Last Friday, I left 1 1/2 feet of snow on the ground in Ann Arbor and headed to Maui for spring break (it's a rough, rough, life).  It was a transition in more ways than one - I was not even close to ready for the 60 degree temperature increase or the fact that I suddenly found myself with the free time to sit down and read a book (4 down so far).  The week started off with a somewhat overhyped tsunami warning (all that happened was that we were confined to our hotel for a few hours), but even tsunami warnings are enjoyable in the Aloha state - from the balcony we could see humpback whales breaching in the distance.  The scenery is also a nice change from Hawaii - rainforest-covered mountains are a far cry from the flat and snowy midwest.

But after a week of lounging, scuba diving, and accidental whale-watching ( humpbacks seem to pop up everywhere here) I'm excited to get back to work.  Epidemiology seems to have worked its way into my head and I keep finding odd connections and epidemiologic puzzles, even while on vacation.  The best example of this comes from sea turtles, of all places.  While snorkeling, we saw a sea turtle that had 5-6 baseball sized tumors on it's neck, flippers, and tail.  Curious as to what caused the tumors, I've been asking around but it appears that everyone is stumped (even scuba instructors, normally a source of good info - or at least willing to make something up as long as it's interesting - also didn't have a clue).  Like any good scientist, my first thought was to turn to google.  After a few minutes of intense digging (it is still vacation, after all) I found this site.  From a modest beginning with only a few sightings reported in the 1960's, it is now believed that the disease afflicts more than 60% of Hawaii's green turtles and is sadly often fatal.  Although the cause remains unknown, one theory is that the disease is caused by a virus and that it will soon reach epidemic proportions in other sea turtle populations.  Now if only I could convince UM SPH to let me study that outbreak...

Apologies for not updating sooner; the readjustment process has been chaotic (putting it mildly) and the blog here fell off my radar screen for a while.  My last week in Germany was also rather busy, between some traveling in the region (post on Eisenach coming soon) and the annual MPI soccer tournament.  I'm happy to say that our team (the Rocket Cows) came in 5th overall (out of 12), which isn't too bad for never having practiced.  My arrival in the US kept the general level of activity high - a few days after arriving we left for a family vacation to New York City (my first time there), where we had a great time.  Pictures for the interested. NYC was a shock - even the largest cities I'd seen in Europe couldn't compare to the overall activity level of NYC, and the massive American flag presence (it seemed like every street corner...) made sure that I knew where I was.  

I've also been getting my fair share of US (well, southern US) "culture" - lots of BBQ and grilling, as well as going shooting and "creek walking".  Creek walking was new to me but it's becoming one of my favorite activities.  It consists of finding a creek, and then seeing how far up the creek you can travel without getting wet, with crossing from one to the other as you see fit to add a challenge.  The creeks here in the Smoky Mountains are riddled with boulders, so moving up the creek requires a combination of climbing, jumping, and creative movement skills (as seen by my friend Cisco's boulder hopping in the picture).  Of course, you end up getting wet (falling in, misjudging a jump, slipping on moss...), and then walking back through the cold water on a warm day just adds to the fun.

After this pleasant interlude, I'll be heading off to the University of Michigan early tomorrow morning, which will require me to re-enter academic mode and see how well I actually tolerate cold environments (I'm hoping well, but lake-effect snow scares me).  Starting my MPH is exciting, and I'm looking forward to the new curriculum and opportunities.

In a somewhat more intellectual vein, I recently had a paper published - it's not accessible online yet (unless you're luck enough to have a subscription through a university) but you can find the abstract here.  Needless to say, I'm very excited and will share the paper here if possible (i.e. if it ever becomes open-access).