2年ぶりの仙台へ

光陰流水、二年間の臨床初期研修生活は「あっ」というまに終わっちゃいました。北海道での生活はほぼ“病院→家→病院→家→すすきの→家→病院→家”のように過ごして、単純な生活でした。残念ながら、北海道の観光はほとんどできず、スキーは一回もしなかったまま、この雪国から去っていっちゃいます。振り返ってみると、この二年間で、様々なすばらしい人たちと出会え、そして仲良くなり、確かに恵まれた環境でしたね。すすきののクラブは行きまくってしまって、クラブの職人まで知り合いになりました。（注：クラブ＝Dance Club;　キャバクラではNOT! )これからこの暖かくしてくれた職場から離れ、未知の世界に飛び、ちょっと不安でもあります・・・（汗）。
この二年間支えてくれた同期たち、そして甘くしてくれた先輩たちに、本当にありがとうと思います。

4月2日に札幌を離れ、苫小牧からフェーリーに乗って、二年ぶりの仙台に戻る予定です。
4月3日に母校（東北大学）の後輩たちに北米の卒後臨床研修の説明会みたいなイベントあり、ちょっとどきどきします。いや、いつの間にか仕事増えたな～！（笑）

2年ぶりの仙台、6年間一緒に過ごした仲間たちと会うのを楽しみにしています！！

San Francisco revisited

Finally the my exams are over.
I felt the sense of relief, but at the same time, was not very happy with my performance. Well, I can blame no one for that, I was hardly even prepared for it. February has been busy than ever. Besides having visits from family and friends, I was doing a neurosurgical rotation, with much of time spent in the OR. There were lots of farewell parties, meeting-ups, and events that packed my schedule for the whole month. I wasn't able to even study for the exam; writing a blog was totally out of the question.
The last week of the rotation was spent in Hokkaido University Hospital, an affliated hospital of an Imperial University nearby. Though there were lots of red tape in such instutites, I was welcomed with opened-arms. It was a great experience getting to know the various other surgeries done there, and the interesting people working there. I had a great time.
Though my career was sort of decided by now, I still get lots of friendly invitations to join the neurosurgical team from various famous surgeons, and it has been hard to resists.
My step 3 exam was taken place in San Francisco, a city in the west coast of the U.S.A. It was my second visit; the first visit was 2 years ago, when Daisuke was doing his one year study vacation over there and I decided to stop over after my visit to UPMC and Boston.
It was great going to a city that felt familiar from the start. The weather was awesome during my visit, pretty unusual for a place famous for its rainny and foggy winter. Though my exams were complicated by the computer break-down, lost of my registration form, and the terrible jet-lag, I am glad to have a much enjoying experience outside the long hours of computer-based exams.
Chinatown, Coit tower, Fisherman's Warf, Ghirardelli Square, Golden gate park etc. were awesome, and I was glad to be back again. The openess of the city could be seen in how people from all skin colors actually integrated into the society, with hispanics and asians working from top executives to blue collars. I heard that the Police Chief is a Chinese woman. This is sort of different from the east coast, since the society is more segregated and you don't get alot of great different mixture of ethnics in one place the same time.
San Francisco - though this visit was brief, I came to love the place, and perhaps, it shall be another city worth more revisiting.