Support turtles in St. Kitts!

We have an organization on St. Kitts that was started by a Ross student a while ago called St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network.  If you go to this website or download the search toolbar and use it as your usual search engine, any charity that you choose (based in the US) can receive $0.01 for every thing you search.  I highly recommend choosing the St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network as your charity.  The Leatherback Sea Turtle, Green Sea Turtle, and Hawksbill Sea Turtles will thank you :)  They are the three sea turtles that nest on the beaches on St. Kitts (there was one other species that they recently found nesting on a beach, but I don't think it's confirmed yet that they live here) and they are all endangered.  I am trying to get more involved with the actual program next semester so you should get involved too by donating a penny every time you search.  You don't pay anything and you are on the internet all day anyway. :)

Here's an easy way to raise money for your favorite cause. Just start using Yahoo! powered GoodSearch.com as your search engine and they'll donate about a penny to your favorite cause every time you do a search!

In addition, do all of your shopping through their online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, where you can shop at more than 2,400 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will go to the charity or school of your choice. You pay the same price as you normally would, but a donation goes to your cause!

You can also enroll in the GoodDining program. Eat at over 10,000 participating restaurants nationwide and you can earn up to 6% of every dollar spent on the meal as a donation for your charity or school.

Here's the web site — http://www.goodsearch.com. You can also read about GoodSearch in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, CNN, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal.

Turtleneck and chain, sippin' on a light beer

Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone!  I had to study for an anatomy quiz last night, so I will actually be having a potluck dinner with some friends tonight instead.  So my Thanksgiving has yet to come :)
As much as everyone was talking about Thanksgiving this year (which seemed like it was more than usual for whatever reason), it seemed like not many people were actually thankful for much.  I just kept seeing complaints that people "had" to do stuff they didn't want to do, or they weren't able to do whatever they wanted.  Seriously, buck up.  Try being thankful that you are able to get an education or that you are able to spend every day on a gorgeous island.  Or maybe just thankful that you get to try new things, like making your first Thanksgiving dinner in a toaster oven.  I'm not real sentimental, but I actually recognize the amazing things in my life every day (more than I say out loud).  It just really gets to me that people spend more time complaining than realizing that their life is not that bad.
On another note, I'll be coming home soon!  My plane leaves on December 19th, but I don't get back to Michigan until December 20th (I had to have an overnight layover in Miami both ways) and then I'll be home until January 3rd.  I'm a little nervous about coming home because I'm really getting used to wearing very lightweight clothes and going back to Michigan means I'll be wearing about 10 extra pounds of clothes, haha!  I don't think I'll be able to leave the couch because my clothes will feel so heavy.  Also, I've lost about 15 pounds since I've been here (yay!) and I'm going to say that a good chunk of that is because there's no fast food here (there's a Subway, but I haven't eaten there...it's SUPER expensive).  And now that I know that I'm going home, I've been craving McDonald's fries like no other.  I'm very excited for it, but I might just gain back those 15 pounds over the 2 weeks I'll be home...
I also really want to go to the Detroit Zoo when I get home.  I hear there have been some awesome changes since this summer.  I never got to see the finished lion exhibit before I left, so I do want to see that (even though the lions probably won't be out), and then we are also getting two orphaned Grizzly Bear cubs!  Our polar bear from Denver went back recently too :( so he is back home in his new habitat.
More grades!  I got a B on my nutrition exam (WAY better than I thought I would do...that one was tough) and an A on my microanatomy exam (only 3 questions wrong!).  I just took an anatomy quiz and I think that went really well too (maybe only 1 question wrong?).  Next up are final exams and I definitely need to get my ass in gear because all of them are cumulative except for one.
Tonight after dinner, I'm going to try to get some of my friends to go out with me.  I haven't gone out in like, 2 weekends so I really need to go dancing :)  We might go to Bamboo, which is almost like a nightclub, or maybe it's what they call a nightclub in St. Kitts lol.  Saturday, a few friends and I are going to Caribelle Batik to get some Christmas presents or just fun presents for Katie :)  We will also be going to Port Zante, which has all of the tourist shops.  They have some really cool stuff and again, I'll probably be looking for Christmas presents.  Check out the link for Caribelle Batik if you get a chance, they make some awesome stuff right there in the shop.  It's all handmade batik, which is a wax dyeing process.
Saturday night: my semester is hosting a beer pong tournament...yes, a drinking tournament. Something I never thought I'd be a part of at an institution of higher education, but I also didn't think I'd go to a place where I could see vervet monkeys outside of my classes.  I'm really bad at beer pong but one of my friends wants to play and his wife is out of town, so we are partners now.  We'll see how that works out.  Being bad at beer pong when your entire class is watching you=not my idea of fun.  But it will be over quickly :)
I wish I had some more exciting stuff to write, but I don't.  I've been studying like my life depends on it, which seems like what I say every time I post.  It's about to get worse though, with finals coming up.  So I wouldn't expect my next post until December 16th at the earliest lol.  Wish me luck!

When all you gotta keep is strong, move along.

Like I said, you don't get better sunsets than in St. Kitts.  And if you think you do, you're wrong.

So, stuff I've been doing...
I never updated about the VIDA trip.  For those of you who have never heard of VIDA (there are chapters everywhere, and not just vet schools), it's basically a club where we go around providing services to people in the community that are in financial need.  Obviously, since we are a vet school, we provide vet services.  It's through a vet on the island and he chooses families that he believes really care about their pets, but just can't afford routine care.  So the clinic I participated in, we went around to a few houses and helped the families out!  There was a lot of tick removal, flea treatment, and basic physical exams.  I learned a TON, considering I've just started vet school and I haven't learned that much yet (in terms of actually caring for pets), so I was shown how to do an entire exam, including respiratory rates, pulse/heart rates (which are two different things.  Did you know that?), palpation of internal organs (I haven't learned that in anatomy yet), drawing blood and doing various SNAP tests.  I attempted a cephalic blood draw, but I was unsuccessful.  But in my defense, a) I'm a first semester.  I don't know anything yet and b) the dog I tried to draw blood on was in REALLY poor condition and his blood pressure was pretty darn low.
So anyway, I learned so much on this trip and overall, it was a great experience.  It was a huge culture shock, though.  In the US, people consider animals to be a family member, which is what I'm used to and of course, I think of PD and Leo as my babies.  But here, it's totally different.  The dogs are almost all outdoor dogs, which would be fine, except that a lot of owners decide that they don't even want to buy pet food for their animals.  We saw one dog in TERRIBLE condition (like, Animal Cops bad) and we asked the owners when the last time he ate was and they said they didn't know.  So we asked what kind of food he usually got, they said they weren't sure.  Sometimes they gave him rice....What?!  Sometimes?  Rice?!  So when we got the dog food out, he scarfed it down.  It was so sad.  And he was so glad just to get some attention.  Then the family's "other" dog came hopping down the street, and I say hopping because THIS DOG HAS HAD A BROKEN LEG FOR ALMOST TWO WEEKS.  Look, vets are understanding people.  If you can't afford to fix the leg, surrender the dog to us and we'll fix it and you don't have to pay for it.  But you can't just let a dog suffer with a broken leg for almost 2 weeks.  Again, that dog was super sweet, but obviously in pain.  So these are just examples of how some people treat their dogs here.  
And let me say that not all dog owners on St. Kitts are that extreme.  They do all pretty much leave their dogs outside and not many of them buy manufactured dog food.  But the dogs typically stay around their houses and the owners make better homemade meals for them (throw in some vegetables and protein and it's not a big deal.  At least the dog won't be starving).  We went to another house where the owner had 3 dogs that were chained up outside (booooo) but at least they all had some shelter and the shelters and dogs were set up in the shade.  He had bowls of food and clean water nearby each of them too.  The dogs were all very friendly and looked well taken care of.  I'm not crazy about leaving them outside (especially in the Caribbean heat), but this owner is at least taking steps to make sure they are comfortable.  
Again, these are just cultural differences too.  If these dogs/owners had grown up in the US, I'm sure that they would have been just as pampered as all of our dogs.  It's just very different from what I'm used to.  I do have to say, I'm glad that my babies were born in the US.

Look at that faaaaace.

Um...and that face.  Well, I like him anyway.

Something else exciting!  I got to go to a World Cup qualifying game!  It was St. Kitts v. Canada, which was slightly more exciting than it would have been with other countries, because I have a connection to Canada.  I drank a Carib, danced to steel drums, and got mashed in with all of the locals behind the goal.  At one point, I separated from my friends and just pushed along with all of the other Kittitians.  I felt like such a local, cheering for our country!  There was no score, and I don't totally know what that means in terms of World Cup qualifiers (I think they get points for a win, a tie, or a lose but I'm not sure), but I had so much fun.

Not a great picture, but I WAS THERE.  This is when I was jammin' with the locals.  Never forget 11/11/11.

I'm in the process of looking for a car.  So far I've driven two, I'm driving two more today, one more on Wednesday and another later in the week.  I hope I find one that I like enough to buy.  I'm sick of car hunting.  The two I saw yesterday were pretty decent.  The cars here are not nice, and I'm always going to pay more than I should for a car down here, but it's something I'll have to deal with.  The first one was in fairly good condition, but I didn't love the way it drove (really touchy brakes and no power steering, which is different for me).  The second car drove really well, but it had a few more problems than the first (and it cost $1500 more than the first).  One that I'm seeing today sounds really good and it has a great price and the same goes for the one that I'm seeing on Wednesday.  I really hope one of them works out.

Study time.  See ya.

There's a fire starting in my heart, reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out of the dark

Let's start with the things I love about St. Kitts:

1.  The Caribbean Sea - yeah, this is kind of a given, but it seriously never gets old to look outside of your window and see a gorgeous body of water.  There are days when the water seriously shimmers.  I can't believe I get to see it every day.

2.  Seeing monkeys in the morning.  This is my week to walk the dogs in the kennels on campus and as a result, I've been up super early every day this week (not to mention, I've been taking two showers a day since I get amazingly sweaty.  I think my body is making up for all the time that I didn't sweat), I get to see some vervet monkeys running around campus.  It's adorable.  Also, the campus kittens are really cute too.

Vervet monk monk.

3.  The sunsets.  Man, you don't get better sunsets than down here.  I can't even explain it.  Sadly, every time I've seen the most gorgeous ones, I haven't had a camera with me.

4.  Right after the sunsets, the moon.  I don't know why, but it is so much brighter down here.  I don't think we even need streetlights (yes we do) because it lights up the entire sky.  It's like looking at a really dim sun.

5.  The locals - people go to different places and they say, "Everyone here is so nice!"  but trust me, they aren't as nice as people from St. Kitts.  Yeah, we get the occasional pissy waitress (at Shiggidy Shack) but people generally love everyone else.  You can tell the locals from the non-locals (students, tourists) because if you walk towards a local, they make eye contact and say, "Hello!  Good morning!"  (and they do say both hello and good morning for some reason).  If you walk towards a non-local, they start texting on their phone, checking their watch or finding something really interesting to look at on the ground.  You guys suck.

6.  All of the buildings are different colors.  If you saw these colors in other cities, you would think it's super ugly.  But here, it just works.  There is a big purple church that you pass right before you get to campus, I'm living in salmon-y colored apartments (which are actually kind of ugly though), we went to a VERY pink house on the VIDA trip (more on that later), etc.  It's so fun.

Holy pink house, Batman!

7.  Wilbur the pig.  Wilbur lives at Reggae beach and he is famous around the entire island (granted, the island is tiny, but he's still a big deal).  Google "Wilbur the pig, St Kitts" and you get SOOOO many results, but they are all him.  Here's one.  I'm pretty sure there is also a book about him, but I can't find it right now.  Anyway, since Wilbur is so famous, they feature him in a lot of island art, like postcards, tiles, pictures, and stuff like that.  I'll definitely be buying one of those before I leave.

He spends most of his time in the shade.  He's 700 lbs.  Deal with it.

And just to make an even number of "Loves" before I have to go, here's one more.

8.  The donkeys on campus :)  Donkeys are freaking adorable.  I went up to some of them this morning before dog walking and pet them and 5 of them came up to me looking for attention and it was so sweet.  Also, 2 of them in the pen were playing/wrestling like dogs.  So cute.

Whoops!  Time to go!  Busy Saturday!  Don't worry, I have more stories for you, friends.  Just sit tight and antici....

...pate.

Who do you think you are, running around leaving scars?

I got an A on my second physio exam and a B on my second microanatomy exam :)


And now I can't get ANY motivation to study for my anatomy exam...this sucks.  It's on Friday.


Also, I don't think my family or my pets are coming down in December.  Which sucks a lot more.

I may or may not have written on a Maltese website about PD...

PD is famous :)

If you have a minute why don't we go talk about it somewhere only we know

First round of exams: over.  Passed all of them and got A's on 3/4!  Just goes to show you that I do better in classes when I like the material.


I finally got to go to Shipwreck beach last weekend.  I haven't been to the beach in WAY too long.  It was awesome to go relax for a day.  This weekend was our midsemester break, which really just means that we get an extra study day.  But since we got that extra day, I was able to go to the beach for a day and not feel like I should be studying instead.  It was great.  Minus the sand fleas.  But at least I can say it was a new experience.


It's "cooling down" on the island.  I haven't paid attention to the actual temperature since I've been here but here's a Kittitian weather report:  If you walk outside and start sweating immediately, its normal.  If you walk outside and are hot but not sweating, it's chilly.  That's about where we are now, and it's AMAZING.  It's so nice to be able to sit outside for more than 5 minutes without having sweat drip off of your face.


I found an apartment!  I'm going to be living in Golfview apartments in Frigate Bay.  I went to check them out and they seem pretty nice.  Anyone who I've met that lives there seems to like it and they feel safe there, so I guess I'm just going to go for it!  Basically it allows pets and has a generator, so it fits my qualifications.  Also, it has a pool and it's a 5 minute walk to the Marriott beach, the karaoke bar, and the pizza place :)  It's reasonably priced for what you find on the island, but it was a huge smack in the face to have to pay $650 USD per month...per person...and that is a decent price.  Yeah.


Nevis (our neighboring island) decided to burn like $1.5 million worth of illegal drugs, including cocaine, so for a good week or so, it smelled like pot everywhere on St. Kitts.  Literally, a bonfire full of pot.  It was coming in through my air conditioner at night so I would wake up really hungry in the morning. :)  It's pretty much gone now, but everything in my room still reeks of it, so I'll have to figure out how NOT to smell like drugs anymore.  I didn't really think this would be something I'd have to worry about at any point in my life...


Also something I didn't think I'd have to get used to:  finding bugs in bags/boxes of pasta.  It's only happened to me once, but pretty much everyone I know has opened a bag or box of pasta to have a few weevils (or so I'm told that's what they are) crawl out.  The parasite lover in me says, "Hey!  Protein!"  The rest of me says, "SHIT!"


Today, we are having Dr. Fitzgerald from Animal Planet's "Emergency Vets" come and talk to us!  I'm very excited even though I don't think I've ever seen the show (maybe once).  It's the closest thing we will probably get to a celebrity on the island...and he's a celebrity in the world of vet medicine too.  I'm getting really interested in emergency medicine too...I might just end up doing that for the rest of my life.  Who knows?  Also maybe something with infectious diseases with the CDC after vet school.  I heard that if you work for the government for 5 years after vet school, they pay your student loans.  It would totally be worth it.


I get to do my first VIDA clinic this Saturday!  Every week, the club sends out an email and the first 8 people to respond get to go to a clinic and I'm always too late (and by "too late" I mean I reply to the email about 30 minutes after it's sent) but this week I got in!  So this Saturday, I get to go around the island and provide free vet care for people who are in financial need.  I probably also get to do some other stuff, like blood draws, heartworm tests, vaccines, or things like that.  Since it's free, the vet who runs it lets students get practice on things.  It's our payment for volunteering our time.  By the way, I notice the oxymoron of "payment for volunteering".  


Another cool thing I got to do is a vaccine wet lab!  I got to mix and administer a vaccine for some of the kennel dogs!  I was surprised at the number of people who have already given vaccines (considering they have never been technicians), but it was my first time doing one so it was really exciting :)  There's not much else to say about it, but it's probably not as exciting if you aren't a vet student.


I'm going to try to go on a hike on the island, probably either on the volcano or up to the bat cave.  I wanted to go this weekend, but it just didn't happen.  More on that if I actually end up going.


Almost class time!  See ya!

Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?

I LOVE VET SCHOOL.


I don't know if I've ever actually enjoyed learning this much.  First of all, I'm learning about stuff I care about.  I like all of the medical stuff that I'm learning and it makes it much easier to study when you like what you are learning.  
Second, it's really cool to see how things actually affect your life.  For example, in physio, we are learning about muscles (among other things) and I learned how one of my medication works in relation to the smooth muscles in the blood vessels of my brain.  Another example, I learned in nutrition that sodium is one of the few things that we can actually tell we are running low on.  So if your body is low on sodium, you actually crave salt (you don't crave potassium or calcium or anything else like that even if you are deficient).  So I got to thinking, maybe I have naturally low sodium levels which is why I crave salt a lot.  Granted, this might not be true, but it's a connection to my real life.  
Third, pretty much all of my classes are constantly intertwining.  Last night when I was thinking about the aforementioned medication (physio) I was also thinking about how maybe the smooth muscle is taking in too much calcium causing my blood vessels to contract too often (giving me way too many headaches).  Let's relate this back to nutrition, shall we?  I'm taking in all of this calcium, and how do the calcium ions make it through the ion pumps?  With sodium ions.  So for some reason, I'm thinking that my calcium concentrations are way off and the constant deficiency in salt is just trying to keep up with the calcium concentrations that my cells want to take in.


DID YOUR BRAIN JUST MELT??  I apologize.  But thanks for hanging in there.


Also, microanatomy is in there too.  It's all about cells, which, as we know, is the basis of all living things.  Why I'm still learning about it after about 7 years of biology classes, I'm not sure.  And I've studied cells in all 7 years.  Whatever.  At least my professor talks about her mastectomy in class.  Wait, that's not a great selling point.


If you can't tell, school is taking over my life.  Literally, everything that runs through my brain during the day relates back to what I'm learning.  For example, when I have to pee, I don't think, "Crap, I've gotta pee."  I think, "Man, my transitional epithelium is really squamous right now" (microanatomy) or "the smooth muscles in my bladder have definitely stretched out to their maximum tension and can't adapt to a longer length and they are going to contract any minute."  Meanwhile, I'm peeing my pants.


Let's run through my weekend real quick, shall we?  I'm really proud of how productive I was.


Saturday:
Woke up at 7:00 am
Horsemanship class (learn the basics of how to work with and be around a horse safely)
Visited dogs in the kennel
Showered
Studied anatomy
Lunch
Grocery shopping
Practiced small animal palpation
Break time - played facebook games.  My new addiction.
Studied anatomy
Studied physiology
Studied more anatomy
Bed


Sunday:
Woke up at 10:00 am
Obedience training with kennel dogs (with the Canine Medicine Club)
Practiced large animal palpation with horses
Studied anatomy in the lab
Showered
Dinner break
Studied physiology for about 4 hours
Relaxing before bed
Bed


I definitely got a ton of stuff accomplished this weekend.  I felt really confident about everything.  I have two exams this week and I almost feel like I could take them right now and get a decent grade (pass for sure, maybe an A in one of them).


Since I've already mentioned how school is my life now, it should come as no surprise that not  much else has been going on.  I've been social, but not really going out.  Just studying with friends.  We did get some info in off campus housing for next semester, so I looked at that stuff Friday night, but that was pretty much it.  My roommate and I didn't really decide on anything or apply for any places, but we'll get started on that soon.


My intramural volleyball team played their first game on Friday night and the team isn't totally put together, so we only had 4 people, but it was still really fun.  We got to go to the beach and play volleyball, which are two of my favorite things.  I also got gnawed on my mosquitos, which is kind of strange because mosquitos don't usually bite me.  But my legs are COVERED in bites.  It's really itchy, so I've been covering my legs with benadryl but then it just feels really gross and sticky so it's a no win situation.  Next time, let's not get bitten by mosquitos instead.  And then I woke up the next day with spider bites on my chest.  I think the bugs really like all of the sweat I've been producing down here.  Grooooooooss.


And that, my friends, is my life.  Guess what I'm going to do now...study physiology. :)  Also, I miss my mom :(

It's gonna happen, happen sometime. Maybe this time I'll win

I haven't forgotten about my blog!


So vet school is keeping me busy...who would've thought?  I have my first official vet school exam tomorrow morning at 10 am so I've been studying like a madwoman.  I don't think I've ever studied this much in my entire life.  Although it's a lot easier to study when you don't have to worry about a job.  Nice how that works out.  I thought it would be weird not working for the first time since 9th grade, but honestly I love it.  For the first time in a long time, I feel like I actually understand the material I'm learning and I'm confident about it (most of it anyway.  Physiology is a different story...).  So I'm only a little nervous about the exam tomorrow.  Mainly because the professor is new to me, so I don't know how her exams are going to go.  But I'm going to kick ass on the actual material.  Studying is a lot more bearable and even a little fun when you understand it.


Honestly, class and studying takes up the VAST majority of my time, which sounds like an obvious statement.  But really, I go to class from about 8-3 every day, then I literally study from about 4:30-11:30.  It's crazy.  Sometimes I take a lunch or dinner break though!  And in those breaks, I've been going to club meetings.  I'm determined to be super involved in things in vet school and it starts right now:
SAVMA - Student chapter of the American Veterinary Medicine Association.  It's required to join any school clubs, but it also has tons of benefits.  For example, scholarships that you can use to go on trips for other clubs.
CMC - Canine Medicine Club.  We do a lot with the kennel dogs on campus.  Today, we did obedience training with them.  Hot, sweaty, but really fun.  And I got to get rid of these super nasty chicken nuggets that I bought.  Luckily most dogs will eat anything.
ABC - Animal Behavior Club.  They do some things that are kind of similar to CMC, but they also have behavioral research going on and we get to clicker train the donkeys.  They also have speakers coming in to talk to us about equine behavior, marine mammal behavior, dealing with aggression/anxiety in pets, and other cool stuff.  Also DIY cat toys and agility courses :)
VIDA - I don't remember what this stands for, but we provide veterinary services for families in financial need on St. Kitts.  There is also a section of VIDA that goes to other countries and does spay/neuter clinics.  They recently went to Guatemala and next they are going to Costa Rica.  I definitely want to that, but it's been said that you'll get more out of it once you get further into your anatomy classes, so I'm thinking maybe 3rd or 4th semester.  But on the island, they do heartworm tests, vaccines, toenail trims, medications, exams, blood tests, and anything else that can be done fairly easy with portable resources.
They also do a lot with PAWS (People for Animal Welfare on St. Kitts).
Adventure Club!  We go on adventures/hikes around the island!  I'm super excited about this one, although I had to miss the first hike.  I can't wait for the next one.
SVECCS - Student Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care...something.  Emergency club.  This is another one I'm really pumped about because they do a lot of wet labs (I think these are just opportunities for hands on learning, possibly on live animals instead of models) and they are doing stuff like IV catheter placement, urinary catheter placement, and ultrasounds.  Some of the students also go on trips (the last one was to South Africa) to do wildlife emergency medicine.  They work with this world renowned vet and they dart rhinos and dehorn them (so they are less likely to get poached for their horns), administering medication to animals...lots of cool stuff.  This might be with a different club though.  The meeting was a while ago.  I can't remember everything.  I have too much information stuffed in my brain as it is.
I'm also joining an intramural beach volleyball team.  It's a beer league and they play every friday.  It's going to be awesome to have at least one night every week that I HAVE to relax because I made a commitment to be there :)  I believe our first game will be this Friday.  We need a team name too.  Any suggestions?


I recently discovered this notecard application online that has been way helpful.  I've spent hours studying on it and it really helps you memorize the material.  You have to type in your answer, so you aren't just "looking" at it to memorize it, so it tests your actual memory.  It also keeps track of the ones you've gotten wrong and it will bring those ones up more often.  So if you have any friends that are still in school, RECOMMEND DOWNLOADING GENIUS TO THEM.  You will be improving their quality of life.


The island is still gorgeous.  We had our fun with Tropical Storm Maria, but ever since then, it's pretty much sunshine all day every day.  Except for maybe a random hour every day when we get a sporadic downpour of rain (sun stays out, by the way) and then it's EXTREMELY humid afterwards, it's pretty perfect, climate-wise.  We do have the occasional weird days where it rains constantly, but that is just the universe saying "You've had enough vitamin D.  Stay inside and take a nap." You can't really check any weather websites for the weather, because it can be raining in one spot and then 2 miles down the road it's not.  You can see the mountains right across from campus and it always looks like it's raining on top of the mountain, but it only rains a little bit on campus.  Nice.


In sad news, I haven't been to the beach in two weekends!  Man, my life sucks.


I saw "Contagion" this weekend!  I really liked it.  If you aren't into science or medicine it all, only go if it's free for you, but if you are interested in science at all, I highly recommend it.  If nothing else, it's exciting.


I guess I should actually get some sleep before my exam.  I just wanted to update my poor neglected blog.  Things to see, people to do....woops... :)

Let's go away for a while, you and I, to a far and distant land

So it's been a while since I've written... as you can probably guess, I'm WAY busy with classes now.  Although, by now, I'm kind of getting an idea of what classes I need to freak out about and what classes I can relax with...but only a little bit.  This is the beginning of the rest of my life, after all.


A lot has happened since I last wrote.  I think I'll start with the island tour.


Our driver, Sackville, took us on a tour of the island.  Tours are his specialty, so he was awesome at it.  We got to stop at Brimstone Hill, which was an English fortress that they used in wars against the French, who landed on St. Kitts not long after the British, as well as other people.  It was pretty awesome.  I don't have my camera with me right now, so I can't put pictures up right now, but soon, friends...soon.  We also saw some less famous places but that are popular with natives and anyone else who knows the island.  Like, the bottle tree.  I guess some guys go there to play some game (I remember thinking it wasn't a very cool game but I don't remember what it was.  Something like checkers.) and they drink a lot while they are there and then they hang the bottles on a tree.  That's it.  But it's cool looking.  We also saw petroglyphs of a fertility symbol on a rock.  We drove through all the different villages on the island and they are all pretty similar, while still being distinctly different from each other, if that makes sense.  We got to go to Carib Batik, where they make batik things (if you don't know what that is, look it up.  It's really cool) and all around Carib Batik was the rainforest and pretty gardens (pictures to come later).


I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we were warned about this place called "Irish town" which, by the way, has no symbols, names, or shops resembling anything remotely irish.  When the speakers were describing it during orientation, our group wasn't quite sure where it was, so we asked our driver to show us where we shouldn't go.  However, he decided to mess with us and say "This is the way that you shouldn't turn...but let's do it anyway."  Haha so we went to Irish town and honestly, it wasn't too bad.  It was pretty much my life:  being irish in a place that resembles Detroit.


I don't remember a lot of orientation week after that.  But then I actually had to start vet school...


Gross Anatomy I
Microanatomy
Intro to Vet Medicine
Animal Nutrition
Physiology I


The first day was TERRIFYING.  I was reconsidering my career choice for a second.  But the second day was much better and it just gets a little more comfortable every day I have class.  I've never had a physiology class before and our professor speaks SO SLOWLY.  So I daydream a lot in that class and then I realize that I just missed about 5 pages of notes.  Luckily he puts his notes online, so I can at least have those.  He only writes on the top third of the page so it's a huge waste of paper, but I'll make it up to the environment when I'm a vet.  I wish I could post a little snippet of a lecture.  I swear, my professor says about 10 words a minute.  He speaks like every word he says is the meaning of life.


Something that I thought was really cool is that all of my professors have different accents.  My physio professor sounds like he's from the island, so whatever that accent is...we'll call it Kittitian (which is a real thing on the island).  My microanatomy professor is Spanish, although she sounds like my French teacher from high school, which is weird.  My intro to vet med professor (the one I've met so far (we have about 5)) is Irish.  My nutrition professor is from England and my anatomy professor is American (not exciting, but again, different from the rest of the professors).  I really like the diversity among the staff and students here.


The semester olympics are this week and honestly, I've been too freaked out about studying to actually go and watch (1st semester represent!) but I decided I'm taking today off from studying and I am going to try to go to the football games tonight.  There is also a mustache party tonight that I want to go to.  Mustache ideas, anyone?  Tomorrow, there is Mr. RUSVM which is apparently really popular but I totally forgot about it, so I still need to buy a ticket.  We are also supposed to get hit with tropical storm Maria starting tonight so we'll see what happens.


I'm really trying to get super involved while I'm at Ross.  I'm trying to go out and do more things, either a school thing or just with friends.  Yesterday during lunch, there was a "club fair" where most of the clubs/organizations on campus had booths set up and stuff.  I signed up to get information about all but 2 clubs.  It may sound like a lot, but I think they have meetings like, once a month and a lot of them are during lunch so it will work out.  Besides, I think it will look really good on a resume and they do have a lot of good clubs.  One of them goes to different places doing spays/neuters or exams (they are going to Guatemala next, then Costa Rica after that, I think).  There is an emergency vet club that gets to learn how to place catheters and they take shifts at the emergency clinic too.  Another one I'm really excited about is ZEW (Zoo Exotics and Wildlife) and they take shifts at different zoos and do other things.  They don't sound as exciting when I describe them but they are really cool.


Two other non-animal related ones are the adventure club that goes on hikes all around the island (this one is the one I'm looking forward to the most) and SCUBA club, which obviously gets you certified and you go on dives.


Another cool thing!  We went on a catamaran trip on Saturday!  It was awesome.  I really miss sailing, especially the itty bitty boats, but I'll take a catamaran too :)  I went snorkeling for the first time and although I didn't see anything super exciting (some people saw a sea turtle, others saw a sting ray, one person saw a water snake), I did see a cuttlefish.  Honestly, the bright colored tropical fish swimming around was enough for me to consider it a successful first snorkeling trip.  I think I should definitely invest in some snorkeling gear, because that's something I would do over and over.  It was super cool.  I wish I had an underwater camera.


Note to self:  write about large animal palpation, white coat ceremony.


It's almost time for my first microanatomy lab so I have to get going, but one more quick note:  I have recently become obsessed with the tv show "Chuck".  If you haven't seen it, watch it so we can talk about it.  I've literally been watching it almost nonstop since Sunday.  It's invading my dreams.  Love it.


Ok micro lab time.  Talk to you cool cats later!

We're breaking and rebuilding and we're growing, always guessing, never knowing

Ok so this orientation nonsense is just taking up too much of my energy and my soul.  I've been super exhausted the last few days.  By about 8:30 this morning, I was already starting to fall asleep in my lecture. I hope this isn't a preview of what classes are going to be like.


We sat through a few presentations about on-campus living, life at Ross University, and MTBI results, which took entirely too long.  My MTBI (which gives you clues to your personality type and reveals your strengths and weaknesses) was kind of interesting.  My personality type is ENTP:
I am an Extrovert, which means that I get my energy from the outer world, I am outgoing, and I go for a breadth of interests (rather than depth).
I take in information using iNtuition, from patterns, looking at the big picture, and thinking about the future, rather than the here and now (I thought the other option for this category fit me better, but what do I know about myself?).
I draw conclusions by Thinking (rather than feeling), meaning I make my decisions based on logic and reason, rather than sympathy and circumstance.
And finally, I deal with the outer world by Perceiving.  I prefer to be spontaneous, I am open to change, and I like to have options.
Now that I've bored everyone, I'll give you a summary of yesterdays orientation lectures, which I found way more interesting than todays.


A journalist/radio host came to talk to us about island life.  Basically, she told us to pretend we are on vacation and don't let the "island time" thing get to us, use good manners (everyone here says "good morning/afternoon" to everyone else), and she gave us a brief history of St. Kitts and Nevis (despite how it sounds, she was actually very entertaining and she was pretty much the only speaker who held my attention).

• The first British colony that was formed in the Caribbean was on St. Kitts by Thomas Warner in 1624.
• Alexander Hamilton was actually born on Nevis.  His mother wasn't fully white.  Scandalous!  His house is still there and is open to the public as a museum.
• When the French came here (after the British), the British let them stay here as long as they were on the other side of the island.  Basseterre (capital of St. Kitts) separated the French and British sides and it means "lowlands".
• There are a number of forts here.  I can try to expand on that once I've seen some of them.  We are getting an island tour on Friday...maybe then.
• The majority of citizens are descendant from African slaves, although people from Asian, Scottish, and European descent also came here.
• Slavery was abolished on St. Kitts in 1834, before the US.

She also gave us some examples of local foods:

• Saltfish - salted cod sauteed with onions, apples, and other stuff.
• Johnny cake - some kind of deep fried dough?
• Ting - grapefruit soda made locally
• Conch burgers/fritters.  More on this later

Another fun thing; hissing : St. Kitts :: wolf whistle : US.  Figure that one out, smarties.


I won't bore you with any more orientation stuff, but we did go out to dinner last night to a place called Ballahoos, known for their Caribbean cuisine.

I tried the conch fritters and it wasn't really my taste (then again, what is?  I eat PB and J and cereal whenever I can).  The sauce was pretty good though.  I also got a side of vegetables (mom, you should be proud).  Pumpkin is apparently huge on the island and they put it in most things to add "texture" although I think pumpkin has a really strange texture that you wouldn't want to put in other foods...whatever.  So I tried their pumpkin and squash.  Guess what.  Didn't like it.  So I didn't eat most of it (sorry mom).  I loved the broccoli though!  She's choppin' broccoli...

I was supposed to go to Elvis' to play volleyball today, but by the time we started taking our EXAM (yes, I did say exam) I was so exhausted that I was falling asleep and getting a migraine (from being so tired).  So I decided to skip out on volleyball (sadly).  I'm also broke as a joke, so that saved me a little bit of money.  However, that means that I don't have anything else super interesting to tell you fine folks.  I will later though, because here's what the rest of my week looks like:

Tomorrow: Leadership development (activities, could be fun) and going to the theatre in town to see "The Help"...again. :D

Friday:  Island tour and beach party

Saturday:  Catamaran trip to Nevis and playing on the island with a party afterwards

Sunday:  Ziplining!

So pumped.

It starts in my toes and I crinkle my nose

Yesterday was a LONG beach day!  We went to the Marriott beach, where the big fancy hotel is.  Since I was already sunburned (right through my SPF 50 sunscreen, mind you), I was hesitant to go in the first place, but really, how can you pass up a beach day?  Especially one that looks like this:

Not even an option.  So I went and it was a PERFECT day.  The Marriott had a swim up bar...

...and a 50% -sized replica of the Nina (Columbus' ship).

We swam, laid out, read, napped, and played volleyball in the pool.  A few people went snorkeling and apparently saw a water snake and a "colorful" lobster.  I'm not sure what colors, but I've never seen one other than the "normal" color.  I'm seriously thinking about getting some snorkeling gear.  I know I'll make good use of it, since you can go snorkeling year round here.  Something to look into...  I'm also definitely going to get my SCUBA certification while I'm here too.  So pumped.

Some people at the Marriott were advertising aloe massages (they literally had the aloe leaves in their hand and they squeezed some onto your back...the real thing) and I wanted one but I was quickly running out of cash.  However, the woman (Teresa, if you are ever at the St. Kitts Marriott) still came over and gave me a 1 minute demo and it felt AMAZING.  I'm definitely going back there to get a full half hour massage.  It felt especially awesome, since I'm sunburned on my back.  We also met a woman named Lettuce ("like the vegetable!" she says) so does house call spa treatments, like waxing, manicure/pedicures, etc.  Her prices are very reasonable, so a couple of the girls decided to have a spa night.  She said that she would be more than happy to come to campus to see us.  How cool is that?  I'm already in need of a pedicure.  This sand doesn't exfoliate my feet the way I was hoping it would. :(

After our 6-hour beach day, we actually had to do paperwork, which reminded me that I actually have to attend school while I'm here too.  Today was the beginning of our real orientation week, so this morning, we had a free breakfast and then went to do some official business.  I tried on a white coat for our white coat ceremony (which will be webcast on September 5th!  I'll post the link later for everyone to watch).  I felt so official!  I'm actually going to be a vet soon!  I still don't feel like I am and ordering a dissection kit and stethoscope online made me feel like I was just pretending to be a doctor.  Another thing is that I fit into a small coat.  I don't think I've worn a small anything since 5th grade...or before.  Made me feel good :)

We are taking our ID pictures at 1:00, so I need to decide if I want to attempt to straighten my hair or leave it in my weirdo curls.  By the way, my hair is not as curly as it used to be, if you haven't noticed.  Over the last year or so, they've been straightening out, especially on the left side of my head.  It's really cool when one side of your hair is kind of straight and the other side has some straight strands and some mildly curly straights...wait, I meant to say that it's NOT cool :(

More orientation stuff to come later, so I'll leave you with one of our campus tortoises, who I'm calling Flex.

Flex says hello.

Let's get together and feel alright

We finally got a tour of campus today!  Let's see if I can remember what everything is... By the way, I'm new at this whole blogging deal so don't pay attention to the spacing.  I had a lot of trouble trying to upload these pictures.  Think of it as taking the scenic route.  We are on island time, after all.


First up, this is classrooms 1 and 2.






























And this is the view from outside of classrooms 1 and 2 :)

This is the prep school, where students and faculty can bring their kids.  It has a cute garden outside of it.

This USED to be a place that people could order things for lunch.  I don't know how it worked, but either way, it's no longer in use.  There is a similar hut nearby that I didn't get a picture of.  That's also my new car parked right outside of it.

This is the lower auditorium (the grassy part) and upper auditorium (the building behind and slightly to the right).

Toxic plant garden for toxicology!

This is just a big old plant in the toxic plant garden.  If I remember correctly, it was called Mother-in-law's tongue.

Cute little pond/garden outside of...some building.

Hills pet food store on campus.  Open 3 days a week.

Obviously, veterinary teaching hospital.

Student Union behind lower auditorium.  So what if I don't have these pictures in geographical order?  Don't judge me.

I don't remember what this is, but it has a cute wall.

Part of the large animal area on campus.  There's quite a bit more.

That's all I have on campus for now.  After our campus tour, we went to Reggae beach.  Slogan/Attitude: Live de life.  Also, rush slowly.  That's how we do.

Reggae beach is kind of far away and the potholes in the road are almost as bad as they are in Michigan, but it was well worth the drive.  We passed through the narrowest part of the island where the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea are separated by only 1/4 mile of paradise.  The Atlantic is on the left and the Caribbean is on the right.  And that's me in the blue dress.

This is a view of some houses from on top of the hill.

Onto the beach!  Don't worry, there aren't that many more pictures.

Here's the bar at Reggae!

I don't think I will ever have enough scenery pictures of St. Kitts.

We finished our day at Reggae with a good old fashioned game of beach volleyball with some of the "upperclassmen" from Ross.  Fun times were had by all.  Let me introduce you to Wilbur, the pig, who kept interrupting our volleyball game.

And this is how I feel about today.

Ok, so I was just looking for an excuse to post a decent picture of myself.  Don't hate.  Also, this was pre-sunburn, which broke through my SPF 50 sunscreen.  How did I get the fairest skin in my family?  I probably shouldn't reproduce and pass on those Irish skin genes.