Livin' the Island Life

Since my last adventures with the monkeys, hiking, and Fish Friday, I've been truly living like

a Grenadian. From experiencing my first Carnival to cruisin' the Caribbean, I have explored what it means to be a islander. Carnival was a BLAST! The first night was called Jouvert, and it involved an all night paint party. It began with hundreds of students from SGU begin bused into the city with red paint in hand and ended with a parade where barrels of different colors of paint were brought down the street. I don't think anyone had a spot on his or her body where paint was not found. My friends still have paint in their blond hair today. The above picture is of Monica, her boyfriend Danny and myself just as we were getting to city around 4 AM. The picture on the left is of all my friends just before dawn, around 6 AM. It only took a few hours to become completely covered in paint. I ended up throwing away the clothes that I wore that night. The best part of the whole night was going to the beach around 7:15 AM to take a bath in the salt water. It looked like a shark had attacked because the water was no longer blue but red in color as many students tried to clean up before going home to shower multiple times trying to rid their bodies of paint. It took me three or four days before I could wear something and not find a little bit of red on it. The second day was called the Mas Parade. It was similar to a Mardi Gras parade except that instead of bands playing music they had huge speakers on flatbed trucks blaring reggae music with thousands of people dancing in the parade to the music, and there were no beads or moon pies. It was just a huge party! The picture below is of Meredith, Casey, me, Lauren and Monica at the parade.

I brought some Mardi Gras masks for us to wear to the parade. People kept staring at us because most people did not have pretty masks. I think they were a little jealous. Thanks mom!

The picture on the left is of one of the flat bed trucks that was decorated and playing some really loud music for everyone to dance to. During this time, my friend Meredith's family was visiting her in Grenada. Her two younger sisters went with us to the Mas Parade and her parents walked in the parade with their hotel. On Friday night, her parents took us all out on a sunset cruise. We started around 5 PM and ended at 7 PM when the sun was down. It was absolutely gorgeous and loads of fun.

There is a green flash as the sun hits horizon. I tried to get a picture of it, but it only lasts a few

seconds. I ended up missing it. Since classes have started, I am sure that my island life will soon turn into study study study. Hopefully, I will be able to share more of Grenada with you this term.

Back for Another Round

I came back to Grenada on Sunday after a 10 week break for another go. I arrived two weeks early to get settled in my new off campus apartment and to spend some time enjoying the island before classes start. I am living with my roommate from last term a few doors down from three of my really good friends, Casey, Lauren and Monica. Even though we live a few feet away, our balconies are right next to each other. That should make for some interesting evenings. Since I did not get to my apartment until almost midnight on Sunday, Monday was get organized day. I spent the day traveling to the grocery store and unpacking my bags. Tuesday, I went into the city to get some supplies for my room and to try to find some Grenadian decorations. All I got was a really neat candle holder. I plan on going back for some more things soon. Wednesday, I got my things I was storing at a friend's house and spent most of the evening unpacking those boxes. I conquered the seven sister falls on Thursday, which involved hiking two hours in the rain forest to a beautiful site where we could see two of the seven falls. The picture above is Casey and me after hiking up to the falls. Monica and her boyfriend Danny, who is visiting for the week are in the background. The picture on the left is one of the two waterfalls with Ray Ray, our cab driver in the bottom left corner.

After going to the falls, Ray Ray took us to see the wild monkeys. We were able to feed the monkeys bananas. They would even jump on your back to eat a banana from the top of your head. It was crazy, but an amazing experience. As you can see, even though you know it's coming, it still scares you a little to have them jump on you. My "cheese" face tells it all.

Friday was spent at the beach, but Friday night we went to Gouyave to enjoy fried fish sandwiches, freshly grilled tuna with garlic sauce, macaroni pie, crab legs and dumplings, cou cou (kinda like fried corn bread), and many other Grenadian dishes at Fish Friday. We also were able to hear the biggest steel drum band I have ever seen. It was made up of about 35 to 40 different members all who played in perfect rhythm and harmony. I am a huge sucker for steel drum bands and this one was amazing. I tried to video tape them with my still camera, but the flash does not work when you are using it to video tape, so I couldn't get a good shot.

This weekend is Carnival in Grenada, so I will have many more pictures and stories to share with you soon. I can't wait!

What have I gotten myself into?

So I had my first "test" last Monday. I say "test" because most of it was only about 3% of my grade in each class. The term for the "test" was the Unifieds. It was 25 multiple choice questions from histology, anatomy and biochemistry with 60 questions from Bioethics. It was the final for BioEthics, so it was 90% of my grade in that class. It was really hard to study for all four classes at one time, but I made it through...barely. I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but I wasn't alone...trust me. The average score on the Biochemistry section was a 65..oh yeah over half the class FAILED. The professors blame it on us not studying enough, but I plan it on their poorly written test questions and lack of teaching skills. Oh well, at least now I know what types of questions I will be asked and know how to prepare for the Midterms in two weeks. After the horrific test, my friends and I decided to have a fun night out at Bananas.

After our eventful night of fun and staying out WAY to late, we decided that it was time to get back into studying. We've been studying none stop ever since. Like I said, the midterm is less than two weeks away now, so it's back to the books for me. I'm ready to conquer the midterms. Wish me luck!

White Coat Ceremony

On January 25, 2009, I became a real doctor. Well, not really a true doctor. You know one who can diagnose diseases, operate on people or even sign for medications, but at least I got my white coat.

It surely made me feel like a real doctor though. My mom came down to see it all happen. She videotaped it for everyone else to see. The two girls in the picture above on the right are two of my best buds, Lauren and Casey (left to right). I sure you remember then from the last post. Lauren, Casey, Meredith (my other best bud) and I are all shown in the video below getting our white coats. Our bond has only gotten stronger since we first met. I don't know what I would do without them. We have 415 people in my class here in Grenada and another 102 in the United Kingdom, who are also a part of my class. I can't believe that my med school class is that big. I think it's the biggest class here yet. I hope you enjoy the video, and hurray for me finally taking the first step to becoming a doctor!!

One Week In Paradise

So I've been in Grenada for one week this evening, and it seems like it's been a true vacation. I've hiked up a waterfall, toured the capital city and of course, gone to the beach, but today is the true testament that it is in fact not a vacation. I begin classes this afternoon with an introduction to biochemistry, anatomy, histology and bioethics. As a great suprise last night, I found out that bioethics only lasts four weeks; thus, leaving me with three classes the remainder of the term. Those three classes are definitely going to be enough to keep me busy. So back to the fun adventures I've had the last few days. This photo is of two of my closest friends in Grenada. Casey is on the left and Lauren is closest to me. We had dinner with a girl that Casey knew who is a third term student here at the Prickley Bay Marina in Lance Epines, a small community on the island. They are both from New Jersey and met each other this summer. Upon meeting, they decided to be roommates and took me on as a third wheel. My roommate, whom I will have to show you later, brought some friends with her when she arrived on the island and has only been staying in the room for two nights now. Her friends are leaving tomorrow and then two of our family members arrive on the island Friday night in preparation for Parent's Weekend and the White Coat Ceremony.

The picture to the left is of the Fish Market in St. George's city. This was one of the stops on the tour of the capital, but Lauren and I went back on Saturday morning for her to buy some fish. She got a little over two pounds of red snapper for 18 EC, which is about $7 US. EC is the Eastern Carribean currency which is the money system used by the Grenadians and six other islands in the West Indies. One EC is approximately 2.67 US dollars. Lauren also had to tip a gentleman to filet the fish for her, but that only cost $1. So all in all she got two nice snapper filets for $8. What a deal! We were going to buy some local produce, but as usual in Grenada, or from what we have seen, it began to rain for a little while. Then, a little while turned into a little bit longer and before we knew it we were completely soaked in rain. This picture is from the top of Fort George which is the place where the prime minister Maurice Bishop was killed execution style during the Grenada revolution in 1983. I was taken there during my capital city tour. Grenada became an independent state after this war with the help of the United States government. Yes, I know you are wondering about the medical

school. It was here during the revolution, but the students were taken from the island by US Navy Seals and none were injured in the fighting. So just in case there is a hurricane, earthquake or another war, I will be perfectly safe here. The picture on the left is of the Concord Waterfalls. We took a bus about 30 minutes from campus to get to the waterfalls. It was a beautiful site and several of us, including my friends and me, got in the water and swam under the waterfall. It was a great end to a hot day in Grenada. We have had several fun nights in the city as well. The SGA put on a party at the Aquarium, which is a nice restaurant on the beach. I never thought I'd been at a medical school party dancing on the beach. They also had a BBQ and Bazaar on campus. The bazaar was by far my favorite thing I've done on the island so far. It was filled with all different types of Grenadian and American foods, a bongo drum band and several merchants with homemade goods from the island. I bought a mango candle made out of a half coconut. The picture to the right of my other close friend Meredith. She lives off campus with her two cats. The bunny ears are from Lauren. What a jokester. So as you can see, I haven't done much studying yet, but as of this afternoon, the fun times have to come to an end...well at least somewhat. I'm so glad to have such close friends already, and look forward to making many more as time passes. I guess I'll let you know how classes go in a few days and tell you all about the visit from my mommy.

I made it!!

Man was it a long day yesterday. I left home around 7 AM to drive to New Orleans for my flight to Miami at 11:55 AM. I arrived in Miami, after gaining an hour, just to wait two and a half hours for my jam packed flight to Grenada. It took about three hours to fly into Grenada (I gained an hour here too), but I sat next to Jenna, a returning vet student, who gave me LOTS of advice and suggestions for life and school in Grenada. Upon arrival, we had to go through immigration, baggage claim and customs all before we could get a taxi to campus. At immigration, we had to present our passport and immigration letter from SGU. Silly me printed a copy of the immigration letter from an e-mail the school sent me. I left the original at home. The immigration officer was not happy with the letter and threatened to send me home. After a little coaxing and almost tears, he said he would accept it, but I'd better be glad he was letting me through. After that mix up, all I could think about was what am I going to do if my bags aren't here..which I was sure they weren't. I stood around and watched other people grab their bags and go to customs, but I was still searching. After about fifteen minutes and hundreds of bags I found all three, they made me valet one of my bags because it was too big for a carry-on. Then I noticed the line for baggage claims was longer than the customs line. I later found out that the plane can only weigh a certain amount to be able to land on the runway. Once they reach their baggage limit, they leave whatever is left in Miami to be brought the next available flight. So I paid my $30 (US) fee for my laptop, stacked my bags on a cart and walked outside to be greeted by SGU students and jumped in a cab. The cab ride was interesting...it was really fast, curvy and a little bumpy too, but I was glad to make it to campus. It was hard to see what beauty surrounded me last night, but this morning, it was apparent that I am living in paradise. You will see some gorgeous pictures of the campus below. This is on the route to my classes each morning. Won't it be hard to go all the way to class instead of stopping at the beach.

I have also gotten my room together as much as possible with what I have here so far. My mom is bringing some more stuff with her in a week and a half for the White Coat Ceremony. You will notice how small my bed is, yes, I'm back in college with a twin size bed..and it's not even and XL. My closet space is also extremely tiny. You can only fit about 10-15 items in each section. The bathroom has no storage whatsoever. It's just a counter top with an actually decent sized shower, no baths though.

I have made several new friends already. We have a cruise to go on Saturday, a tour of the capital city Thursday and several other adventures to take this week. I am actually supposed to meeting a few other people to go to the beach today. I'd better get ready. Talk to you all soon! I'll keep taking lots of pictures and maybe even some videos next time.