my hostel home

hey hey hey! this is my first post from my new home for the month. this is the sixth, yep, sixth place in six months! amazing, huh?

i'm now living in the old northside of indianapolis about 7 blocks north of downtown where i used to live. my place is sort of a hostel with students and professionals from all over. there's a big house where the owners live with the other renters. i'm staying in the 3-bedroom carriage house at the back. i currently share the house with two guys from india. they are consultants for a software firm and are temporarily assigned in indianapolis. i haven't met all the people who live in the big house except for one woman from australia. she's a real estate investor, here for 3 weeks looking to snap up foreclosed homes. the environment has an international feel and the owners are super welcoming. they promote a home away from home atmosphere. i think that i'm really going to enjoy this month.

yesterday, one of my roommates tagged along with me as i ventured into the
monon trail . i've lived here in indy for so long and i had never been on the trail. we don't live far from the beginning of the trail so this is a good time to begin. it's a 10.5 mile trail. my goal is to be able to run the trail this month. i bought running shoes the other day. but i really don't think that i have a runner's personality. yesterday, we just walked leisurely for a couple of miles or so and headed back. i'll probably run/walk again later tonight.

i haven't really talked much with the other roommate. he apparently works at night. but the roommate i hanged out with yesterday is pretty cool. he said that he does yoga most mornings so i told him to wake me up when he does. i start my radiology rotation tomorrow and i don't have to be at school till noon. oh yeah, he also cooks! he seems to be an all-around decent guy.

the australian woman is pretty friendly too. we're actually going to do pilates tomorrow at a nearby studio. it seems that a lot of people i meet now is into eating healthy and staying fit. i guess, they are really not bad company to keep :).

so yeah, life is fabulous. i just finished a great month of medicine. i start radiology tomorrow. i'm heading to washington d.c. this weekend to meet up with my college friends, glenda and edith. then of course the week after is the wedding in vegas.

so that's the update for now. i don't know if anybody is still reading this. how come, nobody leaves a comment? :)

surreal

(i was supposed to post this yesterday but blogger suddenly went down as i was typing, not a good sign haha. i'll just post it anyways since i already wrote it..)

our health center emailed me the results of my recent varicella titer this morning. i had them drawn as a requirement for my away rotation. i opened the attachment and i zeroed in on the age part. it said: 32 years. wait a second, i thought to myself. they must have sent me the wrong results. i'm not 32. wait, how old am i? i AM 32. yikes! i forgot. and i'm not married yet? solution: "little church of the west" las vegas, july 12 ;).

what to eat

i can't help but be curious about what other people eat. the grocery store kinda overwhelms me. i don't really know what to buy. today, i went to a small store that prides themselves of selling reasonably priced organic stuff. one of my ex-roommates have taken me there before. i didn't really have a list. i knew i wanted to get some hummus and chips that one of my friends have shared with me recently. otherwise, i just planned to wander around and explore.

as i wandered around, i heard somebody call me. who knew that the grocery store is a great place to socialize? i immediately reached into my classmate's basket to see what's in there :). i got some of the same stuff for me. happy cooking to me :).

sawasdee

that's hello in thai. it looks like i'm going to be restaurant-hopping this summer so i want to share with you my gastronomical adventures. there were a lot of choices in the menu tonight but i still gravitated to my favorite thai dish: pad thai with shrimp. yum! good food, good company, good conversations. a night that made me smile ear to ear as i constantly reminded myself that there's really no need to think about tomorrow ;).

the next trip

you might be wondering where i'm headed for my next trip. i'll be viewing the 4th of july fireworks at the nation's capital!

i haven't posted the paris pictures here, so here are some:
(btw, one of my memorable experiences in paris involves a public toilet. i know, gross :). i really had to empty my bladder. we finally found a working one as we were looking for the metro (subway) stop. i went in and the stall was fairly clean. i did notice though that the bowl did not have a hole. hmmm, how am i supposed to flush? but i really had to go, so i went. i told my friend that it was so weird that the bowl didn't have a hole so i had to show it to her. as we walked back, the stall door was closed and we can kinda heard water noises. so after all the noise was gone, we opened the door and voila, the toilet was clean! it must have been a self-cleaning toilet. i should google that to find more information about its mechanism. :).)

downtown living

i was daydreaming down the hallway on my way out to throw the trash. i only realized that i might have missed the exit once i smelled the pool. as i walked back, a friendly voice asked me if i'm looking for where i need to throw the trash. (everyone in this building is so friendly)! i looked up and the guy looked really familiar. for the last 3 years, he has been a host at our medical school talent show. i am starting to feel that the city is getting smaller. :)

earlier in the day, i walked to my future home for next month. it turned out that the previous tenant is from my school as well. i recognized the name since he is going into radiology. i have not met him personally, but i will be on-call with him later on this month. (i'm doing an elective inpatient month in the hospital where i hope to apply for my transitional year.) he is in his last month of his transitional year. the transitional intern i'm working with this month is also going into radiology. (diagnostic radiology is a 5-year program: 1 transitional year + 4 years diagnostic radiology). it's nice to start getting to know people in the field.

lately, for dinner, i've been frequenting this cajun creole place across my building. but when i got there tonight they have ran out of food. so i decided to walk down the avenue to try to find another place. as i was walking, i ran across one of my classmates. it seems that everytime i walk around, i either run across somebody or i spot them in the outside seating area of the various eateries.

i love this area. very urban! i can pretty much walk to where i need to go. it's a side of indianapolis that is very lovely and very appealing to young professionals. the closest grocery store which i finally found in my random walk is a bit pricey, though. but the walk there and back to my place was very nice.

here are some pics of my current place:

this is my 5th place in 5 months. it's getting hard to explain to people why i move every month ;). ummm, who said that there needs to be a rational reason? :)