Une Semaine qui Reste

Hey guys, I'm writing this blog to you on a special day. It is June 23, which means that exactly one month has passed since I left the United States to embark on the adventure of my lifetime. As I sit here one month later, I have so much to reflect upon and the best part is knowing that despite that I will leave France in one week, the adventure has just begun. My time in France has been a period of personal growth, that's for certain. I am very blessed to have had the opportunity to live with an amazing host family who loves and serves the Lord, and has warmly welcomed me into their home for the past month. I am very grateful to have made an amazing set of friends, many of whom will likely read this blog post (now that they know that they've become blogspot famous), and it goes without saying that I am confident that these same friendships will continue though the rest of the summer and infinitely into the future. And I am especially gracious to have had the opportunity to practice medicine here in France, and being able to realize my dream as a future doctor one day at a time.

 At the Statue of Messena

Left to right: Anastasia, Emily, Emma, me, Thomas, Caroline, Natalie, Margo, Anh

This past week was especially charged. The semester is winding down, so many of us have started preparing for our big exams for our courses Santé Publique and Medécins, Malades, et Malades on Wednesday. I worked last week on a research paper for the former, and ended up conducting a small survey which examined the thoughts and attitudes of young people towards smoking and tobacco usage. I thought this would be a particularly interesting topic, since France seems to be pretty well known to have a high percentage of people, particularly young people who smoke. I enjoyed writing the paper, and actually found it somewhat enjoyable to go around from place to place, finding people and interviewing them on their thoughts on the subject matter.

Other things in Jake's world, or more like all of Western Europe, is that the World Cup has been going on here for the past couple weeks. It's been pretty wild, and people have been celebrating the French and Algerian victories by throwing large celebrations and making lots of noise in the streets. It's been fun to watch, but it's also important to also be careful because it is still an unfamiliar place, and not everyone here is as kind as my host family.

Snorkeling in a small bay of the Mediterranean Sea with Eric

This past weekend was very rewarding. Starting Saturday afternoon, I ended up working at my stage again, but this time it was a little bit different. I met a cool British guy who was in as a patient for having a pretty deep gash just above his wrist. Since the doctors or medical students working that day didn't speak English very well, I ended up being the translator for most of the interactions. I was grateful to have had the opportunity to develop a good relationship with the patient in being able to talk to him about his life, his family, his work etc. However, that didn't change the fact that he still needed surgery to fix the gash on his arm. So, I asked the doctors what would happen, and they told me to put on the scrubs, and prep myself for surgery. Whoa, I actually was going to get to wear the gloves and mask and the whole deal?! It was a really short surgery, but the doctor and medical student performing the surgery talked me through each step of the procedure, so at the end I felt like I was able to understand it well. It seems like my British friend was pretty satisfied with the surgery himself, as he requested my phone number and contact information after the surgery. I'm still waiting to see if he keeps his promise to have me and the other surgeons over for dinner at his house.

One last little bit before I hit the books and start studying for those exams that are fast approaching. Yesterday afternoon, after going to church together with my host family, my friend Eric, who I had met though church, picked me up in his car and we drove to Vieille Franche (about 10 minutes away from Nice). I had originally thought that we were just going to lie out on the beach and see a little bit different part of the region. You can imagine my surprise when Eric asked me my shoe size and proceeded to pull out the fins, mask, and snorkel. Whoa, this was really cool. I remembered the only other time I had tried snorkeling in my life, and that ended up falling short as just one summer ago I was not able to go to the Bahamas, in which case I would have been able to snorkel in the ocean. But anyways, Eric and I spent the better part of two hours exploring the little sea alcove and taking pictures of the fish and marine life with Eric's waterproof camera. It only got better when Eric's fiancée, Aude, met us at the beach, and together we went to eat dinner at a nice French restaurant right on the coast of the sea. After the sun went down and the lights started to flicker on, illuminating the canvas of the sailboats moored in the harbor, it truly was a picture for a post card. The only thing is, these scenes have been exactly for one month now, my reality.

Horizon skylights at the harbor of Vieille Franche