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So, today marks the 9th anniversary of my Livejournal! Here's my annual stats post (see posts for 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, or 2001, if you desire):

This is my 999th entry, which gives me an overall 0.30 entries per day average over the past nine years.

In the past year, I wrote 25 entries (once every 15 days on average). Almost all of those entries either had to do with my training for the Disney World Marathon or my trip to Peru. My past year had many other accomplishments of which I'm proud, but not everything makes it to this journal, I guess.

Anyway, here's to another year recapping my life. The next time I write it'll be post 1000 finally!

Wednesday 11 Feb
Woke up around 7:30, had breakfast and left with Julia and Vladamir at 9am for Belen, one of the poor parts of Iquitos and built on the river. In the past, all of the homes were built on floating logs that would rise and fall with the water level, and while some of these homes still exist, most now have structures built into the ground and were simply above water level year-round. The Vine Trust had helped start a health clinic in this area, so we went to visit (typically has one doctor, two nurses and one dentist who work there daily). A very interesting clinic set in a fairly modern building in quite a shanty town. There was also a summer school program happening in the common space of the clinic comprised of 6-12 year old orphans from the community. After playing with them for more than 30 minutes, we were of course thoroughly guilted into buying handicrafts so they could buy school supplies. Afterward we left the "Venice of the Amazon," as the locals like to call it, for the Belen Market which is on dry land and is crazy! It's apparently also dangerous for tourists to come alone, but we had our Peruvian tour guide (Vladamir) as well as a police escort about 90% of the trip. Many weird exotic offerings, from turtles to worms to boar and a whole section of natural herbal medications. Walked back to the main square for a tour of the Iquitos museum, then lunch at a delicious ceviche place. Just as we were leaving lunch, the craziest rain storm EVER (at least that I've witnessed) started, and we rode in a very cramped (and wet) motocarro to a nearby boat port. We got on a boat and headed to Puerto Alegria, a center that housed about forty abandoned boys (age 8-18) 25 minutes up river from Iquitos. Needless to say, the ride was a wet one but getting to see where these boys lived was a neat experience. The directors seem incredibly dedicated to getting their lives on track and allow them to become productive members of society. Back to our hotel to dry off, one last dinner in the main square then an 11pm bedtime.

Thursday 12 Feb
A rather relaxing day today. Up at 7am, left for the Iquitos airport at 8:30, then flew back to Lima, arriving around noon. Back to the Villa Molina, the same hotel as 12 days earlier, then a long seven hour walk around Miraflores and Barranco with Julia exploring all the sites. Only had one real goal for the day, and that was to buy domestic Peru air tickets from the LAN office in Miraflores (there is a huge difference in price when purchasing from the US over the web site and waiting until you get to Peru--in our case $900 vs. $300). With the mission accomplished, we celebrated with a late night American movie (Benjamin Button--it was either that or Coraline, which was dubbed into Spanish) and a 1am bedtime.

Friday 13 Feb
Rented a car in Miraflores today so I could spend two days exploring the outskirts of Lima. First stop today was Pachacamac, a recently found Incan ruin near the Pacific Ocean and just south of Lima. From there, I headed down the Panamerican Highway to Asia and Km 97, a beach town that springs to life the first four months of the year and then is dead the rest of the year. The drive southbound on the road is much more interesting than the ride north as the highway is littered with an amazing number of billboards and other advertising gimmicks (gigantic panda bears shooting ice cream at each other, for instance) that only face one direction. Drove through one of the safer shanty towns (according to my travel book) on my way back to Lima, then ended up eating dinner with a Limano who had spent 8 years living in California and felt I needed somebody to talk to. Another fun but relaxing day.

Saturday 14 Feb
Slept in some today; breakfast at the hotel, then drove east of Lima to Puruchuco, another archaeological find that included a large Incan house and tons of mummies. Also went to the main Lima shopping mall for lunch and then drove through downtown Lima--quite a scary experience! More walking around Miraflores then an early bedtime--off to pick up Minh at the airport in the morning!

Saturday 07 Feb
While I somewhat expected today to be a long and boring day as we would again spend a full day in the same village, it turned out to be my favorite on my trip to the Amazon. We arrived in San Francisco (population 600) just before breakfast and after eating took a stroll. Everybody here was especially friendly. One girl acted as our personal tour guide, climbed trees to get us fruit and even gave the the gringos of the group (Julia and me) a welcome gift papaya. San Francisco has a health center with a nurse technician and medicines, so the medical staff wasn't very busy today. However, I was extremely popular with 18 patients in the morning (18 fillings, 16 extractions) and another 10 in the afternoon (4 fillings, 16 extractions). After such a lengthy morning session, I took an extra long lunch with Rahel and Susana and searched for other fruits we wanted to eat (especially zapote). While the trip was not overly successful, the children who were searching with us kept looking for fruits while we working in the afternoon and brought us a bag of assorted goodies they found. After work, I went swimming with a group of boys in the Amazon River despite all the piranha warnings (I made sure they jumped in first). After dinner, I went back to the shore for about two more hours until the electricity in the village was shut off at 9pm (like most of the other larger villages, San Francisco had generators that they ran for power for 2 1/2 hours every night). My best friend from the village who had hung around me all day, 12-year old Jose, invited to take me to his house to meet his family and watch some Lethal Weapon movie that was on television. We conversed as best we could in my broken Spanish and shared delicious snacks including a dried fruit guava thing that was probably the reason all the kids have so many cavities. It was a great experience I won't soon forget. Shower then bed around 10pm. Hope my arm feels better tomorrow. Lots of many muscle-working difficult extractions today!

Sunday 08 Feb
Couldn't sleep so woke up at 5:30 to watch a rainy sail-away from San Francisco. Only a 30 minute ride to our first community of the day, Angamos (population 300). It was very condensed, so a short morning walk after breakfast before seeing 13 patients for 12 fillings and 11 extractions. Took another stroll after finishing the last patient and got to see a family cooking a gigantic rodent (capybara) and iguana for lunch. Unfortunately, it was time to go to the next village before they could invite me to eat some. Another 30 minute ride to Remanso (population 650). There were so many children in this village! Saw 11 patients for 3 fillings and 19 extractions before riding in a canoe, swimming for the second time in the Amazon and starting a game of tag with nearly 100 children. Another excellent day! It's so weird that the whole experience is nearly over. 9pm bedtime tonight since I'm so tired.

Monday 09 Feb
Last full day on the river! Woke up at 5:30 as we sailed away from Remanso for Santa Rosa, another short 30 minute ride up river. Santa Rosa was small (population 200) but very quaint. A woman who was a local teacher had built a huge house for entertaining and even had helped build a community fish pond. She gave us coconuts, sugar cane and camu camu, a delicious grape-like sour fruit. As it was Monday, all the men were busy doing community chores (today was mowing the grass from the nearby fields), and I saw a pretty standard 14 patients for 9 fillings and 13 extractions. During lunch we took another short ride to Santa Isabel where we started seeing patients earlier than usual to finish early (13 patients, 9 fillings and 14 extractions) so we could take a ride in a peki-peki, a canoe with a small motor on the back of it. We made it back down river as far as Remanso before it started to really rain and had to turn around (ride was about 20 minutes down, 25 minutes back plus a stop for gas). A quick walk through the village, packing and then bed. Back to Iquitos tomorrow!

Tuesday 10 Feb
Was awakened at 4:50, right when the river became light enough to see, when our boat left Santa Isabel for the 2 hour trek up river to Triunfo. While Julia, Vladamir and I would be leaving today, a new dentist would be replacing me and the rest of the crew would stay on the ship until Saturday morning. The speed boat that would bring the new dentist to the ship and take us to Iquitos wasn't scheduled to arrive until 10:30, so after a goodbye breakfast, I saw 8 patients (all children) for 8 extractions and 2 fillings. After one last round of the ship to say our goodbyes, it was back to Iquitos in a fairly large speedboat. The ride took nearly five hours, one more than advertised, though we did stop at a small touristy jungle lodge on the way back to use the restroom. We arrived into the crazy port of El Huequito, took one of the motocarros to our accommodations and then had a late lunch at Ari's Burgers near the main square (after 10 days of only Peruvian food, it was weird to have a sandwich and french fries). The early evening was spent catching up on e-mail, planning the next leg of my adventure when Minh comes and simply relaxing. A delicious dinner back in the main square amidst one of the craziest rain storms I had ever seen (until the following day). Bed around midnight.

Tuesday 03 Feb
Woke up at 6am in time to wave goodbye to Oran as we ventured on to Colonia (population 230) about 20 minutes down river. Took a stroll through the village after breakfast, tried some new fruits and my first intentional termite ingestion. Acidic! Another busy morning (14 patients including 15 fillings and 8 extractions; even had to abort on a 9 year old boy who needed to have an adult molar extracted and got through the anesthesia but refused the rest of treatment). Some villagers from Nuevo Arequipa (population 90) came this morning, so we dropped them off on our way to Canton (population 300), our afternoon village. 13 patients (8 fillings, 14 extractions) in the afternoon. I really wanted to try baca paleta, a green pea-like fruit, so three boys spent 20 minutes throwing sticks at one of the trees to get it down. I traded them gum for their efforts. After dinner, five of the children in Canton kept having me take pictures of them in silly poses. After the first ten shots, I said, "No mas!" They responded "Uno mas!" This exchange then went on for 15-20 more shots before I finally sent them to bed. It was pretty fun.

Wednesday 04 Feb
Left Canton at 6am but couldn't muster the energy to wake up until 7am just as we arrived in Santa Amelia. Did our standard tour of the village to meet the people and try new foods right after breakfast. This morning, I apparently shattered all Amazon Hope speed records by seeing 20 dental patients for 27 extractions and 11 fillings. It was a crazy morning but still quite fulfilling. It seems that the farther we get from Iquitos the fewer fillings and more extractions I am doing. Jaime, a 13 year old boy who was incredibly appreciative to have me pull one of his adult molars, let me fill 4 other teeth as well. Hopefully he'll come back to the boat in 3 months and get the other 4 fillings he needs. A bunch of kids asked me to come and play soccer with them after lunch, but alas we unexpectedly left the village we thought we were visiting all day to travel to Pebas, 90 minutes down river, to get more medications for the next set of villages. The medications we use on the boat are provided by the Peruvian government, but each district only provides medications for their own villages. Since we're leaving one district and heading to another, we need a new set of drugs. Pebas is the largest town in Peru east of Iquitos at 6,000 people. We visited the health care center and then the art studio of Francisco Grippa, which had both beautiful art as well as magnificent views of the village below. Back to the boat after a few hours, and a long journey through the night to Santo Toribio, the farthest down river we will go (approximately 200 miles down river from Iquitos and another 100 miles from Pebas).

Thursday 05 Feb
Woke up at 7am just as we arrived in Santo Torino, a small village of fewer than 100 people. Our tour of the small village was easy, so we spent nearly 30 minutes talking to an elderly woman inside her home who graciously answered all our questions about her lifestyle. A fascinating discussion. Overall, a slow morning for dental patients: one 53 year old man for an extraction and a 17 year old boy for 1 extraction (what he wanted) and 5 fillings (what I wanted). Left Santo Torino and made the 30 minute trip upriver to the village of Cochiquinas (population 1000), which is located on a beautiful peninsula. A more productive afternoon with 15 patients served (7 fillings, 17 extractions) followed by a volleyball game against the village women (this time we won and celebrated with beer from the community store), soccer with the village children and the usual nighttime dinner/shower/reading/bed routine.

Friday 06 Feb
Woke up at 7am in time to watch a pair of pink dolphins swim right off the side of our boat. Breakfast, then a quick jaunt through Cochiquinas before morning patients (17 seen for 6 fillings and 22 extractions); lunch, then a 30 minute ride up to Condor, a small beautiful 100 person village where we took a quick tour and then saw a second round of patients (12 total with 14 fillings and 13 extractions completed). We then invited all the children onto the ship to watch a movie (in Spanish). Since I didn't understand what was going on, I played volleyball and tag with four adorable girls for nearly an hour. Lots of fun! A huge rainstorm tonight! Crazy!

Friday 30 Jan
BOS-JFK-MIA-LIM. Long day, crazy long layover in a disgusting Miami airport. Hard to sleep on the overnight flight.

Saturday 31 Jan
Arrived in Lima at 5:10am; went straight to my hotel in Miraflores (the nice area of Lima) and slept until 11am; showered and walked around Miraflores including a walk to the Lacomar shopping mall and the Pacific Ocean. Met up with Julia for dinner at 6:30pm and went to dinner at Restaurant Huaca Pucllana which overlooks an archeological wonder over 1000 years old. Delicious meal (ceviche), and it lasted over three hours! Bed at 10:30pm

Sunday 01 Feb
Woke up at 2:45am for a 4:55am flight to Iquitos; landed in Iquitos at 6:20am, and Vladamir, our interpreter on the boat for the next ten days, met us and took us by taxi to Punchana, a small village 20 minutes away. Took a small boat from the village over to the Amazon Hope 2, got a quick tour of the boat, then took a two hour nap. Woke up to find other people had joined us on the boat, introduced ourselves and ate breakfast. Made a quick stop about an hour down river in Indiana. Took motocarros to Mazan (10 min ride each way, 2 soles or 60 cents each) to pick up medications and to view the Rio Napo, which heads northwest to Ecuador. Back to the boat for lunch and one more hour of napping. In the early afternoon, we docked in Oran, a village of approximately 1000 people 75km down river from Iquitos. Went with Julia and Vladamir to the village for a tour and to hang out with the kids. We were suckered into playing volleyball against the village's best women, and we lost badly (I learned later that these games were always for monetary bets--we lost 15 soles or about $5 on today's loss). Returned to the boat at dusk, took a shower (a childhood pasttime in Oran appears to be throwing hay on each other, which gets quite itchy), dinner and a 9pm bedtime.

Monday 02 Feb
Woke up at 6:30 in Oran, breakfast at 7:30; started seeing patients at 8am today--saw 15 patients in the morning (14 fillings, 12 extractions), then lunch and siesta then 11 more patients in the afternoon (11 fillings, 6 extractions). The last patient was my favorite friend from playing the day before, a 12 year old boy named Manuel who was scared of the dentist but had muy grande caries on his lower right molar. It would have needed to be extracted if it hadn't been filled today (the boat only comes once every three months). Huge rainstorm at 6pm right as we headed to the village; still went and watched some soccer, ate a delicious dinner, showered and was in bed by 10:30pm.

On Monday, I got back from a 23 day trip to Peru. While there, I wrote a journal of my daily happenings which I will transfer to the computer so I can remember my experiences.

As an introduction and overview, here's how I spent my time:

30 Jan: Flew to Lima overnight
31 Jan: Arrived in Lima, met Julia, a physician from the UK who would join me on the boat
01 Feb: Flew to Iquitos, got on Amazon Hope 2 boat, cruised to first village
02 Feb - 10 Feb: On Amazon Hope 2, seeing dental patients
11 Feb: Day in Iquitos seeing another health care facility and visiting a boy's orphanage
12 Feb: Flew back to Lima
13 Feb - 15 Feb: Lima and surrounding areas (Julia left 13 Feb, Minh arrived on 15 Feb)
16 Feb - 17 Feb: Arequipa
18 Feb: Puno and Lake Titicaca
19 Feb: Cusco
20 Feb: Sacred Valley
21 Feb: Machu Picchu
22 Feb: Cusco in AM, Lima in PM
23 Feb: Flew back to Boston

During the 8 days of providing dental care, I saw 206 patients (60% children) and did 139 fillings and 218 extractions.

In total, we explored about 200 miles of the Amazon River on the boat. In addition, I rode on 12 planes and flew about 10,250 miles; I rode on 2 trains for a total of 125 miles; I rented a car and drove about 250 miles around Lima; and I took one unexpected 6 hour, 235 mile bus ride when one of our flights was cancelled twice.

I can't wait to go back! I already miss Inca Kola!

Had a blast at the Disney World Marathon yesterday. We had a great time running through all the parks and even had time to take some pictures along the way and really enjoy the experience (as a bonus, we didn't even do too poorly time-wise--better than our goal).

So, after 18 weeks of training and almost 400 miles, it's time to retire my first ever pair of running shoes. Minh says he'll never again run a marathon, but I think I'll be able to convince him to do it again sometime. Either way, I'm sure we'll stick with this running thing for a little while longer. Next up: the half marathon at Disneyland in September! Anybody else want to join?

This week's stats:

Ran: 24.20 miles
Supposed to run: 18 miles

Total run since start of training: 340.44 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 1

We're flying down to Orlando on Friday, doing a "highlights" day at the four parks on Saturday and then running a short 26.2 miles Sunday!

Stats for the week of December 21-27:

Ran: 11.42 miles
Supposed to run: 24 miles

Total run since start of training: 316.24 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 2

Was only able to run twice before going home for Christmas and a snowy mess not conducive to running. Still was very happy to spend some time with family.

This week's stats:

Ran: 0.00 miles
Supposed to run: 30 miles

Total run since start of training: 304.82 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 3

Was told by some doctors not to run this week. Kind of put a damper on my training, but I didn't want my spleen to blow up. Will try to make up for it some this week before tapering during the last two.

This week's stats:

Ran: 26.78 miles
Supposed to run: 24 miles

Total run since start of training: 304.82 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 4

Crazy couple of weeks coming. Almost to the "tapering" stages of the training where I don't have to run so much. Will look forward to that!

This week's stats:

Ran: 21.81 miles
Supposed to run: 28 miles

Total run since start of training: 278.04 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 5

Only ran on Friday and Saturday of this week (my first week since starting that I ran fewer than three times). Got back from vacation on Tuesday morning, had an 8 hour OR case that day, a night class on Wednesday and just no motivation Thursday.

Stats for the week of November 23-29:

Ran: 35.79 miles
Supposed to run: 27 miles

Total run since start of training: 256.23 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 6

This was the week of the cruise. We did tons of laps around the ship and got in a moderately long run on the last sea day.

Stats for the week of November 16-22:

Ran: 18.29 miles
Supposed to run: 25 miles

Total run since start of training: 220.44 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 7

This was my first week not reaching the goal. Left for vacation Friday, so last day of running was Thursday.

This week's stats:

Ran: 24.79 miles
Supposed to run: 24 miles

Total run since start of training: 202.15 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 8

Just one more week of work until a vacation!

This week's stats:

Ran: 22.97 miles
Supposed to run: 22 miles

Total run since start of training: 177.36 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 9

Posting a day early this week as I'm flying to Portland tomorrow for a weekend with the family (and probably won't run tomorrow). Happy weekend!

This week's stats:

Ran: 21.39 miles
Supposed to run: 20 miles

Total run since start of training: 154.39 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 10

One week until the halfway point!

This week's stats:

Ran: 19.68 miles
Supposed to run: 18 miles

Total run since start of training: 133.00 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 11

Busy week. Didn't run as much as I wanted.

This week's stats:

Ran: 21.78 miles
Supposed to run: 16 miles

Total run since start of training: 113.32 miles
Weeks to go until the marathon: 12

This week's running stats:

Ran: 20.6 miles
Supposed to run: 15 miles

Today's my 10-year high school reunion (though obviously since I'm in Boston I won't be attending). Tomorrow is also my mom's birthday! Happy weekend!

Here are my running stats this week:

Ran: 19.23 miles
Supposed to run: 11 miles

Off to New York for the weekend/Minh's birthday!

Here's this week's running stats. Kind of a blah week with all the rain.

Ran: 17.20 miles
Supposed to run: 9.0 miles

Here's this week's running stats. 16 weeks until the marathon!

Ran: 19.43 miles
Supposed to run: 6.5 miles

We'll see how many more weeks I can actually beat the goal. It's starting to get cold in Boston!

Minh and I are running the Walt Disney World Marathon in January and have officially kicked off our 18-week training schedule. Every week, I'll update how much I ran during the calendar week and how much I was supposed to run according to my "novice" training schedule:

Ran: 15.08 miles
Supposed to run: 4.5 miles

Off to a good start, but the goal is quickly going to increase over the next month! Hope I can keep up!

Happy lottery day! Hope you didn't win!

So, today marks the 8th anniversary of my Livejournal! Here's my annual stats post (see posts for 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, or 2001, if you desire):

This is my 974th entry, which gives me an overall 0.33 entries per day average over the past seven years.

In the past year, I have written just 15 entries, or a measley 0.04 entries per day (once every 24 days on average). In the first four years of my journal (2000-2004), I wrote 800 entries and have written 174 since.

While I had previously had a small handful of times where I wrote just once in a calendar month, I wrote only once in seven of the past twelve months--and for the first time ever did not write at all during two months (February and April 2008). Two years ago, I also made a resolution to hit post 1,000 before graduating from dental school, something with which I obviously did not follow through. I'll revise that resolution to hit post 1,000 before leaving Boston.

Oh, and it's Mount Saint Helens' 28th anniversary of its big eruption... and that means I too will be 28 in just three short weeks! That means in just six weeks I will mark the halfway point of my pediatric dental residency and my life in Boston.

Here's to another great eight years!

So, for the first time in my almost 8-year LiveJournal career, I did not post at all in a single calendar month (February), and I don't even have the "It was only 28 days long!" excuse (in case you already forgot, it was 29 this year). This post makes sure I get one for March. Lots of fun weekends coming up in April: New York, Montreal, Vegas and Disneyland. Oh, and a Hanson concert. Meet you in one of those places? Also, I get a month off from our currently-undergoing-construction dental clinic as I'm spending a month on an anesthesia rotation! Hooray for something different! Hooray for lots of extra gases!

Every school district in the Boston area imaginable is closed tomorrow based on the threat of snow. I hope the weather gods deliver! It's been too nice and warm lately!

New year! Hooray! Now I can say I will graduate from my pedo program next year even though it's still 18 months away!

Some fun vacations planned for the near future: Home to Washington for the first time since June in two weeks, Costa Rica in February for a week then a TBA vacation the last week of April/first week of May. I also FINALLY signed up to take my dental licensing exam in March, so if you have cavities between your teeth and want to be a big help, let me know!

Finally for my probably only January post, I took the 2008 Presidental Quiz or whatever, and I think I may be the only person I've seen so far to get R's and D's intermixed. Additionally, my closest match was only a 62% match (and my closest match to a guy who has a chance is 53%), so I guess it's a good thing I live vote in a state that doesn't really get a say.

First snow day in ten years (and first "early release" since the earthquake of 2001)! We got let out of the hospital at 2pm today! The streets are like a parking lot! Crazy!

In other news, our apartment flooded last Friday. Some smarty on the fifth floor decided to have a fire, which in turn set off the sprinkler. We came home from the dental Christmas party to find 2 inches of water on the floor! Most everything is dry now, but we're being evicted for four days and will be living in a hotel. Now's the time to visit Boston! Snow and free room service!

Happy Thanksgiving! Minh and I are almost finished cooking. We made everything from scratch using recipes found in a magazine my grandma sends me. So far, everything (turkey with citrus honey glaze, scalloped ginger lemon sweet potatoes, dressing, rosemary honey cranberry sauce and gingersnap pecan pumpkin cheesecake) looks and smells delicious.

On Monday morning, we got back from a week of cruising in the Caribbean. It was a blast, and we left from Puerto Rico to go to Saint Thomas, Saint Maarten, Antigua, Saint Lucia and Barbados before returning to San Juan where I busted open my chin in the ocean. Luckily, no sharks attacked.

Thank goodness for a short week, and happy shopping tomorrow. There're already people lined up at the Best Buy across the street from us.