Best Wishes and Big Congratulations!

Happy Birthday to my Popop today! A big congratulations to Erik and Carissa Emery on their wedding this past weekend! And I will be thinking about my good friend Paul as he ties the knot THIS weekend! Its tough not being home for these big days in friends and families lives- but I am there in thought and send best wishes from overseas!
I am very busy with my coursework right now but VERY MUCH enjoying my classes.  Today was full of particularly stimulating discussions:  my Global Health and Social Policy class was examining healthcare and health policy through a social constructionalist lens.  It was debating the foundational basis of biomedical research, study, and application.  I reached the point in lecture where I could physically feel my brain muscle stretching, trying to encorporate such new perspective.  This is a much welcome sensation, my favorite part about learning and academia!  I'm being challenged, and I keep thinking that this year of study is going to be so invaluable and complementary to my (hopeful) pursuit of medicine. 
Speaking of medical school, I have heard back from two of the schools I applied to.  Boston University declined to offer an invitation to interview while Univ of Pitt has extended an invitation.  This interview has been scheduled for December 5, but I am trying to hold out on purchasing a ticket home until I hear back from other schools!
Just a short post for now- I am going to the check out the first 'training' for the QMU volleyball team shortly.  I'm debating joining the team, but not sure yet...cheers!

Done With 1st Week of Classes!

1 week of classes down! The academics are very different from any experience I’ve had before.  My schedule right now has three modules:  Learning Methodologies, Health Systems, and Global Health and Social Policy.  Each module will last 4-6 weeks, at which point I will write one paper that integrates and applies what was learned throughout the course.  My grade for each class comes solely from this assessment!  The classes are reading intensive, which has been a bit overwhelming this first week. Classes are 3 hours long, although lectures are broken up by group discussions and activities.  Another change:  EVERYTHING is digital and computer based, and although I am by no means foreign to using technology, it has been a big adjustment for me..especially reading everything online!  These things aside, my professors are amazing, knowledgeable, and engaged in their teaching.  I’m enjoying the benefits of an intimate academic community, such as a lovely dinner hosted by the Head of Department for all the new and returning IIHD students on Monday night.  As students, we are quickly becoming a close group.  I make a point to sit next to a new student every day, and I enjoy 1-on-1 conversations immensely- hearing about different cultures and countries.  About 6 of us commute on the 30 to QMU, so bus rides are even more bearable!

Highlights of the week..I spoke with my thesis advisor about the possibility of concentrating my dissertation toward the global family planning initiatives of Rotary International, as discussed with Dr. Zinser last week.  Although she cautioned that I not dive headfirst into planning my dissertation, she thinks the topic fits well within IIHD’s focuses.  For now, I have filed the idea and turned my focus to my coursework, and building up a foundational knowledge in global health.

Italian Cooking in Action!

Tiramisu..mmm...

 Wednesday night, Caitlin, Nick, and Sammie joined my roommates and I for dinner in our wee kitchen.  Giulia and her friend Gianmarco (also Italian, visiting from Wales) cooked us an Italian feast:  fried bread with sautéed mushrooms, penne with meat sauce and a ‘beschimella’ sauce, delicious eggplant lasagna with fresh mozzarella, and THE BEST tiramisu I’ve ever had for dessert!  We ate for almost 3 hours, had lots of laughs, and decided that I have won the roommate lottery J

Me and Gordon Hislop at Centenery Dinner

Last night (Friday) was the Rotary Club of Edinburgh Centenary dinner, held at the Balmoral Hotel at the West End of Edinburgh.  I received a call from President Bob Hislop earlier this week, saying that at the last minute his son’s lady friend would be unable to make the event and asking if I would want to take her spot at his table! OF COURSE I did, and after scrambling to find a gown on Thursday, I was treated to a magical evening last night.  Gordon, Bob’s son, was the piper who ushered in the high table of distinguished guests.  We had a phenomenal meal, followed by 5 speakers (who kept us all laughing), and some traditional Scottish music, concluding by crossing hands and singing Burn’s famous Auld Lang Sang.  It was an evening full of great conversation, making new acquaintances, and a celebration of one of the oldest Rotary Club’s in Europe (and all the great work that they have done)!

Tonight, I am going to a monologue called “Gadda Goes to War” put on by the Italian department of the University of Edinburgh.  Both my roommates, Susanna and Giulia, have been very involved in coordinating and organizing the event, and they hooked me and a group of Rotary scholars up with comp tickets for the show! I’m really looking forward to it, and to buying Susi and Giulia a much deserved pint for all their hard work to pull off such a successful event (they have been working so hard all month and almost nonstop for the past week!).  I’m so proud of them!

Who gets this view while they run?? Just one of the many
beautiful views of Edinburgh while running in Holyrood.

Whenever the sun comes out, I’ve been training for the ‘Edinburgh Kilomathon’ next weekend (Sunday, Sept 28).  It’s a 13.1km race through parts of Edinburgh I’m less familiar with, ending at Murrayfield rugby stadium.  I’m so spoiled on my daily runs-  I live just minutes from Holyrood Park and the Meadows  both ideal, beautiful places to run.

Scottish Vocab:  In one session of Learning Methodologies, we were review appropriate punctuation when citing literature sources.  A period is called a ‘full stop’ which for some reason makes me giggle.   A semi-colon is a ‘partial stop’.  Last night at Centenary, after finishing dinner we took a ‘comfort break’ which was an opportunity to take a ‘pee hen’.  Members of my table thought that the term ‘comfort break’ was American- but I’ve certainly never heard it!

Big News...

VERY exciting conversation with Dr. Robert Zinser yesterday.  I got to hear more about Rotary's collaborative Maternal Health project in Nigeria, and how the project is continuing to expand!  He shared with me the great need for a 'universal language' to be developed amidst the international community surrounding FAMILY PLANNING:  a necessity to decrease maternal and infant mortality rates globally.  I will be meeting with my professors at QMU this week to see if I can steer my research in this direction, and coauthor (with Dr. Zinser) a dissertation that would make a very important impact in my field! The timing is perfect, as both Britain and the USA (through the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation) have just pledged significant funding towards MDG 4&5.  I have been exploring current publications in this area for a specfic project/topic to gear my efforts towards, and yesterdays phone conversation may well have layed the foundation for this year!  This opportunity is a seemingly perfect collaboration between my academic interests, service with Rotary, and passion to empower women worldwide.  Fingers crossed that I get support from my academic department this upcoming week to pursue this project- I'm incredibly excited about the prospect!

Exciting Possibility!

I've just finished my week of orientation at QMU.  Most of the days were packed with introduction sessions to things like using the library and the student services office, with optional social events at night- mostly geared toward the undergraduate students.  My program, MSc in Sexual and Reproductive Health, is offered through the Institute for International Health and Development.  IIHD is pretty autonomous within Queen Margaret University and part of our orientation was spent in discussion groups presenting relevant topics in our focus area that we will be concentrating on this year.  I am so excited for classes to begin, after learning about the past experiences of the other students in my program. 
As I've been fortunate in having international experiences integrated into my education, I've always considered myself to have a somewhat broader worldview than many people I know.  But it has been very humbling this first week to realize that I know nothing of the world, particularly of the struggles in Africa and the Middle East.  I have recognized after a few of these early class conversations that I have much to learn and need to primarily listen right now.  I want to represent my country well, and serve in the capacity of an ambassador for the USA, sharing my experience of life in North America.  However,  it is difficult for me to represent a view on topics like 'safe abortion' coming from my cultural context, when right now it is seeming so unrelatable to the reproductive health issues in other parts of the world.
I am beginning to think about my service project for Rotary and a focus for my dissertation.  I have been researching Rotary International's initiatives in Maternal and Infant Health and have found a very impressive project.  Rotary clubs from Germany, Austria, and Nigeria have teamed up to form a comprehensive strategy to improve maternal health in Nigeria, with a focus on preventative health education and treatment of obstetric fistula.  Obstetric fistula is a result of prolonged/obstructive labor, often in very young mothers, where the baby cannot pass through the birth canal and the vaginal tissue becomes necrotic and dies, resulting in the development of a fistula (hole).  Women are ousted from society and abandoned by family because of resulting urinary and fecal incontinence.  The success of Rotary's project in Northern Nigerian states of Kano and Kaduna (http://www.maternal-health.org/rotary/project-information-1/index.html) has me so interested in this project/intervention methodology, that I sent emails to every contact person I could find online, and I was ecstatic to receive a message back from the head of the project yesterday! He will be calling me today and I am so excited to find out if there is some avenue that I can become involved in this project.  I will blog again after our conversation today...

High on Life!

Sometimes, you have an experience that is impossible to put into words and that would be the case with the past 4 days.  Caitlin and I made two stops in Inverness and Fort Williams, both really cool towns full of great culture and activities!  But above and beyond were the people we met as we explored these places, and the experiences we shared together.   After arriving in Inverness we found a hostel near the bus station where we met 3 incredible Spaniards just living life to the fullest- an energy and attitude that was contagious!  The owner of the hostel became our go-to guy for great recommendations of neat things to do!  We took a wonderful walk around River Ness which was beautiful.   Inverness was hosting a National Pipers competition, which we got to preview in the street our first night, before stumbling upon a Battle of the Bands and Hootananny’s- a pub famous for their live traditional Scottish music.  We went to the pier, hoping to see the town’s two famous dolphins swim by (they didn’t…but the walk and view was worth it!)  We bussed into town to find that we had arrived at a no-access point, but an ‘unofficial’ hike led us to a beautiful bay of Loch Ness…no Nessie sightings but stunning scenery and a very peaceful, calming place.  Both nights we ate at the same pizzeria with friendly staff and really great pizza!  Day 3 we hopped on our new friends’ itinerary and bussed to Fort Williams where we hiked Ben Nevis- the highest mountain in the United Kingdom!  The first 2.5 hours of the hike were beautiful, unreal weather (10 days of sunshine per year…we got one of them!) and beautiful hills, sheep, and little waterfalls 360 degrees around.  The next 2 hours, we were hiking through a misty cloud up to the top, which was bone chilling wet/cold, but complete with ruins of a castle and a shack where we warmed up and refueled (apparently originally built as an observatory to study the weather patterns at high altitude).  We were so cold we ran down until we started regaining feeling in our hands.  After a good night’s sleep, we took a bus via Glascow back to Edinburgh.  Can’t stop smiling and couldn’t be happier to be in my present situation- surrounded by new, fascinating people in a wonderful country.  (I took no pictures on the trip, but I hope to steal some from my travel mates and post them!)

Last night, I went to the ‘Welcome Ceilidh’ held at QMU as the first event of Fresher’s Week.  I’m happy I went, and in addition to learning the traditional Scottish dance I made my first QMU acquaintances.  I slipped out around 11 to meet my roomies who had found a bar showing American football in the city not far from our apartment (great live music too)!! This was a very exciting discovery…the Steelers performance was not so exciting…

This morning was my first day of induction at QMU!  I was nervous, not knowing if the school/course of study would be as it sounded online (the biggest disadvantage for me studying overseas was not visiting any of the schools before applying/enrolling).  I couldn’t be happier! We are an intimate group of 19, all with very diverse backgrounds and coming from different parts of the world:  a doctor from Pakistan, a pharmacist from Germany, a nurse from Holland, a recent graduate from Canada, a couple from Zimbabwe etc.  Altogether, the 19 students represent 15 different countries!  The 5 professors at the Institute for International Health and Development, where I will be taking all of my classes, seem to be both passionate and knowledgeable.  The teachers are very keen on incorporating our (students) past experiences into the course study, and I am sure we will learn a lot from each other!  Orientation continues tomorrow, and I am SO EXCITED for what lies ahead!!

Scotland bit:  I have done my shopping almost exclusively at second hand stores, very similar to Goodwill in the states.  However, in Edinburgh there are a TON of them…I walk past three on my two minute walk to the bus station!  Each one benefits a different organization (UK Cancer Research, Save the Children etc) and they have everything from clothes to home goods to textbooks.  It’s easier for me to spend money knowing that it is supporting a good cause, and I wish we had more of these orgs in the USA!

 

 

New flat, new adventures!

It has been a busy week!   I moved into my new flat at 1 Rankeillor Street, with flatmates Giulia, Susanna, and Jaime.  Saturday night, our first night together in the new place, we had a phenomenal dinner together!  Good news for my tastebuds, but bad news for my wasteline:  Giulia and Susanna who are from Italy are wonderful cooks!  They made the best lasagna I have ever tasted with a huge salad, Jaime (from Spain) made his famous Sangria and I made my new-and-improved PB pie (none of them were familiar with peanut butter?!) We coined the term ‘Spiterican’ as the fusion of our Spanish, Italian, and American English languages.  I’m shaking off some rust with my conversational Spanish, dormant since Argentina, and working on learning some Italian as well J We rounded off a night of great stories and conversation with a trip to the Liquid Room- an electro bar not far from our place. It was a great night, and I’m sure there will be many more to follow this year!



Arthur's Seat from halfway up!

Sunday was another beautiful, sunny day.  A group of us hiked up Arthur’s seat, the major hill in the center of Holyrood Park.  It yielded gorgeous, panoramic views of the city and we enjoyed a Tesco picnic lunch surrounded by some seriously good scenery.  We walked by the new Scottish parliament building- one of the most unique buildings I have ever seen- before continuing on to Carlton Hill.  Another park, Carlton Hill has lots of history and neat buildings/structures.  There were great views of Arthur’s seat and Salisbury Crag nearby and it was cool to learn about some of Edinburgh’s prominent figures highlighted by monuments.  Sunday afternoon, I trekked 1.5 miles out of city to Leith Links which was hosting a ‘Mela Festival’.  Mela is a celebration of international music and dance.  I was only there for about 2 hours, but was able to see a Qawali band and a Middle Eastern orchestra.  I walked back to the city and caught a bus to Jackie and Ken’s.  Ken and I cycled to Inverleith Park where we had a terrific view of the 45 minute firework display taking place over Edinburgh Castle.   The firework show marked the end of the Festival and a celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  There was an orchestra playing on Prince’s Street (we heard on the radio of the group seated in front of us) and the fireworks were terrifically in sync with the music.  There were so many different colours, and a ‘waterfall of light’ down over the castle that was quite a sight!

Couple on Carlton Hill

I spent most of Monday getting settled in the apartment, rearranging my room and buying the odds-and-ends needed to get situated.  I went for a run in Holyrood Park which has a scenic 5K loop around Arthur’s seat.  We have finally identified the wonderful (my opinion) smell that seems to permeate the entire city…its wort from the numerous breweries!  I’m beginning to associate that smell with my new  home here in Edinburgh.   I saw Brave, the new Pixar film based in Scotland, at Odeon- a nearby theatre..great movie!

Yesterday I went back to Parliament to explore the building. I asked if I could have a look around and was told Parliament was working and that I could sit in their session! It was a very cool experience, a bit hostile and argumentative, but tis the world of politics! Scottish Parliament is young- the building just opened in 2004- and they are currently seeking the best balance for the country of devolution/independence from the United Kingdom.  In the entrance hall, they are currently showcasing the “William Wallace Letters” exposition, so I learned a little bit more about the Braveheart protagonist.  

Scottish Parliament



Scottish Parliament from Salisbury Crag

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night, we welcomed a fourth scholar, Stevie, to Edinburgh.  She has just finished 5 months on the Appalachian trail! We met at Nick’s apartment where ‘Los Cartos’ delivered some delicious Chipotle-like burritos before heading out in New Town for some beers, ciders and newfound ‘Crabbies’- a delicious ginger beer!

After talking it over the past few days, Caitlin and I decided to take advantage of these last couple days without classes by taking a spontaneous bus trip around Scotland.  This morning while cybersquatting in McDonalds, we bought tickets via Megabus to Inverness! I’ll post again upon our return J

Fun Scotland fact:  Ben and Jerrys has a whole set of flavours only available in the UK!! As someone who made it a personal mission in the states to try all 70+ B&J flavours, this was an exciting discovery. There was a scoop shop attached to the Odeon theatre where I sampled “Oh My Apple Pie” and “Vermonster” two ‘British line’ flavours.  DELICIOUS J





View of city from Arthur's Seat