11.11.11

I wonder what this day will bring?

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).

Finalists in the MPH costume competition included humans and non-humans.

Best non-humans! IKEA and the Generalized Linear Model Sara.

Instruction manual for building the IKEA product ANNA.

Make sure NOT to attach the wrong pieces as indicated in the lower left corner.

In love

Hej alla.

I'm alive. Finals are over. New semester started.

And I have a new love.

Called New York City.

Just thought I should let you know that.

Hej då så länge

Saved by the beard

Late Saturday night, I defided the rain, darkness, cold and horrible traffick and drove to the airport to pick up Gus. 


Only to experience his most recent facial hair look. It is somewhat a tradition that whenever we've been apart for a while (or about to travel somewhere), he does something weird to his beard.

Most recent look

Mozambique, Winter 2010

Summer, 2010 - I think this is the most scary look as he looks like 12 (makes me feel weird and old).

And from time to time, I let my facial hair grow as well

At least he's back in Charm City, to - as he kindly phrased it - "sätta käppar i hjulet för mina onda pluggcirklar" (rough translation: put and end to my vicious study-sick-cycle). 

About time, as I am just about to enter hibernation. Finals are approaching (can't believe it's already the end of my second semester) and if I survive these exams, I feel confident that I will make it through the year.


Anyway, a minor headsup that you might not see much of me before Oct 20th. I'll throw in a picture of my calendar just to make things a bit more visual.

Bye bye, see you post-exams!


Oh, and welcome Birgitta (Gustavs mother who's coming to visit us next week) - hope this doesn't scare you of!

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.