Some nights I stay up cashing in my bad luck, some nights I call it a draw

Hopefully this will be the end of my car issues, at least for a while.  I gave my car back to my mechanic because it wouldn't start on Thursday when I was trying to go to school.  Although he was able to get it started Thursday night, I still wanted him to check it out.  Besides, it's been having some problems getting started and accelerating, especially in the morning.  So hopefully he figures out what is wrong with it and I get my car back for good!  Also, I've been in need of a new motor for the passenger side window, as well as new headlights (the reflective part behind the light itself).  I've been going to Island Auto Supply for weeks now trying to get those parts and every time I come in they tell me that they don't have the part and to come back in two weeks.  So I've been back four times and I still don't have the parts.  I told my mechanic and he is going to check somewhere else and see if he can fix all of these things at once.  Not the most interesting story, but it's island life...

I got to play volleyball yesterday!  This was my first time playing since I broke my rib and it was so much fun.  I really miss playing every week.  Afterwards, we stayed, drank a bit, and socialized.  It was really fun, but I got a little bit out of hand.  Luckily I have some amazing friends that took care of me.  This morning, I woke up with sand embedded in my skin, which poured onto the floor as soon as I got out of bed.  I spent a good 20 minutes sweeping sand off of my floor and brushing off my bed.  I think I took the beach home with me last night.

I also gave some ants a great meal!  At about 4 am, I woke up with my feet throbbing.  I thought that was a weird thing to be hurting, but I figured it was just because I was walking on sand for about 5-6 hours the night before.  I started picking off what I thought was sand embedded on to my feet, but it was hurting more than normal, so I turned on the light and checked it out.  Turns out, I had over 35 fire ant bites on my feet.  They started itching immensely.  I was actually shaking because I wanted to scratch them so badly.  It was awful.  I had to go get some calamine lotion today because the normal anti itch cream just wasn't cutting it.  It's not helping much.  This is by far the worst meal the ants have taken from me since I've been on the island.

In better news, I did really well on my recent quizzes and tests!  I have another exam coming up on Tuesday, but I don't think it will be too hard.  I can't wait to go home in December.  I know it's still a ways off, but I'm so excited.  Yay!

Welcome to Blogging!

Fight like you're not scared to die

I guess it's about time to update.  I'm going to try to be better about updating this semester.

Let's back up just a little bit.  Finals last semester SUCKED.  I had an awful time studying for finals, a couple of the finals were WAY harder than I had hoped they'd be, and the exam grades weren't awesome.  However, I still passed with fairly decent grades, so I won't complain any more.  At least I never have to do 3rd semester again.  And now I'm in 4th!  More on that trainwreck later...

I actually had visitors over break!!  Two of my friends from Michigan came to visit, however, I had a bit of a rough visit, for reasons unrelated to them.  My car died the first or second day that they were here, so I had to rent a car for us.  It ended up costing me a ton because I'm not 25 yet (I thought they just wouldn't let me rent a car if I was underage, but apparently it just costs a zillion dollars).  That set me back quite a bit.  Monday, we went on the catamaran trip, which would have been a lot of fun.  We had pretty perfect weather, a lot of great people went on the boat, and we were having lots of fun.  However, about 30 minutes from the end of the trip, we hit a wave and I fell and broke my rib!  Nothing like a broken bone to kill your high.  It ended up being not too serious though, no punctured lung or anything.  But I had my first experience at the hospital on St. Kitts and I have to say, it was a little terrifying.  People there were surprisingly rude, considering everyone there is sick or injured.  Let's just say I never want to go back.  I was supposed to be on bed rest, but let's be honest - not only did I have visitors who were on vacation, but I was on vacation too!  If I was supposed to be laying around all day anyway, I might as well be laying on the beach, right?  So I did :)

On the cat trip, before tragedy struck.

After that, things kind of calmed down and we were pretty relaxed.  We had some beach days, some pool days, even some lay around the house days.  When it was time for them to leave, however, a "tropical storm/hurricane" (AKA rain for 30 minutes one morning) was supposed to hit the islands.  Their flight got cancelled and once the rain passed, we got some more Caribbean time.  Their flight was rescheduled for Sunday, but then THAT flight got cancelled too (the "hurricane" was supposed to be hitting Miami at that time)!  They finally left on Wednesday, which ended up being almost twice their predicted vacation time.  I think they hated being stuck here, but I have to say, there are worse places to be stuck.  We even had pretty good weather while they were stranded, so I didn't think it was too bad.

Being stuck on this beautiful island sucks!

After they left, I finally decided to rest for the most part and spent the next couple of days on the couch.  I think that was a good idea, too, because I think it sped up my healing time.  It hasn't even been five weeks and I'm in almost no pain (it only hurts a bit when I sneeze, yawn, and sometimes cough).

As for my car, I ended up blowing the head gasket (sp?), I had a leak in my radiator hose, and the fan for the radiator kept getting stuck.  I was out of a car until earlier this week and now I am out 1200 EC, but at least I have a car.  It could've been worse.  And I'm SO glad I don't have to mooch off of people for rides anymore.  I am dreading the time when I turn my car back in to my mechanic when I ask him to repair the motor for the window and the head lamps.

So now I am in 4th semester at Ross.  I kind of hate it already.  It's mostly because of our schedule.  Monday we have class from 8-4, Tuesday-Thursday, class from 10-4.  It's basically 6 hours of sitting and listening to someone talk at us...a lot of interwebs for me.  It's just so exhausting.  The classes could be bearable, if they weren't so damn boring.  I could complain all day, but I won't.  We just took our first exam of the semester, which was actually two mini-exams for epidemiology and pathology II.  It could've gone better, but overall it wasn't too bad.  I'd better improve my study habits before the next test though.

Something really exciting is that I'm getting SCUBA certified this semester!  I haven't started yet or anything, but I paid to go through certification, so it's happening!  I'm so excited.  I might even have to ask for an underwater camera for Christmas... :)

I guess that's it for now.  Like I said, I'll try to be better about updating this semester.  My classes aren't ridiculously hard, so it's very possible.  Peace.