http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/bmiller4764/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from bmiller4764 en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:08:39 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:08:39 +0000 I have made it to Battambang Cambodia as of a couple weeks ago and am already fully entrenched in my new job. The previous experiences I have had were fun and exciting. They allowed me an opportunity to see much of the world and essentially take an extended vacation under the guise of doing something productive. But in my mind I also wanted to use this year to gain some medical experience and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Battambang/blog-359629.html As Christmas approaches I have never felt more out of the loop. Here on the beach in southern Thailand the temperature exceeds 90 every day and afternoons are spent in the water or looking for shade. Rudolph is supplanted by longboats and mopeds and Santa would have to shave lose some weight and buy some cargo shorts. But to everyone back home pulling the coats and scarves ever tighter let http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Lanta/blog-354018.html We have just one week left of work before traveling east a little into Bhutan for about a week. The quotation marks are necessary for several reasons. Similar to previous locations work days are typically from 9 to 3. This is not unexpected and now not a novelty. I'm at the point where if we finish at 315 I feel entitled to reward myself for all my hard work. I'm sure this newly emb http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Bhutan/Thimphu/blog-347147.html It seems reasonable to keep this as an apolitical assessment of my experiences. Sometimes however events are too large for reason. Noor and I spent the morning watching the election results come in trying to share in the excitement evident all over the country. I have never seen anything like this. Of course the real work is yet to begin but this is truly an amazing day. The one insight http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Bhutan/Thimphu/blog-341844.html I was walking home from the hospital the other day and had a strange feeling normalcy. It's similar to when I realized that I stopped looking up all the time while walking around Chicago after moving there. This doesn't feel like home but it does feel like I live here however transient. The driving isn't intimidating the vendors aren't annoying the beggars aren't surprising my lack of a http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Blantyre/blog-334148.html So here is a brief breakdown of the work experience in Malawi. Since I've been here 2 weeks I have been exclusively at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. It is the biggest hospital in the country and home to the medical school. The medical school has only been in existence for a few years initially the graduating classes were 2030 now it's closer to 100. Regardless these gradu http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Blantyre/blog-330425.html Hi all. I have arrived in Blantyre Malawi as of Sunday. It was a little hard to get information as I was on the road so I was pleased to hear about the Cubs clinching the division and not as pleased to hear about the banking crisis in the states. Too bad I'm not still at Rush or I could have contributed some meal tickets toward the 700 billion bailout. It certainly feels strange to be so di http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Blantyre/blog-327010.html So this is the first chance I've had in a while to update things. Currently I am in Maputo Mozambique. This is a very pleasant city lots of tropical plants large trees with overhanging branches old aesthetic buildings of Portuguese infuence. Not huge and asphyxiating like Johannesburg. Of course there is the typical African street markets beggars trash strewn about etc. But I have to http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Maputo/blog-322278.html These one month assignments of which my first three South Africa Malawi Bhutan are have within them the design to be essentially vacations for the volunteers. By that I mean that every weekend is free of responsibility. I like to think I'm as hardworking as the next guy but if there is anything residency has taught me it's that I like me some vaca. I spent my first weekend here in Mt http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Eastern-Cape/Mthatha/blog-316878.html It's tough to get these entries written in 1hour internet sessions I will put some pics of trips to beaches I have taken in a couple days but I wanted to give a bit of an overview of daytoday life as a doc here. This is actually my last week in South Africa before traveling for about three weeks and ending up in Malawi so I can also reflect and analyse. I imagine this will also be an evo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Eastern-Cape/Mthatha/blog-316059.html Of course there will be excitement. But there are also the more mundane tasks that make us human no matter the location. Maybe it was the discovery of Uncle Ben's South African nemesis on a bag of rice. Now that I am officially Uncle Ben it put me in a pensive selfreflecting mood and I made some dramatic revelations about my more domestic side.I have not really used a bathtub for near http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Eastern-Cape/Mthatha/blog-311305.html Hello everyone. I guess this is the first official posting after commencement of the journey. I arrived in Mthatha or Umtata on Thursday evening after a bit of improvization while traveling. My initial flight out of Chicago Monday morning was delayed and I missed my connection in LA. I took a flight out later that night and arrived in Hong Kong early in the morning I think it was Wednesday http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Eastern-Cape/Mthatha/blog-310039.html Hello everyone. I have set this up to serve both as a travel journal for myself and an easy way for anyone interested to get a sense for where I am and what I am doing. I will also be able to display photographs of hospitals living arrangements and various flora and fauna.My tentative itinerary is as follows August Mthatha South Africa September travel through Mozambique October Bla http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-303630.html