savoy096

While we figure out what to do in medical school… …Taco Tuesday nights with the roommates...      If you are anything like me, you are used to having your fingers in many, many pies. Growing up and throughout college, you volunteered at the local soup kitchen every Sunday morning, you worked in a research lab twice a week (for the sake of “experience”), you worked as many hours as the “part-time” label would allow you to, you participated in over ten clubs each year while chairing at least two, you exercised five times a week, dedicated the weekend to socializing with your friends, and squeezed in “me time” every evening. And of course, you were always studying for something. You were, for lack of a better word, busy. If you’re really like me, you also enjoyed every moment of it.       Medical school has presented a different format than my high school and college careers prepared me for. The structure is much more open: classes are only to...

    These are the groceries I was able to pile in my arms as I forgot to bring a five-shekel coin Moving to a new country is a huge transition, regardless if you are an Israeli citizen, a Jewish student who has toured the country several times, or a non-Jewish student first visiting the country. Yes, MSIH does their best to help you with this transition in every way it can; the faculty and staff avail themselves to you at all hours, foster mentorship and bonding activities within the medical school classes, and hand-pick amazing student liaisons (who assist you with everything from the mundane task of signing your lease to offering recommendations on the best hummus spots in Be’er Sheva). These major advantages truly ease the initial adjustment period but, no matter how much assistance the program gives you, there are always personal preferences and conundrums that you need must figure out on your own.      For example, if you need a haircut every four to eight ...

     The moment I sent in my acceptance letter to MSIH headquarters, I told myself that I was going to move to Israel and begin medical school without any expectations. I wasn’t going to speculate on a life in the Israeli desert, who my classmates would be, what medical school would entail, nor how I would fit in to the Israeli society. I was just going to pack up, move to Israel, and start medical school open to all possibilities. However, that was an unrealistic expectation to set for myself. I had plenty of preconceived notions as to what studying medicine in Israel as a foreign medical student would look like – whether I had verbalized them or not. For the next few minutes, I am going to explain both my expectations and the errs in my thinking.      My medical school expectations are somewhat easier to describe so I will start with these. I expected medical school to start at 8:00am and end at 5:00pm every day, like my father's and grandfather’s schools...