Thus commences the first week of the rest of our lives…by Avi Kopstick, August blogger of the month

Summer orientation is over. We passed our Emergency Medicine exam. We moved into what will potentially be our new homes for the next four years. We met, shook hands with, and shared a few drinks with the classes above us… Now what?

(Disclaimer: For those of you who have come to know and, I’m sure, love my humorous writing style/musings over the past month, I will be sorry to disappoint. Whereas my previous posts mainly functioned to report on the lived-experiences here at MSIH and in Beer Sheba, I decided instead to shift my focus for this last entry. If you want to know more about what Beer Sheva is like, I invite you to come visit – I hear tickets are pretty cheap this time of war ;). Or you can just return to this blog next week, where I am sure one of my classmates will be continuing with some first-rate blogging on our first-year here at MSIH.)

… Now what? It’s a scary thought, but become first-rate doctors, I’m assuming. It’s what we’ve always wanted to do. It’s what we all gave up so much to come here to do.

Before attending MSIH, one of my classmates worked as a nuclear chemist. After nearly a decade of building her career, she sold her apartment, found new parents for her beloved pet, and boarded a plane to Israel to study medicine. Another classmate of mine taught science in high school. First in, first out to go be a doctor. We said goodbye to family, friends, those we loved, those we were learning to love, all to pursue something completely different from what we have ever know. Some of us left high paying jobs, in pharmaceutical companies for example. I myself was well on my way to becoming one of the top Starbucks baristas/karaoke hosts in Toronto.

And for what? For this experiment we call medical school. Who knows what will be in four years from now? Of course, we will learn an incredible, incredible amount. We will pass, become doctors, etc. But when we go back to the places we came from, will it be the same? Will we be the same? What will the economic situation be at that time? We’ve taken out huge loans and lines of credit and forsaken the next for years of employment. Will we be able to easily pay back all that we’ve borrowed? One of my classmates will be required to enlist when he returns to his country of citizenship. How will he be able to repay his loans? And even if our transition back is an easy one, will being a doctor really be everything that we’ve always dreamed of?

This post is dedicated to my classmates, my peers, my new friends. These are the sacred sacrifices we’ve made. This is the forbidden dance we now follow with the unknown. May our next four years here at MSIH be meaningful, productive, challenging, engaging, enjoyable, and worth everything we’ve given up. May our dreams be attained and our goals actualized. May we become the doctors we’ve always wanted to be and help the people we’ve always wanted to help. I look forward to spending the next four years with you on this adventure we call medical school.  - blogger of the month, Avi Kopstick

How come anytime you call someone's cell phone in Israel, instead of a dial tone, you hear the melody for "whatever I said, whatever I did, I didn't mean it..."? It's almost as if everyone in Israel constantly needs to apologize for something! - blogger of the month, Avi Kopstick

 It's been four weeks in Beer Sheva so far, and things are definitely moving forward at an alarming speed. For instance, we are already all completely fluent in Hebrew. To illustrate this, I will write this blogpost completely in Hebrew:

אתם מוכנים ילדים? כן,כן, קפטן! אז תגידו... כן,כן קפטן! ווווווווו........ בתוך אננס הוא חי לו שם: בובספוג, כן, כן! חי לו בכיף מתחת לים: בוספוג, כן, כן! כך לחיות הייתם רוצים! בוספוג, כן כן! אז השליכו חכה אל הדגים! בובספוג, כן, כן! בוב ספוג המרובע, בובספוג המרובע, בובספוג המרובע

Just kidding. I can't speak Hebrew. That was actually the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song in Hebrew... But things are moving rather quickly here in B7. In just one week, we will take our emergency medicine final, say goodbye to our summer ulpan teachers, celebrate my birthday, and start our first semester as full-fledge MSIH'ers. CRAZY. 

So let's see, what actually happened this week of any interest?.. Hmmm… I can't really think of anything. We got up everyday, went to class, practiced our emergency medicine drills… There was this really big protest in Beer Sheva this week, which was kind of cool... Oh! We found the 11 NIS, all-you-can-eat, lunch deal in the Soroka cafeteria this week!.. But I guess that's not too fascinating… Hmmm. Nope! I guess it was a pretty slow week.

… I mean there was this tiny, little, nothing incident involving the bomb sirens going off this week (actually it happened twice this week), but common, that's no biggie right? **nervous chuckles** Nothing you have to worry about of course... Alright, I'll admit, it was rather frightening, getting ready for bed, hearing a loud, wailing noise outside (which at first I took for being just the wind), and then waiting in our bomb shelter until it was safe to come out. 

And then I guess there was also the quadruple terrorist attack yesterday... That was a tad discomforting, sitting in class, looking out the window, and seeing helicopter after helicopter dropping off victims at the emergency room right under us. But really, I guess it's impossible for life to come to a sudden halt each time these things happen. Honestly, our teachers just continued with their presentation on exam taking, without pause, as if it was the only thing that mattered at that time.

I'm not saying we aren't taking these events seriously. We do. In fact, each time a siren does go off, we get text messages right away from the school, letting us know what is happening, and then another to let us know when it is safe to leave our shelter. The next day, we get calls from our student liaisons and emergency medicine instructors asking us if we're feeling okay, and how we are dealing with the scare after the fact... I'm just saying that if we obsessed over every terrorist attack and let them dramatically derail our focus, how would we ever accomplish what we came here to do? Which is to become the most awesomest, coolest, smartest, handsomest group of doctors that there's ever been. So when I woke up this morning and saw two missed text messages, one telling me that bombs were flying in from Gaza, and another telling me that the danger had passed and it was safe to leave my shelter, I just shrugged my shoulders and started my day as if nothing happened.

So in that vain, let's shrug our collective shoulders, and end this blog post on a positive note: Last Thursday, we went on an incredible night-hike, under a full moon, in the Negev desert. For three hours, we serpentined through Wadi Chaverim, a dried out riverbed, sharing in the peace and tranquility of the desert at night.

 After the hike, we bussed to a bonfire pit and sang the night away around dancing flames and roasting marshmallows. It was a really special time. Thanks to our student liaisons for arranging such a fun and inspiring night. 

I'm going to sign off now, but I look forward to seeing you all next week for my last post, when I'll be handing the torch off someone else in my class. Until then, להתראות!  - by blogger of the month Avi Kopstick

Alright, now where was I...Week two at MSIH, by blogger of the month Avi Kopstick

The stray dog we found wandering around
the restaurant we were eating at,
whom I almost adopted... I called her Steve.
But it turned out she was just some hussy
who wagged her tail at anyone passing by,
and she left us for a bunch of guys
at a nearby ice cream shop.
( I'll never forget you Steve!! )

First of all, you have to understand, this is about the time that homesickness kicks in. Now, nobody wants to admit it, but we all definitely miss our family and friends and our stuff back home (like singing karaoke for example). It may seem like we’re all happy every morning, greeting each other with big smiles as if we’re having the time of our lives, but it’s clearly just a cover up. The other day, I confided in one of my new friends about how I was feeling. Initially, she said, “Wait, are you joking? Because if you are then… haha.” However, once she realized that I was being serious, she admitted, “Oh my God. I wasn’t going to say anything, but me too! Last night, I was totally crying in my apartment, alone.”

It’s funny because it was true… No wait that isn’t funny… Well it was funny at the time. We had a good laugh about it, I promise.

 If you don’t know what this is a
picture of, you should probably read
 – just in general, start reading. It’ll be good for you

What I can only assume are
super-awesome Jedi masters 

Luckily though, there are still so many amazing things to appreciate here at MSIH. For example, two Fridays ago, we had an organized “tiyul” (trip) to the Old City of Jerusalem. We spent about eight hours walking through the Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, and Christian, quarters of the ancient holy city, a very multi-ethnic experience. As the current blogging representative for my class, I have to say we all had a very inspiring and informative time. (Personally, I’ve been there so many times already, so it was no biggy: I was like “psht, whatever”… I’m only kidding of course. I had a fun time too – seeing where Judas Iscariot first sang Heaven On Their Minds was definitely a treat for me.) (Disclaimer: I apologize for my bad taste in humour… and the way I spell humour. Eh?)

Also, we really don’t have time to be homesick. We’re in class now from 815 in the morning until 1800, mandatory attendance (ya Israeli time-notation!). In the morning, we learn Hebrew, and in the afternoon, we practice our terrible, broken Hebrew on random Israelis who usually just respond, “I can speak English. What is it that you want?”

No, actually, in the afternoons, we study emergency medicine, courtesy of about five current Israeli medical students. From 1315-1415, we have a class lecture, and from 1430-1800, we have small, group tutorials with one of the course instructors. My Israeli TA, Aviv, is already well-know for his awesome catch phrases like “faint out” instead pass out, “Becky, you are my friend,” and “Avi, lizrom otti,” which means, “Avi, quit being such a pain-in-the-butt and just go with what I’m trying to say.” So far, we’ve learned how to properly administer CPR to adults and infants, in regular and in trauma scenarios. But we must always be on guard, because sometimes, I can be just walking down the street, minding my own business, when Aviv will pop out from behind a bush (almost giving me a heart attack myself) and point to a resuscitation Annie mannequin, and say, “Quick! This person is unconscious. Go!”

Practicing CPR. The person is not breathing,
has no pulse, an obstructed airway, blood shooting out of his left leg… aannnnddd go!

… ok, he hasn’t ever done that… yet.

So really, after our long and tiresome days, we don’t actually have any time to miss you. ;) And in case we still do, we can always go spend a relaxing day at the pool, which we often do, or take a bike ride around the city.

 Shout-out to our classmate, Chris Brown.
It was his birthday last week. We all got together in
Seattle Park, because he’s from Seattle,
and had ice cream cake.
 He just turned 21. Awwwwww

Actually, one last funny story before I sign off for the week: So I wanted to buy a bike, but the used bike store didn’t have any bikes available to sell. Instead, I found a bike, brand new, at another store down the road. However, this bike was only 450 NIS (roughly $125)… When I talked to the storeowner, I said, “I don’t understand! How can this bike be only 450 NIS. It must be garbage!” He assured me that it was actually a very good bike, just that they made too many of them and now had to sell them off at a lower price to get rid of them all (or some other like that). After I finally paid for the bike – no cancelations or returns – he says to me, “Now if you want your bike to last… maybe don’t go over curbs so fast. Oh, and when you’re changing gears, just don’t pedal so hard. In fact, don’t change gears at all. Stay on the middle gear. That should be fine.”  Oh Israelis… - August blogger of the month, Avi Kopstick

Fast-forward....backwards from August to March, by July blogger of the month Maayan Melamed

I checked out the blog site and realized that I (and the rest of my class) got booted from first year status. We are now officially second years. So to clear the blogosphere for the newbies, I decided to give a fastforwarded post of the rest of my year--March backwards to August of last year. Enjoy.

The beginnings of the Astroblasts. M and S playing acoustic at Ashan Hazman (and although I’m fluent in Hebrew I can’t figure this out yet, Smoke of the Time?) and they were awesome. And then slowly but surely a vocalist, a flautist, and a cellist were added (in that order) to create the best cover band MSIH has ever seen.

I know you can probably judge for yourself but I need to just tell you that this kid was really friggin’ cute. Our lovely AMSA Volunteer Chair organized a visiting day in the hospital for Hannukah. Volunteering was pretty liberally defined here considering we got free doughnuts and beer afterwards. In any case, my group went to a pediatric ward. The Chair has some great experience doing medical clowning, and she had the support materials to lend us for a dice game where the kids had to put on the costume quickly. The kids really enjoyed it (although we may have been more amused than they by their costumes).

 In November I attended the EKG workshop hosted by the Emergency Medicine Interest Group. We had some lovely male volunteers that showed their bare PQRSTs, if you know what I mean. Much fun was had by all.

During Sukkot break, I joined some friends on a trip to Egypt. This is a picture on the way back. It was a really interesting trip, a bit much to go into here. Not to mention the unwelcome gifts I carried back with me to Israel… intestinally… but that’s an even longer story. Anyway, travel in general was a pretty big highlight of my year.

Oh how naïve we were. First day in white coats. Where it all began. We would spend many more days in these pathology labs, most of which looking at computer slides with no need of white coats at all. But herein we began our medical education. Good luck first years, here’s to you. - Maayan Melamed, July blogger of the month (and now rising second-year medical student!)