Well, another term has come and gone. I finally finished my second week of finals today. It seems like an eternity has passed since I took my first final two weeks ago. This semester seems like it went really quickly and really slowly at the same time. I am exhausted, but still haven't come off the the rush from finals. These tests are pretty "do-or-die" so I've never been as stressed taking tests as I am down here. If you fail finals, there's a chance you're going home for good, and the problem is, now you're stuck in debt with nothing gained from it and if you fail out of school, you can't get federal loans anymore to go back to school. Luckily that isn't the road I will be taking. I study every day down here, some more than others, but finals is an intense time. I get headaches often from focusing so hard and my eyes get worse from looking closely at all my notes and computer screen. I find my jaw muscles become exhausted from clenching and my back kills me from sitting so much. My sleeping and eating schedule get thrown off and my life just gets put on hold until my tests are done. Today was my hardest test and my stomach still feels upset from all the stress I had this morning. All of that, plus I can't even think about my student loan debt. And to think, I'm doing all of this to myself voluntarily! But it will definitely be worth it in the end. I've learned a lot and have made some good friends who are in it with me, and it's nice to have peers working with you towards the same goal. Today while we sat waiting for our test to begin, Mike and I sang "Final Countdown" by Europe and it has been stuck in my head all day long, but it's really how I felt taking my test. It was just an epic battle to finish strong!
After our finals were done we came straight home, changed, and headed to the beach. That seemed to be every one's plan because the beach was packed, but it was really fun. We had a couple drinks and hung out on the sand and in the water. We people watched (of course!) and talked about what we're going to eat when we get home. On a side note, since the food down here really isn't very good, it has become a past time of ours to fantasize about American food. It sounds lame, but after living in the land of nutmeg everything and bland everything else, it makes anything sound delicious. Anyway, I've been wanting to wakeboard down here since last term and I knew that there had to be a place to do it, but had never seen anyone with a board. There are several boats who harass the beach to tow you on the inflatable tubes and a couple times I've seen people water ski. But I've asked all of those boats and none of them have ever had a wakeboard. Today I was standing there and saw some little tourist boy putting on a wakeboard and I ran over to find the guy with the boat. We haggled prices (He originally wanted to charge me for five tries to get up. I told him I only needed one try and I would pay less!) and I finally got him to agree to also let my friend Crystal sit on the boat and take pictures. The boat is so old (possibly made of wood?) and is painted black on the outside and bright purple/pink on the inside. The wakeboard was new, but not a nice one, but I was thrilled to even be able to go down here. I got to go around the bay and then my ride was over. It was so much fun, but I've never boarded on the ocean before and the water was pretty choppy! Definitely not ideal conditions, but so worth it and so much fun! I can cross "Wakeboard in the Caribbean Sea" off my bucket list now. When I got back the driver was like, "Baby, you are very good. Was that your first time?" Yep, you caught me.
We came back and ate and then we went to Owl's, the bar down the hill from us. We sat on the beach and enjoyed the night and the fact that we don't have to study anything for an entire month! It was down to 75 degrees tonight and for us, we felt a chill in the air. I'm really going to freeze when I get home! It was weird today sitting on the beach and being in the water knowing that Christmas is going to be here in about a week and I'm in my bikini. It's nice, but I'm definitely ready to go home. I want to wear jeans and sweaters and boots and actually be cold and not sweat. I already have a busy break ahead of me and it's going to be a blast. I'm going to drive home from Texas with Nick because he's finally getting out of the army! We're going to rescue a dog, do some wedding stuff, go snowboarding, be with family. It's going to be a good month break. I have to do laundry tomorrow and begin to pack, Sunday I'm moving stuff out of my apartment, and then Monday I get to go home! If everything goes as planned I'm going to have about 15 hours of travel time with layovers in Barbados and Miami. I'm not looking forward to it, but at least it will be getting me one step close to home! I can't wait!
Friday, December 14, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
BBQ Dog
I am through my first week of finals (I have two weeks of finals this term) and still going strong! I just got back from the pool. I decided to lay out and get some sun while I studied my notes. I know, it sounds pretty rough, but I have gotten so sick of sitting in my apartment I had to be outside for a couple hours. I was in the anatomy lab earlier in the day studying after one of my finals and it has gotten rank! The smell is so horrible I don't think it's something I'll ever get used to. Our dog has become so moldy that we refuse to even study off of it any more and are borrowing other dogs. We tried our best to keep it in good condition, but our bag has a hole in it and when we told the guy who runs the lab, he didn't care, so all the formalin just runs out of the bag and doesn't preserve our dog. He is a class act all by himself. His sole job is to clean and maintain the lab, but he hardly does that. He (Rudy) always decides to spray down the floors at the most inconvenient times; typically when we're getting instruction. When we told him our dog was so moldy, he just pressure washed it and handed it back. That cleans off the very outside layer of the mold, but it's still horrendous! Every time we have to dissect I get into a sneezing fit, I'm sure from all of the mold spores. We through a lot of paper towels from cleaning our instruments, wiping down the tables, etc. Around the lab, there are paper towel holders that are typical in a kitchen that just hold either end of the roll. Instead of waiting for the roll to run out and changing it, he takes full rolls and puts the end on the low roll on the holder and rolls the new roll onto the old roll. Then he rips it off after a while and moves onto the next one. It is so inefficient and stupid I can't even comprehend why he would think that was a good idea. I have tried to video it on many occasions, but still have been unsuccessful.
There is a building next to the anatomy lab where they burn all of the carcasses when we're done with them. There is typically a large plume of black smoke coming from the chimney. Today it smelled like good BBQ... unfortunately it was BBQ donkey or dog. It was pretty disgusting.
We had to go to school on Thanksgiving because that's an American holiday and the school doesn't seem to care. Even though we are in Grenada, about 80% of the school is American, so it would make sense to give us the day off. But unfortunately we were stuck in class. So we celebrated Thanksgiving the following Saturday. My friends made the turkey and it was delicious. It was 13 pounds and was over $3/lb! My other friend made green bean casserole. I'd never had that because that's not something my mom makes, but I like it a lot. I made mashed potatoes and stuffing and all the Louisiana people thought it was so weird to have mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving! I thought that was a staple. Another girl made sweet potatoes and they were very yummy and we also had apple crisp. Another girl made a layered pea salad that she said was her mom's traditional Thanksgiving dish and that was also good. It was interesting to see everyone's traditions and it was fun trying everyone's food. It was nice having a big, home cooked meal. We had a good time with out makeshift Grenadian family, but we really missed home.
I have found out, thankfully indirectly, that the hospital is not the place you want to be in Grenada. Someone I know wound up having to go for kidney stones and my friend went to go pick her up when she was discharged. The general hospital in St. George's is very old and apparently hard to find. She said that there wasn't any air conditioning so it was hot and stuffy in there. I can only imagine how many germs grow in that environment. The beds are packed into rooms with just sheets separating them and you are expected to bring your own linens, plates, forks, cups, and toilet paper! If you don't bring those things with you, you just will not be using them. The private hospital is apparently nicer, but not up to US standards, obviously. My classmate's wife just had a baby down here and went to the private one. Thankfully everything went well and they said the doctor and nurses were very nice. Either way, if I can stay out of the hospital situation down here, I will be happy.
My friend Kim and I went to the town in St. George's the other day to go shopping for some last minutes Christmas gifts. We had never driven there before, but had taken a taxi, so we knew the area, but not where to park. We figured it couldn't be that hard to find, so we took off. We couldn't have been more wrong. Not only is parking a rare commodity in St. George's, but a cruise ship was in port and it was packed! All the passengers were walking around and all the local vendors were out as well. Our car isn't air conditioned so we had the windows down, but in stopped traffic and waiting for crowds to cross the street, there wasn't a breeze, so we were sweating to death! I drove up the narrowest streets with cars parked all along one side and a huge ditch on the other. We got so lost. I finally found a place on the side of the road to park and after painstakingly parallel parking, (our car still doesn't have any power steering fluid, so turning the wheel takes a lot of effort!) we got out of the car. The shop owner came out and said, "You cannot park here!" I told her there are a hundred other cars on the street, why can't I? She said I couldn't, however when I asked her where I COULD park, she simply replied, "Not here." Great. So I got back in the car and finally got it back on the road. And alas! We found a little parking lot behind a building that charges $2 EC an hour to park. Perfect. So we went in the cruise ship mall and power shopped. We heard the Caribbean Christmas song "Santa Looking for a Wife." (Yes, it is Santa, not Santa's. We are in de islands, ya know!) The song tells how Santa is getting old and needs a wife and loves Caribbean woman (singular) so he's going to search for a wife down here. It was kind of funny. We also heard Christmas carols played on the steel drum. I love the steel drum, but only in small doses. After a while, it was pretty bad. We walked to the spice market, which is an open air, covered market with probably 100 vendors packed under the cover, all selling the same, exact thing as their neighbor. I have no idea how you make any money and are competitive when you don't have anything different to offer. It was so crowded and the local guys especially are so aggressive. They kiss at you and say, "Hello. Hello, beautiful. Are you enjoying Grenada? What is your name? You have a nice smile." It's non-stop. And they grab your arm to get your attention. It's worse if you make eye contact, so I try my best not to. I accidentally made eye contact with one guy and he kissed at me and said, "Hello, beautiful, show me your <lady parts>." I just looked at him terrified and quickly went the other way. I told my friend, Mike, about our experience and he said if I have to go again before Nick comes down here with me he'd go with me. They are much less aggressive when you have a guy with you. Luckily Nick gets to come down here with me next term, so a lot of things will be easier. I'm very excited!
I spent two hours in the IT office and my computer finally works on the school's network. The school is very concerned about getting viruses in its network, so it has very stringent security standards. On the website, it requires you to download AVG virus protection. All of my software was up to date and so I didn't know why I couldn't connect to the school's Internet. I took it to IT and they informed me that they updated the school's network and it no longer accepts AVG, which they haven't put on the website. Great. TIG. So it took two hours to take that off of my computer and install a new protection program. I have been able to take all of my finals without a hitch, but I still have four more, so I'm waiting for my laptop to catch fire or for a meteor to come flying through the window and destroy nothing but my computer. There's no way that I'm going to get through two weeks of finals without a glitch. That would just be too easy.
The test proctors are getting more ridiculous by the day. We are not allowed to have watches, sunglasses on our heads, and we must have our hair pulled into a tight ponytail or braid to enter the exam room. You must show your ID to enter and the other day I got corrected for holding it up sideways; you must hold it up properly! After that you must sign in on the roster prior to taking the test. After testing, you must show them the screen on your laptop that shows the test was submitted and then sign out right next to where you signed in. For heaven's sake! At what point am I going to be able to switch people that I have to sign twice in the period of an hour? Today one of the proctors nearly had a heart attack. First of all, she was wearing a fake bird/flower ensemble in her hair that was dreadful. But she saw the roster getting passed around getting signed and as she was running towards it shouted, "Ladies and gentlemen! No passing notes! This is cheating!" We didn't even have the exam password yet, so there was no way we were cheating. When we tried to explain that it was the roster that the proctor had given us, she replied, "Well you can't pass it without being supervised!" One of my classmates let her have it for yelling at us for not doing her job. She was horrible. After all the hassle of signing everything and everyone finally got connected, my highly German professor tried reading off the complicated password that consisted of a jumble of letters and numbers. Of course no one got it the first time, so after the second time, one of my Asian classmates raised his hand and said he still didn't get it. My professor replied, "Well are you using a Chinese keyboard?" Luckily the student laughed. Only in Grenada.
Well, it's late and I have to study tomorrow and the torrential downpour going on right now is causing little power failures so it's time for me to go to bed. I will be home a week from today! I can't wait!
There is a building next to the anatomy lab where they burn all of the carcasses when we're done with them. There is typically a large plume of black smoke coming from the chimney. Today it smelled like good BBQ... unfortunately it was BBQ donkey or dog. It was pretty disgusting.
We had to go to school on Thanksgiving because that's an American holiday and the school doesn't seem to care. Even though we are in Grenada, about 80% of the school is American, so it would make sense to give us the day off. But unfortunately we were stuck in class. So we celebrated Thanksgiving the following Saturday. My friends made the turkey and it was delicious. It was 13 pounds and was over $3/lb! My other friend made green bean casserole. I'd never had that because that's not something my mom makes, but I like it a lot. I made mashed potatoes and stuffing and all the Louisiana people thought it was so weird to have mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving! I thought that was a staple. Another girl made sweet potatoes and they were very yummy and we also had apple crisp. Another girl made a layered pea salad that she said was her mom's traditional Thanksgiving dish and that was also good. It was interesting to see everyone's traditions and it was fun trying everyone's food. It was nice having a big, home cooked meal. We had a good time with out makeshift Grenadian family, but we really missed home.
I have found out, thankfully indirectly, that the hospital is not the place you want to be in Grenada. Someone I know wound up having to go for kidney stones and my friend went to go pick her up when she was discharged. The general hospital in St. George's is very old and apparently hard to find. She said that there wasn't any air conditioning so it was hot and stuffy in there. I can only imagine how many germs grow in that environment. The beds are packed into rooms with just sheets separating them and you are expected to bring your own linens, plates, forks, cups, and toilet paper! If you don't bring those things with you, you just will not be using them. The private hospital is apparently nicer, but not up to US standards, obviously. My classmate's wife just had a baby down here and went to the private one. Thankfully everything went well and they said the doctor and nurses were very nice. Either way, if I can stay out of the hospital situation down here, I will be happy.
My friend Kim and I went to the town in St. George's the other day to go shopping for some last minutes Christmas gifts. We had never driven there before, but had taken a taxi, so we knew the area, but not where to park. We figured it couldn't be that hard to find, so we took off. We couldn't have been more wrong. Not only is parking a rare commodity in St. George's, but a cruise ship was in port and it was packed! All the passengers were walking around and all the local vendors were out as well. Our car isn't air conditioned so we had the windows down, but in stopped traffic and waiting for crowds to cross the street, there wasn't a breeze, so we were sweating to death! I drove up the narrowest streets with cars parked all along one side and a huge ditch on the other. We got so lost. I finally found a place on the side of the road to park and after painstakingly parallel parking, (our car still doesn't have any power steering fluid, so turning the wheel takes a lot of effort!) we got out of the car. The shop owner came out and said, "You cannot park here!" I told her there are a hundred other cars on the street, why can't I? She said I couldn't, however when I asked her where I COULD park, she simply replied, "Not here." Great. So I got back in the car and finally got it back on the road. And alas! We found a little parking lot behind a building that charges $2 EC an hour to park. Perfect. So we went in the cruise ship mall and power shopped. We heard the Caribbean Christmas song "Santa Looking for a Wife." (Yes, it is Santa, not Santa's. We are in de islands, ya know!) The song tells how Santa is getting old and needs a wife and loves Caribbean woman (singular) so he's going to search for a wife down here. It was kind of funny. We also heard Christmas carols played on the steel drum. I love the steel drum, but only in small doses. After a while, it was pretty bad. We walked to the spice market, which is an open air, covered market with probably 100 vendors packed under the cover, all selling the same, exact thing as their neighbor. I have no idea how you make any money and are competitive when you don't have anything different to offer. It was so crowded and the local guys especially are so aggressive. They kiss at you and say, "Hello. Hello, beautiful. Are you enjoying Grenada? What is your name? You have a nice smile." It's non-stop. And they grab your arm to get your attention. It's worse if you make eye contact, so I try my best not to. I accidentally made eye contact with one guy and he kissed at me and said, "Hello, beautiful, show me your <lady parts>." I just looked at him terrified and quickly went the other way. I told my friend, Mike, about our experience and he said if I have to go again before Nick comes down here with me he'd go with me. They are much less aggressive when you have a guy with you. Luckily Nick gets to come down here with me next term, so a lot of things will be easier. I'm very excited!
I spent two hours in the IT office and my computer finally works on the school's network. The school is very concerned about getting viruses in its network, so it has very stringent security standards. On the website, it requires you to download AVG virus protection. All of my software was up to date and so I didn't know why I couldn't connect to the school's Internet. I took it to IT and they informed me that they updated the school's network and it no longer accepts AVG, which they haven't put on the website. Great. TIG. So it took two hours to take that off of my computer and install a new protection program. I have been able to take all of my finals without a hitch, but I still have four more, so I'm waiting for my laptop to catch fire or for a meteor to come flying through the window and destroy nothing but my computer. There's no way that I'm going to get through two weeks of finals without a glitch. That would just be too easy.
The test proctors are getting more ridiculous by the day. We are not allowed to have watches, sunglasses on our heads, and we must have our hair pulled into a tight ponytail or braid to enter the exam room. You must show your ID to enter and the other day I got corrected for holding it up sideways; you must hold it up properly! After that you must sign in on the roster prior to taking the test. After testing, you must show them the screen on your laptop that shows the test was submitted and then sign out right next to where you signed in. For heaven's sake! At what point am I going to be able to switch people that I have to sign twice in the period of an hour? Today one of the proctors nearly had a heart attack. First of all, she was wearing a fake bird/flower ensemble in her hair that was dreadful. But she saw the roster getting passed around getting signed and as she was running towards it shouted, "Ladies and gentlemen! No passing notes! This is cheating!" We didn't even have the exam password yet, so there was no way we were cheating. When we tried to explain that it was the roster that the proctor had given us, she replied, "Well you can't pass it without being supervised!" One of my classmates let her have it for yelling at us for not doing her job. She was horrible. After all the hassle of signing everything and everyone finally got connected, my highly German professor tried reading off the complicated password that consisted of a jumble of letters and numbers. Of course no one got it the first time, so after the second time, one of my Asian classmates raised his hand and said he still didn't get it. My professor replied, "Well are you using a Chinese keyboard?" Luckily the student laughed. Only in Grenada.
Well, it's late and I have to study tomorrow and the torrential downpour going on right now is causing little power failures so it's time for me to go to bed. I will be home a week from today! I can't wait!
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