2 weeks

This very well may be my last post before you see me because there are- as the title states- only 2 weeks left (actually only 13 days- I will be home on the 14th day).

Monday is the start of our final tests- its a Pathology lab final. Then Wednesday is our Mini 3, then the Wednesday after that- the 16th- is our cumulative final. They all promise to be terrible, so all I can say is "hold on to your butts."

The pictures are from a 2hour beach excursion for my friend Charles' 30th birthday (thats him in the 3rd picture). Other than that I havent been doing to much- I baked a lot last week... Pumpkin Bars, Chocolate Chip cookies, and a brownie (had to get rid of my sugar and butter somehow and I found no better alternative).

Back to studying for me. Today I have to work in the anatomy lab from 5:40 till 7ish because of a 1st semester exam, so I need to be productive before that. And to prove that fact to you-- Duloxitine is a SNRI, Tolcapone is a COMT inhibitor, and I really just want to shoot myself. hahaha. I cant wait to be home.

~Kristen

Happy Thanksgiving

Have a great dinner! I will be dining courtesy of SGA- a take it to go turkey diner. I'm not expecting much seeing as it only cost 15ECs, but maybe I will be pleasantly surprised. Then this weekend we will have our own little post Thanksgiving/birthday celebration pot luck of sorts.


Anywho- home soon. http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/customcounter.html?month=12&day=16&year=2009&hour=16&min=0&sec=0&p0=226 very soon. (but you have to add a day to that because THAT counter is my time till I'm off the island counter... so by that time- if all goes well, I will be in San Juan checking into my hotel room for the evening)

~Kristen

Its the final countdown!

>>>Insert cheesy music here<<<

Well, its that time... finally. Less than one month and I'll be HOME!!!! woot woot!!! Not much has happened here that is worth mentioning besides from these few points.

Today was the Powderpuff game. I had gone to one practice and one practice only because I needed to study (this semester is kicking my butt). So needless to say I was a little rusty, but whatever. Sadly, I ended up getting jacked in the face by this crazy ass girl that was playing on the other team... right in the jaw by her elbow, so the next play we met again and I headbutted her in the face. It was all to much, and I ended up leaving before it was over because I was so mad with how it was being played and ref'ed, so I dont know how it ended, but I think we lost. Which is pretty sad because the 3rd and 4th semester team hasnt lost a game in years. hahahaha!

Other news, I finally saw some roadkill today that was not a centipede, or a land crab- a cow finally got pummeled. As sadistic as that sounds, let me inform you- people here drive like freaking maniacs, and the cows roam free, and walk, and poop, and do whatever they want wherever they want- including the road. It was only a matter of time. My theory (because it was a calf that was dead) is that the car saw the big momma cow and swerved to miss it, and then took out the baby. BUT the roadkill cow- which was there at 7:11 am, was gone when I came back from the market at 7:41 am, so I will not be buying anything at the food shacks that is beef in the near future.

Thats all I've got now. Got to study for some practicals in ICM and Behavioral Sciences... the classes that we actually get to touch people and feel and listen for problems.

~Kristen
25 days


Picture guide: 1) My best attempt at an "angry" face. 2) My name: Discostick #99. 3) My personal favorite... my what the hell just happened picture... The blonde girl on the top of the pile is playing defense on the other team and started before our QB hiked the ball, so I didnt even move to stop her, but I didnt have to- because she collided with another played on her team. They hit each other so hard, the blonde on top came out with 2 huge gashes on her face most likely requiring stitches. Serves you right.

Fighting to stay above water

OK, so that test was hard... whatever I've said about any test before this one- forget it. This test wins for the hardest test I have ever taken, and well, I bombed it. Bad. So, here to fore, I now need A's on all the rest of the tests to get to the next semester, so no more even little breaks for this girl... only books. Books morning noon and night. And then when I'm sick of studying I'll study some more.

Good news is that I got one last hoorah before the devastation of grades came out: which was a halloween party hosted by one of the campus charity groups. Bela, Kim (one of my other friends), and I went as trailer trash. Oh yeah. I was pregnant trailer trash to boot. Anyways, we ended up winning best group. :) And I'll have you all know that I coordinated this dressing so at least I'm good at something. haha. Whats awesome though- is that we one a 2 night stay at the Picard Beach Cottages, which are at the beach practically right on campus and they are where some of the actors/other people involved in filming Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean stayed while they were here filming.

I probably wont be posting very often till I get home due to me having to study my arse off... but if something interesting happens I'll let ya'll know. Sad news was now I cant do powderpuff: no time to practice... but they need girls on the line so bad they said I could just come for the game and play- so rock on!

~Kristen
38 days

TEST TOMORROW

So I've been studying like a mad woman for the 8 weeks I've been here for this semester and still feel like I know pretty much nothing... SHIT! Test is tomorrow and I feel not so hot about it- so if you read this before Monday- send me some happy thoughts (but make sure they are intelligent ones too)

I miss home :( but just think- when I get to come back it will already be Christmas Time!!!! wow. Anyways, much love
~Kristen

45 days

Canyoning

So Canyoning was definitely worth it. So here's what happened. There was a group of 10 students that went (which was the maximum number allowed to go with the company- Extreme Dominica). We took the school transport to Roseau, the capital of Dominica, and from there were picked up by Extreme Dominica. They operate out of a beautiful little place called Cocoa Cottages- such a beautiful view- smack dab in the middle of the rainforest.

Once there, it was time to put on our wet suits and harnesses. We then got our helmets and lifejackets and then proceeded to go up the mountain near by to practice how exactly to repel before we would be doing it for real. (Apparently I was a natural :-D ) Once we had all got the technique down we drove to Titou Gorge and began the trek down to the river.

The course just followed the river and included 7 repels and I think 3 jumps. The company had already drilled into the rock before (they have been doing this a long time) so all they had to do was tether us into safety and we were off. Unfortunately there was only one guy that had a waterproof digital camera, and in the gorge there wasnt much direct sunlight so many of his pics were too dark to make anything out.

It was wonderful- jumping off rocks into natural pools and repelling down waterfalls. At one point, I took a nap in a pool in the middle of the rainforest... now how many people can say they've done THAT! (its because I went first down one of the big repels, and with 10 other people that need to go- it took about 30 minutes to get them all through- plenty of time for a nap)

Overall the trip was crazy awesome, but I had to come back to reality seeing as I have my next test in less than 2 weeks.... damn.

Off to study I go :)
~Kristen

Pic 1- the group... I'm 3rd from the left.










Pics 2 and 3- Follow the yellow helmet.

Stuff

Just a quick little update.

Snorkeling was a blast! Champagne Bay was overrated... I think the only bubbles I saw were from fish- so NOT as cool as I was expecting- BUT- Scotts head was way cool. It was just like snorkeling in Finding Nemo. By that I mean that there were tons of tropical fish and corals etc. (no anemones) but then as you went out from the shore, there was, just like in Nemo, "the drop." Seriously, I wish I had an underwater camera to show you how it went. You would be swimming along and then, out of nowhere, the bottom just DROPS OFF. So cool. I did some free dives to the bottom of the shallow part, that was at least 20ft down- in of course crystal clear waters.

Oddly enough, the only part of myself that I managed to sunburn was my knees... how you ask? No idea. I'm going with reflection up from the bottom, because clearly- you snorkel face (and knees) down.

Lets see, yesterday I did my first solo patient interview. This woman was a bit, um, weird... and to my disadvantage had all sorts of stuff wrong with her and I only get 2000 words to do a chart and then differential diagnoses and explanations of the diseases she has... so I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get it all in.

Canyoning on Saturday!!! My friends that went last Saturday said it was very very awesome. We repel down 2 different waterfalls apparently. I dont really know the exact details. I will when I have experience it first hand this weekend.

Until then- adios muchachos.

~Kristen

Moving on

OK, so since my last post let me think what has happened..... not much really.

Mini one was Monday, and I came out feeling pretty good about it except for one subject so I was all pumped. THEN we figured out grades and my pumped-ness totally disappeared. :-( My personal worst test here. I didnt fail anything, but I sure didnt excel at anything either. I think my problem is that I have a problem being average. I hate C's. Ugh.

Moving on from that, its only going to get worse, so I need to up my studying somehow. (The "how" part is the part I'm still working on). I do know that I still am going to take some me time which should be awesome. For example- Sunday I'm going to Champagne Bay and Scott's head to go snorkeling. I'm going with Bela (of course) through Wellness club. The whole trip cost 10ec which is less than 4US. THEN next Saturday we are going "Canyoning". It should be super duper awesome. It involves dawning a wet suit and harness and repelling off Mountains, through waterfalls into lakes etc. Woot Woot!

Really, I need to cheer up and get going, but its hard when all your going is just more studying- hence the bit of fun that I am determined to mix in in the next 2 weekends.

HOME IN 68 DAYS!!!!

~Kristen

Mini on monday

So its that time again... Mini time. This is looking to be the hardest test that I have had to take here, simply because the subject material is so intense. I suppose in any case I have about 5 days to reinforce all that I can.

Otherwise, life is pretty boring and repetitive as normal- except today I had a killer headache (so bad that I had to go home to get pills to make it bearable). I am also going to try out a new tutor session tonight by a girl doing 5th semester here, so we shall see how that pans out.

I guess, everybody start your praying, and I'll keep on studying. :-)

<3 Kristen

Its the little things

So after hitting what can only be described as a major slump, today I felt much better. No bouts of overwhelming sadness while studying is a nice thing. And I thought I would put in here something that made my night.

After taking an unexpectedly long study break and talking about how we are going to be in debt until we are 45, we were still outside as the sun set and darkness fell. Then a few things went right... for me at least.

First- a friend had gone down to Rituals (a coffee shop- a crappy Panera) to get himself a burger for dinner, because this place is one of the only places thats close that sells beef that you would want to eat. He came back and gave it to us because he forgot to ask for it without condiments and he cant eat them so he had to order another plain, and we got to eat a fantastic Omaha burger (with condiments) at his expense. mmmmmmmmmm.

THEN- I'm looking off towards the main campus and see a lightning bug and exclaim "Is that a lightning bug!?!" I can not describe how excited I was to see it... I may as well been a 4 year old that just got a pony from Santa. My friends that are standing with me go... "yeah, you didnt know that they were here? There are like hundreds of them behind that shed at night." I suppose I dont get out much at night seeing as I'm always studying, but those stupid little bugs (and a fantastic burger) really made my night.

~Kristen

Week 2...

Mom thought I should update this thing so here we go.

Lets see... clearly by the title of this post you have no doubt concluded that it is indeed the beginning of week 2. Everything is pretty much same ole same ole except for Behavioral Sciences and ICM (which means Introduction to Clinical Medicine). Yesterday was the first ICM and behavioral lab. These allow us to practice our interviewing skills.... I suppose looking back on yesterday and the past 8 months here, it would have been nice if they actually taught us how to do an interview.

We have the guts to an interview- like this goes here and this goes here, but never an actual ran through one. Well I cant say that anymore. My ICM visit to the Portsmouth clinic consisted of me and another student (thankfully I knew her and we are friends) being shown to a room and a nurse saying "here's a patient. interview her." Yes, that was how it went. I am certainly not a pro and it was probably the longest and most in depth interview that this patient has ever had, but oh well... we're learning.

In other news: Bela and I started p90X (which is an exercise program) today and I realized that I have about 1 good pushup in me and no more... the rest are done girl style. The other thing I realized is that if I ever fall into a hole that is taller than I am and wider than I can reach I would die there because I sure as hell cant do a pull up either. haha.

Well I need to study. I was sick last week and did a lot of R and R and not a lot of reading.

~Kristen

Back To School...

Back in Dominica and back to the old bump and grind, except this time I have popcorn. :-) By that I mean that now my apartment is equip with an air popper for my popcorn kernels... so I had popcorn for breakfast. Actually the American Indians used to eat popcorn for breakfast as cereal- so maybe I will try that sometime.

Life has certainly not changed since I have been gone. Some new bath rugs may have appeared in my bathroom, but aside form that- the power still went out last night so I slept like shit. My laundry guy was supposed to show up at 7 and still wasn't there at 7:30. And class is still slow and tortuous.

~Kristen

Good News!

6 finals left and I'm FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, according to my calculations, I knocked mini 3 out of the park. Super home run :-) So now I think I need to get 5 questions (out of 80) in one class to get a C, and the others, I have already passed. (except for DPS because we dont know our grades yet for a written paper thingy). Soooo I'm just working now to get A's and B's in the classes that I can, but I'm also unmotivated :-(.

Cant wait to come home and see everyone

<3 Kristen

Let the games begin

It is officially CRUNCH TIME!

This week: Neurology Lab Exam (Tues), Histology Lab Exam (Wed), Anatomy Lab Practical (Friday)

Next week: Mini 3 (Tuesday)

Next Next Week: CUMULATIVE FINALS OVER SEMESTERS 1 and 2. Physiology and Histology (Tuesday), Anatomy and Neurology (Wednesday), Biochemistry and Genetics + Doctor Patient Society (Thursday).

Then Friday I start my 2 day journey back to the states. So I will not be posting until maybe the 20th or 21st, but by that time my brain will pretty much be fried so once again- not promising anything. :-P

I just cant wait to see everyone and honestly- go to a REAL grocery store and of course a mega super store- ie SAMS CLUB!


<3 Kristen

3 posts in one day!! wow!

I suppose I'm making up for lost time, and time that I will not have in the very near future. I just wanted to get some pics up from the Powderpuff game, which we lost- like 8 to 24 or something... It was very close up to the 2nd half, and then they got 2 more touchdowns. Oh well. Here are some highlights thanks to Bela.

And then I broke my own rule and went to KFC and bought something for my half birthday... A SOFT SERVE ICE CREAM CONE!!!!!! and it was fabulous! I still wont buy their chicken, but at only 3.50 ecs, I may be having a cold treat every now and again.

figured the picture thing out

Apparently, I have to add them one at a time instead of in a bulk upload, which is what I normally did. These are from the ziplining trip and then the Bahamas weekend trip.

This first one of me in the maroon is from our balcony in Antigua. The rest are Bahamas

Less than a month!

Many apologies for not updating in a while, but as always, life here has been BUSY! This time more than usual. Last weekend was the trip to the Bahamas. I was supposed to leave Thursday morning and get back Saturday afternoon. I was cool with that, I would have Saturday night and all of Sunday to study. Well, as it turns out, the weather in the Caribbean was bad on Saturday and all of us on that trip were forced to overnight in Antigua. Sunday came and there weren't enough planes, so yet again stuck in Antigua. Basically, my trip turned into a 5 day 4 night hiatus, so I'm behind in my ideal study schedule.

We finally got back, and I was in love with the Bahamas campus. Everything was newer, the staff were awesome, and the teacher to student ratio was small and therefore ideal. I went and signed up the next day- only to receive and email on Wednesday saying that California was not sure what this new Bahamas campus was and that they were going to have to go and access it. I didn't know this, but a lot of states follow California and base which foreign medical school grads can work in there state off of what California decides to do. That being said- even if I cant work in one state, that bothers me, so to have a possible 13 others on the list of places I could never go to work was out of the question. Also- when the VP of Enrollment says flat out, "Don't Go" that sends a pretty big message. I mean, I already have an apartment here, and know whats up etc. etc., but this place does suck, and I want to be closer to home and not have to travel for 2 days to get back here.

Today is the big Powderpuff Football game. My nickname this time is Turd Ferguson, which just cracks me up. I haven't gone to many practices, and the field is a big muddy mess, so this should be interesting. All I can say is that I have my old glasses, so if nothing else, I wont break my good pair. :-)

I'll try to get some stuff up here after the game but I cant promise much- our test load in the next 3 weeks is Hellish. 10 of them to be exact, and lots of the grade yet to be determined. Really, I just want to pass. Of course I will take A's, but passing is also good.

*Also- I have been trying to post pictures but it wont let me... sorry*

Kristen

PICTURES!

Only 9 tests left... haha

Second test down, now only 9 left until I get to come home. :-) This test was crappy. Thats all I feel that I want to say about it. Lets just say that I now need to somehow figure out how to work harder than I already am. Booooo this. That being said, this and next weekend should be really fun.

Tonight is the "Paint Party." Premise being- wear the white t-shirt that you bought to get in, and once at the party- throw paint at people. haha. I think its going to be pretty fun.

Tomorrow is also promising. After the market and tutoring etc. I will be going ziplining through the rain forest. ^_^ Hopefully I will get lots of cool pictures. I just dont want to drop my camera.

Other than that- my life is anything but eventful. I just want to get through this semester. I just keep reciting to myself- C's for degrees! But of course I want A's, but thats out of the question at this point in some classes... I will just continue to give it all that I've got.

Oh- next weekend- duh. I AM GOING TO THE BAHAMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!! Can you tell that I'm excited about it? Because I am. The school is taking 300 people there to look at the new campus and talk to the people that are there now. I'm pretty damn stoked for the fact that there is a movie theatre there so I should be able to go see Harry Potter, and hopefully Transformers as well. Both of those are one that I would want to see in theatre.

If the Bahamas campus looks legit and looks like somewhere I could see myself, I will most likely be making another move in September, but that is still a humongous IF.

Thats pretty much it... yup.

<3 Kristen

Holy Crap Mini 2 is almost here!

I reiterate the title of this post- HOLY CRAP!!!!!!! See its important because I bolded it, made it red, changed the font, AND its italics. Its on July 6th, so I cant promise any updates before then, unless I can not take studying anymore and perhaps something cool happened, but honestly- I dont see that happening until AFTER the mini, so ugh.

Biochemistry is a freaking beast, and well I realized that Histo is worth 30% on this test and I dont know it... HA! and I dont know Physio either which is like 25%, so I need to get my ass in gear. srsly. The good news is that if I can master Histo- I have also mastered Physio and vice versa because they overlap nicely, which is good.

In un-school related news- I have lost A LOT of weight. I mean by the time I come back home there is a very good chance that I will hit triple digit loss. :-D yay! Went to body tracker today and I was 225- once again- YAY!!!!!!! Thats only 5 pounds away from my goal of being classified as just overweight- which would make me super duper freaking happy. And 3 people told me I was pretty yesterday, and one said that I was going to be dangerous if I keep getting skinnier (think of it- me? Kristen? dangerous... muah haha- boys watch out :-P)

Otherwise- here is some current news, its someones birthday and there is cake here and it smells really good, but since I am not this persons friend, I can not eat her cake :-( sad. But good? for me in the long run? no- its just sad- I like cake.

Thats really all I've got.

Much love! <3
~Kristen

Study study study

Hey hey hey! Been studying... like usual haha... what else do I do? Well, seeing as June seems to be the month of birthdays- Happy Birthday Grandma Corrine (two days ago) and Happy Birthday Grandma Greta today!!!- I made cake. Today was also Bela's birthday, so I made a chocolate cake for her. That was a task. My oven does not have numbers on it.... just: Alta, M. Alta, Media, M. Baja, and Baja... so I guessed that 350 was right around M. Alta and it turned out just fine.

I cant remember what I wrote last time, but since then I got a haircut. It's "medium" so says Mike, I feel like its short, but I like it, and thats all that matters.

I'm going out to dinner tonight with Bela for her birthday, so I am trying to get all my lecture stuff done, but I find myself looking more at anatomy, because the lab practical is on Friday and I need an A on it... because I got a C on the test. boooo! The worst part is that the lab has been absolutely PACKED with people lately, and that the bodies look terrible. I cant find anything, and the havent been sprayed down when students are looking at them, which leads to them looking dry and quite frankly like beef jerky. A smelly nasty human jerky- ewww. I wish students had more respect for the bodies, but alas- they dont.

Well, back to studying. Hopefully dinner is awesome. We are going to the Iguana Cafe, which everyone says is amazing. We shall see.

~Kristen

First Big Test Down

Mini 1 = over. My performance = not so hot. Sadly I calculated my grades and 2 are in the C range, one of those which is pretty low (which is close to failure here... A-B-C-Fail). We shall see when everything gets grieved and what not whether those improve or go down... hopefully they only get better.

Last night was super fun, and full of after Mini madness. I decided to spend the money I had gotten out of the bank earlier for laundry on alcohol, and make myself a sweet-tart (which is pretty much amazing). Needless to say, I drank the whole 2 liter over the course of the evening and had myself a really good time. I made a few new friends and made a whole lot of people laugh. I suppose its hard to tell who people really are when the only time you ever see them is studying. So letting loose was a shocker to some. :-) haha.

Other than that, the week prior was super uneventful, just studying like a mad woman, which didnt even pay off- sadly. *sigh* Today we have an 8 hour day of lecture, which I am watching from home. I went to the first 4 hours, and was just too tired, so I came home and took a nap- yet I'm still tired. The only thing I dont like about mediasite is this weird downtime between lectures... but hey, I'm getting something done. I hadnt wrote on here for a week +.

AND, today I got a parcel slip, so we'll have to see what I got, whether its the package my mom just sent, or one that I've been waiting for for over 3 months... Alright, I'm going to watch some more lecture :-), and then study... I have to be super on top of this shit so I dont get any more C's.... I do not like C's.

<3 Kristen

Life keeps going forwards

Well, school keeps going, yet I seem to be in the same spot that I started at. Its quite frustrating. I keep studying and studying and yet feel like I havent even scratched the surface of what I need to master for this first test, which is in 8 days!!!! AHHHH!! I hate this, and dont know what to do to fix it. Thats the worst part. I'm doing the same things I did last semester, but there is just so much more info this semester. Ugh.

In other news, Bela and I had people show up to our tutoring session and they thought we were great -well at least one did :-) . The tutor that I was going to go to today had absolutely NO SPOTS left in the room, so at least its not just me who thinks that second semester is hard.

I went to the market and bought some new things- "cherries" and "plums". They are fruit, but not cherries or plums... at least not like any kind I have seen in the states. But whatever the "plums" were, they were good. I also bought a watermelon, which I proceeded to drop back at my apartment and it split into 2 pieces and the ants are having a field day.

Other than that, my life is hard and sucky and August can not come soon enough.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA DICK!!!! (tomorrow)

<3 and miss everyone,
Kristen

So much to master in so little time

Well, its been one hell of first 2 weeks.... I've been studying all the time, and yet know nothing, which totally sucks. And then to add insult to injury, I have managed to catch a cold... awesome. So my plan of catching up and being a super studier this weekend were shattered. Instead of having a great productive day yesterday, my body revolted and I left the annex at 7 and was sleeping at 9pm. and then got up at 8. Now I have a tutoring session from 10-noon, and then a couple of my friends and I are going to the the anatomy lab to learn. And then later I will try to catch up with class related things. Ugh

Other than that, 2nd semester is living up to its reputation of being hard as hell. I can only hope that I can study enough before the first test, which is in 2 weeks.

This is going to suck...

3 days in to a new semester... and well, like my title says, its going to suck. Another class added to the 5 others we are already taking, and unfortunately, I have never had neuroanatomy before, so it is a brand new thing that I need to learn. super. I havent been as motivated as I should be these last few days, but I was sick in there so I feel a bit better now, which is good. I still havent figured out what made my stomach revolt, but I have narrowed it down to either coleslaw I made, or guavas... I have a bad feeling that its the coleslaw, which is sad, because I would have to throw it all out.

I will not be writing very much on here though... I have already decided that much. Only when I have time or something super interesting happened. I will try to keep a once a week update though.... maybe on Sunday or something. I dont know (I do like to take mental breaks though and this is perfect for one of those.)

Class so far is shitty. A bunch of memorization, which is basically my least favorite part. Right now I'm in the Annex studying and the police are here practicing for the Whitecoat ceremony. Its cool, but I would like quiet :-P.

I'm trying to get a schedule down that I can stick to too. Since we have that extra class, we now have more class-- so some days we have 8 hours of class.... booo. The tutor schedule aso isnt ready yet either. Hopefully the ones I went to last semester want to tutor again so I wont have to test drive any new tutors. Also- I get to be a tutor for 1st semester. It should be good, so long as the 2 hours out of m week doesnt drive me crazy.

Well, I need to get back to being studious. Far too much stuff already and I need to stay caught up, because falling behind in this semester is not an option because you wouldnt be able to come back from it.

Much love-
Kristen

Happy Mothers Day!!!

Happy Mothers Day momma and grandmas! I hope it was a lovely day. I used my last day off to sleep in till 9, then watch some TV, check in (so they know I'm on the island), and then I went snorkeling. I went out in front of campus by the old pier, and it was really neat. Too bad it was cloudy :-(, BUT the fish were still there. And I saw some really awesome sea urchins. They had spines that were about 8 inches long.

Otherwise, my week was full of nothing... and it was lovely. I watched lots of Starz. Last night, Game Plan and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian were on, so I popped my last bag of popcorn, made some crystal lite and watched away. And BTW (by the way), it bothered me that the characters in the Narnia movie all had different accents... I mean, whats that about! A Latino prince, British children, a Scottish dwarf, and others that were just weird.

See, like I said pretty boring right... but that will certainly change after tomorrow. Now, dont get me wrong... my life will most likely still be boring and filled with studying, but at least I will have a purpose again. Its good to have a purpose.

Thats all I've got to tell you right now.
LOVE YOU!!!
<3 Kristen

Vacation is almost over

Hola All!

My parents left today... sad. But it was definitely fun to have them here. We got to go site seeing and see a bunch of cool stuff. But the best story of the week is by far this one.... So I've mentioned this before, but they filmed the parts of the 2nd and 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movies here. The parts that have to do with Tia Dalma on the river, we're filmed VERY NEAR campus. They actually built little houses for the directors and cast that I saw as we were walking on the beach on Monday (i had never noticed them before). Anyways, the river they used was the Indian River, and you can pay to have someone row you up it, because motors are not allowed in the national park, so I called a company to arrange diner in the national park and to have someone row us up there. So we drive and park by the river, and our rower crosses the street and I say "Are you from Cobra?" (cobra is the company I called earlier) and he says, "yes, they told me you were coming." So we all go and hop in his rowboat and start the tour up the river. We are about half way up the river when my phone starts ringing... total mod killer there... ha. But whats even better is that I answer and the woman on the other end asks me- are you still coming? the boat driver is waiting for you. hmmm.... if the rower from their company is waiting for us... they WHO THE HELL IS ROWING US RIGHT NOW!?!?! I say we are already halfway up the river with a rower who said he was with Cobra and that was the end of that phone call. She calls me back a little later, and now we're sure that me and my parents are in a boat with not the correct driver... awesome. We finally get to the bar in the national park and this is where the boat driver's plan gets messed up. I had already arranged to have dinner prepared for us, so now he has to wait, if I hadnt, he would have just taken us back I would have payed him and his scam would have worked, but now he is stuck. We are now waiting for our meal, and the cooks phone rings, and the woman wants to talk to me. She wanted us not to worry, and even if our boat driver leaves us, they will send another to pick us up. Great. Also note, that we are now watching our rower that hijacked us, proceed to take some marijuana out of his pocket and roll up a joint and smoke it.... so now we have to go back with a high pirate captain... hahaha. We finished dinner and desert, got rowed back to the main road in the rain and then I had to pay at the Cobra office... they are who I arranged it with, and they accepted my debit card. We told our high rower to talk to them, because he lied to us. If he worked for Cobra then me paying the company should not be a problem at all. It was definitely a memorable outing. And my dad and I got eaten alive by mosquitoes... literally we each had about 100 bites each. Terrible. But they arent itchy anymore.

Well that was my interesting story about our outings in Dominica. Lets see what else happened... I PASSED 1st Semester!!! I did pretty damn well too. 4 A's and a B is not too shabby at all. And my parents gave me a new iPod nano as a celebration gift. Its lime green and pretty awesome, but I need to buy a big one so all my music can be safe.

While my parents were here, we decided to rent a car so we could go wherever we wanted and not worry so much about time, but what we did not realize is how crazy it is to drive anywhere on this island. Until this week I had always just been a happy passenger... let someone else worry about cliffs and rain gullies that are 2 feet deep, and roads that are not wide enough for two cars to pass on. Holy shit! I'm honestly surprised that my parents got in the car with me the next day. It is crazy stuff driving on this island for sure. No more of that for me.

I successfully moved over one apartment, and the difference is amazing! Probably a good 10 degrees cooler easy. Its got 2 more windows then the other apartment did and great airflow. I'm glad that I moved. Very glad. Now I just need to unpack all my stuff again.

<3 Kristen

Parents in 24 hours

Hey! Sorry for not updating, apparently I was freaking some folks out. I'm glad that ya'll care that much. So my final was Tuesday, and well, I finished it really quickly. I mean I already finished the other tests pretty fast, but I was done with this one in about an hour and 20 minutes. Which is fast for a 120 question final, or at least I think thats fast. So that either means that I did really well, or I messed up.... But I suppose those are your options no matter how long it takes you to finish a test. :-)

Um, good news, I dont feel bad about the final and I guess I'm relieved to be done with my 1st 4 months of med school. No matter what happens, I made it this far. I'm almost certain that I'm now a 2nd semester med school student, but I dont like talking about tests until I can figure out/know my grade for certain.

I've been catching up on TV and entertainment in the last couple of days. Who knew it was an all new Wed. on the Discovery Channel... to bad you can make microwave diamonds, that would have been nice. (but honestly when ever would peanut butter + charcoal brickets = gem stone)

I've been my normal self lately which is nice. And by normal I mean a certified water baby. Yesterday I went to the pool for 2 hours in the morning. Then went back for another 2 in the evening, but in the evening pool romp, I decided to go out into the Caribbean. I swam out further than I ever had before because the tide was coming in, so I figured if something was to go terribly wrong I can float and drift back to shore eventually. I swam out to the end of the picturesque dock, and found that about 3/4ths to the end of it, there was a little man made unintentional reef that had some really pretty tropical fish inhabiting it. Nothing like feeling that you're swimming in an aquarium. I also swam through a school of fish- AWESOME! They just split up and let me swim through and then formed their school again. And they were pretty big fish too- about a foot long.

Lastly, there had been this coffee shop that opened up called Rituals. I dont know if I mentioned it before, but its like Dominica's version of Panera... so and overpriced Starbucks. But they have very "american" food, or so I was told, I had never eaten there before because it was so expensive, but when it first opened Bela and I had gone to see what the hype was about, and we saw the desserts that they had there. Decedent pies and cheesecakes... mmmmmm. But expensive. On that day I told her that after our final we are coming to eat here, and that was realized Tuesday night. We sat and ate for two hours. I had a turkey and bacon panini, and she had some sort of wrap. I drank a Kona Mocha chiller, and then for dessert I ordered a slice of german chocolate cake, and Bela had blueberry cheesecake and we split them. Fantastic. I took some pictures of my "american" food. And look how HAPPY I was to eat cake. YAY cake!