General thoughts / Thamel Square

Life has certainly been busy! Detailed reflections on clinical experiences here to come. For now a few random points:

- TU Teaching Hospital officially works in English but in practice is Nepali - unfortunately this means I can only follow patient care based on written notes or when someone translates for me

- international elective students are quite common here: I met two from Sweden today who were just finishing 2 months of clinical / research

- shops are of all varieties here. Today I was introduced to a store that easily could pass for a small Walmart with groceries, hardware, households items, and alcohol. There are many other stores at the side of the road with all sorts of items

- Nepali roads are extremely dusty and noisy. The worst dust is on the main road from the teaching hospital into town. Apparently it's under construction and has been "almost done" for at least 3 years

I had time to walk around a bit yesterday. Walk into town dusty and very uneven. Also dangerous with traffic and random fallen wires. Seems to be fairly typical here though. I eventually reaches Thamel square which is a touristy area. Some very cute quieter streets to walk down but in the heart of it there were also some fairly aggressive salespeople. I'm off to see the squares in more detail come Saturday. Per Nipesh's suggestion (my host / contact with NCCDF), I'm doing so with private guide and car for around $70. A bit pricey but promises to be an experience :)

Main road to town

One of the streets by Thamel square

Roundabout

View from a hill

And back up the hill. Unfortunately this is fairly typical: people just don't care about litter in public places.

It for now. To come: clinical reflections, experiences at a Nepalese conference.

Oh, and for MD 2014 people: anyone else heard on interviews yet? I received an invite to Dal Cardiac Surgery this morning!