Stressful Week In Progress

6/29/11

This week is and will continue to be very rough, as I have several manuscripts to work on in the Department and my special project first draft is due FRIDAY! There just aren’t enough hours in the day. Today is already Wednesday and I still have at least 13 pages of my SP to write. I have a meeting with one of the doctor’s later today to go over the manuscript for the alcoholism study, so I’m hard at work at that.

Last night I was invited to one of the Department’s doctor’s homes. She lives alone in the staff quarters just off campus. A post graduate student also came. She took 2 hours to make a wonderful meal of palak paneer, chapattis, rice with a curd sauce, and a chicken kebab dish. There was also a yummy homemade pudding/spongecake for dessert! We had a good time just talking, relaxing, and watching Spiderman 3. It was such a lovely evening and a nice break from all the work this week.

Not the best quality pictures...but it's all I've got:

Ashwini and Rashmi cooking dinner!

Making chapattis

With Dr. Ashwini (post-graduate student) before dinner

With Dr. Rashmi

Taking tomorrow off from work so I can get a full, solid day of special project work done. I’m staying in Bangalore this weekend to explore the city and see the spots I’ve been meaning to get to—MG Road, Commercial St., and Brigade Rd. That’s all for now!

Munnar Trip 6/24- 6/27

The four of us (Corinne, me, Vanita, and Marissa) in the middle of the spice garden

The trip to Munnar was amazing! It’s my favorite place that I’ve visited in India simply because of the scenery and calmness. The landscapes are breathtaking—I literally was left speechless at times. After about 10 hours on the semi-sleeper bus we had to transfer to a much smaller bus that was capable of climbing the steep hill and navigating the hairpin turns as we weaved our way to Munnar. The last couple of hours of the drive were unforgettable. The first tea plantation we saw out the window left everyone going “ohh..wow!!” and every single person’s camera came out immediately. Munnar is famous for its endless rolling hills of perfectly manicured tea plantations and arranged like a puzzle. Of course it’s rainy season there now, so we dealt with off and on showers, but it really didn’t take away from the experience at all. In fact, I think it added to it. It was so chilly there…somewhere in the mid-60s I would say if I had to guess. I had my sweatshirt/sweater and scarf on the whole time.

After we arrived, the taxi driver picked us up from the bus stand and took us to a restaurant for breakfast. After not eating for the past 16 hours, we were all starving. I had a masala omelet and some idly, which is kind of like a paddy of cooked rice (wet, not dry). Of course, being in Munnar, we had to have tea too, and it did not disappoint! That was the first of MANY cups of tea in Munnar...

After breakfast we went to the resort to check into our bungalow. It was a decent place; two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a patio that backed to the woods, and a full kitchen. Being in the middle of the woods, there was no cell phone signal and the internet sticks wouldn’t work, so we were literally stuck there and had to place a lot of trust in the reception folk that they would bring us our dinner and breakfast and pick us up to go back to the main office. The resort was so peaceful in the middle of the woods (lots of bugs, though!). A couple other issues were there was no heat (and it was freezing, especially at night), and the hot water and gas did not work so we couldn’t take showers or make tea to warm us up. The perpetual dampness in Munnar also meant a damp bed and damp sheets. I just told all the girls to pretend we were camping and that helped keep my spirits high…plus it was only for one night! The place was cute and we got an incredible deal on it because Rohini’s and Steve’s cousin is the managing director, so we really couldn’t complain!

After we checked in, we went to ride elephants!!! My trip to India is complete now that I’ve worn a sari, gone to an Indian wedding, and ridden an elephant. It was a small place tucked away in the woods and luckily it was just 2 to an elephant, so I rode one with Vanita. Fairly cheap at Rs. 200 a person ($4.50), too. The elephant walked super slow down a path in the woods about 200 meters long, then walked back. It was about 10 minutes total but honestly that’s all you need, otherwise it’s a bit boring. It was so cold out that it was nice to sit on a warm elephant J. Such a cool experience!

We also took a drive and went to some scenic viewpoints to take pictures. There were so many gorgeous waterfalls and rolling hills of tea plantations. We went shopping for a bit at a market and also went to a very crowded spice store, where I purchased a few more spices on my list.

List of the spices I purchased in Cochin & Munnar:

- Coriander

- Fennel seed

- Candy-coated fennel seed (it’s the after-dinner mint here)

- Cinnamon

- Vanilla

- Black pepper

- Bay leaves

- Cardamom

- Garam masala

- Tea masala

- Turmeric

- Red chili powder

- Cloves

Big packets (100g) of these spices were anywhere between 30 and 90 rupees a pack, which is about $1-2. Wayyy cheaper (and fresher!) than you can get in the U.S., so I had to load up. I also got a ½ kg of broken leaf tea (B.O.P.) which I believe is just regular black tea. We’ll see when I get home and test it out! The art of making tea is something I’ve become interested while over here, especially with having at least two cups of tea a day. The process of boiling the tea with the water, then adding milk, bringing it to a boil again, adding certain spices, etc. is definitely something I will dabble in upon returning home. Especially with all the delicious spices I bought! Can anyone else think of any other spices I should look for?

After the spices and shopping we headed back to the bungalow and had dinner brought to us (woohoo..room service), which consisted of ghee rice, fried fish, a fish curry, chapattis, and veg korma. Yummy!

Breakfast was brought an hour late on Sunday…something about the kitchen “not being open” on time…eh, it was fine though. After the meal we headed out to some more scenic points and even stopped along the way to catch a glimpse of a wild elephant family walking through the woods! We went to a spice garden where we had a tour and learned about how all the different spices are grown. The driver tried to take us to a flower garden next but we decided against it (something he wasn’t very happy about because he gets commission at each tourist place he takes us to—whatever, it’s our money and our time!). We did a tiny, tiny bit of trekking- only about half an hour but that’s all we had time for. That’s where I took the video I posted to my facebook. I even saw an endanger giant grizzly squirrel!! It was huge, black, and awfully scary..and was darting through the trees. After the trekking I got some delicious ginger tea from a little tea stall at the top of the hill. It took at least 5 minutes for the man to make it and it was so cool just watching him at work.

We went to a lovely restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet called Rapsy Restaurant where we loaded up on lunch/dinner. Vanita and I took a different bus home than Corinne and Marissa because the other girls couldn’t get seats on our bus. The buses left between 4 and 4:30pm, so we had to make lunch last through the evening and night. We ordered tons of food!! Parottas (spun tortilla-like bread), veg korma, chicken chaps (spicy..yum!), lassies, and omelets. This restaurant is known for being tourist/foreigner friendly and there were all sorts of handwritten messages in different languages on the wall. Not to mention, the cashier kept striking up conversation with Corinne in French!

The bus back was lonnnggg..probably felt the longest out of any of the trips I’ve taken so far. This could have been because it was just a seater, not a semi-sleeper or sleeper, and the seats didn’t go back very far. It was impossible to get comfortable and my night consisted of a few 30 minute naps. People kept getting on and off and on and off…it felt like a local bus. We were jarred awake by the driver’s screams of “Madiwala!!!” (our stop) unexpectedly early, at 4:30am. We did not anticipate arriving until at least 6am. Good thing we knew exactly how to walk back to St. John’s after getting off because we were completely bombarded with auto rickshaw drivers asking us where we were going and if we wanted an auto. I had to repeatedly shout “no!” and tell them to leave us alone. It would have been a nightmare to someone who didn’t know what they were doing. Fortunately after having been here 6.5 weeks, they weren’t going to get to me. It was a little creepy walking back..it was only about 10-15 minutes, but we made it back safe. After sneaking in an open gate, walking past a slumped over sleeping guard, then passing another two slumped over sleeping guards about halfway through campus (awesome security), we got back to the Annex around 5-5:30am and could fortunately sleep for a few hours. I’ve never felt so relieved to get back there!

A tea plantation in Munnar.

I took this picture with my iPhone then used the Instagram app to give it this neat filter.

Passion fruit

The backyard of the bungalow we stayed at.

It was so peaceful sit out there and just listen and watch nature.

The spice shop we spent quite a bit of time (and money) in.

So crowded!

Elephant ride with Vanita

On the slow walk...

Me, atop an elephant! He/she was a sweetheart.

Six Weeks Down

6/24/11

Today is six weeks since I arrived in Bangalore. What a whirlwind six weeks! I officially have only two weeks left in the Department. I’m trying to finish up this Alcoholism study manuscript; I need to add to the qualitative data results section and rewrite the discussions and conclusion sections. It shouldn’t take me longer than a few more days. Dr. Avita asked me to meet with her to talk about some data she would like analyzed. The two following days she was not here; she ended up spraining her knee. It’s now Friday and I wouldn’t be surprised if we just waited until next week to discuss the project. Hopefully I have enough time to help her with it.

One of my goals while being here has been to continue my job search for when I get back home. Come August 6^th, I will desperately need a job! Those student loans aren’t going to just disappear. I interviewed back in early May for a clinical trial study coordinator position at a research center near Clearwater and yesterday I received an email from the guy I interviewed with. He said some coordinator positions opened up and asked if I was still interested in working there. I guess this counts as an informal job offer, no? I don’t want to speak too soon. I’m meeting with him as soon as I’m back in town to discuss specifics and learn more about this opportunity. In addition, I had an interview with the company I currently work for a couple weeks ago over Skype. It went well, I think, but it’s just so hard to tell when it’s over the phone and not in person! That’s a huge disadvantage I had going into that interview. The woman I interviewed with told me to get in touch with her when I get back, so we’ll see what happens. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Although the work week was only 4 days long for me (due to my vacation day Monday), it feels like this week dragged on forever. I’ve had a ton of work to do and by the end of the day my eyes burn from staring at the computer screen. After work I usually work on my special project for another few hours. My advisor wants the draft by next Friday..as in, ONE WEEK from today! Next week I’ll have to crack down big time….not looking forward to it, but I’m so close to graduation..just have to stay focused on the prize….

I’m leaving for Munnar tonight with Vanita, Corinne, and Marissa. Munnar is only a 5 hour drive due east of Cochin, where I was last weekend. It’s in the state of Kerala. So excited to go because it’s supposed to be absolutely gorgeous with big rolling fields of green tea plantations. One of Rohini’s and Steve’s cousins has some properties there and is letting us stay in one of the houses. From the website it looks very nice: www.pulimoottilestate.com. We are hiring a driver (car) for the weekend because the place we’re staying is about 10km from the bus stand. We’ll have him the whole weekend so hopefully we’ll do lots of sightseeing. I want to get up to the top of the highest cliff and overlook the plantations! The only problem with the weekend is that we are taking a bus, and it’s only a semi-sleeper on the way there and just a seater on the way back!! It’s a 14 hour journey…sighhhh. I’ll bring my laptop and ipod, as I’m sure I won’t get that much sleep.

Anyway, wish us luck on our journey and I’ll post pictures early next week! TGIF!!!

Cochin Trip (Kerala) 6/18-6/20

Rohini's parents' backyard, overlooking the river

Lounging on the houseboat...

This houseboat is much bigger than the one just the two of us took. They have such cool architecture!

Rohini driving the houseboat!

The houseboat we traveled the backwaters with is in the background

Coconut water, straight from the coconut. Not my favorite, but I had to at least try it!

With some flowers at the Gateway Hotel

This weekend I took a trip to Cochin (also called Kochi). It’s barely a 1.5 hour flight south of Bangalore, and on the west coast. Kochi is in the state of Kerala. I waited at the wrong bus stop for half an hour before moving to the correct bus stop, where I waited an additional hour for the number 7 bus to come. This is the only one that goes to the airport without having to switch buses. It’s nice too, and air conditioned. The flight was on time and Rohini was there to greet me in the airport when I arrived. Rohini is a classmate from USF who is also doing her MPH. She is interning with an insurance company in Cochin and she is from Thodupuzha, about an hour away. Saturday after I arrived we went to lunch at the Grand Hotel then did some window-shopping in Fort Cochin. We saw Jew Town, but the famous 400-year old synagogue was closed. We also went into the Dutch Palace, a famous spot in Cochin with a museum of old artifacts. Afterwards we had coffee and went to a spectacular 4 story sari shop where brides go to buy their bridal saris. Such a cool experience—you sit down in chairs and the women who work there bring you different saris and you tell them what you like and don’t like. They have thousands and thousands. They bring you coffee or tea if you want it…kind of like they bring you drinks at the bridal shops at home. Next we stopped at a gold jewelry store, just to look. That night we went to dinner at the spectacular Gateway Hotel (looked like we were in NYC or something) and returned to Rohini’s very nice furnished, air-conditioned apartment.

Sunday we headed south near Allepy to Kumarakom to take a houseboat tour on the Kerala backwaters. It’s so beautiful there. Really makes you forget the crazy city that is Bangalore. After lunch at a resort we spent 3 hours on the boat, just relaxing, learning about the surroundings, and enjoying coconut water (straight out of the coconut) and a huge meal at the end of the trip. There was fresh cooked fish, omelets, chapatti, pineapple, some kind of curry, and appam (unleavened bread popular in Kerala; you use toddy to make it). We had one of the staff on the boat go out and get us toddy, or this drink you get from the coconut tree. I’ll have to research this more because I didn’t quite understand the process when Rohini was explaining it to me. Anyway, toddy reminds me a bit of yeast. It smells a little like yeast and if you keep it in a water bottle with the top on tight, after ‘some time’ when you untwist the bottle, a ton of air escapes. Strange, right? Have to keep the bottle top on very loosely or else it might explode. The backwaters were soo beautiful… the pictures don’t do it justice! It’s the rainy season right now in Kerala and Rohini told me it’s been pouring all day for weeks. For some reason though, the whole weekend was perfect- all sun and no rain. It did rain a bit Monday though, but the rain is so pretty to look at and we had no plans, so it didn’t ruin anything.

After the backwaters we went to Rohini’s parents’ house in Thodupuzha. They have a beautiful house where Rohini and her two brothers grew up. Her mom fed me, of course, (so nice, but I wasn’t the least bit hungry after all the food on the boat!) and I went to bed early. It was so great to meet Rohini’s two little girls! They’re 4 and 5, and very cute. I can’t explain how hospitable everyone here is. Rohini and her family took such amazing care of me! It really makes you think about how many wonderful people there are in the world. On Monday Rohini’s mother drove us around town and showed us some of the sights including this very old foot bridge that crosses over the river that backs to their house. It’s very rickety and shaky…kind of scary if more than one person is walking on it and it’s bouncing all around. We also saw the rubber trees and I learned that they are one of the main things grown there. I got a little lesson in how the rubber is harvested from the trees. The trees aren’t ready to be tapped until they are about 7 years old and they have to be drained of the milk every day. Afterwards, we stopped at Rohini’s grandmother’s cousins house, where we were fed payasum (vermicelli noodles in milk with sugar and raisins..so good!). Next, we went to her grandmother’s house and had fresh passion fruit juice, fresh pineapple, beef cutlets and fish cutlets. As if that wasn’t enough, Rohini’s mother fed us chicken biryani, mango, and cake for lunch! I can’t eat for three days. Everything was so good though and it was neat to get some Keralan food as it’s a little bit different than Bangalorean food.

I got back to Bangalore Monday evening and worked on my special project all evening. My short work week will start Tuesday! This coming Friday night, Vanita, Corinne, Marissa and I leave for a weekend trip to Munnar, which is also in Kerala. I think I plan on staying the following weekend in Bangalore and spending the last in Pondicherry (east coast former French colony). These last three weeks in India will be so short!

Fifth Week

6/18/11

My fifth week passed by just as quickly as the past four, if not faster. It seems there are never enough hours in the day (seems this is a problem all over the world…what else is new?). I work all day in the Department on my internship projects and when I get a break, download articles to use for my special project. When I get done for the day in the office I go back to my room or, more often, to a local coffee shop to work on my special project (the proposal I submitted for it last week got rave reviews by my epidemiology advisor…yippee!). My favorite coffee shop is fast becoming my least favorite because their free wi-fi has not been working now for a while and probably won’t be fixed for “some time.”

I must explain about “some time.” You see, it’s an expression Indians use when they really have zero idea of when something will happen. So I asked when a bus will come and the response will be “some time,” or I ask when the wifi will be fixed…the response is, you guessed it, “some time.” At first it seriously annoyed the hell of out of me, but now I can see why they say it and I think I’ll adopt it because it really helps to say it when you have no idea but don’t want to look entirely stupid. Truthfully, everything happens in “some time” but I was asking WHEN(!), which calls for specifics here, people! Now I just laugh when people say “some time.” Yes, I think I’ll start using it.

The next two weeks are crunch time- I’ve got to finish 3 manuscripts in the Department and also do some data analysis for my supervisor. In addition to the internship, my special project is DUE July 1^st..as in, less than two weeks. This is going to suck. I’m going to stick to a motto though- ‘work hard and you are allowed to be rewarded. But no hard work, no reward!’ So funny how before coming to India I was so worried about having zero social life and nothing to do, no way to pass the time, and afraid of the food. Now all I do is eat and make plans with friends (aside from work and studies). I never have a spare moment to myself. It’s the total opposite of how I thought this trip would go. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so thankful for all the great people I’ve met and all the cool things I’ve gotten to do. It has certainly been an unforgettable time.

Aside from work in the Department this week, I was lucky enough to get out of the building and go to Mugalur again. That place is really growing on me. Friday (6/17) was the Unit of Hope clinic, which is a rehabilitation clinic for kids. One of the pediatricians and one of the post-grad students plus an occupational therapy student and I made the trip out in the morning and arrived just in time for tea (shocking). The clinic was cool- got to see a kid with Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy and watched him fail the tell-tale test for diagnosing Duchenne’s. We had him sit on the floor and get up. He had to use both of his hands to get up…not a good sign. Also helped with a minor ‘operation’ if you want to call it that; a little boy about 8 years old came in with some glass lodged between his toes. Poor thing…he was laying on the table while the doc was using some forceps-looking-thing to pick out the glass and cut of the dead skin, and he started crying and freaking out a bit. Little guy was brave though. I just stroked his hair and tried to keep him calm while still trying to watch the doc fix him up. You know what else is growing on me? Medicine. Who knows…maybe I’ll study for the MCAT and give it a shot someday. An MPH and MD could be a cool combination.

This little guy wanted to stand next to me and wait for the bus, too

The tailor at the silk shop writing down all my specifications for the 3 kurtas I am having made. The red material is for my mom, the green for my aunt, and the bluish/green/gray color underneath the green is for me

Flower market in Bangalore

One more story I just have to tell:

After Domino’s pizza for dinner and a few Corona Lights at an awesome lounge/club with some friends, we headed back to the campus around 11:30p to go to bed. When we arrived at the gate we found the other girls also staying in the Annex and they informed us that the guard would not open the gate for us without an ID badge, which none of us had. The head sister that runs the annex had to be called and she came out to the gate to vouch that we lived there so the guard would let us in. She was pissed too, and informed us that the rules clearly state the campus and annex are locked at 11pm every night; no entry permitted after. Now I don’t know if this was a good idea or not, but I promptly told her that there have been several nights I’ve been back past midnight or 1am and been let in with no problem. Eh, whatever, she already has a low opinion of me since I am Western, so I gave up a while ago trying to win her respect. She didn’t look happy and also didn’t believe me. She again mentioned the rules, to which I told her there is no rule sheet in my room and I don’t know what in the world she’s talking about. Then, if you believe this, she told me it was my responsibility to ask for the rules. I said, “in my country we don’t have rules for people in hotels. You pay your money, you stay, you pretty much do what you want. You can leave and come back whenever. I think that’s a cultural difference you didn’t realize and I would have no idea that I’m supposed to ‘ask for rules.’” She agreed about the cultural difference. Seriously though, so, so, so ridiculous. I have been extremely open and tolerant up until this point about everything in India. After all, who am I to come into another country and say they are wrong? But I just thought this incident took things a little too far. A curfew? Really? It’s just ridiculous….I am an adult and I paid my good money (and a lot of it, too) to come and go as I please, not to be told by some crazy nun that I’m “breaking the rules.” You’ve got to be kidding me. I haven’t had a lecture like that since the 10^th grade. Somehow, I seriously doubt that if a students' parents were staying at the annex and came back after 11pm that they'd be given a lecture and told to refer to the rules. Sorry to rant, but I just had to.

Sari Madness!

This is the Sari Andre (my coworker) wore for her nursing school graduation. So beautiful!

This is the South Indian style of draping it.

So much fabric! Aside from the gold blouse underneath, the sari is just one long piece of fabric.

The sari measures at least 5.5 meters (6 yards) of fabric (= 18 feet long!)

The traditional North Indian style of draping a sari

Love the colors!

A traditional sari from Assam (northeast region of India), where Andre's husband is from

Some Weekend Pics

Lalbagh Botanical Gardens

Australian tree at the gardens

Andre with her husband and the huge 100% home-cooked meal!

Mmmm so much food!

Eventful Weekend in Bangalore

Snapshot from the wedding.

Bride and groom are in the middle with the garland around their necks. Next to me is Andre, my coworker, and her husband is beside her

6/12/11

It is Sunday evening and I’m thinking “what happened to my weekend?” I was so busy with so many wonderful things; I hardly know where to start.

Saturday I went into work for a few hours in the morning and then in the afternoon went to Sukh Sagar (which has become one of my favorite restaurants) for lunch. I went to Cuppa by myself afterwards to get some quality work done on my special project. It was such a cute little coffee shop with a few tables outside under an awning. Thank goodness I sat under the awning because just as I was about to leave, there was a downpour and I had to wait to head back to the annex.

Saturday night I got to go to a real Indian wedding! I was really hoping I would get to attend one while in India. I went with a woman I work with, Andre, her husband and her neighbor. It was her neighbor on the first floor off her apartment building’s wedding. The couple that got married is Hindu. Interestingly enough……..they are also first cousins. Draw your own judgments because I don’t want to go into that conversation. The wedding really wasn’t what I expected. There were maybe 500-1,000 people sitting in stackable plastic chairs (these chairs are a favorite in India, no matter where you go) looking at a stage where the bride and groom stood posing for pictures. There were very bright fluorescent lights and little decoration except for the backdrop on the stage. People don’t really even dress up for weddings, it seems. There was also one large television on each side of the stage and a videographer walking around broadcasting live video of the event onto the TVs. Everyone forms a line and goes up to wish the couple congratulations, and there is also a meal afterwards. Because there are so many people to feed, people are fed in batches. After lots of staring and some great pics with the bride and groom, we were escorted outside the building, around the back, and into a secret entrance where we skipped the whole line of people waiting to eat and were seated right away! The meal was served on a plantain leaf. Many servers came around with big buckets of food and ladled endless amounts onto the leaf. As soon as you get close to finishing something, they’re back again with more. I even got a coconut to take home as a party favor! Once you are finished with your meal, you grab the side of the leaf furthest away from you and fold the leaf towards you, to signify happiness. If we were at a funeral, we would fold the leaf the opposite way to convey sadness.

We were only there for about an hour and a half, so I don’t know what all that business about Indian weddings taking days is about. I’m sure in some cultures and religions this is true, but not the one I went to. The reception started at 7:30 that evening and probably ended around 10:30. The ceremony, oddly enough, was the following day and Andre told me that will be 2-3 hours. I did not attend the ceremony as I had other plans the following morning.

Sunday

After a bloody encounter with a huge black ant that bit my toe, I went to Bangalore’s Lalbagh Botanical Gardens with Vanita, Corinne, and Marissa. Marissa is a new girl that just arrived here from Harvard. She’s a very sweet girl, and also very young- she is just entering her sophomore year of college next year! The poor girl never wanted to come to India but got suckered into doing a research project here last minute. She’s never been out of the country before. The gardens were very pretty and we wandered around for a couple of hours taking pictures and soaking in this little bit of nature that Bangalore offers.

After the gardens we wanted to try Mavali Tiffins Room (MTR) restaurant, as we have all heard great things about this historic place. We got there about ten minutes before it opened and were shown a side door to enter, where we stood only about 10 back in line waiting for the cashier to starting ringing people up at 12:30. By the time it was 12:30, there was a huge line behind us and many people standing around. Now that’s how you know it’s a great restaurant! There is only one thing offered at lunch, and it’s some sort of all inclusive meal. After you pay you go upstairs and sit down, and the many waiters start bringing around endless amounts of food. All different curries, basmati rice, white rice, unlimited puris, salad, a sweet dessert type creamy, soupy dish, a fried slice of capsicum (green pepper), and even ice cream. Of course as soon as you are running low on a bit of food they come around with another heap for you. I learned a word at the Indian wedding the previous night that I think will serve me well here- I think it sounds like “sulpa” and means “less” or “little bit” in Kannada, which is the native language here. I used it today at MTR and the staff was pleasantly impressed with my Kannada (as were the other girls I was eating with!)!!

This past week Andre and I got to talking at work and I told her how much I enjoy Indian cuisine and trying all different foods. She graciously invited me to her house for lunch on Sunday to meet her husband and have a home-cooked lunch. I went over around 1pm and didn’t leave until 5! They fed me an amazing lunch, which we ate sitting on the floor (loved it!). Afterwards Andre dressed me up in two different types of saris, gave me a mango and a cucumber to take home, gave me 4 books to read by an Indian author (Chetan Bhatan) and showed me pictures of her from recently as well as her childhood.

Andre’s husband works as an accountant and all of his clients are Americans, namely in Connecticut. (Side note: He is so funny- he told me that he read in a book one time that now in the U.S. instead of mothers telling their children “eat your food, there are children starving in Africa,” they now tell their children “study hard, or an Indian will get your job!” ) They are both, especially Gogoi (Andre’s husband) extremely fascinated with American culture and learning about other cultures in general, so we did a lot of comparing of our cultures and asking each other questions. It’s so refreshing to see someone so interested in the way other people live their lives. Americans aren’t the only people in the world, you know, and we’re not the center of the world either. I don’t think Americans truly understand this until they travel abroad.

It was so much fun for Andre to dress me up in a sari (also seen it spelled ‘saree’). Aside from the top underneath the fabric, a sari is just a long, long piece of fabric wrapped, tied, and pinned a certain way on the body. She dressed me and did my hair, drew a bindi on my forehead, put me in the sari and then also wrapped it on me in the northern way. Said I looked “damn good”..and she said it twice! Her husband said if I went out and walked the streets I would get 200-250 marriage proposals. They probably took 25 pictures of me and had me pose in different ways and even got out some props!

By the time I left, it was already 5pm. I went to Mr. Beans, my new favorite coffee place nearby. They have free wifi! How did I not discover this until halfway through my trip? They have the most delicious coffees and milkshakes, and a huge menu of drinks to choose from. I really like their cold coffee. I need to go there every day after work to continue work on my special project. I’ve got 40 references now..just need to write up the 30 pages of text!! By July 1^st!

Fourth Week (Already!?)

This past week was busy, as usual. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I worked on research in the Department. Thursday I went to a village about an hour away for a meeting for the PREPARE project. More about that later.

One of the days I worked in the Department, I brought some Easy Mac (microwavable macaroni and cheese…could I be any more American?) to make for lunch (yes, I packed Easy Mac in my luggage). Everyone stops whatever they’re doing and joins together at 1:00pm for lunch either in the classroom or the conference room. It’s a very nice practice, considering a lot people in the U.S. just scarf down their lunch alone at their desk. So everyone sits around, and all the food everyone brought from home for their lunch comes out in containers and everyone passes in around and shares. It’s wonderful because I get to try all sorts of delicious homemade foods. I love it! Sharing food here is the norm, everyone shares whatever they have to eat and is always offering. I get the impression that if you didn’t try at least a little bit, it would be rude. Sharing water is also common. Indians don’t put their mouth to the bottle, they just pour it in. Obviously they’ve been doing this their whole lives so they are good at it, but every time I try, I just spill water all down my shirt and look like an idiot (fail).

Monday night I had a Skype meeting with my epidemiology advisor, Dr. Borenstein. We really needed this meeting to go over the details of my special project, which is a requirement of my graduation. It was quite a stressful conversation as I realized just how much work I have to do in the next few weeks. It’s part of the reason I decided not to go on any trips this coming weekend (6/11-12). The project is very extensive and I’ll have to do some calculations to project incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in China in the next 30 years. I’m just taking things day by day and setting goals for my progress.

My spring 2010 semester at USF I had to take a class called Database Management for Public Health Researchers, and Dr. Rajaram taught the class. I have to say that he had some influence in me wanting to go to India for my field experience. When I started my Master’s program, I knew that in two years I would have to decide where I would want to go for two months, and many places crossed my mind—Australia, Geneva (Switzerland), Costa Rica, and in the back of my mind—India. Since learning about global public health in college, I’ve had this desire to see Asia and more specifically India, which is the second most populous country in the world. From everything I’ve heard, India was so vastly different all across the country (both in geography and people). Considering how short my attention span is, I thought this would be a great fit for me. I distinctly remember googling St. John’s in Dr. Raj’s class and thinking, “wow, this might be a great place for my IFE!” I then approached Dr. Raj after class and told him I was interested in going there, to which he replied, “I am from Bangalore!” He put me in touch with Dr. Wagner in the Dept. of Environmental and Occupational Health, who has a relationship with the faculty here in the Dept. of Community Health at St. John’s, and the rest is history.

As luck would have it, Dr. Rajaram travels extensively to teach classes and happened to be in Bangalore for part of my trip. Tuesday evening I went out to dinner with him! His family’s driver picked me up and we went to the Forum Mall, very close by. There is an awesome restaurant in the mall and it’s got an actual train car inside, with tables and chairs in the car. The restaurant is very fancy for Bangalore and American standards. We got a bottle of Indian merlot (with a twist-off cap of course; India is not very well known for its wine…) and had delicious appetizers of tandoori baby corn and sweet potatoes, and paneer and vegetable kebab. (Side note: tandoori is a type of oven used to cook all sorts of things in—veggies, naan bread, chicken, etc., and paneer is cheese but to me it tastes more like tofu) For dinner we had a palak dish (spinach) and chicken biryani. It was so great to catch up with him and hang out with someone from home so far away from home. I hope to see him again during my trip.

On Thursday I traveled with two doctors from the Department to a small rural village outside of Bangalore. It’s one of the 13 villages that will be participating in the PREPARE cardiovascular disease clinical trial, which is just getting underway. The meeting was to inform the community and village leaders of how the program will work, and to build trust and rapport with the people. We took a taxi and made several stops first (in true Indian fashion), so it took us about 2 hours to get there. The meeting was held in a small pre-school room an lasted about half an hour. Of course after the meeting we had two requests for consultations. Whenever a doctor comes to a small village like that, the people use this opportunity to ask their medical questions. I guess doctors all over the world get this. “Oh, you’re a doctor? What do you think about this pain in my side I’ve been having? What could that be?” Anyway, there was one woman with a thyroid issue and another woman who approached us asking about her daughter, who was mentally retarded. The daughter was about 18 years old. The parents were requesting that she get a hysterectomy for hygiene and safety issues. If she were to be raped and get pregnant, that would be a whole host of problems. The doctors informed her that they need to go to NIMHANS, which is India’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-sciences. There is a special commission there tasked with examining cases of women just like this, who are mentally handicapped and the families want hysterectomies. They would first need to get approval there. I never thought about this issue..how do we handle it in the U.S.? If a mentally handicapped woman’s family wanted her to get a hysterectomy, would that be allowed to happen? There are such huge ethical questions surrounding the issue.

Here are some pictures from the village meeting:

Village meeting for the PREPARE project
Note the little kids lined up against the wall on the right; This room is used as a preschool

Little preschooler :)

For every one of the 13 villages in the study, a village map has to be drawn up so anyone is able to find the correct study participant's house. Sorry, no google maps for this place.

Thursday night was Katinka’s birthday! About 15 of us went to Rendez Vous, a bar/restaurant that has grown to be one of our favorites. Some of the guys surprised Katinka with a chocolate fudge cake, her favorite. It was such a nice evening and I’m glad Katinka could have a great birthday celebration while abroad.

Friday I turned in my 20 page long mid-point IFE report to Dr. Wagner, my IFE advisor back at USF. It’s pretty dry but if any of you are interested in reading it….just let me know. We also had a mid-point Skype meeting with my supervisor here, Dr. Avita. It went very well and I think he’s pleased with my progress thus far. It’s nice to have gotten that out of the way!

Janine and Katinka left Friday night to go back to Germany. It was bittersweet—sad because they have become good friends to me and happy because they finally get to go home. I think they had some great times in India but were getting increasingly annoyed with all the ridiculous rules, so I think they will be somewhat happy to get home. I imagine there will be some reverse culture shock when they reach Germany. Things are just so, so different in the Western world. They were kind enough to donate lots of items to me as they packed up- an electric hot water heater (I can make tea and coffee all the time now!), a bunch of maps, bowls, plates, cutting board, hangers, soaps, food, etc. I’m sure when I leave in a month, I’ll pass these items onto others. Such a great little system here J After a fun dinner and some farewell drinks at Legends of Rock, we waved goodbye as their cab drove off. Whatever will I do without them!?! With my new friends Vanita and Corinne (new French girl!), I think I’ll be OK. I’m sure others will come too.

This morning, Saturday morning, I decided to come into the Department for a few hours to get some quality free internet time. I need to download some articles for my special project. I just got to talking to one of the women in my office, Andre, and she invited me to go to wedding reception with her tonight. I GET TO GO TO AN INDIAN WEDDING!!!!! This is very exciting news. There’s 3 things I think of when I think of traveling to India: going to the Taj Mahal, going to to an ashram, and going to an Indian wedding. Since the Taj is extremely far away and most likely out of the question, and I don’t think I have the patience for an ashram, I am so happy to be going to the wedding and crossing one thing off my list of Indian to-dos. No idea what I’ll wear yet though, but Andre (roll your R when you say her name!) has assured not to care what I wear, that people will be so excited to see a foreigner that they won’t care what I wear (hah!). Can’t wait to go and don’t worry- I’ll post lots of pictures!

Sunday I plan to go with Vanita and Corinne to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens and then get something to eat at MTR, a famous Bangalorean restaurant everyone assures us we must trust. Afterwards, Andre has invited me to her home to have a home-cooked lunch with her and to meet her husband. She is so sweet; she told me she’s very excited to be receiving me as her first foreign guest. She has asked me several times what I want to eat but I really don’t know what to tell her—I’m sure anything will be delicious!

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful weekend!

My Indian Address

OK, so maybe I should have posted this a long time ago, but here is my address in India. Things take about 2 weeks to get here, so if you want to pamper me with mail, better send it sooner rather than later.

Stephanie Briguglio
#307 Annexe 3
St. John's Medical College Hospital Campus
Koramangala, 5th Blk, Sarjapura Rd. NR
Opp. BDA Complex, Bangalore- 560 034, India

Pretty complicated, I know. But using that address has the best bet of actually getting to me. Any and all mail is appreciated! :)

-Steph

Holy Cow!

Temple in Mysore

In addition to my beach cows picture, I needed to have a "sidewalk cow" picture

Beer Tower- Kingfisher, of course!

My favorite pup on campus. Poor thing :( Look at how scaly his back is near his tail! All the fur is gone.

Busy, busy, busy

6/6/11

This past weekend was relaxing, as I did not take any trips. Saturday I worked in the Department for a half-day, even though I’m not required to work Saturday (score points for me). I finished, for the most part, my editing of the PACE paper, which is the one about adolescent cardiovascular disease risk factors. I was all set to go over it with 3 of the team members Saturday morning, but when I got in at 9, they told me 10am, then of course 10am came and went. We probably started looking at it around 11:30. We all gathered around one computer and there were a lot of loud voices, arguing back and forth, and other random people looking over shoulders to try to give their input. Ten minutes later and only one paragraph down of the 15 page paper, everyone except for Dr. S at the computer got up and left! They went about their business and did not finish reviewing the paper. It was chaotic and not at all how we would review a paper in the U.S., but I guess that’s just India for you. I’ve gotten used to it by now. Another thing to note- people here love to have full on conversations with people in other rooms. So one will shout to another room down the hall ..”Farah!!!!” and then she will respond, and they will talk back and forth, instead of just getting up and going to the other person. It’s so strange. Let’s just say I have been wearing my headphones and listening to my iPod all day, just so I can concentrate!!

After work Saturday I went to lunch at the Hospital Canteen with Katinka. The Canteen is the dirt cheap restaurant on campus where all the students and people that work in the hospital eat. You can get a good meal for around a dollar, sometimes less. It was particularly crowded in the “doctors/staff” room that afternoon (yes, I sit in the doctors/staff room to avoid the chaos that is the rest of the Canteen). Katinka and I were sitting across from each other at a 4 person table and due to the large crowd and nowhere to sit, we had 3 separate pairs join us at different times during our lunch. A little odd to sit next to others at the same table, maybe, but this is all normal here. We really didn’t mind. The last couple of men to sit with us were doctors and one, Dr. Sanjiv, was a pediatrician. When he walked up and asked if the seats next to us were taken, Katinka shook her head, which of course here means ‘yes,’ so we started walking away when I had to call him back and tell him that no, no one was sitting here. He said ‘ohhh, right, your shaking head no is our shaking head yes.’ He ended up being a really nice guy and we talked about the best way for foreign students to study here- what type of visa to get, etc.

After lunch Katinka and I went to Fabindia, one of the nicer chain stores here for shopping. I got a very pretty kurta, my 4^th one! I still need to go to the tailor and have one handmade- I will pick my fabric, any borders, the length, the sleeve length, and then they measure me and make it to fit me perfectly. I think I’m saving that outing for a rainy day. Also still need to check out Commercial Street, where ‘the best’ shopping is here. After Fabindia we stopped at a coffee shop and had giant mocha milkeshakes…so delicious but definitely did not need that!

Saturday night I went out to The Filling Station bar with Steve and Jose. We got a Tower of Beer (will add picture of this later): Kingfisher of course. Around midnight we wanted some food and the only place open past 11:30pm in Bangalore is the Paramount Hotel, so we went there for some late-night snacks. Kind of cool to see where everyone that’s hungry in Bangalore convenes late at night! Of course there was lots and lots of staring, as I was the only white person there and was out with two Indian guys. I’m sure they were thinking, 'what the heck is she doing?'

Sunday, after leisurely waking up at 11:00am, I walked downstairs to get my milk from the communal fridge for breakfast. Being on the 4^th floor, the journey to the first floor fridge every morning is annoying, considering I have to put on pants and at least a t-shirt to ‘maintain modesty.’ In my room I like to wear a tank top and shorts- it’s not that hot at all but no point in wearing pants if I can wear shorts. Anyway, on the way down to the fridge, I heard a teeny little voice weakly say “excuse me” and looked over at the 2^nd floor lounge to see a girl on her laptop. She walked up to me and goes “are you from America?!” It was so cute and reminded me of how desperate I was for friends my first week here!! Vanita is from California and just finished her BA in Public Health at Berkeley. We ended up doing lunch and dinner yesterday and will probably travel together- possibly next weekend to Hampi or Munnar. We will go to the travel agent today (Monday) to see what’s available as far as the buses go.

I also did some significant work on my special project this past weekend. I read all the articles I have collected so far, and have updated my reference database to include them all. I’m also a good chunk of the way through my proposal, which probably should have been done a month ago but I didn’t really know about it until last week (oops). My goal is to finish that by Wednesday.

This morning (Monday) I started my week off on the right foot with a 4 mile run around the track. It feels so amazing to run, I don’t know why I haven’t run more while I’ve been here. I think it’s a combination of laziness and…laziness. Need to set a goal- maybe 15 miles a week? What I really need is a running buddy to keep me on track! Vanita told me she had already run around campus, so now that I know she runs, I’ll have to drag her with me to the track in the mornings.

The whole week I’ll be here in the Department. I’m now working on an Adherence study- Dr. S has written 85% of the paper, now I need to vamp up the discussion section and write a conclusion. I’m really crossing my fingers that something I work on here will get published at some point, because that will mean I’m published, even if I am only the last author on the paper.

This morning when I got to the Department I sat in on an “Inaugural meeting” of some 4 month long health course 29 sisters from all over India will be taking. All the sisters I have met here are so nice, they always walk right up to me with no hello, no nothing and just say “where are you from?” Never fail, that is exactly what every single one of them approaches me with. Of course I am always all smiles back to them and explain where I’m from and what I’m doing here. They are always excited to learn I’m from the U.S., and will go back to a group of sisters and tell them that, which in turn makes them all come over to talk to me for themselves. A lot of them are from Kerala, which is a state just south of Karnataka, where I am. Kerala is very Christian- I think every Christian I’ve me here is from Kerala. When I told Sister Gina, who is from Kerala, that I will be visiting Cochin in 2 weeks she got so excited and told the others, and there was lots of “ohh, you will love it!”s and “oh that’s wonderful!”s going around. They are so adorable and I love when they talk to me. They always end with “God bless you” and “All the best.” J

It’s so hard to believe that come Wednesday, I will have left Tampa 4 weeks ago. I never thought time would actually fly by this fast. I still want to at least visit Hampi, Munnar, Cochin, and maybe one other spot, but I only have 5 more weekends left. June 18-20 is for Cochin, this weekend I might go to Munnar or Hampi, and that leaves 3 other weekends for travel and work on my special project. If anyone has any suggestions of good places to go to in South India, please let me know! There is a possibility I may meet up with three other girls from my MPH program that are also currently doing their field experiences in India. We are pretty scattered and are trying to find a good weekend and place to convene. Possibly Mumbai, but when I wanted to visit Marc there a couple weeks ago the flights were too expensive. This loan money will eventually run out, you know, and I don’t have a full-time job waiting for me in Tampa, so I need to be extra careful!

Dr. Rajaram is here! He emailed me and wants to get together later this week. So excited to hang out with him in his hometown!

Better get to work now… will write more later this week. It’s Katinka’s birthday Thursday and the German girls’ last week here, so I’m sure there will be fun times ahead.

This week flew by...

This store sign reminded me of the TV show Outsourced, just because I'm in India and the sign says "novelties." So sad they canceled that show!

5/30

I forgot all about my plan for today when I got back from Gokarna this morning. I looked at my schedule and realized I was supposed to go to Mugalur today to observe cataract eye surgeries! After a little bit of rushing around, I headed to the school to leave for Mugalur. Already a bit overwhelmed, I got to the clinic and realized they had a very official looking OT (operating theatre or room). I was required to change into scrubs and put on a cap and mask, and then they sat me down not more than 1 foot from the patient’s eye that was being operated on. Dr. Daisy was the surgeon and was so nice, she explained different things to me and asked what questions I had. Unfortunately the combination of not enough for breakfast coupled with being one foot away from an eye being sliced, poked, prodded, things pulled out of it, things put into it…ended up with me blacking out and having to lie down. I didn’t technically faint or lose consciousness, but I felt awfully sick for about ten minutes. My vision went black, I was cold and sweaty all over, and I had no balance and felt very weak. So embarrassing! I ended up being completely fine but I didn’t go back in to see any more operations…one eye was enough for me.

5/31 and 6/1

Tuesday was my first scheduled day in the Department to work on my research. Since I didn’t really get any details from anyone before I arrived about what kinds of things the faculty are researching, I had to learn from each person once I got there. I decided that cardiovascular disease (CVD) research was what I was most interested in, so I talked to the two doctors in charge to find out if there was something I could help with. I asked a week prior to my first day of research in the Dept., but of course things here take days and days to accomplish and you can’t ask for something just once, you have to ask 95 times. So, with that understanding, I set out again this morning to do what I came here to do—chronic disease research! I had a meeting with the head of the Department (Dr. Arvind- very nice guy) and the two CVD research faculty members, Dr. Farah and Dr. Twinkle. The meeting really didn’t resolve anything and was slightly unproductive. After the meeting I sat outside on a bench in the hallway, unsure of my next moves. I have traveled thousands of miles and literally halfway across the world to be here and do chronic disease research….and no one has anything for me to do?! Lucky, Dr. Farah came up to me and asked, “so, what are your plans for the day?” and I said “you’re looking at it!” She asked if I might be interested in working on revising/editing some papers for some of their research projects and I jumped at the opportunity. I love to write and love to edit, so this sounded to me like the perfect opportunity. I ended up working the rest of the day on a paper about their PACE (Program for Adolescent Chronic disease Education) and am very excited about the work. The paper needs quite a bit of help, and in fact we may do some other data analysis and write up a second paper for publication as well. I hope to at least finish one of these papers before I leave. Dr. Arvind said I might be able to get my name on the paper as an author for my role!! That would be AMAZING and just for that alone, the entire internship would be more than worth it.

Today I also had the chance to go to the Research Institute on campus to meet with Dr. Kedar, who works with electronic medical record (EMR) research. This is the field I am currently working in part-time in Tampa, so it was really interesting for me to sit down with him and go through the flow charts and applications they use. They’re even piloting a program in Mugalur, at the rural clinic, to assign 100 patients USB drives with their EMR on it, make this EMR available online, and also available via SMS (text message) on cell phones. We spent about an hour going through the applications and I learned all about what their team does in the Research Institute. Cool stuff!

Here's a picture of the pilot EMR project in Mugalur. These trained community health workers are entering patient data:

Data Entry into the OB application

6/2

Today was my last scheduled day to go to Mugalur. Katinka also went and so did two new German girls, Aurelia and Francisca. Perhaps these girls will be my new travel/dinner buddies once Janine and Katinka leave at the end of next week to go back to Germany. Anyway, today was the maternal and child health clinic Mugalur holds once a month. We saw lots of cute little babies being immunized. They were getting oral polio vaccine, measles vaccine, DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus), and BCG (tuberculosis), and possibly some others. After the shot the babies got a spoonful of an oral, oily substance which was a vitamin A supplement. They got the spoonful after the shots because by that time, their mouths were already wide open from all the crying! They also gave prenatal care today. There was one woman who started crying and after she left I learned that her husband has some psychiatric issues and it was really affecting her. Pretty sad L

Before her shots...

Tonight I went to dinner on MG Road (which I’ve been meaning to check out!) with Katinka and Steve, one of the Indian medical students. The bar was really cool and on the 13^th floor of a building with a great view of surrounding Bangalore. Most buildings aren’t that tall here, so we really got a bird’s eye view of the city. I actually had something different than Kingfisher beer..I had a Foster’s. While it’s not the best, at least it’s something different. They also had amazing tandoori chicken- 4 kinds on a platter! Afterwards we saw the Hangover 2 at the Forum Mall, which looks just like an American mall. The movie theater security was insane. First, just to get into the parking garage, they search your car for bombs. Then as I entered the mall, they searched my bag. They also searched it after I passed through the metal detector at the entrance to the movie theater. Next they made me take the battery out of my camera and check it at the door. I was further taken behind a curtain where they wanded me. Finally, a lady told me to spit out my gum. I was so frustrated that at this point, although it might have been a little rude, I said “oh, am I missing any more rules?!” Yeesh!!! At least the theater was really nice and big. Movie was a bit crowded but we had perfect seats—they even reclined a bit! The weirdest thing about the experience was the intermission. About halfway through the movie they stopped it for 10 minutes and people leave to go to the bathroom or get food. A few ushers also come around with ice cream menus. Might be a weird concept to have an intermission during a movie, but I really liked it! I think the U.S. needs to adopt this practice, that way, you don’t miss any of the movie if you need to run to the bathroom or get a snack.

13th Floor bar before the movies

6/3

Today is another day in the Department, where I will now be spending all of my time, unless I get the opportunity again to go out into the field. I am not really supposed to work Saturdays, but there are sometimes some interesting presentations given by the post-grad students so I think I will come in this Saturday, since I’m not traveling this weekend. They work Saturdays here for half a day- around 9a-1p. I could really use the time to get on the internet in the Dept. and do research for my special project. I’m getting really nervous because I think I’m falling behind on it. This weekend will definitely be dedicated to writing the proposal and getting a lot of background research done on the topic. Katinka and I also have some tentative plans to go to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens in Bangalore on Sunday morning.

I booked my flights for Cochin! Cochin is south of here in the state of Kerala. It is on the west coast (Arabian Sea). My friend from school, Rohini, is doing her field experience there and has invited me to come stay with her for a few days, so I will go from June 18-20 and take another long weekend. Should be beautiful there, despite it being monsoon season. We will hopefully do some exploring of Cochin including Fort Cochin.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!