This week is sadly my last week in Paris and working with the Agence. I have very much enjoyed my time here and everyone at the Agence has been extremely kind and taught me a great deal, particularly Dr. Couchoud.

 I just completed the draft of the APHA abstract that I am submitting to the 'late breaker' session for the November conference in Denver, and my committee and Dr. Couchoud are editing it currently and I will submit it to the epidemiology chair of APHA directly by email later this week.

 I am also looking into journals to which I can submit a 'brief report' of the descriptive statistics and co-morbid clinical diseases of HIV-positive renal replacement therapy and renal transplant patients, which is the data that I have been analyzing. Currently, the journal 'Transplant Infectious Disease' seems to be a good fit and I found a similar study on USRDS HIV+ renal transplant patient data in this journal recently.

 This past weekend I was in Turin, Italy visiting my best friend from the US and her boyfriend, who is Italian at their place. I was having a great time until i went to the market w/her on Saturday and my wallet was stolen out of my purse! I had no idea it was gone until i went to buy something and noticed it missing. It contained all my credit/debit cards, passport, and drivers license, needless to say this was a total cauchemar(nightmare) lol.

I had to file a police report and was able to fly back to France w/a copy of my passport I had made and had my family wire me money and my bank allows me to wire money as well since all debit/credit cards were stolen. Italy is pretty bad apparently, and there is a large gypsy community that specializes only in stealing. My friend Jessica and her bf had their apt broken into during Christmas and all their presents stolen even they later told me!

So, word of advice, when traveling in Italy, watch your purse/wallet!

 Overall however, the weekend ended ok and Turin was very pretty. See attached pics of Turin and Paris:)

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Last night I went to a 40th birthday party at the house of a French lady whom I met during Paris's 'designer days'. the party was a surprise birthday party for her friend, Laurent, who is a journalist here in Paris that writes on articles and topics related to healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry (since he himself is a pharmacist as well). The party was very fun and had great food and it was interesting talking to all of the guests and good practice for my French! :) Laurent also knew the L'agence de la Biomedicine, where i work, because he has covered them much in his work he said b/c they are the entity responsible for allocating all transplant organs and tissues in France.

Today I am resuming with SAS analyses for my APHA abstract and creating a table for the results to summarize for the abstract. Dr. Couchoud has taught me several new analysis techniques this week.

I also received great news from the USRDS US renal registry, that my proposal was accepted, so I can move forward with the data request this week and hopefully have it upon my return to Miami after July 10th.

I can't believe my trip is already coming to an end, time flies! But I have learned much and made some great friends during my time here and hope to visit again in the future. Attached are some pics from last night's bday party:)

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This week at the Agence I am working on the interpretation of the results of my statistical analyses of the prevalent HIV patients in the REIN registry and also composition of an abstract for the APHA conference in November. The student liason from APHA said I can send the abstract directly to the chair of the epidemiology section and that they are looking forward to my submission.

 I also heard from the director of the USRDS US renal registry, Dr. Eggers, and he said he is reviewing my proposal this week and should hopefully approve it if all looks ok and I can move forward w/data request so that I can have it upon my return to Miami in 2 wks to begin analyses of US data w/Dr. Page, my other advisor.

 Dr. Couchoud was out of town until today due to a nephrology conference she had in Germany but will be continuing to teach me analyses in SAS this week.

I think I still have much to learn in this next 2 wks in terms  of SAS analysis but overall have made good progress.

 This past weekend I just relaxed and explored some of paris and went to the Place d'Italie district,which is the Italian and Chinatown of paris and got some interesting fruits and vegetables.

I have also attached some pics of the area where I live, the Invalides, and my work:)

This week has been off to a good start and Dr. Couchoud and I had the chance to sit down together and formulate the methods section and analyses of my aims. I am almost done with entering these edits and will be starting analysis using SAS with her on Friday (She is out of the city 2 days this week due to work travel). She is quite a busy person, I am honestly impressed at how she can do so many things at once!

 This past weekend I had a chance to relax and go to the Centre Pompidou  with my roommate Fanny and 2 of her friends and see the modern art exhibits and the newer feminist exhibit they have up. Some very interesting newer art by some more modern artists as well as many old works from Picasso. Took lots of pictures and finally found my camera upload cord so will post shortly:)

 This weekend my boyfriend is actually visiting from the US and we are going Friday eveining-Sunday to Piza Italy and then to La Spetzia Italy to meet up with one of my best friends and her Italian boyfriend who live there, so should be fun:)

How I miss Brasil, this was probably the most incredible experience of my life.  I have never had so much fun working on projects, learning, and laughing so much in my entire life.  The times I shared with my fellow FIU PIRE students and the CS people at UFF will always be in my heart. (wow that is sappy) now for some great pictures.

Oh I forgot to mention my first love in Brasil.  THE FOOD!

Seriously the food.

Also the drinks.

Well, as we know, Brasil is a very exotic place with very exotic plants.  They also produce lots of sugarcane, which as we know can make things really delicious.  From that tidbit of information, I can assure you that the drinks are incredible.  I will be running you through several drinks to definately try out.  The suprising thing is High Frictose Corn Syrup is never really used at all.  This is definately a blessing because not only is it healthier but it tastes better too!  So onto our drinks.

Guaraná

I cannot rave any more about this drink, seriously I think it is the best pop (yes I said pop instead of soda, I will be midwesterner till I DIE!!) that I have had down here.  Plus you can get it in Miami, thanks to all the Brasilians.(yes I spelled Brasil with an S, as the old saying goes when in Rome, VISIT THE VATICAN, you hethans).  This stuff is made out of a nut from the Amazon, how cool is that. It seems to have a lot of natural caffene which is always good.  Check out the wikipedia article about it.

Wiki article about awesomness of this Amazonian nut

For you non link clickers:

As a dietary supplement, guarana is an effective energy booster_it contains about twice the caffeine found in coffee beans (about 2–4.5% caffeine in guarana seeds compared to 1–2% for coffee beans).

Did we just read that?  Who needs those energy drinks when we have this gift from Mother Nature, THANKS!!!

 You can also get this in larger bottles too, we polished off a 2 litre last night.  It was great!  There are other brands out there but I would recomend sticking to the Antarctica brand.  It seems to taste the best.  They are also a Brasilian company that has recently reached out to other countries, like our separate country, South Florida.  Now onto other drinks.

açaí

We are all currently addicted to the wonderful smoothy that comes from this.  Seriously I really am addicted.  This is yet another exotic Amazonian fruit.

Now look at that image -->

you see that bowl of strawberries?  They look good dont they.  WELL ITS IN HERE!  They blend strawberries and açaí together!!! Then add Guarana to the mix.  OMG instant success!  Can you believe that?  Suposadly it is healthy or something.  I am from the midwest so we digest the unhealthy stuff, Detroit gives you those powers.  Now you can either eat it fancy like the bannana bowl one, or you can get it practically anywhere in the cup version.  One day I had four of them, I have only had one today but I will be hopefully eating 3 more.  Sometimes they put granola in it, but I am a purist.

Suprisingly this magical fruit comes from a palm tree of the sorts.  I so want to grow this in my back yard, too bad customs will not let me take it home.

Now for the budget minded people.

Guaravita!!!!!

This stuff is really cheap and it seems to be some sort of tea drink,  but it tastes INCREDIBLE.  The only problem is that rich Brasilians turn their nose up at it calling it a trash drink.  Whatever I am from the midwest and again can digest water from Lake Erie.

So lets get back to budget mindedness.  This drink usually costs R$1.  Which is like $0.54 US.  BUT if you dig, you can find it for R$0.50.  Can you believe that?  I want to bring home a case of this stuff.  It is great!  They have one infused with vitamins but that is way too healthy for me.

This week was different from the others, with a rainy weather and tons of work to do for my project I didn’t have any other choice than to stay at home working all day long. We are approaching to our final lap in this intensive yet fun and educational project. 

Hiking in Tijuca Forest

Last Sunday was extreamly eventful as Dr. Esteban planned two trips for us. Sunday morning he picked all my PIRE fellows for a Hiking trip to Tijuca forest. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tijuca_Forest

The forest is approximately 30 minute away from Niteroi by car. After our arrival we all gathered and gave our names at the security desk in case someone doesnt make it back. After the formalaties we finally started Hiking. The forest was beautiful and our goal was the climb the highest mountain in the forest. After 2 hours of huffing and puffing (me only) we all made it to the top. As per Dr. Esteban the peak was almost a 1000 meter. The weather was cloudy with a little bit of drizzle. Due the the weather we couldnt see the view of the city which i heard is breath taking. I am also attaching a picture which shows the avtual view of the city under normal conditions.

Maracana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Est%C3%A1dio_do_Maracan%C3%A3

After climbing down from the mountain and having our lunch. We all decided to watch a soccer match at the most famous Soccer statium in the world, MARACANA. The actual game started at 1830 hrs but we all got there at 1500 hrs and paid 30 reals for the tickets. After an hour of waiting the statium was finally opend and we all walked in. The stadium can hold upto 90,000 spectators. The match was between two of the best clubs of Rio, Batafogo vs Flamengo. After asking around one of the stadium staff told us to sit in the green section if you really want to enjoy the game. As per instructions we headed to the green section which was luckliy the Flamengo Section. Since we got there early some all we could see was red flags and drums on the top section. After 2 hours of waiting the game started but at this point our section was full and i can say 35-40% of the stadium was full. When the game finally started the flamengo fans took out the Gigantic flags and the party started. The fans first cheered their them and then came Singing, Rythamic clapping, Cursing, Dancing and what not. The game ended in a 2-2 draw but Brazilian style soccer i can say is the most advanced form of soccer. This is exactly why they are have won 5 soccer championships. But the game is no fun without the fans.

....After our lunch, Zaidi, Seijiro and I went to the "Maracana" one of Rio de Janeiro's famous landmarks. I have been dying to go to this place for years, and to finally be given the opportunity to experience a soccer game at "Maracana" was amazing. We arrived earlier than what we should have, one of the PIRE students thought the game started at 4:30pm which in reality started at 6:30, so we had to wait for almost 3 hours for the game to start. In the mean time we took some pictures out the stadium

At 4:30, they started letting people inside the stadium, we still had 2 hours left for the game to start, so we walked around and started taking pictures of inside the stadium 

Now the game finally started and let me tell you, it was one hell of an experience. I've been to many soccer games in Miami, and nothing an compare to the atmosphere of the Maracana. We decided to sit on the Flamengo side, the fans their were rowdy, jumping up and down, banging the drums and singing through out the entire game. The game was a nail bitter, the final score of the game was Flamengo 2, Botafogo 2, it ended in a draw.