Looking forward to final year of medical school…

The placement allocation for final year of medical school has been released. Though one of the rotations allocated was not even in the seven preferences I submitted, I don’t have much to whinge about here, as I have gotten my first preference for the other four rotations, which is extremely lucky I supposed (my preference in bracket).

Rotation 1: Medicine – Eastern Health Maroondah (8)

Rotation2: Specialty (oncology) – Monash Medical Centre Morrabbin (1)

Rotation 3: Surgery (breast) – Monash Medical Centre Clayton (1)

Rotation 4: Vacation

Rotation 5: Elective

Rotation 6: Aged Care – Alfred Hospital (1)

Rotation 7: Emergency – Alfred Hospital (1)

Though Maroondah Hospital seems a little too far, I think it is not too bad to start the year in a relatively small hospital so as to allow me to gradually brush up my rusty clinical skills in a less busy hospital settings, after one year of zero patient contact. As for rotation 2 and 3, it is a new initiative by Monash Medical Centre to offer a joint core medicine(or surgery)/specialty 12-week rotation, and with oncology-breast surgery as one of the options, I quickly jump at this new placement option as both rotations appeared to be ‘tailor-made’ to further consolidate what I have learnt in BMedSc on breast cancer genetics. Most people would say that scrubbing in for breast surgeries for the entire six weeks will be kind of boring compared to the more interesting cardio/neuro surgeries, however, as I am not really a ’surgical’ person, so with less time ‘wasted’ standing in the operating theatre, I will have more time spent on mastering the more fundamental pre-op and post-op surgical management, which is what I will be dealing with during the surgical rotation in internship year. Also, having done both medical and surgical rotation early on before the internship application period (which usually happens around rotation 4), at least I will have a better chance of securing a medical and surgical reference each for the internship application. With both rotations in the Alfred allocated at the end of the year (though that means I can’t get any reference from the Alfred for interns application), hopefully by then I will be more confident clinically, to cope with the daunting and demanding setting in the Alfred. As for my elective, I am considering a 12-week research elective (across both vacation and elective period), possibly following up on what I have done in the BMedSc year, or something related to it. I have a few options in mind, but have yet to finalize the details.

Though most final year students have claimed that Monash medicine final year is relatively relaxing (as there’re NO exams), I think it will be a tough year for me, having to re-learn most of the clinical stuff that have been shelved for a year. Anyway, I shall first complete the BMedSc thesis and oral presentation, and there will be heaps of revision to be done over the summer as I prepare to return to the hospitals and start seeing patients again!

Of beach, desert and mountain

After my hectic overseas traveling schedule over the last few months, I finally get back into more active bushwalking with Melbourne University Mountaineering Club (MUMC). I had been on trips every alternate weekends since I came back to Down Under. Unfortunately, since Violet was busy with studies as she entered the final semester of medical school, she did not come on any of the trips with me.

To get myself back into shape for more strenuous trips, I went on a beginner’s trip to Wilson Promontory National Park during uni spring break. Scenic view and easy-going group of people (I think there were 13 of us) made it an awesome trip. We left Melbourne on Friday night and camped at the Tidal River campsite on the first night. The next morning, we went on a short trip to the Squeaky Beach (it really squeaks when you walk on it!) on the other side of Tidal River, where we had breakfast on the beach. Then we went back to the campsite, and drove up to the Telegraph Saddle, before setting off for the hike across the prom to Sealers Cove on the east coast, where we camped for the night. There was shower every now and then throughout the day, and as the campsite was pretty muddy, and few of our tents were soaked with water, we decided to move to the Rangers Hut. The next day we walked for another 12km or so down south along the east coast of the Prom to Waterloo Bay. We had a short break at Refuge Cove on the way and few of the guys had a quick ’swim’ in the sea. On the last day, I went on the longer route with half of the group across the prom to the Oberon Bay and all the way back north to Tidal River, whereas half of the group went on a shorter route to the Telegraph Saddle to pick up the car and meet up with us at the Tidal River.

The next trip was to the Little Desert National Park, some 5 hour drive away on the western region of Victoria. It is not a desert per se, but most of the park was of arid landscape due to poor soil with little water. There were seven of us on this trip, and this was the longest bush-walk I have been to, in terms of distance covered, but it was largely flat with little/ no elevation. We covered 21km on the first day, from Kiata camp to Yellow Gum camp, 13km on the second day to Mallee camp, and another 21km back to Kiata camp on the last day (a total of approximately 55km over 3 days!). It was really nice to have campfire at the Yellow Gum campsite as it was quite chilly at night. Though the view was not spectacular, nonetheless the long bushwalk was a good preparation for the Melbourne half marathon I was due to run in the following weekend.

My latest trip was up to Mount Feathertop, the second highest peak in Victoria, in the Alpine National Park. Though it wasn’t my first snow experience, I find it to be particularly tough as the last two snow trips (to Mount Buller) was largely touristy trips, whereas for this trip, I have to carry a backpack and walk on thick snow for about 13km all the way up to the summit! We went up via Razorback, and the last push up the summit was hard, but the view from the top was awesome, especially as the sun was about to set. We didn’t stay on top of the summit for long as we had to rush to the MUMC hut before it got dark. We slept in dome-shaped MUMC hut for the night, and went down via Bungalow Spur the next day.

I reckon I shall be taking a short break from bushwalking for now as I prepare for the Japan trip in a few weeks time. And I shall look forward to more bushwalking over the summer, after completion of my year-long BMedSc research and before the commencement of the hectic final year medical school in mid January next year!

Note: Though I am not a big fan of liquor, I am gradually getting accustomed to the ‘practice’ of bringing port (or liquor of some sort) on bushwalking trips (as if the backpack is not heavy enough!) and have a good drink after the daylong of walking!

Of my BMedSc research II

Following the brief overview of my BMedSc project early this year, as I come towards the end of the year (i.e. thesis writing time) I thought I might provide those of you who might be interested some information on what I have done throughout the year. The following is my abstract submitted for the 20th Asia Pacific Cancer Conference in November, which basically summarize my project and some of the findings.  Am really glad that the abstract was accepted for presentation at the conference and felt really honoured to be selected for Young Investigator Award at the conference.

Utility of Breast Cancer Associated SNPs for Breast Cancer Risk Prediction

1,2 Ong WL, 1Price JT, 3Hopper JL, 4Chenevix-Trench G, 5Goldgar DE, 2Southey MC, The Australia Breast Cancer Family Study.
1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University; 2Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne; 3Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytical Epidemiology, The University of Melbourne; 4Queensland Institute of Medical Research; 5Department of Dermatology, University of Utah School of Medicine.

Background: Recent genome-wide-association-studies (GWASs) investigating common genetic variants have successfully identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a number of independent loci to be associated with breast cancer risk. Each SNP confers only a small increase in breast cancer risk (per-allele-OR<1.5), but the SNPs are purported to act multiplicatively, giving a higher risk in individuals carrying multiple susceptibility SNPs.

Methods: Samples for the study were obtained from the ABCFS. Families with pathogenic BRCA1/2 mutations were excluded. DNA samples were extracted from Guthrie card blood spots, PCR-amplified using SNP-specific probes (Taqman), followed by end-point genotype analysis. 9 SNPs (verified by the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC)) have been selected for the study, namely rs2981582 (FGFR2), rs3803662 (TNRC9), rs3817198 (LSP1), rs889312 (MAP3K), rs13281615 (8q24), rs2107425 (H19), rs17468277 (CASP8), rs13387042 (2q35) and rs10941679 (5p12). For each individual, three SNP risk scores were computed – TOTRA (total number of risk alleles), TOTOR (total log odds ratio based on per allele OR reported by BCAC) and LOGOR (total log odds ratio based on per allele OR estimated using logistic regression on ABCFS samples). For relatives of case probands in the ABCFS database, whom SNPs genotype were not generated, simple SNP score imputation was done, whereby SNP score = K X (proband normalized SNP score) (K=kinship coefficient; K=1/2 if 1st degree relatives, ¼ if 2nd degree relative, and 1/8 if 3rd degree relatives).

Results: Genotypes for all 9 SNPs were available for 2999 individuals: 1042 case probands, 508 control probands and 1449 relatives of case probands, of whom 111 had breast cancer diagnoses. The average age of breast cancer diagnosis for the case probands was 44, compared with 56 for the affected relatives. As expected, case probands have higher SNP scores compared to control probands (p=2.5X10-6 for TOTRA; p=6X10-6 for TOTOR; p=9X10-12 for LOGOR), with cases carrying on average 0.5 more risk alleles than control probands (Figure 1). Similar risk score differences between case probands and control probands were observed using either all 9 SNPs data or 4 most significant SNPs data from stepwise analysis estimation. The highest quartile of the LOGOR score was associated with increased breast cancer risk compared to the lowest quartile in the probands (OR=2.44; p=8.5X10-9). Surprisingly, there was no difference in all three SNP scores between the relatives (with SNP data generated) as defined by their breast cancer status. In a Cox proportional hazards analysis of the risk of developing breast cancer in these relatives, none of the SNP scores significantly influenced the risk perhaps due to the small number of affected relatives. Comparisons of breast cancer incidence in relatives with SNP scores in the highest quartile and the lowest quartile also showed no significant difference. However, when relatives with predicted SNP scores were incorporated into the analysis (n=8416), the SNP scores appeared to influence the risk of developing breast cancer (HR=2.04; p=0.04).

Conclusion: Our results call into question the utility of SNP-based risk prediction, even in the familial setting, although the addition of many more such SNPs may improve their utility.

Home sweet home…

Ah, it feels so good to be back at home! lazing around, doing nothing, and simply enjoying myself….

Family: Went to maternal grandparents place during the weekends. Haven’t seen them for about one and a half year. As much as I want to share my experience with them, as usual I found that I was not very good at chatting with them, partly due to language barrier, and maybe generation gap. I can’t really recall what language I used to converse with them. They speak Hakka, but my Hakka vocab was extremely limited to words like eating, sleeping, peeing and maybe shitting (those were the basic words I need to know when I was small! ). They speak Hokkien, but my Hokkien has deteriorated these days. And they speak Mandarin too, but I find it kind of weird talking to them in Mandarin. So, it ended up with ‘rojak’ conversation of Hakka, Hokkien and Mandarin, and a lot of the time it still felt like ‘chicken-and-duck talk’. Well, at least it was comforting to know that the octogenarian couple was still doing not too badly for their age. Also met my maternal uncle who so happen dropped by my grandparents’ place to feed his pet birds. A typical farmer living among the Malay community, he is a staunch PAS supporter, and started talking about all the local political dramas from TBH untimely death to Perak political impasse. During my second visit to my grandparents’ place, my maternal aunt and family were also there. Met my young cousins, who seemed to be more interested in my laptop than me!

Friends: During the National Day long weekend, quite a number of friends working out-stations were back in Alor Setar, and I was glad to meet up with a few of them. Hanged out with Alvin and Ren Jie, the two Kangar boys. I last met Alvin when he visited Melbourne in 2007 if I am not mistaken, but I haven’t met Ren Jie since he left for US back in 2004! Also managed to catch up with my secondary school friends, Yong Chuan and Hai Ming, the two engineers currently working in Singapore and KL respectively.

Food: One of the best things that appeal to me back at home is the hawker centre food: hokkien-mee (i.e. central/ southern Malaysia equivalent of har-mee), curry-mee, loh-mee, java-mee, assam laksa, char kuey teow, cha-ying-yong etc. Simply irresistible. Thankfully, I did get to try all of them during the 2 short week back at home. And of course mummy’s home-cook food as well!

KL/ Singapore transit: Found cheap airfare online, and decided to go on a two-day short visit to Singapore, and spend a day in Klang valley before leaving for Melbourne. Had a pretty full-on schedule in Singapore, and it’s more of catching-up with friends than actually exploring Singapore. Put up at Violet’s parents place during my stay in Singapore. Managed to contact Rui Yang to organize a quick catch-up with other secondary schoolmates from Ipoh, Ngai Seng and Weng Kit. Also being brought around their alma mater, NTU campus in the middle of the night, when Ei Lene (Ngai Seng’s gf aka my cousin & Alor Setar schoolmates; what a small world!) joined us. Right after that, met up with Alor Setar secondary schoolmates, Yong Chuan (again) and Yong Pin, for late drink. Went for a cuppa in a cafe at Marina Bay with Kah Yong, fellow Monash meddies the following day before taking a late night flight back to KL. Had an appointment with Soo Hwang at CARIF in Subang Jaya Medical Centre the following morning. Being shown around her lab, and had a good chat with her about future career pathways and options.

That pretty much sums up my two-week short stay at home. Looking forward to going back again, hopefully end of next year!

The Cat City…

As I landed at KLIA low cost carrier terminal (LCCT) early in the morning, I had my breakfast at the now widely-franchised Old Town White Coffee outlet. Ordered Ipoh chicken hor fun (thick flat rice noodle) and of course the famous white coffee. Then, boarded the connecting flight, flying across the South China Sea, To Kuching to attend my sister’s graduation ceremony in University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). Well, this is my first time ever visiting the Borneo Island!

One thing that caught my attention in the flight was the number of passengers wearing face mask, in fear of contracting H1N1! Throughout my entire flight from Salt Lake City, Dallas and Los Angeles back to Melbourne and Gold Coast, I hardly saw anyone wearing face mask, but more than half of the passengers in the Kuching-bound flight were wearing it! Well, it is important to be health conscious, but then it appeared to me that Malaysians seemed to be over-paranoid about H1N1!

Anyway, as I landed in Kuching International Airport, I took a cab and rushed to UNIMAS campus, as it was already near noon (the graduation ceremony was in the morning). The ceremony just ended when I arrived, but at least there was still opportunity to have photo sessions with my family outside the hall. It was heartwarming seeing so many families and friends sharing this moment of joy with all the graduates who had make it through after 5 long grueling years in medical school. Ah, and so there you go, the first Dr OWL from our family! Congrates!

Since this was my first visit to Kuching, I spent the next 5 days exploring the Cat City with my family. The day after the graduation ceremony, we went to Sarawak Cultural Village where traditional houses of different native ethnic groups were showcased.  There was also traditional dance performance sometime around lunchtime. Overall, the visit provided a good summary of the culture of god-knows how many ethnic groups in this region of Borneo Island.

The next couple of day, sis went off to work in Sarawak General Hospital, and so dad, mum and myself went exploring on our own. We covered places like the Bidayuh Long House, Semenggoh Oran Utan Rehabilitation Centre (it was raining and we didn’t really get to watch the Orang Utan close-up), Sarawak Museum, Cat Museum, as well as the Kuching River waterfront. Of course we did try some famous local cuisine, such as the Kuching laksa and Koo-loo mee. Thanks to Boon Phiaw’s recommendation, we  tasted laksa at three to four famous stalls around Kuching!  Also get to tried some native cuisines, such as Ayam Pangsoh (bamboo chicken) and Umai (’sashimi’ prawn), which for unknown reason are not easily found around Kuching.

I was also glad to hang out with Boon Phiaw and Freda for two nights as well. It has been almost 8 months since we last parted when they left Melbourne for good, and they didn’t seem to change much i.e. Boon Phiaw still remains the fat single guy who’s picky when it comes to choosing gf! Raymond also joined us for one of the nights when we went to the Kuching food festival.

After spending about 5 good days time traveling with my family, and meeting up with friends, dad, mum and I boarded the Air-asia direct Penang-bound flight back home. Huh, another two-hour flight! Basically I have lost count of the numbers of time I have been flying over the last month or so! At least I am back at home now!

Stopover Down Under…

Due to delay in the connecting flight, I arrived back in Melbourne from the States on Saturday morning, one day later than scheduled. It’s kind of weird having to get used to the chilly winter in Melbourne, having just left the searing summer in the States. But thankfully, I only spent two short days in Melbourne, as I left for Kingscliff, near the summer-ish Surfer’s Paradise, on Monday afternoon.

I was there to attend a 4-day Familial Cancer Conference. I must say that I was extremely lucky to be in such a supportive lab, as my supervisor paid for all my (and three other students and one lab assistant’s) expenses for the conference, and that included the airfare, accommodation, and conference registration. Mind you the conference was held in quite a ritzy resort along the beach, and we get to stay in the resort. Ah, what a luxury..:D

The first day of the conference largely focused on the clinical aspects whereas the subsequent 3 days are mostly on basic science researches. Though I sat in for most of the presentation, I could hardly concentrate, as I was constantly thinking (and fretted) about my own oral presentation scheduled on the very last day of the conference. As I am a complete novice in the field and it was also my first ever presentation in a conference, my supervisors, David, Melissa, and John went through my presentation with me a couple of times the day before. It was quite a daunting experience presenting my research findings, with quite a large number of prominent clinicians and researchers in the audience. It was a great relief as I stepped down from the stage after my 15-minute talk plus a couple of jittery attempts to answer the questions. Nonetheless, the sense of achievement is ineffable considering the fact that all other speakers were renowned researchers, post-doc fellows or Phd candidates.

Apart from listening to the latest research development by distinguished researchers, the conference was also a good place for meeting other people in the field. It was during the conference that I met Soo Hwang, the chief executive of Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation (CARIF) in Malaysia. She has been such a nice and approachable lady, offering me valuable advice and giving me a better insight into the research development back in Malaysia.

At the end of the four-day conference, I took the flight back to Melbourne, followed by another flight back to Malaysia on the same night. Well, it’s time for a well-deserved short break back at home after such a long hard work from the beginning of the year…

Journey to America VI

Day 15-40 Salt Lake City, UTAH

Note: This is a long over-due post…

When I first arrived in Salt Lake City (it was a weekend), the city was totally deserted – all the shops were closed, hardly any cars on the streets, and not to mention the bus from the city centre to my accommodation (about half an hour bus ride away) only runs hourly. I arrived at Foothill Place in the afternoon, and was greeted by the landlord, who showed me around my apartment. He was also kind enough to bring me out for groceries shopping. I spent the next day in the apartment as the bus service in my area does not run on Sundays. Thankfully, the apartment was connected with broad-band internet, other wise I would have died of boredom. As my supervisor, Professor David Goldgar, was away on Monday, I had the luxury of spending the day exploring downtown Salt Lake City; visited the State Capitol and Temple Square.

The following day, David drove me to the University of Utah School of Medicine, where I was based at for my entire stay in Salt Lake City. As Bing, the post-doc was overseas during my time in Utah, there were only David and I in the office most of the time. My three and a half week in Utah was largely spent working on the analysis of the breast cancer genotype data, which I have generated in Melbourne, under guidance of David, who has been working in the field of statistical genetics for the past 30 years or so. It has been a great pleasure working with such highly-regarded yet unassuming  and funny person like David.  We even went for lunch-time jog and hiking together.

A visit to Utah is also not complete without exploring the many national parks in the state. I went hiking on the Little Cottonwood Canyon with David and his wife, Connie on the first weekend, and later on in the Bryce and Zion Canyon on my own on the very last weekend. I was utterly impressed by the beauty of the unique geographical landscape in the state.

As my stay in Salt Lake City comes to an end, so does my Journey to America. Over the past six weeks or so, I got to catch up with my primary class mate, went on a solo backpacking trip, met different people in the field of medical research, and most importantly, managed to work on my BMedSc research and had an abstract accepted for oral presentation in a conference! All in all, an enriching experience!

As I boarded the flight back to Down Under, I shall look forward to coming back to the States some time in the future…

Journey to America V

Day 8-13  Boston

It was already 10pm when I landed at Logan Airport. Somehow I managed to find my way to the accommodation, again at one of Hostelling International branches.

The one-week stay in Boston also marked the beginning of the more academic part of my journey to the US, which means it was time to leave the holiday mood behind. Hence I did not get to visit many places during my stay there. I only spent one afternoon walking across the Charles River to Cambridge to visit Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University campus, and another evening along part of the Freedom Trail to Boston downtown and the wharf.

Overall, the visit to Boston has been an extremely valuable visit, which offered me great opportunity of networking with various people in the field of medical research. The one-week visit was spent in Assistant Professor Alex Miron’s cancer biology laboratory in Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the Harvard affiliated hospitals.  Alex was very friendly and patient in explaining the various projects going on in his lab, and brought me around the lab on the first day.  For the next 3-4 days, I shadowed the lab manager, Yosuf, an Eritrean, who is the sole person responsible for the running of the many high throughput sequencing machines and robots in the lab. Again, he was very patient in guiding me through the processes he did, and explaining some fundamental molecular biology concepts to me. And on the last day of my visit, I also had a quick chat with Yelena, a post-doc fellow who had just returned from a voluntary mission in Russia. All of them were very kind in sharing their experiences and offering me advice on graduate studies/ post-doctoral options and opportunities in the US. I was also extremely lucky to have some clinical experience during the visit, thanks to Alex’s arrangement for me to attend an outpatient clinic session with Dr Daniel Silver, a medical oncologist-cum-scientist.

All in all, an extremely educational and beneficial visit, allowing me to have a peek into life in the top education institution in the world, and opening up a whole range of possible options for my future education/ career.

Journey to America IV

Day 5-7 New York City

After 3-long hours in the train, I arrived at Pennsylvania Station in New York City.  It was a pretty daunting and overwhelming experience when I first arrived. Well, imagine a young bloke carrying a huge backpack (plus a day-pack hung over the chest, an SLR camera pack over the waist and a tripod slung on one shoulder), trying to hold open a map and figuring out which subway train to take, while people around him continued rushing in and out of the busy station and simply ignoring him though he looked completely lost. Anyway I managed to find my way to Hostelling International, a backpacker’s hostel at the Upper West Side of Manhattan. As with the visit to Washington DC, I tried cover as many tourist attraction spots as possible during my three short days in the city; hence, my schedule was pretty full on.

The first place I visited was the American Museum of Natural History, which was so huge that one could basically end up spending one whole day there. I also visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was equally huge if not bigger, on the following day.  Also spent a short afternoon in another contemporary art museum – the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum.

Of course a visit to the New York City is not complete without a ferry trip across the river to the Liberty Island, where the Statue of Liberty is located. The Statue of Liberty National Monument tour package also included a ferry trip to a neighboring island, Ellis Island, which used to be the main immigration depot in the early 20th century, and has been turned into an immigration museum these days. I also spent some time exploring Lower Manhattan, where Wall Street (the famous financial district), the new construction site of the World Trade Centre and Brooklyn Bridge are located.

Another iconic site not to be missed in New York City is the Times Square. I was simply dazzled by the train of yellow cabs on the street as well as the huge crowd sitting on the pedestrianized Broadway admiring the flashing neon lights and billboards. This busy intersection is no doubt the Crossroads of the World! Having my tripod with me, it was nonetheless a great photography opportunity at the Times Square during my first night in New York. Also had my tripod in company for the Macy Fireworks, which unfortunately had been moved from East River (where the Brooklyn Bridge is located) to Hudson River on the western part of Manhattan (facing New Jersey with less impressive scene) for this year‘s Independence Day celebration. And I also didn’t manage to get any good firework shots, as it was so crowded that others blocking my view or stumbling over the leg of my tripod every now and then. Also went up to the Empire state building on my last night in the city (after the fireworks) and thoroughly enjoyed the impressive night view from the tallest building in New York City.

That pretty much sums up my three day stay in New York City.

Journey to America III

Day 3-4 Washington DC

The next two days were spent in Washington DC, the capital of the US. Our first destination is the National Archive. It is where the original scripts of the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and Bills of Rights are kept. It is a pretty good place to explore the more than two decades history of The United States of America which initially comprised of only 13 states; however as I only allocated two short days for the visit in Washington DC, we didn’t get to spend much time there. After that we headed down to China Town for lunch. Chinese food in the US is considered among the more economical meal – USD6.50 for Kung Pao chicken rice.

After lunch, we headed to the Library of Congress, which is the research centre for the House of Representatives and Senates for policy making, and apparently it is the largest library in the world. However, the thing that impressed me the most is not the amount of books kept there (as we were not allowed access into the sections where the huge collection of books are kept), but the majestic interior designs of the building. After that, we walked across the road to the Capitol Hill, only to find that the guided tour for the day has ended, so we booked for the earliest tour the following morning. Due to time constraint, I decided to drop by only one of the many museums around the area – the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, before calling it a day.

The next morning, we headed straight to the Capitol Hill. We were first shown a short clip on the American History in the auditorium, before being brought around the building, to the Rotunda, the old House of Representative and Senate Chamber (which had been turned into galleries) as well as the basement central hall (which was purported to be offered to George Washington as his burial ground). I was too busy taking photo throughout the tour that I didn’t really pay much attention to details of the history of the building that the tour guide was talking about. We also planned to visit the current House of Representative chamber as well, but it was closed till after lunch. So we walked down a few blocks to the Union Station for lunch. Again, we had Chinese food in the food court which cost around 5-6 dollars. We returned to the Capitol Hill for a brief visit to the House of Representative chamber, and then took a train to the White House. Spent some time taking photos outside the White House, and headed home as the hot weather was simply unbearable.

Had a shower and good rest, then we decided to go out for a good dinner in an Italian Restaurant (which was not that good after all) since we will be parting again the following morning. Time flies. The reunion and short trip with Eric came to an end. The following morning, I took one of the earliest Amtrak train up north to New York city – the city that never sleeps…

I shall look forward to meeting Eric again when he visits Melbourne next winter!