College visit flashback...ish

This morning my bioethics class joined in on the Spanish equivalent of a college information session for high school students considering studying medicine. The Spanish medicine track is much more vocational over here -- students apply directly from high school, and start working in the hospitals much earlier.

The informational videos and explanations of curriculum felt very reminiscent of college visits during my junior year of high school. As I listened to the director give a summary of what the hospital does (help patients, train students, conduct research), everything seemed pretty normal. But then they whipped out some recruitment techniques that were slightly different than those I've encountered in the U.S.

Apparently the hospital has a veterinary unit, in which some of the students were interested. A vet stood up and started discussing how they do experiments on pigs, but I attributed that to an error in my mental Spanish translation. He certainly must be saying something about taking care of pigs. Then, he continued on to explain how he has to leave his family on the weekends to give pigs shots. Not really the most persuasive information to convince students to follow in his footsteps, but whatever. (Note to self -- don't marry a vet.)

After this slightly unsettling information, they sent us to the hall for free coffee and cookies. Back on track to normal college admission techniques, I thought. Then the hospital tour began. Prepared to see how free public health distributes medicine or something like that, I followed the guide. As he took us straight to the basement, through a hall labeled "DIRTY HALLWAY, DO NOT ENTER," my confusion re-surfaced. He threw some robes and hair nets at us, then scooped us into a room with a pig bigger than me and penned up dogs. "Here are some of the animals we experiment on," he announced. Holding my nose and covering my eyes, I realized my mental translation had actually been perfectly correct. Before I could find an escape route, he pushed us into another room filled of "rats with cancer." Then he took us to an operating table where they conduct the experiments, and "kill them if they are in too much pain." Nauseous status para mí.

I got a first hand look at everything American institutions would keep underground. And I wish the Spaniards would have, too.  Given my Dolbow family upbringing, I left the hospital feeling very glad that I was not a medical student in Madrid. In all fairness though, this is not a good picture of Spanish hospitals at large. I must say, it was a very WEIRD experience.