EIS Week 4 (and my birthday)

Classes drew to a close this week - we had a lot more emphasis on preparing and giving presentations, dealing with the media, and legal issues. It was kind of sad to see our month of "summer camp" come to a close and everyone get scattered to their positions. About 2/3 of us are based in Atlanta, rather than the states, but working out of about 5 CDC campuses sprinkled around Atlanta. I have really grown to love my classmates!
On Wednesday night, my roommate hosted a birthday party at a very cool restaurant called PieBar for me - and we turned it in to a July birthday party. About half of our class, and Ludacris (a rapper), turned out for the party. (That's OK - I had no clue who he was either.) The birthday girls - me, Cindy, and Melissa (there were two boys, but they're not in this picture) - Cindy is an epidemiology PhD (working in birth defects) and Melissa is a veterinarian (working in bacterial zoonoses)
The best two dollar beer in Atlanta (locally brewed) - in the picture, I'm laughing because I have just had a bunch splashed (accidentally I'm told) on my face and down my front - perpetrator pictured on my left. :)
Nick is so helpful - I didn't even have to lift a finger to eat my own birthday cake. And I didn't end up with any on my face!
On Thursday, I hosted a West African food fiesta along with an informatics fellow from Senegal named Salam Gueye - this is Salam sampling the food. He made a Senegalese dish, and I made a Senegalese dish and three Cameroonian dishes.
Again, we had a turn out of a little over 30 classmates - it was a lot of fun to share my favorite West African foods with them!