Babu Chalam’s Homepage

Oh, where to start!  My first week of my internal medicine clinical clerkship went by pretty quickly.  Needless to say it was hectic, new facts were learned, patients were seen, etc.  I knew that the first few weeks were going to be bad considering I have no clinical experience and my physical exam skills are at the moment insufficient, so I am just trying to keep up and work as hard as I can.

In the hospital I am constantly on my feet doing something.  As the weeks go by I am sure I will learn more and be on my way to becoming the physician I want to be.  A regular day for me begins at 5 a.m. I always eat a big breakfast in the morning because the hospital food is horrible.  I get to the hospital at around 7 a.m. and participate in rounds with the attending and interns and try to help all of them in whatever way I can.  I usually get back home at around 4:30 p.m.

I hope to improve in my skills in the coming weeks.   I know that some of you have tried to contact me through e-mail, facebook, sms,  outer space, etc.  Please don’t think that I have been ignoring your messages; I just have a lot on my plate. The best way to contact me is always through e-mail or this website (i.e. I don’t really like facebook’s inbox and messaging boards).

Anyway today is my day off (we get Saturdays off) so I am going to read a little medical stuff,  get a haircut and hopefully watch the Georgia-Alabama game in some bar somewhere.  And then tomorrow is another day.  I don’t mind living in Long Island, New York, but I extremely miss all my family and friends in Georgia and especially the laid back life style and rural surroundings.  I pray to God that in two years I will be able to do residency in Georgia and be around the most important people in my life soon.

All the best and to all the American citizens, “Don’t forget to vote!”

I’ve been here for three weeks and now the clinical part of my medical education is upon me.  We just wrapped up an extensive three day orientation at Nassau University Medical Center.  Starting Monday I will be a medical student once again. My first rotation is internal medicine and it will last until the middle of December.

I have met the physicians who will be teaching us and they are all very friendly people.  I look forward to working extremely hard and learning a lot along the way.  For internal medicine a typical day on the hospital wards will begin at  7:30 a.m. and end at approximately 5 p.m.  On some days we will have to stay until approximately 9 p.m.  As medical students we are to practice history taking skills and physical examination skills. Moreover, we will be questioned about certain diseases and conditions.

To be honest I am a bit terrified of all of the obligations and tasks that are thrust upon us, but I embrace the challenge.  Until then I will enjoy this last weekend to truly relax. Tomorrow I plan on going to Firefly again and watching the Georgia Bulldogs football game.  On Sunday I will do a bit of reading and preparing for Monday.

Yesterday I went into the city for a couple of adventures.  I took the subway to the Bronx because I wanted to see Yankee Stadium with my own eyes before they tear it down.  Here are pics of the current Yankee Stadium and its eventual replacement.

I also went to Firefly, a bar in Soho, where University of Georgia football games are shown.  It was quite the sight.  The place was jam packed; standing room only full of Georgia alumni who live in New York City. All HD TV screens had the game on.

At first I felt a bit awkward considering I was coming into this place by myself not knowing anybody.  It reminded me of being a freshman at UGA all over again.  At one point it got so crowded I ended up in someone else’s conversation circle by being bumped into it.  The three people stared at me for a while, and I laughed and said “Just standing here! Just watching the game!”  They smiled and told me it’s all good.

I also tried to make a little mini movie with my digital camera and I asked a group of guys if they could yell “Go dawgs!” for my little film.  They just stared at me and said no.  It’s all good though, I was just happy to be at Firefly watching the game.
As the game progressed the social atmosphere got better, and I had some great conversations with other fans, and we enjoyed talking about our studying days and screaming at the television.  Georgia won a very close and intense game.

Today I need to move about and do something.  I need to enjoy this week considering it is my last week before my clinical rotations start.

. . . tomorrow is SATURDAY!  Tomorrow I am going into Manhattan to check out a bar called Firefly, where UGA alumni gather and watch football.  It should be fun, and I hope Georgia can pull out a victory against a tough South Carolina team.

Lately I have been bored out of my mind trying to figure out how I can best spend my time. Yesterday Emad and I checked Jones Beach here in Long Island, which needless to say is a rather lack luster beach when compared to the beaches we saw during our time in St. Maarten.  I feel as if I have a home here and am ready to get back to work.  Hard to believe that I have not been doing anything medically related for the past two and a half months but that will change on Wednesday when we have our orientation.

I look forward to tomorrow and watching some college football.  I have already put up the pics of New York on the sidebar.  Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to go to the bronx and check out Yankee Stadium; then I can add that picture to the others of New York.

Hopefully I can find some way to stay busy today and do something interesting.

After much convincing from friends, I have joined the world of Facebook.  Hopefully, this little social networking site will not be as bad as myspace was.  If none of you know what Facebook is, don’t worry; just keep coming back to this site if you are wondering about my happenings. Anyway, it has been cool to see how many people I know on this Facebook site.
Otherwise, if you look at the sidebar pics you will notice some new photos to be viewed.  I am very happy to present some of the photos I took during my travels to India and Germany this past summer.  For those of you too lazy to look to the right side click here and here.  Making these little additions brought back some great memories from the summer and eased my sadness when I think about how much I miss my father, sis, bro, and other family members.  I find myself in a slightly better mood as orientation for my clinicals looms (next Wednesday to be exact).

There is also a link to photos from New York, but those pictures will be uploaded after this weekend.   I still need to get a pic of Yankee Stadium and some pictures from Long Island attractions such as Jones Beach and Eisenhower Park.  Anyways, it felt good to work on the website a little bit and listen to some cool music while doing it (currently listening to Pantera).

Today we are going to get some heavy rain due to tropical storms and what not.  Aside from that I am still tired from all the activity of yesterday so I decided not to go the city to check out a sports bar anyway.  I’ll use today to do some errands and hopefully work on some pages for my website.

I have already been living in Long Island for a week now.  My apartment is fully furnished now and everything is in its right place here.  I promise to post pics next week. Also, today I spend the entire day in New York City. I did a TON of walking and my feet are killing me.  I saw Ground Zero, Times Square, and spent some time in Central Park.  I also helped a friend out by looking at an apartment for him in Queens.  Next week I am going to update this site with pics of New York and my pics from India and Germany.

Today was such a remarkable day!  Seeing Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers once once, put me in a really solemn place and walking at night through Times Square was absolutely incredible. I couldn’t help but look like a tourist gawking at all of the lights and videos of the place.

Tomorrow, I am going to go to a bar in the city where UGA alumni gather to watch football. It should be fun.  I am looking forward to meeting some Georgians who have lived in this city for a while now.

For this labor day weekend I was in the city with my family and we went to the U.S. Open on Saturday and Sunday.  We saw some major tennis players including Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Venus and Serena Williams, and Andy Roddick.  Honestly it was one of the best sporting events I have ever attended.

Most importantly I had an awesome time with my dad, sis, bro, aunt and uncle, and three of my cousins.  We even rode in a limo on Friday night to an Indian restaurant.  We also some bars and nice restaurants at night time.  During the day we were at Flushing Meadows where the U.S. Open is being held.

Now everyone has flown back to their homes and preparing to go to back to their jobs tomorrow morning. In the meantime I am settling into my apartment.  I ordered a futon today, and tomorrow I am going to find the post office.

19 more days till clinical rotations start!

After an arduous journey I reached Long Island yesterday evening.  The driving weather has been anything but good these past few days, but when I reached New York and and was driving through Brooklyn,  there were clear blue skies greeting me.  I hadn’t seen blue skies in nearly five days. Maybe this is a good sign of things to come.

My family is coming to New York this weekend, and on Saturday we will be seeing some matches of the U.S. Open tennis tournament happening in New York (actually a 45 minute drive from my apartment) Should be a lot of fun. In the mean time I will try to get some furniture and other things for my apartment before my dad, sis, brother, and cousins arrive.

I am right now in Virginia at Jarrod’s house.  Tomorrow I will arrive in Long Island, NY at around mid afternoon.  So far it has been a really good trip, and the weather was not too bad today.  I am already thinking about the millions of things I will have to do once I get to New York.