Reach for the sky

This weekend, I noticed Owen reaching upwards with one hand. It's not a wave bye-bye up high, nor a reach like you reach when you're jumping trying to touch the rim of a basketball hoop. His palm is turned somewhat upward, and his hand - almost always his right - is a bit of a claw. It's as if he were going to pluck an apple. Or if the hand were lower, as if he were a Marvel villain, indicating his strength and plan for world domination with a simple gesture.

I had no idea why Owen was doing this. Carla pointed out that he does this when he hears a plane go overhead. (When he's outside, he'll also look up for the plane.) But that's not the only time he does it, so I think there's something else going on, too.

What I'm eating

French food – The first day I was here was a national holiday in Venezuela (celebrating an important battle in Venezuelan independence) and my host loves to cook. This is partly due to the time he spent in cooking school in France when he was learning EUS. He invited me to his family’s home and we all cooked, and then ate for several hours. The menu included root vegetables with homemade béchamel sauce and gruyere cheese, vermicelli with homemade pasta sauce (tomatoes, bacon, fresh herbs, etc), a mushroom and beef stew, fresh salad, and grilled pears with homemade chocolate sauce.

Bottled water - even the locals don't drink the tap water.

Coffee - Yep, I'm actually drinking coffee. Venezuelan coffee is really good. I normally hate coffee, but the coffee here is pretty good, especially with a lot of milk and sugar.

Scotch – something else I also don’t like. Granted, I only had one scotch and water, but it was way better than the Dewar’s my grandmothers used to drink.

Arepas - cornmeal rolls that have cheese, meat, or other toppings. Very tasty and available everywhere. A staple.

Empanadas- like the ones in the US, but bigger and made with cornmeal

TGI Fridays – Not kidding. The menu is very similar to to the one at home (I think, as I don’t eat at Fridays but I do see the ads). American food is everywhere. McDonalds, Wendy’s, etc. Today I saw a billboard for a Wendy’s ‘Baconator’. Like the Terminator of all burgers, with bacon.

Hablo espanol poquito

How much do I wish I’d taken Spanish in high school? But no, I took French, which has not turned out to be helpful in my career as I haven't had a single French-speaking patient. The 2 years of Spanish in college were useful, but I’ve lost a lot of vocabulary since I don’t use it in B’more. Now, however, I’m rediscovering the language, thanks to my time in Caracas. My reading and listening are going ok, but speaking is coming along very, very slowly. I just can’t compose sentence very quickly. I'm definitely getting better getting through a conversation, but background noise or other people talking really throws me off.

Hola from Venezuela

I’m in Venezuela doing endoscopic ultrasound with a doctor who does a huge number of cases each week. He does more alone in one week than all the EUS docs at Hopkins put together. He’s also a good teacher and has interesting research ideas.

Caracas isn’t exactly a traveler’s paradise, so I pretty much work and hand out in my hotel room studying EUS. The doctor I’m working with and his family have been extremely kind and have also entertained me. Actually, everyone I’ve met (with the exception of the hotel desk clerks) has been really nice. People on both my flights down here (connected through Miami) warned me about how unsafe Caracas is and gave suggestions like – don’t wear a watch, don’t let people see you at an ATM, don’t go anywhere alone, don’t wear jewelry, don’t show your camera. Very kind of them to warn me, but it’s a bit disconcerting to hear these things.

The buildings in Venezuela are interesting – it’s like nothing has been updated since the Carter administration. Not the hotel rooms, building styles, etc. The people and cars look modern, but many of the buildings look old.

The hotels are pretty bad – expensive and poor quality. Looking at a few travel websites, 75% of the reviews are complaints about how much a particular hotel sucks. Including the ones that are >$350 per night (I’m not staying in one of these). Things here are expensive, $1 = 2 Bolivares Fuertes, the Venezuelan currency. So it’s like being in Europe, but with a greater chance of getting robbed, kidnapped, or giardiasis.

Cuddly is only plush deep

Matt Kirkland goes inside some animatronic toys. Just pictures, with intriguing and horrifying moments.