Four Weeks!

Another week has flown by since my last post. I've been pretty much slaving away all week working on my IRB application for the alcohol study... in my air-conditioned room. Okay, fine, it's not that bad. In fact I really enjoy it here.

IRB application hasn't been the easiest thing, but it's been quite interesting and exciting figuring out how to do the study. You pretty much have to think about everything that could go wrong, and plan ahead. Everyone has different experiences and ideas, so my protocol seems to change every time I talk to somebody. I'll tell you more about what the study is about once I submit the application (and know exactly what I'm doing). It's due this weekend, so I'd better get back to work!

In the meantime, here's an interesting sign I found at the hospital:

And here's a guard who keeps tender coconuts out of the hospital.

Three Weeks In

It's already been a week since my last update, and boy, does time fun when you're having flies (or vice versa)!

I've been relatively busy the last several days meeting with people, reading articles, and trying to brainstorm my potential projects. I have two potential projects that my mentor tells me are both very interesting and feasible, so I'm going to stick with them. I won't go into details yet, but one project is a survey on alcoholism, and the other is an educational intervention for diarrhea prevention. I'm starting with the alcohol project, and I have to submit an IRB application (basically to get permission to do research on human subjects) by the beginning of September... which is in one week! So I'm going to have to work really hard the next few days. Hopefully once things get going on that project, I'll start working on the second one. I will talk more about each project as time goes on.

Thankfully, it has not been all work the last few days. This past weekend I went to Chennai with a bunch of international students to do some shopping, eat at (relatively) nice restaurants, and watch a movie (Inception!) at a movie theater. Chennai is a much bigger city than Vellore, and it can be quite a hassle trying to get around by rickshaws. It seems they are much more used to having tourists and charging ridiculously high rates. If it's raining or late at night they would charge double or triple the normal rate! Thankfully we all got around safely despite the fact that one of the drivers was smoking pot before he drove, and another drove full-speed against a one-way street.

There were 20 or so of us all together from all over the place (US, Canada, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, Nigeria, and Malaysia). It was a lot of fun traveling with them. It's sad that many of them are returning home soon, and some of them have already left. I suppose I will see a lot of people come and go in the next 9 months while I'm here. In any case I'm thankful that I get to meet interesting people from around the world, and make lots of new friends.

Here are some photos from this weekend:

We took a private bus from Vellore to Chennai.

On our way to Chennai.

This is where we stayed over the weekend.

Eric and I shared a room.

Our toilet and shower for the weekend.
You can't expect much for Rs 250 per night.

Annelie and Laura, two German med students

Xin-You and Vicky from UK/Malaysia and Netherlands.

Craig from Canada, and Fiona and Cionr from Ireland.

With Khalid from UK.

Idel from Ireland and Malcolm from Scotland.

Eric from Nigeria.

"Nachos" without nacho cheese?... um, yeah, nice try.

Grilled tenderloin! First time I had beef in India! They used a LOT of pepper on this.

Shopping at Spencer Plaza Mall

We found Subway at Spencer Plaza. They have two separate lines for vegetarian and non-vegetarian.

Fiona and Rozemarijn at Subway.

Eating my "Italian" sub with lamb salami and lamb pepperoni. 

Trying on some hats.

Three Danish girls and a German girl traveling by rickshaw.

Crammed into a rickshaw. There were five in the back, and I shared a seat with the driver.

With Sofie from Denmark at Copper Chimney Restaurant. Food here was really good. I highly recommend it.

Vigga and Anne from Denmark.

Eric, Idel, and Clionr.

Anne and her chicken kabobs.

My prawn curry. It was delicious.

Brownie with ice cream at the movie theater... yummm...

Getting breakfast at Vasanta Bhavan on Sunday morning.

Ghee roast for breakfast. It's basically a thin crispy crepe.

Annelie, Eric, Idel, and Clionr at breakfast.

More photo from breakfast.

With David and Warren from Northern Ireland.
This one is for Laura, our mutual friend in N. Ireland, whom I met in Haiti few years ago.

On our way back to Vellore.

We took three buses to get back home.

Not sure who she is, but billboards like these with her faces were everywhere for several miles on our way back from Chennai.

A colorful building with the same lady's face posted all over. Can someone tell me who she is?

Some random signs we found at the mall:

  

Ten Days Down, Ten Months To Go

I can't believe I've only been here for 11 days now. Seems like it's been much longer. I've settled in fairly quickly, and I feel pretty comfortable getting around places and finding things on my own. I didn't even feel any jet-lag at all (getting lots of sunlight in the morning really works)! I've seen quite a few things and met many people in the past several days. It makes me wonder how much more there is to come in the next 10 months.

Although, I have to admit, I don't feel like I've gotten much done in terms of work yet. I only have a vague idea what I might want to research. I still need to meet with more people, read more papers, and figure out what might be a good project to work on with the limited amount of time that I have. I hope that I'll find something exciting, and that I'll have a productive year.

By the way, today (15th of August) is India's Independence Day. So, Happy Independence Day, India!!

In a completely unrelated news (or maybe it is related to adjusting to life in India), this morning I had my first formed stool since coming to India. TMI? I know, but it's a great news for me so I had to share it. :P There're always many things to thank God for.