Traveling around Peru

I know I said that Rob and I were going to go to Huacachina to go sandboarding, but we decided to change up the plans a bit. We decided instead to go to a fútbol game. I gave him a warning that these fans were a lot crazier than any that we've seen before (**see note below). They start fires in the stands, never stop jumping and singing, throw things at opposing players, and have to be surrounded by riot police at all times to attempt to control them. We managed to find our way into the VIP section (midfield seats in the shade) thanks to my friend Carlos. Even in those seats, we heard people yelling at opposing players with phrases that I don't think I shouldn't repeat here, even in Spanish as my parents might figure out how to use google translate one of these days...

**A little background between Rob and I... we like to go sporting events together. Twice during college, I drove out to Lincoln, Nebraska (where Rob goes to school) to go to a Cornhusker football game (even missing Thanksgiving one year), I've driven with him to Chicago to go to a Twins - White Sox series, to Green Bay, Wisconsin for a Vikings - Packers game (Favre's first victory AGAINST the Packers), and countless Twins games since we were 13. 

The view from the VIP seats at the Alianza Lima game

The weekend after Rob went back to the States, I decided that I needed a vacation! Along with several other gringos, we went down to Ica, Huacachina, and Lunahuaná. We toured three different wineries in Ica, and acted as their taste-testers of their piscos and wines. My favorite was the wine called Perfecto Amor, because "cuando lo toma, probablemente vas a quitar tu ropa antes del fin del noche" and I bought a bottle. Here are a few of the pictures from the tours... to see all of them, check out the Picassa web albums to the right. 

In the stomping pit with Mika showing us her stomping form.

I think that's the fermenting pit that I was escaping from?

Our selection of piscos and wines to test

Another winery's historic factory

After the winery tours, we took a taxi to Huacachina to go to a disco (bar). At about 2 am, most of the group headed back, but my friend Kristyn thought it'd be a good idea for the remaining four of us climb the top of a sand dune (read: sand mountain) and watch the sunrise. We thought that it was a great idea and we went for it. With the help of the bottle of pisco we brought along as fuel, it was one of the greatest (and most well-deserved) sunrises that I've seen in my life. 

Party at a hostal in Huacachina

Sunrise from the top of a sand dune

American flag : accomplishing an impossible mission like going to the moon : : Empty bottle of pisco : accomplishing an impossible mission like climbing a sand dune after drinking a bottle of pisco

Considering we didn't get back to our hostal in Ica until 9:30, we didn't quite make it to the sandboarding with the rest of the group. We heard it was fun. I've already done it, so my bed was much more appealing at the time. After the rest of the group got back from sandboarding, we all headed by bus to Lunahuaná. After some bargaining (begging) by us at a hostal, we found some rooms (read: closets that they put mattresses in) to stay in for the night. We woke up to go rafting the next day and relax in the sun (which we haven't seen in Lima for quite a while).

Danni, Mary, Marlene, Sile, Matt (another MN boy), Kristyn, Karen, Josh, Daniel, and me before the rafting adventure

After a week of work in Lima, I went up to northern Peru to help out Christina with her project. She is working on creating a census of a small mountain village and investigate the prevalence of Chagas disease and offer treatment to those who have it (we don't have the results of this village yet, but it should be more than 10% of them). 

I took a plane to a city called Chiclayo, then took a seven hour bus ride to the town of Buenos Aires (population: <20 families), where there is a house available during the research project. We were one of the few houses with electricity, and were about an hour away from cellphone or internet access. The village that we went to was called Campo Florido and was about a two hour drive through the mountains on a dirt road that is impassable when it rains, thanks to mudslides. Christina told me a story of how she was once trapped on the road with her taxi driver for 24 hours before the road was in good enough condition to continue. 

In Campo Florido (population: ~300), I helped to add everybody in the town to the census and get them ready for blood donation. Only about half of the town showed up for the study, but we were still busy all day. Waking up at 5:30 to drive to the town and skipping breakfast and lunch, we were starving when we finally made it back to Buenos Aires. After dinner, we ended up working with the blood samples until 4:30 in the morning (essentially 23 straight hours of working). I thought that I've worked long days in the cadaver lab at TRIA before, but nothing compared to that!

Our house in Buenos Aires

The road to Campo Florido

Lilia taking blood for the research project

The town and soccer field of Campo Florido

Working with stool samples...

After work, I had a chance to play soccer and volleyball with the other kids in Buenos Aires. I remember always seeing my old dog Wynston chasing soccer balls in the middle of my sisters' games, but something I've never seen before this trip was a pig doing the same thing. Okay... the pig wasn't chasing the soccer ball, but instead would chase whoever kicked the ball at it whenever it got hit. I even won a sol ($0.35) while playing volleyball! It looks like my 1 credit volleyball class last fall is already starting to pay for itself!

Playing volleyball with some of the kids (I won my sol from kids my age, not these kids... I promise!)

That is pretty much what I've been up to lately. I am currently working on: writing up a journal article for the project I worked on when I first arrived, doing background research to start a new project, and doing whatever else I can to help out other people's projects. I found out that we made it past the first round of the Gates Foundation's grants, and if we receive that, then I'd be able to come back again and finish up doing research down here for another several months!

I decided to put off medical school applications for this year. I want to keep working and getting more experience before applying again. I'll keep you updated as I make new decisions on what I'm doing.

On Wednesday, I'm flying to Iquitos to compete in the Great Amazon Raft Race. This is a three day race 112 miles down the Amazon on rafts that we have to build. After I finish the race, I am hoping to do a survival expedition, where I'll have to learn how to survive in the Amazon for five days without any supplies.

In other words - I hope that I will be back in about two weeks to give you a new update...

Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu

After a TON of pestering from my mom for an update, I figured I'd try to take a break and get some pictures up here. Life has been moving very quickly during the past few weeks. First of all, we had all of the gringos over (and some Peruvians too) for a party at our apartment. Beto and Beth wanted to host a party in their new apartment, so we had our friends over and had some Maracuya (passion fruit) Sours, which are made from maracuya, pisco (a Peruvian liquor made from grapes), jarabe de goma (sugar syrup), and egg white. Delicious.

Maracuya Sours at my apartment

My friend Rob Pletscher arrived in Lima about three weeks ago, and we have been on-the-go ever since. As he puts it, there is never a day when people don't want to make plans with us. He is staying for a total of four weeks, and we didn't really have anything planned, other than an 8 day trip to Cusco. Everything else that we've done, we just decided to let happen.

For the first week that he was here, we stayed in Lima. I introduced him to most of my friends down here, and showed him around different parts of the city. Every day, we did something different, whether it was coming to my work at the hospital, going to teach English lessons to Beto's dad, Luis, or hanging out with different friends. After 5 days of this, we were exhausted and the trip to Cusco came at a perfect time.

Cusco was the center of the Inca empire several hundred years ago. The name Cusco literally means "navel" in Quechua (the language of the Inca people), as they figured that it was the center of the world. The city is filled with ruins from the Inca, but sadly many of them, including most of the largest temples, were destroyed when the Spaniards conquered the area in the 1500's. An interesting fact is that the original Inca buildings are able to withstand the frequent earthquakes that Peru experiences, and many of the Spanish buildings continue to fall.

We spent two days in the city taking pictures, eating, and resting as we needed to adjust our bodies for the Salkantay Trek. This trek was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done in my life. Having already seen Machu Picchu in January, I wanted to find a better, more adventurous way to see it the second time. We woke up at 4:00 in the morning (what would start to be a common occurrence), to take a three hour bus ride to the city of Mollapata (2830 meters (9300 feet) above sea level). Our first day of hiking was about 8 hours uphill to the city (and by city, I mean there was tents set up for us, and a building that had "bathrooms" in it...) of Soraypampa, 3700 meters (12100 feet) above sea level. Below are a few pictures from the first day. If you take a look at my Picassa web album, you can see all of the pictures (more than 400).

View of the mountains during the first day of hiking

Rob with Umantay Mountain in the background

Rob and I approaching the mountain

After spending that night in below-freezing temperatures (reminding me of last years' hunting/camping trip in November with Greg), we woke up at 5:00 to start the day's ten hour hike. Each morning, our guide would wake us up by opening up our tent and giving us coca tea. Unlike its powdery neighbor that you might be thinking of, the coca leaves are not considered a drug (at least, not in Peru...). It is a natural way to help suppress your appetite and thirst, while giving you more energy and trying to get rid of your headache. I'd bring back some of the coca leaves for you to try when I get home, but I don't think that the customs agent would be so happy with me...

This second day would be the hardest day of the trek, as we were all (except for the Spanish triathlete that ended up in our group) somewhat tired from the day before, and the first four hours of the trek were very steep and uphill. Rob and I switched off carrying the backpack, so before you go making fun of me that he is always wearing it in the pictures and I didn't do anything (looking at you sis), just keep that in mind. Here are some pictures of the second day of the hike.

Sunrise over Salkantay Mountain (6271 meters (20,574 feet) above sea level)

Panoramic view of the sunrise

Proof that we made it! The highest point of the trek: 4650 meters (15256 feet) above sea level. To put this into perspective, the summit of Vail is at 11,570 feet... over a half-mile lower! My parents back home in Arden Hills, MN are sitting at 980 feet...

The second night was slightly more enjoyable than the first. We had descended to 2850 meters (9350 feet). The only thing that resembled the cold from the first night was the beer that we had to celebrate making it over the highest point. However, the worker that set up our tents thought that it was a good idea to put them on a hill. Sleeping while slanted is not that easy.

We got to sleep in the next day (until 6:00!), and were still woken up to more coca tea. The third day was an "easy" day. Only 6 (read 8) hours of hiking, and it was all downhill. After about an hour of hiking, we were walking behind a young boy riding a horse when he suddenly fell off. There were no doctors around and it was clear that he had broken both bones of his forearm. We had to think fast and create a brace and sling to immobilize his arm, and gave him some ibuprofin for the swelling and pain. I gave his parents additional ibuprofin to make sure that he would have enough for the several-hour trip to the nearest doctor. Looking back on it, we should have given the family some money as well, at least enough to get to the doctor, because the people that live in the area are so poor, that it is possible that they couldn't even afford to seek medical attention on their own.

After the boy went on his way with his parents, we continued our hike. It was generally a very easy day, and we ended up in a town called Playa. From there, we took a 20 minute bus ride to Santa Teresa to visit some natural hot springs for some R&R. A hot spring had never felt so incredible in my entire life, than sitting in there with the group, drinking a beer, and trying to get our bodies in shape for the next day. Below are some pics from the third day. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the boy's arm before and after the brace or the hot springs (pics I found online...), but I'm sure you can imagine what they look like!

Rob and I with clean clothes on (something that wouldn't happen again until day 5...). Note to self: bring more t-shirts when I do the Inca Trail in October...

A waterfall along the way

Day 4 was definitely more difficult than the third day. We woke up early again (more coca tea), and starting from 2200 meters (7200 feet) above sea level we hiked 3 1/2 hours up (up to 2700 meters), and 3 hours down to a town called Hidro Electrica (even those of you that don't speak Spanish should be able to figure out that translation...). Along the way, we caught our first glimpse of Machu Picchu. We also had great views of a waterfall, and generally the best pictures of the trip up to this point. After lunch in Hidro Electrica, we walked another 3 hours in the hot sun along a railroad track to Aguas Calientes (aka Machu Picchu Pueblo). Below are pics from the fourth day.

Our first view of Machu Piccu (the valley in the middle of the picture)

Group picture from a lookout point over Machu Picchu (my head is actually covering the city of Machu Picchu... sorry!)

Rob and I crossing a bridge along the trek. The water was FREEZING but felt incredible when we decided to hop in!

The fifth day of the trek is what we had all been waiting for. We all woke up at 3:00 to go wait in line at the base of Machu Picchu. There were hundreds in line, waiting for them to open up the gates at 4:45, when there would be a mad rush up the mountain for 45 minutes. Think of the land rush in Oklahoma back in the day, when the first person there wins. In this case, the first 400 people won, but there was still a mad dash along an old Inca path. The reason for the rush is to get a ticket to be able to climb Huayna Picchu (they only allow 400 per day), where you can see the most incredible views of Machu Picchu that you could ever imagine.

We got up to the entrance of Machu Picchu and were about 30th in line (not bad considering I haven't worked out since.... ummmm.... a while...). The first person to the top: the triathlete from Spain that was in our group. I can only imagine that if my sister Katie was on the trek (also a triathlete), she would have been competing for his spot. When we entered Machu Picchu, there was clouds and fog everywhere, and we couldn't see anything! We still got some pretty neat pictures, but we were hoping that we'd actually get to see the great views that you see in postcards and on the Discovery Channel! 

At 11:00, Rob, Pablo (another one of the Spaniards that was in our group), and I started our ascent (more stairs - except these ones were even steeper) of Huayna Picchu. I'm still unsure how the Inca people were able to run along these stairs... some were as high as 3 or 4 steps combined back home, and the Incas were not a very tall group of people. We reached the summit about about noon, just in time for all of the clouds to clear out and give us great views of the entire "Lost City of the Incas". Although I had already seen this in January with my other sister, Annie, it was still just as incredible. Possibly even better, after all of the hard work that was put into getting there. 

Our guide wasn't very informative, so the group just followed me around the city for a while and I explained things that I remembered from my first time here. After I see the city again for a third time in October, I should really just apply to become a guide... Anyways, here are the pics from the fifth day.

Waiting in line before the rush to the top

Our first view from inside the entrance

The reason my mom thinks that I don't have a girlfriend...

Staring contest

The view from the top of Huayna Picchu (and probably the only thing that can get me out of bed at 3:00 in the morning to go run up a mountain)

Looking down at the ancient city

Why did we just do this again?

Our new friend Pablo, a medical student in Spain. We convinced him that his next trip is going to be to MN to check out the boundary waters...

Great view on the way back down Huayna Picchu

Panoramic shot from the guard tower

Stereotypical postcard picture of Machu Picchu. The tall mountain in the middle is Huayna Picchu.

Rob and I in what seems like a photoshopped picture

We've just been trying to recover ever since we got back. We still have blisters on our feet and our knees still are bothering us, but it was an absolutely incredible trip! Make sure to check out the rest of my pictures for many more incredible views of the mountains, a few condors, and lost inside the city of Machu Picchu. 

We are going to go to Huacachina this weekend to go sandboarding, so I will have another update soon with pictures from that!

That's all for now!

Planning trips for friends & family

I've finally settled down into a normal routine. Every day, I am coming to Hospital Dos de Mayo to work with tuberculosis patients. I have been working with two of the nurses here that don't speak ANY English, which has been a great opportunity for me to practice my Spanish! I usually stay here until around lunch time before heading back to my apartment. I ended up staying in the same apartment that I was originally living in, and will stay here for my entire time in Lima!

I am currently living with two friends, Beto (those of you who followed my sister's blog might recognize this name) and his girlfriend Beth. It has been working out well so far: I finally have internet in my apartment again (thanks Katie!), meaning that I don't need to go to the 4D to use their internet any more. I will still have to stop in to get some ice cream though. (Writing about ice cream while I'm hungry isn't the best idea. My stomach just started grumbling...)

My friend Robbie is coming in one week. I am very excited to see him! Robbie goes to the University of Nebraska, so I haven't gotten to see him very much over the past few years except when one of us has traveled to see the other. This summer was no exception, as he decided to come stay with me for a month! We are going to Cuzco for the 28 de Julio, Peru's independence day. I figured that since I didn't get a chance to celebrate the 4th with my family and friends, we'd go to the place in Peru that has the biggest independence day celebrations in here to make up for it! From Cuzco, we will set off on a 5 day trek to Machu Picchu called the Salkantay Trek. It goes all the way up to 4600 meters (>15,000 feet) above sea level, as well as down into the jungle to walk through bamboo forests and go to natural hot springs. You can read a brief bit about it from it's Wikipedia page here.

On the fifth day, we will arrive at Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas. For those of you who don't know the history of Machu Picchu, here is a brief summary:
- Built around 1450, possibly as an estate for the Incan emperor
- Abandoned about 100 years later to try to flee from the Spaniards
- Spaniards never found Machu Picchu
- There were several native people living in the original houses when American Hiram Bingham was led to the city by an 11-year-old boy in 1911
- Machu Picchu is now considered one of the New Seven Wonders of the World
- For a more detailed history, click here.

Robbie and I will also go to the city of Huacachina to go sandboarding in the desert on sand dunes. This is exactly what it sounds like. I did this when I came to visit my sister in January, and we all had a blast (except for Katie, who had trouble sitting down for the next month because she crashed so hard!). I'll write about our experience in a later blog, but you can read about our trip in January from my sister's blog if you want to find out more!

I've also been planning a trip for my dad to come down and visit. He is going to come during October and we are going to do the Inca Trail (similar to the Salcantay Trek, but a different route). This is the most famous trek in the Americas, and I'm very excited to get a chance to do it! This is going to be one of my most memorable birthdays ever, hiking in the Andes with my dad on the way to Machu Picchu!

If anyone else is looking to come down, let me know... I'd love to have more visitors! Send me an email if you want to know any information about cost, how long you would want to stay, etc.

Sorry I didn't have any pics for this update, I've been getting lazy and not taking my camera out with me. I'll try to do better for the next update!

That's all for now!

Update from Lima

I've been keeping pretty busy lately, working at three different hospitals here in Lima. I have been shadowing an orthopedic surgeon, where I get to see him perform operations and make rounds with the patients. He is trying to get me set up with being able to perform an amputation sometime soon too! As some of my relatives can attest to, I've always been interested in amputations ever since I was really young and always tried to sneak a peek at my grandpa's fake leg. I'm really excited to get a chance to actually perform one!

I've also been shadowing different people in a lab at another hospital, where they are working with tuberculosis, Chagas disease, HIV/AIDS, as well as other diseases which are more prevalent down here. More than anything, this is a great chance for me to practice my Spanish, as very few workers in the lab speak English. My Spanish still needs plenty of work, but I got excited when a taxi driver recently asked if I was from Canada, because he didn't believe that an American would be able to speak Spanish as well as I did!

The third hospital that I've been working at is where I will be spending a majority of my time during the next two months. I am taking over a project of someone who is heading back to the states to continue medical school. The project that I will be doing involves using a device that measures the concentration of nitric oxide in a patient's breath. This device is currently being used for asthma treatment to determine the amount of inflamation in the lungs, and our goal is to determine if it can be used to monitor treatment of tuberculosis as well. My job will be to travel around Lima with a nurse to make house-calls to these patients to get their data.

I am also trying to contact a company from Japan that has developed a new drug to treat Chagas disease. If we can get our hands on this drug, it would be likely that I would be working with monitoring the cardiac pathology of guinea pigs being treated with this drug. We still haven't gotten a hold of the company, so I'm not totally sure if I'm going to be working on that.

Many of the people that I have met down here are leaving/already left. I came down at a time when most people are finishing up their projects and returning to the US, which means there have been lots of despedidas to go to lately! For Leora's despedida we went to the 4D (which for those of you who have been to Lima know as the best place to get ice cream down here) and got one scoop of every flavor. Below are a couple of pictures of the plates of ice cream and a few of the people from the despedida.

Plate #1 - 11 scoops of ice cream

Leora (in the white) and some other friends at her despedida

The other plate with more ice cream!

Miranda, the girl I've been living with for the past month, is also leaving for the US this Tuesday, so we had her despedida this weekend. We somehow managed to rack up a bill of over 1000 soles (~$350) between all of us, which is by far the largest bill I have seen down here. 

The largest bill ever

After dinner, we went out to a discoteca to watch a couple of bands and have a few beers. The first band was possibly the worst band I've ever heard in my life, and that's not only because they were singing in a different language. It was an all-girl rock band that started doing those weird screaming noises that my friend Grant always listens to. Grant - I don't even think you would like this... it was just weird. The second band was pretty good. It was a rock band that kept a party-like atmosphere going the whole time so that was pretty fun. Unfortunately as Miranda was leaving, her purse was stolen right from her arm. Kind of a sour note on an otherwise great despedida

The second band of the night

Meredith and Rachel (who have been living with me for the past week and will stay until they leave for the states on Friday) and Dan Smith at Sargento's. Dan is the one who started the tuberculosis project that I will be taking over.

In other news - I found a new apartment to move into starting July 1. It is on the 13th floor overlooking the Pacific Ocean right in Miraflores, which is the area of Lima with a lot going on and should be a great time! It's going to be nice to finally live in an apartment with internet... for the past two weeks I've had to come the 4D to use their internet (and hang out with the cute waitresses, eat really good ice cream, etc...). Here is a map of where my new apartment is... it's actually two blocks to the west at the intersection with Colon, but I couldn't get Google Maps to point there.

My friend Rob Pletscher is the first person to finally book a flight to come visit me! He is going to be coming from July 21 until August 18 and we are going to Arequipa to hike in the world's largest canyon as well as to Iquitos to check out the rain forest and hunt for anacondas. My dad (feliz día del padre!) is going to be coming sometime in August or September and we are going to hike the Inca Trail together. If  you want to come visit at any time, let me know and I can help you plan it out!

Life in Lima

I am very lucky that I arrived when I did, because Katie introduced me to A LOT of great people before she left. Down here, it is customary to have a despedida (going-away party) with all of your friends before you leave, and Katie's happened to be the second night that I was here. We went to get cebiche at a fancy restaurant with many of her friends and ordered a bunch of food that I would have NEVER eaten back home, including ceviche (fish marinated in lemon juice, causing the proteins to denature and "cook" the fish without heat), cuy (guinea pig), pulpo (octopus), and much much more! Back home, I would have probably gotten sick of just the thought of eating these things, but I tried them and they were all great! If you get a chance to come visit me, these will definitely be on the menu.

Me trying octopus for the first time

Earlier in the day, I had gone to a fiesta with some of the orthopedic surgeons that I had just met. They were having a party for the guy who has done their casting for the past 35 years and is now retiring. I got to eat a TON of delicious food (potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, beef, chicken, pork, and more) and drink all of the cerveza and pisco that I wanted! It was a blast! They had singers and dancers there to entertain us, and one of the singers even called me out to welcome me to Peru! She said something along the lines of "Para nuestro amigo de Minnesota, nuestro país es su país. Le damos la bienvenida con los brazos abiertos" which means "To our friend from Minnesota, our country is your country. We welcome you with open arms."

Me with the orthopedic residents at Hospital Almanara

The next day (Sunday), Katie showed me around the area of Lima called Miraflores. There is a great park there and a ton of shops and restaurants. There is always a ton of construction going on in Lima, supposedly because the current mayor is running for president and he wants to leave a good impression on the people by fixing up the city. Because they don't have nearly as many televisions as we do back in the US, they rely on other forms of campaigning, including writing their name into mountains, posting fliers everywhere, and construction projects to fix up the city.

A typical street under construction in Lima

After getting some lunch with Katie, we went over to a house of a family that she got really close to while she was here, the Arámbulos. The oldest son, Beto, has taken me in as his little brother and calls me several times per week to check up on me and takes me out on the weekends. I will be teaching English lessons to Beto's father, Luis, starting tonight!

The Arámbulos with Katie

I also got a chance to see my first professional soccer game! I got dragged along to some of the Minnesota Thunder games back when I was younger, but that is NOTHING compared to what soccer is like down here. The game I went to was supposedly a meaningless game but several thousand fans still showed up to support their team. There was plenty of scoring, yellow cards, and even a red card. The first half of the game was possibly the longest half of soccer ever played (65 minutes) due to the visiting goalie punching one of the players on the home team. This led to fights on the field as well as in the stands. The fans were absolutely insane the entire game... any time an opposing player was anywhere near the side of the field for a throw-in or to talk to the referee, police with riot shields would have to stand in front of them to protect them from the things that people threw at them. 

I thought that I was going to be in trouble when I went to Lambeau Field with my friend Rob Pletscher last year for the Vikings-Packers game. I wore my brand new Vikings Favre jersey and wore it with pride. I got heckled a bit here and there, but I am glad that I am not an opposing fan at a game like the one that I witnessed here. After the away team scored the first goal to go up 1-0, a fan behind me started to cheer. I considered this normal, but the entire section I was sitting in thought otherwise. That fan started getting punched and spit on and had to be escorted out by the riot police for his own safety. After seeing that, the Packers fans actually seem quite tame!

My first professional soccer game

Supporting the local team (Alianza) with my new friend Gator

For the past two weeks, I have been working at two separate hospitals. I have been shadowing Miguel, one of the orthopedic docs that I went to the fiesta with, at Hospital Almanara. I have gotten to do rounds with him as he checks on patients as well as observe him in the operating room. I have now watched him fix three fractures and do two total joint replacements. After seeing surgeries in the US, it is a great experience to see how other hospitals run things in other parts of the world!

I have also been working in the laboratory at Hospital Cayatano. It is essentially a cellular biology lab where they analyze samples of patients and animals to check for the presence of certain parasites. Most of the people working in both hospitals only speak Spanish, so I have been getting a lot of practice trying to speak with them.

Today, as I was getting ready to go to work, the cleaning lady rang the doorbell. I wasn't sure if I could just leave the house while she was here or not, so I just decided to stay in, upload some pictures and update the blog, since I haven't done it in almost two weeks now. This is what I have been up to... please be sure to email/facebook/skype me with updates on what you are up to back home!

Chau

I made it!

After running into a little bit of trouble at the Minneapolis airport (they wouldn't let me in because I didn't have the same credit card used to book the flight), my mom came to save the day by leaving work and getting back to the airport just in time for me to catch the flight. Thanks Mom!

I arrived in Lima at about 11 pm (they are in the same time zone as Minnesota in case you are wondering) and my bag was the LAST one to come off of the conveyer belt. Omar (the cab driver that Katie always uses) was there waiting for me with a sign with my name on it and he brought me to Katie's (and now my) apartment. As I turned the corner out the elevator on Katie's floor, she ran up from behind me and tackled me. I guess she was excited to see me too!

We stayed up for a while hanging out, but had to go to bed relatively early because I already went to work today. I went to meet with Dr. Bob Gilman, a doctor who does a lot of public health research down here. I sat through about 7 hours of meetings (mostly in Spanish...) before going back to his apartment with Katie. I am going to be doing a few rotations in the lab, where I will work with scientists studying tuberculosis, HIV, and chagas, among other diseases. I will also follow my roommate Miranda to Arequipa and also up north to see how the field studies work, and after that I will meet with Bob again to figure out what project I will be working on for the remainder of my time here.

After the meeting with Bob, Katie and I met up with Miranda and Beto to eat Anticucho (cow's heart).

I'm going to meet with another doctor tomorrow to figure out how I can shadow him for a few weeks to see how orthopedics is down here. I will continuously update my pictures on picassa, so feel free to check out all of my pics by clicking on the link to the right.

I hope all is well back home... don't forget to come visit me!

One week to go!

After having my graduation commencement last week, I am finally ready to get out of here! I am leaving this Thursday and will be living in my sister's apartment for the first few weeks that I am there. I am going to meet up with a doctor from Johns Hopkins Medical School to figure out what project(s) I will be working on, take some Spanish lessons, and work with an orthopedic surgeon while he does his rounds in the hospital. I want to really thank my family for helping me out through this hectic time in my life as I'm moving away... you've been awesome!

If you aren't already and want to be, send me an email at past0037@umn.edu or send me a message on facebook to get set up to receive automatic updates from the blog. I promise I won't get super annoying and update this thing a million times per day, but if you want to see updates and pictures from my adventure in Peru then let me know!