Windy City Weekend

Going into sixth year, I knew I wanted to do a rotation that involved teaching.  After four years as an anatomy lab TA and three years as a Seminar teacher, I had become rather fond of bossing kids around (just kidding!).  Stlcop already had a few academic rotations set up at school with Dr. Becker and Dr. Katz, but I decided to start my own rotation with Mrs. Tranel, because after all, her class and curriculum was the one I knew best.

My anatomy academic teaching rotation was back in September, and I loved it.  I had a couple of projects during my rotation, and one of those projects was a research project that looked at whether teaching students through drawing improved their retention and learning.  And surprise, surprise, drawing does help :).

Fast forward to January.

I received an email from Mrs. Tranel suggesting that I submit an abstract of my research to the American Association of Anatomists.  What the heck, I thought, I’ll submit it just for kicks and giggles.  Imagine my surprise when AAA accepted my abstract and asked me to present a poster at their regional meeting.  CRAZY.  So little Ruthie got started on her research poster, when, SURPRISE!  The AAA asked me to do a platform presentation instead of a poster.  Apparently, Mrs. Tranel had asked the AAA if my research could be considered for a platform presentation, and the coordinator was on vacation at the time so I didn’t get the notification until late.  So, with less than two weeks before the conference, I ditched the poster and scrambled to put together a presentation, and that’s why I’ve neglected the blog for the past week :).

The AAA regional meeting was this past Saturday, so Mrs. Tranel and I hopped on a plane and flew to the freezing city of Chicago.  I found out I was actually going to be competing against other graduate students in the anatomical education category of the platform presentations, and I about peed my pants.  I was up against amazing projects… there were two med students from Columbia University who wrote an entire anatomy lab dissection manual from scratch and a girl from Ontario who developed a 3D program to view the brain stem and cranial nerves.  My research seemed so small against theirs… all I did was write a rubric and grade drawings.  So imagine my shock when I won.  I was so sure that I hadn’t placed that there was an appetizer in my mouth when they called my name.  Real classy, I know.

The competition :).

To celebrate, Mrs. Tranel and I went out for sushi, and the woman is surprisingly good with a pair of chopsticks!

But anyway, that was my weekend in the Windy City 🙂

And before I sign out, here’s a funny quote pertaining to this weekend:

Me:  “Mrs. Tranel, what if we end up in a sketchy part of Chicago?”
Mrs. Tranel:  “Well, if anyone thinks they can mess with you and me, their ass is grass.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Feelin’ the Love

I met up with a friend recently, and one of the first things she commented on was the fact that I hadn’t updated my blog in over a week.  And while I’ve been aware that readership of this little blog has been on the up and up over the past few months, I am constantly blown away by how many people (some of whom I don’t even know) religiously follow (and apparently enjoy?) my ramblings.

So, thanks.  This blog is something I enjoy, and it’s nice to feel the love 🙂

That being said, I know I’m constantly apologizing for being behind on posts, but this time, I had a legit reason.  I promise.  I’ll let you all know about it tomorrow, and then you will smile and forgive me for being MIA over the past week 🙂

TTFN!  Ta-ta for now!

To-Go, please.

If you couldn’t tell by now, Singaporeans LOVE their food.  Everyone on the tiny island is a foodie in their own right, and on more than one occasion, I have been sucked into a debate about which hawker stall or restaurant makes better food.  Combine this love of food with a busy and bustling lifestyle, and what you get is a very “to-go” friendly food culture.

Now, I realize that you can get food to-go in the U.S., and you’re probably thinking that this is shaping up to be a very boring post.  Oh ye of little faith.  What makes getting food to-go in Singapore different is the way it’s packaged, and to me, Singapore has packing food down to a science.

Unlike the U.S. where we put everything into giant, bulky foam containers, many places in Singapore wrap their food in this brown paper stuff that has a thin plastic inner lining to prevent leakage.  Everything is rubber-banded, put into a plastic bag, and looks like this:

Super nifty and efficient.  And the best part is the yummy-ness on the inside:

Chicken cutlet rice with cucumbers and chili sauce.  All for $2 SGD ($1.54 USD).  Yes, please.  And did you catch a look at the really cute chili sauce packet?

For some reason the chili sauce packaging kills me.  so.  cute. 🙂

If you happen to go to a REALLY local place, you might be lucky enough to get some of your food wrapped up in a BANANA LEAF:

How totally old-school-local-island-Jungle-Book-esque is that?  I don’t get my food wrapped in a banana leaf often, but when I do, I LOVE it.

And look at how they give you drinks!  Yes, the plastic cup is nothing new, but they put this little plastic handle on it so it’s so much easier to carry around 🙂

Why don’t we do this in the U.S.?  It’s so much easier to carry a drink at your side instead of balancing it in your hand and worrying about spilling.  The simplicity of it all blows my mind.  Kaboom.

And just for kicks and giggles, here’s a picture of the giant cat that hangs out around the MRT station right outside my uncle’s place:

Ok.  Random post done.  Talk to you guys later!

Food. Again.

I told you that there would be a lot of foodie posts while I was in Singapore.

This past weekend, I was blessed to have been treated to lunch by my friends June and Huimin.  We munched on xiao long baos and noodles, and I used my puppy eyes and pleading face to convince them to be in a blog video for you guys.  😉

If you didn’t hear, June is the one on the left and Huimin is the one on the right.  Apparently “xiao long bao” means “little dragon buns.”  Props to Huimin for teaching me that. 🙂

And while photography of the kitchen wasn’t allowed, I snuck a video of the chef making noodles because handmade noodles aren’t that easy to find, and they taste a million times better than packaged noodles.

And if you were wondering (because who doesn’t wonder about good food?), the restaurant we ate at was Paradise Dynasty on the 4th floor of Ion shopping mall on Orchard Road.  Super, super good.

Schezn

Happy Monday everyone!  Today you get to meet one of my favorite people in the whole world, my good friend Schezn (pronounced “shun”).  Schezn is a Singaporean and a pharmacy student at the National University of Singapore, and she was kind enough to let me interview her for my blog!

Just ignore my giant man hands and the fact that I apparently like to wave them around a lot when I’m talking. 🙂

Confessions + Elvis

Confession #1: I’ve been back in the U. S. of A since Wednesday night.

Confession #2: I’m super behind on posting because jet lag had me hibernating for the past 72 hours.

Confession #3: I actually left St. Louis this morning for a residency interview in Memphis, TN. 🙂

So now I’m chillin’ with Elvis in Memphis, and biting my nails while waiting for my interview in the morning. Definitely a mix of nervous and excited. Wish me luck! I’m sure I’ll have lots to tell you guys when I get back. Until then, here are three things that I learned on my 4 hour drive down here:

1. Country music is not good driving music. But it’s the only thing on the radio between Kentucky and Arkansas. Boo.

2. Billboards and bad radio ads are ten times funnier after 2 hours of driving.

3. Your butt will inevitably fall asleep during a long drive. Skinny jeans (or worse, jeggings) will accelerate this process. I learned this the hard way.

I still have a good number of Singapore posts I want to write, so I’ll be putting those up this week while I get settled in to my new site at St. Luke’s. Hope you guys had a good weekend! Talk to you when I get back. 🙂

Breakfast of Champions

Food, food, and more food.  In Singapore, you’ll never hear anyone say “there’s nothing to eat.”  Even in the wee hours of the morning I guarantee you that you’ll be able to find something to eat.  Generally speaking, there are three types of eating venues available (in order from least formal to most formal):  hawker center, food court, and restaurants.

Food courts and restaurants are pretty straightforward… they’re all over the place in the U.S.  However, hawker centers are probably a bit more of a foreign concept.  Essentially, hawker centers are a collection of small, super local food vendors who cook out of stalls in open air markets.  Everything is really, really cheap… I can eat at a hawker center for less than $4 SGD, which is $3.22 USD.

On Saturday morning, my Uncle Joe, Aunt Karen, and cousin Sean went to the Tiong Bahru hawker center for breakfast, and I coerced them into being a part of my video 🙂

Here’s the food mentioned in the video (in order):

1)  Chwee kueh, a rice cake with preserved radish on top
2)  Png kueh, glutinous rice with peanuts wrapped in a chewy skin
3)  Soy bean milk with grass jelly (no, the jelly is not really made of grass)
4)  Youtiao, deep-fried dough sticks
5)  Mee siam, rice noodles in spicy, slightly sour gravy

Super, super delish… I love Saturday morning breakfasts out!

Downstairs from the hawker center was a small marketplace that sold everything from fruits to flowers to novelties and everyday items.

And thank GOD there were no durians at the market.  Durians are a spiky fruit that smell terrible.  They’re so notoriously foul-smelling that they’re not allowed in trains or train stations.  They’re supposedly delish, but I can’t get past the smell to even give it a try.

I watch a lot of Food Network, and it’s always funny to me when the chefs are given exotic fruits as a secret ingredient.  They always freak out and panic, while I chuckle silently knowing exactly what these fruits are.  The two fruits that I’ve seen used are lychees (left) and mangosteens (right):

But anyway, that was my leisurely Saturday morning brunch and market shopping.  Hope you guys enjoyed the food fest!  Muchos gracias to my relatives for tolerating my persistent video requests 🙂