One Month Already Down...

We were talking about that at lunch today (yes, I know it's Saturday... and yes, I was at school... but I'll get to that later)... we have been on this island for a whole month. It's really hard to think that I was at that airport, bags in hand, sweating certain parts of my anatomy off, and wondering what I got myself into just 30 days ago. I've fallen into a schedule, and it's starting to feel like a "normal" life finally.

With that being said, I really do apologize for the lack of an entry last week... and I promise I'll try my best to keep up with this better. I honestly don't remember what pulled me away from being able to get it done. I think it was Big Bang Theory... and all the TA sessions I've been attending in addition to classes (I seriously think I go to nearly 4-6 a week!).

Classes are piling on the information, but I'm finding that I retain a lot of the histology and physiology with minimal studying. I had to make flash cards for anatomy, but that's starting to stick (I mean, we've spent 3 weeks covering just the front leg of dogs and donkeys). (Random side note: Did you know that horses are perpetually flipping you off? They only have a single toe--the middle one.) Nutrition is an incredibly amusing class (well, at least it was with Reich... we have a new lecturer starting up on Monday), but it takes a little work to remember everything. On the other hand, a LOT of dieting information suddenly makes sense--like how sugars make you fat... or why the Atkin's Diet is a bad idea. Introduction to Veterinary medicine is going to be a breeze, but they touch on the subjects that leave me a little nervous--like ethical decisions, and dealing with tough clients, and topics like that.

First exam is on Monday... and that's only 1 day, 16 hours, and 11 minutes from the time when I'm writing this entry. For histology. All the practice tests I've done and all the slides I've reviewed seem pretty easy... so I'm hoping I can do well on that test. (Don't worry--I'm sure you guys will be among the first to know how I do.)

Started feeding at the local zoo for the Zoo/Exotics/Wildlife Club (which will be henceforth called the ZEW Club)... and the guy that runs it... well... he has a bad habit of getting in the way. Jennifer and I went over there at lunch one day, having been told it only takes about 30-45 minutes to feed the animals. What they neglected to tell us is that if the owner takes the hose while you're trying to change water and "helps" by watering the plants, it takes significantly more time. On the plus side, we were only 5 minutes late to nutrition that day.

There was also a PAWS (People for Animal Welfare on St. Kitts) adoption event today. I've been smitten. Sarah is such a little sweetheart and Tuna is an awesome cat. However, the landlord down here doesn't allow pets so I have to wait until I move next semester. I'll be working (hopefully) with Holly over the course of the semester and will hopefully be the one in charge of the website, advertising, and the Facebook group. *fingers crossed!*

But for now, I think that's enough to quell your lack of an entry for the last 2 weeks... because I have to get back to studying!

Until next week!

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHH! (a.k.a. What-Did-I-Get-Myself-Into?!)

Wow… and I thought orientation week was going to be tough… is doesn’t have ANYTHING on the first week of classes.

To give you a quick run-down, I have:
Anatomy I from 8:00-10:00 every day
Microanatomy/Embryology from 10:00-12:00 every day
Introduction to Veterinary Medicine from 1:00-2:00 only on Monday
Nutrition from 1:00-2:00 Tuesday through Friday
Physiology I from 2:00-3:00 every day

That’s 20 credits. More than the average undergraduate student takes in a semester… at a much harder level. Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore. People aren’t joking when they tell you how hard it is. I mean, I KNEW it was going to be hard… but you just don’t really realize the sheer quantity of the material until you sit in on just one class.

I’m finding myself having little to no social life (although I am still addicted to Facebook and Skype)… as my mornings start at 6:30… grabbing breakfast on the run and going to school… sitting through classes… going to TA and tuitoring sessions (yes, I took everyone’s advice), and then going home… studying… having dinner… going to bed… and repeating the whole process the next day. Even on the weekends, I sleep in a little bit longer but then spend at least 12-14 hours studying and reading, only stopping for food breaks. I’m sure it’ll level out once I get myself organized… but until then, it’s a killer.

Honestly, I've had a few rough days... there are times where everything is great down here. There are other times when I feel like I just simply don't belong here. And sometimes, I'm just plain homesick. I know that it'll eventually all level out, but it's tough thinking like that sometimes.

We had our white coat ceremony last Monday. (I do apologize for the picture… it’s not the best one, but it’s all I have.) We were presented with our laboratory coat in a formal ceremony, symbolizing our commitment to pursuing the field of veterinary medicine. As a class, we recited an oath outlining our commitment to ethical practices, mutual respect, and all those other lovely values that they try to instill in us at a young age. I have to admit (as did several of my colleagues) that I got a bit teary during the preceedings of the event… not from fear or anything like that (although I have to admit that I’m still absolutely terrified that I’ll soon have lives in my hands), but from sheer admiration at myself for even getting to this point in the field.

As a more laid-back event this week, there was the Mr. RUSVM pageant. Essentially, it is a “beauty pageant” for the men of the classes—one is chosen from each semester’s class and they compete through 4 events/categories. Even the professors get involved in judging the event. This year, it was Decades (where they chose to represent their favorite decade), Extreme Travel, Talent, and Formal Wear. And yes, they even did the probing questions that you see in the formal wear of the Miss America pageants. Someone posted up a video of the opening dance sequence… HERE! Yes, that is OUR semester’s choice who missed the practice and was sitting there with the apple in his mouth for the whole first half. Fourth semester won… and it was a good choice from the judges… he was amusing.

Club sign-ups were this week too, and it was tempting to join SOOOOOOOOOO many… but I limited myself (being first semester and all) to only a few—Zoo/Exotics/Wildlife, Holistic Medicine, Association of Avian Veterinarians, and I’ll be volunteering with beach clean-ups for the leatherback turtle nesting season and assisting once a semester with the PAWS Association’s adoption events. And then, of course… Lindsey and I are hoping to somehow go to the gym at least 3-4 times a week as well.

… I have a long, busy semester ahead of me…

Until next week!

Orientation Week! (a.k.a. "We're Going to Tire You Out Before Classes Start" Week)

Finally! Orientation week is over! It is EXHAUSTING! But, on the plus side, I’m adapting slowly to the heat. And yes, I’m a day late again—but we don’t have internet (STILL) at the apartment… very frustrating…

So… Monday, we finally got to go down to campus… where we had a lovely day of “setting up the basics” that they called the One-Stop. Got our IDs made up, submitted the paperwork for the visa, and all that lovely clerical junk. Then, we had a few lectures about the island and Ross University itself and went up to Brimstone Hill. Don’t let anyone fool you—there are a LOT of stairs for those of us out of shape. It was a British fort that was built on top of a huge sulfur vein/mountain… hence the name. And, of course, this was followed by dinner with the group.

Tuesday was more clerical junk—bank accounts, drivers licenses, insurance, etc. And then we got a tour of the campus. They’re doing so much construction and everything is such chaos on there right now. I’ll be surprised if I can find everything alright come the first day of class. It’s a nice campus though—good sized for how many classes there are going at once, but honestly, a bit smaller than I expected. Then we went to Shipwreck Beach… where most of us sat there watching the monkeys and mongooses a good chunk of time. They’re cute little buggers. It’s unfortunate to me—I’m not a beach person, so I just hid in the shade and watched everyone out there.

Wednesday was nothing but lectures—health services, security, housing, just to name a few. And when that was all done, Lindsey and I went out to look at cars and found a pretty good deal for one—a 2000 Nissan Sunny for $6000. (I wasn’t expecting that expense, but the apartment was a tad bit further from campus than we both expected.) We’re still bouncing name ideas around… but since we both have dogs named Kami/Cami, we wanted to incorporate that into her name.

Thursday was full of more lectures, all surrounding the curriculum and leadership. Boy do I hate leadership exercises—we had to draw posters in small groups about the values that we want to incorporate into our studies and ridiculous things like that. Once that torture was done, we finally made our ways to the bank… and I finally have money! What a relief. I have so many bills to pay off now. -_- And then, we got the car insured, paid the wheel tax, and transferred the ownership into our names. So, it is ours! Hooray! Then, Ross took us off to see Iron Man II. It was ok—the last half hour caught my attention, but it was long otherwise.

Friday, we went on a catamaran from Port Zante to the sister island of Nevis. I ended up getting a mild sunburn on the backs of my arms, which led to me also getting a headache and all those lovely problems I get when I’m out in the sun too long. I honestly was also hoping to see more of Nevis than a beach and 2 bars. It was honestly a disappointing trip for me. I sat there and wrote up some postcards and letters instead.

What a relief it was yesterday to do nothing. I got to sleep in till 8:00! (I’m naturally waking up around 6:30 from the sun down here and it’s really annoying. :P) Went grocery shopping… so it finally looks like someone lives in this apartment… and waited… and waited… and waited… for the internet people to come to install it. Urgh. I wanted the internet so bad… I had so many things to do on there. So, instead, I watched the wildlife outside on the porch—lizards… huge centipedes (which then proceeded to be eaten by the lizards)… some goats passing by the yard…

I’ve been thinking about what clubs I want to join… and I’m leaning towards quite a few—Holistic Medicine, Exotics/Wildlife/Zoo Medicine, Pathology Club, and assisting with the research of the leatherback turtles that nest on the island. We’ll see though… still have to meet with the organizers of each club.

It’s still kind of frustrating how they don’t recycle much down here—only aluminum and plastic. I’m so surprised that the students haven’t worked out a paper recycling program yet. Hmm… gives me some ideas. :P

Greetings from St. Kitts

I have apparently already lied to all you loyal blog-readers and am late on an update. My apologies—Saturday was a tad bit crazier than I ever anticipated… AND I don’t have the internet at my apartment just yet, so I had to wait until today to leech off the Wi-Fi of the Ross Campus.

So… I had successfully been awake since noon-ish on Friday and was still packing until about 3:30 am on Saturday--partly due Jeff having some of his friends over and partly due to the fact that I REALLY procrastinated with the packing.

Nevertheless, everything important made it into one of the 4 severely overstuffed pieces of luggage that are on their way alongside me. (And an interesting security pointer: You know that laptops have to be scanned separately… so don’t X-Boxes and CD/DVD cases.) And, of course, my carry-ons were subject to two “random” checks. Perhaps that is because I struggled so much trying to lift the duffel-bag getting to the plane… hmmm…

The first flight left early by about 5 minutes to head from Boston to Atlanta… and I splurged a little to get the WiFi on the first bit of the flight. $10 wasn’t that bad for the 2 hours of internet to try to make sure all the loose ends were all tied up before arriving on the island. Oddly enough, the girl that sat next to me was also on her way to Ross, but to visit a friend that had been there for a year already.

I couldn’t have asked for better timing between the two flights. By the time I arrived to the gate (having given up and starting to drag the carry-on that felt like at least 100 pounds), they were already boarding my section of the plane. The funny thing about that flight was that I slept for a majority of it… yes, including the take-off. I still don’t quite know how I managed that one!

Customs to get into St. Kitts was much easier than any European country I visited—no real questions asked, and I was on my way through the immigration along with my luggage kiosk within half an hour. Of course, as soon as I walked through the doors, the humid heat of the island hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m not used to the Caribbean being THIS hot and humid—it blind-sided me. Eventually, everyone in my orientation group made it through customs as well (but I think it took everyone else maybe about an hour to an hour and a half total) and we piled into a mini-van
to drop everything off at our apartments.

I lucked out with the first stop of the journey and the fact that my new roommate, Lindsey, was arriving on a later flight that was delayed. So you know what that means—I had first choice of bedrooms! Naturally, I took the one that had thicker curtains that would trap the cool air in better during the day (as I tend to leave an A/C on at night) and block the sunlight better in the mornings. Well, it worked out because I later found out that purple is Lindsey’s favorite color, so she wanted the other bedroom anyway.

After unpacking and a quick nap, Frank (the orientation leader) picked up the group again and we headed off for dinner at a local restaurant/outdoor bar. I honestly have to say that I was not overly impressed with their style of BBQ chicken, and I hope that the rest of the island’s food isn’t as bland as theirs. At that point, we had our first lesson in the local currency—although it’s still hard to remind yourself that $1.00 = 2.65 EC… so to see prices on a menu as high as $65, it scares you for a brief second. After dinner, Frank took us to Ziggy’s… the local bar that a LOT of the Ross students frequent. General consensus was that we were exhausted by 10:30 and wanted nothing to do with this socializing. Luckily, we were in bed by 11:00.

Sunday was a whirlwind as well. Frank picked us all up at 7:30 in the morning for breakfast. I’m still having a hard time adapting to the “island speed,” which is more like inefficient and slow as a snail compared to the Boston way of life… but, I’ll eventually adapt. I’m good at that. :P

Then, the fun of grocery shopping! I’m glad to see that a lot of the same products we’d use back home are down here—Pantene shampoo, Sunchips, Tide laundry detergent, and one of my personal favorites—Chunky’s clam chowder (yum!)… but it slipped our minds more than once that $8.00 EC is a normal price for a bottle of shampoo. Once that culture shock was done, we were returned to our apartments to relax for an hour, where I was greeted by a rather large gecko that reminded me of the Geiko gecko.

Then, the not-so-fun part of the day commenced—the beach. And yes, I did see one of the monkeys… and no, he was not drunk—he was in a cage on this one. They also have a local pig… a HUGE pig… like a 500-pound-pig waddling (well, in the instances we saw him, sleeping) around the beach. His name is Wilbur. How fitting, huh? After several hours of watching the boys playing beach volleyball and taking some pictures of the island landscape, we went to another bar/restaurant nearby for dinner. I decided to be brave and try the conch fritters… and have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Luckily, this day ended at 6:00… and I finally had some time to get to know Lindsey before her group leader took them out to Ziggy’s for the night.

I think she and I will get along nicely. :P

And, that’s all for now… I’m off to finish up day 1 of the ACTUAL orientation process… I’ll talk to you all again on Saturday (I hope!).