I'm back!  Well, its been almost 3 1/2 years (yes, I just counted that on my fingers) since I packed up my mosquito nets and moldy t-shirts on that funny little South Pacific island.  I am well overdue for an other adventure to say the least.  I guess that is a little unfair to say that the last 3 1/2 years have not been an American Adventure of sorts.  I had a lot of crazy ideas while in the Peace Corps, one of them was to go to medical school.  So upon returning from that silly South Pacific place I went to a funny little pretentious east coast school to get my Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medical "certificate" that really meant nothing except that I could then START applying for medical schools at the young age of 27.

So I did that and then promptly moved to Madison, Wisconsin to play rugby, drink beer, eat cheese and work in a research job in the Department of Surgery all while applying to schools.  I guess the important people were out of the office one day because by the grace of Darwin I got into the University of Wisconsin.  Last August I started my first year of medical school here in Madison.  That sure was neat.

I survived first year, but Derm just about did me in.  Anyone that goes into derm is weird.  Is this the part where I have to say that the views on this blog are mine and mine alone?  Anywho, where does the adventure come in?  At the beginning of the year I was already itching to do something crazy.  For those that don't know, the summer between your first and second year is your LAST SUMMER EVER!  Seriously they take away sun tans and bikinis after this summer.  Its true, I read it on facebook.  So, like all type A people, most med students sign up for research jobs for their last holy summer.  I would love to say I didn't, but I did...but wait, its a cool research job because I get to go to Ethiopia!  There is a vascular surgeon at UW who is from Ethiopia and has established a partnership with Black Lion Hospital in Addis Ababa.  I approached him approximately 5 minutes after I received my acceptance letter asking him if there would be any research opportunities for someone like me.  Sure, why not?  he said.  We dreamed up a whole mess of projects I could do while I spend 4 weeks this summer in Addis.  Most of these projects will be working in their Department of Surgery and one includes a needs assessment investigating the need (or not) for a colorectal residency program, which means I get to team up with my of my favorite colorectal surgeons who came from that same silly little eastcoast school I mentioned before.

I fly out for Addis June 15th and will hang out there until July 13th at which point I will jet on down to see a long-lost Hanks cousin in South Africa who spends her time flying planes around the south.  What can I say, Hanks women are badass whatever country you are in.  I will spend a week with her and then fly back to the States on June 20th.  I think I will be flying for 30 hours, but it will always be Friday, which is awesome because I can then add "discovered time travel" to my resume, which will surely piss off many of the gunners in my med school class. 

Until I leave I will be researching various medically Ethopianly related topics in the Department of Surgery as well as doing a bit of jet-setting in the states including going to Pittsburgh this weekend to play on the Midwest Select side team, Denver next weekend to watch my dreamy rugby guy play in the National Championships for rugby, followed by same dreamy long-haired brother's wedding in Vegas the next weekend.  And then I will wake up in Addis....Adventures continued...