I signed up to work three shifts this week, MTW from 10-6.  I particularly likethis shift due to the timing and the drivers who work it.  This week did not have a exciting calls as the prior week even though the amount of calls was greater.  We mainly were used as a glorified taxi service taking people from their homes to the hospital for mild medical problems.  It would be cheaper for them to call a taxi.  One thing that is different here than in the states is that when we drop off the patients we also give them a 358 shekel bill-slightly over $100.  That is the cheapest bill, sometimes if we transport them to the hospital of their choice (if it is farther away), bills can be upwards of 600 shekels.

On monday and tuesday I rode with Nisim and Or again (medics).  They are quite nice although the language barriers affects our communication.  They particularly like riding with me because I am a guy and can carry patients down the stairs.  In most calls, we need to chair carry the patient down the stairs because in Bat Yam there are VERY few elevators.  OF course, the big guys always live on the top floor.  When we got back to the station we played some foosball which is called shulhan (table) here.  Or was supposedly the best one in the station, but after 4 games and beating her 3 of them, I may have taken the title.  She was not too pleased.  When I got back to the guest house, we went to dinner at a lasagna place for aaron's birthday and then headed to Gallina's which is a club on the port.  It was a lot of fun.  We met some teachers from australia..

On Tuesday, we responded three times to fallen patients.  We show up basically to lift them off the ground because we did not "load and go" any of the patients.  When elderly patients fall it seems that they always urinate themselves and wait for help. Not very many exciting calls although we did pick up an old russian man who was begging us to kill him.  He had chest pains but he may have stayed a night for psychiatric evaluation.  Wednesday was a very slow day and we spent a large amount of our time in the station-I was sleeping.

I think we are planning on going down to Eilat this weekend.  There should be about 20 MDA people there, so it should be a great time.  The 4 people to a single hotel room may be cozy but as broke college kids, we need to conserve money.