Pandemic fun

What do Public Health students do to spice up a party?

The play Pandemic - the boardgame - pretending to be D.A Henderson eradicating smallpox and other stuff. 

After a thrilling session with multiple outbreaks of disease "yellow", disease "red" and other colours in places like London, Calcutta and Johannesburg (Sweden was of course safe)

- we all died.

We know that because we reached the mark with a skull on it. Dead indeed.

For some reason, everyone blamed me for our death simply becasue I had tiny, microscopic issues with paying attention.

I am now wondering if this a sign that I should change profession? Or, if at the end of our MPH, we will be able to kick Pandemic's ass. It should definitely be included in our degree (for at least 4 credits).

Old(er), Cold(er)

Baltimore is getting cold. Compared to summer, that is. Yesterday I wore boots for the first time since I came here and actually didn't sweat. Following the cold, comes another cold: the flue. I am currently in bed hallucinating about biostatistics (midterms next week, perfect timing as ever). 

As much as I would love to blame the weather for my inconvient situation, I have to confess that my lifestyle the last weeks (months?) might have something to do with it. 

Introducing the study-holiday-more study-sick-cycle as an explanation:

Somewhere in the middle: sick, sicker, sickest. Copyright: Anna Larsson

Either way, I couldn't be happier that I decided to take a break and go and visit Gus in New Orleans last weekend. Not only did I get to live married life again, but experience the most amazing city.  In his blog, Gus did a great job decribing New Orleans and how the city is starting to recover (smooth indicator that you should visit his blog if you want a more elaborated discription). 

We were fortunate enought to have two awesome hosts - Bill and Gail - who made sure we got to eat everything from greasy traditional Lousiana food to crabs, go on aligator safari and not swimming in the Mississippi river (apparently that will kill you). 

Swamp. This used to be water, but due to Katrina bringing fertilizers, everything is closing up.

Check the left corner. No, it's not a log (stock).

We also did some exploring on our own. Like every other tourist in NO, we ended up on Burbon street (a.k.a crazyness street, a.k.a party street). All of a sudden we had huge drinks with 57% alcohol in our hands at 4 pm in the afternoon. 

This made us randomly decide on getting thai massages from a hole-in-the-wall place after being lured in there with "free massage samples" and then persuaded to stay (the girl massaging me held a firm grip of both my hands and feets - not much choice, really). The best experience was going back home on the "tram" - a streetcar with electric sparks flying everytime the driver shifted gear.

It looks so cute and innocent. It's not.

It was a fantastic weekend. Then, suddenly, it was over and I was old(er). We celebrated the fact that I am now 28 grown up years with banana pancaces and shopping rubber boots for the upcoming rainy winter in Baltimore. Back home, Kristin picked me up at the airport with homemade cupcakes in the car. A few drinks later with friends and my age-paranoia was long gone. At least until next year. Back to study cycle!

Older(er) surrounded by even older, matching, colorful, men.

Nörd, nördare, nördast

The more time I spend at Hopkins, the more I discover that I am a huge nerd. This conclution derives from expressing the following nerd-symptoms:

• In biostatistics, I got goosebumps reuniting with my T-83 caculator after spending more or less 10 years apart.

The fact that I don't even remember how to do a log10 calculation makes little difference. It's back.

• I powerwalk listening to mp3 recordnings of my course in Reproductive Biology. The professor introduces approximately 1785 new vocabulary each lecture which I try to memorize saying it out loud ( = people passing by me are exposed to words such as "erectile dysfunction" and "estrogen receptors".
  

• Having discovered Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org), I can't stop watching this guy drawing scientific stuff on a blackboard.
  

• Youtube. No need to say more. Everything and beyond can be found there. Like this video about HIV replication and anti retroviral treatments (please notice the sound effects!). I am amazed how I have managed working with HIV prevention for the last 5 years without knowing about different co-receptors, delta-32 mutations, and advanced DNA structures. 

•  I find myself making advanced excel spread sheets to organize and plan coursework. All in different colors, of course. And then compare it to even more advanced ones made by my brilliant classmates. 

• I started using flashcards for studying. And bring them to the gym...

• I want to by a sweatshirt that says "Hopkins".

• I already bought one keychain and two folders that says "Hopkins"...

• My organization of documents into different folders have gotten out of hand and resulted in that I no longer know where to find what.

Now that I confessed all that, I also want to point out that I do have a life. Next weekend I am visiting Gus in new Orleans! And have promised not to bring any books.

I wish this was the boat Gus is working on.