In transition

In three days I will be moving to Baltimore, where I'll start my MHS in Health Finance and Management at the JHU Bloomberg School of Public Health. I guess this time is as fitting as any other to start a new blog. The year promises to be exciting and full of changes, so I hope to record as much of that as I can in this blog. This will also help me keep in touch with my friends (well, as long as they feel like reading this, anyway!), so guys, your comments are more than welcome :-) Post on my blog, or email it, or Skype/IM me, whatever works!
A few weeks ago, I moved out of what had been my home for the past year and a place of many changes, International House of Philadelphia. I chose it for its location - in the heart of University City, walking distance to UPenn, where I worked as a research assistant in anesthesiology/critical care at HUP - as well as convenience. There were no landlords, no hassles or surprises that come with renting in the city. Just promises of culturally diverse and interesting people with whom to live and share bits of life.
I didn't have many expectations for my time in Philadelphia; my goals were to gain more clinical and research experience, focus my interests in medicine (which, as you can see, also fostered a steadily growing interest for public health), and to see what the "real world" is about. I never expected to meet all the wonderful people that I did, and the friendships we developed were more than I ever could have asked for. I started out focused and driven on what I guess you can call my professional life, and then all you amazing people came and gave me incredible friendship, joy, and love.
Before I get wayyy more sappy than is appropriate for public weblogs, let me just thank you - all my I-House buddies, you know who you are!, my friends from college who were also in Philly, and my colleagues from Penn - for a wonderful year of growth, discovery, and good times. Because of you, I'll look back on this past year with happiness, and I have the strength and motivation to continue to enjoy life's journey.

And of course, thank you to my family for your unwavering support, and for providing a place for me to crash ;-)

Also... because of you guys, I can say thanks in a few more languages, here goes - arigatou gozaimasu, merci beaucoup, danke, bedankt, tack, xie xie, grazie, gracias, shukran! hehe



I'll keep adding to the links section of my blog. Check out what Michael, one of my friends from I-House who is now back home in Germany, has to say in his blog!


I'll be back later, you can count on that..right now, there is a poster for the ASA 2007 meeting that is screaming to be finished (and which I am also internally screaming and begging not to do!), packing packing packing, and school stuff.