PhD Minor: Completed (sort of)

I got my certificate of completion for the Institute of Clinical and Translational Research TL1 program today. I still have to take a class over this summer, but after that my PhD minor will be finished. This is bittersweet because it's another hurdle crossed on the race to becoming a doctor doctor, but I also need to secure new funding and write new grants.

monocles

Emma: "Thanks for helping me with my chemistry, but I'm not sure the monocle was necessary!"

Tokyo

Took the bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo. Amazing. Saw the snow covered Mount Fuji as we sailed by at 250mph. Kyoto is a lot like New York except that everybody is Japanese and nobody speaks English. I have some amazing pics but I will have to post those when I get home, because my laptop is dead (no three prong to two prong power converter).

Tomorrow morning I am taking the bullet train back to Kyoto/Kensai for my flight to Hong Kong. I have a 12 hour layover in Hong Kong that I am pretty excited about. Sayonara!

Kyoto

I have heard it said that when you travel, you become a storyteller. I think for the first time in my life I really understand that saying. Japan is like another world. The men wear suits, and everybody stops and waits for the green traffic light to cross the street regardless of car traffic. Restaurants are small and family owned. The cars, people, and apartments are tiny. Everyone is extremely kind, dedicated to their work, and the country is incredibly clean.

This is my last night in Kyoto. I have been here for four nights so far. The International Myeloma Symposium was a blast; I learned a lot about the disease I study, met some key collaborators, and have some new ideas for my research. From a work perspective, I think the trip was an enormous success. When I wasn't doing that, I have eaten a lot of expensive sushi, seen a castle with a moat, seen an imperial palace, seen some monkeys, randomly met the vice president of Genentech on the subway, seen some Van Gogh's, and made new friends from Denmark. The Japanese also make some of the tastiest baked goods I have ever partook of (donuts with pork sausage inside? delicious). Perhaps most importantly I got to be reunited with one of my best friends, Amber Moore. Amber has been working in Japan doing HIV research for the last two years. When we were kids in high school which seems so long ago we would stay up late on weekends, first hiking Cowles Mountain in the dark and maybe even the rain, and then watching movies at Jeff Galper's house until the sun rose. I would inevitably fall asleep the first, and they would badger me about it until we started it all again the next day. I miss youth.

Tomorrow I am taking the bullet train from Kyoto to Tokyo. I will spend one night in Tokyo exploring the city, and then take the bullet train back in the morning to catch my flight into Hong Kong. If I make it back to Chicago and Madison in one piece, I will be frankly amazed. I just want to publicly thank my boss, Amber, and (I know this sounds corny) the Japanese People for making this trip such an incredible success for me, and such a gratifying experience. I love Japan, the Japanese People, my job and my livelihood which permits me to have such a gratifying calling, and my friends. Truly blessed.

Just landed in Hong Kong

Flight was 16 hours. Watched four movies, read 100 pages of Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy, slept a bit, aaaaaaand now I am on the other side of the world. So weird.
This is my first time out of North America.

SO BUSY

PhD land has completely taken over my life. I am working in lab very hard, trying my best to produce the results necessary to both make progress against the malignancy known as Multiple Myeloma and to graduate. Tonight is a Saturday night, and I have stained a dozen or so slides and done 3 bone marrow transplants on mice.

My Uncle Clair (on the left in photo above, his father and my grandfather Reilly Jensen is to my right) sent me two photos and these were the catalysts for me writing something on this blog. The picture on the top is my sister's alter ego AKA Krusty and myself at my mom's wedding. That photo of my grandpa and Uncle Clair was taken at Jinoons -- one of my favorite Palo Alto restaurants. My grandparents came to visit me in Northern California when I was attending Stanford; it was a very special day.

On Monday I am leaving America. I am flying from Chicago to Hong Kong, and then from Hong Kong to Kyoto, Japan. This is my first time being out of America except for crossing the border into Baja California and a day-long stint into Canada from Niagra Falls. I am excited to say the least. I am traveling to Japan for the International Myeloma Symposium; a meeting held every 2 years for doctors and scientists to talk about progress about the malignancy I study.

So much has happened in my personal life that I do not have the time to record it, needless to say there are a multitude of pictures on my phone and dropbox folder that will eventually find their way onto this blog as soon as I have a weekend. I ordered two books to read on my flight across the arctic/pacific: A History of Western Philosophy and The Conquest of Happiness, both by the eminent Bertrand Russell.

First day back in clinic

I was back seeing patients in clinic today for the first time in almost 2 years. I am seeing patients with all sorts of very rare hematological conditions and am enjoying it thoroughly. I intend to do heme/onc clinic this semester, radiation oncology over the summer, and neurosurgery in the fall.  Very cool.