Mr. RUSVM Jan 2013

The post you all have been waiting for.  The first Saturday evening of every semester there is an event where the students of Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine host a male student pageant.  It's a way to relax and enjoy the island before classes start getting stressful.

There are so few of us in the program (men that is) that for each semester, one man from each of the seven semesters is paraded around and performs in different categories for the entertainment of the other students/faculty.  It is an extremely fun event for all involved.  The winner is usually (not always) rigged with 7th semester winning first, 6th semester winning second  and 5th or 4th winning third place.

I was chosen/volunteered for our semester this time around.  Boy was I not prepared for what I was getting into.  The current 6th semester class runs the event and makes up the categories for the men to perform in.  This semester the events were:
Only In St. Kitts (OISK) - A statement we use down here for things that annoy us that are particular to this island (sometimes it's out of annoyance and other times it's more as a joke)
Favorite Animal Planet Show - A parody of your favorite animal planet show.
Professor impersonation - Pretty self-explanatory.  Do your best impersonation of a professor on campus.
Talent - this is a free for all category to basically do whatever you want

I first have to say that I could not in any way do this event alone and make it look as good as I did.  We have a wonderful team of people who have worked on the past 3 semesters and have done a wonderful job with brainstorming ideas and putting the final product(s) together.

We always start off with a choreographed music number with the Mr. RUSVM's from each class (with a bonus this semester with a member from the Very Important Significant Others).  We also had a special guest or should I say guests along to help us out.  Some of our very own professors.  It was a really awesome evening.

For our OISK skit I chose to make fun of the fact that our power goes off on this island at the most inopportune times, such as during finals week while studying.  I was the "Power Goblin" who worked for St. Kitts Electric Company and I stole the power from the stage while students were studying for finals.

For "Favorite Animal Planet Show" I decided to do a spoof on the Crocodile Hunter.  I spent about 2 weeks over break trying to practice an Australian accent.  It was very bad but still very funny.  We did "Crocodile Hunter: St. Kitts edition."  We had Steve Irwin discover and fight an exam from a very challenging professor here on the island who everyone has to "hurdle" over during their first two semesters.  We then had Steve fight a Donkey Spider (my roommate in an awesome homemade spider costume).  Very funny in my own opinion.

For professor impersonation there was only one professor, that we have had up to this point in time, that I could do a half decent job of impersonating...Dr. Reich.  Here is a picture for comparison.

And last but not least Talent... we did a little choreographed number where three of us were munchkins.  I can't give it justice with words so I've added a link to the youtube video of it.

I didn't take home the gold, but I made a lot of amazing memories down here with some of the best people I've had the pleasure to know.  I also got tons of laughs throughout the night, and I still have people coming up to me 7 weeks later telling me how good of a job I did.  So I'd say it was a success.

Happy New Year

So I know I'm about a month and a half too late.  No one can say 3rd semester isn't as time consuming if not more than 2nd semester.  Made it through 2nd with a few mental scars but nothing too bad.  No grey hairs yet.

This semester I'm taking, Bacteriology, Virology, Pathology, and Pharmacology.  The last two are the first in a two part series of classes.  It helps to split up some of the concepts over a 28 week period of time in this accelerated program.

Each semester is of course different but I think I finally have gotten into the balance of life on this island.  Keeping studying, sleeping, eating, and finding time to relax in equal parts has been a one of the greatest challenges outside of the actual material being covered.  Surprisingly the material isn't that bad concept-wise; there is just so much of it.  We are almost through the first half of the semester and yet I still feel like I just landed on this rock recently, even though it was almost a year ago that this happened.

As I said in my last post over 2 months ago I was going to talk about Halloween and Thanksgiving.  Of course, being a foreign country thanksgiving isn't really celebrated.  We actually had class on Thanksgiving.  However, being of the large population of U.S. expats, some of the local businesses decided to have "Thanksgiving Dinner" buffet specials.  Jess and I decided to go along with a group of about 20 students from my class to the Marriott on the island (I like to call it the "U.S. Embassy of St. Kitts")  It was such an amazing meal and the company was a nice break from studying.

You may also notice that "smudge of dirt" on my upper lip.  For the month of November our class as well as some of the other classes had all of the guys pledge to grow mustaches for Prostate Cancer awareness month (which is November).  The event is called Movember.  It was a lot of fun and we got an awesome shot of everyone in our semester on the last day before we all rushed home to shave it off.

I wish you all have had a wonderful start to a new year.  I know I have and hope the rest of the year is just as fruitful and fun.  My next post I'll let you all in on an event held at the beginning of every semester here on the island, Mr. RUSVM....