 |
| a little bit of green in the Negev desert right on campus. Perfect for naps, making some vitamin D, and hanging out with the classmates |
About ten months ago I was in an Immigrant Literature class where I first read about Israel and the Middle East. Even though I travelled a lot as a child and grew up in five-ish countries, I hadn’t experienced anything middle east before coming here. My freshmen year I studied in London for a semester and backpacked around afterwards and the closest to the middle east I got was (this is going to sound terrible) eating my first falafel in London. The Middle East was an enigma to me, till now. All I had were exaggerated news updates, videos of protests and riots, religious tensions and a big muddle of politics I had little desire to probe.
So it was natural that I was introduced to the Middle East not through a history or language class, but through my odd literature interests. I discovered Amos Oz in Immigrant Lit and it was through his autobiography, A Tale of Love and Darkness, that I experienced rich complexity of ideology, cultures, and religion that has shaped Israel. I had no clue that I would be living in Israel that same year, writing a blog post for medical school, sitting amongst a splendidly arranged display of his works in various translations, in the library archives.
It all came about while wandering on campus to find a good study spot, when I happened to pass by his displays again, this time I tried to strike up a conversation with the lady at the desk - “Does Amos Oz still lecture here?” We ended up talking for a bit and he gifted me one of his books, The Same Sea, the topic of Oz’s next lecture series after we firmly established the fact that we both enjoy his works. I’m hoping to attend some of his lectures next semester – an ultimate challenge to work on my Hebrew!
Little encounters and unexpected dialogs like this make a place like… (dare I say it), like something one can call a home. It’s the silent mutual agreement with your housemates, or realizing that the cashier at the Aroma café is familiar with how you like your coffee now (black and strong, please), or commiserating with classmates about school (we just had our second final exam, in biostatistics). It’s the familiar smell of the falafel (must resist) on the corner street near my apartment. It’s running into Anette* again on my way home and realizing again that global health is not as simple as we sometimes talk about. The more we’re committed to setting our roots down wherever we are, the more likely we’ll notice that home can be created where we are in that moment. We can work in global health anywhere – including somewhere you consider home - when we’ve garnered the strength to settle anywhere on this shared globe.
Apart from these musings and extraordinary conversations, school is still school. How to describe it? The amount of information is perhaps ridiculously, just too much. It’s like trying to take a dainty sip of water out of a bursting fire hydrant while everyone is watching you. Somehow, we shoulder on. Each one of us is still figuring out how to function like a normal being in med school, here in Israel.
 |
| Dan, Hannah, Jody, Jody, and Xiaochuan representing “B7”/Beersheva before the Oath Ceremony! |
Last week was also a week of “firsts”. Last weekend we had our Physicians Oath Ceremony, where we commemorated the start of our lifelong pursuit of learning medicine and dedicating ourselves to the service of others.
 |
| Joy counting colonies from a urine streak on nutrient agar plates. I think we concluded that the “patient” had some sort of infection |
We had our first microbiology labs and worked with Staphylococcus, Bacillus, Streptococcus, E. coliand other fun creatures. We learned how to operate the “vending machines” in the hospital that give you neatly packaged white coats according to size (!!). And I discovered a new coffee shop on campus with cheap challah sandwiches.
 |
| Classmates looking snazzy after stopping by the white coat vending machine. Ready for microbiology lab! (Photo: Eric Tsu) |
I won’t pretend that it’s easy being here. But I’m learning to take joy in the little things, like unexpected chats about authors. These are the small fragments, I think, that are required in making a home. - blogger of the month, Esther Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment