First Final Exam of Medical School: Complete (:

THIS POST IS SUPER LATE.. This is describing the week of August 15th.

Sunday hit me like a brick wall. I was SO tired. If you had any courses with me during undergrad, you know I have a terrible time staying awake during lecture (even on good days). Apparently being in Israel isn’t an exception. I was falling asleep during Emergency Medicine lecture and even during parts of drill, yikes.. I guess old habits die hard lol. I would appreciate prayers for being able to stay awake in the future though (:

I finally checked out the hospital cafeteria for lunch. Someone claimed it is best deal on this side of the Jordan. And honestly from what I have seen, I would be inclined to agree. Fifteen shekels (a little less than $5) will get you a main dish (with meat yay!!!!), veggies, a side, bread, and hummus + sauces. I think it will be a really great place to get lunch once or twice a week since we are typically on campus all day.

On Monday we discovered we would have a Hebrew exam on Tuesday morning. It was a bit difficult to clarify this information since it was shared primarily in Hebrew haha. Our teacher, Hadass, also shared that after Tuesday we would have someone new for our Hebrew instructor. Honestly this created considerable internal stress for me. Because we spent the last 2.5 weeks getting used to Hadass and her teaching style, I was finally at the point where I was able to learn pretty effectively. And the thought of having to “start” over with a new instructor feels very counterproductive. But I was reminded that a new teacher could also mean that it is easier to learn. After class we checked out the library and I can already tell it is going to be one of my go-to study locations. Risper and I also mastered the library book checkout, quite by accident (: Risper spotted a book she wanted to read (thank goodness they have a few English options) and we asked a guy who we assumed was working to help us find it. He had perfect English and kindly obliged. Only after he found the book for us did he tell us that he wasn’t working in the library. AWKWARD on our part lol. Whoops. Thankfully, he wasn’t offended, and we exchanged phone numbers with the promise that we would invite him to hangout if we every engaged in any fun evening activities.

Probably the most exciting part of my day was going back to the dorms and finally doing some cooking. My diet has been terrible if I am being honest.. First of all, going to the store and coming out with everything I want/need is very challenging. It feels overwhelming haha and when you can’t read packaging/labels it is especially hard to find sauces and seasoning. With limited cooking space and utensils, I am even less inclined to cook. Currently we don’t have an oven, which is what I use to cook most of my meals. But I made the effort to cook potatoes, chicken, broccoli, and quinoa so I could combine them for meals throughout the week. I have been eating way too much pita and chocolate and calling it a meal haha. It’s easy, I don’t feel like I am in anyone’s way, and it tastes good (: But one of my goals for this coming week is to do better in that area, I’m sorry Mom, I’m working on it.

Later in the evening Lauren and I returned to Bachata dancing class for round 2. While I’m sure I could have benefited from spending the evening studying Hebrew, it was simply good for the soul. The only part I didn’t enjoy was the weird transition from giving our dancing partners high-fives after a song, to them giving hugs. I’m sure it’s mostly a cultural thing but I am not a fan haha.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/48f20f_6c4ea23ef678402a949adac4890cb88f/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Tuesday was a surprisingly sweet day. The Hebrew exam wasn’t terrible, although there were absolutely words that I couldn’t decipher at all. Especially the instructions haha, which is quite problematic (: Emergency Medicine was a slightly intense practice with the mannikins. I practiced the Trauma situation. The only advice I have for you, is do not wrap an Israeli bandage around an open fracture lol. Which probably means nothing to you but now you know ;)

Lauren, Risper, and I went to Terry and Jacob’s apartment for supper. The food was delicious (way better than just pita and chocolate), and the company was even better. Sofi (their 6-month-old daughter) was sleeping soundly and nowhere to be seen the entire evening. We exchanged stories about our encounters with Israeli bureaucracy and laughed about these misadventures. We marveled at how far we have come in just a month’s time. We prayed together before the meal and shared the hard and good of being in Israel. An evening with people who are quickly becoming dear friends reminded me how little moments and small details are what bring joy.

Wednesday began with an early morning run with Caroline. As I have really been struggling to sleep and get up in the mornings, I am so grateful for this accountability once a week. I just love mornings so much. Caroline never fails to point me back to Christ and encourages me every time I see her. We ran (and walked, ya girl is out of shape haha) around 5 miles which really helped get me fired up for the day. We didn’t have Hebrew in the morning which meant I had extra time to spend with Jesus and start digging into the Emergency Medicine material for our final. Wednesday was also the first day the Green Pass was required to get on campus. The Green Pass is a silly QR code signifing you have received your Covid Vaccine and have a positive serology test, you have recovered from Covid, or you have received a negative PCR test within the last couple of days. It can be a real pain to get if you aren’t a citizen, Israeli bureaucracy haha. I was able to get mine online because I went through the rigamarole a couple weeks ago to update my phone number and login information with the insurance company. But several of my classmates really struggled. They called the Ministry of Health who sent them somewhere else and when they went there and did as instructed, they were still unable to get the Green Pass. Eventually they got it all straightened out, but it can feel quite stressful when you have exams on campus, and you aren’t sure if you will be able to get on campus. Praise the Lord for patience and perseverance (:

Wednesday was our last day to practice with the equipment before the practical part of our EM exam. It was also our last day with our TA Roni, whom we all LOVE. She is enthusiastic, sweet, and patient. We all wrote little notes on a card for her. When we gave her the card, she was very surprised and equally touched. Sometimes I convince myself that we need to make grand dramatic gestures to express our love and appreciation. But watching her face when she read our notes was a gentle reminder of how we can make a big difference by everyday things. Words are especially powerful, and I don’t think I make the effort to show people how much they mean often enough. The day ended with Bible study. We are going through Mark and one of the parts we read was Mark 12:41-44, the Widow’s Offering. Right before this passage, it talks about how the scribes are devouring widows’ houses. Basically, the community had failed the widows. But immediately after, we read about how one is giving all she has to God at the temple. Let that sink in. Not only did she give when it was hard and painful, but she continued even though she was not being served by the community around the temple. Community is important, but our relationship with God shouldn’t be based on society or the community around us. The widow continued to be faithful to what God had called her to do even though the “church” didn’t. I was also convicted by the way she gave even when she didn’t have in abundance. I have the tendency to hold tightly to my time and to not be as generous in helping and loving those around me when I get busy with things I want or need to do. Or if others don’t “hold up their end of the deal”. But Christ continually shows us that when we give for his sake, he will provide for our needs. Just like the widow.

Thursday was TEST DAY!! The first finals of medical school (: The morning started off with the practical part of the Emergency Medicine Exam at 8:40 for my group of 8. This part included going through all the steps I would take if I was responding to a trauma incident (this one happened to be a scenario where a boy riding his bike got his in a cross walk), a choking baby, history taking/stoke screening, and ILS (intermediate life support) which is basically CPR on steroids haha. This part of the exam was stressful going in, but I actually had a blast once I got into the rooms (: Hopefully I saved all of my mannikins! This was followed by several hours of study time before the lecture part of the exam. We had been told by the instructor that no one fails the practical portion, but plenty of people fail the lecture section, so we had a good reason to be concerned. I will admit it was harder than I expected. I think part of the reason for the difficulty level is the fact that our exam was written primarily by Hebrew speaking TAs. There may have been a few things lost in translation haha. This is the only course that is run in this fashion that I know of. But we all survived, and hopefully passed too ;)

After the test, we decided to reward ourselves with some GOLDA ice cream. We hadn’t been yet and boy was it incredible. They even had dairy and gluten free ice cream, so Lauren had quite a few choices (: I joked that it was the best customer service I had received since arriving in Israel, the guys behind the counter kept the free samples coming, most of the time without me even asking lol. With my delicious ice cream in my hand, all my worries seemed far away (: Much to my dismay, a chunk of my ice cream fell out of my cup as we walked out the door. I would have picked it up and ate it, but you can all thank Lauren and Risper for preventing me from taking this action. We also found it funny when a man outside of GOLDA asked us why there were suddenly so many English speakers in Beer Sheva. He seemed satisfied with my Medical School explanation. Maybe our class has been very obnoxious around the city and that is why it is especially noticeable haha. We headed home just in time for a Zoom lecture on implicit bias.

I ended my evening by going to park Hasofrim to meet with my 2nd year mentor, Rachel. We got a watermelon salad which consisted of watermelon and some sort of cheese (it wasn’t terrible, but I think the watermelon was better just by itself), potatoes, and tart but refreshing lemonade (: I feel very blessed to have Rachel as my mentor. She is sweet and tender. The fact that she loves Jesus is a wonderful cherry on top. We talked for a couple of hours before heading home.

Don’t worry we had big plans for Friday (: That adventure will be detailed in my next post!