Stateside Shenanigans...

Yeep!  I've gone almost a whole month without writing a single post... bad dwee... and now it's the New Year!  Sheesh...must attribute that to all the craziness that's been going on since I've been back in the good ol' US of A (or as we like to say, "A-murrr-ikah").  I guess, since I've been such a delinquent at blogging, and at the moment, I'm about to pass out, I'll do a quick and dirty rundown of what I've done over the last few weeks...

Flew back on Dec 8th from Abuja... took probably 24 hours total to get from ABV to LAX, via Accra and JFK.  While waiting at the airport in Nigeria, I struck up a conversation with a nice, old British dude who does "country branding" for a living... interesting topic... perhaps for another blog post, haha.  Okok fine, in a nutshell, he helps build a better PR image for countries, based on what gets reported in news wires.  It was just really nice to have a stimulating, intellectual conversation with someone for the long haul home... he even treated me to coffee at JFK :)  Yay for novel ways to pass the time while flying.

First thing that I did when I landed at LAX--aside from doing a little dance in my seat and squealing like the little girl that I am-- was going to eat Dim Sum with my gran and dad and then getting a much needed haircut.  Awesome first meal back, considering I didn't really eat anything on the plane ride home (DELTA, why can't you try and be more like your cooler sister carrier, KLM and serve real food? sigh).  Hm... should have really written this earlier, as I can barely remember what I did... meh.  Doesn't really matter I guess, haha.  Bottom line is, awesome food at home... not exactly a surprise.  Gran left the next day from LAX to go back to Taiwan, so headed to the airport a second time... only to go BACK to LAX the following day (third time's the charm, right?) for my week-long Midwest tour of interviewing, friend visiting, and general revelry in actual COLD winter weather. 

The Midwest trip started in Chicago, where it wasn't actually THAT cold (down jacket still helped, but nothing as cold as I had imagined it to be)... first interview was quite relaxed, and two of my interviewers were quite engaging and was so fortunate to have common topics to talk about; one was an ophthalmologist who trains fellows in Nigeria (how fitting to talk to her about everything Nigerian), and the other was from Glendale (SoCal represent!)... wasn't too nervous and actually, dare I say, enjoyed my time there... Saeby graciously hosted me while I was in Chicago, so it was really nice to see her and hang out with her and her roommates.  Got to do some usual touristy stuff while I was chillin in Chicago for the next couple of days: Hancock Tower Signature Room for uber expensive drinks + awesome view of the city, deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's (which I keep thinking is called "Illuminati's" haha), walking along the Magnificent Mile and State St for the obligatory Chicago window-shopping, gluhwein and bratwurst at the Kris Kringle Market, and driving along Museum Drive for an awesome night view of the city from across the Lake.... oh Chicago, I love you, even though you are so flippin cold and windy.
Flew out to to Indianapolis and then drove 2 hours over to Cincinnati for my next interview.  I stayed at the University Hospital's Hotel, which consisted of converting the 3rd floor of one of their smaller hospitals into "hotel rooms"--I slept on a hospital bed... it was kind of weird, to say the least.  Interview went well, it was the new MMI "speed dating" format, so I got some very interesting questions and scenarios.  Drove my dinky rental car back to Indianapolis and stayed at a local Indy airport hotel before flying out at the crack of dawn the next day.  I had my rental car scratched at the Barnes and Noble parking lot the night before, but when I returned it, no one said anything (maybe it was just too early in the morning), so I didn't have to pay anything additional... lesson learned: still pay for liability insurance even though you THINK nothing is going to happen, because when you think that, something inevitably will :T

Christmas holiday at home over the next couple of weeks consisted of constant baking of cookies in the kitchen, sprinkled in with friends visiting, playing Santa and delivering baked goods and presents, and a short trip to Santa Barbara for Myka pupster's first vacation... It was his vacation more than ours, since we had to cater all of our activities around him.  I found a pet friendly hotel and an off-leash dog beach nearby for his first romp along the beach... we had to throw tennis balls into the waves in order for him to get close to the water. 
Here is a short movie clip of Myka running around on the beach:

All in all, he had a bunch of fun, I think, since he immediately passed out when we got home.  Fambam did some wine and beer tasting while in SB, enjoyed savory cheesy goodness at C'est Cheese, a cute family-owned cheese shop, at at the Super Rica Tacqueria (which got a stamp of approval from Julia Child), and then did some obligatory outlet shopping at the Camarillo outlets on the way back home. :)  Yay holiday trips.

Not much else happened, that I can remember... Kai went to Taiwan on the 26th for 2 weeks, and Lauren drove up from San Diego on the 31st to hang out for NYE... although we didn't do anything too crazy.  Burgers at UMAMI burger in Santa Monica, walked along 3rd St Promenade and then saw Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.  Oh... Dad and I spent a good few days testing out new recipes in the kitchen (no surprise there)- prime rib, home made pizza, turkey confit, lamb chops with gremolata crust, seared scallops and shrimp using his new stainless steel pan... oh food.  oh deliciousness.  Holidays wouldn't be complete in the Liu household without new kitchen appliances and major feasting. 

Returning to Abuja on the 4th... tummy full and emotionally and mentally recharged...

Happy 2012 Everyone!

BW is my name...

Don't wear it out!  Ok, so I need to preface this post's title with what "BW" actually means... so remember from my last post about World AIDS Day, where the Embassy was slightly in chaos as we tried to coordinate events at the last minute?  Well, my true "B" nature came out (will explain later) and I started directing people around so that we wouldn't be scrambling last minute as the Ambassador rolled in... of course, when I direct people, my voice natural gets a "little" louder.  So, the head of HR, Pegie (sp?) saw me bossing the USAID info table peeps around, and started calling me "BW", for Bossy Woman.  And now, whenever I see him at the Embassy, that's what he calls me.  Just one teensy weensy instance, and I'm branded for life.  O_o

Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, my BW side reared its ugly head again this morning as we set out for a pilot test of our site visit assessment.  In short, we have these questionnaires that we're trying to administer to our HIV care and treatment facilities, to assess whether they are providing the necessary services to the patients, and what areas or services need improvement.  Today's trial run was to see what kinks needed to be worked out before we actually started running the program officially.  I can understand the slight urge to try and fit in a pilot run before the end of the calendar year, just so that the office could get a general idea of what needs to be fixed/tweaked/added/etc.  But as a representative of a government organization, how can you expect to run a successful pilot if you don't take the time to prepare for it?  Pilot does not mean you do everything on the fly!  ARGH.  Sorry, this is my rant for the year (thankfully it's December, so I haven't touched next year's quota yet :P).  How do you expect the medical director of the hospital to prepare for a visit by the CDC if you give them less than one business day's notice?  And then, to make matters worse, you don't show up the day you had planned (last minute, might I add)?  Oh wait, I'm not done.  You reschedule it to the following day, then you arrive almost 2 1/2 hours late, because you didn't print out usable hard copies of the questionnaires?  OMFG.  This is the CDC for crying out loud!  Jess and I spent almost 2 hours sitting in the van, waiting in the motorpool parking lot before the team lead could figure out how to print the forms so that the font wasn't miniscule 2 point font.  (Oh yes, I failed to mention that we actually left the parking lot once before, and it was upon finding out the font was 2 point font that we turned around and returned to the CDC office, only to wait 2+ hours for senior team leads to figure out how to print the stupid questionnaires properly)



What really pushed me off the edge this morning was how the team lead wanted to have a meeting in the van before leaving for the hospital (mind you, we were already 2+ hours late), on how we were going to run the site visit.  Uh... where were you on Friday?  Why are we doing this now?  And he started talking about how he doesn't know how to score the questionnaire... PEOPLE: YOU DON'T GO IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!!!!  Blaargggh.  I couldn't hold it in any longer--I basically lashed out at him and said we should NOT be running a site visit if no one knows what to do.  Then he started shirking responsibility, saying that it wasn't his fault, blahblah.  Seriously?  Please grow a pair and act like an adult, you are not a 5 year old.  SIGH. 
Ok, so enough ranting.  To tie this back into my whole "BW" title... I was chatting with our veterinary medicine officer later in the afternoon, and one of the site visit team members popped by her office to say hi to us... then proceeded to say, "Wow Teresa, I never knew you could be so LOUD".


So there you have it.  I'm loud and I'm bossy.  But you already knew that right? :)  I guess I should be LBW from now on...


3 days and counting until I am stateside again! Cali, get ready for my arrival!

World AIDS Day!

Happy 23rd World AIDS Day!  I mean, not that we should be happily celebrating AIDS, just that we should be commemorating how... terrible AIDS is...?  I think I just botched that one.  :T

In any case, today is officially the 23rd commemoration of World AIDS Day.  As a PEPFAR-funded global health fellow, it behooves me to put a plug in for increased AIDS awareness around the world.  We (at the CDC) actually celebrated it yesterday at the US Embassy, since the Government of Nigeria had its own celebrations and functions today... we couldn't very well have the Americans upstaging the Nigerian Government, now could we?  Poor Jessica was stuck being the events planner for the festivities yesterday... it turned out ok in the end, but things were looking slightly shaky at the start to the morning.  With security heightened due to Boko Haram and other extremist groups, it was difficult to get all the personnel from local implementing partners into the Embassy... security is pretty tight there, and everyone who isn't with the US Embassy (CDC is technically part of the Embassy) needs to be escorted onto the compound at all times.  In short, we needed to babysit them. O_o  We had educational sessions on HIV awareness, blood safety, epidemiology of HIV, etc etc... free counseling and testing, a blood drive, and HIV positive individuals who sold their handicrafts.  One of the vendors was actually at the AISA crafts fair on Saturday--they organization is called Women of Hope (www.womenofhopecreations.blogspot.com), and they make quilt-type products.  I got a few for holiday gifts, so for now, no pictures of those, or it will spoil the surprise. :)  The US Ambassador spoke as well... it was all a bit of a blur yesterday, trying to help coordinate when I had no idea what was going on.  In the end, my "B" self just came out and I started directing people around based on what I thought would be best, since there weren't enough Embassy staff around to ask.  When in doubt, just go with your gut right?  -_- 
Here are some pictures of WAD at the US Embassy in Abuja:

 EFMC HIV Testing Crew and their spiffy tent.

 Shirley, our PEPFAR Coordinator, opening up WAD with an introductory speech.

 Prof. Nasidi, our self-proclaimed surrogate Nigerian dad, he's the director of the Nigerian CDC.

 Mary Beth, founder of the Women of Hope Creations organization, and Esther, one of the HIV-positive women who has benefited from the org and makes these awesome quilts!

 Ambassador McCulley rockin his Movember 'stache and the WAD poloshirt and hat given out at the fair.

 Ambassador McCulley rifling through the quilts... hunting for Christmas gifts?

 View of the Embassy lobby, where the vendors and blood drive set up.

 Yay for donating blood!

Double yay for Peji, donating blood!


In other news, S E V E N more days until home!  So excited... but time has somehow come to a stand still here... just need to power through one more week... let the packing begin!