Graffiti

Happy Saturday morning to you courtesy of my friends at the high school next door!

(Sorry, this video doesn't really capture the view from my apartment balcony very well, but the sound ought to give you a feel for how I wake up on lazy Saturday mornings here in the peaceful bliss of the Japanese countryside. ;)

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In other news pertaining to peace and bliss, when I got to school yesterday morning, I found that someone had done a little decorating across the main doors of the medical school with a can of red spray paint. As I walked up to the entrance gawking at the new artwork, I nearly stepped in front of a police photographer who was taking pictures of the scene while a bunch of maintenance men waited around to clean up the mess. The huge Japanese characters adorning the main doors read, 三木、出てこい！ (Miki, get out here!) Apparently, a very angry someone had a score to settle with Miki...

At first, I assumed that the graffiti was some kind of stupid prank aimed at some unfortunate medical student named Miki, but after hearing the scuttlebutt around the medical school, I found that Miki is actually a professor here. According to one of my English students, a patient who went to see Dr. Miki felt that he hadn't been treated properly and decided to get even. Last week, the patient posted unflattering fliers about Dr. Miki all over the shopping arcades in Matsuyama, and this week he apparently decided to go about his revenge in a slightly more artistic manner.

I guess this patient wasn't into malpractice suits so much.... Perhaps people like him are the reason that there's barbed wire around the high school...??

かわいそう (;_;)

Gaahh...something is eating my poor goldfish's dorsal fin. The top of the fin's all ragged and halfway gone. (>_<);; I went to the pet shop in between lessons yesterday and bought some fish medicine (for $10...ouch...) and now he's medicated and isolated in his own little tank. I wonder if his fin will grow back at all once I get rid of the infection...although he seems to be swimming around fine without it. Anyway, I guess I will consider this fish to be my first official patient, and perhaps a groundbreaking case study for Piscean Regenerative Medicine. Do you suppose it would help if I listed this as a clinical experience on my medical school application?

Odds and Ends

Today, while editing a paper for the ophthalmology department, I discovered my new favorite anatomical term:

Zonule of Zinn

I guess it's the name of the fibers that connect the muscles in your eye to the lens, but doesn't it sound like the name of some sort of space alien commander from a distant planet?? Hello, I am Zonule of Zinn. I come in peace... (-_-)v

Anyway, the term is definitely permanently embedded in my brain now. Who would have thought that I would get this much enjoyment from correcting medical articles?

I am going to be a great doctor.

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Yesterday, I was sitting in a cafe in Matsuyama correcting papers in between band practices when a lady came up and tapped me on the shoulder.

Lady: Excuse me, do you speak English?

Me: Yes, I do.

Lady: Can I ask you a question? (looks up at the ceiling like she is forgetting something, then suddenly remembers and looks back down at me, pointing her index finger at my chest) ....mosquito!

Me: ....?? Um, sorry?

Lady: How....how do you say....uh....um....a mosquito's baby in English?

Me: Oh, um, I think we call it larva.

Lady: ....?

(I pull out a piece of paper and write down "larva" so she can see.)

Lady: Oh! Larva! Oh, thank you very much!

Me: No problem.

Lady: (pulls out a business card) I work in this bakery. Please come and eat our cookies.

Me: ....thanks!....


Never quite figured out where this conversation was going. Any ideas? A bakery with a pest problem???

Freedom!

I've slowly come to the conclusion that I'm buried far enough down in the medical school waitlists that I'm not going to make it in this year. Sooo close but so far. These waitlists are an awfully elegant form of torture... But alas, there's nothing to do now but write a melodramatic blog post or two, and then get on the ball for next year.

My first step towards getting this reapplication ball rolling? The MCAT. I had taken the test three years ago during college, but since MCAT scores are usually only valid for three years, I had no choice but to take it all over again.

It's amazing how much you can manage to forget in three years, so I knew I had a lot of chemistry and physics studying to do. For the six weeks before my test day, I literally locked myself in my office every night after work to study, and gradually plowed my way through five big fat test prep books and four practice tests.

On the test day last Tuesday, I arrived at the test center with plenty of time to spare, took the elevator to the seventh floor and was a bit alarmed to find a door that said "This way for the English Proficiency Exam." Aha! Here is a test I can pass! I thought, but have I gone to the wrong building for the MCAT?? I inquired at the front desk with much trepidation and found that I was indeed in the right place. As it turns out, I was the only person taking the MCAT in Osaka that day, so apparently they didn't feel the need to put up a sign for me. :) (On a side note, if any of you ever have to take the MCAT, I highly recommend taking it in Japan. Taking the test by yourself is about a million times better than taking it in a crowded room with hundreds of stressed out pre-meds madly flipping through flash cards and muttering to themselves.)

Even though I was the only person taking the test, the proctors were (of course) still required to go through all of the standard anti-cheating protocol. Before I could enter the test room, I had to take everything out of my pockets, get my fingerprints taken, pose for a picture, and show the proctor my passport. I kind of felt like I was going to jail.

The test itself went ok (I think...), or at least I finished all the questions in the time limit. And after five hours of toe tapping, head scratching and nail chewing, I emerged from the testing room a free woman....again. Hopefully this will be the last time for the MCAT and me. :)

Now that I'm finally done studying, I've been gradually making my way back from the depths of my office to join the rest of humanity. First, this meant catching up on grading papers at work, but I've also played sanshin in a couple concerts and gotten back into softball. I'm also hoping to start jogging every morning and learning how to cook, but so far I'm not having much success on those fronts. Must....get...out...of...bed....in the morning and run.

Oh, one last thing. Last month, one of the jazz groups I'm in played a concert at a shrine in my neighborhood, and a news crew came to film our practice and help us advertise. Here's a clip from the news. I tried to add (rough) English captions this time. Hopefully you can read them....they're not pretty, but at least they're semi-functional....I think... (Does anyone know of a better program for adding captions than Windows Movie Maker? I wish I could format these better so they don't fly across the screen so fast...)

Update: I think I've fixed the problem with the video now....probably...
Although if it still doesn't work, you can also watch it here, the full screen version!