Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy Birthday, America!

I do miss the celebrating the 4th of July. Its probably my second favorite holiday of the year. Today, sort of in honor of the holiday, at least, thats how I feel about it, we did a little patriotic sightseeing. Thats right, her in Southeast Asia. A new friend of mine is retired from the Navy, and staying here in Singapore for a short time on between merchant marine trips. This friend had captained a hospital ship for the U.S. Navy (the USNS Mercy), during the tsunami relief effort. He invited a number of people to take a tour of the ship while it is stopped here in Singapore between missions. I had heard it was pretty impressive, and I have to say, I was not disappointed. It has the capacity to house 1000 patients. Its big. And they do some really great work. In addition to disaster relief, they also do humanitarian missions, which is what they are doing right now. They are doing work with Operation Smile, operating on children with cleft palates. The ship has operating rooms, and even an interventional radiology suite. Pretty impressive.
Getting to the ship reminded me once again reminded me how far one can travel on such a tiny island. Two trains and a cab, and it took us about an hour to get there. I don't know how thats possible. But seeing new parts of the island is always interesting.
Tonight we had dinner with an acquaintance of Erin's from high school ( a good friend of her brother) and his fiance. They are a lovely couple and great company. I knew the guy was smart, but when he told us that he had taken the MCATs because he had some free time after he finished college, I knew he was on a whole other level. We had dinner at a "gourmet British pub" and watched the Argentina/Germany World Cup game. Everyone in the place was rooting for Germany, even though no one was from Germany.
I hope that everyone has a great Independence Day, and eats a hot dog and a hamburger in my honor.

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