Archive for the ‘Notes’ Category
One of the unique opportunities of anesthesia residency at Duke is the opportunity to work in the hyperbaric chamber. The division and chamber has a storied history, perhaps most notable for the Atlantis Dives, an effort that culminated in three volunteers’ record-breaking chamber dive to 2,250 feet. Today, the chamber continues a combination of routine therapy for wound healing and other chronic indications; emergency therapy for carbon monoxide poisoning, air embolism, and dive emergencies; and a fantastic program of research. It is the only civilian hyperbaric facility with US Navy certification. The chambers themselves look like something out of a cold war submarine movie, and so pictures earned a spot here.
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After finishing my DPhil at Oxford last year, and completing the final year of Duke medical school this year, this spring was filled with graduation festivities. It was a big summer for my sister Lorne as well, who earned her juris doctor at UNC Law. Over the space of just a few weeks, we celebrated Lorne’s law graduation as well as my graduations from Duke and Oxford. We were lucky enough to get Bill back into some MD robes and take a family academic dress picture or two!
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After passing my viva on 10 April with minor corrections, submitting the corrected thesis on 28 April and having it approved 30 April, the only task remaining to formally complete the Doctor of Philosophy degree is submission of the final bound thesis document to the Bodleian Library. By happy coincidence, this was just in time for both Sabine’s MPhil submission deadline and May Day.
We began the morning by sneaking to Wolfson’s boat house under cover of darkness and taking an early-morning row in the double scull to Magdalen Bridge, where we could hear the Magdalen College Choir perform its traditional tower-top performance. In the afternoon, we deposited our theses at the Exam Schools and went on to celebrate Oxford courses wrapping up well.
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Each year, Wolfson sends a contingent of Dark Blue supporters to the Henley Boat Races. These races include the varsity events for the men’s and women’s lightweight rowing crews. Additionally, 2014 is the final year in which the women’s openweight race was also contested in Henley. Thanks to a push by Newton, sponsor of the Women’s Boat Race, that race will join the openweight men on the Championship Course in London beginning in 2015.
After a winter of flooding, the river and weather came together in just enough time for a beautiful Henley Boat Races. The atmosphere on the bank was jovial as Oxford won two of the three varsity fixtures (lightweight and openweight women), losing only the lightweight men’s race.
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One of the many joys of the holiday season can be found in the crisp air and sparkling lights in the long nights. Here are pictures from two examples.
First, Lisa and I went to Baltimore’s 34th Street, where for the past 66 years, (most of the) residents take it upon themselves to put together a pretty impressive holiday light show. The block really stands out against most of downtown Baltimore’s rowhouses, where a few lights in the window are the norm.
Next, Grace, a friend from DukeMed who originally hails from Baltimore, took a flight with me to see her hometown from the air. The air traffic controllers let us fly around the downtown area, and Grace was able to get a couple of great pictures of the Inner Harbor and Johns Hopkins Hospital.
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Saturday afternoon, I visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore with Lisa. It’s been at least seven years since I’d visited this renowned aquarium on the Inner Harbor, but its collection of over 17,000 fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and marine mammals is as breathtaking as ever. Although we couldn’t cover the whole site, we did see plenty of fish, a Giant Pacific Octopus, seahorses, jellyfish aplenty, coral, urchins, rays, dolphins, turtles, and more.
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Although my posts since being back in the States have been about adventures away from home, I’m finding Baltimore is a pretty friendly place to live and work. Here are a few local pictures. First, when Katie from Penn State came to visit in April, we visited Fort McHenry. This star fort most famous for its role in the defence of Baltimore during the War of 1812. After seeing the US flag flying over the fort the morning after a decisive bombardment and battle, Francis Scott Key wrote what would become the national anthem of the United States. We took the water taxi over to the fort and took a look around on a beautiful Saturday.
The other set of pictures is from my accidental encounter with the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race on the way home from the grocery store one day. This race is a hilarious endeavour, wherein homemade, human-powered “sculptures” must traverse road, water, and mud in an hours-long race. The rules are myriad, but include such gems as:
1+. PERSONAL SECURITY RULE
Each Sculpture must carry at all times 1 comforting item of psychological luxury heretofore referred to as the “Homemade Sock Creature” (HSC). Homemade Sock Creature must be made in a home, from a not-too-recently-worn sock from the home, and resemble a creature homemade from a sock. (penalty: 1 hour)
It certainly seemed like the competitors were having a good time!
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For the winter holidays this year, my brother visited from the States. He’s also a Duke medical student, currently on his third (research) year. We did a bit of local touring in Oxford and London with Evan and her sister Lena, had Christmas dinner with Elo and Richard, and then set off to visit our cousin in Italy. Pictures from Italy will be in a post to follow, but below are some of the Oxford and London adventures.
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This autumn and winter so far have been weather adventures. The story of autumn was one of flooding. Heavy rains throughout Michaelmas term in addition to construction at Hinksey Weir lead to consistently red and amber flags for most of the term. Just as things were starting to calm down in time for Christ Church Regatta, heavy downpours on already-saturated ground of the northwest Thames catchment area lead to flooding more extreme than that seen in 2007. Many boathouses were flooded, and even University squads had to find alternative places to row.
December so far has been dry but beautiful: an early dusting of snow combined with unseasonably cold temperatures have lead to a winter wonderland feel in northern Oxford, including the University Parks. Unfortunately the centre city area remains mostly snow-free, so no pictures of glittering old colleges this time.
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