Being Productive

Today I feel like I got a lot done. I had a RSO board meeting this morning that went really well. I was a little nervous because it was the first time I had business to talk about. I am not a person that leads. Being in charge of such a big responsibility is WAY out of my comfort zone. I think everything is going really well though. I've been trying to stay on top of everything. After that I had to walk to Tina's to go grocery shopping. I went to the CAC after that to talk to a guy to reserve a field for our summer festival, but he wasn't there so I started my bible study reading. I went and got Johnny and I lunch and then stayed and typed up a list for RSO. I went back to the CAC, but the guy was in a meeting so I waited and hung out with Katie and Danielle. I finally got to talk with the guy, so then I went back up to be with Johnny and finish my list, study for SP and finish my bible study reading. On my way home I finished my shopping. I got home and was super pooped. I am still crazy soar from my hike on Saturday and I have the most painful cold soar on my lips. It is like a freaking balloon on my mouth. It hurts!!!

Time flies when.....

you are busy. I feel bad I haven't written in almost a week. The beginning of the week was pretty normal, but by Wednesday I was a busy little bee. I went to my first Specialized Patient meeting, then it was off to the pool, then I did yoga for and hour and a half. I came home thinking I would relax for the evening then got a text reminding me of bible study. Thursday I went to Batabou bay with some friends and had a great time. when I got home I wasn't feeling to good but still had to run some errands for Johnny. He better know I love him. On Friday I kinda just sat around cause I still wasn't feeling very well. Yesterday I went to Sari Sari Falls. It was great to go and see more of the island. It was absolutely gorgeous!! It was a pretty hard hike and I am very soar now, but it was worth it. when I got home Johnny wanted to go out snorkeling. I was tired, but went anyway. It was really choppy out on the water, but that brought out all the fish! We even saw a pod of squid! Now I'm pooped and I want to get my nap on before I have to cook dinner. So enjoy the pictures!

Batibou Bay

Raylee and Carter

Sari Sari Falls

"Four day Weekend"

Johnny had a four day weekend. He didn't treat it as such though. He was at school all day Friday and all day today. We did go to Toucri Bay on Saturday. It was gorgeous!! Sorry for the lack of pictures, but we forgot the camera. We didn't see much, but we found some sand dollars and a really pretty conch shell that we brought home with us. I want to fill our ledge on our balcony with shells while we are here I'm doing pretty well with it. I'll have to post a picture. I'm also very proud of my balcany garden. My peas are doing very well. I hope I can keep them going. I tried moving two of them around cause I planted them to close together. I checked them today and they were dead. The others are still going strong. I am hoping for a little crop of perfect peas. The basil is growing like a weed. I am sure I will have plenty of basil.
Sunday was the LOST series fanaly. The Taylors invited us for dinner and to watch it at their home. We had a great time. I feel like we have not spent a lot of time with them since we got here and I miss seeing them. It was so much fun to play hide and seek with Matt and Rachel and to get to talk with Katie and Dave.
So that was our four day weekend. Not to exciting. I did get to talk to my mom which was AWESOME!!!! I tried talking with her one day last week, but she was busy with dinner. I had my first break down. (Break downs I hear are very common around the student body.)I cried cause I just wanted to talk to my mommy! I have always been able to just pick up the phone and call and I can't do that now. WWWWAAAAAAAA....sniff....sniff.....

I thought I would take a turn

Another Dominica holiday has bought me some free time. The Dominicans have a lot of holidays that I don't think they know the real reason behind. One of my favorites is Beach Day. Which, as I understand it, is the first Monday of the month. Pretty nice, huh? Any who, much like banks in the US, it does not take much here for them to shutdown everything.

I would like to give my review of the school for the first two weeks for all those who are actually interested in the school aspect of living. This will be of course my opinion and the first thing you find out here is everyone has an opinion.

First off I have been busy. I have not only been studying but I have a interest it what is in the future for me and what I want to do here. I have joined 5 clubs and hope they don't interfere with each other and my studying. My theory, at least for me, is that the busier I am, the more productive I am. So leaving few gaps in my schedule is my goal. Plus I have a interest in each of the clubs I have joined. I will start by going over the clubs.

Salybia Mission Project
-This is the first club that caught my eye. This group big thing is providing care for the indingenous people of Dominica. They do this by making biweekly trips to the Kalinago territory and staffing the clinic they established there. This creates a opportunity for 1st semester student to go and take patient history, present the patient to the physician, and learn how the physician takes care of the patient. Hands on learning has always been the best way for me so I hurried up and signed up for this rather soon. They also host the Salybia 5k run for their clinic, a Dodgeball Tournament for it too. They have an intubation clinic and phlebotomy clinic for improving your skills there too. They also have a Women's Health Initiative too. All these are available for students who want to get involved. The cost of joining is 120 EC and you get the club t-shirt with it too. More info can be found at www.salbyia.org

Ross Emergency Medicine Association (REMA)
-Emergency Medicine has been an interest for me so I joined this group to learn more about it. They do a lot of cool stuff and the faculty advisory is real cool too. They also do some training like the Splinting Lab, IV Lab, Intubation/Airway Lab and EKG review. The advisory also talks about his experiences with lectures about Helicopter rescue and Parachute Medicine. They also are promoting weekly lunch meetings to go over Clinical Case Studies. I am pumped for all these activities.

Oncology Club
-I joined this one just because. I am interested in learning more and I think they had cookies at their table. Regardless, this group has some interesting stuff coming up for it too. They have plans for a Bone Marrow Clinic, Cancer cell staining and identification from the cadavers, a trip to another island to visit their cancer treatment facility, and they go talk to the 5th years, high schoolers, and teach them about cancer and what it is. I look forward to participating and learning a lot from here. This comes out to 40 EC for your time here to join.

Ross Neuroscience Society
-I joined this club because I need the help with the subject. Neuroscience does not start until the 2nd semester but there is no problem with starting early. They host a semester health fair in Roseau allowing the students the opportunity to practice some clinical skills. They also do several things to help students become better with the subject. Its cost is 40 EC for your time here. I don't have too much details of what is happening yet but will soon.

Collegium Aesculapium
-This is a group that focuses faith and medicine together that supports a clinic too. They are rather new but I thought it rounded off my extra-curricular activities nicely.

I also signed up to play volleyball to get some energy out. I know this sounds like a lot of activities but I like being busy. I get to the school and little before 8 am and get home around 7-8 pm. Then I study until 11 and watch a bit of tv before I fall asleep to repeat the performance. If I can hit the beach once a week to swim around that will be great too. In another post I will talk about the classes perhaps after the first Mini but this will give you a glance into a little bit of Ross life. Hopefully when I get time and some motivation, I can post a bit more on here and give you the other perspective of what is going on here. I have to get a bit more studying in tonight before the Lost Finale tomorrow.

Life on Dominica

So life on Dominica is slowing down (not that is was fast in any way). I have found myself very bored on two separate occasions. My life consists of waking up, saying goodbye to my wonderful husband, watching tv or cooking bread/tortillas, taking Johnny lunch, hoping someone is going to the beach or pool or some other cool adventure and then going home and waiting for my wonderful man to come home so he can eat and get right back to studying. Eventhough the days are filled with sweet nothings the time is flying by. We have almost been here a month!! Is that crazy or is it just me? We only get eighteen of them and one is almost gone, behind me......forever. I realize I will never be able to get this awesome time in my life back. I am really living for the present. Anyone that knows me personally knows I'm always looking ahead so this is a big deal for me. I really love it here though it seems I am one of the few. Everywhere I go I hear others talking about what we don't have here, or how much walking they have had to do, and maybe I'm low maintenance, or maybe I'm just easy going, but all I can think is "so what". ( I do want to exclude all my friends that have children, cause I can't imagine go through this with a child or five, shout out to the Seymours.) Don't get me wrong its hard. I want somethings so bad I can taste them i.e. Salt and vinegar potato chips (oh my mouth is watering), but I CAN live without. Life here is good. And what better people and what better doctors you will be for having lived through it. It is worth more than a bag of chips any day!

What we've been up to

My handsome hubby!

Sorry, I have done a horrible job this week doing my blog. Its just when I get home I'm so tired from doing nothing. I know it doesn't make sense, but that's just my life. Johnny is being the best little student in the world and is studying hard. I have been a good little vacationer and playing hard. I have been meeting so many awesome people. They probably think I'm a psycho person because I'm always playing with the kids and when I'm trying to interact with them I don't talk I just listen. I LOVE listening to people talk!!!! There is a little girl named Addy that reminds me of me when I was little. I never wanted to hang out with the other kids I just wanted to listen to the grown ups and I still feel that way. All the kids want to play with me and I just want to listen to their mommys talk. I do have a great time with the kids though!!! They always say the funniest things. Today Railey(sp?) just kept singing "All my single ladies, All my single ladies" while shaking her little bum. I just couldn't help but smile and laugh. It was so great!!!! I am really enjoying myself here.
I feel like I have been so busy even though I'm not doing anything. I feel like I have swam more in the last 2 weeks than I have in my whole life. I'm not complaining, I promise. I love every minute of it. Yesterday was the White Coat Ceremony. It was interesting. I felt home sick for the first time when they sang the national anthem. Johnny looks really good in his coat. After they had refresments and they had the best egg rolls ever I ate so many of them. Yum......
Johnny and I after the ceremony.
We saw this cool spotted bat ray last time we went snorkeling.

The love of my life is going to be a doctor!

Johnny started school today. I had to go peek in his classroom to see him, but couldn't find him. I know I am going to miss him. During MERP I felt like I never saw him even though we were in the same room with each other. I will have stuff to do though. I went this morning to the Ross Spouses Organization Board Meeting to see if I could get on it and I did. I am the Special Activities coordinator, so I will be in charge of the Farewell Banquet and the summer fun day thing. (They had a name for it but I can't remember it.) I am so excited about doing it.
Saturday Johnny and I went out to get somethings done and we ended up investing some money in really nice snorkeling masks. We also bought an underwater camera from a family in the branch. So of course we had to go out and snorkel. We saw a whole bunch of cool stuff; a sea slug, three different types of eels, a lot of new types of fish, starfish, a lobster, and a sting ray. We took pictures, but most of them were blurry. We are still getting to technique down. We were out for about 2 1/2 hours. Our new masks are so awesome. What a difference not having to empty your masks of water makes.
The sting ray is in the bottom middle of the picture, sorry its hard to see. He was so big!!! It was really creepy to see, but I didn't want to leave. I just wanted to watch it. It was so cool!

The Indian and the Ocean

Monday we had our first real rain. It pored! We were planning on going on the Indian River trip, but with the rain we weren't sure. We did go. It had slowed down and we figured what the heck we were already drenched, and I'd rather be drenched in rain than sweat. I was a really nice relaxing boat ride. We got to see where the cabin from Pirates 2 had been. The river does have this spooky kind of feel so it was great for the movie. There is a bar at the end of the tour and we decided to get a coconut. We got ripped off for the time on the island. The guy charged us double what he charged the to bikini clad girls in front of us. The milk inside tasted a little weird so we were also disappointed by that. Overall we had a good time though.


Tuesday I went to Roseau. It is the capital of our little island. I had a great time getting to know Kristy and Kayleen a little more. Roseau has a little better selection for shopping, but the prices are about the same. If you go on the free trips I think its worth it, but I don't think it would be if you paid for a transport down there. There was a Carnival cruise ship in port when we got there. It made me want to go on a cruise so bad! It also brought all the vendors out so the shopping was a little more exciting.
Time has been going by here. We have been here a week and it feels like we have been here forever and for no time at all. Johnny is anxious to start school. He went to some of the orientation, but it was mostly boring. The semester schedule and grading are worth going to, but he said there was no point to the rest. Anything with free food is worth it too! The welcome BBQ was good. They had Coke that I couldn't resist!
Yesterday we went snorkeling and had a wonderful time. I didn't stay in for very long. I kept making myself nervous. I watched Jaws the other day. We went out further than we have before and it was pretty deep. I just kept thinking, " its deep enough a shark could swim here". Horrible I know! we did see some really cool fish. The farther out you go the cooler the sea life gets. I was just swimming along and I saw what I thought was a really cool plant. Then I looked closer and the plant had eyes and gills. It was an octopus!!! It was white and had dark purple tentacles. It took Johnny awhile to see it. It was really camouflage!

I want you all to know we are doing well here. It is hot, I crave things I can't eat and the miquetoes think I am their only source of food, but all is well. We miss everyone. If it is possible please get skype so we can talk. Everyone and any one is invited to come visit this beautiful island. Just make sure you are willing to sweat and hike hills you think will kill you before you reach the top.

The market and our apartment

Well the last couple of days have been great. We have all of our chores done now. We are getting to know our way around pretty well. We have had a great time going swimming in the beautiful ocean. Yesterday we went snorkeling and it was great fun. It was so cool. I wonder what "good" snorkeling is like because yesterday was pretty awesome. The only reason I stopped was because my arms and legs were so tired. We meet new people everywhere we go and its great to get to know them and then recognizing them on the street or around campus later on. The people are so friendly here. I know you will probably get sick of me saying this, but it is so pretty here, I love it!!! I want to take pictures of everything. It isn't to hot today either because of the rain.

This morning we woke up especially early to go to market. All I can say is that I think it is so cool. Everyone is shouting out prices at you. People are greeting old friends and some are making new ones. The fishermen blow their conch shells to let you know they have fresh fish to be bought. Its just craziness. We got so much food there and for pretty cheap. This is what we got. 9 bananas - $3ec
2 bags of mangoes - $2ec a bag 1 bag potatoes - $5ec a bag 1 dozen eggs - $7ec 4 cucumbers - $2ec 2 coconuts - $1ec each 1 bag sugar cane - $2ec 1 bag carrots - $6ec 1 head of lettuce -$3ec 2lbs. blue marlin - $14ec ($7ec/lb)
Some of the things are more expensive because they are rare on the island. I forgot to explain that they use Eastern Carribean money (ec). $1ec equals $0.38us. We spent $37ec, so we spent $14.10us. Not to shabby if I say so myself.
We are not planning to do anything today. We just want to relax and let our bodies rest. We have been walking up and down and all around for a few days and today we just want to lay around our apartment. Oh yeah, I was going to tell you about our apartment too. We have now moved into the #7 apartment and I am so so so glad we moved up here. We get the breeze so much more and the apartment is a lot nicer. Our apartment building is the yellow one on the right.
This is my kitchen and the other half of it "Living Room/Dining Room" (its the same room as the kitchen) Johnny's study area (its in the bedroom). I don't know why Johnny didn't take pics of the rest of the room. Bathroom

I hope this post wasn't to boring. I just thought I would let everyone know a little more about island life. Sorry some of the pictures are blurry.