Now with "I need a break" most people mean that they need
to be away from whatever they are doing at that point in time, at least
for a while. They seek to either be somewhere else all together or, in
my case, they just want to use their energy differently.
And for me it was rather urgent, I would say. I was at the end of my
fourth year of medical school - here it takes 6 years - with still two
subjects to go before I was supposed to start my rotations. And I needed
to be away from the medical classroom for a while....otherwise Ifeared I
would have a horrible time doing my rotations. And rotations are
supposed to be the most wonderfull experience of the whole curriculum.
Now 4 years of university can not burn someone out, can it? No
usually by four years most people are (almost) done. However by the time
I was in my fourth medical year, I was already doing university for
seven....
I had started university in 1992 as a student of medical biology. I
started this study because I could not get in to medical school. - In
the Netherlands we have a lotery system to be accepted.- Although I
really enjoyed studying medical biology, I every year enrolled in the
lotery again, untill I finally got accepted in september 1995.
So by September 1999 I needed a change of scene.
I had become active in an international medical students organisation
since day one I entired medschool and I planned to use 1999/2000 for
work on the international level. Still I also wanted to use the time
away from medicine to finish medical biology.
Than I discovered that my university offered the Major/Minor
construction for several degrees. I decided that I would make what I had
done so far for Medical Biology my major and that I will use this year
for a minor studies of my choice.
Having always had a great passion for cultures around the world, and,
recently added to this, a grown interest in international health, the
choice was not that difficult to make. Medical Anthropology it became!
Medical Anthropology
Broadly defined medical anthropology is a part of anthropology that
studies the social and cultural processes that influence health, illness
and healthcare. At the University
of Amsterdam it is part of the doctoral program of Social Sciences.
Some of the courses available for minor students are part of the
Master of Arts degree in Social Sciences that the International School
for Humanities and
Social Sciences offers.
For my minor in Medical Anthropology I selected the following courses.
The first three are compulsory:
