ASHP mid-year meeting in Las Vegas! (1 of 4)

About one third of the people from our class (not including the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years) met in Vegas right after finals. As long as we attend all the required sessions and events, the school would reimburse us the registration fee. So why not?

The overall experience was new and exciting (in the beginning at least). I wouldn't recommend staying there for more than two nights because a lot of us got really bored after 3 nights and I was there for four nights (not counting the first night)! I never had to fly to Vegas, so I found it very surprising to see slot machines at the airport. For the first 3 nights, most of us stayed at Sahara, which is very close to the Convention Center. All of the events took place at the Convention Center.

Day 1:
Olga, Pannyun, and I left early to make it to the 9 AM session about residency while Aileen, Linh, and Stephanie slept in (a good number of them went to Pure the night before). I believe Pure at Caesar Palace was voted one of the best night clubs in the US in 2004.

The residency talk was mainly about the process of applying for residency programs after one graduates from the pharmacy school and the benefits of doing so. Like many other people, I've thought about residencies but I don't know if this will be a definite decision. I was so sure about declaring the pharmaceutical care pathway, but I'm not so sure anymore. However, that doesn't mean that I'm not no longer interested in the clinical aspect of pharmacy. I simply have found other possibilities.

There are three different pathways at UCSF: Pharmaceutical Care, Pharmaceutical Science, and Health Policy & Management. As of now, I'm positive that pharmaceutical science is out of the question because I can't see myself doing research for 20+ years. I've only recently developed an interest in HP&M. How? Blame it on Medicare Part D. I'm sure not everyone is familiar with Medicare Part D. Basically, it's about prescription drug coverage for the beneficiaries of Medicare. Enrollments for Part D began in November and it will become effective on Jan 1 2005. The huge problem with this plan is that it's extremely complicated...not that Medicare/Medicaid and insurance policies are not complex enough already...Somehow I've developed an interest in health policies and I'm eager to learn more about it.

After the residency talk, the three of us left to go to Paris for the champagne brunch buffet. We paid the price for the breakfast buffet ($13) but we actually had access to everything except for the champagne. The brunch buffet costs $24, with unlimited glasses of champagne. Everything they served was pretty much the same as that one time when we (Ann, Christina, Jessica, Michelle, Tina, and me) ate there less than a year ago. I have to say...I got my money worth this time!!! I love the desserts at Paris!!!

After we finished eating, we walked to Bellagio and watched the fountain show; it was really pretty. Then we took the free shuttle back to the Convention Center for the 2 PM session about career opportunities (I thought it wasn't interesting at all). After the session, Nancy, Pannyun and I decided to go shoe hunting at Fashion Show Mall. Since we had to dress professionally, I only brought two pairs of heels and didn't bring any comfy shoes at all. By this time, my feet were hurting badly. I got a pair of REALLY comfortable shoes from PUMA in less than 20 minutes. That goes to show how desperate I was. Nancy got 2 pairs of shoes from Macy's and Pannyun also got a pair of shoes there. Macy's were having a family weekend sale so there was an extra 10% off.

We continued shopping inside the huge mall. Meanwhile, we were trying to get a hold of Amy to join us for dinner at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba. Cafe Ba Ba Reeba is a Spanish restaurant that serves mainly tapas, paella, and sangria! The four of us ordered:

Two orders of paella: lobster paella (paella de langosta)
Three tapas: baby spinach salad, chorizo bits, piquillo peppers, and eggs (ensalada de espinacas)
roast tomato filled with tuna (tomate relleno de atun)
grilled squid in olive oil & garlic (calamares a la plancha)
A pitcher of sangria: black raspberry sangria

Paella is a traditional rice dish made with varying combinations of rice, meat, vegetables, and seafood. Tapas are cold and hot "small dishes" kind of like the size of dimsum. I've never eaten at a Spanish restaurant before. I definitely recommend everyone to try it!

When girls go out to dinner, how can you forget about the desserts? Even the desserts are mini-sized. I think this is a great idea because they were all $1.99 each (except for the ones that have liquor in them). So we ordered 3 mini tapas desserts:

Three milk chocolate cake (tarta de tres leches)
Caramelized banana with vanilla ice cream (platano al caramelo)
Coconut bread pudding and sorbet (torrija de coco)

The desserts were too irresistable to eat AND watch!

After dinner, we walked on the Strip and we happened to saw the pirate show at Treasure Island. We were all very surprised and dissapointed. The last time I watched the original pirate show was back in 2001. Now, the new show is called Sirens of Ti. This show is not the family kind of show that parents should bring their kids to watch (at least that's what I think) because the performers are dressed very scandalously...but it IS LAS VEGAS...

First quarter recap (3 of 3)

So there was Kim and Lily's b-day celebration at our apartment (30 min after the fire)

Kim and Christina made jello shots (blue and pink cups shown in the picture); they were really good! I took like 4 shots! (HAHA)

Some more pictures from the Walk to Cure Diabetes in October:

The UCSF medical center team:

From left: Jenn, Michelle, Stacy, and me (we were the only pharmacy students there; Jenn, Michelle, and Stacy are the coordinators for operation diabetes)

There was Karen's surprise b-day party:

The cake was huge...and pretty heavy

Everyone was happy and smily... :)

From left front row: Christina, Karen, Kim, Nancy

back row: Rosalyn, me, Amy

Who knew that pharmacy schools also have fraternities? We actually have two pharmacy frats at UCSF: Kappa Psi and Phi Delta Chi. Over half of our class pledged for one of the two (PDC alone has 50 new pledges). It was difficult for some people to choose one over the other. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to pledge for PDC; I felt a sense of genuineness from PDC that I didn't find in KY. The pledge events don't take place until the winter quarter...more reasons to be looking forward to the upcoming quarter. The 2005 PDC pledges:

First quarter recap (2 of 3)

I enjoyed first quarter very much. Mainly because of the many hands-on experiences available to us, the "student pharmacists". This is something Mary Anne Koda-Kimble (UCSF School of Pharmacy Dean) emphasized in her speech during the White Coat Ceremony in October, that the ceremony marks our transition from "pharmacy students" to "student pharmacists".

APhA is the one organization I decided to join very early (every pharmacy student joins this). Why? Because you get the OTC handbook just by joining. (For those that don't know what OTC means: OTC stands for over-the-counter; aka nonpresciption drugs) The handbook is a 3-in-wide, hardcover reference text required by the CP (clinical pharmacy) series. Besides this obvious benefit of joining APhA, it's the student projects that interest me. The projects that I'm interested/involved in are the following three:

Operation Diabetes
Hypertension/Cholesterol Project
Operation Immunization

A handful of us attended the training sessions for diabetes and hypertension/cholesterol. The training session is required for those interested in measuring blood glucose, blood pressure, and choleterol tests for the public at health fairs. Christina and I were practice buddies; we were partners for diabetes, cholesterol, and later, immunization training. They told us that punching a small hole in your finger tip doesn't hurt. But let me tell you from my personal experience, it DOES hurt! Ok...ok...it's not THAT bad, but it stings. Especially when you're milking the blood for the cholesterol testing, your finger just becomes numb. I don't mean to scare anyone...because it also depends on the type of machine and test strips you use.

A group of us signed up to go to the San Mateo health fair near the end of October. I'm SO glad to take the time out to go to this event. The San Mateo health fair is supposed to be the largest health fair we can participate in. The event was mainly organized by a group of dedicated pharmacists and APhA. There were tables for blood glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol, and bone density tests - all free access to the public! In addition, there was also a big section of various displays of health issues like AIDS, lung cancer, women's health, OTC/herbs, etc. I was responsible for measuring cholesterol level. I was a little shaky for the first two people; I had to poke them twice, but I gained confidence and actually knew what I was doing. It went pretty smooth from then on.

The course instructors for CP managed to incorporate immunization as part of the class this year. Did you know that licensed pharmacists and intern pharmacists in California can administer immunization shots to the public? Our class of 2009 became the first class to be immunization certified in November. First, we had a written pre-test on different vaccines for MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella), influenza or flu, tetnus, pneumonia, just naming a few. Then we had a 2-hour immunization training where we were divided up into small groups. We partnered up in pairs and gave each other two flu shots intramuscularly (they were actually saline solutions). Christina and I happened to be partners...again. So we heard that one or two of our classmates bursted out with tears after receiving a shot from their partners. As for myself, I didn't have a difficult time giving Christina shots. Afterall...I had enough practice on lab rats. But of course, it's a totally different experience the second time around.

First quarter recap (1 of 3)

I figured that I'm REALLY going to keep things short. Things are just not THAT special (to me) to talk about after 3 months have passed.

First of all, pharmacy school started on Sep 15 and we had a week and a half of orientation before this. For the first two weeks or so, it was unnecessary to buy groceries because we got free food by going to organizational meetings like APhA (American Pharmaceutical Association), ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists), CSHP, AMCP, WHO, ASSP, bla bla bla... It's a mouth-full of acronyms.

Classes are structured very much similar to the ones at UCSD. This past quarter, I took 18 units of classes, of which the first four are required:

Biopharmaceutics
Physical chemistry (thermodynamics)
Biostatistics
Clinical pharmacy practice I
Women's health issues
Student AIDS forum
Introduction to pharmacy pathways and careers

They say that first quarter, actually, first YEAR is the easiest of all 4, and we should get the most out of it by joining twenty organizations, going clubbing every Wednesday night, and hanging out at the bar every Thursday night. I agree to the first part of the previous sentence. First quarter was not so bad. In fact, UCSD gave me a tougher time. I guess UCSD prepares its science majors well. Friends who know me know that it's a miracle to find me at a club. I just don't care for it that much. But I went once for Grace's birthday celebration, at Harry Denton's Starlight room. To my surprise, I actually had fun. It was fun to see everyone there. I haven't been to a bar yet...something to venture out next quarter.

If you haven't heard already...we had a scary fire accident about 3 weeks in to school. We threw a "house party" for Kim and Lily's birthday. It was about 30 minutes before our guests arrive. I was lying in my bed, trying to get some rest and all of a sudden, Kim runs into my room and yelled with a panicked voice: "Sally! We have a fire in our kitchen!" I ran into the kitchen and Christina was standing in front of the stove, trying to put out a pot of red, scorching flame that is about one foot high. Apparently Christina was trying to boil a pot of oil with the lid covered and kind of forgot about it. The smoke alarms went off and Nancy and Amy (our neighbors/classmates from downstairs) came up and we were all trying to figure out a way to put out the fire. Meanwhile, Christina was running up and down the stairs, looking for a fire extinguisher, but it was no where to be found! We called 911 and opened the windows. The pedistrians and street neighbors knew we have a fire incident. The fire remained strong and our living room was filled with gray smoke. I panicked for the first time. Finally, Mike (Nancy's boyfriend) helped us put out the fire with flour just before three firefighter trucks came. I never knew the firefighters are so tall and built until I saw them close in person. The man that came up to investigate the aftermath of the fire was a giant to me!

Here's a picture taken downstairs at Amy, Linda, and Nancy's apartment (same layout as ours) during first week of school:

from left front row: Kim, Pearl, Christina, Amy (in green), Karen (in khaki), Nancy, me, Terrence

back row: Diana, Lily, Trevor

Life in San Francisco...

It's been more than 2 months and I still haven't talked about my life here in San Francisco. Well, my first impression of SF during the first few weeks was: "It's so COLD!" But now I'm immune to the windy and cold weather. A lot of things have happened...so I'm just going to give a brief re-cap...

South Korea Trip (6 of 6)

Date: July 2, 2005

Today was our "shopping" day. We spent our day in Namdaemun Market (南大門市場;남대문시장) and Myeongdong (明洞;명동). If you don't know already from the previous posts, Namdaemun market is a huge market where you can bargain almost anything you buy, such as clothes, purses, souvenirs, kimchi, roasted seaweed, ginseng, etc. And Myeongdong is of course Seoul's number one shopping spot besides Apgujeong-dong Rodeo Street (狎鷗亭羅迪歐街). If you're wondering about Rodeo Drive in Beveley Hills, you're right about Apgujong-dong. This place is considered the richest neighborhood in Seoul and many celebrities shop here. Myeongdong is different from Namdaemun market in that there are more good-quality brands and therefore is more attractive among the young people.

In the morning, we left our hotel and took the subway to Namdaemun Market station. The four of us split up and I went along with Millie. We wandered by ourselves until we saw this one shop that sells souvenirs at a cheaper price than others. We got super excited because they had really cute things there. When we walked into the store, we also saw posters, calenders, folders, framed keychains of Korean stars! It's not that I'm obsessed about them, but I ended up buying a Rain 2006 table calender and a Rain plastic folder. Technically I didn't pay for the folder because the vendor gave it to me for free. The thing is, I was really indecisive whether I wanted to get it or not. So I picked it up and then I put it down...then picked it up...then put it back again. I guess he could tell that I was REALLY interested in that plastic folder, so he gave it to me for free at the end! Millie and I bought a lot of stuff from that store (so we can bargain), and we ended up paying at least $10.00 less than we were supposed to. Or maybe the vendor was not too good at math. We each got a plastic shopping bag from another shop for $15.00. It seemed that those shopping bags were pretty popular; we saw a lot of people carry them around.

After we finished shopping at Namdaemun, we walked to the Mesa Department store a few blocks away. It started to rain pretty hard at this time and we didn't have enough umbrellas to share. So we quickly walked there to hide from the rain. There wasn't much to see in Mesa because I felt that everywhere I've been to carry similiar items. The only thing we bought from here was white chocolate ginseng covered almonds. I remember Millie and I picked up a vacinity map in Japanese from the store entrance because they didn't have it in Chinese. So we were reading it and trying to figure our where we were. A Japanese woman and her mom showed us a map and asked us for directions in Japanese...they thought we were Japanese. Then they realized that we don't speak. Millie and I scrutinized the location of question on the map and eventually were able to point them to the right direction.

In the afternoon, we walked to Myeongdong for more shopping. We first went to this five-story store that sells almost everything you can think of. This place was packed with people. And I really mean "packed"; it was really difficult to go across from one corner of the floor to another. Although I didnn't get anything from here, I got a pretty purse from a different store for $15.00. The print on the purse is pink and white interlocked squares. On each (shorter) side of the purse, there's also a small cell-phone pocket decorated with a white ribbon.

After we were done with shopping, we started looking for things to eat. There were a lot of street-vendors that sell snacks. I got a small bag of caramelized sweet potatoes for 2,000 won ($2.00). The outside has a hard caramel layer almost exactly like the 糖葫蘆 (caramelized tomatoes on a stick) you can get in Taiwan and the inside is soft. It tasted pretty good but I felt that I could make it myself.

We saw a middle-age couple selling butter roasted octopus on the side of the road and it looked very tasty and smelled so good! The price was based on weight and I got a bag of 140 gram for 3,000 won. When I took a bite, I was like "Wow! This is delicious!" While we were sitting down and relaxing, we noticed that they have very good business. The wife was responsible for roasting the octopus and the husband was in charge of handling orders. I wasn't surprised to see them sell one bag every 5 seconds or so!

When you come to Myeongdong, you got to get 만두 from "명동만두". 만두 is steamed dumplings that look exactly like 小籠包. Millie and mom went there and got us a box of 10. I didn't think it was that special at all. All I could say is that I've had better ones from China Town in San Francisco.

While we were walking, we saw this place called Cafe Iceberry. There were two huge poster stands in front of the store that displayed their featured 빙수 (shaved ice), pronounced as bingsu. Bingsu sounds very much like 冰沙 in Chinese and it also means shaved ice in Chinese. The four of us shared one tower and one green tea bingsu; they were $4.50 each. Honestly, the shaved ice in Taiwan is still the best I've had in my life, and most importantly, cheapst!!! (like $2.00)

The last thing we ate at Myeongdong was ginseng chicken soup (蔘雞湯;삼계탕) from 百濟蔘雞湯. Ginseng chicken soup is a signature soup of Korea and is thought to be very good for one's health. The typical ingredients include a whole chicken (small), glutinous rice, dates, chestnuts, cloves garlic, sesame seeds and ginseng roots. The soup was not cheap; the plain white chicken was $11.00 and the black chicken (烏骨雞) was $18.00.

Before we headed back, we took a picture in front of Myeongdong Cathedral (明洞教堂;명동교회). The reason why we wanted to come here is because one of the scenes from The Beautiful Days (美麗的日子) was filmed here.

South Korea Trip (5 of 6)

Date: July 1, 2005

Although it was drizzling when we woke up in the morning, we had no choice but to visit Dae Jang Geum Theme Park (大長今主題公園;대장금테마파크) today because it was going to rain the next day, big time.

Getting there from our hotel was not too complicated, but it still required some effort. Around 10 A.M., We took the subway from Dongdaemun Stadium station to Chang-dong (倉洞;창동) in order to transfer to Northern Legislative station (議政府北部;의정부 북부). This alone took about 1 hour. According to Millie, there are two ways of getting to the theme park from Northen Legislative station. One can either take the bus or ride the taxi. Of course, riding the bus would be a lot cheaper than the taxi. However, waiting for the bus could take up to 2-3 hours. So, I simply asked a taxi driver to take us to the theme park. How long did it take? It took about 20-25 minutes for a cost of 15,000 won (approximately $15.00). Considering the time saved, $15.00 wasn't such a bad deal. By the time we got there, it was already 11:30 A.M. The driver took us all the way to the entrance of the park. The entrance fee was $5.00 per ticket.

Dae Jang Geum Theme Park is inside the MBC Culture Park (MBC is one of the television broadcasting companies in South Korea), located in Yangju City (揚州;양주), in the northern outskirt of Seoul. MBC built this place especially for the filming of Dae Jang Geum. This was probably my happiest day in Korea. Dae Jang Geum is my all-time favorite. Being there was like a dream come true.

Because of the rain, there weren't too many people in the park. This was a good thing because we could take better pictures this way. When we got there, we met Lee Kyong Won (李京源;이경웡). He played the supervising eunuch in the later episodes of the drama. We even asked for his autograph!

For those of you who have already seen the drama, you should be very familiar with these pictures. For those of you who haven't seen the drama, I strongly recommend you to go watch it! The highest viewer rating was like 54% when the drama was on. More than half of the population in South Korea was watching the drama! Dae Jang Geum has also become the drama that made the most profit in history. This "Jang Geum" wave sweeped the whole Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, etc.

All of us also tried on the traditional dresses ($5.00 per person). It was really fun! The one that I had on was the dress Jang Geum wore when she became the emperor's royal physician and was given the title "Dae". We took a picture with the girl that was in charge of renting the dresses. She was kind of shy. At the end, we also visited the souvenir shop. Inside the shop, there were posters from the set on the walls, including the original scripts used by the actors/actresses! I got a little Dae Jang Geum figurine for $12.00, similar to the one I saw in Insa-dong. Then, we took the taxi back (this time for $10.00) to Northern Legislative station.

From there, we made two subway transfers in order to get to Yeouido station (汝矣島;여의도). What's so special about Yeouido? Well, all I know is that Millie really wanted to come here. Why? Because KBS is here. KBS is another television broadcasting company in South Korea. Many of the popular dramas we've seen were produced by KBS, including Winter Sonata (冬季戀歌), Full House (浪漫滿屋), 18:29, etc. In order to get to KBS, we took the Yeouido Park exit. It took about 10 minutes to walk to the Central Building of KBS. We toured the 4th and 5th floor of the building. The staff there led us to a room that broadcasts news. She even asked me to read the Korean on the monitor a few yards in front of me. Although I could read Korean, the staff still helped me to get through. I don't remember every exact word I said but I was pretty much saying "Hi, my name is Sally, I'm your host..." It was pretty fun!
As one of Park Sun Young's (朴善英;박선영) number one fans, Millie was super excited to see the "Goodbye, sadness" (悲傷啊 再見) poster. This drama is currently playing in South Korea. Some people might not be familiar with Park Sun Young, but you would love the character she played in 18:29. KBS closed at 5:30 P.M., so we left and took the subway to Sinchon station (新村;신정).

Sinchon is the area where three major universities are located: Yonsei University (延世大學), Ewha Women University (梨花女子大學), and Sogang University (弘大). There are numerous coffee lounges, restaurants, clothing stores, jazz cafes, nightclubs, etc. This place is very popular among young people. The main reason for us to come here was to go to the record store where "Beautiful Days" (美麗的日子) with Lee Byung Hun (李秉憲;이병헌) and Choi Ji Woo (崔智友;츼지우) was filmed. I bought something that I had to get: Rain's First Live Concert DVD pack ($28.00). The DVD pack includes 2 concert DVDs, 1 single CD, 1 picture booklet, and 10 3x4 pictures. Plus, if you get the DVD pack, you also get a free poster. How could I not get it after seeing it waving at me?