Left: view from my balcony looking West along Wellesley Street.  You can see Queen's park and the University of Toronto behind it.
Right: You can sort of see the CN tower looking south along Bay Street from my balcony.  The CN tower is to south in Toronto what the mountains are to north in Vancouver.  When I'm lost I look for it.

I realize it has been some time since I last created an entry.  This trend, sadly, is likely to continue.  The amount of material that I have to learn in the next 9 months is truly daunting.  The notes alone are a stack of double-sided pages almost a foot high, most of which is material that has to be memorized.  This is only the tip of the iceberg: there are numerous textbooks which are "recommended reading".  One of the second year students told me that by the end of the first year he could pick up any issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and understand any article in detail.  That's a lot to learn.  It begins tomorrow when I begin dissecting my first cadaver.  I hope I don't make a fool out of myself by fainting.

I've had a good time during the past six days of U of Toronto med orientation week.  I'm exhausted from 6 straight nights of going out, but I'm happy that so many of my new classmates were so into going out and having fun.  I'm generally impressed by the quality and maturity of my classmates.  I'm optimistic that I'll make many good friends that will last over the next four years of medical school and beyond.  I'm amazed that I've already met 4 other people with PhDs in neuroscience.

The road trip from Vancouver to Toronto was fun.  I was very happy that Derm came along for the ride to keep me company.  I wish I had time to blog the entire trip because there were some interesting stories/incidents along the way.  Hopefully I'll get to some of them soon.  For now I'll have to remain satisfied by recounting the highlights of the trip in pictures (below).


The first day we drove from Vancouver to Calgary where we stayed with Ryan.  On day 2 we went to Lethbridge and spent the night with my parents (Susan and Walter), who adopted Derm as one of their sons (above left).  It was great to spend time with my parents and eat home-cooked steaks.  Derm and I ended up playing crib and drinking beer until about 3 AM.  It was a bit of rude awakening to get up the next morning for the 13 hour drive to Winnipeg on Day 3.  The day ended on a high note however when we were treated to a nice sunset in Saskatchewan (above right).  Saskatchewan is also where we experienced a run-in with Farmer Joe.  One day I will tell this story.

In Winnipeg we stayed with Phil (above left), who was a great sport by not only waiting for us to get in at about 2 AM, but also plying us with beer once we arrived.  He also took the next day (day 4) off work so that we could go golfing.  The golf was cheap and the course was great.  My game was a bit off, but it was nice just to be out there.  Who knows when I'll get a chance to golf again.  That evening we went to folk-a-rama and went to the Belgian, Carribean, and Chilean pavilions.  I had no idea Winnipeg had so much culture.  We ate and drank a lot.  The Drive from Winnipeg to Chicago on day 5 was the longest segment of the trip at about 15 hours.  In Chicago we stayed with Adam Stocker, whom I befriended in Puerto Rico when I spent the summer of 1999 doing tropical neuroethology in San Juan.  I hadn't seen Adam in 7 years so it was cool to hang out with him again.  It was trippy to see that he hadn't changed a bit since I last saw him.  In fact, I think he may have been wearing the same shirt.  There's a cool little bar just around the corner from Adam's place that was open until 4 AM, and we took full advantage (above right).  In the morning, we stopped by Wrigley field, which is only a couple of blocks from Adam's place (below left).  We arrived in Toronto on day 6, where we stayed at Adam Bodnar's place.  He was another good sport to wait up for us to arrive at 2 AM.  We were able to persuade him to "work from home" on friday so he could stay up late with us and drink beer and go for breakfast in the morning.  Friday was Derm's brother's birthday so Derm and I celebrated again on Friday night.  Do you think Bobby is an older version of "lil Dermy"? (Below right).