Memphis Photos

The interview was actually held at the plastic surgery offices, which are separate from the hospital.



They have very a very beautiful office at UT-Memphis.

After the interview I went to dinner at Corky's with my friend from USC.

Plastic Surgery Launch Pad

Here is where I have been staying for most of my plastic surgery interviews. My program has me rotating out at a small hospital in BFE. They put me up in this vintage 70's era apartment.


Yes ladies, that is carpet on the wall.

Miami Photos

The first thing I did when I got to Miami is go down to the beach.

There were all these crazy model shoots going on. It looked like they were shooting for summer clothing. One group was apparently for a big and tall store.

As you can see, this photo was actually taken standing in the Atlantic Ocean!


Did I mention how much I love the Ocean?

The next day I drove to the interview but the bridge to the hospital was up all day.



They have canals running around all through Miami to allow boats to go inland a ways. At certain times of the day they raise the bridges that go over the canals so the boats can go up and down them.

Most surgery residents work in a VA at some point during their training. How many will get to work at a VA with palm trees out front?


Another difference about Miami hospitals -

I have never seen a fruit stand outside a hospital before.

Here is the original hospital building. Today it is surrounded by a ring of modern hospital buildings.

Back to KC

I just got back from Memphis. It was a good interview and I enjoyed my time there. After the interview I went with my friend from USC out to Corky's BBQ. It was delicious. We both chowed down on some ribs.

I don't know what my problem is but I have been sick as a dog for the last few days. I think I have the flu. I hope I get over it quickly. I am on night float now.

Next weekend I am off to Nassau. That should be an adventure. I've been to NYC several times but I've never been to Long Island. I have a camera full of pictures to put up on here and I will get to it in the next couple of days.

Only 2 interviews left and then its just waiting until the end of May.

Miami Food

I almost forgot. I had some great food in Miami.

I went out in South Beach on Saturday night. Spring break was in full effect. It was like Girls Gone Wild down there. I was with a friend from NYC who is from Israel. We stopped to eat at a little Pita place which was amazing. I got a pita with stuff in it. They take a pita and stuff it with grilled meat (lamb or chicken). Then they put a few sauces in there and load it up with what they call salads. They put like 4 different toppings or salads in there. Mine had grilled eggplant, tabouleh, cucumber and tomato salad, and the Israeli version of cole slaw. It was absolutely delicious. My friend said that it is the real deal, exactly what he eats in Israel, but of course he says it is better there. Needless to say I was hugely impressed.

I also went out for Cuban food in Miami. Of course I got a Cuban sandwich, black beans and yellow rice. It was delicious.

Miami

I had a great time in Miami. All of the faculty and residents seemed very nice and were very candid. At this point I pretty much know all of the other applicants at every interview. It was good to see everyone and exchange stories from the road. I took some awesome pictures of the facilities and Miami in general, and I will post those later on in the week. Once again I am out in BFE about 400 miles away from my computer.

After the interview I went out in South Beach with a couple of applicant friends. One is from NYC and the other is from Detroit. It was a major outing. We went all over the place and finally ended up at the Clevelander. It was totally sweet except that I had to get to the airport at 4:30 AM. It was not pretty.

This coming weekend I am off to Memphis. I can't wait to see everyone.

UT-San Antonio

This is the last update I will be able to do for a while. During my Texas trip I also interviewed at UT-San Antonio. I have so many memories from this part of the country. We used to live in Temple Texas and I used to go down to San Antonio all the time. One place we used to stop at and visit was Salado. It is on I-35 just a little south of Temple. It is a little artist's community. There are all kinds of art galleries and pottery shops downtown. When I was a kid I used to swim in Salado creek.



I wanted to buy some pottery from this one shop that I have gotten other pieces, but it was closed.

I arrived a little early in San Antonio so I stopped downtown. The first place I went was the Mercado - or Mexican Market. I used to go there all the time when I was a kid. They have all kinds of neat shops.





Once inside I got my daughter a marionette like the one my grandmother got me from the market 31 years ago. I also found a nice pottery shop and got a few pieces for presents.

In this area of the market they always have live bands.



There are all kinds of neat little restaurants down by the market. Most of them are tex-mex. If you want really good Mexican food, I would suggest just buying a fajita from a street vendor. Those are the best fajitas I have ever had and cheap!



If you go down to San Antonio, you absolutely MUST stop by the River Walk. It is truly a lovely place to take a walk, have a meal and stay for the night.





I stopped off at a bar that I have been to a couple of times called El Esquire. I met a few of the local characters. Everyone was very friendly.



It is an old fashioned bar with the tin ceiling, wood walls and everything. They have EXCELLENT margaritas.



They had a nice reception at the hotel the night before the interview. I met a lot of great people. The next day the interview lasted all day long. I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures of the actual facilities but they were nice. After the interview I drove up to Dallas to visit my mom. A bunch of the applicants went out to the River Walk but I couldn't go. I know I would have had an awesome time.

Parts of Kansas

I thought I would take a few seconds to give you a geographic tour of Kansas. If you are ever driving through Kansas instead of just flying over, your trip will be more enjoyable if you know a little about it. To most people it looks the same as you go through the state but there are definitely distinct areas of the state. If you travel west on I-70 from Kansas City, the first area you will go through is the Flint Hills.



In the picture you can see what looks like a bunch of rocks sitting on top of hills. Those rocks are actually flint, hence the Flint Hills. Underneath the surface soil there are layers of rocks. Flint is very hard and a lot of time the other layers around flint are either chalk or limestone. What happens is over time the weather causes erosion and the other rocks erode away, leaving flint sitting on the surface.

The next area you will go through will be the Smokey Hills. It doesn't turn out very well in this photo, but even on bright sunny days, there is a haze over the hills.



The next area you go through will be Post Rock Country.



Back in Olden Times, they hadn't discovered trees yet in Kansas. By that time though, they had discovered cows. There were some problems though. Without fences, the cows would walk pretty much anywhere they wanted. Cows would be walking through your house if you let them. Also at that time, the China shop was invented and a bull got loose and tore the place up. A cowboy decided that the cows should be kept in one place so that they wouldn't poop in the house and tear up China shops. He decided to build a fence but there were no trees to get wood. He invented barbed wire but still, there weren't any trees to make posts to hang the barbed wire. So instead he went to a rock outcropping and made some posts out of rock. If you go through this area of the country you can still see those original fences made out of barbed wire and rock.

Also around this area, the cowboy did a lot of hunting. One day he was out hunting for food and shot at a rabbit. He missed but up from the ground came bubbling crude.



I didn't realize that they got oil out of Kansas but there are tons of oil wells.

As you move further west you will see the land start looking more Southwestern. There are a lot of sage brushes, tumbleweeds and yucca plants.

UT-Houston

A couple weeks ago I did a road trip to UT-San Antonio and UT Houston. While I was in Texas I got to stop and see my mom in Dallas. I also got to see both of my dog's parents.



The black one is Daisy's mom and the brown one is her dad.

I stayed at a $20 flop house on the outskirts of Houston. I drove in a little early and walked around the campus before the interview. Baylor is also on the campus, as well as MD Anderson.



I only got a couple pictures but here is another of the hospitals that you rotate through at UT-Houston.



For lunch, they catered in Goode Company BBQ. I was ecstatic because I was planning on going to Goode Company after the interview and they saved me the trip. Goode Company is what I would consider to be a perfect example of Texas Style BBQ. They brought brisket, sausage, chicken, sides and pies for desert. Texas style BBQ is mainly beef and the BBQ sauce is not like the Kansas City ketchup based sauces that most people think of when they think BBQ. Texas style BBQ sauce is more of a gravy.

Uggs ... Uggghhh.

In my travels I think I have spotted the next mullet.



Yeah I know they are comfortable and warm etc, but so are Napoleon Dynamite's Moon boots!



By the way I loved that movie and highly recommend it. My wife doesn't get it because she has never been a dork. I was a huge dork and truth be told I still am. I could totally relate to that movie.

Now I know that it may be a stretch to say that Uggs are the mullet of the new millennium, but I have photographic evidence. Here we see a man in transition:

Indiana

Last weekend I also went to Indiana. The night before we had a reception at Dr. Coleman's house. His wife made the food and I must say, as a cook, it was excellent. The crab cakes were remarkable. I always appreciate it when someone opens a home to me.

The interview was held in a building which also houses the Museum of Sports. The museum has the largest collection of sports art. One painting that I thought was neat was this one by Muhamad Ali:



The Indiana campus is absolutely huge. I went on a tour and got a lot of pictures.









This next one was part of the Children's Hospital. I thought it was a neat idea to have an enclosed courtyard.





At the end of the tour we passed by the medical library. There was a painting on the wall that some people thought looked just slightly like me -

Catching Up - Vanderbilt

Before I get too deep into catching up, be sure to go to google to get your gmail accounts. They offer 1 gigabyte email accounts. Hotmail currently is 250 mb.

I have a lot of catching up to do. I will go in reverse chronological order. I will start with Vanderbilt.

I flew out of Indianapolis to Nashville. My first plane hit a goose when it was flying in and it wrecked the radar equipment. While I was waiting for the airline to repair the plane, my good friend from the LA area sat down next to me. We spent some time talking about various programs and some of the more humorous applicants. After a little bit guess who sat down right next to us -
TED NUGENT!!
He was wearing all this crazy hunting gear and had a goofy hat. I whispered to my friend - 'hey do you know who that guy in the goofy hat is?' He didn't. I said 'Ted Nugent.' My friend was like 'who is that?' Apparently no one else knew either, because no one approached him for an autograph or even talked to him, but there was absolutely no doubt who it was. He was flying to Detroit, dressed in militia inspired hunting gear, and he was reading a Guns and Ammo magazine.

I was supposed to leave at 9:00 AM. By 1:00 PM here was the scene -



I could see them out there smoking cigarettes and not fixing the plane. I went up to the counter and got switched to some different flights. I finally got into Nashville at like 6:00 PM.

I went down to the Vanderbilt area to find the parking garage and something to eat. Vanderbilt is in a nice college-town type neighborhood.



I couldn't get many pictures of the campus but I did get a few.





The next day I went to the interview and saw another of my good friends from Alabama. We got to sit on the famous blue couch!



I wonder how it will look in future years. I think it is starting to get a little age on it.

The Blue Couch

I am in between interviews at Vanderbilt. I am on the famous blue couch. Pictures to follow.

Notes from the Road

I'm posting from the computer in the lobby of the Radissen in Milwaukee. I was at Providence in Detroit yesterday. It turns out that there is a rather large Iraqi population in Detroit. Last night I ate at an Iraqi restaurant and loved it. I can't say that the food was any different from Persian food but that is probably because my palate is not educated enough. I'm going to interview at MCW tomorrow. Tonight it is beer and pizza at Dr. Larson's house.

The trail is starting to wear on me a bit. I enjoy traveling and all but this isn't really traveling. Its like being stuck in a state of suspended animation. I can't really go forward and I can't go backward. I can't move until this match is over. I'm completely stuck in the present and I can't bring myself to think about the future. I can't really enjoy any of the cities I am in because they are so out of context. I'm only in a city for a night or two and I am usually in a flophouse on the edge of town. Without anyone along to share the experience it is a very lukewarm affair. The best thing I can compare it to would be skiing alone. I love to ski but I learned early on that it is much better to share the air and the views with someone else.

One of the interviewee's that I know very well from Oregon just walked in. It is funny how you see the same people over and over again. I hope I am not the one that they talk about next year who they knew that didn't match. I hope they all match as well.

UT's San Antonio And Houston

I just got back from UT Houston and UT San Antonio. Both places were filled with friendly people. I got a lot of pictures but they will have to wait until mid March when I have a day or two at my house. I went to the River Walk in San Antonio and the Mercado (Market Square). I got my wife a piece of pottery and my daughter a puppet. I am excited to see their reactions.