By: Kate, August 8
Amy and I were invited by Mohsin to sit in on one of his lectures to the 2nd year med students. It was like being back at Vanderbilt! Before class, a handful of girls pointed and laughed when we walked by them. Amy thought they were making fun of my dress--but when we looked up the word they said, we found out they said, "padlock." Which was a snarky comment about the giant lock on Amy's backpack. Then as we stood in the hallway surrounded by med student clicks, a friendly face approached us and offered us help. "You lost?" he said in broken English. We explained that we know Dr. Sidat and we'll be attending his class. The boy smiled and walked away. What a kind Samaritan, we thought! Our opinion changed a minute later when he started shushing everyone in the hall. Yep, he's the class shusher. One of the brown-nosers. Sits front and center in class and constantly raises his hand.
There was also the front row girl who nods her head all through lecture and engages the professor in one-on-one conversations like there aren't 105 other people in the room. There's the girl who volunteers to write on the board (act as scribe) during discussions. And there's the guy who helps set up the computer and troubleshoots lecture I.T. problems. There was the back row that only half paid attention. There's the girl towards the front who kept turning around and glaring at people.
He introduced us, handed us the microphone and told us to say something...so naturally we stood there beet red, sweating, while the mic made that awful feedback noise.
A friendly guy turned to us and said, "tell me about your childhood." Obviously the future psychiatrist.
And what would a med school class be without the people who take notes on everything that is said or written on the board, like they are recording the only history that will sustain the test of time. A medical papyrus or dead sea scrolls. 6,000 years from now, people will discover the relics of a lecture amphitheater and a handful of rotting pages with the krebs cycle etched into it. They'll probably call our species Anal Retentivites--a descendant of Homo Sapien.
Whether in Nashville or Maputo, med students are exactly the same!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Forgot several important words in the first comment. End of day, brain is mush, need PBR. Edit:
Yes, but where was the guy who did a crossword puzzle in the beginning of class, then walked out to get coffee in the middle, then spent the rest of the time wondering if his pen was long enough to reach into his brain through an orbit? Huh, where was I?
PS. This is some fantastic work you're doing here. The blog, not the saving the world thing. It will only be a matter of time before you're one of the locals, like me, who spent most of Saturday walking around the zoo muttering "(any/all expletives) tourists."
Post a Comment