That tingly feeling, but not in a good way...

With a little less than 7 hours until I call the admissions office at Tufts University School of Medicine to find out if I have been accepted to the Class of 2011, I'm pretty rattled. And not in the "5 year old the night before Christmas" way, more in the "innocent man, on trial for a crime he didn't commit and the jury has been deliberating for two weeks" way.

To take my mind off of it, I have kept busy at work, read a couple of books, and watched the entire first season of the hit series Prison Break (which might explain the reference above.) I have also had the enjoyable task of planning out an itinerary for my mom's upcoming visit to China... but it looks like our time together will be in Shanghai, since a ticket to the banquet at the Great Hall in Beijing was, not surprisingly, very difficult to come by.

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for good news tonight, but don't hold your breath since there is a definite possibility that I won't be given a decision until Thursday, Friday or even early next week. Off to a budget meeting, take care everyone.

Tufts... show me some love!

With about a week to go before I might hear back from Tufts, the days have not surprisingly started to crawl by... everyone keep your fingers crossed for good news late next week!

Work is keeping me busy during the day which is nice, but I found out yesterday (as I finally got to sit down for the contract negotiations that I've been waiting for since late September) that the HR assistant renewed my apartment lease for another six months when they got me my visa, but in classic Chinese HR style, failed to mention it to anyone. So I'm staying out in the boonies, but it's really easy to get to work and people have a place to stay when they come visit me, so all in all, not that big a deal. The other end of the negotiations had to do with how long exactly I was expected/would be able to work for the company, and that went much better; I'm all set through mid-April with the option to leave at any time with seven days advance notice, plus it won't be a problem for me to take unpaid leave when I need/want to, so that's some unexpected but very nice flexibility.

Taking it easy this weekend... after five years of going all out for Halloween in Madison, I'm having a lot of trouble getting excited to do it in a country that is notorious for half-assing the holiday (they do the same thing with Christmas apparently and I'm pretty sure most don't even know what Hanukkah is...)

On the plus side, the Chinese classes are coming along really well, I'm picking up much more than I thought I'd be able to after three months, but my tutor is leaving in two weeks and I haven't met the new instructor yet... hopefully she's as patient with me as Annie.

Thanks for all the good luck wishes I've gotten from people over the past few days, I'll post whatever news I get on the blog as soon as I hear from the admissions committee.

Back from Beantown

Usually the best thing I can say about my intercontinental flights is that I made it... no small feat considering some of the near misses, frequent mishaps, and all too common delays at airports around the globe when I am present. My recent return flight from the States was a pleasant exception to the trend, something I am going to attribute more to the fact that I had a great trip to Boston than to anything particularly special about United Flight 835, nonstop 14 hours and 11 minutes from Chicago's O'Hare International to PuDong Airport in Shanghai.

To relieve the tension that I know has been building for weeks now, O Loyal Readers, my interview for the MD/MBA program at Tufts University School of Medicine could not have gone better! The morning session started with a surprisingly informative tour and financial aid presentation and wrapped up with one of the better catered lunches I've had. I then got a chance to sit down with the dean of the MD/MBA program, who happily answered all my questions and helped make my decision to do the MD/MBA program, if I'm accepted, an easy one. In the afternoon I had two interviews, scoring big on the first one as my interviewer was a Sigma Chi from Columbia University, and (I think) nailing the second one with an 81 year old anesthesiologist, who claims to have visited all but 12 countries on Earth (I'm asking myself what he's doing interviewing people like me with only 12 passport stamps to go on one heck of an accomplishment... but hey, the interview went awesome so I'm not complaining.)

I ended up having to go into work on Friday for the whole day (significantly jet lagged) and discovered that I have what the human resources people are sarcastically referring to as "job security." That is, the hospital recently found out it is being considered an accelerated filing company by the SEC for purposes of Section 404 compliance under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. For the non-accounting major's in the audience, basically what was a 30 month project has turned into 5 months of pure chaos for the accounting and finance departments... which was nice news to get as I am currently negotiating my new contract. I'll keep you all posted and you keep your fingers crossed for good news from Tufts on November 15th.

Boston is the home of Mass-holes.

That's like "Massachusetts" and "ass holes" put together... just in case there are fifth graders (or others in my current mental condition) reading this blog.

I did finally make it to Boston and met up with my parents and Miguel yesterday... if you've been keeping track though, that'd be a SATURDAY arrival, a day later than I was originally scheduled to arrive. "How could this have happened??", you may be asking yourself. Well I'll tell you; it was one of those "a butterfly flaps its wings in Africa and there's a hurricane in Florida..." type situations. Except in this case, the butterfly would be the visit of President Bush to Chicago, pushing flights back at O'hare International Airport, and the hurricane would be me watching the flight status of United Airline Flight 828 change from "8:45 pm departure" to "9:55 pm departure" to "10:50 pm departure" to "2:05 am departure" to "CANCELLED." No joke, that was the actual progression I had to sit and watch after flying 13 hours from Shanghai in a very small, coach window seat. Fortunately, the problem turned out to be mechanical so the airline was forced to give us hotel vouchers. Even better, over the course of the four status changes I had developed quite a nice relationship with Elizabeth, the custom service representative for United at the help desk and when I finally stumbled up to the counter at 11:00 pm, she managed to get me on the 6:45 am flight the next morning, AND upgraded me to the Hyatt Regency Hotel near the airport. I actually ended up getting 5 good hours of sleep in a huge king-size bed before getting up and returning to the airport. Sadly, even though everything in my carry-on had passed inspection at security at PuDong International Airport AND at the O'hare security checkpoint the night before, my cologne, facewash and hair cream were not safe from the "I'm up too early, plus I hate my job, oh and white people too" transportation security officer as I headed for my gate the next morning. That small annoyance aside, I got to the gate and managed to make the (relatively) short trip to Boston where my parents and Miguel were waiting for me at the arrival gate unmolested.

Yesterday ended up being more relaxing than I could have hoped, and for some reason I'm not that jet-lagged at all... which is nice. We grabbed breakfast at an amazing little diner around the corner from Miguel's apartment in the South End (which he has been awesome enough to provide for me for the next four days) called Charlie's that has been around since 1927 and somehow gets away with not having a bathroom (even for employees) and only accepting cash. Charlie, who stands out front and regulates on the teeming mass trying to get to one of the eight tables in the place, was my first exposure to the phenomenon referred to by outsiders as a "Mass-hole." I met a few more of the xeno-phobic locals over the next few hours as I got the nickel tour of the South End and Beacon Hill from Miguel and his girlfriend Jina. We also shopped at the largest mall in Boston, which made it painfully clear how much I had missed being in the states and having access to good bookstores, shops that sell clothing where I'm not an XXL, and of course Wal-greens, or "The Wall" as Dane Cook likes to call it. I'm all re-stocked on the things that were robbed of me earlier in the day at O'hare, as well as a ton of great reading material and of course, roll-on deoderant.

My mom and dad are taking me around to do some tourist-y Boston stuff today and then we're hopefully headed to Smith & Wolenski's for a great steak tonight.

I swear I'm not dead or anything, just really, really busy...

This week has been insane, trying to get caught up on the budget project at work (which got moved up from a due date of October 27th to tomorrow morning) while at the same time preparing for my trip to Boston and my interview at Tufts.

Needless to say, it's been a little hectic. I'm finally all packed and headed to bed early so I can get into the office and finish the draft of the service demand for the budget before I have to leave around 1:30 for my flight out of Pudong airport... apparently the new security measures take FOREVER to get through for international flights with US destinations. I'm psyched to get back to the states and hopefully bone up on my linguistic skills before the interview on Tuesday, but most of all I can't wait to sit around all day Saturday and watch college football live with Miguel (sorry Mom, Dad... had to be honest, I still love you both and can't wait to see you either.)

I'm way behind on the blog posts and posting pictures but I promise to catch up when I get back with some deep musings on the Vietnamese culture and the paradox of their famous "fish sauce" (that is, it smells revolting, but goes great with literally every dish they serve, crazy stuff.)

Have a great homecoming weekend for everyone headed back to Madison, I wish I could be there to watch the Badgers embarrass Minnesota but I'll be cheering from Boston and only drinking PBR and Busch Lite (and maybe some bloody marys early Saturday... after all, some traditions should never be broken.)

Back from 'nam.

Wow. I made it back from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and am none the worse for wear. Seriously though, the trip was absolutely amazing, I'm totally hooked on travel in South-east Asia... the food was incredible, the country is so clean and beautiful (compared to Shanghai) and it's actually pretty cheap once you get where you're going.

I'll post recaps of my time in Saigon and Nha Trang this week, but most of the story is going to be told through the roughly 200 pictures I took... I'm posting them tonight on sterny.smugmug.com, so check those out for a photo-tour of District 1 of Ho Chi Minh City, Reunification Palace, the War Remnants Museum (formerly the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes), Nha Trang beach and the islands off the coast of Vietnam.

I'm back at work this week with a ton to finish before I pack up again and head to Boston this Friday for my first med school interview of the season at Tufts University. Very excited to see my parents (who are meeting me on Saturday, and because they love me, bringing along my winter clothes) and stay with Miguel for the weekend. The other big news is that in addition to my new office, I finally got a replacement for the "My Size Barbie Desk" that I've been working at for the last month!

"Goooood-morning Vietnam!! "

Okay, so that quote was going to pop up somewhere in this post, I figured I'd just get it out of the way in the title. But it is a great morning, and I am in Vietnam. We made it through Customs and got our entry visas with a quick $25 in US cash on the way in... about 45 minutes after landing in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam we were on our way to our hotel in District 1. It's been a crazy couple of days trying to figure out our itinerary now that a Katrina-esque storm has taken out most of central Vietnam... but the country is amazing and beautiful and very, very cheap. Great food too. I'm off to the bank to exchange some travelers checks before we hop a train up to Nha Trang at 1:00. More updates when we get settled there and I track down an Internet-cafe.