London - Like returning to a place you've never been before

My overwhelming impression of London was that familiarity. I was surprised at how familiar you can find a city you've never set foot in. I think it has to do with the American upbringing. I was brought up on British culture like Mary Poppins, Fawlty Towers, Paddington Bear and the Spice Girls. (Only half joking about that last one.) So walking in Hyde Park towards Buckingham Palace I thought, "Reading took me to all these places." (Oh my gosh: Reading rainbow moment!)

But here are some of the places I actually went to:

Burrough St. Market - the British version of a farmers market...but soo soo good.

Big Ben - where Peter pan flew by with Wendy & the Kids.
Westminster Abbey - just a quick walk by

Hyde Park - where I imagine that scene in Mary Poppins to have taken place

Buckingham Palace - Changing of the Guard: It was so crowded I climbed up on a lamp post to watch most of it!

Harrod's - I loved it, but they're so snooty. They don't let you wear backpacks. You have to carry your backpack like a handbag. HELLO~ it's freakin heavy!


Covent Garden - cute place to be/shop around.

Oxford Circus - Soho - Picadilly Circus: funky cool places to hang around a shop! I definitely could have spent more time here.


I did a lot of walking along this walkway. It takes you along the Thames River to a bunch of the following sights.

Tower of London - Tower Bridge

CityHall - they have outdoor plays in the evening.

St. Paul's Cathedral - Sunday mass is pretty neat to sit in on.


I continued my walk crossing the Millennium Bridge to the Tate.

Tate Modern (Art Museum) - This came highly recommended to me. I liked it because it had better background information of the artworks than SF's MoMa or DeYoung. So you're not as lost staring at the blob of blue on canvas. ^^

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre - it's an awesome experience to actually see Shakespeare the way it was meant to be enjoyed ... performed! I watched an early comedy called "Love's Labours Lost" and actually understood the humor. For better or for worse, I was cheap and got standing tickets in the yard. You're up close to the action, but your legs kill you at the end of 3 hours. How do we stay on our feet in the hospitals??

Being there for only 2 days meant that I rushed through a good many things. All in all I am happy I went though. In addition, I can finally say that I had the hostel experience: while it was humble accommodation...the people were all friendly. And when you're on your own, you can't ask for more than friendliness.

In Pictures!

Hurray for me. I have succeeded in a photo update! Okay, get ready for the captions.


The lovely Lac de Bourget which was a trying 5-hr hike. There is a little abbey at the end of the hike...you can see it jutting out on the lakefront.



Me coming down the trail. I really hate the rolling stones on the hiking trails. It's so easy to fall when you're coming down. One of the funny things the HASH group did while hiking this trail was sing French marching songs to keep our pace up. "Un mile a pied...sa user sa user...un pile a pied ... sa user les solers!" (I probably spelled all of that wrong.)



The hills are alive! This was one of the hills where I saw sheep grazing on my train trip up to the top of...



Roche de Nays! You can even see the mongolian-style hotel tents. These mountains were just gorgeous. I know some of them were the alps..but I'm not sure which ones.



Roche de Nays with Nejma!




Fondue night. Oops...I should have used a flash. The hardest part of preparing fondue was cutting the bread. Whoever did the table setting made a beautiful presentation.


We devoured it! This pictures cracks me up because no one looks particularly happy. We had a rule that if you dropped your bread in the fondue, you had to do 25 push ups. Maybe people felt pressured ^^.



Holla back to the beginning of August. A picture of Claudia, me and Sonja at the BBQ. These two girls are German surgeons y'all. Don't mess!



Another happening on Swiss National Day. The fireworks. I liked seeing them go up right in your face. It happens that I am missing the REAL fireworks which happen tomorrow in honor of the Fete de Gèneve. It's an hour long extravaganza...best fireworks show in Europe. I can't complain though...I will be in London...basking in Englishness and all its glories.

Still an Intern

Banners for the World Health Organization and International Committee for the Red Cross

Yes, I am still working. In fact, after a few weeks of procrastination I am finally getting work done. My supervisor is really supportive of me using this internship as a learning opportunity. She encourages me to go to talks given for interns, so I went to two this week.

One was given by a big head honcho at WHO, the assistant director general for communicable diseases. He gave an engaging talk on how the WHO deals with communicable diseases. Think the SARS outbreak or ebola. The pressure on how to react when you first get wind of an outbreak of SARS or some virus with unknown potential makes you realize it's a professional job to make tough decisions. The speaker, David Heymann, ran through a scenario with us and had us think of potential responses we should make. I was surprised that one of the answers was "Call the Director General." I mean...I know she's the big boss, but I kind of figure you are the expert at how to deal with the outbreaks. All part of working in a bureaucracy I guess. Another surprise: they kept track of who was at risk for contracting SARS by using a Hong Kong database used originally to track perpetrators of petty crimes. It's amazing what you can apply technology to. And amidst the whole SARS epidemic, there were no absolute travel bans because, in a nutshell, the goal of controlling outbreaks is to protect people's health as much as possible while restricting travel and trade as little as possible. It's nice to learn at least a little about who can do what in the face of infectious disease. The WHO is by no means the organization solely responsible for the control of deadly outbreaks or whatnot, but it is a player in the game with other nations and institutions.

Museum of the Red Cross: It's right down the hill from WHO and right next to the UN, so there really was no excuse not to go. A friend and I went during my lunch hour yesterday, and I'm really glad I did. It was a museum experience where you feel like you are learning something instead of just seeing things. A lot of that is because there is not too much to see in terms of pretty paintings or exquisite artifacts. It's more of a place to commemorate the way in which the Red Cross came into being and to document the obstacles it has faced and the good works it has been able to do. I was struck by how one man, Henry Dunant, and his compassion on men suffering from war, could set in motion an entity of such universal need. And not a moment too soon either. If you look at the succession of wars and disasters that occurred in the years after 1863, it seems quite fortunate that the Red Cross formed when it did. In fact, nowadays we take for granted the universal need for an aid organization like the Red Cross. But when it was first formed the Red Cross could only extend its coverage soldiers. Shortly after, it was able to aid prisoners of war, but civilians were not able to be reached until WWII! Whether it was mending soldier's wounds, feeding children in a famine or preventing the torture of prisoners of war...I'm so thankful that God has allowed such an organization to exist amidst the wars we fight and damage we bring about.

Overdue and Fondue

Coming abroad has been like some crazy crash course in living. Nearly every day is about dealing with the unexpected with all the excitement and unpleasantness that it entails. I have been hesitant to post recently because I'm not sure what it has all meant. But I think I'm about overdue now



My past weekend, I went hiking around Lac du Bourget with a group called HASH. It's a neat international group that does runs and walks together irreverent of everything but camaraderie. I was invited by Louise, my mentor, and her friend Deidre. True to Geneva form, it was a group of all kinds of characters and nationalities. Unfortunately the walk was a lot more strenuous than planned, and we ended up barely finishing the trail in time. Somewhere along the way I rolled my ankle, and I'm paying for it this week. The views were undisputably spectacular though. The trail followed the curve of the lake and every so often we would hit a clearing right on a cliff overlooking the lake. If it's possible to overdose on pretty scenery, that's what I did. After a while I was like..."Oh here's another nice view. It looks much like the last one."



Sunday I spent a lovely day with my co-worker and friend Nejma, husband Peter and their 4-year old son, Karim (an unending source of entertainment for me). Since my foot was out of action, the family took me on a train to see the alps and mountain animals. Switzerland has got this outdoor thing down pat. They've started building Mongolian-style tents on the top of mountains, so that families can stay the night in them bed & breakfast style. You go up to the top of the mountain and you see pregnant women, 4-month old babies, grandpas...everybody! My favorite thing to see on the green hills was a flock of sheep being kept in by sheepdogs. They were so far away that they looked like a bunch of white beads being repelled by the black magnet sheepdog. It was still hot when we got back down, so we went to cool off by swimming in the lake! There's something exciting about swimming in a big expanse of water...but I get scared after a while and don't swim out too far. ^^



Then it was back to the work week. Patrice, one of the guys from church, invited all the new visitors to experience fondue yesterday evening. After all the hype, I still found fondue really interesting. People say it stinks and you won't like it, but I didn't think it was bad at all. Basically fondue is a pot of melted cheese and Kirsch which you dip your bread in and eat. It's cool how the cheese cools off the minute you pull your bread out of the pot. I'm not big on cheese, and it's not the most healthy meal. But it's essentially bread and cheese; the same concept as pizza, nachos and a lot of sandwiches. Afterwards we had a bunch of fruits for dessert to feel healthy again.

The Day Off

Just thought I'd post about my day off on Swiss National Day.

After a run in the morning, I went to a BBQ held at Simon and Michelle's home across the border in France. They are the leaders of a Young Adult's Group (YAG) at a church I visited last Sunday. Simon bought a big house several years back to use for various ministry functions, and he often hosts events for the YAGs at this lovely home. I got to try out my new swimming suit (bought in Barcelona) at the pool and enjoy BBQ for the first time in Europe. Running a church group in Geneva seems very difficult to me because most people are there for the short term. I asked Michelle how they could be so inviting and generous with people like me who they will likely only see a few more times. She answered that once when she had been new, someone had been inviting and generous with her, and now she gets to be that person. For her, it's a joy getting to know so many people and seeing how God works in their lives.

I can't say enough what an answered prayer it was to be amongst such loving people. Their hospitality and friendship has taught me a lot about reaching out to others. I hope I can mirror even a little of the way they live with the love of God in their hearts.

After the BBQ, we returned to Geneva in the evening. It turns out the BIG fireworks will be in 2 weeks time for the Fete de Genève. However there was a fireworks show in the Park des Bastions for the national holiday. I went with some of the dormitory girls, and we ooh'ed and ahh'ed over the explosions set to music from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mary Poppins and the Sound of Music. It was very Disney-esque. I went home happy and sentimental. =)

Favorite Movie Experience of All Time

At left is a picture of Port Noir on Lake Geneva. It is the beautiful site of the open air cinema that happens every evening in summer. Here Orange Cinema of Switzerland shows the summer blockbusters out on a big screen right on the lake.

I went for the first time yesterday, and OH MAN it was amazing! I was just in love with the whole experience. You can watch the sunset over the lake before the movie starts, and while the movie plays, the city lights twinkle on the lake and the jet d'eau is a bright fountain in the background.

Half the movies shown at Orange Cinema are in English and the other half are in French, so you don't have many choices. Ratatouille and a bunch of other blockbusters were being shown in French. Ocean's thirteen was playing yesterday in English, and I went to watch with the Young Adults Group at a church I visited recently. It was great fun, and I really appreciated such a nice diversion for the evening.

The ticket prices are a bit steep, but you get a bunch of goodies by the promoting companies. You also get a bright yellow poncho in case it rains. (They'd rather give you the poncho than cancel the movie.) This may come in handy for me if I go visit the waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen. =) score!

It's such a romantic experience. Europe seems to be chock full of romantic experiences. Especially in the touristy cities you see a lot of people in the act of gratuitous displays of public affection. Sometimes you want to gag, and sometimes it's just part of the city's charm.

I heard about open air movies in SF, and I wonder if they'll be any fun. One more thing to add to the to-do list when I get back!

Tag You're It

The Rules.
-I have to post The Rules before I give you the facts.
-I start with eight random facts/habits about myself.
-As I have been tagged, I need to write my own blog about my eight things and post The Rules.
-At the end of my blog, I need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
-I mustn't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read my blog.

In response to a tag from the cute-as-a-bunny S C. http://ucsfsynapsemed1.blogspot.com/

8 random facts/habits about myself - I'll try to make these all relate to my trip here somehow.

1. Starting from my plane ride to Paris, two teachers have both approached me and asked if I was a student of theirs. One is a rabbi in Oakland who teaches a class in Berkeley and the other was an Australian lady passing by in Barcelona. Strange because obviously I wasn't...

2. I get giddy around anyone who speaks English fluently. That's how sad I am.

3. Every morning except on Sundays my breakfast is a baguette, jam and tea with lemon. That is the "petit dejeuner" served at our catholic nunnery dormitory. At least there are like 15 different types of jams.

4. I watch Korean dramas online to pass the time sometimes. Every time I see them eating korean food (kimbap, jjajjang myun, bibimbap) the heart inside my stomach feels sad.

5. The first thing I eat when I get off the plane will be my mom's salad. Then bibimbap. Then kimbap. Then sushi or hwe dup bap (sashimi salad). Watermelons and strawberries in between. I promise to wait at least an hour in between all these things.

6. I learned an awesome recipe for this light, eggy pie with cherries called clafoutis. I can't wait to bake when I get back!

7. Sunscreens in Europe are supposed to have more-effective ingredients that the FDA has not approved in the U.S. They're also ridiculously expensive. Like $50 for a bottle from Roche Posay. $20 for grocery store bottles. But I did find a great steal in Barcelona! A sunblock for kids that smells like bananas...oh my gosh it's so yummy smelling! It was only around $5. One more thing: women are load to go topless on the beach. And they do.

8. I left things undone in Europe. I didn't go see everything and do everything. But I like it this way. Then if I ever have a reason to come back, I will be glad to go. On the other hand, if I never come back...I'm more than happy because I've seen what it's like here. In my 3 remaining weekends I intend to:

• hike annecy. See Montreaux or Bern
• Visit London --> somewhere I really loved in college and high school
• visit Interlaken and the surrounding mountains

Tags: Most of you don't do blogs I think. Please...help me stay connected, so if you read this (regardless of being tagged or not) and keep a blog...please send me a message and post your stuff so I can read it! For format's sake, here are my tags: Sujan, christine, vicki, jenny, lainers, winnie, roz, debbie