Reminding me of home...

Just when you are super home-sick (read that Portland-sick), something badass like this comes past your window.

The bikes in front were Dutch style holding a complete drum line.

 

The view up the street. They took over the whole road and sidewalk.

These guys had a few seats left if anyone wanted to join.

This guy was far enough away from the front that you couldn't hear the drums anymore. So he brought his own sound system.

 

Those are ambulance bikes. Check it out, they're wearing medic suits and even bike bags with supplies.

Yes, that is an ape riding next to what could be the Polish equivalent to Little Miss Muffet.

And just like that I feel a little bit better about living here.

Some things are the same in any culture.

Just like back home, the people you work with can make or break your day. Monday was such a great day at the hospital with a really great group of nurses. Tuesday, not so much. One nurse, Ania, worked both days and thank God she was there because the rest of the group of nurses must have graduated from the Bitch School of Nursing. They bossed people around, seemed rougher with the patients, and were mean to each other. It really changed the atmosphere of the unit.

My German patient was still there and was very happy to see me, especially since right when I walked in a senile old woman had been trying to talk to him in German from across the room and was screaming "Hail Hitler!" and laughing! He asked, "Can you please explain to me what is going on here?" I shared that the older lady was a little bit crazy and just having some fun. Awkward!

I ended up leaving an hour early. The nurses had drawn straws to see who would get to go home early, the catch being that the nurse had to change the diaper and clean the shit off the bedridden patient. Ania "won" and since I was following her around, I helped her clean up the old man. She said that we both deserved to leave and that she didn't want to leave me with the mean ladies. Fair enough!

Back in the business

In order to complete the first year of classes I am required to participate in a 4-week nursing training internship at the hospital of my choice. I have already started accumulating hours by working in the Cardiac Surgery unit of the school's hospital. While there is a little bit of drama in the English Division about me working there--all the other students were told to go somewhere else, and I have a feeling it's because they don't speak (or try to speak) Polish--I must admit I am loving it. Thanks to Piotr and his family, I am very comfortable around the Polish language. Even if I don't understand everything someone says, I'm pretty good with context. Last night, I really got to put my Polish to the test.

Last night, an hour before my shift ended, we received a post-op patient, a German tourist who spoke English but not a word of Polish. The nurses, none of whom speak English nor German, were delighted that I was there and could get the patient situated. He was a nice older man but a little confused about everything going on around him. While I attended to other patients, the nurses summoned me repeatedly to help interpret. "She is going to take some blood now and connect your fluids." "Would you like to eat some dinner?" It also worked the other way though too: "Pan nie wie gdzie jest jego komuraka." (Sir does not know where is his cell phone.)

Yesterday, I also successfully drew blood for the first time all by myself. Actually, I successfully did it 5 times. I have had such a mental block when it comes to drawing blood and sticking people with needles and I was so relieved to see that I could actually do it. Most of the things I am doing in the hospital are such little things, but it feels so good to be back in a medical setting. School is great and all, but learning in a classroom can only take you so far. I feel like, despite the language barrier, I have learned so much in the few hours I've worked.

Today I have Polish class and another 4 hour shift.
Off I go!
C

They do things a bit different here.

I'll start with the bigger news because it's just too cool. I did well enough on the last (and all the previous) anatomy exam that my average for the year was 80.7%. I am exceptionally happy with my performance in the class and how I improved on each exam especially when I step back and remember that this is a medical school course. But that's not even the best part: for students who achieve an average of over 80% on all exams there is no final exam! Ok, we do have a formality of an oral exam, but after talking to the professor this sounds like it will merely be a conversation about anatomy over tea.

I'm sorry that I am tooting my own horn here, but I am excited at how the year has gone. And it is almost gone. Last weekend we had our last exam in histology before the final at the end of June. As it turns out, this is my only final exam and I have over a month to prepare for it. I haven't done as well as I'd like to in histology, but I feel like this is my chance to make up for that.

Since I am effectively done with classes for the year, Piotr and I get to focus on the apartment again. Well, he'll get to focus more after his work project is semi-wrapped up this week. Sunday, we spent half the day working on the kitchen and general cleaning/clearing of the rest of the place. Our kitchen has never looked so good! We still have a bit more to do such as installing a tile back-splash behind and to the side of the sink, putting up some matching shelves, installing a hood/vent for the stove, and so on. Regardless of how much more we have to do, it feels wonderful to have a silverware drawer!

As you can see in the photos, we get wonderful morning light in the kitchen, even if the sun is starting to rise closer and closer to 4am. We still have an ugly sticker-covered refrigerator, but it works so we'll keep it. Before we can do much else in this room, a much needed trip to the hardware store is in order. Oh, one more note about the kitchen cabinets: don't be fooled by how they look now, we had to do some serious work to get those in. The cabinet under the sink is covering a series of unmovable water & waste water pipes and had to have pieces cut to accommodate said pipes. Then building/installing the cabinet around the pipes was probably more than a two man job, but we managed. I love my kitchen!

On another subject, I have wanted to mention this on here but, as you may have noticed, have not been posting frequently. Medical school tends to get in the way of that sometimes. We have experienced a fair share of holidays in the past month or so here in Poland and let me tell you, Poland takes its holidays seriously. On labor day, for example, it is illegal to have any employees working for you. Every big shop in town is closed and the only shops that *might* be open are the little corner mom-and-pop shops and they have to be run exclusively by mom & pop. We found out the hard way that there are no food stores open on Easter or the Monday after. We have adapted to the European way of life where you shop daily for your meals, so closing a shop for a day or two can really throw things off!

That is all for now, though I will be trying to write more now that I have the time!

227 days ago...

I found this note in my iphone from 227 days ago: September 19, 2009.

Snafu at airport led to having my flight switched from united to Alaska for the first leg. What a difference! United charges you for everything now where Alaska has free Starbucks coffee, Jones soda, Tazo tea, NW beers(Widmer) and wines! (though no beer offered on my morning flight)

Getting my flights squared away took almost an hour--I'm SO glad we got there early. I was lucky to have great people helping me on both sides of the desk (Piotr and my parents were with me). However, by the time I finally got my tickets and bags checked in there was no time for breakfast before security. I barely had time for goodbyes! I settled for a microwaved breakfast burrito while my folks an Piotr had a lot more options.

But I made my first flight, ate, and had a coffee (thanks to mom & Piotr who went for coffee while dad and I waited at the ticket desk!!). Bags are checked through to Gdansk, I have boarding passes for all flights and it looks like enough time between flights to make them all.

Only thing to minorly worry about now is entering the EU without a visa and only a one way ticket--I apparently stand a chance of deportation! Let's hope the school paperwork is enough to convince the Germans to let me in!

 As you know, I made it okay and the Germans didn't deport me.

Polish Disaster

Today starts a week of mourning as the President of Poland, along with many other high ranking officials, was killed today in a plane crash in Russia. This is big. Nowhere in history has a political catastrophe like this happened. Every Polish flag in Gdańsk has a black ribbon adorning it and many buildings, including ours, have posted black ribbons and flags on their sides. The country is in shock. The thing is that it's not just the president who was killed, it was most of his party too. To compare for a moment, a comparable situation in the US would be if (a couple years ago) Air Force One went down with the entire Bush family, every chief of staff and cabinet member, and the heads of all the military forces went down on their way to a 9-11 commemoration ceremony. I never liked Bush or any of his party, but think of what turmoil that would have caused. 

As a foreigner, I'm not sure how to feel. I'm numb. This is just too big to comprehend. When Piotr told me this morning over the phone, I felt like I needed to call my family. It didn't happen on Polish soil, there's no reason why I wouldn't be okay, but I still felt like I needed to call. Unfortunately, they're on some deserted island at the moment without phone service so I couldn't call but the urge was still there. I guess it still is. We called Piotr's mom instead, waking her up, and told her the news.

I was having a hard enough time focusing today and trying to get things done, and with something like this happening it pretty much cancels out the day. It makes the everyday things seem unimportant. I wish I had some insightful tidbit to add here at the end, but like most of the rest of the country, I'm at a loss for words.

Getting back to it.

 It's been so long since I have written anything I'm a little overwhelmed at where to start.

We have moved into the apartment in Wrzeszcz--good luck saying that--and I love it. It's been a little rough living in an unfinished apartment, but everyday it's getting better and better. We had the kitchen floor installed, built the Ikea kitchen furniture and finally got the sink installed. We just bought a washing machine but we have to wait until after the holiday to get it hooked up.

Oh, all our stuff arrived from America too. That's another story though.

Today we built Piotr's record shelf from Ikea and he's started bringing up boxes of his most precious ones and unpacking them. He just unpacked the boxes of 78s and (thank God) none of them were broken. I must admit that the room looks a lot better with the wall of records starting to take shape. Another piece of furniture we built is my desk which means I have a make-shift area to study in--very important.

Yes, things are going well. School is going well too. I just received a notice that I am exempt from the last embryology exam because of my performance on the first exam and on the in-class quizzes. There are only 3 of us who received this exemption. :) That means I have more time to study anatomy and histology as I am determined to be in the top 10 for each of those subjects. It has been a little bit of a struggle balancing home renovations, unpacking, and studying, but I'm managing.

One of the things about the unpacking process that has surprised me the most is that is makes me friend-sick. I won't say homesick, because this is my home now, but friend-sick because I miss my family and friends. Piotr and I have some really cool things and quite a few of them have come from our family & friends or from trips or adventures we've taken with some of you. Just know that with every box we open, we are thinking of you.

On that note, I think it's time to go figure out what to make for dinner. We've started with the drinks, as you can see. (I unpacked the cocktail shaker and martini glasses this week!) We forgot that it's a holiday weekend and put off shopping until about 5pm on Saturday...when all the shops closed at 3pm. Crap. Time to get creative! Happy Easter everyone!

Missing y'all

Unpacking has been an odd experience; joy at the familiarity of our things and sadness at being so far from friends.

A Master Baker

I have outdone myself. I baked peanut butter cookies. That may not sound like much to you readers sitting in a nice cozy American kitchen with your measuring cups and utensils. Let me rephrase, I made peanut butter cookies with my only measuring device being a soup spoon. And, as I didn't even have all the correct ingredients, I had to improvise a little--I found baking powder in Polish shops but have yet to find the baking soda.

Using a long sleeve t-shirt tied around my waist as an apron, I bravely embarked on a culinary adventure that few would even dare to try. You see, with cooking , it's easy to throw out the measuring devices, but baking doesn't work that way. If cooking is art, baking is chemistry--which is probably why I love it. Regardless, I am so excited that my 2 dozen cookies turned out not only edible but delicious.

The cookies were in addition to a surprisingly delicious chicken & rice soup that I concocted without a definite recipe. It was good enough to go for seconds even though I was sated. I have missed cooking but I have also missed cooking for others. Believe me, having 2 dozen...uh, that is, a dozen and a half cookies lying around the kitchen when a nasty snow storm is blowing outside is not an easy temptation to resist. If someone else were here, well, then I would have someone to share them with. The same with the soup, I enjoyed it so much, I wish someone else could have had some too. Well, I will continue to cook during my break and I have company coming over on Friday. Piotr's cousin Ola and her husband Marek, my two Sopot saviors, are coming to dinner. The plan is to make my favorite Rachael Ray dish, but I have yet to see a jalapeño pepper in Poland which poses potential problems. I will keep searching for ingredients in the days to come.

In other news, it's snowing again--I guess that's why it's called winter break--and it's really coming down out there. The city and shops had just cleared the sidewalks to a point that you could easily walk and now we have at least a couple more centimeters out there. With how hard it's coming down, we could easily get a lot more too. So what to do when it's...what do you say? It's not pouring down snow. Snowing cats & dogs? Falling down snow? Falling hard snow?...really coming down? Besides cooking and baking, why you take pictures! So I included a few more for you. Enjoy.



P.S. It's fun to take photos in a new sweater!

Sunday breakfast

I made it through first semester! On my first Sunday morning of my three week vacation I managed to sleep in until 10am. This is quite a feat as I usually can't sleep past 7am. To celebrate my sleeping-in-ness I am downstairs at Lounge Bar having breakfast Polish style--that means with a beer. It's a different atmosphere in the cafe today as CNN in English is playing and there is another table of Americans, Texans here to try to start Chick-Fillet. Wow, I haven't heard accents like that in quite a while.

This weekend I've been the Remote Mobile Command Center for our Portland-Poland move. Piotr is on the ground in Portland and working hard. It's hard to be so far away during the move, but I'm helping in every way I can. I'm making phone calls, lists, creating and editing customs lists, and giving as much encouragement as possible. I feel like it's not enough, but it's all I can do being so far away.

It's hard to write being bombarded with English! Larry King Live and the the Texans are distracting! Especially when the Texans are describing each and every food product that is going to be offered; waffle fries, sausage biscuits, chicken salad...I just had breakfast but this talk is making me hungry again.Oh jeez, I didn't realize that Chick-Fillet is a Christian organization and the God talk has started. I don't know how well that will go over in a (sometimes superficially) Catholic country.

Anyway, last week a bunch of us went bowling to celebrate a couple birthdays. Bowling in Poland was interesting. The place was much smaller than any bowling alley I've ever been to (to be expected), but the best part was the pin return. The How Things Work side of me was reeling. Instead of the loud expensive pin return machines we have in the states the pins are connected to strings. Yes, strings! It's brilliant. I know I can't really do it justice explaining it here, but it was a beautiful system. The pins could still fall as if they were not attached, but then they would get pulled up out of the back catching area to get reset. It means that the same 10 pins were used every time. Between one person's turns, all pins would be pulled up and then the missed ones would be reset. I tried to take pictures but it was almost impossible to catch on film. Regardless of how the whole system worked, we had a blast and it was a great success.

This week has been one of the coldest of the winter with temperatures last night reaching a low of -26C (that's -15F). Sopot & Gdańsk are not used to weather like this, especially such a long spell of it. Since the temperature dropped below 0 in December, we haven't seen a day above 0 and it's almost February! The past two days though, have been so bright, beautiful, and sunny, just very very cold. As I've seen footage from Haiti and the horrible living conditions people are being subjected to, one thought that keeps crossing my mind is that at least they are living in a place where they can sleep outside. Being in a warm climate can be both a blessing and a curse--being able to live outside and not freeze, but heat also can make diseases more difficult to control. I am reminded of one of the larger quakes that hit Japan while I was there, in an area that was covered in snow so people couldn't live outside and rescue workers had to be dressed warm enough to avoid injuring themselves. Housing people and keeping them warm was one of the major relief issues.

Watching this footage though, also reinforces my drive to be a doctor. Disaster relief is something I want to do and have always wanted to do; running triage centers, building operating rooms, and working with what you have. While working at Emanuel, I volunteered for every disaster drill I could and was present for at least one mass casualty event. Even though I wasn't working in a medical capacity at the time, the sheer logistics of setting up these systems is fascinating and everyone's participation and input is essential. I also feel my time at the hospital  has allowed me to understand just how important all the support staff are.

Back to Poland, my school just completed another heart transplant with transportation help from the Polish Navy. It's either their 9th or 11th successful heart transplant (I can't remember which) and it makes me proud to be at this school. While the English department is still growing and developing, it has the base of the strongest medical school in Poland backing it up. I feel like the North American students are the ones committed to doing well and helping the school become a success. For example, a couple of us will be developing a medical chemistry textbook for the future first year students. In addition, this summer I will be approaching several departments about editing the English in their lecture slides and seeing if I can shadow some doctors and maybe get involved in some research. I'm excited at all the opportunities, the hard part is that because it's a new program I have to create or seek out these opportunities.As they happen though, I'll keep you updated!

Cześć!

Another new address?

As we look at another potential move--this one only being a few kilometers--I am very excited but also aware of the things I will miss from this apartment. I will miss the giant bathroom with the claw foot bathtub, I will miss the people watching (though I'll probably be more efficient with my work!), but most of all I will miss being able to get half way dressed, stumble downstairs and get breakfast for 9 zl at Lounge Bar. That is where I am now, directly below my living room, enjoying coffee, breakfast, and free wifi (which is the wifi I use in the apartment anyway). I also love that the breakfast guy speaks English very well, his daughter comes and hangs out in the cafe while he works, and that the other patron here right now is having a large beer with his breakfast. (The picture is of my current building with the bar beneath my front windows.)

This past week wasn't the last week before break, but close to it. Thursday, we had our embryology midterm and results were posted Friday. Now, I have passed every exam so far, so I wasn't worried about this one, but you all know that I always want to do my best. I am proud to say that I got a 4 (out of 5). For the North Americans out there (and the rest of the world, for all I know), Poland uses a strange grading system of grades from 2 to 5. A 2 is under 60% and thus a fail, a 3 between 60-79%, a 4 corresponds to 80-89%, a 4+ from 90-95% and a 5 is 95% to 100%--or at least this is as much as I understand of it. So a 4 is a good grade, especially when the class average was 2.3.

Well, now that that exam is over, I have a few classes next week before my break. It's the end of the term and I am one of the very very few who do not have any more exams. Due to my previous studies, I have an exemption in Chemistry and have not had to participate in any of the classes or exams, although I did assist in teaching a couple seminars. Cell Bio final exam is next week, but I scored high enough on my weekly quizzes to gain an exemption from the final in that class as well. These are the only two classes that are ending at term, so while all my classmates are in the study zone for dead week, I have free time. Then, while they have two weeks of exam period, I have an extra two weeks off in addition to our regular one week semester end break.

Which brings me to back to the subject. We may be moving again. I say we, because Piotr will be here the first week of February to join me for good! And the day he arrives we are looking at and deciding on an apartment in Wrzeszcz, a urban neighborhood much closer to school and in the center of everything. We are pretty sure we are going to take it, but I've moved us enough times by myself that I won't budge until I have Piotr by my side. The location, for you Portlanders, would be the equivalent of living: in a huge apartment in the Pearl district; right on the streetcar line (if the street car went everywhere in the city); with MAX (train) access two blocks away; with a private courtyard park outside one side of the apartment; with a non-ghetto Lloyd Center across the street on the other side of the apartment with a huge international foods grocery store in its basement; with a private entrance, garage, and off street parking; a 25 minute walk, probably 7 minute bike ride, or a 10 minute tram ride away from school. In other words, it's a SWEET location. Then, to top it off, we'd get all that at a North Portland price. Parts of the apartment are rough, but that means that we can make it how we want it and it is more than large enough for any and all of you to come visit. You'll have your own room! (The picture is of the Manhattan mall across the street from the apartment building. )

I will post pictures once we have the keys and let you know our address then as well. The best part about this place is that it actually has a mailbox! Yes! But until Piotr gets here, and after I make it through this light week, I will have some free time to explore the city if it's not too cold. Email me if any of you'd like to schedule a phone/skype date the week of January 25th as I have an open schedule.

Cześć!

Ottawa Photos

Here are a few photos from my holiday break.

A Kind of Homecoming

2010-01-04 (Waiting in the Warsaw airport, I am unable to connect to the internet so will just write and post this later.)

It’s hard to come back. The holiday break was so wonderful with warm friends, family, and homes, delicious food, great wines, and don’t forget the vodka. I am so blessed to have my family in Ottawa. Each Christmas I have spent there just gets warmer and warmer. This year I particularly enjoyed getting to spend a lot of time with Piotr’s mother, Krystyna. We talked more in the past two weeks than in the 4+ years Piotr and I have been together and it was great.

The actual journey of returning hasn’t been easy exactly. It was snowing so much in Eastern Canada that most of the flights were at least a little delayed. When my first flight was further delayed out of Ottawa, I asked the gate agent if it would affect my connection. She assured me it would and booked me on the flight that was leaving in 10 minutes—which was actually leaving almost 2 hours after its original schedule. Regardless, I made it to Toronto though I’m unsure if my bags did.

The LOT flight from Toronto was delayed though they never fully admitted to that until we were on the aircraft. It was the first time I’ve seen a gauntlet of security for boarding a plane. About 15 uniformed and armed guards, one with a drug dog, watched and interviewed each passenger. The guard who pulled me over asked if I was aware of the laws about carrying currency, that one must declare if they are carrying over $10k Canadian. He asked me how much money I had on me. My honest answer: “I have 50 cents Canadian and 60 złoty. I actually have to hit an ATM in Poland so I can pay for a cab home from the airport.” I assume this heightened security was in response to the recent snafu in the states, but it was quite a show of force especially for Canadians. We were further delayed when one passenger didn’t pass the screening gauntlet and we had to wait while they searched and retrieved his already loaded baggage.

On the plane, I was lucky enough to get an aisle seat--an aisle seat without a functioning overhead light, a seat cushion that wasn’t attached and kept sliding around, but with a great view of the non-functioning video system. I managed to get a little reading in before they shut off the cabin lights and then relied on my ipod for entertainment which mostly consisted of classical music I could pretend to sleep to. Just like the flight over, the hot meal was quite good, but the cold part left much to be desired. Thankfully, at brunch earlier in the week, I stole a couple individual sized peanut butter packs which made breakfast much more enjoyable. We arrived only 90 minutes later than scheduled, and fortunately my connecting flight to Gdańsk is delayed as well.

When I did pull out my Anatomy book on the plane, I was surprised at my focus. For the two weeks in Canada, I couldn’t muster enough focus to read for more than 10 minutes at a time with negligible comprehension levels. Though as soon as I boarded the plane and opened up the book , the reality of school came back including the reality that I have class tomorrow that I’m entirely unprepared for and a colloquium next week for which I have been only passively studying. Before boarding I dreaded going back to an empty, cold, and lonely apartment. Now I realize that, just like a hamster creates a nest, this apartment will be my nest of intense studying until the end of the month. Pitor was right, this month will fly by. With the amount of work we both have to focus on, it will feel like the blink of an eye until we are together again. And with that in mind, I say Bring It On!


Updates: I am now back safe and cold in Sopot without my luggage. Thankfully I have some clothes here to wear to school tomorrow!

Ottawa for Christmas

I just woke up from a drug induced attempt to avoid jet lag and the house is quiet and still. I made it to Ottawa, Canada, yesterday all the way from Sopot, Poland. Ironically, it is both colder and snowier in Poland than it is here.

Even though I'm not "home" for Christmas, this place feel like the next best thing. It's a little odd to think that I don't really have a home to go to for Christmas, but I suppose that's part of growing up. When my classmates asked when I was going home, I had to respond that Poland is my home now--as weird as that sounds. I have a storage unit I could go to, where all my stuff is, or an aunt's house or friend's place, but that's the limit in Portland. I could go to my parent's house in Panama, and even though they would be there, I doubt it would feel like home. Piotr's mother's house is the most home we have. And I have to admit, having Grendel (my cat) here to welcome me really made it feel even more like home.

I was debriefed last night as to the holiday plans and schedule. I will do my best to take photos and post a few here and there. We will be in the tiny town of Merrickville for two nights in a row, including a stay at a little bed & breakfast. Our NYE plans are still up in the air, but we're going to try to settle something soon.

I hear my cat somewhere getting into something. I should go find him before he wakes anyone else up.
c

From one country to the next

Last night I found this blog again after unfortunately forgetting about it for over three years. Since my recent move to Poland, I thought about starting a blog about my adventures here. Since I already have this one started I will just continue with the L'Aventure du Corsiar.

Some of you may or may not know the updates so here is a synopsis. I've been trying to get into medical school for a few years. I live with my partner of 4+ years, whom I met in Japan, Piotr Dubiel, who is Polish Canadian and originally from the Tri-cities of Northern Poland. It turns out that there is an English medical program in his birthplace, the city of Gdańsk. I applied and was accepted. Two weeks later, I was in Poland with his family starting classes while Piotr finished up work and packed all our belongings. Fast forward three months, it's almost Christmas break and Piotr is leaving Portland next week to meet me at his mother's place in Canada for the break, after which he will be joining me in Poland (finally!).

I can hear you now. Why Poland? What? Co? ("Co"="what" in Polish) Why do Americans go abroad for school? Med school in America is expensive, damned expensive. Bottom line, going abroad is cheaper. It's a win-win situation. The school can bring in some extra money and, depending on the caliber of students, be able to publish and present more in the English medical world.


The Medical University of Gdańsk started an English language medical programme a few years ago. Polish students attend school for free, rather it is paid for by the government, and like I said this program helps bring in money for the school. The school is one of the top rated Polish medical schools and is well known through Europe. Slowly, the English side of the school is being recognized as well. All of our classes & lectures are in English, though we do have Polish language classes as well. It's a six year program--most international medical schools are six years based on people coming straight from high school--and in those six years I will be working towards a combined MD/PhD. This summer, in addition to a four week nursing training course, I plan on helping edit English medical papers and journals published by Polish researchers. (See mom? I'm using my English degree too!)

The best part about all this is that it feels right. I am finally learning what I'm supposed to be learning. Those of you who knew me as a child know what I'm talking about. All those years of pouring over body atlases and toy skeletons is paying off!

With this blog I will try to post photos, stories, and comments about my life in medical school, in Poland, and the trials & tribulations of once again living in a country where I don't speak the language.

Leaving the ship in Fukuoka. Our last view.

A big thanks to Max who sent me most of these pics. My camera was full so he came to my rescue. I just got the CD in the mail today. He's a chemical engineer out near Tokyo and he loves studying English. He was my buddy for the trip. Thanks Max!!!

I made it! And I have a piece of paper to prove it!

Captain Aki giving his farewell remarks and handing out the certificates.

Mattsun, our team leader, got tired and took a rest on the radar screen.