VIruses remind me of the cold war..

One could take me literally noting that the common cold is primarly caused by rhinovirus and that every year we fight a war against colds. However, I'm not speaking of an actual cold when I say that viruses remind me of the cold war. No, I'm talking about the military percision, spy vs spy, sinking battleships, or intense capture the flag. There are sneaky viruses that quietly enter the cell, replicate and lyse (or POP) the cell to get out (murders--killing their host). Others are worse: they hang out using the cell to replicate under the radar of the cell. They are like the neighbors who steal your cable. You don't even know they are there. However, if the virus recieves a single that things are not so good in this cell anymore they, they jump ship. They rapidly reproduce until there are too many for the cell to hold and BAMB---they lyse the cell (killing the cell). I think it is so interesting--I guess I just like little things: viruses, bacteria, genetics, cancer, embrology and children.

I've been meaning to write to my blog, but I haven't been very exciting in the last week. It was Carnival last weekend. Pretty much the whole island shuts down to "jump up" and "party, mon." I was going to go to Portsmouth (it is the next town over--about a mile), but I decided to study. However, I could hear them. Since my apartment is on the water, I could hear the party. The noise was amplified accross the bay. I could hear the lyrics to the songs, the cheering, and drums. The funny thing is that, they don't REALLY start to party until about 2:00am. It was almost comical. I woke up the next day, and they were still going. I don't think they stopped all night. Actually,I know that they didn't. Carnival was one of the things that I was most excited to experience; however, I'm here to become a doctor--not a super partier. Thus, I had a lot of fun getting in an extra day of studies. Honestly, I did have fun because I REALLY love embrology. I've thought about becoming a fertility specialists and these lecture are peaking my interest.

This is my current favorite picture of the island. It is from our Island Tour a few weeks ago.