on to Portugal

August 23, 2006 by zankbennett.

…on the plane to Lisbon, Portugal.

Yesterday was a long, very intense day in NYC. The morning started with me sitting in on a prostate removal operation performed by Rob. He asked me to film the procedure. It was just amazing. The whole thing was done by robot, controlled by Rob from the other side of the room. The footage is more difficult to watch than the procedure was as it occurred. What an incredibly powerful experience.

Something terrible then happened. I checked my email after about 3 hrs in the OR. A very good friend, Cathy jumped to her death from the Coronado bridge at about 2 am San Diego time. She was a constant friend and will be missed dearly. This is not the place for further discussion of that terrible event so I will continue, but now more sadly and with loving thoughts of a person who’s friendship I valued immensely.

I took the subway to ground zero (at the former World Trade Tower site) and walked to the “Bodies” exhibit. It was a collection of anatomical sections taken from human subjects soon after death and preserved for observation. It was quite expensive (esp. for a jobless/homeless person). I managed to talk my way into a discount and met a girl, Nufar, in line to share the discount with. This charming girl from Isreal walked through the exhibit with me and we ended up spending the afternoon and evening wandering about SOHO. I learned so many things about a country I will likeky never get to see.
We went to Mamouns (see recommendations in prev entry) for four falafels and sat down to devour them in Washington Square Park, just a one-block walk. Rob met us there and it was off to some various cafés for more food and the best corn on the cob ever at Havannas.

Later, met up with Kristen and Rachel and, of course, went back to Mamouns for the last falafel of the trip….

Barely made it to the plane this pm. Of course I got secondary screening; no one likes my one-way ticket!

Thanks to Rob and Manny for being great hosts.

I’m now on the plane to Lisbon. More to come as the international adventure begins!!!

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