Back to the rock

Well, here I am again on the little island of Grenada. I guess I'll start my blogging for this term with the finish of last term. After our finals, there were three of us who were all leaving on the same day. Since we had to be up at 4AM to go to the airport, we decided we'd stay out all night to celebrate being done and then just catch a taxi to the airport. Banana's, the local bar, stays open until 6AM so we figured we'd have a great time. That plan would have been great, except on that night Banana's closed at 11PM. We had already turned in our keys so we had no where to go back to sleep. So we went back to school and sat on the dock, looking at the ocean and the stars. Time was creeping by and then suddenly, it started POURING rain. We ran and took shelter under an overhang at school and sat there for the rest of the night. Finally, it was time and our taxi driver, who I'd called prior to make sure he'd come get us, came to pick us up. I had told him that there were three of us with two large pieces of luggage each. He came in a four door sedan. It wasn't even coming close to fitting! So he said, "Hang on, I'll go get my bus." We figured that meant his van, as that's what most taxi drivers around here have. Needless to say we were shocked when a full sized school bus pulled up to get us! We got dropped off at the airport and went to the desks to check in. Our flights were supposed to leave at 6AM and since it's an international flight we got there two hours early. Apparently Grenadian airline workers didn't get the memo about leaving early, so we sat in an airport that was closed for almost an hour. Finally, I got on my flight, connected in Miami, they said "Welcome to the US!" which were very welcomed words and I came home! It was great.

I had a great summer full of working at Raging Waters, going wakeboarding with my family, riding my horse and seeing friends and family. I went to Texas and visited Nick and then he surprised me and came to visit me for my birthday! Talk about a great birthday present. At last, the summer came to a close and I had to pack to come back to school. I wasn't too excited to leave everyone behind again, but the more I study, the faster I'm done. This time, my friend Kim from home was accompanying me for a week just to vacation.  It was nice having someone to travel with, since that is the worst part of this experience, and also nice to show her my life down here.

We left LAX and flew overnight to Miami. When we landed, we had an eight hour layover and since neither of us had ever been to Miami, we decided to leave the airport to see what it looked like. We got in a cab and told the driver we wanted to go to breakfast. So he took us to South Beach and we ate at a little diner called The News. It was good and also made for good people watching.  After we ate we walked onto the beach and put our feet in the water. Unfortunately we couldn't stay long because we had to get back to the airport and back through security. After a few more hours, we finally boarded our plane. Right before we were supposed to leave the pilot came on the intercom and informed us that the plane was too heavy so they were going to have to re-weigh it. They made us stay on the plane until they decided what to do. One big problem was that we had 30 bags from the previous flight that hadn't fit, so we were taking them. After a long time, they concluded that they were going to remove bags from ours. They pulled the trolley right outside my window and started unloading bags. All of the passengers were glued to the windows as we hoped not to see our bags. Throughout the plane people were saying, "Oh no! That one's mine!" They just kept coming and coming and then I saw both of mine get taken off. In total, they took off 57 of our bags. I called the flight attendant over and told her that both of my bags got taken off and asked would it be possible to just take one and take someone else's off? I didn't leave any clothes in Grenada last term and I only had one change of clothes in my carry on. She didn't care at all.  Finally, the flight attendant came on again and said, "Well, we had to take the bags off. I know a lot of you don't want to go without your bags, but if you get off the plane you probably will not get on another flight for a week because they're all full." So, being the smart mouth that I am, shouted, "How are we supposed to get dressed?!" Everyone around me looked at me and the attendant paused and said, "So hopefully you'll be getting your bags within a few days." I shouted, "How are we supposed to take showers?!" No response to that. They didn't give a damn. So two hours after we were supposed to take off, we finally left Miami and went to Grenada. We landed two hours late and had to wait over an hour to get through customs. Finally, we got to baggage claim and Kim was able to get her bag, then we caught a cab to my apartment.

I had emailed the housing office a week before and told them that I would be getting in late and they said that they'd leave the keys with the security guard for me. We got to my apartments and a man in regular clothes came up to us and I asked if he was security. He was, but he had no idea that I was coming. We took me to see the owner of the apartments, who is an older Grenadian man who had no idea what was going on. He had a little purse full of keys and they both kind of sifted through them looking for mine. They made a few calls and said they'd be right back. They left in a car and about 20 minutes later came back with a woman who sifted through the exact same keys and found mine. After receiving my keys I realized that they all had little tags on them denoting what room they were for; the men just didn't look! Finally, I got into my apartment and turned on the air conditioning. It was very hot and stuffy, but it cooled down quickly. We took showers and crawled into bed. The next morning we woke up and unpacked what little stuff we had. We walked out of the apartment to go get some breakfast and the lady from the night before stopped us and told me she'd put us in the wrong apartment. So we had to go back, pack everything up, and move rooms. Luckily I didn't have much so it wasn't that bad. My apartment has two bedrooms (I have a roommate named Maegan), a bathroom, and a small kitchen/eating area. It also has a balcony with the best view you could ask for. To see where I live, search on Google for Grand View Inn Grenada.  The shower has fluctuating water pressure, as well as temperature, which there's nothing we can do about because there's no temperature control; it's just on or off. That's it.  On a brighter note, my air conditioning works great and my room is freezing. On the downside, it leaks about three gallons (no exaggeration) a day and I'm constantly having to dumb the water out of the trash can. I have told maintenance and for two weeks they've been "getting to it" but I wouldn't be surprised if they will still be getting to it by Christmas. It is only annoying when I wake up due to the loud dripping noises and when the bucket gets slightly moved and it forms a small lake on my tile floor. I have only fallen down once so far, but I was not a happy camper. Another weird thing about our apartment is that we have rats that live on the roof and since the roof is made out of metal you can hear them running around and squeaking. It was a little disheartening at first, but now I can tune it out. The laundry situation here is a bit obnoxious as there are two washers and dryers for 70 apartments. It causes some gridlock of laundry baskets and sometimes some creative hours of doing laundry. But overall, I love where I live and I like my apartment. Compared to last term this one is great! But anyway, back to my first week.

Over the next several days my friends all started coming in. We thought that being delayed two hours was bad, but some of them got delayed nine hours and were made to stay on the plane the entire time! They said it was like a revolution on the plane. A few of my friends who are living in the same apartments came in and they had a bag that was left in Miami too. We had been told to go to the airport on Tuesday night to claim our bags, so we went and they acted like we were speaking another language. The people at the airport were so rude and told us to come back a different day. They wouldn't even go look to see if the bags were there! We went back the next morning, and sure enough, they were there. The employees in this country typically try to do minimal effort, no matter how sugary sweet or angrily yelling you are.  The just don't care. It's very frustrating.

Speaking of frustrating, now I will start talking about our endeavor to get a car. Our apartment has a bus that is supposed to come almost every hour, but of course it doesn't always come when it is supposed to. Not only is it unreliable to get to class, we also would then have to time it exactly right to go to the grocery store, or wherever else, or else take a cab. We started out the week without a car and were taking taxis everywhere. Three of my friends and I decided that the four of us should rent a car together for the term.  We all live up here, we have the same schedule, we all do everything together anyway, so it will be great. We started looking around and our only requirement was that it had four doors, since there are four of us. We also asked around and decided that $400/month was a reasonable price to pay. Rentals down here include inspection fees, insurance, maintenance and repairs and we've heard horror stories of people owning cars that are constantly costing a fortune in the shop. So we contacted Ms. Pat, the car rental lady for Grand View Inn. She told us she'd give us a four door for $400 and we were all happy. So then she showed up with a two door SUV. We told her that's not what we wanted, but she told us we could drive it for the day. The next day, so gave us another two door SUV and again, we told her that's not what we wanted, but again she let us keep it for the day. The next day, she gave the the first SUV again and by that point we were getting annoyed. "Ok, ok, your car will be coming," she told us. Well, I dunno if this car was on a ferry coming from a different island because the longest point of the island is only 22 miles long and it took the entire day for us to finally get our car. It was a Honda CRV and it was cool! We drove it around that night and everyone was jealous of our cool car. Most cars around here are really old and beat up but ours was super nice. The next day she found us and said she'd made a mistake; the CRV was going to cost us more. We told her no, so she gave us a four door 1994 Suzuki Escudo. It has 200,000 km on it and linoleum floor mats. One back door doesn't open from the inside and the other back window doesn't roll down. The paint job looks horrible and it's missing a side panel and some lug nut covers. In the states, I don't know a single person who would agree to drive this pile, but in Grenada, we think we've got a pretty good deal. So far, the windows stopped rolling down and the A/C stopped working, which made it really hot, but they started working again. And the other day we were driving and all of a sudden the transmission gave out and we didn't have any power above second gear. We were driving 25 km/hour down the highway and cars were honking and going around us the whole way. But then it kicked back in and we were able to get to school. We told Ms. Pat and she told us that if it does it again to tell her. I'm afraid that if it does it again it won't start up again! Now, Ms. Pat means well, I'm sure, but she must have amnesia because she acts every time we see her like she has no clue what's going on. She told us that the car was insured, but that she didn't have a copy of the insurance. She assured us it was fine to drive and that she'd get us a copy of it the next day. She next day'd us for a week and we finally got the copy today. It must be the horrendous snaggle tooth that she has hanging over her lip that distracts her and causes her to forget things.

In order to drive in Grenada, we had to get our Grenadian driver's licenses. We went to the police station and presented them with our license from home and paid $30 EC ($12 US) and they hand wrote our licenses. We didn't have to take a test or anything, they just told us that they expire in three months. It is weird driving on the left side of the road, but I've gotten used to it.  The roundabouts threw us off at first - which way do you go around them? But now I'm a pro! The trick is to swerve around the pot holes. The streets are technically all one lane, but if the person in front of you is going too slow, it is perfectly acceptable to honk at them and go around them. There is almost never traffic, except for when there was a Grenadian woman walking the wrong way around the traffic circle. I'm never ceased to be amazed by the chaos.

The first couple days of the term were used for team building activities. They made us run around the field and play games and dance to this stupid song that will forever be stuck in our heads. The games were outside so we were constantly sweating and they were extremely frustrating at times. After the two days, we went to our White Coat Ceremony. This is where we were presented with our lab coats and spoken to by the dean which marked our next step towards becoming doctors.  The classroom which was appointed to us this term seats 110 and our class is 105 so it's very crowded. The air conditioning can't keep up with our sweating bodies so it is typically very stuffy and warm, not to mention cramped. When we're not in the lab, we're in that classroom and every day we have four hours straight in the same seat. It is just less than torturous. But we will get used to it. No body said becoming a vet would be easy.