Happy Thanksgiving!

I thought this would be a fitting day to do my final post from India.  I leave on Saturday to meet my Mom, Aunt Terry, and cousin Kathleen in Paris for a week and then head back home.  For a quick update on my project – we finished all of the analysis and submitted an abstract to the Pediatric Academic Society, which holds a conference in Boston every year on current pediatric research.  I will continue working on writing the paper back in Boston for the analysis we’ve completed here, so while my time in Nagpur is coming to an end my practicum continues!

There are a lot of things that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for having the opportunity to come here and learn so much – academically, culturally, and personally.  Both of my supervisors have taught me a lot about conducting research.  They took the time to explain things to me and have helped to really improve my public health knowledge and research skills, and have been very patient with me and all of my questions.  It has been really exciting and enlightening to see how international health research is conducted, it is one thing to learn about it in a classroom but another to be immersed in it.  I am also thankful for all of the people in my office.  I have formed some great friendships and learned so much from them, not only about research, but also about Indian culture, religions, and family life.  And I am very thankful for my host family, the Khannas.  They welcomed me into their home with such warmth and openness, treating me as a member of the family right from the start.  I will really miss them and our family dinners together!

We had some trouble getting a group photo

Last but certainly not least I am thankful for all of you!  This is the farthest from home that I’ve been and living here for the past 3 months has helped me to appreciate even more my family and friends back home.  Thank you to everyone for staying connected through emails and skype, it really helped when I was missing home to be able to talk to you all.  I am looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving – eat an extra piece of pie for me :)

My last day at work