Dinner!

Today in animal nutrition, we talked about chickens. For some reason, it felt appropriate to go home and eat chicken for dinner, despite the fact that the lecture was about egg laying chickens rather than edible chickens. I feel like I'm getting the last word in or something. And it happens to be delicious!

I've already told you that there is a lot of American food here for me to eat and therefore I am in no danger of starvation. However, cooking for one can be a bit of a challenge. I try not to make leftovers because I'd rather eat fresh food than reheated food. I also only have one pot so things have to be made in sequence a lot. I think I've also mentioned that the vegetables (that you'd find in the US) are few and far between down here or absurdly expensive (not paying $9 US for asparagus!).

Tonight I decided to go with boiled chicken with BBQ sauce, beans, and a baked potato. I can't say enough how delicious the chicken is here! Boiled chicken may sound very bland, but the chicken is so flavorful that boiling merely is a way to cook it (I could eat it plain-and I was not willing to do that with the chicken at my house this summer). I microwaved my potato for a while and with some smart balance spread (can you believe they have that here?!) it is quite tasty. I also microwaved the beans in some water. They are called "beans," I honestly have no clue what kind they are (they look sort of like large green beans or soybeans perhaps). They are also tasty.

 I will leave you pictures of my delicious dinner that I am quite proud of. :D

My Internet and Microwave

I think I've mentioned before that the internet is kinda iffy here. This is particularly the case when it comes to the wireless. I pretty much have to reconnect every 10 mins if I'm using it in class which is probably more a problem with my computer than the actual wireless network. However, someone told me recently that the building structure here is pretty incompatible with wireless. Apparently it blocks a lot of the signal causing problems. Oh well, it's annoying but I'm used to it. I'm also used to my wired internet just dying for 10ish minutes at a time in my room. Sometimes running the troubleshooting feature fixes it and sometimes not. Again, eh whatever I'm used to it. HOWEVER today 3 of the 4 ethernet ports in my room are refusing to work. This is not okay with me. Its an internet problem not a computer problem because both of my computers are having issues. Anyhow, the port that works happens to not be the one at my desk and I happened to plug a short cable into it just as a test. Since it works, I am too afraid to unplug it to exchange it out. Guess that's the benefit of being able to use both desks, heh.

As for the microwave, I am not sure what is up with this seemingly possessed appliance! I noticed the first time I opened and shut the door that it "turned on." As far as I can tell, it's not actually using microwaves at this point, but the plate rotates, the light is on, and the only way to override it is to open the door again. And usually as soon as you open the door, it starts back up again. No amount of cancel or entering numbers in will switch it to a useful function. I am confused. It potentially seems like it's just some sort of strange ventilation feature (although why it needs to do that before it heats is beyond me) but NOWHERE is it mentioned in the manual that came with it. I read the little booklet cover to cover earlier and it doesn't even mention a fan, much less a ventilation feature. It seems that perhaps I am just destined to have problems with microwaves in Grenada. I think this means I need to invest in another pot, because I often turn to microwave food because I am too lazy to wash my single dirty pot.

My alarm went off way too early this morning. Literally. As of last Wednesday, we officially changed our lab time from 2 split labs from 8a-10a and 10a-12p to 1 lab from 9a-12p. Something to do with AVMA guidelines. Whatever, I don't mind sleeping in later (although I do miss my extra long lunch/nap/study break). I totally forgot this when I set my alarm last night for my default 7:15a slot. When my alarm went off this morning, I groaned very sleepily and thought to myself what I would give for another hour of sleep. Just after that, it occurred to me that lab didn't start until 9a and so I actually did get an extra hour of sleep! It was the best surprise ever!

A couple of my classmates and I decided to hit up the beach for a little while after class today. We ended at 5p and decided to take the bus over to the other section of campus to visit the ocean. We got there around 6p (a little later than planned but we took forever to get ready and had to wait awhile for a bus). In Grenada, by the time 6p rolls around, the sun is already beginning to set. This means that the island temperature drops from a toasty and humid 85 degrees to a fairly chilly 79 degrees. We decided to ignore this though and went right in. The water felt amazing (though not quite as amazing as when it is beastly hot out) and we swam for a good 40 minutes before it was dark out. We saw a few fish but mostly just relaxed and swam around for fun (it felt SO good on the joints after sitting all day). We got out when it was dark in order to dry off and head back to campus. We also knew that they were going to lock the campus gate to the beach soon and didn't want to get stuck! All in all, an excellent way to spend an hour and a good stress reliever. I am looking forward to going back again soon!

Parvo and a “Dying” Dog

So this should have been posted last night, but Grenadian internet is spotty. In other words, all of campus is without internet right now. To all of you who were jealous that we had no hurricane here, good news, it still affects us! (that’s because the head quarters is just outside of NYC)

Tonight was shift #2 at the small animal clinic. My shift was from 5p-12a and then I managed not to be the one to take the on call phone home for the night (but in all fairness, I will be working a bunch of overnights alone so I will have plenty of time with the phone soon enough).

I am currently eating the dinner I brought with me but never got around to eating. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich and potato chips. Earlier when I made the food, I put it all in one storage container so as to not be wasteful. One of the sections in physiology we’re learning right now is passive and active transport (aka diffusion and stuff like that). Therefore I know that things move from high concentration to low concentration. How is this relevant to my food you ask? Well, I have a dry sandwich and soggy potato chips. Lesson learned and reinforced. And yes, I am still eating both because I am a poor and lazy student. If you mix them together you don’t notice as much…

So tonight when I came in, we had two suspect parvo puppies. Said parvo puppies came in the form of 2 11 week old Rottweiler siblings that were as cute and pathetic as sick puppies come. The single advantage to not having pets happens to be that at the end of the day I can’t bring home any terrible infectious diseases to them. One of the other girls with an older dog and I became the techs for these puppies at the shift change. Over the next two hours, we admitted them, took them to isolation, placed catheters, drew blood, set up fluids, gave meds, and got the puppies situated. Isolation here happens to be its own little building off the back of the hospital, so all work out there is done in pairs. As per isolation procedures, we wore disposable gowns, gloves, and booties at all times.

Parvo puppies belonged to me and the other tech for the rest of the evening. Isolation protocol also calls for those who treat the infectious cannot touch the unvaccinated. Usually it isn’t a problem, but we actually had unvaccinated dogs in the hospital so we had to limit our patient contact with them.

In addition to the parvo dogs, we also had an emergency call and come in. When I spoke with the individual on the phone, the patient in question was described as “laterally recumbent,” having an “increased respiratory effort,” having an “increased capillary refill time” (you can google if you really want to know), and being “extremely lethargic.” Those things strung together sound very much like a dying dog in respiratory distress. We urged the owner to bring the dog in, and over they came. The good news is the dog wasn’t dying, dead, or anywhere close to that. Instead of a dying animal, we diagnosed ehrlychiosis, a very common tick-borne disease on the island. Nothing a little doxycycline, some food, and some rest shouldn’t cure or at least improve significantly!

So that was my night. At the end of my shift. the doctor very kindly drove me up to campus (dilemma solved! And I SWEAR I wasn't going to walk up the road alone). Now it is time for bed! Up early for anatomy lab and a very long day of classes. Sounds like I just beat the rain, yay!

Horse Handling and the Small Animal Clinic

Today was a fun day! I started the morning off by going to the school farm and playing with horses! More specifically, I learned how to approach and halter a horse in both a pen and a stall, and then how to pick up their hooves. It was a really good experience, considering I have only the tiniest amount of horse experience (if you count the day I shadowed an equine vet, the rounds I attended for a semester, and few times I rode a horse as a kid haha). School horses are probably the best horses out there. They know what you want from them even before you go to start it. They've done the drill a million times, and they get fed well afterwards so students are alright in their book. We also got to bathe one of the horses when we were finished. We managed to get ourselves pretty wet with the hose, good thing we had our coveralls on! The last thing we did before leaving was learn how to tie a horse up. Now we have something to use our ropes for! (remember at the beginning of the semester we got halters and a lead with our kits).

(Dr. Cate talking about technique)

The next thing I did today was volunteer for an afternoon shift at the Small Animal Clinic through our emergency and critical care club (SVECCS). 6th term students have all of the weekday evening/overnight shifts and the saturday evening/weekend shifts and SVECCS members sign up for Saturday morning/afternoon and Sunday morning, afternoon and overnight. The overnight shift is from 5p-12a in the hospital and then one student takes the on call phone home with them until the next morning (and responds to a call if one occurs).

I have signed up for a bunch of shifts on the weekends (particularly the Sunday night shift) to give me something fun to do and to help me apply what I'm learning in the classroom to the clinical aspect of veterinary medicine. It is much easier to sit with a live dog and go over anatomy than it is to stare at a picture! We had live dogs in the classroom last week and it was so much easier to remember structures after that.

The shift today wasn't too busy. I worked with two other 1st term students and a doctor. We had some down time which we spent reviewing notes and did the patient care as needed (but there wasn't much, mostly feeding and walking). It was fun and I got to spend a lot of time with a great dane! Very handsome dog! I am looking forward to working tomorrow too!

Grocery Store!

Okay, as promised, a post with pictures about our local grocery store (also known as IGA). It's particularly appropriate because I made my third trip to the grocery store today! Yay for having food to eat :)

Well, I will start by explaining how grocery shopping works. Basically, the shipment comes in once a week on Thursdays. Therefore, the best days to go shopping are Thursday, Friday and maybe the weekend. It all depends on how in demand everything is. Last Friday when we went, the store was packed full of students and locals picking up food for the week. It took as long to pick up food as it did to check out (probably 30 minutes!). Needless to say, if you want to get the good stuff, you had better get there before it all runs out!

Hmm where to start with food...

Produce! There are lots of fresh fruits and veggies here. Last week I came home with the best cantaloupe I have ever eaten. We have lots of things that you wouldn't see in the grocery store in the US or if you would they are in much larger quantities. Also, there aren't really many veggies here that you would get in the US. They do have asparagus, but you only get a very small amount for about $7 US. A little expensive for a student. I'm sure I'll give it a try from time to time though.

Next I'll talk about meats. The fresh chicken here is amazing! Fresh or frozen, it tastes quite good once cooked. The only thing I'm not sure I'll ever get used to seeing is all parts of the chicken packaged for sale. My "favorite" is the chicken feet.

Aren't they something? Ewwww! Haha! They have a limited selection of other meats including pork (lots of different pork items) and some beef. The ground beef is very red and thicker than what I'm used to seeing in the US. I haven't brought myself to buy it yet, but I'll let you know how it tastes when I do!

We have lots of other American products including Kraft macaroni and cheese, cereals, tomato sauces, peanut butter, Tyson's chicken, frozen veggies, Tropicana orange juice, Yoplait yogurt, Lays potato chips, and many others! Oh, how could I forget goldfish! Peanut butter and goldfish, I am set! Also, much to my amusement, they have puff pastries here. Both the cups and the sheets can be found in our frozen foods section. Funny enough, the same cannot be said for Blacksburg, Virginia's grocery stores!

 

The bread is local and tasty, although it is different from mass produced bread. Stiffer and dryer, but it tastes better. And there is only one kind. All of the bread is white so there are no complicated decisions about what will taste good and what won't! I haven't found an expiration date on my loaves yet, but it's not much of a change from loaves that don't ever get moldy!

Milk isn't quite $9 a gallon like I had been told. It's closer to $5-7, which isn't too bad. The one unfortunate thing is that it is usually only good for a week. So far, all 3 containers I have purchased expire one week from the day I bought them. I think this is because it takes a lot of time between when the milk is processed and packaged and when it actually makes it to Grenada.

The only other observations I have when it comes to food is that things go moldy here very quickly and they go stale by about a week after they have been open. I think this is mainly due to the high level of humidity in my room. Although the air feels cool and dry, the thermometer reads that humidity hovers at about 50%, which is 10-15% higher than it was in my apartment.

All in all, the food is great! I am thrilled that I don't have to be too adventurous yet. So many changes to adapt to a little bit at a time. And before you go scolding me and rolling your eyes, several of my classmates have already gotten sick after eating (sketchy) local cuisine. Sometimes having high standards for food preparation and safety aren't a bad thing :-p

New Microwave!

I came home this evening to find a maintenance guy putting a BRAND NEW MICROWAVE in my kitchen!!! I am very excited! A week ago, I submitted a work order request for my original microwave because it didn't really work. I know you're think um it either works or it doesn't, so let me explain what I mean.

When I originally arrived in Grenada at 1am, I walked into my room, took in the sights, and noticed that my microwave was off. I swear it happened like that because the kitchen is right there when you open the door and you can't help but notice it. That and there was no clock in the room and microwaves can be an excellent resource for that. So I flipped the wall switch on and the face plate lit up. The clock said 1:01 (the default setting according to my new users manual) and I figured close enough, I'll get it in the morning.

Morning came quite early for the microwave, which started demanding attention at about 6:00am. It made one beep. Awakened from sleep and extremely groggy, I remember wondering if I actually heard something. A couple of minutes later (or honestly it could have been seconds, hard to say when you're not really awake), it beeped a single time again. This time I knew I had heard something and both my roommate and I groggily rolled over acknowledging that we had heard something. I suspected the microwave, but I don't think she had gotten that far in conscious thought yet. I think we both opted for sleep at that point being exhausted and needing to be up in a few hours. Another few minutes passed and it beeped a third time. This time I knew for sure it was the microwave, and as we both groaned, I hopped out of bed and and snickered at the microwave as I turned the power switch off. It was a satisfying feeling. Back to sleep we went and the microwave went untouched for days (no food).

I used the microwave a couple of times with no incident. I always shut the power off after use to avoid another early morning surprise. Sleep is far too precious to be wasted on such foolish things!

Last week, I began using the microwave for dinner one night. I used it twice without a problem (meaning that I could press buttons and make it work) but almost immediately after each use, it would take to loudly beeping at you obnoxiously. The third time I tried to use it that night, it refused to acknowledge that any of the buttons were being pressed and continued beeping loudly. That's when I decided it was time to have it looked at.

When I came home from classes at lunch the next day, the microwave was gone. I honestly expected to see it back in my room at the end of the day with a note on it saying something along the lines of I'm stupid, it's fine. It didn't show up. Each day this week, I have been more an more surprised to not see it in my room at the end of the day. Needless to say, I was quite shocked when they were putting a brand new in my room today!

I am very happy, I can now make frozen foods without bothering various people in my dorm! This microwave also has actual numbers on it! The previous one (and every other one I've seen here) only contains buttons for 10 minutes, 1 minute, 10 seconds, and 1 second. Now all I have to say is that this one had better not act up in the next 3 months!!

(old) (new)

Another Wednesday

I'm not feeling very enthusiastic about this Wednesday. Last week it seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel, but this week is just pretty endless. I've been feeling pretty lonely and isolated since about day 3 due to some unforeseen circumstances. Granted, I'm here to study and get my degree, but having company around while doing it is nice.

On a brighter note, we had our first SVECCS (Student Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society) meeting tonight. We had the opportunity to sign up for weekend shifts at the school's Small Animal Clinic which is just down the road from campus. I signed up for a couple of day shifts and a bunch of overnight shifts for the semester. For the overnight shifts, you work from 5p-12a and then one of the people on the shift takes the on call phone home with them in case someone calls to bring an animal in. I'm hoping it will be a good way to be involved and to get some relief working with animals and medicine. It will also give me the chance to solidify what we are learning in class. We of course can study if we are having a quiet shift too, which is good.

Anyhow, I planned to be in bed an hour ago. Oops!

1st In Class Assignment Tomorrow...

We have our first anatomy "worksheet" tomorrow...yikes! So much studying yet I still feel unprepared! This one covers the "basic" overview of the entire dog and cat systems. I say basic, but think as in depth as you possibly can, and then multiply that by 10 and you have what the term basic means in vet school. No one said it would be easy or stress free, but still! Back to studying I go. :(

A Quick Note on Coercion

We have an anatomy "worksheet" (apparently he's not allowed to call them quizzes because the other professors complained he gave to many and students were not paying attention in their classes) on Wednesday. It covers 43 pages of an anatomy Question and Answer booklet or roughly 77 pages in the textbook (if it doesn't sound like much, trust me it is!). All of the school clubs are starting to have their first meeting of the semester between last week and this week (and seriously, who wouldn't want to join them all? Emergency and critical care, exotics and wildlife, AAHA, SAAVMA, etc.) but knowing that I have this "worksheet" on Wednesday, I decided that Tuesday evening was going to be spent solely studying. But then they sent out an email saying there will be food. And not only will there be food, it will be pizza! Now who could pass that up?! So what it now means is that after our mandatory library tour after class tomorrow, I will put my newly acquired library skills to the test and actually study there so that I can get pizza a little bit later on.

Moral of the story: students like food. Free food is even better. Make it something they really like and you are guaranteed their presence!

Update: Turns out all of the meetings this week have pizza at them. How many times will I eat pizza this week? Hmm...

Laundry on an Island

I think it’s about time to make a post about laundry, since I just looked in my closet and confirmed that I do indeed need to do laundry before next weekend or I will run out of certain things to wear. Not good.

So how does one go about doing laundry on a Caribbean island? Well before you start getting too crazy, I will tell you that students do have washing machines for laundry. We do not have to hang our unmentionables outside for all of campus to see in order to have dry clothes, and we don’t have whip out a washboard to clean them. However, I have no doubt that a large percentage of the island actually does do laundry that way. Why is that? Well for starters, when we went on our hike/tour, we passed many homes that had laundry hanging out to dry. The other reason is because there is a lot of poverty on the island and I imagine that something like a washing machine/dryer would be a luxury. I would think that it would be very expensive to import the machines, expensive to make a house to fit them, expensive to use lots of water, and expensive to use the electricity. After all, 90% of the island was destroyed building-wise 6 years ago when a bad hurricane hit the island.

Anyway, back to being an SGU student with dirty clothes.  So how does laundry work? Well my favorite two parts are that there are machines on each floor and they are free to use. Don’t go getting jealous of our free laundry and lack of having to trudge up and down stairs too quickly though. Here are the laundry policies:

1.      There are two laundry rooms on each floor and each contains one washer and one dryer

2.      There are 8 total of each in the building but you are only supposed to use the ones on your floor

3.      Do not be an idiot and overstuff the washer. If you do that, it will fill up and overflow making a large mess and potentially require service thus ending the use of one laundry room on your floor (59 people will not be very happy with you, and 100+ people will not be happy when the 59 people meander onto their floors to wash clothes)

4.      You had best stay on top of the time because people are chomping at the bit to wash their clothes and do not want to wait since you forgot

5.      (This one is the best) the laundry room will be open each weekday evening until 7am and on Friday evenings through Monday at 7am.

Now you are wondering why the time constrictions? Well it has been theorized that this is to prevent campus workers from bringing their own things to campus and using the facilities. Why is that such a big deal? Who really cares if a housekeeper or security guard throws a load in here or there? Well, it’s a water issue. SGU has its own desalination plant where campus water is purified for use every day. Unfortunately, the plant is unable to produce enough water to meet campus needs every day, therefore, we often have water shortages. With 7 dorms on campus, the best way to cut back on water usage is to cut back on laundry doing. This means making sure that only students paying to live on campus do laundry. It also means that when water supplies get low, cutting off laundry washing capabilities all together (including during scheduled hours). They will call security, and security will walk around to each dorm and lock the laundry room door. Additionally, the RAs are notified so that they can let the residents know that the laundry facilities are closed.

All in all, not really a big deal, but we didn’t have any laundry facilities Thursday, Friday, or most of Saturday, and then they closed early tonight. Hopefully I will get to snag a couple hours one night this week and we won’t be in shortage mode the whole week again. I am not holding my breath, after less than 2 weeks, I have adapted to Grenadian life and this 3^rd world country quite well. Just like using creativity to cook, I am betting on having to creatively figure out how to wash a few clothing items. I should be able to work something out (my classmates can let out a sigh of relief, I will not re-wear dirty nasty clothes!). 

Anyhow, the best way to live happily is to remember that a washing machine is conveniently located only a few feet from my door in either direction (no more four flights of stairs or 5 minutes down the road!) and that no quarters, bills or cards are required! Simply load up and press start! :)

Beach!!

I finally made it to the beach today!! It was another sunny, beautiful day in Grenada (although I missed the rain shower that happened before we left). Before I describe my fun in the sun, I need to clarify something about SGU/the campuses.

SGU is located in Grenada and has been for many years. The school used to be very tiny and located in Grand Anse, a section of the town (St. George's) we're in. Grand Anse is right on the beach and since the campus has been moved to True Blue, the Grand Anse part has been turned into some on campus housing and the school's beach area. Grand Anse is about a 5-10 min bus ride from where I am (True Blue).

Anyhow, back to the beach! So a few of my friends and I met up and took the bus over to the beach. Before I left, I made sure to put PLENTY of sunscreen on. When we arrived, the beach was as beautiful as the pictures showed it would be and I was very happy and excited to get right in the water! The water temperature had to have been at least 80 degrees (it felt amazing), was crystal clear, and a beautiful turquoise color. The waves were mostly just gentle swells and we swam for about an hour and a half. At that point in time, a rain storm (and then thunder storm) rolled in so we got out for a bit. When the storm showed no signs of letting up, we decided to call it a day and go home and study.

We saw fish, seashells, a HUGE conch shell, and some dead coral pieces while swimming. All in all an awesome 1st time to the beach! I am very glad that I do not live in Grand Anse though because there is no way I would ever get any work or studying done. I would simply want to be in the water all day every day! And that would definitely be a problem haha.

Sadly, despite my heavy sunscreen application and limited time in the sun, my shoulders and upper chest are lobster red! It looks as though I completely skipped the process of applying sunscreen today :( It is very itchy! Thankfully a classmate is loaning me some aloe! I am amazed at how burned I am, but I guess that's what happens when you are super pale (or as one friend put it, as white as paper haha). I can't wait to go back again soon though! And I definitely need to make it for a sunset soon, because they are supposedly gorgeous!

A few pictures (taken after it started raining though so they aren't great):

My First Night Out

After a seemingly long day of class, I made it to two grocery stores and back today! I'll make a post with pictures detailing my grocery shopping experience later. I know you are much more interested to know what I mean when I say I went out tonight haha.

Suspicions confirmed, I went to my first bar/club ever! Crazy huh? We had a get-together picnic on campus and then there was an after party at a local bar/club (not really sure what the heck it would be called) about a ten minute walk from campus. I had no intentions to go (you know me!) and actually had plans to study (first by myself and then with a couple people). But then they ended up getting talked into going out, so I had a choice to make. Go back to my room by myself, do little studying (lets be honest here haha), and feel lame and isolated, or go out and explore Grenadian night life. Vet school and this journey are all about trying new things and experiencing as much as I can, so I opted for the latter (a true shocker, I know!).

I will also throw out there that the sun sets around 6:45p here. So we made our way out of campus (on foot) in the dark down the road for about 10 minutes until we found Dodgy Dock. It was probably the best place for me to experience this first because it was a dock with a canopy roof overlooking water. How cool is that?! It was also very pretty and made the atmosphere seem more relaxed and not too crowded. The group I was with ordered drinks at the bar (I did not, I still stick by my not drinking) and then we found a little table and sat down to chat for a few hours. It was a lot of fun and we saw many of our classmates. The drunk and drinking people were pretty entertaining admittedly.

At the end of the evening, we walked back to campus (in a group with guys so no preaching or worrying!) trying to avoid getting run over or falling in all of the holes. It was an amusing walk back-one of our friends was pretty drunk. We all made it back to campus, and I am very happy to have a room with AC and a cleansing shower!

This is Dodgy Dock during the day. Pretty, huh?

How to Open a Bottle of Soap

Tonight while taking a shower, I happened to glance at the back of my bottle of body wash. I was curious to know exactly what scent it was and the green plant on the front was giving me any hints. As I scanned the label, I noticed that there were directions on how to OPEN the bottle and how to dispense the contents! To add to the amusement, the bottle also tells you nothing about how to actually use the product.

The directions simply read "To open, lift up flip top, squeeze bottle and pour to dispense." It then goes on to warn against eye contact, etc.

Before you go laughing at the Grenadian people wondering who the heck doesn't know how to open a bottle here and what kind of third world country this is, I must point out that the product was made in England! It's actually quite tempting to call the UK hotline to ask (especially since international calls are $0.90 a minute-far cheaper than the US).

Anyhow, thought I'd share because I am now both highly amused and confused.

Mailboxes

Today myself and a couple of classmates decided to sign up for our mailboxes which are conveniently located in Charter Hall on campus not to far from our classrooms or dorms. To sign up for a mailbox, you simply go in, present your student ID, and are assigned a box and given a combination for the lock. Quick, simple, painless...right?

Actually, as it turns out, 3 intelligent people who have made it this far to veterinary school are incapable of figuring out the combination lock system without guidance! One after the other, we read the instructions and gave it a shot, and failed each time.

Being resourceful students, we politely asked for help (feeling quite foolish!). The good news is that after we were shown how to do it once, we were each able to replicate the results and open the mailboxes! As it turns out, the combination lock numbers appear to be more of an approximation than the actual code, and the instructions don't really mean what they say. Made me feel a little less incompetent! After all, how hard can it really be to open a lock?! 20 minutes later and we had the answer to that question!

So now we have mailboxes, we know how to open them, and we have a basic understanding of how the mail system works. Letters and tiny envelopes will make their way to campus to our boxes but packages will be held off campus at the island post office where we will have to retrieve them, open them at the office, and pay taxes on everything inside. Lots of students use the mail system here and even receive packages, so it can't be as complex and frustrating as it sounds.

Lastly, much to my amusement, the island keeps with it's theme "what you see is what you get." There are no fancy confusing names for places here. The golf course is simply called the golf course, the fish market is called the fish market, and so on. Keeping with that theme, it would then make sense that the only bit of the mail address that changes per student is the name and box number. It reads something like this:
Your Name, Your Box No. (mine is 3405-hopefully I remember that!)
St. George's University
P.O. Box 7
University Centre
St. George's
Grenada, West Indies

Not difficult at all. School, school's address, building location, town we're in, island. The only thing that changes between students is name and box number. So now I have a mailbox!

It's Wednesday!

I keep waking up about an hour early each morning thinking that I have overslept and am late to class. This is not the case of course, and when I realize this, I am always very excited to get another __ amount of sleep (this morning it was another hour).

After I woke up this morning (grumbling about how early it was and how much better sleeping would be) I realized that today was Wednesday. This is exciting for a couple of reasons. It means that today was our last anatomy lab until next week, that this is the last morning I have to get up at 7:15a until Monday, and that at the end of the day, the week would be more than half over. Baby steps, the light at the end of the tunnel is a looonnnggg way out haha!

The other thing that made today great was that I felt alert an energized through most of the day and evening. Until now, I have been feeling very sluggish after lunch and until I go to bed. I attribute my awakeness to a nice 20 minute nap I took during the lunch break. I will be sure to start incorporating this into my daily routine, class is sooo much more enjoyable when you aren't fighting to stay awake.

Anatomy has been going a little better yesterday afternoon and today. I think it's because we're going over radiology and basic clinical stuff now (aka stuff I know haha). I think we should stick to these topics and then it will be all better! I'm pretty good with radiology-Dr. Ringold would be so proud haha.

My weekend plans are to sleep, study, and go to the beach. At this rate, I should have called the blog "doctor who spends all day on a caribbean island in a classroom!"

White Coat Ceremony

Tonight the SGU School of Veterinary Medicine had the Fall Class of 2015 White Coat Ceremony. It is basically a ceremony to welcome all of the incoming students to the veterinary profession and recognize all of the hard work they have done to get to this point.

There are speakers from the school and our keynote speaker was from the AVMA. During the last part of the ceremony, we each go on stage and are presented with our white coats. We then read a professional commitment:

"Being admitted to the profession of veterinary medicine, I solemnly swear to use my scientific knowledge and skills for the benefit of society through the protection of animal health, the relief of animal suffering, the conservation of animal resources, the promotion of public health, and the advancement of medical knowledge.

I will conduct my studies conscientiously, with dignity and in keeping with the principles of veterinary medical ethics. I accept my responsibility to assist my colleagues to achieve our mutual goals.

I acknowledge my obligation to adhere to the University's Honor Code and to conduct myself with integrity and in an ethical manner at all times.
I will practice my profession conscientiously, with dignity, and in keeping with the principles of veterinary medical ethics.

It is a privilege to have been given the opportunity to become a veterinarian. I will be ever conscious of that privilege and never abuse it."

(SGU Mace)

After the ceremony, we went to a delicious reception. The food was really good, and you all should be very proud because I tried several very sketchy looking foods (and yes I did like most of them!). Keeping with the theme of being poor students, we all stocked up on leftovers to take home with us : D Yay for lunch tomorrow!

 

 

Tonight was a really nice reminder of why I'm here. I've been so caught up in the hectic orientation and then rushing into classes and feeling lost that it's been hard to really enjoy veterinary school. The island is lovely. The school is wonderful. My classmates are awesome. The coursework will get better with time. I have worked so hard to get here and although the next four years are going to be insanely difficult, they are also going to be a lot of fun and I am going to really enjoy learning veterinary material. I am definitely glad to be here and wouldn't trade it for the world!

Anatomy

I can already tell anatomy is going to be my killer class. After 2 labs and 1 lecture, I already feel so lost. Maybe it's because I've never had any sort of anatomy class before, maybe it's just because I'm not particularly good at stuff like this. Who knows. It's really frustrating though. It seems like everyone else is easily running through everything and I still busy trying to remember the very basics. They're going through the individual parts of each bone and I'm still trying to keep my directions straight!

Dr. Pasquini seems like an awesome teacher, but he tends to bounce all over the place when he's presenting slides. We also don't have the ppts online or in print which makes things 10x harder because I'm trying to write down the key things on the slide AND what he's saying about them. I've asked for a copy, hopefully that will help!

I'm sure it will all get better as we go along, it's just really discouraging right now because I feel like I don't even know where to begin studying! Lecture 2 is this afternoon, we'll see how that goes!

DVM Degree Day 1

Today was the first day of classes at SGU. I thought classes started at 8am until last night, so I got a surprise extra hour (which I of course spent sleeping haha).

Woke up and went to anatomy lab this morning. We sat at (cold) anatomy tables in groups of 4. Dr. Pasquini handed out a lot of paper and then we got started. One of the packets we received is 60 pages and we have to know 43 of them by next wednesday for a quiz. Yikes!!!

Anatomy lab was pretty overwhelming, I'm not sure I'm ready for this! Eek! There is so much to learn and know. Towards the end of class, we were given skeletons to play with and learn the basic structures.

Next part of the day was lunch and getting my heavy textbook package. It was all very heavy and we're still missing 2 books!

The rest of the afternoon was in the classroom. Histology/embryology, physiology, and more anatomy. Mostly just syllabus work except for anatomy. Dr. Pasquini is going to do an excellent job at keeping us awake in class and teaching us!

Now it's time to get started on that large anatomy packet, yikes!

Taxis

The best way to get around the island is to take a taxi. The first time I heard this, I thought yikes! There are also buses that go to a limited number of places from the school and other buses around the island. On Friday night I found myself needing to get back to the university from off campus. Despite being terrified, I made my first trip in a taxi. At night. In the dark. Gulp!

It turns out I need not worry, taxis in Grenada are completely different than what I imagine they are like in the US. They are not sketchy and the drivers are quite friendly! The person who picked me up and brought me home was quite pleasant and took me straight back to the university. He also charged me very little despite the long distance. After such a long and stressful day, it was a good way for it to end (by ending well).

Today I again had need for a taxi service. By now I have the names and phone numbers for 11 different drivers whom people really like and trust. If I keep going, I'll be able to write my own phone book soon! The service I was with today was also polite and friendly and did exactly what was needed. It was a bit more expensive, but I still thought it was quite reasonable considering the distance.

The moral of this story is really just a continuation of my point that Grenadian people are very nice, friendly, and pleasant to interact with. I am constantly reminded that I am not in the US anymore, but usually it is in a good way. Now, since classes start tomorrow, it is time to sleep!

Grenadian Groceries

I finally made it to the grocery store today! I had some free time after orientation before the first term barbeque so I actually have food now! Yay!

I took the bus for the first time from campus to the grocery store. There is a bus stop on campus and then a bus stop across from the shopping center where the grocery store is located. The buses are 30 passenger vehicles and are charming in their own way. Some time I'll have to remember to take a picture.

So I was expecting the grocery store to be small and stocked with all sorts of brands I had never heard of. I expected things to be limited and feel like I was going to eat very little this semester. I WAS WRONG!!

The grocery store was fairly large (a little smaller than the Blacksburg Food Lion) and FULL of American brands!! I was so surprised! Campbells soup, Jell-o, Heinz, Birdseye, Tropicana, Yoplait, Activia, Stouffers, etc. I am not going to starve due to lack of appetizing food over the next three years, I am so happy. Starving due to lack of time is still a possibility though haha.The best part? THEY CARRY MY SHAMPOO!!!! I don't have to switch brands down here or bring 9lbs of shampoo with me every semester! (I only brought 3lbs this time).

I now have plenty of food to get me through the next several days/week-yay! The next step will be to thoroughly clean the kitchen so I can put everything away on the shelves (it's pretty dusty and grimy in here). Our kitchen is reasonably stocked supplies-wise. I bought a pot today so that I can actually cook. All in all it cost about $380 EC which roughly translates to $142 US. Not too bad for a first time trip to the store to stock a completely empty kitchen.

In other news, I did laundry for the first time tonight. It's free :) There are 2 laundry rooms per floor and each has a washer and dryer. They are only available Friday 4:30pm-Monday 7:00am. They are average washer and dryer sets. There is usually fierce competition for them but I think everyone either doesn't know the restrictions yet or is too busy enjoying their down time haha. The grocery store also stocks name brand detergents :)

Learning Experiences

Things I learned today:

-As much as society likes to joke about how addicted to technology we are, i dare you to try and have little to none in an emergency. As it turns out, not having resources can make things substantially more difficult. So, next time you travel to a foreign country, make getting a cell phone your #1 priority. You might be surprised at how handy it is, especially when things go wrong. Next time I travel I plan to 1. step off the plane, 2. make sure i have a phone (international or local), 3. go about the rest of my business.

-You can't solve it all by yourself, especially when you're unaccustomed to how things work. It also pays to know people with connections who can help you and get you the help you need.

-My classmates are awesome. Even though I haven't had much time to meet them, I think we are going to have a great 3 years together :)

-Taxis in Grenada are likely nothing like they are in the US. They are safe, friendly, reliable, and a very pleasant experience. Even if it's after dark and you're scared out of your mind (which turns out not to be necessary).

-Medicine in the US is *nothing* like medicine in a third world country. The care is still excellent but it's very different (although the horror stories of needle reuse and unhygenic/unsterile practices do not appear to be true-thankfully!)

Special shout out to our RA, the professors, the university staff, the orientation leaders, the island hospital, and anyone else involved with today. You are amazing and I am very grateful for everything you did for us today!

Hiking and Orientation

We were up way too early for a hike this morning. 8:30a came way too quickly since we are all still sleep deprived, but it was well worth it. Our bus drove us through a large portion of Grenada and it was fascinating to see the surrounding area since all I have seen so far is a small portion of campus and the airport. The island is beautiful and really looks nothing like the US.

(St. George-capital)

The hike we went on led us to a fabulous overlook of the island! It was a lot of uphill travel (really steep uphill too!) but it wasn't very far and we passed a pretty lake (with fish!) on our way up. It was also pretty muddy at a couple of points, but not too bad over all. Unfortunately we didn't see any monkeys :( but I guess that is really good incentive to come back and do it again! We also saw a lot of beautiful trees and flowers the whole trip too.

After we finished the hike, we got back on the buses and drove to the waterfall. We learned a lot about the surrounding area during our ride which was really neat. The waterfall was very pretty and if we had had more time, I totally would have gone for a swim! There is an organization called the Annandale Jumpers Association and it is a group of men who jump off the waterfall from crazy heights to make money for their families. They literally do it all day every day and visitors leave a couple dollar (US or EC) donation for watching the spectacle! We had a great time but unfortunately had to rush back for orientation sessions.

On our way back to campus, we drove through St. George, the capital city. The driving here is crazy! The roads are really narrow, not in great shape, and the people drive like nutcases! In addition, they honk at each other to say hi. It's very refreshing to know that a horn is being used for something other than yelling at people. When we finally made it back to campus, we were a little late for our first orientation session-oops! Oh well, it was exhausting and torturous, I don't think we missed much! 

Food here has been a bit of an issue so far. It tastes great, but the availability is extremely limited! We are very limited in the amount of time we have during the day (an hour at most between sessions, but often much less) and have no food in our room yet :( I am also beginning to think that the next available time to go grocery shopping is going to be Sunday if we're lucky but most likely not until Monday or Tuesday after class. Ugh. At least there are a couple of shops to buy food from on campus, otherwise we'd likely starve to death!

I promise to upload more pictures to Facebook soon, but I am absolutely exhausted and time is very limited currently. I'll leave you with a picture of part of campus from atop the hill! Good night!

Grenadian Currency

The money here is so pretty! It's multi-colored and has fish, turtles, and an assortment of other things on it. Buying things here is a little disorienting because it is $2.67 EC for every $1.00 US. For instance, a bagel with butter was $5 EC, our sandwiches for lunch were $13.49 EC, and dinner was $16 EC. Seems a lot more expensive until you do the conversion!

We can pay for things in US dollars but we get EC back. I'll be building up my collection over the next several months I'm sure. It was fun using foreign currency for the first time this afternoon. Continues to help make it all real!

Grenadian money:

Day 2 of the Grenadian Adventure

Woke up this morning to some weird phantom beeping from the microwave after not nearly enough hours of sleep. I gave the microwave a smug grin when I switched the circuit breaker off. For some reason, the clock I brought with me isn't holding time. It's currently 30 minutes behind after I reset it this morning. So much for an alarm clock!

The dorm room looks a lot better with sunshine and rest. The AC unit still drips and the bathroom ceiling is still soaked, but I think with some solid cleaning things will look a lot better.

The bed was quite comfy which was awesome. I was definitely concerned about that before we arrived since I can be very picky.

There is currently a red-throated bird flying in the tree outside our window. He occasionally stops and lands on the window to look in on us. Yay tropical creatures!

Getting the internet to work on our computers was a chore! I had way too many windows updates to install before the SGU software would run on my computer :( In addition to that, I could not remember my account password-oops! Clearly the issues have been resolved (thankfully!) since I'm now posting online :)

Well, we have lots of Grenadian history, policies, and procedures to learn about in sessions this afternoon along with a veterinary professionalism seminar this evening. Guess we should get heading off to those soon!

In Grenada-Finally!

Well I finally made it to Grenada today! The travel was…interesting, to say the least. The island seems very tropical from what I’ve seen in the dark so far (which isn’t much because the airport is 2 miles from campus), and the Grenadian people have been very welcoming to us.

I started the day with a mid-morning flight out of Reagan National Airport. What a nice little airport! It wasn’t the hectic, crazy mess I expected it to be (in fact it was quite the opposite!). My luggage weighed in fine (thanks to a tad bit of help from an incorrectly zero’d scale) and I even ended up offloading a couple of carryon items before giving it all up. After a teary goodbye, I made my way easily through security (although I didn’t realize that I had to run each laptop separately through so I got a few pointed looks!) and to the gate. I didn’t have to wait too long before boarding and free wifi helped pass the time. We boarded easily, had an uneventful flight, and landed in Miami earlier than I had anticipated! And the weather was beautiful.

The Miami airport is a little bit busier and larger haha. Getting to my gate was pretty simple though, thanks to their sky train. I met up with my roommate at the gate, and after a brief reunion, we headed off in search of lunch. Last time we’ll have American fast food for 4 months! Wow! As we ate lunch and passed time waiting to board our next flight to Grenada, storm clouds rolled in, took over the skies, and let loose! I was not happy about that haha. It took them a long time to board our flight (which ended up being a good thing sadly). Because of the thunderstorms, they had to clear all personnel from loading luggage. All in all, storms delayed us a little over 2 hours. Our next delay was having to dump 4 people from the flight because we were overweight. A flight packed full of students required  to be on campus tomorrow made finding people willing to leave difficult. Finally they were able to get 4 volunteers, and 2 hours and 50 mins after our scheduled departure, we took off.

The ride was a little bumpy but not too bad. I was really anxious the whole time for some reason so I didn’t really enjoy the flight much. Thankfully I managed a few naps to help pass the time.

We landed just before 10:30p in Grenada. The location of the airport on the island was really deceptive. You can see coast line out the window but the plane feels (and is) much closer to the ground/water than you think it should be because there is a peninsula that just out that you can’t see. We had time to glance out the window and se bushes before we hit the ground. It was a surprise!

Off loading and going through immigration was asy, just a little time consuming due to lines. The workers were very ready for us though, so the process was pretty quick. Next came luggage retrieval. It took me a long time to find my bags-I was pretty convinced they were lost  for while :(. After we finally had our bags, we entered a VERY long line to go through customs to declare our laptops. It moved very slowly and was frustrating. It was tough to remember that the airport personnel didn’t want to be there at 11p any more than we did.

We finally made it through customs at 12:30a, found our ride to campus, got our room assignments, and checked in. The driving down here is pretty crazy! They drive really fast on small, narrow roads!

The housing currently leaves a lot to be desired. It’s no New Hall West by any stretch of the imagination. It certainly isn’t the brand new housing I thought we were getting either. I’ll have to inquire about that. The room is small and doesn’t quite live up to my standard of clean, but the AC was running full blast and felt AWESOME after being hot and sweaty for 2 hours.

Tomorrow will be an early morning and I am not much looking forward to going on 5.5 hours of sleep. Hopefully there will be some down time for a nap, I think we’ll both need it!

Good night world! Did i mention that the AC works so well here that tonight I will be sleeping under 2 plush blankets and with socks, PJ pants, and a fleece sweatshirt on? Haha

Packing Complete

All of my packing is finally finished. I have about 150lbs worth of things to bring with me to Grenada. Having a larger carry on bag was substantially more useful but it was still tough to meet the 50lb limits for each large bag. I ended up trading my shampoo/conditioner for a bath mat, pair of shoes, a pair of scrubs, and a towel. Hopefully it proves worth it!

I am a little bit apprehensive about making such a big trip, but I am 100% sure that the outcome will be worth it. I have worked very hard for many years to finally be where I am today and I very much look forward to beginning the journey that will continue to take me where I want to go in life. A lot of sacrifices have been made but hopefully when I look back on them, they will continue to seem worth it.

I will most of all miss my piggy. She has pretty much been with me every day since I brought her home 2 years ago. I am very sad that she will not be making the trip with me, but I know that it is a sacrifice that is being made for her well being. I hope she is not too lonely without me; I know the food will still remain plentiful so she won't starve! I wish I could explain to her what is happening, I worry that she will feel abandoned. Hopefully that is just me anthropomorphizing though. She is sitting here next to me-little does she know that as soon as I finish here, I have vowed to eat a peach and share it :) She will be quite thrilled.

Here's to what will hopefully be a smooth trip, a quick transition, a lot of fun, and hopefully as few tears as possible!

Packing Crisis Averted! (I Think!)

It seems my weight issue has been solved and the only thing I have to leave behind is shampoo and conditioner. Guess I'll just have to find something else that smells citrus-y awesome in Grenada!

The biggest problem was that my carry on bag was too small to live up to its potential. Weighing in at under 20lbs when full with a 40lb allowance just wasn't good enough, so we headed off this morning to find something a little bit larger that was still a backpack (that way all of my luggage was manageable when I had all of it together).

I started the day with something like this:

And found something much better!

I am nearly finished with packing and hope that I have hit the last of my snags! In less than 24 hours, I will be on an airplane headed to Miami where I will then connect to Grenada! So exciting! 

Weight Issues

No amount of organization or fabulous packing skills can prepare you to tackle a suitcase with weight problems. To move to Grenada, I can bring a total of 4 bags on the airplane. Two pieces of checked luggage (50lbs per bag with $100 fee for bags 50-75lbs), a personal item, and a carry on (40lbs). I essentially have to stuff my life into 150 lbs or less. Easy, right? No not at all!!!

I already cut to the minimum when I was packing originally, how the heck am I supposed to cut more?! My dad has plenty of ideas for me but I'm not quite willing to listen yet. After all, I still have over 24 hours to fix this problem!

What I need is a moderate sized carry on bag, because I have plenty of weight "room" left in there. Grr for bags being too small and there being size limits. 45" total for dimensions is not quite as large as I imagined.

Also, forget invisibility. What we really need to invent are anti-gravity suitcases. Space is not an issue in my bags. Think of all of the good things that could be achieved with anti-gravity suitcases! There would be no more excuses for leaving suitcases at an airport by the planes, I certainly wouldn't have packing issues, life would be good. So engineers get working on this please!

Well I guess I had better get back to trying to make magic happen. I'll let you know how that goes! (although I think you can already take a guess haha)

Packing Update

Okay so I did look at my suitcases today : D And instead of playing with Lance, I attacked him with a hairbrush. It's tough being a collie sometimes!

My progress for today has been making an inventory list of everything in my suitcases so far. It's a long list! Have I mentioned how much I love OneNote? I plan on having a general inventory list and then lists broken down by suitcase (#1 or #2), carry on, and personal item. Beware American Airlines, I am ready to take on your luggage handling! For my sanity, I *really* hope they don't leave my luggage in Miami on Tuesday. I will be rather upset even though I am well prepared for that crisis.

Things I Could Do Instead Of Packing

Things I could do instead of packing:

• Take a nap
• Read a book
• Watch a movie
• Play with Lance
• Play with Penny
• Go shopping
• Play a game
• Watch a show
• Talk on the phone
• Watch the fish swim
• Paint my toes
• Go to the pool
• Return my library books
• Stare at my computer screen

Gosh I'm so lucky to have all of these alternatives to packing! The only question now is which one do I pick first ;)

The Packing Begins...Sort Of

So I started packing today. I've been idly tossing things into one of the suitcases for a couple of weeks now, stuff that I never use (scrubs, shoes, sheets, etc). Today I made a little more effort to pull stuff out and put it in there. I dumped it all on my parents bed (hehe) with the best of intentions to inventory and organize it all, but I didn't really make it past 50% of my school supplies. Oopsies : D

When it comes to cleaning and organizing, I am easily overwhelmed. Case in point: my room and college stuff. Never really made it through all of that stuff despite my best intentions and efforts. Oh well, guess it's not really an issue anymore!

I was at least kind enough to remove all of my stuff from my parents bed so that they have some place to sleep tonight. Aren't I nice? (okay the real reason it was on their bed is because their room is HUGE and that's where the suitcases have been living-and admittedly, there is no space in my room for it all haha).

Pictures of the stuff in my suitcases:

Work and Packing...

My last night of work is tonight :(. I have really enjoyed working with everyone and we've had quite a bit of fun together over the last 9 weeks! I will admit that I am looking forward to sleeping when it's dark out again (although the cloudy, rainy day we had today was a pretty close second to that!) even though I really enjoyed working at night (12a-8a).

If work is done, I think that means I should actually start packing. More than just the idle tossing of things into the suitcases that I've been doing. I have to say the suitcases looked GIGANTIC! until I started putting things in them : D! Now I am back to wondering how I am fitting my life (and just the bare minimum at that!) into two 50lb suitcases, a 40lb carry on and a personal item. Especially when they apparently have a tendency to "lose" luggage (meaning that you had best bring several days worth of necessities with you in your carry on)! It's not lost so much as stuck at the previous airport because the plane can't handle the weight of all the students and their bags due to size. I have my fingers, toes, and everything else crossed that this doesn't happen to me.

Time to enjoy my last evening of not packing!

Hello!

Hello Everyone!

Hopefully this will be a good way for my friends and family to keep up with all that is happening in my life over the next four years while I am in vet school!

St. George's University is located on the beautiful island of Grenada in the West Indies sort of near the coast of Venezuela (Map). The school has programs for medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, business, some undergrad science and basic degrees as well as a handful of master's programs. Students who attend the DVM program (like me!) spend 6 semesters/3 years on the island for basic clinical science classes (think anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, radiology, medicine, etc) and then spend a 4th year at one of the school's clinical affiliates (US and around the world). 

I chose to attend SGU's SVM after a long and exhaustive application and decision process this spring. Myself and approximately 80 other classmates will begin our first term as vet students on August 15th-coming soon! We have a multiday orientation occuring before classes begin and then we're off to the races!

I'll try to update frequently since communication is pretty much limited to computers only to and from the US (at $2.00 a minute, it didn't seem worth while to keep my US cell phone!). Time for me to become well versed at skype, google chat, google+, facebook, instant messanger, and email (thankfully I already have the hang of the last 3!)-yikes!

Till next time!