April Review

Everything is born in spring: ducklings, lambs. Daffodils and tulips are opening. I am writing my thesis. It will now be on the connection between slaves, soul food and southern cuisine. Not to jinx the weather, but it is warm enough for shorts. My parents came to the Netherlands for a grand visit. We dined on splendid food, partook in antique market-adventures and encountered an invisible pickpocketer. Zoe and Tanya, two dear friends and last year's roommates, also came to visit. My friend Sarah Perry, a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar from Morgantown, studying in Scotland, ran her first international Marathon in Holland. I had the good fun of being on hand to cheer her on. Sarah trained for months, sometimes running 15 miles a day. When she completed the marathon, she looked strong. Sarah used her marathon as a fundraising tool: She collaborated with her Rotary club to donate money to help end polio. Sarah has already raised several thousand dollars. For motivation during the long, hot race, she wrote on her arm: 30,300--the number of vaccines her running will pay for.

Sarah Perry readying for the Rotterdam Marathon in Holland. She is sporting the name of her Scottish and West Virginian Rotary Club on her shirt.

Sarah's running has raised enough money for this many polio vaccines. Training in Aberdeen, Scotland is not always easy. Sarah said she had to sometimes come indoors and crank out hours and miles on a treadmill when the shouting wind and rain from the Scottish coast was vitriolic.




I realize the word 'genius' should be used sparingly, you know, for people like Einstein or Marie Curie. But my fellow Brown senior-year roommates make me want to expand the usage of the word. Here I am, sitting in Holland's most famous tulip garden with two of my former university roommates, Tanya and Zoe. My other roommate, Daniela, is with is in spirit. We joke amongst ourselves about who will be the "doctor" of the lot.Daniela and Tanya, who studied engineering as undergraduates, will probably go on to get their PhDs in this field. Daniela is on this path already. And Zoe, who comes from a line of physicians, is poised to become a doctor. Her passion is women's health and reproductive health. She has a dream of one day starting a midwifery clinic. As a side note, from what I have read, midwives are far more common in Europe than in the United States. Zoe, who is from Eastern Tennessee, won a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship this fall to study at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She will be studying public health. Congratulations, Zoe! And Tanya, for getting into graduate school!