ThE iNtErIm PaGe
Interim part 2 - wedding planning: third year and beyond - since Iain has been on the North American continent...


People often ask us how we handle being apart, well, it's very difficult.  It's a shame that the North American continental plate moved away from the plate of Eurasia trillions of years ago, or else, Iain and I would not have this raging ocean known as the Atlantic separating us right now.  But we do the best we can and being career-oriented and concentrating on our respective studies do take our minds off things.  But in the quiet of the night or when other people around us are cozy with their spouses or significant others who are close by and tangible, it's simply heartbreaking for both of us. This page will chronical  how we (mosly I) spend the time while we are apart (since he left for London). It's retroactive with some of the pictures from the fall 2002 semester, aka, my second year of medical school, which was of course before the engagement took place.


Saturday, October 22, 2002, Cultural Diversity - GARBA.


(left to right) Shrithi Patel, Ivan "Chickenhead" Riley, me, and Umakant Kori





Monday, October 31, 2002.  Halloween - when all the freaks come out...or all medical students go to the bar DC Chases for our Halloween party.  The only rule is not you CANNOT dress up as anyone in the medical profession, no medical student, surgeons, maybe sexy nurses, I don't know...

Ivan (the Karote kid) and Connie (the musketeer)
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what are you looking at?!

all the girls wanted to sing Karaoke "I Touch Myself" by the Divinyls

I'm not sure what we were singing, probably Madonna...

Anshu, Chrissy (little red riding hood), Chris (a redneck), Abe (sumo wrestler), and yours truly
girls really should not have hirsutism (facial hair), Martha and Amy
           


Thursday, November 14, 2002.  Lafeyette Park.  Second Annual M1/M2 Powderpuff Football

This is the defense team with coach Joe Yancey after our glorious victory against the M1 girls.


Friday, November 15, 2002.  FALL BALL at the James Madison Charion Hotel, Downtown Norfolk.

Victoria had to approve the dress
   


I went to the dance with Umakant and Howard, this was at the parking deck, but unfortunately the beautiful gothic bell tower behind me did not show up in the picture

that would be Umakant with the ladies


Then was exams and the engagement, during which the Christmas holiday came and went, after the new year, Iain went back to London, and I had Victoria to keep me company while my fiance is away...


Victoria and Ming holding down the fort in Iain's absence...


The weekend of February 6, 2003,I went to the semiannual school retreat in Nags Head, North Carolina. The school paid for (through our tuition) two nights of ocean front hotel stay and had workshops on suturing, intubations, etc, that everyone was too sleepy or hungover to attend early Saturday morning. Below are pictures from the retreat, curtsey of John "Dr. P-Funk" Neisser.



there were lots of sceaming across the ocean and hunting for bottles to send messages across the sea...


Ming + Iain




I ran into a friend from UVa Amy Richardson, who's a M2 at Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.  She was at the retreat with Paul Montaro, she boyfriend and a M3 in my school.
I think I'll stick with the black hair color...






the first night, we had casino night, i won lots of fake money...if only i would use that to pay off my loans....
 so i was battling Amy Roy in the moon bounce ring, this is taken immediately before I was knocked out.
 this was the thing where John "P Funk" Neisser and I were attached to the back of the tracks by a harness from our back and the object of the race is to place a velcro sock as far as we could reach before being yanked back to the starting point by the bungee card attched to our backs...it was like horizontal bungee jumping/racing...
 I need to pick on someone my own size the next time I sumo-wrestle...


When Apollo's chariot racing west for dinner in America, London is getting ready for bed after a long day of reading and essay writing.  I miss you Iain and I love you.



Then on Tuesday, February 11,2003, the class of 2005 (my class) had an auction that benefitted the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters.  So I got dressed up for the occasion...more pictures from that event to come...



since danielle talked me into auctioning off doing three hours of housecleaning with her for support CKHD (see Maid in Manhatten Norfolk) slide in the background, she was going to be the one trodding around the stage with a french maid costume and my red boa, trying to "sell" ourselves.  J.R. in the dark suit and Dr. Gunther, the forensic pathologist in the red jacket, were the auctioneers.


i'm getting a new pimp next time,the slide in the background was advertising an 1- hour massage from Ming with a picture of Lucy Liu walking on some guy's back from "Charlie's Angels."
trying out the short haircut...


Valentine's Day, February 14, the most high pressured day of the day whether you are alone or having someone special in your life.  While Iain was reading and studying in London and not attending the annual Snorg-fest (for the rest of the world that's not British, a Snorg-fest is a huge makeout session), yours truly had visitors in Norfolk for the weekend, before the storm of the year hit the Northeastern United States and Virginia.  My parental valentine and feline valentine came on Friday the 14th and left Sunday before the snow and ice got really bad.  I'll have some pictures forthcoming.  Iain and I wrote letters to each other for Valentine's Day and he wrote a beautiful poem about us based on a dream he had, where he was holding a little hand on the beach...
just modeling the French Maid outfit before I had to return it to its rightful owner (notice Elsa?!)







Mardi Gras/St. Patrick's Day, pretty much the rest of February and March just run into together with exams.  Nothing too exciting going on.  The weather's been funky with cold spells and spring-like days.  Very exicted about spring break, had a little dabble in the real estate market, and I started an "Wedding Plans Updates" page.

the harbinger of spring - pansies for thoughts of a loved one across the oceans.


Spring Break 2003 - after exams and months apart, Spring Break is here - the last week of March - 3.22-3.30.


Saturday, April 5, 2003.  Spring Fling at the James Madison Charion Hotel in downtown Norfolk.
More pictures to come.

Amit Chandra, Virginia Wood, Anshu Mahajan, Me, and Umakant
anshu at Carty's house, where the pre-party was.




Friday, April 11, 2003. Relay for Life fundraiser for cnacer research at Old Dominion University.  The medical students had a booth with free blood pressure and glaucoma screenings.  So I just took pictures of the shirt Iain and I bought in London.




Friday, May 2, 2003.  in the middle of exams, opposite of heaven, we still took time out to relax.  John invited me to the end of the year Admissions Committee dinner at the Tradewinds restaurant at Virginia Beach oceanfront.  I wasn't actually on the committee, nor did I do any interviews, however I did host the perspectives and gave tours on a regular basis.  Besides, it was a nice dinner that was free, and complete open bar  - though I had to turn down a free Lifehouse concert (curtsey of J.R. and his wife) that evening though...

(far to near) classmates Ron, Ron's wife, Corey Heitz, and Melissa Krebs

important admissions committee people and sponses

the existing Dean Don Lewis (right) who is leaving the admissions committee to do more pediatric neurology

the second years who just survived pharmocoly, with the pharmocology course director Dr. Mickey Castle and his wife
John Neisser, Melissa Krebs, Corey Heitz, and me.
all the students on the admissions committee and the staff

After the dinner, we picked up Anshu and went to a party at a first year's house
John, Seth Ford, Kristy Black, and Phil Rotter




Thursday, May 16, 2003.  David Guiseppe "Rusty" Ventura visited the minger in Norfolk.  It was wonderful to my fellow pledge brother for the first time since graduation two years ago.  He just graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a masters in Computer Science and has taken an offer with a Japanese company in Tokyo.  We went to Happy Hour at TIME lounge and then the bar D.C. Chases where these pictures were taken.  There was much catching up, reminescing old times, in-depth discussions about life, relationships, etc.  <for some reason, all my single friends seem to think that I am the know-it-all of relationship, since I've finally got my own life all figured out:)  >








Friday, May 17, 2003 - Sunday, May 19, 2003.  Weekend in Midlothian, Virginia, where my parents were visiting Iain's mom from Radford and we met up with them.

I became a hermit studying for the Boards (United States Medical Licensing Exam Step 1), which I took on Tuesday, June 17, 2003.  That concluded by second year, I became 1/2 M.D., and a week later, I started orientation for Third Year Clerkships.  Proceed to Interim 2 page for the rest of medical school before the wedding...