609 sleeps to go

According to the conceptually snazzy but aesthetically not-so-snazzy Countdown Widget I've recently added to my blog, there is now officially only 609 more days until I leave for my medical elective, August 16th 2010.

Yayayayayayayayayayayaya!

Why does it often feel like I'm one of the few amongst my classmates who is seriously looking forward to their elective? It's basically what's getting me through med school, the freedom of three whole months of travelling wherever I want to go in the world to do absolutely whatever I want to do (within the constraints of medicine, of course).

And about a week ago I pretty much made up my mind to spend those three months in Gambia with The Medical Research Council, UK. I've been going back and forth between medicine in a developing country (i.e. Africa or South America), or doing an internship at an international organisation involved in health policy (i.e. in Washington D.C., NYC, Geneva, London, etc.) -- or both. I never did warm up to the idea of the latter, dividing up my three months into two six-week chunks -- popular with students because it's the more "tourist-y" option, choosing your destination institution more to explore that city/country/region rather than to get knee-deep into the institution itself. Good for travelling around for fun, but you'd come out of it with a mere Readers Digest appreciation of the medicine and culture involved. And while I have to admit the thought of spending three months in Washington D.C. interning for an NGO is wildly attractive (cue: West Wing nostalgia) and would so not be a wasted experience in any way given my future ambitions, I feel like (a.) I have the rest of my life to get involved with NGOs in places like Washington D.C. and NYC considering that's what I want to do with my life(!), but (b.) I feel like if I don't go to Africa now as a student, I probably never will for a long, long time; it will remain on my to-do list and it won't be until I'm 50years old when the guilt and remorse of studying third world health policy but never experiencing it for myself will become too much that I will finally acquiesce and take a sabbatical from my cushy white collar position to go, after which I will feel ten billion M&Ms worth of regret for not getting around to it until then.

Hence, three-months in Africa it is. So the next question is, where in Africa??

I've been talking to a friend of mine who's just finished her third year of medicine and is taking a year off to volunteer, six months of which she will spend doing research for the Medical Research Council, UK in Gambia. Surprisingly enough, she's got almost the exact same interests in global health policy as I do, and the same goals, ambitions and direction for her future career. The similarities are, to some degree, unbelievable. But I guess that's why we get along so well, a rare find amongst medical students! So we were out for dessert one night and she was telling me more about the Medical Research Council, and I literally fell in love.

I will spare the details because most people aren't interested (at all) in any of it, but suffice it to say, my plans are set: three weeks travelling Eastern Europe on the way to Africa, ten weeks in Gambia, and two weeks travelling back exploring Western Europe or revisiting the US to finish... and then graduation... and then the rest of my life!

609 more sleeps to go! Not that far yet!!