The Adventure Continues...

Spent four hours today getting injected and checked over. The tropical health doctor couldn't believe my weight. She told me that someone with my kilos should look *insert mime for 'big' and 'fat' here* and I didn't. I wasn't sure whether to be scared, pleased or just slightly confused!? What exactly did you think that numerical value looked like in the flesh then?

However, I can confirm with you all that I do indeed have a front, and a back (in six places, no less) and that I've now also got antibodies to Hep A, Diptheria, Pertussis, Polio and Tetanus running around my blood - joining those for Hep A, Measles, Mumps and Rubella (from the diseases NOT the wimpy bloody vaccines) and possibly some lingering for Yellow Fever too. I also have blood. The woman who took it from me is my new best friend.

See, I have hidden veins. I have veins that bury themselves deep against my bones when I need to provide a sample of blood. It's pathological. This nurse said, "My, you haven't got veins...okay...I shall have to feel" and closed her eyes, felt my elbow, jabbed a needle in and extracted 10mls absolutely painlessly. First time THAT'S ever happened. I want her to travel with me. In fact, next time I need a blood sample, I'm on a train to Berlin (four hours) and getting it from her!!

During all this, I was also undergoing 'media training'. I got back from the medical and had to give an interview to radio, followed by an interview (to a person - one to one apparently) on television. It was good fun, even if I broke down halfway through the television interview, stopping the reporter mid-answer (mine) by saying "I'm sorry, we have to stop..." as I'd COMPLETELY lost track of where the hell I was going - my mouth was just talking but te brain had gone on holiday!

The amazing thing was: on playback, I gave absolutely no indication my brain had left the building (which makes me wonder...) and you coulnd't tell I'd disengaged until I actually spoke the words. Weird. No wonder people think i'm confident etc...I'm a REALLY convincing liar. good to know.

After being jabbed, freaking out on television, and generally having a weird day, it was DELICIOUS to head back to the hotel (via Starbucks - the lovely green place!) and pack my bag. I've purchased: yoga pants x 2 (can be worn under trousers), thermal underwear (leggings and singlet), a jacket, and a torch. I've picked up a prescription for the pill (so I can try to avoid menstruating while there - sorry for te graphic details but in future, I may need to remind myself of this), iron tablets, and some antibiotics (just in case of UTI). I've purchased THE MOST AMAZING JACKET IN THE WORLD from North Face, and some Merrall walking shoes. I changed out of my suit, put all te stuff I don't think I'm gonna need in A (sparkly tops? Heels? Out they go *sob*) into a bag, and took it around to Andreas's.

He'd made us all (Maarten, Morten, Lisa, Lisanne, Luise and myself - aka 'the grid') potato soup and an antiplatter plate. God it was divine. We sprawled ourselves on his couch, listened to music, chatted ina   very desultory (read: we wre all knackered and couldn't be bothered) manner, and checked our e-mail on his laptop. It was SOOOOO very lovely to spend a relaxing evening at home for a change. Someone else's home - but good enough that's for sure. And while we sat, my underwear was being washed in his machine.

In a very typical gesture, one of Cohort 10 (the previous years intake – the one for which I was turned down) is in Copenhagen. He found out we were coming, and has invited us for a beer on Friday evening after the briefing. And Luise (from above) will ALSO be in Copenhagen that night (she has family commitments) and is hoping to pop to our hotel to visit us for breakfast on Saturday morning before we fly to our respective destinations. Zosia (from Intunition) did say the other day, "you guys get on planes like we get on trams, don't you?". Um…kinda yeah. AND IT'S GREAT! Already the end of January, and I've been in four different countries this month. My passport would be bursting if we actually got stamped anymore!

Having stowed my belongings behind his bedroom door, and called two women epidemiologists at the RKI who also have size 10 feet (that's european 42, but a WOMAN'S 42 - not a mens!) to see if they could bring me in a range of 'hiking boots' tomorrow: we headed back to the hotel. I packed in about 10mins (I had very little left to pack), and jumped into bed. My eyes were closed at 12:30, and I was asleep at 12:30:03.

Day -1.

Having asked my group if they minded starting at 8:30am so we could get to the 'down the line' (ie. I'm in a studio on one side of town with a camera, the reporter is in their own, and I appear as a small box on your television screen) before I had to catch the plane to Copenhagen in the evening, I stopped at Starbucks on the way to the institute. Sadly, the barista mistook my 'skinny grande white chocolate mocha with extra shot' for 'large latte'. I was so disappointed I almost burst into tears on the U-bahn. That's when I realised I'm freaking out.

Maarten had lots of questions. In the state I was in, I'm not good at dealing with myself – that really tests my limits – so if anyone else has problems/queries etc, it's as much as I can do to convey to them that I coulnd't really give a flying fuck if they can't charge their iPod (though I know how I feel when I can't charge mine, my compassion is clearly the first thing to flee).

Not to mention THE BEST JACKET IN THE WORLD was TOO GOOD and was causing me to sweat almost uncontrollably on the U-bahn (you try wearing four layers underneath a bloody ski jacket…see how warm YOU get).

List of things to accomplish: shoe trying on (aka. The Great <insert rest> of RKI). Turns out that I'm NOT the only woman with the size feet that I have. Christina and Viviane had both brought in shoes for me. The first shoe fit like a glove (yes, yes, call me Cinders) and so I've now got a pair of hiking boots. We still have no idea whether we're going to be office based, or field based. Guess we find that out at the briefing in Copenhagen tomorrow.

Back to a whole load of stuff on camera today. Discovered that my main sense is smell. Also discovered that Morten and I shall never interview one another again. What we had to do was decide what our message was going to be on a topic. Tell another person our topic – then tey could ask ANY question about that topic and we had to still get our message across without avoiding te question. There IS a technique – I promise you. And turns out, I can do it. Just that I can't keep a straight face when he's my interviewer. Or vice versa. What everyone else managed in one or two takes – we took three – because someone kept laughing! How awfully unprofessional.

We struggled on, doing the down the line. I discovered that I prefer performing to a camera – and not with a person. Interesting. And apparently, I already have that whole 'look through the camera at the audience' thing going on with my eyes (whatever that REALLY means). All those years at NZFMA finally came in handy then huh?

Eventually, it was time to go. Though our tickets (they had to issue proper paper tickets) had tyet to turn up at the institute. ARGH!   Reason being, apparently the mission contract hadn't been signed yet. DOUBLE ARGH!!

Finally, an out of breath bicycle courier came and put us out of our misery. So we did the rounds of the fellows, hugs before we went, a quick photo opportunity (the before shot) for Arnold, and then taxi to the airport. Finally found the gate, took another propeller flight (much less scary than the one TO berlin) and Copenhagen appeared before we knew it. Strangely, I've developed a very good capacity for falling asleep on planes – usually about   15mins prior to landing unfortuanately. Oh, and for those who think it important (I do), the SAS snacks are really good.

In total today, I've taken the following methods of transport: underground, tram, walked, taxi, plane and train. Am very disappointed I didn't manage a quick motorbike ride (even a scooter would have sufficed) or gotten on a ferry. Damn!!

Finally at the WHO hotel, left messages for the rest of the team checking in later inviting them to join us at breakfast (no, I have not met any of them, I'm just a friendly kind of girl) and then had dinner with M. Starting to feel the pressure and excitement build. During dinner, two women approached us. One said "are you the epiets?" and sat down when we confirmed her suspicions and invited them to join us. They are WHO people, one of whom is here to make sure we get on the plane (I suspect she's the logistician behind this all!). I HAD to ask: how did she know it was us? We had no t-shirts, no identifying EPIET slogans or anything. Turns out she didn't have super human guessing powers, she'd seen our passport photos. I should've known!! J