Hard Reset

"Rebooting..."

A bandwidth comparison

Here is a comparison of internet bandwidth in three places: my own connection at home in Cairo, in the room I rented in Boston, and in the room in New York.

Cairo:

Boston:

New York:

 And to add insult to injury, here is a test run of the test from within the hospital I had my elective in:

 

The Lives of Others

This is not a review. I have seen this movie and liked it, but this has been like 2 years ago. So, this is not the issue. The issue here is why I think today that this movie is one of the greatest movies ever made. Actually, the titles says it all: The Lives of Others... You sit and watch people living their lives, over and over. It doesn't matter if you do it intentionally or not, but in most cases, if you happen to fall in this category, you will end up with one thing and one thing only: people will go on living their lives, and you end up in the dust they stir as they move.

So, my advice to you, dear reader: live your life. Go on with your life, do something about it, and don't just stand there perfectly happy with your bird's eye view. You are not happy, even if you tell yourself this every night. Life will not wait for you because she is busy with the others who are living their lives. The shopkeeper loves the paying customer, not the guy who spends his time looking at the stands and other customers.

To the people who are living their lives: I don't envy you, I wish you the best. And I hope that you too wish me the best.

(23) Happy Birthday to me!

So, I am 24. For two dozens of years this creature has walked the earth. How much longer will he be here? What can he achieve and how long will it take him? Only God knows...


This is the first time that I have celebrated my birthday all alone! Now to start, I was doing night float in the hospital (that is the name they give to the night shift). It was incredibly boring and I slept from 1 am till 5.30! I stayed in hospital till 5.30 pm. I found out that cakes are too expensive here, so I didn't get one. Instead I bought myself a nice ice cream. I wanted to eat one for a long time. Ice in the streets + ice in your throat = Awesome! I went home, cooked for myself, ate and then slept. The house was empty as my room mates are all away.


Happy birthday to you my father, and happy birthday to me.

My friends from G-Company gave me Battlefield: Bad Company 2. My  father got me something back in Egypt. And that's it. Only three other humans wished me happy birthday beside my family and G-Company. All the other wishes were from forums I am a member in.

(5) The First Day

I had to be in the hospital and meet the secretary of the program director at 9 am, so I woke up at 6, got ready and was at the reception by 8.15. I thought that it was better to be early. And it was. Now, before I go on much further, let's talk about: shock. While I passed by the hospital 2 days ago, I didn't enter it till today. Wow! The hospital was massive. It's made up of multiple building but everything is connected through passageways that arch over the streets. There is also a very long passageway, called The Pike, which is the main highway in the hospital. As I said, the hospital is connected to 2 more institutions which are the Children's Hospital and the Shapiro Cardiovascular Center. There are sign posts everywhere to help shepherd the patients, visitors and medical staff, all the same. But, it is still way to easy to lose your way inside.

I went inside the orthopedics department and asked for Brenda, who is the one I should be meeting. I was told to wait inside in the waiting area which was a table and a couple of chairs. Almost everyone that passed by me stopped and asked me if I was being helped or not. Oh my God! I waited till 8.50 until I saw a girl coming who looked Indian. I knew that the other student with me was Indian, but I couldn't know from the name if it was a guy or a gal. Moments later we saw Brenda. She greeted us and gave us a rapid orientation. She took us to get the white coats from the hospital's linen section. Students and PGY1s are required to wear short white coats. They are like the ones worn by dentists here in Egypt. Then we went to get the hospital IDs. These IDs have a photo and a bar code, in addition to the name, rank and department. On the back of it, it says that the bearer of this ID is an essential member of the health care team at Brigham and should be allowed to move across police/army blockades to report to the hospital in case of a declared emergency or disaster. Also there was a separate card that supplied info about fire evacuations and what to do in case of needle-stick injuries.

After I did all of this, I was directed to the orthopedic residents' room, located on the 15th floor in The Tower. The Tower is the main inpatient building. It's made of 16th floors and 2 lower levels. The first lower level is ORs (operating rooms) land! I never went into the 2nd lower level, so I have no idea what's in it. The floors above the 2nd floor are all inpatient rooms, loosely divided among specialties. For example, most ortho patients were located on the 15th and 16th floors. But I saw patients in other floors and also in the Shapiro building.

I entered the residents' room but the resident I was assigned to wasn't there, his name was Jay. For privacy reasons, I am only going to use the first names of the residents. I met Christina, who will be responsible for me on my 3rd week. She told me that Jay was in the clinic and asked if I had lunch. When I said no, she told me that I should go and get something to eat. And I did.

The cafeteria is located on the 2nd floor. It consists of one large multiple-outlet section with sections for hot sandwiches, cooked meals, deli (which I still don't know what it means), multiple fridges containing all kind of refreshments and milk, a fruit section, a salad section, a soup section, a huge coffee/soft drink section, ice cream and potato chips and 3 counters. You simply go in and pick what you want and pay on your way out. They only accepted cash. The other part was an Italian food corner with pizza, pasta and other weird stuff that I don't know their names. When you are done, there are multiple stations where you can pick up napkins, spoons, knives, forks, sugar, Splenda, salt, pepper, ketchup and so on. After that, there are 2 food courts, where you can go in and sit to eat. Their combined size is as large as one half of the new food court in City Stars in Cairo! There are a couple of microwave ovens should you want to bring your own food and sit and eat with your friends. During non-rush hours, one of the food courts is closed. And it's also used sometimes as a conference room. There is also multiple vending machines for soft drinks, chocolate and chips and finally there is a vending machine for kosher food, but I never got the chance to stand and read what they offered. You can go and sit in the food court at any time till 11 pm even if you are not eating.

There are 2 more places to eat in the hospital. Au Bon Pait, which is nice and it's like a big chain as I ate in many Au Bon Paits in Boston and even in JFK airport when I left the country. They are a bit more expensive and they don't have home-like cooked meals, but they do support credit cards. There is another place called Pat's place. But I will talk about this later.

After eating, I went up again and met Jay. He took me on a tour inside the hospital. We went to get scrubs. We went into a room where there were many racks full of scrubs. He told me to get a lot, so I got six of them matching my size. Residents and nurses leave their homes dressed in scrubs and go back home in scrubs too. They only change them in the hospital if they become soiled by blood or any other similar contamination. If everything went fine, they will go back home in them. They have plenty of changes back at home and when they are finished, they just come and dump the dirty scrubs in the soiled linens basket and get replacements.

What I did was different. I took the scrubs with me back home, but it was too cold for me to go to the hospital everyday in scrubs. So, I dressed up normally and took my scrubs inside my bag and then I change in the residents' room. At the end of the day, I changed back to my normal clothes and dropped the scrubs in the basket in the residents' room.

After that, we went to the OR section... I was in normal clothes and a white coat, I was forbidden from going inside the OR wing. I had to dress up in a disposable cover-all gown and a head cover. There are about 50 ORs in the hospital, divided between general surgery, ortho, neuro, cardiothoracic, Obs and Gyn (they say it: OBS and G, Y, N) and urology. The division is by wings or bays, with each containing most of the ORs in which surgeries of a certain specialties are done. Ortho was done in Section G and all the equipment was located in that section, with a large storage room in the floor for almost everything.

I forgot to mention that when I was with Brenda, I signed a confidentiality agreement to keep everything about patients, equipment, on-going research a secret. I don't believe I am telling anything that will breach this contract.

I went home early that day and I went out again after that to look at some stuff in shops downtown.

(4) ...

I am writing this to clarify something. Whenever I skip a day, then you should know that there wasn't anything special that happened on it.

(3) Walking on Ice

I wanted to go out and see the city. I woke up early and went out before noon. I took the 39 Bus which is my daily ride. I timed the trip to the Brigham Circle stop where I should go to every morning, but I didn't go down there. I continued on. When I finally went down, I started walking while looking at everything. There was lots of students there. I mean the area was full of young people and the shops respected that fact. Most of the shops were for food. I passed by Symphony Hall, home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Who knew, maybe John Williams was inside?! The area there had a music college and accordingly there was a huge shop selling all sorts of music hardware. I walked on, passed by Blockbuster! I finally reached my destination: RadioShack. This time in a different location than that of yesterday. I finally changed my phone to a nicer Sanyo one that had a much better screen and options, although it was still primitive compared to my Nokia N96. But at least I got something that I can use a web browser in. The first phone was a Motorolla Clutch. Phones here are mostly locked for a certain network provider, which means that I can't use my newly bought phone in Egypt, and I couldn't buy a SIM card and use my existing phone because most prepaid plans need to sell you a phone for activation.

Then, I went to Best Buy. It was a 3 floor store. I inspected all of it. But I didn't like it. First of all, prices of PC hardware was through the roof. I mean, why would a HDMI cable cost $90? Because it had the Geek Squad sticker on it. Why would a 2 GB stick of DDR2 RAM cost $100? Cameras were cheaper though. I, of course, went to the games section. The PC gaming section was anemic and located with the PC hardware at the end of the row, while console games had their separate section. Their collection was not that great. I played Forza 3 on the X360. And I played some tennis game on the Wii. This was my first time even to touch a Wii. It was fun! I now understand why it is selling so much. I didn't play the PS3 because it was occupied. There were stands to try Rock Band and Tony Hawk Ride, but these things are not my cup of tea. The HDTV section gave me a big smile!

When I finished, I took a walk in Newbury Street, which is a shopping street. Think of it like Roxy in its glory days, with major differences. First of all, there was an unhealthy amount of hot chicks! I mean I wanted to cry out "Stop! I get the message, OK?". Next was that there were only shops, I mean, no one was selling women underwear on some cart with another cart beside him selling exactly the same thing. All the shops there were brand names shops, and the stuff in them was so expensive. There was a shop called The North Face that sells winter coats and winter sport things (my sister told me that it sells stuff to the people who climb mountains too). A coat there was like $400!

So, you will get what I mean when I say that most of the stuff there was "look but don't touch". I walked till the end of the street. At the end there was a huge park and lots of fancy hotels overlying the park. Most, if not all, of the trees in the park had no leaves on them. I walked in the park and saw a squirrel! It wasn't the first time that I saw a live squirrel, yesterday I met one when I was walking down the street I live in. But this was the first time to really take a good look at one. They were gorgeous and cute. The more I walked in the park, the more I saw of them. They were forging for food, but I had no idea what they were eating. I moved on and my eyes saw something that I have only seen in movies. A frozen lake. The view was so astonishing and beautiful that I was speechless. People were playing hockey on the lake, walking their dogs, skating and walking with their normal shoes. I decided to take a leap of faith and walked on the ice. It was a short walk, but I enjoyed it a lot. The idea of falling in freezing water was too much for me, also it was somewhat slippery and I didn't want to start my ortho clerkship with broken bones!

After I was done, I walked the same way I came (i.e. walked Newbury Street with its chicks, again) so as not to get lost. And this became like a habit for me. I am walking here a lot (remember that I am writing in retrospect).

I went home and decided to watch a movie. I watched Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. It's not bad, but the problem was that most of the scenes were recycled. And also, I don't like movies that tries to explain everything because they tend to introduce plot holes more than they try to fill them. Explanation is nice, but not to that extent. Also, this should be sold with a huge warning on it because I know that some fool will watch it before completing the whole series, only to find out that almost the entire plot was laid out flat for him!

(2) The Big Freeze

This was the COLDEST day I have ever seen in my life. I woke up at 7 am and I had lots of things to plan. I wanted to buy a bus/train subscription, look for a mosque to pray the Friday prayer and go to the Office of the Registrar because it was the last work day before I started my clerkship in Monday. The problem: MSNBC Weather's website said that it was -11C and felt like -22C. -22 Celsius!!! Our freezer back at home is not that good.

So, I took a leap of faith and went outside, and man, it was cold. You felt like your clothes had needles in them. I think that I have fried my anterior spinothalamic tracts from the huge influx of pain impulses. I walked with my back arched and my hands inside my gloves inside my coat pockets and my head tucked into my coat collar as deep as possible. It was like a 2-footed tortoise walking. When I was walking, I discovered the ultimate truth about Google Maps, which is a thing that I can confirm is true: not everything they say is true. It's not intentional, but some businesses close and this doesn't get updated on the map. So, I walked trying to look for one of 2 cashier/money wire transfer offices that also sold tickets for the bus. I couldn't find either from the get go. One was no where to be found, and the other had a different building number. But in the end, I was successful, thank God.

Next, I used the notes I wrote in my quest list, err, I mean my notebook and took the bus trying to reach the mosque. The bus was something to behold. There were 2 varieties of buses, a regular one and an extra long one. I, ultimately, tried both, but for my first time, I rode a regular one. This one had 2 doors. People could leave the bus from any door but you should only get on from the front door. There was no conductor. Next to the driver, there was a machine that had a slot for magnetized tickets (weekly or monthly tickets, like mine), a scanner for CharlieCards (prepaid cards that you can add money to) and a slot to add either $1 bills or 25 cents coins. And that's it. Everyone was polite and no one skipped this electronic conductor.

Now, here was the thing: the bus only stopped in bus stops. There was no "on your right, Yasta". The bus has GPS and you get both a written notification on screens in the bus (one in front and one in the back, along with 3 other screens on the exterior that show the number of the bus and its pathway) and a computerized voice. Should you want to get down on the next stop, you should press on large yellow tapes that were strategically located throughout the bus and this would be notified with a "stop requested" written and spoken through the speakers. Not only that, but the computerized voice was also responsible for some ads and some notifications, like "Report any suspicious behaviour or unattended bags to the driver." 1984-style.

I went down after a while and lost my way. Finally, I reached a small zawya after asking a nice old lady in the street. The person in charge there directed me to the large mosque in the area. He was from Panama and spoke very little Arabic. I followed his direction and went to the large mosque. It was really huge. Inside, it was like a regular building with a dedicated part that resembles the mosques we all know. I mean, the entrance had an office, a cafe, etc. There was a notice on the door regarding shoe policy inside. It stated that in certain places inside you must take off your shoes. Inside, there was a nice ablation section that was separate for both men and women. They had hot water! The first and only mosque I have seen that had this. And not only that, they had paper napkins to dry yourself afterward.

The praying area is not that large. I noticed upper floors, but I didn't see anyone praying in them. I arrived at 11.45 am and according to an electronic board they had (Courtesy of Kuwait) the Zuhr prayer was at noon. But they didn't start until 1 pm. I asked after the prayers and I was told that they start the Friday prayer at this time regardless of the season to make it constant. Smart thing, but I would have liked it to be at noon, so as to coincide with the lunch break here. The imam was from Egypt. I knew it from his accent in both Arabic and English. I was always curious about how non-Arab Muslims (80% of Muslims) give the Friday sermon. He used both Arabic and English with a great ability. I think he had an Azhar education. You can always tell! The sermon was great too, one of the best I have heard in a long time. Man, I need to change the mosque I pray in, I almost memorized what the imam had to say.

Afterward I started the great tour... I managed to get on a bus and asked the driver, Egyptian-style, if he passed by Brigham and Women's Hospital (from now on, I will refer to it as they do here, Brigham). And he said that he did. I went into uncharted territories. I wanted to take pictures, but the cold was unbearable. From my research on Google Maps, I knew that Harvard Medical School was a street or two behind. But, as you can expect, I was lost. I asked around until I managed to go to the building, only to discover that I got the wrong entrance and the correct one was a street behind. The view of the main building was incredible. And this is a fact that I have noticed in most buildings here. Building here have a character in them. They are not just made of expensive marble or glass, they are designed uniquely, and at the same time have a similar thing that links it with other buildings of the same institution or the neighbourhood. At the registrar's office, I got my confirmation letter in letterhead.

Afterwards, I wanted to do something. I wanted to visit the local RadioShack to change the phone I bought earlier. I used info from Google Maps. And this time, I totally lost my way. I mean, after some time, I had no more orientation with where I was. I stopped and asked someone in the street. While we were talking, he looked behind me and told me that someone was calling for me. The first thing that I thought of was "WHAT?". I mean, I don't know anyone here. It was a car that was honking its horn to me. And guess who that was. Well, there is only one guy who can be the driver. It was John! He was heading to buy some groceries from a shop called Trader Joe's which was like Sainsbury's when it was operational in Egypt. I mean, what was the possibility of that happening! Not only did I get a free ride (and I dare to say, a medevac! I was freezing), I actually went with to the shop and bought some groceries for myself. Inside the shop, it was like wonderland! Most of the stuff sold there I had no idea what it was!!! So, I asked for his help and told him what I wanted and we got it together.

During the long walk in the freezer, I had a Snickers bar in my pocket that actually froze. My camera was stone cold. The tears in my eye from the wind froze on my eyelashes! And in this arctic circle, there were some volunteers from Amnesty International standing in the cold asking people for donations to end violence against women. Later on, I met similar volunteers from other organizations. They are volunteers: they are not getting paid. The get credit for it though. And this kind of credit is needed for colleges and schools here. People are encouraged to volunteer for any kind of social work here.

I went home afterwards, after I had known what cold really meant...

(1) Discovering...

I woke up at 6 am, local time. There is a 7 hour time difference between Egypt and the East Coast of the USA. The first thing that surprised me when I woke up was that I have really slept well. Although it was only 6 hours, but I slept without waking up in the middle of the night many times (which is my norm). The second thing was the absolute silence. There was no noise of any kind. No car noise, kids, people talking, nothing... My street in Egypt is not super noisy, but it's not super quiet too!

After staying in bed for a bit, I decided to contact my family using Skype. Afterwards, I took a shower. I know! Too much detail. But the thing is that the shower tap was very strange. It was one thing without a separate tap for hot and cold water. So, I thought that since we were in winter and it was freezing, warm was the default. I was wrong and I was greeted with a wave of cold water that made me want to scream... The trick is that you need to increase the flow of water a bit for hot water to catch up. Smart, eh?

I was hungry. I ate some stuff I bought last night, but still, I was hungry. So, I decided to leave the house and go forge for food. It was cold. Too cold outside. It was my first real walk in the streets of the US of A. I was amazed by everything: from the cleanliness of the streets, the street lights, the pavements (sidewalks for the Yanks), the architecture, the shops, etc. Some people were walking and the seem not to be bothered by the cold at all. I found mothers walking with their little kids and everyone is happy and not covered in 1000 layers of clothes like I was!!!

I bought a coffee and some bakery and went back home after walking for like an hour or so in the cold. When I went home and wanted to go out again, it was snowing then. I saw snow the day before, but it was in the street and not falling from the sky! It was beautiful.

The rest of the day passed normally in unpacking and arranging my stuff in the room, talking with John (my landlord) and looking at the map of the city in Google Maps.