That post-exam bliss

I absolutely love the time after an exam has passed. That first week before panic has set in for how behind I am when I can still live like I'm on vacation.

Exams went decently, though no clinical skills grade yet. I'm not sure if they're planning on failing half the class (likely not) or how they're going to handle the fact that a great number of us aren't doing well in a class that used to be one of the no prob classes (probably when it was in St. Vincent's). They seem like a fair lot though. We have our OSCE exam next Tuesday which will be a large determinant in how grades go.

So what's been going on? Friday was the pharm exam. While being horrible, it wasn't half as horrible as the last one, probably because I took the "memorize the drugs" approach this time rather than the "read and understand" approach I took last time, which, given the nature of a class where the goal is to memorize drugs, was probably a stupid move.

I've progressively gone from acute panic attacks first term to "Oh my god I just don't care anymore", which has proven to be the better route. I'm also learning to sleep before exams. Thursday night, I was kind of in that place where I really didn't want to study anymore and was majorly tired of it, but was cranky in that sort of child throwing a tantrum (hence the video) way rather than some deep penetrating sort of fear. You know that stage where you're like "I COULD spend the next hour doing worm flashcards, but I so do not feel like it, but I still have six hours until bed time and can't justify spending it watching Scrubs reruns"?

So Friday night was the celebration of Krash's birthday, so we headed to Aquarium for a very nice dinner, Wayne sang to her, and it was all great fun. Saturday was my day for catching up sleep and bumming around doing nothing. Sunday was early rising for a cruise around the island, some hardcore waves up snorkeling, a BBQ off Sandy Island, a powerful rainstorm over some amazing rock formations, and great company, great rum punch. Dinner with Dave and then movie night with Krash, with popcorn and pie, plus Without a Paddle and Oceans 11, neither of which I've seen because I've been living in a cave.

Today was brief responsibility in the form of a surprisingly useful meeting on the boards and attaining a residency. Then that quickly gave way to a girls night at Ocean Grill, which is one of my favorite restaurants. Lori was showing Grenada to her visiting family, so we piled six people into a rented car and took off for St. George's. More wining and dining. And beering and pizzaing at Prickly Bay this coming Friday. What medical school?

That impression given to her family also makes me realize the lucky parts of living here again. Sailing, enjoying the beaches and general Caribbean life. Funny stories about the stuff we do in our precious free time. I realize I've had more 'recreation events' in the last two years than at any time in my life because we work so hard. So rather than having those blissful unemployed days of doing very little but playing Bloodrayne 2 for weeks, I'm Sandblasting or turtle watching or hashing or sailing (or sleeping in and watching tv, but you know).

Message of the day on the general meeting: THE STEP ONE IS THE MORE IMPORTANT EXAM YOU WILL EVER TAKE IN YOUR LIFE. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT SCREW THIS UP.

Eek. Message received. Also, although I've seen the "choose a specialty flow chart" before, it always cracks me up and was a great mood lightener to the meeting, as were the appropriately placed jokes in the speakers' routines ("No one told me we had a second exam!!!!" If there were only one exam, they wouldn't call it the Step 1. They'd just call it the Step.").

So that was good. Most of our "so you're gonna be a doctor" meetings are completely useless. I contemplating skipping this one in tradition with my general nature as a truant, but decided to stick it out and was glad I did.

Time to write a case report.

The struggle continues

to get something done and catch up my week's truancy.

Yesterday, I actually managed to be pretty productive, confirming that I indeed do not understand the first few hours of pharm and all it's pretty graphs, but it got better after that and I burned through that week's lectures.

Today... ooh... well, I watched the ending of Surf's Up, which despite being about surfing penguins, ended up being less soulless than the part of Happy Feet that I watched last term when I was also procrastinating. So then I settled in to really get into Autonomic Pharmacology, when I get a message from Lori asking if I want to go to the beach.

Well, yeah! I mean, I haven't been back to Grand Anse since I've been back, so totally justified, right? Right?

Good decision too; it was an absolutely perfect day. The water was a great temperature, and I saw a school of baby squid (squidlets?), a snake eel, two flying gernards, a bunch of arrow crabs, and so forth. Plus, it allowed me a few minutes to keep working on the non-tan I got in Europe. That's the tan you get when you look really really white, but when you pull up the arm of your t-shirt, you can see the vaguest line that shows where you are even whiter, and by contrast, it constitutes a tan. Or so I'm told.

So I choked in a little pharm after that, while shuffling in a much needed shower, laundry run, and dishwashing, so all together, I think that counts as being marginally productive this weekend.

Third term and American Airlines... again

Why do airlines hate me?

Let's recap some of my best moments over the last year:

Leaving Grenada (American Airlines): 6-8 hour delay in Grenada, missed connecting flight due to it, 2 hour delay in Puerto Rico, leading to necessity of staying in wrong state with no late meal vouchers, with fight over rechecking bag in the morning.

Returning to Grenada (Air Jamaica): Lost luggage for 5 days. Completely apathetic service personnel. Refusal to provide compensation. Told me luggage was arriving on days where AJ doesn't actually fly. Told me luggage wasn't coming in because a previous day's luggage was having to come in. Refusal to deliver bags once in, tried to refuse to give bags back at the airport until I finally snapped.

Leaving Grenada (American Airlines): After successful connections to Trinidad with Liat and JFK with Caribbean Airlines, lost luggage between JFK and Boston, American denied ever having the bag at all, had two people openly rude to me about it, found it in their care, and shipped it, so it arrived after two or so days.

Returning to Grenada (American Airlines): Left luggage in Miami due to tight turnaround from Boston to Miami because their plane arrived late (again). This time they acknowledge having it, but gave me the wrong number to contact in Trinidad, had the wrong number down for me, once corrected have never called it to update. At first, thought it was supposed to be picked up in Trinidad despite precise directions otherwise. Sent it 'right away' to Grenada last night via Liat. If you know anything about Liat, you can tell where this is going. Now, even American Airlines doesn't know where my bag is. On the plus side, unlike Air Jamaica, the baggage support personnel sound very sorry for it. Possibly due to the fact that this is the second time in a month.

Also, every time I have airline woes, I add more identifying features to my bag. I'm beginning to wonder if they're giving it less priority because it is becoming so very identifiable that they figure they can leave it behind because it'll be easy to find again. Next time, I'm sending my bag incognito. James Bond sunglasses and everything.

It's teaching me the value of just carrying everything on and never checking luggage again. Sure as hell made flying Liat easier. And Venezuela.

Third term. Bit slow so far, and I need to make sure I pay attention to statistics because I am famously bad at math, but it seems like a bit more of a "break" at this point, at least as is its reputation. Everything seems to be combined into one class, the instructors don't give me any trouble to date, so I just need to make sure I don't get complacent.

Did my main shopping today. For those keeping track, as of last viewing, IGA (local grocery store) was full up on many products but fresh out of others. Egg and American milk shortage, not nice potatoes/onions, but very well stocked in cereal, peanut butter/jelly, pasta, some of the veggies, a lot of frozen foods, frozen meats, but not fresh meats.

For incomings, when you go to IGA for the first time, particularly if you're somewhat late coming, do not be freaked out by the fact that the shelves are picked clean and they're out of everything. You will not starve to death. Egg shortages can sometimes be circumvented by seeing if D store has them (though they sometimes run out too), and there used to be an egg guy who came to campus, but I'm not sure if he still does.

Early on, as everyone either has their "won't get any food" panic or, like me, is just restocking their larder from the break, the incidence of the store running out of popular products will increase drastically. This eases a lot as people's shopping schedules space out, but Friday is still the main day that IGA restocks, so that's when most people go. If you really really want a popular product, go then. If you really really don't like being in heavily crowded areas, do what I do, and if they're out of what you need, shrug and go back another time. Plus,occasionally you will find variation, like going in on a Wednesday and find them stocked with stuff they were out of on Friday.

If you're running low on critical products, and want a way of getting a second shot, it may also be worth checking out the CK that's on the corner next to the Texaco on the Grand Anse/True Blue bus route. Just look for the Texaco station and get out there, as it's on that corner. There's a grocery store there that is seldom used. It's not as pretty, but if IGA has been picked clean by the incoming class, a lot of people either don't know about CK or don't go in there anyway.

There's Food Fairs on the Mont Tout route, in downtown St. George's near the Saturday spice market or en route to St. George's. In the latter two cases, get a reggae bus.

Most of the time, I admit, I'm lazy and go to IGA.

If anyone really wants the super fresh fish, IGA's selection of it is poor to nonexistent. Best place to go is the Fish Market in downtown St. George's, by taking a number 1 reggae bus (two and a half EC) to the bus station and it's right near there. You'll also get to see town.

Felix Who?

Nothing like a tropical storm to screw up your Fish Friday. Had fun anyway, so take that weather and Tropical Storm/Depression/Whatever Felix.

I was planning on going to Fish Friday in Gouyave with David and some other people yesterday, but when we called a friend who was organizing the taxi, apparently all the Fish Friday people were canceling due to nasty weather on the other side of the island (to be honest, the weather on this side of the island wasn't too hot). The taxi driver, who was not, incidentally, Robert DeNiro, said he'd still take us, but didn't recommend it, as there was some sort of tropical depression. Apparently, Felix essentially formed ON Grenada. Thanks, weather gods.

(For the uninitiated, Fish Friday is a really cool weekly giant feast/giant party in Gouyave, aka, to Grenada, the town that doesn't sleep (or at least, doesn't roll up the sidewalks at 9 PM). It features tons of fresh fish, alcohol, music, alcohol, and more fish... and alcohol. It's way over on the other side of the island, hence the slightly different weather conditions, which makes it a really Grenadian affair rather than being completely dominated by and catering to students as a lot of stuff in True Blue and Grand Anse is Fun, right?)

So after much waffling, punctuated by the weather over here going nuts and providing sporadic bits of torrential downpour and thunder that sounded like the upstairs neighbors were dropping anvils, we decided on not going. Le sigh. But two weeks, baby! Two weeks! We will go!!

David and I were determining whether we'd be up for simply staying in, maybe renting some movies, or going out to do something. Since we were both kind of disappointed by the Fish Friday thing, we decided to not only go out to dinner but go someplace a bit farther away that we hadn't been to. Since Dave's only been to St. George's proper once before, we grabbed the school bus, then the reggae bus out to the Carenage in search of a place I'd seen before (but hadn't been to) that literally juts out onto the water, detained a bit by a soaked child that first asked for clothes, and then asked to get on the bus with us. Argh. What is it with Grenadian children that want me to kidnap them? I'm not taking an unknown young child into town on the bus and abandoning him on a Friday night when he's already in grand Anse, indicating that he in some way belongs there. Hard though, because I never know what exactly to do.

Anyway, Dave and I grabbed the reggae bus and made it into town, where they dropped us off almost on top of the restaurant. Sweet! And there was a pause in the rain where it was only sort of half drizzling, so we even got in without being drenched to the skin. I don't remember the name of the place exactly, but it's the place on the Carenage ON the water, so you can't miss it, but we had a wonderful meal that made us feel like we were on vacation rather than in med school (atmosphere's good) and watched the boats (probably full of really relieved sailors) come in and the lighting flash on the hills. That was some *serious* lightning going on last night.

After our meal, we grabbed another bus back to Grand Anse, with the bus driver stopping on the way for what was either weed or a sandwich, and there was a break in the music just long enough to hear the TROPICAL STORM warning for Grenada. Looks like we made the right call! Caught the campus bus almost immediately and headed back...

And what a scene that was... I was on Skype while opening my mom-presents (which are awesome, and I now have pots, pans, a water filter, and a thousand New Englandy memorabilia items, including (gasp!) maple sugar candy), when I heard HOWLING from outside and opened to the door to a scene straight off the weather channel. Sideways rain, sideways palm trees, grass and dirt flying, deafening winds, yeesh!

For reference, growing up in California, even with a stint in (inland) North Carolina did not expose me to weather like that, thus yes, to me a tropical storm is pretty damn impressive, though I'm sure I'll catch it from all the people that have been through a real hurricane, which I fortunately have not.

They've been expanding the harbor (I think) in back, so there was some flooding, but none in my apartment, fortunately, though as the water levels rose, it was starting to be a little nerveracking, so I pulled all my electronics off the ground before going to sleep.

So no Fish Friday for me, but a great little evening in St. George's... oh, followed by music comparison and the ceremonial watching of youtube videos, which brings me to some of the funniest stuff I've seen this year. Have I mentioned I have a sick sense of humor?

Warning: do not click this link if you are easily offended... or not so easily offended... or don't want your childhood innocence regarding Kermit the Frog ruined. Don't say I didn't warn you. Oh, and may not be appropriate... okay DEFINITELY not appropriate for children under... oh, probably 30.

Annie, Annie, are you OK?

Is it politically incorrect to say I hate renewing my CPR cert?

Ah well, at least I didn't get stuck in a combined total of six hours of fun like the uncertified other half of the school did. Nope, it was the fast track for me on Friday night while the unfortunates had their *first* CPR lectures. Oh, and they changed it AGAIN. Guys, seriously, as my check off person was telling me (among other extremely useful tidbits for making connections), just beat on their chests and breathe in their mouths in SOME ratio, the exact one doesn't matter, until someone gets there with an AED. The patient ain't getting any deader. Oh, you used the old ratio of 5 to 1 instead of 30 to 2!! If only you'd gone with the new system, she'd be riding a bike in no time! No.

Anyway, my liberation bhy means of doing this all before left me a weekend of fun, while bemoaning, on their behalf, that our first week of classes in the Caribbean was terminated NOT by a drunken bash (unless you count that stoplight party that I skipped out on), but by more classes! Tsk! Not nice, SGU! Some of us still haven't seen Grand Anse!

Speaking of stoplight parties, what the hell? You wear colored buttons to allegedly note your willingness to party. I have a different interpretation:

Green: Total slut mode. One beer and I'm yours. Maybe even half a beer.
Yellow: I'm cheating on my spouse, so try to be good looking.
Red: My spouse is at this party. Slip me your phone number discreetly.

I could have partied at la casa de Sej y Melissa, but de Sej has gone into full responsibility mode and is studying like there's no tomorrow, which should be the procrastinator's oath. Sigh... party girl, where art thou?

So I've decided to instead balance my options by spending the beginning of yesterday going into the market at St. George's and securing myself a number of tasty, fresh items including veggies, most notably potatoes because there's only so much "Irish" the Caribbean can fix before one reverts. I'm only hoping my more prominent Scottish ancestry doesn't take over so I start feeling the overwhelming urge to eat sheep organs. While shopping, Lori and I partook in buying a couple of coconuts, freshly macheted, and spent a happy hour drinking the milk. Med school? We're in what?

I also went to the fish market, learned you should go early in the morning, not late in the day, but was able to secure some sailfish for my roommate's promised fish curry, which I've wanted to learn how to make.

AND, on the way back from the Saturday market by way of the bus depot, I finally didn't get ripped off by a city bus! Hooray! I've been accepted. There were 11 of us, I believe, crammed into the van, token reggae music blasting for ambiance, and the seater/money taker half sitting in my lap because I was taking up his leg room with a blender (smoothies!), a bag full of fish, a bag full of fruits and vegetables, and a chunk of sugar cane. Sorry, seater/money taker.

The way this generally works is the city buses have a driver, who may or may not be partaking in ganga (ours wasn't), and a guy that sits behind and takes the money and reorganizes people, apparently into the least deadly configuration. When someone gets off or on, this triggers rearrangement, which may involve everyone getting off and getting back on. It's groovy. If you read other things, this is punctuated by screeching, death defying hairpin turns through town, but I haven't found them particularly terrifying. I wouldn't want to drive here necessarily because it's a great place for a lot of fender benders and close calls, but compared to what I've read about the Autobahn? Bah. It's also *supposed* to be 2 bucks (EC) for adults (kids in school uniforms get a discount), but I've been largely getting hosed for 3-5, but not anymore! Caught the SGU bus back from the stop and studied hard for about 5 hours with a Scrubs break in between. Hooray iTunes!!! I also grabbed Pirates 2 while I was on there, because Johnny Depp makes me smile. Rowl... though there is a high body count in that movie; I'd imagine it would scare the hell out of a lot of children, but what do I care? Jack Sparrow!!!

For dinner, I felt full incorporation into island life by sitting comfortably in my dorm room, air conditioner off at about 79 degrees, eating a fish curry, and channa scooped up with roti. Combined with not getting ripped off the busses, I feel practically local, well... except for the sunburn.

Today, I will be maximizing responsibility by going to the beach. I will give a nod to said responsibility by bringing a book I will likely not open in the duration, but I really want to see Grand Anse and haven't yet walked on its splendor.

I also discovered, with Lori's help, the black sand beach ON CAMPUS. Okay, I previously thought the black sand beach was the beach right near my dorm which actually doesn't look great for swimming. It has some overturned boats, some wires and fishing lines and occasionally produces a funny smell. It's really pretty from the dorm, but not wildy swimmable.

People caution you about the contamination of the black sand beach and not swimming there. Hello? The actual one is beautiful and features a number of not-germaphobic students that swim there regularly, as I will be doing soon. Absolutely gorgeous and a thirty second walk from the Bell lecture hall. Just don't open your mouth.

Dear Diary...

Slightly different format tonight, since I actually wrote this earlier using (gasp) a pen and paper!

I'd have liked to have been here a week before ending up in the hospital. Sigh. I guess I'll hard copy this blog here, seeing as I have nothing better to do. It's an experience though; it would not be at all a good one if I miss the White Coat ceremony.

I'll continue from where I was last night... running out of chicken at the BBQ.

There was a scheduled dormitory meeting at 8 with a *scheduled* party beginning at 10, sponsored by your friendly neighborhood Student Government Association, whose motto seems to be "Chug! Chug! Chug!" Dorm orientation was inexplicably canceled, thus... free time!

Hanging outside Superdorm 1 (my home away from... well... somewhere), I ran into Crazy Cool Chicks 1 & 2, known to mortals as Sej and Melissa, who I initially, inexplicably, mistook for RAs. Hoo boy. I think it was the nametags. Sej appointed herself nametag queen, and before the end of the night, I became Ishie, aka Miss Maleficent. I have to wait the four years before I can be Dr. Maleficent. I was lucky though. Lori ended the night as "Likes it Wet" due to my telling Sej (aka Team Asshole) that she's a swimmer. You're welcome, Lori.

We headed to La Casa (sala?) de Sej y Melissa for Tequila and Death Cab. Good times.

Party was at Aquarium (a bar/restaurant, not a place to watch fish), which is an awesome place on the beach. My choice drink, after hooking up with Lori and David... remember David? was to indulge in a rum and pineapple juice; Caribbean style!

After some ill advised (thank you, security, though he was cool about it) high tide wading, which is apparently dangerous even on Grenada, and a round of Caribs (no Piton? The horror!), I was making my way, NOT drunkenly yet, actually, up to the bar to attempt to get actually inebriated (mildly, I still had Jager regret syndrome), slipped off the edge of the stone path where it met the grass, and as I was falling, felt/heard my ankle make the *pop* heard round my brain.

Ruh Roh.

Yeah... so I knew I was in trouble before I even hit the ground or the pain crescendoed. It's a word now.

Concerned 1st years surrounded me. Beware of injuring yourself around medical students because they ALL have basic medical training and they are ALL VERY eager to use it. So to avoid receiving CPR from enthusiastic bystanders (everyone was actually quite nice), I stood up quickly to go to the washroom and felt... reeeealllly spacey/nauseated and had the presence of mind to realize that my head needed to be at the same level as my feet soon or it would happen involuntarily.

I staggered to the beach and collapsed in the sand to cries of "Whoa, is she all right?" Great. Classes haven't even STARTED and I'm already the school lush. And I wasn't even particularly drunk! The night before, on the other hand...

Rupa, another chick from the dorm, won the battle of relevant medical training and had the ankle on ice getting rapped, and then Team Bravo, aka Lori and David, agreed to give up their night's festivities to aid me home. A taxi was secured by people that had already started leaving (10 in a taxi got him to only charge us 5 bucks apiece!) and Team Bravo half carried me up the stairs for a night of icing and elevating. Fun.

Was I going to let this stop me or foolishly press on? Take a guess. Not a smart move. Due tot he student health center being closed on weekends, I hopped it. We had a, er, less than interesting convocation to met deans and professors in a bit of brilliant planning by the SGA. A "screw off; we're hungover" vibe hung in the air, since the majority of the entering class had dragged in around 4 in the morning, reeking of spirit... or spirits.

After the ordeal, er honorific ceremony, I decided to do some hopalong shopping at IGA, the grocery store in Spiceland Mall, aka On The Bus Route.

First off, anyone claiming Grenada doesn't have adequate amenities in the grocery department is smoking crack or lazy. Pringles, mama celeste pizzas, cadbury candy (!!!), hot pockets, beef, pork, bread, hummus, and generally, a thousand familiar brands. Unbelievable! Expensive as hell, but stuff's cheaper off the bus route.

One source of complaint is that they run out of stuff if you don't go on a Saturday since the shipment comes in Friday. So go on Saturday. Big whoop. They didn't have eggs when I went (sniff, no omelets), but I'm sure that a brief trip to Food Fair would have solved it if I hadn't been lazy, but you're NOT going to go hungry. Do watch the prices though. Some things are very reasonable (like cheese!); and other things, like hot pockets, make you pay out the... nose for the convenience. Spend accordingly.

Back to the dorm and onto the Orientation Bazaar. Fun, food music, far into the night, thus I grabbed my samosas, ran into Jesse from EMT class and Gross Anatomy at Davis (Aggies!!!), and headed to the dorms with a visit from David, who sweetly checked to see if my foot had fallen off.

Oh... notable. THREE, count em, three scuba shops at the bazaar. Wahoo! Though now it looks like I won't be able to dive for a while.

This morning, it was the professionalism class (which I was late to, d'oh!) and then straight to the clinic.

Something about severe inflammation, excessive heat when palpated, torn ligaments, and not walking on it.

Whoops.

Well... I only walked on it for a couple days... and... and... it didn't hurt *that* much!

So after a brief argument about beginning lecture and the White Coat ceremony, it was decided that I was, in fact, being transported to the hospital in St. George's for x-ray. I'll be getting casted for 3-4 weeks. I'm not sure if I have to meet with a probation officer afterward. Sigh.

The hospital is all right though, perfectly functional, despite my trepidation about x-rays in developing nations. They didn't give me a lead vest to wear, which is fine, because I don't want kids anyway. Air conditioning would have been nice though.

But fast! I'm already out, waiting for my ride thanks to the nurse letting me borrow her cell phone. Just as effective, if not more so, than the states thus far. Good motto for us "The United States! Our medical care is almost as good as, if not as good as, the care on a developing nation in the Caribbean!"

And the view! From outside the hospital, I'm overlooking the ocean, which is the most unimaginably gorgeous shade of light turquoise. Big fluffy clouds and the whole number. Paradise... well, hospital paradise at any rate, and they didn't even give me any drugs.