the only way to travel "if you stay true to yourself, you will always remain on track, even if that track takes you off the beaten path, to places you could not possibly imagine." ~ Debra Ollivier

i said that things would slow down for me after my big event on january 18.  looking back now, that's extremely funny...i think i must have jinxed myself by saying it.  the day after the event, i walked into the office thinking that it would be a nice, quiet, relatively relaxing day, and it was...until i was asked at about noon to cover for a colleague (she was ill) on a trip to singapore and indonesia.  i had a 2 hour briefing, cancelled my friday night plans, and went home to pack.  i got on the train to zurich airport about 7 hours after i first got the news that i would be going, and had a nice 14 hour flight to get used to the idea. 

the purpose of the trip was to escort about 10 journalists who would be visiting the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) in singapore, then would continue on to indonesia (makassar and jakarta) to attend the inaugural ceremony for a new research institute, NEHCRI.  NEHCRI was created through a partnership between NITD, a biomedical research institute and a university in indonesia that would aid in research on TB and dengue fever by giving scientists and doctors access to patients in an environment where those two diseases are endemic.  they have already built a new lab (which we visited) and will be collaborating with the university hospital (which we also visited) and current patients, all in hopes that they'll be able to come up with better, more reliable, less expensive treatment options for these diseases.  along the way, i helped facilitate interviews, coordinated events and generally made sure we didn't lose any journalists.  singapore was a hot, sticky amalgamation of tons of cultural influences - asian, western, incredibly american (there are malls everywhere, and you can find anything from gloria jean's coffee to mrs. field's cookies).  indonesians, with all of the hardship they've endured (and are enduring - if you've seen the flooding they've had recently that's all in jakarta, where i was...please keep them in your thoughts and prayers), are still proud of their country, of their culture and of their values.  and they're some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, willing to share with you all of what little they have.  it was an incredible trip...one that i managed to make basically without any jet lag whatsoever (i'm ready for the jet-set), but one that unfortunately ended with a cancelled flight, delays, and the airline losing my luggage again.

when i returned to the office, i was put 100% on one project...then also given responsibility for 'project managing' the single biggest pr issue Novartis has right now.  'project managing' isn't nearly as cool as it sounds...it's mostly sitting in on meetings and taking notes and making sure people complete their assigned tasks (yeah, that's fun, calling up the head of public affairs for the whole company and saying, 'hey Petra, did you get that done yet?  it's 3 days overdue.'), but i'm learning a ton and actually have had the opportunity to write and edit a lot of the material that's been published.  so that's sort of cool.  and i astounded everyone in our last meeting with my note-taking skills - they couldn't understand how my hand wasn't tired after 6 hours, and i responded that i was a college kid not so long ago and used to take notes 6 hours a day (or more) 5 days a week. ;o)

so, needless to say, work didn't slow down after january 18.  i've been mia to most people i know (even here) until this weekend.  i'm still taking german classes and now know enough to say ich spreche nicht gerne deutsch (i don't like speaking german).  let's just say that 1.5 hours per week of class aren't enough to make any progress, and i find lack of progress frustrating.  i finally saw 'the departed' in a swiss theatre - and it was interrupted by this cute little swiss cultural addition called intermission.  the lights came up, everyone got up to have a cigarette, and i was left sitting there saying, "what?!  i was in the moment!!  you can't just stop the movie for 10 minutes!"  gotta love everyday adventures. ;o)