Capital Detours

Livin' it up in D.C.

  • 30th August
    2011
  • 30

Ooops…

So as a friend has now reminded me I haven’t posted in OVER a month…(sorry!)…I’m finally back in DC after a wonderfully long vacation at home. I started my 7th semester of grad school yesterday and today, I have plans to 

1. Grocery shop. I have soy milk (that stuff never seems to expire. It is like Harry Potter milk) and chicken stock in my fridge so I’m heading over to Whole Foods in VA to get my organic on.

2. Clean and organize. I went through a thing at home in CT where I needed to organize everything. Now that I’m back in my apartment, things are just not up to par so I need to clean and do a full organization spree. Including that dreaded linen closet in my hallway that is like your kitchen “junk drawer” but mine is more like a closet “black hole” of vases, batteries, kleenex boxes, camping supplies, and I think it is actually where Mr. Clean lives. Seriously though. I have a lot of cleaning supplies in there.

3. School misc. Time to order those textbooks that we use once all semester! 

And on that note, a little phrase my vector control professor used last night that got me giggling.

When talking about mechanic transmission of disease (like house flies carrying bacteria and then landing on your food): “House flies. You know, if they take a little dance on some feces and then come and land on your food, and you eat it, you are now sick!”

I am going to completely enjoy this class. And start sending my food back when a fly lands on it, for sure.

 (<— very tired house fly)

  • 15th July
    2011
  • 15

A weekend away with some girlfriends!

So I’m heading out of town for the weekend! Just a short Amtrak trip up to Baltimore to visit my best friends from college. We only get together (all 4 of us!) once every 6 months, if we are lucky, so this is always a big treat. I am looking forward to a fun-filled weekend of walking around Federal Hill and making sure I get in some Eggs Chesapeake on Sunday at brunch! 

Would have loved to do another segment of “A Mixed Bag…” before I packed today but I barely squeezed in this post between term paper writing and some laundry. You can expect one next week before I voyage up to Connecticut for summer break — and then again before I leave for the big ACK adventure (3 weeks!!)

Have a great weekend :)

  • 14th July
    2011
  • 14
Making a mental note for my future home. The list so far is a wrap-around porch and one of those outside kitchens with a keg fridge.

Making a mental note for my future home. The list so far is a wrap-around porch and one of those outside kitchens with a keg fridge.

(Source: smallrooms)

  • 23rd June
    2011
  • 23
  • 15th June
    2011
  • 15
  • 15th June
    2011
  • 15

So what exactly do you do again?

Having made the awkward transition from pre-med to public health, I still get a lot of questions from family and friends about what I actually do, what I’m studying and what I want to do afterwards. With medicine, it was fairly cut and dry but international health development is a cousin of, but a different species altogether.

By securing funds via grants or loans from either country governments or multilateral institutions (like the UN, UNICEF, The World Bank…the list goes on), development practitioners move forward with projects and programs that allow people in developing countries to receive insecticide treated nets, to train more teachers to staff schools, to build capital, improve agriculture techniques to adjust to climate changes, build clean water systems…Essentially, endless opportunities to improve the quality of life in these low-income countries. I make it sound like such a perfect global system, someone should hire me to do marketing for the Clinton Foundation…::nudge, nudge, Mr. President::

Like with any system, there are chronic and acute issues with all aspects of this process. Say I work for Organization X who wants to implement a program that will immunize 85% of all children in a province in Zambia with the rotavirus vaccine, a newer vaccine that prevents certain forms of diarrhea in children. Organization X finds out that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has opened a call for grants for an immunization program in Zambia for $10 million. Organization X spends a few weeks working 24 hours a day to reply to this grant request, writing all about how they are the best org for the job, all of the capacity they have in Zambia already and how they can produce results in the most cost-effective manner. Bill Gates says “sounds good!” and over the next 1-5 years, his foundation will write your org a check for a certain amount of money so you can implement the project. There are many checks and balances with this system; you don’t just get a “free” check every 6 months! The Foundation will require your org to send back progress and evaluation reports of what has been accomplished so far.

Issues arise in a number of areas, like trying to get immunizations to the right villages without them spoiling or having employees stealing the vaccines to sell on the black market. Other issues can include corruption, poor training of the community health workers to administer the vaccines, running out of money before the 85% has been reached etc. A lot of these issues are constant in many programs and the development community is working toward a solution but in many cases, we are still on the lookout for a sustainable solution.

I think this video clip does a great job at explaining what international development accomplishes. It is a jazzy little video and I recommend watching it — I completely plan on showing this to my relatives at Christmas the next time one of them asks me “What kind of doctor do you want to be?”

  • 15th June
    2011
  • 15
  • 9th June
    2011
  • 09

Quick, Simple and Delicious: Grilled Salmon

I have my own way of cooking — My mom and I refer to it as the “my last name here” style. I rarely add ingredients at the correct time, opting to add them all in at once and mix (a la funfetti cake mix). I never sift the flour, never scrape the top of the measuring cup with a knife to make sure it is the correct amount and never pre-heat the oven. 

That’s me trying to get my cook on in Zambia. It was a fine attempt at convincing our hosts that you could eat breakfast for dinner. Needless to say, we (meaning the silly Americans, not our hosts) got sick two days later. Coincidence? 

That being said, I am a pretty decent cook and baker. Right, friends? Anyone? Ok, so I’m improving. As my boyfriend will remember, the first time I cooked for him, he had to choke down the BLT Chicken I made him because I cooked it too much (he didn’t tell me until about 6 months later so at least he was being polite). I have a few tried-and-true recipes I like to pull out every once in a while which I plan to share with everyone at some point. 

However, I found myself in a food dilemma last night. I have the bare bones in my fridge right now due to my travel schedule on the weekends. Yogurt, carrots, hummus, and onions are about all I’ve got at this point. I was in luck to find a frozen salmon filet in there from Memorial Day weekend and was determined to find a recipe that was more exciting than steaming some green beans and throwing the filet in the oven with some salt and pepper. Epicurious to the rescue! I found a PERFECT recipe that was easy and quick and needed next to no ingredients.

Salmon with Lime Butter Sauce 

Some suggestions — I obviously cut this recipe by a lot because I was only making it for one person with one filet. I used the juice from the one lime I had sitting around, intended for some gin and tonics, instead of the 1/4th cup. I also only used one little pat of butter (about 1 tablespoon). The idea for the butter is really to just create more of a consistency to the lime juice and garlic sauce so you only need to pour in a little at a time until you see the sauce begin to really take shape. I kept the garlic, salt and pepper the same. 

Just grill the salmon, throw those ingredients in a food processor for a hot minute and pour it over the salmon. Serve it with some veggies and steamed brown rice — it was truly awesome and looked very impressive for something that took 10 minutes to make!

  • 8th June
    2011
  • 08

A sad, sad day.

A time comes in every little Connecticut girl’s life when she says goodbye to her first pair of Louboutins. Four years ago, I received my very first pair as a Christmas present, wore them only on the more special of occasions, and kept them locked up in my closet in their bright red shoe bags. They were patent leather, mid-heel mary janes and the perfect combination of cute and, well, Loubs! 

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to pass on these beautiful shoes to a new owner. I have been itching to move on to greener (or beige-er) pastures… 

With that, I give you the link to my ebay page where my first pair sit, anxiously awaiting a new owner with an eye for cute shoes. And for those not in the market for those outrageous and timeless red soles, check out some J. Crew goodies I have up for sale as well! 

  • 7th June
    2011
  • 07