Week 12 of Semester 1--Thankgiving!

I've been posting pretty much every other week, and for that I apologize--it's been busy and yet not at the same time...

This post is mainly dedicated to Thanksgiving--that lovely holiday at the end of November that all Americans know and celebrate. Yeah, they don't down here... so we students have to make our own Thanksgiving dinners and traditions. Lexi was kind enough to host it at her apartment, so we all pitched in and brought the side dishes, since she made the turkey.

While the food was cooking/heating up, Michelle and I introduced Steven to the fun non-Newtonian fluid that is corn starch and water. What a deprived child! He never got to play with it before. Then we found something online about milk, food coloring, and dish soap, so of course, we had to play with that too. Science nerds! Hehe.

It was a partially-vegan holiday, since Nicholine (one of my roommates) is vegan, so we had salad, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (which, I must say, Steven and Lexi did an excellent job at making), veggie gumbo, broccoli and cheese casserole, turkey, and pie for dessert. It was pretty damn tasty for all of our first times making a Thanksgiving dinner. Lexi had a blast carving the turkey (although she and Steven had the typical lover's spat over the proper way to do it... thanks for Google, we figured it out). Even the pups enjoyed their time playing together and sharing some of the dinner. It was a small group, but it was nice... since we all couldn't spend it with our families. :)

On another note, the P.A.W.S. Adoption event was over the weekend. We adopted 2 more pets--to their fosters. One of them was to me--the little calico kitten I'd been fostering, which has been renamed Reese from Sweetie (although that's stuck as a nickname at least). She gets along so well with Gibbs (Steven's cat) and Liamuiga that I couldn't separate them. So, I will have a cat when I go home at least now (since I know my parents are probably going to keep Chester and Bear).

We had our next two dives as well (dives 3 and 4 towards our Open Water Certification). They went much better for most of us--we went back to the River Taw shipwreck and also to the Bird Rock Reef. Saw some pretty cool wildlife this time--an octopus hiding in the wreck... a huge stingray... and some tube worms, to name a few. Lexi and the others mentioned some fire worm they had seen, but I missed out on that one. All that's left now is scheduling the paper final examination and we're all Open Water Certified Scuba Divers. It's pretty exciting!

So... until next week!

Week 10 of Semester 1--Jeff Comes to Visit

Well, it's been a busy few weeks with the exams and having Jeff come down to visit during the WIVC conference. I attended some pretty interesting lectures during that time--some on canine hip dysplasia diagnoses and treatments, cardiovascular changes of sled dogs and wolves, and current treatments of glaucoma, to name a few. Much better than sitting in the classroom for the same old lectures again. :P Plus, there was free food! Of course you know how we students view that whole situation.

Jeff also left a little while ago. With him here, I did a lot of things that I hadn't done during orientation week. So, that being said we did:

Bat Cave Hike (again): I got a lot of nice pictures on the hike... and being more in shape and having Jeff there, I actually made it up the big rock that gave me problems the last time, so I actually reached the cave itself. This time around, there was a LOT more water on the trail (so I went to my typical method of hiking--just plow through it)... so the rocks were a lot more slippery. Well, 3 of us in the group made it to the end. Kevinng and Emily spent most of the hike billy-goating their way up boulders to avoid sliding into the water and getting wet. On one of their paths down, a vine caved in on Emily and she fell a good 6 feet or so... she cut her head open pretty nicely... whiplash, concussion, the whole 9. Luckily, she's recovering well and should have no severely lingering effects from the fall.

Zip-lining with SkySafari: I'll tell ya, that's something I wish we had done during orientation week--it was such a blast. We got a full tour at a student discount, so that was all 4 lines... and, although I may have disappointed some of the group by not being a "screamer" while flying across the rainforest, it was amazing what you could see from up there.

We also went to the other usual things--Sprat Net's for dinner... Shipwreck to get him some beach time (although the waves were pretty angry this time)... Bobsy's to get some karaoke in... it was quite a busy week.

As a matter of fact, I'm pretty exhausted, so I'm gonna duck out now. Until next time!

Week 8 of Semester 1--Is It Over Yet?

This week was otherwise dull in comparison to last week. We went to a new restaurant on Friday called Twist--it has a really large menu (too large, if you ask me) with Japanese, Thai, Indian, Continental, and Mexican food, so you can get a bit of everything. Food's pretty good there too--albeit a little more expensive than what I'm used to spending.

Saturday was P.A.W.S.' adoption day. It wasn't as glorious as the last one--we only had 5 adoptions and 2 of them were fosters adopting their foster pets (Steven taking Gibbs, for example). Heather (one of my friends and neighbors) adopted a puppy from the Nevis litter, so Lia has a close-by buddy to play with.

Yesterday was a busy day too. I got a phone call waking me up at 9:45, from a friend who came by with a puppy for me to watch... and by 1:00, I had three puppies in the house. It was crazy. Actually, I kept a running log on a message board chronicling the day (in a farcical manner):

... my room is a puppy playpen! I was woken up at 9:47 this morning by a phone call from a friend saying that she was outside with her puppy.
(10:07am): POOP! POOP EVERYWHERE!!!
(11:51am): After just breaking up a really significant fight with Debbie biting her tongue, the two are now on opposite ends of the room in time-out and I'm taking a much-needed coffee break.
(12:44pm): It's quiet... too quiet... the puppies are sleeping, but I'm sure they're plotting in those evil little minds of theirs...
(1:30pm): Time to wake the girls up to go outside before Gus joins the ranks... gods help me!
(2:08pm): Holy crap... this is insane... "Gus, play easy..." "Lia, stop eating that..." "DEBBIE! OFF!" "Gus, NO BITE!" "Lia, go get your toy!" "Debbie, play nice!"
(2:47pm): I so wish I just got a video of the two girls flipping the male into the water bowl. That was quite possibly the funniest thing they've done today.
(2:54pm): PEE! PEE EVERYWHERE!
(3:14pm): They are currently exploring the depths under my bed... I fear what they may find...
(3:50pm): I have now remembered I haven't eaten lunch, so it's time to separate the pups for a nap so I can eat... you know how there's always one kid in a daycare that won't go to sleep during naptime? That's Gus (video linked).
(4:14pm): Gus has now been screaming for the last 24 minutes straight! MAKE IT STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!
(5:10pm): Debbie's mom came to pick her up... one pup down, one to go. :P At least they're being better behaved than they were at 10:00 in the morning.
(7:44pm): Both puppies are gone... time for dinner and then studying/reviewing for anatomy... both Liamuiga and I have survived to fight another day...

Don't get me wrong--I love the little buggers, and it was a fun day... just very stressful... and exhausting!

Didn't do anything for Halloween--it just didn't feel like it at all, and I didn't want to go to the party at the Pink Elephant, simply because I didn't know of too many people going there.

So, I've been given the Firefly series to watch and I still have A Clash of Kings (George R.R. Martin) to work on, so I've got plenty of things to keep me busy between reviewing for the exams this week. Next weekend, Jeff's down on the island, so I'll have another bit of home around at that point. Busy week next week (due to that and the WIVC Conference)!

If you read this whole thing, thanks! I'm glad I managed to keep you interested in my life down here. :P See you all next week.