New country

Kenya!  Awesome!

Earplugs

Why do I feel like I am always wearing earplugs..?

UBC Medical Students Going to Nepal

Wow!  I am so envious of the students from UBC medical school who are going to Nepal this summer.  I wish I was going there again too!  It would be great to be there at the same time.  I just had a great meeting with them about what to expect in Nepal.  It was so fun to talk about it with them - I could have stayed for hours.

It made me remember so many little details of my time there and it was fun to reminisce.

I came up with a few things that I would tell anyone traveling to Nepal to bring and to think about:

• bring slippers - the houses and rooms are chilly and it's nice and warm to have them
• bring a warm hoodie or sweater - same reason (PAHS is COLD!!!)
• earplugs - the dogs bark all night and you won't be able to sleep well without them
• hand sanitizer
• shoes you don't care about as they will get very worn and dirty (or buy some cheap ones there)
• don't bring white clothes that you love - they will get dirty and stay pretty dirty
• lights (headlamp etc) for walking at night and for load shedding (power outages)
• bring a few passport photos - for your visa at the airport, cell phone purchase, trekking, other?

Things to think about while in Nepal:

• Buy a cell phone (there is a place right across from Patan Hospital) + SIM + recharge card - you will need a photocopy of your passport photo page, your visa passport page and a passport photos - it's worth it because everyone communicates by cell phone
• momos are fantastic!
• The food at the cafeteria in the hospital is very good

So many more things - I will have to write a document to send around I think!

More countries!

Switzerland
Latvia
China

Sorry, but I am amazed by this!

Water Bottle in my office at PAHS

There was a water bottle that was left on the desk in the office that I shared with Prasil at PAHS.  This is what it said on it:

The Flower spoke

of Gods

In Languages

of Rainbows.

I would stare at it everyday.  Many people seemed to have this same water bottle.

Home

Well I have been home for a couple of days now and it's been a bit sad.  Jetlag is hard to get over and coming back to reality is always hard.  After being away in a place so different than here I am finding it hard to readjust.  I have to go back to work tomorrow and have a very busy week ahead of me.  Then I am leaving again for a conference on Sunday.  I think my cats are going to hate me...

Now that I am home I am even more struck by the differences between teaching in Canada and teaching in Nepal.  Joan and I are running a PBL Tutor Training workshop today and Thursday and it will be interesting to see the contrast.  I will write about it all later!  I am also meeting with some UBC medical students this afternoon from all 3 sites to talk to them about Nepal before they go there themselves this summer.  It will be fun to discuss these differences with them too!

Countries viewing my blog to date

I really love the stats option on my blog.  I love imagining the people in those countries around the world reading it!

Here are the countries that have viewed my blog:

Canada
Nepal
Unites States of America
United Kingdom
Germany
France
Australia
Malaysia
Russia
Japan
India
Vietnam
Kuwait
Israel
Thailand
Belgium
Finland
Norway
Spain
South Korea
Singapore
Hungary

and counting..!