East Coast Adventures

Hey! I know its been a while, but I wanted to finally update everyone on what I've been up to. I'm loving working at the NCI. I'm still using SAS almost everyday, but I'm almost done with all the analysis so hopefully that will be phasing out. But now I really do love SAS! Dr. Merrill will be so proud. I've completed all the figures for my first project, so I feel like I'm accomplishing something (which is always a good feeling).

I get to see Aaron pretty much everyday and on the weekends we travel around a lot. Over Memorial Day we went down to the Outer Banks, North Carolina and stayed in a huge beach house with a bunch of other singles from the greater DC and other east coast areas.

The beach in North Carolina (above). Its no Barbados, but we loved it. The beach house we stayed in was huge and beautiful (below).

We also went down to DC to see more of the city and the Smithsonians 2 weekends ago. We played in the Air & Space, American Indian, and Natural History Smithsonians all day and then went down to the momuments around dusk. I wanted to see them at night, but we got too tired and settled for sunset.

I found all sorts of guns! But I also found out I was too tall to be a stewardess. :( Sad day. There goes my dream of dropping out of the program to explore the world as a stewardess!

The monuments were beautiful at sunset too. The fountains were on at the WWII (below) and at the FDR monument and everything. It was a lot better than the freezing cold! Although its been raining like crazy here, the weekends have been incredibly beautiful...I'm sure the humidity is on its way.

This past weekend we went to visit my aunt and uncle and their family up in Pennsylvania. It was fun to play with my little cousins and see more the Easton/Lehigh area. Its absolutely beautiful up there...and there's so much open space! I haven't uploaded those pics to my computer yet, but I'll put some up next time.

So pretty much life is great. I miss the lab and getting ice cream cones at Macey's, but I can't complain. I love reading about everyone's adventures on the blog too. Keep us all updated on EVERYTHING! Love to all!

Ok, this "first" day is for real

Sorry to be cluttering the blog with my consecutive posts, hope no one minds! Anyway, I just wanted to answer everyone's burning question: Yes, I completed a full 8 hour day in the Barbados PAHO office. (no I wasn't wearing my swimsuit, or flip flops, or even shorts, but real office attire). I met with my advisor to discuss project ideas, sat in on a meeting about the injury and violence prevention surveillance system workshop that starts tomorrow, found my workstation (about 3 times the size of my spot in the lab--I don't know what to do with all the space.), read a report, read more documents on the PAHO/WHO websites. There you go...Day 3 or is it Day 1 done!

Hope you are all enjoying yourselves wherever you are. I promise I've thought about each of you as I reflected overlooking the Caribbean Sea! :)

First Day...better than expected?

Barbados PAHO building

Just as predicted, but not totally expected, I showed up at PAHO this morning with no one knowing anything about me or my arrival. Dr. Alleyne, my mentor, was not in the office and finally when someone could get a hold of her, we found out that she was sick and had been at the doctor that morning. In the mean time, I met the staff, had some lovely conversation, and took a mini tour of the facilities. I was sent downstairs to the document library so I could play on the internet. Even the lady in charge of the library was not there and while I was waiting for someone to give me the password to log on, I received a call from Dr. Alleyne. She explained her situation (she thinks she had a sinus infection, but had to visit the doctor to rule out the Swine Flu before coming into work). She told me to take the afternoon off and go to the beach and that she will call me in the morning when she gets in and will come pick me up at my house and take me to the office. So much for a first day! I guess I can't really complain as I did spend the afternoon lying on a white sandy beach. We’ll see how tomorrow goes and if I actually work or just hang out and explore the town.

First Impressions

House across the street from where I live

The road I live on

Neighbor's flowers with mango trees in the background

Rendevous Beach

More Beach...notice the turquoise color

Well I finally made it. After months of emailing, planning, and frustrating communication, I made it. I am now in Barbados. I start work at PAHO tomorrow, and I won't lie..I'm nervous. I stopped in today on my tour of essential places to know, but no one in my department was there. I hope they know I'm coming...with the way communication has been, I wouldn't be surprised if they forgot. We'll just have to see.

I have now spent almost 24 hours here and here are some of my first impressions.

Barbados is hot! Last night I got in well after dark and couldn't really see anything, but I could feel it, and it was hot and humid. It really isn't too bad, but it will take some getting used to. I took a tour today, part by taxi, part by foot and my thoughts were that much of the island reminds me of Mozambique and it's weird when everyone is speaking English. I'm not used to being in a foreign country where I can understand everything. Of course, the English is a little different from mine, but I'm getting used to it...I just have to listen carefully. Here are some pictures that I took today on my walk. Most of them are of the roads and houses and a few of the beach I walked to. The supermarket, bank, and post office are about a 25 minute walk and the beach is just across the street from the bank. This weekend I will look for other beaches where I can lay out and read. The water is seriously warm and a beautiful turquoise. I can get used to this! Enjoy the pics.

There is a manhole cover in my apartment...

So we moved into our new place... let me just say I never knew that Wymount would seem like a palace... I would gladly move back into 881 in a heartbeat. I tried to post pictures on here but they didnt work- I did post them on my blog so if you really want to see them they are waiting for you. Just a few things about this place, until we trekked 4 miles (which took 2 hours and 3 trains) there was not a microwave, there are two pots, one room, a shower in the living room/bedroom/ kitchen, and a manhole cover in the toilet area/closet. This is an exciting adventure, but on an actual good note there are no rats here (we were told there were rats at our other place) after a germ filled summer I may be ready to go swimming at Lake Powell in September- I mean really what's a little dirty water compared with daily subway rides, rats in the street, and a manhole cover (seriously!) in the bathroom?

 By the way I am pretty sure there was a naked guy/flasher on the subway yesterday (this update is for Pete), he was wearing what can only be described as a puffy coat (just a bit longer than MaryAnne's cute white one) dress shoes, dress socks, and an ipod, his coat was zipped when he walked past me, but as he walking down the stairs I am pretty sure he unzipped it because several people gasped in horror as they clutched their maps (tourists). 

A couple more Pete quotes...

... to brighten your day:

1. "I love it when my pee smells like fruit loops" he informed me while exiting the bathroom.

2. "I have sensitive hands" - after not being able to hold a cold glass full of ice.

Don't worry, I'll keep 'em coming.

Rhode Island

The view from Marble House- this is the Atlantic Ocean for anyone wondering. 
The real reason I came to Rhode Island (just and FYI I dont actually love Walmart I just like reasonably priced items)
The Elms- one of the Newport Mansions- this home was in full operation (6-8 weeks in the summer) until the late 1960's, the home retained a staff of 42 until the death of the final owner in the late 1960's. 
Downtown Providence- well really this is what is known as college hill- the home of Brown University but it is located next to downtown Providence

The tea house at Marble House- the owner of Marble house decided to build a tea house to host women's suffrage rallies, she even built a river and bridge so that visitors could mentally transition from west to east- she also had special china made that said Vote for Women- she obviously had too much time and too much money

We left the City (yes it is supposed to be capitalized) last weekend and headed off to a place where people are polite, the f word is not used as a place holder, and they have normal stores like Walmart (more about that later), we decided Rhode Island was the place for us. We also wanted to see the Newport mansions (okay that is the real reason that we went) so we took the train from Grand Central to New Haven and rented a car. Newport was beautiful, it is a cute little seaside town that just happens to have huge houses. Newport was the seaside retreat town in the late 1800's and early 1900's and to some extent remains that way today. The Newport mansions were built as summer cottages for the wealthiest americans at the time- cottage is used loosely since most of the homes have 20-70 rooms. Today these houses have been turned into museums, complete with audio tours (they give you a headset and mp3 player and it is self guided). The houses are amazing, really if you have time to go to Newport (those of you on the east coast this summer) I would highly recommend doing it. Oh yes the best part of our trip was going to walmart- okay not really but it was nice to have one stop shopping- since we were moving into our new place the day after we got back we stopped and got a few things, it was well worth carrying them back through the train and subway so we didnt have to go to 40 million stores to get an overpriced version of the same thing.  Newport was great, the people were nice, we didnt have to ride the nasty subway, and there were no rats, all things that we would not have had in NYC.