Peace Out, Girl Scouts
Time flies when you're writing a massive paper. That, thankfully, is done. Packing...well, I'm getting there. I went to Strasbourg with the host fam this weekend for the Christmas faire. Apparently Strasbourg is the capital of Christmas. We spent hours and hours and hours wandering around the city looking at various stalls full of ornaments, lights, random decorations, and gifts. It was only a little bit freezing, made tolerable by magical drinks like "vin chaud" - basically heated red wine with a bunch of spices.
The cathedral in Strasbourg is GORGEOUS and we got to stop in Basel on the way, which means visiting the point where Germany, France, and Switzerland touch. Nothing like border crossings to liven up your day. Otherwise, the trip was relatively uneventful...aside from the massive cold that I'm now dealing with.
After a chocolate reception (which clearly I'm looking forward to) tonight, we turn everything in tomorrow and then train to Paris on Wednesday. We spend a week in Paris doing oral presentations (I may die of boredom) and then AMERICA. Nothing like traveling the world for months on end to make you realize how very much you miss Qdoba and other such simplicities of American life.
New Fave Song: Toi + Moi by Grégoire
Tick Tock
So it's hard to believe that I only have two weeks left in Switzerland. Insanity. Then back to Paris for a week before returning to the beautiful USA, complete with exciting new president.
Work is...work. I finished my monkeypox fact sheet and have moved on to a monkeypox powerpoint. Exciting stuff, let me tell you. I learned how to curl this weekend with the host fam and have a pretty stellar bruise on my knee from biting it on the ice one too many times.
I feel like I've done most of the stuff I intended to accomplish on this extended trip abroad (save for a trip to Prague), but there are a few more things that I want to get done in the next two weeks:
-visit the International Red Cross special exhibit
-sit in on a UN committee session or two
-train to Ringgenberg to visit my distant relatives
-buy those shoes that I've been wanting to buy for three months now
-finish shopping
Oh yeah, and write that thirty-page paper. Urgh.
Working Woman
Lots of stories about Brussels and Amsterdam coming soon...but for now, I'm newly focused on my fourth "class" of the semester: a month-long independent study project. Most of my classmates are researching some health or development topic and preparing a thirty page paper and a twenty minute oral presentation for the final.
I, however, somehow managed to land a full-time internship at the World Health Organization, in the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response. Specifically, I'm working with the Emerging and Dangerous Pathogens Team (WHO names crack me up) on viral hemorrhagic fevers and biorisks. This is a dream come true for me...I love Ebola more than just about anything around.
It's hard to grasp, sitting here at a small desk in a rather-ugly building dealing with horrid wireless, that I'm writing a fact sheet that people across the globe will use to help prevent and stop outbreaks. Ahhhh.
Is this what I want to do with my life?
Picture Time #2
Ok, so I fail at blogging and can't manage to add more than two pictures to the first post. This one is better.
1 = Top of the glacier
2 = Cinderella's castle
3 = Bavarian Alps and Füssen
4 = Cinderella close-up
5 = Colosseum and Arch of Constantine
6 = Castel Sant Angelo
7 = Climbing to the top of the dome of St. Peter
8 = Three castles in Bellinzona
9 = The sketchy bar with thongs on balloons
10 = The creeper Swiss wax statues for our study abroad welcome dinner
11 = The UN!
12 = View from the castle in Nyon on a gorgeous day
13 = Médecins du Monde
Picture Time
Since I'm going to be gone until Election Day...I thought I'd share some of my favorite pictures:
1 = Fountain at St. Sulpice in the rain
2 = Gardens at Versaille during the concerts
Stick a Fork
Done done done done and DONE. French final done. Field Study final done. Seminar final done. All I have left is a month of glorious independent study - for which I've been given files from the World Health Organization's Department of Communicable Diseases. I get to work with the Dangerous and Emerging Pathogen's Team. I'm practically dying of excitement.
But even better than that is the fact that I'm officially on vacation for a week. Monday in Bern. Tuesday and Wednesday in Luzern. Thursday and Friday in Brussels. Saturday in Bruges. Sunday-Tuesday in Amsterdam. Ignoring the fact that it is probably going to be snowing/raining in all of those places all week, it's going to be incredible.
And just to bask in study abroad glory a little longer, I went to the Matterhorn this weekend. The day was perfect and the hiking was incredible. Seriously...anyone even THINKING about studying abroad should start looking for fall 2009 options right now. Anyone not thinking about studying abroad should really reevaluate.
In other news...Grey's Anatomy didn't used to make me cry. Am I getting mushy or is organ donation just a really emotional thing? Also, Irish pubcrawlers may be my new favorite class of people in the world.
The Final Countdown
It's CRAZY to think that I'm taking finals already. That being said, I still have to spend a month doing an independent study project, but it's finals nonetheless. I'm trying not to stress about it because it's study abroad, but I haven't really paid attention in French at all. Should be interesting tomorrow. Let's hope I don't fail.
In other exciting news, once finals are over, we're off for a week-long excursion. Three days in German-speaking Switzerland (Bern, Luzern) and then a week in Brussels and Amsterdam. That means Brussels for Halloween and I'm SO excited. Hopefully we won't freeze to death by heading north so late in the year. It's been snowing on the mountain next to my house, so it's only a matter of time under I wake up to a world of white.
Big meeting at the World Health Organization this week. Wish me luck!
