Bhutanese Rock Shows and Epiphanies

Hey there loyal readers!

Sorry to keep you in suspense about whether or not I get to stay in Bhutan... but I bet you already figured out that I'm staying in Bhutan (thank goodness!). I learned some good life lessons, such as "not renewing your visa means you get fined for being an idiot" and "when you don't renew your visa, people laugh at you". But if the University of Chicago has taught me anything, it's that learning lessons is more important than life itself.

In other, less me-being-stupid news, I went to a Bhutanese rock show Saturday night (aaaand the title of the post makes sense-- half of it, anyway). It was a bunch of local bands raging for charity; they were raising money so a small-ish village could put it towards building a monastery. I never though ACDC lyrics would be used to finance the building of a monastery, but it totally worked out. As usual with this kind of thing, some of the bands were a bit lacking, and some of them were absolutely awesome. One of my friends, who goes by Supe and lives right below me with his sister Tashi (who is a babe!), was the lead singer of his band, and as a totally unbiased party, he was great. Actually, in all honesty, his whole band was really good. Tashi and I sat up front-ish (the venue was a bar without much of a stage, so people were just crowding around) right behind the sound guy, so we got to see everything, including all the sweat and spit... but really, what's a rock show without sweat and spit?

Of course (feminist pants ON) I wish there had been more female musicians, especially since the next day, when I was hanging out at a cafe right across from the bar where the show had been, a friend of a friend (who is now a friend, according to the cool Bhutanese rule of "everyone be friends") busted out her guitar and sang for us. She was fantastic; like a Feist/Sarah McLaughlin combo. All this talent lurking in the mountain kingdom of Bhutan, and we never knew...

Okay, and now for the epiphany part of the title: my commitment to being a doctor is intensifying. Like for reals. Yes, I know, I did all the pre-med stuff except for Biochemistry (boo) and that probably looked a lot like commitment (especially the Organic Chemistry part) but even for all that I always hedged my bets. I always told people that I was keeping my options open, trying it out, exploring careers, yadda yadda yadda. But being here has really cemented my resolve-- kind of weirdly, actually. I mean, the doctors are all overworked, and by the end of the day they seem so harried and tired... but that just makes me wish I was a doctor RIGHT NOW so I could do something about it. That's the thing; the more people I see and the more I learn about the process of diagnosing and doctoring, and the more people that leave with a little less discomfort than they came with, the more I think to myself: I want that. I want this to be what I do. It just looks so darn fulfilling, you know? So look out world--I'm on my way, and I've got a scalpel.

Missing and loving all of you! Hopefully you too are finding your metaphorical scalpels, and if you haven't, you will.

Peace,

Liat