What's Next

 Now that I've been back for about 3 weeks, China is starting to fade from my immediate thoughts and I'm focusing more on what's in front of me.  Its my first week back to medical school now, and I'm struggling a little as I remember all that I've forgotten in the past year.  I've already got loads to learn and study and I need to start investigating residency programs to apply to in the coming months.  

 At the same time, I'm trying to wrap up a few of my projects from last year; one of my papers came back from the journal reviewers yesterday, and I have some work to do on it.  Another one is almost ready for submission - so I'm not quite done with my China work yet, but it will be much more diluted now as I move on to other things.  I'd like to thank the Fogarty for giving me this wonderful opportunity to live and learn in China this past year.

 I miss some of my friends and acquaintances from China, but I'm also glad to be back and moving on with my life and career.  Its exciting to be on the cusp of committing myself to a specialty and deciding where I will get my practical training!  I am ever so glad I took a year off and feel that I learned valuable skills and truths while abroad, but I am also happy to be back at home and moving on into such exciting things!

Chinese Apartments

Adam, Alison, and I all managed to pick up quite a few Chinese souvenirs during our year there, many of them apartment oriented.  Adam mentioned to me last week that his apartment looks very Chinese, and I imagine with several wall hangings, a Xinjiang rug, pillow covers, etc, that it at least reminds them of their time there!  I also have quite a few things up in my new apartment that remind me of my last year, which is fun.  Its a nice way to integrate my recent experience into my everyday life now.  And I live in a 2-story condo instead of on the 19th floor of a huge building!

Reverse Culture Shock

Overall, reverse culture shock wasn't nearly so bad as people make it out to be.  Maybe I wasn't in China long enough, or I hadn't truly integrated into the culture enough, but I haven't found most things all that 'different' or strange about American cities and living.  A few things I have noticed include:

-the blue sky.  its amazing, and so sad that its so polluted in China that many Chinese people don't know it can make a day beautiful

-lack of people.  especially in stores - the grocery store in Beijing is CRAZY with salespeople yelling, people jostling carts and bags, kids pooping, etc…I went to Meijers with my mom and sister and felt a little insecure the aisles were so big and empty!

- sky-high prices.  I was expecting this, but it kills me that I can't spent less than the equivalent of 100 RMB for dinner at a medium-cheap place here.  for the first few weeks I kept thinking of how much money I was spending…its gotten better though.

-my stomach.  My stomach actually didn't like being at home for a few days - I guess I got more used to Chinese food than I thought! (or maybe French food I guess…)

riot of readable signage.  i've gotten used to blissfully walking by most storefronts, ads, billboards, roadsigns, without having the faintest idea what they say - for a few days it was information overload when I got back.

And that's about it - after being back in the US for about 3 weeks, I've mostly stopped noticing things, although I still occasionally wince when buying things.  My utilities for my first month will likely be more than they were for my whole stay in China - I paid $100 for 10 months of gas, water, and electricity - crazy!  And there are so many nice things about being home - seeing loved ones, being back in familiar places, short travel times between things in the city, and being understood in stores and offices.  I feel so lucky now when I go into an office or a store and I am helped immediately, with little to no misunderstanding, but only if I initiate contact, without any pushiness!  Amazing!  

Chicago to Lexington

My last spoken Chinese was not actually in China, but in the Chicago airport.  There was a family of Chinese from my plane who really could not figure out where to go to make their connecting flight, and I was able to tell them to get on the inter-terminal train, and then when to get off.  I'm sure it was pidgin Chinese but it worked!  And that is probably the last time i'll say anything informative to anyone in Chinese!

I actually had an 8-hour layover in Chicago, so I went into town to meet up with some of my friends from med school who are just starting residency programs there.  My experience on the metro was enlightening…no one talked…there were TONS of empty seats…there was blue sky outside…and english road signs.  Incredible!  I had a fantastic lunch with Kara and Marlon and headed back to the airport to make my flight to Lexington.  And who should meet me there but my entire family with flowers and a balloon!  Even my brother came into town as a surprise that night from Virginia, where he lives, and my grandparents arrived the next day.  It was nice to see everyone again and helped me gloss over the culture shock since I basically spent the first week at home with close relatives.

Trip Back

Unfortunately due to the scholarship having paid for my original plane ticket, I had to fly back to China before leaving for the US.  I left France on June 14th, arrived back in China the 15th, and left again for the US on the 16th!  Craziness!  I arrived back at my apartment in Beijing around 12 noon on the 15th, and after sweating through my clothes on the short walk from the bus stop to my apartment, was glad that I will not be around for the worst of the humid Beijing summer!  I got dumplings from my local dumpling shop for lunch, and spent the afternoon cleaning my apartment and repacking my stuff.

In the late afternoon, I headed over to the massage place I had previously been to with my friend Hao and got a full body massage as a late birthday present to myself.  It was fantastic and I know I won't be having any $24-1hour massages anytime soon!  After that, I met Hao and Unench, another friend from lab, at a ramen noodle restaurant for dinner, followed by a dessert place.  It was a great opportunity to see the best of my Chinese friends and have some of my favorite food for the last time before leaving.  It was pouring down rain all evening, again, I don't think I'm missing much in Beijing in the summer!

The next day, I crawled out of bed at 3 am and did a last check around the apartment before my landlord came to take me and my stuff to the airport.  It was super nice of him to do that, and he gave me back my deposit at the same time.  (In Chinese yuan, which I thought would be a problem, but turns out you can deposit RMB in a Bank of America checking account for no fee, woohoo!).  I was at the airport a little early but managed to use one of the scales and get all my suitcases to be the proper weight before checking in.  And then I slept the entire flight to Chicago!

Corsica

After leaving China at the end of May, I actually headed to Europe to spend some time with my boyfriend, Max, before going back home to the States.  He has an excellent post on our vacation on his blog, including video slideshow of panoramic pictures that we took while we were there:  http://mczouav.blogspot.com/2011/06/corse-avec-sarah.html Unfortunately, the text is in French, but the pictures should speak for themselves!

 Overall, our vacation was fantastic, and it was a good way to transition away from China without too much of a shock when I finally did arrive home, since France/Corsica is still a foreign country where things are different than at home, albeit much more familiar to me than China.  Corsica is absolutely beautiful, with towering mountain peaks in the center of the island, and dazzling golden beaches outlining sparkling blue and turquoise water on the edges.  We did a lot of hiking to see waterfalls and rock formations, lazed around on the beach and by the pool, and had fun camping in Max's parents' old tent (which was surprisingly still waterproof, as we found out the day it poured!).   I enjoyed Max's cooking and the fact that I wasn't worried about getting sick after eating every meal!  The skies were fantastically blue and the air was so clean, I was in heaven.  

Do check out Max's blog for pictures if you like!

Goodbye China

The goodbyes started several weeks ago actually, as Ben, one of the medical students in Beijing for the year on a scholarship similar to mine, left right before we left for Portugal.  He celebrated his departure in a typical Chinese way, by going with his friends for kareoke, or 'KTV' as it is called here.  Chinese people LOVE kareoke, and it is even included in some more official business meeting dinners, with kareoke after dinner to let everyone have some fun and break the ice.  I had participated in one kareoke sesson in southern China when I went on a site visit with Adam and Dr. Qiao, but I had never been with my friends.  Instead of singing in a bar in front of strangers, in China you rent a room by the hour and then just sing with people you know!  There is generally still quite a bit of beer involved to get everyone loosened up to sing, but I thought it was much less stressful to be just around my friends instead of random strangers.

Ben, Alison, Adam, Esther, and a friend of Ben's

Adam and Alison singing one of their favorite songs ;)

The next goodbye was the banquet the office threw for us this past Thursday night.  We were told it would be a 'picnic' in the park, but it was actually a buffet dinner at a restaurant in the park, complete with certificate presentations, short thank-you speeches by Adam and I, and toasting.  Adam and I went around to every table with our drinks (in my case, peach juice) and toasted the people there to show our appreciation for their hospitality and help this year.  The food was not-so-good, but it was very nice of them to show us off like this.  Everyone took loads of pictures:

Adam and I with Shangying and Li Rong, our Fogarty twins, and Dr. Zhao, our cervical cancer mentor

Adam and I with Shaoming Wang, next year's Fogarty, and Hao, last year's Fogarty

Some students from our 6th floor office

The central guy is Unench, one of our better friends from the office

Everyone eating and making toasts

Dr. Qiao with us

After the picnic, the rest of the Fogarty folks got together for dinner and smoothies as we are all leaving China around the same time.  We are all heading back to different medical schools and probably won't see each other much after this, so it was a little sad.

The next day was my last day in the office, and I spent much of the day running around delivering goodbye gifts and saying goodbyes to people.  In China, you give a gift when you leave, and your closer friends will give you a parting gift back.  I got a set of really nice scrolls to go on the wall, along with some other 'schotsky' as Adam would say - things that sit around and collect dust, but were super nice of them to give.  After all the gifts were passed out and Adam  had left for the day due to having nothing to do, it felt weird in the office - no one wanted to work like normal, since it wasn't normal, exactly, but it was hard to know what to do otherwise.  One of the students, Luliang, solved the problem by breaking out his guitar and we had a minor jam session in the office.  We carefully kept the door shut in case any of the teachers from down the hall should wander down, and enjoyed ourselves.  Luliang played several Chinese songs, and then he asked me to play one - turns out Chinese students know 'Take Me home, Country Roads' just as well as American students!  I love singing and listening to others play the guitar and sing, and somehow this ended my last day at work on a good note.  Somehow the music expressed my mixed feelings of sadness and excitement about leaving, and I feel like all of us kind of connected with those feelings and each other through the music.

Sun Huikui showing off his new Western bandanas

Lu Liang playing the guitar

Badachu

After my adventure at Fang Shan, I had an intense week of work and evening get-togethers.  This last weekend was also filled to the brim with packing and activities.  I had met a girl named Audrey through Lara when she lived with me back in October, and we have kept in touch, ocasionally meeting for dinner or a show.  I wanted to see her before I left, and I also wanted to see a park in western Beijing called 'Badachu' that Lara had recommended, so we combined the two this past Saturday.  Mind-blowingly, Badachu, while still in Beijing, took me 2 hours to reach from my apartment, even taking the metro for a large stretch of it - Beijing is so big!  I will not miss the huge distances or long travel times next year.

Once we arrived, we were greeted with a corridor of lanterns and a lovely park based on a hill/(they call it a mountain) with 8 different temples/monasteries on the way up.  Many of the temples were similar to other Buddhist temples I have seen, but more integrated into the surrounding hillside, so they were less huge and overwhelming.  

There also many people outside the temples holding up plastic water bottles and looking it it towards the sun.  This was quite a stunning picture when many people were doing it at once.  We asked what they were doing and someone pointed at the sun's reflection on the bottle, but that still doesn't make much sense to me - bizarre!

There was a cool dragon sculpture at one temple...which turned out to be styrofoam!  oh China!

Lighting incense outside a temple

Cool flower candles

From the top, there were views of the surrounding suburbs and far in the distance, the Beijing skyline.  This picture should give you an idea of the smog that has been a regular fixture for the past week or so in the city.

On the way down, we took the lift to save our tired legs, and gave us ample time to take in the view.  It was great to see Audrey again before leaving, and she is one of the people I will miss when I return.  

Fang Shan, Take 2

The weekend after my return to China, I asked my friend Hao if she wanted to go hiking to get out of the city.  I had kind of had a small amount of culture shock again when I returned to the pollution and noise that is Beijing, and felt like escaping.  I picked out a place that sounded lovely in the tour book, and since she speaks Chinese, we were able to get on the correct 900 bus to ensure a quick arrival...and then there were traffic jams.  And more traffic.  We were crawling, and our hoped-for 11 am arrival got pushed to 12...still, we were moving, albeit slowly, so what could we do?  Then around 12:30, the bus came to an actual halt, and opened to the doors.  I was surprised - are we there?  Oh no...upon standing up, I saw a line of cars stretching onwards towards infinity, farther than the eye could see.  We sat in silence for a few minutes, then started debating - to stay or go?  Neither of us wanted to give up our day trip, but no one knew when the line of cars would start moving again.

We finally decided to give up and got off the bus and started walking back through the traffic that had already accumulated behind us.  All the cars were stopped with people standing around in the road, eating, sunning, going to the bathroom...To make it worse, cars trying to pass the jam had pulled up in the lanes reserved for the other direction, so no one could drive the other way either.  We passed several cars trying to turn around, and they kept hitting cars around them, resulting in angry shouting and gesticulating.  It took us 25 minutes to walk back out of traffic!  People in stopped cars kept asking us what was ahead, and Hao kept telling them to turn around while they still could.  

 We eventually got lucky - they had told us the closest bus stop behind us was 10 km away - quite a walk, but better than sitting, and we had been planning on doing an 11 km hike anyway that day.  But after about 30 minute of walking, we encountered a bus turning around, and managed to flag it down to drive us back away from the jam.  I had noticed on the way there that we had passed the park that Max and I went to in October, Fang Shan, so we decided to go there to hike rather than completely giving up on our day.   We didn't get there til 2 pm, but we still had a fun time climbing the mountain, going in the cave with resident Buddhas, and taking the lift down again with some dazzingly views.

The outside of the Water Cloud Caves

Buddhas in the cave

Touristy lighting in the caves

Tired after the hike up the hill

The view down from the lift

The view up behind us from the lift

Mountain goats we saw from the bottom!

Rome breeze-by

My flight back to beijing from Portugal stopped through Rome, and there was no option for a short layover.  Regardless, I had at least 4 hours of layover, so I decided to go whole-hog and take the 10-hour layover, with the hopes of having time to see something in Rome.  Since Italy is still in the European Union, I didn't need any special visas to venture out, and in fact didn't even go through passport control since I was coming from somewhere else in the Schengen zone.  I was surprised at how much I was able to see in Rome during my approximately 5 hours (after subtracting travel to and from Rome and check-in time at the airport).  I basically did a self-guided walking tour, but after China the crowds of tourists didn't seem so daunting and neither did figuring out the public transportation.  Before living in China I don't think I would have been so adept at reading the bus signs, getting on and off a tram, taking a train from the airport into the city, etc, but after learning how to get around being totally illiterate and mostly mute, signs in Italian and people who might understand French made it a piece of cake to get around!

I took the train into Rome from the airport, and walked first to the Piazza da Navona, famous for its fountain, designed by a great Italian artist.  The male figures represent the 4 great rivers of the earth.  There were lots of people walking around, shopping, and enjoying the sunshine.

Next I headed to the Pantheon, my second national pantheon in the span of a week, and saw the graves of more famous people.  I actually thought the Pantheon in Lisbon was more beautiful, but this one is very iconic and still lovely.  

I walked through some old neighborhoods and saw many churches, some famous, some not.  Italian churches focus on paintings, sculpture, and mosaics more than stained glass like in France, so the space inside feels different, but still very reverent.  The Church of Santa Maria had a medieval floor and was hugely spacious, with tourists wandering past monks and priests hearing confessionals.  

The art highlight of my short stay was seeing the Ectasy of St. Theresa, by Bernini, in a small church off the main street.  There was a crowd of people just see this artwork, and when the priest turned on the spotlight, there was a small murmur of appreciation.  Its hard to tell in photos, but the expressions on the faces of St. Theresa and the angel are so lifelike, and the folds of their clothes look so real, it was amazing.  I just sat and stared for a while, you can see why this is a famous masterpiece.  I felt kind of sorry for the sculpture directly across from the Ectasy; i'm sure its good too, but it was clearly neglected compared to the favorite. (no spotlight).  

On my way to the Coliseum, I saw another church and the Trevi Fountain, a famous pool/fountain built onto the back of a government building.  It was noticeably cooler near the fountain, and it was a very dynamic space with moving water, sculpted figures that looked caught in motion, and chattering crowds.

Finally, I swung by the Coliseum.  I did not have time to go inside, but I could see from the outside just how impressive it is.  I could also see part of the Forum along the rear of the Coliseum, with ruins of arches and temples everywhere.  I had some pizza at the foot of the Coliseum before heading back to the airport.  Basically, my quick trip to Rome makes me want to go back for a real visit!

Conference

 I've told you a lot about the sightseeing we did in Lisbon but not a lot about the reason we were there in the first place!  Adam and I both submitted abstracts and were accepted to give oral presentations on different projects we have been working on this year.  My presentation was about the global HPV seroprevalence review I have been working on with my mentor in North Carolina.  I had 10 minutes to talk about a huge review article with more than 120 papers included and reams and reams of data!  Adam talked about a paper that he helped write about a screening program in China.  

 Both of our presentations were on the last day of the conference, so we had plenty of time to get our bearings and go to sessions.  The first day was mostly 'what is HPV', and 'big trends about cervical cancer'; introductory sessions, mostly.  The second and third days had bigger sessions about 'Epidemiology of HPV' or 'HPV in Resource-Poor Settings', as well as more targeted sessions about particular techologies or vaccine developments.

 On the last day of the conference, we both put on our newly tailored Chinese suits and showed up early.  I went to Adam's talk, which was excellent, and then he jetted off for the airport to catch the last flight home that day.  I had to stay later since my talk wasn't until the last session of the entire conference, in the afternoon.  I thought that there would perhaps be fewer people there, and there were, but my mentor told me it was a 'high-powered session' and thus my talk had to be good!  Eeek!  I think it went well  however, I stayed within my time limits, and I didn't make any glaring errors.  Thankfully, we were behind time already due to earlier speakers taking too long, so nobody asked me any questions!

First Aid at Castelo de Sao Jorge

Actually, when I went to the castle, I had more of an adventure than just seeing an awesome view.  I was sitting on an ancient wall shortly after walking up the hill to the castle, drinking in the view, when I heard a clatter behind me. I turned around to see a man lying prone on the cobblestones, bleeding from his head.  I and a French couple rushed over, and it was a good thing they were there, because he didn't understand English or French, (and I didnt even try my limited Chinese!) and seemed to be really dazed.  The French lady spoke Portuguese, and we managed to get some tissues pressed to his forehead to stop the bleeding and gave him some water.  The French lady went for help, and soon everything was back to normal again, but it made me eager to get back to school and get my ACLS training - what if the fall had been worse and he wasn't breathing or something?  I am not sure I would have reacted appropriately - hopefully after my Emergency Medicine rotation in July I will be more prepared.

Portugal 2

We finished our pure sightseeing days by meeting a friend of mine from Grenoble named Sofia for a local delicacy, 'pasteis de belem'.  It was kind of like an egg/custard tart, but tasted creamy and delicious, especially good with a little cinnamon and powdered sugar on top.  

We did manage to fit in a little tourist-action around the conference, during times when the meetings were un-interesting or not pertinent to us, or during the fantastically long 3.5 hour lunch break each day.  We both had a lot of fun eating Western food again - Adam was particularly happy that he could get meat without it being smothered in some sort of soy-based spicy sauce!

I still tried to be adventurous with the food; this was a shrimp bread/gumbo thing special in Portugal.  It was good but oh so filling!

The area around the conference center was right on the river with great views (look familiar anyone? - built by the same company as the Golden Gate in SF!)

A monastery that was destroyed in 1755 in the earthquake

A house with cool tilework!

The Tower of Belem

and has several museums free on certain days, so we hit up several of those, including a modern art museum, a coach museum with horse-drawn carriages from years gone by, a national guard museum complete with armed bicycles, and a maritime museum with hundreds of miniature models of Portuguese explorers' vessels.  There was also a big monument to Portuguese explorers, with Vasco de Gama on the prow.

Another excursion we took was to the National Aquarium, which was really well laid out and had loads of cool aquatic animals.  My favorites were the rays, both giant and manta.  The train station by the aquarium also reminded us slightly of the starship Enterprise - do you see it?

Train station

Random artwork near the aquarium

The Tower of Vasco da Gama near the aquarium

The last day of the conference, meetings ended at 2 pm, and since there were no planes leaving back to Beijing until the next day, I had more exploring time.  I went up to the Castele Sao Jorge, or Castle of Saint George, which offers commanding views over Lisbon and the surrounding river/ocean, as well as a lovely walk through Alfama to get there and a guitarist playing traditional melodies in a courtyard.  Overall I really enjoyed my time in Lisbon and it makes me want to return to see the rest of Portugal!

View of the fort from the other side of town

The Se Cathedral, near our apartment

A church I could see from the castle