We're All Gay

You see, four straight guys won't drive 3 hours just to go look at cherry blossoms. I'm not affirming nor denying I'm gay, but driving 3 hours just to go look at flowers does not fall into the range of "normal" for most straight guys. We did just that last weekend, out of a whim. Actually it's two guys who wanted to shoot pictures with their DSLR. I just got invited because I'm good-looking enough for the lens.

So the only colonies of cherry blossoms on eastern Taiwan is at Taimali, Taitung, 3 hours away from Hualien.

4 guys (including me), and a girl. All gay.

I can roughly understand why the Japanese feel like sitting under forests of cherry blossoms during spring. It's like being enveloped under a canopy of delicate pink snowflakes during the best time of the year. Too bad if you have hay fever or allergic rhinitis.

This is a typical cherry blossom, I believe.

The plum blossom is the national flower of Taiwan, specially chosen by Dr. Sun Yat-sen and later adopted by China Airlines as logo. I actually recognized the real flowers from my impression of CAL's logo.

Ahem, probably the best picture from the entire trip. I actually prefer European but I guess Japanese or Korean is not too bad.

I Live For Weekends

Low cost apartments at Hualien in a post-drizzling afternoon

Carrot juice and my favorite club sandwich (not pictured) at CM. Waiting time is usually 30 minutes and I nearly died of hunger every time I frequent on late Saturday afternoon.

Taking a long walk in misty weather, the dampness soaking deep into our bones. Somehow I was reminded of the English countryside even though I never step foot in UK.

Then having tea at dinnertime, just for the sake of having tea.

My friend suffering stomach ache later.

Weekends with Near-Death Experiences

Hospital life, like office life, is excruciatingly boring. After all, most human beings only live for the weekends. Being single and available makes weekends even more boring if you have nothing planned. However, thanks to my roommate, a spirited adventurer gifted with the ability to tone down descriptions of danger, we went on two separate hikes of his. The first nearly sees all of us drowned while the second nearly took my sister's life.

Adventure 1: The 'family grade' upriver hike
Prior to beginning that morning, my roommate reassured us that the hike would at most take 3 hours (ending by noon), and we could all wear slippers and conquer the place like Genghis Khan taking eastern Europe.

We began from the coast where the terrain was smooth and easy to navigate. Water's cold though, but still tolerable in November.

Had some fun along the way playing with nature's creations.

Then the perilous parts slowly emerge - note how we were struggling with our slippers!

Will we come back alive and whole?

Just after 1.30pm and our n-th query about the waterfall, we were greeted by this lake. It is impossible to go through it from the sides, and we couldn't get a visual of the bottom.

Instead of being defeated by nature, we started clearing the outflow of the lake. Our goal - to flush all the water out of the lake and we could easily walk across like Moses did to the Red Sea.

We moved rocks, branches, soil, crabs, frogs, more rocks enough to build a house, and more branches. By 4pm, the water receded by a mere 3 feet.

At last, Mr. Indiana Jones decided to call it a day and we all get to go home safe and alive!

Adventure 2: My anemic sister and the endless stairway
My sister had iron-deficiency anemia, that, compounded by the fact that she hardly get any exercise (climbing the stairs is not an exercise) and how she hates iron tablets, makes her the most vulnerable person should a tsunami hits. I completely forgotten that when she visited me, and we were off that morning to hike a little mountain.
The hike, the tour pamphlet says, could be covered in 40 minutes. We finished it in 3 hours.

The endless little breaks every 5 steps.

 

Our Princess of Kilimanjaro, note wearing boots somemore!

Well, this is the fruitation of our 3-hour hike.

And my sister barely made it up her train home since we got delayed so much!

Medical Licensing Examination, Step 1

The United States has a cool name for it, USMLE or United States Medical Licensing Examination. I wished Taiwan has something as cool, but they just simply call it Medical Board Exam, or 醫師國考. Unlike its American twin it's much simpler with only 2 steps. Step 1 consists of basic medical sciences in 2 separate papers: paper 1 for anatomy, histology, microbiology, immunology, parasitology, biostatistics and public health; paper 2 is physiology, pharmacology, pathology and biochemistry. Step 2 concerns clinical knowledge with 4 papers roughly divided according to the Big 4 - internal med., surgery, pediatrics, and gynecology/obstetrician, with several canapes in between such as radiology, urology, rehabilitation medicine etc. It's not a fun exam but one has to pass it to begin your physician license.

The major challenge for me is taking the test in Chinese. The last time I had any major exams in Chinese was in Primary 6, and even though I'm Chinese educated my brain is, sadly, programmed in 26 alphabets. I learned all my basic medical sciences in English too.
With the language fear haunting me, and my decision spending 2 weeks in Medcamp, I started preparing for the exam as early as my winter break. It may sound boring but I started with anatomy and physiology - which I didn't regret because it laid foundations to all my subsequent studies. As the semester progresses into summer I found less and less time for my exam preparations until it got abandoned altogether before my finals. I didn't do well for my semester this time round.
After an insane Medcamp, the countdown starts - 2 weeks. Groups of us huddled around our PBL classrooms and begun our tedious 14-hour workday. If exams are the killer of fun in education, then studying is the electric chair, or the guillotine. My study drive eroded slowly as the exams draw nearer - afternoon breaks got longer, napping time gets longer, and then comes tea time, chocolate time, walkabout time, surfing time, and daydreaming time. I think I might have attention deficit disorder because at the end  of 2 weeks I can't even sit without nudging for 30 seconds.
The sympathetic nervous system kicks in, stress levels skyrockets, and REM sleep (or restful sleep) got shorter. Everybody turns on their "exam mode" - not talking anymore, taking showers at 3am, wearing singlet and shorts to school, not eating, or eating the same food over and over.
Like most other examinations past-year questions became the golden standard, the Systeme Internationale. Those who obtain a pass loses motivation to study further; those who fail are too broken in spirit to continue further.
Then we seek spiritual support - from whatever religion and spiritual source there is. I personally paid my visits to Jesus Christ of a Taipei Presbyterian Church, a Taoist temple, great Buddha, our silent mentor, and the Goddess of Hell (sounds creepy eh? In Buddhism she's actually a very noble Goddess).
With the blink of an eye 31st July is here. I was jerked awake at 5am to see all 3 of my roommates grilling their books under the lamplight. I had 2 straight nights of very light sleep and was feeling groggy. I summed up all the stress hormones I had in my body, top it up with black coffee, and headed to the examination center - a high school about 3km away.
The Taiwanese summer and the smallish classrooms that were our exam centers don't make the experience a pleasant one. I was melting from the heat, suffocated by the humidity, and starving - because I dare not eat too much in fear of sleepiness - I have a problem with sugar spikes and neurons shutting down, so I had a cinnamon bun for lunch and went back watching others with their carbs and proteins.
As quickly as it started it ended. My instincts tell me I shouldn't have problems passing, but my brain kept dissecting and analyzing questions. It's useless to sleep with a disobedient mind, and my roommates were already in celebratory mood - 2 of them being sleepless for at least 3 days, I can't really tell.
That evening after packing up for home and washing my jeans and hoodie (a task ignored for 3 months), I slept the deepest sleep ever. In my dreams I became dean of medical school, abolished all kinds of exams, and students gave me a standing ovation.

Spring in Taiwan

Spring is a season you have a love-hate relationship with - it's too cold for T-shirts alone, and too warm for sweaters and jackets. The good thing about the season is the bloom you get to observe everywhere. It will be very nice if you study a little botany, but for those who does not, just start from an artistical point of view

Makan-makan Taiwan (Eating Taiwanese)