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I applied to this fellowship for a few reasons: my friend Morgan did it last year and told me how amazing it was, I have never really travelled outside the country (I don\u2019t think an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican really counts), with my engineering schedule I can\u2019t travel abroad, and because I had recently become a yoga instructor. Now the yoga is what made the fact that it was India so enticing since it started there. Yoga is used as part of the healing process in Ayurvedic medicine (more on that later) and so I also got interested in Ayurveda- which is what I\u2019ll be researching. Since Ayurveda (and therefore yoga) started in India thousands of years ago, what better place to study it?<\/span><\/p>\n So I\u2019m not really sure what I\u2019m going to be doing at my internship sight, they weren\u2019t very specific. I\u2019m nervous that they\u2019re going to expect more out of me than my two years of introductory courses. I wanted to work with this organization because of their unique specialty in combining Western medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, very few places do that to the degree of the IAD. I\u2019m not necessarily interested in the dermatology aspect of the institution, just their methods. <\/span><\/p>\n My final project is understanding what aspects of Western medicine and Ayurvedic medicine the IAD has taken from each to optimize the treatment of their patients. I find this so interesting because the two types of medicine are complete opposites. Western medicine sees symptoms and treats with a medication that was manufactured in a lab. Ayurvedic medicine tries to heal by balancing the body. People are seen as being composed of three doshas- fire, water\/earth, and air. When any of these are out of balance the body gets sick. The doshas are very specific to each person, the doctor takes into account many aspects of the person\u2019s body, life, and well-being, so the same symptoms from different people may not require the same treatment. Ayurvedic also treats with more natural remedies instead of manufactured drugs. So I\u2019m very curious how IAD combined two medical practices that have such a different mindset and methodology.<\/span><\/p>\n IAD is located in Kasaragod, Kerala. Kerala is in the south west corner of India and Kasaragod is at the northern tip of the state, one hour south from Mangalore. I will being in Mumbai and Varanasi for the first week and a half, then I will go to my internship on August 1st for four weeks. \u00a0I still don\u2019t feel like this trip is happening, Everyone keeps asking me if I am excited and of course I said yes, but really it still feels like the trip is over a month away. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m going to be taking my first steps across the Atlantic any time soon, and yet I leave today. We will see when it hits me that I am going to be in a different country very far away. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I applied to this fellowship for a few reasons: my friend Morgan did it last year and told me how amazing it was, I have never really travelled outside the country (I don\u2019t think an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican really counts), with my engineering schedule I can\u2019t travel abroad, and because I had recently become a yoga instructor. Now the yoga is what made the fact that it was India so enticing since it started there. Yoga is…<\/p>\n