semester 2 complete!

it was a good one! thankfully i passed all my exams, and now we're into "2nd year" - systems! this means we will now study just one subject at a time and have an exam every three or so weeks. we recently finished hematology, and now we're into endocrinology!

a few happenings of the last semester:

-holidays: purim (think jewish halloween), hag b'omer (collect scraps of wood all year so that they can be thrown into a huge bonfire that can be partied around), holocaust remembrance and israeli independence day (minutes of silence during which everything in israel stops, including all traffic on the freeways, followed by a huge party with epic fireworks right outside my apartment), ben-gurion university student day (live music all night; pool party all day).

-a disaster management module that was quite interesting

-ran the dead sea half marathon with a number of my classmates; the lowest race on earth!! 1:37; i was happy with that. afterward we got to swim in the extremely salty dead sea water, which felt great on some our freshly chaffed nipples - you can imagine the yelps!

-had the opportunity to go to two christian "student conferences" that involved jewish as well as arab believers. really good times and great to meet some people outside of beer sheva.

-msih prom: bringing the american high school experience to israel!

-some unplanned school-free rocket days (they come from gaza). after one, we made some young israeli friends hanging out in a bomb shelter. they took us to where one of the rockets had hit that day - it decimated a school. good reminder that it is important to hide when that siren goes off.

-during one rocket day i decided to head up to nablus, one of the largest palestinian cities in the west bank. its quite a trip from here - a bus to jerusalem, another through the checkpoint to ramallah, and yet another to nablus. really interesting place. i spent a few sweaty hours climbing mount gerizim which overlooks nablus, home of most of the last remaining samaritans of biblical fame. quasi-jews, they believe that the true site of the original temple was on mt. gerizim as opposed to in jerusalem. every year they hold a big ritual/sacrifice thing there. they even have their own ancient language. its a small community of about 800, and until very recently they strictly disallowed intermarriage with anyone else, so unfortunately they have all kinds of rare genetic diseases. from the mountain one looks down on the balata refugee camp, the most populous in the west bank. 30 000 people live in an area of 0.25 square km. in nablus i also went to beer yakoub/jacob's well, the place where jesus met the woman at the well, and ate the local delicacy - kunafa, which is made from soft goat cheese, butter and honey and comes in flourescent orange and green varieties. unfortunately, nablus has a reputation for being a very hostile place for anyone suspected of being israeli. i was approached by some young guys who tried speaking a few hebrew phrases to me to see if i knew it. that day i didn't know a word of hebrew - slightly less than what i'd know on a normal day. rumor has it that if they find out you speak hebrew, they'll lynch you right there on the street :(

-perhaps the most profound 3 hour conversation of the semester was with an american college student who had just finished 3 months of nonviolently documenting abuses of the occupation with christian peacemaker teams in hebron, palestine. check out some of his documentation of what's going down in hebron here: http://www.cpt.org/underattack. the occupation is so messed up, yet so intractable; so seemingly impossible to do anything about. but this guy found a way to really put himself out there in a politically poignant yet very Christ-like manner, and i found it nothing short of inspirational.

-to celebrate the end of 5 straight weeks of second semester exams, 5 of my 33 favorite classmates and i took a 3 day trip to the ancient nabeatan city of petra, in jordan! it was a really enjoyable time. we hiked for an entire day around the expansive site, which includes much more than the infamous treasury (of indiana jones fame). the place is huge, and the rugged mountainous vistas from such locales as "the end of the world" unbelievable! we also went to little petra the next day before heading home through aqaba and eilat on the red sea. turns out you can discreetly sneak into the eilat hilton's glamorous pool area, which turned out to be quite relaxing!

spring break scandinavian style!

pesach (passover, i.e. spring break - in april) provided a good opportunity to get out of israel and forget about being a medical student for a couple days. my initial well-planned plan was to make my way to afghanistan (for serious!). i have a friend who lives in kabul, had a place to stay, and was two clicks away from some cheap airline tickets. unfortunately however, they decided to reject my visa application. maybe it was for the best though, as the taliban decided to mount a sustained attack on kabul right around the time i would have showed up.

instead, i chose to head for another exotic destination: scandinavia! on the way up i had what was initially to be a 24 hour layover in prague, czech republic. what an amazing city! some tasty bratwursts and beer, unbelievable views from tops of towers, a colorful wall named after john lennon, an amazing castle, some fascinating jewish history, etc.! indeed, it was so epic that i unfortunately missed my connecting flight (also because my alarm clock didn't work). after a few panicked hours under the impression that my tardiness was going to be the worst financial mistake of my life, an empathetic airline manager was able to hack into the computer system and salvage the situation and i was able to continue to copenhagen, denmark.

at this point plans (which had involved going to norway) were things of the past, so i randomly hopped on a train across the oresund bridge (one of the longest in the world) and then up to gothenburg, sweden (pronounced - get this: yo-tee-boor-ee)! i learned that it is the home of volvo and unequivocally the friendliest city in sweden! i then continued to a nice little city in central sweden called orebro, where my friend barrett lives. barrett is amazing; he was the program assistant when i studied abroad in egypt (before which he had taught himself fluent arabic), after which he got married to a nice swedish lady and has since learned perfect, accent-free swedish. we went to a house on a secluded lake for the weekend with a bunch of their friends who had names like hilda and johan and mats - it was rather enjoyable! there was an easter egg hunt, some really tasty food, and a late night bros only sauna session which of course had to involve dips in the 1 degree lake! they taught me a phrase in swedish which i used repeatedly; i was able to teach them one english word (they already knew all the rest). we also got to go to barrett's church on easter morning which surprising was very similar to a typical church in small town north america, except that in sweden they do gourmet espresso in delicate china instead of folgers in styrofoam cups. we also got to go to some really friendly (physician!) inlaw's architecturally avant-garde home for lunch! all in all it was an immensely enjoyable and enlightening couple of days; thanks barrett!

i then took a train to stockholm for a few hours, where i browsed through about 2 dozen h&m stores (that's where it started!) and sauntered along some picturesque waterfront walkways. then took another train south back to copenhagen. initially the plan was to also visit my friend karin who lived in the south of sweden, but she decided to move back to america. karin, you'll be pleased to know that i still had a good time! my new friends from northern sweden made sure that i understood that people from southern sweden are unintelligible to them, and that the southerner's habit of flying a flag that is a hybrid of the swedish and danish flags is kinda insulting to them. its strangely relieving to know that even scandinavians have divisions!

i got to spend a day in the bicycling capital of the world, copenhagen! after a lot of wandering, i chanced upon a famously overrated mermaid statue which was gifted to the city by the founder of the heineken company. just north is a more modern version with substantially larger breasts. just north of that is a "genetically modified" mermaid. it'll be interesting to see what they'll build just north of that!

i also went to a crazy community in copenhagen called christiania . the danes are known for being very straight-laced and obsessed with rules, so the "free town" of christiania developed as something of a cultural antidote to that. its a car-free community of continually high, dread-locked hippies who live in slum-like dwellings on an island in the middle of copenhagen. some highlights: a place where you can leave your rancid tie-die t-shirt and take another one that someone else left, a horse farm run by children, their own flag, their own currency, barrels of burning stuff that you can huddle around for warmth, and replicas of buddhist temples. main street is known as the "green light district", and there are just 3 rules: 1. "have fun"; 2. "no running - it causes panic"; and 3. "no photos - selling hash is still illegal". quite the place.

on the way home i had another day in prague. my last few few hours in europe were spent enjoying cheap food and bottomless coffee at ikea with what must have been a substantial proportion of prague's homeless population. then it was back to reality and the semester's final exams!

winter in the desert

4 months later, i think its about time for a post!

what's gone on since the last time:

- so very much studying. it is, after all, what medical school is all about!
courses this semester include: pathology, pharmacology, physiology, epidemiology, microbiology (continued), hebrew and a dash of anthropology and history taking!

- a couple amazing thanksgiving potlucks around that time

- the cinematic event of the year: the beer sheva premiere of "twilight: breaking dawn part 1"!

- a retreat to the sea of galilee with some of the other christian students at msih! we did some hiking and went to capernum and the mount of beatitudes

- unexpectedly frequent homemade korean cuisine fests!

- some ups and downs in the ol' personal life

- got to go back to the usa to visit my family for christmas! houston, texas and new orleans, lousiana! i wont elaborate because traditionally this blog is only about stuff that goes down in the eastern hemisphere, but i will say that it was really nice to see my family again and there were numerous trips to walmart!

- had a 12 hour layover in germany on the trip back, during which i went to heidelberg - it was nice!

- watched the superbowl live at the local shanti bar until it finished at 5am! then got some breakfast, and went to 8 hours of class the next day! gotta get ready for those 36 hour days in residency!

- went to jaffa (which is the historical area / "ghetto" / rapidly gentrifying part of tel aviv) one friday to visit a clinic run by physicians for human rights - israel (phr-i). they are an ngo run completely by volunteers that provides free medical care for the migrant worker/non-jewish immigrant/refugee population in israel. there have been tens of thousands of refugees coming to israel in recent years from places like sudan and eritrea, but these people are not covered but israel's universal healthcare coverage, have no mechanism for becoming citizens as they're not jewish, and typically can't legally work. its a huge, intractable problem for the government, and really sad on a personal level. these people risk their lives journeying across north africa in the hopes of making it to the "free western world" - many of them end up in protracted slavery in the sinai or even having their organs harvested at the hands of the human smugglers on which they depend. then, even if they make it across the border into israel without getting shot, they can't work, so many end up sleeping in a park in tel aviv indefinitely. phr-i also does mobile clinics in the west bank and gaza, where people are also definitely not privy to government funded universal healthcare. i think that phr-i is amazing, especially considering its all fueled by volunteer health professionals!


- last week was special: all our classes were devoted to issues relating to cardiovascular health and atherosclerosis! we also, for the first time since my class has been here, did everything that week with our colleagues at the israeli medical school. it was great to meet some new friends, especially considering that sometimes our classes are in the same buildings! we made posters in groups and presented them outdoors in the february warmth that only beer sheva can provide. i can tell you all about statins now! we also had fun stuff like yoga and zumba classes! zumba is my new favorite sport! turns out my default dancing technique has always been zumba inspired - i just didn't know what to call it until now!

- the biggest highlight of the year so far has definitely been once-a-week clinical days. in small groups we get to go to various wards in the hospital or clinics in surrounding towns and learn how to interview patients. the language barrier can definitely be a challenge but that's just the way it is. this week i to went to a bedouin family's house in the nearby settlement of tel sheva. they even made us a huge lunch, which we ate from communal plates while lounging on their floor!

the bedouin are an interesting people group. traditionally they were pastoral nomads who wandered around the deserts of the middle east. with the creation of secure borders between modern nation-states like israel, however, they found themselves hemmed in. at the creation of the state of israel 60 years ago there were 10 000 bedouin in the negev desert around beer sheva - today there are 100 000. that's a steep growth curve! they also have a tendency for consanguinous marriage (ie. with their cousins) which inevitably leads to high prevalence of rare genetic defects. indeed, beer sheva's own soroka hospital (where our classes are) is internationally famous in genetics circles. generally speaking, all the children at soroka are bedouin and all the elderly are russian. maybe thats a phenomenon for another blog entry. anyways, the bedouin live in towns and villages that spot the desert surrounding beer sheva. some were set up by the government, while others are "unrecognized". the government likes to periodically bulldoze homes in unrecognized villages to remind everybody who is in charge. i went to a lecture (in an underground bomb shelter!) the other night by a bedouin guy who is getting a law degree in part so he can work to protect his unrecognized village. he was a good guy. i'm sure the guys who operate the bulldozers are too, its just too bad they can't be using them to do something productive.

succoth part 2: the caucuses!

stop #4: TBILISI, GEORGIA

arriving at the tbilisi airport at 3 am was fun! i caught a ride into the city with a bunch of elderly men who smelled like beef jerky on a very typical soviet era minibus that was spewing smoke and stalled out every time it stopped. georgia is so interesting: it really is the modern buffer between east and west. you may remember that they had a huge war with russia in 2008 over a little territory called south ossetia, which almost ignited another cold war. to this day russia essentially controls south ossetia, which has declared its own independence, as well as another breakaway independent region called abkhazia. in the meantime, georgia is trying to join nato. and i had no idea until i got there, but there is another completely autonomous entity (thanks to a "strongman") called adjara. such a fractious and complicated region, which makes it super interesting to this guy! i would describe the georgian people for you (mom), but generalizing is wrong. i can say, however, that they generally subsist off bread, beer, perogies and pie. i spent 2 days in tbilisi: climbing mountains, exploring castles, marveling at countless georgian orthodox churches, not speaking a word of english, eating huge perogy-like kinkhali, breathing way too much second hand smoke, riding the <20 cent/ride metro system, feasting my eyes upon soviet era monuments, entering dilapidated, abandoned communist government buildings, etc.! the highlight was definitely renting a scooter for 3 hours on my last day. i scooted all around tbilisi (a city of 1.4 million), and up and over a mountain to some little towns in the countryside. it was the definition of catharsis for me.

all too soon, the time came to move on to armenia. i was going to take the night train, but it only goes every second night. so i showed up at the mini-bus station at 8 am to catch a minibus, which are supposed to leave "frequently" for yerevan, armenia, 6 hours away. well, these things wait until they're full before they leave. by 2 pm, there were still only 2 people waiting, and i was starting to get anxious. so i started the long process of bartering without language so we could get on the road. thank goodness for cell phone keypads so at least we can get the numbers straight! after an hour of unintelligible "discussion" and a little too much compromise on my part, we finally got on the road. it turned out that the guy who was driving the thing had spent his morning consuming alcohol; we were all over the road. one minute we'd be 4 inches behind the semi in front of us, the next he'd be getting a call on his mobile and forget to keep driving, and we'd coast to a stop, honking traffic piling up behind us. unless he unwittingly had us drifting off into the ditch, which happened a few too many times. an hour out of tbilisi we stopped, and waited for another hour while they brought one more passenger. probably a good thing for his blood alcohol level. at the georgian/armenian border we stopped for a 1.5 hour dinner break, so the driver could smoke another pack and pound back a few more beers. the other guy in the van insisted on buying me dinner; that was really nice of him!


stop #5: YEREVAN, ARMENIA

my friend brad has an armenian friend named veronika that he put me in touch with. and thank goodness, as when i arrived in at my hostel there was no one to be found. apparently no one ever stays there. it took about 15 calls in armenian, and finally someone got in touch with the guy who was supposed to be running the hostel. turns out it was really nice, and i was the only person there! veronika was super nice, and she even took a day off work to show me around the city! we went out to a town called etchmiadzin, where the oldest church in armenia is, from the 4th century. armenia is the oldest christian country in the world! and to this day their brand of christianity has its own independent flair. we then went to a museum devoted to the armenian filmmaker and artist sergei parajanov, whose work was heavily censored by the soviets. and we ate some really tasty armenian food. i was amazed at how cultured the place is. there is cutting edge art absolutely everywhere, and everyone is intently concerned with looking really, really good. as a group, they seem to hold themselves to a very high standard.

that evening i went to the armenian genocide memorial, which is on the crest of a hill overlooking yerevan. unfortunately the museum was closed by the time i got there, but there is an eternal flame and some evocative architecture that is very poignant. the armenian genocide occurred during the late 1910's: 1.5 million armenians were killed by the ottoman empire. this cause has been furthered by armenia's huge diaspora in the west. to this day turkey refuses to call it a genocide, resulting in a very antagonistic relationship between armenia and turkey. the border is completely sealed shut. armenia and azerbaijan, its neighbor on the other side, also unfortunately don't get along. i learned a lot about this from veronika, who is working to encourage dialogue between youth of the two countries. there was a big war in the early 90's, after which the ethnically armenian region of nagorno-karabakh declared its own (still internationally unrecognized) independence from azerbaijan. really interesting geopolitics that i could go on and on about, but i won't bore you. but the tensions and the complexities are one of the reasons that i really wanted to visit this part of the world, so it was great to hang out with someone who could explain it all. armenia = super interesting place, i'd highly recommend anyone to go there. as a parting gift, on my last day i finally got to see mount ararat, which towers over yerevan. its where noah's ark is believed to have run aground.


stop #6: DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

i flew home on this brand new low cost carrier called flydubai, which is super cheap! the first few hours of my layover in dubai were spent waiting in line with hundreds of afghani tribesmen who were on their way to mecca for the hajj. when i finally got out of the airport, i took the amazing metro system to the tallest building in the world, the burj khalifa. i learned that if you took all the iron re-bar used in its construction and layed it end to end, it would reach a quarter of the way around the globe! if you were to scroll down - way down - you could read about the last time i was in dubai. for some reason i really appreciate the place. on my way back to the airport i chanced upon the emirati equivalent of a walmart, and, realizing that everything was significantly cheaper than in israel, indulged in some shopping. managed to make it back to the airport just in time!


stop #7: AMMAN, JORDAN

i flew back to amman because it was way cheaper. after a night in a super sketch hostel, i spent a day getting back to israel. 5 hours at the allenby bridge border crossing. overall though, an amazing break: i almost forgot i was a medical student! but its good to be back :)

sukkot part 1: ukraine - hungary - latvia

one of the perks of going to medical school in israel is that we get 10 days off for the jewish holiday of sukkot! i decided to go on a little trip :)


stop #1: KIEV, UKRAINE

i had a 24 hour layover! after finding my way into downtown kiev by about midnight, i searched for my hostel in some dark alleys for about an hour before finally finding it. its only identification was a tiny piece of paper with 12 point font that said "hostel" scotch taped above the door of the building! huh, eh! anyways, i ascended the 7 floors of the communist era apartment building and woke up the woman who runs the place. turns out she sleeps in the bunk bed directly beneath me! before i left she gave me a huge box of about 100 gourmet ukrainian chocolates! i didn't know that chocolate was a ukrainian specialty. i still don't think it is. but those chocolates satiated me for the rest of the trip. the only drawback of the hostel was that when i picked up my bag at the end of the day it was clear that someone else had gone through it while i was gone. i don't think i would have expected anything less.

but overall i had an amazing day! kiev is a wonderful city, especially in the autumn. i went to independence square, home of the infamous orange revolution of 2004. also, st. sophia's ukrainian orthodox church, whose clocktower one can climb for fantabulous views. i also made sure to stop at the arsenal'na subway station, the deepest subway station in the world! got to love superlatives, right?!?! and the kiev subway is pleasantly priced, at 20 cents a ride. did you know: every soviet city with a population of over 1 million got a subway system? i ate at an amazing self serve ukrainian restaurant for a few dollars, and otherwise just wandered. ukraine has a fascinating and rather unfortunate history. but recently they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, at least in kiev. the newest news is that the chernobyl nuclear disaster site recently opened up to visitors, so i guess that's one of the main reasons tourists are going there these days.


stop #2: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

i spent 3 days in budapest, mostly to hang out with a great friend and former college roommate named brad. i feel like we have so many memories, everything from weekly wings nights to road trips to maine to wonderful liturgical church services to apples to apples at “family” game nights to lamenting the methods used by certain women to break up with us to wine tasting in the santa ynez valley to an infamous box of stool that just wouldn’t disappear to fish tacos in tijuana to vague recollections of him leaving at 2 am in the mornings for his job sorting lobsta in glosta, just to name a few. it was great to catch up. he is pursuing a master's degree at a very interesting graduate-only institution called central european university that is entirely in english and is a remarkable melting pot of students from every corner of the world. in a couple days i had already hung out with people from over a dozen different countries, including a disproportionately large number of romanians. we went to all kinds of little hungarian restaurants that the tourists don't know about and it was amazing. and cheap. oh and also he was kind enough to show me to a few different shopping malls - they have some seriously amazing malls in budapest! one day we went to a traditional hungarian bath house! i stayed the entire day. it was a good time! speaking of budapest - hey dad! - remember that time we were there on christmas eve a few years ago?! that was also a good time.

stop #3: RIGA, LATVIA

i had a short layover. but it was just long enough to find my way into the city and ascend the steeple of the tallest church in town before the sun went down. and buy some delectable latvian pastries. and wander around at night for a while. it was freezing! and everyone was watching hockey as a pastime! it reminded me of you know where! the baltics have really done well for themselves post-communism. downtown riga is nothing short of glamorous!

bethlehem; yom kippur

a few weeks ago i headed up to jerusalem and got to have lunch with the director of the middle east studies program, the study abroad program i did in egypt during college! that semester really changed the way i think about the world, and this particular professor had a lot to do with that, so it was wonderful see him again. also, my friend lynn from gordon college cross country running days is now the intern at the program. it was nice to catch up with her as well and talk about some of the politics/faith issues that only former mespers would think to discuss! because they live right on the seam, we decided to go to bethlehem for a few hours. after passing through the gnarly checkpoint and looking at "the wall" from the other side, we went to the church of the nativity, which marks the spot where it is believed that Jesus was born. there was a 3 hour long line of tourists, but because lynn speaks arabic we went in the back way and didn't have to wait at all! we then went to "the shepherds field", where another church marks the spot.

on the way home, coming through jerusalem, i ran into some preparations for yom kippur, which was the next day. some jews prepare for this very holy day by killing a chicken after holding it above their head and saying a prayer. they were doing this by the thousands in downtown jerusalem. across the street was a raucous animal (specifically chicken) rights protest. israel is a diverse place!

yom kippur, or the day of atonement, is the most sacred day in judaism. many here fast all day, and nothing is on the radio or television. no cars are allowed on the roads, so my classmates and i took the opportunity to saunter around all evening in the middle of the normally bustling boulevards and intersections of be'er sheva. we were even able to spend some time in a large municipal fountain that only gets turned off once a year. good times!

the north!

one day during rosh hashana my classmates diana, becky, cherec and i went circa-israel roadtrip! we started by watching the sun rise from beer sheva's favorite hilltop war of indepedence monument. then we drove up along the edge of the dead sea, and decided to make a random stop in the palestinian city of jericho. we bought some falafels and fruit, and chanced upon the mount of temptation, believed to be the location where Jesus was tempted by the devil. jericho is also famous as the city that the ancient israelites marched around... and around... and around... and then the walls fell down. today it goes by the tagline: "oldest city in the world. 10 000 years". we also found a seemingly ownerless camel, who was gracious enough to patiently pose for many pictures with us! thanks camel! camels are my favorite animal, definitely!

then we continued north, right along the israeli-jordanian border and the jordan river (although these days its more like a trickle). at one point i was driving and decided to take a one way in the wrong direction. all of a sudden: flashing lights and siren: oh no. the cop asked where we were from. "america". to that he said: "never mind then, enjoy the rest of your morning!". nice, eh! this gave me something of a feeling of invincibility, which translated into what i was quickly informed was an excessively aggressive driving style. sorry ladies!  eventually we arrived at the sea of galilee, or kinneret in the vernacular. its actually a lake, not a sea. famous for us christians! interestingly, it is also the lowest freshwater lake in the world. we went swimming amongst throngs of israelis. yofi tofi! (hebrew for very nice!)

we then headed into the golan heights, which is territory that israel conquered from syria during the six day war of 1967. its called the heights because it is at a much higher elevation that any of the surrounding area. we were going to go hiking, but the national park was just about to close. so we kept heading north, all the way to mount bental, where there are expansive views of syria (on the other side of a united nations-patrolled buffer zone). we could also see mount hermon, home of the levant's only outdoor ski hill! there are also old army bunkers to explore on top of mount bental. the golan is full of fields of landmines, marked by "do not enter" signs. there are also old abandoned tanks along the sides of the road, one of which we played in for a while! we continued north, through verdant vineyards and apple orchards, to two druze towns called mas'ada and majdal shams. the druze are a fascinating pseudo-islamic mystical sect/ethnicity, most of whom live in syria and lebanon, with some in israel. the israeli druze are actually famously unique for their valiant and committed service in the israeli defense forces, choosing to support the state of israel (in sharp contrast to the more typical arab perspective). the towns are amazing - they are built up the sides of mountains - you'd never guess you were in israel! we found the border fence with syria where the townsfolk apparently use megaphones to communicate news with their estranged family members on the other side of the buffer zone (because they can't travel back and forth).

we then descended into the galilee valley, passing through pristine alpine towns and past nimrod's castle, which is precipitously perched on the top of a mountain. deciding that the day wouldn't be complete without a glimpse of at least one more country, we headed north to the border with lebanon at metula! this border is also sealed shut - israel and lebanon were at war as recently as 2006. but the road goes right up to the border; road signs still intact and everything! and wow, metula is a glitzy little town. probably the most affluent town i've ever seen in israel. coincidently, it is also the home of the "canada centre", a rec-plex that contains israel's largest skating rink and is the home of the israeli national ice hockey team. yeah!

then we headed home, through tiberias, haifa and tel aviv. the rest of the galilee will have to wait for another time- we are medical students, not tourists, after all :)