I'm so ready to come home

I've been back in Dominica for a week and honestly, I'm shocked I've made it though the year on the island with such a positive attitude. Besides the brown water, the power outages, the expensive flights, the cold showers, the limited food choices on the island and the horrible misquotes, Dominica is the loudest place I have ever lived. There is a club OVER a mile away from my apartment. When I first arrived in Dominica, I could faintly hear the music of the club but in the past year it has gotten louder and louder. I am so tired. At least 2-3 days per week, there is music so loud that I can hear the lyrics with my windows closed, air conditioner on and ear plugs in until 2 or 3 in the morning. It was so bad that I got less than four hours of sleep per night the last week of last semester--the week that we had tests 50% of our grade in EVERY class within 48 hours. I emailed the school today and this was part of the response: " There are many laws in Dominica; unfortunately most of them are not regularly enforced. [The Club] is an integral part of the local community and attempts in the past to broach this subject have been unsuccessful." Seriously, I doubt activities at this club, which keep the rest of us awake several nights a week are an "integral part of the local community". I just don't buy it. The majority of the Dominicans I have met are family oriented, active in their Church, hard working (maybe slow but hard working) and up very early in the morning. I understand that the Caribbean cultures like to dance and jump up, but I don't think that they are all out doing it at least twice a week. During their multiple holidays, absolutely--I'm sure the majority of Dominicans are out at the party and "jumping up" but NOT every WEDNESDAY night. Dominicans do have jobs--generally working somehow with the school or students as there isn't much of economy besides the school! It isn't too much for them to just turn down the music a bit, as to not keep everyone else on the island awake. Besides, Dominica has more people per capital over the age of 100 in the world; I suspect they don't want to be up at 3:00am either! My flight back to Miami is Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 2:55 pm. Let the countdown begin!

Davenport, Clinks and a long flight back to school.

Last Sunday, Mom and Dad planned a great surprise before I left: a trip down to the Davenport for the Sunday Brunch. Yummy! It is one of my favorite things in Spokane, but it is so expensive, it isn't a treat you can enjoy too much! A few family members even agreed to come down too, so not only was the food great, the company was the best a gal could ask for.

After enjoying the Davenport, we went down to River Park Square and picked up a few last minute things. They still had up the tree, so it it is:


On Monday, I had a few million errands to run. Luckily, Mom and Dad were with me, so it wasn't so bad. We even had time to stop for a nice lunch at the Mustard Seed. Tuesday, got to spend part of my afternoon at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital seeing some of the doctors that inspired me to move a world away to train so that I one day can also be an inspiring physician. It was so nice to talk to people who know exactly what it feels like to be so overwhelming tired and extremely stressed. One of the best parts of the day was seeing a little one that was on studies while I was a clinical researcher. He was less than a year when he was diagnosed and after his bone marrow transplant, I helped him walk down the hall. Now, he must be three or four and if I hadn't seen him as a baby and known he had leukemia, I never would have guessed it by looking at him now. It makes me excited to become a physician--to make a real difference in people's lives.


On Thursday night, Mom, Dad and I went to clinks for my last dinner at home. It was so great! Here are some pictures:

Leaving on Friday was much harder than I thought it would be. I thought after being gone for so long that I wouldn't have as hard of a time saying goodbye, but I think it was worse than last year. After leaving Spokane, I flew to Seattle and had about a 15 minute layover before boarding for what I thought was a direct flight to Fort Lauderdale, but instead we stopped quickly in Nashville. Finally, I arrived in Fort Lauderdale! Farley and his uncle picked me up and then we went down to Miami and saw Farley's paternal grandparents. We left for Barbados Saturday morning at 10:00 and arrived in Barbados at 3:00 local time. The Barbadian airport is probably the jewel of the Caribbean airports: there were shops, and restaurants and even a quick moving customs. Amazing!

The closest hotel to the airport, was a beautiful little gem on the beach. The hotel had great architecture and the beach was one of the most breath-taking that I've seen. It was a very windy location and there were tons of wind surfers and kite surfers. Farley and I had enough time to take a stroll on the beach and read novels on beach chairs near the pool and overlooking the sea. We had dinner on a deck that overlooks the sea. It was a full moon and the sea was so beautiful as the waves were dancing in the moonlight.

Below: my messy hair on the windy, beach.


Below: Look at all the wind and kite surfers!

Snow Party!

This month has been so snowy! I'm not kidding about the snow. Apparently, it is the most snowy month in history with I believe about 60 inches of snow. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but the snow started to melt on Sunday so (good) many people were able to come to the open house my parents threw for me. The bad thing was the roads were inches of ice on Monday. Yuck! I still managed to go shopping at my second home: Nordstom! I had gone to Nordstrom downtown on the 26th and to the Nordstrom Rack on the 29th. If anyone doesn't know my love of Nordies, they called to check up on me when I was gone this year and make sure I was okay since I hadn't been in! Who has a store call and check on their health? I bought almost all of my work clothes there and was in the stores a lot when I was working: watching and waiting for the sales because why pay full price when you can catch a sale? If sales shopping at Nordstrom was a sport, I'd be on the national team. Anyway, it was fun to be back to shopping for sport! Mom and I managed to find her a beautiful outfit for Angie's Wedding, my sister. They still had some summer looks at Nordstrom Rack, so I also managed to get some dressy light weight/summer clothes for going back into the hospitals in Dominica next semester.

Speaking of Dominica, I have for more months in Dominica. Then, I start 5th semester which is a transition semester. There are three locations for 5th semester: Dominica, Michigan or Miami. There are advantages and disadvantages to all locations and honestly, I don't know where I want to go. I'm leaning toward Miami or Michigan, but we will get more information next semester and then I will be able to make a more educated decision. After 5th semester, I will take a Step 1 prep course. The Step is one of the most important exams of one's medical career and I need to do my best of this exam. So, if I calculated correctly, I will be taking the Step sometime next fall (I believe I have until next November to take the exam). After passing the Step, I'll move to do my two years of clinical studies. Most likely I'll end up in New York City, Chicago or Washington D.C. There are other cities that rotations are available, but I want to stay in one city for the entire two years rather than moving about, so the East Coast it is!

Oh, this is my 100th post for the year, which is a good end to a great year. Happy 2009!

Merry Christmas!

I got an early Christmas present this year. Our grades came out on Monday ( which is early since they usually they take at least a week and this was only five days including the weekend). I had my best semester of medical school! I'm looking forward to doing even better next semester!

Yesterday was also an exciting day. I got to see my sister, Angie, and her fiancee, Jeremy, as well as some of my favorite people: Deanna and her girls. It was so nice to get to see and spend time with people that I love and have missed so much over the last year. We were going to go to midnight mass at St. Aloysius; however, given the three feet of snow and the non-stop addition of snow we decided just to stay home and enjoy each other last night. Mom made a honey ham last night and we watched all that snow fall next to the glow of the Christmas Tree.

Today has been pretty laid back, which is nice as it hasn't stopped snowing since I returned to the great Northwest! I am so lucky that my flight arrived on time--so very lucky. We are having the neighbors over for a nice Christmas dinner --Mom is making prime rib! Yum!! I hope that everyone has as great of a Christmas as I have. As Farley would say, "God Bless!"

I made it home!!

It took me six flights, four trips through customs, two cab rides, two days and one overnight stay in Ft. Lauderdale, but I made it home last Friday at 3:30 pm! It was a long trip and I am so lucky that I was only thirty minutes late and all of my luggage arrived with me. I read an amazing book on my way home: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. If you need an excellent, exciting book with a happy, uplifting ending, this is the book for you. Little did I knowthat when I got home, I was going to walk into a winter wonderland! I have a few pictures from a couple days ago, but I believe we have another six inches or more of snow.

Mom and I put up the Christmas Tree after I got home and I got busy on wrapping presents on Saturday and doing some baking. It was nice to sit by the fire and be with the family. On Sunday, we went to lunch with some of my favorite people in the world: Aunt Molly and Uncle Albert. I haven't been to the Davenport in such a long time, so it was nice to visit. Here are some pictures:

Here are some great pictures of some great parents:

The dichotomy of time!

There are just hours left in this semester. Both too many hours and not enough: a dichotomy of time. I am so tired of studying. Having only about 16-19 days off per semester break sounds good in theory, but in reality isn't enough time to relax because you spend at least seven of those days waiting for the grades to come out. Why do we have tests worth about 50% of our grades in the last week or two of EVERY semester? It boggles my mind and stresses me out (poor Farley, I tend to cry a lot this time of the semester). Which makes waiting for grades even more stressful at the end of the semester because you can be passing everything and if you have a bad couple of weeks: BAMB there goes your GPA. Anyway, two more test to go (Monday and Wednesday) and luckily for me, they are worth 50% of my grade in two classes, 4o% of my grade in one class and only 20 or 30% (can't remember) of my Behavioral Science grade (as we had the shelf on Thursday, Behavioral Science is NOT on the final, but don't worry, they still did about 45% in five days). I think the stress at the end of this semester may be the worst so far (even though we had 10 days in 14 days last semester) because we've been almost going at medical school non-stop for a year. The stress just builds in Dominica, which is probably good mental training for when things will matter the most and be a million times more stressful: treating patients in life-threatening situations.

I think I'm done whining, for now. I don't enough time to take a longer mental break--there is SO much to study and review. Yet, I can't be done with this semester soon enough!. I can't wait to relax, actually get a good night's sleep and see family. Oh, the dichotomy of time on this little island!

I'm Finally Coming HOME!!!

Thanks to my super travel agent, Mom, we worked out a plan so that Farley and I can get home on the 19th of December and be able to stay at home until the 9th of January! It is so exciting, as the flights appeared to be all booked and we thought we were not going to get home until Christmas Eve (and LATE at that) and we were going to have to leave home on the 3rd of January to get back to the island. The only way we could get a flight so late in January was if we fly ouy of Miami on January 10th for Barbados, stay overnight then go onto Dominica on the 11th. Farley and I will have to keep a stiff upper lip during our 23 hour stay in Barbados. We start classes on the 12th so we will make it back just in time.

Besides being unable to get flights off the island easily (we started working on this in JUNE) the most astounding thing is that the flights are so expensive. For example, Farley and I could have gone to Paris or Rome for two weeks (air and hotel but excluding food) for cheaper than it cost me to get home. That is crazy! It is a good thing we didn't look into that before we booked our flights home because ....well, that is how we ended up in Argentina. I'm so excited to get to see everyone, but I will sure miss my Farley. Farley and I haven't been apart for more than 8-12 hours since last December; it is going to be strange not to see him for three weeks!