Midnight Witticisms

The last phase of cat-toilet training has begun.  This involves putting an aluminum tin with litter into the toilet, so that becomes the litter pan.  After a week, you cut a hole into the tin, which is supposed to discourage the feline pooper from putting his/her paws into the tin.  Each week the hole gets bigger, thus decreasing the amount of space for paws, as the cat allegedly gets the picture, placing the paws on the seat of the toilet.  We’ll see what happens.

I showed the cats the new pan.  Tiger seemed uninterested; Bella seemed a bit apprehensive.  She didn’t know what to make of it, and slowly inched closer, tail twitching.  Then she cowered away.  Then inched closer, lightly batting at the toilet.

She’s going to pee on my pillow, I just know it.

I was told I’m a genious. I like.

But then my score went down a few points. Finally kicking me in the face: stop focusing on work, and start studying seriously. Otherwise I’ll have to do this whole damn process again in April.

Some of the girls in my class today told me that I have the surgeon “look”.  I’m not sure what that actually means, as most portrayals of surgeons on TV are unrealistic (they are all beautiful, always made-up, and a size 2), but I’ll take the compliment!

Although…maybe they all thought I looked incredibly tired…Hmm.

Today I saw an elderly woman carrying a parasol.  I thought it was so lovely.  I want one, but I don’t think anyone in this country would ever take me seriously if I walked around carrying one of those.

Dear Y-chromosome owners,

Please do not stare at me and make suggestive glances if you need to pop a blue one to get it up.  I am not interested.  Do not cat-call.  It’s really low-brow; and seriously?  I’m a bit more high class than that.   And oh, we’ re not in middle school anymore.  And if you wear a kippah and tzitzis, uhh….at least act like you believe in the laws you claim to follow, and stop staring at my chest.  Lastly, if I’m working out, and I’m all non-sex related sweaty, and focusing on not dropping my three kilo weights on my head, don’t try out all those famous one-liners (that never work): no I am not new here, and yes, I come here often.  That’s why I pay fifty dollars a month for this gym.  And don’t follow me from exercise to exercise ogling.  It’s really unattractive.

Yours truly,

Not Just a Piece of Meat.

Saturday is my favorite day. It’s the only day I seem to be able to get enough sleep; the rest of the week I feel tired, overworked, and cranky. I see this as practice for medical school.

On a random note: this is my new favorite blog. This is one of the fields I’m considering if medical school doesn’t work out for me. I would love to be a medical textbook illustrator. Or run a gross anatomy lab. Unfortunately, medical school here is so competitive that I really must have back-up plans. But I really, really, really want to be a surgeon. But worst case scenario, I can just be a medblog addict.

Another one of my new addictions is Etiquette Hell.  Sometimes I just don’t understand how people can be so tactless!  I’ve gone through almost all of the Bridesmaids ones, and it really made me not want to have a wedding.  Ever.  Ever.  Ever.  At least people here don’t do the whole bridemaids/groomsmen thing.  I mean, what can be worse than trying to fit ONE dress to several girls, who all have different tastes, body sizes and types, and different levels of comfort.  Not to mention the blinding color combinations.  Oh, and don’t we all love taffeta?  Oh, and girly egos and catty jealousy.  Like, who demands that they be a bridemaid and then ignore their duties?  Why ruin (on of) your best friend’s most important days by trying to be the center of attention?  Years of friendship thrown out the window because that “dress makes me look fat”.

Whatever.

So, now that I’m a few weeks into my Psychometric course I figured I’d let you all in on how it’s going.

First off, I just want to say, I am really disappointed in the Israeli public school system. There are 30 to 40 students in each classroom; they are taught lecture style, like in college; the teachers control the classroom through fear, not respect. In a class of 30 twenty-something year olds, only one person knew who Machiavelli was. And even he wasn’t really sure what his main contribution to life was. I don’t know, maybe I’m the only one who sees a problem with that.

I do like the fact that I’m in a class of some sort. It’s good to be social, and do some thinking. Not be an automated working machine. The instructor is really great - he’s funny, charismatic, and he really knows what he’s doing. He has a really high super-success rate (17% of his students get over a 700, in comparison to 5% of the nation). Seeing that I need to get a 750 at least to get into medical school here (out of 800), that bodes really well for me. We get inundated with homework, and a big part of the learning process is in the form of games. And while I’m not a five year old, it’s definitely more entertaining to play games than do straight up practice questions. We’ve also already started doing full practice exams, which is helpful in getting used to the exam.

There are several differences between the SATs and the Psychometric exam. First, you don’t lose points for incorrect answers. So I have that going for me. Also, it seems to be more about the reasoning then the technicalities of it. You rarely have to actually “solve”; the exam is designed to see whether you have mental dexterity and the ability to think a question through. Still, it is nerve wracking. My only problem at the moment is that my level of Hebrew isn’t high enough. Good thing I’m sitting for the exam in English…

Keep your fingers crossed!