15 days!

I still can't believe I will be leaving this place in 15 days! After living down here for what seems like forever (3 years!).
I dont' know what I will do when I have:
running water
no mosquito bites all over my body
a real grocery stores
a cell phone with reception, no echo and a real plan (not pre-paid!)
can drive without fearing for my life
see lines on the road
steering wheel on the left side
paved roads
not afraid of being swallowed by potholes/ditches
not have to use matches to light the stove
have hot water in the sink
not have to flip a switch to heat my shower
water pressure
no more transformers
no more ants, spiders!!
dont' have to check my bed for those things
Sadly I will miss:
the perfect warm weather
sunshine
random rain showers
views of the grenadines
sunsets
beach time anytime
island hopping
palm trees
carefree lifestyle
being on island time
wearing shorts/tank tops/flipflops all the time
(this isn't a complete list.....i will save some for later)

It is all bittersweet to think about. I consider myself lucky to have had the oppourtunity to live in a place people save a lifetime to visit. AS brought up a good point in the comment she left. If we hadn't gone out in the middle of the DC blizzard for the SGU open house, I dont' know that I would be where I am today.

On another note, I am pleased to report that the water finally came on!! Now, if it will stay on till I leave, I will thrilled! Monday is "Worker's Day" and NO SCHOOL!! I think it is like Labor Day. To celebrate I will be studying in the library the entire time in an attempt to make up for my lack of motivation which I have been experiencing since the last set of exams.

water, water, everywhere except where you need it!

So we are about to enter day 3 of no water! I don't mean a dribble here and there, i mean BONE DRY! Turn the tap and nothing happens. This is due to the lack of rain in the last couple months and the country has decided to turn off the water to conserve. It is supposed to come back on at 4 pm everyday but I that has yet to happen. Luckily our place has only had it out for two days. some are going on 5 days without. Good thing we are all resilent afte living through Hurricane Ivan. At least in this case there is electricty. Last week the power was off for two days so we are lucky it is just water now! I take for granted how much water it takes to live day to day. Brushing teeth, showering, shaving legs, washing dishes, washing clothes, flushing the toilet and washing hands. (My list will probably grow the longer it is off.) Our landlady was kind enough to bring us some 5 gallon jugs so we have some for emergency use and I have lots of bottles of water too. The last shower I had was on Wednesday morning with a trickle of water, so by tomorrow I pray that there is something in the taps or else I guess i might have to bathe in the pool (nasty thought!). Lets hope it doesnt' come to that. I mean i did last 5 days after the hurricane. It can't possibly get to that point. Only 17 days left on this island! I really will miss living down here even under conditions like these.

Basil's Bar before meeting our tourguides.

me and jz in the mule

Rescuing the skirt!

Me and L at Lagoon

early morning calm

view as we are leaving on the ferry

Sunset from Firefly

Macaroni Beach (my desktop background right now)

more of Lagoon

first stop......Lagoon

castle top view of mustique with Bequia in the background

View of St. Vincent's from the plane. The island off the coast is Young Island.

our little plane to mustique.....well via Bequia

View of the Grenadines from my place. Mustique is between the two sets of islands.....have to squin to see it!

Gosh it is hard to even know where to begin. So the original plan was to fly to Mustique at 10:30 AM (10 minute flight) and fly back at 5 PM. Well, since when do things go as planned! There were five of us: me, J, B, L and A. We should have known it would be an adventure when all of the sudden we realize our plane was landing in Bequia rather than Mustique. (This was an unplanned stop.) So no big deal, we picked up some baggage and passengers and headed on over to Mustique (only 4 minute flight from Bequia). Flying in was beautiful. You could see some of the perfectly manicured villas on the coast and many others dotted around the island. Once we landed we got out and tried to rent some transportation. Unfortunately though, everything is closed on Sunday so we had to take the only taxi at the airport (there are only 3 on the island!!). We took the taxi and headed for the famous Basil’s Bar. We were totally unsure where or what we were doing. So we try to arrange for the taxi driver to take us on a tour. After some negotiations we manage to get a post lunch pick up to start the tour so we can be back at the airport for our flight. Lunch was good. We end up meeting the only other people at the place, three guys who were thrilled to find people their age. After much conversing they decide we should get a free tour from them. So we paid our cabbie enough to keep him happy and started the tour. They had a “mule” (it’s like an ATV/gator/golf cart and is what everyone has and what we had wanted to rent originally!) First we went to Lagoon. It was breathtakingly beautiful and all to ourselves. The entire trip we didn’t see hardly anyone at all. It was as if everyone had gone out of town. The entire time the guys they were telling us…..”Just miss your flight and stay”. At this point they are our only source of transportation and made it easy for us to miss our flight. None of us objected. How could we leave paradise? So we continue with our tour to Macaroni Beach (rated one of the top ten beaches in the world over and over). And it was! The water was so perfect and the sand as soft and almost as white as FWB’s. After that we had “accidentally, on purpose, miss our flight!” The tour continued to see some of the homes. Then onto watch the sunset at Firefly. Everyone was so hospitable and eager to share their island with us. Later we went back to Basil’s Bar for Karaoke. It was entertaining and apparently the only thing to do on the island. The great thing about missing our flight was that there was a ferry back to St. Vincent at 730AM we could catch. The ferry was about 1 ½ hours long and choppy. I must say it was the best most random surreal experience I have ever had. I would go back in a heart beat if I could. Now, as I am driving down the road I can see Mustique in the distance and I can’t believe that place has been there all this time and I just now experienced it.

Mustique

Just got back from a tropical paradise and will be posting soon about the adventures. It will be hard to put in words but I will try. And I have tons of pictures!

Grand Anse Beach......the scene of many afternoons.

The famous Grenada sunset.....I miss seeing this every night.

before our snorkel/scuba trip

28 days from now.......

I just got back from Grenada tonight. I had a wonderful time visiting the old roomies and seeing other friends. I wasn't sure how I would feel going back but it was an awesome time. I felt as if I hadn't left. Despite the Easter weekend where most places are closed, I was still able to eat at a number of places I had wanted to: Boulangerie, Nick's, Big Fish and was even some Glover's Pizza and a chicken wrap from Pearl's. When I was living there these were definetly not places I would have thought of missing. Not long after arriving on Friday I went to the beach with SM. The sun was so strong we didn't last but a few hours. On Saturday, I tried to go snorkeling in Flamingo Bay but unfortunately there was something in the water that was stinging everyone. Not sure what it was but perhaps "sea lice" or something similar. Either way I still have a rash from where it got me. Besides my fun outdoors I did managed to get hooked on the show "House, MD". Too bad there is no FOX here in SVG or else I would be watching it weekly. Not much else to report from my trip other than a relaxing time and I will miss that place. No telling if or when I will ever go back. Kind of sad, but good to move on. Soon enough, 28 days to be exact, I will be leaving this island too but I am not sure if it will be as memorable as my 2 plus years in Grenada.

JULY 11th I am set to take Step 1 of the USMLE! I just scheduled it online. Kind of weird that I will be taking it in the building right next to where I worked for a year at GHS. I hope the stars are aligned that day for me to do well. I will need all the help I can get.

31 DAYS!!!!!!

Finally I have reached the one month mark until I am back in the states for good!! Now, if only I could find some motivation to study my world would be perfect. I have a bad case of "ready to leave itis". Its kinda like senioritis, but since I'm only half way to graduating that term really doesn't work.
I had my BSCE on Monday. It was definetly a marathon test taking session and I am glad to have it behind me, no telling if I passed or not. Have to wait to see what they say at the end of April.

So I am pleased to report our place was not burglured on Break-In Day and I pray this continues to be the case for the next 31 days. The only intruder I have had is another spider. This one was the baby of the Massive spider (30% its size). Under normal circumstances, he would be considered big, but after having the real HUGE one I know he is the baby. God help me if I find another big one, I might pass out. I did see one (not as large as mine but about 80% as big) at the gym the other day. I was thankfully he was there and not in my room. The one I just saw was running under my desk. I quickly smashed him with my flip-flop before he had a chance to get away. I wasn't about to let him get under my bed. I would have spent all night looking for him before I could ever sleep. I'm sure there are more where he came from and I wish I could do something to keep them far away from me. My flip-flops seem to be the best killing machine for spiders, ants and any other random bug that I find.

It must be the week for the uncles. My Uncle Hall shared with me his art website that is being built. It is currently in the beginning stages of set up but it looks great so far. And...My Uncle Pete had a very nice write up on the front page of the Washington Post Business Section on Monday. The other family news is that my niece Isabelle turned 17 on Saturday! Happy Birthday Isabelle! It sure does make me feel very old! And lastly, my brother, WT, passed his Real Estate Exam (not sure which part) perhaps the one to be a Broker?

Ok, I am gonna go do some work to get my mind of that spider and hopefully then I can sleep.

8 hours

Tomorrow I have my BSCE II (Basic Sciences Comprehensive Exam). It is 400 questions covering the first two years of medical school. The test is 8 hours long and consists of both internal and external questions. Since my long term memory is not that good, I have been studying. I surely don't remember the details of Anatomy or Biochemistry from back in the day and wonder if i even retained the stuff from my test two weeks ago! The studying is good though because I am giving myself a boost for when I am studying for the USMLE Step 1 (one month from now!). Supposedly, passing for the BSCE II is a 53% but there is debate as to if I really even need to pass it. Regardless, I would regret not having done some preparation and it really can't hurt. So we shall see what happens.

Additionally tomorrow is known as Break In Day. Since all students are stuck in the test for 8 hours locals have found it a good time to break in and take whatever they want. The penthouse above my place was hit last term and I pray that we aren't hit this time. Thankfully, the SGA has set up a room for us to put our "bags or even suitcases of valuables" into during the exam so that we don't lose irreplaceable items (passport, computer, money, harddrive, and anything else we don't want taken). I just went thought a panic a few minutes ago when I couldn't find where I had hidden my passport but finally I located it. Good thing since I will need it to go to Grenada on Friday. Yes, I am going back. Gonna go visit the old roomies who are still there and visit the beach and perhaps some of the restaurants that I miss (I never thought I would say that!).

Sailing Pictures

You can look at my pictures from the trip by clicking on the link on the right sidebar under the other links. Enjoy!

Paradise Found

I am alive and well after the sailing trip. It was amazing. We left St. Vincent's Blue Lagoon on Friday AM and headed straight out to the Cays using both wind and motor to get us there before dark. It was a little rough in the areas where there wasn't an island to break the wind. I had no idea how many islands made up the Grenadines. The majority of them are uninhabited. I spent a bit too much time below decks getting all our stuff packed away and managed to feel sick (not get sick) on the way over. Once we arrive in the Cays about 4 ish we dropped anchor. There were lots of other boats anchored out too but we did find a place to ourselves. We then swam and snorkled. The water was crystal clear. It reminded me of Destin's East Pass near crab island. The reef we snorkled, Horseshoe Reef, is one of the longest barrier reefs in the Western Hemisphere. It was beautful. I saw loads of fish, different types of coral, stingrays and so many more things I don't know the name of. Since we had not eatten since breakfast, we cooked an early dinner. Spent the rest of the evening watching the stars pass and saw a few shooting stars too. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well below deck and ended up finally getting out of bed at 6:30 AM to find a gorgeous day starting and some sea turtles swimming near the beach. Later that morning, we all headed over to Petite Tobac. It is an uninhabited island outside of the main grouping of islands. It was used in Pirates of the Caribbean (where Johnny Depp is dropped 0ff). White sands and palm trees and lots of shallow reefs. It was so pleasant. I could have spent all day there. I found lots of shells, urchins and a pefect conch shell buried in the sand. After this, we headed back to the boat. By this time the tide had fallen significantly to leave the highest parts of the reef exposed and perfectly calm waters. I went snorkling some more it was so clear though you didn't even need a mask you could see everything from above the water. I wish I could have spent more time there but we had to head back and sail to Bequia before nightfall. Pete and Sam fell in love with sailing. The captain taught them how to tack and Pete how to sail the open seas. We spent the night in Bequia and relaxed. I tried sleeping on deck that night but was awakened by a middle of the night rainshower and had to move below :( On Sunday midmorning, we headed out of Bequia and didn't even use our motor. We managed to sail all the way back with only windpower. I had a great time. I only wish we could have stayed longer!

I came home to find my sister, HB, had the baby on Friday. 6 pounds 11 ounces and 20 inches long with "long toes". She is doing well and the baby looks perfect from the pictures they sent.

Today we found out our prelimary hospital placements. I got my first choice and am very happy about it. Now I just have to finish the term (1 month and 11 days!) and then pass my boards and I'm set! I need to get cracking with the studying after my self declared week off.