An Island Thanksgiving

This is a quick post for anyone who was worried about me not getting an authentic Thanksgiving meal, because I know you all were worrying about me!

The Marriott Resort had a Thanksgiving buffet with ALL of the fixings! A group of us went, most of these are the guys I play flag football with. The food was delicious! Turkey and honey ham carved right in front of us, tons of desserts, mash potatoes, stuffing, veggies, fruit, salads, and wine made for a great combo! It was nice to take our mind off school for an hour and get in a good meal. This has been my only break this week from studying because we have two exams coming up on Monday. I wake up at 6 every morning, stay in the library until eleven every night and then wake up and do it all over again. It's CRUNCH TIME BABY!

My parents were nice enough to change my flight so that I can come home four days earlier, yay!!! With time already limited that I can spend at home, every day is a gift. I cannot wait to see everyone back home and see snow! Back to cell biology, just wanted to say a quick hello and let you know of my "island" Thanksgiving.

19 days until I am back on sweet sweet US soil!!

A Visitor!

Hello all!

I had my first ever visitor from back home, Tom! It was so refreshing to see him and just what I needed going into this last stretch of exams. I have 27 days until I go home for Christmas so I had to repeat that mantra in my head as I said a tearful good bye to Tom at the airport. It's hard at times to stay strong when your under so much stress and pressure in school and lack the support system you are so used to having. Don't get me wrong Skype is a god send, but sometimes you just need a hug and Skype has yet to solve that problem.

I received many goodies from home (Thank you Diedricks, Mom, Shannon, and Tom!) and so I at least have delicious things to snack on while studying for exams. We have two exams this coming Monday so it's going to be a loooooong week. In the next 27 days we have 2 more sets of exams for each class which comprise 50% of our final grade. Not sure exactly how the math works out on that one but conclusion is it's crunch time! Power out this last month so that I can feel good when I come home.

I feel completely unprepared for Christmas because I have nothing to ease me into the holiday spirit. No snow, christmas movies and music, or Moms delicious cooking. I promised myself that I wouldn't become a wuss to cold weather when I came back home but I'm going to be a huge wuss, I can tell already. All this warm weather makes you soft!

Our flag football team had its last game yesterday. Royal on our team messed up his knee pretty bad. Poor guy can't bear weight on it, its swollen like a watermelon, and very sore. The nurse gave him a pair of crutches to use but he clearly needs a MRI and of course there isn't an MRI machine on this island! He may have to go to an island a ways away to get treatment. Seeing as we just covered the lower limb in anatomy I offered to do an anterior drawer test to see if his ACL was torn...apparently he wanted more confirmation than that. 3 months of medical school isn't enough?? This island is NOT a place you want to get hurt.

I'm hanging in there. Seeing Tom was great and much MUCH needed. It was so nice to have somebody from home be here with me. It is the first time since I have moved to this island that I felt 100% okay. He knows just the way to cheer me up and I miss his company more than I can tell you. I cannot wait to see everyone back home. I miss you guys so so much!

Countdown!

It's time for yet another exam here on the beautiful island of St. Kitts. Included this photo of our whole class from the white coat ceremony, thought it was a great picture.

Anatomy exam on Monday. This is exam is upper and lower limbs and we've only had 2.5 weeks to learn this section. The musculature and neurovasculature supply to the limbs is a lot of information to learn in this amount of time. Needless to say I have spent most of my days and evenings hunched over a cadaver in the Anatomy lab. Beginning to feel like formaldehyde is my new perfume. Hoping it will all pay off and I can keep my good grade going in this class. Have thought about possibly being a TA next semester.

Tom will be here in 4 DAYS!!! I'm not sure how to explain how badly I am in need of someone from home. Two and a half months is a long time to go without seeing any of your family and friends, especially when going through the most difficult and stressful experience of my life. Tom will be here Wednesday through Sunday and is bringing me lots of goodies from my family and the Diedrick family. Yay! After Tom leaves I only have to grind out one more month here and then I'll be home for Christmas. The end is near!! (Temporary end that is)

Regardless, I cannot believe how fast the time is flying by here. Leisa and I are looking at a new apartment on Monday. Hopefully it will be nice and we'll have a new, more cockroach-free home, for when we come back in January. Lots of other students are signing leases there and I would stay in Frigate Bay where I live now. Keep your fingers crossed!

My parents are saying many people back home have been following my blog and checking in on how I'm doing. Thank you so much! It's easy sometimes to feel really cut off from life back home and just hearing little things like that make my day. Back to Anatomy but I love and miss everyone and I'll be back in the states in 36 days!!! (but who's counting right...)

Block 2 is over!

We have officially survived Block 2 of exams! Everyone has been posting pictures of their Halloween online so I decided it was only fair for me to do the same. I wanted to give you the whole experience. Ya see sometimes I like to study inside at my rickety table, for those of you keen observers you'll notice the stacks of notecards I have under one of the table legs to keep it from rocking. But sometimes, when it's a nice evening (which is most evenings) I move my stuff out to the balcony and enjoy the fresh air. Just wanted to let people know that my fun beach pictures, unfortunately, only make up about 5% of my island life.

So while people were enjoying the splendiferous holiday that is Halloween we were here cramming for our exams. This round felt much more stressful than the first because there seemed to be much more material and the difficulty level is increasing exponentially. The friends I have made here are beginning to feel like a second family; we study together, eat together, stress together, and on several occasions have cried together. There is no "going home" for the weekend to be with your family or escape school life. As fantastic as living in the Caribbean sounds, it isn't what you see in the travel brochures! This experience teaches me new lessons everyday, about life and about myself. We have all been pushed out, or better yet shoved, out of our comfort zone and it's only going to make us stronger people for it.

Enough of that talk. Now for the real story. I want everyone to brace themselves, sit down if you happen to be standing. Swallow whatever you are drinking or eating, I don't want anyone choking on my account. Sunday night I was at the brink of mental exhaustion. I had stayed up all weekend studying for the exams and was struggling to keep my eyes open while I tried to get a little more reading in. I finally allowed myself to shut my eyes around 2 am. I woke up at 6, feeling miserable and looking even worse. I stumbled into the bathroom and splashed some water on my face, put my hair in a pony and attempted to make coffee. As I am standing near my bed putting my books together I see a GIANT COCKROACH ON MY BED. If your mouth hasn't dropped open in horror maybe you didn't hear me. I said a GIANT COCKROACH IN MY BED. It had the longest feelers ever and they were wiggling around feeling my sheets and blankets. It took my mind a second to process and then I did the only logical thing I could think of. I screamed at the top of my lungs. He stopped and we stared at each other for about 10 seconds. I threw a book at him, missed by a foot, and watched him scurry under my blankets. I was mortified. Any other morning this would have been disgusting but I probably could have handled it. But not this morning, not in the mental state I was in. I called Tom in hysterics and scared him because it was 6 am and I'm pretty sure he thought I was being attacked. He was so good and calmed me down, "deep breaths," and "bigger things to worry about" were about all I remember from that convo. Next I called my mother, scaring her half to death as well. Then I just left the cockroach in my bed and got on the bus. So thats my story. I raised hell at the front desk and am getting my room fumigated tomorrow. Washed all my sheets, took a nap, and have regained whatever sanity I have left at this point.

Hope all is well and bug free back in the states. We'll see once my grades come back but I think I have mentioned previously, ya know what they say about cockroaches....they bring good luck...or disease...can't seem to remember which...

Go WISCO!

Added this picture to give a little shout out to my alma mater for beating no. 1 ranked Ohio State last night!!! What an awesome game and so exciting for UW. They haven't upset a number one seed since 1981. Made me wish I was there. Sitting in my room studying the pelvis and watching Madison go crazy made me miss the Badger nation so much!

Oh well, time to grow up. So far not a huge fan of being grown up but I'm adjusting. Our next anatomy exam is one week from tomorrow. Feels like we just had our last round of exams! I'm sticking to studying and thankfully the rain has died down here and it is back to being beautiful. I can tell tourism season is starting to swing into high gear because there are many more people visiting the island. The season starts now and goes through February.

My goal is to start taking more pictures of island life here and tell you guys a little more about the culture and people of St. Kitts. So far my encounters with the local people have not been entirely positive. Many of them do not like having students live on the island, for what reason I am not sure. It seems like no matter how polite or friendly you are they lump you into the foreign student group. I'm still trying though! There are a few women I have met here that have been absolutely great so I'm not giving up on getting to know the culture.

Hopefully more pictures soon to come!

Love and miss!

Water...Everywhere!

We've been hit hard the last three days by tropical storm Otto. Torrential downpours, high winds, and flooding everywhere! I have never seen rain like this before! We are in hurricane season and this is the worst it has been since I moved to St Kitts. Luckily we have kept power but the water has been out for the last day. School has continued but was canceled early today.

The pictures here are from my back blacony. Beyond the palm trees is a little pond. At the palm trees is where the pond usually stops. As you can see it over flooded and filled the lawn behind my room. Luckily I am on the second floor because the people below me woke up with a foot of water in their rooms this morning! The ripples in the water are fish that were in the pond but now are swimming in my back yard!

The other photos are flooded areas of the yard, as well as the pool.

On the up side I survived my exams! Not only survived but did really well. I'm very proud of the hard work I put into preparing. I'm developing a routine here (study, study, study, sleep) and it really seems to be paying off.

Some more exciting news....Tom has a ticket to come see me! I have already began the countdown until he gets here (42 days). I cannot wait to show him my life here and introduce him to all the amazing people I have met.

Rereading this entry I realize how terribly written it is. I apologize! I guess I only know how to read science textbooks now....

First Exam!

Just wanted to give everyone the heads up that I have my first medical school exam today! We have our Anatomy exam both lecture and lab portions today. I'm pretty calm at the moment but it may be because I literally have no energy left to do anything but be calm. All weekend was spent studying, a total of 24 hours logged at the library between Saturday and Sunday. I should be a genius after all that time, pretty sure that isn't the case. Wish me luck!

Picture of the cockroach I found on my floor when I woke up in the morning. Thought it was dead but it was very much alive. Left it laying there on its back for 12 hours while I was at the library. Came home and it was still alive! Leisa and I attempted to drown the poor little guy with All Purpose Cleaner. Amidst our screams and squeals, much to the dismay of our neighbors who were probably trying to sleep (it was one am), la cucharacha finally kicked the bucket. He's still laying on my floor in the same spot, I just keep walking around him.

You know what they say about cockroaches, you see one and it gives you good luck on anatomy exams....?