Provincetown
16 July 2003
June started with me flying to Philadelphia to do my clinical exams for US certification as a foreign medical graduate. For the exam we were required to dress in a long white coat which meant I had to buy one for the first time as they don't feature heavily in anaesthesia:
Philadelphia was somewhat depressing with some very run-down urban areas and a city centre with small streets which could be quite pleasant except that they were completely choked with cars. I had thought that the traffic management in San Francisco was less than ideal with so many stop signs on arterial roads, but Phildelphia was far less smooth. I was only there for two nights and didn't have much time to look around the city; but I did get to see the Liberty Bell, though from quite a distance because of the perceived danger of terrorist attack. I passed the exam and have now received my ECFMG certification.
The following week I had a wisdom tooth extracted at UCSF. I had let this wait a month because, as a foreigner, the University didn't see fit to provide me with Dental insurance. I did however get coverage through Robert's insurance once he had been working at IndyMac for more than two months. The extraction was done by one of the orofacial surgeons at UCSF using local anaesthetic without any sedation.
Not to be upstaged by my sore and swollen face, Robert sprained his ankle the same week. We shared the ibuprofen. In this picture we were having brunch at "Squat & Gobble" in San Francisco. The ankle has been useful to him in travelling to and from Los Angeles as Southwest Airlines lets limping passengers board first.
Summer in San Francisco has been unusually sunny and warm, but as we had expected a more typical (cold and foggy) Summer, we had planned to go to the beach for a week at the start of July. We arranged to rent a holiday house in Provincetown, Massachusetts together with Jay and two friends from Los Angeles, Ben and Fred.
Before we left I received the news that the Medical Board of California would not allow me to transfer my temporary license as a foreign physician from UCSF to UCLA. This meant that I could not take up the (much better paid) position offered by UCLA from the start of September and instead I would have to stay on in San Francisco and we would continue to pay rent in both cities and the cost of travelling between them.
On the way to Provincetown, we stayed the weekend in New York. It was hot and humid, much as it was the previous August when we visited. This time we went to the top of the Empire State Building and looked at the view and visited a few of the other tourist destinations such as Central Park and Times Square. Here are Robert and Jay in Times Square:
We rented a car in New York and drove to Provincetown. This took about six hours and we went through four states: New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The states are much smaller in the Northeast: Rhode Island was 40 miles from border to border. There were five of us going so we had booked a "Mercury Mountaineer", a big four-wheel-drive.
Provincetown is a small seaside town at the tip of Cape Cod, a peninsula adjacent to Boston. We last visited Cape Cod in September 2000 when we went to a wedding in Chatham. Provincetown was one of the first landing-places of the pilgrims who started the European colonization of this part of America and it is an old town with narrow winding streets and many old timber buildings.
Here are Robert, Fred and Ben outside a restaurant in Provincetown which faced immediately onto the beach. You can see the sailboats moored in the background. The significance of the red, white and blue bunting was the 4th of July holiday which fell during our stay.
The town had a parade and fireworks for the Independence Day holiday. Every fire truck and police vehicle in town as well as many floats carrying either servicemen or peace protesters made up the rather disorganized procession. We celebrated the holiday as we did almost every other day in Provincetown by reading and lying in the sun. In this picture Jay is sleeping and I'm reading the new Harry Potter book. My red, white and blue bathers were a concession to Independence Day:
We had a very relaxing break; the only significant activity being a party at Macmillan Wharf the day after we arrived, two trips to the gym and a dinner party for the five of us and two friends of Ben's and Fred's.
Back at work things have been hectic with the new anesthesia residents starting at the beginning of July and the third years leaving, including two of my favourite residents who have promised to come and visit Melbourne in the future.
Last Sunday we visited Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo, Northeast of San Francisco. We went on most of the rollercoasters and saw their dolphin show. Here Robert and Brian are finishing their ride on one of the rollercoasters where the seats are mounted hanging underneath the rails.
Our plans for the future have undergone some revision since my last e-mail now that I won't be able to work in Los Angeles. Instead I plan to finish at UCSF at the end of December and return to Melbourne at the end of January to start work again at St Vincent's. Robert will continue working at IndyMac until he returns to Melbourne, probably in March or April.
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Philadelphia was somewhat depressing with some very run-down urban areas and a city centre with small streets which could be quite pleasant except that they were completely choked with cars. I had thought that the traffic management in San Francisco was less than ideal with so many stop signs on arterial roads, but Phildelphia was far less smooth. I was only there for two nights and didn't have much time to look around the city; but I did get to see the Liberty Bell, though from quite a distance because of the perceived danger of terrorist attack. I passed the exam and have now received my ECFMG certification.
The following week I had a wisdom tooth extracted at UCSF. I had let this wait a month because, as a foreigner, the University didn't see fit to provide me with Dental insurance. I did however get coverage through Robert's insurance once he had been working at IndyMac for more than two months. The extraction was done by one of the orofacial surgeons at UCSF using local anaesthetic without any sedation.
Not to be upstaged by my sore and swollen face, Robert sprained his ankle the same week. We shared the ibuprofen. In this picture we were having brunch at "Squat & Gobble" in San Francisco. The ankle has been useful to him in travelling to and from Los Angeles as Southwest Airlines lets limping passengers board first.
Summer in San Francisco has been unusually sunny and warm, but as we had expected a more typical (cold and foggy) Summer, we had planned to go to the beach for a week at the start of July. We arranged to rent a holiday house in Provincetown, Massachusetts together with Jay and two friends from Los Angeles, Ben and Fred.
Before we left I received the news that the Medical Board of California would not allow me to transfer my temporary license as a foreign physician from UCSF to UCLA. This meant that I could not take up the (much better paid) position offered by UCLA from the start of September and instead I would have to stay on in San Francisco and we would continue to pay rent in both cities and the cost of travelling between them.
On the way to Provincetown, we stayed the weekend in New York. It was hot and humid, much as it was the previous August when we visited. This time we went to the top of the Empire State Building and looked at the view and visited a few of the other tourist destinations such as Central Park and Times Square. Here are Robert and Jay in Times Square:
We rented a car in New York and drove to Provincetown. This took about six hours and we went through four states: New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The states are much smaller in the Northeast: Rhode Island was 40 miles from border to border. There were five of us going so we had booked a "Mercury Mountaineer", a big four-wheel-drive.
Provincetown is a small seaside town at the tip of Cape Cod, a peninsula adjacent to Boston. We last visited Cape Cod in September 2000 when we went to a wedding in Chatham. Provincetown was one of the first landing-places of the pilgrims who started the European colonization of this part of America and it is an old town with narrow winding streets and many old timber buildings.
Here are Robert, Fred and Ben outside a restaurant in Provincetown which faced immediately onto the beach. You can see the sailboats moored in the background. The significance of the red, white and blue bunting was the 4th of July holiday which fell during our stay.
The town had a parade and fireworks for the Independence Day holiday. Every fire truck and police vehicle in town as well as many floats carrying either servicemen or peace protesters made up the rather disorganized procession. We celebrated the holiday as we did almost every other day in Provincetown by reading and lying in the sun. In this picture Jay is sleeping and I'm reading the new Harry Potter book. My red, white and blue bathers were a concession to Independence Day:
We had a very relaxing break; the only significant activity being a party at Macmillan Wharf the day after we arrived, two trips to the gym and a dinner party for the five of us and two friends of Ben's and Fred's.
Back at work things have been hectic with the new anesthesia residents starting at the beginning of July and the third years leaving, including two of my favourite residents who have promised to come and visit Melbourne in the future.
Last Sunday we visited Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo, Northeast of San Francisco. We went on most of the rollercoasters and saw their dolphin show. Here Robert and Brian are finishing their ride on one of the rollercoasters where the seats are mounted hanging underneath the rails.
Our plans for the future have undergone some revision since my last e-mail now that I won't be able to work in Los Angeles. Instead I plan to finish at UCSF at the end of December and return to Melbourne at the end of January to start work again at St Vincent's. Robert will continue working at IndyMac until he returns to Melbourne, probably in March or April.
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