things that piss me off

Lunch yesterday

I had lunch with a few other interns yesterday. Two of the interns went to Princeton for undergrad, one went to Dartmouth, and I'm sure anyone who's reading this knows I'm a Swattie. Part of the conversation centered around the eating clubs at Princeton, which I didn't really know about before, but now, thanks to this conversation and an informative IM session with Bryan (where he read the wikipedia entry on it), I do.

From my understanding, you apply or join an eating club and that's where you eat. I asked about eating at other clubs, but you can apparently only do that if you switch with someone in that eating club. Sounds like a fraternity or some weird exclusive thing to me. The two Princeton people at my table tried to guess which eating club the other one was in (turns out they were in the same one, but they're different ages so didn't know each other before), talked about other people in their eating clubs, and explained to me that it's super difficult to have a social life without being in an eating club. Also, people who aren't in eating clubs are 'independent'. I noted that Swarthmore had one cafeteria to promote equality and socializing. There was an awkward silence and then they ignored me after that. The conversation continued with the 'name the famous people in your class' game. For some reason, I was totally unimpressed.

After lunch, one of the Princeton people talked about how her little brother went to Duke and was a frat boy and how she was totally not like that. Um, exclusive eating club?

I love Swarthmore and rave about it often but I don't feel the need to prove anything to anyone. At that table, all of us went to elite colleges, and we all knew it, and I had no understanding of why we needed to rehash about how hard school was or how elite we were or whatever. This experience made me not want to eat lunch with other people anymore.

After dinner drinks

The program I'm on organized another happy hour at Les 5 Portes for people to meet up. There were a lot of Global Health Fellows there this time and I met some new people, including some new med students, which was nice. While I was there, I saw a cute Asian dude with good style outside on the terrace and thought, he must be American. Later, I noticed my friend T. join him and waved at him through the window. Because of the glare, T. gave me a half wave and then looked away. I was slightly embarassed because I thought he might not remember me or not want to say hi, but remedied the situation when I walked outside and said hi to him and he invited me to sit down. His friend was American (and a Midwesterner to boot!) . We had an interesting conversation about intellectual property related things, Thailand, intense college tours in the states, high school students paying to go on crazy volunteerism tours, being an expat, my brother's crazy Watson fellowship, and more.

Later, I walked home with T. He relayed to me a conversation he had with another intern on my program, as a bunch of us were freezing our butts off at the lake after happy hour.

T (sarcastically): "So, (intern name here), have you eradicated polio since we last talked a few weeks ago?"

Intern: (in all seriousness) "Actually, yes, four or five countries have fallen off the map (meaning polio was eradicated there). We're going to eradicate polio in the next two or three years, and I would like to stay in Geneva to see it…."

T (tries very hard not to laugh).

Intern continues to tell T about the WHO and his or her (why doesn't English have a neutral gender term for people?) life plan. T has worked at the WHO before and feels sorry that this person is smart but has these grand feelings and believes that s/he is personally responsible for anything that is going on.

I feel old and jaded a little but am 25 and haven't really done so much but at least have somewhat of a clue of what it's like on the ground. I think people respect that a lot actually. T and I talked about how it's important to take some time off, get some perspective, do your own thing. I'm incredibly grateful to the opportunities I had on my Fulbright and felt like I really made the most of it…I miss my mentors but also those - many of the sex workers and IVDU's (IV drug users) who opened up their lives, and hearts to me, random Thai American med student.

Lunch today

I went to lunch a little late because I wanted to check in with Chris (he just got back from DC, where he attended his grandfather's funeral). Apparently I missed lunch with one of the 'big bosses' at WHO (again, trying to conceal identities here). I actually was supposed to meet him this morning since I'm working in his division but missed the meeting due to a prior commitment. Actually, it wasn't really a prior commitment, but it was the most exciting part of my day, where I had a long conversation with a Brazilian physician who is on the team that's writing the new WHO guidelines on ARV treatment. He basically gave me a personal lecture on the background of access, the new treatment guidelines, and other cool things that I'll talk about later. He also introduced me to this cool Brazilian pharmacist. Anyway, to get back to the theme of things that piss me off, I cut and pasted this googlechat I had with my friend Kim:

Me: I almost got in a fight with another intern (he's Indian) at lunch because he was saying how desi kids who dress in hip hop gear bother him
Kim: why, not everyone has to be a preppy med student type
me: and this other nepali girl, was like, "yeah, my cousins do that, and some of them even get their hair braided, and im like, i dont know you"
and then he was like, "two guys in my bhangra group at yale are like that, they freestyle and breakdance and then dress like all thuggish"
i was like, "What's wrong with that? I used to dress like a punk all the time in high school, not everyone has to be the same. You shouldn’t judge people by the way they dress."
Kim: plus that's kinda racist-y, is he suggesting that hip hop is only for black people?
me: and he was like, well, it's natural to
Kim: and bhangra i suppose is only for indians?
me: judge people if they're not conforming to the norm
and you know, we were raised a certain way
blah blah
Kim: ooh i don't like that at all
me: i was like, yeah, but just because you were raised a certain way doesnt mean it's right
and i waslike my brother dresses in a hip hop style i guess and
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Kim: yeah really, get over yourself, the world would be really boring if everyone who happened to be the same color aspired to dress and dance and talk and eat exactly the same
1:25 PM me: anyway
then they stopped talking to me
Kim: i suppose i'm only supposed to be into country music or something?
that's icky
me: i dont get how ppl are like that and then have grand goals of saving the world. im like, you judge other yale students for dressing in baggy clothing
what the hell
what if your pt comes in with clothes you dont approve of
Kim: well it's like we were talking about how a lot of that 'saving the world' stuff is actually condescending, like people think they have SO much to offer, they're SO much smarter and more together than everyone else
me: sigh
i kinda wanna save some ppl
anyway, i dont know if im being a huge bitch
Kim: no, you're not, he's being immature and self-involved and probably insecure
me: i feel like i get pissed off talking to everyone except you

ok, enough pissiness. im not including an im conversation i had with sural here about a contentious post on the AMSA global health listserv re: calling your house reps to oppose continued funding of abstinence only education, but may touch on that later. However, one funny thing is that there is now drama between the interns and another intern is pissed off at LW (those of you reading this who know her can chuckle to themselves). Apparently, when LW and another intern went down to lunch today, they were approached by our 'big boss' while getting water, who asked if they wanted to have lunch with him. They agreed but then other intern who wasn't included approached LW and was like, "So, when are you going to invite other interns to your special lunch meetings?" and "When are you going to stop putting yourselves in these special situations?" Kinda hilarious in a way. I'm staying out of it though.

Next post, funny moments. Maybe some London related things as well.