Remember that show "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues"? It starred David Carradine as Shaolin priest Kwai Chang Caine, kind old explorer and kung fu extraordinaire. The updated version of the show featured Caine's son Michael, who had spent his childhood studying Kung Fu with his father at a temple likely in China (after wikipedia'ing, it turns out the temple was in California), and was famous for actually NOT having a grasshopper at his feet. As the story goes, he gets separated from his father during an attack on their temple, and subsequently grows up to become a cop. After he reunites with his father, the two of them experience endless adventure, generally involving Caine artfully vanquishing evil doers with his graceful yet deadly martial art form, and Michael shooting them with his gun. Throughout their kung fu adventures, a running theme would be in the form of flashbacks, wherein Caine and sometimes Michael would find himself in some hopeless predicament, only to suddenly remember an important lesson learned during their Shaolin Temple days that allows him to triumph over their adversity.

All of this of course relates to the last 10 hours I have spent studying pharamcology. I sit here looking over these infinitely impossible mind map slides, wondering how the heck I am ever going to pass this exam when I flashback to my ancient days of training at Mt Carmel High School. I remember my teachers teaching me valuable lessons like "If you have too many people at a study group, it becomes a pizza party", and like Caine I am using those long days of forging my spiritual and mental strength studying APEC and AP Bio to defeat today's enemies. Kung Fu, like medical school itself, is all about remembering the valuable lessons of experience and applying the knowledge gained in the past to overcoming the challenges of today.

And after spending the last 30 minutes writing this post, the greatest lesson I learned is that I am just as inefficient studying now as I was ten years ago.

So on Friday night a bunch of us decided to spend the night at the safe and fun bowling alley. What resulted was one of the most comical moments in recent history.

After a rather decent game on my part which included one strike on the night, the final turn to bowl was on me. Hoping to end the night on a good note, I picked up what had up to that point been my lucky bowling ball (also used by Leah) and stepped up to the lane. Again, trying hard to focus on making my last attempt count, I looked down to check my grip on the ball, observe my slow careful steps, and watch my smooth and deliberate release. I was pleased as I watched the ball roll right down the middle of the lane. I was less pleased when I realized the pinsetter had not actually reset from the last round, and was now coming down right as my ball approached. The ball bounced right off the middle of the pinsetter (sure to have been a strike) and slowly came rolling back down the lane. Amidst the confusion, someone yelled "Go get the ball Mike!" (definitely Nikhil), and in my own stupidity I began to walk down the lane to grab the ball, only a few feet away. As soon as I stepped foot on the lane, I realized for the first time how slippery bowling lanes are, and quickly lost my footing. In something straight out of a slapstick comedy, I ended up sliding and slipping and possibly flipping in midair. Time surely slowed down to a halt at some point while I was off the ground, my legs up in the air and my face pointed towards the ground, where I thought in my mind "This is going to be reeeeaalllly bad" right when time sped up again and I landed on the hard floor. A lesser man might have simply laid down and died at that point, but of course my inner Michael Phelps came to life and I got back up, grabbed the bowling ball, somehow managed to get off the bowling lane, and returned to the enthused greetings of my compatriots (who were very busy laughing their heads off).

The second memorable moment of the weekend came during a game of charades as I tried to guess Andy's clues. Puts up 2 fingers, "Two words!", points at himself, "Andy!", points at his shorts, "ANDY DICK!!!". (Andy's shorts).

Coming up close behind for best answers of the game were "Tire Ribs" (Spare ribs) and "Beauty and the Beast" (X-men).

Passing the time while we waited 3 hours for our food at Granite City, we decided to get to know each other a little better by sharing our answers to a couple fun questions. Here's me in a nutshell.

Favorite cheese: Mozzarella, because it means pizza.

Favorite refreshing non alcoholic drink: Gatorade

What what you want to do if you weren't in med school: Chef. I love food and I love cooking, even though I'm terrible at it. If I had any skill at all at cooking, I would love to be a chef with my own restaurant.

Something nobody knows about you: I am a red belt in taekwondo. But I've forgotten most of it.

Favorite movie: This is a hard one for me, because I don't think I can really choose one movie that would be my favorite above all else. It would be a tossup probably including Star Wars, Batman Begins, and Beauty and the Beast. And maybe the Lizzie Mcguire Movie.

We probably had some other questions too, but by that point in the night we were way to hungry to be able to remember any of it.

A really cool show to watch on the Travel Channel is Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmerman. The first time I saw it was actually at the dentist's office on the ceiling, while getting my tooth whitened by ultraviolet rays. The dentist warned me that people with sensitive gums get an uncomfortable feeling similar to a "shock" during the procedure, and apparently I have really sensitive gums because my gums felt like someone was electrocuting my mouth for the entire hour it took. Most painful experience I have ever gone through, not counting medical school.

So I went for about a month not being able to watch the Travel Channel because it reminded me too much of sitting in that dentist's office with Zeus shoving lightning bolts between my teeth again. Now that those feelings are nice and suppressed in my subconscious right next to memories of studying for the neuro final, I've been able to watch Bizarre Foods again and I have to say its a lot of fun to watch. Most of the foods he eats really aren't all that bizarre, and actually look quite delicious. It's awesome seeing him explore the world, tasting all sorts of different foods and drinks. There even was an episode where he went to Ecuador and got a cleansing ritual where the shaman spat in his face while he stood there in his underwear.

But the whole point I've been trying to get to by talking about Zeus and bald guys in their underwear is how much the show makes me wish I could travel more. Growing up, the most traveling my family ever did was 5 hour drives to Las Vegas or Palm Springs. We did go to Mexico, and had a trip to the east coast and another one to Hawaii, but we never got to see any far away countries. Going to Ecuador was a great experience for many reasons, and it allowed me to see completely new people and places and discover what life is like in a different part of the world. The trip made me want even more to travel, especially to Europe and Asia and see for myself what the rest of the world is like. Which makes being in med school even worse; we get so little free time to ourselves I feel like I won't be able to travel again for quite a while. But I guess that's the price we med students pay. Oh well, my trip to Paris can always wait until my honeymoon with Jessica Alba

Taylor Swift - "Stay Beautiful"

It's funny how I had all summer to talk about my great adventures throughout California and all the way to Ecuador, but I wait till a couple days before our first exam to finally post on my blog again. Med school is lame. The only thing that keeps me fighting and makes me stay up to look over these 200 drugs instead of going to sleep is the thought that in 10 years, i will be rich and married to Jessica Alba, or someone equally hot and impressed by a guy who spends long hours in the hospital. It is for Jessica Alba that I torture myself with pathology.