Intellectual and Not-So-Intellectual Week

Weekend (too bad it's basically over...)!  Is it just me, or do the weeks seem to be getting longer?  Here's the breakdown:

Monday- The second half of the second term began.  My courses for the next five weeks are Designing Disease Control Programmes in Developing Countries (DDCPDC) and Epidemiology and Control of Communicable Diseases (ECCD).  As you can probably tell, the School fancies acronyms.  I don't blame it; try saying the names of my courses, in addition to my school--the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine--10 times fast.  Each course should be worthwhile: in DDCPDC, I'm working extensively in a group to tackle malaria in southeast Liberia and ECCD has been rumoured to be one of the hardest, but most beneficial, courses taught at the School.  I'm looking forward to a challenging but rewarding term!

Tuesday- The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the UK, Sir Liam Donaldson, visited the School to speak about the role of the CMO in the UK, his career and his achievements.  The UK's CMO is the equivalent of the US's Surgeon General.  The presentation was captivating, especially when Sir Donaldson spoke about his role in addressing several hospital trust scandals that rocked the country in the past decade (i.e. dead children's organs being harvested without their parents' consent OR under misleading circumstances, with the bodies being disposed of as general rubbish). The high calibre of lecturers and presenters at the LSTHM continues to be impressive!

Wednesday (day)- A second, extremely influential individual spoke at the School on his [former] role in the UK [government].  The previous top drugs adviser for the UK [Home Office], Professor David Nutt, gave a presentation on harm assessments for regulating drugs.  In short, he was sacked by the Home Secretary for criticising the drugs policy in the UK.  The "criticism" was based off of scientific evidence showing how alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous and harmful than some illegal drugs (i.e. marijuana and ecstasy).  Click here for a good BBC article on the story.  It was a phenomenal presentation on the relationship between science and politics, and evidence-based policymaking.  I'll keep my opinions on the story to myself (I'm sure you can guess some of my thoughts and the side that I take... Ask if you're inclined to do so) so you can make your own decision on how you feel about both the il/legality of assorted chemical substances compared to others and the role of [independent] advising [on/for science] in government!          

Wednesday (night)- FOOTBALL MATCH!  I've now been properly introduced to English culture and lifestyle.  A few of my coursemates and I went to a Premier League football (the 'Merican translation, of course, is "soccer") match between my local London team, Tottenham Hotspur, and Bolton.  It was a BLAST!  Half of the experience was the game (Tottenham won 4-nil!), with the other being the audience.  The stadium was PACKED and resonated with the drunken fans' chants and songs.  Furthermore, the way that many of the fans spoke was brilliantly entertaining: "hey, friend"= "oy, mate!", "my" = "me", etc.  Many of my British mates say that you can tell the social class of someone by his/her accent.  The more you encounter the wide array of people who live in/around London, the more you realise that it's true...  The bobbies on horses and riot police outside of the stadium also added a thrilling element to the experience as well!  Sadly there were no [exceptionally] rowdy football hooligans on which the bobbies needed to use their equipment.  Honestly, it was probably one of the most fun sporting event to which I've ever been!  I love the UK.            

Thursday- It's been waaaaaaaaay too long since I have seen a theatre production.  One of my hallmates was in the UCL production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.  I went to the show with some of my fellow hallmates.  The acting was rather good, and it was refreshing to be privy to an aspect of the fine arts once again!       

Polish Pal

Last week was Reading Week.  I actually spent the first half of the week in London.  This was supposed to be used for school-related projects or work.  However, the second half of the week--Thursday through Sunday--was allocated for travel!  One of my co-workers at Cedar Point lives and studies in northern Poland, Gdańsk to be precise, so I figured that I'd give her a visit because we became good friends over the summer and weren't able to meet [in Dublin] as we planned.

The long weekend was really great.  Daria and I were able to have a relaxing, stress-free time.  We explored Gdańsk's centre and harbour, in addition to the nearby cities of Sopot and Gdynia.  Each of the cities were located on the Baltic Sea, and were bitterly cold.  There was quite a bit of snow on the ground as well.  It actually reminded me of Michigan (with a bit less sunshine and more Eastern European flavour, though)!

It was nice to catch-up with one another and to see someone who I knew from the States.  We couldn't be bothered to see absolutely everything in the cities and always be in "tourist mode".  We watched a couple films, hung out with a couple of her friends, frequented coffee shops and talked about what was happening in our lives.  Although the topic of conversation usually related to our experiences as servers at Cedar Point (or seemed to end-up there) and had time to reflect on my (and our) experiences there, I enjoyed myself.

Summer Project Secured!

What a whirlwind of a week!  If I wasn't in the library working on my two assessments, I was having some sort of meeting.  It felt like Alma, Part II.  Although my eyes hurt from staring at the computer screen all week trying to transcribe my arguments and thoughts regarding Primary Health Care and epidemiological study design and analysis, I was able to make substantial progress in defining my summer project.  I met with my project supervisor, who was in town, and tutor.  It went well.  We were able to discuss ideas and set some deadlines (the first of which is this Tuesday!).  My research topic will probably be the influence of clinical setting, policy guidelines and patient experiences on acyclovir access and use in treating herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) genital ulcer disease (GUD) and controlling HIV type 1 (HIV-1) infections.  Exciting, right?!  I'm pumped.  Nothing is 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure that I'm GOING BACK to SOUTH AFRICA!  It's great!  As with everything, though, there are a few aspects of the project on which I'm being a "Debbie Downer": 

1) The research would take me to Johannesburg, not Cape Town.  Cape Town is where my South African host family lives and I am familiar with the area.  Plus, the city and Western Cape is gorgeous.  There's no way that I could visit because of time and distance.  I only have about 6 weeks to do my in-country research and the cities are 1400km (~870mi) apart.

2) FIFA World Cup.  This 'Merican doesn't care for soccer.  The entire world (minus the States) will be watching or attending the matches that are taking place all over SA this summer.  Prices are going to be higher for plane tickets and necessities, tourists will be present en masse, etc.  Ugh.  I just need to be smart about how I go about my daily life.

Everything else should be fine.  I should be gone from mid-June to the end of July/beginning of August.  Med school starts the second or third week of the month, so I may just come home right from SA.  It may be too much of a bother to come back to London.  I wouldn't have a place to stay!  Only time will tell.

That's this summer, though.  Let's live in the day.  In keeping with that mentality, I went back to Stonehenge yesterday with some friends.  I basically went for the company; the awe of Stonehenge is a first-time-only-affair.  Once is enough.  The wind was bitterly cold, too.  That sucked.  I did see something new.  We were dropped off at Old Sarum, another ancient site (an old fort).  It was more stones and excavated earth.  Wow, I'm becoming quite spoiled...!                        

Beware: Assessments Ahead!

It's assessment time.  Boo!  For each of my modules--Primary Health Care and Design & Analysis of Epidemiological Studies--I have an "essay" that requires me to interpret, make recommendations on and identify problems with an approach to applying principles in public health and health care.  The tasks are interesting--I feel like I'm in MUN again, where you need to do research and identify ways to fix problems in international health.  Despite the writing part, it is actually quite fun.  I truly enjoy thinking about and trying to address ways to improve health care infrastructures and health service delivery.  

The upcoming week is the final week of the module (one [almost] down, two to go before my summer project!).  Everyone's becoming quite stressed.  However, I've finished my PHC assessment (due on Wed.), and am over the word limit, so I have more work to do on it before it's due on Wed.!  I have yet to start writing for DAnES.  This assessment is due on Friday afternoon.  I spent all day re-reading the paper that needs to be critiqued and planning how to attack it.  Yeah--I'm actually making outlines now!  Who would have thought?  There's plenty of time to finish, though; classes occupy only half of the next week and I just have one meeting with my tutor and possible project supervisor!  I'm actually looking forward to it!  Plus, Reading Week is the week after that!

The pressure from my impending deadlines hasn't been unbearable.  I've been trying to balance better my academic and social life.  It's actually been quite successful.  Several of my hall mates have started to invite me to watch movies, go to the pub, explore London (i.e. last week we roamed around Hampstead Heath, a posh neighbourhood in NW London with a gigantic park).  They are really great; not only are they fun to be around, but we are able to have intelligent conversations about politics, life as foreigners, our studies, general interests, etc.  Wanting to go out  forces me to get my school work done in a timely manner.  I guess being with friends has taken over some of the extra time that's leftover from participating in seemingly 100's of after-class extracurricular activities.  It feels like I'm having an enjoyable time, without the expense of being unproductive, for the first time in a looooooooong time!