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| Panoramic view of the Monastery in Petra |
Hello! My name is Nicole Magpayo and I’m the May Blogger of the month otherwise known as “the girl who got hit by a car in Israel her first year of medical school”- yes, that really did happen. Luckily, I had an amazing support system here at MSIH and even better, no one can argue with me about drivers in Beersheva (just kidding!).
Anyway, just to give you more background about myself, I’m originally from San Francisco, California, but have been living in Massachusetts for the last nine years. I graduated from Northeastern University in Boston, MA and worked for four years at Massachusetts General Hospital in Radiation Oncology doing academic research and now… I’m here and absolutely loving it!
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| Soaking in the breathtaking view! |
We recently just finished another round of final exams last week and are starting to get back into classes once again. Today was actually our first class of Hematology. I’m excited to start systems and find them to be a bit more intriguing than the first semester. I also like the fact we have more frequent exams rather than all crammed in at the end of the semester.
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| The colors of the rock were AMAZING! |
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| Monastery in Petra |
Having a marathon of exams takes a lot out of you, but I think the hardest part for me recently was dealing with the uncertainty. Sure, it’s easy to say after an exam that you got 90% of the questions right, but there is still that feeling of not really knowing exactly how you did.
Dealing with that anxiety, even for a few days, is still something I’m getting used to. Although I do like surprises (especially for our class birthdays!), it’s a bit unnerving not knowing what lies ahead. Just like in life, it’s nice to plan for the future, but unfortunately that’s not always how it works.
Actually, it’s almost fair to say there’s a really good chance things will go the complete opposite of your original plans. Even so, learning to deal with the anxiety of uncertainty will be good practice for us as future doctors. Did this treatment work? Will my patient respond? These are all issues we’ll have to deal with and the answer won’t be around the corner. It will take a combination of both patience and faith to sit there and wait. I guess this is what it means to be an “adult” (darn, the time has officially come).
Safe to say, after finals, a few of us headed to Jordan to see Petra and Little Petra. We left the day after exams and took a bus down to Eilat and crossed the border from there. I have to say it really is an advantage being here in Israel where in a weekend, we can explore a new place, even better, a new country.
Weekend, yes, one weekend, when if you were somewhere else, it would probably take you close to an 8 hour plane ride. Another thing I love about this school are the people and that 99% of them love to travel and explore. Little did I know that Petra was more than a live Indiana Jones movie.
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| Bumping into classmates in Petra = silly picture in front of the Monastery! |
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| The cabs stopped on our way to Petra to let us watch the sunset. |
In addition to the treasury, we went to see the monastery (which my pictures could never do justice to) and actually ran into a few of our classmates! So of course, we had to take a silly picture (for those of you who don’t know me, I love pictures- so expect many of them in my future blogs!) I still can’t believe sometimes of how lucky I am to be able to explore the world while doing what I love. It was a fantastic weekend away with great company, but now it’s back to classes. I’m actually excited to see what systems will be like (nerd alert :P) so I don’t mind being back. Also, I kind of missed having class with everyone- it’s some sort of weird, needy bonding that happens with your class…or wait, is that just me? Until the next one!
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Sunset in Jordan |
I would just like to give a quick mini shout out and congrats to my sister and my brother-in-law for the newest addition to our family, that’s my nephew in the picture and my new niece Kaya J. Welcome to the world gorgeous! - blogger of the month, Nicole Magpayo