My first academic vacation...oops, I mean CONFERENCE

As part of my residency program second, third, and fourth year residents have the opportunity to go to an academic conference with a particular spending allowance. Because of how my rotations fell in the year, I chose to take my conference time in January, and I managed to convince four other second year OB/GYN residents to join me. We went to the semi-annual GOG (gyncologic oncology group) conference in San Diego. The conference was okay... but the trip to San Diego was fantastic! Even though I have not included any pictures of the conference (those would be boring), we did attend it.

Sara and Marquia at the San Diego Airport

Marquia, Erin Kate, and Sara going out to lunch

The 'Shamu Family' performing at Sea World

Virginia holding a starfish

Sara and Virginia in front of the stork exhibit/sign.

(OB/GYNs... stork... get it?)

A beautiful flamingo

Virginia and a snowy ibis

Dinner in Old Town San Diego

(L->R Tom, Jen, Sara, Erin Kate, Virginia, Marquia)

Handmade tortillas... mmmm

Erin Kate, Sara, and Virginia on the beach on Coronado Island

Virginia and Marquia in front of the Hotel Del Coronado

Sara and Virginia at the Hotel Del Coronado

Beautiful sunset over the Pacific

Virginia and the sunset

The view from our hotel

Dinner in the Gaslamp Quarter

My brother Stephen joined me for a while. He lives in LA currently.

Christmas/New Years with the Dangerfields

We had a fantastic Christmas/New Years at my parents' home in Pullman, Washington. We had two parents, all three sisters, all three brothers-in-law, two of the three brothers (one serving a mission in Atlanta, GA), and a current (but now former) girlfriend of one of the brothers.

Because of my work schedule Christmas was delayed a few days. Kenta and I flew out on Dec 28, and we celebrated Christmas on Dec 29. We all few back to our various homes in Indiana, Utah, and California on Sunday, Jan 3. During that time we had a BLAST!! Please enjoy the pictures depicting some of the excitement that was had.

Rachel and Vince Wilson excited about opening a gift -- okay Rach was excited; Vince was just waking up.

Jack was less enthusiastic about some of his more practical pre-mission type presents.

K&V happy to be home with family... and to be doing something other than working!

My mom and dad with a raging Christmas wrapping fire in the background.

Erik, Stephen, Kenta, and Vince enjoyed a lot of video game time.

While Kenta and I lived in Rochester, NY one of my good friends from my youth, Gillian Campbell (now Bowman) moved with there with her husband Jonathan. We were all at our parents' homes again at Christmas, so arranged to have lunch together. Jessica and Erik joined us after lunch.

(L->R Jessica, Erik, Virginia, Kenta, Jonathan, Gillian)

Jonathan, Gillian, and Peter Bowman

(Peter was born just before we left Rochester)

After the above-mentioned lunch all the Dangerfield clan went bowling together.

Kenta

Virginia

My dad has been researching ancient Egypt and it's relation to our religion, so my mom got him an Egyptian discovery kit (designed for ages 6-12). We decided to get in on the fun.

Rachel sporting the 'discovery goggles' while cutting out part of the decipher kit.

Watch out!

We made Dad wear the 'discovery goggles' too. Unfortunately he still had to wear his reading glasses to see what exactly was going on with the hieroglyphics on the side of the pyramid. Pretty stylish, huh?

Definitely a team effort

(L=>R Michelle Fong (Steve's girlfriend), Jessica, Steve, Mom, (second row) Dad, Virginia)

We all had a chance to chip away at the sand inside to discover the hidden treasure.

(L->R Rachel, Jessica, Dad, Michelle, Virginia)

We found the treasure!

(Rachel and Virginia)

"I want more treasure!"

Jessica

New Year's fireworks

Dad used a mini blow torch to light some fireworks off the top of our snow man, who subsequently started to lose his face (sad!).

As mentioned in my last blog entry, I love the Asian use of the English language. These are tees that I picked up in Japan in October to share with my sisters. So that you don't have to squint too hard at our chests, they read:

Rachel's: Abet Pain of ear

Jessica's: Tope Imaginative Hang Back Enjoyment Narraton

Virginia's: Pure companion coming High & Touch The decision is lucidly frank Our brotherhood

Don't try too hard to make sense of them.

Hope you all had a similarly enjoyable holiday season.

Japan - English language skills?

Ever since I lived in Korea, I have had an appreciation for the Asian enthusiasm for the English language. You see English writing all over the place. However there's often something lost in the translation. Please enjoy this pictures of a few words/phrases that made us smile.

On a different floor of this hotel this same door was labeled 'staff only.' Kenta and his mom laughed for a long time about the room that held 'stuff only.' What exactly would that exclude from being held in this room?

Appetizing, huh?

Next time you need to throw something away ask someone near you where the 'dust box' is and see what kind of a response you get.

If you read the blue print below the stick figures with various ailments, you find that unspecified 'internal disorders' will get you a special place on the train.

Japan - Miyajima

This is another of my favorite spots. When the tide is higher it looks like this torii is floating in the ocean. Unfortunately, we were there at a lower tide so you can tell that it's actually on solid ground -- still very beautiful though.

We were caught in a huge rainstorm a few minutes after we arrived, so Kenta's dad bought us a couple umbrellas and we enjoyed walking through some shops.

A 5-tiered pagoda

K&V with the torii

K&V taking the ferry to the shrine and torii

Japan - Matsue

This was one of my favorite spots on our trip - Matsue (ma-tsu-ay). It's a beautiful mountain town with one of the six original Japanese castles that are still standing. It is also famous for soba (barley) noodles, which are my favorite Japanese noodles.

We found this fantastic lacquer ware shop. This is the artisan who hand carves, paints, and lacquers each piece. It's pretty pricey, but very beautiful and of excellent quality. I'm holding the small bowl with its lid that we bought there.

K&V in front of a couple torii at the entrance to a shinto shrine

View from the top of the Matsue castle

K&V in front of Matsue Castle

K&V eating zaru soba - cold barley noodles that you dip in a soy based sauce. Mmmmmm. This restaurant is particularly famous a a place where the imperial family ate when they were in Matsue.