FROM 1/2/08:
At 2:30 this afternoon I will be in the air on the first stage of a multistaged trip to India. Neat.
Although I am not generally one to show much in the way of emotion aside from an occasional goofy smile, I do feel that I'm getting there. Feeling it. A bit excited. A bit anxious. A lot unsure of what to expect. Even though I will only be by myself for a few days and only in Dubai, I have only been by myself abroad once before for a day in Berlin, and I imagine things are a wee bit different in the UAE. Well, actually, I imagine they're remarkably similar with just a different tongue, dress, and slightly different mannerisms, but the fear of the unknown nevertheless makes me contemplate otherwise. We'll see soon enough I suppose. If this turns out to be my second and only entry feel free to assume I've been abducted and am somewhere in Saudi Arabia or Yemen.
On a more scientific note, we will be conducting a short series of experiments while in India. Specifically, does doxycycline *really* make for good antimalarial chemoprophylaxis? The sample size will only be three, there will be no placebo control, and blinding is impossible, but I think we may be able to get a publication out of this. Our second clinical trial will unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately depending on your view of things, have an n = 1, but I am fairly confident it's a novel research question. We get to see if storing oral vaccines needing to be refrigerated instead briefly at room temperature will affect the quality of host immunity generated. The end point in this study will be whether or not Rachel gets typhoid or not. What fun science is!
And on a final note, amongst all the packing and running about preparing for this trip I was pleased to note that on the CMC site the expected dress is "formal" which consists of, "a short sleeved shirt, a pair of trousers, and sandals/shoes." Truly India is an enlightened nation to have finally cast off the oppressive rule of closed-toe footwear. I think I may like this place.
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