Italy etc...

(<-- Florence. above: cool church in Rome)
Okay, so super long time and no post. I really have no excuses other than being busy and lazy. So for the few people who actually read it, here's a recent update. Italy pictures should be online already.

My trip to Italy went well. I left Jan. 1st and flew into Venice on BMI, which is a really nice airline for the cheap fare. I got to Venica and just my luck, it was cloudy and misty. I spent the afternoon wandering around Venice, looking in shops, take the canal taxis....which is most of what there is to do in Venice. Around 6, I tried to get to my hostel on one of the water taxis, which didn't stop at the stop I needed like it was supposed to, so I ended up going halfway around Venice to get to another stop where I knew there was another boat line that was supposed to stop there. That one actually did and when I was getting off, I met these two other Americans (Katie - who was currently studying abroad for fashion in Florence and Troy - Katie's boyfriend and physical therapy grad student) who were also looking for the hostel. I found the hostel okay and had some excellent pizza that night. The next day, I met up with Kate and Troy and we went exploring Venice together. Again, it was cloudy in the morning. We were at the palace of the Dukes of Venice and made friends with yet another American graduate student, Alex, who studies chemical engineering. So we all ended up hanging out and going to museums and whatnot and having lunch over the canals once the sun came out with yummy food and good wine -- served elegantly in plastic cups. As it so happens, we were all headed to Florence that night, so we decided to meet up in Florence the next day. Alex and I took the train to Florence and I managed to find my way out to my hostel in an old Italian villa just outside of town on the bus system. Florence was really nice and the weather was good. Unfortunetly, I came down with a cold (which I knew I was bound to get), so I spent the morning wandering through cathedrals and museums (the David statue is spectacular!) and attempting to by cold medicine at the Italian pharmacy....in which I struggled with my language book because the guy didn't understand me and finally found the word for cold and he responded in perfect English "oh, you have a cold. no problem, take this." When I was in the Duomo (one of the medici cathedrals) I bumped into Alex before our scheduled meeting time and we ended up climbing to the top of the cathedral bell tower (414 steps I believe....definitely earning an gelato!). The views from the top were amazing! We then met up with Katie for lunch (Troy had left to go back home) and had really nice wine and pesto gnocchi at one of the small little places Katie knew of that was excellent AND cheap! Katie was so sweet and offered us to stay at her apartment that night, since her roommates were out of town for the holidays. Her apartment was really really nice, right on the river with a rooftop balcony and she also had a really cute little kitty! So after wandering around again in the afternoon, Alex, Katie and I went back to her apartment and cooked a massive meal (thank goodness for people who love food as much as I do!) of salad, risotto, and dessert plus strawberry wine. Then again in the morning, Katie made us really tasty pancakes.

After staying at Katie's place, I took a train down to Rome and saw the Colosseum, Palantine Hill, and the Forum later that afternoon. Everything was super touristy and I wasn't that impressed by the colosseum....doesn't quite live up to the reputation like most of the things in Italy except the food, wine, David, hot chocolate, and the Sistine chapel. I stopped by one of the cathedrals later that night and was on my way back when one of the numerous creepy, sketchy, ugly, old men in Italy started following me -- which of course prompted dinner in the next restaurant I passed to get away that gave me a HUGE portion of pasta at a really cheap price, which was greatly appreciated. After that, I just went back to the hostel and relaxed. The next day I woke up early and went to the Vatican museum. Even at the opening time of 8:45, it still took an hour to get in. The Vatican museum was enormous and really cool and I ended up spending about 5 hours there. The Sistine chapel was soooo impressive. The more you look at it, the more you realize how spectacular it really is. Definitely one of the most impressive sites on the trip! Then I made my way to St. Peter's basilica and the square, followed up by the spanish steps, the trevi fountain, and more gelato. I took a break in the afternoon and then met up with Alex for dinner, as he had come down to Rome that night. It almost ended up being a disaster as our meeting place ended up being a huge busy square and we were both waiting on opposite sides, but it all worked out in the end. We went to this incredibly tasty restaurant for a magnificent 4-course meal of wild boar carpaccio, pasta, veal rolls and dessert....plus a bottle of wine and a few more glasses...Chianti is such a good wine.... And I made it back to the hostel that night without any sketchy men following me. I met up with Alex again the next morning to see the the remaining sites in Rome and then after some more good hot chocolate and gelato, split off to do my own thing before flying back later that night. I was wandering around cathedrals and I happened to walk into one that was having a rehearsal of a vocal concert, so I sat and enjoyed that for quite some time. Then it was just out to the airport and back to London. Met a really nice guy on the airplane who was travelling in Europe for the first time and talked to him the entire way back. Even at midnight, Stansted airport was packed and it took a good half and hour to get through passport control. So I took a bus back to Marble Arch and a night bus from there (with some very entertaining people on it) back home, getting back around 2:30 on Sunday the 6th.

So that's Italy. It was good, but not as amazing as everyone says. First week back was really busy, since I was recovering from my busy travelling schedule (3 cities in 5 days), still had a cold, and was busy from 7-5 both Monday and Tuesday. Classes are going well now. I have Vector Sampling, Identification, and Incrimination for the first half of the week and Conflict and Health for the second half. After 5 weeks, we have exams and then switch to new modules. VSII is pretty cool, but goes quick. Today we had lectures at the Natural History Museum, which was really fun. Conflict and Health is interesting, but a bit depressing. Its really cool to hear all the stories from other students and the lecturers who have worked in the field and can actually tell you what really goes on. As for summer projects, the idea of working with Merlin in the Turkana region of Kenya is a no go, since they ended up not getting enough funding to keep that site running into the summer. So time to email out to see what fun things are offered...I'm thinking about maybe going back to the hemorrhagic fever idea (like Rift Valley Fever currently ongoing in Kenya) or African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) which I find to be a really interesting disease. I heard today about another thing that I may try to pursue - apparently there have been some cases of Plasmodium annulei, an animal strain of malaria, appearing in humans in Thailand recently and making a monkey to human jump, so I may look into doing a study on the prevelance of that if its possible. The sweating sickness paper is going really well....really close to having a rough draft done! About 9,000 words and counting....definitely the senior thesis I should have done last year if I had had access to all the sources over here in England. Other than that, life is pretty much back to normal London life. Spanish starts again this week, which I'm looking forward to. Going to a ceilidh (scottish dance thing) on Friday night with people from my program, which should be very....entertaining.

Reading week

So I'm terrible at updating this blog, but at least I remembered at some point. Its the start of reading week! HOORAY! A week of no classes and sleeping in. However, plans for the week are to get lots of work accomplished, ie. essay for policy, review of material, and work on the sweating sickness. So its a working holiday. I still may take some short day trips, or 1-2 day trips around the UK if I find something cheap. I was thinking of maybe a trip to Bath or Wales or possibly hiking with Lauren in Yorkshire.

Life here is going really well. Classes are going fine and we have to choose modules for next term by the end of the month. I'm thinking that for the first half of the term, I'll do primary health care systems in developing countries and definitely the course on conflict on health. Second half of term will probably by designing infectious disease control programs in developing countries and some other course I can't remember off the top of my head, but is strongly recommended. I'm really excited about the conflict and health course. I went to a lecture about health in fragile states that was really good and am thinking about doing something related to infection control and sanitation/hygiene in refugee camps for my summer project. I got in touch with some people at Oxfam about working with them and they are sending me a list of ideas they want researched later this month. We're also having another organization, Merlin, come in to talk to us about summer projects with them in a few weeks and my tutor says they also do some work in refugee camps. So for now, keeping the fingers crossed that something good comes up!

Quick update

Okay, so I've been bad about putting things up recently. I never finished labelling my Belgium pictures and London pictures, but I promise I will get them finished and online eventually! I just thought I'd give a brief update of recent events.

I started my Spanish lessons at UCL last night. The course I'm taking runs from 7-9 on Wednesdays and is blissfully all postgraduates and professionals. So we're all sitting in the room waiting for our teacher and he finally walks in dressed in fancy, Italian leather shoes, nice striped pants and a button down white shirt. Walks right into the classroom, turns around, and says (in a very heavy Spanish accent) "Hola, my name is Fabio and I will be your tutor." Who would guess, I have well-dressed man named Fabio as my spanish teacher. I found it quite amusing. The first lesson was quite good, although they go faster then in the US. We worked on introductions, some verb conjugation, days of the week, the alphabet, numbers, and basic classroom phrases. Another difference from back in the US is that here we learn Spanish as spoken in Spain ("No no, it's not do-ce, its do-ttthhhhey!"), which is all fine with me because I think it sounds better. I'm glad I started this week because I have a lot more time then I thought I would have this term, so now I have more to do in the evenings. I'm also checking to see whether Kaplan needs any teachers and keeping a watch out for studies looking for participants because some $$ is always useful.

Today was a good day at school. We spent all day talking about TB. In the morning, we went over the basics of the disease and what control efforts are being implemented and in the afternoon, we did an exercise in control planning. Which turned a bit silly when one group was stating their proposals for evaluating and controlling a problem with TB in nomads in developing countries. To evaluate risk, they were trying to determine the risk for HIV and decided that it all depended on how promiscuous the tribe was. And to track down where they were....radiotagging! Not the humans (of course!), but camels. Because obviously all nomads have camels and radiotagging is the easiest way to find them. It was quite amusing to think of a researcher going up to a nomad and saying, "Hi, I'm here to radio-tag your camels. (you do have camels, right?) Oh, and by the way, how many people have you had intercourse with in the past year?" Ah...the humor of students in control of infectious diseases. Anyways, that's all the recent news....with the exception that I started salsa dancing lessons at my dorm this past week! Going on a guided walk around London with some of my friends tomorrow on the "Jack the Ripper" tour, which should be interesting. And Saturday is a UR girls night out on the town. So I think thats it for now!

Orientation and week 1 life

Finally, another post! Things have been very busy this week with a week-long orientation to the school/program and otherwise a very busy social life getting to know everybody. I officially registered at my school on Monday and a few days ago, I got my ID card, which also works as a security card. So now I can access "secured" areas! It was very exciting on Thursday when I was going to my lab introduction and stood in front of the department with the words "Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases" in big lettering and I was able to take my card and get inside. Sounds dorky I know, but it felt like now I have the key to access my future.

People in my program are great! A number of them are around my age too, so its nice to no longer be the youngest person I know at my school. There are about 40 people in Control of Infectious Diseases, which is bigger than I expected. But they all seem really nice and its fun to be around likeminded people. There are even 2 others who are into the same types of diseases I want to work with, VHFs, plague, hantavirus, etc... One of my professors is actually a specialist in VHF research, so I can't wait to get to meet him! Apparently they will let you do related projects to the diseases so long as you don't actually handle the pathogens (surveillance, antibody testing, etc... projects). I'm really excited about that because you think that never would they ever let you do something like that, but they actually would! Its amazing to have so many opportunities. I've pretty much decided that I am going to do my project abroad, because they have too many opportunities that I can't pass up. Last year, they even offered projects on Hantavirus in Columbia! I'm hoping to do my project in Africa, since they have so many cool projects there and I'd like to see what doing research there is like, but I'm not ruling out other regions of the world yet. I can't wait to find out what my options are for the project. My tutor, who is basically like my advisor, thinks it would be cool for me to do a historical project (since its one of my interests) on what were the reasons that endemic diseases in the UK didn't drop in number until the early 20th century even though epidemic disease dropped in the 19th century with Chadwick and John Snow and things. But I think I want to do my project on something more tropical. Its so amazing to have so many opportunities! Its also great to meet people from all over the world who have such different perspectives.

Speaking of people from all over the world, I ran into the most random person the other day. I ran into a girl, Nadia, who is starting an MSc in reproductive health here at the school. Now as it happens, Nadia happened to be doing research last summer in southern India and her best friend who she traveled with happened to be in my volunteer program there and we happened to meet once in Kerala on a weekend excursion. How crazy is it that we both ended up at the same school a year later?! She's really sweet and I went to a potluck birthday party for her boyfriend on Thursday, which was a blast. Not only was the party great, but we ended up having an impromptu concert of french canadian music done by a french canadian, an englishman, and an indian played on the guitar, an egg shaker, and the spoons. It was fabulous! Friday was also another busy social night. After orientation stuff most of the day, I went to the director's party and met lots of other really cool students at the school. Quite a few were taking years off during medical school to come here and some who are applying to start once they finish here. After a quick dinner then, I took a short rest and then it was out on the town with Leah. We went bar hopping and accidentally went into one of the bars having a SOAS night, so we saw a number of people we had met last week in the SOAS bar. And at one of the bars I actually was carded, which was pretty funny since the drinking age here is 18. Several drinks later, we went down to Chinatown in Soho for the midnight munchies. Nothing like a few drinks and late night Chinese food! And then yesterday, I went with one of the girls on my hall, Alex, to the Tate Modern. Alex seems to be super cool, so I'm excited at least to know one of the girls on my hall! The Tate Modern was fabulous, although we only managed to get around the 3rd floor gallerys (surrealism galleries) before we ran out of time. On the way back to the dorm, we stopped in St. Paul's Cathedral, which is spectacular! Then yesterday evening, I went out with some of the guys I met earlier this week (one who lives in my dorm, and his brother who works for the CDC) for Indian food and then to the opening night of Spam-a-lot! It was superb! I would highly recommend it for anyone who loved Monty Python. Its completely over-the-top silly and so much fun to watch. Tim Curry played King Arthur and the play was basically the Holy Grail plus some of their other famous songs thrown in.

So today is just rest and recover day, maybe with some gym thrown in. Its been a busy week between orientation and socializing and seeing the sites of London. I also went to the National Gallery on Wednesday, which has some really good pieces in it. Classes officially start tomorrow. My first term course load is: Statistics, Basic Epidemiology, Intro. to Health Economics, Health Policy: Process and Power, Disease Agents and their Control, and a public health lecture series. This term was basically set, but second and third term I get to choose my courses from a more diverse selection.

Veni, Vidi, Vici

Yes, that's right. I came, I saw, and I conquered Belgium! That became the theme of my 3-day trip there, thanks to signs like this that were all over the place. When I first headed downtown, I saw a cathedral that had that sign on it (had no idea what cathedral it was at the time), but according to the sign, I came and saw. And of course, I celebrated my conquering by eating lots of chocolate and waffles, but more to come on that. So this whole trip came about because I had some spare days before classes start and I figured I should take a cheap trip to somewhere I had never been. So I took the Eurostar (the train that goes from London under the channel) to Brussels early Monday morning. I slept most of the way, which was good because the guy sitting next to me was quite irrating and kept trying to get me to go have coffee with him and trying to give me other foods. But I got to Brussels and dropped all my stuff off at my hostel and headed to the downtown area looking for the Grand Place. Along the way, I came across the random cathedral, which I ended up finding out was the cathedral of St. Michel and someone else (Gertude?), but which was really cool. I did manage to find my way to the Grand Place, which became my favorite place to hang out. I celebrated by getting a baguette and a Belgian waffle smothered in chocolate and sat looking at all the spectacular buildings. I wandered around Brussels a lot of Monday, since the museums were closed. I was sitting in a park across from the Royal Palace when these Chinese tourists came up and want to be in pictures with me! That happened to me all the time in China, but I never expected it to happen in Belgium!

On Tuesday, I took a tour to Ghent and Bruges, hoping that I would meet more young people along the way. Didn't quite work out that way, most of the people on the tour were middle age to old. But it still ended up being a good tour. Ghent is a really quaint, European town. It has lots of canals running through it and tons and tons of churchs all lined up close to each other. Unfortunetly, it rained when I was there, but only briefly and not too hard. Then we headed on to Bruges, which is reconstructed so that it looks like it did in the medieval times. Bruges is so beautiful! It was an absolute pleasure to wander around the town and take a boat ride on the canals. I even climbed the belfry in Bruges, which means going up 366 steps. Great views from the top though! And once again, I came, I saw, and I conquered.....which means I promptly went to a chocolate shop to celebrate afterwards. When I got back to Brussels, I quickly grabbed a pita and headed back to the cathedral, where there was supposed to be a concert. I had arranged to meet an Australian girl, Haley, at the concert, which turned out to be fabulous! It was a concert of Mozart and Haydn, orchestral, vocal, and with organ. The acoustics of the cathedral were really cool. Everything echoed and resonated so beautifully. Afterwards, Haley and I went and got massive Belgian waffles and sat in the middle of Grand Place eating them. Then later we went back to the hostel and had a beer or two before hitting the sack.

The next morning, we made a very sexy appearance at breakfast in the hostel in our pajamas. Then we walked up to some arches we had seen before, which turned out to be celebrating the freedom of Belgium from French control many decades before. Haley went off her way and I wandered around the city more. I went to the art museum, which I have to say was disappointing. But that may also be because a lot of their exhibits were closed. Later in the day I was sitting in Grand Place having a diet Coke and watched a drunken man get arrested by the police, which was entertaining. I had a great time walking around window shopping in all the stores I could never afford to buy anything in and made the obligatory stop at the famous chocolate shop of Neuhaus, which was very tasty. Later in the day, I went to the botanical gardens, which were nice and close to my hostel. I took the Eurostar back Wednesday evening, which went smoothly and no annoying person sitting next to me on that trip. Happy to be back in London, where I can get more sleep than when I wake up early on my traveling.

I had my first day of orientation at school today. It was really cool. It was meant for the international students and I met so many interesting people, from the Maldives, Pakistan, Zambia, Europe, etc... I also met one German girl who is in my master's program who seemed to be really nice. Later on, I was leaving my dorm to meet Leah and I discovered one of the German doctors I had met earlier in the day is also living here, so now I have someone to hang out with in the dorm! Went out for dinner with Leah and her friend Shannon, also from UR, and we had Thai on the Thames. It wasn't exactly authentic Thai, but it was cheap and it was fun eating on a boat on the river. More orientation lined up for tomorrow, and the task for finding some way to download or watch the new season premiere of Grey's Anatomy! I'm hoping its up on Itunes, but if anyone knows of a way to watch it online, please let me know!

London Interlude

Okay, so here's a quick summary of my days in London since getting back from Ireland before I leave for Belgium tomorrow morning. I managed to move into my room at the International Hall, about 2 blocks away from the British Museum in the heart of Bloomsbury. The room is a pretty standard single. I live in "the west wing" on the top floor overlooking the courtyard, which is just fine since it means less road traffic noise. Since arriving, I've mostly been getting settled in. Getting little things that need to be done, getting a mobile phone, registering for the national health service, etc... However, I still paid my first out of many visits to the British Museum. I was there for around 3 hours and almost finished the Greek and Roman section before I got worn out. It was really interest though, especially some of Etruscan works. A number of the vases had symbols on them resembling the swastika and it made me wonder what it meant back then, if it had any meaning. Which got me thinking on the whole line of cultural assimilation and the absorbance of symbols from one culture into another (seeing as that happened quite a bit with the Greeks and Romans). When you're trying to build an empire and take over lands, I completely understand how you want to bring the current people into your culture and away from theirs, to promote unity and identity. At the same time, its such a shame to lose so much of that culture. I could go on more about that all, but I only have a short time to write this summary. In short, British Museum is awesome and I look forward to having the chance to really visit it in detail being so close.

I also got the chance to see a lot of London thanks to one of the former residents in my dorm (who moved out now) from Pakistan. He was helping me find all the stores I needed to get things for my room and took me along on his farewell drive through London, which means I had a great 3-hour tour of London in the evening! I have to say, the London bridge looks absolutely stunning lit up at night. I also went out for a night on the town with Leah. We went to her favorite Indie club, which was fun. Not exactly my crowd, but it was an enjoyable night. The club is right down at Kings College London student union and overlooks the river Thames, the London Eye, and the Buildings of Parliament. Definitely a cool view! Other than that, I went for a walk yesterday though Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, which were lovely. I meant to see Buckingham palace yesterday, but it was sold out, so I went today instead. It was really interesting to walk through all the state room that are still in use today (its only open for a month or so out of the year for tours). They also had an exhibit of gowns that the queen had worn, which sounds boring, but they really are amazing pieces of artwork up close. I think its such a shame they all only get worn once.

So that's what I've been up to lately! Going to Brussels tomorrow on the Eurostar (the train under the Channel) until Wednesday night, which came about because I figure I have days with nothing I need to do for school and I have all year to see London and the tickets were cheap (49 pounds round-trip!). I'll keep posting more pictures when I get back.

Photos

Just to let you all know, I'm putting photos up online. The ones of Ireland should be up tonight. Photos will be up on www.photos.yahoo.com/ebolaprincess.