OK, so I have now had dinner and am sitting down in front of my laptop to update you on my day :D. I think today was the most intensive day of the course so far, and the most interesting to me, since I was learning a lot of new things. The topic of today was about health in relation to climate change. We had different medical professionals talking to us about how climate change will change diseases and epidemics with time.
First up was the course coordinator, Evelyne Schvoerer, from the University of Strasbourg Faculty of Medicine. She works in the Virology lab and gave us a good background to emerging viral diseases and climate change. She was followed by Benoit Jaulhac from the Strasbourg Uni Medicine Faculty, who talked about bacterial diseases and enteric concern in relation to climate change. After Lunch we had Ermanno Candolfi speaking about Malaria, from the Parasitology Laboratory at the Uni. of Stras. Med. Faculty. Last but not least was Thierry Lavigne from the Infectious Diseases Department at the Stras. Uni. His experience is mainly in emergency medicine and preparedness for infectious diseases, and it was interesting to see all the stages required and how plans are put into place.
What I really liked today is that all these people actually have experience in the field apart from the lab. They could give us first hand information about the subject. And the thing I liked was how they put everything into perspective. Many people say e.g….climate change=increasing temperature=increasing insect activity. Well, this might be true in the lab. But what if the increasing temperature causes decreasing rain and therefore resulting in water puddles necessary for the mosquito life cycle vanishing?…many people do not think about this (and other similar scenarios).
Now about the food…today I had two specialities from the French and Alsace region. Lunch was again with the Maltese guy (Andrea), Marlene the French girl and a guy whose name I cannot remember…and on the menu were Flammkuchen…this is a sort of pizza on a very thin base….mmmmmm
Flammkuchen
Then tonight for dinner I went to a restaurant, and had Cordon Bleu with Spaetzli. The Cordon bleu is totally different to the prepackaged ones we get in Malta…where you put them in the microwave for 2 mins and voila!…the Spaetzle are sort of pasta twirls…and actually quite good (I think I had them when I was in Switzerland too cos my bros gf likes them…I think)
Cordon bleu with Spaetzli
That’s all folks for today! Talk to you tomorrow 😀
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