Car pool passenger to Berkeley
I have started visiting the library of the Life Sciences department of
University of Berkeley. This is a library and paleontology museum, so
you can appreciate the jaws of tyrannosaurus or the vertebrae of
brontosaurus when you are not reading anything. They have a life size
model of T-Rex and it refreshed the memories of King Kong (2005). On
that note - I highly recommend King Kong - for spectacular graphics, and
the emotional bonds between animals and humans - reminded me of my pet
dog - Macho (May his soul rest in peace).I sometimes drown myself in
guilt for not being able to take care of him as much as I should. Would
never ever keep a pet if I am not able to treat it as a family member.
I come to the library with my uncle whose office is in downtown
Berkeley. On the way to office he picks up some passengers from the bus
stop who travel to Berkeley city or BART station. BART is the local
metro train of the Bay Area (Rapid Transport). If there are three people
in the car, we can use the car pool lane. So every one benefits - the
passengers get a free, faster and comfortable ride and we get to work
faster via the car pool lane.On some days the differences could be as
much as forty five minutes for a half hour ride.
Today we had a guy who is doing Master's in Acupuncture Science. First,
I didnt know that there is a Master's degree in Acupuncture which is
four years long, has same pre clinical subjects as MDs. Second, I was
not aware that you have to be licensed to be an Acupuncture specialists
(In Michigan you dont require a license), Third, they can order tests
pretty much like Family Physicians and get billed for those and finally,
I didnt know that a medical school training is of 4000 hours compared to
3000 hours for Acupuncture specialists. This guy is also a Tai Chi
instructor and plans to learn Chinese once he gets his license.
Professional education is expensive in the states and he is $70k down in
debt. He plans to start practice next year to pay off his debt but his
plan could be delayed by one year as he may spend one year in China for
apprenticeship. Subsequently he wants to practice for five years and
then become eligible to apply for a doctorate. Interestingly MDs can get
a license in Acupuncture by just doing a weekend course. So apart from
discussions on methods of Acupuncture we also discussed limitations of
western system of medicine and benefits of alternative therapies. I
would be turning 29 soon and on so many occasions I have ridiculed
myself for spending half of my productive life in school. This guy who
was revising his lecture for today sitting in the rear seat of car is 61.
