't get enough of the roses!

Kitty discovers chocolate.

How regal you look!

Looks like Valentine's Day and it was! We decided to eat at Red Lobster's for VD celebration. As always, there were throngs of people there and we had a 20 min wait. Why is Red Lobster's so popular here in town?! I've never had a fresh steamed lobster before (at least not to my knowledge) so we ordered one. Paul has had them in Ghana before, out of all places! I decided lobsters, crabs, and all those shell-on crustaceans are not good first-date foods. They are so messy and hands-on when all you want to concentrate on is your posture and not talking with your mouth full. Lucky for us, hubby and I have been married almost two years now and it's so good to be with someone you are so comfortable with and share a messy lobster together!

Too Cool for Valentine's Day. . .

. . .just kidding! Actually, hubby and I are celebrating Valentine's Day today, Friday. We decided ahead of time to push it back because I had a Powerpoint presentation due today and was bedbound working on it on Feb 14. You might guess I'm a procrastinator. Plus, hubby came home late and had homework to do himself. Yeah, week nights are a crapshoot for us.

My presentation for geriatric medicine went well today. My topic was on "The Science and Secrets of Longevity." It was one of the most fun presentations I've ever worked on. I enjoyed doing the research, learned a whole lot, and really liked finding graphics for the Powerpoint. Yes, me and frivolousness are best friends! Here are some of my favorite ones:

This is an actual sign, albeit not in this country, but in the UK. What an inaccurate stereotype of old people. The elderly can be quite capable, physically, well into their 90's.

How does this picture speak to you? I think it speaks of our society which is obessessed with youth and beauty, but often the reality around the corner is something very different and impossible to escape.

So, what did I learn about living long? A combination of good genes, healthy dietary habits, an active mind, and not a small dose of luck will make you a centenarian, too! Sorry, there is no magic bullet from science, yet. One of the most interesting studies done is the Okinawa Centenarian Study (www.okicent.org). Okinawa, Japan has the world's highest concentration of centenarians.

Bye, Bye, Blacky!

I'm just so happy I didn't have to title this post, "R.I.P Blacky". . .

Blacky the cat hasn't been doing well for a few days. It all started when he came to me limping one day. He was still moving along fine and had a big appetite like always so I didn't worry too much about it. The next day, however, I saw Blacky hopping on three feet. He was not using his left front leg at all and held his paw up at all times. I could not see any obvious injury but I know he was hurting. I knew at that moment our little arrangement of my feeding him and sheltering him partially while he spends majority of his time as a roamer was not working out. No way will hubby let me adopt another cat and I agree with him. I contacted all of the area's no-kill animal organizations. Finally, a lady named Joyce who runs her own one-woman cat rescue/shelter out of her garage called me back. We arranged to meet at a cat boarding place where she helped out in exchange for temporary use of their cages. She took Blacky and I gave her a donation to help out with Blacky's care. I liked her immediately. Of course, I don't think I can dislike anyone who loves and helps animals. After one look at Blacky, she didn't have much hope. "Oh, he's pitiful, poor little thing," she said. "See all those scars? They are fight wounds, he's been out for a long time. I'm sure he's gotten FIV or FeLV now." Joyce explained that she'll have him tested for FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus) and FeLV (feline leukemia) and if Blacky tests postive for either one, there won't be anything she can do. Blacky will be put down because she simply can't adopt out FIV+ or FeLV+ cats. I felt very bad for Blacky, but I know the alternative of living a life of a male, unneutered and homeless cat is also cruel.

While waiting to hear back from Joyce, I wondered if Kitty could have gotten infected from Blacky. Kitty is vaccinated against FelV but not FIV because there is no good vaccination for it. I had done my best to only allow Blacky stage in his cage when he is indoors. Yesterday, I heard back from Joyce. Good news! Blacky tested negative on both accounts! He was neutered and the limping leg is a old fracture which will just take time to heal. After being neutered, I bet Blacky will become even more of a loverboy. A sweet cat he is! Joyce said she'll update me when she finds a home for Blacky.

I'm so grateful there's been a happy turnaround for Blacky. BTW, Joyce has renamed him with my last name. It's bit strange to have a cat called by your last name, but Joyce says this helps her keep track of where the cat came from.

Won't someone take me home? I don't need much, just a small place to sleep, good food, daily petting and I'll give you a lifetime of love!

All Is Well

Whew, I can't believe just less than a month until Match Day!! It makes me want to sing the song from Fiddlers on the Roof,

"Matchmaker, matchmaker,
make me a match,
find me a find,
catch me a catch.
Matcchmaker, matchmaker,
look through your book,
and make me a perfect match."

I just went online and did my Rank Order List (ROL). I also wrote e-mails to the four PDs (program directors) to let them know I'm ranking them and will be happy to be in their program next year. My top two programs, and I hope I get into one of my top two choices, all know who they are! There's always a chance, I don't match anywhere and will have to scramble! Let's pray that I won't have that excitement in my life!

Yesteday, I measured my own head circumference (20 inches, if you must know) for the graduation gown order form. I also submitted my photos for the yearbook. Ahhh, graduation is really coming!! In 94 days and 18 hours to be exact, thanks to my neat littler countdown meter to the left!

More Shoes. . .

I went shopping again this week. In addition to buying hubby some clothes and two summery dresses for myself, I bought 3 more pairs of work shoes for the next phase of my life:

All with heels, good-looking but my feet is going to suffer, I can aleady feel it! All well, I'll wear them sparingly! I really need some Danskos to balance out the pain.

Aren't these cute??

And the best thing ---- the price! *click to see*

Show and Tell

What's a Chapstick to you? It's been years since I used Chapstick but I bought one the other day (for my chapped lips, of course). The feel, the look, and smell of it brought back nostalgic memories for me of my first year in America. That was almost two decades ago and I was nine. I first came to the US during winter time and I remember being intrigued by this little thing that kids at school had in their pockets and used on their lips. I thought it was a neat thing and wanted one for myself. . .when I smelled the unique smell of Chapstick today, it's as if I was nine and encountering a new world for the first time all over again. How powerful is the sense of smell on memory!

Ladies, have you deposited in your Bone Bank lately? I listened to a presentation on osteoporosis recently and it reminded me to take calcium more regularly. Most women just don't get enough through their diet. Asian and Caucasian women are more at risk due to their smaller frame. In fact, women who weighs less than 130 lbs. are not puting enough stress on their bones through daily activities to sustain their bone strength. I know myself and most of my girlfriends do not weigh over 130 lbs. unless heavy purses and pregancies count! I have a hard time remembering to take pills daily so these yummy chocolate chews (20 cal/each) are a excellent way to get your calcium for the day. Just two chews per day will do. And since calcium should be taken with food (and Vitamin.D) for better absorption, the chocolate calcium chew is an espcially clever idea!

Speaking of bone health, I took up jogging (aka. weight-bearing exercise) recently. With the help of hubby, I downloaded some fast paced dancing/techno/trance music (bpm 140's-170's) onto this cute and tiny iPod. The weather was perfect for jogging, high 60's, the sun was out yet cool enough so I'm not showered in my own sweat. The music was the best, I felt like Hermes, with wings on my feet! Can't wait to do it again!! But unfortunately, the weather has been in the chilly (and unbearble) 30-40's after that initial day of jogging. I know this is outdated enthusiasm, but I think the iPod is the coolest thing since cell phones and Google!

And finally, "quiero hablar espanol." Before I started riding the train for this month, I was listening to these medical Spanish CDs in my car. It was more productive use of my time than listening to NPR, although sometimes I choose to drive in silence and solitude and ruminate over my day's conversations, enounters, and thoughts. But when I'm not in a pensive mood while driving, learning Spanish is a great! If I go to UT Southwestern's FP program, I will be faced with 70% Spanish-speaking-only patients in the clinic. Ikes!

Parkland

I started my second to last rotation this week, geriatrics medicine at Parkland Memorial Hospital in downtown Dallas. BTW, Parkland ER is where JFK died after he was brought in for gunshot wound. His assasin was also treated and died there. I do home visits/house calls with the geriatricians, see patients in palliative care, make rounds on the floors, go to the VA and attend geriatrics grand rounds. Virtually everyday I'm somewhere different, and have been confused out of my mind with parking and finding clinics. This is a huge campus, the size of a large university, right in smack of downtown Dallas. Everything is supposedly within "walking distance" but you better have good walking shoes! The various hopsitals and clinics are connected by huge underground tunnels and I'm always brushing shoulders with the hordes of people when I walk down the hallways. There are just tons of people in Parkland Hospital, it feels like I'm in a cramped busy airport than a hosptal. They do have "information people" that do nothing but sit on a stool at corners of the halls and give directions! They have been super helpful and some know me personally by now.

On my first day, it took me half a hour circling the campus until I found my designated parking garage, then it was another half a hour before I hiked to the clinic a mile away. At end of my day, I could not find my car anywhere, I remember parking at the very top of the five-story parking garage but my car was not there afterwards! I called hubby and told him in Chinese that I think my car's been stolen. "What? Towed? T-O-W?" I said, no, "tou la," which means "stolen" in Chinese. I seriously thought my car's vanished! By this time, I was walking to the campus police department. "Are you sure you didn't park at another garage?" asked the policeman, "you know, on my first day working here, I lost my car, too and they had to take me in a police car to look for it." So, that's what we did, two uniformed men and their patrol car, very very nice people and helpful, I might add. It turns out I parked my car one level below from where I thought I parked! I was very relieved, and I'm glad my car wasn't "towed" or "tou la." Yeah, felt a little stupid, too but got my first ride in a police car, though.

On a brighter note, I'm giving the whole driving thing a break and riding the commuter train now. Super convenient, avoids the traffic, no weather issues, and only 20 minutes. The station is 5 minutes from our apt and the train stops right in front of the Parkland ER! I feel very urban. I eat my bagel and peole watch!