Sirens and Lights

It’s a sparkling, shiny day in Lima! Finally! Late afternoon sunlight is pouring into my fourth floor apartment, over the ocean outside, through my windows and onto the comfy red couch, warming me as I am sipping iced tea and am working on my laptop.

From where I am, the world below seems far away…but in a few short moments, I’ll tuck away the laptop and prepare myself to head into the street. There, I’ll make sure to keep most of my money in an inside pocket in my coat, and will likely not bring my laptop with me unless I’m going somewhere close and safe. If it’s after 10 or 11, I’ll evaluate the safety of taking public transportation versus taxis: the potential of getting robbed in the bus versus the potential of getting kidnapped in the taxi. And if I take the taxi, I’ll only choose one with appropriate markings, ideally with the driver’s ID card hanging from the rearview mirror. Upon entering, I’ll be sure to place my bag on the floor underneath my knees, where a would-be thief couldn’t snatch it by breaking the window.

Sometimes, I’ll head out and wonder if I’m just being paranoid… and then will remember that even in the n of 3 past fellows in my program in Lima, some of the above situations have occurred, though, thankfully, not the kidnapping (theft from bag in lap in taxi, theft of locked laptop in a coffeeshop).

Despite all of that, by now, most of the rituals are second nature and not things I actively worry about here in Lima, even if I do take precautions and try to stay aware. It’s a routine that only really strikes me when particularly cooped up feeling at home, or on days when I receive emails such as the yesterday’s from a friend in another Latin American country:

Sooo, friend robbed at knife point at 5 pm today. Not cool. Did you deal with this? Saw a another friend robbed [without a weapon] in my first two weeks which has resulted in tachycardia everytime a motorcycle pulls up beside me (yes every 5 min). I have dealt. But now? I don’t know. I’m disturbed. Can’t be too careful. Can’t be careful enough. Don’t know why they aren’t coming for me, but I have diverted attention x 2.

Similarly, a recent IM conversation with a friend in a rural area of another country included a comment on her recent understanding of how easy it would be for her to be kidnapped, as the only racially different person in her entire community.

I’ll never forget walking with a friend who had been robbed at knife point on a certain street several years earlier, and watching his face as he somewhat relived the experience as we walked down it again. It’s not that I felt particularly terrified in the bright, daytime sun as we sped-walked down the street, but that the fear of the experience in his expression will stay with me forever. He wasn’t going to stay in that city to work (I was), but even still it made me wonder a little about if I (who have been incredibly lucky thus far in my work both in the U.S. and out) took the threat of actually going through such a traumatic experience seriously enough…

I know it makes a lot of you wonder why those who go to these places want to do so, given the threats to our personal safety. Is it stupid, reckless, self-centered or egotistical?

Ultimately, though, the decision to go despite the risks (or return after the traumas) is the same as most things: the work we will do is worth it– and this is a judgment not to be delivered without thought. Some of us are adventure junkies, it’s true, but I think most of us love the people in our lives enough to consider the reality of situations and whether or not we really might be able to contribute.

More importantly, I think, more often than not, we are infinitely safer than those with whom we’re working. While this isn’t true, say, for kidnapping risks to my friend who stands out in her village because of her race as her race/origin is precisely her point of vulnerability, it is true in that she is less likely to be the victim of more day-to-day crimes (and I suppose I do mean that in the broader sense of having her rights violated).

It is also true that we have incredible luxuries, even beyond simply having the money to even consider taking taxis and living in safe buildings, the protection of the US Embassy/possibility of evacuation (think Cambodia or Rwanda), or even that the protective guidance offered to us by those with whom we’re working (who will often insist we take precautions they themselves wouldn’t take because of our foreign status). In the end, while these all offer some protection, none will save us from absolute risk, or from even the more common perils of traffic accidents or infectious diseases.* What we do have that is most meaningful, however, is the incredible possibility of leaving whenever it is too much for us. And even when the awful awful things have already happened, I think that is a powerful thing. In fact, it might be the thing that makes it easiest to take the risks: knowing that no matter what fate might have in store for us in this place, it’s generally only comparable at worst to the risks faced by so many others on a daily basis.

*My mother’s interpretation is the one I prefer: minimize risks and losses, but ultimately there’s not much to do besides living one’s life and accepting one’s fate. I would also add that learning to trust one’s intuition is also helpful. With that, I’ll close this laptop and will head down into the beautiful day in the city below…

This post is mostly a draft, as I try to comply with the spirit of nablopomo of getting the writing out there, even if it’s not quite done… will try to work on it in the future….thoughts welcome

School’s out for the summer (let’s just ignore the fact that this is the last official summer of my life, and I’ll be spending it in the Southern Hemisphere, where it’s technically winter)!!!!!!!! I haven’t updated on here in an extremely long time, I realize. That will soon change, I promise….because my life is once again going to be interesting and not simply the sagas of a med student in central PA! Tonight, I’m heading out to Brazil to begin my work in a favela in Rio. Summer schedule:

May 14-May15: Philly (home!)
May 15-June 8: Rio de Janeiro (research)
June 9-June 12: Washington, D.C. (AMSA Global Health Action Committee Board Meeting! www.amsa.org/global)
June 13-July 1: Rio de Janeiro (research)
July 2-July 4: NYC (visiting fun people)
July 5/6-Aug 12: South Africa (volunteering?)
Aug. 13: Philadelphia (home!)
Aug 14: Hershey
Aug 15: Beginning of second year

Ok, back to packing and the usual (much missed) frenzy of preparing to leave…. talk to you next from Rio de Janeiro!

Beijos!

One of the “sculptures” stopping for a snack in Buenos Aires….

Graffiti in Valparaiso, Chile (about 2 hours from Santiago, a funky student-y town that’s known for its asceneurs going up and down the hills of the city….it’s a super colorful place filled with a jumble of bright houses poking out and up from just about every possible angle) .

At the top of Volcan Villarica in Pucon, Chile…you can’t see it from here, but it’s actually a really steep climb uphill, about 1/3 or 1/4 of which is snow/ice. We donned crampons, grabbed our ice picks and off we went. The best part, of course, was the descent- you pretty much just sled down the sides of the volcano! Despite our crazy guide who decided to let us find our own way home, had a great time with my group!

Sunrise in Puerto Varas, Chile

Lago Todos Los Santos in Petrohue, Chile (near Puerto Varas)….this photo does the place absolutely no justice. To begin with, the lake is a stunning shade of turquoise surrounded by hills and mountains. There’s a volcano, Osorno), that sits beside the lake. It’s capped with snow and once you’re out on the water (I hired a fisherman to take me for a ride), the view is an incredible contrast of tropical colored water and snowy, wintery mountain. Nearby, there are also some beautiful waterfalls of the same color that crash over smooth black rocks, just to emphasize the contrast in colors.

En route to Bariloche, across the Andes from Puerto Varas. I had crossed the Andes once before, going from Mendoza in Argentina to Valparaiso, but the view this time was much different. Instead of mountains dusted and coated with snow, and flurries at the border patrol, once we crossed the border, we came across the beautiful Seven Lakes road, fringed by mountains and hills.

Sunset in Bariloche, Argentina

Boat trip out to Puerto Blest…shockingly cold, but worth every frozen cell

BACK IN BRASIL!!!!

Florianopolis, Brasil:

Sujal had a link to this incredible blog of a guy who’s working for an international NGO in Baghdad on his blog, and I really think it’s one of the most interesting things I’ve read in a while… I know it sounds weird, but I wish I could be there. Back at WHO, one of my boss’ suggestions for my future was to go to Afghanistan to work with this guy who was basically responsible for the distribution of funds and organization of the redevelopment of the health care infrastructure there. We got to meet him…amazing task ahead of him, really. Sadly, the Watson Foundation would have nixed that as there was currently a U.S. State Department warning against travel there (it’s one of the few hard and fast Watson rules- no travel to areas the State Dept. advises against visiting). I’ve been to some incredible presentations on the development and management of health care facilties and systems (from ambulances and hospitals to straight up field clinics) in war and austere environments this year, and I’d love to someday do some work with that kind of systems development because it’s a blank slate in so many ways. Regardless, happy reading! Glad I found something to read since it’s pouring outside and it’s Easter holidays, and this being a super Catholic country, it took out the only thing open today- the beach!

oh, now that i think about, another cool link I’ve never put up… Relief Web. A few friends and colleagues were involved in this back in Geneva. Good stuff….an incredible network of information on relief and humanitarian efforts around the world. If you’re motivated, you can find organization to which you can make donations, as well as places you might get involved in contributing the efforts going on (or just learn more about them).

…and one more thing. The results of a quick Google search (there’s an article on the impact of Google on our lives in Newsweek…anyone read it? In any case, I’m in love…) Emergency medicine in Iraq. This, basically, was the kind of work I was involved in at WHO…developing guidelines and best practice standards for essential health services, though specifically potential emergency surgical procedures. Iraq wasn’t one of the main target countries, but I could see it really being used there…

Pictures from New Zealand and Australia!

from the trip with Mom around the South Island

Mountain and Valley in NZ

Mt Cook

NZ Chasm

from the Tongariro Crossing with Sujal

Blue Lake

Emerald Lake

Emerald Lake

Tongariro Mountains

Volcano

from the visa expedition to Australia…

Sydney Opera House

Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains

So, I’ve spent the last few days working on getting my PADI Open Water Diving certification….and today I finally got to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Despite the really really choppy waters (that was one of the craziest boat rides of my life…I still feel like I’m rocking!), I had a fantastic few dives…saw clownfish (aka the Nemo fish a la “Finding Nemo,” which I finally saw on Sunday), and a whole slew of other marine life. It was absolutely amazing to just be going along underwater amidst coral and fish of all shapes and sizes. The one weird thing is that the colors down there are kind of sapped of reds, making the fish and coral all a bit more blue in color….I can’t really describe it, but it’s a little surprising how vividly the yellows and purples pop out at you with the reds toned down. My dive class is a great group, so I’ve been having a great time learning how to do everything!

Ok, short on time, so I have to go, but just wanted to check in and share the excitement…

G’day! I’m in Sydney after a looooong flight that required me waking up at 4 am so as to get to the airport in time, but everything is going well. I dropped off the visa forms and have been enjoying Sydney ever since! My last few days in NZ were a little crazy with my research and everything else, but I really did learn a lot, and even ended up meeting an American physician who is involved in exactly what I’m studying: international emergency medical systems development. She’ll be a great contact in the future, I’m sure, and was the source of several hours of good advice on life, travel and everything else. After a rather harrowing day of meetings and being sick, it was a much appreciated conversation :). Monday, I actually got the chance to go white water rafting, something I’ve wanted to do for a bit. It was amazing, though a little scary since two of the rafts with us flipped over in the middle of the Grade V rapids. Luckily, everyone was ok, though slightly freaked out. We all had fun in the end, which was good.

Anyway, back to Sydney. I’m mostly on vacation here since I hadn’t planned to be here for so long, though I want to meet with the head of the Australasian College of EM if possible in Queensland since that’s one of the four big EM colleges in the world (we’ll see…he’s unfortunately in the middle of planning the International Federation of Emergency Medicine conference for June, so he’s probably a little busy). I spent yesterday just exploring Sydney and one of the beaches nearby. I managed to get tickets to an operetta at the Sydney Opera House and was lucky enough to end up getting seats in the center of the front row of the dress circle….and at student rate prices instead of the normal price ($42 AUD vs. $220 AUD)!! It was beautiful, both inside and outside with the building all lit up. Today, I decided to head out to the Blue Mountains and did some bushwalking. On the way, stopped at a wildlife reserve, so I cuddled up with some koalas (that’s for you, Payal…I’ll put up a pic later) and then on the way home, went to the aquarium here…so excited to go visit the Great Barrier Reef, where I’m heading in the next few days or so. Still deliberating on whether or not to fork out the money for dive certification, but it’ll still be amazing to be up there. It’s someplace I’ve always wanted to go, so it’s kind of nice that I’m here unexpectedly with time to enjoy it. :).

Ok, I’m exhausted… I’ll write more about what I learned in NZ later. It was an exciting place to be looking at EM because they’ve been making such a concerted effort at improving their systems and they’ve been pretty methodical about it, so it’s really easy to see where the pitfalls have been and how they’ve been remedied (or are currently being attempted to be solved). They’re really aware of both their shortcomings and their advantages, which makes it a great place to learn about general patterns of development, successful trends, etc. More (interesting stuff) later…

Blue Mountains

Wentworth Falls

Airports are really the weirdest places….they’re so devoid of any indication of the country you’re in (aside from the signs and overpriced souvenirs up for grabs). It’s pretty bizarre, especially the day after you’ve finished 3 months of travel in countries that won’t let you forget where you are for more than a few hours at a time! Sitting in this little internet cafe, it’s hard to imagine the bustle of Chinatown in Bangkok yesterday as the masses poured into the streets to celebrate the Chinese New Year, a sea of red t-shirts and dresses, glittering temples alit with candles and scented with incense, plate-spinners and acrobats and dancers performing awe-inspiring feats on a smoky stage to the rhythm of the high-pitched music drowning out the crowds pressed together to catch a glimpse of the show, the smell of shark fins and pineapples and god knows what other foods that this vegetarian could barely stomach the scent of crashing like waves over you as you weave past the vendors lining the streets…. I can almost forget the images of the government hospitals in India where 3 people can fill a bed while 3 more huddle on the floor below, the roadside shrines to various deities adorned with chains of flowers, the shrieks of horns of every imaginable pitch at rush hour as drivers of the yellow and black rickshaws express their rage at not being able to zip at their usual breakneck pace through traffic…

What’s funnier is that these impressions are the same ones that people in India always voiced to me when they talked about why they love India…. it’s spiritual, it’s emotional, it’s irrational and passionate and full of chaos. You can smell it and taste it and feel it, both before and after you see it. The West seems much to some of them like this airport seems to me: a manufactured place with rules and protocols and everything predetermined, where only a certain range of people exist (for the most part) and “life” is a much more limited commodity– not in years, of course, but in the possiblities that exist for it….

Ok, all for now. I have a million more stories to tell and of course no time to tell them…more when I get to New Zealand, where there may actually be electric sockets in the hostel rooms so i can plug in my laptop and type things up….

I was looking up how I’m going to vote this year (next year, really) and was reading the PA laws on voting from abroad….this is one of the things that I found:

“G. Check ONE box. Please note under 8f: 1) Mental competence is not a
requirement to register and vote in Pennsylvania “

Slightly disturbing, no??

In other news, had my first hot shower in over a month yesterday. Officially a happy girl…. more when I’m back in Vellore (I’m in the mountains in Ooty for the weekend….)

tea…

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.

It’s opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,
don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along.
You’ll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’ t
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so
but, sadly, it’s true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump,
you’re not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked.
A place you could sprain both you elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right…
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…

…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That’s not for you!

Somehow you’ll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,
once more you’ll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t.
Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times
you’ll play lonely games too.
Games you can’t win
’cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance
you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3 / 4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

—Dr. Seuss

Have I mentioned that I LOVE paris? Love it love it love it love it! So, after quite a long day (including my losing my TGV ticket and having to pay for another one to Paris and it being an overbooked ticket so that I almost had to sit in the aisle thingy in the smoking section instead of the original nice, cheap, seated student ticket I had….), I arrived in Paris at 8pm and hauled myself, my backpacks and lots of chocolate (presents) through the Metro (love the Metro…even that yucky smell that is still the same as always) and up the inclined streets of Montmartre to Emily’s apartment where I then lugged my stuff up 5 flights of stairs…gotta love old buildings with no elevators. You know that you made good decisions with your luggage when you have no blisters or anything even after hauling everything you own in it for an entire day. In any case, arrived in Paris and then went out with Emily and her friends to this great sushi place where everyone in the restaurant has a computer screen and you can chat with one another…send each other drawings and ask questions and stuff…very entertaining. Finished the night off walking around the 1st arrondisment talking with Emily over Nutella crepes. Good stuff. Very excited about being back in a big city that’s busy…une vraie ville, with crazy winos in the Metro blaring his portable CD player…probably good for lessening the culture shock that I would have had going from Geneva to India, as Bombay is like the exact opposite of Geneva based on how I remember it….chaos, noise, poverty, color vs. pristine, calm, quiet Geneva….

ok…croissants and coffee are calling me, along with the remnants of my last Lindt chocolate bar…talk to you all later!!!

So, I wrote this whole long entry yesterday and was all set to post it…but then I had problems with the webpage and the entire thing disappeared. *sigh*. I’ll attempt to recreate it, but it really is a shame as I barely have time right now to write….

The last few weekends, I’ve been traveling a bit, though I haven’t really logged anything on here. Two weekends ago, I went with two interns, Dave and Joe, to Lyon, France. I have a friend that is a student in Geneva who lives there, so we met up with her (Nelly) and she gave us a little tour of the city. It was an extremely relaxing trip except for the fact that it was supposed to be a day trip, but then we missed the last train home (still not sure why we thought the train station was so close to the restaurant we were at for dinner) and as we sprinted down the stairs at the train station in a desperate and fruitless attempt at finding another way home, I, of course, tumbled down the stairs, bags flying in the air….priceless moment as everyone in that area of the station turned to stare at me… the best part was that I gave a similar performance a few weeks ago when I was running to catch my plane from Barcelona back to Geneva, falling as I tried to sprint onto the people-mover at the airport. *sigh* I swear I’m not a klutz normally. On the plus side, at least the bruises on my knees match :P.

We tried to go to Munich last weekend, but it was just too crazy, so at the last minute we decided to go to Venice instead…what a great decision!!! Alyson, Melanie and I took a train at 6 am to Milan and then from there to Venice, where we wandered lots, shopped much (well, i just window-shopped a lot), ate tons and just enjoyed the warm, sunny days and the uniqueness of the this city of boat-lined canals and brightly colored houses. I think that one of my favorite parts of being in a new city is just taking in the architecture of a place…cities are just so individual and one thing that Berlin taught me is how much of the history of a place you can find through the buildings/city layout. Venice is just a small city that is pretty much populated, it seems, by scores of tourists and some locals. :P. One thing that did amuse me was how much like regular traffic the boat traffic is…loud and obnoxious sometimes!

On the way back from Venice, I got the chance to visit St. Gallen and Zurich for just a few hours each. For project updates from St. Gallen, see the entry above this one… I took the most beautiful train ride ever from Milan to Arth-Goldau to St. Gallen (you could seriously just ride around Switzerland on the train and just stare in awe at the views…seeing Lugano–Italian part of Switzerland that literally looks like the Mediterranean placed among gorgeous mountains— and then the pictoresque country-side of the German part of Switzerland through the huge windows of the train within the span of a few hours….*sigh*)… In St. Gallen, I was struck again by the architecture of the town, which was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I took some photos, which is good because I don’t know quite how to describe the architecture: a little Tudor with lots of carvings and details on the buildings. In the middle of the city, there is a large monastery and an incredibly ornate baroque-style church. Apparently, St. Gallen used to be one of the cultural centers of Europe, and to that end, there is an extraordinarily well-preserved, beautiful library (you have to don soft-bottomed clogs in order to enter). I was surprised at how much busier St. Gallen felt than Geneva…

From St. Gallen, I took a short trip to Zurich, chatting with a Dutch woman who lived in Zurich on the way there. Can you believe that Zurich is supposedly even more expensive than Geneva? gah. Anyway, not much to say on Zurich. Beautiful city…the old town is actually pretty large, but the city itself isn’t all that big. I was amused that the bells on the clock towers rang at slightly different times…seemed very unlike the usual Swiss precision, but I suppose it’s probably just so you can hear the different bells instead of them overlapping…

Ok. All caught up. This week has just been a lot of frisbee and enjoying my last nights in Geneva…ok, on that note, back to my project!

Welcome to Barcelona….. I spent the first 4 days of my trip with Beth and Melanie, and then the last 3 commuting back and forth from Barcelona to Sitges for the Second Annual Mediterranean Emergency Medicine Congress. The whole time, I rented a room for the unbelievable price of 13 Euros a night in Barrio Gotica. That’s right off of La Rambla, which is a major hub of the city albeit incredibly tourist-y. I found the room through an intern at WHO who had spent time there, which was very lucky. If you’re interested and I know you, contact me and I’ll be glad to pass on the info of the girl who owns the apartment…it was the perfect location to get to know Barcelona in terms of being very central to the metro and train stations, though I would recommend going out and getting lost in some side streets, or traveling to a less tourist-y place such as Sitges if you don’t want to feel like you’re hearing more English that Catalan (ok, so Sitges is pretty tourist-y, too, but at least it’s not snap happy tourists, but people wanting to enjoy a small Spanish town with a gorgeous beach…next time, I’m doing more of what I did on weekends in France and visiting little villages in the countryside, though I’ll hopefully know more Spanish or Catalan). Tip: if you’re not forced to observe siesta (when everything closes at 2pm-ish until 5ish), then you need to go further :P.

Sagrada Familia, designed by one of Barcelona’s best known artists/architects, Antoni Gaudí, who unfortunately died before its completion. There have been arguments ever since on whether or not the work should remain undone as an homage to Gaudí, or if it should be continued. Work has been going on since his death, but as you can tell, not at a super fast pace…and as the plans were lost in a fire, we’ll never know how it would have turned out had he lived to complete it himself. Based on the work done at two of his other sites, La Pedrera and Casa Batllo, there were just incredible amounts of details (both artistic and functional) that would have only developed had he supervised the entire project, as he always did with all of the others.

at another Gaudí site, La Pedrera… can you tell that I fell in love with Gaudí? There are tons more photos where this one came from (including from the Parc Guell, Casa Batllo and Palau de la Musica Catalana…I visited them all), but I’m sparing you all. Payal wanted more pics of me up, so I put up the one on the right (though if you look in the mirror in the leftmost picture you can barely make out me taking the picture). If you look through the archway, you can see Sagrada Familia in the background.

Sitges….where the conference was. It’s a town outside of Barcelona. That’s the Mediterranean, which was just warm enough to swim in and there are waves. The lack of waves is my one complaint about Geneva’s body of water, as it is a lake! The town itself is breezy and full of winding roads, little stores and restaurants. The street signs are actually ceramic tiles, which I loved. It’s just calm. As much as I love cities and visiting different ones, I think when it comes to travel abroad for only really short amounts of time (e.g. one week), I prefer to at least spend some of my town in calmer small cities or towns. Less pressure to do everything and you can just enjoy where you’re at during any given moment.

I’ll put up a post on what I learned at the conference eventually, but that’s a more in depth affair…suffice it to say that it was a great experience both in terms of making contacts for my current research, as well as for getting a better idea of how communities of individuals have fostered/are fostering changes in the field of EM. I also finally learned a little Spanish and successfully ordered breakfast and bought tons of supplies at a bead store to make jewelry. I’m sure it just barely made sense, but I’ll take what I can get!

One of the nicest things about Barcelona, though, was coming “home” to Geneva….The plane ride itself was gorgeous, starting over the blue blue blue Mediterranean, continuing over the snow-capped Alps and then, as we flew into Geneva, I looked up and was breathtaken by the view of Mont Blanc sitting above the clouds, glowing softly in the light pinks and yellows of sunset. Lastly, we flew right over Geneva….the lake, the WHO building, the jet….home..

Hi from Barcelona, everyone! Just wanted to put up a quick post since I’m checking things out for the med conference at an internet cafe! It’s warm, sunny and I’m happy :).

Photos for now…more later.

interesting thing to note…contrast of modern and old in Berlin…it’s just incredible, and besides seeing the city, i think the highlight of the weekend was being able to truly have an incredible visual demonstration of the history of the city…more later…

this one warrants description…there was an exhibit of ceramic bears (bear is the symbol of berlin) in Berlin to represent harmony/peace. 192 countries designed bears to represent themselves…of them all, I was most moved by the one for Serbia (pictured above) and the one for Rawanda (i’ll describe it later…didn’t take a pic). Serbia’s is war-torn. Very sad. You can see the bears here: Bears

ok, must go…talk to you later!

It’s pouring outside and I spent my first night in in a long while last night….did laundry and read books and just relaxed. This week has kind of been a regroup week for me…it’s also the halfway point of my time in Geneva! I’m starting to feel ready to move on, but the good news is that the second half of my time in Geneva is going to involve a ridiculous amount of travel with Mel and Beth (the other girl in the Mont Blanc entry picture), so feeling restless for now is ok since I’m sure I’ll be running around like mad next month!

The travel plan:
Sept. 2nd Lausanne (again…going for that ridealong on the ambulance)
Sept. 5th-8th Berlin
Sept. 11th-17th Barcelona (there’s an EM conference there that I’m attending…really excited, more on that later)
Sept. 26th-Sept. 28th (tentative) Munich (oktoberfest!)
October 1st-2nd Basel, Switzerland
October 3rd-5th (tentative) Prague
October 10th-15th Paris

…..then off to India!

on the india front, i’ve been talking to a doctor in the U.S. who is heavily involved in EM development work in India. He invited me to present an abstract and do a poster presentation at the EMCON2003 conference in Pune, India in the beginning on November. We’re going to meet up in Barcelona and see if we can work out some ideas for my time in India, as well as for this presentation. After all of this time at the WHO working on development efforts from a more academic/distant perspective, it’s going to be really exciting to actually get out there and see how changes are put into action (as well as the problems that occur in the process). My boss here at WHO has suggested that I try to continue some of the work I’ve been doing at WHO by taking the materials we’re working on here to the conferences I’m attending and working on distributing them… don’t know if it will happen, but it would certainly be a great way to link my experiences here with those in India.

Ok. well, the sun in coming out for the first time since yesterday, so i think i’ll take that as a sign to get back to work so I can leave at a reasonable hour tonight! you’ll all be proud…i think i’m actually going to stay in Geneva this weekend!

Bombings in Mumbai
On the UN Bombing in Iraq

…not sure if it was just the altitude, but the view from the mountains just took my breath away… i feel kind of silly putting these photos up, as they’re nowhere near as beautiful as it is being up there, nor as amazing as realizing exactly how far up you are when you look down and see how far away even people glacier-walking below you are (and that’s still really high off of the ground). One of my other friends has better photos, which I’ll post once she gets them…

Wednesday’s crawl through Vieille Ville…. these are two of the girls I traveled with to Chamonix/Mont Blanc.

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!

….catching your first glimpse from the car of the stunning juxtaposition of blue water, fresh air and green mountains dotted with teeny houses, all with the quietly beautiful Moby Play album accompanying the view….

….eating a juicy watermelon by Lake Thuner See in the valley of the Berner Oberland mountains, drying off in the warm summer sun from a swim in the bluest, cleanest water you’ve ever seen…

….laying on your back on a rock on top of a mountain you just hiked up as you gaze out on the glacier a stone’s throw away from you, imagining the course of events that has taken place to create the view before you….

….waking up in your little tent/hut at 7:30 am, walking outside and being greeted by green mountains and white glaciers gleaming under the morning light….

….running full speed down the mountain side during the beginnings of a refreshing thunderstorm, hearing only your feet against the gravel and the sound of water crashing against rocks….

….road-tripping with three people who barely know one another from Geneva to Interlaken for the weekend and having one of the best days of your life….