Roche & Rhine

Last Day in Basel.. wow. Seems like the first day walking tour of the city was so long ago!! But we are getting soooo excited to depart on our next leg of this adventure.. which- to quote Grandmama and Papa- "a whole new, vibrant world, far removed from the beauty and tranquility of Alpine Europe -- but its likely to be a lot cheaper". I couldn't agree more..as one dollar is equivalent to about 46 indian rupees. The homestays and unfamiliar bustle of Trivandrum will surely give us the real-deal culture shock experience. Almost everyone on the trip is staying with a family friend of our country coordinator, Dr. Vijayakumar, so most will be doctors and in the upper class. I don't know much about my own family but I DO know that we have a great dane!! That will be a great buffer, as most of you know I speak dog... and will definitely make me feel more at home (i miss my pupppieeeees!). 


Yesterday we toured the Roche Pharmaceutical plant, who's main product is the Avastin protein that is active in stomach cancer drug treatment. We went through a presentation from their head of communications, and it seemed like a marketing chat with funders- but was interesting to learn about their efforts and research on drugs for chronic illnesses. We toured through the plant and saw the MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars of fancy equipment, pipes, containers, and lots of men in white suits who looked like they were from ET. I can definitely say that I won't be a bio engineer in my career. We also learned that they start with cells from the ovaries of Chinese Hampsters- and they dump the biological waste (mostly dna/proteins- not harmful to humans or the environment) right into the Rhine river... sooo I guess we've been swimming in Chinese Hampster Ovaries the past two weeks?? Interesting.


Last night we went out with all of the translators of the trip and sat along the Rhine and hung out all night, finishing off with late night "Doner Boxes"- which are delicious boxes layered with fries, meat, salad and sauce respectively- and for a quite reasonable 5 Franks. Got up pretty early this morning to meet up for the last time in our classroom at the Pharmacy museum to evaluate the country program and our academic structure thus far, and to go over some preperatory info for India. We're all divided up into "country groups" who research the customs, food, language, safety etc of the next country and report to the group as an introductory briefing on what to expect. Bollywood playing in the background got everyone really pumped!! For our Research Methods course we are assigned to health topic groups that structure our case studies and observations in each country- I'm in the Food and Nutrition Group (got my first pick yay!)- so excited to learn about the diets, deficiencies and nutrition standards in all of the countries.. hopefully by tasting everything! We tasted some GREAT turkish food today as our farewell meal, delicious hummus, eggplant dip, stuffed eggplant, veal, grape leaves..definitely my style.


The rest of the day will be filled with napping, packing, laundry, journaling, and a potluck of wine, cheese and chocolate. Goodbye Switzerland Chapter and onward to the unknown!!