anna at the wire: East Balimore walks and talks

Conversation with Jennifer, my Irish friend in Barcelona:

Jen: *Lifting up her dog and displaying him to the Skype camera* - "Say hiiii to Anna"
Me: Hiiii dog, nice to meet you!
Jen: He is a bit depressed.
Me: Why?
Jen: Well, he doesn't have a lot of space to run around at during the day. Fiki (Jen's boyfriend) and me are working different hours and it is difficult to find enough time where he can run around an play (not Fiki, but the dog).
Me: *Distracted by Gustav playing charades behind my shoulder* - "Hmm. Reminds me of my dog (not a dog, but Gustav).
Jen: Yea, it's so hard when you feel like they don't get to explore and play where they want. Instead they are stuck in the same area with not much to do.
Me: *Looking at my over-energized husband*. "I hear ya".

I definitely need to find more time to take Gus out for walks. Each day I watch him dreaming about surfing, skiing, diving and other hyperactive stuff and it is only a matter of time before he escapes again. I miss all that stuff too, but school keeps me so busy I barely have the time to notice.

Mostly, I really miss taking walks. Living in Baltimore has made me appreciate the luxury of being able to walk everywhere, at all times. Instead I find my self packed like a sardine at the Hopkins shuttle bus every morning, glazing out the window as we drive through the infamous East Baltimore where Bloomberg School of Public Health is situated. It is really quite weird.

We spend every day inside the same building, learning about health disparities, public health challenges, socio economic differences in incidence and prevalence of disease, and yet I feel like many people fail to recognize that we are right in the smacking middle of it all. We learn about international health challenges in low income countries, challenges that ample people face every day in our proximate neighborhood.

Part of east Balimore

Johns Hopkins Medial Institutions in the middle of it all

Again, weird. I am not sure how to tackle it and wish I could find more time and ways to be involved and learn about Baltimore community. It has taken me some time to adapt to the city and Hopkins (still adapting every day) and tackle the intense MPH study pace, which unfortunately gets in the way of other things. Such as being able to walk and play with my husband and getting involved in the community where we live.

Some time this month I hope to start volunteering at an HIV outreach center which conduct targeted testing and counseling to high-risk populations. I am currently working as a TA (teaching assistant) for a course in HIV/AIDS prevention which is great since I am learning so much. Sometimes I wonder how I have been able to work in this field for 5 years without all the knowledge I am currently gaining. Hopefully I will get to use it in practice soon.

Wow. This got out of hand. My intention with this blog post was originally to write (in my usual sarcastic tone) about our trip to New York and throw in some pictures from Halloween in between. How did it get so serious? Quick-fix solution:

For details about New York, please visit Gus blog.
For Halloween updates, please see the following pictures. Please observe my outfit as the brand new (?) IKEA product "ANNA" (instruction manual enclosed).