Well, here I am a month after my last entry! It has been much too long since I have given my snarky view on life. With that said, midterms came and went as painlessly as possible. So far, so good! Our car has been amazingly dependable (Knock on wood!) and only stalls on us occasionally. Everything has been going pretty smoothly for us.
The weekend after midterms we went to a party at a house to celebrate being done. We were all having a good time and were chatting about what we were going to do on our weekend when we didn't have to study. Suddenly, a classmate who had been, shall we say, celebrating a little bit harder than the rest of us and was sitting on the railing of the third story balcony fell off!!!!! Nick and Mike were near him when it happened and reached over to try to grab him, but it just wasn't soon enough. Luckily, Nick goes into autopilot when emergencies happen and he was already running for the stairs to get to him. I called the ambulance from the school and followed Nick. He found that he was unconscious but breathing and had a pulse, thank goodness. Nick did some neurological tests on him and miraculously he seemed to be fine. I called to get the status on the ambulance and was informed it could take up to an HOUR for it to arrive because they were waiting for a driver to get there. Crystal and I jumped into our car and drove the mile from the house to school, ran into the health clinic, and started demanding an ambulance. They couldn't even find the keys to it at first! When they did find them, we demanded that instead of waiting for a "driver" that a security guard drive it for us. He said that one of us had to ride with him to give him directions to the house, so I jumped in the ambulance and Crystal drove our car. We had to go pick up the nurse on the way there, which delayed our trip by a few minutes. We finally arrived probably close to half an hour after the fall and there was another ambulance that wasn't related to the school pulling away. Nick said that the ambulance had taken him with a soft collar and a scoop backboard, so they didn't support his spine at all. Thank goodness he didn't wind up breaking his back or he would've been paralyzed! After a few days in the hospital, (which isn't air conditioned, you have to bring your own bedding, food, TOILET PAPER, soap, towels, clothes, and completely reminds you you're in a third world country) and a set of x-rays, he was cleared and released from the hospital. He is still sore two weeks later, but seems to be on the mend. Everyone was so thankful for Nick because he took charge of the situation and made sure everything went as it should until he was taken away in the ambulance. He did a good job.
Last weekend was Sandblast, our end of midterms party that the school throws us every term. It's a huge beach party and they supply the drinks and music and everyone is happy midterms are over. We had a good time. That day we noticed Maverick had developed a hot spot on his cheek and neck area. Nick and I clipped him the best we could with Nick's beard trimmer and scissors. Maverick is not what you would call a good patient and acted like we were performing surgery on him without anesthesia whenever we even looked at his sore. We've been scrubbing it and treating it every day and it's getting better, but the poor dog is so itchy and uncomfortable. He knows he's not allowed to scratch because I tell him not to, but that just causes him to pace. He paces while I'm trying to sleep and I'll just get to sleep when I feel a wet dog nose on me. I open my eyes to see his silly face an inch away from my face looking at me and just pet him and try to calm him down. Today I finally found some Benadryl (which was surprisingly hard to find down here) and drugged him and he's so much happier. Looks like I'll keep him drugged until he's better. I'd love to give him a cone of shame, too, but the hot spot is in such a place that a cone would irritate it rather than help it. Oh well. He has been glued to my side while he's sick so it makes getting ready for school interesting. My poor baby!
Tomorrow I'm going to take him to school so that we can practice different techniques on him. As vet students, we often supply our own dogs and cats to practice doing exams on them for different things. Hopefully he behaves himself without being too big of a baby. We got to go into the simulation lab last week and listen to different patterns of heart murmurs and respiratory problems and try to predict what was causing them. The sim lab only has one dog which can be set to give a variety of ailments, so we have to use the med school's human mannequins and pretend they're dogs. Learning to be flexible I suppose.
This weekend is Easter so I get Good Friday and Easter Monday off of school because they're both national holidays, seeing that most of the island is Catholic. The sad part about being in vet school is that I'm excited for the four day weekend, but mainly because it means I can have four days that I don't have to go to school to learn my stuff that I will have to study and I can get some good solid studying in. But we will go to the beach and probably go out at night to relax and celebrate. The kids down here fly kites for Easter and there are different kite flying contests they can enter. They've been getting their kites ready and been practicing down on quarantine point where we take Maverick to play. Side note, it's called quarantine point because there used to be a leaper colony down there and the foundation can still be seen in some places on the field. The kites down here are all the same; hexagons about two feet across with a tail. They vary in colors and tail length but that's it. When they fly and catch the wind right they buzz and vibrate and I incorrectly thought they had small motors on them based on the sound. Nick made fun of me. We've seen some kites get stuck in trees and while spear fishing, Nick has seen some kites at the bottom of the ocean. Some of them get so high in the sky they can hardly be seen! But the other day we were watching a guy try to help his kid fly his kite and for some reason, the tail on it was at least 100 feet long; no exaggeration! It was windy, but not nearly windy enough for that little kite to drag that monstrous tail. The guy just couldn't seem to understand why their kite kept crashing. Nick and I can't decide if we'd rather bring down one of those trick kites we see on the beaches back home that do fancy flips and turns, or a huge one with different tiers like a pirate ship or something. We definitely want to bring a fancy kite for next Easter to show the Grenadian kids what they're missing!
Whenever I walk Maverick, the Grenadians are always fascinated by him. They always ask if he's a fox or a wolf. Another woman stopped me the other day and begged for a picture of him because she'd only ever seen a dog like him in the movies. She took a whole bunch so that she could get a good one with his blue eyes because she'd never seen a dog with blue eyes. No matter how intrigued the locals are by him, no one will pet him because they think he is going to bite them. That's alright with me because he's a good guard dog for our apartment and for me if I ever walk without Nick. Little do they know he loves pats and would probably just kiss them. A man the other day asked me, "What brand is that dog?" I almost told him Reebok, because recently he chewed the tongue off of a pair of my Reebok running shoes. When he pooped the next day, I noticed his poop had a word in it! I know that it is completely weird to be inspecting your pet's poop, but as a vet student, I have learned that you can learn many things from an animal's poop, so it's important to look at it! I grabbed a stick and poked at it and realized that it said Reebok. I should've taken a picture and sent it to the company, because let's face it: Nike definitely makes a better shoe. We have been dealing with Maverick's separation anxiety and sometimes it seems to be getting better and then other times it seems a whole lot worse. He has chewed the edges off the cutting board, all of my Gladware, a bra, four and a half pairs of my shoes, the edge of the Kindle cover, a couple pairs of Nick's shorts, his hat, both of our water bottles, our hamper, my alarm clock, my lotion bottle, he's spread panko, pancake mix, popcorn, flour, pasta, two and a half dozen eggs, and rice all over the apartment, AND he somehow poured about a gallon of water all over, including out bed. We've figured out how to be smarter than him and put everything up high where he can't reach it (Although he is very tall!), close things in the bathroom and then we tie our closet doors shut. Our closet doors are like French doors and so we just have been tying the handles closed. The smarty pants dog figured out he could chew through that rope to get to my tasty shoes, so we had to figure out a different way to tie it. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to get that open yet! Rotten old dog! But we're working on it every day and hopefully by the time we get home he'll be better. When he has other dogs around he doesn't become destructive, so at home it's not an issue.
Well, Nick just made some popcorn and it's calling my name. Until next time.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Officially Significant
This term has been so unbelievably busy; but it is going so fast! I can't believe that we are almost to midterms. I also can't believe that at the end of this term I will have been here for a year and a half! Time is flying. It's strange because I drive around and go to school and I don't think that it feels weird anymore. It's not really "home" like being at home is, but I live here and I feel at peace with that. However, it's sometimes surreal when I step back, look around and think, "Wow. I live in Grenada. I don't live in the US. I am going to vet school in the Caribbean." It sometimes doesn't hit my how strange of an experience I'm getting. I was thinking back at some of my first weeks down here and boy was I miserable! But this island has grown on me and I have wonderful friends and experiences to thank for that. Not to mention that Nick and Maverick being down here this term help me be less homesick. Being super busy helps too!
A couple weeks ago we went to Fish Friday again for Mike's birthday. That was the one thing he wanted to do. His wife, Crystal, and I tried to surprise him by lining up the boat to take a big group of us up there. The boat is so much fun and so nice; it makes you feel like a tourist rather than just dreading the next test that we have. Unfortunately the ocean was too choppy for the boat to take us, so I lined up a bus that took us up there. It was a lot of fun. Nick had never been to Fish Friday before and commented that the poverty and unkept streets reminded him of Iraq, except down here it's safer. Thank goodness! We ate a lot of different fish and then came home. It was a nice opportunity to get out of our three mile radius that we're typically in.
We also had Valentine's day last week. It was one the first Valentine's day in a long time that Nick and I actually got to be together. I'm not usually one for the mushy holiday experience, but it was so nice being with him and getting to go to a nice dinner. We went to Dodgy Dock's, which is a restaurant on the water and they had a Valentine's special with a singer and fancy food. I had mahi mahi and it was delicious. Nick got steak and lobster, and while I'm not usually one to really appreciate a steak, this was one of the best steaks I've ever had. It was delicious! The next night we went to sushi with Mike and Crystal and then went to Prickly Bay for a couple drinks. It was a nice way to relax and spend our night out.
Nick is what the school refers to as a "Significant Other," or SO. As an SO he has access to the University Club pool (I don't even have access to that without him!), gets to ride the bus, go onto campus, use the gym, etc. However, he needed his SO ID card to get all these "benefits." We had to apply for it and it had to go through the dean of students to make sure I was in good standing and then through security to make sure he didn't seem suspicious. We applied for it the week we got here and I was told that I would receive and email when he could come take his picture and get his card. After a week I still hadn't heard and so I went to the office and was impatiently explained to that I would receive an email when the application was approved. Four weeks later, I went into her office again. She said she had the approved application and didn't realize she didn't email me. Island time I guess. We finally got to go in and get his ID so that he is officially significant. Luckily we got it because he had to renew his visa with it. When we came into the country a month ago, he was issued a month long visa. However, after obtaining a letter from the school, he was able to extend it three more months. We went down to immigration and it is similar to the DMV. We had to wait in line to get a form. Then Nick had to fill out the form and wait in line again to turn it in. We then had to wait while the immigration officer reviewed it, printed out a receipt and then called us up to give it to us. We had to go out of the building to the next building, pay, get the receipt stamped, and then go back into the first building. After giving the stamped receipt to the immigration officer, they finally stamped his visa and sent us on our way. We really didn't have to wait, but it still took half an hour. I've heard horror stories of other SOs who have had to wait forever to get it done. We were lucky. But now he won't be deported and can stay the rest of the term.
Nick has been doing really well. He spear fishes usually two days a week and has been getting a decent amount of smaller fish, which he then uses as bait for when he fishes with a rod and reel the next day. He also has been doing the hash runs which he's really enjoyed. He's also been playing on the intramural kickball team. Their team is really good and has won the two games they've played so far. I was a little bit worried that he would get bored down here, but so far he's loving it. I'm loving getting my laundry done and breakfast every morning! It's also nice just having him with me finally!!
Maverick has been doing really well. He's turning into quite the character. Nick got a 50 foot long rope and we take him out to the field and let him run around on it. He's been doing good with coming when he's called, but he really can't fetch to save his life! We found the secret beach that people take their dogs to, which you get to by way of climbing down rocks. Once you're down there, there's no one else; it's like a "Lost." That was kind of fun to let him play in the waves.
We've had to work with a little bit of separation anxiety with him since we've been here. It's vary rare that both Nick and I leave the apartment, but when we do we have to secure it so that he can't chew up our things. Our close doors close in the middle, but have no way to lock them. We learned the hard way that we had to keep them closed somehow, so first we tried a rubber band, but he broke that no problem. Next Nick got a little hook and put it on the door and we hooked it closed AND tied it with a shoelace. Not only did he chew through the shoelace but he bent the hook and was able to get in. So now we have a thicker rope that he is unable to chew through in the short times we're gone which we lock the doors with.
We also have to make sure we put absolutely everything out of reach that he could harm. One night we came home and the kitchen light had burned out, but we could tell there was stuff all over the floor. Using a flashlight, we discovered that he had shattered a giant glass mixing bowl into a billion pieces. He also had eaten the cereal, spread pasta on the floor and the napkins (which he always attacks) were strewn about. To top it off, he had chewed up the brand spanking new, never used, dustpan so we couldn't even sweep it all up easily! A couple days ago I made a dumb mistake. There is a guy who comes to campus every Tuesday and sells eggs at a good price, so I get a flat every week for us. I came home and put them on top of the stove and then I had to rush back to school. I should've put them in the fridge, but I didn't have time so I figured they would be alright because they hadn't been refrigerated yet. Nick came home to find the two and a half doesn't eggs all over the floor! Needless to say he was not thrilled with me. Oops! Live and learn.
The absolute worst Maverick offense happened after Nick and I had gone to get his ID. We were only gone for about an hour so we figured everything would be fine. Let me just preface with the fact that Maverick almost never has an accident in the house anymore. He makes it through the night and is pretty good about telling us when he needs to go out. Well, the poor boy must have had to really go because when we came home, Nick unlocked and opened to door to find that that action smeared the poop that was just inside the door! AAAHHH!!! It was a mess! The door has one of those rubber weather strips at the bottom that Nick had to take off and clean and we had to clean under the door. Poor Maverick looked super embarrassed and I know he felt bad, but it was so gross! Oh well. The joys of owning pets. He gives us more happiness than anything else.
Midterms start in a couple of weeks so I will be studying a lot between now and then. Then I have a whole week without tests! I don't even know what to do with myself. Nick's best friend is going to come visit us right after Easter, so we're looking forward to that. It should be a lot of fun. Now back to studying the blood vessels and nerves of the horse leg!
A couple weeks ago we went to Fish Friday again for Mike's birthday. That was the one thing he wanted to do. His wife, Crystal, and I tried to surprise him by lining up the boat to take a big group of us up there. The boat is so much fun and so nice; it makes you feel like a tourist rather than just dreading the next test that we have. Unfortunately the ocean was too choppy for the boat to take us, so I lined up a bus that took us up there. It was a lot of fun. Nick had never been to Fish Friday before and commented that the poverty and unkept streets reminded him of Iraq, except down here it's safer. Thank goodness! We ate a lot of different fish and then came home. It was a nice opportunity to get out of our three mile radius that we're typically in.
We also had Valentine's day last week. It was one the first Valentine's day in a long time that Nick and I actually got to be together. I'm not usually one for the mushy holiday experience, but it was so nice being with him and getting to go to a nice dinner. We went to Dodgy Dock's, which is a restaurant on the water and they had a Valentine's special with a singer and fancy food. I had mahi mahi and it was delicious. Nick got steak and lobster, and while I'm not usually one to really appreciate a steak, this was one of the best steaks I've ever had. It was delicious! The next night we went to sushi with Mike and Crystal and then went to Prickly Bay for a couple drinks. It was a nice way to relax and spend our night out.
Nick is what the school refers to as a "Significant Other," or SO. As an SO he has access to the University Club pool (I don't even have access to that without him!), gets to ride the bus, go onto campus, use the gym, etc. However, he needed his SO ID card to get all these "benefits." We had to apply for it and it had to go through the dean of students to make sure I was in good standing and then through security to make sure he didn't seem suspicious. We applied for it the week we got here and I was told that I would receive and email when he could come take his picture and get his card. After a week I still hadn't heard and so I went to the office and was impatiently explained to that I would receive an email when the application was approved. Four weeks later, I went into her office again. She said she had the approved application and didn't realize she didn't email me. Island time I guess. We finally got to go in and get his ID so that he is officially significant. Luckily we got it because he had to renew his visa with it. When we came into the country a month ago, he was issued a month long visa. However, after obtaining a letter from the school, he was able to extend it three more months. We went down to immigration and it is similar to the DMV. We had to wait in line to get a form. Then Nick had to fill out the form and wait in line again to turn it in. We then had to wait while the immigration officer reviewed it, printed out a receipt and then called us up to give it to us. We had to go out of the building to the next building, pay, get the receipt stamped, and then go back into the first building. After giving the stamped receipt to the immigration officer, they finally stamped his visa and sent us on our way. We really didn't have to wait, but it still took half an hour. I've heard horror stories of other SOs who have had to wait forever to get it done. We were lucky. But now he won't be deported and can stay the rest of the term.
Nick has been doing really well. He spear fishes usually two days a week and has been getting a decent amount of smaller fish, which he then uses as bait for when he fishes with a rod and reel the next day. He also has been doing the hash runs which he's really enjoyed. He's also been playing on the intramural kickball team. Their team is really good and has won the two games they've played so far. I was a little bit worried that he would get bored down here, but so far he's loving it. I'm loving getting my laundry done and breakfast every morning! It's also nice just having him with me finally!!
Maverick has been doing really well. He's turning into quite the character. Nick got a 50 foot long rope and we take him out to the field and let him run around on it. He's been doing good with coming when he's called, but he really can't fetch to save his life! We found the secret beach that people take their dogs to, which you get to by way of climbing down rocks. Once you're down there, there's no one else; it's like a "Lost." That was kind of fun to let him play in the waves.
We've had to work with a little bit of separation anxiety with him since we've been here. It's vary rare that both Nick and I leave the apartment, but when we do we have to secure it so that he can't chew up our things. Our close doors close in the middle, but have no way to lock them. We learned the hard way that we had to keep them closed somehow, so first we tried a rubber band, but he broke that no problem. Next Nick got a little hook and put it on the door and we hooked it closed AND tied it with a shoelace. Not only did he chew through the shoelace but he bent the hook and was able to get in. So now we have a thicker rope that he is unable to chew through in the short times we're gone which we lock the doors with.
We also have to make sure we put absolutely everything out of reach that he could harm. One night we came home and the kitchen light had burned out, but we could tell there was stuff all over the floor. Using a flashlight, we discovered that he had shattered a giant glass mixing bowl into a billion pieces. He also had eaten the cereal, spread pasta on the floor and the napkins (which he always attacks) were strewn about. To top it off, he had chewed up the brand spanking new, never used, dustpan so we couldn't even sweep it all up easily! A couple days ago I made a dumb mistake. There is a guy who comes to campus every Tuesday and sells eggs at a good price, so I get a flat every week for us. I came home and put them on top of the stove and then I had to rush back to school. I should've put them in the fridge, but I didn't have time so I figured they would be alright because they hadn't been refrigerated yet. Nick came home to find the two and a half doesn't eggs all over the floor! Needless to say he was not thrilled with me. Oops! Live and learn.
The absolute worst Maverick offense happened after Nick and I had gone to get his ID. We were only gone for about an hour so we figured everything would be fine. Let me just preface with the fact that Maverick almost never has an accident in the house anymore. He makes it through the night and is pretty good about telling us when he needs to go out. Well, the poor boy must have had to really go because when we came home, Nick unlocked and opened to door to find that that action smeared the poop that was just inside the door! AAAHHH!!! It was a mess! The door has one of those rubber weather strips at the bottom that Nick had to take off and clean and we had to clean under the door. Poor Maverick looked super embarrassed and I know he felt bad, but it was so gross! Oh well. The joys of owning pets. He gives us more happiness than anything else.
Midterms start in a couple of weeks so I will be studying a lot between now and then. Then I have a whole week without tests! I don't even know what to do with myself. Nick's best friend is going to come visit us right after Easter, so we're looking forward to that. It should be a lot of fun. Now back to studying the blood vessels and nerves of the horse leg!
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Superbowl Sunday
Well, after a long, busy, but wonderful Christmas break I'm back in Grenada. I have been so busy getting things settled over the last two weeks that I haven't had any time to write about it. So much has happened! My fiance, Nick, got out of the army right before Christmas and he came down here with me, but over the break we were busy planning for the wedding, being with family and running around getting things done to come down here. We also were very busy looking for a dog (we visited eight local animal shelters and were unable to find one!) and finally found one on Craigslist. He is a Siberian Husky named Maverick and he was nine months when we got him the day after Christmas.
One of the stresses was trying to get Maverick ready to fly. He is great in the car, but I wasn't sure how he would do on a long flight! But we got him through security and to our gate just fine. When he got on the plane, he was a little scared, so we had him lay across our laps for about an hour until he settled down. After that, Nick got him to lay on the floor by our feet and he slept quietly for the rest of the flight to Orlando. Then we had to fly from Orlando to Miami, which was only about a 50 minute flight and he did great. When we got to Miami, we found a lot of my classmates with their dogs. I took Maverick out in both Orlando and Miami to try to get him to go potty, but he was just too distracted and couldn't go. Then again, he also wouldn't really eat or drink anything. He wound up holding it until we got to Grenada, which was about 20 hours after we left LA. What a good boy! The flight from Miami to Grenada was almost all students and there were about 20 dogs and 4 cats on the plane. But since all of them belonged to vet students, there wasn't any issue with any of them and they all were mostly quiet for the whole flight. We landed on Friday night and my classmates/neighbors, Mike and Crystal, who I shared a car with last term had already gotten us a car again and picked us up. Luckily they are awesome friends and had already gotten the keys to my apartment and turned on the AC and fans so it was cooling down by the time we got here.
We're living at Grand View Inn again, but this time I have a one bedroom instead of a two bedroom apartment. It's not very big, but it serves its purpose and we enjoy it. This term we got a 1996 Honda CRV as our car. It's nicer than our Escudo in that all the doors and windows are functional, the air conditioner works, the radio works, and it has power steering. However, it's really a give and take because our car has already had to go to the mechanic, whereas our car last term never did. This car has already overheated once and it doesn't turn over every time it's started. Often you have to pump the gas a lot while you crank it to get it to start. One time, thank goodness we were only going about five miles an hour, I was driving it and tried to break, but the car wouldn't stop! I pulled the emergency brake and pumped the brakes a bit and tried them again and it still didn't work! I turned the car off and back on and they wound up being fine. Mike was in the car with me and we drove away laughing saying "TIG," but then we decided that we shouldn't be laughing at what potentially could have been a life-and-death situation but then again... TIG. Nick learned about the pot holes yesterday while driving here for the first time. He was driving us back to our apartment and hit one and learned that they are so bad they will bend your rim. Then we learned that the cars don't come with jacks big enough to jack up the car. Luckily we were able to get one that almost went high enough, plus a block of wood to add those extra couple of inches. We also learned that while on the side of the road changing a tire, every local who drives by will ask you if you are "Getting through." We weren't really sure how to respond, although I'm pretty sure we got through.
Nick has been learning ropes down here and has learned a few things through trial and error. He plugged our toaster directly into the wall and, while that is the fastest way to produce a piece of toast, it also turns converts the toaster into a one time use one and produces a lovely fireworks. He also just learned (just, as in he just came back while I was writing this and told me) that you can't leave your running shoes on the beach to go run in the sand, or Grenadians will steal them. Shiesty Grenadians. But Nick has also made a couple of friends with other husbands who live in the complex. He went on a run with the Grenada Hash House Harriers, which is a running club that is all over the world. There was a cruise ship in port that had a bunch of people who were part of their hash club, so they went on a run and Nick joined them. After the run, they all go to a local bar and get lunch and some beers. The club's motto is "Drinkers with a Running Problem." Nick had a lot of fun doing that and has taken Maverick on the route he went on a couple times. Other than that, Nick has been an amazing house fiancé; he does the laundry, cooks for me, takes care of our doggy, plays Xbox, watches movies, reads books. He's also been spear fishing, and although he's been able to hit some fish, none of them have been big enough to eat yet. He needs to find a better place to go with bigger fish.
He took me snorkeling on Sunday and he brought his spear. We had to climb down a cliff to the spot where he wanted to go. I was very scared, but he helped guide me down. The place he found is a beautiful coral reef where there are lots of fish and cool coral to see. It was really amazing to see. He called me over and pointed out this cool looking fish, which we later found out was a smooth trunk fish, and so I was swimming over it and enjoying it for a while. All of a sudden, BOOM! He shot it! I was sad because I liked that fish, but he needed to practice with his spear and the fishy was slow. We also saw a really cool eel and some other fish that was blue with even brighter blue spots. The snorkeling down here really is nice.
Maverick has been a good boy, but he has taken some patience on our ends to get him adjusted to being down here. He is a crazy Husky, so he doesn't really know how to come when called yet. We have been working with him and Nick successfully took him to the laundry room the other day without a leash, but when he tried it again Maverick got distracted and started running. He doesn't run away so much as just wanting to play, but he's very difficult to catch. Luckily Nick was able to catch him and everything worked out fine.
Yesterday we went to St. George's to go to the fish market, which is a pretty gross place to begin with. We went there last week to look for fish but they didn't really have anything. Across the street is the meat market and the day before, next door to the meat market, I had seen some cows and pigs in this building and I stopped and looked at them for a few minutes. The next day we were back in St. George's trying to set up our Internet and I told Brandi and Kim, "Oh, coming up after the meat market we're going to get to see some cows and pigs!" We got to the building and there weren't any animals. I said, "That's weird, they were here yesterday," and before any of us could put two and two together a Grenadian man walked out and said, "We keeeeled dem." Brandi said, " Oh! Well that's not very nice," and we walked away kind of in shock. It makes sense that the slaughter house is right next to the meat market, but it's just not something we expected to see in the city, I suppose. The fish market is a big warehouse with rolled up doors and locals sitting behind counters with their catches. Depending on the day, they may have a lot or they may have nothing. Yesterday all they had was shark, so we didn't get anything. They use a big machete to cut the fish into pieces and then take a big stick that's crudely carved into a club and hit the machete to make it cut through the fish. Then they take that same machete and fillet the fish. The precision they have with a machete is pretty impressive.
On the way out of St. George's, you have to drive up a huge hill before you can drive back down into the Carenage and exit. We have been having problems with our car overheating, but the guy we rent from took it to the mechanic the other day and brought it back, saying he installed a new fan. Crystal was driving and our car was slowly crawling up the hill, but before we made it to the top, the car stopped. It was still on and in drive, but we were rolling backwards. Nick got out of the car and tried pushing it to give it the last little bit of power, but it just wasn't enough. She had to put it in reverse and back down the hill to take a side street. We started driving to find a less steep route out, but all of a sudden as we were climbing a less steep hill, the car just turned off and died. It had over heated once again. We were able to get it to the side of the road, which luckily wasn't busy and popped the hood. Just then, it started to rain pretty hard and the water was flash boiling off the engine. We just sat there unsure of what to do. Crystal tried calling our renter to tell him, but he didn't pick up and we weren't even sure how to tell him where we were. An old Grenadian man walked out into his yard and told Nick to take the radiator cap off and add water, at least we think that's what he said; his local accent was very thick and we really couldn't understand him. When Nick told him it was still too hot, he disappeared and returned with a thick leather glove and removed the cap for us. No steam came out because the radiator was bone dry! Luckily, the nicest Grenadian ever pulled over and had a five liter jug of water in his car that was half full. He poured it in and it immediately boiled off. The old man took it inside and filled it and the car took the entire thing. We were finally able to start it after it had cooled down and water was added. The guy who pulled over lived here, but is training in England to become a professional boxer. He was extremely buff and very nice and asked us about living here as students. We were very thankful for him. We got home and got a hold of the owner of our car, who came to pick it up, and we're still waiting to hear when we're going to get it back.
Today is Superbowl Sunday and the weather is beautiful. There is a sailboat race happening in the Grand Anse Bay below us and we've been watching it a bit. It's funny to watch because the sail boats have to be home made and while some of them do pretty well, a lot of them tip over and the water has to be bailed out. It's pretty entertaining. Unfortunately I have a quiz tomorrow so I will be spending most of the day studying. We will watch the game in a little bit when it starts, though. It surprised me that it won't be starting here until 7:30PM because at home I'm used to the game being early afternoon, but I guess I am four hours ahead than normal.
This week will be full of classes and quizzes and studying. But I'm sure something interesting will occur and I'll blog about it next week, until then, go 49ers!
One of the stresses was trying to get Maverick ready to fly. He is great in the car, but I wasn't sure how he would do on a long flight! But we got him through security and to our gate just fine. When he got on the plane, he was a little scared, so we had him lay across our laps for about an hour until he settled down. After that, Nick got him to lay on the floor by our feet and he slept quietly for the rest of the flight to Orlando. Then we had to fly from Orlando to Miami, which was only about a 50 minute flight and he did great. When we got to Miami, we found a lot of my classmates with their dogs. I took Maverick out in both Orlando and Miami to try to get him to go potty, but he was just too distracted and couldn't go. Then again, he also wouldn't really eat or drink anything. He wound up holding it until we got to Grenada, which was about 20 hours after we left LA. What a good boy! The flight from Miami to Grenada was almost all students and there were about 20 dogs and 4 cats on the plane. But since all of them belonged to vet students, there wasn't any issue with any of them and they all were mostly quiet for the whole flight. We landed on Friday night and my classmates/neighbors, Mike and Crystal, who I shared a car with last term had already gotten us a car again and picked us up. Luckily they are awesome friends and had already gotten the keys to my apartment and turned on the AC and fans so it was cooling down by the time we got here.
We're living at Grand View Inn again, but this time I have a one bedroom instead of a two bedroom apartment. It's not very big, but it serves its purpose and we enjoy it. This term we got a 1996 Honda CRV as our car. It's nicer than our Escudo in that all the doors and windows are functional, the air conditioner works, the radio works, and it has power steering. However, it's really a give and take because our car has already had to go to the mechanic, whereas our car last term never did. This car has already overheated once and it doesn't turn over every time it's started. Often you have to pump the gas a lot while you crank it to get it to start. One time, thank goodness we were only going about five miles an hour, I was driving it and tried to break, but the car wouldn't stop! I pulled the emergency brake and pumped the brakes a bit and tried them again and it still didn't work! I turned the car off and back on and they wound up being fine. Mike was in the car with me and we drove away laughing saying "TIG," but then we decided that we shouldn't be laughing at what potentially could have been a life-and-death situation but then again... TIG. Nick learned about the pot holes yesterday while driving here for the first time. He was driving us back to our apartment and hit one and learned that they are so bad they will bend your rim. Then we learned that the cars don't come with jacks big enough to jack up the car. Luckily we were able to get one that almost went high enough, plus a block of wood to add those extra couple of inches. We also learned that while on the side of the road changing a tire, every local who drives by will ask you if you are "Getting through." We weren't really sure how to respond, although I'm pretty sure we got through.
Nick has been learning ropes down here and has learned a few things through trial and error. He plugged our toaster directly into the wall and, while that is the fastest way to produce a piece of toast, it also turns converts the toaster into a one time use one and produces a lovely fireworks. He also just learned (just, as in he just came back while I was writing this and told me) that you can't leave your running shoes on the beach to go run in the sand, or Grenadians will steal them. Shiesty Grenadians. But Nick has also made a couple of friends with other husbands who live in the complex. He went on a run with the Grenada Hash House Harriers, which is a running club that is all over the world. There was a cruise ship in port that had a bunch of people who were part of their hash club, so they went on a run and Nick joined them. After the run, they all go to a local bar and get lunch and some beers. The club's motto is "Drinkers with a Running Problem." Nick had a lot of fun doing that and has taken Maverick on the route he went on a couple times. Other than that, Nick has been an amazing house fiancé; he does the laundry, cooks for me, takes care of our doggy, plays Xbox, watches movies, reads books. He's also been spear fishing, and although he's been able to hit some fish, none of them have been big enough to eat yet. He needs to find a better place to go with bigger fish.
He took me snorkeling on Sunday and he brought his spear. We had to climb down a cliff to the spot where he wanted to go. I was very scared, but he helped guide me down. The place he found is a beautiful coral reef where there are lots of fish and cool coral to see. It was really amazing to see. He called me over and pointed out this cool looking fish, which we later found out was a smooth trunk fish, and so I was swimming over it and enjoying it for a while. All of a sudden, BOOM! He shot it! I was sad because I liked that fish, but he needed to practice with his spear and the fishy was slow. We also saw a really cool eel and some other fish that was blue with even brighter blue spots. The snorkeling down here really is nice.
Maverick has been a good boy, but he has taken some patience on our ends to get him adjusted to being down here. He is a crazy Husky, so he doesn't really know how to come when called yet. We have been working with him and Nick successfully took him to the laundry room the other day without a leash, but when he tried it again Maverick got distracted and started running. He doesn't run away so much as just wanting to play, but he's very difficult to catch. Luckily Nick was able to catch him and everything worked out fine.
Yesterday we went to St. George's to go to the fish market, which is a pretty gross place to begin with. We went there last week to look for fish but they didn't really have anything. Across the street is the meat market and the day before, next door to the meat market, I had seen some cows and pigs in this building and I stopped and looked at them for a few minutes. The next day we were back in St. George's trying to set up our Internet and I told Brandi and Kim, "Oh, coming up after the meat market we're going to get to see some cows and pigs!" We got to the building and there weren't any animals. I said, "That's weird, they were here yesterday," and before any of us could put two and two together a Grenadian man walked out and said, "We keeeeled dem." Brandi said, " Oh! Well that's not very nice," and we walked away kind of in shock. It makes sense that the slaughter house is right next to the meat market, but it's just not something we expected to see in the city, I suppose. The fish market is a big warehouse with rolled up doors and locals sitting behind counters with their catches. Depending on the day, they may have a lot or they may have nothing. Yesterday all they had was shark, so we didn't get anything. They use a big machete to cut the fish into pieces and then take a big stick that's crudely carved into a club and hit the machete to make it cut through the fish. Then they take that same machete and fillet the fish. The precision they have with a machete is pretty impressive.
On the way out of St. George's, you have to drive up a huge hill before you can drive back down into the Carenage and exit. We have been having problems with our car overheating, but the guy we rent from took it to the mechanic the other day and brought it back, saying he installed a new fan. Crystal was driving and our car was slowly crawling up the hill, but before we made it to the top, the car stopped. It was still on and in drive, but we were rolling backwards. Nick got out of the car and tried pushing it to give it the last little bit of power, but it just wasn't enough. She had to put it in reverse and back down the hill to take a side street. We started driving to find a less steep route out, but all of a sudden as we were climbing a less steep hill, the car just turned off and died. It had over heated once again. We were able to get it to the side of the road, which luckily wasn't busy and popped the hood. Just then, it started to rain pretty hard and the water was flash boiling off the engine. We just sat there unsure of what to do. Crystal tried calling our renter to tell him, but he didn't pick up and we weren't even sure how to tell him where we were. An old Grenadian man walked out into his yard and told Nick to take the radiator cap off and add water, at least we think that's what he said; his local accent was very thick and we really couldn't understand him. When Nick told him it was still too hot, he disappeared and returned with a thick leather glove and removed the cap for us. No steam came out because the radiator was bone dry! Luckily, the nicest Grenadian ever pulled over and had a five liter jug of water in his car that was half full. He poured it in and it immediately boiled off. The old man took it inside and filled it and the car took the entire thing. We were finally able to start it after it had cooled down and water was added. The guy who pulled over lived here, but is training in England to become a professional boxer. He was extremely buff and very nice and asked us about living here as students. We were very thankful for him. We got home and got a hold of the owner of our car, who came to pick it up, and we're still waiting to hear when we're going to get it back.
Today is Superbowl Sunday and the weather is beautiful. There is a sailboat race happening in the Grand Anse Bay below us and we've been watching it a bit. It's funny to watch because the sail boats have to be home made and while some of them do pretty well, a lot of them tip over and the water has to be bailed out. It's pretty entertaining. Unfortunately I have a quiz tomorrow so I will be spending most of the day studying. We will watch the game in a little bit when it starts, though. It surprised me that it won't be starting here until 7:30PM because at home I'm used to the game being early afternoon, but I guess I am four hours ahead than normal.
This week will be full of classes and quizzes and studying. But I'm sure something interesting will occur and I'll blog about it next week, until then, go 49ers!
Friday, December 14, 2012
The Final Countdown!
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!
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!
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!
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Dim Bulb
It has been a busy couple of weeks for me and I have been horrible about writing about it, but I'm getting the experience regardless, so I'd better document it before I forget anything! Two weeks ago was Grenadian Thanksgiving. It is an island-wide celebration about when the US came and helped them fight Cuba and take back their independence, so needless to say, it's not a very old holiday. However, the entire island shuts down for it, as it does for every holiday. We didn't have school that day (coincidentally also a Thursday) so we decided instead of having our Thanksgiving food in October, we would do a potluck with our favorite food from home. So I decided I'd make "Kousa," which is a Lebanese dish that involves coring out a zucchini and stuffing it with ground meat and rice. So I went to the grocery store and lo and behold, no zucchini! There wasn't ANY produce! It is definitely a stark contrast to our nicely filled shelves at home to see empty shelves all over the store here. So I decided that maybe I'd make potato skins, but again, no potatoes! Everything I could think of required produce that wasn't there! I went home and thought about it and finally decided. I made deviled eggs and pasta salad. At our potluck, we also had crock pot mac and cheese, chips and salsa, tamale pie, icebox cake, fruit, blueberry pie, among other snacks. A bunch of us got together and we ate and then hung out in the pool for the day. It was nice.
We have been wanting to go on the boat to fish Friday, but the boat has been broken since last term. Apparently they're "waiting for a part from the US," but at the rate they're moving, I'm thinking it's more of a Grenadian problem than anything else. So last week we decided to drive up to Guave, home of Kirani James, Olympic gold medalist, and don't forget it!! We'd never driven there, but Crystal knew kind of where it was, so she drove. Not only are there no street signs in Grenada, there also aren't many street lights, so it's hard to tell where you are. Now, if we were going somewhere at home and needed directions, we'd plug the address into our GPS or, if we're really being primitive, print out directions from MapQuest. However, in Grenada, none of those exist! So we had a map that we checked prior to driving up there. Talk about suffering! Not only did we have to figure out our route on a map and hope that we could make every turn, we had to figure out how to fold the map back up after we were done! What a piece of work that was. Thank goodness for GPS on our phones! ;)
We got to Guave without a hitch and parked in a gravel lot where we paid some random guy $5 to "watch" our car. Not that anyone would want to steal the poor thing. It rides like the Indiana Jones ride from Disneyland and rattles a whole lot more. We walked down an alley that most normal people wouldn't attempt at home and came out onto the street where fish Friday is held. We went to the bathroom, where we had to go through an abandoned building and through a courtyard with old mattresses and stuff that should've been in a dump, and found a relatively clean bathroom that actually had toilet paper AND paper towels! Unbelievable! We walked around and tried the different fish dishes and people watched. We tried to feed the super skinny dogs, but the locals chase them away because they aren't welcome there. Poor doggies.
We sat at a picnic bench and were listening to a drum band sing Bob Marley songs and there were a couple girls looking at us, but were too shy to approach. I smiled and they immediately came over. Their names were Tasha and Trish and they were 11 and 12 years old. They were extremely nice and very polite, always saying, "Yes miss, no miss." They thanked us for coming to Grenada and asked about our lives. We asked if we could take a picture with them and immediately a ton of kids came out of the woodwork to get in the picture. They thought it was awesome! They all wanted their picture taken and they all wanted to see it after. They asked if Crystal was my daughter (she is a little older than me) and asked if her husband was Chinese (he is about as white as they come). The girls told us they'd never left the island, but if they could they would go to New York City. Crystal and I talked to them for a little bit and found out that one of their birthdays had just passed and the other one was coming up soon. I asked if they got presents for their birthdays and they looked surprised and said they never have. Crystal and I felt so bad for them, we emptied our change purses and gave them all of our change to split. We had to only have given them about $5 EC ($2 US), but they were shocked that we had given so much money and tried to give some back for us to keep. We assured them it was fine and told them it was their birthday present. I asked one girl what she was going to buy and she said she wanted a pencil. I felt bad that I didn't have a pencil in my purse to give her! The other girl went and bought a fish cake and tried to share it with us because she felt bad. We told her it was her's. Mike bought them each a Coke and their eyes lit up. We know that this is a poor country and we see homeless people on the south side of the island where we live, but nothing like this. On the northern part it is so poor and these little girls were the nicest kids we've ever met. It broke our hearts to think about how they must live and made us so thankful for what we have. They asked us to meet their grandmother, who was sitting about twenty yards away. Crystal and I went with them and told her what a pleasure her granddaughters were. She grunted at us and then turned away. Immediately afterwards the girls came back to us and told us they had to go. It's really sad to think that these little girls aren't corrupted with the ways of the world and thought nothing of talking to us, but after talking to their grandmother who clearly didn't like American girls weren't allowed to talk to us. It's sad that eventually those girls will probably be like their grandma.
Down on our side of the island. we encounter bad drivers every day. But the absolute worst driver awards go to the "Learner" drivers. It is unbelievable how many learner drivers we see every day, whose cars are identifiable but the big red "L" on the back of the car. For the small population of Grenada and the little amount of kids we see, you'd think you would never see anyone learning to drive. But we see a ton, and a lot of them seem to be adults! Not only are these drivers slows, but they do 57 point turns in the middle of the street without warning. It must be some sort of curriculum that they follow, but without fail, when following a learner, they are going to slam on the brakes and start turning around. The worst part is, they will pull so that their front tires hit the opposite curb and they are completely perpendicular with the street. This clogs traffic going both ways and then they sit there for a long time, trying to figure out which way to turn the wheel to get themselves out of their ridiculous situation. They definitely are very frustrating. Another frustrating thing is the taxis/"Reggae buses." It is illegal here to get a bus anywhere besides a bus stop, but because there really aren't many cops and they don't enforce any rules, none of that is followed. So there are bus stops along the sides of the road that are little turn offs which, if used properly, would make it so that buses could load and unload without blocking the road. The buses are constantly driving by and there are always people waiting. So instaed of pulling all the way forward to the far end of the stop, the geniuses slam on their brakes before even getting to the bus stop and allow people to get in, blocking traffic completely. Then, since they are crazy drivers around here, other buses fly around you and swerve in front of that bus to pick up more people. So just as you're about to go around, the first bus pulls out and blocks you in again which it waits for more buses to load. If it sounds confusing, it's simply because I do not possess the words to possibly explain the lack of organization. The best bet is just not to be in a hurry to go anywhere and wait for all the people to figure out what the heck is going on.
I have one electrical outlet in my room and I have a table lamp plugged into it. On the other side of the room is a light fixture mounted on the wall with the dimmest light I've ever seen. It's also that horrible super white light that suggests I live in a hospital. I finally got aggrivated enough that I took off the cover and unscrewed the bulb to see what it was so that I could get a better one. It was a 9 watt! Talk about a dim bulb! Why even bother? So I went to the hardware store and got a 60W and thought about how amazing my room was going to look in light as bright as day. I got home, unscrewed my dim bulb, took the new one out of the box, and? It was for some sort of weird fixture that didn't have a screw. It was smooth all around with two little pegs sticking out on either side! I didn't even know there were different fixture options. So I put back the 9W and the next time I went to the grocery store, I got a new light bulb, again a 60W, made sure it had a screw bottom and was so excited to try it when I got home. Again, I unscrewed the old one, screwed in the new one, switched it on and NOTHING! It didn't turn on. I wiggled it and tried screwing it in tighter and making it looser. Nothing would work. It looks like I'm sentenced to another month of eye strain due to my dim light bulb.
My roommate's air conditioner broke late one night and the office was closed. So she kept her ceiling fan on and opened her window for the night and planned on telling them in the morning. At 3AM there was a pounding at our door. This wasn't a nice knock; it was as if our roof was on fire. It was the security guard telling her she had to close her window because she was wasting energy and that she should just use her A/C. She explained to him what was happening and he said that was fine, but the next night she wasn't allowed to have it open. Apparently that wasn't something that could wait until morning. A few nights later after 11PM, we got another pounding at the door. I answered it and it was the security guard delivering our Internet bill. I asked him if it was necessary to come to our apartment so late and he just shrugged and walked away. Apparently he has no concept that people sleep. I opened our Internet bill and we have a late fee (granted it's 0.37 cents) because we didn't pay on time. Keep in mind, our bill was delivered in November 5th, and our bill was due October 1st. The record keeping companies down here must be really efficient. TIG.
Well, I only have 38 days until I get to go home, which means I have a lot of exams ahead of me, so it's time to study again. I'll be sure to blog about whatever crazy thing happens down here on de island. Until next time!
We have been wanting to go on the boat to fish Friday, but the boat has been broken since last term. Apparently they're "waiting for a part from the US," but at the rate they're moving, I'm thinking it's more of a Grenadian problem than anything else. So last week we decided to drive up to Guave, home of Kirani James, Olympic gold medalist, and don't forget it!! We'd never driven there, but Crystal knew kind of where it was, so she drove. Not only are there no street signs in Grenada, there also aren't many street lights, so it's hard to tell where you are. Now, if we were going somewhere at home and needed directions, we'd plug the address into our GPS or, if we're really being primitive, print out directions from MapQuest. However, in Grenada, none of those exist! So we had a map that we checked prior to driving up there. Talk about suffering! Not only did we have to figure out our route on a map and hope that we could make every turn, we had to figure out how to fold the map back up after we were done! What a piece of work that was. Thank goodness for GPS on our phones! ;)
We got to Guave without a hitch and parked in a gravel lot where we paid some random guy $5 to "watch" our car. Not that anyone would want to steal the poor thing. It rides like the Indiana Jones ride from Disneyland and rattles a whole lot more. We walked down an alley that most normal people wouldn't attempt at home and came out onto the street where fish Friday is held. We went to the bathroom, where we had to go through an abandoned building and through a courtyard with old mattresses and stuff that should've been in a dump, and found a relatively clean bathroom that actually had toilet paper AND paper towels! Unbelievable! We walked around and tried the different fish dishes and people watched. We tried to feed the super skinny dogs, but the locals chase them away because they aren't welcome there. Poor doggies.
We sat at a picnic bench and were listening to a drum band sing Bob Marley songs and there were a couple girls looking at us, but were too shy to approach. I smiled and they immediately came over. Their names were Tasha and Trish and they were 11 and 12 years old. They were extremely nice and very polite, always saying, "Yes miss, no miss." They thanked us for coming to Grenada and asked about our lives. We asked if we could take a picture with them and immediately a ton of kids came out of the woodwork to get in the picture. They thought it was awesome! They all wanted their picture taken and they all wanted to see it after. They asked if Crystal was my daughter (she is a little older than me) and asked if her husband was Chinese (he is about as white as they come). The girls told us they'd never left the island, but if they could they would go to New York City. Crystal and I talked to them for a little bit and found out that one of their birthdays had just passed and the other one was coming up soon. I asked if they got presents for their birthdays and they looked surprised and said they never have. Crystal and I felt so bad for them, we emptied our change purses and gave them all of our change to split. We had to only have given them about $5 EC ($2 US), but they were shocked that we had given so much money and tried to give some back for us to keep. We assured them it was fine and told them it was their birthday present. I asked one girl what she was going to buy and she said she wanted a pencil. I felt bad that I didn't have a pencil in my purse to give her! The other girl went and bought a fish cake and tried to share it with us because she felt bad. We told her it was her's. Mike bought them each a Coke and their eyes lit up. We know that this is a poor country and we see homeless people on the south side of the island where we live, but nothing like this. On the northern part it is so poor and these little girls were the nicest kids we've ever met. It broke our hearts to think about how they must live and made us so thankful for what we have. They asked us to meet their grandmother, who was sitting about twenty yards away. Crystal and I went with them and told her what a pleasure her granddaughters were. She grunted at us and then turned away. Immediately afterwards the girls came back to us and told us they had to go. It's really sad to think that these little girls aren't corrupted with the ways of the world and thought nothing of talking to us, but after talking to their grandmother who clearly didn't like American girls weren't allowed to talk to us. It's sad that eventually those girls will probably be like their grandma.
Down on our side of the island. we encounter bad drivers every day. But the absolute worst driver awards go to the "Learner" drivers. It is unbelievable how many learner drivers we see every day, whose cars are identifiable but the big red "L" on the back of the car. For the small population of Grenada and the little amount of kids we see, you'd think you would never see anyone learning to drive. But we see a ton, and a lot of them seem to be adults! Not only are these drivers slows, but they do 57 point turns in the middle of the street without warning. It must be some sort of curriculum that they follow, but without fail, when following a learner, they are going to slam on the brakes and start turning around. The worst part is, they will pull so that their front tires hit the opposite curb and they are completely perpendicular with the street. This clogs traffic going both ways and then they sit there for a long time, trying to figure out which way to turn the wheel to get themselves out of their ridiculous situation. They definitely are very frustrating. Another frustrating thing is the taxis/"Reggae buses." It is illegal here to get a bus anywhere besides a bus stop, but because there really aren't many cops and they don't enforce any rules, none of that is followed. So there are bus stops along the sides of the road that are little turn offs which, if used properly, would make it so that buses could load and unload without blocking the road. The buses are constantly driving by and there are always people waiting. So instaed of pulling all the way forward to the far end of the stop, the geniuses slam on their brakes before even getting to the bus stop and allow people to get in, blocking traffic completely. Then, since they are crazy drivers around here, other buses fly around you and swerve in front of that bus to pick up more people. So just as you're about to go around, the first bus pulls out and blocks you in again which it waits for more buses to load. If it sounds confusing, it's simply because I do not possess the words to possibly explain the lack of organization. The best bet is just not to be in a hurry to go anywhere and wait for all the people to figure out what the heck is going on.
I have one electrical outlet in my room and I have a table lamp plugged into it. On the other side of the room is a light fixture mounted on the wall with the dimmest light I've ever seen. It's also that horrible super white light that suggests I live in a hospital. I finally got aggrivated enough that I took off the cover and unscrewed the bulb to see what it was so that I could get a better one. It was a 9 watt! Talk about a dim bulb! Why even bother? So I went to the hardware store and got a 60W and thought about how amazing my room was going to look in light as bright as day. I got home, unscrewed my dim bulb, took the new one out of the box, and? It was for some sort of weird fixture that didn't have a screw. It was smooth all around with two little pegs sticking out on either side! I didn't even know there were different fixture options. So I put back the 9W and the next time I went to the grocery store, I got a new light bulb, again a 60W, made sure it had a screw bottom and was so excited to try it when I got home. Again, I unscrewed the old one, screwed in the new one, switched it on and NOTHING! It didn't turn on. I wiggled it and tried screwing it in tighter and making it looser. Nothing would work. It looks like I'm sentenced to another month of eye strain due to my dim light bulb.
My roommate's air conditioner broke late one night and the office was closed. So she kept her ceiling fan on and opened her window for the night and planned on telling them in the morning. At 3AM there was a pounding at our door. This wasn't a nice knock; it was as if our roof was on fire. It was the security guard telling her she had to close her window because she was wasting energy and that she should just use her A/C. She explained to him what was happening and he said that was fine, but the next night she wasn't allowed to have it open. Apparently that wasn't something that could wait until morning. A few nights later after 11PM, we got another pounding at the door. I answered it and it was the security guard delivering our Internet bill. I asked him if it was necessary to come to our apartment so late and he just shrugged and walked away. Apparently he has no concept that people sleep. I opened our Internet bill and we have a late fee (granted it's 0.37 cents) because we didn't pay on time. Keep in mind, our bill was delivered in November 5th, and our bill was due October 1st. The record keeping companies down here must be really efficient. TIG.
Well, I only have 38 days until I get to go home, which means I have a lot of exams ahead of me, so it's time to study again. I'll be sure to blog about whatever crazy thing happens down here on de island. Until next time!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Polydactyl Day
This term I'm living in an apartment at a place called Grand View Inn. Three of my close friends live in apartments in this complex and we really enjoy living by each other. We share a car and go to class every day together and hang out on the weekends. Although our apartments are fine, they're not luxury by any means. There are constantly dogs barking, they're very outdated, I honestly have six inches of counter space in my kitchen, and one of my friends has had a serious roach problem the whole term. There are these condos next to a place we go to eat that look amazing and we figured that we could all move in together and live in this awesome house. So we set up an appointment and went to check them out. They're four stories and have five bedrooms and seven bathrooms! An elevator will take you to every floor. The entire front of the house is glass, which faces the harbor along with its private beach and infinity pool. The second floor had a dining room with a glass floor so that you could see down into the living room. The bedrooms were all very nice, except the one on the fourth floor was essentially the room under the stairs that Harry Potter lived in. Not only was it really small, there's no way it would ever be cool because it was on the top of the house, which had central air. The master bedroom was bigger than my entire apartment I'm currently living in. The bathroom was perfection and the walk in closet was bigger than my current bedroom. There are biometric fingerprint scanners to get into the house and there was a walk in cooler for wine or meat. The house was amazing, but it was going to cost a fortune in utilities because of its size and there was no way to be fair to the person living in the hobbit closet, versus the person living in the king's chambers. Oh well. It was nice to look.
Last week we had midterms all week. It was nice because we didn't have to go to class, but that meant we were locked in our rooms or the library studying non-stop. The really unfortunate part is that we had to deal with the proctors every time we took an exam. The proctors are a special breed of people. Their only job is to make sure that our tests don't include any cheating and are administered fairly. They check our IDs when we go in and then take our tests when we go out. However, upon setting foot in an exam room, we are treated like we are convicted felons and are likely to strike again with whatever horrid crime we had originally committed. In the states, these special individuals would work in a DMV and try to make your life a living hell. Unfortunately, Grenada doesn't have a clue what a DMV is so these people get to torture us every time we test. They all wear these hideous burgundy vests that say "Proctor" on them, but I'm pretty sure they think that "God" is embroidered across their chests. And the best part is, even though they work at a professional school, their education levels are typically very basic, so even something as simple as asking to use the restroom is an ordeal.
However, the worst part about midterms week this time was that the school is trying to go high-tech and use computer based testing. This is coming from a school who can't seem to figure out how to get wifi to span the entire campus and even in places that it does work, it typically is down. So we had to download this program called SofTest on our laptops and then bring them to the test to take our exams. It sounds great, but every time you have to pray that your computer isn't going to decide to crash, or update, or just stop working for whatever reason. The first time I had to take a computer based test, I tried to get my test to start, and it just wouldn't. I called the "IT" person over (the IT people are very incompetent here, so I didn't have very much faith) and she simply told me to restart my computer. So after waiting for it to shut down, boot up, and then try to restart the test, it still didn't work! Half an hour after the test started, she finally admitted it wasn't going to work and gave me a good old fashioned scantron paper test. That's really all I wanted anyway! The second exam I took I was able to start the test, but then I wasn't able to connect to the wifi to actually turn it in. Another so called IT guy came to "help" me and wound up somehow making it so that my computer could no longer even recognize wifi. He told me, "Oh, sometimes that happens with HP laptops," and turned around and walked away. GREAT! My right click button already stopped working and now I can't connect to wifi. This is turning into a giant paperweight. I went home and called HP, who gave me another number to call for support. I called that number and was told I had the wrong number, so they gave me the first. After going in circles, I finally sat on the kitchen floor with a really short Ethernet cable and plugged into the wall to get on HP support online. I did a live chat with the HP agent and he had me download different things and check this and that. After an hour he told me I had to reset my wireless card, which involved me taking apart my laptop. That would've been great, except the only tool I own is a Swiss army knife! Try as I might, half an hour later I was screaming mad that I couldn't get it apart. So I laced up my shoes and went for a run to the hardware store. An hour later, I took apart my computer with my newly purchased 8-in-1 screwdriver and? It didn't work. I still had no wifi connection. I started playing around with the settings and found a little box that said "Wifi off." I unchecked it and what do you know, it worked! I was really happy that I finally had wifi, but so angry with HP for making me waste hours of my life when he didn't even ask me if my computer had the wifi turned on.
Being in a third world country, it is typical to see medical conditions that are not common at home. The whites of peoples' eyes are very commonly yellow, indicating the wide spread of hepatitis down here. There are crippled people who probably could've been helped as a child, had they had the right orthpedics. The teeth down here are atrocious. (Side note: The manners around here are also not what we would deem acceptable. The lady at the front desk where I pay my rent hawked seven loogies the other day while I was there!! I was trying not to laugh and gag at the same time! That is not uncommon.) However, most of my classmates are from the states, so most of them look relatively "normal." But the other day at school, we saw a girl with six toes! Her sixth toe was fused with her pinky so the nail was oddly shaped, but she had it painted and was wearing flip flops. It was like a bad car accident; we had to look! Then later that night, we were waiting for one of my friends to get food and the girl taking the money had six fingers! She had an extra pinky on each hand. Polydactyly (many digits) is common in cats, but two see two polydactyls in one day had to have been a record!
After midterms, we all got to relax. We went and enjoyed the beach for once, went out to dinner and socialized. On Friday night, the vet program had a sexy legs contest. Each term had a male contestant who went out and danced to their own song to show off their sexy legs. It was pretty hilarious. On Saturday night, a local restaurant, De Big Fish, had a lobster dinner special. For $55 EC, which is about $21 US, we got lobster and two sides. It was the best meal I've had down here and at such a great price! There was a one man band who actually wasn't bad. He played Caribbean styled versions of pop songs. We really enjoyed our weekend of not having to study. But unfortunately today is Monday, so it's back to the grind and back to studying.
Last week we had midterms all week. It was nice because we didn't have to go to class, but that meant we were locked in our rooms or the library studying non-stop. The really unfortunate part is that we had to deal with the proctors every time we took an exam. The proctors are a special breed of people. Their only job is to make sure that our tests don't include any cheating and are administered fairly. They check our IDs when we go in and then take our tests when we go out. However, upon setting foot in an exam room, we are treated like we are convicted felons and are likely to strike again with whatever horrid crime we had originally committed. In the states, these special individuals would work in a DMV and try to make your life a living hell. Unfortunately, Grenada doesn't have a clue what a DMV is so these people get to torture us every time we test. They all wear these hideous burgundy vests that say "Proctor" on them, but I'm pretty sure they think that "God" is embroidered across their chests. And the best part is, even though they work at a professional school, their education levels are typically very basic, so even something as simple as asking to use the restroom is an ordeal.
However, the worst part about midterms week this time was that the school is trying to go high-tech and use computer based testing. This is coming from a school who can't seem to figure out how to get wifi to span the entire campus and even in places that it does work, it typically is down. So we had to download this program called SofTest on our laptops and then bring them to the test to take our exams. It sounds great, but every time you have to pray that your computer isn't going to decide to crash, or update, or just stop working for whatever reason. The first time I had to take a computer based test, I tried to get my test to start, and it just wouldn't. I called the "IT" person over (the IT people are very incompetent here, so I didn't have very much faith) and she simply told me to restart my computer. So after waiting for it to shut down, boot up, and then try to restart the test, it still didn't work! Half an hour after the test started, she finally admitted it wasn't going to work and gave me a good old fashioned scantron paper test. That's really all I wanted anyway! The second exam I took I was able to start the test, but then I wasn't able to connect to the wifi to actually turn it in. Another so called IT guy came to "help" me and wound up somehow making it so that my computer could no longer even recognize wifi. He told me, "Oh, sometimes that happens with HP laptops," and turned around and walked away. GREAT! My right click button already stopped working and now I can't connect to wifi. This is turning into a giant paperweight. I went home and called HP, who gave me another number to call for support. I called that number and was told I had the wrong number, so they gave me the first. After going in circles, I finally sat on the kitchen floor with a really short Ethernet cable and plugged into the wall to get on HP support online. I did a live chat with the HP agent and he had me download different things and check this and that. After an hour he told me I had to reset my wireless card, which involved me taking apart my laptop. That would've been great, except the only tool I own is a Swiss army knife! Try as I might, half an hour later I was screaming mad that I couldn't get it apart. So I laced up my shoes and went for a run to the hardware store. An hour later, I took apart my computer with my newly purchased 8-in-1 screwdriver and? It didn't work. I still had no wifi connection. I started playing around with the settings and found a little box that said "Wifi off." I unchecked it and what do you know, it worked! I was really happy that I finally had wifi, but so angry with HP for making me waste hours of my life when he didn't even ask me if my computer had the wifi turned on.
Being in a third world country, it is typical to see medical conditions that are not common at home. The whites of peoples' eyes are very commonly yellow, indicating the wide spread of hepatitis down here. There are crippled people who probably could've been helped as a child, had they had the right orthpedics. The teeth down here are atrocious. (Side note: The manners around here are also not what we would deem acceptable. The lady at the front desk where I pay my rent hawked seven loogies the other day while I was there!! I was trying not to laugh and gag at the same time! That is not uncommon.) However, most of my classmates are from the states, so most of them look relatively "normal." But the other day at school, we saw a girl with six toes! Her sixth toe was fused with her pinky so the nail was oddly shaped, but she had it painted and was wearing flip flops. It was like a bad car accident; we had to look! Then later that night, we were waiting for one of my friends to get food and the girl taking the money had six fingers! She had an extra pinky on each hand. Polydactyly (many digits) is common in cats, but two see two polydactyls in one day had to have been a record!
After midterms, we all got to relax. We went and enjoyed the beach for once, went out to dinner and socialized. On Friday night, the vet program had a sexy legs contest. Each term had a male contestant who went out and danced to their own song to show off their sexy legs. It was pretty hilarious. On Saturday night, a local restaurant, De Big Fish, had a lobster dinner special. For $55 EC, which is about $21 US, we got lobster and two sides. It was the best meal I've had down here and at such a great price! There was a one man band who actually wasn't bad. He played Caribbean styled versions of pop songs. We really enjoyed our weekend of not having to study. But unfortunately today is Monday, so it's back to the grind and back to studying.
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