i've come home to a downright messy apartment after a whirlwind weekend in vancouver...i left thursday night for the pacific dental conference, where a bunch of other dental kids and me presented our summer research. it was a good thing for me, i think, to just get up and leave amidst a hectic schedule of this and that - i mean, i come back not prepared at all for an oral path midterm i have later this week, there's a fixed practical on friday, and i've got some cleaning and shaping of tight canals to do for thursday, but i feel like i've taken a vacation, so to speak - at least, experienced something entirely different, got away from the schedule of school. it's a little refreshing, to do new things. so, as tired as i am, i'm going to have to (medicate my way through it via hyper doses of caffeine) use good hard diligent work habits to survive the next few days. then, it's march break, and i'm FREE!!!! FREE!!!! strictly speaking, i need to only get through the next 5 x 24 hours...

i always remember a good trip by the food, and the food in vancouver was amazing. getting there was something else. i lost my driver's license the day before i was to leave, scrambled around with fedex to get my passport sent to me, and obtained a temporary the day of as well (my mom is going to kill me when she reads this) only to find out that school ID is good enough. i did an overextended but decent access opening and then ran to catch my prearranged checker cab to the airport - whereupon a little old lady fought me for my cab, called me a liar, and so i acquiesced. not all little old ladies are meek and weak. the flight was smooth and fast - even the food was pretty good (but not that good - wait till i tell you what i ate when i actually got there) - but i can't say i can yet fully put my trust in very small airplanes. it reminds me of casablanca - a romantic, twin engine plane - yet, then i think of failing engines, and without the security of something that has a massive titanic-esque size, it's a little nerve-wracking. i still can't fathom how the heck airplanes become airborne (or tissue-borne. hahahah removable joke).

anyway, i was hungry the first day. without breakfast, and hurriedly trying to get to the waterfront convention center (the view is breathtaking!), i did all my poster stuff - and hobnobbed with editors of this and that, and the president of the british dental association, who was even a "guest" judge. he reminds me of dumbledore, of harry potter fame. there was a reception that night, and although hotel food is not usually something to rave about, my jaw dropped as i walked into that reception. four stations of overflowing, meticulously prepared food....lamb prepared two different ways with a plethora of sauces (like curry and mint and mango and something dijon), weird and wonderfully braised and grilled meat on sticks and rolled into figurines, mounds of scallops, mounds of shrimp, mounds of smoked salmon (herbed and plain), a presentation of cheeses and crackers, chocolates and other pastries, the requisite sushi and little hors d'oeurves made of i don't even know what but i ate it anyway, a free and open bar, pate and fried stuff....i went there a starving, deprived person, and came out rotund and satiated. i even ate some vegetables (thus wasting stomach space), because they had baskets of red and yellow peppers, which are, at the local loblaws in london, like a million dollars per pound. it rained the entire weekend, but i suppose that's ok, because had it been warm enough to wear anything skimpy, my protruding food belly would have cut a wide saggital figure. i ate so much. i guiltily admit, while everyone was standing, and not eating, and listening to speeches, i was lurking in the back, with a rack of lamb, chewing away...lots more food adventures to share. irish pubs, malaysian treats, sushi of course, chocolate shoppes, a world of gelato and even some room service for fun...
i have to go now. in any case, it was a good weekend. i didn't win the competition - all of the posters were great and represented a lot of work, but now we're all part of an international association for research, and as a surprise, everyone got an award and scholarship from an academy i've never heard of, and i met a few great people from the other dental schools in canada (dedicated to classic hotel alcohol parties - they even sought out the only bar open that would sell beer and let them take it with them - LCBOs were closed by then), as well as some other grads, one of whom is coming to do ortho in western this summer.

now, back to the grind....pedal to the metal, nose to the floor, etc etc etc...