As we were nearing the end of our time in London, all lamenting the fact that this extraordinary experience was coming to a close, a classmate of mine commented that the three month Diploma in Tropical Medicine course is much like summer camp. Strangers gather from all over (the world in this case), spend every day together in a small setting, share life stories and form social circles, make close friends, then abruptly all go separate ways, promising to write and wondering if they’ll ever really see each other again. This was summer camp! Only in the winter. And for a bunch of doctors interested in global health.

An old attending of mine, who did the same program in London years ago, told me that it was the best educational and most fun experience he’d had in medicine. I’d have to agree. We huddled together in a cold January classroom in the middle of the University of London campus, bound only by a shared passion for tropical medicine. Seth, a friend from medical school who also took the course and shared a flat with me, remarked that he thought it was as much about networking as about learning tropical medicine. It’s true. I made connections with doctors working and living all over the world. The best part is that the course attracted such wonderful, interesting people. Physicians who work for Medecins Sans Frontieres, perform research in Cambodia, volunteer in Kenya, work for Paul Farmer’s Partners in Health in Rwanda, act as the only pediatrician in Liberia or Southern Sudan…remarkable stories. Although not everyone taking the course had such extensive overseas experience, I can’t help but admit feeling a tinge of inadequacy surrounded by so much, well, greatness in global health. Our lecturers were also top notch, and the LSHTM school itself recently won the Gates Award for Global Health. We spent three days a week in lectures, one day at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases seeing patients, and one day in the parasitology lab looking at feces, bugs, and other unmentionables (or at least undesirables) under a microscope. What group of people wouldn’t be bonded after such grossness!

As most students who undergo the DTM&H are not from London, the course really emphasizes the social aspect of the experience as well. Our crazy and endearing course director, Tom, told us on day one that we needed a “social chair” to organize various London outings and gatherings throughout the three months. We also had a yearbook committee (yes, a yearbook–for a three month course!) and a sports day chair. Needless to say, we weren’t exactly short on activities to choose from in London. There were football matches (football as in soccer for all you yankees), happy hour every Thursday after lab (because anyone looking at tapeworms for three hours deserves a pint at Marlborough Arms), musicals (Avenue Q provided a uniquely hilarious evening), ice skating, Shakespeare at the Globe, museum exploration (the British Museum was a block from our school), and lots and lots of eating.

I felt like I really got to experience London: commuting on the tube, living in Islington, wandering through the British Museum on my lunch break, frequenting the pubs, strolling through the weekend markets. And I absolutely loved it. I miss London. I miss Europe. But I’m thankful that now, however short this stint might have been, London will always feel a bit like home to me. I also have friends and possible global health work awaiting me all over the world. The whole experience was one of those I-will-never-forget and wouldn’t-trade-it-for-anything sort of periods in my life. Perhaps just like any memorable summer camp.