Another Catch-Up Post

Well it has been a while since my last post. I've been busy lately, and last night I happened to check out my blog and realized that I'd 'left' on a very sad note. Sorry about that!
So what have we missed? One relationship anniversary, one uneventful new year's eve, another goodbye to another good friend leaving the country, another monumental governmental failure (but we're used to those), another stupid Internal Medicine rotation, a few breathtaking days on the Faraya slopes. All these, among other things I've meant to blog about that would have kept my readers busy/amused/annoyed. No such luck; instead, here I am, once more, overwhelmed by my flying ideas, frustrated by my tantalizing muses, pressed for time (but we're used to this one, too), and struggling with my vocabulary trying to make something out of this heap of interweaved trains of thought.

Let's start here. I am happy. Happy, of course, being a word surrounded by a cloud of relativity, and perhaps a few drops of evanescence, but for the first time in a few long med school years, I can really say that I am happy. Happy with the way things are going in my life. Happy that I'm just starting to peer through that window onto the next steps in my life and career. Happy with my lovely L. Just overall, in a good moment I guess, the likes of which I haven't seen in a very long time.

Trying to pinpoint it is hard. but I think what has drastically changed my outlook on things is the fact that I'm done guessing what I want to do with my life. Over the course of one day, my career path has become clear to me; I am to become a surgeon, people, go crazy. There has never been a specialty better suited for me, I've always known it, and since I've applied to a surgery residency at AUH for next year, things have been different. It takes much more to worry me, I am more relaxed in my work, I'm optimistic and feel so hungry to take on this next chapter that I don't even feel like a med student anymore. Med IV is almost over. A few months ago I was excited at the prospect of beginning my last year of med school. Time flew, that's all I can say. and if you've read that post, you'll understand why I'd be keeping with the continuum if I say, Bring it, Surgery! Bring it, Residency, Bring it, long on call hours! I want to work my ass off in something that fascinates me, instead of sitting around the morning rounds in internal medicine for 5 hours wondering what the hell I'm doing there, trying hard as I can to stop my eyes rolling into the back of my head from boredom!

Did I mention I hated internal medicine? Well I'm sure it's obvious now! (Some other post, for sure)

So there you have it. The main update and now we can look forward to my admission (wish me luck) and to my Surgery internship next year which I'm sure will bring you many long posts.

Will keep you posted!

Embarrassing Incident Turns Into Funny Encounter

There are few, very few, situations that are more embarrassing than having your fly break open while attempting to answer nature's multiple calls in a public restroom. Because what usually follows such accidents is you having to spend the rest of the day wondering how obvious it is, who's looking, and, if it's your first time, thinking to yourself "wow, the breeze, it's real!!" - especially if you're stranded like I was. Well that's what was going on in my mind on tuesday, anyway. At the Saab Medical Library at AUB, I was relieving myself in one of the stalls. And then it happened. It happened because I was too stubborn and somehow put too much force and - I'll spare the details, if you don't mind - I ended up hearing the sound. And then I knew... I thought "uh oh!"

A Late Rite of Passage

Walking on Bliss street had never been such a complicated task, what with all the 10-year old –or less- mendicants and lottery ticket ‘agents’ or shoe cleaners. For the longest time I felt annoyance at the heavy task of brushing off these pesky and persistent solicitors that seemed to be after nothing other than your money. The annoyance not circling around the money itself, but about the ethics and principles of discouraging the presence of alms-askers and the associated child abuse and whatnot; let me not digress and wander off into these treacherous discussions for now.

So one of my tricky walks along the famous street, while I was looking for that after lunch cup of coffee, got me to Epi D’Or. -Don’t let the name “Epi D’Or” fool you. Fancy name for a place that’s affectionately and more commonly called “Abou Naji”, the little store across the street from the AUB main gate-. Waiting for my coffee, I get elbow-tugged outside by an as-yet unknown figure who turned out to be one of Bliss’ seasoned shoe cleaners

. “Here we go”, I thought to myself. But then, all thought processes angled at getting rid of that annoyance were instantly stopped by the cleaner’s marketing skills… “Eza ma 3ajabak ma tedfa3 wala lira!” Translation “If you don’t like my work don’t pay a dime!”

Said in a convincing and confident tone, these words made me think ok what the hell? My shoes were dirty, hadn’t been cleaned in a while and a good buff would do no harm! So I told the guy to do a good job and he got to work. I have not seen hands move so fast. The sound of swishing as his run down piece of tissue carved through the air and onto the now polished leather told the tale of a shoe cleaning veteran with years of training!

All done, shoes shining, and face smiling as M. took a few snapshots of the event, I was thinking about the going rate on a premium job like this! So I thought 3,000 LBP. M. frowned in disagreement and so I gave him 5,000 LBP.

In retrospect, seeing how his face lit up as he tugged on that bill and all the good wishes for prosperity and long life I got at that time, I know I overpaid! But I would do it again and pay the same price!

But hey. An honest living, a job well done, make me rethink my stance on the good shoe cleaners out there! This is one rite of shoe-cleaning passage not to be soon forgotten!