Fasten your seatbelts

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard flight number 005 of The Blog Rounds! Take your prescribed (generics only) anti-vertigo pills as we are about to embark on an investigative journey through time and space in blogosphere to “know what the Pinoy MD bloggers did last summer!”

This is Doc Ness, your lady navigator this week, wishing you a pleasant magic carpet ride. Buckle up, left click and have a blast.

(Oh, by the way, since your Carrier for today is atrandomness at blogspot, then expect the stopovers to be random and spotty and can go blogblogblog at times. Meaning, there is no order to it. We’ll be jumping from mountains and canyons to valleys and beaches, from continent to archipelago, from time zones in decades past to just a few days ago. And then repeat in zigzag order.) Ready?

Zzaaapp!

Before it all began, there were words. Lots of words. In lots of books. And Carlshark just realized that many of the summers in his life have been actually spent, instead of frolicking in the sun, studying! But don’t you worry, Bubbleman, you are not alone. You’ve got company!

Meet an Eraserheads fan, Ereyserhead. He is currently in California listening to rock music (sometimes to his sister’s consternation) as he reviews for the USMLE Step 1 exam.

Doc Harry , a UPCM 2000 graduate who loves words and is currently actually writing a short story, compares his summers past and present. He is waiting, searching and resting in the assurance that God has something wonderful in store for him.

Another word lover, J.A is a radiology resident and she stirs ripples in the river of her thoughts by reminiscing on a misadventure-filled summer when she was just a newly licensed doctor on a rural service project. Eager to practice medicine, she was instead assigned to be in charge of the kitchen. Read on how their building almost burned down and what happened to her “cooking career.”

Doc Ian is currently in America visiting his parents but he was able to post an entry via a new feature of blogspot (write now- post later) where Ian shares a memorable vignette of summer of 2007. His main itinerary was Cagayan de Oro but he decided to make the most of his Mindanao sojourn so he met up with an old friend in nearby pineapple country, Bukidnon. Read more about the unexpected surprises that awaited Ian when he made a side trip to Malaybalay.

Midnight Rainbow recalls her Summer Immersion Program Assignment in barrio Quinlogan, town of Quezon, province of Palawan. It is a place where the roads have no names, houses have no numbers, and the whole town has no electricity. This was in 1995 so there were no cellfones, too. Her family came looking for her. Could they find her in that nameless, addressless, phoneless place? Find out!

Doc Tes, living in a third world country and hosting TBR 4, took a fun spur of the moment Bora Adventure with hubby and son. She shares some important unexpected expenses so the innocent traveler can be warned.

Next stop is Hongkong, where Lei Si spent some months, including summer, not as a tourist but as a fellow training in hand and microvascular surgery at the Chinese University Of Hong Kong-Prince Of Wales Hospital. Check out her many keen observations about life in Hongkong foremost of which is that Hongkong is a hikers haven, and in fact she lost 20 pounds there without even trying.

Let’s drive over to Europe where Doc Clairebear, who has a soft spot for long rides to distant places, took a road trip with her family in the summer of 1996. They did not go to the touristy places but they visited exquisite places like “the breathtaking view of a medieval castle on top of a verdant mountain…”instead. She says, “the best way to enjoy any road trip is to simply embrace every experience, making every one taken a life lesson in itself.” She shares more insights about road trips at Loving the open road.

JoeyMD, working mom, writes about the three-week California and Nevada adventures her family had in the summer of 1991. Joey says, “Suffice it to say that the memories last me a lifetime. My dad passed away 7 years ago, but I will always remember the image of him driving that minivan, my brother beside him navigating. My mom was in charge of our supplies and my other brother was the photo/video man. My duty was to look for the next motel where we have to stay.”

Let’s move down the globe, way, way down and ask Doc Abner Hornedo what he does during the summer. Don’t be surprised if he will tell you that he celebrates Christmas. Whaat? Well, in case you didn’t know yet, Abner lives in Australia and summer begins in December there! So right now it’s a chilly April down under while a warm December is still a ways off.

Now let’s jump back to the Philippines and climb the mountains of Mindanao. Have you ever seen a T’boli native outside of our high school social studies textbooks? Well, let’s go with Doc Noel, as he went to Lake Sebu in South Cotabato last month. One early dawn he took a ride in a pirogue to get fat fresh-from-the-lake tilapia for a sinugba breakfast. He says, “The tourists in Lake Sebu are generally more of the reading-and-meditating type rather than the ones in perpetual search for excitement, thrill or danger… This is where writers can easily summon the Muses, where families can snugly draw together in front of the fire and tell legends about warriors and kings (or about elves and dwarves, orcs and hobbits, men and wizards) … and where even harassed physicians can simply relax and gingerly outline the schemes and the goals for the toxic week ahead.” Pinoy MD bloggers, isn’t that just the place we wanna go to, huh?

MerryCherry, summer and water lover, the first to submit an entry and the host for TBR6, is a young lady to watch. She truly has a heart for the Filipino masa. And for the Philippine Sun, sand and everything in between.

When she was a child, Pinaymegamom’s nationalistic dad took her and her family to beaches all over the country. It made such a big impact on her that she too has developed an intense affinity for the sea. They have been to beaches all over the world but they attest that Philippine beaches are among the best. Today she continues the tradition her father had started. She says that “somehow I hope it instills love of country in my children.”

Martin Bautista, an immigrant in America whose heart is fully Filipino, writes about his senatorial bid in Last summer. While you are at his site, please view the video presentation about Martin and his philosophies in life. The title of his blog is “On my way home.” After I watched the video I realized that though he is grateful to America for the good life that he has there, home for him is still the Philippines.

And finally, I saved my favorite entry post for last. Mona, one of our senior residents at the Silliman Medical Center, writes a moving post in a summer like no other.

p.s.

In case you’re wondering what incredible and memorable thing I did one summer past or present, it’s THIS. Hosting TBR5! :-)

p.p.s.

This is a pahabol post from BoneMD. I tried to insert it in the text above but it is so incongruous with the other posts and so horrifying that it deserves to have its own place here. A must read. It is a taste of war.