Weekend Review: Fall Colours, Faster Wifi, & City Centre Mall

With Monday off for Labour Day, this week just flew by! It's been a little cool and cloudy, but summer weather returned for two days on Friday and Saturday...and I feel that's the last we'll see of 20-something-degree days until next year. Not to worry, fall in Edmonton is nice (albeit very short) too! Here are some things that I've appreciated in the past seven days:

1. leaves -- Fall colours in Edmonton seem to appear out of nowhere and before you can even really appreciate them, bam all the leaves are gone and it's 30 below. The elms lining the residential streets (possibly my favourite thing about Edmonton) are at their most beautiful right now.

   

   I swear all of this was green last week...

2. -5G wifi network -- After putting up with sluggish internet for many weeks now (and by sluggish I mean 1-2 Mbps, despite numerous attempts at resetting/moving around my modem) I phoned Shaw and they suggested that I try the "-5G network". There have been two networks available all along, but I just for some reason assumed that the -5G one was for cellphones, silly me. As soon as I connected to -5G the speed jumped to 15 Mbps. It was glorious. If your internet is slow, check if there's a -5G network available -- apparently it suffers less from interference with other wifi networks (important in an apartment building!).
   
3. travel logistics -- It was a relief to find time to get my passport photo taken (en route between rounding at one hospital and clinic at another) and submit my passport renewal application (during a break in the conference I attended) because I was seriously wondering whether I'd find time these days during business hours to get that stuff done (how surgical residents can keep their lives together is beyond me). And WestJet, Air Canada, and China Airlines had simultaneous seat sales this week, so I just went ahead and booked my USMLE/vacation flights for the next year. I'm so glad I don't have to think about any of this stuff anymore (but I'm not looking forward to my next credit card bill :S).
4. City Centre Mall -- Because it was only two blocks from the conference location, I walked over to check out Edmonton's downtown mall on Saturday. I'd never been before and thought it was neat that the mall actually occupies two buildings across the street from one another, connected by a pedway. City Centre has most of the typical mall stores plus a couple higher end ones; I didn't end up buying anything (probably for the best, given point #3).

   

   pretty much just your standard mall...

   

   spotted in Dollarama: i.v. bags of candy blood?!
5. snacks -- In addition to a whole batch of brownies I've been eating apples with melted chocolate and peanut butter.

   

   candy apple without the mess

6. med student teaching -- One thing we're trying to do a better job of this year in my residency program is engaging visiting medical students. It's a good opportunity for us to get some teaching in and also gives us another chance to sell our program/specialty (that's actually super important -- rad onc in Canada is not nearly as popular/competitive as it is in the US and we want good people come match time!). Amongst other things, we came up with a Powerpoint this week and I'm kind of excited to test drive it on our next unsuspecting med student.