what i love about america

Since I’ve been back stateside, I’ve spent some limited time at home and more time in Bethesda, Maryland for Fogarty Ellison ‘orientation,’ which basically consists of me sitting in a very uncomfortable chair in this parlor/library for around seven or eight hours a day listening to various lectures covering topics such as bioethics, hiv/aids, neglected diseases, and clinical research. i don't think the curriculum was well thought out though because it's kinda a mishmash of random things that could be important without a coherent structure. I actually appreciate the time I spent in Geneva a lot more and even though it was crazy and long, the WHO/Duke/HEI weeklong class that I attended during the last weeks of my stay there.

This morning we had an interesting discussion with the foreign fellows (all of us US fellows are paired with other fellows from the countries we’re going to) about the ethics of research in low income or resource poor settings. That was somewhat cool, but a lot of it is not. I was reminded of my conversation at WHO with a Brazilian physician and pharmacist who were instrumental in Brazilian AIDS Program about the Global North/South divide, the fact that people continue to die everyday because they can't access treatment, and the need to get drugs & diagnostics out there NOW with or without 'gold standard' techniques like viral load. I'll write more on this later, because I've thought about this a lot over the past few years that I've been involved in global research/health care.

Anyway, to get back to the title of this blog entry: what I love about America. A short list follows:

1. Tastee Diner (or any diner). Sitting at the counter and talking to the short order cook. The ‘regulars’ at these places.

2. Hamburgers (Thiru, I did have a cheeseburger at Sidetrack Grill my first day back). It was yummy, and it was $5.95.

3. Most people speak English, a language I understand J

4. Being able to drive when I feel like it

5. Really big washers and dryers (compared to Europe) – I did almost all my laundry in one load. Amazing.

6. Big coffees (this is for you, Kim) – most European coffees are tiny (like half the cup, but they are yummy)

7. 24 hr stores like Meijer

8.Everything (or most things) open on Sunday, like the mall!

There might be others, but that’s what I can think of right now. Bethesda is not cool, but I’m staying with my friend Ben (who’s also going to Thailand with me). We often have dinner together and it's been good times meh'g and weh'g, among other things. I've also had a good past few days post-class catching up with friends in DC. One night, I met up with my friend Karlo who went to policy school at Michigan and is now working at the University of Maryland, his alma mater. We were in the Asian American Graduate Student Caucus together and have had lots of good times, including ice cream and/or beer study breaks. Karlo bought me a glass of wine at the Science Club, a bar/restaurant in DC. When he first told me the name of the place while I was talking to him on my cell, I definitely thought I was hearing things. Science Club? It sounds like a high school nerd club. Turned out it wasn’t, but they do have random science paraphernalia around, like microscopes, solar systems, and beakers. Anyway, we had a good time talking about the revolution, interracial dating, marriage, smoking, and the makings of a rock star. I didn’t talk too much to the other policy people who were there because I didn’t feel like I really had anything in common with them and didn’t understand this one guy’s path to becoming a politician…in any case, that isn’t really important. What is important is that I’m happy I saw Karlo and had a glass of wine.

Last night, I went to Raku (this pan-Asian restaurant) with Jay, Davekumar, and Harold (from Harold and Kumar go to Cinque Terre!). He was in town for a world tobacco control conference, and we met up to have an AMSA pow-wow, talk about organizational stuff, and just hang out. Jay and Dave are some of the people I feel closest to from my time in AMSA and when we’re together, it’s like family. We ate a ridiculous amount of tapas/appetizers, including agedashi tofu, calamari, vegetable egg rolls, ginger mussels, and more. Later on in the night, Harold joined us. Harold is an OAT (Old AMSA Type) and was able to offer sage advice on organizational issues. More importantly though, it was interesting to hear about the history of AMSA, the different struggles (and the same ones) med students faced at the time, and of course, random gossip. Interesting topics we talked about included admissions criteria (for medical school or fellowship) & humanity in medicine, mentorship, wikis, strategery, and more.

It is good to feel loved in a place that isn’t home.