Roma — The Eternal City Thursday, May 22 2008

[Note: More photos of Rome can be seen here and here]

As the plane descends into Rome, the captain awakes you by announcing clear, sunny skies and 12 Celsius weather. The Italian man sitting to your left awakes with a start, and you can’t help but admire his ability to sleep through an 11 and a half hour flight without stirring for either food or a bathroom break. He catches your eye and asks, in English, if you’re here on vacation.

“Si,” you say, tentatively trying your hand at Italian. You studied French in high school, but the romance languages share some similarities, grammar-wise and vocabulary-wise, and you decide you might as well give it a shot. The worst thing that can possibly happen is that you’ll both have a good laugh over a butchered phrase. “Sono qui in vacanza.”

He smiles, appreciating your effort, and says that he’s returning from holiday in Phuket, and that he had a fantastic time. “La Thailandia è molto bella,” he adds in Italian, complimenting the beauty of your home, and you don’t care if you sound biased — you have to agree. He is the quintessential Italian man, the kind you see in the movies, read about in the books, and hear about in the songs — tall, dark, and handsome, with sleepy, mysterious eyes (then again, he did just wake up). You can’t help but wonder if you approached those movies and books with a tad too much skepticism; maybe some of the cliches and rumors about this country are true after all.

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That’s Amore Tuesday, May 13 2008

I’m in love with Italy. Butterflies-in-your-stomach, mushy-like-a-Hallmark-commercial, head-over-heels kind of in love. That’s the only way I can explain it. The colors feel more vibrant here. Food even tastes better here. Since I’ve arrived, there’s been a smile on my face that I can’t seem to wipe away. Anything seems possible here. There’s always something waiting around the next corner.

Rome was like nothing I’d anticipated; the hundreds of thousands of pictures of the Eternal City never prepared me for the sheer majesty of the real thing. Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica was a deeply personal and profound experience that this sometimes skeptical Catholic will remember forever. The lovely renaissance city of Florence stole my heart, as did the idyllic Mediterranean island of Capri, where the faint scent of lemons and oranges linger with you everywhere you go. Venice deserves all the hype she’s gotten since the days Casanova frolicked through her winding canals. La Serenissima she is sometimes called, and deservedly so; never have I seen her more serene than at the end of the day, when the lights come on and the throng of tourists retreat from the fringes of her shores. Light seems to shine brighter in Venice, glinting off the glimmering black gondolas and casting shadows along the fading terracotta buildings, giving her the famed romantic ambiance she is world-renowned for. An afternoon drive through the gently rolling hills of Tuscany was like driving through a sun-kissed postcard; the image of faded villas dotting the endless expanse of vineyards will forever be imprinted in my mind.

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All My Bags are Packed, I’m Ready to Go… Thursday, May 1 2008

• Passport? Check.
• Camera? Check.
• Italian phrase book? Check.
• Trusty travel guides? Check.
• Watched the best of Italian cinema, like Cinema Paradiso, Malena, Il Postino, La Meglio Gioventu, L’Ultimo Bacio, and Pane e Tulipani? Check.
• Read obligatory books about la dolce vita and il dolce far niente, like Vroom With a View, A Thousand Days in Venice, The City of Falling Angels, and Bella Tuscany (all of which were fabulous, by the way)? Check.
• Worked up an extra ravenous appetite for pasta and gelato? Check.
• Extra collapsible suitcase to transport hot Italian guy back home? Check.

And as if the prospect of spending the next two weeks in Italy wasn’t enough of a head rush already, I just found out yesterday that I ACTUALLY PASSED MY DENTAL BOARD EXAMS?!?

Holy shit. Too much excitement to handle here. Way too much excitement.  In fact, I’m still in a bit of a daze and am still having a hard time believing it, really (the part about passing my boards, not traveling to Italy — that I’ve been dreaming about since, oh, forever).

~*~

Currently Playing: Catch You by the uber glam Sophie Ellis-Bextor, whose super stunning, super vivid music video was filmed in none other than Venice. Can’t help but wonder if I’ll embarrass myself too badly if I try to reenact said video while I’m there? Something tells me that the answer to that question is a resounding HELL, YEAH.

Currently Reading: Villa Serena by Domenica de Rosa.

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To Whom it May Concern (The Post-3rd Year Dental School Version) Wednesday, Mar 5 2008

To 3rd Year (aka the Year that Very Nearly Killed Me):

No offense or anything, but boy am I glad I’ll never have to see you again. You sure did give my ass a whooping now, didn’t you? All those weekends spent doing root canal access openings and long nights spent with the books sure did teach me a thing or two about appreciating the small things in life, like naps. I mean, seriously, if I had a penny for all the times I thought to myself, “God, I’d kill for a nap,” I’d be off sailing into the sunset somewhere around the Mediterranean right now.

And geez, your buddies? All 16 of them? They sure didn’t make things any easier, mind you. Take the best of your pals, Microbiology and Pathology, for instance. They very nearly turned me and every last person in my dental school into raving hypochondriacs. I swear, My Girl’s Vada Sultenfuss had nothing on us. I mean, it was totally normal for us to be all ready to dig into a steaming hot bowl of kuay thiew tom yum, only to stop short and ponder about the striking similarities of the noodles to Ascaris lumbricoides, and to wonder if that’s the reason why some of us (not me, obviously) can devour a pint of ice-cream and a loaf of bread before hitting the sack, and still remain as thin as a rail. Or how about the countless times we were learning about some random disease in Patho, only to notice an obscure spot on our arm and go, “Shit, do I have dermatitis herpetiformis? Does that mean I can’t have gluten? But I can’t live without — oh wait, that’s a mosquito bite.”

I mean, THAT’S JUST NOT HEALTHY.

But thankfully we got over it. And lived through it. And man, although you’ve taught me SO incredibly much this year — stuff that is actually starting to come together and make sense, stuff that I can actually see myself applying to real live patients in the future — I still have to say, THANK GOD I’LL NEVER HAVE TO SEE YOU AGAIN.

Au revoir, sucka!

But thankfully yours,
Lynn

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Getting My Arse Kicked Tuesday, Nov 27 2007

I promise there’s a good reason why I’ve been MIA for so long; a reason that explains why I’ve pretty much dropped off the face of cyberspace — whether it be here on my blog or on Facebook, the one place I used to check even more than my email (because, really, there’s no better way to keep up with what’s going on in so-and-so’s life than FB’s newsfeed, um, not that you heard that from me) — and pretty much real life. Basically, I’ve been getting my arse kicked. By none other than the biggest, baddest foe I’ve ever met.

Dental school.

So when I signed up to dental school, I knew it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. I knew that it was going to be hard work and that I’d have to cut down on my social life and all that jazz. But seriously, I didn’t think it was going to get this tough this soon. To demonstrate, here’s an example of my Monday schedule, although I promise I won’t be offended if you decide to skip it entirely as it’s long-winded and probably the most TEDIOUS, most BORING, most GOD AWFUL schedule in the history of the universe.

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It Makes You Speed Wednesday, Jun 20 2007

A motorcycle ran into my car this morning, leaving a nice 5 inch-long dent on my bumper. While waiting for the insurance guys to show up, I noticed her shirt. At first I thought it was a regular Coca Cola-themed shirt and didn’t really pay much attention. Then I took a closer look. Oh, how I erred! On it, it declared:

“Enjoy Cocaine…
It makes you speed!”

Sure does make you speed all right!

Yeah, speed smack center into the rear of other people’s cars. Man.

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Freak Magnet Sunday, Jun 3 2007

My girl Caro dubbed me the Freak Magnet way back in high school, and as you can see, the nickname is most definitely here to stay.

[Along Kata beach, while Lynn attempts to play
the part of savvy professional photographer]

ELDERLY GERMAN WOMAN
Excuse me?

LYNN
(looks up from viewfinder)
Yeah?

ELDERLY GERMAN WOMAN
You (points to Lynn)
take picture (slowly mimes camera movements
as if Lynn is mentally slow) for me and my friends?

LYNN
(holds out hand for camera)
Um. Okay.

ELDERLY GERMAN WOMAN
(walks a few feet away to join her two elderly friends,
one of whom is sunbathing…topless)

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Rain, Rain, Go Away! Wednesday, May 30 2007

So I’m bumming in Phuket (again) and you’d think the apocolypse has arrived because the clouds are choking up the sky and drenching the island in a torrential downpour, which is pretty much all it’s done since we first arrived four days ago. Every morning since then I’ve woken up, looked out the window facing the villa swimming pool, and seen this.

 

Yeah, not exactly the tropical seaside paradise I thought I’d be enjoying my last week of vacation before school starts.  But, ah well, there it is.  I gotta say, though, that swimming in the rain is a pretty novel experience.  While everyone else is trying to dash between the drops, you can just go on doing your thing since you’re, well, sopping wet already.

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Things that Suck Saturday, May 19 2007

The mirrored elevators at Siam Paragon bug me to no end. Not only does it make for a sorta/kinda awkward situation when everyone in the elevator is looking ahead and trying to not look at the reflection of the person standing next to them, but it also reveals for everyone in the elevator to see if you’ve committed a faux pas or not.

[In the elevator at Siam Paragon]

THAI WOMAN
How come you no take me for vacation?

FARANG GUY
Because I’m busy with work.

THAI WOMAN
Why we not go for small vacation?
We go for few day only.

FARANG GUY
(considering)
Okay.
Maybe a short vacation to Hong Kong or Singapore?

THAI WOMAN
(shakes head)
No, no, no.
Not Asia.
France.
(excitedly)
I want to fry to France!

JASON
(elbows Lynn hard)

LYNN
(bursts out laughing)

JASON
(stares ahead with nary an expression on his face)

THAI WOMAN
(glowers at Lynn in mirrored elevator)

LYNN
(stares meekly at shoes)

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Lucky Numbers Friday, May 11 2007

A few weeks ago I dreamt of my grandmother, or Ah-Ma, as I called her, when she was alive. In the dream, she was bustling around, healthy as can be, which was something of a surprise because in the last few years of her life my grandmother’s many illnesses had rendered her bedridden.

“Ah-Ma, you look so healthy,” I gushed. “How old are you now?”

“Seventy-eight,” she said.

And that’s all I remember. I can’t even recall if she did the jig or floated down on wings or gave me some grand prophetic advice on how to conquer the world. All I remember from that dream is the number 78. Yeah, I know — pretty pathetic, huh.

But try telling that to my mom and aunt, both of whom are Superstitious with a capital S. I guess that’s not much of a surprise — Thais are notorious for their almost zealous superstitiousness, and my mom and aunt are no exception. When they heard about my dream, they poked and prodded, trying to whittle out every last possible detail (”Uh, I think Ah-ma’s shirt was white…or was it yellow?”). I told them it was all pretty hopeless since I plain suck when it comes to dreams, always forgetting them within seconds of waking up; all that remains are a few wisps of conversation and a general gist of what went down, if I’m lucky. Usually it’s more of a big blank.

Still, despite the paltry details, my mom and aunt were positive my grandmother was trying to tell them something.

They were convinced my grandmother wanted them to buy lottery tickets.

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