Going to class in person?? WHAT?!? Week 3

My last post had a bit of an ominous ending. I hadn’t received my COVID test results and class was starting the next morning. Even though I was almost certain I didn’t have COVID, I wasn’t sure what the responsible action was if I didn’t receive my results before class started. But the Lord is faithful, and I received my results around 2 am and they were negative!!! So the first day of class was a green light!

Campus is a little different here than at K-State. Maybe it is just a Kansas thing to have less security overall, but here the whole campus is surrounded by a tall fence. You have to find an entrance, show the guards your ID, let them look through your backpack, and walk through a metal detector. As you might imagine, a farm kid here does not bring a pocketknife to class like they do in Kansas, no matter how convenient it is haha. Its about a 15-20 minute walk from the dorms to the buildings where our classes are. At 7:50, it is a nice and mostly comfortable walk.

Hebrew class starts at 8:15 and ends around 11:45. As expected, I am in the beginner’s class. And wow, somehow, I already feel like I am miles (or maybe kilometers if I want to relate to anyone here??) behind. Our teacher is really sweet and pretty funny but speaks very little English. This has been challenging, but it also motivates me to persevere and dig deep to learn Hebrew. We made it through the alphabet this week, which was amazing! On a side note, I learned from one of my classmates that it isn’t technically an alphabet because there aren’t characters for the vowel. In his words, "so when you are studying and having a hard time, just tell yourself it isn't even real" haha. You can mark the vowel sounds with little characters called the niqqud, but this is only really used in children’s books.

Pronunciation is extremely hard for me even when I know all the letters. After the alphabet, we moved on to masculine vs feminine words and singular vs plural. I was struggling a lot with this because I don’t even know the words yet, making it hard for me to wrap my head around manipulating them. I have a lot of studying and practicing to do this weekend (:

We also started our 2.5 week Emergency Medicine class!! I have really enjoyed it so far even though we are only 2 days in. Emergency Medicine consists of an hour lecture and then about 3-4 hours of drills. For drills we split into small groups of about 8 students with a TA who leads us.

Our first 2 days were led by a substitute TA names Maayan. He was FANTASTIC. He made it fun while also being very serious and insistent that we learn every part correctly. When we were going over the CPR protocol and got to the part about calling for help, we all said call 911!. It is 101 here, fun fact, but Maayan thought we should also try to call 911 to see if it worked. To my surprise, he literally pulled out his phone right there and dialed 911. It rang a few times, and no one picked up (that’s Israeli bureaucracy/service for you in a nutshell haha) and declared it does indeed work before he ended the call. He also brought delicious hummus and pita bread for us to enjoy as a snack and encouraged us to start a group message so we could organize a person to bring snacks each day. I managed to bring snacks for day two after staring at the shelves in a nearby store for much too long (:. My final selections of popcorn and a local snack called Bamba were a huge hit. I also brought some store bought cookies because you all know I have to be over prepared for such things haha.

We learned CPR, team CPR, the Heimlich, what to do when a baby is choking, CPR for babies, and how to do CPR when equipment is available. Even with a mannequin, it can feel stressful. But I really truly enjoyed the drills. I’m excited for the next week of Emergency Medicine. My class also had several required introductory meetings about Global Health, Loans, Residency in the U.S after being in Israel, Acclimation to Israel, etc this week. My favorite was the lecture about Global Health. I am pumped for the Global Health aspects at MSIH!

It has been awesome to finally meet all of my classmates, but at the same time it is mildly overwhelming. Since everyone is getting to know everyone, little groups are kind of already forming. Which is good, but it feels hard to just insert myself into a group in that way. But every person I have met has been incredible and unique. Ana is one of my classmates who has been living in Israel for 12 years and is married with two boys. She and her sons made us all challah bread.

Challah is a special bread of Jewish cuisine, usually braided and typically eaten on ceremonial occasions such as Shabbat (weekends) and Jewish holidays. Challah is made of dough from which a small portion has been set aside for blessings. Ana shared with us that when they bake challas for other people, they make good wishes for them, in this case, that everyone has an amazing first year in Med school and in Israel. It was delicious. 20/10 would recommend.

The end of my week has been my favorite part. After class on Thursday, Lauren and I went to the pool and met up with Jack and his wife Caroline, Jacob, his wife Terry, and daughter Sophie, and Risper. It was really relaxing and great to learn more about each of these humans. We even got to play some sand volleyball.

The locals playing on the sand volleyball courts were playing volleyball like soccer, using only their feet, chests, and heads but with a volleyball net. If I practiced this method everyday for the next 3 years, I think there is only about a 17% chance I would be able to attempt to play with those guys. Afterwards I got to chat and hang out with Lauren in our dorm. Long chats are always good for the soul.

Then today, Lauren and I went on an adventure to Old City with Jack and Caroline. We stopped at several bike shops looking for used bikes, but unfortunately they only had new ones. We found a very cute coffee shop/restaurant called Lola’s (it came highly recommended from upper years). I got freshly squeezed orange juice, and Jack and Lauren got shakes. Very yummy. We will definitely be returning (: From here we proceeded to the Shuk, which is the open outdoor market in Be'er Sheva.

The prices were amazing. We met up with Emeka, our fellow brother who has been in Be'er Sheva for three years, who gave us the best tour of the Shuk. We also met up with another one of our classmates, Simon, who joined our shopping expedition. It was really fun at the Shuk especially because we saw Abraham and Samuel and Teri there unplanned (: Apparently the Shuk is the place to be on a Friday morning. Emeka was also kind enough to bring us to two other fantastic stores. One is called The Booom. It had sooo many options and great prices (: The other was Victory, a Russian grocery store with a lot of dairy products and other products that can’t be found in other more Kosher stores. After an incredibly successful morning, we came home, and grabbed some food. Then we headed to a splash pad to meet back up with Simon. It has been a while since I have felt as free as I did when we were just playing in the fountains today. It was the perfect activity for a hot afternoon and it was made even better with good company (:

On a more personal level, one of my absolute favorite parts of this week as been the encouraging conversations I have had with so many people from home!! And Kaedyn is back!! I am so blessed by these humans who are willing to text me and talk or call me at weird hours and listen when I cry and share their hearts with me as well. If I listed all of their names, it would take too long. You know who you are. I love you. This week has been heavy in a way I didn’t expect. It has been wonderful to get on a schedule with school. But at the same time, it has been hard to fully grasp that this will be my reality for an extended period of time. And even after I finish school, I have no idea where I will be or if I will be able to be close in proximity to all the people I hold dear. God has been so sweet and faithful to remind me of his faithfulness with people here and people at home. I know it isn’t going to get easier, in fact, it may get harder. But I am always encouraged by 2 Timothy 2:11-13. “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” Currently, COVID travel restrictions are tightening up. They have added more countries the their travel advisory list, including the U.S. Now if you travel from the U.S to Israel, a 7 day quarantine is required even if you have been vaccinated. Many of my classmates had been planning to travel or have family travel to them during our break in September. As most likely will not be possible, I would appreciate prayers for everyone here.

Much love to all.