leelawadee

the leelawadee flower (known as rangipani in English) has emerged as a theme from my short six-week stay in thailand. a super fragrant flower, it was previously named lan-tom and not grown domestically because it was associated with temples and its name also reminded Thai people of ra-tom, which means sorrow. H.M. Sirinthorn renamed the flower to leelawadee, and since then its popularity has soared among Thais throughout the country.

my leelawadee experiences have included:

1) Going to Leelawadee spa with Karyn, a good friend from TTAG. There I enjoyed a great foot massage and also a Thai-style facial, which involved some sort of honey scrub.

2) Eating at Leelawadee restaurant with Nan and P'Dong around Ramkhamhaeng - super yummy food, live music, and nice Thai-style decor (refer to previous entry).

3) Receiving a Leelawadee Madam Heng gift set (two bars of soap, one shaped in the form of a leelawadee flower) from my mom's seamstress, who i also visit when i come here. This gift set commemorates the King's 80th year on the throne.

All these Leelawadee experiences happened during different weeks of my stay, but constantly reminded me to appreciate the vast amount of natural beauty in gardens (even within the madness of Bangkok).

nakhon phanom

im wrapping up my time here in Thailand and have had the fortune of going on two work-related visits to Sa Kaeo (near the Thai-Cambodian border) and am currently writing from Nakhon Phanom (near the Thai-Laos border). the visits have been super short (one night, two days max) but useful; i've gotten to tour the labs and find out more information re: the Binax project i'm working on (see previous posts). while touring the lab at Nakhon Phanom provincial hospital today (~350 beds), it occurred to me that i've never toured the lab at UMHS or any US-based hospital. perhaps this is something i'll look into when i'm back on my path/ID elective at Michigan.

Nakhon Phanom is a border town and very chill. after we arrived at the airport around 5:30 pm yesterday, we took an hour-long 'boat cruise' in the Mekong River, complete with karaoke and fried pork balls. it was striking to compare the two riverbanks, with the Thai side being much more developed than the Lao side. from the river, you can see many temples (wats) and also this huge church that runs a school (on the Thai side). the lao side is mostly small huts and also a small fisherie where it seems that fish swim in (but then can't swim out). at the big pier on the lao side, i was notified that there was a Lao Duty-Free store which primarily sells liquor. Thai and Lao people can freely cross the border but can't spend the night (same as Cambodia, and they can only stay in the province bordering the country of origin).

after the cruise, we ate dinner at this pub/restaurant named O-HI-O with live music (basically two dudes with guitars singing cheesy thai songs - common throughout the North, and also Chiang Mai). the local staff we were with were amused that i was actually born in Ohio. across the street, this huge long tent was set up with a stage for a wedding. it appeared as if some sort of talent show was going on, but i was informed that was part of the wedding, which got me to thinking that it would be amusing (albeit somewhat painful) if our weddings were talent shows as well.

after dinner, we got coffee at this cute coffee house and i got a nighttime tour of the 'city' which included a stop at the movie theater (which was closed for the night) - a movie is 40 baht (a little more than a dollar) and there are two screens. although i love bangkok, i could see why it would be appealing to live in the provinces, and appreciate the slower pace of life here.

this afternoon, i'm going to visit a famous temple in the area (wat that phanom) and also Ho Chi Minh's house in this Vietnamese farming community here. who knew that Ho Chi Minh spent years hiding as a farmer underground on the Thai-Laos border while plotting Vietnam's independence from France? apparently, the original wooden hut was eaten by termites, but they've rebuilt it. border history is really fascinating!

ok, off to lunch now. more soon!

working at the ministry

it's a little ironic that the shortest amount i have in thailand is the one where my mentors have given me the most (defined) project and work. due to crazy scheduling issues brought about by my own disorganized life last year, im only here for barely six weeks on the OC Hubert Fellowship, a program sponsored by the CDC Foundation. i am learning a ton and really wish i could stay here way longer! a short run-down of the project:

the project im working on is looking at the utility of Binax testing to detect Strep pneumoniae. S. pneumo. is one of the leading causes of death in children under five (a vaccine is available, but it's expensive for this part of the world) and also affects tons of adults. unfortunately, it's a tricky bug and hard to culture because it likes to autolyse itself after 24 hrs (or less). enter the Binax test, which is an immunochromatographic assay (think pregnancy test, with two lines - one control, one appearing if it's positive) that was created to detect S. pneumo. in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF, or spinal tap fluid) and urine. however, someone came up with the idea to try and use it with the blood they were already getting for blood cultures here as part of a larger pneumonia surveillance study. preliminary results show that the Binax test is really sensitive at detecting S. pneumo. and often will be able to find cases that have negative subcultures. today i'm visiting a provincial lab near the thai-cambodia border and got to tour the hospital and facilities, see how the lab is run, and collect some important information. i also got the chance to speak with some research nurses about hiv/aids, answer their questions, and watch them consent and enroll some patients in this other respiratory pathogen study. it was refreshing to see that they respected patients' wishes to refuse enrollment, although i still find it much more difficult to say no here as a patient (especially if you're hospitalized and don't have a lot of money).

in any case, i really like the office where i'm working as a whole. i have two mentors, an epidemiologist and a physician with an MPH, and they're very supportive and task-oriented, which i find refreshing after previous experiences here. i usually meet with at least one of my mentors everyday or every other day, am learning some basic SPSS skills to analyze data, and feel helpful because i can help bridge the thai-english divide (although most of the staff speak excellent English). the office where i work is housed in the Thai Ministry of Public Health (Thai MOPH) but it's part of the International Emerging Infections Program (IEIP) within the Thai-US CDC collaboration. TUC seems pretty cool to me so far and has made a big difference in these two provinces where the pneumonia surveillance activities are occurring by building lab capacity - the hospital im visiting in Sa Kaeo today just got a PCR machine last month! i'd be interested in seeing how the improvement in diagnostics have impacted clinical care, as the head lab person i talked to today noted that their ability to diagnose a common pathogen like S. pneumo. has increased dramatically (they used to only successfully culture one or two cases a year, and now it's close to 3% of all blood cultures done! i very much appreciate the chance to visit the sites in the provinces and am getting a much better global view of the work that's going on with the Thai-US projects (and hope to be more involved in the future!)

more work updates later. last random fact: did you know S. pneumo. is really prevalent in the Arctic Circle? me neither, but apparently the poster we're preparing is being held in Iceland this year because it's heavily affected by S. pneumo. (and they always pick locations based on where the pathogen they're focusing on is super prevalent). kinda cool, though iceland seems to be a super pricy place to have a meeting!

back in bangkok

after a year filled with ups and downs, i returned to bangkok & thailand. the last time i was here, i was leaving my fogarty site in chiang mai, feeling super nervous (but excited) about returning to clinical medicine as an M5, and looking forward to the match. it seems that things do indeed come full circle as i am in a similar position this time around, although i am only spending six weeks here instead of many months. when i return to the US in a month, i will be an M6, looking forward to my last (real) clinical elective, ER at Henry Ford, and getting ready for the match (again). i feel like this scenario may repeat itself again before i start my intern year, but we'll see.

since my fulbright year, thailand has been a bedrock for me. it was the place where i found a connection to my past, where i became proud of my cultural heritage instead of trying to hide it, and where i experienced a small sense of loss and disappointment that our generation was no longer made up of families with eight or nine siblings (as my parents' was). thailand was also the first place where chris and i really spent time together, where we traveled, where we ate a ton of food. thailand was also the first place where i really started to understand the human effects of poverty, of HIV/AIDS, of the tragedy when people died of preventable illness. thailand made me realize that difficult issues like drug use and commercial sex work and corruption were real and affected real people, people that i knew and respected and loved. thailand made me appreciate lots and lots of shades of gray. thailand made me wonder why it was so physically easy to move back and forth between the Global North and Global South all within a block or a city or from the capital to the provinces or especially to a neighboring country. bangkok reminds me of what it is to have so much and so little, exemplified by a series of thoughts i've had since being back:

1) Bus fare

bus fare has gone up a lot since i started coming to thailand, and another fare hike was recently approved, drawing outrage from the working poor who need to use the bus system to get around. to put it into perspective, the cheapest buses used to cost 3.5 baht for a trip, but now will cost 8.5 baht (up 1 baht from previous fare increases), and because most poor people need to transfer at least two or three times, this seemingly innocuous price increase can easily amount to over 100 baht a month.

the subway and skytrain, both of which i often use, are quite expensive compared to the bus system & don't reach a lot of areas of bangkok. although i often try to take the bus, it is definitely a choice for me and i can easily take a taxi to get where i need to go. for example, i usually take a taxi to work since it's most convenient and it costs me 80 baht for the fare and 50 baht for the tollway (necessary to save about an hr's time sitting in traffic). to put this into perspective, the minimum daily wage in Bangkok (which is the highest in Thailand) is 194 baht a day, or a little over $6.

2) women and children

the friend im staying with works in the field of child protection and we've known each other since our fulbright days. during her fulbright, she helped set up this income generation project in one of the biggest slums in bangkok, klongtoey, and it continues successfully to this day! it's basically a women's group that makes really cool (mostly silver) jewelry (amalee buys all the supplies from jatujak, one of the largest open air markets in Asia, and they work together to identify and make new designs). amalee meets with the group every weekend to collect the pieces that the women have made the previous week, distribute new materials for pieces to be made in the coming week, and pay the women for their work (they can also take out small loans). the women also work on finishing up jewelry pieces it's meant to be supplemental income, and it was cool to meet many of the girls and women who participate (ranging from age 12-13? to 40's). it's also a forum for the women to discuss issues in their lives, which mirror many women the world over must deal with - domestic violence, child care, raising children alone, patience, silence, love.... next week there is a thai craft show where they will go and sell their jewelry. i will post pics and other info later!

3) natural disaster

within days of my arrival both cyclone nargis and the earthquake in beichuan devastated burma and china. if the burmese haven't suffered enough under military junta rule, the (lack of) response to those affected by the cyclone only highlights their plight and the continuing human rights abuses that continue to happen under this regime. to help people that have been working in burma (and also support the free border clinic run in mae sot), please click here.


4) the english expectation

as a native english speaker, i often feel that i become immediately more credible just because of my ability to express myself in a langjuage that i'm comfortable with. in thailand (and much of asia) people often don't want to 'interrupt' or 'cause trouble' by asking questions or saying they don't understand. the first week i started at my internship i wasn't sure what was going on, but we had an epi talk about the roll-out of influenza vaccine to people ages 65 and older throughout thailand and nobody wanted to contribute (even though i'm sure they were far more qualified than me to do so). sometimes i think it's unfair that many meetings aren't conducted in thai...after all, we are in thailand.

there's also a divide in development work and agencies between local hires and those who come to work from elsewhere. my friend has noticed this in the UN and ive also noticed it in various agencies - all admin staff (secretaries, etc) are thai, but there are few professionals that are thai - or even speak it. this leads to a thai-non-thai divide, resentment, and difficulty trying to navigate being thai-american in a western vs thai environment. more thoughts on this later!

ok, im going to try and be better about blogging. next update: work and play in bangkok!

hope and inspiration

ive been fortunate enough to listen, learn, and be inspired from various people the past few weeks. here are a few scattered thoughts about these diverse encounters:

today, chris and i joined thousands of other people in Crisler Arena to hear His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama give the Peter Wege Lecture on sustainability. we got there early and had pretty good seats showing a profile of the Dalai Lama. even though we were all packed in, i immediately got the feeling of compassion - or loving kindness - that i was in the presence of someone at inner peace. the dalai lama was humorous, was humble, and most of all, he was real. i think that's one reason that i've been kept grounded in the faith of my parents, in Buddhism: like the Buddha, all those who provide us with advice or direction are real people, and they embrace their own humanity. some points the Dalai Lama talked about in his lecture (in no particular order) included:

-the gap between the rich and the poor, and how a lot of our (Western) lives are both unsustainable and overindulgent. he noted the paradox that many of us find ourselves in when valuing material happiness over spiritual happiness - although there is a limited amount of happiness to be found in material goods and the physical world, we fixate on having more, or believe that the next thing will bring us happiness. on the other hand, there is unlimited happiness to be found in inner peace, in compassion, and in ourselves. sadly, very few people decide to nurture or focus on their inner happiness, and suffer as a result.

-valuing humanity by realizing that the potential (in terms of compassion, or "warm-heartedness") of all humans is the same due to the ways in which we are brought into and nurtured into life. i think this was a little different perspective on 'human rights' as ive learned it, but was refreshing to think about as a practical approach to looking at human emotions and values.

-the importance of diversity (in religion) of addressing different times, needs, cultures, and places...although all of them do have similar overarching messages, it is important that they all exist because they provide different approaches for the differing needs of the world. the importance of dialogue in recognizing the beauty and strengths of each belief system. collaborating together, building community to achieve a common good.

-the need for non-violent approaches to solve conflict in the increasingly interdependent world. war as an outdated mode of resolving issues. nobody wakes up in the morning saying, "i hope to make an enemy or get in a fight today!" even with the best intentions, unfortunate things still happen. if you believe in karma, how you react to those situations will determine future events - so it is important to take care of the present, to make choices reflecting the positive effects you want to have in your life (and others).

-the need for community (and the need to see community as including even those who don't agree with you). although he didn't say that explicitly, i thought of it when he was talking about dialoguing and exchange between different religions, and how he tries to engage in that exchange whenever he can. one example he gave of was when he went to the UK and was invited to be a part of this seminar where he had to give lectures about different passages from the Gospel (and inserted some Buddhist perspectives). he described the experience as super challenging (but also fulfilling) as he was trying to lead discussions to believers as a non-believer (and that he had to learn and read the passages the night before as "homework"). many Christians at the event appreciated his lectures and later came to India to participate in meditation retreats and Buddhist lectures. this was a pretty cool example, and made me think about how i (or we) so rarely engage those that are not already part of our value system, and how we should maybe try to do that more in either our daily lives or in the work that we do.

going back to the theme of community, i was really honored to be part of a panel that celebrated the opening of this new exhibit at the National Library of Medicine at the NIH titled "Against the Odds: Making A Difference in Global Health." kevin burns nominated me to be in it, and staff interviewed me a couple of months ago to put together a short profile on me for the "ordinary people" part of the exhibit at the end. anyway, to celebrate the opening of the exhibit, there was a panel of people featured in the exhibit speaking to a few hundred local area high school students, which was pretty cool. i was totally inspired (and humbled) to hang out with and listen to speeches by Dr. H. Jack Geiger, one of the founders of community health centers in the US and co-founder of Physicians for Human Rights, Dr. Victoria Cargill, Director of Minority Research in the Office of AIDS at NIH, and Jeanne White-Ginder, the mother of the late Ryan White. before the panel, i got to enjoy almost an hour of good one-on-one time with Dr. Geiger, who regaled with me stories of S. Africa during apartheid, cases he got during his oral boards, and why it kicked ass to be an emeritus professor. he also gave me some good career advice and was just really honest and down-to-earth.

Dr. Victoria Cargill talked about running a health clinic out of her beat-up car, getting hepatitis as a resident from a needlestick and the inhumane ways she was treated by her own fellow residents, and how she never takes "no" for an answer (fave quote - when somebody says "no" i flip it in my head to "on".... BRING it ON!) Jeanne White-Ginder talked about how ordinary people can be called to do extraordinary things, and how she just tried to be the best mom she could be - before, during, and after Ryan's life. all of it was really super amazing. if you want to see the podcast of the panel, you can check it out here. Also, the interactive online exhibit can be found here. Shout-out to Hanni Stoklosa, who is also featured in a video interview in the exhibit and also online. it is really an honor to be part of a community and a movement that includes really amazing inidviduals like Ryan White and activists from ACT-UP. it is important to remember where we came from, as activists, and as people. sometimes it's hard for me to keep that perspective because i'm always used to looking forward to the future, to the next action, to what we have to do to try and make the world a better place. i realize that i don't think often enough about the past, about lessons learned, about the people who came before us, about their struggles and their strength. watching the interviews with ryan white and seeing his mom speak then, and now, i was pretty overcome by the maturity and the wisdom and the courage a young person like he could summon. it was the same kind of inspiration i felt as a young person reading his autobiography. wow, i thought - i haven't thought about this in a long time, and it feels good to have that connection again, to revisit one's past and connect it with one's future. i was thankful to be given the opportunity to make that connection, and i feel like that's what i hope to do through my writing, for myself, for whoever reads this - make connections between the past and the present, and the present and the future....

lately, for me, ive been thinking a lot about connections, about community, about how my experience fits into the larger human experience as a whole. there was a pretty cool talk by faith fitzgerald titled 'what is a human?' at the global health education consortium conference (follow the link for more of a synopsis on some of the events) in sacramento that touched on parts of humanity, and connections i had with both friends and colleagues there made me really happy - and hopeful - about the future. i spent good quality time with rohan, who gave voice to many commuter night children in uganda, heidi, a ghli'er who recently married a co-worker from cameroon, jen cohn, who is going to lead an awesome global health residency in medicine at penn, and dan, who wrote a kick-ass script for the pepfar call-in i added to the end of my presentation on the global health workforce crisis and bought me a drink at one of his favorite dive bars in his hometown. finally, i also shared fuzzy fleeces (& yummy ethiopian food) with hanni, amsa-ifmsa co-chair. it was good to make those connections and it was good to bring some action and advocacy to a venue which traditionally hasn't been organized in that way. i was approached by more than a few people (academics! physicians!) who said they hadn't done a call-in before, and it was so easy, and they would totally do it again. this was kinda sad, because these people have so much power, but then also kinda exciting, because they realized how easy it was to use that power to make a difference. i hope there will be more organizing and advocacy at ghec in the future, and am looking forward to more student involvement and direction as we move forward.

finally, i just want to say that i feel so blessed (in so many ways) to have a community that continues to inspire me. whether that's through an activist speech making students think about systematic change at a community service awards ceremony (yay rishi!) or posting an inspiring, amazing blog (yay cj!) or helping me connect to a memory of the past (multiple people, multiple ways- more on this later!), i never imagined as an awkward, gangly, angsty teen that i would be surrounded by so much love and hope. besides world peace and access to health care, education, housing, and food for all, im not sure there's much more i could ask for ;)

soros

so, during the madness of the end of 2007, i threw together a soros application and was super excited to get a phone call at the end of december saying that i had gotten an interview. i ended up going through the interview process a few weeks ago in LA, and got my rejection letter from them yesterday. the letter opened with, "i wish this letter could bring you good news. it does not." ouch. luckily, i had kinda been expecting it because their webmaster had put up four names for 2008 winners that was later taken down. however, i figured that because i hadn't heard and winners were already posted, i probably wasn't one of them.

the soros fellowship for new americans is a pretty cool scholarship - they pay half your tuition for grad school and then give you a stipend for 2 years. i was able to apply since im doing the MPP now and it's my first year. it was a super intense application, and i really am thankful to everyone who helped me put it together, including all my friends who read drafts and commented on it, my recommenders, and of course, my IT-savvy husband chris, who used 'Snag It' to make exhibit upon exhibit. although it was the hardest application i've ever done, i don't regret doing it, and helped me put things into perspective around the same time i was applying to the Ford School.

each finalist had two 30 minute interviews with panels of five people at each interview. the panels were made up of previous soros fellowship winners, some people from the foundation, and other New Americans. i thought my second interview went much better than my first, but who knows, really. some interesting things i gleaned from my interviews was that "AMSA is really radical" (answer in my head: what's radical about wanting people to have health care?) and "Don't pharmaceutical companies need to be compensated for all the R&D they do?" overall, the conversation was mostly enjoyable, but i was afraid after the first interview that i didn't articulate myself well enough, and maybe revealed things that caused them not to really like me in the end (like failing step 2). however, i was really proud of some of my answers, including one of the final questions in one of my interviews, which was "What do you want to be known for when you die?" My answer - and I didn't even really have to think about it - was

"I think it would be awesome to implement a policy that would radically change poor people's access to essential medicines, or find a cure for HIV/AIDS..but what I really want to be known for is that regardless of what I accomplished in my career, I remained grounded in the community, and represented their wants, needs, hopes, and dreams accurately. From my work so far, I don't want to be the person who just comes in and tells people how they need to live their lives, or what their interests need to be. If, when I die, the marginalized people I have worked with respect who I am, what I did, and saw me standing in solidarity with them - then that is the accomplishment I would be most proud of."

i got the feeling that some people thought that was a copout, but i really meant it. i'm not sure how the soros values community work (or other grand fellowships for that matter), but it sometimes seems that academia and other institutions don't place as much value on it as 'traditional' work, like how many papers you've published in peer-reviewed journals, or whatever. in some ways, my 'years off' in thailand haven't been successful in that measure, but on the flip side, i'm proud that i had the gumption to go out and seek community work with commercial sex workers, or iv drug users, or just women who needed to get an abortion in a place where abortion wasn't legal. beyond that, the lasting friendships i've made and the maturity i've gained from recognizing that it doesn't matter how old you are or what the social hierarchy or whatever - you can still help others (and mentor them!) in so many ways....that work has been the most important to me. it's made me who i am as a person, and who i hope to become.

in the end, i have to say that i was super disappointed not to win. i'm also kinda kicking myself for not applying for the FLAS (Foreign Language Area Studies) grant, which is less competitive and just for University of Michigan grad students. At the time, i didn't have my stuff together and wasn't sure if i would be able to commit to taking Thai for the whole year. it's ok though, life goes on. and i have to say, i super love my life overall. going through this process has really made me appreciate my family and friends (and googlechat). just like i said in my answer to what i want to be known for when i die, im really honored to be respected and loved and (maybe even looked up to) by all my friends - all of whom inspire me as well.

my friend sarah and i were talking about her rank list the other day, and about soros, and about academic elitism and how that impacts our lives and our choices. i am proud of myself for making the choice to stay at michigan and i am proud of my friends who make the choice to do what is best for them (in their lives) over what would generally be seen as "the best" by society, or your family, or your department chair, or whoever.

finally, i am so grateful for all the love and positive feedback i've been given over the past few weeks. this is from anjali last night: "whatever rhodes scholar. whatever robert wood johnson clinical scholars. whatever whatever. seriously. you're the shit and you've gotta keep believing in yourself. half the people who do these scholar things are really doing it for themselves and don't have a bigger vision in mind you're going to go SO far, and be respected by the people." sometimes i worry about how much of it i am doing for myself, and recognizing that even though that is a part of it (and that's ok), i definitely do not do the work that i do just to be congratulated on by someone else. i do it because i care, because im a woman of color, because life isn't fair, and because i have so much privilege it would be ridiculous and almost criminal not to do the work when people half as privileged as i am are fighting and struggling every single day.

thanks to all of you who do the work that you do. i am honored to be part of the movement.

back at it

hi everyone! i know i haven't written in forever, but im trying to get back on the blogging bandwagon. life (as always) has been crazy, and i've had my share of ups and downs over the past few months. a quick update of what i've been up to:

1) Starting my MPP (Master in Public Policy) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at U of M. This semester has totally flown by already and I'm about halfway through the Winter term. Going back to my nerdy Swarthmore ways, I decided to max out my credit limit and take six classes (a regular full-time load is four). If any of you are wondering, my classes include:

Statistics
Public Management (The Politics of Bureaucracy)
Political Environment of Policymaking (focusing on science/technology policy)
Research Seminar on Science, Technology, and Public Policy
Health Care Reform (taught by Matt Davis, my advisor (also MD/MPP) and
Health Economics and Public Policy

I've been enjoying myself so far and keeping myself busy writing papers ranging in topics from why the CIA and FBI counterterrorism efforts failed before 9/11 & how their cultures reflect failures in public management (national intelligence is really siloed and interesting, actually) to an economic policy review of President Bush's proposed tax code reform to take away the favorable tax treatment of employer-based insurance and instead give all insured people standard tax deductions. Besides the academic part of it, I've started to make some friends who are also in my policy school classes. The fun thing about it is a lot of people are doing dual degrees in the policy school, so there's students from all different departments participating in discussions and things.

The Ford School admin overall has been super nice and supportive as well. I've been surprised at the lack of political advocacy that goes on in the student body (although I may be out of touch with what goes on after class). Being so heavily involved with AMSA and trying to include advocacy and activism in my daily life, I am kinda shocked that most people in policy school seem to be like most people in med school (although the policy people are more liberal overall). What I mean by that comment is that I feel that most people aren't making calls to their legislators, or paying attention to action alerts, or coordinating call-ins. To my knowledge, there has been no political action at the Ford School this semester and the student groups overall don't seem very politicized, but I do admit to having a limited knowledge of what is going on. If anyone wants to share other knowledge with me, I'm totally all about it. I also might try to shake things up once I get more situated ;)

2) AMSA

My life would not be complete without mentioning AMSA, of course. In the past few months, I've spoken at the first-ever premed Global Health Leadership Institute (amazing job organizing Courtney!), helped get together folks to lobby around PEPFAR (the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) reauthorization, and participated in the first-round interviews for the new AMSA Executive Director/ CEO (who was just named yesterday - yay!). I've been inspired by my colleagues, energized about the work, and happy to be a part of the movement. Some highlights of being down in Reston include:

-Thai dinner with Dr. Bill Kessler, former AMSA pres who formerly worked for the CDC and now is at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services in New England. We had a good chat about Thai food in general, my career, and how CMS and others decide what measures to focus on in pay-for-performance schemes. It was also great to be on an interview panel with some former AMSA presidents (who now serve on the AMSA Foundation Board) and see how they interviewed candidates and what they picked up (and didn't) in our group interviews.

-Watching the Super Bowl with Paige, Josh, Dawn (intern from Penn State and Sural's classmate), Adrian, and another intern (doh, I forgot her name). Yay Giants!

-Minerva (best Indian food ever!) with Dan Murphy

-Waking up at 3 AM to see drunk Paul Davis and Kaytee outside my door getting ready for Premed GHLI lobby day on PEPFAR reauthorization!

-Meeting new people and getting pumped about the future of AMSA!

3) 2008 New Year's Resolutions

So back in December, I was feeling kinda down about myself and about studying in general. I was unhappy about the 40+ pounds I've put on in the past three years, and I wanted to do something about it. I also realized that it was going to be tough to make major lifestyle changes if Chris wasn't on board....so I basically dragged him along with me and signed us up for a 16-week package at Fitness Together (FT) , this personal trainer place that's about a 2 minute walk from our house. Although he wasn't so gungho about it, he knew I was really unhappy and made the commitment with me to lose weight, get in shape, and stop eating such a crappy diet (we basically ate out everyday for dinner, and sometimes for lunch as well). Although this has been one of my New Year's resolutions before, I really wanted to keep it this time, and throwing down a bunch of $$ and making appointments/commitments seemed like it would get our butts in gear. You know what? It totally has!!

Basically, since Jan 2nd, we've been going to FT three times a week for 45-minute strength training sessions with personal trainers (aka getting our asses kicked). The first couple times were really painful, but it's been getting a lot better and both Chris and I have gotten a lot stronger even in the past six weeks. In addition to the strength training sessions, we're responsible for doing cardio at least three times a week. We bought a treadmill and have been running since mid-January (I totally prefer the elliptical, but running is the best!)

We've also been keeping these "accountability food journals" where we write what we eat everyday and then have our trainers review it once a week. We've been using a lot of recipes from the Eating for Life book and follow a diet where we eat every 2-3 hrs (so 5-6 times a day) and make sure every meal we eat contains a carb and a protein. The point of it is to maintain blood sugar levels throughout the day so you don't go starving yourself and then totally overeating when you get super hungry. We keep the diet six days a week and then get a "free day" where we can eat whatever we want. So far, it's been going really well, and Chris & I spend a lot of our time cooking together instead of going out. We also feel really good about ourselves and it's fun to keep each other in check! I am totally proud of Chris for *finally* cutting pop out of his diet as well.

4) Getting on good terms with the in-laws

Yay! Even without taking any classes on negotiation and/or conflict resolution, I was successfully able to negotiate a weeklong 'vacation' with my in-laws in LA. Bonding activities included playing with my niece Melanie (im actually not that bad with kids!), eating lots of Chinese food in Monterey Park, and spending a weekend in Las Vegas at the Wynn Hotel with Chris's parents. While in LA, I also got to visit AMSA friends & previous JRF's Anjali Taneja & Casey Kirkhart, drink lots of bubble tea at Lollicup, go shopping with Chris, and actually have LA grow a little bit on me. Perhaps the West Coast may be in our future...