Oh My Ghandi!!!!

It's spring break. There is a warm breeze blowing outside and there are guys in the courtyard tossing a baseball around. It stays light until about 7 PM and the Yankees are on the gym TV every day. Hell, even the rats have taken to fornicating out in the open around here. Springtime in The Bronx. Yeah it smells a little like a dirty wet sock outside, but overall it's quite pleasant.

We just finished our latest group of exams. These included Disease Mechanisms, Cardiovascular Physiology and the quintessentially irrelevant class, Intro to Clinical Medicine. That makes me 3 classes short of finishing my 1st year as a medical student. I think I have a Pharmacology class and a Renal Pathophysiology class yet to do, as well as finishing up the Preventative Medicine class we have to take (and which sucks more ass than all of the inmates at Riker's combined). Anatomy came and went and it was a great experience. I now know what's inside all of you. I also won some award for generally kicking ass in the class. They give out this award to 3 people from the class each year who generally do very well and help other people in the class. This year, the old man took it down. OK, that should cover the bragging for this post. Oh, except that I've lost about 30 lbs since getting to school. I'm a wisp I tell you.

For Spring break I am heading over to Paris. Ain't never been there, they tell me it's nice. We're only spending 5 days there, but I plan on drinking 30 days worth of wine and eating 60 days worth of buttery French goodness. In preparation for the trip, I have been trying to assimilate some French customs to help me blend in. I have reviewed my 1 semester of college French and have neither showered nor worn deodorant for over a month. I also picked a fight and then ran away shrieking the other day just for good measure.

My summer plans are set, well at least my plans for July are. I am heading to Mumbai, India to partake in an Infectious Disease program there. I know what you're thinking, and I too thought this was going to be a trip similar to those very popular trips to Thailand to meet young girls for the purposes of carnal pleasure that so often include infection with many bizarre diseases for your trouble. This trip is different though, we're meeting young boys (ba-ziiing). The course is set up to study the Indian medical system with a particular emphasis on infectious diseases such as leprosy (which is still a major problem in some areas), TB, malaria, leishmaniasis, dengue fever, and HIV/AIDS. I know 3 other guys going from my school, all Indian. I keep singing that sesame street song whenever we talk about the trip: "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong." Not doing a foreign school trip like this is one of my biggest regrets from college and I'm very grateful that I get to make up for it now.

Well I think that about covers it. Here is my usual promise to write on here more often, which I, of course, have no intention of keeping. Au revoir.