With my comp.sci PhD finished, printed and published, I'm now back to being a full-time medical student. It's really rewarding and fun -- being an introvert geek, I've learned a lot about how I relate to other people by being shoved into a room with a patient who expects me to talk to him/her about the most intimate details of his/her situation. Alas, being a student doesn't pay at all.

I've still some money left from earlier jobs, and I live quite comfortably, but prudence (and interest) requires me to look for a job this summer as well. If all pending exams go well, I'll get my temporary license at the end of the spring semester, which means I can apply for work as a hospital doctor during the summer. There's no denying that this would be quite a lot of fun, but I'm not all that hopeful -- the competition to get hospital jobs seems fierce, and I've not been a star performer when it comes to medicine, I'm sad to say (but hopefully things will pick up now that I can focus on it).

For these reasons, I'll probably also be looking around for comp.sci jobs as a backup because I'm fairly good at it, it pays well, and it's usually a lot of fun. Also, it's easier to get jobs abroad, even in countries where you don't speak the native language fluenty:)

Summer, and what resembled a vacation, is over. It was perhaps not as recuperating as I would have liked, but it certainly wasn't dull, either. All in all, I got to see a few Broadway shows, a gig in Madison Square Garden, a concert with the Blue Man Group, a comedy club show, a jazz club performance, bunches of movies and of course a lot of wining and dining in various restaurants. Pretty metropolitan, but I notice that a few weeks in a big city makes me miss good old Nature quite a bit.

I didn't spend all my time in the city, fortunately. I also found the time to visit Seemant, Aimee, Josh and Daniel in Boston (part of the Boston Gentoo posse, for those of you not in the know). Courtesy of a confused Fung Wah bus driver, we trawled the coastline from NYC to Boston, visiting all cities and ports on the way. In the end, we what was supposed to be a four hour bus drive turned into a six hour trek into the night.

I regret not having had more time to spend on visiting more acquaintances and people. I hardly left the city in my weeks there. Ah, well. Next time. Now I'm back in Bergen, moving out of my office at the CS department and tending to the remaining pieces of post-graduation formalities.