The Learning Curve

"He is she, who is he, and a dog is a fish." Learning Hebrew is a constant test of imagination. To pass the exams, getting creative in making up stories that associates with nonsense sounds becomes a new game. Luckily, memorization is not a problem for medical students. =P

For example, "ohel" is to eat, my classmate goes, "someone likes to eat himself to death (hell), so o-HELL". Here is another one, "kesef" means money. "Oh, you know how it's really expensive to live in San Francisco, so I remember it as "ke-S-F".

This one is forever BURNED into the brain. Can you guess what is "Why" in Hebrew? It's a LAMA!

OK, that's enough for today, now you know 6 words in Hebrew, and I will quiz you later...

Except that our days are not done yet. In the afternoon, we learn Emergency Medicine so that we can rescue in the field when someone is in a bad condition. To make us wake up a bit more, this was also made into a competition to see which team can be the fastest (you see how competitive Americans are? Those pre-med years were intense; and we obviously haven't had enough).


Here is our dream team:

Check for consciousness; stabilize the spine; put on a neck collar; put on a neck collar that is the correct size; tied up the knees and feet; back roll; in two lateral motion secure patient on the backboard; put in head stands; tie up head stands; check for bleeding; check for pulse and breathing; chest tie; leg tie. Everything in 25 secs was our best time! Apparently, I was voted as "the best patient". (hey, it's not like it's the easiest role to play!) Uh hum....

Here I am again, being the "patient". Oh.... the love we have for each other. I am letting my classmate putting in an IV line for the very FIRST time in her life! There was a lot of blood splashing involved, and my arm was bruised for days, besides that... I survived.


Of course, the favor was returned. Here is me doing IV for my first time =) I am so proud!! I got it in on one try, my patient did not experience any pain (look at her smiling for the photo), and I finished everything in like less than 1 minute. (of course, I almost punctured her vein too, but pretend you don't know that... =)

If you want to be poked by me, take a number and I am now accepting volunteer applications.

After school, I walked home passing by this gigantic cactus tree. I was tempted by the delicious fruit that I went up and took one. Boy let me tell you, that was a major mistake.



There is a layer of invisible fine thorn that you cannot see. I am not talking about the big thorns, I mean of course I am smart enough to not touch those! My skin on the palm of my two hands were covered by what seemed like infinite amount of fine thorns and it was next to impossible to get them out because you cannot see them! No wonder there are so much fruits and no one was going near them. Ahhh.... I learned the hard way (*sniff sniff).

Apparently, that was a common mistake that tourists make. Transitioning from a tourist to a resident in Israel, the learning curve can be painfully high_sometimes. Adjustments are happening slowly. I am now in a world where the books open from right to left, people work from Sunday to Thursday, and if a bomb strikes, I will need to locate the nearest bomb shelter.

Can't believe I am a student again; can't believe I am going to be an awesome doc someday (hey, at least I strive to be)...=)


ps. the toilet paper in Israel is also rosé.