World Heritage Sites

After writing that last post, I reminded myself to look into the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Being a guy, I like to collect things, and I think a good one would be "World Heritage Sites I've Been To". Anyways, here's a little history of these sites.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been selected by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which is composed of 21 countries. The program aims to catalogue, name, and conserve sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance. As of 2007, a total of 851 sites are listed: 660 cultural, 166 natural, and 25 mixed properties.

I got this info from the glorious Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_site
and the actual UNESCO website http://whc.unesco.org/en/
So here's my collection so far.

Africa:
Zambia: Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls

Americas:
United States:
Carlsbad Caverns National Park - New Mexico
Grand Canyon National Park - Arizona
Independence Hall - Pennsylvania
Wrangell-St. Elias Park - Alaska
Mammoth Cave - Kentucky
Redwood National and State Parks - California
Statue of Liberty - New York
Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming
Yosemite National Park - California

Asia and Australasia:
Cambodia: Angkor (going there next month)
China: Historic Centre of Macau
India:
Agra Fort, Uttar Pradesh
Humayun's Tomb, Delhi
Qutub Minar and its monuments, Delhi
Red Fort, New Delhi
Taj Mahal, Uttar Pradesh
South Korea:
Changdeokgung Palace Complex
Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon
Nepal: Kathmandu Valley
Thailand: Dong Phaya Yen – Khao Yai Forest Complex (next month)

Europe:
United Kingdom:
Palace of Westminster
Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
Westminster School

I missed the several sites in Haiti, Canada, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica. Oh well. You should check the list out, because you might have one next door to you, like this one I just found. Jongmyo Shrine

India: other travels

I had a post about the Taj Mahal earlier, but we saw so much more in India. Here's some other highlights from traveling with Max Janosky.

Red Fort, Old Dehli, India. Used to be the palace grounds.


Itimad-ub-Daulah's Tomb, the "Baby Taj", Agra, India. This white marble beauty is just down the river a bit from the real Taj.


Another photo of the Baby Taj.


Agra Fort. This UNESCO World Heritage site is also an old Mughal Palace/Fort and is considered by many the 2nd most important site to see after the Taj.


Another from Agra Fort. This place is huge, and on top of that, it's composed of very ornately carved red sandstone and white marble.


Monkeys, like cows, are considered holy in the Hindu religion, so they just roam around wherever. So different from most of Africa, where the monkeys run for the lives.


Train toilet. We took the train from Dehli to Agra and back. Going there we were in AC 1st Class which was like an airliner 1st class with air conditioning. Going back we thought we'd try the cheapest class, which was so crowded I could stand on only one leg. And my one leg was standing by an open door. And then all these people would squeeze through selling snacks. And here is the bathroom. That is not a piece of doodoo, but it is open to the tracks below.

New York City

While out in Texas, I spent the 1st weekend of September up in New York City visiting Candice, a friend from medical school. The first night there we went to a trance show/rave by DJ Tiesto. This is one of my favorite DJ's; he has been rated the world's best DJ a couple times in the past few years; and he did the music for the last Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics. Awesome show. Here's a clip from one of his other shows, which shows the enthusiasm of the audience well.

Tiesto's He's A Pirate Mix

Well this turn out to be an amazing evening with Candice, and I fell in love with her quick. She came out to Korea a few weeks later for the week of my ankle surgery. It was such a blessing to have her there. Here are some photos from our travels around Seoul.

Overlooking Seoul.

Palace grounds.

We've gotten the chance to see each other a few other times with my frequent trips out to San Antonio. I really enjoy the weekend trips to New York City. She has a beautiful apartment with the view below. (Photo courtesy of Scott)



New York City is an amazing melting pot. I don't think there is another city in the world with such a mix of cultures. Great ethnic foods... I've enjoyed delicious Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Peruvian food, and Vietnamese food. Plus great chocolate and coffee were partaken of! Another highlight was the chance be meet up with a couple of my best friends (Jeff and Scott) and their wives.

Janelle, Jeff, Jenny, Me

Scott falling with grace

AMP'ed Up: the rest of the story

Merry Christmas, World. I recently came back from a 2 week trip to San Antonio for the Aircraft Mishap Investigation and Prevention course, and while there, I was able to spin in the centrifuge again, and this time... passed. Easily. I was so excited. Hitting the gym and drinking a Monster beforehand did the trick. This was one of my most trying accomplishments in life. So now I'll be able to fly in the F-16 without restrictions. And I'm going to have to remove the centrifuge video. Air Force doesn't want them posted. But just email me if you want to check it out.


So now I'll go all the way back to August/September and finish the story from my previous post. Above is a photo from a mass casualty exercise. Mulage, broken armored vehicles, smoke, and war sounds all made it more life-like. Fun times. During that time, I was in the gym, trying to bulk up as much as possible before spinning in the centrifuge. I was doing calf raises with lots of weight (because you want to max out with few reps). Anyways while doing this, I noticed a funny feeling in my right ankle, but didn't think to much of it. The next day, when putting on my socks, I saw that a pin/screw was raising the skin over my right lateral ankle (I had hardware put in my ankle a year and a half ago after breaking it). So with all the weight I was pushing, a screw had back itself out from the bone. Now the skin was tented, raised about 0.5cm.

The problem was that I was supposed to start my Survival Evasion Resistance Escape (SERE) training in a couple days. They ending up pulling me out of the training, because hiking all over the back woods with boots on could've broke the skin over the screw, and provided a path for infections to the bone. That would be trouble. So they sent me home back to Korea. I was sad that I didn't get to do the SERE with all the friends I had made at AMP. They were the best part of my stay. We had so many good times, eating out, partying, tubing down the river, and seeing the sites of San Antonio. I miss you guys!


I had surgery back in Korea, taking the hardware out. I worked in the clinic while waiting for the skin to heal up. Then in October, I went back to San Antonio for SERE. It's 5 days living in the woods. They give you a pack with supplies, and there's a limited list of items that you can bring yourself, but no food. The first 3 days was simulated survival in friendly territory. So we had big fires, smoked beef, caught some fish to eat, killed a couple live rabbits for a stew, and generally had it pretty good, all the while learning techniques of survival and evasion. The last 2 days were actual evasion, sneaking around, trying to reach certain points using the map and compass. Overall the worst things included
1. The cold. Unusually cold nights for Texas. Near freezing and below freezing every night. And we only had 2 blankets.
2. The hunger. On average, we had one meal and one snack each day. The smoked beef was amazing though.
3. Eating a huge white grub. We're required to overcome food aversion, so we get to eat bugs. Yay.
4. Nearly failing the course because I missed the pickup time. I had the meeting time wrong.
5. Trying to sneak through thick, dry brush in a quiet fashion. SO SLOW!

Here's a photo of me after I got back to Uncle Gordon and Aunt Elida's. Some of the peripheral camo stuff I didn't put back on though.

AMP'ed up, Part 1: The Centrifuge

So I finally finished my Aerospace Medicine Primary course (AMP). This is the course for training flight surgeons in the Air Force. They also have a separate residency program that goes for 2-3 years, but AMP is the starter course for new dudes like me. It starts with 4 weeks worth of powerpoint lectures put into Computer Based Training (CBT); I completed this when I first went to Korea. Then I went to San Antonio, Texas, for more hands-on training for 6 weeks (which included lots of more powerpoints as well).

Highlights included the centrifuge where they spin you like mad in a simulated cockpit on the arm of this machine, that looks like this.

This let you experience high "g" forces, which included 9 g's for 15 seconds. Let me tell you, this is like nothing you've ever experienced, and I've been on tons of rollercoasters and whatnot. One of my friends described it in a great way: it's like the hand of God is pushing you down, and flinging you across the universe. Everyone HATES this feeling, and I did too at first, but I got used to it.

So a little education in g forces. These forces usually press straight down on you, which causes pooling of blood in the vasculature of your lower extremities. Soon no blood reaches your heart. To combat this, you do anti-G straining maneuvers (AGSM), which includes flexing your whole lower body with all your strength, and doing a valsalva (taking a deep breath, and forcefully exhaling against a closed epiglottis). Both of these assist by creating pressures that force blood back up into your head. This usually allows you to tolerate these high g's and not pass out.

Well..... not so for me. Despite doing all this, I still GLOC'ed (general loss of consciousness) with the 9 g's for 15 seconds. And this is quite an experience. Most of the time, I didn't totally GLOC. I would lose my eyesight, lose control of my muscles and slump over, but I was still conscious of this, like I'd be, "Woah, this is weeeeeeiiiird". Thinking this in my head of course, because I couldn't speak since I had no motor control. See this for yourself. Here's an attempt at 15 seconds of 9 g's. You can hear the coach's voice over the intercom.



To finish this part up, I tried the the centrifuge 4 times (most people needed only 1-2 times to pass), and I still couldn't pass the section needed in order to fly in F-16's without restrictions. I'll still be able to fly in them, but just can't do hardcore air combat flights. I think there's something wrong with my heart, like it can't kickstart to warp speed. I'll be trying again in December when I go back to San Antonio for my Aircraft Mishap Investigation training.

Another quick highlight, Big Louie's Pizza... check it out! And it tasted good too.

A little more on Seoul

Sorry for such a boring blog for lack of posts. I'll try to catch up.

So Seoul is awesome. Love it. Glad I'm going to be there for at least at year. It's a big city (about the size of LA), and like Los Angeles, it doesn't have a downtown downtown. Instead it has lots of cool areas in the city, like a young professional area, expat area, university area, etc. Unlike LA, it has an excellent and cheap public transportation system which goes all the way to my base. The above pic is the Samsung Jong-Ro Building, Hanging Glass Façade.

The Wild, Wild West

So here's a short overdue entry about my roadtrip from Dayton to Seattle. First night was Chicago, but my clutch cable snapped a bit south of Chicago. Luckily USAA roadside assistance came to my rescue. At the time, I didn't know what went wrong, so I had it towed to the Evolution specialists at AMS in Chicago. They squeezed me into their very busy schedule with some extra money. That place is amazing. I got to see their shop's car, which is the most powerful Evo in the world as far as I know with over 1000 crank horsepower from the Evo's four cylinders. It's faster than almost all stock supercars. Anyways my brother Tom met me in Chicago, and we stayed at my friend Derek's place near downtown Chicago. So I was a good place for my car to break down.


We drove through the Badlands in South Dakota, which is a detour you must take if you're driving through the area.
We got there at a good time.

The beauty inspires Tom to do what he needs to do.

Another must see in South Dakota.
Mount Rushmore. Cool place.

And yes, I wore the same clothes the whole way.

Base Exercise

We are doing a base exercise this week. Pretty much we pretend we're at war. I'm on the Initial Response Team, where a tech, an ambulance driver, and myself go out into the field to pick up the injured. My first run out was a mass casualty of 7 men. The fire department was supposed to organize the scene before I got there, but I ended up having to run the program myself. Lots learned from the experience, but I did well considering it was my first.

We have to wear our chem warfare jacket and pants all the time, and every once and a while don out gas masks. It gets really hot with all this, a flak vest, doctor vest, ulitilty belt, helmet and so on. We're not allowed to go off base or shop for anything including food, but we're allow to go home to sleep, which in the real situation, we'd sleep in the hospital.

I don't have TB

Good news. My PPD came back negative, so I did not contract latent tuberculosis while I was in India. Some of the doctors there thought I probably contracted it, as about half of our patients had TB, and some had very active diseases. Often people don't show any symptoms when they first contract TB. It just holes up until it sees an ideal time to attack.

Songtan & Seoul

Still busy here, but no longer suffering without linens. I got a couple chances this weekend to go off base: to the strip outside the gate in Songtan and Seoul. The strip here is quite a trip: bars, clubs, restaurants, stores, and so on -- all catered to the airmen here. The local beer Hite is good and only $3 a bottle. It's less than a mile from my apartment (which is right next to the hospital I work at).
Seoul is 1 1/2 hours by the train/subway. It costs about a dollar each way. 45 minutes away when you drive. A local friend showed me around, which made it relaxed and easy. Seoul is huge and has everything you could want. Traffic and the sidewalks weren't too busy, but it was a Sunday, which most Koreans have off from work. About 1/3 are Christian. The English speaking church service I went to reminded me of my church when I was in highschool. Kind of 90's vinyard style.