Sirens and Lights

Realized that while I posted on a topic, I posted little about my last week, which was kind of long, but good over all. The highlights would have to be:

* setting up visits to four different EDs across Switzerland (Geneva, Lausanne, St Gallen and Basel) over the next two months. I had one yesterday, which went pretty well. The director of the ED will be helping me conduct my study, which is a fantastic development, though he won’t actually let me shadow in the Emergency Department (ED)..that’s a bit frustrating as I’ve spent a lot of time in ED’s, but I’m happy for what I’ve got. I’m hoping to learn a lot just by talking to different people. For example, talking to the ED director gave me a good sense of what it is that people are proud of about this system: namely that a high level care is so widely available and accessible, and that the public health measures are both extensive and effective (i.e. the low levels of deaths during the heat wave here in Switzerland as compared to in France…he attributed this to the amount of precaution that was taken here to ensure people’s safety as opposed to in France). This Thursday and Friday, I’ll be in Lausanne visiting that trauma surgeon, which I’m very excited about! Should be very interesting and great for my project.

(Geneva)

*spent Saturday visiting Montreux, a city close to Geneva. It’s further down Lac Léman. Cute city, though it’s really most famous for its jazz festival, which I sadly managed to miss despite having been in Switzerland at the time. Went with two super fun girls, so it was a blast just swimming and spending the day exploring a new city. We took a boat ride down the lake to Château de Chillon, a veritable castle near Montreux: Absolutely adorable castle…incredible to think of the lifestyle of those who had lived there, especially when you think of how close the bedrooms of such wealthy people were to the dungeons where they tortured others…. Explored Vieille Ville in Geneva more once we got back. Probably one of my most fun nights since I’ve gotten here!

*Road-tripped to Zermatt on Sunday. Zermatt is the home of the Matterhorn. Unfortunately, it was a little cloudy so the tip of the Matterhorn was hard to see, but again had a great time hiking and picnicking in the mountains. Beautiful. I also went with a girl who has spent a lot of time in India, so I also am starting to get psyched about planning that trip! Any tips…start sending them! The plan for now is to go Mumbai and then head south. I’m going to start putting things together early next month, so advice is needed!

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