The One with the Vaccinations

Travel Clinic

As most of you could have guessed, the trip preparation that I was most dreading was getting "all of" my vaccinations for India.  I assumed that I would have to make multiple trips to the doctors office so that my arm wouldn't fall off with all of the shots I had to get so that I didn't die abroad.

To my surprise, the only injection I had to get was a tetanus booster, that I was due for in August anyways.  Thankfully I already got the rest of the vaccinations sometime in my childhood. The Typhoid vaccination is offered in oral tablets, and I will also have to take Malaria pills for the entirety of my trip.

Dr. Thompson

Unfortunately my best friend who usually accompanies me on these slightly ridiculous ordeals is gone for the week, so I had to brave the trip to the Travel Clinic all on my own.  Dr. Richard Thompson was kind of quirky but seemed quite competent. We sat down together in his office and discussed my trip, and what I would be doing so that he could understand what kinds of diseases I would possibly be exposed to.  He enjoyed acting out the different scenarios (example: someone getting bit by a cute dog with rabies).  He was also nice enough to prescribe me a preventative antibiotic, just in case I get a respiratory or stomach bug.

After we discussed the plan, I had to go get my shot.  The nurse, Giovana, was literally the nicest nurse I've ever had.  She was super patient and had me lie down.  For the first time in my life I stayed calm and it didn't take more than 5 minutes.  They were super paranoid that I was going to pass out, so they made me lie there for 10 minutes sipping water, and then wait another 15 minutes in the waiting room "just in case".

Though a 20 year old getting a simple shot doesn't seem like much of a feat, for me it was, so I am proud that I was able to do it all on my own.  Hopefully this is an indication that I am ready to face challenges that I would not have been able to deal with in the past, since I am sure that I will encounter them in many different forms throughout my time in India.

The One With the Passport Drama

Naturally both my passport and driver's license expired this past August, just before my flight back to DC. Somehow I was able to get to our nation's capital without the TSA agents noticing that I did not have any valid form of ID.  I therefore blame my bad government identification karma for the nightmare that was obtaining a renewed passport for this trip.

My old passport. 

Mid-November I made a trip to my local post office in DC to ensure that I would be able to get my renewed passport in time to get an Indian Visa and buy plane tickets. Of course it was pouring rain that day and I had decided to wear my Toms instead of the clearly needed rainboots.  The guy working at the post office commented "Those aren't really shoes for the rain are they?" no they are not.... 

Anyways, I get to the post office with all of my forms filled out, drivers license copied, and cash ready to pay for the photos I could conveniently take there as well.  According to my bad karma, the camera for the photo was broken, so I had to then make a trip to this private travel agency to take my photos followed  by another 30 minute wait at the post office to finish up my passport application.  The guy reassured me that I would receive my new passport by  mid-December, and that I would be able to track the application status online.

Georgetown Post Office.

Three weeks later, I still could not log on to the application tracker online, so I finally made a call to the State Department. The guy on the phone informed me that my application was no where to be found and recommended that I make a trip to the post office to figure out what was going on. The next Monday I make my way over to the post office, and I am quite positive that the lady working there could tell that it was finals week because she let me cut the line of impatient people hoping to mail holiday packages.  She reassured me that the application was sent out of the post office to the state department, and said that I may just have to resubmit it if they could not locate it in their office.  

After a very necessary trip to T-Sweets I made my last phone call to the State Department to ask them what my next steps were.  The cheery guy on the phone asks for my social security number and then lets me know that my passport will be arriving in a week, and asks what all the stress is about. I decided to spare him my passport saga, and thank him for his help.  I do not think I will ever know why my passport disappeared, but at this point I am just grateful that I didn't have to super-expedite a new one.  Thankfully this seemed to mark the end of my bad ID karma, and my Indian Visa application has been submitted and sent to the consulate.  Hopefully I will be getting that in the next few days so that I am confident that I will be able to board my next flight without any sketch breeches of security.

The One with the Idea

I decided to go to India on a Bolt Bus on my way back from a weekend in New Jersey.  The time away gave me clarity and I realized that I was, for the first time in my life, burnt out from school.  I was no longer appreciating the opportunities that Georgetown had to offer and it scared me that I was no longer making the most of my time at school.  I recognized that I needed a break, a change.

As an International Health major I was originally supposed to spend my senior fall abroad involved in an internship.  The prospect of spending a semester helping children in some remote village in Africa is part of what drove me to choose Georgetown in the first place.  When I decided to change majors, I knew I was going to miss two things from the NHS- the incredible people and my opportunity to volunteer abroad. As I remembered this on the long bus ride back, I began to google volunteer abroad programs on my iPhone.

After a few (read many) conversations with friends, advisors, deans, professors, and family members, I decided that a semester off is exactly what I needed.  So here I am 26 days away from my flight halfway across the world- a bit nervous but extremely excited for the opportunity to embed myself in a culture completely different from my own and to hopefully make a difference in the lives of children in Varanasi.