traveling jitters

First post! 


So I'm about 6 days away from my arrival in Vietnam.  So far, I don't have much material to post on this blog except my reasons for going.


The idea of traveling this summer came into my mind after I realized that the summer after your first year of medical school is essentially the last summer of freedom. After next year - Step 1 boards (!); 3rd year - rotations; 4th year - residency.  As the last few weeks of school approached, the standard question to ask fellow classmates was "So what are your plans this summer?" and based on the responses I received, everyone presented with one of two options - either traveling aboard or working in a research lab. For the past three summers, I've spent it working in a clinical lab and it was definitely a good experience but definitely not one I wanted to repeat for the 4th year in a row. So I decided to spend my last summer of sweet, sweet freedom exploring on the other side of the world than pipetting into test tubes (a bit of an understatement but I still remain bitter from a summer full of PCR reactions). 


Over the past winter break, my dad mentioned that his old college buddy's sister is a cardiologist in Saigon and she has hosted previous medical students from Canada and the States. I asked him to contact her to see if she would be willing to host me for the summer and allow me to shadow her and other doctors in her hospital.  I usually have very little optimism reserved for these kind of awesome opportunities (I think I like to expect the worst so that disappointment doesn't catch me by surprise). But with great support from my parents, one of my school's deans, and an extremely friendly and accommodating hostess, I got the 'okay' to shadow this doctor and set up a full work schedule for about 2 weeks.  


Then reality kicked in.  I realized that I was going to a completely foreign country that almost no familiarity to me (except for the food - love my mom's cooking) and I was suddenly overwhelmed.  I really wanted some kind of support system there with me. I had never travel out of the country before for more than a week and each time I did, I was with a group or family - never flying solo. Also, my vietnamese language skills are extremely limited - I'm basically a one-way translator that can understand but can't speak it back.  So I ask my parents to join me - neither one of them had been back to Vietnam since they immigrated to the US over 35 years ago. This basically changed the tone of the trip for me - its aim is not just to provide a unique medical experience but it's become much more personal. Not only was I going to be able to experience the health care of another country, but I'll be able to learn about my family, our history, and my country with my parents by my side. So in addition to shadowing in the hospital, we plan to travel around to visit where my parents grew up (they were neighbors as kids - so cute), visit relatives and friends (for first time for me; for the first time in a long time for my parents), and explore the country (get ready for pictures galore).


So until we take off at the end of this week, I'll continue to work with Rosetta Stone to brush up my language skills (supposedly, most of the hospital employees there speak English but I still feel like I should know more than numbers and colors).  Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this blog. I'm not too sure about how much internet access we'll have there - hopefully some, because otherwise, this blog is going to be pretty dang boring.