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:)

[You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file]

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:)

[You do not have permission to access this file][You do not have permission to access this file]

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.

....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.

Now as Americans we are addicted to cell phones.  Often we talk until we see the other person.  Constantly we see ourselves talking on the cellphone while we drive, walk, eat, and sometimes we even fall asleep while on the phone.  How do we break this addiction to survive in Brasil?

We buy a cell phone.

 Brasil and the cell phone industry

Now in Brasil cell phones are slightly different.  In the USA everyone has a cell phone, which puts a lot of capital into the infrastructure, which in return lowers the price of cell phone plans.  This then fuels our need to TALK ALL THE TIME.  Brasil does not have this infrastructure, so in return their prices are a lot higher.  So less people talk on the phone, thier efficiency is incredible.  Their manorisms will definately be adopted when it comes to cell phone efficiency.

The best option for fellow PIRE adventurers is to get a prepaid cell phone.  As Americans we are already familiar with the prepaid cell phone plans, but there is a catch in Brasil.  Due to the crime and the usage of criminals in prepaid cellphones, you must have a valid Brasilian ID to get a prepaid phone or SIM chip.  Somehow you need to buddy up with a Brasilian and convince him that you REALLY are a good guy and don't partake in criminal activity.

Carriers in Brasil

The best one I would recomend would be VIVO, they seem to have the best prepaid plan along with the best service.  The sales people aren't bad to look at either.  Most places with a cellular credit card machine can recharge your minutes with ease.  They run in packages of R$17 R$26 and R$60.  But be careful these calls are expensive and will not last long.  The actual cell phones for the base model can cost as little as R$49 to R$69.  For me, my purchase was one of these phones.

The best method would be to unlock a phone from the USA and purchase a chip.  Vivo keeps it exciting by giving you great graphics with your purchase. Most blackberries and Iphones can be unlocked and used with this chip.

For people that are in my situation, I purchased a cheap cell phone.  This is my glorious phone in action.

Yes my project finally got a name,  here is the abstract for it.

Kaseya IN A MINute

KINAMIN

WOHO>

France is well known for its wine culture. In the Triskell research  team, it is usually the case that if a team member is leaving, he or she will host a little farewell party with some wine and traditional snacks, and all other members, including professors and staffs,  are invited to enjoy the wine and food. It is also the opportunity for networking and cultural exchange. During our stay here, we are fortunate to participate in such an event. It was great, pictures tell~