Pale Person Versus the Sun

So Grenadian weather held up and motivation kicked in and I went to the beach! Just on campus of course, but I had a really great time! Unfortunately, I am incredibly pale (I'm pretty sure all the time in the sun wouldn't change this fact, I barely color even when I burn) and thus my carried away time spent outdoors has led to a rather nice sunburn on my back. If only I could find the sky as fun to look at as the ocean floor! Then perhaps I'd have a chance at an even burn! Oh well! We'll find out what the extent of the damage is over the next few days. Yikes!!

Anyhow, lots of swimming, lots of fish, found a new place to explore and swim, and even swam way out by myself! Don't worry, it's incredibly shallow and about 99% of it was under 3-4ft deep.

And, just to make you jealous, here are some pictures! But don't be too jealous, my back is pretty darn red and sore!

The "Dry" Season

The fall semester is supposed to be the rainy season and the spring semester is supposed to be the dry season. And I'm pretty sure it rains in the mountains/rainforest continuously, because it seems like every time I look out that way, they look grey and rainy.

It rained a fair amount last semester. Mostly over night, and then had a habit of being grey and cloudy on the weekends. So far it seems to have rained at least as much, if not more this semester. The locals and upper term students keep reassuring us this is unusual. That the farmers are usually really suffering in the spring. I like listening to the rain when I'm studying in my room, but I really wish that it would stay nice and sunny out during the day (unless I have a test I should be studying for instead). It is impeding any fleeting chances I have to swim and do things outside! I'm already so busy and pretty lazy, adding the rain into the mix pretty much guarantees that I curl up in bed and read/nap/play games instead of getting out of this little room to enjoy some fresh air! Hopefully I will be able to go to the beach tomorrow between classes, because I'd really like to get some exploring and swimming in!

2 More Months!

Today marks 2 months left! 2 months from today I will spend the entire day in airports and on airplanes (and probably sleeping the whole way!). I hope they go pretty quickly, I am so excited to go home, start my summer internship, see my family and friends, and most of all see my piggy Penny! In 2 months, I will get to see those piggy toes and that piggy nose and while she'll be resentful and annoyed with me initially, she'll be super duper thrilled to get all the cuddles, snuggles, kisses, and hugs that come her way. I miss her!

In less than 2 months, I will be done with my first year of veterinary school! Woah. Then it is two more years in Grenada and another year in the states to go. This seems pretty crazy. In one year's time I will have covered all of veterinary anatomy, physiology, histology, embryology, nutrition, immunology, bacteriology/mycology, half of pharmacology, some radiology, a ton of clinical skills, and a bunch of other stuff. Wow, doesn't seem possible. That's one quarter of what it takes to earn a DVM, and one third of what it takes to get through the pre-clinical material.

However, before we get carried away thinking about the future, I think I'll settle for knowing that I will be united with my little love in 61 days!

Sleeping

Today was a truly lazy day. Last night was the first time I managed to actually forget to set my alarm, so I woke up in time to miss my first class (oops!). Then I went to pharmacology, but left after that because it was just bacteriology (not like I pay attention anyway!) and then we had a blank hour for once.

I came home and did some work on my worksheet for a DES physiology session I facilitate for term 1 on Tuesday nights and then took a "short" nap. It was supposed to last an hour. I woke up 5 hours later...oops! Means I missed anatomy lab. Oh well. It happens (though I actually enjoy lab these days so I was kind of disappointed, plus I got to play with the brain yesterday-my absolute favorite organ!!).

I did get a reasonable amount done this evening, but I would have preferred to just go back to sleep!! Which is what I intend to do now : D.

Where's My Water and Feisty Malinois

Sorry for no post yesterday, I got home from a shift at the small animal clinic way too late to be blogging and not sleeping!

Remember that water problem I mentioned the other day? Yeah, turns out it's still an issue. How I found out this time? As I was scrubbing shampoo in my hair, the water pressure took a nice dip from its already crummy normal state. Just a nice drippy drip for me to frantically wash all the soap out with. I guess I'm lucky because I didn't lose it completely-that would have really been a disaster!! And yeah, yeah, 3rd world country blah blah blah. But I am pay over $1000 USD a month to live on campus, and although I've had a lot of showers here up to this point, and have not had it die in the middle. It's one thing if I know before I get in that there is no water, the water is only cold, or that it's trickling, it is quite another to be sneak attacked. That is just not cool. That will teach me to delay during the day!

My other story consists of being beaten around by a feisty dog at the clinic last night. He was a rather large dog with some anxiety issues and required at least two people every time he was dealt with. I am at a stage in my veterinary skills where I feel more comfortable being the restrainer, not because I don't know what to do, but because I know that I am going to have a good grip on the animal to keep both of us safe. I'd much rather guide a less experienced person through something while holding than do it myself and risk us both (if it's possible-sometimes whatever needs done needs someone who has done the procedure before and is a little more complicated than just explaining). Anyhow, big, strong, anxious dog equals lots of involved restraint and apparently leads to me coming home with a gazillion sore muscles. Seriously, did not realize I took quite a beating last night over the 7 hours but my body certainly feels differently!!

A Walk in the Rain

Quaint as it sounds, the walk in the rain really wasn't by choice today! I'm glad we had plans to go to town, because it would have been a miserable beach day! And by miserable, I mean it pretty much rained the entire day in Grenada. Can you believe it's supposedly the dry season? Yeah neither can I! I'm pretty sure I've seen more rain this semester than last semester when it was the rainy season. Either that or I just don't remember last semester very well!

I'll start with the dorm's water problems. Thursday night at about 1:30am, to the dismay of myself and my roommates, we discovered we had no water. None. Nothing sputtered out of the faucets, the toilet wouldn't flush (not enough water to drain the bowl even!). Not what I really wanted to add to the stress of having a pharmacology midterm the next day, but security assured us that the problem was being attended to and water would be back by 5:30-6:00am. They held true to their word and I had water the next morning. Yay! What wasn't so yay was the email we received later about laundry being closed until 5p on Saturday, but what can ya do? So I was very surprised to then to wake up this morning, turn on the shower water, and receive no more than a hard trickle. Vet roomie was just as pleased as we stared trying to figure out how we were going to make showers happen for both of us. Luckily she still has half a brain after this week and suggested turning the water off when not immediately using it to rinse. Smart cookie! Exams really are a terrible thing! When we left for town an hour or so later, the water was still absent (it was completely gone at that point), however it seems to be in good working order this evening.

We wandered into town this afternoon via the usual bus route (True Blue to Grand Anse, reggae to St. George) and had to dodge the rain along the way. Luckily the "mall" is indoors, and once you make it to the spice market, it is pretty well covered by vender umbrellas so we weren't stuck in the rain for too long. My roommate did some fun shopping for herself while we browsed, and then we headed to the spice market for some goodies. I bought some more spice necklaces (they're neat looking and they of course smell awesome) and a small bottle of black wine as a gift for my mother. It tasted awesome when I tried it last term, and the painting on the bottle was absolutely stunning. My roommate bought a pretty spice basket for her mother, some guava candy (yummy!), a small sample of nutmeg syrup, a bottle of black wine for herself (have I mentioned that the wine is homemade and the bottles are hand painted?), and a bottle of nutmeg banana ketchup. Yes, you read that correctly, nutmeg banana ketchup. And yes, it literally contains nutmeg, bananas, and ketchup! If anyone will like it, it is going to be her because she loves putting sauces (BBQ, honey, tomato ketchup) on foods. Props to her for being brave enough to try it! She thinks it smells like A1 sauce and said it had an interesting taste but was pretty good. I am sort of skeptical and wasn't up for being adventurous when we got home. I'll let you know at a later date. We made it back to the bus terminal only a little damp as we dodged down pours and got back to campus in one piece. Today's excitement only included my roommate having to pretend to be engaged, and us having to smile and nod at the men who called out compliments. No threats of arrest this time! We didn't take any pictures because of the rain, so no fun memos to share from the trip-but I do have a couple of our souvenirs and a neat lizard we passed on campus.

I spent the rest of the day lounging around my room and then watching movies with my roommate. It continued to rain and was a perfect day to be lazy (or to study if you're a med student with midterm exams this week).

Glad That's Over!

I decided to spare you 7 long days of whining and complaining about having to study and take exams! It was a very long week full of bacteria, fungi, drugs, horse bits, horse facts, immunology, and physiology. I am very much looking forward to a couple days of mental vacation-no spring break for us :-/.

I didn't stick around to find out how badly pharmacology went this afternoon, but other than that exams went well. So many late nights, not nearly enough sleep, and way too many facts to memorize. The hardest part of veterinary school is coping with the enormous volume of material thrown at us all the time. It often feels like I'm nearly drowning, I have so much to do.

This weekend will be spent sleeping and enjoying myself! Tomorrow we're planning on going to town to shop and explore. Hopefully on Sunday we'll get some quality beach time in. This is iffy mainly because the weather has been cloudy and rainy lately. So we'll see. We can always just go snorkeling on campus of course, but it would be nice to actually go the the beach for once!

Tonight we started off by having a celebratory dinner at my favorite island restaurant, Dodgy Dock. The food was yummy and we watched it rain under our canopy for a little bit. At the end, they also had live music and dancing. A ballroom dance group comes and couples take turns and the diners are invited to enjoy themselves too. Lots of fun! The vocalists had lovely voices and the dancers were very talented!

(sorry these aren't very high quality!)

Now it is time for a nice long good night's sleep! I am so very glad we do not participate in daylight savings time this weekend, no lost hour for us!! In addition, I will also soon be back on eastern US time (it'll make things a little easier for communicating back home!).