Apples, Alcohol, and Hypoglycemia

The Jewish High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) in New York City are what separates Jews into denominations first, then tax brackets second. First off, there's the price of the ticket to attend services. This goes anywhere from about $200 - $600 for both holidays, depending on the synagogue you wish to join. After this, it's often customary to buy any specific honor, such as being able to hold the Torah or to stand beside the Rabbi as he reads from it or even to just open the door to get to the Torah. No, this isn't done by approaching the Rabbi before the holidays and requesting it, they deal out these honors by holding an auction mid-service at the synagogue. That way everyone hears how much each person donated and who did or didn't donate. In a sense, its a humiliating experience.

So, for Rosh Hashanah I went to Chabad with some friends in the Financial District. Since Chabad can't accommodate the influx of congregants in its building, services were moved to a recently closed Bank of America across the street. Jews...praying...in a bank...holding an auction for religious honors. Definitely the scene of a bad joke.

Shortly after was Yom Kippur. This time I decided to go to services at the chapel at Mount Sinai, expecting there to be other med students there. Instead I found mainly old Jewish men and women hooked up to their IVs and heart monitors praying. This has always really fascinated me. Many of these people wont leave the hospital ever again. This Yom Kippur service may be the last they'll ever have. In their last days though they turn to praying rather than traveling to Fiji or jumping out of a plane.

The most interesting part of the night though was towards the end of the final service, only 10 minutes before we can officially break our fast. The Rabbi was finishing up his prayers then all of a sudden he stopped in the middle of a sentence. Then he continued for a little and stopped again. Nobody seemed to notice it though. Then I start to see his right hand start to shake and then the rest of his body start to shake - then his legs gave out, thankfully onto a chair.

You'd think that since we were in a hospital there would be a bunch of doctors in the service running to the Rabbi's rescue, so nobody did anything drastic as 2 men approached the Rabbi and started talking to him. Someone in the back shouted, "are any of you doctors?!" and they both replied, "no." So this man ran to the emergency room and called for help and within minutes 20 attending physicians, residents, and medical students were in the chapel trying to help the Rabbi out - one of the attendings was a teacher of mine, oddly enough. Turns out he was simply hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) since he hadn't eaten. Like a trooper he took a sip of coke, jumped up, and finished his service, shofar and all.

My birthday also came around and went. I had a great time, no doubt, it's just since it's still early in the year I didn't have a solid group of friends that I'd want to throw a party for. So instead, I had a pregame in my apartment and went out to sing karaoke with a few good friends as well as a good chunk of randoms. After the pregame I realized that what I had at UF is now gone. No more throwing shit around and making a lot of noise while we play rock band while people are trying to talk next to us or getting noise complaints. Actually the last one did happen, thankfully.

The pregame at UF was the most integral part of going out. It ended when the alcohol ended or the bars were close to closing. Here, I'm sad to say, people just don't get down like that. Everyone's super awkward and wishing they were somewhere else but at the same time they think that if they didn't stick around then they'd be doomed to social inadequacy for the rest of their med school careers. So instead you get me - wasted - while most other people are casually sipping their screwdrivers waiting for me to say, OK - lets go.

So we went out and I sang a riveting rendition of "I'll Make Love To You" by Boys II Men, the greatest R&B group of their time. I made a fool of myself, and it showed the following day when people made comments to me like, "It seems like you had a fun night last night!"

Nevertheless, I'm stuck in another week of tests. This time for Molecules and Cells, our Biochemistry course. Today we had a "Small Group Discussion," a clinically relevant example of what we had been learning that we need to prepare for in advance. I also had a quiz today and I have an exam which I plan on taking Saturday night. Sinai does things a little differently. Exams and quizzes are all online. The idea is that we should be able to take our exams on our own schedule rather then the professor's in the comfort of wherever we'd like to take it.

I know most people would think that this is stupid since it would just encourage cheating. Surprisingly I don't think cheating's such an issue since we all realize we've worked so hard to have the opportunity to learn this stuff, so we'd only be cheating ourselves. It really does take only one person to take advantage of this system to make it all come crashing down, since all classes are curved. It's about trusting your peers, something that was never a concept as a premed.

About that quiz today...I failed it miserably. This was the first assessment here that I flat out failed. I came into medical school thinking I wasn't qualified for the school I'm at. Now I know that's the case. I'm studying like crazy and have nothing to show for it. To top it all off, it was in Biochemistry - my undergraduate major! I keep on having to remind myself that I'm here for a reason and that these setbacks happen - and it's important to use them for the better.

That's why I've been stuck in the hospital from 9am - 12am every day for awhile now. Studying. Studying. Studying. I promise to post a little more often. I think it'll be better to do shorter posts more often rather than these long narratives about what I did since the last post. Keep on keeping on.