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...