From the Hospital to the Abbey!
Yesterday was a very eventful, inspiring, educating day! I spent the morning and afternoon at Beaumont Hospital in Northern Dublin shadowing Prof. Orla Hardiman. She hosts an ALS Clinic once a week at Beaumont Hospital where she checks in with her ALS patients, most of which coming from all over the countryside to see Dr. Hardiman. It was interesting to see the large variety of patients coming in who are all suffering from the same diagnosis at different phases in the disease's evolution.
Prof. Hardiman also was very nice in explaining the mechanisms of the symptoms of ALS, even showing me how to identify the symptoms in patients. She even showed me the Pectoral Reflex using the reflex hammer (as shown in the photo) which is reflex not taught in medical school!
After a long day of seeing patients, I headed downtown to the Abbey Theatre to see Othello. Having read the story in secondary school, I was very excited to see a live rendition of it. I must say, I would've paid a lot more attention in class if I had seen this play! It was amazing. The actor playing Iago (the antagonist of the plot) was my personal favorite although his Irish accent was a little thick at times. The actor playing Othello was actually an American trained at the Yale School of Drama and his voice was so unique and booming, it made for some interesting auditory dynamics.
I had forgotten the order in which all the characters died (yes, all the
characters die, this is a Shakespearean tragedy after all!) so I was
still quite surprised by the final scene. All seats in the house were good as the Abbey Theatre is actually quite small and intimate, which allowed for a microphone-less performance. All in all, I was very impressed and glad I took the time to go see Othello live!
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