Bonjour mes chers amis! Comment allez-vous?

Yea right.... I totally looked that up hahah. I've been here for two weeks and I still haven't picked up much French. For those of you who don't know (In my defense, most of you should already know by now that I'm horrible at keeping in touch, and that I only have a glimpse of a social life once every three months... I only found out I was going to be here a little over 2 months ago.), "here" is Switzerland (and France -- keep reading for clarification). I'll be here thru December 17th.

So instead of sending out those emails we used to send out in college about our times abroad, I decided to do this blog thingy because I know people have a habit of -- and I'm guilty myself of this ;D -- leaving emails in their inboxes with the intention of reading them (without ever really doing so), or of reading them with the intention of responding (and waiting til the sender actually returns). I don't want to take up space in your mailbox (just your bookmarks. JK). So read this if you're interested, but I won't hold it against you if you don't. Be warned, however, that if I am met with questions like "how was it?!", I will respond with an equally cursory "it was good." as you have this source to reference for an answer/guess to that question (or, at least, a guide to more interesting questions.like "what was your favorite cheese?!" And with that same exclamatory intonation, please.).

If I have time to update this thing regularly, it'll probably be every other Sunday. Otherwise, this might actually be my only post (I'm worse at keeping journals than I am at keeping in touch lol). Email me your addresses if you want a little somethin' somethin' extra (read: postcard :P).

So here:

Scope of work: Eating cheese and chocolate, duh. And in my spare time, assisting the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Statistics and Informatics with the Global Burden of Disease Project. I'm analyzing data that will be used to estimate the distribution of total BMI levels in different regions of the world (I'm assigned to Europe (all), Latin America (some), Taiwan and Hong Kong), and examining risk factor-disease relationships. Also have some translating to do (Russian to English documents mostly. Da, ponimayu po ruski.). And, if I have time, I get to "play" with STATA.

Housing: I was originally staying with my aunt who lives in Geneva, but she had some personal issues so I moved to France today. It's a pretty house owned by a retired staff member of WHO. Ferney-Voltaire (yes, Voltaire's hood) is only about 5 miles biking to WHO (the public transportation isn't as available as it is in Geneva), so I get to be cool and cross the border to get to work everyday. One day I'll reenact the scene from "A Walk to Remember" and straddle the border so I can be "in two places at once." Heck no I don't care if my watching/owning that movie jeopardizes our relationship.

Colleagues: Almost all the interns I've met so far come from a different country (except one girl from Joysey (New Jersey)), and have impressive backgrounds and degrees that pretty much trump my little B.Sc. Several doctors, medical school students, PhD's, MPH's... all bring different insights on the field of global health. I was starting to have mixed feelings about doing this right before I got here since I was told that it's a highly bureaucratic organization (which I guess it is), but so far I've had great conversations, inspiring mentors (my supervisors are AMAZING!), and really cool seminars... it's all very refreshing!

Culture: Think melting pot. Actually, think tossed salad lol. Geneva's very international. Chances are, if you're sitting in a bus/tram/park next to three people, 3/4 of you won't be from the area. It's not very conducive for learning French, since a poor attempt at French will likely be met by a patronizing response in English, but it's interesting at least to interface with other cultures that are still very much their own. If that makes sense. People here are also very health conscious, especially at WHO. They're REALLY into running here, which is great for keeping me in check for the marathon in December lol. There are actually fun runs every weekend, and a lunchtime running club at WHO.

Transportation: My cool Beasty bike. I think it's some kind of German model that's too big for me (the first two days I didn't know how to dismount. So I pretty much just let myself fall on my face. Dance obviously has done wonders for my grace.). It's green and says California. I've dubbed it "THE HULK." Yes, I'm the girl on a metallic green mountain bike with the bright red Stanford windbreaker and pink backpack (my aunt's. I haven't owned anything pink since I was 5. But this bag is definitely easier to carry on a bike than a shoulder bag.). They're REALLY into biking here, and have lots of street lanes designated for bikers. Few people have cars here, but the public transportation system here is great, and either on time or a few minutes early. It's pretty much impossible to get lost around here. Except, of course, if you're Hialy.

Weather: IT'S COLD HERE (Cedar team - I still use my coat "snuggie style" in the office ;) ).. Unfortunately, it's not mountaineering season, so I'll have to come back here some other time to fulfill my life goal of scaling the alps (meh, at least 30 feet of it).

That's pretty much it for now! Au revoir ( k, I knew that one ;D )!