Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Casa D'Mendelsohn
So, I'm snowed in again, Jon having taken the car to work early this icy, freezing morning. I think this means I should bake bread. White crusty bread for slicing thick and toasting. Toast! How I love toast. As I recently started making various citrus curds and attempted my second annual batch of marmalade last week, I think more toast is necessary. And some scones. I also need more people to stop by and eat all these carbs. I'm not sure how to make our home the walk-in-the-snow destination for those friends that live in our neighborhood - except to post this picture, from Orangette, of my new favorite strawberry scones:
Just a little enticement. You should come over gentle reader. Right now. I'll even serve tea or a cappuccino, your choice. Yes, I mean you.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Curd
Specifically, lemon and lime curd. I bought too many citrus fruits. There had to be a solution that didn't involve just putting them in the compost one by one as they began to mold. So I canned curd. Yesterday was a gorgeous day in Rhode Island, the kind of winter day that makes you glad there are no leaves on the trees because there is no good reason to hide a sky that blue.
I had lightly held plans to make pasta this afternoon. I haven't done it since I was a child, helping my mother catch the eggy noodles as one of my brothers turned the crank on the pasta cutter. But it sounded good, with the shrimp and mussels we bought a couple days ago from the Farmer's Market and more lemon, as I hadn't exhausted the overabundance. In the end, I skipped the gym to follow through with this "lightly-held" plan and it was a success. The pasta was really great. And the seafood only slightly overdone due to Jon's day ending at 8:50 pm instead of the 8:00 pm he had anticipated.
Today, I have only one goal (after finally going to the gym). I need to get up to the outlet mall to exchange our CO2 cartridge. Or we might be snowed in tonight without carbonated water.
I had lightly held plans to make pasta this afternoon. I haven't done it since I was a child, helping my mother catch the eggy noodles as one of my brothers turned the crank on the pasta cutter. But it sounded good, with the shrimp and mussels we bought a couple days ago from the Farmer's Market and more lemon, as I hadn't exhausted the overabundance. In the end, I skipped the gym to follow through with this "lightly-held" plan and it was a success. The pasta was really great. And the seafood only slightly overdone due to Jon's day ending at 8:50 pm instead of the 8:00 pm he had anticipated.
Today, I have only one goal (after finally going to the gym). I need to get up to the outlet mall to exchange our CO2 cartridge. Or we might be snowed in tonight without carbonated water.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Pound Cake
Yesterday I began an attempt to bake and cook my way through my new favorite book, "A Homemade Life," by Molly Wizenburg. She also writes the very cool blog "Orangette," which I started cooking from earlier this week. But yesterday I attempted both her Blueberry-Raspberry Pound Cake and her Stewed Prunes with Citrus and Cinnamon. Both were met with approval by Jon, my number one and highly variable critic. Some days I could basically place singed vegetables in front of him and he would eat them with abandon and other days I could present an arduously crafted sauce over salmon and he'd declare himself in suspicion of the sauce's main ingredient. So I'm never sure when he likes something if it is actually good. Generally I feel these where both a success and plan today to make a Chianti Marinated Beef Stew from Giada De Laurentis of Food Network Fame. So far, so good, in following through with my cooking therapy.
I think I would be almost totally content if I didn't have a paper proposal deadline and a grad school application deadline looming large and if I could garden. Sigh. Winter in New England is hard on this gardener, especially since the essential shadiness of my patch of earth prevents the thorough hours of planning that would go into planting edible plants. I instead wait. Hopeful that the pieces and bits of flora I planted last summer will survive and be glorious in spite of the shade.
I think I would be almost totally content if I didn't have a paper proposal deadline and a grad school application deadline looming large and if I could garden. Sigh. Winter in New England is hard on this gardener, especially since the essential shadiness of my patch of earth prevents the thorough hours of planning that would go into planting edible plants. I instead wait. Hopeful that the pieces and bits of flora I planted last summer will survive and be glorious in spite of the shade.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Two years later...
From my perspective, my declining interest in writing over the last five years can be directly correlated to how much I've enjoyed what I was doing. I found it difficult to write or even, have perspective worth writing about, when the pinnacle of education for which I had longed, disintegrated into the most difficult experience of my life thus far. Sure, medical school is supposed to be difficult. But truthfully I expected it to be like the Peace Corps, "The Hardest Job You'll Ever Love." The Gambia certainly was difficult, in all sorts of unexpected ways, i.e. the loss of electricity was trivial next to the loss of identity. However, I did not anticipate medical school causing an even greater loss of identity, with less in the way of redeeming factors. I am in recovery. Trying to count the good that may be counted, redeem that which was desecrated and rekindle those parts of myself that I have only in memories.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Exam
I took my surgery exam under rocket fire today. We were interrupted three times with warning sirens/radio warnings and had to move to a more protected room. It's strange and unsettling. In comparison with this stress the exam seemed simple.
-K
-K
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Safe
I am safe. But very sad. There is a strange calm that I feel despite the rockets hitting the outskirts of Be'er Sheva this evening. I am not worried about anything except my surgery exam tomorrow. But I am sad. That this conflict is happening. That I am so near it. That there are people at home that are worried about me.
I will do my best to stay safe. I am currently in no apparent danger.
-K
I will do my best to stay safe. I am currently in no apparent danger.
-K
Friday, December 05, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Failure
My intentional and unintentional meditations of late have been on the subject of failure. Failure is probably my biggest fear... it has at times, especially in the past two years, paralyzed me and therefore prevented me from taking the steps to actually prevent another perceived failure. I think I also have a tendency to subconciously think, "If I know I haven't put in 100% effort then it isn't really a failure, because I know I could have done better." This pseudo-logic of my subconcious, in the light of day, is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. But I think I've been letting it influence me anyway. So, as of last night, I'm going to try to stop the cycle. I'm going to try to welcome failures as an opportunity to improve, and opportunity to really give something a 100% effort... the second time.
Help for Friends
My friend, Sera's organization, Circle of Health International (COHI), is trying to win a cash award from American Express Members Project.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AN AMEX CARD HOLDER to nominate COHI. Anyone can go to the link below, and nominate the project that we are seeking funding for.
It's called, "Nurses Deliver, One Mother and Baby at a Time." It will fund the training of nurses and midwives in COHI's current field sites: Israel, Palestine, Sudan, and Pakistan. Here is all you have to do:
1. Click here: http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/VCIESL
2. Nominate the project, "Nurses Deliver, One Mother and Baby at a Time".
3. Send this message to everyone you know, and ask them to do the same.
There will be another step on September 1, when we all have to VOTE for COHI. Don't worry, I will remind you~Thanks so much, and lets go win COHI some much needed funding!
YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AN AMEX CARD HOLDER to nominate COHI. Anyone can go to the link below, and nominate the project that we are seeking funding for.
It's called, "Nurses Deliver, One Mother and Baby at a Time." It will fund the training of nurses and midwives in COHI's current field sites: Israel, Palestine, Sudan, and Pakistan. Here is all you have to do:
1. Click here: http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/VCIESL
2. Nominate the project, "Nurses Deliver, One Mother and Baby at a Time".
3. Send this message to everyone you know, and ask them to do the same.
There will be another step on September 1, when we all have to VOTE for COHI. Don't worry, I will remind you~Thanks so much, and lets go win COHI some much needed funding!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Olympic Disappointment
It's hot here in the Negev Desert. Hit 98.9 F today. And while I would like to write about something more profound, the basic truth is that it is terrible that NBC blocked international IP addresses from access to their Olympic coverage. We can't watch. I'm sure there is Israeli coverage but I don't suscribe to cable, let alone own a television. It's a sad day when an American girl can't cheer her country on because she happens not to live in her native land at this moment.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Back to the Holy Land
Today I leave Seattle and return to Israel, via a weeks vacation in NYC. I'm excited to go. I'm ready for my third year of med school. For learning in a more practical way, for being mostly done with lecture-format education. Based on the last two years, I am sure the next two will have a lot of ups and downs but I'm also pretty sure it will fly by!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Links to some newer pictures!
So loading pictures to Facebook is much easier than to this site... so here are the links to the albums that don't require you to sign up for Facebook!
http://bgu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41198&l=e2ee2&id=549681281
and
http://bgu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41199&l=1981b&id=549681281
http://bgu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41198&l=e2ee2&id=549681281
and
http://bgu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=41199&l=1981b&id=549681281
Monday, February 04, 2008
Bombing in Dimona
Most importantly, I am fine. While Dimona is only a half hour from Beer Sheva, it is a whole half hour away from Beer Sheva. It's strange to finally have this come to pass... I am living in Israel when there was a suicide bombing. I suppose, in some ways, it was only a matter of time. I think I expected to be more frightened or... something... On the other hand, more people died this week in a random shooting in an American mall... so random violence really doesn't seem more frequent here than at home.
Apparently med school has sucked the rest of my will to write out of me... Just thought family and friends should know I'm safe...
K
Apparently med school has sucked the rest of my will to write out of me... Just thought family and friends should know I'm safe...
K
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Newsletter #6 - J.
Dear Family and Friends,
Today I met J. My Hebrew T.A., Omri, a sixth year Israeli medical student, brought J. to our small Hebrew class because J. speaks some English. Omri's hope was that we could practice our interview skills in English so we could learn the rhythm of asking questions without the complexity of trying to remember the questions in Hebrew. I think Omri also hoped to remind us that patients' stories are far more interesting than we sometimes can imagine....Here's what I learned about J.
J. is 24 years old man who reported to his family health clinic a month ago with chest and throat pain. After an initial blood test revealed a previously undiagnosed HIV infection, J. was referred to Saroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva, a three hour bus ride from his current home. In the hospital where I go to school, it was discovered that J. had cystic thymus. Cystic thymus has only ever been re ported in four other HIV patients world-wide. Actually, the thymus is an organ that J. shouldn't need anymore because, while the thymus is relatively large and important immunity-maturing organ in infants, it generally grows smaller with age and disappears in later adulthood. So J.'s thymus regrew and became full of cysts and, from what I understand, started pressing on his heart and J. had to undergo surgery to remove the thymus a week ago. This is a incredibly story to witness... such a unique medical history... but it is not the reason I am telling you about J.
J. is a devoted husband and father of two children, a four year old daughter and a six-month old son. He is a shy man, softly spoken but quick to laugh. In the five days he has been taking HIV antiretrovirals (since his surgery) his white blood cell count (CD4 count) has gone from 5 to 64. This is an amazing increase and is also important because a normal CD4 counts in adults ranges from 500 to 1500. One is usually considered to have AIDS with a CD4 count of 200 or less because this is the point where the immune system cannot protect itself against opportunistic infections. I honestly didn't think people survived with a CD4 count of 5! But this is also not why I am telling you about J.
J. is a Sudanese Christian from southern Sudan. In April of 2004 his parents and all but one of his siblings were killed and J. was thrown in prison for unknown reasons. In prison, J., a fisherman by trade, was tortured as a spy. They beat him and repeatedly pierced his hands with needles and injected him with unknown substances. They were not hygienic with their torture devices... and J. can only guess that he contracted HIV from the blood of another torture victim. He escaped prison and with his wife, who has also lost her entire family, hid aboard a boat bound for Egypt.
In Egypt they made a meager life for themselves. J. couldn't work because he was increasingly ill, but his wife was able to scrape together enough doing odd jobs for them to have a small flat and food. J. went to the doctor in Egypt and was told that he had Tuberculosis but was not told he had HIV. They gave him the standard six months of Tb treatment but he didn't get better. The situation in Egypt started worsening. J., his family and the rest of the Sudanese refugee community there came under increasing scrutiny from the larger Egyptian society. They weren't Muslim and they weren't Egyptian and they were poor. There were threats to send them back to Sudan. So last April, with his wife eight months pregnant with their second child, J. led his family on an eight day walk across the Sinai Desert in hopes of sneaking into Israel.
Almost immediately after crossing the border they were captured by the Israeli Defense Forces and put in jail for illegal immigration. J. said that the Israeli jail was nice. It was clean and they were given good food. And, after two months in jail, they were tentatively allowed to go free as refugees. J. and his wife found housing and jobs, as part of the the housecleaning staff, in one of the large hotels in Eilat, the sunbathing/partying capitol of Israel. They don't know what their status is and whether they will be allowed to stay. Israel's laws are very unclear about non-Jewish refugees. But in the meantime J. is receiving good treatment that will hopefully bring his CD4 count up above 200. His wife and children have all been tested and they are not infected with HIV. J. is eager to go back to work tomorrow, eager to get stronger and thankful for every day that God has given him.
This is what I learned about J. today.
Love and Blessings,
K.
P.S. Please excuse bad grammer and spelling in the above. I haven't much time to edit this. I am well. I still love medicine, I am learning to be more at home in Be'er Sheva, and I am looking forward to a two week vacation in the Northwest starting this Friday! Happy (Belated) Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!
Today I met J. My Hebrew T.A., Omri, a sixth year Israeli medical student, brought J. to our small Hebrew class because J. speaks some English. Omri's hope was that we could practice our interview skills in English so we could learn the rhythm of asking questions without the complexity of trying to remember the questions in Hebrew. I think Omri also hoped to remind us that patients' stories are far more interesting than we sometimes can imagine....Here's what I learned about J.
J. is 24 years old man who reported to his family health clinic a month ago with chest and throat pain. After an initial blood test revealed a previously undiagnosed HIV infection, J. was referred to Saroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva, a three hour bus ride from his current home. In the hospital where I go to school, it was discovered that J. had cystic thymus. Cystic thymus has only ever been re ported in four other HIV patients world-wide. Actually, the thymus is an organ that J. shouldn't need anymore because, while the thymus is relatively large and important immunity-maturing organ in infants, it generally grows smaller with age and disappears in later adulthood. So J.'s thymus regrew and became full of cysts and, from what I understand, started pressing on his heart and J. had to undergo surgery to remove the thymus a week ago. This is a incredibly story to witness... such a unique medical history... but it is not the reason I am telling you about J.
J. is a devoted husband and father of two children, a four year old daughter and a six-month old son. He is a shy man, softly spoken but quick to laugh. In the five days he has been taking HIV antiretrovirals (since his surgery) his white blood cell count (CD4 count) has gone from 5 to 64. This is an amazing increase and is also important because a normal CD4 counts in adults ranges from 500 to 1500. One is usually considered to have AIDS with a CD4 count of 200 or less because this is the point where the immune system cannot protect itself against opportunistic infections. I honestly didn't think people survived with a CD4 count of 5! But this is also not why I am telling you about J.
J. is a Sudanese Christian from southern Sudan. In April of 2004 his parents and all but one of his siblings were killed and J. was thrown in prison for unknown reasons. In prison, J., a fisherman by trade, was tortured as a spy. They beat him and repeatedly pierced his hands with needles and injected him with unknown substances. They were not hygienic with their torture devices... and J. can only guess that he contracted HIV from the blood of another torture victim. He escaped prison and with his wife, who has also lost her entire family, hid aboard a boat bound for Egypt.
In Egypt they made a meager life for themselves. J. couldn't work because he was increasingly ill, but his wife was able to scrape together enough doing odd jobs for them to have a small flat and food. J. went to the doctor in Egypt and was told that he had Tuberculosis but was not told he had HIV. They gave him the standard six months of Tb treatment but he didn't get better. The situation in Egypt started worsening. J., his family and the rest of the Sudanese refugee community there came under increasing scrutiny from the larger Egyptian society. They weren't Muslim and they weren't Egyptian and they were poor. There were threats to send them back to Sudan. So last April, with his wife eight months pregnant with their second child, J. led his family on an eight day walk across the Sinai Desert in hopes of sneaking into Israel.
Almost immediately after crossing the border they were captured by the Israeli Defense Forces and put in jail for illegal immigration. J. said that the Israeli jail was nice. It was clean and they were given good food. And, after two months in jail, they were tentatively allowed to go free as refugees. J. and his wife found housing and jobs, as part of the the housecleaning staff, in one of the large hotels in Eilat, the sunbathing/partying capitol of Israel. They don't know what their status is and whether they will be allowed to stay. Israel's laws are very unclear about non-Jewish refugees. But in the meantime J. is receiving good treatment that will hopefully bring his CD4 count up above 200. His wife and children have all been tested and they are not infected with HIV. J. is eager to go back to work tomorrow, eager to get stronger and thankful for every day that God has given him.
This is what I learned about J. today.
Love and Blessings,
K.
P.S. Please excuse bad grammer and spelling in the above. I haven't much time to edit this. I am well. I still love medicine, I am learning to be more at home in Be'er Sheva, and I am looking forward to a two week vacation in the Northwest starting this Friday! Happy (Belated) Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Time passes...
Everyone knows what is said about time and fun... but I've found that time often flies whether there is specifically fun involved or not. It's been more than five months since I've written. This is part due to the relative ease of posting pictures on Facebook in comparison to this blog but also because I haven't felt particularly eloquent. I had a wonderful but whirlwind summer with weddings and visiting and meeting Jon's awesome family, but I'm glad to be back in Be'er Sheva and settled.
School rumbles on at an alarming pace. I have another exam in five days and I'm sure I don't know it all but I'm also pretty sure I'll know enough by then. It's terrifying realizing how much my patiens will one day rely on my remembering all of this.
Jon and I just got back from a wonderful twelve day vacation in Romania. We both needed it. We did study over that time but we also took it really easy. With not particular itinerary we were able to stay somewhere when we liked it and move on when we were done and not worry too much about the details. It was lovely. Neither of us had much of a vacation this summer as we were both very busy, him studying for the USMLE and me rushing around seeing everyone I missed, so this was nice.
In front of the Opera House in Bucharest...
In the Black Sea (Brrrr!)
The Fall Festival in Sinia!
View from the King's Summer Palace...
Waiting to go on a tour of the Palace...
Getting into the Transylvania spirit!
School rumbles on at an alarming pace. I have another exam in five days and I'm sure I don't know it all but I'm also pretty sure I'll know enough by then. It's terrifying realizing how much my patiens will one day rely on my remembering all of this.
Jon and I just got back from a wonderful twelve day vacation in Romania. We both needed it. We did study over that time but we also took it really easy. With not particular itinerary we were able to stay somewhere when we liked it and move on when we were done and not worry too much about the details. It was lovely. Neither of us had much of a vacation this summer as we were both very busy, him studying for the USMLE and me rushing around seeing everyone I missed, so this was nice.
In front of the Opera House in Bucharest...
In the Black Sea (Brrrr!)
The Fall Festival in Sinia!
View from the King's Summer Palace...
Waiting to go on a tour of the Palace...
Getting into the Transylvania spirit!
A hike above Brasov...
Enjoying a real autumn!
A little studying on the train...
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
An African Woman that Gives Me Hope...
** Mauritania's fiery singing senator **
One of Mauritania's best-known singers, Malouma, hopes to continue her fight for women's rights as a senator.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6599701.stm
I think she plays a Kora-like harp... similar to the one I brought back from The Gambia!
One of Mauritania's best-known singers, Malouma, hopes to continue her fight for women's rights as a senator.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6599701.stm
I think she plays a Kora-like harp... similar to the one I brought back from The Gambia!
Monday, April 30, 2007
The Look
My friend Jon and I were recently talking about wearing the white coat and trying to differentiate between the possibility of pride and simple satisfaction that it symbolizes what we both want to do with our lives... in any case I thought I would post a couple of pictures from one of our clinical days last fall...
From left to right, classmates, Bryanna, Claire, Anna, Katy, Helen, myself, Ivona, Amber and Adam, ready to start interviewing patients!
Behind me is the hospital laundry!
From left to right, classmates, Bryanna, Claire, Anna, Katy, Helen, myself, Ivona, Amber and Adam, ready to start interviewing patients!
Behind me is the hospital laundry!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Pictures from Egypt - As Promised
Here are just a few highlight pictures from my trip to Egypt! There are more posted on Facebook if you are so inclined. Amber, Ivona and I had a fantastic trip. Egypt was diverse and bustling, full of markets and ruins, mosques and churches, buses, trains and water buffalo.
The view from our Cairo hotel...
Amber and I in front of the Egyptian Museum.
The Great Pyramid.
Amber and I with five pyramids... can you find them all?
Far south in Aswan my travel companions and I had henna tattoos done in a Nubian village...
Grand Mosque in Aswan, as viewed from our hotel...
Sailing on the Nile!
Ivona and Amber as we leave Aswan on our way to Luxor....
A close-up of my henna tattoo from the night before....
We ran into some friends from school while sailing!
Check out the stark difference between the palms right next to the Nile and the desert beyond...
A self portait...
The beginning of the ancient temples we expolored. This one is at Kom Ombo.
My favorite photo from inside the the Kom Ombo temple...
And the end of my temple touring on the West Bank of Luxor outside the embalming Temple of Hatshepsut
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Exodus to Egypt
Really I just love the irony of this post title! Today I leave for Cairo to spend the Pesach (Passover) Break exploring the wonders of Egypt. While about a third of my school is also going to Egypt, I am traveling in a small group of three including my friends Amber and Ivona and myself. I am very excited as Egypt was the second place I ever conceived of traveling to as a child! (The first was Scotland, to which I still have not gone.) Our plan is to explore Cairo for a couple of days, see the pyramids, the sphinx, and the national museum, take a small boat up the Nile for a couple of nights, visit the Valley of the Kings in Luxor and perhaps the Valley of the Dead and head back home after nine days. I'll be sure to post pictures when I get back!
K
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
