Money makes the world go around...

Okay. so it's true in some part that Money Makes the World Go Around.
Celebrate with me-- God just blessed me with a $2100 scholarship from the US Swiss Embassy ThinkSwiss Research Scholar Program for my stay here in Switzerland. It's not a mountain of gold but it sure digs me out of my hole.
Ill be blogging for the Swiss Embassy once a week now. YayayayayayayayayayaYAY!

Switzerland St. Gallen-Zurich

I am now in my first-second month of a three-month research stay in Bern, Switzerland.

here's a bare account of some of the highlights and observations of my 3 months:

today i woke up and trekked it to the bus stop (from Wabern, SE of altstadt/old city); from the Bahnhof went to Zurich (had to run to catch the train! paid extra 5chf or so to buy ticket on the train itself = 28chf with my halbtags/half-price card). 

Zurich train station is gorgeous! much like london. art exhibit, halles/cafes, etc on the sides.... Called friend (brother of really good friend) T to come pick me up; had sent text in train 1/2 hour before... no answer. God is great; he calls immediately after my 2nd call to confirm plans with me ("surprise, I'm here already!") -- it turns out my cell phone has his number without the leading 0.  sigh. he had perfect timing though.

of course i go the opposite way from the direction he tells me, but when i finally meet him (he is TALL and sounds exactly like one of my young uncles with traits of both this uncle and his brother!) we jet off to grab 5 tons of water bottles (just kidding) and pick up another (fabulous) friend, F, and drive off to St. Gallen.

WOW. it's the real thing. on the way: green grass, rolling hills, perfect sky, i could've been in texas cept everything looked plain ol milk-fed. wholesome. and clusters of germano-rustic houses. didn't see any cows but im sure they were there! 

St. Gallen- we walk around, have lunch at Lostli, or something like that. what do i eat but hash browns (roesti) and chicken-fried steak (except pork), Wienerschnitzel.  What? Am I where? in texas? oh no, it's switzerland. i forgot.  and a huge beer (the smallest size!) which i couldn't finish... whew!

thank God for the gorgeous trek up many treffen (stairs) to a hill atop St. Gallen- gotta burn off that yeast! (and oil/butter. yikes...) We went up enough stairs to warrant a whole lindt-hazelnut chocolate bar in the car home -- i was that tired. 

T had an appointment, so F and I wandered through the overly decorated Cathedral and then to the oh-so-rococco-cool abbey library complete with a mummy and trompe l'oeil decorations (sicher-- really!).  by the time we found our way out (we and another couple thought we were locked into the building... but they just hadn't jiggled the handle the right way), all the patisseries/bakerie/conditorei were closed (sniff, sniff) so i had to have that emergency lindt-chocolate bar ;).  "had to"  i know, it's a relative term!

anyway...

We grilled back in Zurich over the sunset view from T's apartment. Prima! i really love cooking so much. each cooking session gives a new pleasure.  T's colleague D came over as well, so we four shared drinks, chargrilled everything (more char than grill, but all lovely nonetheless), salad, salsa (incl lessons for F) and laughs! another one for my best memories collection.  *smiles*

what will tomorrow bring? hopefully enough energy to make it on whatever hike my officemate O takes me on! we're leaving at 8am... gnight all.

some friendships we fall into slowly, almost magnetically. others require us to decide: yes, I will call you friend. You will be my [fill in activity of choice] buddy. You will be who I cry to when I can't study anymore; you in the pink, you will go with me to find entertaining ways to pass my time. You will call me friend even though "friend" may last only until the next communication.

It is now that I find my friends flung into my life, placed gently, and decided upon as a recourse to action much like rubbing a paperclip with an old magnet.

Friends.

how to become a doctor

"Repetition teaches even the donkey."

Goals and dreams. well, just goals for now.

I've decided that I need to savor the small victories in life. Checking off my to-do list, actually styling my hair well, getting through all four classtime lectures without having needing to leave the room. Waking up and moving my lugubrious self out of bed. These are small victories-- and they are well worth celebrating!

My brain. online. officially.

September 8, 2007. Over one month into my second year of medical school and still I feel a disconnect with everyday life. Where has my brain gone for the last year and a half (minus the one month of travel/vacation)? Maybe I'm pulling a derealization defense response to cope with the overwhelming nature of medical school.

Medical school provides fodder for the anthropologist. We populate a sub-culture of nerds-who-think-we're-well-rounded or who were well-rounded until med school forced them to sacrifice their full self to focus only on their medical self. We are a sub-culture of workaholics, perfectionists, altruists, scientists (whatever that really means), and--hopefully--humanists. At least we were when we started.

Someone tell me-- is it a normal part of aging to lose passion and drive? Everyone talks about getting "jaded," but is that a useful defense against ignorance or a damaging process which we should fight with constant self-motivation?
If the former, then humanism will leave medicine as the medical school system continues to manufacture, not nurture, future doctors. If the latter, then medical schools (at least the ones I'm familiar with) should re-evaluate the amount of time spent by students in passive learning and the ways in which professors model behaviors towards future patients. There must be a transition-- a line-- between the thought process of the usually idealistic, compassionate medical student and the incredibly exhausted, disease-focused intern. I intend to discover this transition and push it back as far as possible. Let's see what happens....