Au revoir, Portland!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, my time in Portland has already come to a close! It was a fast 10 months, and if it weren’t for some incredibly exciting opportunities ahead, I would be very reluctant to leave the beautiful West Coast. Nevertheless, I think the only thing better than living in a progressive, gorgeous city on one coast is being a premedical student on the other coast, so I’m calling it a net gain and putting these roots down in Baltimore, Maryland for the next chapter of my life.



It was a perfect, sunny day in Seattle.

My final couple of months in Portland brought with them many pleasures. For one, Susannah and I were able to go up to Seattle for our fourth visit in order to celebrate her uncle’s birthday. Every time I go to Seattle, I am blown away by its beauty, and if I have my druthers, I will settle there one day. The weather was absolutely perfect, meaning the snow-capped Cascades that surround the city were lucidly visible, the green foliage looked sun-kissed and resplendent, and the denizens of the city came out in hordes to sunbathe in the local parks. We enjoyed the company of Susannah’s family and ate delicious food (an Italian salad, a mushroom and asparagus salad, shrimp in shallot sauce on small pieces of toasted bread (sorry, Dad!), pasta Bolognese, and then strawberry shortcake with homemade whipped cream for dessert). It was such a feast both gastronomically and socially. Susannah and I always stay at another one of her uncle’s houses when we’re in Seattle, and this time, since I woke up earlier than either Susannah or her uncle Topher, I started reading a book called Work as a Spiritual Practice: A Practical Buddhist Approach to Inner Growth and Satisfaction on the Job. Topher ended up letting me keep the book, and I really loved it. It helped me to feel calmer, ironically, by learning to accept my anxiety, among other things. It was a great read, and I recommend it to anyone interested in being thoughtful about how they make a living and how to integrate work into your larger life.

The elegant tables at IRCO's Asian Pacific Islander
fundraising dinner

I was also able to spend a good amount of time with some of my friends and acquaintances in Portland before I left. Margaret, Susannah and I went to a fancy fundraising dinner for Margaret’s non-profit organization, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization. We dressed to the nines and hobnobbed with some of Portland’s bigwigs, which was a blast. I went to another such fundraising event for a non-governmental organization that my clinic, Outside In, partners with called Project Access NOW. Project Access NOW is an organization of specialist doctors who donate their services to the sick and uninsured. Since my clinic is a primary care clinic only, you can imagine how invaluable it is for us to be able to refer our sicker and more complex patients to medical specialists when necessary. The event was another large gala event with fine dining and a few touching stories of patients with debilitating illnesses that were cured thanks to the generous doctors who donated their time and skills, such as a sweet Hispanic father who became unable to use his legs and was therefore unable to work because of spinal stenosis who was then given a donated surgery and rehabilitated back to his productive family life. It was very inspirational to attend both events.

From left to right, Susannah, me, and Margaret enjoy
a day at the Oregon coast.

From left to right, me, Gabe, Bridget, and Emily,
Outside In's referrals coordinators

My final days at Outside In were also really nice. As I trained my replacement, a sharp, wonderful girl named Jamie, I came to see a lot of areas where I could have been more thorough and more hard-working at my job, and that was somewhat disappointing. I always gave my job all that I had, but I realized that I didn’t always have the best systems in place for my work and that, like all humans, I have a tendency to delay or put off the less pleasant parts of my job. It was neat to get to train someone who will undoubtedly do better than I did at my job but at the same time to recognize the small impact that I had at that clinic. One of my patients wrote me a thank-you card for the work I did to help get her a free mammogram and breast ultrasound to rule-out breast cancer. Another one of my patients, a severe alcoholic who we sent to the emergency room because he was vomiting blood due to bleeding esophageal ascites, has been sober for a month and thanked Outside In for “saving his life.” The clinic has a much improved system of tracking Pap smears among its female population as a part of preventive services thanks to the autonomy they gave me to build and implement such a system. All in all, I think I left Outside In a little bit better of a place then it was when I entered, though as the cliché goes, I received so much more from them than I gave. I learned a million and a half medical terms and abbreviations. I made friends with fascinating, bright folks in the healthcare world. I got to use my Spanish daily in a medical context. I got to meet doctors doing great, interesting work and hear their advice for me on my own path. All in all, my job at Outside In was a total godsend. I was in the right place at the right time to have an epiphany about wanting to be a doctor and then to apply and get a job working in a medical clinic doing work that I really believe in and admire. I couldn’t have been more blessed.

A beautiful pond in a park in Ashland, Oregon

Other fun things that I did included seeing two more Shakespeare plays, The Taming of the Shrew and King Lear, in Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival with Susannah. She and I will always love the Bard and the way that he so wittily writes about the complexities of human life. My coworkers all threw me a good-bye party at my supervisor Bryan’s house, and we had so much fun. The party was very Portland—almost everyone brought a kale salad that they had made with vegetables growing in their own yard. The first half of the night consisted of conversations, hugs, and reminiscing. The second half of the night was dancing in Bryan’s small living room to a playlist that I had designed with other coworkers that included everything from Whitney Houston’s "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" to Swedish House Mafia’s "Don’t You Worry, Child." When the night was over, I hugged my friends good-bye in the pouring rain and thanked them for inspiring and challenging me. It was a very cinematic moment, with the rain and the heartfelt embraces, and it was a perfect send-off before I left for Baltimore.

Laura, one of my amazing older sisters, also spent her money and vacation time to fly out to Portland to come visit me, and together we explored so many of the city's little treasure troves. We ate weird flavors of ice cream at Salt and Straw (I got an olive oil flavored scoop), had curry-batted fish on the 31st floor of a downtown skyscraper with Mom and Dad's friends Peter and Paula Johnson, watched The Great Gatsby in 3-D, walked around a neighborhood of beautiful houses in the light, drizzling rain, ate Mexican food at the most beautiful of Oregon's beaches (Cannon Beach), danced to a few pop songs at a downtown club, and perhaps most importantly enjoyed hours of conversation about our lives during the gaps in between and all throughout the activities that kept us busy. Spending three days with Laura completely rejuvenated me and recharged my batteries to get me ready for my move. I'm lucky to have such a wonderful sister.

Now I’m here in this new city, a Westerner on the East Coast, a humanities major studying to become a doctor. I couldn’t be happier. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the fact that I get to go back to school to study something so fascinating and practical. My loving, supportive, stable family and best friends are my foundation, and I can only hope to be successful and become a loving, bright physician to make them proud and thank them for their consistent efforts to helping me out. Wish me luck as I go back to school for the first time in a couple of years!

Baltimore and Johns Hopkins

Life has been a little tumultuous since I last posted, but I unfortunately don't think I have too many good stories to tell from the last month. Work has been a little stressful, since my medical clinic (Outside In) began a 4-year long project funded by a grant in which we work with a mental healthcare non-profit organization to try to improve health outcomes among the mentally ill. I was hired in part to be the care coordinator for this grant, and since February was the month that we officially "went live," there have been lots of kinks to work out and lots of small tasks to do. February also happened to be the time when I was finally able to implement most of the steps for our clinic to track Pap smears among our female patients and make sure that we have a Pap smear from within the last three years on file for every patient aged 21-64 with a cervix. This project has been wonderful since I was given a lot of autonomy regarding its organization and now implementation, but I still have my normal load of referrals and English-Spanish interpretation work, so the addition of the new grant and the Pap tracking have meant that I'm just way behind in my work, which is stressful when my clients call about the status of their cases and I haven't even touched them for a week. I don't mean to complain about work here, but it's been too hectic for my taste lately. I would happily work more hours to get all of my assigned tasks done, but due to funding (AKA since non-government organizations had limited budgets and can consequently be cheap skates), I'm strongly discouraged from working more than 40 hours a week so that I won't get paid 150% of my normal wage. Despite my griping, however, I really love my job and still feel so grateful that Outside In took a chance by hiring me on.

Baltimore was spotted with beautiful churches that were
reminiscent of European ones I've seen.

The most exciting thing that has happened to me since my last blog post was indubitably my trip out to Baltimore, Maryland. In deciding that I want to go to medical school, one of my decisions is how to fulfill my premedical requirements. The fastest and most efficient option is to enroll in a post-baccalaureate premedical program, of which there are a few in the country. After looking at a fair number of them, my top choice became Johns Hopkins for a number of reasons, including the reputation and rigor of the program, the unparalleled options of being at a school with such an enormous, established hospital, the price, and other things. I was fortunate enough to be granted an interview at Johns Hopkins after applying (but not fortunate enough that they paid for my airfare!), so I flew out last Saturday to Baltimore, Maryland, a place I honestly never really thought I'd go.

Isn't this a quaint block? Baltimore, Charm City, really
does have its own charm.

All right, it's not that bad at all! You can see some nice
tall buildings and the harbor from this vantage point.

I spent all day on Sunday exploring Baltimore with one of my best friends from Spain, Ali. In the craziest of coincidences, it turned out that Ali, who is from San Francisco, and I, from Wyoming, were both scheduled to be in Baltimore at the same time. Ali had an interview there with an immigrant rights organization where she applied for a job, and I of course had a campus tour, a lunch with a current student, and an interview at Johns Hopkins. So Ali and I spent the entire day catching up and exploring the city. I started my day by listening to "Good Morning Baltimore," the opening song in the John Waters musical Hairspray. It just seemed too appropriate for the moment not to.  Ali and I then walked around downtown, walked around the historical Mt. Vernon district, walked along the harbor, and even went up to the top floor of the highest building in the city to get a view which, I hate to say, wasn't very impressive. (After seeing the high-rise view of Barcelona with my parents, I'm pretty hard to please with these top-of-building views.) Nevertheless, despite the fact that most people have negative things to say about Baltimore, I was pretty impressed with the city. Much of the architecture was really beautiful and reminded me of Europe. There were more quirky shops and restaurants than I thought there would be, and Ali and I ate sweet pumpkin with yogurt and spicy okra at a really delicious Afghan food restaurant called The Helmand. The city was much better than I was anticipating it being, and I could definitely spend a year of my life there quite happily.

The enormous and beautiful Johns Hopkins Hospital,
frequently ranked #1 in the nation by the US and World
News Report.

All of which brings me to my big news: I found out a few days ago that I got into the Johns Hopkins Post-baccalaureate Premedical Program! I apologize if this is the first time you are hearing this. I've been trying to call and speak with people personally about this, but I just haven't had much time and opportunity to do so yet. I found out on Thursday during my lunch break that I got in, and I can't describe to you how excited I am to go. The day before I found out that I was admitted, I had received two textbooks that I bought online, one called Principles of Human Physiology that I will use in my Introduction to Clinical Medicine class at Hopkins, and another a calculus textbook to help me brush up and prepare for Calculus II coming fall semester. I was reading the physiology book on Wednesday night, totally enthralled in the body's intricacies and chemical wonders, hoping with all of my might to get into Hopkins. The following day, I learned that I did. You can imagine how ecstatic I was.

Me in front of the original building of the Hopkins
teaching hospital. Can you believe I get to study here?

I won't go off for too long, but I just feel such overwhelming gratitude that I have the opportunity to continue my studies in this way. It is such a privilege to be able to get educated, and I've learned through my own life experience and education that I really value education that gives people practical, applicable skills, which is how I view medical education. I know I'm going to be extremely busy (I have 20 credit hours of math and science classes each semester) and likely quite stressed out and tired at points, but I honestly see this as the opportunity of a lifetime. I'm so grateful to be an American who can learn from scientists and doctors of the past and study things like how luteinizing hormone begets ovulation and how enzymes break down proteins into usable amino acids in the intestinal lumen. I am so excited that Johns Hopkins is giving me the chance to get the education I need to become a doctor. I can't wait to join a field of people endeavoring to ameliorate or at least understand human illness and suffering. (Speaking of which, an article in The Economist called "Cured of HIV?" talks about the research of a Johns Hopkins scientist, Deborah Persaud, who may have completely cured an infant of human immunodeficiency virus thanks to antiretroviral drug therapy. Can you believe it? Isn't it astounding to see how science and medicine have taken what was once a devastating plague in the US (and is currently affecting millions globally) and potentially reversed it irrevocably?) Thank you all for supporting me as I totally change direction and pursue something new. I will likely call upon support from all of you, and I thank you in advance for giving it to me. You are the reason I love life and want to make it better for myself and others. I'm about to embark on this path, and I couldn't be more grateful that life has brought me to it.

The elegant, matching brick buildings surrounding grassy
quads of the main campus of Johns Hopkins, where
I will begin my studies on May 28, 2013.

My Birthday and the Rest of January

Life has been good up here in the Pacific Northwest, and I can't believe that I am now 24! Even though I'm still in my twenties, I'm aware of my increasing age. Let me tell you about the last weeks of being 23 and the first weeks of being 24.



 With the Christmas money that Mom and Dad so generously give us every year, I decided to buy a pair of shoes that I have long wanted--the Vibram Five Fingers minimalist running shoes. Yes, they are ugly and bizarre. But after reading about them in different magazine clippings, journal articles, and blogs, I decided that they were the way to go for improved running form and general body posture. I had to go to a couple of different running shoe stores before I found the right pair--the perfect size, the right model, and conveniently in my favorite color (a nice shade of teal-like blue). Enjoy this photo (and laugh to your heart's content about how ridiculous they are aesthetically if you need to). I had promised Laura that I would show her this picture, and I thought Mom and Dad might like to see their son's appreciation for their hard-earned money in photo form! Thank you both.

Lady Gaga decided to grace Portland with her presence on January 15, 2013. Because of the almost prohibitive price of her tickets, I had decided awhile ago not to go. However, when the executive director of Outside In told us that Lady Gaga had chosen Outside In as the non-profit organization that she would donate money and free tickets to, I felt like I should purchase one to support her in supporting our organization. (I also love lots of her music and heard that she was a great performer, so it's not like this required someone to really twist my arm.) I bought the cheapest tickets available, which still totaled around $100 after fees and taxes were added, and showed up to the show after work. Upon scanning my ticket to check-in, I was told that I would need to wait in another line in order to be "reassigned." "Oh great," I thought. "Maybe the ticket I bought online is counterfeit." However, the "reassignment" ended up involving moving me from the horrible nosebleeds into what were arguably the best seats in the house after the standing-only general admission right around her stage. I literally had no seats in front of me with a perfectly centered view of her stage! It was incredible. The show was also spectacular--Gaga wore many different outfits and used so many effects, not a few of which I found unsettling or controversial (like women's legs coming out of meat grinders). She had a group of lithe, talented back-up dancers that she used strategically in many ways to enhance the show, once to make a horse that she entered the stage riding, in another song to represent gay rights and equality by having pairs of men dance together, carry each other, or hold hands and circle her stage. She made multiple announcements about being courageous, being yourself, and about how LGBTQ issues are a leading cause of homelessness amongst youth. It was a phenomenal show of great music, all live singing, and social justice shout-outs, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Though a bad photo, you can dimly make out the funeral
procession to the left with Gaga on the black horse
 whose limbs were back-up dancers.

The little flame in the cupcake at my desk on the 18th.

I was also privileged to celebrate my birthday on the 19th of the month of January. Many people showered me with love, and it was a beautiful weekend. On Friday at work on the 18th, the people with whom I share an office purchased a decked-out cupcake and lit a candle while I was away from our office on an errand. I work in an office with some amazing people, one of whom coordinates a tattoo removal program, another who runs the lab at the clinic. I'm lucky to have such interesting, nice co-workers. That night, I came home to the delicious smells of Italian food, and Margaret, one of my roommates, had made a dish of perhaps the tastiest lasagna I've ever eaten. We enjoyed that with a fresh salad and then some brownies and vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. It was amazing!

My two beautiful roommates, Susannah and Margaret,
and some tasty grub on the birthday table!

The following day was a Saturday and my actual birthday. I celebrated it with a delicious French brunch that Susannah bought for me at a restaurant we both enjoy called La Petite Provence. Instead of ordering the healthy option with vegetables and salmon, I went for the caramel-syrup-covered banana brioche French toast, and my, was it scrumptious! Susannah and I then went to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) at my request since I really wanted to see the Grossology exhibit they had been advertising, explaining the science of boogers, feces, and the like. (Yes, very 12-year-old-boy of me, but hey, it's interesting, isn't it?) Unfortunately, Grossology had already left, but there were other great exhibits, including one that showed real preserved fetuses who had died of natural causes during all different stages of prenatal gestation. It was truly mind-blowing to see how a spermatazoon and an oocyte form and slowly become a zygote, fetus, and then a sex-differentiated child that can then be birthed and survive without the placenta and uterine protections. Life is such a miracle! This exhibit was so fascinating and made me so excited to (I hope!) one day get to study medicine and maybe even specialize in obstetrics and gynecology and be a part of helping women bring new human life into the world everyday. Human biology is incredible and life is such a precious gift.

My day ended with two films. The first was an IMAX film at OMSI with Susannah about the deep sea, and it was amazing. I am always amazed by how life has evolved for deep sea animals whose living conditions are so remarkably different than those of humans. My favorite was an enormous octopus who ingests an entire live crab, cracks him open to suck out his flesh, and then expels his tough shell through a small, tunnel-like valve that opens on the top of his head! Sheer craziness. Susannah left me at this point in my day for other plans of hers, and I took myself to Les Miserables, which was beautiful. I sat alone, ate my small bag of popcorn, and was all tears by the end of this movie about unbelievable pain and hardship and the redemption of a man who continually chooses compassion and honesty even in the direst of circumstances. After coming home from that movie, I opened up all of the letters, gifts, and voicemails that my family members had sent me, and I was yet again awash in tears of joy for the bounty of my family's love. I have the best family in the entire world, and there is nothing I cherish more. I love you guys! Thanks for making my birthday so special.

The house cat, despite my allergies to her, has taken to
sleeping on my lap at times, like when I read my family's
birthday letters.

The car of my wildest dreams since childhood, though
if I ever had $500,000 of disposable income, there are
at least 100 things I'd do with it before I'd buy this car. It's
fun to take pictures of, though. :)

I'll frame these last paragraphs and my last stories in terms of the men associated with them. The first stories are about a man that I met through another guy I met on a blind date. Because this guy is high profile, I'll keep him anonymous and call him Bernard. Bernard is the executive director of the Legacy Health Foundation, and Legacy Health is the largest system of hospitals and healthcare clinics in Oregon after the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). Bernard is 39, rich, and very powerful in the world of medicine, so when he asked me on a date, I said yes just because I thought it would be fascinating to hear about how he got into his line of work. Our date took place at a private club called the University Club. I had to dress up formally for the date and could only be admitted into the stylish Tudor-style building since Bernard had pre-approved me. While there, I spoke with the wife of the CEO of Tazo and Stash Teas, a woman so pretentious that, before knowing I lived on the east side of Portland, said that she crossed the bridge over to the east "as infrequently as possible." The whole thing was almost surreal. Bernard is an interesting guy, but I'm certain that there is no relationship future for us. We hung out one other time and went to the Portland International Auto Show where I saw some of the hottest cars in my life. It reminded me of when Dad and I used to assemble model cars together on Saturday mornings. My favorite was always my Ferrari F50 hardtop, and there was a red Ferrari F50 at the exhibit! I also saw cars worth more than $600,000, including this sexy Lambourghini.

The last stories are about a man with whom I have a much more natural, organic connection. His name is Aaron, and I was introduced to him through one of my co-workers who met him at a medically-related function. Aaron is this brilliant, quirky guy who towers over me at 6 foot 4 inches. He did his undergraduate at Berkeley, his Masters at Yale in Public Health, and is now a first-year medical student at Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU). He is one of the wittiest, funniest people I've ever met, and our connection was instantaneous. Ever since we met, we can't stop hanging out, and we've seen each other every couple of days for the past two and a half weeks or so. Last week we went rock-climbing together at a gym that he frequents, and tomorrow we're hoping to go cross-country skiing (if he finishes studying for his cell structure and function test, the poor guy). There's no photo of him yet, but there may be if he and I keep spending time together. I will include a photo I took of Portland while on the tram that takes you up the hill to the beautiful OHSU campus. I visited it before I even knew that Aaron existed just for my own fun and benefit since I'm considering medical school, and it's a gorgeous medical school campus with a neat program emphasizing primary care. It's fun to dream!

A view of some of the south waterfront towers and the
OHSU tram.