Spring Break Photo Tour

Pictures from Seattle:

Day 1: Duck Tour, Space Needle

View of the Olympics from Space Needle

Lindy and I on the Duck Boat

Observation deck of the Space Needle

Restaurant at the top of the space needle

Ernie on the Walk at Discovery Park

Day 2: Discovery Park

Lighthouse at Discovery Park

Day 3: Pikes Place Market and Ferry to Bainbridge Island

Seattle skyline from the Ferry

Wine Tasting on Bainbridge Island

Lindy and her brother on the Ferry

Pike's Place Market

The Original Starbucks

Lake Tahoe

Day 1: Sunset on arrival

Day 2: Learning to Snowshoe

Day 3: Heading out to the Wilderness

 

Day 4: Gondola to Top Of Heavenly Village

Day 5: Sunrise on leaving

San Francisco:

San Francisco

In anticipation of spring break

So before I get into the blog post for the week, I wanna make a few GSE admissions announcements.  First of all, if you’re an admitted masters student in the majority of programs, try your best to get to the admitted masters student preview day on March 30th.  It’ll be a great opportunity to get your housing, philly, Penn, financial aid and program specific questions answered (there’s time for you to meet with the faculty of your program to ask all your questions about how the program works, what jobs students typically get when they graduate etc.).  For the Higher Ed program, your preview day is March 18-20.  For info on how to register, Click Here.  There are also some accepted students preview events planned in Atlanta (3/11), Los Angeles (3/12), San Francisco (3/14), Miami (3/20) and Boston (4/4).  There are also webchats on 3/13 (LGBT students), 3/27 (international students), and 4/12 for accepted students.  For more info on these go to this link. 

Now on to the blog post. 

One of the glories of being a graduate student (as opposed to being a medical student) is that I once again get a spring break.  While gone are the days of heading to the DR for an all-inclusive resort, down to Miami for some fun in the sun, or on a cruise (shout out to SB2K6), I’ve still got a pretty great one planned.  This break I’ll be heading off on a three-city ten-day trip with my girlfriend. 

The first stop on this three-city tour is Seattle.  I haven’t been since I was very young, (six or seven).  I’m definitely excited to return, I’ve always thought it’s a city I might like to live in (don’t worry Mom, it’s, as of now more of a fantasy), so I’m excited to explore it.  The purpose for our visit is to spend some time with Lindy’s brother.  He lives in Seattle and his job prevents him from making it back to the east coast all that often.  I’m excited to meet him, his girlfriend and their dog and get to spend some time with them.  His girlfriend has a fun weekend planned where we’ll be checking out all the sites.  Given that Lindy and I are huge coffee fans, we’re both super psyched to taste what Seattle has to offer.  I’m also excited to get a feel for the vibe of the Pacific Northwest (and hey, seeing the beautiful scenery won’t hurt either). 

The next stop on our vacation is South Lake Tahoe.  We found an amazing deal on Living Social ($260 for four nights – that’s total, not per night – at the Tahoe Beach and Ski Resort), so we’re going to fly from Seattle to San Francisco, rent a car and drive out there.  I’ve never been to Lake Tahoe, but I’m suuuper excited to see it.  It’s supposed to be spectacular.  Since I don’t know how to ski (never learned, though it’s one of the three things at the top of my life list along with surfing and sailing) we’re gonna do some snowshoeing

The final stop on our tour is a day in San Francisco.  One of Lindy’s good friends moved out there this past fall, so we’re going to spend the day hanging out with her, catching up and getting a small glimpse of SF (I’ve never been there for any length of time either). 

I’ll do a post-trip photo (and maybe video) blog. 

Synagogues

I'm not a particularly religious person, though I identify very strongly with being Jewish.  For me, Judaism is more than a religion, its a culture.  Many of the Jewish practices I perform I do more because they are what my family did rather than for their religious implications.  That being said, there is something very cathartic about hearing familiar prayers in a synagogue.   I don't mean this as being proselytizing, I'm sure Christians feels the same way in a church, and Muslims in mosques, because it's more the familiarity and sense of history than anything else.  Having now lived in five different cities in my adult life, I've been to a number of different Jewish services.  Each time, I'm struck by the differences between the services.  I wrote a little bit about it this past fall when my family attempted to go to a new temple for the high holidays. 

This weekend I went with my girlfriend to North Carolina for the one year anniversary of her grandfather's death.  We went to her uncle's synagogue for the yertzeit Friday evening.  The service was beautiful.  I actually found that they used many of the same tunes that the synagogue I grew up at used.  There were definitely some differences, and some tunes that, even though I knew the words, I couldn't pick up the tune.  What is always reassuring is that no matter how different the service, the alieot and the aleinu always have the same tune.  Hearing them transports me back to my childhood.

Like I mentioned, there's just something very peaceful and cathartic about being in a synagogue and hearing familiar tunes, even if the synagogue itself is unfamiliar. 

Old Friends and New Beginnings

 

So last winter two of my college friends and I started a new tradition.  In December 2010, we rented a cabin in Tamworth, NH and brought our girlfriends along for a weekend of day hiking, sitting by the fire, cooking and enjoying each others company.  This year due to scheduling issues, our weekend getaway was postponed to be an early Valentine's Day getaway, and we couldn't quite travel back up to the White Mountains (it was a bit too long a drive for us since my girlfriend didn't get off of work until 5 on Saturday).  Instead, we decided to meet halfway between where they are (Boston), and us (Philly).  We settled on New Haven, figuring we could relive some of our college glory.  We rented a beach house on the Long Island Sound in Milford, CT and the six of us met there to enjoy each others company.

In the time between our last weekend getaway, both Will and Laura (my two college friends) have gotten engaged to their girlfriends, so this was also a little bit of a belated celebration of Will and Rachel's (his fiance) engagement (Lindy and I had gone up to Boston to celebrate Laura and Meg's engagement last fall).  I picked Lindy up at work on Friday and we drove up to Milford, a drive that went surprisingly smoothly considering we were going during rush hour traffic (if not for getting turned around a bit when we got off the highway for gas and dinner at Edison, NJ, we would have made the trip in about four hours).  We got up there and Will and Rachel arrived moments later (Laura and Meg were coming up Saturday morning).  We enjoyed a wonderful evening toasting their engagement with some champagne and catching up.

The next morning, Will and I prepared breakfast (scrambled eggs, hash browns, chicken sausage and bacon) and the four of us enjoyed a lazy Saturday morning drinking coffee and enjoying the light snow that was falling.  Laura, Meg and Thiery (their dog) arrived at around noon, and after a bit of catching up (and letting Thiery swim in the ocean to tire him out), the six of us went for a wonderful walk on the beach.

That evening was when we had the real festivities planned.  We had a reservation at Mory's, which is a restaurant in New Haven that is a members only club which basically strives to be stuffy, old, and traditional Yale.  When you go there on certain Saturday nights, you're bound to be serenaded by an acapella group.  The tables are well worn wooden tables with years of Yalies carving their names into them, and gentlemen are still required to wear a sports coat and collared shirt to enter.  While the food is overpriced, what makes Mory's so special is the toasting sessions.

They will sell you a trophy cup filled with a mixture of different alcohols and juices that you order by the color.  We first ordered the Gold Cup (Champagne, Triple sec and Orange Juice).  The way the session works is when you have the cup, you make a toast and drink from the cup.  There are other rules as well: if you're holding the cup and someone tells a story about you, you must continue drinking until the story is finished, if someone sings a song while you're drinking from the cup you must continue drinking until the song is done, if you let the cup touch the table you buy the next cup and so on.  They're old Yale traditions, and enabled our girlfriends/fiances to hear all about our college glory (as well as some not so glorious moments).  We drank two cups, had a wonderful time, instilled in Rachel, Meg and Lindy some of our Yale traditions and then headed back to Milford for the night.

In the morning, we woke up, Will made some breakfast burritos and then Laura, Meg, Lindy and I set off for New Haven since Meg had never been given a proper Yale tour, we decided to oblige.  We also met up with one of Laura's college roommates, Laurel who is getting her Ph.D at Yale in Art History, so got to catch up with her as well.  We then returned to the beach house to do some grilling for lunch before heading back to our respective cities. 

Overall it was a wonderful weekend filled with great friends, regaling in old stories, and getting excited for some new beginnings.  Hopefully it's a tradition we'll continue each year.

Classes This Semester

ALUMNI INTERVIEW PROGRAM: Before I get to the meat of the blog, just wanted to let everyone know that February is the last month of the Alumni Interview Program.  If you're a prospective masters student and are interested in an alumni interview, fill out the request form and submit your application and we'll try to match you with an alum for an interview.  All your materials must be in by the end of the month to be considered.

So before we get too far into the semester, I figured I'd take the time to write about my courses for the semester.  This semester I'm taking four courses as well as finishing up my masters paper.  These, along with the five I took last semester and the one credit I had taken prior to matriculating (I took a gse course while I was in medical school in anticipation of this year) will give me my ten credits to complete the program and graduate in May.

EDUC 544: School and Society - this course is about how the school system in America developed, its theoretical underpinnings and how it is a representation of the various interests at play in American society.  We've already covered some of the introductory topics, such as the differences between education and schooling, the purpose of schooling in a democracy, the traditional perspective on schooling: structuralism and functionalism, as well as the progressive perspective.  Still to come include the egalitarian perspective, critical and radical perspectives, libertarian perspective, post-structuralism, multicultural education, standards-based reform and barriers to reform.

EDUC 561: Adolescent Development - this course is, as its title might indicate, about adolescent development, we'll cover it from a variety of perspectives.  The course is divided up into three parts, the introductory overview, identity, and relationships.  In the introductory portion, so far we've looked at difference perceptions of adolescence, the biology of adolescence, and decision making/cognitive development.  We start part II next week with a discussion of self identity, which is followed by racial/ethnic identity, gender identity, sexuality/sexual identity, academic identity, and religious/spiritual identity.  In the final portion on of the course on relationships, we'll discuss the family, friends/peers/interpersonal relationships, and resilience/happiness.  In addition to this, we'll work in groups to compile an intervention aimed at prevention as well as to compile an analysis of our own adolescence using the theories studied in class.

EDUC 682: Qualitative Modes of Inquiry - in this class we'll be looking at qualitative research methods.  This course started out with characteristics of qualitative research, discussed the five major techniques of qualitative research, and then we had a session on ethnography.  Next week we begin with qualitative traditions/frameworks/theories, and then move on to looking at interviewing, life histories, focus groups, a data analysis workshop, a discussion of observation, proxemics and kinetics archival research, artifact collection and content analysis, followed by another data analysis workshop.  The course will conclude by looking at how data is managed, recorded and analyzed,a discussion of ethics, reflection, and objectivity as well as a session about "Writing Culture: Research Designs, Proposals and Reports.  During this class, we'll gain experience with qualitative research by actually doing some of it.  I'll be observing some case-based sessions during the Friday pediatric didactics for the Peds 200 course (not only accomplishing the goals of the course, but hopefully acting as a little refresher for peds as I've now been away from clinical medicine for quite some time...)

HCMG 845: Managed Care and Industrial Organizations of Healthcare - this course (if you couldn't tell from the course heading) is not a GSE course, but a Healthcare Management course at Wharton.  The first half of the course covers topics related to managed care, essentially explaining how our current healthcare system operates.  The second half of the course will look at various industrial organizations of healthcare (ACO's, Physician-centric delivery models, and capitation models).  The course also entails two group projects.  One on an aspect of managed care and the other on an aspect of industrial organizations of healthcare.

In addition to this, I'll be furiously working to complete my masters paper by its deadline of April 8. 

When Mom Comes to Visit: Dining Out In Philly

ALUMNI INTERVIEW PROGRAM: Before I get to the meat of the blog, just wanted to let everyone know that February is the last month of the Alumni Interview Program.  If you're a prospective masters student and are interested in an alumni interview, fill out the request form and submit your application and we'll try to match you with an alum for an interview.  All your materials must be in by the end of the month to be considered. 

Now on to the blog...
This weekend my mom came to visit, and we had a blast.

Meritage (http://meritagephiladelphia.com/Photos.html)

She came in Friday evening, and while we waited for Lindy to get out of work, my mom and I went just around the corner from my apartment for a glass of wine at Meritage.  My mom and I are both red wine fans, but have different tastes when it comes to red wines.  I went with a great Pinot Noir while she normally prefers Cabernets, but since they didn't have one that they were serving by the glass, the waitress recommended a Rioja that my mom loved. 

Upstairs at Cuba Libre

Upstairs at Cuba Libre

Transported to Old Havana

For dinner that night we had reservations at Cuba Libre which is down in Old City.  The decor in there was amazing, walking in you forgot that you were in Philly and were transported to Havana or San Juan, the ambiance was amazing.  My mom and Lindy went with Sangria while I went with a blueberry mojito (I'm a sucker for anything blueberry).  We ordered the guacamole cubano (avocado, and pineapple served with plantains) and Camarones a la Parilla (pesto marinated shrimp).  For our meals, I ordered the Ropa Vieja (shredded beef brisket) and my mom and Lindy ordered a lime-garlic marinaded chicken. 

Saturday morning we woke up and while Lindy couldn't join us, my mom and I went to Day-by-Day for brunch.  I had the stuffed challah french toast (Tiramisu stuffing) and she had the yogurt, fresh fruit and granola and of course coffee.

My mom and I went for a late lunch to Resurrection Ale House in the Graduate Hospital Area.  I had a burger and a refreshing BPA (British Pale Ale) while my mom raved about the Salad of Chicories (Citrus, lentils, almonds and pomegranate vinaigrette). 

Sampan (http://sampanphilly.com/)

Prior to dinner, Lindy and I met my mom at her hotel's bar (Sofitel) for a glass of wine.  For dinner that night we went to the best restaurant of the weekend, Sampan.  At 13th and Walnut, this Asian fusion restaurant was amazing.  Splitting a bottle of Brancott Sauvignon Blanc between the three of us, we enjoyed the Cantonese Spring Rolls, Chicken Satay and Crispy Rock Shrimp as appetizers and then moved on to the Crispy Szechuan Chicken, Soy Glazed Sea Bass and all of our favorite the Seared Tuna.

Though we were sad to see her go, Lindy and I sent my mom off in style with brunch at Ants Pants where my mom again got the fruit and granola (as did Lindy) and I got the Bacon Stack with turkey bacon.

From Theory To Practice

Last semester for my design of learning environments class, I designed a simulation based learning environment for first and second year medical students. I'm writing my masters paper on the use of mannequin simulation in medical schools and came across a few articles about simulation programs that teach the basic science concepts (typically taught during the first two years of medical school via lectures) via the use of simulation. I was intrigued by this concept and decided to apply it to Penn's curriculum.

Thinking back to my own experience as a first year medical student I imagined how simulation might have benefitted me. Basically, one of the issues I had with the first year and a half of medical school was how devoid of patient care it was. Sure we were learning a bunch of information that we'd later be able to apply to patient care, but in the moment there was very little application. Consequently it was more challenging to solidify that information in my head. Thus I designed a simulation based accompaniment to the basic science curriculum that helps students to integrate what they're learning in lecture with practical applications.

The idea was to take basic science concepts that students typically struggle with and design a simulation that exemplifies that concept. Students will work through these simulations and debrief them in their pre-existing learning teams so they will also be able to process skills such as teamwork, closed loop communication and handling stressful pressure-filled situations with grace in addition to having another modality to learn complicated concepts.

I've begun the process of proposing it to the administration and so far it has been very well received. it is still in the preliminary stages, but I'm hopeful that we could get it off the ground and running for next fall's first year class. Not a bad turn around for an end of semester project...