Sergeant Moo Moo

Does this cow look innocent to you? From a distance, the cows are great. However, lately the cows have been hovering around the trail between school and my apartment and they have been hanging out around the sidewalk to the study space. I just really don't like walking two feet away from the cows--I don't want to scare them---they have HORNS!! Here is a picture of the trail with cows nearby from a few weeks ago. Lately, they' ve been eating the grass right next to the trail. Note that the cement ends after a 100 feet or so then it is just dirt---they've been eating on the trail too.

Last night, we were leaving our apartments to go to the study space. Before leaving, Farley warned me that there were flying bugs, I don't know what they are, outside my door. I had a plan of attack: I put on my glasses, turned off the lights had everything packed and ready to go, then I rushed out of the house, while pursing my lips, and ran toward his door. I managed to get inside before too many bugs did. After we made our escape plan, we exited his house and ran with the fury of a t-ball player, who after making contact with the ball was rushing to first base. I thought we were safe, however, I was wrong. The cows were out. There were two (with horns) about 15 feet from the sidewalk leading to the study space. As we walked past the Ross University Housing toward the study space, we noticed about ten cows walking toward us--probably five feet from us. I would, under oath, tell you that these cows appeared to be in formation. Do you remember the movie, "The Mighty Ducks"? I think these were the mighty cows in slightly flattened out version of the "flying V"--perhaps it was the "walking M." Now, Farley on the other hand, says I'm being silly and that cows are not in the military nor do they move in formation. But, I still think there is a Sergeant Moo Moo out in my back yard.

After we dodged the cows, and their new calves--which makes cows extra feisty, we had to walk under a short light and again had to resume the closed mouth, closed eye run to avoid the insect. YUCK! Upon finally reaching the study space, we realized that there were insects ALL over. Just buzzing around and flying into people. I say that they were attacking, but Farley likes to remind me that these bugs don't bite people and suggested that they are just stupid and fly into people by accident. None of this matters to me: I hate insects! Farley kindly suggested that we should go home because I wouldn't last even ten minutes in the study space (he is correct--I'd probably last two minutes). This means that we had to cross the insects and cows again!


We managed to get through the insects using our time tested approach of pursing lips, closed eyes and running (it is one of the few times I have run in my adult life). If you want a complete visual image, remember I'm caring a 20Lb backpack, carrying a travel coffee mug, and I've never been graceful. Anyway, we passed the swimming pool and were in the homestretch, when I saw the heard of cows lining the sidewalk. Yes, about a dozen cows were all two feet from a two-foot wide sidewalk. I'm not afraid of the cows, but I respect them. They are HUGE and just had calves, which they are very protective of. So I begged Farley to walk around to the other entrance of our apartment complex. By the time we walked around, some of the cows had moved down towards us. We stomped, shook our keys and made a bunch of noise as you really don't want to accidental sneak up on a cow, especially one with horns and calves!


Farley didn't see this, but two of the calves were playing after we walked past them and bumped into their Mom. When the mother cow bumped the two little cows away from her with her hip. I just about fell over laughing (while not opening my mouth, as the bugs were back). I really don't want a several hundred pound cow bumping me with her hip so I will happily keep my distance form them.


Okay, back to my studies. The ten tests in two weeks starts this Thursday, August 7, 2008. Keep me in your prayers!!

The Views of Dominica that I have MOST of the time.

I thought you'd all like to see a picture of my books. Not too bad for this semester. Now, some of them are review books, like First Aid, but most of them are my test books. I'm sure you are jealous. However, my book store sized collection of text books shouldn't be what makes you jealous, it is my white erase board and my book stand.

As you maybe able to tell, these two tables are right next to one another. Some of my most important tools are one this table: my dry erase board, book stand, and COFFEE MAKER. Note the coffee maker is within reach at all times. I suspect that you are wondering what I've written on my white erase board. Luckily for you, during my study break, I was camera happy.

That's right. These are the clotting factors. Did you ever wonder how the amazing connective tissue, better known as blood, makes a clot and how it degrades the clot. You could study my color coordinated white erase board then you can listen to my super notes.

If you look closely in the background of the previous two pictures (I know it is difficult to pry your eyes away from my ever so interesting books), but my balcony is behind the wooden slate windows. Yes, having a studio apartment makes things easier (yet, I still manage to scare myself at night on occasion despite Farley is next door, I live on the 3rd floor AND there is 24 hour security--sometimes I sleep with my maglight....). Anyway, there is a beautiful view, but you can't see it when your nose is buried in a book.

I usually have my meals on my balcony looking at the BEAUTIFUL ocean. However, the cows sometimes get in the way. I don't live on Moo Cow Lane but sometimes, there are cows outside my apartment. That's right, I live in a village, without even a stop sign nor street names...Moo Cow Land and Banana Tail...NO STREET NAMES. At any rate, the cows eye ball you when you walk by them, they are loud, and they run shockingly fast. Oh, and never ever say to a cow when walking by, "Good morning Betsy, how are you?" They tend to turn around (in a 180 degree turn) faster than you can blink an eye, move toward the street and look around. I think she wanted to say hello back to me, but the people behind me on the sidewalk, were not so amused (they looked pretty scared...cows are BIG animals). I haven't gotten a good picture of the cows from my apartment since they aren't around THAT much, but they were in the field that is in front of my favorite study area. Here is a pictures of my favorite bovine from my apartment (in front of my favorite study area).

I realize that it is still cold up north, so I decided to throw in another picture of the sea from the Sea side deck at school. I know, most schools don't have sea side decks (it is the upper deck, we have a lower deck too).

Better than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams...

Back home in Washington, there is some exciting news. The University of Washington has some medical students, as part of the WAMMI program, that do part of their training in Pullman. I guess it was just announced that they are expanding the total class size at UW's medical school and moving the Pullman campus to Spokane. It also sounds like students at the Spokane campus maybe able to do all four years of their training in Spokane. Also, the long awaited Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine school opened in Yakima, WA and welcomed their second class this August. There are definitely are more medical school seats in Washington than when I left for Dominica. This got me thinking about how my life would have been different if I would have gone to medical school closer to home. Obviously, it would be awesome to be closer to home, friends and family. I wasn't able to come home to say goodbye to grandma or attend her funeral and at least two weddings--and I'm only in my third year of medical school. However, there are a lot of great things I've been able to experience because of attending a Caribbean medical school. I have a lot of amazing stories to tell my children and grandchildren. Sometimes things in life don't work out as we imagine, but they turn out better than we could ever imagine. Here are some of the interesting, exciting and humerous things that have happened to me.

• Meeting Farley. I don't know how I would have met him without going to a Caribbean Medical school and I can't imagine going to medical school without him. Besides being my partner, he is my travel buddy. Here is a picture from the day we first landed in at the Dominican Airport. Note how close the plane is to the Atlantic Ocean. Not much room for error. They have since remodeled the airport; however, they still have limited flights (like no flying at night and they can only have small plans land).

• Speaking of traveling, I've done a ton of it in the last three years. Obviously, I've been to Texas twice to visit Farley's family and we hopped over the border to Mexico once. Of the Caribbean countries, I've been to Puerto Rico, Dominica, St. Lucia and Barbados. I have had lay overs in Martinique, Antigua, and technically Barbados on an overnight layover. We had to stay somewhere, so we stayed at the closest and most reasonably priced hotel we could find--it wasn't our fault it was a wind surfer's paradise and we were right on the Atlantic Ocean! Seriously, who gets to have overnight layovers in Barbados and stay at a beach resort? I may in fact be the most brilliant person ever--I'm still going to be a physician when I'm finished and I've spent my first two years of medical school living 50 feet from the Caribbean sea and having layovers in the tropics. Not too shabby, except for the insects, brown water and other hazards of living in a third world country, but third world living just builds character! After our first year of medical school, it was so expensive to come home that it was actually cheaper to go to Argentina for a week than to go home. Looking back, I can't believe that Farley and I did this, but opportunities to travel don't always arise and one has to take every opportunity she gets. When we traveled to Argentina, we had a lay over in Panama. I couldn't believe the Panamanian airport--there were NO Panama hats to be found. In fact, there was one restaurant and two hot dog stands in very large Panamanian airport terminal. On a bright note, this terminal was basically a mall of European designer stores and chocolate stores! I ate a lot of chocolate with my hot dog in the airport. But unlike in the USA, the airline gave us two meals, two snacks, and free wine (but since I don't speak Spanish and Farley was asleep, I didn't know the wine was free) on the six hour flight from Panama to Argentina. Guess, I didn't need a hot dog and chocolate after all. Below is a picture from April 2008 of Farley and me waiting for the ferry to go to St. Lucia. The ferry ride could have been lovely if I hadn't have been so seasick!

• Strange Critters on the island. Before classes started we went to the Cabrits (the national park that we could see from our apartments) to hike. It was a lovely day, but everywhere we went, there was a ruffling of the leaves and ground covering. I thought it was just the geckos at first: I was wrong. We were surrounded by galliwasps. Click on the link to see a picture of them on Farley's blog. They look like geckos, but they have really small legs and they move more like a snake. Another exciting creature was this insect found near the study space right before the first exam of medical school. Just trying to go to the bathroom was an adventure, you never knew what you'd see on the way:

• Getting caught between a crab and a four cows. Yeah, that really happened. We were having a date night first semester after an exam (it may have been our first exam that semester) and then we were trapped between a feisty crab and four cows. See here is the blurry picture of the scary crab to prove it! I didn't dare take a picture of the cows since they were lining up in an aggressive, military-like formation.

• Lizards. Giant Lizards that fall from the sky...or my third story apartment. Or that just decide to hang out in my apartment looking out the window. How about the one that decided to drop his tail as Farley was escorting him out and a gust of wind made the tail fly through the air toward me before it started flopping on the floor. If that wasn't enough, how about the lizard that died hanging upside down from my balcony ceiling. To top it off, that was just in Dominica. One of them, which I named Leo the Lizard, moved into my apartment the last time I lived in Miami. Lizards can't get enough of me.

• Animal herds: In Dominica they let the animals run free. I talked a lot about the cows, since they were everywhere. Heck, one even chased me as I was trying to go study. Now, that doesn't happen every day! But it wasn't just the cows running free in Dominica. There was a pack of dogs that went all over. I a little afraid of dogs since I was chased by two baby pit bulls when I was a toddler and I was bit by a dog in my pre-school years; however, these Dominica dogs were so harmless they didn't even scare me. They were, nonetheless, annoying. They'd brush up next to you as you carried your lunch and they'd try to get you to pet them (there are a lot of insects, bacteria and parasites on that island and I'm sure there were some creepy crawlers on those dogs--I sure as heck didn't pet them!). There was a cat that lived near my apartment and would try get people to feed her (I usually set something outside my door). I was most surprised by the goats running free in Dominica. Who would have thought that there would be goats in the Caribbean.
  

• Natural Disaster. Now so far, we have been extremely lucky and there have not been any horrible disasters anywhere I've been. However, there was one tropical depression in Dominica while we were studying there. The sea come up high and flooded the lawn near our apartment. The only good thing was that I got to take a nap (it happened near a test and I was extremely tired, so it gave me a few hours to rest). I can joke about the tropical depression because no one was hurt and the only damage reported was the dock near our apartment. Overall, if the only thing damaged was a dock, we were all lucky.

• Who could forget the time that I fell down the hill in Dominica and was covered in mud. I think I should have learned that going to my apartment if I forgot something while studying on campus, was almost always a bad idea. I would end up being chased by cows, attacked by insects or slipping on mud. That is how I earned the nickname "mudslide".


• Living in a Third World Country. It is amazing how much we take for granted in America. Living in Dominica reminded me that in many places of the world, water isn't safe to drink out of the tap, there are insects, parasites and bacteria with your meals, and the power will come and go. All of these things were very difficult for me to adjust to; however, I think not being able to get a hot shower with clear water had to be the most difficult. If it rained a lot in Dominica, the water would turn a brownish color (like really watered down coffee). The filtration system couldn't keep up with the demand when there was a lot a rain, which happened frequently as Dominica is a rain forest. First semester, the water heater worked but something changed along the way. I soon learned that if I wanted a hot shower, I needed to hop in between 4-7 pm because otherwise, it was extremely cold. I'm not even sure how the water got so cold as Dominica is almost always between 84-92 degrees. Don't even get me started on the insects in Dominica, I still have scars from the mosquito bites! However, Dominica has it's redeeming qualities too--some of the best sunsets in the world.

• Bats. I don't know if I've every blogged about the bats in Dominica. Usually, Farley and I saw them when we were walking on the trail at night either coming or going to campus. It was the most strange thing in the world because out of nowhere there would be this slight gust of wind and a black thing in front of you. Then it was gone. They really make little or no noise at all. Obviously, I was frightened as they'd fly by because I'd be so shocked and I hate all creepy and icky things. But they have sonar so they never hit us. One night in early 2007, however, I did come face to face with one of these flying, ugly creature. I had my wooden panels covering my windows open. I stepped out onto my balcony to enjoy the cool night air. The light from my room bled though the wooden panels and I heard an odd noise. I looked up and there was a bat lost and unable to navigate out of my balcony. Besides the wall of windows, two walls the ceiling and the floor were cement. The other side was open except for the railing and about a one foot hangover of cement. I think all of the cement towards the ceiling, where he flying around, had his sonar all messed up. In case you have not had the honor of meeting up with a bat face to face, let me tell you bats are really ugly. Clearly, I made a mad dash for my door, shut the wooden panels on my windows and hid--as if the bat was going to penetrate though the walls and attack me. I believe that there are only fruit bats in Dominica, but you know even fruit bats can have histoplasmosis or rabies!

• Living in Miami. There are few places in the world as unique as Miami. In fact, I think it is more essential to speak Spanish in Miami than it was in Argentina! This city is a mix of money, cars, beaches, model-like people on the beach, heat, humidity, Spanish culture, retirees, colleges and universities, insects, lizards, crazy drivers, and to my shock farmlands less than an hour away. But obviously, the thing I love to complain about the most is the drivers. I think I've mentioned before that Miami lost it's title of the country's rudest drivers, which it has held for the last four years. Yes, the rudeness of Miami drivers even impresses those from L.A.

• Rainbows: Living in Dominica really makes one have to be an optimist to survive. Medical school is so tough, let alone living in another country--a third world country--and being so far away from not only family and friends but also convenience, such as grocery stores. To survive, you really have to keep a positive outlook even when things don't go your way, both with the living situation and with school. I've never lived somewhere before that there was always a rainbow at the end of a storm other than Dominica. You could practically see a rainbow every day and usually there were two or three together in the sky. I think this is a cheesy metaphor for medicine. When times get tough, and they will, you've got to look for the light at the end of the tunnel, for the rainbow at the end of the storm.
  

I guess the bottom line is that things sometimes don't end up as I predict or think I want. But I'd never dreamt that all of these amazing things would happen to me. Being willing to take a risk and run off to the Caribbean to fulfill my dream of becoming a physician, is the best risk I've taken so far. Who knows what risks and opportunities will present themselves in the future!

Chased by a cow...

Things like this only happen to me. I was minding my own business walking from my apartment to the study space. Now this study space is about 30 degrees Fahrenheit so I needed to go get a parka to maintain a healthy body temperature. I safely made it to my apartment and saw a few cows, there are always cows.....returning to the study place, I was coming around a blind corner and I heard a noise. You must always be paying very close attention down here in the tropics as you never know when a giant crab, lizard or cow is just around the corner. Thus, I peered around the corner; low and behold, there is Betsy, the cow, scratching her hind legs in a bush with her two calves munching on grass. Right as I came around the corner, a security officer tried to scare her off and she starting running toward me! So there I am, with my red Gonzaga University sweat shirt in my hand, in the way of the 1,000 pound bovine! I tried to act brave, I managed not to run, but I did power walk away from Betsy...to which the security officer said to me, "you have to let the cows know who is boss and not move out of their way. If you move they know you are afraid." Well, I had to state the obvious, but when a 1,000 pound cow with HORNS is running toward me, I am a little afraid!!! Then the security guard started yelling at the cow. Betsy and I looked at each other and I think we were both a little afraid. Needless to say, I've been studying at home as to limit my exposures to the cows.

Most people get caught between a rock and a hard place, not a crab and four cows!

The semester is over and I'm glad we get some time to relax! I sequestered myself in my room for about 10 days...I'm nervous enough as it is, I don't need to talk to other people and get more nervous! We had our third big exam on the 17th and our final on the 22nd. I don't know how the final went, but I did great on the third exam (the class averages were the worst so far for the third exam--it was by far my best exam). Apparently, my hiding in my room paid off--I hope it worked for the final as well. Oh and desperate times call for desperate measures, I took a pen and write all of the cutaneous nerves on my legs and hands. I took some pictures of my feet and hands as well as my view from my room.

Here is a picture from my balcony. Yup, I have a million dollar view. I would study at my table on my balcony during my self imposed sequestering.

Below is the view from my desk at dusk. You can see the white railing, which is the railing to my balcony.

Below is a picture from my apartment door down the hallway to the sea. You can see the tops of the coconut trees at the end of the hallway. Those trees are about 10 feet from the high tide. Thus, my apartment is about 50-60 feet from the ocean (and three stories up).

Here is a picture from the end of the hallway, at sunset of course:

Since the exam, Farley and I have been hitting the gym like crazy people. I'm so sore! I also found fit TV in my room and they have yoga on several times a day, so I've been doing yoga as well (and I did it during my self sequestering). We've also hit the beach. What is the point of living on a Caribbean Island if you can't go to your black sand beach and relax. The campus and island is getting quiet as many people have left for the semester break, but we are just relaxing and enjoying our time here.

Above, a picture of Farley's favorite tree which is right on the ocean and on our hotel (apartment) property.

Above is a picture of the dock near my apartment. Looks a bit rickety, Hun?

The pelicans are all over the place, which is MUCH better than seagulls. I hate/fear seagulls and the wonderful island of Dominica doesn't seem to have any! From my balcony, I can watch the pelicans dive into the ocean and pick out fish. They are fierce hunters.

The rain forest meets the sea...and there is a little river comes running down to the sea. There are several little rivers running into the sea, but what is interesting is that some of them are hot springs and others are cool mountain water. You never know.
Farley was in the midst of the rain forest little river and took a picture of me walking toward the sea with our beach bag. He thinks it is the best picture ever, so I posted it for him.

Here I am in my "old lady" bathing suit. I don't care what anyone thinks, I love it! Below is Farley, looking good. We couldn't find anyone to take our picture together, so sad. We had walked down about a mile from our apartment in the water; this picture is taken about a mile south of our apartment looking north (toward our apartment).

On Tuesday night, we went out to dinner. We were taking the trail through campus and saw a huge crab. After navigating past the crab, we saw a blockage on the road: FOUR LARGE COWS. Usually the cows don't really get in the way, but they looked as if they meant business that night, so we had a decision to make: take on the cows or retreat and take on the crab again. After a quick analysis of the situation, we decided to retreat and take on the crab again. He was still there, so we meekly skirted the crab's territory, which he defended like a warrior. I have a shaky picture of the mean crab, he was so scary, we were shaking in our flip flops.

We leave for St. Lucia on Sunday morning. We both get seasick, yet we are taking the ferry. We have our motion sickness and we are ready to go. It should be a great fun time. We get to stay at a little hotel for three nights in the capital city and five nights at an all inclusive resort...that's right all inclusive means drinks too!! It is going to be so much fun to have a Caribbean cocktail or a glass of wine and sit on the white sand beach. I'll take LOTS of pictures--my camera is charged and ready to go.

The Road to Dominica....

As I'm posting to my blog, I'm sitting on a deck that overlooks the Caribbean Sea. On December 29th, I left home and headed to Texas, via Oakland. I had a great time in Texas meeting Farley's family. There were all so kind and I felt right at home. We were only there for a few days before leaving for Fort Lauderdale; however, we managed to go to Mexico, launch off heavy duty canister fireworks, and eat TONS of great food. By the way, those Texans take their fireworks for New Year's seriously.

Next we headed to Fort Lauderdale to send off barrels. For those of you who don't know, one can send a 75 gallon barrel to Dominica for about $110.00 and it can weigh as much as you want. Farley and I sent three barrels of lights, kitchen supplies, food, and other supplies for the island. I thought it would be stressful getting all of our supplies and such, but it wasn't so bad. It took us a few hours to package the barrels, but we also took things out of their cardboard packages to make room for more things. I'm glad that Farley didn't see, but I fell head first into a barrel - they are that big. Thankfully, my foot reached a step and I climbed out before he noticed. Honestly, I had the hardest time getting my luggage down to the weight required to go to Dominica. Thank Goodness for Farley. I might not have gotten all my hairspray down to the island with out him!!


The flight to Dominica wasn't as horrible as I anticipated. I thought that I would get sick, but I was fine (I did take an anti-motion sickness medicine before leaving San Juan though). We were lucky in that all of our luggage arrived!! Many students were not so lucky.


The ride across the island was beautiful and a bit long. We went past areas that the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. In fact, Johnny Depp lived just down the road from me during filming. Speaking of housing, we have great housing!! We are staying in the Portsmouth Beach Hotel in studio apartments, but we are basically on campus. We have the Caribbean Sea approximately 50 feet from our door and the beach is a beautiful soft black sand. I can lay in bed and see the ocean, listen to the waves and feel the cool Caribbean breeze.

The people are so incredibly kind and personable in Dominica. We took a bus into Portsmouth the other day, which is the next town over, to do some shopping. I have been incredibly impressed about how easy everything has been (so far). There have been thousands of other students that have come before us, but I'm still impressed with the organization.

There are some interesting things about Dominica so far. First, all the power is pre-paid. It is weird to see 228.4 units of power on your meter. It is hard to gage how much one will use, but it is okay. We can take our laptops, cameras, and cell phones to campus to charge them (free of charge), which is nice. The water is directly from the streams in the rain forest at the center of the island. The water taste great, but we were advised to only drink bottled or water from campus as it is tripled filtered (that is until our pur water filters arrive). The stores all look like a cross between a dollar store and a convenience store except everything is $100.00 EC (which is about $30.00 US). Once you figure out that the basket of fruit you bought is really only $5.00 it makes more sense!! Finally, the last interesting thing is getting used to the bugs. They don't call Dominica the nature island for nothing. There are critters all over the place (but thankfully not in my room). There are dogs, cats, ducks, goats and even cows running free (in town more of the dogs and cats than anything else). Also when walking at night on the beach, you must be careful not to kill a crab as they are walking around.

So far, I love Dominica. I might not love it as much once the studies start and I'm sure it will get old, but I'm so lucky to be hear. I was afraid to come, but I'm so glad I did. Besides, I never would have tasted the wonder of the Caribbean "Nice Biscuits," which are basically like an animal cracker, but have coconut and sprinkled sugar on them. YUMMY!!

P.S. See bottom of page to see my view - it'll be hard, but I'll have to grin and bear it!

Housing and Hematology

It has been a stressful couple of weeks. We are in the middle of Internal Medicine, which is going great. We thought we might be able to stay here in Miami and complete our third year of medical school rather than moving to New York City, but it looks like the clerkship agreements won't be signed in time for us to stay (the pediatric and surgery clerkships for third year students will probably be in place sometime next year). Anyway, now we are trying to find housing in New York. Now, finding housing isn't too horrible (it is a big city), but I have never been to New York so it adds this mystery, which makes everything more difficult. But heck, if I can live in Dominica, I can live just about anywhere. Besides, as far as I know, there are no herds of cows running free and controlling New York City.

Since I have been stressed, I have decided to study one of my favorite things in medicine this week: Hematology! I know this sounds nerdy, but I think the clotting cascade is just beautiful. I haven't looked at it in a while and I almost forgot how breathtaking it is! There are multiple checks and balances to ensure that we don't clot too much, which can kill us, yet we are able to clot quickly and efficiently. We also break down clots in a timely fashion. We are constantly clotting and degrading clots. When things go wrong with the clotting cascade, everything goes to heck in a hand basket, for example Disseminated Intravascular Clotting (DIC). Since I get so excited about clotting, maybe I am destined for hematology and oncology.

Isn't it beautiful?

Goodbye Dominica, Hello Miami!

The last few days on the island were tough. We had so many exams and so much to do before leaving the island. The last week was especially bad, but we did it. In fact, we were so busy I haven't been able to write to my blog in about two weeks.

The cows decided to hang around my apartment because they knew I was leaving and they wanted to say a proper goodbye. Lucky me. The whole heard was out walking around down in the grass below me, but this picture is only of part of the heard.

Then on our last study day a giant lizard decided to hang out on that same grass before proceeding to hang out in the balcony two floors below mine. Needless to say, I decided to study inside that day. There he is in the field and the second picture is of his tail when he was sitting in the balcony below me. He was probably at least a 20-30 pound lizard.

After we finally finished our exams, we had to pack our barrel with books and extra supplies that we could not carry on the plane (there is a 70Lb weight limit for checked and a 40Lb weight limit for carry on items, which isn't much when you are moving from somewhere you've lived for about a year and a half AND you've accumulated lots of text books during that time). We also had to give away a lot of items, which was actually sort of fun because we gave many things to local Dominicans that we became friends with. I'm glad we were able to give everything away rather than throwing it all away. It took us much longer than we thought to pack up everything and we didn't get to go to a few last minute touristy things on the island. We did have a chance to go out to dinner a few more times (especially since we returned the propane tank from our stove on Friday...I really couldn't cook anything) and we did have a chance to have a drink with friends in the warm Dominica nights. In fact, we even saw a shooting star or a comet one night while having a glass of wine with a friend. There was a bright light falling toward the sea that went behind the clouds and then turned the sky to green and yellow. Farley took a ton of pictures the last couple days and posted them to his blog.

Here is a picture of Farley and I going out to dinner on one of the last days on the island and the last sunset picture I took in Dominica:

On Sunday the 26th, we left Dominica for probably the last time headed to San Juan then onto Miami. We had a more eventful flight than I would have liked on the way to San Juan, a mean stewardess. Then we had a lay over in San Juan and ate dinner with a friend. Obviously the first thing we saw in San Juan was an advertisement for Ross University: Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.

That's right, this Ross University advertisement took up an entire airport wall.

We managed to get into Miami in one piece, with all our luggage, and took a took a taxi to a hotel not too far from our apartment. We met with our landlord the morning on April 27th and got settled. Here is the outside of the Condo:

We didn't have too much time to hang out in Miami because we were catching a flight that evening to Texas to see Farley's family. In the morning, while watching my favorite channel, CNN, we heard that there were storms in the Huston area. I figured that they would be gone by the time we got into Texas: I was wrong. Bush International in Huston was closed for a while so we got to fly in circle over the Gulf of Mexico. Then our pilot decided that since the storm was going to New Orleans, which was our alternative spot for landing, we should fly over the storm and prepare for landing in Austin. From this point on, my head was between my knees as I tried not to get motion sick. After flying over the thunderstorm, the airport reopened and we were one of the first flights to land, we were so lucky our pilot decided to fly us over the storm. Despite being lucky to land earlier than most others, we had pretty severe turbulence for about 45-60 minutes. Once in Huston, we had to run around the airport like crazy people because flights were being cancelled, delayed and moved. Luckily, we were able to catch our next flight and we were at Farley's house just a couple hours late.

I had such a wonderful time in Texas with Farley's family. His mom took off a day and we all went shopping at a really nice outlet mall (it is like the one that is north of Seattle--designers!). His dad taught us some Cardiology and even let us observe a few procedures in the Cath Lab--we were SO LUCKY! Farley and I went to several movies, which were fun. My favorite move we saw was State of Play, but I think Farley's favorite movie was X-Men Origins Wolverine that we saw on opening night with his youngest brother. Overall, it was a wonderful vacation and great to see Farley's family. I just wish we could have stayed longer.

We flew back to Miami, on two uneventful flights, and headed straight to Costco to buy some bulk supplies. It was like coming around full circle as we went to Costco in North Miami before leaving for Dominica and this time we were at Costco in Miami getting ready to start our 3rd year of medical school and our semester in Miami. We also had to run to Target and to Winn Dixie (local grocery store) to get some other supplies. We are going to rent a car for the semester (we don't know how long we will be in Miami which is why I'm not shipping Zoey the Super Subaru) but we don't need it for a few weeks so we took a couple taxis but have mainly walked or taken the metro (it is just across the street from our condo). The apartment has two master bedrooms (each has a bath room with extra large tub, a walk-in closet and regular closet) Here are some pictures of the apartment:

My bedroom--you can't see the whole room but you get the idea. There is a slider that leads to a balcony that you cannot see in the picture.

It's not the best picture, but here is my walk in closet--one of THREE closets in my bedroom and bathroom!!
Here is a picture of the living room. You can't see but there is a dining table in the corner and there are two stools at the breakfast bar:

My favorite room in the house: the Kitchen with granite counter tops! The washer and dryer are in a closet in the kitchen too. I've heard of people who don't like washer and dryers in the kitchen, but they obviously have not lived in Dominica where you have two options for your laundry: pay someone or wash it in the stream.

Here is the view from the apartment. The view in Dominica is the only thing was better than this apartment, but who cares! The mirrored building on the left is Ross' Miami Campus, which is only about two blocks away, but it looks much farther in this picture.

I have to end this post with a sunset picture. This is from one of our first days back in Miami:

My cell phone number is the same as it was in Spokane and I'd love to have you call or I'll try to call you. My U.S. phone disappeared in Dominica so I don't have everyone's number. I have an exam on May 18th that is a review of the first two years of medical school, so I probably won't really be able to talk until after that. Right now, it's back to the books but after the exam, I'll be excited to talk to everyone!!

M.D.

During one of my USMLE Step 1 video lectures, the professor some funny things. He started out by declaring that MD does not stand for Medical Doctor (or Doctorate of Medicine) as we have been told. In reality, you earn your MD once you become a walking Medical Dictionary. He added that you must be able to describe the medical term using a normal vocabulary in 30 seconds or less--not 30 minutes and definitely not using 5 dollar words. Next, he proceeded to spend twenty minutes explaining why fat is yellow. Theoretically, I could have fast forwarded; but I was rather enthralled. I didn't know that if you get butter from cows at different time of the year the color changes based on the cow's diet. Nor did I realized that human vegetarians have brighter yellow fat than non-vegetarians. I especially enjoyed the end of the yellow fat discussion when he declared, "What you eat is what you are...everybody worries about what they look like on the outside. You're more interesting on the inside. That is what makes medicine interesting!" I only wish I could transmit his excitement in my typed words. And to answer your question, yes, he is a pathologist. Next he proceeded to say that, "Cellular Injury and Adaptation may not look sexy, but on an exam it will be. Trust me." Interestingly, I think I know what he meant; however, I'm pretty sure sexy isn't the correct word to use. But heck, he has already earned the title of Medical Dictionary and I have a couple years to go before I earn that honorific!

Miami it is...

I was hoping to be able to stay in Dominica for the transition semester, but I will be heading to Miami. Rumor has it that 100 people applied to stay in Dominica and they only let 50 stay with first priority to those who promise to stay for one or two of their clerkships, those who has a spouse attending Ross and is in the 1-4th and a magnitude of other things. However, the most important factor is if you willing to stay and do the clerkships here: neither Farley nor I were willing to commit to staying for two clerkships until we had more information about them. I think that is why we are going to Miami. Oh, well. It is kinda a bummer because we had a plan about the next few months, but it's okay. There will be hot showers in Miami, real grocery stores, and we won't have to fight with the cows when trying to walk to school.

We had a huge test covering endocrine, female and male reproduction, gastrointestinal (including esophagus, stomach, small and large intestine, appendix, gallbladder, liver and pancreas), and breasts in all of our subjects (Pathology, pharmacology, microbiology and introduction to clinical medicine). I'm happy to say that both Farley and I had our best exams of our medical school careers. It is a bit funny that this was both of our best exam, since it covered more information than any other exam--excluding a final or standardized exam. Exciting! I even beat my arch Nemesis pharmacology by earning an A!

Last night was the 4th semester banquet. It was nice to have our whole class (plus another 200-300 people who somehow came as "dates") at one dinner. However, it seems a bit premature to me as we have a million more test before we are finished with the semester on April 22nd. It was held at a gentleman's mansion on top of the Dominican hilltops. I wish I could have gotten more pictures of the view, but with the tents set up for the students, it wasn't really possible. Here are a couple pictures:

There has been a lot going on in the last couple weeks and we will be very busy for the next two months. I have to master the kidneys, which is easier said than done! I better get back to my studies.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I'm sorry I didn't have my camera on my yesterday---I often carry it down here just in case something interesting or strange happens (which is often down here in the Caribbean). I guess I should start at the beginning.

We had a HUGE exam on Monday. Excluding our finals and standardized exams, this exam covered more information than any other exam I've ever taken. It was a battle, but happily, I think it went okay. I'm never 100% happy with my scores (one can always do better), but all and all I'm proud of my performance, especially in my arch nemesis: Pharmacology.

This semester, we have clinical medicine laboratory days on Tuesday and Thursday and luckily neither Farley or I were scheduled to be in the clinical medicine laboratory or working in the hospital on Tuesday. We had a great day off. There is a new coffee shop that opened a few blocks from campus so we strolled over there to have some ice coffee and read novels. That's right, we got to read for fun rather than school. Next we ran some errands and relaxed at home for a while. It was a hot day for March, even by Caribbean standards, so we decided to head to the pool for a while. Everything was fairly normal on this beautiful day--children were playing, adults were reading novels, listening to I-pods, and talking amongst themselves--then everything changed. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a cow walking around the fence surround the pool. I said to Farley, I sure hope "Betsy" doesn't decide to come in here. I didn't think she would actually be able to get into the pool area because I didn't think she could get through the gate (it is at an odd angle for a cow); however, I was wrong. She easily moo-ved right into the pool area and casually walked right up to the pool for a drink. I don't think she should be drinking the chlorinated water, but heck, I'm not going to argue with a very large cow with horns. Some dumb guy in the pool decided to swim over towards here, which did NOT make Betsy very happy. Now, I don't know about you, but if a large cow with horns (probably weighing over 1200 Lbs) was taking a drink of water, I wouldn't go get in her space. She wasn't too happy and he managed to move our of her way before she showed him who is boss. Next, she decided to go check out the area within the fence (there is a little bit of grass within the fenced area, and she decided to get a snack). This was the time that I said to Farley, we are leaving NOW. By the time we walked the 100 feet back to the apartment and climbed the three flights of stares, she was heading out of the fenced in pool area. I wish I could have taken a picture of her drinking out of the pool. She looked so peaceful and up close, bovine have the most beautiful eyes. However, I wouldn't take her picture that close up--what if the camera flashed and made her mad. I know that cows are rather docile creatures, but I'm sure as heck not going to make a huge animal with horns mad--I'm not that stupid!