June Travels

Time for another catch up post! I've done a fair bit of traveling for the past 2 months and I was hardly in St. Anthony.

In early June I headed out to a high school friend's wedding. It was non-religious and was easily the most efficient wedding I've been to. The ceremony was around 4:30 pm followed immediately by the reception at 5:30 pm. They even squeezed in the bride and groom's first dance before the dinner. I sat at a table with old high school friends and a lot of catching up was done. Weddings usually provoke a lot of introspection and this one was no exception; you can't help but think about your own life when you see how the lives of others have turned out.

The food was pretty good but seemed to take a while to come out. Someone at my table astutely pointed out it that the caterers combined the worst of both worlds: it was the classical chinese 10 course meal but the waiters had to individually plate each dish for every guest (western style). With chinese food, the 10 courses go by quickly because everybody serves themselves from the big dish in the center. In western cuisine, everybody gets their own plated food but there are much fewer courses to serve.

Once the dinner ended, the dance started up but it was starting to get a little late and the vast majority sitting at our table had kids to return to. I was also starting to feel jet lagged so I headed home early as well.

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In late June I flew out to Vancouver to attend an Anesthesia conference. The annual conference presented a good opportunity to not only get out of St. Anthony but also to see friends and enjoy the west coast. The fact that it was educational, tax-deductible, and also a source of education credits (which we doctors must accumulate to maintain certification) was an added bonus. Well, I can now proudly say that I've flown from coast-to-coast in Canada. After a 5 hr. drive to Deer Lake, I hopped on a 2.5 hour flight to Toronto and, after a 1 hour layover, got on a 5 hour flight to Vancouver. Man, this country is big...

It was my first conference so I didn't really have any prior experiences to compare it to. All the sessions were interesting and served as a reminder of how hard it is to stay current and up-to-date. It was held at the recently completed Vancouver Convention Center. It was quite distinctive with it's grass roof and offered excellent views of Burrard inlet and Stanley Park. The food was also pretty good as well -- "the best continental breakfast I've ever had" I raved to my friends. Mind you, that's not saying much given my preferences for cheap accommodations when traveling.

I also ran into a number of my teachers from U of T and I'll admit I was a little worried about encountering them. A year really isn't a long time and with memories of the end of my residency still fresh in my mind I wasn't sure what to expect (from me or them). Fortunately, things worked out well and we conversed easily.

I stayed with my friend's parents and they rolled out the welcome mat. To my chagrin, they insisted on driving me to the conference every morning (I was all prepared with a 10-pack of transit tickets) and taking me out to dinner in the evenings. They also expertly avoided all my attempts at footing the bill for any of these excursions. I wasn't sure if they were serious but when they said they were picking up the tab in preparation for a trip to Newfoundland I told them I would be expecting them!

The weather was quite simply amazing during my time out there -- I commented that it was August-like weather. Sunny for the entire week and 22C for the high. We next hopped on the ferry over to Victoria for a few days at my friend's new place. They showed me around town and some of upscale neighbourhoods. It's interesting how there's so much waterfront property in Victoria that being on the waterfront doesn't typically command the same premium as it does in other places. Nonetheless, you still have to get past the million dollar price of admission and the higher cost of living. Like Newfoundland, being on an island automatically makes everything more expensive.

This is it for now: I'll write about July in the next post.