27/01/2012

Sad day

SKNVibes | Love Shack owner killed last night in Frigate Bay

Elvis was always so nice to the Ross students and everyone that came into his bar. The Love Shack is one of our favorite places to go on the island and St. Kitts won't be the same without him.

RIP Elvis.

13/01/2012

To relax my mind, I take a walk by the clock and I pass the time

I don't know why but I am having the hardest time getting back into the swing of the semester.  I've been in a funk all week.  I have ZERO motivation to study already (this early?  That's a bad sign).  I HATE my schedule this semester (these breaks between classes are eating away at my soul).  I ate so well over the break that it's been really hard getting back to my normal diet (which is complete crap all the time.  Last night's dinner?  Pizza Hot Pocket and left over buttered noodles) and I'm pretty much grumpy and starving constantly.  I find myself getting irritated by people who I usually really like.  I never know how much it's going to cost to run my air conditioner for 10 minutes, so I'm usually always hot in my apartment (not to mention outside, of course) and I'm afraid that my roommate's cat will run outside, so I can't open our sliding glass door (and we pretty much have no other window in our living room).  I've been REALLY bad at anatomy this week, which is usually my best subject.  My shower situation just keeps getting worse (the water was colder than it has ever been last night and since I have no water pressure, my showers take an extra long time).  Turns out, something in the water heater broke and it's probably going to take a while to get a new part.  I probably still won't have hot water by the end of next week.
I was trying not to make this an overly depressing post.  It's just that everything I've been doing lately has been making me angry and I don't know why.  I just can't wait to have my animals down here.
In other news, we have Semester Olympics this week.  I actually went to soccer on Wednesday  and it was pretty fun.  I think I actually like watching soccer.  We had kickball yesterday and I didn't go, but we have football tonight and I may or may not go.  Probably not because I'm a big loser, but we'll see.  Part of this "Super fun back to school time!" week is Mr. RUSVM/Mr. Ross which is our version of a male beauty pageant.  Last semester's was pretty fun and one of my friends is actually competing for our semester as Mr. Ross, so it should be even better than last year.  Hopefully we can get closer seats and get better pictures than last semester.  Sunday, the semester olympics continues with volleyball and I actually want to play in it.  
Speaking of volleyball, I really want to play on our intramural team that we had going last semester.  The problem is that the person who pretty much arranged everything broke his hand so he won't be playing this semester.  I typically might be happy to take over, except that I don't trust most of the people who say they want to play to actually show up for the games (which they didn't last semester).  Also, we need at least one guy to be able to play and so far, no go.  Problems problems.
I think I'm going to have to do some serious relaxation this weekend, which could include some fairly intense drinking.

12/01/2012

I made a few changes to the blog!
1.  Note the background.  How did I miss this one before?!  It's perfect!
2.  Colors and fonts.  I think I could spend all day playing with these, but you shouldn't waste too much time on it.
3.  I added a picture of my pupperkins to your left.  How freakin' cute is he?
4.  I'm trying this new gadget out.  On the thing next to PD's picture, I think you can click that button and help animals in need.  I'm not totally sure on what it does, but it can't hurt, right?  So try to click that every time you view my blog (which should be often!).

10/01/2012

If by the time the bar closes you feel like falling down, I'll carry you home tonight

Welcome back, Me!  It's been a while but my absence was justified, I promise.  Like I said before I disappeared, we did indeed have final exams and I passed!  Two As, two Bs.  If I can toot my own horn, I must say I'm pretty proud.  I'm going to try to keep my good-grade streak going this semester too.
I went home for break to see my mom and the babies and it was SO good to see everyone.  The cold weather sucked (although it was pretty mild for Michigan) but it just made me thankful for my Caribbean heat that much more.  I tried not to do too much over break.  I really wanted to just lay around, snuggle with the animals, and watch tv.  I was pretty successful for the most part :)  I did catch up with some friends and went out a few times, but overall, it was fantastically relaxing.
The flights going both ways sucked.  Nothing terrible happened in particular, I just hate flying and it seemed like I had a zillion flights (really only 2-3) because I had to stay overnight in Miami, so it just prolonged the trip.  Also, I seemed to have a million kids on the plane (but I'm really bad at estimating) and some were crying, but what was more annoying were the ones that were just talking constantly at the top of their tiny lungs.  I had one sitting right behind me on one flight and it drove me nuts.  
So I finally got home and it was GREAT to see my mom.  She loves me so much that she brought me a tiny puppy and a box of Milk Duds and then she stopped by McDonalds on the way home so I could get fries and a chocolate milk shake (which I'd been craving for weeks!).  Then we got to our dog infested house and I was so happy to see tails wagging everywhere.  So cute.  I really miss coming home to dogs that are super excited to see you ALL the time.  I don't think my cat recognized me at first, but once he did, he was really snuggly and adorable (except when he was waking my mom up in the middle of the night).  I have to say, it was harder to leave them than it was the first time.  Hopefully, next time I see them, they will get to stay with me :)
For Christmas, we went to a family friend's house and it was a lot of fun.  We used to go there every year for Christmas and then we didn't go for quite some time but it was good to see everyone again.  I got a digital picture frame for my white elephant gift but then I couldn't fit it in my luggage on the way back :(  I'll get it soon though.  
For New Years Eve, I drove to Grand Rapids (my first time driving since I'd been back in the US) and hung out with my friends there.  We went to this fancy restaurant downtown and then just went back to the apartment and had some drinks and played games.  It was pretty low key but still really fun.  My only requirement for NYE was that I got to dance and so we played "Just Dance" on the Wii :)  Way too much fun.  If I had that game, I would be losing some serious weight.  Or at least I would lose all of the weight I gained over break.  I feel like I didn't stop eating the entire time I was home.  I don't remember being hungry at all during those two weeks lol.
And so I came back to the Caribs.  I am thrilled to be back and I really missed my friends here.  I feel like I really connect with some people here and I haven't had that in a while.  During our last few days of freedom before classes started up again, I went to a birthday party for one of my friends, we took a catamaran trip to Nevis (I finally got to go!  Although I didn't get to get a killer bee so it was an incomplete trip and there WILL be another trip this semester), and then we went to Reggae Beach.  The road to get out there is the craziest thing you've ever seen, so we don't go often, but I forgot how nice that beach is.  Maybe now that I have a car, I'll make it back there a few more times.  
My roommate was gone for the first couple days I was here and her poor kitty was TERRIFIED of me.  I tried to sweeten him up and for some reason I had this cat toy that he really liked, but it wasn't enough.  He was behind the couch for the first couple days and then he pretty much stayed in her bedroom.  He would occasionally peer around the door frame to see if I was still there and then I found him in my room a couple times when I came out of the shower, but other than that he didn't show his face much.  Now that my roommate is here (who is pretty awesome so far, by the way), the kitty, Helios, and I have become friends.
Today is officially the second day of classes and the last two days have NOT been awesome (not because of the classes, just because everything else seems to be going wrong).  A few things in particular:  my shower has zero water pressure and it keeps electrocuting me when I turn the water off and I can't get ahold of my landlord to get it fixed.  It's a problem.
This semester, we are taking Physiology II, Immunology, Parasitology (yay!), and Anatomy II.  I think it will go pretty well.  The classes people in upper semesters complain about the most are Parasitology and Immunology, but I think parasites are really interesting, so I might have a better time with it than some people.  I can't tell about Immunology.  I've never taken a class in it before, but I heard it's a nightmare.  We'll see what happens.
We have like an hour break between every class, which I can't stand.  Today is a little worse, because we had a two hour break between our first two classes and now I'm in the middle of a three hour break between my second class and a lab.  So I'm just sitting around.  It's kind of nice to just sit and look at the ocean, but I know that there will be days that I could really use a nap right now and I live too far away from school to go home multiple times during the day. Again, we'll see how that goes.
I'm going to post pictures of stuff later (I don't have my camera with me and I figured I'd better write while I still feel motivated to do so) but for now I don't have anything else to say!  Ciao!