Thoughts for Today

- I have become that which I despise: the idiot foreigner who thinks that talking louder will make it easier to understand me. I will do it for a while before I catch myself. Indians often speak very softly (especially the attendings, which makes it really tough to understand on rounds). I sound like a foghorn. I'm sorry, people of India.

- The CMC radiology department is pretty nice, if I haven't mentioned that before. The reading room is 70 degrees, and the MRI suite looks nicer than the ones in San Antonio. And then you walk out the door back into the heat and chaos.



- Indians have no qualms about coming up to me and asking where I'm from. Actually, in my arrogance, I assume they can tell I'm from the US. Nope. And most of them have no clue what Texas is...ha ha ha. Indian deference to the male > female is pretty evident when Cristina, Anne, and I go out to eat. The waiter often asks me for my order first, only asks me if the meal is OK, only takes the plates when I say I'm done, despite what the two of them say. They hate it, and let me know regularly, as if I set this whole thing up. This culture is rather conservative. But strange. Exposed midriffs on women are standard here, but if you dare to show your shoulders or ankles, you are a loose woman. Whenever a large group of us students goes out for dinner, we obviously have a bunch of males and females socializing. However, you never see males and females socializing outside of families. Actually, you never even see groups of females out at restaurants. Lots of groups of men, familes, but no women. They are out together at the markets, but not in restaurants. Hmmm.



- Cristina and Anne get stared at by men a bunch, and I have a feeling it is the same for the other ladies as well. Now that I think of it, I get stared at a lot too. People keep saying that this a very cosmopolitan town, that they are used to lots of westerners due to the CMC. Well, that may be true for lots of the businesses, but the average person on the street definitely looks at me like I just got out of a flying saucer. Sometimes it is very off-putting, feeling like they are really rude. But I think thats just their way. I know the ladies have it much worse, though. Last night at dinner, Vida was telling us how in the middle of the day a man started following her and Jamie around the town. They went into several stores and he kept following them. They finally were at a travel agency and complained. The guy there yelled at the man, and summoned a police officer, who then promptly slapped the man in the face and threw him into the street.



- Even I had an interesting encounter. Last night while at dinner, in a pretty empty place except for the 7 of us (the San Antonio contingent united: Me, Dinesh, Claire, Vida, Jamie, Cristina, and Anne), a man at a nearby table asked to speak with me. So I go over and talk with him. He says he is upset with me, he saw me in his building earlier and needs to settle this. He claims I was in his building at the very time I had placed my order at the restaurant. Won't tell me what it is all about. Wants me to go outside with him. Well, thats not going to happen. So I tell him he's all confused, I don't know him, and go back to my table. He keeps looking over at me, and about 1/2 hour later tries to send me a beer. Wierd. Dinesh goes to speak with him in Tamil to see what his deal is. Apparently he is so drunk now he can't even speak clearly. Eventually (another 30min later) he gets up, comes over and apologizes to me, and leaves. ....OK then....This town is generally pretty safe, but obviously its a good idea to watch your back. He did not try to follow my rickshaw back to campus. Maybe he just thought I was very handsome. I can understand that. Happens every day when I look in the mirror.

- It seems that the predicted GI distress has now beset me. I'm holding off on the antibiotics at present, hoping to ride this thing out with just fluids and bowel rest. Its not terrible, just really inconvenient and uncomfortable right now. I had to duck out of Neurology early today because it just wasn't worth it to keep standing next to a patient while my insides go all spasm-like. As we have a trip coming up this weekend, it would be nice to have this sorted out before departure. I have my fingers crossed. Cipro at the ready if it comes down to it.

- we went to the main bazaar here the other night, obviously where the locals shop. It was awesome. Just about everyone wanted their picture taken with their produce, piles of iron products, various dyes, big chunks of incense, and buckets of fresh flowers. I got some great pics, as did Cristina and Anne. I'll try to post some up tomorrow. And I may get my infectious disease profile up tomorrow too, we'll see.

I guess thats all for now.