Restricted Access

As I've recently found myself with some free time, I decided to be productive with my Internet surfing and check out a little more about the long path I'm about to start down towards becoming a physician. Easier said than done.

The two great sources of information on the web, Wikipedia and Web logs (or blogs, like the one you're reading now), are both inaccessible through Chinese Internet Service Providers (ISPs.) Which is frustrating when you want first-hand information on the "med-school experience." Also frustrating is the fact that (as I think I mentioned months ago when I first moved here) I can post to this blog, but cannot access the site to check the formatting or content... wow.

Anyway, I finally managed to find a decent proxy that lets me read medical blogs, but still doesn't give me access to Wikipedia, so I thought I would provide a list of links to a few of the more complete and interesting blogs put out by current medical students and recent medical school grads for those of you with a lot of free time on your hands, and enviable, unrestricted access to the Internet, to check out.

Ah Yes, Medical School - The rants and raves of a single, Jewish (a point he belabors) medical student on the West Coast.

Adventures in Medical School - A detailed look at the life of a med student at the Oregon Health Sciences University from moving to the area to getting into residency.

Over My Med Body! - A very popular blog by a Stanford medical student who happens to be significantly more proficient at using the web than most people. He also took it upon himself to create a web-based application for senior citizens who need help enrolling in the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit program and an interactive website for medical students and doctors to search and use every medical formula ever made. He also has really cool graphics. Yes, I am jealous.

Those are just three that I have happened to check out and enjoyed... if you're really interested in what I have to look forward to for the next four years, or have aspirations yourself of heading into the medical profession, go straight to the source, Blogs of Medical Students, which is described by its author as... wait for it... A Webring of Blogs by Medical Students & Professionals from all over the world. Seriously, it's pretty impressive.

Budget Approved!

Well, somehow my Fiscal Year 2008 Operating Budget made it through the review by the board of directors with flying colors and was approved without qualification last Friday!

Interestingly, the "big picture" of how the budget directly affects operations didn't become clear to me until we released the approved budgets for next year to each of the department heads. The speed and intensity with which people reacted took me completely by surprise; I literally felt like I was being assaulted by the number of emails in my inbox.

As I started to deal with the inquiries, which ranged from dumbfounded to downright abusive, I immediately began noticing some rather glaring errors that I had made, mostly related to staffing and Salary, Wages and Benefits (SWB) figures... so naturally, the one section people absolutely cannot miss and understandably get the most upset about.

Fortunately, the accounting department, which wasn't too sharp to begin with, is about to start a massive system overhaul of their software from the current "shortbus" iFinancial to the new "more expensive but at least US standard shortbus" E-1 Financial. How does this translate into a windfall for me? Well, I'll tell you. Basically, all the old account mapping, the system that assigns revenue and expenses to each department, is being updated to meet US standards, which over the course of the next year, means it will be virtually impossible for anyone to tell whether the figures that are being generated and spit out by the computer have anything even remotely in common with the figures I budgeted.

As my good friend Jason Link likes to say, "Bango!" (It's kind of like "Jackpot!" but more dramatic... it makes a lot more sense after a few non-kiddie cocktails.)

In the home stretch...

This past Saturday, besides being St. Patrick's Day, marked the eight month anniversary of my arrival in Shanghai. Looking back, the time here has alternated between flying by and inching along at an unimaginably slow pace (although nothing before or since has come even close to the three agonizing weeks between my Tufts interview and receiving my acceptance email.) Sitting at work today, I flipped open my calendar and realized that I have a mere two weeks of work left!

I could work that first week in April, but Robert and his wife, Cortney, will be here, along with a surprise guest, Amy Snyder, an old friend from my early days at Wisconsin. Realizing how little time I have left in China, and that I have seen most of the sights to see in Shanghai, I booked a ticket on the overnight train to Beijing for this Thursday. I plan to spend this weekend making amends for my tourist faux pas of my first trip up with my mom when I missed seeing both the Summer Palace and the famous Pearl Market (which ironically is home to tons of great deals on most consumables, yet only has moderately good deals on the shiny things that come in oysters.)

It's an interesting feeling, coming to the end of my time here, and reminds me of my last few months in college... but in the same way that I never really did the "this is the last time I'll ever _____" when I was getting ready to leave Wisconsin, I'm not too hung up on any sentimental attachments here... to be honest, I'm really ready to do a little more fun travelling and then get back to the good old US of A.