New York, New York Day #3 “Holy S—.   Boy, I Wish I’d Gone to Medical School”

Yesterday Patrice and I received our training and learned how to be Stakeholder reviewers of grant proposals sent to the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.  Today we had the opportunity to attend an actual meeting so as to help us further understand this very important process.  We arrived at the meeting bright and early at 8:00 AM.  Let me restate that, I was early and Patrice was bright.  Remember we are still on LA time so 8:00 AM here is 5:00 AM to our bodies.  We listened to the scientists discuss a long list of proposals for Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation funding.  I was blown away with the sophistication of the studies and the reviewers.  Listening made me wish I had gone to medical school.  Wait, I did go to medical school didn’t I?   One thing is clear I’m going to have to do a lot of work if I plan to add anything meaningful to these discussions.  I still think it will be fun but it will be a lot of hard work.  I am still excited about the process and feel even more motivated to raise money for the Foundation.  I can see that some incredible research is being funded and some very smart people are deciding which grants deserve consideration.  One thing I especially liked was that the foundation has grants for researchers early in their careers to get them motivated to study inflammatory bowel disease and then later on award larger grants for proposals that show a career commitment to study the diseases.

After the meeting we took a walk down to the United Nations and signed up for one of their last tours of the day.  The great thing about the UN is that it draws visitors from all over the world.  It is fun interacting with foreign visitors but it can sometimes be unnerving.  For example I overheard someone ask in an accent I didn’t recognize, “Where do the terrorists go?”  Immediately I started to sweat and my heart began to race.  When Patrice calmly answered, “Tourists enter over here” I became more relaxed.

Our tour guide was a very sweet young lady from Japan.   She came to the US to study and is now a resident working at the UN.  She was full of interesting facts and loved to quiz us.  We stopped at some hallway photographs and she asked “Do UN soldiers carry weapons?”

The tour was good but not great.  It was nice to do it once but I wouldn’t want to go back, except maybe as a delegate.

After leaving the UN we needed food.  Our friends, John and LaRae, who we met in Iceland (they joined us for horse) recommended some restaurants for us to enjoy.  We asked for someplace that might not be recommended by the concierge and one might consider a “for the locals” or “under the radar” type establishment.   They recommended we go to Joe’s Shanghai (9 Pell St, New York, NY 10013) and the place was great.   We took the subway down to the area then got a bit disoriented.  I got the idea that we might be getting close when I saw this.

We finally found the place.  They don’t take reservations and are a “cash only” establishment.  You get the picture, IT WAS PACKED.  They sat us at a table relatively quickly (that will happen when you go to dinner at 6:00 pm) and put us next to a couple speaking Cantonese (Immediately I knew this going to be a great meal).  The couple next to us was a mother and son.  The mother spoke very little English but the son was fluent in English.  When our waiter arrived we told him we wanted the pork buns and the same thing the people next to us were eating.  “Those are the Pork Buns” he replied.  We told him we needed more time to order.  We found a second entree with the help of our neighbors and both were delicious.

After dinner we took a stroll around Chinatown and next thing we knew was that we were surrounded by Italian restaurants.   I know this is shocking but we found a place that reportedly has the best cannoli and gelato in town.  That would be Ferrara Bakery and Cafe (195 Grand St, New York, NY 10013) which has been open since 1892.  I am not a big cannoli fan but how could I say no to gelato?  It was good but I have to tell you Paradis (not a misspelling) Ice Cream Hermosa (1309 Hermosa Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254) just steps from our house is much better (Take that New York!).

When we got back to the hotel Patrice went to the gym to work out.  I had other more important things to do.

Patrice here.  I just got back from the gym and found Robert doing “more important things” (see below).