80's explosion! This is me and two of my med school buddies, Heidi and Summer decked out before one of our parties last year....man we're hot.
White coat ceremony: Summer and Me, the epitome of sharpness!
Hey there friends and family--
A note of warning: the computer that I am using at the moment has spell check only in Swedish, so prepare yourself for some pretty horrid mistakes that will go un-noticed on this end as pretty much every other word is underlined in red.
I recently finished my first year of medical school at the University of Washington. Confusingly, I spent this year in Moscow, Idaho and Pullman, Washington with 39 other brilliant souls as part of the WWAMI program. All five states that feed into the UW Seattle campus have an on-site program for the first year and then send their local budding intellectuals to Seattle for the following years of medical training. It’s a pretty sweet deal really as we were able to get to know our faculty very well and our fellow class mates a little too well….making for a nice transition into the craziness that is medical school. A few weeks ago (which seems like an eternity) I completed my final examinations and am now officially a second year medical student. Phew. It took me a while to adapt to the ammt of studying that is necessary, but I got into a groove with the help of my friend Summer who is the world´s greatest outliner, and kicked some medical butt, so to speak. Retaining the information is a different matter, we´ll see about that come August.
This summer I am participating in the IHOP (international health opportunities program…not the pancake house…though I do love me some pancakes) where I am completing a public health project and a few clinical rotations here in Uganda over the next 11 weeks. The majority of my time in Uganda will be spent at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, the capital city. Mulago is associated with Makarere University, which has the top medical training program in Eastern Africa. This relationship allows me to rotate with Ugandan medical students and interact with local and foreign doctors in Mulago.
I arrived in Uganda on the 28th after a 24 hour layover in Amsterdam. I had only ever been in transit through Schipol (?) airport in the past, so it was great to spend a day in the city. The excellent train system made this easy and I wandered around the street severely jetlagged but thoroughly enjoying the architecture and mindfully avoiding the throngs of young, stoned and obnoxious foreigners (mostly American and English). I walked along the canals for hours, drank overpriced coffee in outside cafes and made friends with some other travellers at my guest house. My favourite part of the day was 20 minutes or so of conversation with a group of Dutch street cleaners who I met outside of a cathedral while taking a break. They told me all about the history of the city and explained that the buildings all leaned slightly forward so that furniture etc can be easily (sure) hoisted to the upper floors with ropes and pulleys. I witnessed this later in the day as an apartment was undergoing renovation and it was totally amusing to watch. Even small spray bottles and tools were transported to the top floors on the rope.
I arrived at Entebbe Airport the next day and have been in a rush of heat and commotion ever since. This is one of my favourite things about travelling: two days ago I didn’t know anyone in Uganda and had no idea what to expect, and today I am sitting in my new flat, drinking coffee and writing to you fine people without a worry. Within the span of these two days I have: Wandered around the city of Kampala with my friend/guide/3rd year student at Makarere U, Diane, in matatus (cheap van-taxis), dined and talked with medical students and doctors from all over the world, shadowed an intern in the cardiac ward of Mulago, met three cool Swedish medical students (also rotating in Cardiology), hopped a bus to Mpanga forest reserve with said Swedes and spent the day trekking through some butterfly-thick jungle, decided to move in with said Swedes, got a ride back to town with Father Remi of the Leopard Clan (a local Catholic priest), attended a prom-like celebration dinner with 200 Ugandan medical students from Makarere U (I won a raffle prize half way through the night, which never happens to me by the way, and the officials couldn´t understand why this white girl was walking to the podium until they realized that I was Annie McCabe of ticket number 007…and no, the irony of this number is not lost on me J. I won a lunch for two at a local restaurant. Sweet.) and drank many many cups of Nescafe instant coffee, which I would never touch in the states, but is somehow delicious here. Woah. Yeah its even more ridiculous on this end.
I start my first real rotation on Monday and then its game-on. I´ll be writing verbose emails such as this relatively regularly, though I can´t promise that I will be very efficient at replying to individual emails because the connections here are so painfully slow that it takes hours to send off a note with a picture or two.
In a flurry of selfishness I would like to request that you write to me as much as you want/can despite the fact that I won´t be great at returning the favour. I would absolutely love to hear from you.
Yours,
Annie McCabe, 007
p.s. To Rachel, Anthony and Julia, my favourite punners: My new friends from Sweden are pretty nice so I´ve decided to term them “Sweet-ish”
A note of warning: the computer that I am using at the moment has spell check only in Swedish, so prepare yourself for some pretty horrid mistakes that will go un-noticed on this end as pretty much every other word is underlined in red.
I recently finished my first year of medical school at the University of Washington. Confusingly, I spent this year in Moscow, Idaho and Pullman, Washington with 39 other brilliant souls as part of the WWAMI program. All five states that feed into the UW Seattle campus have an on-site program for the first year and then send their local budding intellectuals to Seattle for the following years of medical training. It’s a pretty sweet deal really as we were able to get to know our faculty very well and our fellow class mates a little too well….making for a nice transition into the craziness that is medical school. A few weeks ago (which seems like an eternity) I completed my final examinations and am now officially a second year medical student. Phew. It took me a while to adapt to the ammt of studying that is necessary, but I got into a groove with the help of my friend Summer who is the world´s greatest outliner, and kicked some medical butt, so to speak. Retaining the information is a different matter, we´ll see about that come August.
This summer I am participating in the IHOP (international health opportunities program…not the pancake house…though I do love me some pancakes) where I am completing a public health project and a few clinical rotations here in Uganda over the next 11 weeks. The majority of my time in Uganda will be spent at Mulago Hospital in Kampala, the capital city. Mulago is associated with Makarere University, which has the top medical training program in Eastern Africa. This relationship allows me to rotate with Ugandan medical students and interact with local and foreign doctors in Mulago.
I arrived in Uganda on the 28th after a 24 hour layover in Amsterdam. I had only ever been in transit through Schipol (?) airport in the past, so it was great to spend a day in the city. The excellent train system made this easy and I wandered around the street severely jetlagged but thoroughly enjoying the architecture and mindfully avoiding the throngs of young, stoned and obnoxious foreigners (mostly American and English). I walked along the canals for hours, drank overpriced coffee in outside cafes and made friends with some other travellers at my guest house. My favourite part of the day was 20 minutes or so of conversation with a group of Dutch street cleaners who I met outside of a cathedral while taking a break. They told me all about the history of the city and explained that the buildings all leaned slightly forward so that furniture etc can be easily (sure) hoisted to the upper floors with ropes and pulleys. I witnessed this later in the day as an apartment was undergoing renovation and it was totally amusing to watch. Even small spray bottles and tools were transported to the top floors on the rope.
I arrived at Entebbe Airport the next day and have been in a rush of heat and commotion ever since. This is one of my favourite things about travelling: two days ago I didn’t know anyone in Uganda and had no idea what to expect, and today I am sitting in my new flat, drinking coffee and writing to you fine people without a worry. Within the span of these two days I have: Wandered around the city of Kampala with my friend/guide/3rd year student at Makarere U, Diane, in matatus (cheap van-taxis), dined and talked with medical students and doctors from all over the world, shadowed an intern in the cardiac ward of Mulago, met three cool Swedish medical students (also rotating in Cardiology), hopped a bus to Mpanga forest reserve with said Swedes and spent the day trekking through some butterfly-thick jungle, decided to move in with said Swedes, got a ride back to town with Father Remi of the Leopard Clan (a local Catholic priest), attended a prom-like celebration dinner with 200 Ugandan medical students from Makarere U (I won a raffle prize half way through the night, which never happens to me by the way, and the officials couldn´t understand why this white girl was walking to the podium until they realized that I was Annie McCabe of ticket number 007…and no, the irony of this number is not lost on me J. I won a lunch for two at a local restaurant. Sweet.) and drank many many cups of Nescafe instant coffee, which I would never touch in the states, but is somehow delicious here. Woah. Yeah its even more ridiculous on this end.
I start my first real rotation on Monday and then its game-on. I´ll be writing verbose emails such as this relatively regularly, though I can´t promise that I will be very efficient at replying to individual emails because the connections here are so painfully slow that it takes hours to send off a note with a picture or two.
In a flurry of selfishness I would like to request that you write to me as much as you want/can despite the fact that I won´t be great at returning the favour. I would absolutely love to hear from you.
Yours,
Annie McCabe, 007
p.s. To Rachel, Anthony and Julia, my favourite punners: My new friends from Sweden are pretty nice so I´ve decided to term them “Sweet-ish”
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