The Very Complicated Joke

Thursday was pretty standard. Class in the morning followed by interviewing in the afternoon. The tenants we interviewed were INCREDIBLE and had amazing stories. Can't really say more than that, but I loved hearing their stories and could have listened to them all day. A lot of people went out for Tapas, but I stayed in to rest my foot and got a ton of studying done. I also met more neighbors - the Dental Students have finally arrived! There is a D14 who lives on my floor and he plays piano and mixes beats. Hurray for more friends!

Friday I had morning classes, then studied in the afternoon. That night I went to Hillel for a rooftop happy hour. We ate sushi, drank wine and beer, and played Jewish geography (what Jews do you know - oh I know them too!). As dorky Jewish medical students, we managed to mix class topics into socializing. When discussing how Judaism passes on through the mother, a classmate said "Must be a mitochondrial gene!" (***see the end of the post for an explanation if you don't get it!). The view from the rooftop was incredible. Boston is such a beautiful city, and watching the sun set from a rooftop with a bunch of my friends was a great and relaxing way to end the week!

I decided to give myself a day off on Saturday so I bummed around my apartment in the morning and then went to lunch with a friend from HS who is in her second year at Harvard Law. I took a nap in the afternoon, had a great phone convo with my mom, and then went to Wendy, Audra, and Becky's (WAB's) house for a potluck and a party. I made Trader Joes cornbread (always a good idea - thanks Mom!) and pigged out on the delicious food that everyone brought - YUM! There are going to be weekly potlucks and I'm excited to be friends with people who like food as much as I do!

Finally a short post!

***Explanation of the mitochondrial gene comment: I tried to explain this as simply as possible, but it was actually really difficult to do. I made it as basic as possible, don't be offended I wanted to make sure anyone could understand. Skip to the last point if you understand how babies are made and know how cells work...

1. More religious Jews only consider a person Jewish if their mother was Jewish.
2. Sperm and eggs are cells that mix together into one cell (zygote), and then that cell divides a lot and eventually becomes an embryo, then a fetus, then a baby. (pretty simple stuff, but again trying to cover all bases)
3. Cells have nuclei which hold the genes that are like the architects that plan how you will turn out. They also have other cell components which are like the construction team that puts everything together.
4. Mitochondria are a type of cell component (construction team) that have a little bit of their own genes (architects). They make energy for the cell and their genes tell them how.
5. The egg is a lot bigger than the sperm, so the sperm are mostly made up of nuclei, and the egg has a nuclei and a lot of other cell components, so when they mix together, the egg gives the zygote all of it's mitochondria. So the genes in the mitochondria only come from the mother, but the genes in the nuclei are a mix of mom and dad.

Soooooo...the joke is saying that because Judaism passes only through the mother, it must be a mitochondrial gene because those are the ones that only pass through the mom. 

Here is some more info from Wikipedia - Click me!

And here is a simpler explanation, skip down to "What is a mitochondrial disease?" - Better Source than Wikipedia - Click me!