Completely unrelated to Human Rights

So I have made a promise to myself to write two blog entries a month at least. It would be nice to be more, but we'll start with this modest goal first. And, at the suggestion of a few people, I am try to start using this a bit as a journal as well as a political blog.

While it inst very interesting, what has been on my mind recently are medical school interviews, and medical school in general. Start with med school in general because it ties in a bit with my work here. It is amazing how I feel like my comfort level Bogota has skyrocketed recently. No longer do I look at this city and see a purely temporary holding spot until my real life begins. I have a rhythm. I have friends. I no longer feel like the pollution is killing me. Bogota no longer looks like a gray, ugly city and it's transportation system no longer seems like a maze made to confuse everyone.

Rather I look at Bogota and I see the incredibly acitivity that happens just under the surface. I appreiate the fact that within 10 blocks of my house I have two very active social/cultural centers organized by people ranging from ardent anarchists to progressive professionals. The pollution probably still is killing me, but ive gotten use to it, and now I see the transportation as one that values flexibility and convenience over rules and standards.

In fact, that is the coolest thing about Bogota. Here a person still has influence over things just because she or he is a person...with the ability to talk, to push and convince. Here rules are still just rules, and there is never no option. The flexibility of life here is incredible.

Anyway, the point is that I am starting to feel like I have a place here. I mean, I went out and bought house plants.

This is making the future seem a bit less certain than before. Med school has been the next step since sophomore year of college (except for a stint in Seattle where I thought that dream was over) I mean it still is and I still plan on coming home in the Spring, I am just enjoying the feeling of finally planting roots. Though it is a bit nerve wracking, the combination of planting roots while I am still telling myself that I am leaving in 5 months. It is stupid. But it is making life so much better.

I mean, maybe it is time to get away from the idea that it is necessary to study medicine in the States. Maybe it is time to act my age and push in a different direction, a direction that not only talks about a globalized world, but lives it. Maybe I should accept that the comparative advantage of going to school in the US is getting closer and closer to being based almost exclusively on reputation. Plus, there are serious advantages of going to medical school in a country where they still teach doctors how to use instinct rather than depend completely on an MRI, or where the doctor patient relationship isnt burdened by such an incredibly complex health care system.

To me, one can learn the basic sciences anywhere, and I think anyone would be very hard pressed to say that doctors in the US are better clinical teachers than in other countries. Finally, I can assure you that living in a developing country you see a hell of a wider variety of cases to learn from. The only thing that Colombia lacks that the US has are machines...and they aren't even very far behind on that.

In the end though, giving up the chance to study in the US to study in Bogota would take more courage than I could ever muster. The reputation, the guilt, the what ifs would be just too much.

then again, I havent even been interviewed yet. this post might be getting a bit ahead of myself.