Friday in Tel Aviv

In Israel, the weekend goes Friday-Saturday instead of Saturday to Sunday. This shift accommodates the Jewish Sabbath, which starts Friday night. One interesting aspect of Israel is that the entire country shuts down on the shabbat (the sabbath). According to traditional code, Jews are forbidden to do any type of work on shabbat. Today this includes a whole arena of activities including spending money, using electricity, driving a car, playing an instrument, or even writing.

More than half of all Israelis are secular. Still, the entire country shuts down on shabbat (to different degrees). All public transportation comes to a halt late friday afternoon. Most stores close early on Friday and reopen Saturday night. More and more restaurants, bars, and clubs stay open on Shabbat. Still, it is strange to have so much shut down around you. In some ways, I suppose, it is peaceful. Everyone relaxes because even if they want to be productive and run errands on Saturday, they physically can't.

I went to Tel Aviv for the third time this Friday to meet up with two friends from my training course- Avital, who is stationed in Tel Aviv, and David, who is stationed in Beer Sheva. It was great to see the two of them! They were definitely the people I bonded with the most in Jerusalem, and I've missed being able to hang out together. We went out to a great Italian restaurant before the main event: the Nahalat Benyamin market. Every Tuesday and Friday, Israeli artists set up booths in this street and sell their goods. The market was crowded, hot, and exciting. There were vendors left and right selling all sorts of beautiful things- handmade jewlery, crafts, little statues, etc. I ended up buying 2 pairs of earrings, a silver star of david necklace, and two beautiful photographs to put up in my room in the fall. I love knowing that everything I bought was handmade and unique, and I will think of this summer and Israel every time I look at or put on the purchases.

My great day was followed by a fun and relaxing evening in Ashdod. The girls in the absorption center cooked a very impressive and tasty Shabbat meal and invited me over to join in. We had a great time all sitting together and enjoying Friday night. One of the things I miss the most at Penn is friday night dinners. At my house, friday is the one night we all sit down together for a meal. My mom lights candles, my dad says the blessing over the wine and the challah, and we all take some time to enjoy eating as a family. Having a dinner like that in Israel was definitely a treat.

After dinner a few of us went out to a pub with one of the girls' Israeli friends. It was nice to sit and relax there, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations of going out in Israel. I've realized that going out in the "real world" has some disadvantages to going out in college. During the year, I always go to parties where I already know people, and they all introduce me to their friends. It is very easy to go out and have a good time, because it is easy to meet new people and there is a certain established comfort level. Outside of college, going to a bar basically means going to a building full of strangers. Unless there is some secret strategy of which I am unaware, it seems like there is little else to do but sit with the few people you came with and have a drink. It's odd to be surrounded by so many fun people but not to be able to meet them. Maybe I have to get used to bars/clubs to have more fun at them- who knows? I guess I'll wait another year in the US and figure it out!

Avital and David in front of an artist's stand at the Nahalat Benyamin market.

All the girls at our Shabbat dinner
Lauren and I at a pub on Friday night. I wasn't a fan of my (overpriced) drink.

Shifts So Far

I am determined to at least somewhat keep up with this blog, so I thought I would generally describe what the past two weeks of shifts have been like.

There are two shifts open for the international volunteers: 7am-3 pm and 11 pm-7 am. They always want 4 volunteers in the morning and 3 at night, so we try to figure out a shift schedule that works for all 9 of us. I haven't decided yet which shift I like better. The morning shifts get lots of calls, but they are all boring and you are too busy to bond with the drivers (usually). I felt like I was taken more seriously on the night calls and had more learning opportunities, but for every night of 6 calls there are several nights of 1 or 2. I did all morning shifts this week, but I will try to do more night shifts next week and see if I get anything cool.

Most of the time, you are on an ambulance with a driver and another volunteer. The driver is the one in charge, and the volunteer is most likely very experienced and Israeli. The quality of the shift depends on two factors: the people you are with, and the calls you get. In terms of calls, we all quickly discovered that medic life is nowhere near as exciting as it may seem. 90% of the time, all one is required to do is take vitals and transport someone (usually elderly) to the hospital. Basically, we are glorified taxi drivers who can save you if your heart happens to stop beating on our watch. I've had one cool call, which I will describe later. Other than that, the most I ever get to do is take blood pressure and pulse.

The drivers can often be a challenge. Some speak English, but most don't. Almost all prefer to interact with the Israeli volunteers than with us. Unless one speaks up, it is easy to spend an entire 8 hour shift standing in the corner at calls and sitting in the ambulance, ignored and not doing anything. Luckily, I've been learning to really push and make my presence known. Success at the station is like success in any competitive social situation. You have to know when to be aggressive, when to speak up, when to ask and when to just act. You also need either the driver or the other volunteer to really like you. I had a great driver and a great volunteer today, so I got to take vitals for every patient and fill out forms. That might not sound like too much, but it actually meant alot to be trusted with doing even those small tasks.

Yesterday I had a tough volunteer to win over. The driver liked me, but most of the time the calls only require one volunteer. The other volunteer has to consciously hand over tasks to me that he could easily do himself- otherwise there is nothing for me to do. The volunteer on my ambulance was named Natalie, and she felt no need to involve me in any of the calls. I tried to take inititative at one point and started measuring pulse, and she proceeded to start measuring blood pressure on the same arm (thereby cutting off the pulse, and my attempted measurements). I stood up for myself though and asked if I could do more in the future. By the end of the day, she had warmed up to me and even encouraged me to take part in the calls.

I'll write about my one interesting call in the next post- hopefully, I will have more to write about in the future!

Adjusting to Ashdod

I know it has been while since my last post- sorry! I'm sure anyone reading this knows I have a teensy little problem with procrastination. I will try to be better!

The past week hasn't been the best. I'm still living with my family in Ashdod right now, though I think I'm moving out at some unknown time. Obviously, I love my family and appreciate having them around. At the same time, it is pretty stressful. My aunt and uncle have a certain way of doing things, and its been tough trying to figure that out and keep up. I usually mess something up daily. I don't want to overstay my welcome. and I feel as though living here every day for the enxt two and a half weeks would do that. I've been trying to move into the Absorption center, buts it has been impossible to get through allthe red tape and actually reach the people in charge. Hopefully that will happen soon!

I will be honest- I don't really love the people I am here with. In fact, the only way I am staying sane is by occasionally tagging along with my cousin. I usually have no trouble making new friends. Somehow, though, I ended up in Ashdod with 8 other people, none of whom I have any interest in spending time with. Maybe its just bad luck, or maybe my standards for people are too high. All I know is that, socially, this is not working out how I wanted! I have an amazing group of friends back at school, and I love going out with them and spending time with the people around me. I've been doing almost everything here alone, which is making me pretty homesick. Its especially sad knowing that Israel has this great night life that I'm not taking advantage of at all! I can't go out in the US for another 10 months, and here I am with an 18+ drinking age and I spend my free time online.

I am determined, though, to make the best of my situation. Moving into the absorption center will force me to spend less time on my computer, which is good. Even if I'm not loving the people, I feel like I need to give them more of a chance and not just avoid them by using the computer.

The one great thing about life in Ashdod is the beach. I've been going on my own, which isn't as fun as with friends, but I love the water and just sitting back on the sand. I had a night shift last night (more about shifts in the next post!), and I napped by the waves this morning. It was heavenly.

Part of me wishes I had chosen to stay in Haifa. I had a really tough time choosing between the two cities. Ultimately, I decided it would be wise to stay near my family in Ashdod. The absorption centers in both cities weren't great, but Ashdod's was closer to the beach. I figured my Russian would be useful in Ashdod, which it is (almost all the patients are elderly russians). Still, the girl I would have roomed with in Haifa is this great girl named Sarah, who also goes to Penn. It would have been so much fun having someone to hang out with and go out with. She at first was worried about the people in Haifa, but now she says she is really enjoying them. I can't help but think how great it would be to live and work with this great and fun group of people.

Anyone who knows me well knows I am TERRIBLE at making any kinds of decisions. Choosing from different options is truly my biggest weakness. I spent so much time yo-yo-ing between Haifa and Ashdod, and it is completely within my personality to sit here and think of how I made the wrong decision. I guess I need to suck it up, focus on the positive, and hope it all works out for the best!

Almost Trained!

Every day here brings completely new experiences and emotions, and I keep meaning to write about them in the evening. Unfortunately, 12 hours of class a day leave me way too exhausted to type anything at all. I might post a second time tonight if I have a second wind, but I thought I would just put up some pictures for now!

Friday night after dinner the madrichim (counselors) taught us some unofficial MDA games. This one was quite complicated but hilarious. At first I was too timid to wrestle and kept losing, but eventually I got the hang of it and stood my own!


These are a few girls from the class. We've been studying every chance we get!

One of my patients/victims.

Ready to Serve?

I took my midterm yesterday morning and thankfully did well. They didn't hand them back, but the instructor read out loud the names of everyone who got over a 97 and I was on the list. I felt like I was a little kid again. I can't remember the last time grades were made public like that! Still, it is nice to know I am on the right track.

Yesterday morning was also funny because of the prank war in which my class is involved. The class next door took our Annie's (the dummies we use, including a baby) and hung them from the ceiling with a suicide note. In response, a group of people from the class snuck in and hung ribbon all over the room so you couldn't even walk through it. It was pretty awesome- if I find a picture I will put it up.

We had a special lecture after dinner last night about mass casualties, and it was chilling. We were told how mass casualties are handled and how to decide who would be treated and who wouldn't. The paramedic who lectured us had handled over 30 mass casualties here in Israel, and I could see on his face how affected he was. He told us that we can always decide not to go to a mass casualty should we be called, because the things you see there will change your mind forever. We saw a movie with real footage from a weekend of 3 terror attacks, and I can only imagine how much more gruesome these scenes are in person.

Now that we have finished the mass casualty lecture, we are all officially on call if something happens. I have no idea what I would do if I were called- I'd like to think I would follow through and help on the scene. One part that haunts me the most is the decision step of triage: everyone gets labeled emergency or not an emergency. If someone isn't breathing, they are tagged not an emergency (the chances of survival are slim and responders should focus on the other victims who maybe can be saved). I just can't imagine evaluating a human being who couldn't breathe, and sticking a "not an emergency" sign on him/her instead of performing cpr.

For now, I will just hope that there will be no mass casualty events so nobody has to make these kinds of decisions.

Life in Jerusalem

For the next week or so, I am staying in a Jerusalem hostel with all the other MDA volunteers. After we (hopefully) pass all our exams, we all disperse to our individual assignments. I am staying in a room with 4 other girls- two from canada, one from England, and one from Michigan.

I didn't realize until I arrived here that most people came in groups or pairs. There are definitely other "loners" out there, but there are also many previously established duos or groups of friends. The two Canadian girls I live with knew each other from home and are in my class, so I spend the most time with them. They are nice girls, though they remind me very much of the girls I went to Jewish summer camp with years ago. I haven't met anyone here yet who I would want to hang out with for the next month. Still, I am hopeful that I will make better friends over the course of the program.

At the same time, I won't be devastated if I don't make great friends here. I wanted to use this summer as a time to become more self-sufficient and take time to think about what I want to accomplish in the upcoming year. Perhaps I need to be forced to spend time on my own in order to become more independent. Of course, I've already made some new friends, and maybe I just need to give them a chance!

The only thing left that is bothering me is housing. I was originally placed in Ashdod, but something went wrong with the absorption center and we all had to relocate. 6 of us got together to decide who would go where, and I insisted that we decide in a systematic way. Two years of maneuvering housing at Penn have taught me how important it is to decide housing systematically. I didn't get my first choice and am currently supposed to go to Haifa, a port city in the north with the worst absorption center of them all. I'm hoping I can somehow manouver a change- we'll see.

Today was the third day/second full day of class, and I will be spending tonight studying for the midterm tomorrow. I think the hardest part will be the hebrew words, but hopefully all those years of Jewish day school will finally pay off!

Another student and I practicing CPR on Anne, the class dummy.

First Day: Welcome to EMT Bootcamp

It is 12:30 am on the second day of classes, and I am happy but exhausted. It's been pretty overwhelming being thrown into this whole new group of people. but class keeps me too busy to really mind. This is my daily schedule:

8am breakfast

8:30-12:00 pm- class. We have all been split up into groups, and the class stays together with its instructors all day every day. We really lucked out with all 3 of our instructors, who are all pretty funny. We have about 20 people in the class, I think, from the US, Canada, England, and Holland. One of the most important rules here is being on time, since it is unacceptable to be late for a real shift. Anyone who arrived past 8:30 on the dot had to stand outside, and the instructors (I think) keep a list of who is late and how often. One funny fact- one of my instructors is a Penn student my year. Its pretty funny to have her be in charge of me, though I think we both know she can't really boss me around.

12pm: lunch..... I'm pretty sure it is the same, half-eatable food every day.

1pm-6pm: more class

6pm: dinner- see above.

7-9: class.

That's right, we have 11.5 hours of class a day. We get little 15 minute breaks every once in a while, but it is a very long day. At the same time, I am definitely interested in what we have learned so far:

Infant, Child, Adult CPR, with and without equipment
Infant, Child, Adult choking, conscious and not
How to evaluate a scene
Patient Assessment
Vital Signs
Diabetes
Epilepsy/Seizures
Febrile Seizures
Stroke
Fainting
States of Unconsciousness
Electrocution
Poisoning
Hanging (no joke)
Respiratory system and related emergencies
Cardiovascular system and related emergencies

It's alot, and it has only been 2 days! I have a midterm day after tomorrow, but that seems like a million years from now.

All right, I am exhausted and will go to bed. Tomorrow I will post about the people, the environment etc. I miss you guys and thanks for the comments :)

Sarah