To Guangzhou!

I have no difficulty keeping up with my politics blog, but I have been pretty atrocious about updating my travel blog. I started the blog in 2006 when I first went to Europe, and it was logistically difficult to update the blog. It wasn't exceptionally challenging to find internet cafes, but it still took some effort. Also, European keyboards have subtle differences that make typing much slower and very frustrating. More importantly, since I was news-deprived during that vacation, I'd spend at least the first hour of my time reading news and political commentary to catch up on the latest. There wasn't always time left over to blog about my travels, and writing after the fact isn't as effective. I did go back to Europe again in 2009 and was again lax with keeping up the blog, but to be fair I had Sarah with me and I knew she would be keeping everyone updated so I didn't need to.

However, I've revived my travel blog in anticipation of a new trip I will be taking in April. Things will be different this time! I found a way to update my blog directly by sending a simple message from my blackberry phone, so I will have no excuse. All of my old Europe posts will still be found on this blog, and I plan to continue to update the blog from that end, writing about specific cities that I went to in Europe either in 2006 or 2009. Additionally, during my fourth year of medical school I'll be traveling all over the country for residency interviews, so I'll blog about those experiences as well.

So what trip scheduled in April could have inspired me to this extent? I am headed to China! I am going to be one of the first two IUSM students to participate in an exchange program with the medical school of Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China. Guangzhou is the third biggest city in China, with approximately 12 million people. The city is also known as Canton, and is located in Guangdong Province, southern China.



I will be working at SYSU for 1 month, in the surgery department. Hopefully, I will be in the surgical oncology section (which is what I want to do), but that isn't guaranteed yet. Apparently SYSU is right in the middle of the city, so we will be within walking distance to tons of things. Additionally, Hong Kong and Macau are each barely an hour away, and I hope to visit those two cities at least. Hong Kong in particular has been on my 'most wanted places to visit list' for years now. Here is something I put together to get an idea of the relative locations of Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau:



More updates will come before the trip, although they probably won't be super exciting. I may periodically do a "retro blog" about one of the various European cities I went to either in 2006 or 2009, so keep an eye out for those.