Last day on the island! How fast had the time flown but had a lot of fun doing so many things. :)

Did some AM snorkeling – had hoped to see some turtles on the final day of snorkeling but no such luck. :( Got some ahi poke for lunch and it was pretty disgusting how the mosquitoes were attracted to it. Gross.

Next was visiting the Allerton gardens – expensive but very highly rated in things to do. Figured I would like the photo ops do bit the bullet and went. :)

Native plant garden

A bee munching on some starfruit

Little stream to the garden

Tranquil Buddha

They had these huge beautiful trees, apparently they were in Jurassic park. They reminded me of ents in Lord of the Rings!

They had a small fruit orchard which was planted as a victory garden back in the day

Beautiful yellow flower

Spikey, thorny

Small little light green leaves

Flower at the end of a spikey plant.

Then for the last meal we went to a place that had this beautiful orchid garden with these plants with stems full of orchid blossoms!

It also had a small garden of succulent plants.

A water lily

Pretty pink

Then time for a drink (cucumber mojito) and dinner…

and too soon it was time to get back on the plane and go home. One nice thing about the Sheraton was they had hospitality rooms where you could have the room for 30 min – quickly shower and clean up before you left if your flight was later in the day.

It was a great trip filled with doing a lot of the stuff I love to do and a wonderful, wonderful break from being at the hospital and being a lowly intern! :)

This day was a little more relaxing, got snorkeling gear and did a little bit of snorkeling in the morning. Lots of fish right at shore and always fun to see all the colors and varieties of fish! There was also a monk seal taking a nap at the beach. They are endangered so you can’t get too close.

There’s this famous shrimp truck that has very good shrimp – I don’t like shrimp, but it smelled so good and reportedly was excellent!

Did the more touristy stuff, visited a coffee company, Kauai kookie kompany, and Kauai chocolate company

Did some more snorkeling at the Sheraton beach – the snorkeling wasn’t great but the water was so nice and warm. :)

Had a fantastic dinner but the whole vibe at the place was a little off. It was like when you know something’s off is going on but can’t figure out what exactly it is.


Ahi poke (raw tuna) with cucumber, avacado, etc, panko breaded calamari, grilled fish with risotto, and mango cheesecake. :)

The next day started with ziplining. I don’t exactly why I decided to do this but it was in the guidebook so figured I should give it a good try. Basically you get in this harness thing and are clipped onto a steel wire and off you go!

You can see the wire and then the landing post in the trees. They always have you clipped to the tree, the bridge, the zip line so it’s actually safer than it feels like.

All clipped to the tree

Zipping away – it was really fun and a great rush. :)

There were also these bridges too and I’m not sure I really liked that part. I kind of just wish they’d pull me along because I took a long time because I’m scared!! I would have liked more zip lines less bridges!

Here’s me zipping along, imagine a weeeeeeee!

Overall though I would recommend it and I had a fun time, especially once I did the first zip and discovered what fun it is!!!

Tree tunnel on the way to Kaloa

Random stop at a beach

Sprouting horn

Had a puka dog for lunch. I’m not sure how these things came about, but they are a piece of bread with a hole for a hot dog or a veggie dog. You add in a lemon garlic sauce along with a fruit relish – I tried both the starfruit and pineapple. I love hot dogs and it was very good although gives quite a bit of reflux! I think it might sound gross but try it before you denounce it! :)

Then came the nice touristy boat ride. I had read that this was a wonderful way to see the NaPali coastline – and was excited since by the helicopter it looked amazing. Unfortunately the surf was too rough so would be heading south instead. I get seasick pretty easily as I discovered in the Galapagos, so in the end better for me. I had some meds before the ride, and then some during but managed to feel good for most of the ride. :) We also saw some whales but I had the wrong type of lens – no close up lens – so they are mainly just whale dots in the pictures.

Pretty views of the island along the way. It did remind me of lost and I expected to see a four toed statue along the way!!

A whale a whale!!!

Can you spot the whale dots?

I think I posted this one before but a beautiful sunset to end the day :)

I’m sorry I haven’t posted this earlier. I take the final step of the general boards on Thurs (there are always more exams though) and since they cover all areas of medicine I have been busy relearning all that other stuff outside of obgyn that I had long forgotten! The boards always covered weird subjects too so it’s always fun to vaguely recall the terms but don’t quite know the answer!

Anyways, to begin – left for Kauai very early in the morning. Getting up even earlier than I normally do was always a pleasure but it was exciting knowing at the end of the day I’d be in Hawaii! Two flights to get out there, nothing very eventful besides feeling like the flights would never end.

Finally arrived in Kauai and it was great to be in warm weather. Waited for bags, rental car, etc. Got upgraded to a Jeep wrangler instead of whatever economy car they normally have. It was fine, I didn’t drive it that much. It had less room in it that you’d think and it was tall so I had a harder time hoisting myself into it. They should have had a little launching pad for me to jump into it. ;)

Went to a very local Japanese place for dinner. I had chicken katsu and it was yummy. The rice was good, moist unlike the dry stuff they make out here on the east coast. :)

Drove over the the hotel – we stayed the Sheraton. It was a very nice little resort like compound although I didn’t take many pictures there. In hindsight it probably didn’t matter where we were since we didn’t spend much time at all at the hotel nor even at the hotel beach but always nice to be at a nice fancy looking place. :)

The next day was the venture out the Wimea canyon. The soil is very red and it makes for a spectacular sight. The drive through the canyon area was fun with lots of turns, scary views, and just so much beauty.

Cute little ladybug

There were some trails in the area so decided to do a little bit of hiking. The first trail was a little detour off the main one we were on that had a nice view and a end of trail sign at the end.

Then back on the other trail – I forget the name of it and I don’t have the guidebook with me but it was supposedly to a waterfall. It had trained overnight and the trail was pretty slippery and very hilly – got pretty muddy with that red dirt that I’m sure won’t come out of the shorts I was wearing!

After up and down, up and down, up up, down, up up up etc., you came to a cleared off little hill – more than a hill really but wasn’t a mountain either. The view was superb and we had seen it from the lookouts along the way up so it was cool to be where we had seen people hiking earlier.

Then to get to the waterfall you had to climb down the otherside of this hill. I’m not the best with heights and was a little frightened.

The one side a had a wee sized waterfall.

The other side a had a much larger waterfall and crazy view – it was just the waterfall, then a rock landing to sit relax… and then drop. We stopped at the rock landing to rest but I couldn’t look out because it was scary!!

I’m only at the top sitting because that’s the way you had to leave – had to backtrack the way you came. So I said wait with the camera and sat at the top of the waterfall.

Then a yummy treat after all that adventuring- shave ice. :)

Saw some cute doggies in the back of a truck

Beautiful sunset to end the day!

So last Saturday I was off and I rented a car to drive around the island of Oahu. However, it started storming and raining about halfway through – so I saw a lot from the car but it was much too rainy to get out. I got out a couple of times and then had to crank the heat to dry off, the rain was serious business! My car was a red subaru with a very active alarm that did not like being turned off. :P

Onto the pics:

Rocky beautiful coastline:

Cool layers of rock

A little critter I met along the way

A blow hole

Breathtaking

The storm coming

I was able to navigate using my iphone and just keeping a goal of keeping to the most coastal route I could. I had also wanted to go on a highway that crosses the middle of the island with great lookouts but didn’t have the time & the weather was not cooperating. Oh well. :( I ended the night with hanging out with my cousins family – we went to where my cousin works and he made lots of super yum sushi for all of us. The tuna in Hawaii… oh my goodness. I can’t even bear to eat it back here in the mainland for fear of my crushing disappointment!

I haven’t posted in a bit, my apologies. I got incredibly behind last week for a couple of different reasons – night float, computer crash, baby laptop not configured for design work, seeing the side of ob that’s not the happy stuff, being exhausted… anyways back for a little bit to say hello to everyone. :)

The big thing I did this weekend was rent a car to drive around the island. However, the weather did not cooperate for about half the day, so it was kind of disappointing. The north shore is really beautiful, but it was really way too rainy to get out of the car. The one time I did to take a pic on a whim – I put the camera in a bag and was taking pictures like an old time photographer with the sheet, except this was a plastic bag. ;) I was so soaked I had to crank the heat to dry off. I might rent a car tomorrow too, but ugh this stuff get expensive! And the weather is a crapshoot it seems recently, sunny when I”m working, rainy when I’m not ;)

I wish I had more time here because I just didn’t get to do all the things I wanted to do. In addition, I was kind of tired and wasn’t really stretching myself to take interesting shots – a lot of times I get down on the ground and take time to study things that I was just kind of out of it and too tired to do.

This is my last week here. I’ll be back for Christmas, and not surprisingly I haven’t done anything yet for Christmas. I’m really planning on celebrate New Years this year instead. I also have the end of my interview season left and then it’s this game of waiting to find out where I’ll be next year.

So weekend? How was it? And is Santa bringing something exciting?

So most residency programs have a night float in ob where you do a month (or whatever length their rotation is – 6 weeks, etc) of night float. I haven’t really done more than a week of night shift and I always find the hardest part is trying to get enough sleep. I just don’t sleep as well during the day. I love to be awake, and then having to sleep when it’s sunny and fun looking outside is a bummer. Of course, then not sleeping means the next night is even harder. Eventually though, you get so tired you do sleep, so I know it will happen. :)

Another thing I enjoy about Hawaii is the rice. Normally I try not to eat too much rice because it just makes me more hungry. The rice here though is great and I can’t resist. On the east coast they just don’t have the right touch or something – I almost don’t want anything but the rice because mmmmmm its so good.

Was a good girl today and uploaded pics from one part of my trip on Sat, Lyon Arboretum. I haven’t gone through them yet to edit them, but if you want a sneak peak, go here.

This picture is from last weekend when I went to Byodo-In temple. It’s a replica of a Buddhist temple in Japan. It was really beautiful and did feel like being in another world but had a ton of mosquitoes. Spray up right before you go- I had sprayed a couple of hours back and it didn’t do much!

I had a nice day off of hiking yesterday. I went up to an arboretum and saw a waterfall, but it was a pretty muddy day since it rained in the morning. I took a lot of pictures, but they are coming since I didn’t get a chance to go through them.

Today I had brunch with my cousin and his family. My cousin stayed with my family when he first came to America which was when I was 5 years old. It was especially exciting to have him around as a kid and I was really sad when he moved out. A little different now to see him and it’s about 20 years later – and he’s got his own family, and now I’m an adult. It was fun though and he also makes sushi like my Dad did, so next week we’re going to the restaurant where he works. :)

I start the long night shift tonight. I tried to rest up beforehand – but its kind of hard since I’m on a schedule the opposite way. Eventually though you get so tired that you sleep during the day even though it doesn’t always seem natural.

A little personal note: My dear friend Janet‘s father has been having some health problems of late. I know he’s got just as wonderful and strong spirit as she does- and let me tell you she’s one incredible, wicked awesome person, but sending smiles and sunshine their way never hurts. :)

Janet also does the Friday Fill In :)
1. Snow __is fun to play in___.
2. I’m looking forward to _a day off!____.
3. __This rotation___ is the best _time____ ever!
4. One of my favorite old tv shows is __Get Smart___.
5. I’m done with __driving (well for a few more weeks)___.
6. The most enjoyable thing around the holidays is _dancing and singing to the songs and watching people’s reactions____.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to __an early bedtime___, tomorrow my plans include __an arboretum and waterfall___ and Sunday, __I’m meeting my cousin and his family and starting overnight 14hr shift >_< ____!

So it's kind of funny how things have worked out here. I knew that there was a strong Japanese presence in Hawaii, and I think it's one of the things I enjoy. It's still got the American feel - along with the native Hawaiian culture - but some Japanese too. I had no idea how much it was though but it's kind of funny because - hey, I know a little Japanese. I know more Japanese than I do Spanish, and I use my Spanish a lot in medicine already back at home. Plus it's this mix of Japanese and English that I've heard many times before at home. I didn't expect that I would be using Japanese on my rotation - I'm pretty hard wired for Spanish at this point but kind of a cool random thing.

I promised myself I’d go to bed early, so I’m going to be good and wrap this up. Any exciting plans for the weekend?

I’ve been having some really wonderful experiences lately, and these are moments that I know I will not forget. I don’t want to make it seem like medical students have the worst lives ever but being on rotations, you really get dehumanized. It’s important to understand your role in medicine, but its also very hard to be at the bottom, especially not only people in your own profession don’t treat you well, but the other health professions make a point to make your life miserable as well. The experience I’m having is just so radically different though. I’m enthusiastic and everyone is ready to help me learn. They don’t just see my suturing and tell me it’s not good, they work with me to figure out what exactly am I doing wrong – and what tips do I need to understand to do it right. It sucks when you’re doing things wrong – but being a student you get over it. What really matters is doing it right the next time and I’m being helped to do that. :)

The other day, I had a patient who wanted me to take a picture with them after a delivery and then just me holding the baby, and it was just this like light of what all this hard work is really about. I’m not big into cheesy stuff, but I have worked really hard to get where I am at and it’s moments like that where it’s just… indescribable. Medicine is not an easy sacrifice and it’s natural to question it but it’s also wonderful to have these moments where you know it was the right thing.

I’ve never been one to say “I was born to do this” because like most things in life, I don’t believe in just one path. And so I don’t necessarily think that ob/gyn was the right field for me if there were different things going on in my life – or it was important for me never to have call again for example. (ha!) But I enjoy what I’m doing, I feel passionate about it, and after all of this time – finding the right place for me is just perfect.

And you can take that picture of the red flower at the top of the entry to mean what you want. I didn’t pick it intentionally but as I was reading this I realized it fit in. ;)

More pics, haven’t gone thru them all yet.