In the Portland Airport
I began my journey at 3:18 am this morning, 1/19/10 (I wrote this yesterday). After spending a stressful day (and night) packing and repacking, downsizing, questioning and evaluating, I left for Portland, OR for my 6:25 am flight to New York City. I bumbled though the airport but the staff at PDX were lovely, and I made it onto my flight and was finally able to sleep. After all the preparatory work and apprehension, it was a remarkable feeling to fly away and realize that everything would work out just fine.
Somewhere in the Mid-North US covered in snow
Once in NY, my cousins drove me to their house in Washingtonville, the most adorable village about 90 min out of NYC. On the drive I saw the skyline of Manhattan, different areas my family lived, parts of the different buroughs, the ridiculous packing of people into the small space that is NYC, some different stadiums and other iconic places. I was surprised by how quick the transition was from super-populated NYC to spacious and wooded neighborhoods. It felt very different than Portland or Seattle. Or maybe we drove in a way that bypassed the suburbs. Also, I was surprised by the lack of evergreen trees! I couldn’t figure out why everything looked so weird, but it’s because most of the trees were deciduous.
My life
The best part of my day was sitting and talking with my family, relaxing, hearing their stories, and realizing today was the first day of the next 130 days of new experiences. I AM SO EXCITED.
Side note: Today’s election’s has big implications for healthcare in America…it’s an interesting environment to leave from, to a different country with a different healthcare system, to study community health.
I will spend tomorrow afternoon at a TB research lab in the Bronx. Rapid detection technology of drug resistance in TB is super interesting, so it will be awesome to see how/where some of that research is being conducted, and to meet some researchers from Durban. From NY I will fly to Atlanta and then off to Johannesburg on a long flight (23 hours!).
Clouds over NYC
Sea foam in Oregon