Back, and off I go again!

I'm back in Minnesota. However, I about 16 hours before I have to leave again for the airport, this time to Washington, D.C. for a course till Saturday. The meeting was good, at least the parts I attended. There were some controversial and very interesting topics, such as the use of I-131 for low-risk thyroid cancer. It was much smaller than what I expected, only about 2000 attendees, compared to the 8000 or so at the other conferences; however this being such a specialized organization I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

My presentations went well. The first one, a comparison between FNA and core biopsies, received quite a few questions and generated a lot of interest. My 2nd one, well, while I stand by my data, I was less comfortable presenting this as this was work from the lab, and there were many PhD types here who asked me many basic-science laboratory technical questions which were above me. So, ladies and gentleman, I present to you, my pictures from New York City!

Actually, I lied. As you probably could tell from the 'Producers' poster, these pictures were from my last trip to NYC 2 years ago. Because this was my 2nd trip, and with my exams round the corner, aside from Central Park and Chinatown I didn't really bother doing any of the usual sightseeing.

New York is certainly an interesting city. It's huge, extremely diverse, chaotically congested. Lots and lots of eye candy, in various shapes, forms, colours and stages of undress. And while I constantly complain about being in a smaller city, I realize that at heart I'm still very much a smalltown boy- this was nice to visit, but I wouldn't enjoy living here. The cost of living is crazy- my friends pay 5x of what I pay for studio apartment while I have a 3 bedroom/2 car garage. And one couldn't possibly afford a car there.

I did however get to meet up with several Malaysian doctors all doing their residencies in NYC, people I have not seen in 5 or 6 years (some of them at least). Meeting up in a Malaysian restaurant, eating Hainanese chicken rice, was surreal. It was great to meet up again, and one does feel a bit of pride seeing your friends/juniors doing fairly well in their careers.

Okay, I'm pooped. More when I return from DC.