The past 5 days or so...

After last post, I bussed to soccer field and met Zino, Kaspar, Luk, Dommi, etc. for my very first Fussball Speil! FC Zurich played FC Luzern and it was unlike any other experience of my life. The entire 90 plus minutes consisted of the "Sudkurve" or south curve of the arena singing cheer-songs set to Bon Jovi, Eminem, "everytime we touch", and other pop/ rock classics. Like the UM student section, it was a standing/ rowdy affair. People tore up magazines to use as confetti, and for a lot of the game it was downpouring and lighting-ing but never mind, the euros love their soccer and the game continued (we stayed dry though because there was a doughnut shaped cover over the stands). One thing I particularly liked was that after the game the players walked over to the sudkurve and took a bow, did a little oui chant thingy, applauded for the audience to thank them for their support, and the goalie did the same separately. I'd like to see that in the american sports arena of ego obsessed pro-athletes. After the game I accompanied L, K, and Z to one of Kaspar's collegue's homes for a lovely dinner/ barbeque and chat with friends. After, I went back to the room to change for the Booka Shade concert. I met L at Central station and then met up with friends and headed to the concert. The concert was fun, very cool lights, live set, very electro, lots of sweaty people. The electro dancing is a lot different than I'm used to though, not a whole lot of interaction or even eye contact, mostly everyone is just feeling the musical situation in their own bubble, still cool though. Took a taxi back to L's and crashed in the guest room. Helena went over some of Switzerland's hot-spots with me in the morning, I wished her a happy mothers day and headed back to Vogelsang on the tram in all of my smokey-eyed, eye-linered, black booted, trench coat wearing glory...I can only imagine what I looked like to the families on the tram headed to Mother's Day brunch or what not. Sunday involved a lot of sleeping. Monday it was back to the grind stone: editing papers, seeing new patients, playing "Save Your Skin" on DOIT (Dermatology Online with Interactive Technology) or something like that, doing online tutuorials. I had to leave early to get to the Kreis Buero which was an adventure in itself. I love not knowing where I am in Zueri because I get to ask people :) I ended up finding it though and paying my twenty francs for my res permit and heading on my merry way. After that I headed downtown to Bahnhoff Strasse and made my first and last trip to that lovely, overpriced corner of the universe. After that I picked up some wurst and met some friends in this lovely park in enge and had a "barbeque" read bonfire that you happened to roast wurst over. After that I took the tram to Dr. D's lovely flat/apartment/house/home whatever it is called. He has a lovely home that looks over all of Zueri and Lake Z. I hung out there and chatted with him and his wife for over an hour, met his kids and procured the lovely bicycle that he had arranged for me to have during my stay. SLEEP. WORK: New patient with Heiley-Heiley disease with whom I got to interact and describe the lesion to the resident (Martin), and then later he taught me about the disorder that was causing the lesions. It's a genetic disorder involving malfunction of a calcium pump causing lesions in high motion areas (axiallary and under boob areas) which are vulnerable to secondary infection which makes them stink. Then headed to Domi's ("the room") to watch FCZ play some funny named place in Liechtenstein. SLEEP. WORK: Toady was super cool. I got to see lots of interesting new patients, perform my first physical examination...there's room for improvement...watch Phillip do a sweet almond shaped biopsy on this young guy with a rash that presented in a farmers tan like pattern on his uper half, but also on his feet, some on his legs, lower back and lower stomach. The attending asked me what it was and I said I didn't know, we'd have to do a biopsy because the farmers tan sitch made me think sun, but the feet/ other non exposed areas (we knew from the history) didn't line up. He smiled and told me I'd make a good derm :) He and Dr. D are definitely my fave professors so far: nice, Swiss, good with the patients, and acknowledge that you're there to learn and talk to you about the lesions, let you look at them etc. After work went downtown to try and find Die Post Bank, failed by five minutes. Proceeded to the FCZ fan shop to buy a ticket for Saturday's epic FCZ v. FC Basel (read UM vs. Ohio State) Fussball Speil. Coop City for some Lebensmittel (razors, laundry soap, a knife, a spoon, cheese, bread, chocolate) SLEEP.

Love and Hugs from Zueri

-L