The end of May Term: Cambridge has three terms - named Michaelmas in autumn, Lent in Spring and May term in the summer. Most of my friends have now wrapped up their terms, as we have all finished final exams (WOOO!!!). However, I still have a thesis to write, due July 31. As classes are over and my thesis is under way, I've also enjoyed the flexibility with a few new adventures. In May I was home in Los Angeles for my sister's graduation from her Master's in Documentary Film Making at USC (yay Marika!). While home I was lucky enough to visit my host Rotary Club in San Marino. We had a great lunch, made better by an inspiring lecture by USC breast surgeon Dr. Lang. Turned out she went to UCSF for surgery residency - great connection! Upon returning to the UK I visited Haverhill Rotary Club in Cambridgeshire. We had a lovely roast dinner and a gorgeous sunset as the end of May welcomed 10:30pm sunsets - a special treat after so much rain! June has been filled with adventure and studies. I tried my hand at Cricket by joining St John's College's cricket team. As an avid baseball and softball player growing up, I figured it would be easy to translate the skills. Turns out it's very important to know the rules.. and wear white. I was the only girl and turned up in all black work out clothes. A hilarious start to a fun afternoon, although I don't know that I'll be going back. The matches take houuurssss ?!!!? and the rules are complex. During the final week of term there is a massive boat race on the river Cam, called May Bumps. Boats from every college line up along the river in the order they finished the race the year before. They each start 100-ish metres apart and in an exciting dash have to chase each other hoping to physically bump the boat ahead, with their own boat or an oar. Any touch and both boats pull to the side. The races last 4 days, and boats that have bumped switch places for the following day. As I've now quit rowing to focus on studies, it was great fun to be a spectator. The St John's Men's first boat came out victorious and were deemed "Head of the River" which is a huge honor. Watching from the banks is a highlight of my year. It was filled with sunshine, jazz bands playing up and down the river in support and seeing my friends row by while trying the quintessential British summer drink, Pimms - a mix of liqueur with lemonade, fresh strawberries and sliced cucumber over ice. After final exams the highlight of the year is May Week. Although May is a misnomer, the week takes place in June following exams for May term. Each college at Cambridge throws an elaborate black tie ball over the course of the week to celebrate the end of the year. The campus is ripe with excitement and the weather was superb. It was an amazing celebration of friendship as I will miss the amazing friends I have made this year at Cambridge. See photo below from the ball. The highlights from our ball were bumper cars out by the river, courts filled with every imaginable food, live music from 9pm to 6am, cocktails made with dry ice and champagne fountains. A magic night indeed. Back to work on my thesis! Exactly 4 more weeks in Cambridge. Don't want it to end! xx
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A bit of a delay from my usual monthly post, but the last 6 weeks have been a whirlwind of fun.
March started with my varsity soccer match. Incredible success with a double-overtime, penalty-kick, victory over Oxford at their home stadium. Amazing to be part of the ancient rivalry and to come home victorious (pictures below). I then had a wonderful visit from my parents. We started with amazing mediterranean food in London, exploring the Shard, Maltby Street Market, Borough Market and the Tate Modern before heading North to Yorkshire for a weekend in the countryside. They brought the LA weather with them and we had sunny skies for a walk in the country, old school British pubs, Sunday roast dinner and full english breakfasts. We capped off the weekend with a visit to the historic city of York, capital of the North at one time. Comparing modern London with ancient York, Cambridge was a fun medium. It was a pleasure to show them my lecture hall, dining hall, and take a crack at punting them down the Cam. We weren't quite as good at punting as we had hoped, and ended up going in circles a few times before my good friend Tom came to the rescue. My parents insisted that I've developed a British accent, so I must have assimilated well. :) Following my parents visit I buckled down, finishing off term 2 with a biostatistics midterm and submitting my paper on Marijuana smoke and head and neck cancer. My findings showed that, in fact, it is unlikely that marijuana smoke causes head and neck cancer, however more research is needed in people who are heavy users or daily smokers of marijuana. Easter holiday was then a blast! It kicked off with the Cambridge vs Oxford boat race. We drank Pimms along the Thames and watched as the men's and women's teams rowed by us. The Cambridge women won, beating the men's winning time from last year, but the Cambridge men lost. Either way, we were lucky with a sunny and warm day to partake in the historic event. Go light blue! I then traveled to Italy, finding cheap Ryan Air flights to Naples, and visited the Amalfi Coast! It was absolutely breathtaking. Hopping between towns on the coast, soaking in the warm weather and eating our weight in pizza and seafood pasta. John Steinbeck coined the term "Moda Positano" to describe the laid-back, colorful, and relaxing feel of Positano, which was our favorite town. Another highlight of the trip was a day-trip to Pompeii. Incredible to see the ancient Roman town, dating all the way back to 79 AD, much of it perfectly preserved. I was particularly impressed by the engineering of streets and magnificent tiled decor of walls and floors. Over spring break I also finally established a thesis project. While I had originally intended to work on HIV in Africa, the limitations of my degree made this difficult. For my thesis I am required to complete data analysis using statistical software to investigate a research question on data that has already been collected. Given the obstacles in completing research in resource-poor settings, the 20 or more physicians and researchers I spoke with regarding a project in Africa all told me the same thing - I would have to collect the data myself. Unfortunately I do not have time in my curriculum for this, so had to look for something new. I also have interests in cancer research, in particular how cancer incidence and outcomes differ in undeserved patients. With this interest in mind, I was able to find a project based out of North Carolina. I am using data from over 500 patients who were previously diagnosed with head and neck cancer, with many being African-american inhabitants of North Carolina. The most common risk factors for head and neck cancer are tobacco smoke and chronic alcohol use. Thus, it tends to be a disease that disproportionately affects individuals with lower socioeconomic status. However, no one has ever studied whether the cancer risk with alcohol and tobacco is modified by socioeconomic status. Therefore, I am developing a statistical (regression) model to explore how the risk of cancer changes with income, education and type of health insurance in addition to alcohol use, tobacco use and other exposures. Stay posted. I'm currently swimming in data and math equations that I need to sort out. Easter term has now begun! I have two weeks of lectures left and then 10 weeks to complete my thesis, with some final exams thrown in in June. I will be traveling home in May to visit my family and hopefully pop by the San Marino Rotary club to say hello. I'm having the best year! Learning so much about public health research and England. I am extremely grateful to everyone in Rotary who has helped me to get here! I cannot thank you enough. Term 2, or Lent Term, is underway in Cambridge and the weather is starting to warm up! This is my first time ever living outside of California for more than six months, so it's been an exciting adjustment to live where it snows!! Every morning I ride my bike 4 miles to Addenbrooke's Hospital. My lectures take place in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, part of the hospital. Rain, sleet or snow! #1 Tip I received was to purchase biking gloves, they have saved my fingers!! It hasn't snowed enough yet to stick to the ground - so nothing compared to Boston or New York - but enough so that the sky is white and looking out of my window at the 12th century church across the road is all the more pleasant with snowflakes in the air (and the radiator on high). For my coursework, this term has been predominated by survey lectures on different fields within public health. We had a week on genetic epidemiology, a week of psychiatric epidemiology and various biostatistic modules. Moving forward we'll be learning about chronic disease prevention and intervention, and nutritional epidemiology. "Sitting is the new smoking" is a phrase often stated in our lectures. As the UK and US become more obese there are many implications for cardiovascular health. Our course looks at research methods to investigate causative factors and how to design interventions on a population level. For my Lent Term essay I am writing a Meta-analysis, or statistical comparison using weighted averages, looking at whether smoking marijuana can cause head and neck cancer. As the US goes through policy reform and recreational marijuana is made legal, it is important to understand the public health implications of these changes. It has been previously found that tobacco and marijuana smoke share similar carcinogenic chemicals, and tobacco and alcohol consumption are the leading causes of head and neck cancer worldwide. Therefore, what risk does marijuana smoke hold? I am using statistical software to compare 10 different case control study results from around the world in order to pool their data and analyze the larger sample of pooled evidence. While the topic is interesting, it's even more important that I am learning to this statistical skill, which we talk about so often in medical research. I am excited to be learning tangible tools that I'll use in the future to do research studies with my own data and hopefully inform patient care and health policy. In addition, I had another Rotary talk last week. This time in Bury St. Edmonds about an hour north of Cambridge. Simon Lake, of my host club Cambridge Sawston, was kind enough to drive me. The meeting was held in the Greene King Brewery, a well known beer company in the UK. Dinner of cottage pie (mashed potatoes, beer, and peas in a pie dish) was delicious and I had numerous interesting questions about my talk. Very cool to see how different Rotary clubs operate around the UK and get to meet new rotarians. Looking into the next few weeks I have a few exciting events. The last weekend in February I'll be going to Dublin with my college. St John's College Cambridge is sister colleges with Trinity College Dublin. Trinity College Dublin has invited us to visit and stay with their graduate students for a weekend. I've never been to Ireland, and being a Moore, am very excited to see a little piece of my ancestry! The weekend is that of their "Scholars Dinner" which is a black tie event in their old hall! Really excited! At the start of March is my Varsity soccer match against Oxford. The Cambridge light blues vs Oxford dark blues is an ancient rivalry that exists in every sports team and our match will be March 4th, followed by a night out in Oxford with our rival hosts! Playing for the Cambridge women's soccer team has been a really great way to meet girls in other colleges and disciplines at Cambridge and explore towns outside of Cambridge as we play away matches. Looking forward to spring as we round out February! My parents will be visiting in March so many more adventures to come! Thanks for following along! The holidays are over but they were absolutely lovely. My christmas break started with a bang as a group of friends traveled down to London for the historic Cambridge vs Oxford Varsity Rugby Match, held at Twickenham Stadium, the professional rugby stadium. In a very exciting match, Cambridge won for the first time in 6 years(!!!!!!) defeating Oxford's winning streak. As an active participant in college sports in California I had equated the match to our "Big Game," The American football rivalry game between UC Berkeley (my alma mater) and Stanford, our dreaded opponents. When Berkeley won my sophomore year of college, every student in attendance rushed the field. There were parades in the streets and we still talk about how great we felt. So as the final whistle blew at Twickenham in December, my American friends were ready with whooping and hollering. But we were met with a polite clap and hesitation from British fans who then looked away and hurried out of the stadium. We were shocked! College sports are not quite the drama and pomp and circumstance that they are in America, and evidently Rugby is a gentleman's sport in which rushing the field or berating one's opponent is not tolerated. So, we had to bottle our enthusiasm for the train ride home. I then spent the next few weeks traveling and visiting friends. First I roamed London with friends from Cambridge. London at Christmas was full of lights, tourists, buskers and exciting energy. Absolutely enthralling. My favorite day comprised a morning walk through Hyde Park, stumbling upon a gingerbread house competition at the London School of Architecture, shopping for British preserves at Fortnum and Mason's famous food hall and a quick stint in the Natural History museum for National Geographic's Wildlife Photography Exhibit of the Year. I also managed to sneak in a week-night performance of Kinky Boots (the musical) in the West End and a fun trip to Mr. Fogg's Residence, a classic restaurant/gin parlor designed after the famous Jules Vern tale "Around the World in 80 Days". I also had the chance to visit a sorority sister (go Chi Omega!) in Oxford, she's studying for a DPhil in Archaeology and showed me a brilliant time exploring "The Other Place" as Cambridge students call it. For Christmas I went up north to a small town outside Leeds for a quintessentially English Christmas. We had a lovely time singing carols in a local church, built long before the Declaration of Independence, and a christmas dinner with all the trimmings! Who knew England did Thanksgiving on Christmas?! A big Turkey, stuffing, bread pudding, sausage rolls and more, finished off with Christmas pudding lit on fire (via brandy). Christmas crackers are poppers placed at everyone's table setting which contain trinkets and a paper crown. I'm definitely going to bring Christmas crackers to America!! But the funniest difference between British and American christmas I found, was that on the night of Christmas eve, children leave out a glass of Whiskey and mince pies for Santa, rather than Milk and Cookies!! We hope Santa visits England last, otherwise he'd definitely be at risk for an FUI (flying under the influence). I also got to celebrate my first Boxing Day! Why don't we have Boxing Day?! It's a day of leftovers, long walks and relaxation. We headed to the Yorkshire dales for more merry company and a walk in the countryside. Lots of sheep. It was lovely. For New Years I was lucky enough to head south to Barcelona with friends from Cambridge. It was 60 degrees, which felt like heaven. We stripped off our winter coats and sat in the sun on the beach. Devouring tapas and cava, it was a treat. I studied abroad in Barcelona during college, so it was especially exciting to travel back and re-explore one of my favorite cities. But now I'm back in Cambridge. The term is off to a great start. I've been back on the water rowing and have my first soccer match tomorrow. This term I will be writing a meta-analysis, using biostatistic skills i've learned in the last term to synthesize data from many sources and come up with a new weighted average. Still exploring different topics so stay tuned! I've also had two exciting Rotary events in the last week. My incredible co-host Vic Starkey, of the Cambridge Sawston Rotary Club, graciously offered to drive me to both events, despite the distance. We traveled an hour and a half each way, but it was a great time to hear his stories of the towns we passed and catch up on the ongoings of my host Rotary club. I feel lucky to have such a warm and supportive host club. The first was a trip to the District 1080 District Council Meeting with all of the global scholars. We introduced ourselves to the district as a whole, and were fed a lovely dinner. I had ham and apricot pie, followed by an apple crumble. The next night we headed out in rain and sleet storm to Watton, a small town in Norfolk. Watton is near to numerous American Air Force Bases and my host, Vic, had served in the Royal Air Force, as had many of the men of Watton's all-male Rotary Club. It was great to hear their stories and see a new part of England. We were hosted in a cute old english pub and served a delicious dinner of fish pie and cheesecake. It's fun seeing how Rotary clubs all over England (and America) are similar and different. A common bond in service, but slightly different personalities and meeting styles. It could be an anthropological study!! See below for pictures from the various adventures! Now back to hard work! My first term at Cambridge has already ended! It flew by and I've been busy exploring, studying and getting in the holiday spirit.
November was a whirlwind of travel and celebration. Two of my best friends from San Francisco visited London and we had an amazing time traipsing around, bicycling through Hyde Park, eating amazing scallops and cheeses at Borough Market and wrapping up the weekend with a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal! Then headed back to Cambridge where I had 2 more Thanksgiving dinners. At home, Thanksgiving was always a great respite from school, a chance to hang with family, see friends and have a nice dinner. But in Cambridge suddenly every American I know was hosting their own Thanksgiving. It was fun to sit around trying each person's own family recipe or telling stories of our family traditions. I found Thanksgiving in Cambridge suddenly held much more weight than it ever had for me in the U.S. After Thanksgiving I had a few days off from lecture and ventured to Budapest! I had never been to Hungary and was fascinated by the unique history and mixing of cultures. I learned much about their history, from the Mongolian occupation to the massive Austria-Hungarian Empire and then the fierce rule of the Nazi's in WWII and the USSR during the Cold War. Budapest was a city that had experienced invasion and rebellion time and time again. The Christmas Markets were just beginning when we visited and we loved walking around, warming up with mulled wine and hot goulash (stew). Much colder than Cambridge, but much sunnier, it was fun to explore the little piece Eastern Europe. Back in Cambridge my boat crew had our biggest regatta of the season, Fair Barns. We came in 6th place of 30th crews in our division and as a novice crew we were ecstatic that we didn't crash or capsize! Then came finals week with an epidemiology exam and submitting my final paper. My 30-page paper was entitled "A Descriptive Epidemiology of Hearing Loss in HIV-Infected Individuals in Africa." I found that Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the countries most impacted by hearing loss in general with more than 15% of the population reporting some degree of hearing loss. This figure was comparable in HIV-Infected adults, but much higher in HIV-Infected children. Among the studies that I reviewed for my paper, HIV-Infected children in Africa had much higher rates of hearing loss than the general pediatric population. It's unclear why this is, but some hypotheses include that HIV-infected kids are at higher risk of chronic ear infections and ear drainage, or that the HIV anti-retroviral medication itself may be toxic to the auditory system. More research is needed to elucidate the cause, however it is clear that screening children early and often for hearing loss is of vital importance, especially in HIV-infected children and in Africa. Diagnosing hearing loss early in kids can help learning and school participation. But now it's Christmas Holiday! Instead of going home to Los Angeles I'm taking this time to travel within Europe, which is usually so far away from California! I'll be visiting friends in London, Oxford and Leeds before heading south to Spain! I have some free time to explore while in London, but have also contacted a few of the South London Rotary Clubs about volunteering with them this holiday season to give back with my new Rotary Family. Cheers and Happy Holidays from the UK! See below for a few photos! The month of October has flown by and it's been a beautiful transition from summer to fall. This is my first time living in a city where the leaves changes colors. Every morning's bicycle ride to class is surrounded by crisp green grass, grazing cows, orange fall leaves and the rush of the river Cam.
The month of October was dedicated to diving head first into Cambridge life. I've joined the rowing team for my college, Lady Margaret Boathouse, despite never having rowed before, and also joined the University of Cambridge Women's Football club (aka soccer). This has meant lots of new friends and cold mornings rowing on the river at sunrise. Also this month was the Cambridge Rotary welcome reception. See below for a photo of our group. We were warmly welcomed with wine, food and a program in which each scholar gave a 5-minute speech about their studies at Cambridge. It was inspiring to be surrounded by leaders in the fields of Education, International Relations, and History, to name a few. Most of the scholars are from the US, but no other scholar is studying science so it's a unique experience to have friends and Rotary colleagues outside my college and discipline. I look forward to getting to know the scholars better through a number of events District 1080 has planned for us. One of the other scholars, Sophia from New Jersey, ended up on the Cambridge women's soccer team with me! It was great to have already met her through Rotary. In my Public Health course we have buckled down and started to work on our first term paper. We are assigned to review current literature on a disease of our choosing and discuss the epidemiology, or incidence and prevalence, of the disease in a certain population. After completing an elective in Otolaryngology/Ear Nose and Throat Surgery at UCSF in August I became intrigued to learn that HIV positive individuals may be at an increased risk for hearing loss. While HIV-medications continue to improve, new studies focus on quality-of-life measures. Hearing is an imperative part of daily life and it interested me to find out more about how it's affected by HIV. Therefore, my first essay will be a review of all current research describing hearing impairment in HIV-infected individuals in Africa. Stay posted to find out more. Also in October, I was also lucky enough to travel outside Cambridge to Lake Conistan, of the famous Lake District in northern England, over a weekend. The area is a national park full of gorgeous hikes overlooking a series of lakes. October in the Lake District meant rolling hills of greens and oranges, scattered with grazing sheep. We had tea by the fire, scones with clotted cream and jam and sticky toffee pudding to round out a truly English weekend away. Highlight of the weekend was a sailing lesson on the lake. November started off with my first Rotary presentation to my host club of Cambridge Sawston. I was welcomed with a lovely dinner in a pub built in 1000 AD. My presentation was followed by numerous questions about my research and path to the UK, including thoughts on Obamacare and the upcoming election. It was great to share my experiences and plans for the year, in addition to my first experience as a Rotary Ambassador of San Marino. Ok, back to class! A few photos below. I've arrived safely in Cambridge! And my first impression is WOW, this place is gorgeous. I'm enrolled at St John's College, which serves as my residential college for the year. Cambridge University is composed of 31 colleges, each with its own unique student cohort and history. Being part of a residential college means that my housing and meals are all based within the walls of an old castle, with other members of St. John's. St John's College was founded exactly 500 years ago by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother to King Henry the VII and grandmother to the infamous King Henry VIII. The college has a long history of prestigious graduates, winning accolades primarily in science and medicine, including nobel laureates. The history of academic curiosity is tangible. Orientation week started off with a bang, with orientation activities encompassing dressing up in Harry Potter-style black robes for a class photo, a chapel service to bless the term, and various social activities to meet colleagues. One such social gathering involved pints of beer in the bar where Watson and Crick are said to have discovered DNA (so cool). Another highlight of the week was dinner with my Rotary Host, Irene Childrey, of the Cambridge Sawston Rotary club (see photo below). Her tales of the Cambridge Sawston club are very similar to the visions and goals of the San Marino Rotary Club, and I feel even more inspired to be part of such an impressive and international organization. My classes started this week as well. I'm studying public health which the World Health Organization defines as "the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health." We were introduced to the course through a lecture entitled "When the Population is your Patient." As a medical student, much of my education up to now has focused on treating individuals, and their unique diseases. But much of health, and effectively delivering healthcare, revolves around treating disease on a population-level. I'm excited to learn more of the methods to tackle large-scale problems, such as HIV/AIDS. For our first exercise I worked with a group of classmates to brainstorm risk factors and solutions to an assigned public health problem - smoking during pregnancy. A problem with a multitude of drivers and challenges ranging from the media to mental health. In the coming weeks we'll study how to quantify the scale of illness using statistics and then how to tackle them. Back to class, Stay posted! |
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AuthorI'm Gaelen Stanford-Moore, a fourth year medical student in San Fransisco, taking a gap year to study public health with an international perspective at Cambridge University, England. Archives
June 2017
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