1) with benign curiosity, i glanced at the nutrition facts for the tasty chocolate chip cookie i got with my cup of coffee. that thing had >10 grams of saturated fat. i was devastated. cookies are bad for you. i guess i have to kick the habit. man.
2) i was walking around in my apartment when i suddenly felt something slithering down my leg, inside my pants. “what the….?!” it was a sock. how’d it get in there? glad it wasn’t a rat.
halloween? who would’ve thought.
congrats, you two!! very very exciting news.
it’s looking really nice outside, with the leaves changing colors. the hospital is set up on a huge hill, and it’s got some great views of the city, and of the leaves. phone pics:
the drive to work
the infamous sky bridge, 1/8th of a mile long. that's the parking deck i use, with the elevator that takes you up to the bridge. the building you see is the va hospital, pic is taken from the university hospital
va hospital; the sun just broke through the clouds
the view inside the sky bridge... it's a really good spot to watch the sun rise
the hospital set up this tram for transportation from the south waterfront to the main hospital. it's like a huge gondola that comes up and down. the tall building just to the right of the station on the bottom is one of the outpatient clinics, so there's a lot of traffic up and down this thing
the tram arrives!
the upper tram station
the children's hospital
kohler pavilion
more clinics and buildings
one of the parking decks
treessss
foggy day down in the city
finishing up the last patient in clinic with this old retired surgeon, good ol’ friendly man.
“despite what everyone says, i know you’re a good guy!” [big clap on the shoulder and hearty grin]
“ohhh… k! i-hope-that’s-a-good-thing-i-don’t-know-what-you-mean-by-that!! …………”
[he smiles and walks away]
got a day off, and i spent it mostly scouring food carts around portland. i ate alaskan reindeer today!! (ha, eat that, jeff!)
1) beez neez (SW 3rd/stark) – new sausage cart (set up right by a vegan place, haha). the owner is from alaska and just set up shop here a week ago, and seemed a real chill, young guy. all kinds of sausages: alaskan reindeer, kobe, chicken, lousiana something something, and more standard stuff. served with cream cheese and caramelized onions. tasty stuff. the “cart” is really a sweet grill under a camping shelter with lights. it made me feel like i was camping, so refreshing. apparently moose tastes good. mmm.
2) thai eastern (SW 3rd/stark) – probably my favorite thai cart in town now. i think i’ve tried 7 thai carts in town. got pad kee mao the other day and pad thai today. the kee mao was excellent: noodles, meat, bean sprouts, celery, cabbage, onions, fresh basil… it was incredibly flavorful and fresh. i was pretty surprised. most of the thai noodle carts around here taste like they just doused noodles and vegetables in some premade sugary sauce. this tasted legit.
3) portland soup company (SW 4th/lincoln area) – had the moroccan lamb tagine soup. it was good, chunks of lamb, chickpeas, tomatoes, and such. reminded me of rev soup back in c’ville; it has the same vibe and the soup is money.
4) the burger cart…. (SW 4th/lincoln) – burgers are priced well. can’t say much else. it was like a good old gcf burger.
as for the carts by my place, i think i’ve tried most of them over the last couple of months (SW 4th/lincoln).
- suliyothai - $5! their curry is really tasty, and you get full off it. probably my favorite thai curry i’ve had here so far. noodles, not as tasty, but ok.
- thai noodles – goooooooooood noodles. if i’m tryna get thai noodles by my place, this is definitely the place to go.
- interselects – another thai/asian food cart. they have a broader menu, including chinese food. not so good food.
- the other…. thai cart – forgot what it was called. really nice lady. food was ok.
- the mexican food cart – i had quesadillas. they were really good. greasy, but tasty.
- dosirak – a korean cart! …. except there’s no real korean food! they had some mandoo (dumplings), bap (rice), some iceberg salad, and a ton of this marinated chicken. was it korean chicken? naw, i think it was some sweet gingery, soy thing from costco.
- vietnamese sandwiches – banh mi. moneyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. their bread is so tasty. cheapest bite on that block, too.
- new taste of india – it’s ok. pricier, and not terribly tasty. i think i prefer the real taste of india downtown.
- the waffle cart – tasty waffles and egg scrambles. they do waffle sandwiches, and i think they had a pumpkin waffle today.
- and then there’s the aforementioned burger place and the portland soup company. there are a few other carts that i haven’t tried on that block. eh, i’ll get to them.
the other day, i went running. i’d gotten to ~ the 2 mile mark, when i spotted the sunday market downtown. “well, i guess i’m done now.” the run was quickly aborted. had nepalese food. really tasty stuff, and clean-tasting, too. but then i had a long walk home ’cause i couldn’t run anymore. oh well.
the cluster of food carts up on stark/3rd street are growing on me too. there was that egyptian place jonathan/i stopped by. there’s another thai/asian cart that esther/i stopped by (had pad see ew. and… i revisited and got pho there later, which, for some reason, was sweet). there’s also the vietnamese place where i had pho (which was pretty money).
good gracious. that’s a lot of food carts.
i just gargled listerine. it went up my nose. ow.
had a weekend off 2 weeks ago. esther visited. it was fantastic. toured food carts, explored the city, farmer’s market, glee, dinner with one of my co-residents, jamming, church, brunch, multnomah falls and the columbia river gorge.
had a glorious week off this past week. went back to c’ville & baltimore. it was refreshing. c’ville, settlers, spades, grilling strip steaks and lamb, good conversations/prayer, baltimore, crabs/pie, cute nieces, family, cousins, jenni’s wedding, catching up, and then back here. highly efficient vacation, i must say. i was fortunate to see a ton of folks.
i’ll update more regarding those things, but it was great seeing people again. i thought it’d be tiring and would make me reluctant to start work, but it was actually quite invigorating. catching up with people i care about so much, seeing what God’s doing in peoples’ lives… so refreshing. all those conversations served as a reminder of His Kingdom, and how we all play different parts in it. how exciting it is to be part of His plans! so, with that in mind, i guess it is an exciting prospect to go back to work and do my part. though it’d be awesome once we can all sit around and just chilllllllllllllll.
’til then… run hard, eh?
snippets:
1) dad/i driving from c’ville to nova. dad’s driving (i was about to pass out) in the left lane, going speed limit. there is a line of cars patiently tailing us to get by.
me: “um, appa. i think you should switch lanes.”
appa: “it’s ok. they’ll just get tickets, they’ll thank me.”
me: “um… no, i really think we should switch lanes.”
appa: “it’s ok, i’m wearing sunglasses.”
2) staying at my sister’s place. she asks if i need anything before going to bed.
me: “yeah, can i have a glass of warm milk?”
grace: “only if it’s breast milk. that’s the only milk we heat up here.”
3) we’re all at g/b’s place, except for janice/kaylin who were at the wedding rehearsal. kaylin’s on speakerphone, talking to alisa. everyone else is doing stuff and not paying attention.
alisa: “ok kaylin. do you want to talk to daddy?”
kaylin: “no thank you!”
the entire house erupts in laughter, including grace/brandon who were upstairs. i guess we were all eavesdropping.
4) i burned my hand by sticking it into a pot of caramelizing sugar (eh, whatever). i get this huge blister on my thumb as a result.
truth: “there’s so much fluid in there you could make a popsicle!”
some pics from the last month or so.
went for an afternoon at the coast with some co-residents. foggy, a tad chilly, but gorgeous. went around looking at tide pools with some experienced kids as our guides. was a ton of fun. phone pics:
this was mid-august...
tide pool crab
coast & tide pools
was craving waffles on saturday, and luckily stumbled on the busy farmer’s market in my post-night-float daze. i, um, got more than waffles. walked away with said waffle (with homemade choco/hazelnut/cinnamon spread on top), baguette, goat cheese/smoked salmon spread, local peaches, fresh cider, and a few cookies. phone pics:
bustling morning market
organic crepe & waffle stand
organic waffle with homemade choco/hazelnut/cinnamon sauce with some roasted hazelnuts
peach stand
hard and soft (?) cider
sharp dark choco flavor with some intensely fragrant vanilla buttercream.... really good
also really tasty
and there are new food carts across the street! got a waffle this morning with maple butter spread and an egg/spinach/something omelette on the side. waffles, man. so good.
for my current rotation, the staff take pictures of the residents and post them up, along with “2 fun facts”, on the various wards so the nursing staff can identify the peds surgery residents for the month. since i started off on nights, no one took my picture 
after a week of this, i got fed up! so i drew a picture of myself, made my “bio”, made copies, and posted them everywhere.
my two fun facts: “is actually skinnier than depicted (whoops), and apparently looks like he is 19 years old, per multiple patients and their families.”
i was hanging out in the neonatal ICU, and a nurse walks up to me and checks my name badge. “oh… so YOU’RE that guy.” walks away laughing. hm.
oh, and those patients who thought i was 19? one of them came back to the ER last night, and i went to see her. “ah, i can’t take you seriously! you must be like…. 17.” “…… last time you said 19.” hm.
ah, kids can be funny.
walked into a patient’s room the other day. 16 year old girl and her mom. the girl looks at me dubiously.
“are you sure you’re, like, a real doctor? there’s no way. you must be like, 19.”
“oh, honey, he just looks young. if he’s a doctor, he has to be at least 30, right?”
“welllllllll, it looks like you’re doing okay, see y’all later.” [i smile and slowly back out of room]
—————————————————————————————
nurse: “hey, the kid in 10 absolutely loves you.”
me: “oh, that’s nice. what makes you say that?”
nurse: “i walked in to check his vitals and he got all excited and started talking about you. ‘did you know that dr. yang is north korean?!’ “
me: “what the. where’d he get that from?”
nurse: “he said he could tell from your eyes”
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