Mudslide

It's been a while since I've posted. I've been meaning to post since our exam, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Anyway, our exam last Monday was a doozy! I'm just glad that it's over and I'm passing everything! :) After the exams, Farley and I always go to the gym; however, I was so tired I took a two hour nap while he went to the gym. We were going to go to the beach, but it rained all day-I really mean all day. I was awoken by the rain at 5:000am and I don't' think there was a rain break until about 6:00, but it promptly started raining again throughout the evening (not heavy rain all day, but raining nonetheless).

We decided to try a new restaurant, Sweet Refuge Cafe. Apparently, they don't make anything well except for cheeseburgers. I've never been a huge burger fan; however, we don't get variety in our diets and this was a pretty good burger. In fact, I was shocked how good the burger and fries were. Midway through dinner the power went out (I think due to the rain) and this restaurant don't have a generator so they brought out candles for us to finish dinner. We had also heard that the deserts were good; however, we decided just to come back later since the power was out. On our way home, we thought it might be fun to stop by the restaurant/bar at our hotel (apartment). We had desert there and enjoyed the company of some friends. It was a lot of fun. After that, we headed home and watched a documentary on HBO. I know, you are jealous, we watched a documentary. It's as if we don't have enough academics in our lives and we choose to watch a documentary. Anyway, it was about the one child law in China and people selling and buying children. It was incredibly disturbing, but it was also so interesting. It was hard for me to believe what happens to people--very well done documentary.

I was having a hard time focusing before the exam, which is unusual for me. However, after the exam, I turned back into a lean, mean studying machine (even without coffee!). I think having a day to do nothing but relax put me back on tract. On the Thursday after the exam, Farley and I were at the study space. I was minding my own business and I was being attacked by moths. I guess by now it shouldn't be a surprise that I was attacked by insects. I'm their favorite target. I decided to go home and spray down with bug spray; this is how I got the new nickname: Mudslide.

I was minding my own business walking across the parking lot behind the study space. There is about a ten foot stretch of grass and some dirt from the parking lot to the paved walkway near the pool, which leads to our apartment complex. This stretch of grass is going down a slight decline. I can't stretch how slight this decline is--perhaps a foot or two over this ten foot stretch. As usual, it had been raining earlier in the day and the grass/mud mix was slippery. Well, I managed to fly in the air land on my lateral right hip/buttock, fly back in the air then land on my left lateral hip and buttock then I rotated more medially onto my buttock and slide down the "hill" at which point I managed to get mud all the way up shoes and up my calves (did I mention I was wearing pants). A first semester girl ran right over to see if I was okay (I'm sure she will make a good doctor because she was so concerned, caring and didn't make me feel too much like an idiot). Luckily, I was fine except for my ego, which is still greatly bruised. You now know why Farley gave me the nickname Mudslide.

Since the last exam, we have been covering tons of interesting topics--perhaps too many interesting topics! We are doing head and neck in anatomy, which is a bear cat. There is just so much information in so many little structures in such a small space. It is NOT easy, but it is interesting. We covered learning and memory in neuroscience. We are having the ear and hearing all day today, which is SO complicated yet so interesting. Think of the excitement: Farley and I are learning how and why we got sea sick on the way to St. Lucia due to the balance mechanism in the ear. However, best of all we are starting an introduction to the immune system, which is one of my FAVORITE things in medicine (or should I say things in medicine that I've encountered). I LOVE it!! It is complicated, but interesting. I think it is a million, billion times better than anatomy (Farley would debate that with me until we were both blue in the face). Immunology makes studying fun again--it is my treat after completing my anatomy assignment for the day. We are starting to study more clinical things, which is so exciting. The next two semesters we will cover immunology/microbiology, pathology, pharmacology, introduction to clinical medicine and behavior sciences--I'm salivating like one of Pavlov's dogs just thinking about it!

Farley and I took a study break on Sunday to walk on the beach. Here are some pictures:

Below: Picture at sunset. Farley and I think that all of the pictures of sunsets in the Christian book stores were taken in Dominica.

Below: A tree that is just a few feet from the ocean on the beach. We think they are orchids. This tree is about a five minute walk from our apartment and right below the deck on campus.

Below: Another picture of the sunset. I love sunsets!