just from this blog, it would seem that my life is just one holiday after the next. actually, i spend almost all my time studying. m2 as it is called (the second year of medical school) was a lot more interesting than the first, but also significantly more academically demanding. instead of semesters, the courses were divided into “systems,” each lasting two to five weeks and culminating in a final exam. these fascinating systems had titles like hematology, endocrinology, pulmonology, cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, musculo-skeletal, reproduction, neurology and neuroanatomy, interspersed with anatomy of the thorax, abdomen, head and neck, limbs, etc. i especially loved the anatomy, as we got to spend our afternoons (and some eerie solitary all nighters too) in the cadaver lab – truly a remarkable place! throughout the year we also had twice weekly sessions on the hospital wards in which we learned various physical exam skills and how to perform a medical interview in hebrew. the hebrew was, and continues to be, rather rough for me. i put in some serious effort though, especially toward the end, and managed to pass the clinical osce (practical exam) at the end of the year in hebrew! overall though it was a great year! i truly love studying medicine, and though sitting around with your face in a book isn’t always the funnest thing one can imagine doing, i wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.
some random other things that happened:
-did some zumba! epic sport! lots of hebrew commands that can be tuned out; just dance! at the first session i was the only male there, with about 60 ladies. at one point our chain-smoking leader makes an announcement in hebrew, and everyone turns towards me and applauds. weird, right? after i learned that it was because i, a male, showed up to a zumba class! lol, a truly special memory!
-during the jewish holiday of purim, we had a customary costume party. before that, my conservative jewish friend read the megillah, or story of esther, in hebrew. a custom during this reading is to make noise with noisemakers and air horns and incessantly boo whenever the name haman is mentioned, because he wanted to eliminate the jewish race. his name is mentioned probably at least 100 times in the story, so lots of booing.
-a new shopping mall opened in beer sheva – the largest mall in israel! some may know that i am obsessed with malls, so needless to say i was living with eager anticipation. it is an amazing place! it even has an h&m, which is probably the most epic thing to have ever happened to beer sheva. one more reason to visit!
-i ran the dead sea half marathon for the second time, with a good group of classmates.
-some of my friends organized an excellent ted event at ben-gurion university, tedxbgu. there were a few very interesting speakers. my personal favorite was a blind arab-israeli lawyer named abbas abbas. no one, not even his family or doctors, believed he could amount to anything in life because he was blind and had other disabilities. on top of this, success for arabs in israel doesn’t exactly come easy. against all odds, he was able to graduate with a law degree from hebrew university and founded an organization that seeks to defend the rights of disabled arabs in israel. he was so enthusiastic that he kept shuffling further backwards without realizing it, and was soon speaking from the back corner of the stage. no matter. it was so inspirational on so many levels to see this blind arab commanding the attention of an auditorium full of israelis. doesn’t happen as much as it should, but it did that day. i probably cried a little.
-my roommate and i had two fourth year students from our program live in our apartment for a number of months, minsoo and david. david taught himself a few languages while here, and also self-taught himself how to play the oud, a classic arab instrument. i like to think i played at a least a small part in convincing him to perform a song in arabic at their class’s graduation ceremony, and he absolutely nailed it!
