Australian Medical Internship Crisis

Just recently in August 2010, the Australian government realizes that they are lacking the number of Internship positions for everyone who graduates from medical school. Canadians and other internationals who funds a huge part of medical schools are realizing that there are no guarantee for them to have a internship position at any public funded hospital. The internship or what we call "residency" in Canada is critical for fresh graduates to decide what specialty of medicine a Doctor is interested in.

This online article is part of my medical research if I want to obtain a MD in Oz land and most likely come back to Canada to complete my residency.

Here is the article from the Australian Medical News today.

Article Date: 26 Aug 2010 - 0:00 PDT


The AMA shares the concerns of Australia's biggest medical schools that the national shortage of medical internships has severe implications for the future medical workforce and its ability to meet the health care needs of a growing and ageing population, with more people suffering chronic and complex conditions.

Dr Pesce said the internship shortage has reached crisis point and all Australian governments, including the next Commonwealth Government, must work together to find solutions.

"The most recent estimate from the former National Health Workforce Taskforce is that Australia has a shortage of around 4500 doctors," Dr Pesce said.

"Since 2004, there has been a strategy in place to increase medical student numbers dramatically.

"By 2012, there will be around 3500 medical school graduates each year.

"This will go a long way towards addressing workforce shortages, although we know that we currently don't have enough supervisors, infrastructure, and other resources to train all these students and continue to train graduates.

"The AMA has been campaigning since 2004 for more support to teach and train these students and graduates.

"We need to invest in infrastructure, fund more supervisors, and utilise settings beyond public hospitals to make sure that students and graduates can get hands-on clinical experience with patients.

"We know that we are fast approaching a crisis in relation to the provision of prevocational and specialist training positions for medical school graduates in hospitals, general practice, and other community and private settings.

"To illustrate the challenge, in 2009 there were 2243 intern positions across the country, which falls well short of the 3500 positions that are needed in 2013.

"Already, NSW, Tasmania and Queensland are looking unable to offer intern places to all applicants.

"Current allocation arrangements give overseas full fee paying medical graduates the lowest level of priority in the system and they will be first cohort to miss out on an intern place.

"But as domestic graduate numbers continue to grow, they too will face the same problem in a year or two.

"Medical training does not stop at the university gate.

"Doctors undergo many years of training once they leave medical school, including prevocational and specialist training.

"They can't go on to get full recognition as a doctor unless they complete an intern year once they leave medical school.

"Unless we devote more resources to medical training after medical school, the reality is that, as graduate numbers grow, more and more graduates will miss out on an intern place and be forced to look overseas to complete their training.

"Given our current workforce shortages, this is an enormous waste of our investment in boosting medical school places.

"The AMA calls for no further increase in student places until the internship and other training issues have been addressed.

"The health system needs to provide enough prevocational and specialist training positions to ensure that all our future graduates can go on to get a comprehensive medical education, and that we fully train enough doctors locally to meet the future health needs of the community."

Dr Pesce said that the AMA has been calling on the Commonwealth to institute benchmarks in its hospital funding arrangements that require the States and Territories to provide sufficient numbers of training places in their public hospitals.

"The Medical Training Review Panel must monitor the performance of the States and Territories against these benchmarks."

Source:
Australian Medical Association 

Medical School on the Brain again...

Oh Lovely...

It's been indeed a lazy and up most quiet day at work and I decided to stumble on some old medical student blogs that I have always read in the past.

With my previous postings about people who I have known have passed away, I am thinking to myself that I am entering make or break mid-thirties and what I am going to do with my life. I got a beautiful girl who I love dearly, marriage and family plans and of course world travel. We agreed to each other that we cannot strive in once place for long as the boredom will extirpate us both.

What will I do with my life-long passion of entering the field of Medicine? These questions have been floating around in my head since my darling has finished her University Degree.

Volunteer in the ER again? Talk to my family Doctor? Plan a road map?

Perhaps being older and more diverse in my personal and professional life will give me the tenacity to reach such ambitions.

Rain, Rain and more Rain

The summer weather in Calgary has been very interesting this year. It's been a mix of rain, snow (hail) and little sunshine. I been telling people that it's the same as living in Vancouver, Canada during the winter time.

To fuel my curiosity on how bad it has been, I have found this summer's weather statistics:

Check out the average temperature for the month of June, July and August. Now that's cold for summer time....

Is this guy crazy or what?

For those who are following the anti-Muslim "Koran-Burning" headlines, here is another one that's puts things in perspective. Why do we have people in the world who are making it harder for world peace.

In the corner of Sunday's Oliphant cartoon titled "Pastor Jones goes to New York", a small character quips, "Your 15 minutes are up, Reverend" (Bangkok Post, Sept 12).

Pakistanis thrash an effigy of pastor Terry Jones during a protest in Multan on Sept 10, against the pastor of the Dove World Outreach Centre’s plan to burn copies of Islam’s holy book. Rev Terry Jones (below, right) cancelled the burning in exchange for the New York City mosque’s plans to be relocated to Gainesville, Florida.

That may be true about Terry Jones' personal fame, since a month ago no one on this side of the globe had heard about him or his tiny Protestant church in Gainesville, Florida, nor of his 2010 book, Islam is of the Devil.

But when he announced the "International Burn a Koran Day" from 6pm to 9pm supposedly to be held on Sept 11, the world's attention descended upon him.

The outcry against his proposed act from religious leaders around the world notwithstanding, world leaders from President Barack Obama to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to David Howell Petraeus _ a former professor of international relations who received his PhD from Princeton and is now the commander of US forces in Afghanistan _ all were in unison in appealing to the pastor to call off this act, fearing it would provide some Muslims with justification for "holy anger" that could fuel further violence around the world, and American lives, among others, would be endangered.

After the intervention of Imam Muhammad Musri, who arranged a meeting with another New York imam concerning the construction of an Islamic centre and a mosque near the site of the 9/11 atrocity, Pastor Jones told the press that his Koran burning act would be put on hold for the time being.

If one agrees with Dominique Moisi in his recent book, The Geopolitics of Emotion (2010), that one cannot fully understand the world today without trying to construe the ways in which emotions such as fear, humiliation and hope shape world politics, and that a clash of emotions between fear in "the West" and humiliation in the Muslim world is going on, then I would argue that what Pastor Jones did was to show us how vulnerable to global violence the world has become. More importantly, to live with such vulnerability, a genuine appreciation of such a danger is to understand both the meaning of the Koran in the lives of Muslims, and the dangerous implications of book burning, sacred and otherwise, for freedom and violence.

Koran and the Muslim Mind

I've just read a short Thai novel about a Buddhist teacher who falls in love with the daughter of an imam in a southern province. The man is first captured by the beauty of her voice reciting the sacred Koran.

It is believed that the sound of the holy book being read can soften the human heart. I myself try to read the Koran every day, and in the silence of the night I can feel its power consoling my sometimes restless soul.

To be a Muslim, there are 6 articles of faith one has to believe: in God, in His angels, in His books _ and Koran is not the only one _ in his prophets, in the end of days, and that all good and ill come from God.

The Koran is a book arranged into 114 chapters with more than 6,000 verses. The Koran has many names. Apart from being called "al-huda" or guidance post, it is called "Kalam-ul-lah" or "Words of God". As a revealed religion, similar to Christianity and Judaism and different from Buddhism as an enlightened religion, Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad, who was illiterate, received God's first revelation in a cave in the Mountain of Light in 610 AD. And the first time it came to him, it came in 5 verses:

"Recite in the name of your Lord who created

Man from blood coagulated.

Recite for your Lord is Most Generous,

Who taught by the pen,

Taught what they did not know unto men."

(Chapter 96: verse 1-5)

If he or she is unclean, a Muslim cannot touch the Koran (which literally means "to read" or "to recite"). Only after making ablutions can he or she touch the book. Even when the books are worn out, they must be treated with respect. A Durban magazine, al-Ummah (2008) reports the case of Baker Wahid, a South African farmer who used to collect worn copies of the Koran and respectfully bury them in his own farmland. In the town of Quetta in western Pakistan next to the Afghan border, in 1992 Haji Allan Noor Daavi began digging a cave in his friend's quarry, to create a depot for old, worn copies of the Koran which he packed in linen sacks. Presently his endeavour became a foundation called Jabal-e-Noor al -Qur'an (Koran, Mountain of Light) which continues to collect old and damaged copies of the book to either be restored or buried.

Such reverence for the Koran in the minds of Muslims needs to be understood. So when Pastor Jones, in one of his interviews, points out that he will burn the Koran, and that though he may not like it the Muslims could do the same to the Bible, he misunderstands two important points.

First, as earlier indicated, Muslims have to believe in God's other holy books, which include the Bible and the Torah as well, and therefore to even think about such a possibility should be abominable to the Muslim mind in general. Second, Muslims believe that words in the Koran are "Words from God" written right into the pure heart of an illiterate man untouched by other books. In this sense, from a comparative, theological perspective, the Koran as the word of God cannot be compared to the Bible, but to Jesus as Logos and for Christians in general as the Son.

A proposal, now or in the future, to burn the Koran would therefore be a dangerously easy way to ride the escalation of existing conflict involving Muslims anywhere in the world, into the sphere of deadly violence when the sacred text is violated, and Muslims' humiliation resulting from global politics becomes highly charged with a collective anger.

The Danger of Book Burning

From a secular perspective, the threat to burn the Koran is another episode in the last 45 centuries of book burning. From 259 to 210 BC, the Chinese Emperor Shih Huang Ti burned so many books and at least 460 Confucian scholars with them. In 640, Caliph Omar burned all the volumes in the library of Alexandria. The Mongols under Hulagu sacked Baghdad in 1258 and devastated its centuries-old libraries. The Christian missionaries who accompanied the conquistadors made bonfires of the Aztec and Mayan codices. In 1650, a religious pamphlet by William Pynchon was confiscated by Puritan authorities in Massachusetts, condemned by the General Court and burned by the public executioner in the Boston marketplace _ perhaps the first incident of book-burning in America.

Closer to our time, on May 10, 1933 in most university towns, German university students burned more than 25,000 "un-German" books in ceremonies complete with band-playing and "fire oaths". Among the books burned were those by Bertolt Brecht, Karl Marx, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Mann, and the book All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. In 1992, a Serbian commander spent three days destroying the National Library of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo.

What is it about books that they get burned and destroyed and desecrated throughout history?

Baez in A Universal History of the Destruction of Books (2010) raises the question why the destruction of books provokes a distinct sense of horror among us. People would rather give away a book than destroy it. Books, unlike any other inanimate object, are extensions of human memory and imagination. They are burned precisely because of this connection to personal or communal identity. Books are made of words, and if it is through words that define who we are, burning them turn part of our identity into fire, and then into ashes.

Perhaps it is also important at this time to be reminded of the wise words of the beloved 19th century German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, whose books were also burned by the Nazis. Heine wrote in his 1820-1821 play Almansor the famous admonition: "Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people."

Bangkok Post: Published: 14/09/2010 at 12:00 AM

Bush coming to Calgary?

What?

You got to be kidding... Our beloved most screwed up ex-president from United States of American will be arriving in Calgary next to give a speech about his ups and downs through out his presidency. I really don't expect to see a warm welcome and native Calgarians fork out the money to listen to his ramblings...

Here is a funny article from the CBC website:

Protesters prepare for Bush's Calgary speech

Peace activists in Calgary are preparing a less than warm welcome for George W. Bush, who will be at a private function next week delivering one of his first speeches since leaving the White House.

A coalition calling itself People vs. Bush has planned a week of protest activities, starting Wednesday at noon with a banner display near the downtown Telus Convention Centre, where Bush is set to speak next week "on eight momentous years in the Oval Office" and "the challenges facing the world in the 21st century."

Group spokeswoman Collette Lemieux said the activists will come from as far away as Vancouver and Toronto to participate.

"I think a lot of people are really motivated by the idea that we have to make it really clear to him that he's not off the hook," she said. "I think it's important to people who think that he has committed war crimes to not just let this go by the wayside."

The group plans to hold a mock war crimes trial for Bush this weekend and stage a peaceful rally outside his speech next Tuesday. Lemieux is asking those who can't participate to send their shoes for a symbolic protest echoing the Iraqi journalist who threw his footwear at Bush.

An estimated 1,500 people are expected at the invitation-only, paid event to hear Bush. Organizers Andy McCreath and Christian Darbyshire reportedly paid former U.S. president Bill Clinton $150,000 for a March 2006 speech in Edmonton, and have hired Lance Armstrong and Colin Powell for other high-profile speaking engagements in the past.

Source: CBC.ca

Lindsay Leigh Kimmett - 2 year medical student at University of Calgary

I have always wanted to blog a note about Lindsay as she was a 2nd year medical student at University of Calgary and a close personal friend of my family. I have met her and her family once or twice in my lifetime and learning about her tragic accident certainly has hit home.

Here is her obituary from last year:

December 31, 1981 - February 17, 2008

With overwhelming sorrow and shattered hearts, we announce the sudden passing of our precious daughter, Lindsay on February 17, 2008. Lindsay was born on December 31, 1981 in Calgary and was completely adored by her parents, Kelly and Dianne, and her brothers, Taylor and Reid. Lindsay was everything we could have asked for in a daughter - beautiful, intelligent, athletic and most of all caring. She was a devoted sister to her brothers and loved to "mother" them from an early age. This ability turned to teaching as they grew older and they both knew who to ask if they needed help with homework. As they all grew older, we tried to make Sunday family dinners a priority - what special times to sit and discuss the events in everyone's life. Lindsay's voracious thirst for knowledge started at a very young age. Each night she wanted to read her books and then would lie on her bed with Mom or Dad and ask "What are we doing tomorrow and what should I dream about?" As she learned to read so young, she also quickly became an accomplished piano player and subsequently learned to play the flute and piccolo. Linds never stopped dreaming and learning, becoming a model student and excellent athlete. She graduated as Cochrane High School's Valedictorian in 1999 and received the Governor General's medal for the highest marks in her graduating class. Lindsay then earned a kinesiology degree with distinction from the University of Calgary in 2004. After taking time off to travel and work Lindsay decided that medicine was her future calling, achieving marks in the 99.7 percentile on her MCAT exams. She entered the Faculty of Medicine at U of C in August 2006 and was currently in her second year of studies. Lindsay had decided that Emergency Medicine was her passion and was preparing to do clerkships in Toronto, Halifax and Kingston in the coming months.

Lindsay was driven in her pursuit of knowledge through her extensive travels. We have learned that one of her favorite quotes was by St. Augustine, "The world is a book and those who don't travel read only a page." We always chose to make our vacations family times and have so many wonderful memories of time shared on beaches at tropical destinations, camping in Yellowstone, summer spent driving across Canada, two European vacations and exploring Disney facilities. As Lindsay grew, so did her sense of adventure. She had traveled extensively in Europe - the latest being a month spent alone in Italy. Between her first and second year of Med school, she chose to do an elective in Tanzania. At the end of her trip, she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and to the credit of her character, she reached the summit while suffering from severe bronchitis. She was an avid photographer on her travels and her final gift to Dianne was a framed photograph of zebras in their head to tail stance which she had taken while on African safari. Her final trip was a relaxing week in the Dominican Republic with friends from Med school.

All of her life experiences, studying, reading, working and attending school for twenty-two years made Lindsay what her Dad called "the smartest person I have ever known". You could Google things but it was much better to just ask Linds! Lindsay was the ultimate employee and her Dad was the lucky recipient of her skills. She started as a cashier at Cochrane IDA Drugs at the age of fourteen and became a pharmacy technician working side by side with Kelly. Lindsay also teched and did accounting at Rexall, moved on to Super Drug Mart, United Prescription Service and Calgary Prescription Services where she ran the total operation. Her short time as a personal trainer led her to decide on her path to Medicine. Anyone who worked with Lindsay always knew the job first would be learned accurately and quickly and then fine-tuned and perfected. With her desire to learn, caring attitude, personal confidence and attention to detail Lindsay would have become a wonderful doctor.

Lindsay also loved sports, especially winter pursuits. She started figure skating at age five but quickly told her parents that it was boys skates and ringette that she really wanted. She played ringette until the age of twenty and then switched to her passion - girls hockey. Her main activity was hockey but as she said: "Ice, ball or mini - you name it - I love it - especially the Flames." Lindsay played for several ladies teams over the last seven years and was the leader of the Med school second year Macaques ladies team. Kelly and Dianne attended her final game with the Macaques last Tuesday and she played the finest game we had ever witnessed her play leading her team to a 3 to 2 overtime win over the first year class. It would be the last time her loving parents would see her alive - beaming from ear to ear, rosy cheeked, sweaty and exhausted in her beloved "Monumental" (med school nickname) jersey. Lindsay was also instrumental in organizing the "Ice Cup" inter varsity hockey tournament held last fall. Lindsay died on Sunday morning returning from a hockey game with her regular club team, the Jets. She was a passenger in a car that rolled only seconds from her parents' home.

We were never sure how Lindsay fit volunteer commitments into her hectic schedule - assisting with the PARTY program at Foothills Hospital, organizing multiple fundraisers for teams she was involved with, as treasurer of her Med school class, and a member of the Med School class of 2009 graduation committee.

Besides her parents, Kelly and Dianne and brothers Taylor and Reid, Lindsay is survived by grandparents, Lorraine Kimmett and Merlin and Betty Stauffer; uncles and aunts Drew and Rhonda Wilson, Russ and Angela Kimmett, Dennis and Margaret Nice, George and Brenda Jablonsky, Doug Stauffer, Oscar and Maureen Biasini, and Darren and Pam Stauffer. She is also survived by cousins Kelsey Wilson, Hunter, McConnell and Carly Kimmett, Angie, Christie, Debbie, Josh and Daniel Nice, Brianne and Miles Jablonsky, Aaron and Garrett Biasini and Julie, Peter and Samuel Stauffer. She is also survived by numerous great-aunts and uncles and many, many friends. She was predeceased by her grandpa Bill Kimmett in 1991.

Our family and the world has lost someone who made a difference every day of her life and someone who was going to do great things in the future. We cannot let Lindsay's dreams go unfulfilled and so as a family, we will carry on her legacy with the establishment of the Lindsay Leigh Kimmett Memorial Fund. We will continue to make the world a better place as she most surely would have done. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made at any Royal Bank (Cochrane or Calgary branches). Tax receipts will be issued at a later date. This fund will be used for youth scholarships, facilities and projects in the Cochrane area.

We have been told that Lindsay had never been happier than in the last three months of her life. Her schooling, her hockey, her new friend Ben MacLelland, her anticipation of clerkship and her love of family and friends had Lindsay at her peak. Linds was a chip off the old blocks in so many ways. We discovered a written menu and a shopping list meant for the turkey dinner she was preparing (just like Dianne always does) for many of her med school friends that fateful day. We are sure her party for that day had been carefully arranged just as Kelly would have done. In her birth announcement of December 31, 1981 the following words ended the formalities - "She is you, she is me, and we are one." Nothing has changed with her untimely passing - Lindsay will always be with us - forever in our hearts.

A Celebration of Lindsay's Momentous Life will be held at Cochrane High School Gymnasium (529 - 4 Avenue North) on Saturday, February 23, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. Family Graveside to follow in Cochrane.

Aaron Gerhard Niedergesaess

A very close friend of my baby brother passed away in a car accident last Tuesday and I personally knew Aaron from the Calgary Hilltopper football days. His funeral was a very sad one as he will be greatly missed by many. I have included his Obituary here for your reading...

March 12, 1987 - September 30, 2008 Aaron Niedergesaess of Calgary passed away suddenly in a motor vehicle accident on Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at the age of 21 years. Aaron touched the lives of many with his open, enthusiastic nature and his big heart. He was an avid athlete who excelled in anything he tried. In 2006, he helped the Vancouver Island Raiders win the Canadian Junior Championship. Aaron will be lovingly remembered by his daughter "baby girl" Giselle; soulmate Jenine Gilbertson; parents Margaret and Ernst Niedergesaess; brother Marc (Rachel) Niedergesaess; sisters, Kirsten (Mike) Petersen and Eve Niedergesaess; grandfather Paul Babchishin; nephews, Michael and Jesse; nieces, Kate and Anna; as well as numerous aunts, uncles, cousins and close friends. Funeral Services at Centre Street Church (3900 - 2 Street N.E.) on Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. Graveside Service to follow at Queen's Park Cemetery. Forward condolences through www.mcinnisandholloway.com . Donations can be made for Aaron's daughter, payable to Donna Babchishin and/or Sarah Anderson (in Trust for Giselle Niedergesaess) or at any TD Canada Trust branch. In living memory of Aaron Niedergesaess, a tree will be planted at Fish Creek Provincial Park by McINNIS & HOLLOWAY FUNERAL HOMES, Chapel of the Bells, 2720 CENTRE STREET NORTH. Telephone: 403-276-2296.

Marathon of Hope

Sunday morning of September 14th, I woke up at 8:00 am ready and was excited to run in the annual Terry fox Marathon of Hope. After jumping out of bed, I had a quick shower and put on my favorite running shorts & shirt and headed into the kitchen for a bowl of rice crispy cereal and a few bananas.

After feeling the energy from breakfast, I quickly called my friend Paul Chan from my work and to see if he was alright from arriving into Calgary from Los Angeles last night. After several calls and Blackberry text messages, he was not up.

I assembled my sports gear, went out to the car and headed downtown as we were required to complete the pre-event registration. On the way, I made another phone call to Paul and could tell that he was still not up. "I wonder what happened... Did he make it back in time?" Questions I asked myself.

Finally I found a great parking spot near the intersection of 4th avenue & third street. I decided to call Paul again to let him know that I was close to Eau Claire and ready to rock and roll. Finally I heard the tired voice answered on the other end. He did not get to sleep until 1:30 am and he realized himself that he better hustle and start driving downtown.

Walking into the Eau Claire Shopping center, I completed my registration and waited for Paul to show up. After 30 minutes later, he arrived and we finalized our pre-event tasks together and went outside to the starting line. A quick glance around the starting gate area, I was surprised at the vast number of participants that were ready to take on the 10 KM challenge raising funds for the Terry Fox Cancer Foundation.

A few minutes later after a few leg stretches, the event organizer started his count down and we were off!!!! Since I have not done 10 km for a long time, I decided to take it easy and get myself into a comfortable pace. I was not in this for the time, I was not in this for the competition, I was not in this for attention, I was simply in this because deep inside I wanted to support the ongoing charity and at the same time keep my body in shape. I did one in Vietnam so I knew exactly what I was getting myself into.

The run itself was not bad at all, it was a beautiful day with the bright sunshine over us and very little wind coming from the north. We covered the distance along the south side of the Bow River from Eau Claire all the way to Edworthy park and ventured back on the north side of the river pathways. Half way through the run, we ran into my boss from work and hung out for 20 minutes before he had to slow down.

At the end, after running through Price Island we finally passed the finish line taking 50 minutes. We did not have any watches on us however a media crewman filming at the finish line told us the time and we were both shocked that we did it in 50 minutes.

After we waited for my boss to finish the run, the three of us hung out and had a few snacks to eat and listed to the local post-run events. Music, the smell of BBQ hot dogs, Terry Fox souvenirs, and the history of the Marathon of Hope filled the atmosphere. After waving good bye to my boss, Paul and I headed to Chinatown for a big Asian lunch and reflected on the last two hours.

Saying good bye to Paul after our lunch, I walked back to the car and the first thing I did was called someone very special in my life and said:

"Dad, I finished the 10KM run here in Calgary and I want to dedicate this day to you after knowing the hardships you been through"... I could not finish the phone call as my tears and emotions were overwhelming...

Terry Fox Run

Since I have done one race in Hanoi, Vietnam, I have decided that I will run the 10 KM race in Eau Claire and raise money for the Terry Fox Cancer Foundation. The race will be on Sunday September 14th and it should take no more than a couple of hours.

For those who want to pledge for me, please send me an email and I will put you on the pledge sheet.

Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

It's been almost a whole year since I have composed a blog so I might as well start again cause it is the only way that you can look back on and review things that have crossed path with yourself...

I finally took upon myself and watch this famous last exuberant lecture given by Randy Pausch. For those who don't know Randy, he has recently passed away with pancreas cancer. He dedicated his last lecture to achieving your childhood dreams which has been a tremendous inspiration to people around the world.

You can watch the lecture online at Youtube or read the online transcript.

So the big question pounders my thoughts... What are my childhood dreams? (in no particular order)

1. Climb Mount Kilimanjaro - I always wanted to climb one of the world highest summits and looking back to the adversities and accomplishments to make it to the top
2. Become a Medical Doctor - I remembered the day that a relative came up to me before my grandmother's funeral and asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up because it would be the best time to tell her before she rises to the heavens. During my speech, I told my grandmother that I will become a doctor so I can cure people and ease their pain and suffering.
   
3. Travel on every Continent in the World - I am not there yet however I have managed to experience many different cultures already and my task is not done yet.
4. Give an Inspirational Speech to People that I don't know - I always felt that I was very different and faced many challenges / adversities. I just want to pass on the information to others and let them know that they are not alone.
5. Trek the West Coast Trail - Canada has lots of mountains and trails however there is this particular one that I want to do because of it's vast landscape views and the history.
6. Meet Michael Gannotti in Person- Michael is a teacher who converted to IT and has passions and has unbelievable followers located around the world with his Sharepoint position at Microsoft.

Experiencing Mui Ne

The coast line of Mui Ne is located 30 km east of the provincial capital city of Phan Thiet. Taking a taxi or motorbike ride through the area allows anyone to see endless resorts with unlimited white sand beaches and coconuts trees filling the views. It's like a scene from a hollywood movie with breathtaking landscapes with good looking people in their swimsuits walking the shore lines.

Moon's family and I did many activities during the week as we ventured through the region checking out the local culture and villages in South Vietnam. Some of the activities that we did were:

1. Took a local bus to the east side of the Mui Nu village to see people taking crazy carpet rides down the red-yellow sand dunes. These sand dunes have developed over many years with the wind collecting the sand and creating it's wonderful mother nature artwork of lines and curves. Of course for a small price, we all did the crazy-carpet ride and took many photos of our actions.
2. Swimming in both the Ocean and in the man-made swimming pool in the middle of the resort. It was great experience for everyone because the water was clean and fresh. We spent endless hours walking up and down the coast line and often jumping in when the bigger waves putting on a show for the locals and the tourists. If we were tired of the bashings from the waves, we would all settle in the resort swimming pool and relax without having to worry about the waves coming over our heads
3. We used different modes of transportation to commute through the region. We have walked, ran, piggybacked, taxied, motorbiked and the biggest highlight of all was driving a 1968 American War series Jeep. I kid you not! It the same model where the windshield comes down, the doors removed, a huge back seat for the family members and even better, the original colors of the American War USA Army colors.
   
4. Went to the base of a mountain that has Vietnam's biggest budda within the Pagoda there. Upon our arrival, purchasing tickets, the whole family took a Gondola car (Just like Sunshine Village in Canada) to the top of the mountain and visited the Long Son Pagoda.
   The budda at the top was a lying down budda which is certainly out of the norm compared to the other budda I seen in South East Asia.

There were plenty of activities to do before we made our way back to HCMC before our flight back to Hanoi.

Off the Coast of Mui Ne

Before I left for Europe, I promised Moon that we would take Moon's family to the Southern coast of Vietnam in the cities of Phan Thiet and Mui Ne. Between these two cities, they are one of Vietnam un-tapped tourist beach areas as they both show little signs of overcrowding or over commercialized.

Both Moon and I have purchased the Vietnam Airlines and Pacific Airlines family tickets leaving Hanoi on July 8 departing to Ho Chi Minh City and coming back to the capital on July 15th. We would spend the first part of the day in HCMC and taking the late evening train to Phan Thiet City (5 hours) and 30 minute taxi ride to the Hawaii Resort in Mui Ne. Upon our return, we would spend another whole day in HCMC as it was the first time for Moon's mother and sister.

We both chose to return and stay in the Hawaii Resort because we have developed a great personal relationship with the owner who we have met last time in spring of 2006. He is a Viet Kieu (Oversea Vietnamese) who have originally escaped from the South after the fall of Saigon in 1976. He has established family in Southern California and a married son living in Hawaii. Many members of his family have invested into this low profile (word of mouth marketing) hotel resort which we both think it's one of the most beautiful places we been too with nearly 100 percent privacy.

Moon's parents / sister shared one villa and we stayed in another which was a few meters away from them. The resort itself is vastly covered in palm trees and other natural tropical plants gives the place a real Vietnamese green feel. In the middle of the resort, hosts a large swimming pool with a nice shadow end for those who cannot swim well can stand and also can do the water dance. They have made the temperature of the water slightly cooler than the air so it does give a refreshing feeling when swimming there. At the end of the property, leads directly on to the white sand beach and eventually into the Gulf of Tonkin with endless 1-2 meter waves crashing into the shore.

Chasing Documents

Knowing that I made plans with Moon’s family to take a holiday off the coast of Southern Vietnam starting July 8^th, it was important that Moon and I made a full 100 percent effort to submit the local government outstanding documents required for her Canadian Student Visa Application. We had to venture on my motorbike downtown to the Ministry of Justice to pick up the Vietnamese version of Moon’s criminal Background check document and find a qualified notary to translate it into English for the Canadian immigration officials based in Ho Chi Minh City. Moon has requested the express services for this specific document as normally it would take three weeks for them to prepare it. With some “greasing the wheels” money, we managed to obtain the document in last than one week.

We hit a dead-end when we both found out that the government recently outlawed all the private notary clinics in Vietnam forcing local people to go through the official government channels to have these documents notarized. Once again after some heavy searching, Moon managed to find a place in the city and she requested the “express greasing the wheels service” so we can have it completed as fast as we can. We just don't want to wait for a long time for the visa because every day spent in Vietnam means a day less preparing for school and work in September of 2007.

I hope that the Canadian immigration officials will not be as busy this summer with the applications so hopefully the processing time for Moon's visa will be smooth and we both can leave before the end of this month.

Canada Day

Knowing that I will be in Hanoi over our once a year national birthday, I decided to celebrate Canada day with my local Hanoian-Canadian peers. Mentally this was important to me because I know that it will be my last Canada Day in Vietnam as both Moon and I have plans to return to Canada for work and studying in the fall.

The Canadian birthday party was held at a private serviced apartment complex overlooking West Lake which was a few minutes away from the house that I am currently looking after. I showed up late because during the party starting time, it was pouring buckets and buckets of rain on the city making it virtually un-drivable until the floods find their way into the main river stream on the far west side of the city.

Arriving at the party after the floods are finished, I was greeted with a Molson Canadian beer served by a fellow Canadian who was wearing his classic Montreal Canadian Hockey jersey. What a hoot that was. Of course with two languages in Canada, it’s important to say "bonjour" and the French Canadian greetings which is very popular in the Canadian community of Hanoi. My two best IT friends finally showed up and we got a chance to catch up and say hi as it’s been a long time since the three of us were in a single place for more than 5 minutes.

After the party, I had to quickly pick up Moon for the big surprise 2 year anniversary. Knowing that we both forgotten our 1^st year anniversary, I felt it would be cool and exciting for both of us to have a nice Candle light dinner follow by a nice relaxing night in town. I brought her a couple of presents from my European holiday that I was planning not to give to her until this night and managed to wrap them up in a pinkish decorative box filled with hundreds of red rose petals. The actual surprise was that I had her blindfolded on the back of my motorbike and drove across town to the Highway 4 restaurant where we first went to after we met for the first time.

The dinner, presents, candles, roses, night in town and the ambience was indeed perfect and we enjoyed every minute of it. It’s is sure nice to celebrate two specials events on July 1^st therefore I am looking forward to next year as we can watch the fireworks overlooking Scotman’s hill in Calgary.

Sarah Toller, February 7, 1977 - June 12, 2007

This blog entry is dedicated to Sarah Toller who was a funny, strong woman who have been diagnosed with malignant melanoma. After many rounds of oncology treatments, she has passed away on June 12th with her loving husband and her mother at her side. I have found her blog website from the online medical community I often read and it tells about her fighting spirit since her first diagnostic until the very end.

Please join me in wishing Sarah and her loving husband Derek all of your thoughts and prayers.

I hope God is looking after you where ever you are...

Note: Please, wear sunscreen. Don't tan. If you notice a suspicious mole, see your doctor. If there is any suspicion, get the mole removed. It's the only way to know for certain.

Cruising around Hanoi

Upon my arrival in Hanoi, I was greeted by my wonderful Moony who I have not seen for over two months. We have kept in touch over email, internet phone and finally resorting to Skype as I have figured out how to pay with my credit card online. (Sounds weird for an IT guy with over 12 years of experience on computers)

I spent my first weekend finishing up preparing Moon's Student Visa Application for Canada and at the same time catching up with old friends from the school I used to work at. I have realized that I have arrived at a sensitive time as most of the teachers were suffering from end of year stress and they are seriously ready to leave Vietnam for their annual holidays back home in their own countries. I was also happy enough to see my closest friends who came to my farewell party in April and was more than happy to be at their farewell parties for the last few days. Some of them got new jobs in other countries, and some of them are heading back to home for good and one of them is planning his Hollywood movie script writing career on the beaches of Mexico.

My plan at this time, will be a waiting game for Moon's visa which I expect will take approximately one month and then both of us will be planning to head to Calgary to start our new chapter in our lives. She will be studying at Mount Royal College towards an education degree and I will be heading back to work in the hot Calgary Oil and Gas / IT economy. I also have plans to get back into the Volleyball action with the men's league on Thursday nights so of course there is lots of "getting back into shape" is required as the beer in Germany has made a little bit of a hill on my stomach :)

Enroute to Singapore & Hanoi

Finally after getting comfortable in Seat 62K (yes at the back of the frigging huge Beoing 747 airplane), I felt relieved that my European tour was over. Over two months of travels through 8 countries with one backpack, camera bag, money belt (A special pocket that I will never tell anyone), best friend since high school, it was time to head back to my second home in the northern city of Hanoi, Vietnam. On a 12 hour flight to Singapore and a 3 hour flight to Hanoi, there is lots of time to reflect on the last few months.

It has been a mind blowing event of my life and I am very grateful that I did this with Andy as it was an old high school promise I made with him. Ever since I have left Canada full time three years ago, I cannot express in words or emotions how much traveling has change my perspective and thoughts about life and most important how and why people live differently no matter what part of the earth you live on. Of course there are many similar things such as greetings, eating, watching football (I kid you not!) and sleeping however every country has a different set of cultural norms, a different set of daily etiquette, a different set of human-to-human interactions that we often find challenges our own mental well being and how we were raised.

I am happy that I managed to update the Passionate Traveler's blogsite as much as I can and in addition take many photographs of the places I went to however I realized that when I sit back and look at everything from the big picture, I wish I have found myself searching for more thirst of deep cultural exchanges and human interactions. I knew this was not possible unless I decided to stay in Europe for a longer period of time as it would facilitate the environment in which I can experience more of the cultures and it's long standing history. Two months backpacking through 8 countries has provided me with lots of stories and experiences however if I wanted to see more of it, I will have to come back and pick up where I left.

For those who don't know, I have quit my more than stressful IT management job from the United Nations International School of Hanoi before this trip as I managed to separate my feelings about my professional career to my personal well being. I was physically sick on a weekly basis and also mentally unstable as I was often caught between providing a strong IT support service for teachers & students and at the same time fighting against the evident bureaucracy of upper management who shown little support. Reflecting on these life events, I realized that they are only chapters of my life and it was time to close the chapter and start a new one. I got the professional experience I need and I know when I return back to Canada, I can continue my ambitions with influential events from my past. Taking this two month trip in Europe was perfect for me to gain back the energy and the mental stability that I have lost and now I can go back to those relationships I care deeply for and start a new chapter in my life.

Morning train to Frankfurt

Getting no sleep last night perhaps due to my newly excitement of leaving Europe and heading to Asia, I painfully had to get up early in the morning at 5:30 in order to catch my high speed train from Munich to Frankfurt.

I gave Andy and big hug and whispered some advice into his ear making sure he knows how serious my concerns about Africa were and told him to enjoy the new adventures that lies ahead.

As part of our traveling europe package, I used the last day of our 10-day western euro-rail pass to take the first training leaving Munich at 6:47 am in the morning and arriving at the Frankfurt International airport 3 hours later. This was not a problem for me as my flight to Singapore was at 12:30 pm allowing me some time to look around before boarding the 747 aircraft.

I was very surprised that I could plan this morning trip from the bottom of Germany and be able to make a flight in the north. This is what I wish Canada and USA would do as I give lots of credit towards the Europeans for their excellent planning and infrastructure of the train network.

Munich, Germany

Knowing that I will be leaving from Frankfurt to Hanoi the next morning, Andy and I decided that we would have our last meal together in a friendly Bavarian style restaurant in downtown Munich. The lively atmosphere / ambience with the huge wooden curved tables and 10 people sized benches certainly met our expectations of what this town would be like during the famous "oktoberfest" event. We both could see where millions of liters of local beer everywhere with big breasted women serving big jugs to thirsty locals and foreigners making this town a must do when touring Europe.

We both had a liter of beer each being greeted by a huge locally made traditional barbarian style dinner and we of us talked into the late night before heading back to the hostel a few blocks away. I knew this was an important night for both of us as our friendship of many years was still strong in our hearts. We certainly got a chance to talk about many things about life, and how much we enjoyed the European tour that we both made a promise to do.

The Sound of Music

After our wonderful day trip to Hitler's Eagle's nest, we took the 1 hour train back to Salzburg which where our Hostel was. North of Berchtesgaden and 150 KM east of Munich, Germany, Salzburg is home to a few main attractions, such as the birthplace and residence of Mozart, Festung Hohensalzburg Castle and numerous places around town used for the famous film "The Sound of Music".

We did not spend much time with the local attractions because both Andy and I needed to prepare to go our separate ways as our 2007 European trip is coming to an end. Andy wants to pursue a deeper cultural shocking experience by going to Africa and I need to head back to Hanoi, Vietnam to see my girlfriend and to help her with the remains of her Canadian Student Visa Application.


Funny, most of our euro dollars were spent on quickly made kabobs and surfing in the Internet cafe as most of the preparation works required access to airline websites, online banking, emails, and using skype to contact the people we needed to contact. Later, at night we would go and check out the local breweries and tried various German-Austrian local made beer and eat bratwurst or Currywurst dinners before heading to bed.