Life in India has become some what normal now. We have our routine down: get up, go to breakfast, go where we are posted, break for lunch, go back to our post, then hang out in our rooms until supper, and then eventually go to bed. At times it feels like I've been each much longer than 2 weeks, but other times it seems as if I just got here and still have no idea what is going on.
I have pretty much accepted the fact that for the majority of the time I will not know what is really going on. We still haven't had our program clearly laid out for us with what is expected of us and I'm not thinking that will come anytime soon. I have decided that I am ok with this and I will continue to go to the sites where I am directed and get my schedule one week at a time. For those of you that know me well you know that I like to have things planned out and pretty organized. This is helping me to realize that it is fine to not have things all planned out and that I will survive it.
The past two days Courtney and I were posted in the skin department. The resident did a good job on the first day juggling seeing patients, giving and oral exam to students, and explaining things to us. He is actually the first person so far that explained to us what each patient had and what they were going to treat them with. I am not an expert on the skin or dermatology so some of the things I had no idea what they were or how we typically would treat them in the US. The main treatments that I knew about were ones that I have tried for acne and my keloid scar. The skin department doesn't see a whole lot of patients so there is a lot of sitting around that is done. Courtney and I occupied our time by playing candy crush, 4 pics 1 word, she drew, and I finished Ender's Game. The residents in the department spend their downtime studying for their exams so we don't really want to disturb them too much and we don't have a ton of questions about skin.
This sort of sitting around understanding only part of what is going on has become very common for us. Part of the reason for this is because it seems like most of the departments don't really know what to do with us since pharmacy is so different here in India. All of the doctors and residents that we actually talk to and have longer conversations with have been pretty awesome. They do a great job at talking with us and explaining how things in India work and for that I am very thankful. Most of them also seem very interested in how things in the US work so we explain that side of things as best as we can.
The other big adjustment that I had to make was learning to like the food. I still wouldn't say that I really enjoy eating, but have come a very long way in the past 2 weeks. I now can eat the food without feeling like my mouth is on fire. It is hard to get used to eating 3 pretty spicy meals a day and not having a lot of sweets. Luckily I brought quite a bit of sweet things from home with me so when I need that fix I have something in my room. Since there is always some type of bread product at all meals I have also been enjoying that. A store nearby sells a drink called appy fizz (sparkling apple juice) and so I've really been enjoying drinking that as well as getting some chips on occasion when I need something a little salty.
I've also decided that washing machines and dryers are great things to have. Having to wash clothes by hand in a bucket takes quite a bit of effort and I'm never really convinced that I am actually doing a good job of cleaning them. There is a strange washing machine here, but I'm not entirely sure how to use it and it kind of weirds me out so I will just continue to do laundry in my room once a week and hope that by the end of my time here my clothes don't smell too bad from my lack of washing abilities.
The other situation that I should probably update you all on is the creature situation. After posting about my lizard friend I am happy to report that there have been no other sightings in my bed. I have however seen more lizards in my room, but as long as they don't try to sleep with me I am ok with that. I did have a flying cricket attack me one night right before I was going to bed so I didn't really appreciate that, but I successfully killed it and haven't seen any more in my room since that time.
At this moment in time I am still really glad that I came to India and have the opportunity to learn more about another culture. Even though it hasn't been the clinical experience that I was hoping for the people are great and I am learning some things about myself as well as the country of India. I think I am also glad that I am here for 8 weeks because I think I will continue to learn more and adjust to life here and if I was only here for 4 weeks I would just be getting settled when it would be time to leave. Would I like to live in India long-term? No, at this point I'm thinking 8 weeks will be plenty of time.
I have pretty much accepted the fact that for the majority of the time I will not know what is really going on. We still haven't had our program clearly laid out for us with what is expected of us and I'm not thinking that will come anytime soon. I have decided that I am ok with this and I will continue to go to the sites where I am directed and get my schedule one week at a time. For those of you that know me well you know that I like to have things planned out and pretty organized. This is helping me to realize that it is fine to not have things all planned out and that I will survive it.
The past two days Courtney and I were posted in the skin department. The resident did a good job on the first day juggling seeing patients, giving and oral exam to students, and explaining things to us. He is actually the first person so far that explained to us what each patient had and what they were going to treat them with. I am not an expert on the skin or dermatology so some of the things I had no idea what they were or how we typically would treat them in the US. The main treatments that I knew about were ones that I have tried for acne and my keloid scar. The skin department doesn't see a whole lot of patients so there is a lot of sitting around that is done. Courtney and I occupied our time by playing candy crush, 4 pics 1 word, she drew, and I finished Ender's Game. The residents in the department spend their downtime studying for their exams so we don't really want to disturb them too much and we don't have a ton of questions about skin.
This sort of sitting around understanding only part of what is going on has become very common for us. Part of the reason for this is because it seems like most of the departments don't really know what to do with us since pharmacy is so different here in India. All of the doctors and residents that we actually talk to and have longer conversations with have been pretty awesome. They do a great job at talking with us and explaining how things in India work and for that I am very thankful. Most of them also seem very interested in how things in the US work so we explain that side of things as best as we can.
The other big adjustment that I had to make was learning to like the food. I still wouldn't say that I really enjoy eating, but have come a very long way in the past 2 weeks. I now can eat the food without feeling like my mouth is on fire. It is hard to get used to eating 3 pretty spicy meals a day and not having a lot of sweets. Luckily I brought quite a bit of sweet things from home with me so when I need that fix I have something in my room. Since there is always some type of bread product at all meals I have also been enjoying that. A store nearby sells a drink called appy fizz (sparkling apple juice) and so I've really been enjoying drinking that as well as getting some chips on occasion when I need something a little salty.
I've also decided that washing machines and dryers are great things to have. Having to wash clothes by hand in a bucket takes quite a bit of effort and I'm never really convinced that I am actually doing a good job of cleaning them. There is a strange washing machine here, but I'm not entirely sure how to use it and it kind of weirds me out so I will just continue to do laundry in my room once a week and hope that by the end of my time here my clothes don't smell too bad from my lack of washing abilities.
The other situation that I should probably update you all on is the creature situation. After posting about my lizard friend I am happy to report that there have been no other sightings in my bed. I have however seen more lizards in my room, but as long as they don't try to sleep with me I am ok with that. I did have a flying cricket attack me one night right before I was going to bed so I didn't really appreciate that, but I successfully killed it and haven't seen any more in my room since that time.
At this moment in time I am still really glad that I came to India and have the opportunity to learn more about another culture. Even though it hasn't been the clinical experience that I was hoping for the people are great and I am learning some things about myself as well as the country of India. I think I am also glad that I am here for 8 weeks because I think I will continue to learn more and adjust to life here and if I was only here for 4 weeks I would just be getting settled when it would be time to leave. Would I like to live in India long-term? No, at this point I'm thinking 8 weeks will be plenty of time.
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| What laundry day looks like |
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| 1st time breaking out the rain jackets |
LOL! the cricket story still makes me laugh! :) thanks for the smile..I needed the attitude adjustment.
ReplyDeleteThe lady I worked with who was from India always talked about Americans and their inability to slow down. Niru worked at one speed all day long....some days she got a lot done because the workload required it...others, well, she could stretch a 30 minute task into 8 hours if that was all the workload on her responsibility list. She sure didn't take initiative to do anything extra. Made working with her a bit of a challenge. However, she did make me question why Americans are always in a rush. I am glad you are adjusting to your critter problem. Are you gonna try to bring one home to keep as a pet? Yah....didn't think so. Unless you get a stow-away. Keep posting as I am enjoying reading them.
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