Travelog - College Visits

Stanford.

Berkeley.

New York University.

Columbia University.

Princeton University.

These were the colleges we visited during our trip. We wanted to give our older boy a feel of these higher institutions of learning, since he will start his college applications process in the coming two years.

Columbia University

I know, I know...very lofty aspirations we parents have for our children, but hopefully, by showing our boys what's out there, they may be inspired to reach for the heights! Haha, just kidding. Seriously, these colleges are just a handful of so many excellent schools here in the US, not just Ivy Leagues, but also smaller & academically rigorous ones like Lehigh, Renselaar, Colgate, just to name a few.

Stanford - Corridors of learning

The ones we visited this time ranged from State universities (Berkeley) to private ones (NYU & Stanford) to traditional Ivy Leagues (Columbia & Princeton). All were excellent schools but had very different curricula with foci on different aspects of education. The Ivy Leagues tend to be more liberal arts-centric while the private universities had more professional courses to offer.

UC Berkeley

They all offered information sessions for students & parents, which outlined their curricula, admissions process (generally holistic although given the kind of applications they get, scoring at least 1400 in the SATs is the norm rather than the exception!) & financial aid. College costs are hefty - in these colleges, they were around the USD50K per annum ballpark. Hence schools which give a lot of grants & scholarships (to US citizens) like Stanford & NYU sound very attractive to us parents!

Campus tours were also useful in giving the potential students a sense of the size of the school as well as the atmosphere. For me, I found Stanford, located on over 8,000 acres of land (!) to be less "cosy" than Berkeley or Columbia, while NYU was very vibrant, since its buildings are not confined within the typical college campus, but rather, become part of the landscape of the Village in NYC. Basically, you step out of a school building on to the New York city sidewalk!

Columbia, with its old historical buildings & Grecian columns, had a very academic feel to it. For those looking for a good liberal arts curriculum, this is the place for you.

My personal favorite is Princeton. With a smaller campus than Columbia, it had a more homey feel to it, with the added plus of being surrounded by quaint neighborhoods & nice restaurants :). If I had to do it all over again, this would be my first choice (assuming that I could get in!!!)

Princeton - my favorite!

Movie-palooza

We were in the US for about 2 & a half weeks.

And watched SIX movies in that time. Told ya we were movie buffs.

Indiana Jones 4 - watched it for the sake of nostalgia (and Harrison Ford, of course!). Thoroughly entertaining.

The Incredible Hulk - I preferred this version to the Ang Lee one. I still prefer Spidey, the FF & the X-Men though, among the Marvel movies.

Get Smart - rather juvenile humor, if you ask me. That's why my two teenage boys liked it. I wish there could have been smarter dialog...Steve Carrell is such a great comedian, his talent was wasted in this one.

Iron Man - we liked it so much the first time around, we couldn't resist watching it again. And enjoyed it just as much!

Wanted - I'm not a huge fan of graphic violence but was outvoted (perils of being the minority in a testosterone-laden family). James McAvoy was great in it, but I really didn't have to watch bullets piercing heads, knives slashing flesh etc etc in slow-mo. I know it sounds strange coming from a doctor, but I hate watching gore. Performing surgery, I can deal with. Watching traumatic injuries on the big screen...ugh.

Hancock - disappointing despite all the hype. The storyline just didn't cut it for me, although Will Smith & Jason Bateman did the best they could with the material.

We would have watched Wall-E, the Love Guru & The Happening if we had more time, but we didn't so I guess we'll just have to make do with the DVD versions.

We look forward to more movie-watching in Singapore. More specifically, The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (yay, Brendan Fraser!), The Dark Knight (in the trailers, it looks like the late Heath Ledger did a tremendous acting job in this) , Mamma Mia (yay! I watched this 3 times in 3 different countries & thoroughly enjoyed myself each & everytime. It's such a fun musical, that makes you just want to sing & dance along. I guess for those of us who grew up in the 70's & 80's when ABBA was HUGE, it's more meaningful), Journey to the Center of the Earth (Brendan Fraser again :)), The X-Files (I watched every single episode of the TV series). A couple of quirky looking films also look promising when we saw the trailers : Burn After Reading, a Coen Brothers film starring George Clooney & John Malkovich; and Step Brothers, starring Will Farrell & John C. Reilly

Travelog - GOOGLE

We visited the Googleplex in Mountain View (part of the Silicon Valley corridor), an astounding complex of about 30 buildings in Mountain View. 

It has the feel of a college campus cum holiday resort cum condo, with its casual atmosphere, cafeterias that serve gourmet food (free for employees!), a beach volleyball court, pingpong tables in the staff lounge, and lap pools. Any company that provides massage chairs & free massages in their massage center has got me sold! I can see why it was voted into the Top Ten Best Companies to Work For, & why this company receives thousands of job applications & resumes per day (out of which less than 1% is successful).

Extremely environmentally friendly, it encourages employees to use bicycles, electric scooters, & funky looking vehicles like this conference bike.  

Employees are allowed to bring their pets to work (and they do), there are special parking lots for expectant mothers, and you can even do your laundry for free. 

If only more employers were half as considerate...

Travelog - California Dreamin'

It was wonderful to smell (or is that not smell) the odor- & fume-free fresh air of San Francisco, and to see the blue blue skies that we have been missing for too long. Almost as soon as we disembarked, I noticed the subtle absence of "bogginess" in the air, and I swear my lungs felt more "refreshed" than they ever did in Beijing.

It's been two years since we came back to the USA.

It is so nice to be able to cross the streets at pedestrian crossings where cars actually stop for you.

I appreciate the simple pleasure of browsing through the seemingly endless aisles of Borders, where the books are arranged in logical order.

We love Target, a store where you can literally find everything under one roof at reasonable prices. From pajama bottoms, to chewing gum, to facial wash, to the latest romance novels, I was reluctant to leave the store!

It felt good to shop at Old Navy for reasonably priced, trendy CLOTHES THAT FIT ME. It is great for my self esteem to find sizes which are too big for me in the "Regular" section of the store.

We've missed shopping at supermarkets with wide aisles & huge variety of food that cost a fraction of the prices in China. We had to restrain ourselves from grabbing boxes of cereal, cartons of chocolate milk, & Jello off the shelves, in view of the limited luggage space we will have after taking into account the amount of shopping we will do by the end of our trip (see paragraph about Target & Old Navy above).

More later...

Impressions from China - Friday the 13th

We could have gone fishing...

...in our basement.

The night before we were supposed to leave for our vacation, there was a HUGE downpour. And thanks to the superior quality of Chinese construction, our basement was flooded. Fortunately, my kids' musical instruments & equipment were saved in the nick of time, but our handwoven wool carpet...well, we'll just have to wait & see...

After an hour and a half of scooping water into buckets using cups, a dustpan & floor towels, we finally managed to clean up the mess.

There are now sandbags sitting outside our garage door, & at the door that leads from the garage to the basement. Hopefully, the next deluge that hits us (summer is usually the wettest time of the year in Beijing) will not result in another wading pool in our basement.

We are in San Francisco now....will try to post from time to time, as long as we can get free wi-fi. :)

See ya later, alligator

Well, not fishing actually. But will be gone for a while on our summer vacation in the US of A.

Back in a bit!

Feeling the Pain

I only read this article written by SMA President Dr Wong Chiang Yin this morning. Thanks to the wonderfully efficient China postal service, I only just received my APRIL SMA News yesterday afternoon. Grrr.

Anyway, Dr Wong gives a very detailed overview of what kinds of obstacles & risks GP's face when they take on Managed Care contracts. This article reinforces the disillusionment that I was starting to face when I first contemplated stepping away from clinical practice a few years ago. It makes me wonder how my GP colleagues can "tahan" the day to day slog of having to deal with all this c**p, & at the same time try to make a decent living. And I can see why the lure of aesthetic medicine is all the more appealing.

In another article in the May issue of the SMA News (which I had to read online, otherwise I would have to wait till July to get the hard copy), Dr Wong talks about the pain that is being felt by the Medical profession in Singapore. He writes optimistically that, with the SMA, we will be able to work through & learn from the pain.

Me? I think I am more skeptical than him in this respect. The SMA alone cannot do it. They have to get buy-in from The Powers That Be. Otherwise, they will fight a losing battle.

Music to my ears!

I was buzzed when I saw that Jason Mraz & One Republic are both going to be performing at Singfest 08.

What a treat that will be!

:D

Music

My latest fave - OneRepublic. Check them out.

My younger son recently wrote a song for his friends who are leaving his school for good. A soulful melody with heartwrenching lyrics, it makes me want to cry when I listen to it, especially since I will also be saying farewell to a few good friends this week. I will try to post it on this site once he has done a recording of it. Get your tissues ready.

"4 legs good, 2 legs better" *

I read this letter today in the ST online forum:

Shark's fins menu: Why the double standards?


WHAT Resort World Sentosa has done to promote goodwill and highlight its commitment to the environment is very heartening, 'No shark's fin served here' (May 30).

I am a nature lover. I have attended seminars on the environment and learnt how sharks have been thrown back into the sea after having their fins cut. Why must there be such cruelty to sharks?

However, I was disappointed to read that shark's fins will be served to high-end rollers at the resort. Why the contradiction?

Ace Kindred Cheong

I am surprised at Mr Cheong's naivete. Hasn't he learnt by now that in Singapore, soon to become the capitalists' capital of the world, money talks the loudest? From all-business class flights to an all-A-class wards hospital, it has been proven time & again that those with money are pandered to, high moral standards be damned.

Another example is how the no smoking ban in public places is exempt for the casinos. Why? Well, the *ka-ching* of the cash registers will tell you why.

Dr Huang has blogged about the plight of the FDW & how the government still refuses to impose a mandatory day-off policy - another example of how things are done in Singapore. No high road here.

Until the day comes when the government itself realizes that doing the right thing applies to everyone, & not to just certain people, things will not change.

*from "Animal Farm" by George Orwell

Time Passes Us By

It's amazing how time has passed by the last year & a half. It almost seems like half a lifetime ago that we relocated to China. But now, here we are - the kids are finishing up their school year, & I've been invited to more farewell parties than I'd like. That comes with the territory I suppose, of being part of & living amongst an expatriate community where the population is transient. Goodbyes are never easy, especially so for the children. It will be hard saying "au revoir" to good friends we've come to know, as they leave for different parts of the world. But the world being as small as it is these days, one never knows when we will meet again.

With the end of school, comes the summer holidays & our plans are finally confirmed. We will be visiting both West & East coast of the US, including some campus visits of colleges to give our older boy an idea of what college life is like there. I know that the next two years will fly by, & soon, he will go off to college & the start of a new life for him - not something I look forward to, but have to come to terms with as part of the cycle of life.

While in New York, we will watch Jersey Boys (highly recommended by spacefan!) It was exhilarating to be able to buy tickets for this immensely popular show which is usually sold out, or left with pathetic seats. But luck was with me today as I surfed through the Telecharge website & found 4 relatively good Orchestra seats. However, at the same time, it was painful parting with more than USD 100 per tickets!!!

In a flash, the Olympics will come & go, & the next school year will start. And I will be the parent of not one, but TWO high-schoolers.

And life goes on.

Impressions from China - Tragedy

Limbless children.

Lifeless bodies.

Devastated buildings.

Agonized faces of people crying for their lost loved ones.

A small hand in a death grip clutching a pen amidst a pile of rubble.

These pictures we have been inundated with in the last week. It is fortunate that many have rallied to provide help to the survivors unlike in another country where people are dying because of politics.

Yesterday, for three minutes in the afternoon, one week after the Sichuan earthquake struck, China came to a standstill as a sign of mourning for those lost. Traffic stopped, horns blared & sirens sounded as everyone bowed their heads in silence. It is amazing (& heartwarming) that amidst this push-and-shove (literally) society, such empathy and sensitivity can still be seen.

Local TV, however, has taken openness & transparency to an extreme level. It almost seems like propaganda to me when for almost 24 hours a day, pictures of rescue workers are shown on almost every local TV channel, & TV cameras & reporters enter medical tents to show patients being treated. What's happened to privacy for the patients?

Impressions from China - Tremors

I felt my first earth tremor this afternoon. I was in the ladies' room of my kids' school chatting with another mom, as ladies are wont to do, & suddenly felt vertiginous. I had to take a step back to prevent myself from toppling over, & thought I had either developed an inner ear problem or was having a stroke of some kind!

It was quite disconcerting, that feeling of imbalance & instability.

I later found out that the tremors were due to aftershocks from an earthquake (7.7 on the Richter scale) in Sichuan. I hope there aren't too many casualties :(

Geeks r Us

Conversation that ensues over lunch immediately after watching "Iron Man".

(Spoilers ahead...)

W:
"So, what was that thing that Tony Stark had on his chest for?"


Me:
"Well, remember initially he had a car battery that was attached to his chest? Well, the thing on his chest was an arc reactor which basically generates energy, like the car battery, to create an electromagnetic field that prevents the shrapnel in his chest from piercing his atrial septum hence killing him. Although in reality, in this day & age, he could probably have open heart surgery to get the shrapnel removed."


W:
"Oh. How does it work?"


Z:
"Well, theoretically, it would require some kind of fusion reaction to happen in order to create the energy. There would be these two electrodes that sit within plasma, & the arcs of light that shoot between the electrodes would be the energy that is created."


Silence.


Me:
"Are we movie geeks or what?"


A, W & Z (in unison):
"Yes!"

'Nuff said.

Iron Man!

One word.

AWESOME.

This was a rare occasion that we had the opportunity to enjoy a movie in an actual movie theatre in Beijing even BEFORE it is released in the USA.

Movies have always been an outlet of escape from the real world for me, together with TV & books. And I needed something today...and "Iron Man" didn't fail to deliver. Robert Downey Jr. shone in his quirky portrayal of Tony Stark aka Iron Man. He brought humor & sexiness to the role - something which I have never associated with the comic book version of Iron Man. (Admittedly, I have never been an Iron Man fan, & don't "know" him very well, having preferred Spiderman & the Fantastic Four; nonetheless, I had always thought him to be a very serious, straight-laced, "by-the-book" kind of character.)

Action-packed, & jam-packed with special effects, I was riveted to the storyline, as were my boys, who were also thrilled by the heavy rock music that was used for much of the accompanying background scores, including classics by Black Sabbath & ACDC.

One gripe I had , though, was the name of Tony Stark's assistant. Why Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow)??? I would think that the writers could have come up with something less comical! Pepper Potts????!!!!

Comic fans will not be disappointed by this film. I know I wasn't.

Hint: Don't leave before the credits finish rolling, or you'll miss a scene that lays the foundation for a future Marvel movie....

Impressions from China - James Blunt

James Blunt's concert was wonderful. I have read about how many people dislike his "whiny, annoying" voice but I disagree. And by the looks of the sold out crowd at the concert last week, many are with me.

It was a bit strange, this concert, not because of James Blunt & his band, but because of the behavior of the security people. There were three of them standing in front of the stage. This venue is set up more like a nightclub than the typical concert-on-a -stage style. The people standing in the front row (standing room only downstairs) could literally reach out & touch James. And he did try to reach out to them too. But the security guards, whom I could tell, were very zealous about keeping Mr Blunt safe from the hands of his audience, raised their arms whenever the audience tried to reach for James (& vice versa). At one point, I thought they were going to slap James' hands away from the audiences'!!!

And so many people were taking pictures during the concert, flashing away rather annoyingly. I even saw the red point of a laser light shining on one of the musician's faces!!! Chinese concert etiquette certainly leaves a lot to be desired. The security people should have made an announcement before the start of the concert letting everyone know that the use of recording devices was not allowed & so on & so forth. Instead, the above mentioned security guards basically just used their hands to block anyone using cameras in the front area of the audience pit. Which meant the ones in the back could do as they please.

So this is the kind of thing that makes me wonder what will happen during the Olympics....hardware ready, but what about the software?

Hmmm.

Impressions from China - Oh-dear-lympics

We all know about the "disturbances" that the poor Olympic torch has been through the last few weeks. And about Mr Gere's diatribe & Mr Spielberg's "withdrawal" from being part of the production team of the opening ceremony.

But it looks like these outsiders are not the only ones feeling a bit peeved at the coming Games. I am not sure how the local citizens will feel about the inconveniences that they will have to bear with, some more severe than others...

• the residents living around the Olympics venues will need to have special passes to get into the area to go home
• that whole odd-number-even-number car plate tag team arrangement to try to improve traffic conditions & (maybe) air pollution
• apparently, merchants with stores in a large market near the Olympic venues have been asked, oops, I mean told, to close shop for two months.
  

Oh dear.

Hands On

Man, I wish this recommendation had come out years ago.

The one & only time I've ever done mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a real-life human being was several years ago in my first month of work in a downtown GP clinic. Security had called up to inform us that someone had fainted & they were bringing up the lady. This was at lunchtime when I was one of two doctors on duty, the other one having gone out to lunch, & we were operating on a skeleton crew of clinic assistants.

As soon as I saw the patient's condition, I knew this was not a simple case of syncope, but that she was in cardiopulmonary arrest. She was blue, no pulse, no respiration, & probably had been in this state for at least 15 minutes judging from what the security guard told us.

Adrenaline kicked in immediately as I called for one of the nurses to help me give CPR & look for the crash cart which no one could find as the assistants in charge of "taking care" of the cart had gone out to lunch...so much for being prepared.

Anyhoo, given the urgency of the situation, I had no choice but to give direct mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while the nurse did chest compressions. Fortunately, the patient had a relatively dry mouth (could have been bad - use your imagination). Unfortunately, given that she had probably been down for at least 15 minutes, despite our continued attempts at CPR, there was no response. The ambulance medics continued CPR as they brought her to the nearest hospital.

Alas, this was not a happy ending.

Hooked!

O.M.G.

I am now officially hooked to the soapy family drama hit TV series "Brothers & Sisters". I just went through the entire Season 1 in 5 days.

Before you say how pathetic I am, let me just first counter that this series about a large rather dysfunctional family of 5 siblings in upper middle class America draws you in because we see bits of our own family in the Walkers. Their in-your-face & no-holds-barred interaction with each other strike a chord because they say things to each other (sibling to sibling, parent to child, child to parent, spouse to spouse, partner to partner) that we sometimes wish we can say out loud in our real & oftentimes, repressed lives.

I know this series has been screened in Singapore. I wonder how Mediacorp dealt with the gay issues encountered by one of the siblings (who happens to be homosexual). I would imagine that the scenes of two guys in a passionate embrace probably ended up on the floor of the censors.

And now, on to Season 2......

Happy Birthday (I think)

You know you are getting older when:

a) you wake up on your birthday & forget that it's your birthday;

b) you have to think hard to remember how old you are by taking away the year of your birth from the current year to arrive at the answer (your age).