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MIT student blogger Chris S. '11

San Francisco, je t’aime by Chris S. '11

nothing to do with mit :3 (...intern in cali! raspberry)

Back in March, I typed into our internship database: “california health internship.” Little did I know that this would turn out to be an AMAZING summer.

I worked at an Asian health clinic serving primarily patients with no health insurance or only government-aided health insurance – primarily shadowing doctors, helping the clinic fundraise, and learning more about medical care for the underserved. As one of my projects for this summer, I also developed fish guides (based on recommendations from edf.org and tailored to be culturally appropriate to the Chinatown population) as health education materials to be distributed (as printed postcards) out to the patients. Take a look! :P


Common front side (click to enlarge)


Chinese and English back sides (to be translated into Vietnamese and Korean)

Also, aside from working, I also had plenty of time (9 weekends!) to explore the Bay Area. I made a list of all the tourist attractions/points of interest that I went to around the Bay area this summer, and the list came out to be 40 locations long :P (way too touristy -____-) but truly, SF Bay is beautiful :)


Death Cab For Cutie Live, UC Berkeley, July 11, 2009

23 responses to “San Francisco, je t’aime”

  1. Mike says:

    Very well designed ad, in the sense that it gets it’s point across. The only thing that I can think of that would be more effective would be a large, angry man walking up to people and screaming “Don’t eat this!”, while holding up placards.
    I was in SF all summer, where I learned never to get in a SF taxi. On the other hand, I no longer need an amusement park fund.

  2. Anonymous says:

    That fish guide is helpful.
    Thanks for posting the Chinese one so that my mom would also understand it.

    P.S. Chris, what school did you go to when you were in Taiwan? I lived in Taichung also for fourteen years before coming to the States.

  3. Well that indeed was very nice and its great to know that MIT is associated with such social service projects. Well my school also has its own social service club( and collaboration with MIT can be great not only for the club but also for the people the club looks after.) Lets say that is it possible for such a collaboration to take place? My school is in Kolkata, India and I’ll be applying to MIT for the 2010 fall session.

  4. Anonymous says:

    @ previous commenter

    Cheee-eee-ee-sy

  5. Anonymous says:

    Colt Tower? I think you mean Coit Tower.

  6. Anonymous says:

    I just LOVE San Francisco!

  7. Steph says:

    Your summer was so awesome. Actually, all your trips are awesome. smile

  8. NO WAY. NO WAY. I was definitely in Berekely on July 11th and I didn’t know DCFC was playing. No way. That sounds way better than eatting to my hearts content in a cafe that night. No way…. How’s the work on time machines coming along?

  9. Oasis '11 says:

    @ Anonymous –

    I attended Morrison Academy, a Christian American school in Taichung.

    @ Anonymous –

    Yeah, it’s coit -_- haha I knew there was something wrong with it!

    @ Vicky –

    The concert was great!! Greek Theater was PACKED. They covered something on the order of 20 songs…Andrew Bird also opened for them. Also, right before DCFC came out, a rainbow appeared in the sky (it was drizzling before) wahahaha the rainbow was really pretty. raspberry

  10. Anonymous says:

    wooo nice Cris

    btw, I really love Taiwan’s universal health care system: although it is almost broke (a great burden to the budget), the government didnt cancel it raspberry

    that rocks!

    nice to hear about you again Cris

  11. The charts are very well organized. It’s a lot of information, but I think you managed it effectively.

    Also, those are some really nice photos! I LOVE the one with the Golden Gate Bridge, and I wish there were a bigger version of the Hayward one. smile (Ahh, where did you find the adorable/ridiculously expensive turtles?)

  12. VAL '14? says:

    That otter gave me my cute fix for the day. Thanks. smile

    Ps. I am glad that you are having such a great time!

  13. Anonymous says:

    @Oasis ’11
    I went to Viator Catholic High School for junior high, which was kind of near to your school.

  14. Piper '12 says:

    Ah, San Fran. I haven’t been there in ages.

  15. Oasis '11 says:

    @ Natalia –

    The turtles are creations by the Boudin Bakery, an extremely tourist-popular sourdough bakery in SF. Their flagship location is at Fisherman’s Wharf, where they have a wide glass window where you can peer in at the bakers making these turtles. They usually leave a few out for tourists (like myself) to take pictures. =p

    (I personally think they’re better to look at than to eat raspberry)

    @ Anonymous –

    Haha, you guys’ after school tour buses always clog Sze-Ping Rd. around 3:30, when we get out too wink

  16. Yun '12 says:

    Otter!!! I went to the Boston aquarium this summer too, but sadly no otters. Gosh it’s adorable. And death cab for cutie concert? Sooo jealous smile

  17. Anon says:

    Pear is such an adorable name. owo

  18. Anonymous says:

    heyy

    suggestion: for the number of servings and the age group, it would be nice, if the age can be right above the columns. color coding is nice, but people have to look for the key.

    all in all very informative!

  19. Lucy says:

    Those posters are awesome!! They should be posted around Chinatown. They should be made into posters and sent out to families. I’ve tried to use the Monterey Bay Aquarium guide for seafood but had no clue what the names of the fish were in Chinese. And they didn’t give a reason like “high contaminates” either. I think yours are great.

  20. KayCee says:

    Oh my godness! i went to san francisco a month ago and bought one of those turtles!

  21. Oasis '11 says:

    @ Anonymous –

    Actually, we decided that a 4×6 is too small for our purposes so I’m redesigning a 6×11. Hopefully everything will be more clear in the new version because of extra space!

    @ Lucy –

    It will be distributed to Oakland Chinatown patients at Asian Health Services (where I worked at) as soon as they’re printed. :D

    We noticed the culture gap immediately and it was the biggest driving force for this project. In the future, we’re also looking to expand health advocacy into other areas for Chinatown smile

  22. celena '12 says:

    i def took sf for granted before i went to college.
    home sweet home! i love the bay.

  23. Val says:

    Very nice photos!!=)