so i just took the 6 train uptown to 103rd street, one stop away from 96th, where i catch the subway, but it feels like a whole other world. uptown from my place is spanish harlem (east harlem) then harlem harlem. it has tons of african american and hispanic history, but also known for being a rougher part of town. i've been wanting to try puerto rican food so chose this spot called 'la isla' on 103rd and 3rd, recommended by both the director of my program and the not for tourists guidebook. i had my ipod playing 'single' by ne-yo, my new favorite jam, but i can hear this middle aged african woman saying 'divalicious', using it in a sentence over and over, talking to an adolescent hispanic girl sitting down. everytime she said divaliscious, she threw her hands across her body and did this worm thing with her torso. a couple people around her started smiling and she said 'see, i made you smile!' and i couldn't help but smile...see in new york city, i noticed, no one smiles. it's wierd. i want to smile sometimes at shit i see or things i'm thinking but i have to stop myself. it's wierd that i smile. anyway...i smiled at this one...
so i get off the subway, an walk the 2 blocks to the restaurant...there's one african-american young guy with a doo-rag working at the counter, an older puerto rican gentleman in a chef's outfit sitting at one of the booths, an adolescent, like 12 ish, puerto rican guy eating a mcdonalds hamburger waiting in line, and a 20 something african american couple eating at the bar stools. there's a hot line of soupy food and rice, and a line up of various fried foods, whole chickens and sausage in the window. it actually looked like a chamorro buffett, which is kinda cool considering guam and puerto rico are both territories and have hispanic roots. as i'm waiting the guy at the counter says 'hold up chica, i'll be right with you', in between his spanish conversation with the boy in front of me. as the boy is leaving, the guy at the counter says 'now go to school okay. you must go to school, okay?'. the boy nods his head and i look up at him and he's smilng (someone is smiling!!!) so i smile back at him. i get the counter and not really sure what to get, hadn't really thought about it and decided to just be honest. i asked him to put together a good puerto rican dinner for me, chicken, rice and whatever. i ask him to explain what everything is in the window, and i pick a few things. he starts flirting with me, asking if i had gone to the gym, (which i just had) , because 'damn you obviously do'. he asks who's making me go to the gym, because 'girl you don't have to go if you look like that'. he asks what i do and i say 'i work in a hospital', and he says 'what you do? you a nurse?' and i simply say 'i work in a hospital' and he says...'you gotta be nurse.' then starts singing 'night nurse' by gregory isaacs and i can't help but smile....he asks how long i've lived in new york and i say 'i'm here for a month' and he asks where i'm from and i say hawaii and he says 'ohio' and i say louder 'hawaii'...and he says, 'wow you're the first person i've met from hawaii. good looking people'...he asks if i 'have someone to show me around the city, ..you know...like SHOW you AROUND the city...you know waht i'm sayin right girl? like a relationship?' and i tell a white lie and say 'yeah, i actually do'...and he goes 'okay girl. just making sure you're taken care of'...he rings me up as he puts my food together, which i can't help but notice is enough for 1 small family or one large man, and says 'damn i don't want to charge you too much but i gotta keep my job' and i say 'hey do whatcha gotta do, k?' and he laughs. it comes out to $8.25 (staying true to the not for tourist book which had one dollar sign next to the restaurant)....i thank him and walk out wiht my feast in a brown bag, covered by a black plastic bag. oh yeah, every time i've ordered food to go, they always put it in a brown paper bag then a plastic bag....
i walk back to the subway station and it's obviously different than the 86th upper east side station. this station has a few african american and puerto rican peeps, with a small group of asians and haoles in their northface and gap clothing- they stood out. on lexington and 86th, almost everyone is white or asian. interesting.
my bag of yummy puerto rican food is sitting next to me at starbucks right now as i blog away. yumminess awaits me for dinner!
so yeah!
today i accidentally slept it. damn. i woke up at 6:15am, and had set my alarm for 5:10 so i can catch the 6 am shuttle. i immediately call my chief and let him know i'll be catching the 7 am shuttle. the morning is a blur- i swear my body is not used to this schedule yet or maybe it's the cold and dark that's making it tough for me to get going in the morning.
i get to the hospital and meet up with my team. they said they almost told me not to come because there's almost no cases. i'm kinda relieved because i don't feel so bad for being late, but also bummed because it means NO CASES. i wanted to be in the OR today. we meet for 'breakfast rounds', then head upstairs to our call rooom/kitchen to wait for the first case at 11:15. the dope jamaican intern, the other intern, who i found out is from haiti and i start chatting about 'what would you do if your boyfriend/girlfriend because paralyzed from the neck down?'. oh man..what a topic to discuss. themes of being a romantic, of sexual needs, of true love, of cultural values...which turned into a 'what's your ideal relationship?' and we all went around and talked about it. one of the interns at one point said 'we're all from the islands, let's talk about what it's like on our different islands'. dope as shit!
i end up scrubbing with this little surgeon into an inguinal hernia repair and an ivc filter placement. he's a great teacher, it's just he and i (no resident), so he tuaght me quite a bit and let me do a lot. i'm loving hernias right now. they're the bread and butter of general surgery and i'll be doing tons of them next year so i'm stoked to review them. as a student up to now, i've been scrubbing into the 'bigger', 'cooler' cases, which is great, but now maybe i should start seeing the bread and butter of cases so i can get used to them.
i was really tired after the cases, so i took a nap, then after an hour or so of reading sabiston online, one of the interns and i caught the shuttle back to manhattan. i quickly got ready for the gym, and made it to the 7 pm cardio kickboxing class. i couldn't decide between that class or the boxing class. i loved the boxing class, but wanted to try something new. this one kicked my ass in a different way! this class was more combos and agility and flexibility, whereas the boxing class was more strength and circuit training. i think i like the boxing class better. it was much more athletic and less 'dance-y'.
so from there i went on my puerto rican food search...and here i am!
i think i'll go home and eat:)
oh yeah! i got one more interview- at loma linda in LA. yay! i also got two rejections:( one of them being UCSF. that's okay. i'm pretty happy. i have 13 interview offers, 10 or 11 of which i'm taking. which i hope is more than enough to make a decent match list. i'm starting to see the light. i just have to make it through these interviews!
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