A Story of Two Elves

Yesterday we had two Christmas elves visit our class. Did you notice them sitting in the back of the room?

The older elf was very interested in the lectures. But she was shocked by something else. What do you think it was that shocked her? Well, she had very high expectations when visiting her first lecture at "Q U." When she saw students coming into class 10, 20, even 30 minutes late, she said "are all of these students really Q U medical and bio-med science students?" I guess she was thinking that someone who didn't belong here had wandered in off the street. I assured her that all of the students belonged here and she sadly said, "what a waste."

She was referring to what the students were missing by coming in late. Actually, that particular elf has a dream of getting into a university and studying the same things that you are studying now. She knows that it is very difficult to get into medical school, so it is painful for her to think of somebody who is already in that coveted situation taking their privileged position for granted.

The elf is still quite young, but she reminded me of how most people probably imagine students here at Q U would act. Most people probably imagine very serious, enthusiastic, insatiable learners attending Q U. Perhaps that is an idealistic stereotype, but I think many of you are worthy of it.

Much wisdom comes "out of the mouths of babes."

Remember, you are each very special. If you become famous doctors and scientists who help thousands, or if you become community doctors who help relatively fewer people--either way, you will have lived exceptional lives. Most of us out here will never even come near to saving a life or having a hand in the improvement of someones QOL. You will have many chances to do these things.

PS This is a true story --the elves were my children, did you realize?

Message from Sudan

その節は大変お世話になりました。

さて、来る１月１１日午後１１時よりＴＢＳ系の情熱大陸で
ロシナンテスの活動が放映されます。
御都合がよろしければ、ご覧になってください。

良い年末年始をお迎えください。

川原尚行

Candlelight Service

This shows the candlight service we had on 12/21 at church. We sing Christmas hymns and read the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. This is my favorite church service of the year--it doesn't matter how cold it is outside, I always feel warm at this service. The picture is a bit fuzzy, but you can get the idea, right? The candlight is so warm.

Yesterday there was a Christmas concert at church (12/23), but I couldn't go because I was sick. I had a splitting headache and nausea and by afternoon started vomiting. What would you diagnose me with? I'm at work today, but feeling weak. I hope to make it to church for a small Christmas celebration with my kids tonight. As I said before, since Christmas is not a holiday in Japan, most people can't attend church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (12/25).

How will you spend Christmas Eve?

Christmas in Japan

As usual I spent Sunday morning in church this week, but I also spent the evening in church celebrating Christmas. Since December 25th is not a holiday in Japan, we have to celebrate Christmas on the nearest Sunday to Christmas. Some years that means we get to celebrate on Christmas day, but most years we don't. This year we had a Christmas dinner and a lovely candlelight service (see the next post's picture) followed by a Christmas play performed by the church children. Christmas is my favorite time of year! How about you? Maybe New Year's time?

Class Attendance

I wanted to remind you all about the consequences of absences. Remember the handout you received explaining the class schedule? At the bottom of that handout the grading policy was stated and the fact that 5% will be subtracted from your grade for each unexcused absence. I also announced this on the first day of class. Of course there is no penalty for excused absences (such as hospitalization).

I have noticed a rise in absences this week, so I wanted to remind you of the attendance policy for this class. It is now the cold and flu season, so please take care!!

Well Done!!

Dear Students, I have to tell you again how proud I am of your excellent questions to our two guest lecturers today. They both commented on how impressed they were by your interesting questions. They said that they could really tell that you had been paying attention to the lectures and were so pleased by your attention to the details of their talks.

I look forward to hearing more excellent questions next week when groups 9-12 and 13-16 will be expected to ask questions. Of course you are all free to ask questions to all of our speakers in the same way as you did today. Great work!

Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed

I look forward to seeing you all "bright eyed and bushy tailed" in class tomorrow! Do you know what that means? You can ask me tomorrow if you don't know.

We will have two great guest lecturers, so come prepared to learn some new things about the medical education systems of Madagascar and China.

Remember that teams 1-4 will ask questions to the first lecturer and teams 5-8 will ask questions to the second lecturer.

See you tomorrow!

QOL - 30 minutes of wonderful

I think that perhaps you have been or will be studying about Quality of Life issues in some of your courses. I wanted to share a quote from an old movie I watched recently that really got me to thinking about QOL. The movie is called "Steel Magnolias" and was made in 1989. One of the characters in the movie is a young woman with diabetes and has been warned that getting pregnant is not safe for her. She, however, is a newlywed and dreams of having a child. When she finds out she is pregnant, her mother is very angry with her because she knows that the consequences of pregnancy can be devastating for her daughter. In reply to her mother's anger, the young woman cries to her mother, "I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special. "

The young woman goes ahead with the pregnancy, but goes into renal failure afterward. She gets a kidney transplant, but ultimately dies from complications. It is a very sad and thought provoking story. The young woman did get to raise her baby for about a year after his birth. She made the choice to have "30 minutes of wonderful rather than a lifetime of nothing special."

I think she would have defined a lifetime without a child as having low QOL. What do you think?

Next week's classes (12/18)

Hello! Today is a new day and I'm in a good mood.

Please remember that next week during third period (13:00-14:30), teams 1~4 will be in charge of asking questions to our guest speaker. Teams 5~8 will be in charge of asking questions to our 4th period (14:50~16:20) guest speaker . Please pay close attention to the presentations and ask intelligent questions that pertain to the topic the speaker has presented (let's avoid asking "what is your favorite food?"--OK?). I know that you are all geniuses and will do a great job! See you next week.

TOASTMASTERS

I want to thank all of the people who attended the Toastmasters demonstration meeting last Friday (11/28). It was a great success! My hope is for us to start up on a regular basis in the new year. I look forward to a thriving club that will be an asset to all of us!

Anyone who wants to enquire about the new club, please contact me.

Nightmare/ Test Room Change

Two nights ago I had a nightmare (actually it was in the morning after I had hit my snooze button on my alarm). I dreamt that it was 12/4 and I was handing out the final tests in the big hall in the hyakunen-kodo. The problem was that only half of the students were there and I realized that you had not heard that the room was changed from the medium sized hall to the big hall. Yikes!! I woke up in a cold sweat!

The good news is that we actually are going to be using the big hall for our test venue. We would have been too cramped in the medium sized hall. But don't worry, I'll put a sign on the medium sized hall to be sure you all know where to go (it's nearby, so I can also go over and shepherd you into the big hall if necessary).

See you tomorrow at 1:00pm in the BIG hall at hyakunen-kodo. Be ready for 50 very fun and interesting terminology questions. Wooohooo! We LOVE scientific terminology!