Paradise...Day two in St. Lucia

I have my land legs back and I'm much happier for it. I am not a sea lover AT ALL. Today was a great fun day. Had a so-so breakfast at the hotel, went shopping in a mall that actually puts prices on the goods and at a REAL grocery store, walked around the area and retired to the pool to relax. I don't have all the pictures uploaded, so please see Farley's post about the day for his beautiful pictures and much better description of the day.

I had a little discussion with the Caribbean cell phone company that wasn't so pretty today. We were never told that if we left the island of Dominica we would be charged crazy roaming fees, even if we are using their network on another island. I was charged $148.00ECD for a 16 minute conversation. Lets just say after 2 hours on the phone and the mid-level manager making a racial comment about me when she thought she had me on hold, then hanging up on Farley after he took the phone from me: I got my partial refund. It just seems wrong to charge roaming fees when someone isn't told those fee apply, you are still on the same network and the phone (unlike U.S. phones) doesn't tell you that you are roaming. I did email the Medical School to let them know about my educational conversation....the new incoming students should know to ask lots of questions.

After that, which I was able to laugh at much quicker than I anticipated. We enjoyed our books by the pool...we are saving the white sand beach for tomorrow when we change hotels to the Rex St. Lucian (the all inclusive place right on the Caribbean Sea). I should end this post soon as Farley and I just had dinner on our balcony and are heading down to the bar for our complimentary cocktails. The balcony here is nicer than our balconies in Dominica, but our views in Dominica are a million times better (the sea) and the view here in St. Lucia is of the courtyard.

Just for you Mom, a picture of my hair down after going swimming. I don't have any makeup or anything, but I know you wanted to see a picture with my hair down Mom.

I'm a land lover!!

Farley and I took off for St. Lucia today. In fact, I'm writing this little note on the balcony of the hotel overlooking the bar/live band. We decided to save some money and take the ferry system to St. Lucia. We left our apartments at 9:00 this morning for the capital city of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Roseau. We were at the ferry dock about 2 hours earlier than we needed to be, so we enjoyed the view of the sea from the deck. Then we boarded our boat. I was so excited, having taken my anti-nausea medicine hours previously and the boat was beautiful and well kept. Well, I always feel yucky on a boat, but I usually don't take medicine so I thought I'd be okay. I was wrong.

I got really hot, my erector pilli contracted (the muscles that make the hairs on your arms and legs), I had goosebumps, I was sweating like a pig, and then it happened: I got sick. This lasted for the two hour trip to Martinique. There we stopped and they straightened up the boat and new passengers boarded. Then there was another hour and twenty minute ride to St. Lucia. This time I was prepared, once we left the guarded waters of the island I promptly put my head between my legs. You really know that your a medical student when you are paying very close attention to your symptoms to try and figure out why your body reacts in such a manner rather than being concerned about being sick. We finally landed in St. Lucia and if I do say so myself, the customs guy was kinda mean. Geeze, I wasn't rude to him and he was mean to everyone---even a single women traveling with a small child.

We made our way to our hotel for the next two nights: The Bay Garden Hotel. We will then move onto an all inclusive hotel just down the road for the final six days of the trip: The St. Lucian by Rex Resorts. Believe it or not, this island is very different than Dominica. If you were to base it solely upon the land, than no they are not very different. However, St. Lucia has a lot more money and is much more developed. Today was the first time I've seen a stop light since leaving Miami in January.

I'm still not feeling up to par so I think I'll end this little note. St. Lucia is beautiful and I wish you could all see it too. If you check out Farley's post, you can see a pictorial of our trip. In the end, I'm glad we took the boat despite the rough trip. Flying would have been much more expensive and we probably would have had to fly to San Juan, if we could get a flight into St. Lucia at all. See, the international Jazz festival starts in a couple days so St. Lucia is a hopping spot right now. We have to leave to start the semester before the big names of the festival play, but we should be able to catch some great jazz before we leave (besides the blues/R&B at the bar in the hotel).

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.

Medical School is a pain in the neck

Now, I mean this literally: medical school is a pain in the neck. My neck REALLY hurts. We have an exam tomorrow and a final on Tuesday (we had two exams last Thursday and one the week before). I don't mind having so many exams, I just wish we had a ton of exams throughout the semester rather than a handful of big exams (all within a couple weeks nonetheless!). The one good thing about medical school (okay there are many amazing things about medical school, I'm just tired and cranky now): I can now name the muscles in my neck and back that hurt. Medical school is the whole package, you get knots in your neck you didn't know were possible and you name the muscles that must be causing the pain. I guess a girl can't ask for much more. I better get back to reviewing the Embryology of the cardiovascular system (our Embryology professor is an angel sent from God to teach us this difficult, yet amazing and interesting subject--I'm surprised anyone is born without a birth defect).

Boneheads surround me....

Apparently, there are a group of boneheads in my class. There was some cheating on the first anatomy practical exam and we all paid the price: sequestration. It was like my own personal hell. It was so loud and people were getting nervous and passing the nervous around. I had in ear plugs and could still hear conversations all around me. It was horrible. If I was someone who got migraines, I would have had one. As if that wasn't a bad enough, we had a histology practical in the morning (when they said, the practical was only accumulative in regards to the new things we had learned--such as recognizing the skeletal muscle in the true vocal cords, well they misspoke and many of us didn't review as much as we would have if they would have said that it was actually cumulative in all respects). Anyway, Thursday was yucky!!!

One good thing about Thursday was that I found a yoga program on Fit T.V when I came home, so I did yoga, then walked on the beach at sunset. Farley came over after he took his anatomy exam, and uncharacteristically, was complaining about being sequestered (can't say I blame him as I'm complaining now). We ordered dinner in and watched T.V.

I thought I'd be back in the study game by Friday, no such luck. I thought I'd be back on Saturday...Well, I was by Saturday afternoon. Sometimes despite wanting to study, your mind says, "NO WAY." Anyway, I'm glad to have my focus back. Speaking of focus, I better get back to the books. I can't wait for the exams and studying to be over for a few weeks and to be on my way to St. Lucia. However, I found a cool chapter in my medical genetics book, so I might be taking my medical genetics book to St. Lucia---I guess that is why I'm going to medical school. If you don't LOVE medicine 365 days a year, becoming a doctor isn't the right profession.

A few pictures

I took a study break to walk along the sea at sunset. Here are some pictures that are showing something other than the Cabrits.

Above: Looking North from just south of my apartment complex (Portsmouth Beach Hotel--PBH). Ross is north of where I live.

Here is a picture looking south. The clouds look so close down here, like you can reach out and touch them.

Above is a little stream which goes into the Caribbean Sea. Dominica has 365 rivers (I don't think this counts as one of them). Interestingly, the water was VERY warm and this picture is the best I can find to show you what a black sand beach look like. Moreover, Dominica has black sand beaches because it was formed from volcanoes (I'm sure there is more to the story, but I'm not a geologist). I'm not sure if this stream is from one of the many hot springs on the islands, but the water was like cool bath water (the ocean as Luke warm last night--I know you feel sorry for me).

You can see the black sand a little bit in the bottom left corner of the picture. This is just another sunset picture looking south from my complex.

Texas and Montana both claim to have "big sky", but I think Dominica beats them both.

Exams and St. Lucia

I don't get to go home for the semester break. I miss home, family, good food and wine, my comfy bed, and of course consistent hot water. It is so expensive to get from the beautiful island; thus, I don't get to go home. In fact, it is so expensive that I can go to St. Lucia for a week at an all inclusive resort for hundreds cheaper than it cost to fly back to Miami; so, goodbye Dominica, hello St. Lucia! I'm pretty excited about this trip. Farley and I both get sea sick, but that isn't going to hold us back. We are planning on taking the ferry. We will GET to stop in Martinique ( I think in the little Paris), then on to St. Lucia. We might stay the night in Martinique and have wonderful French pastries, wine and I'm sure wonderful coffee. We would go to Martinique for the whole vacation, but it is on the Euro, which is makes it very expensive (they are French). Anyway, I'm excited for our vacation. I can't wait to sit on a white sand beach and having a nice Caribbean drink while reading a book (that isn't titled, "Human Anatomy" or "Pulmonary Physiology: The Essentials"). This trip is giving me the energy to keep studying hard, even when I'm tired.

Since we can't go to St. Lucia for the whole three week vacation, I intend on spending my time on my local black sand beach. You know, the one that is about 50 feet from my apartment (see the above picture from the west side of my building that puts me right on the beach). I think I'll go hiking on the Carbrits (the two "mountains" in many of my pictures). I might even see if I can talk Farley into taking a boat ride up the Indian River to see the amazing parrots of Dominica. There are also islands tours at the beginning of the semester, which we can participate in. It will be great!

But before, I get to enjoy the wonders of the Caribbean, I have to attack the upcoming exams. I've been having trouble concentrating the last few days. Farley and I decided to take a nice walk in the ocean (see below picture--I can't seem to post to my blog without including a sunset picture), went to dinner at Subway then headed to the anatomy lab. I think the mental break (I did get some work done, just not as much as usual), is exactly what I needed as I feel like myself again. I'm ready to attack pulmonary physiology.

Before, I can attack pulmonary physiology, I have my last anatomy lab of the semester: posterior mediastinum. I just love the mediastinum: it is where the magic happens. The mediastinum is the space between your lungs and there are SO many things located in this little space: your heart, great vessels, thymus, lymph nodes, and many other exciting visceral structures. It is just jam packed with important structures. I'm ready to be done with anatomy lab for the semester, but I'm excited about the information we've been covering in anatomy. Learning the muscles organ, insertion, blood supply, nerve innervation and function is just a lot of memorization and isn't the most interesting thing to me. However, looking at the heart, lungs and other important structures is so much more interesting. Our semester is finally starting to intertwine, for example, pulmonary in physiology, anatomy, doctor patient and society and histology. SO much better!

I never post pictures of the mountains, so here is one. I've never lived anywhere as green (literally, this place is a giant rain forest).

They break you down to build you up...again and again.

I don't know it if is a good thing or a bad thing that we have 50% of our grade on the line in the last three weeks of school (really mostly in the last two weeks). We had our practical in Doctor, Patient and Society last Monday, we have two practicals on Thursday (anatomy and histology), our third written exam is the 17th and our final is the 22nd. I am a worrier and I've been so good, but everyone has their limits! I'm trying to stay calm and focused, but it is getting stressful.

I've never been in the military (nor do I want to be), but I hear that during boot camp (or basic training or whatever they call it) the recruits are broken down then rebuilt. Well, I can tell you without a doubt, medical training is the same way. As you talk to students further in training become more calm and confident. They talk about the first few semester like it was a battle they barely survived; however, once they get toward the end of the second year they are more confident. This is good since you take your first boards in your 5th semester: the USMLE step 1 (DUN DUN DUN). This test has a huge impact on what residency you will get. Bottom line, you MUST pass. If you want to be a plastic surgeon or a dermatologist, you gosh darn better get in the upper echelon. However, medical training isn't done breaking you down after you pass Step 1--now you go into the hospital and realize that you really don't know much of anything. Okay, that isn't fair, you know a LOT of stuff, but you probably don't know how to use your knowledge yet. So, the next two years of clinical rotations will break you down and build you up again. Then you get to take the USMLE Step 2 (not as important). After you pass that, your feeling great--Your name is now Doctor! But the medical community isn't done breaking you down and building you up, because now you are an intern (your first year of residency). Yup, the bottom of the barrel again with TONS to learn and another set of boards-USMLE Step 3 (I don't think it is as bad by this point, but then again, I don't know yet). You will finish your residency and be back on top, then you will either start a fellowship or join a practice as an attending---bottom of the barrel again. I guess you get the idea.

I suppose it isn't any different than another profession: the young and less experienced have a lot to learn and they will be put in their place by the more experienced and wiser teachers. However, in medicine as in the military, lives are on the line--it is just a little more intense.

Speaking of intense, I've got an intense study regimen and by break is over. I just love sea side sunsets and I take tons of pictures. Today, toward the south there was a storm brewing and looking south was beautiful. Hope you enjoy:

The above picture, was looking toward the Cabrits (the two mountains) toward the north part of Dominica.

Looking south (the pier is coming from the restaurant at the hotel (I live in a hotel)). A storm came in about an hour after I took this picture; but it just rained out to sea.

Just another day in paradise..

I saw an upperclassman wearing a, "just another day in paradise" t-shirt. He didn't look too happy; in fact, he looked stressed. I'm not a big fan of t-shirts like this; however, I feel as though it was the best t-shirt I've seen since coming to Dominica. It is stress time here on the beautiful, paradise island (better known as Dominica). We have just a little less than three weeks left in the semester and 50% of the grades are up for grabs. Needless to say, it is no longer a School of Medicine---it is a School of Stress. Everyone is trying to do their best work, but we are starting to get tired. It is the 12 week of the semester and we have been going like gangbusters since day one. I guess that is the disadvantage of an accelerated program.

I've spoken happily about my lovely, little apartment on the beach since arriving to Dominica. There are many people moving all over my little village of Picard. I'm not going anywhere (neither is Farley). I thought that I had a little kitchen (okay I know that I have a little, tiny, New York City sized kitchen). However, it is very functional, in large part to the nails that we added to my kitchen so that I have room to hang my pots and pans.

Note the 50Lb bag of rice. Yea, we brought 50Lbs of rice. It was such a good deal, we just couldn't turn it down. I guess when we leave Dominica in May of 2009, we can give the 47 Lbs of left over rice to our favorite security guard. Oh, and if 50Lbs of rice isn't enough, Farley and I needed baking powder for a pancake recipe, and apparently on this island, you can only buy baking powder in 5Kg packages or larger. What the heck are we going to do with 5Kg of baking powder--you generally only need a teaspoon or two at a time? Oh, and 5Kg is 11.03 Lbs--OVER 11 POUNDS!!!! I guess our favorite security guard is getting baking powder too--oh I bet he can't wait until May of 2009. His wife can make lots of rice and baked goods. In case you don't believe me, here is a close up of the baking powder:

On a sad note, I decided not to run for office in the newly formed oncology club. I really want to be on the executive board; however, next semester is suppose to be HORRIBLY difficult and I didn't want to add another obligation to my plate when we are adding more credits and doing more difficult concepts. Anyway, I can run for office during the following semester, which is suppose to be a little less stressful. In September, will be doing microbiology, pharmacology, behavioral sciences and clinical medicine. From what I hear, other than pharmacology, it isn't nearly as bad as the previous semester. I know that I made the right decision, as having time to study and understanding is most important, but I love oncology and it was hard for me not to get as involved as possible in the oncology club. But there is still time. Here is another picture of paradise: