SGDV, BBQ...exciting learning times.

still working on F stock with the book which is great. On Wednesday a melanoma researcher from the Brode in Boston (Harvard med school grad/ faculty) came to give a talk about melanoma genetics which was really neat. Wednesday night Kieth, Layla, Maria, Danny, Marjam, and I went to Alexis and Marie's for a lovely BBQ. we hard corn, meats, salad, yummy spanish garlic mayo, baked bread, greek dippy stuff, potatoes...lalalala it was great. Keith and I got in a big fight about facebook. For dessert we had yummy apple muffins. We ate on the terrasse it was a beautiful night. and Maria told me us about the crazy boatride/club that is the ferry from stockholm to helsinki...i feel a trip coming on. Kieth's girlfriend Layla is lovely and comes from Finland so she told be all the best places to visit in Scandanavia and when to go (JULY) :) Went to bed late after walking back to the hospital with Maria and trying to decide where to tell here to go in the States in winter, seeing as she doesn't ski. Marjam, as it turns out, went to summer camp every year in Newaygo! We had a fun time chatting about that...and how her cabin mates wouldn't take her aspirin if they had a headache because it was from "Germany" how very american of them :) The next day we had the SGDV which is a congress equivalent to the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting for Switzerland. All day we had a surgery course. In the morning lectures about technique, new tips and tricks etc. (the lazy s etc.) and then in the afternoon we practiced on pig legs. which was AWESOME! It was my first schwine beine experience and i truly enjoyed myslef, not that I knew anything about suturing. We had yummy food and drink all day and then after the surgery course we had some lecutres about biologics in psoriasis treatment and other psoriasis related issues. It was very informative. After that we had dinner in the private faculty only restaurant at the top of the ETH which overlooked all of Zuerich and Lake Zuerich. It was beautful! The dinner was also lovely. 4 courses and good company. This morning we had talks on lots of non-cancer related derma topics and a melanoma talk from Levi Garraway the Harvard guy and from people from all over Switzerland...and don't let my cultural lens show now but I am somewhat irritated with the French or I guess the French speaking swiss. Someone will go up, say that they are going to present in English unless "someone is particularly opposed" and then all of the French start whining until he starts speaking French. What's more, someone will give a talk in English or German and no matter what they will only ask their questions in French make their comments in French....grrr... and these are SUPER highly educated people...it blows my mind. I am by no means fluent in German but I definitely make and effort. In the afternoon we had workshops in small groups (6 to 8) and my first one was with Guenther Hofbauer about skin problems in organ transplant recipients, and it was very interesting/ enlightening (not to mention he is absolutely adorable, got the super-tall dark and handsome thing going on). The next talk was about hand and foot syndrome and that was also very neat and I might have gotten an idea for a research project with ice water, but we'll see...after that we had the melanoma talks. Dr. D always says Gordian Knot. There was some very interesting new data presented with a drug that has shown more promise than any durg up to this point, which is quite exciting. A plastic surgeon that I corrected a chapter for also spoke and he had sent me an email earlier saying "...and most importantly are you related to the great Ted Lockwood?" I asked him which Ted Lockwood he was speaking about and he said, "Why the famous plastic surgeon!" I had to tell him, "Well I am related to a great Ted Lockwood, but just not that great Ted Lockwood. A Ted Lockwood is my dad." After the presentations and round table discussion between four leading melanoma guys, we had snacks in the lobby and headed home. I went to buy my train ticket to Rome, finnish packing and send myself a few emails so that I can work on the train. I will say a couple of thankful things for SGDV: yummy food every few hours, lots of free schwag (antiaging, sunscreen, acne washes/creams, face refreshing sray) free bags, a free shirt, lots of free chocis, crossaints, juice, coffee, wine, fruits, other yummy assortments, and by far the coolest and most important, the wealth of knowledge presented about all of the most important advances in dermatology (presented in 3 languages). Vielen Dank SGDV and Dr. D...these were two days to be remembered. Now I'm sitting in the Starbucks near the train station waiting to go get on my night train to Rome to visit the lovely Mandy Jarboe...I cannot wait.

OXOX love from zueri/rome


Lauren

ps-if you need sunscreen i'm your girl.