Short stint in Atlanta

I had about 2 ½ weeks in Atlanta, most of which was taken up by the EIS Conference. The EIS Conference is a large CDC-wide conference, where all the new little EIS recruits (like myself a year ago) try to meet as many people as possible and figure out what they want to do with the next two years, and go about trying to impress the supervisors of the positions they’re interested in, all under the guise of being at a scientific meeting. The EIS officers (including myself this year) present the results of some of their work. And pretty good chunk of CDC is there. It’s a great time – I enjoyed last year a lot. As an incoming EIS officer, everyone wants to talk to you, because there are more positions than officers. As an extrovert, I had a blast. As a current EIS officer, it’s a chance to catch up with your classmates and all sorts of people you haven’t seen since last year. I gave a presentation on the work I did in Niger. EIS presentations are ten minutes long, and incredibly highly practiced and scripted. I gave it to my branch three times before the conference, getting 2 ½ hours of feedback the first time and down to 45 minutes the last! I actually really enjoyed giving the talk, and especially enjoyed fielding the questions afterward. (And I actually didn’t take any pictures all week! Go figure!) Oh, and we got a really great incoming EIS officer for the malaria position – she’ll do a terrific job!

I did manage to get down to Florida for a little less than 24 hours to my friend Lee’s house to meet up with my roommate from medical school, Hilary Ann, and her husband Shawn. We had a delightful time chatting, cycling around Watercolor (a beach side town), and walking on the beach. Trying to take the kayaks out in rough surf resulted only in some nasty bruises, but we quit before we sustained any concussions! This is me and Hilary Ann.