Cape Cod

You might think it is not a big deal to have beach and lovely coastline near home. What's the catch with salt water and sand anyway? Until you don't. There's a chance that I might be moving inland in less than a year so I thought I'd enjoy my time hear and take a trip down to Cape Cod. There are tons, and I mean TONS, of activities, events, sites, and people you can enjoy in Cape Cod. This will be my first post of Cape Cod for the many more to come.

I went to a trail called "Shining Sea Trail." This trail is 10.7 miles long and runs alongside an absolutely mesmerizing beach.

You can walk, run, and/or bike this trail. I decided to bike and rented a bike from nearby bike shop called "Corner Cycle." http://www.cornercycle.com/

This is a small shop but people were very friendly and renting process took about 30 seconds, literally. If you are bringing your own car, you have to park at a public parking space that is about 10-minute walk from the shop. There is a parking lot right next to the shop but apparently you can't park there since it is owned by a restaurant/bakery right in front of the bike shop.

I rented tandem bike for a half day which costed me $32. If you didn't come for a romantic outing then you may rent a standard rubbish bicycle for $17 for a half day. I'm only quoting half day prices here since it's always a better bet. For example, 1-hour rate for standard bicycles is $12. I'd plop down $5 more to get that extra 5~6 hours. What are you going to do with that $5 that you save anyway? You spend $5 on a cup of coffee. Don't be cheap.

There were some people swimming in the ocean so if you are a swimmer I'd bring swim suit. I regretted not being able to swim since it was a beautiful warm summer afternoon. Also, bring a bottle of water before you start the trail!

보스톤 John F. Kennedy 박물관 / Dorchester Harbor Walk!

Family Medicine 로테이션이 끝나고 시간이 좀 났다.
로테이션이 끝나고 난 주말은 항상 completely free다. 금요일 오후, 토요일, 일요일 이렇게 논다.
금요일 오후에 나가서 놀라고 했는데 집에 오자마자 잠이 들어서 토요일날 일어났다.. =_=
피곤하긴 했나부다..

토요일은 일어나니 한 낮 12시였고.. 내가 사고싶었던 테이블이 보스톤 코리아에 공짜로 나와서 그거 픽업하러 30분정도 운전해서 Andover라는 곳에 다녀왔다. 항상 도심 한 복판에 있다가 외곽으로 나가니까 마음도 확 트이고 정말 너무 좋았다 ㅠㅠ 돌아 오는길에 H Mart에 들려서 별로 살건 없었지만 떡볶이도 to go 로 사고.. 내가 좋아하는 깍아놓은 파인애플도 사고 했다... 집에 돌아와서는 간만에 스테이크를 구워서 시원한 맥주랑 먹고 영화를 한편 때렸다.. 그리고 나도 모르는사이에 잠이 들었고.. =_=

일요일은 새벽 6시에 눈이 떠졌다... 일어나보니 침대에 비스듬히 누워 샤워도 안하고 이빨도 안딱고 토욜날 입고 있던 옷 그대로 잠이 자고 있었따 -_-;;; 일어나서 런닝맨과 뭐 다른 쇼프로를 받고.. 구워논 고구마를 좀 먹고... 런닝맨을 보다가 또 다시 잠이 들고... 낮 12시에 일어났다... 황금 주말을 이따구로 보낼수 없어서 이것저것 지도에서 보다가 John F. Kennedy 박물관이라는곳을 알게 되었고..:

http://www.jfklibrary.org/

주저하지 않고 출발했다.

시간은 7일 전부 9시 - 5시였고.. 입장료는 어른이 $12인데 학생증을 보여주니 $10에 들어갈수있었다. 박물관이라고 해서 엄청 큰줄알았는데.. 좀 작았다 =_=;;
표를 사고 나니 표파는 아저씨가 1분 후에 intro 영화가 시작한다고 해서 부랴부랴 극장에 들어갔다 17분간 간략한 John F. Kennedy 대통령에 대한 영화를 상영했다. 솔직히 영화는 별로였다 =_=;; 사람 인생을 17분 만에 보여준다는게 애초당시 불가능 했을지도 -_-;;

지하로 내려가니 전시물들이 있었다.

1960년에 쓰던 피켓 사인들도 있었고

예전에 쓰던 물건들도 많이 전시 되어있었다.

그때당시 라이벌이었던 Nixon과 테레비전에서 토론할때 썼던 스튜디오 장비들도 있었고...

그 외에 케네디 대통령 부인이 입었던 옷들, 케네디 대통령이 여러나라에서 받았던 선물, 케네디 대통령이 추진했던 우주산업 등등 여러가지가 전시되어있었다.. 아까 언급했던대로 그렇게 크지 않은 박물관이어서.. 한 2시간 잡고 갔는데 1시간만에 다 볼수 있었다..

박물관에서 나와 밖을 살펴보니 정말 아름다운 Habor가 있었고.. 산책도 하고 조깅도 하고 앉아서 쉴수도 있게 정말 잘 꾸며놓은 trail 같은게 있었다. 밴쿠버에 Sea Wall 같은 느낌이랄까.. 보스톤에도 이런 곳이 있구나.. 하고.. 감탄하면서 박물관에서 있었던 시간보다 더 많은 시간을 보냈다... 이 곳 정식명칭은 뭔지 모르겠지마.. 가로수에 붙어있는 깃발에 Dorchester Harbor Walk 라고 적혀있었다. 지도 상으로는 :

잘 보면 바닷가 바로 앞에 Harborwalk 이라는길이 있는데 그걸 따라 쭉 걸으면 된다.

 저 멀리 프루덴셜 센터가 보인다. 어둑어둑 해질수록 불들이 켜지면서 진짜 환상적인 야경이 ㅠㅠ

앉아서 쉴수있는 정자같은 것도 많이 있었다

John F. Kennedy 박물관안에서 바라본 Harborwalk

보스톤에서 2년 반동안 살았지만 이런게 있는지 정말 몰랐다 ㅠㅠ 여친과 손잡고 걷거나 조깅을 하고싶다면 강추!!!! 케네디 박물관은 뭐.. 엄청 잼있진 않았지만.. 10불이면 볼만한듯!!

Yamato Sushi (야마토 수시)

My girlfriend is leaving town soon so we decided to eat as much sushi as possible this weekend. (We both love sushi). Yet, sushi in Boston is illegally expensive, and most of my experience had been atrocious.

Is Yamato sushi an exception? Short answer is no. All of their food tasted old and tasteless. But does it fill you up? YES!! They have all you can eat option every day of the week for about $16 for lunch and about $22 - $24 for dinner depending on which day it is.

Check out: http://www.yamatoboston.com/

This is the place!
117 Chiswick Road  Brighton, MA 02135

We started off with appetizers. Tempura and calamari and they were absolute nightmare. It's hard to fuck up these things but they managed to fuck them up extremely well. It was the most tasteless and stale tempura and calamari I have ever had in my life.

This was our first order of sushi. They were not horrible but not great. Just tasted like cheap and thinly sliced fish that I could buy in small corner store in rural no-name town of Korea.

The first order of sushi didn't fill us up so we ordered "spicy seafood" udon and miso soup. Again, they had too much water. I assume they have huge pot back in the kitchen just for udon and add a lot of water for maximum profit.

 This was our second order of sushi since first order didn't fill us up. Again, nothing special. They just tasted like fish from H-mart or something.

 In summary, if you are completely broke like myself, I'd go here again just to fill my stomach up for about $15. But, if you are true sushi lover and don't want to betray yourself, then I wouldn't go here..

There is one thing that really frustrates me almost every day. It's not medical knowledge or clinical skills. Do I have profound medical knowledge and awesome people skills that make patients jump up and down with joy? No.. But what frustrates me more is my ignorance about everything in life other than medicine.

I'm working with all sorts of people. People who are quite and people who are loud. People who enjoy reading books and people who enjoy spending weekend nights getting totally wasted. People who like sports and people who like computer games.

More often than not there would be no interaction with me and co-workers because whatever they try to talk to me about, I wouldn't know about it. For example, people talk about politics ad nauseum with the election in 3 weeks. But, I have absolutely nothing to contribute to the conversation. So, in the end I get labelled as "quite" and noone makes attempts to approach me. Of course, I don't approach other people to make small talks either because that's not my comfort zone. Well, not having gossip time with co-workers is okay. But, it happens with patients as well. Some patients wants to talk about sports, cars, politics, relationships, etc. And not being able to build rapport with them kind of frustrates me...

Sometimes, life is absolutely unfair.

Of course, it is anecdotal but I know of people, who weren't stellar academically and/or spent most of their time just "enjoying" their 20's, going back to Korea and assuming low stress/high-paid jobs just because they spent some time overseas and can speak English. Some of these people are my friends from high school and college. I guess I'm upset because I wasn't courageous enough to gamble my life on whether I could get those jobs if I went to Korea.

USMLE Step1 Prep (to be edited)

Resources:

Gunner Training - Good if you have lots of extra time to go through all the flashcards and short answer questions. Not good if you can't keep up with class material.

Kaplan Qbank - People say it's too detail-oriented. But I like it. Nice complement to your course work if you get it at the beginning of M2

Pathoma - Great quick overview before your classes and quick refresher before committed board studying. I watch it normal speed and it's still okay since he doesn't drag on like school professors. Each section is like 10 minutes.

USMLE World - Not yet tried

Kaplan videos - only listened to Reymond. Right up there next to God.

Goljian - Not yet tried

Dr. Najeeb videos - He's a really talented teacher. I just listen to him without even taking notes and somehow the concepts stick to your head for a long time. I aced my physio block cuz of him. A bit too detailed oriented for the board prep though.

Book:

First Aid - Gotta have this

Advice to 1st year students

If you got time, memorize at least one bug or one drug per day. Repetition is the key.