Or so they say!
Yesterday, got an email saying I was good for Brooklyn, which makes me really happy.
Today, went Monterey diving for the first time in nearly 3 years, though camera-less so I wouldn't be task loaded, but I still felt really comfortable in the cold water, though towards the end of the dives, on the chilly end of comfortable, but the big thing is...
Sea lions! And harbor seals!
Grenada: eels, wrecks, sharks that are big enough to be awesome but lack the interest or size potential to eat you, significantly lower hypothermia potential.
Monterey: Rocks encrusted with life, giant anenomes; furry marine mammals that periodically dive bomb you, kelp forests, opportunity to wear giant dive knife strapped to leg which looks really badass even though it's just used for kelp.
So hard to choose; why not do both? Grenada had a ton of things I absolutely loved, but there is nothing quite like having a sea lion loop you. Granted, they have the same bite potential as a bear, but they are extremely freaking cute.
Happy Cinco de Mayo! Well, technically now, Seis de Mayo.
Showing posts with label diving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diving. Show all posts
May 6, 2009
Feb 19, 2008
Stop hiding and start living with... TEQUILA!
Also known for its kicking drumbeat. Tequila!
Though its social benefits don't work well for me, since I'm a rum/vodka/insanely girly drinks person, thus when I drink tequila, I tend to make that hideous tequila/whiskey face people make when they've consumed something similarly toxic... like rancid dog's milk, which doesn't make friends and influence people. Is there a similar effect for the nutmeg-infused pina coladas at Big Fish? Because those are *good*.
And no, not drinking, but the faux commercial was a fun diversion between lectures.
The other one was identification of "beaches of Grenada", which I am just pathetic at. I couldn't even identify Aquarium Beach despite collapsing on it after I sprained my ankle. I can do wrecks of Grenada though, including the original R(h)um Runner(RIP) so nautical partygoers, be advised -- THIS could happen to YOU:
I think there should be an additional category for alcohol abuse beyond hazardous situations when an eel swims through your wet bar. Might have been a helpful diagnostic criterion for the captain of the Valdez, come to think of it.
In other lecture news, I've been living in a cave thus didn't know I don't get to take the Hippocratic Oath when/if I graduate. Some might say the plus side of this is that I don't have to bail my profs out of financial difficulties as stated, but since according to the IRS, I make negative money, I think I'm exempt, and I think if Hippocrates had seen my last filing, he'd have agreed with me. The negative side is that if I don't get to swear to Apollo, what's the point in becoming a doctor?
Though its social benefits don't work well for me, since I'm a rum/vodka/insanely girly drinks person, thus when I drink tequila, I tend to make that hideous tequila/whiskey face people make when they've consumed something similarly toxic... like rancid dog's milk, which doesn't make friends and influence people. Is there a similar effect for the nutmeg-infused pina coladas at Big Fish? Because those are *good*.
And no, not drinking, but the faux commercial was a fun diversion between lectures.
The other one was identification of "beaches of Grenada", which I am just pathetic at. I couldn't even identify Aquarium Beach despite collapsing on it after I sprained my ankle. I can do wrecks of Grenada though, including the original R(h)um Runner(RIP) so nautical partygoers, be advised -- THIS could happen to YOU:
I think there should be an additional category for alcohol abuse beyond hazardous situations when an eel swims through your wet bar. Might have been a helpful diagnostic criterion for the captain of the Valdez, come to think of it.
In other lecture news, I've been living in a cave thus didn't know I don't get to take the Hippocratic Oath when/if I graduate. Some might say the plus side of this is that I don't have to bail my profs out of financial difficulties as stated, but since according to the IRS, I make negative money, I think I'm exempt, and I think if Hippocrates had seen my last filing, he'd have agreed with me. The negative side is that if I don't get to swear to Apollo, what's the point in becoming a doctor?
Feb 17, 2008
Da seaweed is always bluer
When your hotshoe wiring comes unseated during your backroll into the water, so you have no external flash on your camera.
That may need some translation...
I went diving today! Wahoo! Which marked my second dive on the stunning, the beautiful, Bianca C, a cruise ship that sank into the 50s and is now sitting with its props around 150 feet (haven't been all the way down there) and its pool around 90 feet down. For those unfamiliar with the properties of light as you descend, colors start getting filtered out the deeper you go, with red taking off in a hurry.
Your brain can somewhat compensate for this so you'll think you saw colors that you didn't. Your camera, sadly, cannot, thus any color you get down around 100 feet other than blue is going to be due to the light you bring with you.
Since I'm an idiot and hadn't had my camera underwater for a while, I forgot that the seating to my hot shoe (which I wire to my external flash) is loose and will not stay in place if the camera is jarred at all (like by holding onto it and falling backwards off a boat) unless I have jammed a small piece of rubber into it. Sadly, I had not.
But we're just going to call this heavily photoshopped one "artsy" instead of "drained all the blue out of it and added aged newspaper effects, so it looks in some way, deliberate:
The nice thing about camera woes is that it means all the cool critters come out to play. So I tried to do the best with what I had, since I could use the camera's own flash to get some color back, though it does tend to cast weird shadows when I do that:
This guy stuck around for a while and even let a couple of us touch its shell! Anyone know what species it is? I can't tell turtles apart.
Spotted eagle ray sightings!!!!
Dive 2 was in Sponge Valley and I botched the ending of it. I was trying to get some pictures of an uncooperative little moray eel (which didn't turn out), when I realized I'd been hanging out for too long and turned back to see which way the group had gone.
Whoopsies. So I headed in the direction they'd been going for a little while, because since this is a boat dive, I had no idea where I was, and what was overhead, so hoped I could figure out where the divemaster was... until I got a bit low on air, so thought "dammit, I'm stupid; I'll go up" and heard an increasingly loud buzzing noise.
Ya know what sucks? Being low on air, knowing there's a boat over you *somewhere*, not knowing where, but knowing it's way bigger than YOUR boat, and additionally realizing that in your rush to leave the house, you left your surface marker at home so you can't even send it up as a signal to politely ask the unseen vessel to change course and not chop you to chum in its propellers.
Sigh. It's like an idiot sandwich. So I decided to chill out around 15 feet and burn the rest of my air and wait it out, since going out of air at 15 feet is not ideal but doable, but getting hit by a Carnival cruise ship pretty much only has one outcome.
Good decision too. Not thirty seconds after I'd decided to hang out, a LARGE Heineken catamaran passed directly over my head, twin props spinning (Heineken, what up? I thought we were friends!). So I surfaced sheepishly with a little air left, and our boat captain was polite enough to not make me pay the penance of swimming all the way over to the rest of the group and came over to pick me up. Didn't even get yelled at. Good people. Good dives.
Since I hadn't made enough stupid decisions for one day, I decided to lazily dry off in the sun, forgetting that sunburns don't show up instantly, so now I'm a bright flush shade of painful scarlet. On the plus side, my legs finally have some color.
So I had an incredibly fun day, despite my efforts to the contrary, and got to play with turtles and rays on a sunken wreck. This makes it so very much harder to pick back up and study like a good girl. It's also notable that though I haven't been to lecture since the first week of class, I hopped right out of bed at 7:15 to go diving. Priorities?
That may need some translation...
I went diving today! Wahoo! Which marked my second dive on the stunning, the beautiful, Bianca C, a cruise ship that sank into the 50s and is now sitting with its props around 150 feet (haven't been all the way down there) and its pool around 90 feet down. For those unfamiliar with the properties of light as you descend, colors start getting filtered out the deeper you go, with red taking off in a hurry.
Your brain can somewhat compensate for this so you'll think you saw colors that you didn't. Your camera, sadly, cannot, thus any color you get down around 100 feet other than blue is going to be due to the light you bring with you.
Since I'm an idiot and hadn't had my camera underwater for a while, I forgot that the seating to my hot shoe (which I wire to my external flash) is loose and will not stay in place if the camera is jarred at all (like by holding onto it and falling backwards off a boat) unless I have jammed a small piece of rubber into it. Sadly, I had not.
But we're just going to call this heavily photoshopped one "artsy" instead of "drained all the blue out of it and added aged newspaper effects, so it looks in some way, deliberate:
The nice thing about camera woes is that it means all the cool critters come out to play. So I tried to do the best with what I had, since I could use the camera's own flash to get some color back, though it does tend to cast weird shadows when I do that:
This guy stuck around for a while and even let a couple of us touch its shell! Anyone know what species it is? I can't tell turtles apart.
Spotted eagle ray sightings!!!!
Dive 2 was in Sponge Valley and I botched the ending of it. I was trying to get some pictures of an uncooperative little moray eel (which didn't turn out), when I realized I'd been hanging out for too long and turned back to see which way the group had gone.
Whoopsies. So I headed in the direction they'd been going for a little while, because since this is a boat dive, I had no idea where I was, and what was overhead, so hoped I could figure out where the divemaster was... until I got a bit low on air, so thought "dammit, I'm stupid; I'll go up" and heard an increasingly loud buzzing noise.
Ya know what sucks? Being low on air, knowing there's a boat over you *somewhere*, not knowing where, but knowing it's way bigger than YOUR boat, and additionally realizing that in your rush to leave the house, you left your surface marker at home so you can't even send it up as a signal to politely ask the unseen vessel to change course and not chop you to chum in its propellers.
Sigh. It's like an idiot sandwich. So I decided to chill out around 15 feet and burn the rest of my air and wait it out, since going out of air at 15 feet is not ideal but doable, but getting hit by a Carnival cruise ship pretty much only has one outcome.
Good decision too. Not thirty seconds after I'd decided to hang out, a LARGE Heineken catamaran passed directly over my head, twin props spinning (Heineken, what up? I thought we were friends!). So I surfaced sheepishly with a little air left, and our boat captain was polite enough to not make me pay the penance of swimming all the way over to the rest of the group and came over to pick me up. Didn't even get yelled at. Good people. Good dives.
Since I hadn't made enough stupid decisions for one day, I decided to lazily dry off in the sun, forgetting that sunburns don't show up instantly, so now I'm a bright flush shade of painful scarlet. On the plus side, my legs finally have some color.
So I had an incredibly fun day, despite my efforts to the contrary, and got to play with turtles and rays on a sunken wreck. This makes it so very much harder to pick back up and study like a good girl. It's also notable that though I haven't been to lecture since the first week of class, I hopped right out of bed at 7:15 to go diving. Priorities?
Nov 16, 2007
My birthday ROCKED!
Oh yes, it did.
Quickly, to the fellow student that contacted me on the insomnia post, I posted an answer under yours, so I hope that helps.
Continuing... it's been a couple weeks of birthdays here. We celebrated Ashley's for lunch at Coyaba, did Jay's 24 hour birthday bender, consisting of him jumping onstage (after invitation) with the band at Prickly Bay resort and rocking his trombone (no, seriously; he has a trombone; that's not a euphemism for anything) after lunch at La Bo, the surge party at the Victory Bar which we absolutely did NOT have to carry him home from, and so it goes.
For my birthday, let me tell you what my ideal birthday was: I wanted my parents to email me, some nice birthday emails from my friends from afar, a pleasant dinner at Aquarium with my friends here, House night, and then dive the next day.
Simple. Basic. Happy.
My birthday bitchslapped my expectations and I have awesome friends, parents, boyfriend, and cooperative marine life.
All sorts of emailed well wishes, which I greatly appreciate to you guys out there, and thank you. Got a birthday card from my mom via snail mail. Went to small group, which went well, and still was happy, but didn't really feel like it was my birthday, and that was fine.
Met up to head out to Aquarium with Nina, Ashley, David, and Jay. It's a pretty restaurant with good food that I've forgiven for contributing to my persistently troubling ankle sprain I sustained first term. Everyone was wonderful, we had a great meal, and Ashley whipped out the brownies she'd baked herself and stuck in the candles as everyone sang happy birthday.
AWWWWWWWW.
Dave had apparently been in cohorts with my mom, she'd sent him a bunch of presents for me, that he'd finished wrapping (they had to be partially open because of customs), so I could have wrapped presents on my birthday which he whipped out and presented to me at dinner.
AWWWWWWWW.
Then Dave pulled out his present to me. At first, I pretty much saw an SGU bear in surgical top and mask (it was commented that he can't be a real SGU student because he's not wearing a scrub top with shorts and flip flops, like most people in gross lab) that they sell at the bookstore that I'd said I thought was really cute and thought about getting, so I was thrilled he'd remembered that...
Until I realized that strapped to its chest; however, was an American Airlines ticket envelope containing a US dollar, 5 EC, 5 Euro, and 10 tien gulden (Netherlands Antilles). He said something to the effect of him knowing how much I like seeing new countries and getting my passport stamped (I'm a dork), so over Easter, we were gonna do four countries in four days: the US (Puerto Rico), St. Marten (Netherlands), Sint Maarten (France), and Anguilla.
So essentially, my jaw was hanging open for the rest of the meal, the check for which he picked up. Whoa.
And Jay piped up with throwing in the departure tax, since he's apparently known about this and is just that awesome (along with Nina, who's gonna teach me how to make foccacia because I'm addicted to it) at keeping secrets.
THEN it was back to my apartment for House night, which we arrived just in time for.
Woke up the next morning, still encompassed by the awesomeness of my friends and family, to go diving.
Dived the Bianca C, which I've wanted to dive since... well, before I came to the island the first time, and five minutes into the dive, the divemaster pointed up to indicate there was a giant spotted eagle ray above us. We moved toward the forward mast of the ship, which was fairly thick with barracuda, as shown:
This wreck is many degrees of awesome in and of itself, by the way, and it was also my deepest dive at max depth of 125 feet, and to scuba divers out there, yes, I did feel pretty narced. I'm apparently a cheap date.
Second dive was beautiful and involved spending half of it chasing the first sea turtle I've seen since coming to Grenada, which came close enough to me that I could touch its shell.
All in all, a birthday that was supposed to be a "I hope this day is actually less suckful than the usual day to day activity of being under constant stress" became seventeen different varieties of awesome. Thank you to all!
Quickly, to the fellow student that contacted me on the insomnia post, I posted an answer under yours, so I hope that helps.
Continuing... it's been a couple weeks of birthdays here. We celebrated Ashley's for lunch at Coyaba, did Jay's 24 hour birthday bender, consisting of him jumping onstage (after invitation) with the band at Prickly Bay resort and rocking his trombone (no, seriously; he has a trombone; that's not a euphemism for anything) after lunch at La Bo, the surge party at the Victory Bar which we absolutely did NOT have to carry him home from, and so it goes.
For my birthday, let me tell you what my ideal birthday was: I wanted my parents to email me, some nice birthday emails from my friends from afar, a pleasant dinner at Aquarium with my friends here, House night, and then dive the next day.
Simple. Basic. Happy.
My birthday bitchslapped my expectations and I have awesome friends, parents, boyfriend, and cooperative marine life.
All sorts of emailed well wishes, which I greatly appreciate to you guys out there, and thank you. Got a birthday card from my mom via snail mail. Went to small group, which went well, and still was happy, but didn't really feel like it was my birthday, and that was fine.
Met up to head out to Aquarium with Nina, Ashley, David, and Jay. It's a pretty restaurant with good food that I've forgiven for contributing to my persistently troubling ankle sprain I sustained first term. Everyone was wonderful, we had a great meal, and Ashley whipped out the brownies she'd baked herself and stuck in the candles as everyone sang happy birthday.
AWWWWWWWW.
Dave had apparently been in cohorts with my mom, she'd sent him a bunch of presents for me, that he'd finished wrapping (they had to be partially open because of customs), so I could have wrapped presents on my birthday which he whipped out and presented to me at dinner.
AWWWWWWWW.
Then Dave pulled out his present to me. At first, I pretty much saw an SGU bear in surgical top and mask (it was commented that he can't be a real SGU student because he's not wearing a scrub top with shorts and flip flops, like most people in gross lab) that they sell at the bookstore that I'd said I thought was really cute and thought about getting, so I was thrilled he'd remembered that...
Until I realized that strapped to its chest; however, was an American Airlines ticket envelope containing a US dollar, 5 EC, 5 Euro, and 10 tien gulden (Netherlands Antilles). He said something to the effect of him knowing how much I like seeing new countries and getting my passport stamped (I'm a dork), so over Easter, we were gonna do four countries in four days: the US (Puerto Rico), St. Marten (Netherlands), Sint Maarten (France), and Anguilla.
So essentially, my jaw was hanging open for the rest of the meal, the check for which he picked up. Whoa.
And Jay piped up with throwing in the departure tax, since he's apparently known about this and is just that awesome (along with Nina, who's gonna teach me how to make foccacia because I'm addicted to it) at keeping secrets.
THEN it was back to my apartment for House night, which we arrived just in time for.
Woke up the next morning, still encompassed by the awesomeness of my friends and family, to go diving.
Dived the Bianca C, which I've wanted to dive since... well, before I came to the island the first time, and five minutes into the dive, the divemaster pointed up to indicate there was a giant spotted eagle ray above us. We moved toward the forward mast of the ship, which was fairly thick with barracuda, as shown:
This wreck is many degrees of awesome in and of itself, by the way, and it was also my deepest dive at max depth of 125 feet, and to scuba divers out there, yes, I did feel pretty narced. I'm apparently a cheap date.
Second dive was beautiful and involved spending half of it chasing the first sea turtle I've seen since coming to Grenada, which came close enough to me that I could touch its shell.
All in all, a birthday that was supposed to be a "I hope this day is actually less suckful than the usual day to day activity of being under constant stress" became seventeen different varieties of awesome. Thank you to all!
Oct 22, 2007
Not quite the "bender"...
Problem being that during first term, you finish midterms and then have a week before Sandblast. In second term, it's the day after your last midterm.
I was planning the sort of self-indulgent bender that killed Hendrix, when I discovered something: Midterms are Tiring.
Friday after the exam? How about some lunch at the mall, a trombone concert outside, home for some vegetation, and then a quiet dinner at the local pasta joint after getting kicked out of Coyaba because they suddenly decided to enforce a dress code (in the Caribbean??) and were going to grant us the distinct honor of sitting off from everyone else in an area that wouldn't get waited on, but we'd get to pay the same price. Er, no. Then? Hang at my apartment with friends.
So Saturday; THAT'S the day everyone parties, right? I can sleep off the no sleep before neuro, wake up at noon and party hard? Except, it's kind of rainy, I WANT to feel like partying but really don't, and my cupboard has been stripped to nothingness by midterms. So I'll just go shopping. But that takes awhile, and then Sandblast is over, and oh, gosh darn I missed it and it was pretty expensive, and there's an after party at Aquarium, but there's parties like that all the time, so no need for this one, so quiet night hanging with Nina and watching Fight Club. Ahhh...
This, at first, made me feel like a loser (the skipping partying; not the hanging with friends), until I realized that nearly all the second termers I ran into were doing the same thing. That week sucked.
So how'd it go? I passed everything. Which means Ishie Happy. It also means Ishie's standards have lowered significantly from "I'm going to try for straight As" to the post midterm/pre grade posted "Gee, I hope I get an 'F' high enough I can bring up during finals".
Neuro... sucked for me, though the test was fair. Was going to pull a deliberate (Ishie, Ishie, you never learn) all nighter to learn everything I could, particularly in neurodevelopment, which I'd been neglecting. Because cramming the entire night before an exam during a week where you've used up all your mental reserves and are living off dry honey nut cheerios because you ran out of everything else is a good idea.
This meant in the exam, I got the distinct pleasure of nearly passing out. Fantastic. Stress + sleeplessness = Health problems. I was sitting there, heard humming, thought "no way", started sweating profusely, and nearly dropped. Asked for a restroom run, which of course is highly moderated (thanks, cheating microbio students that screwed up the privilage of going to the bathroom by yourself, for that, by the way), and they apparently had my number and I put my head down and drank water, which recharged my batteries, so I burned through the rest of the exam.
Someone, fairly close to the exam, said "Don't expect neuro to be any easier than physio", which considering physio was harder than giving birth to an rabid adult Saint Bernard is less than encouraging.
Er... your results may vary, but neuro was easier than physio. It was not easy; don't get me wrong, and was made far more difficult by virtue of it being the last exam. But while the physio exam almost seemed deadset on punishing you for knowing ALMOST enough but not quite enough, the neuro exam seemed to, for the most part, hit on key points that were made. The questions were fairly straightforward with a few curve balls, and many of them answered other questions within the test. Oh, though guys? Venom properties? An aside paragraph in one handout? One question, but c'mon now. Ask me about tetanus. I know about tetanus.
But so my "party weekend" was really more of a "Ahhhh.... I can relax and lounge without feeling GUILTY" weekend. Which I really like. This was punctuated today by diving with Lori. Hooray for diving! I went out on the water for the first time in 6 months and just the sensation of being back in the water was wonderful. No pictures I'm afraid, since I was reorienting and didn't want to mess with my camera.
And tonight? I learned to properly make lentils, which should carve a substantial slice off my food budget.
I was planning the sort of self-indulgent bender that killed Hendrix, when I discovered something: Midterms are Tiring.
Friday after the exam? How about some lunch at the mall, a trombone concert outside, home for some vegetation, and then a quiet dinner at the local pasta joint after getting kicked out of Coyaba because they suddenly decided to enforce a dress code (in the Caribbean??) and were going to grant us the distinct honor of sitting off from everyone else in an area that wouldn't get waited on, but we'd get to pay the same price. Er, no. Then? Hang at my apartment with friends.
So Saturday; THAT'S the day everyone parties, right? I can sleep off the no sleep before neuro, wake up at noon and party hard? Except, it's kind of rainy, I WANT to feel like partying but really don't, and my cupboard has been stripped to nothingness by midterms. So I'll just go shopping. But that takes awhile, and then Sandblast is over, and oh, gosh darn I missed it and it was pretty expensive, and there's an after party at Aquarium, but there's parties like that all the time, so no need for this one, so quiet night hanging with Nina and watching Fight Club. Ahhh...
This, at first, made me feel like a loser (the skipping partying; not the hanging with friends), until I realized that nearly all the second termers I ran into were doing the same thing. That week sucked.
So how'd it go? I passed everything. Which means Ishie Happy. It also means Ishie's standards have lowered significantly from "I'm going to try for straight As" to the post midterm/pre grade posted "Gee, I hope I get an 'F' high enough I can bring up during finals".
Neuro... sucked for me, though the test was fair. Was going to pull a deliberate (Ishie, Ishie, you never learn) all nighter to learn everything I could, particularly in neurodevelopment, which I'd been neglecting. Because cramming the entire night before an exam during a week where you've used up all your mental reserves and are living off dry honey nut cheerios because you ran out of everything else is a good idea.
This meant in the exam, I got the distinct pleasure of nearly passing out. Fantastic. Stress + sleeplessness = Health problems. I was sitting there, heard humming, thought "no way", started sweating profusely, and nearly dropped. Asked for a restroom run, which of course is highly moderated (thanks, cheating microbio students that screwed up the privilage of going to the bathroom by yourself, for that, by the way), and they apparently had my number and I put my head down and drank water, which recharged my batteries, so I burned through the rest of the exam.
Someone, fairly close to the exam, said "Don't expect neuro to be any easier than physio", which considering physio was harder than giving birth to an rabid adult Saint Bernard is less than encouraging.
Er... your results may vary, but neuro was easier than physio. It was not easy; don't get me wrong, and was made far more difficult by virtue of it being the last exam. But while the physio exam almost seemed deadset on punishing you for knowing ALMOST enough but not quite enough, the neuro exam seemed to, for the most part, hit on key points that were made. The questions were fairly straightforward with a few curve balls, and many of them answered other questions within the test. Oh, though guys? Venom properties? An aside paragraph in one handout? One question, but c'mon now. Ask me about tetanus. I know about tetanus.
But so my "party weekend" was really more of a "Ahhhh.... I can relax and lounge without feeling GUILTY" weekend. Which I really like. This was punctuated today by diving with Lori. Hooray for diving! I went out on the water for the first time in 6 months and just the sensation of being back in the water was wonderful. No pictures I'm afraid, since I was reorienting and didn't want to mess with my camera.
And tonight? I learned to properly make lentils, which should carve a substantial slice off my food budget.
Apr 26, 2007
Time Flies...
When you're cramming in your last study efforts in the last week and a half before finals! AIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!
I'm feeling PRETTY prepared (not like 'take the tests tomorrow' prepared, but like, I think with another week and a half I can avoid failure), but still trying to avoid the freakout sessions. In the meantime, of course, stuff happens, but I don't blog it because I'm alternating between laziness and productivity, neither of which lends itself easily to blog posting, but let's see....
I went diving on Sunday, and while I didn't get all that much done in the way of getting my study groove on, I did see these little babies!
The vicious, the terrible shark!!! Observe the shark in its natural habitat as it irritably attempts to remove itself from divers and their flashy cameras. Also notable as my first REAL shark (kinda), horn sharks not withstanding, because they're wannabe sharks. Of course, many would state that nurse sharks, despite at least being BIG enough to mess you up, are also wannabe sharks. Phil also pointed out a reef shark during the dive, which was massively cool.
We did our first dive on the Atlantic side and managed to make it to the Hema-001, a ship that went down in 2005. Broken up, but a really cool (and big!) wreck. We backrolled in negatively weighted, swam for the anchor line and then shot down the line before any wayward currents could grab us, and what did we see RIGHT as we hit bottom (around 100')? SHARK!!!! I was an idiot and didn't have the camera settings right for that one, or the other one we followed around the side of the wreck, but Pete pointed out the above little beauty napping under part of the ship, and sure enough, I managed to snap off a few (backscattery) shots before s/he finally got pissed and swam off. Sorry sharky.
Put myself a wee bit in deco, but totally worth it, and I had the air to hang an extra couple of minutes at 10 feet anyway, so my computer (who is SUCH a nag) let me do the next dive.
The Atlantic side was a bit rough and a guy on board was REALLY feeling it (thank you, seasick patch!), so we opted to do the second dive (after giving up on Fisherman's Paradise) on the Caribbean side, and hit Purple Rain, which is absolutely beautiful. COOL little snake eel and the first one I've gotten a half decent picture of, and a stingray!! Everyone saw a couple squid except for me, because as a photographer, I only see what's through the LCD. D'oh!
As a quick addendum, and to quell my parents (love you guys!!!), a quick photo journey around the mangrove swamps of Venezuela. Yes, in that picture, those things on the mangrove roots are OYSTERS!!! There were also crabs, soft corals, starfish and all manner of life. VERY awesome, and more importantly (since I'm heading to bed), not requiring of a lot of text! Enjoy!
Our chariot awaited!!!!
Aforementioned oysters
Can't beat the view!
Mangrove swamp streetsigns. Also... should it be dedicated to the good sir's MANY loves? That sounds like an invitation to an asswhuppin by some ticked off mistresses.
More of grrr's archnemeses. It's like the island was full of em!!
I'm feeling PRETTY prepared (not like 'take the tests tomorrow' prepared, but like, I think with another week and a half I can avoid failure), but still trying to avoid the freakout sessions. In the meantime, of course, stuff happens, but I don't blog it because I'm alternating between laziness and productivity, neither of which lends itself easily to blog posting, but let's see....
I went diving on Sunday, and while I didn't get all that much done in the way of getting my study groove on, I did see these little babies!
The vicious, the terrible shark!!! Observe the shark in its natural habitat as it irritably attempts to remove itself from divers and their flashy cameras. Also notable as my first REAL shark (kinda), horn sharks not withstanding, because they're wannabe sharks. Of course, many would state that nurse sharks, despite at least being BIG enough to mess you up, are also wannabe sharks. Phil also pointed out a reef shark during the dive, which was massively cool.
We did our first dive on the Atlantic side and managed to make it to the Hema-001, a ship that went down in 2005. Broken up, but a really cool (and big!) wreck. We backrolled in negatively weighted, swam for the anchor line and then shot down the line before any wayward currents could grab us, and what did we see RIGHT as we hit bottom (around 100')? SHARK!!!! I was an idiot and didn't have the camera settings right for that one, or the other one we followed around the side of the wreck, but Pete pointed out the above little beauty napping under part of the ship, and sure enough, I managed to snap off a few (backscattery) shots before s/he finally got pissed and swam off. Sorry sharky.
Put myself a wee bit in deco, but totally worth it, and I had the air to hang an extra couple of minutes at 10 feet anyway, so my computer (who is SUCH a nag) let me do the next dive.
The Atlantic side was a bit rough and a guy on board was REALLY feeling it (thank you, seasick patch!), so we opted to do the second dive (after giving up on Fisherman's Paradise) on the Caribbean side, and hit Purple Rain, which is absolutely beautiful. COOL little snake eel and the first one I've gotten a half decent picture of, and a stingray!! Everyone saw a couple squid except for me, because as a photographer, I only see what's through the LCD. D'oh!
As a quick addendum, and to quell my parents (love you guys!!!), a quick photo journey around the mangrove swamps of Venezuela. Yes, in that picture, those things on the mangrove roots are OYSTERS!!! There were also crabs, soft corals, starfish and all manner of life. VERY awesome, and more importantly (since I'm heading to bed), not requiring of a lot of text! Enjoy!
Our chariot awaited!!!!
Aforementioned oysters
Can't beat the view!
Mangrove swamp streetsigns. Also... should it be dedicated to the good sir's MANY loves? That sounds like an invitation to an asswhuppin by some ticked off mistresses.
More of grrr's archnemeses. It's like the island was full of em!!
Apr 22, 2007
It's Franken-STEEN
David was a VERY good boy by having his laptop, on the wireless connection, in class, because the powers that be of the Surgery Club announced a suture clinic that had limited space (though since it was limited to members, not TOO crowded), and he hooked me up with a spot by emailing on the double so I got to spend two hours of this evening practicing on ropes with various professional ways of making square knots and THEN, cadaver stitching! It's like sewing, but talking about it in polite company isn't considered to be socially acceptable, and hopefully, there aren't any cats playing with your yarn.
What did I discover? On the practice ropes, I am smokin'... which apparently means that if I don't pass biochemistry, I can make a STELLAR living selling friendship bracelets by the side of a freeway.
Stitching up cadavers? Not so hot... gotta practice if I'm ever going to make it to that surgical residency I'm shooting for, though since I like orthopedics, any discipline that involves power tools can't want your stitches TOO neat... right? Right??? Those needles are little!
But I'll get it! Laila and David are regular pros.
I'd make this entry longer, funnier, and full of pictures, however, I've been lead astray by Sarah, who peer pressured me into abandoning studying to dive tomorrow in the guise of an email saying that Phil told her to ask me if I wanted to dive the Atlantic side of the island tomorrow.
This may not SEEM like peer pressure until you realize that I've never dived the Atlantic side, it's for advanced divers only (thus stroking my enormous ego), and exposure to currents means we may get sharks (the more benign ones, Jaws fans). When I called Phil and he confirmed we'd be diving "Shark Reef" with a try for a dive on the Hema (a wreck), I was completely sold.
I try to comfort myself with the knowledge that I am now completely down with hemoglobin, having gotten my omitted lecture note page the long way by reading it (with the rest of the information) out of the Lippincott Bible. I've re-discovered that the long way of reading the relevant information out of Lippincott, and THEN recopying the lecture notes cements things pretty well.
So does learning about things I've seen disguised as episodes of House. Wilson's Disease, baby!!! Who could forget a disorder that was not ONLY figured out by Hugh Laurie, but (in real life!) gives you copper rings in your eyes? That's pretty cool!
I'm also down with problems in heme synthesis (porphyrias) because they have a historical precedent for the creation of vampire/werewolf myths, and I'm a history nerd.
So that only leaves extracellular matrix, special liver functions, vitamins/cofactors, eicosanoids, and hemostasis to re-cover before Monday before they CONTINUE to throw new material at us because they're... ya know, evil. Hey, it could happen!
I'm also playing catch up in anatomy because there's still a lot I don't know and resting on your laurels tends to bring trouble. As noted, the ear is still a great mystery, summed up best by Eddie Izzard's: 'hmm... the ear... we'll have that cover... hearing and vomiting... yes, that should be fun'
Speaking of vomiting though, I need to go and slap a patch behind my ear to prevent just that. I hear that boat trip is *rough*.
What did I discover? On the practice ropes, I am smokin'... which apparently means that if I don't pass biochemistry, I can make a STELLAR living selling friendship bracelets by the side of a freeway.
Stitching up cadavers? Not so hot... gotta practice if I'm ever going to make it to that surgical residency I'm shooting for, though since I like orthopedics, any discipline that involves power tools can't want your stitches TOO neat... right? Right??? Those needles are little!
But I'll get it! Laila and David are regular pros.
I'd make this entry longer, funnier, and full of pictures, however, I've been lead astray by Sarah, who peer pressured me into abandoning studying to dive tomorrow in the guise of an email saying that Phil told her to ask me if I wanted to dive the Atlantic side of the island tomorrow.
This may not SEEM like peer pressure until you realize that I've never dived the Atlantic side, it's for advanced divers only (thus stroking my enormous ego), and exposure to currents means we may get sharks (the more benign ones, Jaws fans). When I called Phil and he confirmed we'd be diving "Shark Reef" with a try for a dive on the Hema (a wreck), I was completely sold.
I try to comfort myself with the knowledge that I am now completely down with hemoglobin, having gotten my omitted lecture note page the long way by reading it (with the rest of the information) out of the Lippincott Bible. I've re-discovered that the long way of reading the relevant information out of Lippincott, and THEN recopying the lecture notes cements things pretty well.
So does learning about things I've seen disguised as episodes of House. Wilson's Disease, baby!!! Who could forget a disorder that was not ONLY figured out by Hugh Laurie, but (in real life!) gives you copper rings in your eyes? That's pretty cool!
I'm also down with problems in heme synthesis (porphyrias) because they have a historical precedent for the creation of vampire/werewolf myths, and I'm a history nerd.
So that only leaves extracellular matrix, special liver functions, vitamins/cofactors, eicosanoids, and hemostasis to re-cover before Monday before they CONTINUE to throw new material at us because they're... ya know, evil. Hey, it could happen!
I'm also playing catch up in anatomy because there's still a lot I don't know and resting on your laurels tends to bring trouble. As noted, the ear is still a great mystery, summed up best by Eddie Izzard's: 'hmm... the ear... we'll have that cover... hearing and vomiting... yes, that should be fun'
Speaking of vomiting though, I need to go and slap a patch behind my ear to prevent just that. I hear that boat trip is *rough*.
Mar 26, 2007
The horror...
Let's start with yesterday. Then we'll get to... the horror.
I went diving!! Hooray!!! Not one, but TWO new wrecks--the Rhum Runner, making the one we partied on the Rhum Runner II, though there's already a Rhum Runner and a Rhum Runner II that are not underwater, which makes it seem like the parallel Rhum Runner on the surface is living on borrowed time while it's murdered counterpart sits 100 feet beneath the waves.
At 105' no less, so hooray! Deepest dive! By four whole feet! I'll be doing the Bianca C in no time... and then??? The Andrea Doria! No, just kidding on that last one. That's hard core. And in New Jersey.
Anyhoo... second wreck was the Quarter Wreck, which is awesome, so here... random dive pictures since my lazy butt finally brought my camera along:
First off... had to find a dive buddy. Fortunately, the dive shop had supplied one, courtesy of him either being let off his leash or chewing through it from his normal station mowing the lawns at the police station:
Unfortunately, my dive buddy had to stay on the beach. Not only was he having trouble holding his regulator, but he headbutted the divemaster, which is definitely a no-no. We took off on this beach, so I'll again say "nyah nyah!" to any of you reading this who are buried under a mid-spring snowfall:
So then, to the dive sites!!
Wahoo!!! Fun.
So I get back. I had scheduled tickets for Margarita Island over Easter!!!! On the 13th-15th!!! Fun!!!!
Phone call from Nina... Easter's the previous weekend, moron. Not fun.
Got 11 hours of sleep last night!!! Fun!!!!
Woke up, went to ticket agent, begged, ACTUALLY got tickets changed against all probability with only a 25$ fee AND there were spaces left on the flight! Double fun!!!!
Get back to campus. Lost the housing lottery, gotta live off campus thus ensuring I will NEVER go to lecture or work out. Not fun.
Screw it. Go back to dorm. Batteries not working in air conditioning remote. Not fun. Replace batteries.
Now... the HORROR part... air conditioning broken. Oh shit no... holy shit, no!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No no... you don't understand. My happiness is largely consistent on how much sleep I get. HOW MUCH SLEEP I GET IS DIRECTLY REGULATED BY WHAT TEMPERATURE MY ROOM IS. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!
How long will it take to have this fixed? Oh, who freaking knows? Better be soon.. better be soon... and there is NO breeze today. My roommate is from Tobago and grew up without air conditioning... she came in... it's bloody hot! For people FROM the islands it's bloody hot!
I wonder how long I can sleep in the upstairs study lounge before I get kicked out. It's miserable to even STUDY or work in here, and sleep? Oh, let there be a breeze tonight... or let the hardware store stay open long enough tomorrow to let me get a fan and an ice bucket... I think I'm gonna cry!!!!!!
I went diving!! Hooray!!! Not one, but TWO new wrecks--the Rhum Runner, making the one we partied on the Rhum Runner II, though there's already a Rhum Runner and a Rhum Runner II that are not underwater, which makes it seem like the parallel Rhum Runner on the surface is living on borrowed time while it's murdered counterpart sits 100 feet beneath the waves.
At 105' no less, so hooray! Deepest dive! By four whole feet! I'll be doing the Bianca C in no time... and then??? The Andrea Doria! No, just kidding on that last one. That's hard core. And in New Jersey.
Anyhoo... second wreck was the Quarter Wreck, which is awesome, so here... random dive pictures since my lazy butt finally brought my camera along:
First off... had to find a dive buddy. Fortunately, the dive shop had supplied one, courtesy of him either being let off his leash or chewing through it from his normal station mowing the lawns at the police station:
Unfortunately, my dive buddy had to stay on the beach. Not only was he having trouble holding his regulator, but he headbutted the divemaster, which is definitely a no-no. We took off on this beach, so I'll again say "nyah nyah!" to any of you reading this who are buried under a mid-spring snowfall:
So then, to the dive sites!!
Wahoo!!! Fun.
So I get back. I had scheduled tickets for Margarita Island over Easter!!!! On the 13th-15th!!! Fun!!!!
Phone call from Nina... Easter's the previous weekend, moron. Not fun.
Got 11 hours of sleep last night!!! Fun!!!!
Woke up, went to ticket agent, begged, ACTUALLY got tickets changed against all probability with only a 25$ fee AND there were spaces left on the flight! Double fun!!!!
Get back to campus. Lost the housing lottery, gotta live off campus thus ensuring I will NEVER go to lecture or work out. Not fun.
Screw it. Go back to dorm. Batteries not working in air conditioning remote. Not fun. Replace batteries.
Now... the HORROR part... air conditioning broken. Oh shit no... holy shit, no!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No no... you don't understand. My happiness is largely consistent on how much sleep I get. HOW MUCH SLEEP I GET IS DIRECTLY REGULATED BY WHAT TEMPERATURE MY ROOM IS. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!
How long will it take to have this fixed? Oh, who freaking knows? Better be soon.. better be soon... and there is NO breeze today. My roommate is from Tobago and grew up without air conditioning... she came in... it's bloody hot! For people FROM the islands it's bloody hot!
I wonder how long I can sleep in the upstairs study lounge before I get kicked out. It's miserable to even STUDY or work in here, and sleep? Oh, let there be a breeze tonight... or let the hardware store stay open long enough tomorrow to let me get a fan and an ice bucket... I think I'm gonna cry!!!!!!
Mar 11, 2007
Yeeeee-ha!!!!!!
Okay, so I'm back. If you've been wondering where I've been, I've been surfing the emotional rollercoaster that is midterms and wondering if that loop-de-loop in the middle would end in a fiery crash.
But as briefly noted before, I PASSED!!!!!!
A quick happy birthday to my dear dad before I continue, there we go, and on we go...
Sorry, I'm a little spacey; I'm extremely short slept, so this entry may be stranger than usual and end with my hitting my head on the keyboard in unconsciousness.
I believe, when we last left off, I was promising myself I wasn't going to stroke out for biochem and boy oh boy did I break that promise!!!!!!
I apparently have some sort of weird anxiety related insomnia that goes on, and needless to say, it nearly crashed and burned me in biochem, because I KNOW that stuff. I've probably dedicated 80 percent of my total study time to biochem because chemistry scares me. I felt confident, but needed review. So I was tired from my histo freak out (again, my poor poor roommate), so around 10 pm, thought, "I got this, this time. I'm going to take a unisom, go to bed, wake up nice and early with a good night's sleep, review the material, and go into that exam frigging PREPARED."
Took the second unisom at around 2:30. Took the third around 5. What did this mean? Couldn't sleep; too anxiety ridden to sleep despite being well prepared, and growing increasingly anxious about the inability to sleep, which is setting up a cycle that scares me for finals, so now everyone wants me to go to counseling to see what to do about it. Sigh.
But what else did it mean? Since I took sleeping pills, too stoned to study. Too anxious to sleep; too drugged to study. So I just stayed up and stayed up, and threw up, and took a shower, and walked around campus, and tried to focus in the library, and called my mom convinced I was going to fail. Same as histo, but worse. Harder subject, end of the week, less sleep, more conceptual information.
I go into the biochem exam... hoping, though not expecting, for it to be like histo where suddenly it floods back.
Noooooo sirreee. Or as David said while watching Rimmer fail a test on Red Dwarf "Oh my god!! It all looks like kinase!!!" Glucose 6 Phosphate; glucose 6 dehydrogenase, and because I was so TIRED, I couldn't logic things out.
I *felt*, with a few exceptions, like I essentially chimpanzeed the thing. I was concerned that I had just enough knowledge to beat probability. I nearly started sobbing in the exam, left after 45 minutes and then had to stand there while the prof fished out the notes for Monday and I'm SHAKING as I take them from him going "Don't let him see you cry; don't let him see you cry". At this stage, I figured I wasn't even going to BE there Monday. I figured I had the kind of score where they just kick you out. I was thinking it would be around a 20.
I went back to the dorm and burst into tears, Skyped my mom, who'd I'd left hanging, and cried all over her, that I wanted back to the States, didn't want to be here anymore, missed my damn dog, wished I'd never gotten myself into this, how was I going to pay my loans back when they kick me out of school and so forth...
About an HOUR later, my poor roommate came in from her test made a big fuss over me, hugged me, and all that, because she rocks, and with Dr. Paparo, is pending sainthood. Then some of my friends from the main exam room came in since I was still crying and made me feel better until they posted the results...
By. The. Freaking. Gods.
How the hell did I pass? I didn't know anything and left less than an hour in. Now, when I say "passed", I mean by the skin of my frigging teeth, but I freaking passed. I have NEVER in my LIFE been so happy for a "C", or in this case, a 69%. I was just hoping for an "F" high enough that I could drag it up with finals. Wahoo!!!!
I still hadn't slept, but I'd also barely eaten in two days, so it was like PIZZAAAA!!!!! We headed down to an Italian place near Spiceland Mall and had fun, while in the meantime, J'Leise was *ostensibly* going to Tobago to see her family. Liat airlines apparently had other plans for her, but was nice enough to fly her and all the other Trinis on campus within spitting distance of Trinidad, only to turn around and fly all the way back, pausing briefly to attempt a spiraling nosedive to impose mortal fear in everyone in the plane (seriously, tears and screaming) before returning to the airport to reward them for their bravery with mucho attitude. WTG Liat. The Caribbean's Least On Time Airline!
Back in the part of Grenada that wasn't screwing people over, we wandered over to Spiceland Mall, grabbed some groceries, and discovered that David was in possession of a nice sized bottle of rum, so we took the party to my place (where we later discovered the much annoyed J'Leise who seemed glad to have an audience to her Liat trauma).
Red Dwarf, rum, lemon sorbet, and Ting is a good combo. BTW, Rum and Ting now beats rum and Coke. Mmm mmm!
Unfortunately, party took us a bit late so I missed my first two dives Saturday, and they were doing the Bianca C! D'oh!!! They were cool about it though, and I managed to get onto the 1 PM dive for a very nice after body surfing for a couple hours while waiting for the early boat to come back.
After the dives, BEACH TIME!!!!!!! Snorkeling, sunning, eating mutton curry, getting told that I was "out of my top" at the curry place because I forgot about the no bathing suits at the table rule, thus the security guard made me feel like a tramp, then more sun and surf.
Dinner with Ashley, Nina, and David at Big Fish, which, for the record, has fajitas that actually taste like someone making them has a knowledge of Mexican food. Be advised. From what J'Leise has said, the fajitas at Glover's involve carrots... which is just wrong.
Dr. Chadwell was there and on his way out, said nice things, so good on him. Also saw the counselor there, whom I'm desperately hoping I will not have to talk to about my "anxiety problems" because I feel like such a high maintenance psuedobabble blonde twit.
So we were getting our party on, but it opened for the MPH party, which we would have stayed at but... well, let's just say the tone of approach lacked something, so much as I love my MPH brethren a lot and do NOT mind paying cover, since it was billed as a *private* party, we vamoosed. Besides, we were already halfway to hammered. Looked like fun though and some awesome, sports-equipment clad MPHers tried to convince us otherwise on the walk home. They're cool. I knew I was diving this morning though.
So MORE rum and Red Dwarf, which is just a great combo!!!! Went to bed and missed the 8 am bus. Dammit! Caught the 8:30 remembering that I was supposed to be AT Dive Grenada at 8:30, and swore, until recognizing my UK cold water compatriot on the bus, who was also cursing at being late... again.
Yes! A partner in crime! So we scuttled up as fast as possible, cutting across the construction site you're not supposed to cut across after begging permission from the workers and almost running into a goat (it happens).
We arrive, and Phil, with a gleam in his eye, says "We're going to have to buy you two a car!!!" "OKAY!" Susan and I agreed with gusto! Never make offers like that to starving students. The only question is going to be which side the steering wheel goes on.
Then Phil mentions seeing me at the bar at Big Fish.
"Which doesn't have anything to do with my being late!" I explained hastily.
With a gleam, he says "I never said that it did!"
With an answering gleam, I say "And I'm not saying that in any way connected to a guilty conscience!"
Phil is cool... which makes me feel bad that he got his octopus (spare reg) used more often this weekend than his primary. Everyone was having problems! Not with the operation, just in general. Dive 1 was Wibbles, and he said it wasn't as good as usual, but we did have a nice barracuda swim by us.
The second dive... ahhh the second dive... there are some dives where you can't just say "I saw this or that" that made it an awesome dive (though I did see a Flamingo Tongue)... it's just an awesome dive. My buoyancy and weighting were perfect, the area was pretty, the water temperature was wonderful, and I was just hovering around taking it in feeling "Ahhhhhhhh". During that dive, it was like the amalgated mass of stress sitting on me this whole weekend just leaked out my fins. Diving rules.
And then home!!! For a nap, but wanted to wish dad a happy birthday, and some people came by (Hi Nina!) so I'm headed bed bound. What morning histo lab???
But as briefly noted before, I PASSED!!!!!!
A quick happy birthday to my dear dad before I continue, there we go, and on we go...
Sorry, I'm a little spacey; I'm extremely short slept, so this entry may be stranger than usual and end with my hitting my head on the keyboard in unconsciousness.
I believe, when we last left off, I was promising myself I wasn't going to stroke out for biochem and boy oh boy did I break that promise!!!!!!
I apparently have some sort of weird anxiety related insomnia that goes on, and needless to say, it nearly crashed and burned me in biochem, because I KNOW that stuff. I've probably dedicated 80 percent of my total study time to biochem because chemistry scares me. I felt confident, but needed review. So I was tired from my histo freak out (again, my poor poor roommate), so around 10 pm, thought, "I got this, this time. I'm going to take a unisom, go to bed, wake up nice and early with a good night's sleep, review the material, and go into that exam frigging PREPARED."
Took the second unisom at around 2:30. Took the third around 5. What did this mean? Couldn't sleep; too anxiety ridden to sleep despite being well prepared, and growing increasingly anxious about the inability to sleep, which is setting up a cycle that scares me for finals, so now everyone wants me to go to counseling to see what to do about it. Sigh.
But what else did it mean? Since I took sleeping pills, too stoned to study. Too anxious to sleep; too drugged to study. So I just stayed up and stayed up, and threw up, and took a shower, and walked around campus, and tried to focus in the library, and called my mom convinced I was going to fail. Same as histo, but worse. Harder subject, end of the week, less sleep, more conceptual information.
I go into the biochem exam... hoping, though not expecting, for it to be like histo where suddenly it floods back.
Noooooo sirreee. Or as David said while watching Rimmer fail a test on Red Dwarf "Oh my god!! It all looks like kinase!!!" Glucose 6 Phosphate; glucose 6 dehydrogenase, and because I was so TIRED, I couldn't logic things out.
I *felt*, with a few exceptions, like I essentially chimpanzeed the thing. I was concerned that I had just enough knowledge to beat probability. I nearly started sobbing in the exam, left after 45 minutes and then had to stand there while the prof fished out the notes for Monday and I'm SHAKING as I take them from him going "Don't let him see you cry; don't let him see you cry". At this stage, I figured I wasn't even going to BE there Monday. I figured I had the kind of score where they just kick you out. I was thinking it would be around a 20.
I went back to the dorm and burst into tears, Skyped my mom, who'd I'd left hanging, and cried all over her, that I wanted back to the States, didn't want to be here anymore, missed my damn dog, wished I'd never gotten myself into this, how was I going to pay my loans back when they kick me out of school and so forth...
About an HOUR later, my poor roommate came in from her test made a big fuss over me, hugged me, and all that, because she rocks, and with Dr. Paparo, is pending sainthood. Then some of my friends from the main exam room came in since I was still crying and made me feel better until they posted the results...
By. The. Freaking. Gods.
How the hell did I pass? I didn't know anything and left less than an hour in. Now, when I say "passed", I mean by the skin of my frigging teeth, but I freaking passed. I have NEVER in my LIFE been so happy for a "C", or in this case, a 69%. I was just hoping for an "F" high enough that I could drag it up with finals. Wahoo!!!!
I still hadn't slept, but I'd also barely eaten in two days, so it was like PIZZAAAA!!!!! We headed down to an Italian place near Spiceland Mall and had fun, while in the meantime, J'Leise was *ostensibly* going to Tobago to see her family. Liat airlines apparently had other plans for her, but was nice enough to fly her and all the other Trinis on campus within spitting distance of Trinidad, only to turn around and fly all the way back, pausing briefly to attempt a spiraling nosedive to impose mortal fear in everyone in the plane (seriously, tears and screaming) before returning to the airport to reward them for their bravery with mucho attitude. WTG Liat. The Caribbean's Least On Time Airline!
Back in the part of Grenada that wasn't screwing people over, we wandered over to Spiceland Mall, grabbed some groceries, and discovered that David was in possession of a nice sized bottle of rum, so we took the party to my place (where we later discovered the much annoyed J'Leise who seemed glad to have an audience to her Liat trauma).
Red Dwarf, rum, lemon sorbet, and Ting is a good combo. BTW, Rum and Ting now beats rum and Coke. Mmm mmm!
Unfortunately, party took us a bit late so I missed my first two dives Saturday, and they were doing the Bianca C! D'oh!!! They were cool about it though, and I managed to get onto the 1 PM dive for a very nice after body surfing for a couple hours while waiting for the early boat to come back.
After the dives, BEACH TIME!!!!!!! Snorkeling, sunning, eating mutton curry, getting told that I was "out of my top" at the curry place because I forgot about the no bathing suits at the table rule, thus the security guard made me feel like a tramp, then more sun and surf.
Dinner with Ashley, Nina, and David at Big Fish, which, for the record, has fajitas that actually taste like someone making them has a knowledge of Mexican food. Be advised. From what J'Leise has said, the fajitas at Glover's involve carrots... which is just wrong.
Dr. Chadwell was there and on his way out, said nice things, so good on him. Also saw the counselor there, whom I'm desperately hoping I will not have to talk to about my "anxiety problems" because I feel like such a high maintenance psuedobabble blonde twit.
So we were getting our party on, but it opened for the MPH party, which we would have stayed at but... well, let's just say the tone of approach lacked something, so much as I love my MPH brethren a lot and do NOT mind paying cover, since it was billed as a *private* party, we vamoosed. Besides, we were already halfway to hammered. Looked like fun though and some awesome, sports-equipment clad MPHers tried to convince us otherwise on the walk home. They're cool. I knew I was diving this morning though.
So MORE rum and Red Dwarf, which is just a great combo!!!! Went to bed and missed the 8 am bus. Dammit! Caught the 8:30 remembering that I was supposed to be AT Dive Grenada at 8:30, and swore, until recognizing my UK cold water compatriot on the bus, who was also cursing at being late... again.
Yes! A partner in crime! So we scuttled up as fast as possible, cutting across the construction site you're not supposed to cut across after begging permission from the workers and almost running into a goat (it happens).
We arrive, and Phil, with a gleam in his eye, says "We're going to have to buy you two a car!!!" "OKAY!" Susan and I agreed with gusto! Never make offers like that to starving students. The only question is going to be which side the steering wheel goes on.
Then Phil mentions seeing me at the bar at Big Fish.
"Which doesn't have anything to do with my being late!" I explained hastily.
With a gleam, he says "I never said that it did!"
With an answering gleam, I say "And I'm not saying that in any way connected to a guilty conscience!"
Phil is cool... which makes me feel bad that he got his octopus (spare reg) used more often this weekend than his primary. Everyone was having problems! Not with the operation, just in general. Dive 1 was Wibbles, and he said it wasn't as good as usual, but we did have a nice barracuda swim by us.
The second dive... ahhh the second dive... there are some dives where you can't just say "I saw this or that" that made it an awesome dive (though I did see a Flamingo Tongue)... it's just an awesome dive. My buoyancy and weighting were perfect, the area was pretty, the water temperature was wonderful, and I was just hovering around taking it in feeling "Ahhhhhhhh". During that dive, it was like the amalgated mass of stress sitting on me this whole weekend just leaked out my fins. Diving rules.
And then home!!! For a nap, but wanted to wish dad a happy birthday, and some people came by (Hi Nina!) so I'm headed bed bound. What morning histo lab???
Feb 14, 2007
Got all hot and sweaty
Because I hit the gym and managed to grab one of the ellipticals. What did you guys think I was gonna say?
So now I stink. Mmmm. But am I going to wash before I blog? No way. I keep it real.
A unified update, because as a complete dork, I focus on even the insignificant grades. In Histo, they threw out two questions, bringing me to B status (hooray), and in my former arch-nemesis biochem, it turns out I got an A in biochem and an "F" in arithmetic, and added up my score wrong, so wahoo, with an embarrassed chagrin at having the mathematical ability of a five year old. Thank you, childhood dependence on calculators. I think I was the only one in the MCAT counting on my fingers.
I've also found major inspiration for not only getting into major shape but losing as much weight as humanly possible without lapsing into anorexia -- a way to cheat in anatomy. I bruised my ribs during the unified because on the question about the intercostal level of the apex of the heart, I was jabbing myself to try and get some inkling of an idea. When we came to the question about the blood supply to the mammary gland, well... let's just say it got a bit interesting, and I'm not the only one. Let's hope we can all use some etiquette when it comes to the exam on the pelvic viscera, though the Living Anatomy segment (where we palpate each other) should CERTAINLY be fun.
Today, I learned that to get many forms of mail, you need a courier, which made me feel like either a spoiled princess or like I was in Mosquito Coast. Paying 35 bucks for a package was fun too, combined courier fee and import tax. Yeesh.
So I found something to complain about with that.
I'm not great about attending biochem lectures because I usually don't know what's going on, and have trouble staying awake, thus, when the guy at the bookstore told me that to retrieve my package, I HAD to be there at 4:30, which is smack dab in the middle of lecture, I was annoyed, but not too distraught. Finally, a *good* reason to ditch lecture rather than my normal one of "Aw, screw it."
So then our biochem professor had to get himself a girlfriend or a Zoloft prescription and morph into someone awesome. Our normal misanthrope was genuinely smiling, telling jokes that were actually funny, and best yet, relating a lecture on pyruvate dehydrogenase, which I *understood*, to real life events, going on to errors in metabolism caused by poisoning, which he related to new evidence on Napoleon Bonaparte's death.
Oh... my little history tabloid heart went pitter pat. I hope *that* guy's back on Friday. And I had to ditch out at the break to get my package! Dammit!
What struck me as particularly hilarious is during said discussion involving arsenic, he mentioned a medical show he had seen where a guy had come in and the doctor (not House) had seen white lines on his nails and figured out that he had arsenic poisoning, because, as it later turned out, his wife was trying to kill him for the insurance money (true story!).
At this point, there was a rustle as THE WHOLE CLASS checked their fingernails. I cackled at this (while checking my nails) because even with the vomitous sicky magic that is Valentine's Day, you still can't *entirely* trust your significant other enough not to secretly think they might be trying to kill you. And to you all reading this, I'm willing to BET you just checked your nails.
Speaking of VD (valentine's day, not the more pleasant venereal disease), blech and bah humbug to all you couples out there that celebrate this Halmark generated holiday. What's especially fun is that apparently the greeting card companies have picked up on the fact that there are a fat lot of jaded cynics out there like me that HATE Valentines Day and have started marketing... that's right, anti Valentine's Day cards. Capitalizing off a protest of a beast you created. Well played, Halmark. Well played, indeed.
On a completely unrelated note, here's some more diving pictures:
The Veronica L! In her chopped off, Ishie was too stupid to bring her wide angle lens on this WRECK dive glory!
Appetizer.
The side of the wreck of the Veronica L and my failed attempt to take an artsy shot.
Biggie fish at a cleaning station.
So now I stink. Mmmm. But am I going to wash before I blog? No way. I keep it real.
A unified update, because as a complete dork, I focus on even the insignificant grades. In Histo, they threw out two questions, bringing me to B status (hooray), and in my former arch-nemesis biochem, it turns out I got an A in biochem and an "F" in arithmetic, and added up my score wrong, so wahoo, with an embarrassed chagrin at having the mathematical ability of a five year old. Thank you, childhood dependence on calculators. I think I was the only one in the MCAT counting on my fingers.
I've also found major inspiration for not only getting into major shape but losing as much weight as humanly possible without lapsing into anorexia -- a way to cheat in anatomy. I bruised my ribs during the unified because on the question about the intercostal level of the apex of the heart, I was jabbing myself to try and get some inkling of an idea. When we came to the question about the blood supply to the mammary gland, well... let's just say it got a bit interesting, and I'm not the only one. Let's hope we can all use some etiquette when it comes to the exam on the pelvic viscera, though the Living Anatomy segment (where we palpate each other) should CERTAINLY be fun.
Today, I learned that to get many forms of mail, you need a courier, which made me feel like either a spoiled princess or like I was in Mosquito Coast. Paying 35 bucks for a package was fun too, combined courier fee and import tax. Yeesh.
So I found something to complain about with that.
I'm not great about attending biochem lectures because I usually don't know what's going on, and have trouble staying awake, thus, when the guy at the bookstore told me that to retrieve my package, I HAD to be there at 4:30, which is smack dab in the middle of lecture, I was annoyed, but not too distraught. Finally, a *good* reason to ditch lecture rather than my normal one of "Aw, screw it."
So then our biochem professor had to get himself a girlfriend or a Zoloft prescription and morph into someone awesome. Our normal misanthrope was genuinely smiling, telling jokes that were actually funny, and best yet, relating a lecture on pyruvate dehydrogenase, which I *understood*, to real life events, going on to errors in metabolism caused by poisoning, which he related to new evidence on Napoleon Bonaparte's death.
Oh... my little history tabloid heart went pitter pat. I hope *that* guy's back on Friday. And I had to ditch out at the break to get my package! Dammit!
What struck me as particularly hilarious is during said discussion involving arsenic, he mentioned a medical show he had seen where a guy had come in and the doctor (not House) had seen white lines on his nails and figured out that he had arsenic poisoning, because, as it later turned out, his wife was trying to kill him for the insurance money (true story!).
At this point, there was a rustle as THE WHOLE CLASS checked their fingernails. I cackled at this (while checking my nails) because even with the vomitous sicky magic that is Valentine's Day, you still can't *entirely* trust your significant other enough not to secretly think they might be trying to kill you. And to you all reading this, I'm willing to BET you just checked your nails.
Speaking of VD (valentine's day, not the more pleasant venereal disease), blech and bah humbug to all you couples out there that celebrate this Halmark generated holiday. What's especially fun is that apparently the greeting card companies have picked up on the fact that there are a fat lot of jaded cynics out there like me that HATE Valentines Day and have started marketing... that's right, anti Valentine's Day cards. Capitalizing off a protest of a beast you created. Well played, Halmark. Well played, indeed.
On a completely unrelated note, here's some more diving pictures:
The Veronica L! In her chopped off, Ishie was too stupid to bring her wide angle lens on this WRECK dive glory!
Appetizer.
The side of the wreck of the Veronica L and my failed attempt to take an artsy shot.
Biggie fish at a cleaning station.
Feb 7, 2007
And no one understands him...
but his woman...
They say that fish Fang is one *bad* mutha...
Shut yo mouth!
I'm talkin' bout Fang.
We can dig it!
They say that fish Fang is one *bad* mutha...
Shut yo mouth!
I'm talkin' bout Fang.
We can dig it!
Feb 4, 2007
I saw...
A spotted eagle ray!! My first one ever! The thing had about a 6 foot wingspan, causing me to mistake it for a manta ray briefly and then I saw the head, and naturally, I had neglected to bring my camera! Ah well... those are never good shots anyway, she said as if sour grapes had never been explained to her.
Awesome dive though. In a sense, I'm glad I hadn't done much warm water diving (though the Philippines were amazing) before I came to live here, because it means I am endlessly impressed and amazed by the diving here, plus, after I leave or when I take trips, the places described as better (Tobago, Carriacou, Bonaire, Dominica, Little Cayman) will seem better in comparison rather than this place seeming worse. So for the meantime, I'm pleased.
Of course, I'm also the sort of person (the photographer sort of person) that will dive the same site over and over. Ask me how many times I've dived the Breakwater in Monterey (popular training site). Go on! Heh heh.
Also a couple spotted morays on this dive, and a big 'cuda. One of the highlights for me was a porcupine fish that was about three feet long. I'd seen these cute *little* guys in the Philippines and the maximum length I saw was about 7 inches. I had no idea they got that big! Our divemaster, Phil, clicked and pointed and kept swimming, and I saw rather large flapping fins and thought "Hmm... snapper?" then went around the bend and went "AIIIEEE!" The weird part, is even on steroids, they look identical and still have that cute expression on their faces that I call *chirp?* Don't ask.
Unfortunately, I dropped by the store on the way home, feeling pretty confident and while waiting for the bus, eavesdropped on two other students quizzing each other. OMG, I don't know anything! Eek! Eek and damn! So I'm studying my butt off now in preparation for a five hour study session tonight which will hopefully cement things before unified. Halp!
Awesome dive though. In a sense, I'm glad I hadn't done much warm water diving (though the Philippines were amazing) before I came to live here, because it means I am endlessly impressed and amazed by the diving here, plus, after I leave or when I take trips, the places described as better (Tobago, Carriacou, Bonaire, Dominica, Little Cayman) will seem better in comparison rather than this place seeming worse. So for the meantime, I'm pleased.
Of course, I'm also the sort of person (the photographer sort of person) that will dive the same site over and over. Ask me how many times I've dived the Breakwater in Monterey (popular training site). Go on! Heh heh.
Also a couple spotted morays on this dive, and a big 'cuda. One of the highlights for me was a porcupine fish that was about three feet long. I'd seen these cute *little* guys in the Philippines and the maximum length I saw was about 7 inches. I had no idea they got that big! Our divemaster, Phil, clicked and pointed and kept swimming, and I saw rather large flapping fins and thought "Hmm... snapper?" then went around the bend and went "AIIIEEE!" The weird part, is even on steroids, they look identical and still have that cute expression on their faces that I call *chirp?* Don't ask.
Unfortunately, I dropped by the store on the way home, feeling pretty confident and while waiting for the bus, eavesdropped on two other students quizzing each other. OMG, I don't know anything! Eek! Eek and damn! So I'm studying my butt off now in preparation for a five hour study session tonight which will hopefully cement things before unified. Halp!
Jan 29, 2007
The Death of the 'I got beef' Dance
Otherwise known as "Glurgh".
I think I'll be going the route of partial veggie for a while... chicken will seep in soon, I suspect, partially because I have chicken occupying my freezer that I don't want to waste, but I think I'll be giving red meat a pass for a while.
You would think that a veggie lifestyle would be difficult to maintain in such an environment, but I'm finding obtaining meat to actually be *more* of a pain in the butt, with the exception of fish, meaning I'll be getting *very* healthy. And with the sheer numbers of vegetarians and fishavores around here, I'm ending up collecting cooking tips, so that all works well.
My roommate is a tolerant fishavore, which meant as I grilled up my rarish hamburger last night, she didn't complain about the beef smell filling the dorm and I dived in with the enthusiasm of a red meat addict who has had beef once in the last month.
Mis-take! Imagine my surprise when I was awakened in the middle of the night by Carib's revenge among other things. And I didn't even drink any Jager. It was not a nice night, nor a nice morning, nor a nice decision to miss one of my suggested-mandatory histo labs this morning because attending lab would have meant being more than 20 feet away from the bathroom, a proposition my body found unacceptable.
I have a question for all of you out there though, whether you've been struck by Grenadian food poisoning, Jager-fever, or the plain old flu: what IS it that is so appealing about bathroom floors? The dorms are not *that* big; I was 20 feet away from my nice soft bed, yet nothing felt as soothing as lying down on the tile with my cheek against it, while moaning. This is the other reason it's also good to get sick in your own pad. Nothing says "hitting bottom" like putting your face against the floor of a public restroom. Fortunately, this isn't one of those dorms where an entire floor shares a bathroom.
Fortunately, my roommate is awesome, text messaged my lab partner in histo that I would not, in fact, be presenting on the loose connective tissue in the ileum with her, turned on the air conditioning without being asked despite the fact that she gets cold easily, didn't say "I told you red meat was bad for you, idiot", offered to get me water, asked if I needed anything and then left quietly for her class after putting my newly acquired Digicell phone next to my bed in case I needed to call her.
Considering the number of times she's also cooked for me, I'm going to end up leaving this term owing her a kidney.
But I'm all better now! And was better enough to go to my histo and biochem lectures in time to fall in completely platonic love with our new biochem instructor who speaks slowly, punctuates her lectures with nice pictures of the island to give us a mental break and uses analogies to describe enzyme catalyzation. Where have you been my whole life, awesome biochem instructor?
But diving!! I went diving yesterday!!!!!!!
My gear now occupies a section of "Dive Grenada", a really nice shop on Grand Anse Beach near the Flamboyant Hotel. They're storing it for me so long as I dive semi-regularly. Darn, there's a commitment I'll have trouble keeping. I went with them because at orientation they seemed the nicest, and I value nice. The dive shops here don't seem to sell much (though they rent all gear) because they have to pay import fees. I did discover that Phil, at DG, is another taxonomy buff so he lent me his Fish ID book to page through for an hour while I was getting some of my gear together and being chatty.
Okay, so for some of you Caribbean divers, I'm going to be unnecessarily exuberant because this is the *second* time I've ever dived warm water, so I'm not sure how Grenada holds up against the rest of the Caribbean or in other warm water parts of the world. I've dived in the Philippines and California. That's it.
Dive Grenada has a little boat; all the dive sites are close by, though they say Carriacou is worth diving, so they offered to refer me to some dive shops over there. They come back between dives, which is really nice because it means I can do *either* a morning or afternoon dive (or both) without feeling like I have to do both if I have major studying to do. It also means on lab-free days, I can grab a dive before class! How cool is that?!
Dive #1 was Windmill Shallows. I'm afraid I don't have pictures for these dives because I like to orient to a new place before I look at it through a viewfinder. It's a pretty reef featuring some massive irridescent blue sponges and, since I'm not great on my fish id yet, I'll just say a buttload of fish. I recognized that many were varieties of squirrelfish, as well as seeing a bunch of princess parrotfish and juvenile stage spotlight parrotfish. Two spotted morays on the dive, and a big stingray that the divemaster pointed out toward the end. The safety stop was in a field of comb jellies! Whoa! Never seen those outside Monterey Bay Aquarium. There are also huge schools of creole bass.
Dive #2 was the wreck of the Veronica L. She's a fairly shallow wreck of a coastal freighter that has a crane to play with and since the top is open, you can 'penetrate' the wreck in the sense of swimming around inside without being in an overhead environment. I saw a smallish barracuda chilling in the water column above it as well as a bunch of horseeye jacks, which I had previously seen at the fish market, thus brining a bunch of horseeye guilt. Sorry guys; you taste good.
About twenty minutes into the dive, those of us not taking pictures (for a change) grouped up with Mick and headed off into the reef, and were rewarded for the effort with tons more pretty coral/sponges and brightly colored fish, but also the resident 6' green moray! Holy hell! I didn't know you guys had them over here. Well done!
On the way back to study studiously (in the study), I was walking on Grand Anse Beach about a half mile to the bus stop (tough life, that) and ran into Jesse who prooffered a bottled Carib and a ham/faux cheese sandwich with some fellow students. Sidetracked! But I ended the day fighting with my increasingly noncompliant Dell, and studying histo slides until the... hamburger incident.
I think I'll be going the route of partial veggie for a while... chicken will seep in soon, I suspect, partially because I have chicken occupying my freezer that I don't want to waste, but I think I'll be giving red meat a pass for a while.
You would think that a veggie lifestyle would be difficult to maintain in such an environment, but I'm finding obtaining meat to actually be *more* of a pain in the butt, with the exception of fish, meaning I'll be getting *very* healthy. And with the sheer numbers of vegetarians and fishavores around here, I'm ending up collecting cooking tips, so that all works well.
My roommate is a tolerant fishavore, which meant as I grilled up my rarish hamburger last night, she didn't complain about the beef smell filling the dorm and I dived in with the enthusiasm of a red meat addict who has had beef once in the last month.
Mis-take! Imagine my surprise when I was awakened in the middle of the night by Carib's revenge among other things. And I didn't even drink any Jager. It was not a nice night, nor a nice morning, nor a nice decision to miss one of my suggested-mandatory histo labs this morning because attending lab would have meant being more than 20 feet away from the bathroom, a proposition my body found unacceptable.
I have a question for all of you out there though, whether you've been struck by Grenadian food poisoning, Jager-fever, or the plain old flu: what IS it that is so appealing about bathroom floors? The dorms are not *that* big; I was 20 feet away from my nice soft bed, yet nothing felt as soothing as lying down on the tile with my cheek against it, while moaning. This is the other reason it's also good to get sick in your own pad. Nothing says "hitting bottom" like putting your face against the floor of a public restroom. Fortunately, this isn't one of those dorms where an entire floor shares a bathroom.
Fortunately, my roommate is awesome, text messaged my lab partner in histo that I would not, in fact, be presenting on the loose connective tissue in the ileum with her, turned on the air conditioning without being asked despite the fact that she gets cold easily, didn't say "I told you red meat was bad for you, idiot", offered to get me water, asked if I needed anything and then left quietly for her class after putting my newly acquired Digicell phone next to my bed in case I needed to call her.
Considering the number of times she's also cooked for me, I'm going to end up leaving this term owing her a kidney.
But I'm all better now! And was better enough to go to my histo and biochem lectures in time to fall in completely platonic love with our new biochem instructor who speaks slowly, punctuates her lectures with nice pictures of the island to give us a mental break and uses analogies to describe enzyme catalyzation. Where have you been my whole life, awesome biochem instructor?
But diving!! I went diving yesterday!!!!!!!
My gear now occupies a section of "Dive Grenada", a really nice shop on Grand Anse Beach near the Flamboyant Hotel. They're storing it for me so long as I dive semi-regularly. Darn, there's a commitment I'll have trouble keeping. I went with them because at orientation they seemed the nicest, and I value nice. The dive shops here don't seem to sell much (though they rent all gear) because they have to pay import fees. I did discover that Phil, at DG, is another taxonomy buff so he lent me his Fish ID book to page through for an hour while I was getting some of my gear together and being chatty.
Okay, so for some of you Caribbean divers, I'm going to be unnecessarily exuberant because this is the *second* time I've ever dived warm water, so I'm not sure how Grenada holds up against the rest of the Caribbean or in other warm water parts of the world. I've dived in the Philippines and California. That's it.
Dive Grenada has a little boat; all the dive sites are close by, though they say Carriacou is worth diving, so they offered to refer me to some dive shops over there. They come back between dives, which is really nice because it means I can do *either* a morning or afternoon dive (or both) without feeling like I have to do both if I have major studying to do. It also means on lab-free days, I can grab a dive before class! How cool is that?!
Dive #1 was Windmill Shallows. I'm afraid I don't have pictures for these dives because I like to orient to a new place before I look at it through a viewfinder. It's a pretty reef featuring some massive irridescent blue sponges and, since I'm not great on my fish id yet, I'll just say a buttload of fish. I recognized that many were varieties of squirrelfish, as well as seeing a bunch of princess parrotfish and juvenile stage spotlight parrotfish. Two spotted morays on the dive, and a big stingray that the divemaster pointed out toward the end. The safety stop was in a field of comb jellies! Whoa! Never seen those outside Monterey Bay Aquarium. There are also huge schools of creole bass.
Dive #2 was the wreck of the Veronica L. She's a fairly shallow wreck of a coastal freighter that has a crane to play with and since the top is open, you can 'penetrate' the wreck in the sense of swimming around inside without being in an overhead environment. I saw a smallish barracuda chilling in the water column above it as well as a bunch of horseeye jacks, which I had previously seen at the fish market, thus brining a bunch of horseeye guilt. Sorry guys; you taste good.
About twenty minutes into the dive, those of us not taking pictures (for a change) grouped up with Mick and headed off into the reef, and were rewarded for the effort with tons more pretty coral/sponges and brightly colored fish, but also the resident 6' green moray! Holy hell! I didn't know you guys had them over here. Well done!
On the way back to study studiously (in the study), I was walking on Grand Anse Beach about a half mile to the bus stop (tough life, that) and ran into Jesse who prooffered a bottled Carib and a ham/faux cheese sandwich with some fellow students. Sidetracked! But I ended the day fighting with my increasingly noncompliant Dell, and studying histo slides until the... hamburger incident.
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