prospective apartment

ack, it is already time to try and find housing for next term. Only undergrad first termers live on campus and everyone else is put into a lottery. Most have to find off campus housing so it is advised that we find it before the big rush after midterms in (in a week). I have found an apartment but it is off the beaten path. I'm wondering if it would be social enough to have my own apartment off on my own. Mom, here are some picts? What do y'all think?
the view from the unit balcony

the bathroom

desk and dresser

view from patio

patio

view of the room, you can request one bed get taken out if you want..

fridge/stove

kitchen

back entrance way w. security lights

view of the front of the unit

pool

at last

last quiz is done and now i have a normal schedule until midterms start on March 10. I think it went alright, there were a couple of questions that i had it narrowed down to one option or the other. I got my anatomy quiz back yesterday and was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I think I got one of the highest marks in the class:) . and now I am going to take a nap to reclaim all that sleep I've been missing... Maybe I can finally get some beach time in before genetics class this afternoon...

zzzzzz..........

Another day of studying... it's amazing how much effort it takes to get started but how much better you feel once you've got it done. Biochemistry and I may become friends after all;) Spent the day in my room with fig. Took a couple of breaks to venture outside and get some fresh air/ get some contact with others. So far I've been able to avoid a coffee addiction but many more weeks like the past one and this may change. Sundays in Grenada are so unbelievable quiet. Pretty much all of the shops are closed except for the grocery store and everyone goes to church in the morning so there is no traffic on the roads and the stores are all closed up. The week looks like it'll be a little bit more under control then the last. I only have the one quiz for biochem on tuesday and an english paper due for friday. At least this way I should be able to manage some time to catch up on notes/readings i've been missing due to all this extra studying and get some more fun in! I'm going with a bunch of friends to fish friday this week. It's supposed to be a great time with a street full of vendors selling fresh fish for less expensive and lots of music. Essentially a big party in the street. Looking forward to that and some time at the beach this week!!

A fantastic relaxing day at Paradise Bay

Just got back from one of the best days yet. Went with some of my friends from class, christina, jody, and louise with a big group of vet and med kids to the paradise bay resort for the day. We were spoiled rotten with amazing food and lots of fun activities. The day started off bright and early with a reggae bus ride from campus at 8:00 to the resort. The bus took us about 45 minutes away to the parish of St. David and the roads were some of the steepest I've seen yet. Once we arrived, we met our host, a Mr. James Post who runs the entire resort after coming here from Holland. We had a yummy midmorning snack and then decided to go to the beach. There are several beaches around the resort with about a 15 min walk in between each of them. The view was breathtaking and being on the more exposed side of the island the waves were HUGE.

View of the beach from the resort

Looking up a set of stairs at the resort -reminded me of those pictures you see of Greece..

Christina, Louise and I

enjoying the sun!

We spent a couple of hours on the beach playing in the waves (they must have been at least 7 feet tall) and got thoroughly drenched and full of sand. I've never been in waves this big and it's surprising how strong they are. If you are in the breaking zone they will drag you under and spin you around like you're in a huge washing machine! I also found it was hard to judge once you were further out if you could clear the wave and go over the swell or if it was going to break and you should go under it -lots of fun!!
The beach we spent the morning on

MIke faces the wave head on, he's about 5'7 so it was a big wave!


Louise and I

Limin at the tiki bar


Right before lunch, we were given full body massages. I've never had a professional massage before but it was really nice -very relaxing. The massage house is a little bamboo hut right overtop of the surge line so you have a whole view of the ocean and through the bamboo floor you can see the waves underneath -very cool! The funniest thing happened at the start. The table had a loose string so when I was told to hop on the massage bed, the whole thing collapsed. It's a good thing those beds are so padded or I might have been a bit sore today:) The table was quickly replaced and luckily the second one was a bit sturdier.
Lunch was delicious -pumpkin soup followed by chicken curry with rice. Desert was a nutmeg flam (nutmeg jello like thing that looked like an upside down cupcake. It tasted good but had a very bizarre texture -of course being with a bunch of med students we decided that it felt like dissecting certain tissues to cut into it and it quickly became unappetizing.
yummy pumpkin soup appetizer for lunch

In the afternoon, James took us out in groups of four to the Mt Caramel falls. The only reason I felt relatively safe riding in his car was that I knew he was from Holland and they know how to drive over there.**whenever I meet someone from Holland I think of Dr. Denooy and how he drives -efficient but darn quick! We got to the falls in record time and met a very odd little old man. Mom and Dad went to these falls when they were here and I remember them talking about this odd little old guy. But this little old man sits at the head of the trail and asks for "donations" of rum which he drinks like water -very interesting.
Mt Caramel falls


The whole group shot:

one more to go

And so the week is done and I have had exams in all of my classes but in biochemistry. I haven't gotten the marks back yet but I am pretty sure that I did well on both nutrition and anatomy. Midterms are coming up on March 10, so if I stay on top of things we do in class, it shouldn't be too hard to study for them. Now if only I can get biochemistry understood, I would feel a lot more optimistic...
On another note, i've started checking into some summer plans... The small animal clinic here hires students over the summer to work in the clinic. They don't pay very much but the advantage is that you can get to know the clinic and everyone that works there ahead of having to be involved in it with classes etc. As well, there is no requirement to be a Technician down here so they can teach all of the students how to be a tech -they even have a library and let us study on the job. I met with a Mrs. Jessianne Fullerton to discuss it and she was saying that I can just let her know when and how long I would like to work and that should be possible. It might be nice to work here for the experience and then go home for a bit to make a bit more money. We'll have to see...

I am small, the world is big but I am not afraid of anything

I am feeling a little valedictorious. Wrote my first exam in 6 months in genetics (one of my weakest subjects) and did really well. I won't know the exact mark until this afternoon but the way the testing works here is if you stay until the very end of the exam, the prof will distribute the answer key, you can check your answers and challenge any questions you think were unfair. She'll go through all the challenged questions and pull any that everyone had a lot of trouble with and everyone's overall mark should improve. :) Now on to round two -studying nutrition and anatomy.
Last night was kind of fun, I went down the street to a friends ( Louise from Ireland). She lives in what we call the round houses (small shops on the bottom with apartments overhead.) Her place is really cute and excitingly, she not only has cable but just bought to lazy boy type reclining chairs -score!! We did a bit of studying and then decided we were bored and in need of an adventure. We hopped the school bus over to Jody's house near campus and walked the entire way back to my dorm with a big group of people. Then we took a reggae bus into St. Georges and back. It was fun to see everything at night and definitely an experience to see all the locals on the street corners without all the cruise ship tourists around. One of the most limiting things about this country I am finding is the fact that I can't just go out on my own at night. As much fun as it is to go with a big group everywhere it takes a bit of getting used to not to just run out the door to go somewhere whenever you want. Everything must be planned ahead of time...
Plan for the rest of the day: some studying, anatomy lab -more dissection tonight and not sure what after that?!

good luck to me:)

Got up early this morning to get a start on my school work. School just kicked up a notch this week and I have exams in genetics (tuesday) nutrition (thursday) and anatomy (friday) with a paper due in english on friday and an exam in biochem next tuesday. So much studying to do! Luckily I wrote most of my english paper this weekend and with moms superior editing I think that is mostly under control. Spent the evening studying with Christina and her friend Noah. It was a really nice time, we had cake and coffee at christina's dorm -different setup with each kid having their own bedroom and communal cooking/bathrooms. Noah is really interesting because he is from Africa and has 53 siblings (1 dad and several moms) and it was interesting talking with him about that kind of family dynamic. I am super excited for this weekend because Christina has organized a spa day for saturday and a couple of my girlfriends from school and I will get a shuttle bus to a resort nearby where we will get three scrumptious meals and a full body massage. There is also and option of sea kyaking? Can't wait!! Now I just need to rock my genetics exam tomorrow...

lol

while doing research for this paper.. the best email addy ever:
for the canadian council on animal care
ccac@ccac.ca

and now it is late so goodnight...

Sunday February 17/08

I'm always amazed at sundays on the island. A lot of people are quite religious here and so pretty much everything is closed today. It's a pretty big change going from home where you have things like walmart open 24 hrs a day. Not that I am complaining... pretty much there is nothing to do except study or hit the beach and when everyone else is studying you do too. As a result today was not that exciting... it was actually kind of a long day. Spent the majority of it studying for my first exam in genetics and tried to get a head start on my english paper -argumentative essay on whether animal testing is relevant today ethically. It's been a surprisingly difficult paper to write. I got the topic on thursday and thought for sure I could just write that of course we need it, but it's ripping at my soul to see some of these pictures... and that's without looking at the PETA website. Tomorrow is a really light day class wise so I should have lots of time to get more studying done but definitely I will need to get out of this room because spending a weekend holed up in one room is not healthy:) I did take a couple of good study breaks today... the mph kids (or masters of public health program) started to move in today which has caused a bit of drama because some kids who thought they were getting a single room now have room mates. Anthony and Cory are the first two that I've met. I'm excited because it means there is an influx of new people to get to know and assimilate into the Grand Anse family. The whole campus has been eerily quiet today.. I think every single program has exams early this week so everyone is keeping to themselves... I can only imagine what this Friday night is going to be like with everyone trying to unwind. In other news, Figaro has acquired a girlfriend. She appeared last week and woke me up in the middle of the night with her calling. So the routine now is that she'll show up several times in the evening, gives a couple quick chirps, Fig runs out the door to meet her and they sit and stare at one another for five or more minutes. Then she leaves and the whole thing is repeated later -it's pretty funny and kind of cute. I've made a really good friend today too -Melanie is a first term vet student who believe it or not is from Edmonton! It is so exciting to meet a girl from home that shares so much in common. Also exciting is the fact that she just got a puppy on valentines (the local dogs are called pothounds and there were four or so puppies needing immediate placement in homes). I'll have to try and get a picture to post but Tobra is the cutest puppy I've seen a long time at five weeks:) Definitely the best study break ever to run over there and get my puppy fix. I really miss Gromit so this helps a bit.

weekend recap...

So this weekend has been pretty quiet compared to the last couple. On thursday (start of the caribbean weekend:) ) I went to a Bollywood movie with some friends from the dorm. The movie was put on by the Indian student association at school. It was pretty cool to go to something like that with people who knew all the behind the scene cultural info on what was going on. The movie itself was really long (almost 3 hrs) with a short 2 min scenery break in the middle. I thought it was over when that came on but was quickly informed that we were only halfway.
Friday was a pretty long day school wise with classes solid until 4 and a genetics review session. I went home and got a start on some studying -I have a genetics quiz on tuesday so it was time to try and get some serious revision in. I had dinner at "the ladies" next door with friends Josh and Joel. The ladies are three local women that cook homestyle caribbean meals for us starving students. For about 20 ec (8 dollars Can roughly) I got the biggest chicken burrito, salad, green beans, macaroni pie and rice. Essentially it was enough food to last for three meals so it was pretty good value and it tasted pretty good. I was planning on studying the rest of the evening but Jed and a couple other friends from upstairs were going out and insisted that I couldn't possibly stay in on the weekend of my birthday. We went to bananas (the local bar, close to school and because it is the place where everyone goes, you're bound to see someone you know.) Saturday I studied the entire day with only a short break to go to campus and meet with a study group. Today has been equally exciting with lots of studying and only a short walk across the street to get some more phone minutes. Hopefully I'll hit the beach later... see how things are coming along. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

The week in review...

Sorry for the lack of posts guys, It was a busy but most excellent week having my parents in town but it wasn't nearly long enough. After they arrived wednesday it was a mad dash to balance going to class, doing homework and trying to explore the island. Mom and Dad rented a white Suzuki Jeep from Rodney's Rentals and we took full advantage of access to wheels. The day after they arrived was conveniently the national Grenadian Independance day. This meant I got the day off of school and was free to take a hike into St. Georges with Mom and Dad. We took lots of great pictures of all the historic buildings and even made it up to the fort. It was a bit eery because there was absolutely no one in the streets.
Town of St Georges

We had the entire town to ourselves it seemed! Friday I had a few classes and mom tagged along. She was really cute, listening super attentively and asking amazing questions that no one else had even thought of. She's good at the whole classroom thing and you can definitely tell she knows how education is supposed to work. It was really fun showing my parents off to my classmates though. They all thought they were pretty cool. The students in my class are as a whole quite a bit older then me so I guess my parents must also seem really young to them. In fact, some of them are 32! Kinda neat to have such a diverse class...
On saturday, we set out across the island to check out one of the other main towns -Grenville as well as the chocolate factory and the old airport. The airport was really neat. That whole side of the island is right on the atlantic so the waves were pretty impressive and there were a couple of old planes by the runway that dad had a lot of fun jumping in and out of. We took a look at the market in Grenville and there was definitely a lot to see in the way of spices, clothes and crafts. Unfortunately the chocolate factory was shut so mom and dad had to drive back today to take a look. They said it was pretty cool so I'll definitely have to look at renting a car and getting up there one of these days.
Sunday mom and dad hit the beach while I studied it up at home.
Mom and Dad at one of the waterfalls...

School has been getting quite a bit more intense and there have actually been a couple of pretty ugly days. Luckily I've made a couple of friends in my program, Christina, Louise and Beth so now we're all a big study group starting tomorrow. I'm really excited and think it'll be a lot of fun to have some girly friends around here. It seems like the campus is predominantly male so it's nice to get some girl time in. I have two quizzes to work towards in the next couple of weeks but more immediately I get to write a paper on animal testing. Should definitely be interesting to do some research on that subject.
Today was my Birthday which was awesome. Thanks to all of you for your phone calls, emails and messages -you honestly made my day!! I was in class most of the day and didn't finish until 8 but mom and dad had a birthday party for me over at Candleglow and it was amazing to see everyone and eat a delicious ice cream pie -yumm!! It definitely feels weird being 22, that sure seems old somehow...

carbs anyone?

woke up this morning to go to biochem SI (or student instruction) session. Those are the best thing I've come accross in this school -honestly I learn way more from these sessions then in class! Got a lot accomplished last night so I'm feeling better. Finally got my room all cleaned out (in time for mom and dad to see it when they get in tonight) and got rid of the weird smell that's been bugging me for a couple of days. It turns out that Fig had shoved a couple more of those horrible moth balls underneath my book case -ick! My genetics paper is almost done. I just need to have one of my friend edit it and I can dump it in the drop box which is very exciting. I am going to take a mini study break this afternoon to regroup before the big push to get stuff done prior to mom and dad arriving at 8. I'm excited to see them and everyone back at candleglow (that's where they are staying while they're here). Better yet, no school tomorrow due to the Grenadian independence day. I'm hoping I'll be able to catch the parade...

blah..

Today has been a very blah day. Non stop classes from 8:00 until 11:00 and again from 3:00 until 7:00 with all the time in between spent on an essay for genetics. Hope that will be done by tonight... trying to get everything done before mom and dad come in tomorrow night. Good thing tomorrow is light with classes so I can get caught up on some studying -it's a lot easier to enjoy school when you're on top of things. Thursday is Grenadian independence day and I was speaking with some of the locals today -there are parades and things going on at their stadium so I'm hoping to take some of that in. Now.. off to buy some caffeine to get a start on tonight! Gotta love the red bull.

Out on the town

Hey guys...

Today's projects were to: find a reputable hair salon to fix some pretty bad roots, and explore the local town of St. Georges. Both were highly successful. After touring several rather sketch hole in the wall salons I actually found one that a)does some streaking, b)knows what streaking is and c) uses foils instead of the dreaded cap. I have an appointment for monday morning and hopefully i'm not going to come back with a patinum fro **crosses fingers.

View from the bus...

Town of St. Georges

Went with friend Micah on the local reggae bus to see what the local town has to offer.


Hot Chica on the town


It was a really great day, we toured all the local shops, found the local market and did a little souvenir shopping (got cool stuff for the family!). Had subway for lunch -definitely nice to have some normal food;)

Micah enjoys his sandwich

Then went with friends to watch Blades of Glory for the second time. Definitely a dumb but funny movie. Hoping to hit up the local club tonight -Bananas, and work off some weekly stress.

My new rasterfarian look..

Relationships

The last couple of days have been kind of difficult. Keith and I decided on Thursday that after six years of great memories it was time to take a break and see other people. I didn't think it was fair for me to decide to move halfway accross the world for four years and expect him to sit at home by himself. He was a gentleman about the whole thing and we're going to try our best to stay friends and see what happens. He's such a great guy I hope he makes lots of friends while I'm gone:)

Friday

Friday's are always an excellent day. So many bad things can happen to you and it won't phase you nearly so much as it would on any other day. The promise of good weekend plans and no classes puts a smile on everyone's face and everyone is in good spirits. Friday's are great for me because I don't start classes until late morning. It's also a good opportunity to get some work out of the way so that you have more time later on that day to do fun stuff. In my case I got up early and did some genetics work. I had English at ten with Dr. Adams. This English class is hugely different then the one I took at home. We're not studying any literature and are focusing heavily on practical writing applications ie: research papers, resumes... Right now we're working on summarizing and it's a bit dull. Next was anatomy -which is a wicked awesome class. I've never had my brain worked over like that. Two solid hours of learning the name of every crack and crevice of the dogs foreleg-scapula, humerus, ulna, radius and parts of the manus (foot). I've never taken any anatomy class before so raw memorization like this is a bit more difficult but at the same time I love it because it's a bit of a brain teaser. It was a really fun class, the first half, one of the profs went through the different parts on powerpoint and the second half we moved to the lab where each prof took 2-3 kids and we went through tons of different models and bones pointing out the different things. I can't believe how lucky I am to have such small classes and individual attention from the instructors. I think we get to start dissecting on Monday which means I'll be able to see all of the real structures.
Last class of the day was introduction to vet sciences. It was really interesting we talked a bit about what vets need to be thinking of when opening their own practice (what the clinic looks,smells like as well as how the staff are dressed and act.) We also talked about ferrets:)
In the middle of the day, I took a study break and hit the black sand beach. It was ridiculous to be able to drop off all my books at a friends, hit the beach, go for a swim and then get back in class all within 45 minutes. It's definitely easier to refocus in a new class after a swim!
Last night I watched Hostel -bad movie, don't rent it!! It was so gruesome and lame... we followed it up with some blades of glory which was a bit better and got rid of some of the gorry images in my head.
Officially less then five days until mom and dad are here:)

Today

Yesterday was a long day. Thursdays are my busiest days with classes I start at 8, finish at 6:45 with a break from 9:30 until 11:00. Luckily, our biochemistry lab has the class split into two groups and we alternate lab weeks. It was nice to have a longer break. I'm trying to get all of my main homework out of the way so that I have some time to review this weekend and get a very large genetics project out of the way. If all goes as planned I will hopefully have lots of free time when mom and dad come. One of the best things of the day was my intro to veterinary science class. We had the class down at the small animal clinic just off campus and right by the farm. My prof is awesome -she and her vet husband have written most of the main anatomy and behavior books used by most of the major vet schools so she is a wealth of information. She also doesn't believe in testing, she said that her years at Cornell taught her that if a student wants to learn something they will so she only expects that we show up on time, listen intently and have some pretty decent conversations on what we talk about. We also lucked out and got a tour of the farm after class. They have horses -ex race horses from Trinidad that are lucky to retire with unlimited attention and loving, pigs, chickens, goats (big and small) and sheep that look nothing like ours (they look like goats!) I was told you can tell the difference between sheep and goats down here by looking at the tail, if it is up it's a goat, if it's down -its a sheep!
I also had my very first nutrition class. It's in the brand new vet lecture hall which is funny because we are fortunate enough to have 4 people in the class. I still can't believe this school, they can run a class with four people in it! It's the best thing ever, you don't get lectured at because you can discuss everything that is presented. The lecturer is really nice, her husband is in the vet program here, she's from columbia with a masters in feeding dairy cows from the University of Pennsylvania.
Last night I went with a couple of friends to look at the beach, for some reason we've been having a lot of surf/waves the past few days. Some of the waves were pretty large (3-4 ft) for what I've seen so far so that was kind of neat.