savoy096

               So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years— Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure   One of my favorite collections is “Four Quartets”, by T. S. Eliot. It’s a set of four poems, titled after rock formation a manor house (“Burnt Norton”), a place of his ancestors (“East Coker”), rock formations (“The Dry Salvages”), and an anglican community (“Little Gidding”). There is something powerful about titles that speak about places, geographical or of the social construct. Titles like that are an invitation to readers to go see those places for themselves. They do not explain, as much as they present. Like Eliot wrote in “East Coker”, I’m still trying to learn to use words. It’s been over twenty years, and I’m still trying. Some attempts have hurt others; some of smoothed over old scars; some have...

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...

Right before our Succoth break we had “Intro to Anthro to Global Health and Medicine”, an introductory course for the global health modules we will be taking the rest of our time here. For three days we listened, learned, debated, talked over each other, asked pointed questions, and got the importance of timeliness drilled into us (one of our first encounters with Dr. Seema Biswas was her not-so-subtly reprimanding us for not being on time, which means being early , to lecture). I think, for most of us, we felt . We felt the pangs of our current situation: listening to lectures about healthcare inequalities, economic power plays in developing countries, political tensions that get in the way of appropriate healthcare – all while sitting in a nice, air-conditioned auditorium at Ben Gurion. I felt drawn to jump into the action now, even though I felt like I little to offer as a student. When will we be able to treat patients, regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, citizens...