2009 Summer Korea/China/CETI trip journal
Chinese Censorship
Wow, even though this is not the first time i've experienced the censorship in China, I still find it pretty insane. I can't seem to access anything with remotely linked to www.blogger.com. Come on - this is a blog! How else am I going to record every minute detail of my wonderful experience here? Everything is so systematic and follow-the-rule style (said nicely) such that it appears people are just robots. Ugh...okay, fine, i'm just angry I can go on blogger.
Man, I even tried asking a computer savvy friend if there's some way I can bypass this - but it seems very very formidable. I think anything with the word "blogger," and there's an automatic error message on my computer screen. Of course, it's in Chinese, and I can't really understand what it's saying, but the message is loud and clear.
But it's not just www.blogger, so far, I can't access YouTube either! ah....how can watch mindless television now? Thank goodness for google docs.
Friends have said that I can add new entries, but I can't see my own blog - but I still haven't figured out how to do that - anyone know? Someone else suggested MIT vpn - great! but...it's so slooooooooow to download. At least I managed to figure out how to get a certificate and all with a bunch of Chinese.
Swine Flu Epidemic - or at least it appears this way for the Chinese
For some reason the government has decided that SARS was something it was going to keep under the cover and pretend nothing happened, but when Swine Flu came about (something that has a cure and can be cured if caught relatively early), is something that requires heavy quarantine, airplane checks, and essentially use of civilian scare tactics. Note the following:
"WHO’s decision to raise the pandemic alert level to Phase 6 is a
reflection of the spread of the virus, not the severity of illness
caused by the virus."
Yet, when I entered China - well, not even entered, because I was still sitting on the plane - people in white coats, face masks, and gloves come on the plane and measure each person with a thermometer to the forehead. When I accidentally noted that I had lived in Seattle in the past 7 days though I was in Korea for the past 6 days, the quarantine officer asked a lot of questions and sounded concerned. oh dear... i passed.
From Travel Alert:
"In some instances, children have been separated from their parents
because either the parent or the child tested positive for 2009-H1N1
and was placed in quarantine for treatment. This situation presents
the possibility of Chinese medical personnel administering medications
to minors without first having consulted their parents.
The Department of State has received reports about unsuitable
quarantine conditions, including the unavailability of suitable
drinking water and food, unsanitary conditions, and the inability to
communicate with others."
Relatives won't see me because of Swine Flu
I found my grandfather and aunt had called my other aunt (where I'm staying) and asked if it was really necessary that I visit them. Come on! I'm your freakin' granddaughter and neice! Are you REALLY not going to see me because of swine flu? Okay...maybe there's a chance I have it if there were NO quarantine officers checking each plane - but I got checked, AND I had lived outside the states for a couple of days.
Somehow, they decided I could visit them, but uh oh... I got a cold from the AC being turned too low the previous night. I told them I might have a cold from the AC (how stupid was that?), and they freaked out. Said I should go to the hospital, eat medication - I really thought they were going to quarantine me. Maybe that's why there was a big rush to get me out of their house when my aunt came to pick me and my cousin up.
I was still forced to take my temperature - i really feel fine! - and it appears I have a temperature of 37.3 (normal is 37) - Well, now I'm really scared they might lock me in and not let me go on my CETI trip around China to spread around my deadly disease.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Medical School Anatomy: Another reason to not smoke and to workout
Today was lung dissection, and I discovered another reason why people should not smoke and should workout:
Last session, we took out the saw and bone cutter and cut through the clavicle and the ribs. Sawing was pretty difficult, but it was nice to hear the last crack of the ribs. When we took off the front of the rib cage, we discovered two huge lungs that were black. Ah...smoker? How unfortunate. I also managed to cut the diaphram when I thought it was the parietal pleura.
Our role today was to take out the lungs and check it out. We looked at our lung and wondered why it was so small compared to another table's, which slipped right out. Well, according to our manual, the lung should slip right out if you cut the bronchi and the nerves/arteries/etc. After cutting all the nerves, arteries, nerves, muscles, diaphrams, and whatever...I decided to be careful and use my fingers to pry the lung away from the thoracic cavity. After a little prying, the lung still refused to budge, so we moved to using scissors. Soon, scissors didn't fit into the whole, and we moved to scalpel. Before long, we were digging our fingers as deep as possible (I'm sure I got cadaver juice on my wrists), and we pulled as hard as possible. Actually, SW pulled on the lung in one direction while I pulled the body in the other direction - all to no avail. Stupid lung! Why won't you come out?!!! We decided that after this, we should work out for the sole purpose of pulling out organs during anatomy. With more cutting, and eventually moving to using a chisel, we pulled the lung out - in 3 pieces. oops.
There you have it, another reason not to smoke: make med school student dissection not a test of how fit we are.
Last session, we took out the saw and bone cutter and cut through the clavicle and the ribs. Sawing was pretty difficult, but it was nice to hear the last crack of the ribs. When we took off the front of the rib cage, we discovered two huge lungs that were black. Ah...smoker? How unfortunate. I also managed to cut the diaphram when I thought it was the parietal pleura.
Our role today was to take out the lungs and check it out. We looked at our lung and wondered why it was so small compared to another table's, which slipped right out. Well, according to our manual, the lung should slip right out if you cut the bronchi and the nerves/arteries/etc. After cutting all the nerves, arteries, nerves, muscles, diaphrams, and whatever...I decided to be careful and use my fingers to pry the lung away from the thoracic cavity. After a little prying, the lung still refused to budge, so we moved to using scissors. Soon, scissors didn't fit into the whole, and we moved to scalpel. Before long, we were digging our fingers as deep as possible (I'm sure I got cadaver juice on my wrists), and we pulled as hard as possible. Actually, SW pulled on the lung in one direction while I pulled the body in the other direction - all to no avail. Stupid lung! Why won't you come out?!!! We decided that after this, we should work out for the sole purpose of pulling out organs during anatomy. With more cutting, and eventually moving to using a chisel, we pulled the lung out - in 3 pieces. oops.
There you have it, another reason not to smoke: make med school student dissection not a test of how fit we are.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Medical School: Oops, I cut another nerve
Anatomy: how the heck are you supposed to tell what's a nerve, an artery, a vein, or just plain ligament?
Dissection is so much fun! I just love the smell of formaldehyde and the large quantities of cadaver juice we recover each day, and most of all - I love the fat that just oozes out of that 2 inch thick fat layer. yum. If it was unclear, that was sarcasm. But truth to be told, various group members keep on associating certain cadaver parts with food items! No!!! I will never be able to eat those things again... :(
The other day we tried to find the various branches off the axillary artery, which includes pectoral, acromial, clavical, and deltoid branches. I also wasn't aware that the arteries were white colored. I thought arteries had blood! Ugh, what makes it worse is that the nerves are about the same, but have different names. Great! And, it's exactly like an artery, but probably a tiny bit more translucent.
Well, to prevent me from cutting things, I decided to use my fingers. But to my dismay, I was pulling at the pectoral minor muscle and accidentally pulled the whole muscle off. oops!
Dissection is so much fun! I just love the smell of formaldehyde and the large quantities of cadaver juice we recover each day, and most of all - I love the fat that just oozes out of that 2 inch thick fat layer. yum. If it was unclear, that was sarcasm. But truth to be told, various group members keep on associating certain cadaver parts with food items! No!!! I will never be able to eat those things again... :(
The other day we tried to find the various branches off the axillary artery, which includes pectoral, acromial, clavical, and deltoid branches. I also wasn't aware that the arteries were white colored. I thought arteries had blood! Ugh, what makes it worse is that the nerves are about the same, but have different names. Great! And, it's exactly like an artery, but probably a tiny bit more translucent.
Well, to prevent me from cutting things, I decided to use my fingers. But to my dismay, I was pulling at the pectoral minor muscle and accidentally pulled the whole muscle off. oops!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Medical School: Cutting out the breast and skinning a person
Anatomy started before the first day:
As a typical eager medical student, a few of us decided to venture into the morgue (okay, not really the morgue, just the classroom with 30 some cadavers) to check out our bodies. Well, not really OUR bodies, but the bodies of those people who generously donated their body to science. The three of us were at different tables, and we all wanted to see what our cadavers looked like. The first one was pretty small, but distinct breasts revealed it to be a female. Next one was about the same size, and also seemed to be female. Then we got to mine, and I was thinking "Holy moly! It's huge!" We were sure it must have been some man who probably had an unhealthy diet of some sort.
First day of dissection neared, and once again being the eager medical student, I checked out the morgue again and found descriptions of the body. The person wasn't yet 50, had diabetes, and to my astonishment, was female. ah...very sorry body.
Then there was lecture. Oops. He talked about how we should treat the bodies as our first patients, and how we should be respectful. Boy...I felt bad saying my body was huge. :( hm...I wonder if the person wouldn't have minded me making cadaver jokes. Oh boy, what would medical students say when they see my body when I donate it? Smelly? It's interesting that they shave off their head and bloat their face to make them not so recognizable.
It cut like hot knife through butter:
So we put on our stinky scrubs and goggles, and we, once again eager medical students, pulled back the sheets that covered the bodies. There was a huge pool of cadaver juice (not the kind you want to drink). I made the first incision. But b/c the body had such a thick layer of fat, I didn't know where exactly to start or end b/c I really couldn't feel the bone at all. Lab teammate said go kind of deep b/c skin is probably tough. As we peeled back the skin, it turned out to be about 1 mm thick. oops.
But when we had to remove the fat layer, oh boy, that was maybe 1 to 2 inches thick. Imagine squishing this yellow gooey fat btwn your fingers. Message to all: if anything, please don't eat so much so that the medical student who dissects your future donated body wouldn't have to labor through your thick layer of fat. There are no other reasons to eat healthy.
I was so eager to dissect that I decided to dissect myself:
There is a first for everything right? Well, I got to be the first to cut my finger with my scalpel. Great move, huh? It's tiny, but there's nothing worse then feeling a pinch, hoping you didn't cut yourself, then taking off your glove and finding a drop of blood ooze out of the cut. Hopefully I won't get cadaver disease.
As a typical eager medical student, a few of us decided to venture into the morgue (okay, not really the morgue, just the classroom with 30 some cadavers) to check out our bodies. Well, not really OUR bodies, but the bodies of those people who generously donated their body to science. The three of us were at different tables, and we all wanted to see what our cadavers looked like. The first one was pretty small, but distinct breasts revealed it to be a female. Next one was about the same size, and also seemed to be female. Then we got to mine, and I was thinking "Holy moly! It's huge!" We were sure it must have been some man who probably had an unhealthy diet of some sort.
First day of dissection neared, and once again being the eager medical student, I checked out the morgue again and found descriptions of the body. The person wasn't yet 50, had diabetes, and to my astonishment, was female. ah...very sorry body.
Then there was lecture. Oops. He talked about how we should treat the bodies as our first patients, and how we should be respectful. Boy...I felt bad saying my body was huge. :( hm...I wonder if the person wouldn't have minded me making cadaver jokes. Oh boy, what would medical students say when they see my body when I donate it? Smelly? It's interesting that they shave off their head and bloat their face to make them not so recognizable.
It cut like hot knife through butter:
So we put on our stinky scrubs and goggles, and we, once again eager medical students, pulled back the sheets that covered the bodies. There was a huge pool of cadaver juice (not the kind you want to drink). I made the first incision. But b/c the body had such a thick layer of fat, I didn't know where exactly to start or end b/c I really couldn't feel the bone at all. Lab teammate said go kind of deep b/c skin is probably tough. As we peeled back the skin, it turned out to be about 1 mm thick. oops.
But when we had to remove the fat layer, oh boy, that was maybe 1 to 2 inches thick. Imagine squishing this yellow gooey fat btwn your fingers. Message to all: if anything, please don't eat so much so that the medical student who dissects your future donated body wouldn't have to labor through your thick layer of fat. There are no other reasons to eat healthy.
I was so eager to dissect that I decided to dissect myself:
There is a first for everything right? Well, I got to be the first to cut my finger with my scalpel. Great move, huh? It's tiny, but there's nothing worse then feeling a pinch, hoping you didn't cut yourself, then taking off your glove and finding a drop of blood ooze out of the cut. Hopefully I won't get cadaver disease.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Med School: Beginning
Wow, summer came to an end WAAAAAY too quickly:
8/7: fly from Yulin to Beijing (visited Olympic stadiums - so awesome!)
8/8: fly from Beijing to Seattle
8/9: fly from Seattle to St. Louis
8/11: Start medical school orientation
And ...no longer pre-med! woot!
So many people to meet! So many things to buy! Get settled. The dorm I'm living in is called "Olin." So it's pretty nice in general, except for two things:
1) There is wireless everywhere EXCEPT for Olin, which is literally attached to the medical school
2) There are kitchens on every odd floor (yes! I'm on the 7th!), but there is only a refrigerator in the basement and the penthouse (11th floor) - what the heck?!! So there are dish washers in some of the kitchens, but no freakin' fridges? Ahhhhhhh!
Time to get fridge:
Ah...another lesson learned! I found that many students got new fridges from stores that were more than $100, and so I searched on Craig's list. I love Craig's list. I called the number listed, and the first time she said she'd meet me, she turned out to have a doctor's appointment. Next time, she wasn't around. 3rd time, she had lupus, and finally...I managed to get to her on the 4th try.
There were supposed to be fridges that were $50 somewhere nearby, so I asked, and it turned out that those were sold, but there was something for $35 that had a bit of rust on the handle. Being a frugal Chinese, I decided to go for the cheap fridge. And $20 delivery fee wasn't something I wanted to pay, so I asked a friend to help me retrieve the fridge.
Sadly, when we got there, not only did the fridge not fit into the car, but we mistakenly let some rough person try and shove it in the trunk, which was OBVIOUSLY way too small, which ended up scratching the car. And it was a new car. ah!!! Stupidity runs in my blood! Now instead of paying that $20 delivery fee, I get to pay a buttload of money to fix the scratches! Sadness. Lesson learned: don't be a cheap Asian.
WashU is NOT a pedestrian friendly city; conclusion: get a bike:
Craig's list! Yes, I found a bike on Craig's list for $35. Called the guy, said to come right away, and he'd be there for the next 2 hrs. While on the phone, I searched up the bus route, and found it was possible, so I rush out the door to catch the bus, and prepared to ride the bike back. But on the way back, found that the bus stop didn't seem to have the bus number I wanted. Uh oh. I also forgot the directions. So I could only resort to going back to Olin, and attempt to call people who might give me a ride.
On the way back, I saw a car drive out of the Olin parking lot, and saw somebody waving to me. I waved back, not really knowing who it was, and realized he was a first year I had met earlier. Without thinking properly, I thought perhaps they are going my direction! Perhaps they can give me a ride! Being friendly med students, they offered to give me a ride, and as I sat down, I realized I didn't even know the driver. Did an awkward introduction, and they drove me off to get a bike. Very nice people indeed...
My bike is so great that a thief will steal my lock before they steal my bike. Cost of bike: $35; Cost of lock: $30
First time bowling; score: 126
I signed up for a musical: ack!
I played soccer: ball hit me in the face, hard...twice.
I played basketball; I shot at the hoop...zero times.
I went to a bar and had three sips of "Angel on Acid" (tastes like ice cream)...and felt my Asian genes (aka Asian flame) taking over.
8/7: fly from Yulin to Beijing (visited Olympic stadiums - so awesome!)
8/8: fly from Beijing to Seattle
8/9: fly from Seattle to St. Louis
8/11: Start medical school orientation
And ...no longer pre-med! woot!
So many people to meet! So many things to buy! Get settled. The dorm I'm living in is called "Olin." So it's pretty nice in general, except for two things:
1) There is wireless everywhere EXCEPT for Olin, which is literally attached to the medical school
2) There are kitchens on every odd floor (yes! I'm on the 7th!), but there is only a refrigerator in the basement and the penthouse (11th floor) - what the heck?!! So there are dish washers in some of the kitchens, but no freakin' fridges? Ahhhhhhh!
Time to get fridge:
Ah...another lesson learned! I found that many students got new fridges from stores that were more than $100, and so I searched on Craig's list. I love Craig's list. I called the number listed, and the first time she said she'd meet me, she turned out to have a doctor's appointment. Next time, she wasn't around. 3rd time, she had lupus, and finally...I managed to get to her on the 4th try.
There were supposed to be fridges that were $50 somewhere nearby, so I asked, and it turned out that those were sold, but there was something for $35 that had a bit of rust on the handle. Being a frugal Chinese, I decided to go for the cheap fridge. And $20 delivery fee wasn't something I wanted to pay, so I asked a friend to help me retrieve the fridge.
Sadly, when we got there, not only did the fridge not fit into the car, but we mistakenly let some rough person try and shove it in the trunk, which was OBVIOUSLY way too small, which ended up scratching the car. And it was a new car. ah!!! Stupidity runs in my blood! Now instead of paying that $20 delivery fee, I get to pay a buttload of money to fix the scratches! Sadness. Lesson learned: don't be a cheap Asian.
WashU is NOT a pedestrian friendly city; conclusion: get a bike:
Craig's list! Yes, I found a bike on Craig's list for $35. Called the guy, said to come right away, and he'd be there for the next 2 hrs. While on the phone, I searched up the bus route, and found it was possible, so I rush out the door to catch the bus, and prepared to ride the bike back. But on the way back, found that the bus stop didn't seem to have the bus number I wanted. Uh oh. I also forgot the directions. So I could only resort to going back to Olin, and attempt to call people who might give me a ride.
On the way back, I saw a car drive out of the Olin parking lot, and saw somebody waving to me. I waved back, not really knowing who it was, and realized he was a first year I had met earlier. Without thinking properly, I thought perhaps they are going my direction! Perhaps they can give me a ride! Being friendly med students, they offered to give me a ride, and as I sat down, I realized I didn't even know the driver. Did an awkward introduction, and they drove me off to get a bike. Very nice people indeed...
My bike is so great that a thief will steal my lock before they steal my bike. Cost of bike: $35; Cost of lock: $30
First time bowling; score: 126
I signed up for a musical: ack!
I played soccer: ball hit me in the face, hard...twice.
I played basketball; I shot at the hoop...zero times.
I went to a bar and had three sips of "Angel on Acid" (tastes like ice cream)...and felt my Asian genes (aka Asian flame) taking over.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Summer Schedule
6/5 Graduate, tour Boston w/ family
6/7 Drive to NYC
6/10 Drive to DC
6/12 Fly to Seattle
6/13 Fly to Korea (via Japan)
6/20 Fly to Hangzhou, China
6/26 Train, meet up with CETI group at Guiling/Yangshuo (straight mountains sticking out of the ground, rock climbing)
6/29 Train to Kumming
6/30 Fly to Lijiang
7/2 Bus to Shangri-la
7/3 Taxi to Deqin (wake up and see beautiful mountains and glaciers outside my window!)
7/6 Fly to Xishuangbanna (tropical rainforest)
7/8 Fly to Sechuan
7/19 Fly to Qinghai
8/1 Train to Xi'an (Terra Cotta Soldiers)
8/2 Bus to Shaanxi
8/7 Fly to Beijing
8/8 Fly to Seattle (via San Francisco)
8/9 Fly to St. Louis
8/11 Med school orientation! Phew!
10 planes, 3 overnight trains, 1 hitch hike
If you want a postcard, leave your address!
6/7 Drive to NYC
6/10 Drive to DC
6/12 Fly to Seattle
6/13 Fly to Korea (via Japan)
6/20 Fly to Hangzhou, China
6/26 Train, meet up with CETI group at Guiling/Yangshuo (straight mountains sticking out of the ground, rock climbing)
6/29 Train to Kumming
6/30 Fly to Lijiang
7/2 Bus to Shangri-la
7/3 Taxi to Deqin (wake up and see beautiful mountains and glaciers outside my window!)
7/6 Fly to Xishuangbanna (tropical rainforest)
7/8 Fly to Sechuan
7/19 Fly to Qinghai
8/1 Train to Xi'an (Terra Cotta Soldiers)
8/2 Bus to Shaanxi
8/7 Fly to Beijing
8/8 Fly to Seattle (via San Francisco)
8/9 Fly to St. Louis
8/11 Med school orientation! Phew!
10 planes, 3 overnight trains, 1 hitch hike
If you want a postcard, leave your address!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Graduation
Wow, graduation went by way too fast. It seemed like I didn't have any time to process the idea that I was graduating, and now, I'm already out of Boston. Wonder when I'll ever be back there...Graduation kind of felt like...a play. I felt like I was directed here and there, and then all of a sudden, it was all over. It all started out with seeing random people in the hallways and hearing them say "congratulations." It was so strange. I kept on forgetting I had anything for people to congratulate me with because it's not like I had a really difficult exam so I felt some kind of cathartic relief from finishing it or I just won some amazing tennis match where I was pushed to my physical limit. I just felt like I was going on with my daily life and people came up to me to say "congratulations!" Everytime somebody said that I probably had this horribly astonished look on my face.
Anyhow, it was all good. I cheered for people who couldn't hear me while the people in front of me became deaf or annoyed. In the meanwhile, I probably managed to be only person in the 2,000 graduates to have an odd colored graduation gown. Mine was a tad...gray or blue compared to everyone else's. I guess that's what I got for being cheap. Oops! In the end, they still let me walk, get my diplomas (ooo...mine had rubberbands around them because I got two!), and eat food from the awesome two receptions I got to attend!
Got to say a last goodbye to some friends and show off my insanely cute brother :) Also realized I managed to go a whole semester in a group project with somebody without realizing that one of my teammates has the same life story as me: born in Hangzhou, lived with grandparents in China while parents lived in US for a few years, and now planning to go to Washington University in St. Louis Medical School. Oblivious...
Best accomplishment this week: packing all my things into suitcases! - packing is such a hassle!
Monday, June 1, 2009
6 Flags
Went to 6 Flags for Senior week! So much fun!
Went on a bunch of rollercoasters:
Flashback: kind of sketchy to find them testing it out right before we went on it. But it was cool how it went backwards (blue and orange in picture)
Cyclone: wooden rollercoasters are insanely rickety! It was like constant backlash (wooden on in picture)
Bizarro: HUGE 221 ft drop in the beginning - loads of fun!
Went on a bunch of rollercoasters:Flashback: kind of sketchy to find them testing it out right before we went on it. But it was cool how it went backwards (blue and orange in picture)
Cyclone: wooden rollercoasters are insanely rickety! It was like constant backlash (wooden on in picture)
Bizarro: HUGE 221 ft drop in the beginning - loads of fun!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Walden Pond
Biking to Walden Pond was so much fun and so much pain! Ah...I should've known that biking with a national champion cyclist/triathlon athlete was probably going to be painful. To add to the difficulty, I had a bike that was probably twice as heavy and only two functional gears. I never even switched gears before. Next time I'm going for the slightly longer, but flat and "boring" route - boring according to my cycling friend.
Walden Pond was...full of pregnant ladies. Somehow on the tiny beach we dumped our stuff at, we saw three pregnant ladies walking around in swimsuits plus one guy I mistook for a pregnant lady. Pregnant ladies in swimsuits is kind of a strange concept. Anyhow, our picnic was pretty successful. We had an excess of food, and I was sad we forgot the mayo even though I hectically procured it in the morning. I'm glad we had time to throw around a mini football in the pond and find the original site of Thoreau's long-gone cabin. Note to self: email Mr. Curtis.
Those who went to Walden Pond via zip car went home, and I had time to visit Emerson & Louisa May Alcott's House as well as Sleepy Hallow. Also note that the guy who works at the visitor center must either be really talkative or really bored b/c we had difficulty leaving that place because he just kept on talking and didn't take a breath.
Walden Pond was...full of pregnant ladies. Somehow on the tiny beach we dumped our stuff at, we saw three pregnant ladies walking around in swimsuits plus one guy I mistook for a pregnant lady. Pregnant ladies in swimsuits is kind of a strange concept. Anyhow, our picnic was pretty successful. We had an excess of food, and I was sad we forgot the mayo even though I hectically procured it in the morning. I'm glad we had time to throw around a mini football in the pond and find the original site of Thoreau's long-gone cabin. Note to self: email Mr. Curtis.
Those who went to Walden Pond via zip car went home, and I had time to visit Emerson & Louisa May Alcott's House as well as Sleepy Hallow. Also note that the guy who works at the visitor center must either be really talkative or really bored b/c we had difficulty leaving that place because he just kept on talking and didn't take a breath.
Medical School
Never noted: Going to Medical School!
Gee...whenever I say what school I'm going to people think i'm going to UW b/c I'm from WA. Now I'm just going to append the city to avoid the confusion.
Man, as I was packing, it felt very difficult to throw away the packets of information I got from various medical schools when I interviewed there. It's sad that I probably read less than 10% of the stuff in there. Ah...what a pity.
Gee...whenever I say what school I'm going to people think i'm going to UW b/c I'm from WA. Now I'm just going to append the city to avoid the confusion.
Man, as I was packing, it felt very difficult to throw away the packets of information I got from various medical schools when I interviewed there. It's sad that I probably read less than 10% of the stuff in there. Ah...what a pity.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
End of the Year
Funny that at the end of the year, when people are supposed to be studying, they find every excuse not to study. Thus, infamous flame/spam wars. Ah...can't believe the flame war that Karina started freshmen year has been recalled in the recent spam war. The infamous milk spam. Ah...it will surely go down in history. Congrats to Karina for going down in MIT history!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Sierra Leone trip
Trip Summary (by Steve)
The Sierra Leone team (D-Lab SL) worked in six villages near Lunsar in northern Sierra Leone with the Idaho-based NGO, Village Hope. Jon Bart, founder of Village Hope, was present along with his Sierra Leonean employee Stephen Gibateh. D-Lab SL was housed in a convent at the local Catholic mission.
Narrative
D-Lab SL got off to a quick start the next day, with Jon leading it on a tour of Robonka's school, gardens, and rice fields before bringing it back to Lunsar for tours of a vocational school and the renowned Catholic schools connected to the mission. After lunch the team was given a brief orientation focusing on Temne, formal education, health issues and agriculture. The rest of the night was calm and relaxing until Nadia put her candle on her sink and ended up burning down her vanity mirror and setting the bathroom on fire. Fortunately, the fearless leader stayed calm, beat back the flames with a towel and no one was harmed.
The second day turned into a whirlwind tour of five villages: Rogballan, Rogbarren, Bouyah, Robanka, and Rokholifa. At each, Jon discussed his microfinance program of loans and the team described each project to the villagers. Despite getting back after dark, the team rose early in the morning for the two and half hour mass. Afterward, Ben and Lucy discussed working on the latrine with Paul while Swetha and Steve talked to Mr. Jalloh, from the Ministry of Agriculture, about peanuts and the Moringa tree. Several members of the team went to Robonka later to discuss charcoal, education and peanuts, but the villagers iterated several times that their greatest needs were chain saws and seeds.The workweek began the next day with a slew of projects in Rogballan including observing the education system, sampling the soil, starting a census of the community, testing the borehole's water quality, and gather resources for constructions. The following day, at the mission, Steve began constructing the first peanut sheller by poured the concrete mix, while Yi and Nadia did most of the assembly for the charcoal crusher. Skyrich, Joseph, and Lawrence helped with these tasks and they learned about their educations and interests. Yalu and Swetha went to Robomp with Susan, Jon Bart's wife, to observe the schools, and Lucy and Ben hired a carpenter to make the form for the rammed earth wall. Jacob and Elizabeth, agricultural engineering students from the University of Illinois, spent their first day assessing a potential site for irrigation.
Early the next morning Swetha and Steve set off with Jon, Mr. Jalloh, Father Francis, Joseph, Jacob and Elizabeth for Njala agricultural station, arriving in time for a tour of the farms and to learn about the college's work on improved seed varieties, infrastructure for technology dissemination, and interest in post-harvest processing. Steve talked to them about the peanut sheller design and promised to get them in contact with Jock Brandis, while Swetha discussed the Moringa tree. Back in Lunsar, Ben and Yalu went to a pineapple farm and managed to bring back several despite Ben's notoriously dropping one on the road.Because Jon wanted to a visit a small irrigated farm near Bo, the team took a different route on the return journey, collecting 4 toxic chemical drums along the way and stopping in Makeni to send an e-mail to our parents. Steve checked who won the BCS Championship Game (Florida, of course). In Rogballan, the town, under Ben and Lucy's supervision, was hard at work cutting rebar and pouring the concrete slab for the latrine until dusk.
The next day the team split off in a number of directions with Nadia going to Freetown with Jon, Ben and Lucy traveling to Robomp to assess a site for latrine construction, while Yalu and Swetha went to Robanka to do an educational assessment. Yi and Steve went to a metal working shop to get their toxic waste drums cut for their projects. By the early afternoon the team was together again in Lunsar without Nadia's supervision, so they played soccer with local kids and ate up most of the snacks. Let this be a lesson unto future trip leaders. Around midnight Joanna, a course 4 student gathering information for her thesis on school building, arrived from the airport and shortly thereafter Nadia returned with a harrowing tale of how she survived a traffic accident on the way back from Freetown.
Health was the focus of the next morning as several team members met with the local CHO (community health officer) and visited the local hospital. Steve shopped for peanuts and tested his peanut sheller. It became clear that the stator was breaking and not going to last so he made plans to produce a new one. Yi lead her first charcoal burn late in the night after burning the chemical residue off a drum earlier in the day. The latrine construction continued in earnest. The following day provided a brief respite as the team went to the Mengebureh mission and met Bomba, a cute little 4 year old. His foot was badly damaged so the sisters took him back to Lunsar for treatment at a local hospital. The team took a trip downriver by boat together and some of the team members toured a local town and jumped off a platform into the river nearly 20 feet below, which seemed like a good idea at the time.
The team got back to work early the next morning, with Yi doing a charcoal burn in Rogballan, Steve working on the new peanut sheller, latrine construction continuing and Yalu and Swetha weighing children and doing a small health assessment. Dave Peckham, head of the Village Bicycle Project, arrived that night and discussed his NGO with the team. The day after Yalu and Swehta got a quote on the cost of making blackboards for the local schools, while Ben and Lucy did their own cost estimate for the latrine including zinc for the roof and then checked out termite-mound plaster in Mephira. Steve watched Obama's inauguration with dozens of locals at the canteen.The next day, the Village Hope's container of tools and school supplies finally arrived from Freetown. Yi did a charcoal burn at the mission, crushed charcoal by hand and made a few briquettes while Lucy, Swetha, and Yalu unknowingly met the Archbishop of Freetown at a ceremony. Ben continued to lead work on the latrine, pouring concrete for a support beam.
A meeting with Alpha Savage, dean of Fourah Bay College in Freetown, was on the agenda for the next day. The team arrived at the college early in the afternoon and discussed the projects briefly. Unfortunately, some miscommunication had led Alpha to believe all of the MIT students were civil engineers, so all the students he invited to the meeting were civil engineers. The MIT students and Sierra Leonean students discussed school life and discovered, to Yi's surprise, that fund raisers were not a big part of life at Fourah Bay College. Otherwise, college life was very similar. Later that night the team enjoyed a dance session at the canteen during a going-away party for Susan.
Swetha was quick to work the next day, joining with Mr. Jalloh to plant some Moringa seeds in Rogballan with the permission of the chief. Steve assembled his sheller back at the mission while Yi made a new concrete piece for the charcoal crusher in the morning before visiting the local hospital with Lucy. Ben, Steve and Swetha visited the local eye clinic, and Swetha fainted during the surgery because of nasal congestion and the mask constricting her air supply. It was certainly not the image of a man shoving a knife in a man's eye for 10 minutes that was to blame.
The next morning was a mad scramble for supplies for the teacher workshop. Lucy and Steve shopped in the market with Skyrich while Yalu and Swetha organized the workshop. The workshop lasted most of the day as the teacher's discussed their needs and methods and shared their pedagogical techniques. Meanwhile, Ben chilled at the river with Paul and George before attending a concert that night with a few other team members.
Steve did a demonstration of the peanut sheller and got feedback from Robonka the next morning, giving the villagers a pound of peanut seeds as a sign of thanks. Everyone helped pack and then the team took the bumpy ride to Rokholifa where the guys played soccer and the girls cooked before sharing dinner and singing songs with the locals at a campfire.
A chicken woke Ben up the next morning pecking at his arm and driving him from the head teacher's home. It proceeded to rest in a corner near Steve's legs before Lucy drove it from the room by prodding it with a flashlight. The team left early in the morning, returning to Lunsar in time to do a soil infiltration test and head to Rogballan for the final CDT meeting where Jon was named Paramount Chief and Yi did a charcoal-making demonstration. The villagers insisted on doing a scary Bondu (secret society) dance which was as frightening as it was bizarre.We packed that night and made the trip to the airport the next day with Stephen driving one truck to the airport and Pa Hassan, a man who will always be remembered for his willingness to accelerate directly into potholes, driving the other.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
smiles from ellann
ah...ellann has the awesomenes emails:
Subject: Prediction
They once said that we would have a black president when pigs flew
Within the first 100 days with Obama.....
BAM!!!
Pig Flu
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Firsts for 2009
Keep track of things I did for first time this (MIT senior/med freshman) year...
- Went to Africa (Sierra Leone) and below the equator!
- Went to Nicaragua
- Went to Korea
- Went to the midwest (med school interviews)
- Went to a bar (in Amsterdam)
- Jumped into a river from a 20 ft ledge
- Went to a club (in Nicaragua)
- Made pumpkin pie and cheesecake ...from fresh pumpkin
- Tried the hooka
- Saw somebody pass out from drinking, rode on ambulance, stay overnight at hospital
- Went to a Red Sox game - vs. minnesota twins
- Played doubles tennis with Karina
- Saw C show
- Saw Roadkill Buffet - JBS and Paul were awesome
- Went to one of my friend's wedding
- Rode on a motorcycle (in SL)...only as a passenger
- Did Relay for Life
- Watched a Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese tv drama
- Danced at a frat party
- Asked somebody to be my date
- Kind of went on a blind date
- Hiked on part of the Appalachian Trail (Moosilauke Mtn)
- Went to Walden Pond
- Played doubles against tennis coach Carol and Willie (aced both of them!)
- Graduated from MIT!
- Traveled around China by myself (well...with 2 friends.): 10 planes, 3 overnight trains, 1 hitch hike
- Rock climbed on a real mountain
- Had yack butter tea
- Got my white coat (WashU Med School!)
- Danced in Diwali Show (Bhangra booya!)
- Played an IM bball game
- Dissected a cadaver
- Ran 12 miles
- Passed a med school class!
...need to think later...
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