There and back again

My experience abroad, however, did not just constitute of visiting musea – I also traveled through the outskirts surrounding Paris, from chateau de Vincennes to gardens in Versailles and the cathedral in Reims, including tasting products of the famous Champagne region. It was also very nice to find (besides my friend Lukáš, with whom we would meet over a glass of something that blunlty reminded us of our home) the local community of Czechs with whom we frequently exchanged a lot of useful information through an e-mail group (aptly called „Petite Prague“) and with some of whom we even managed to meet in person to watch our national hockey team lose twice during the world championship. I managed to have enough time for all of the above including tutoring English, which only testifies to the fact that this semester was one of those lighter ones for me and I cannot wait to dive into all those books full of organic chemistry and neurobiology again, which are on my schedule for the next school year.

After I said goodbye to my host family and all of my friends that had I made during the Spring (mostly Americans attending the same programme – which is also the reason why integration with French was quite complicated and sometimes even a little forced), I traveled back home for three weeks, just to get ready for another departure to the USA. I was leaving before the summer even started because I had managed to get an internship in one of the hospitals on Manhattan, which gives me an opportunity to finally try what it is like to actually work with patients face to face. At the same time, I will be able to work on research dedicated to increasing the efficiency of spinal tumor treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as well as shadow one of the forefront neurosurgeons in this hospital, Dr Ilya Laufer during his surgeries. This entire plan sounds almost unbelievable, and so I am really eager to start working soon.

Apart from this summer job, I also managed to secure myself a position of a teaching assistant for the following semester, this time for the biology course – but more about that next time. In my free time, I also write a blog for international pre-medical students in the US ( http://www.premedusa.blogspot.com/ ) like me, where I publish all the useful information that I found out on my way to an American medical school.

I would like to conclude this post by bragging a little: I was given a scholarship from the Kellner Family Foundation also for the next and last school year of my undergraduate studies at Columbia University in the city of New York. I am overly grateful for this decision, as well as for the indespensable support heretofore, as it will enable me to receive my bachelor’s diploma by covering my tuition, housing, and food, and so also get ready for the admission exams for a medical school in the USA. Thank you very much.

Also for this reason will I be able to let you know all about the fall semester of my Senior year in NYC.