Second Week of Class: Thursday, September 6, 2012-Sunday, September 9, 2012

Thursday Schedule

9-12pm: PHM Lecture 6: Thai Public Health System: Development of the Thai Health Care System

12-2pm: Global Health Fellow and Public Health Facilitator meet with student co-facilitators

2-5pm: Co-Facilitated Discussion Session

6pm: Optional WOLF activity

Development of the Thai Health Care System Lecture by Dr. Chanaphol

Confession: During class, I take these awkward photos during lecture because I want to make sure that I have enough photos so that I don't forget about my experience abroad. For instance, what if I get Alzheimers when I am older and never even remember that I went to Thailand! (I am sure there are a lot more things to worry about if I were to ever get Alzherimers, but I use this as my excuse to take candid photos of lectures). 

Need to make sure the flash if off!

Friday Schedule

9-12pm: Interest Paper Consultation with Global Health Fellow

1-2pm: PHM Course Review II

Course Reviews: We fill out weekly surveys about our experience during the program. We provide our input about the lectures, discussions, consultations, and any other comments that we wish to provide. It may get a little tedious at times (as it is an hour long survey), but the fact that the program reads our feedback and makes the appropriate changes makes it worthwhile. It is a great way to keep improving the program!

Green Curry and Fried Wantons at the "Restaurant between Apartments and CIEE Office." Of course, it has a more sophisticated and more Thai-like name, but since I cannot read Thai (nor is there a name that is advertised), we shall call it the "RAC"

This was an unbelievably delicious meal. I discovered this restaurant (and it's food) recently and I have literally been going there every single day. It is only open for lunch, so I feel like I need to take advantage of the limited supply of wantons. Luckily, there are 32 other people in the program so I can always bring someone new with my to the "RAC" since no one is as crazy as I am about going to same restaurant daily. Yes, I have attachment issues.

Discussion Session: Megan and I chose to pair up and facilitate the discussion section on infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases and the Thai public health system. After the discussion, our fellow PH students grade us on our facilitation which is worth 60% of our discussion grade and then Ajaan Jen and Brett's grades are worth the other 40%. We did a review, asked great discussion questions and played a trivia game!

First Interest Paper: During our first course which runs from August 27th to October 18th, we are expected to write two interest papers which need to be at least 1500 words and a research paper which has to be at least 2500 words. For my first interest paper, I chose to write about Opisthorchiasis, which is a prevalent disease in Northeast Thailand that causes Cholangiocarcinoma. 

Medical School Applications: Being a senior already, I am currently in the medical school application process. Before leaving to Thailand, I took my MCAT and submitted my AMCAS (primary application) to medical schools. Starting at the end of July, I started to receive each medical schools' secondary applications, which asks approximately two to four essay questions that are about 250 words each. So, not only must I focus on the material that is presented in class, but I also need to complete these secondary applications on a timely basis so that medical schools can invite me for interviews soon after I come back from Thailand.

This week, I used Thailand's post office to mail out one of my medical school applications! The post office opens at 8:30am and when I got there around 8:15am, there were already people standing outside, waiting for the doors to open. Once they opened, not only did I go stand in line, but I also took a queuing number. I thought to myself, "I can stand in line, buy my envelopes, have time to prepare the envelopes, mail my letters right away as my number will be called, AND have time to get to class by 9am." Let's just say I needed to think again. My first number was called but I did not hear it, so I needed to take a new number. As my second number was called and I came to the front of the line, I was faced with difficult questions in Thai. "Would you like this to be shipped in 3 days for 600 Baht, or 6 days for 29 Baht?" Medical schools can wait, right?

As of today, I have to submit four more medical school applications and I have already submitted five medical school applications already while abroad. Talk about busy!

A nutella, peanut butter and blueberry jam crape is necessary in order to survive this busy weekend.

Rachel is too shy for photos and Roren is too hungry.

Karolina is too focused on writing her paper, but then she is easily distracted.

Second week: As may be noted, this has been a hectic week. Before coming to Thailand, I thought that there would be more free time and that I would have more chances to travel and explore this beautiful country. However, recently my time has been dedicated to scheduled class time, writing papers and leading discussions. Even through I am very busy, I am enjoying every second of it. I enjoy learning about the Public Health topic, I am with great company and I am learning something new about myself each day. I am not sure that I could ask for more.