A Day in the Life, by second year medical student Sara Teichholtz

About a year ago, I was reading this very blog and trying to image what life would be like at MSIH. I was (and still am, technically) in my second year of medical school already, but knew I had to submit an application to transfer after finding out about the program here. A year later, I'm excited to be here at MSIH and to be a part of the first year blog! My first year at MSIH is a little different from most since I went straight into second year after completing first-year orientation, but this means I can fill in while the first years finish their exams.

Last year while applying I loved reading the first year blog to hear directly from the students at MSIH. I especially appreciated the posts that talked about daily life in medical school and around Beer-Sheva. So, I present to you now a photo series of what goes on behind the scenes in the class of 2016.5.

For the first month of school, the first years were in ulpan and emergency medicine courses. Here, my ulpan class makes a helicopter landing (a very common occurrence, as we have learned) into a teaching moment, learning the words for “Up,” “Down,” and, finally, how to communicate a helicopter's arrival using only gestures.

We quickly became friends in Emergency Medicine, where we learned CPR and other life-saving maneuvers.

We met the second years at the annual AMSA sale where we were able to buy housewares from upperclassmen. The second years did an amazing job organizing the sale, making sure that customers were never without water or cake.

After orientation, the first years began their coursework in the basic sciences while the second years warmly welcomed me into their class. Second year starts off with some anatomy before jumping back into organ systems, so we spent a lot of time in the lab and in our lab coats. (More if we happened to get stuck inside the lab. But that's another story). Another perk of being around second years is picking up the wisdom that comes with having one year of medical school under your belt, like using said lab coats to smuggle snacks into the library.

However, separate curriculums don't really keep the two classes apart. Outside the classroom, we can be found spending time together.

For instance, during an impromptu game of sports-ball at the hospital in between lectures:

Or putting on our MSIH idol fundraiser event:

So while we each class is having its own adventures, at the end of the day it doesn't matter whether you're class of 2016, 2017, or 2016.5. We're all MSIH. - Sara Teichholtz, blogger of the month