Czech it out

Oh, bad and easy puns. You can tell it's 3:30 in the morning.

Prague meeting!!!! On Wednesday, there was a meeting for all the people that got into the 2008 Prague selective, and we got to talk about how awesome Prague is going to be, ask questions, and meet Dr. Stransky, who not only runs the selective but owns the local bar. Now, that's handy.

If you want all the official info, and not my "never been to Europe before OMG" gushing, go here.

If you want to hear from someone who's smarter than I am, and a better writer than I am, and has actually *done* the Prague selective, go here.

Still around? Suckers.

The meeting didn't tell me all that much I didn't already know, but just sitting around with other people confirming that this was actually how we are going to spend our summer was awesome. Also got a little more elaboration on the selective itself, such as students being able to do anything from observe the goings on to scrubbing in and holding retractors. Whoa. I cannot contain the potential awesomeness of that. While, of course, being in Prague.

The selective will be from 8-12 five days a week, with two afternoon seminars a week. I want that schedule when I'm a real doctor. Dr. Stransky also cautioned us that if/when we take weekend trips to Berlin, Vienna, or Budapest, we should be careful to make sure we're back in time for Monday morning rounds because the trains can get delayed.

There was also a segment on consulting local consulate/embassies, oh, and we'd be meeting the American ambassador, etc, and it was around this point (and the whole "be careful not to get stuck in Hungary over the weekend" thing) that I realized I was hearing all this while living in Grenada, closer to Africa than I am to California. I spent last Easter on a weekend trip to Venezuela. I was inconvenienced by having to sit on the floor of an airport in Jamaica, and I'm getting home for Christmas by way of Trinidad.

A year ago, I had been to Canada as a baby, border cities in Mexico, and one dive trip to the Philippines that was under the protection and arrangement of my friendly local Sacramento shop.

So it's become bizarre. A really awesome, mildly scary "wow, I feel like a globetrotting rich kid despite buying lentils because meat is too damn expensive" bizarre, but bizarre nonetheless.

Before I came to Grenada, I always had this "ooh, ah, how incredible" for the people that went to this school and were constantly flipping between countries, and thought their lives were so infinitely fascinating to listen to, and couldn't understand why none of the students seemed to think of it that way. And it's funny how quickly a lot of weird stuff becomes standard (hey, don't you hate it when stray dogs run at you?; Oh wow! You have a blender???), and then every so often, it slaps you in the face just how far removed from your normal dynamic you are, and the Prague meeting was one of those moments. Heh. It is surreal to me that in eight months, I may be trying to mangle "Where is your pain?" in Czech.