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....

Been a long time, been a long time...

What a semester it has been!  My only regret is that I haven't updated you all during this long marathon of studying.  I also apologize in advance if my spelling/grammar is not up to par.  My brain is losing brain cells to veterinary medicine at an exponential pace.  I can spell equine protozoal myencephalitis but I can't seem to know simple basic words that used to be in my vocabulary.

My days have basically consisted of waking up, class, eating, studying, sleep.  There has been the occasional(very very rarely) break on a Friday evening but for the most part it's been studying like crazy.

The way 2nd semester has been setup, schedule-wise, there isn't a lot of room for getting behind.  After the third week, you basically have an exam/quiz in one or more of your classes every week until 3 weeks before finals.  So you are always studying or preparing for an exam.  Whether it be all arteries/veins/nerves of the dog/cat/horse/bovine, or all of the immunological mechanisms used throughout the body.  My mind is basically on overdrive.

This semester has also been a very humbling one.  Because of this type of studying I feel like I haven't been able to give my best effort towards learning the material and instead basically study for exams.  This has led me to getting some subpar scores on these past progress exams.  I will be going into final exams with more trepidation than I would have hoped.  It's not a good feeling but unfortunately it's not like I haven't been trying to put in 100% everyday for the past 4 months.  So it gets a little nerve racking at times.  I can only speak for myself but I question myself at times if "this is really what I should be doing."  I know I'm not alone with this thought but it still gets to me at times.  Then of course I answer back with "yes of course, now get back to studying those parasites!!!"

With that thought I will leave this here until after finals.  Hopefully I will have enough brain power left to have some intelligent comments to say about everything else that's going on, plus give a prequel to this post and talk about Halloween and TurkeyDay down here on the rock.

I will definitely post pictures as well... I promise.

Brain on Break!

Now that I have had some time off, I am starting to get back into the hang of living a life that doesn't involve a constant barrage upon my neurons 24/7.  I'm able to think about things in life that may or may not have future impact on my career and life in general.

One of these is directly related to a press release by the National Academies on May 30, 2012.  It states that because of budget cuts at universities and grant money provided, funding is leaving areas of veterinary medicine that in my opinion are THE most important with regards to global health.  Veterinary medicine isn't just about treating sick puppies and kittens.  It's about finding new ways to lessen our disturbances within this global ecosystem and the detrimental health effects to all life involved because of it.  It's about being on the front lines of a microbial war that seems like a never ending struggle just to stay on top.  And it's about educating others to do the same indifferent to where you are from or what your background may be.

Now I understand that money in an economy equals choice; however, it feels to me that those choices are being made ill-advised as to their detrimental effect on our health as a whole.  And this worries me for our future.  Veterinarians in these areas of expertise will definitely have wonderful job security as there will be less of them and possibly more problems for them to solve and overcome.

There was a line in that press release that since I saw it have posted it everywhere on my wall, computer screen, post-it notes, and phone.

Establishing a health-oriented think tank with the goal of advancing sustainable food-animal husbandry practices, welfare policies, ecosystem health standards, and the capacity of the veterinary profession in the developing world, is important and could help future generations of veterinarians collaborate across professions, disciplines, and cultures.

If money is going to be taken away from these industries, then the only responsible action is to figure out where we need to go from here and start putting those choices back to work towards advancing our global health.

Break!!!

I had a wonderful 2 week vacation!  Enjoyed spending some much needed quality time with my beer on the beaches of St. Kitts with some awesome friends.  We spend one of the days of break taking a catamaran over to the sister island of Nevis.  Went snorkeling and enjoyed some of their special drink called the "Killer Bee."  It doesn't have the horrible sharpness you sometimes taste with straight alcohol... but you can definitely tell that it is made with JUST ALCOHOL.  One drink and you're good.  Two drinks and you're gone.  Spent the rest of my first week basically just enjoying doing absolutely nothing.

My mom came into town during the second week to take a much needed vacation and also to see this amazing island nation that I've decided to spend the next 2 years of my life on.  Spent a lot of time at the casino as well as going out to the bars to hang out with the ever increasing group of returners to the island from break.  We also took an amazing island tour taking us to Caribelle Batik and botanical gardens as well as Brimstone Fortress, two of the very big "touristy" places to go on the island.

Every flower was in bloom and looked extremely vibrant.

One of the many beautiful views you can see at the botanical gardens.

Heading up the hill to one of the many bastions on the fortress property.

Prince of Wales bastion at the fortress.

  We also took a day trip out to Reggae beach to see the famous island boar Wilbur, luckily just days before he unfortunately passed away from old age.

RIP Wilbur.  You brought a lot of happiness to a lot of people.

Reggae beach bar adopted some local abandoned monkeys and spoils them rotten.  Wish I was a monkey staying at the Reggae monkey resort ;-)

Reggae beach on the Caribbean side of the island.

Saw the little bird perched on the beer bottle for the longest time.  Good thing he waited for me to take a picture before flying away.

I'm writing this in the middle of a study break.  That's right, I started back Monday to classes for 2nd semester so I will hopefully be finished writing/editing my post for that soon.  Until then...

Move out, Don't mess around!

Just as soon as finals is finished, there is no break for the 1sties.  Whatever time was spent studying after finals was instead replaced with packing and cleaning.

1st semester students that apply to Ross enough in advance live in the residences that they have on campus.  This helps them with the transition into vet school without having to deal with much of the hassles that can accompany "island life".  However, that's only for the first 4 months on the island.  After that they move out for the next 1st semester class to enter.  So guess what I did over the past 2 days?!  That's right, clean, pack, move, unpack.  Moved from campus to a little place about 15min away in an area of the island called Half Moon Bay.  It's a nice little 2 bedroom place with which I share with my roommate Ryan.  Because we're on the Atlantic side we get a wonderful breeze that blows through the place when we open the front and back doors.

Our place in on the bottom left corner of this picture.

One of my favorite parts of the new place compared to my old one... it's got a real over and stove top!!! That means I can do some real cooking/baking.

Oh! And a full sized fridge.  I can buy bulk sized things now instead of going grocery shopping every 2 to three days, which can really eat into your studying time.

My room is a good size.  Not too big that it costs a ton of cool it, not too small that I can't live in it.

My bed to the right with a wall length window.  My closet ahead with my desk on the right.

And how did I get all my things to my new place you ask?  Why I bought an island mobile!

Got myself a '95 Honda Civic!  It is an island car.  For those of you that don't know what that is... let me enlighten you.  It is extremely expensive to import cars to the island.  So many of the cars on the island are older frankensteins(older shells with newer parts on the inside).  As Ross students leave their 7th and last semester on the island, they need to sell their cars.  Therefore these cars get passed down every few years to another student.  So a '95 like mine could have a little as 5 owners up to this point in time.  Now they aren't the nicest cars, but they get you from point A->B in one piece, and you can usually sell them for around the same price as you bought them for(technically selling an appreciated automobile).  So it's a pretty good deal.

Now that classes are over and I'm almost done unpacking, I'm finding it difficult getting into a "relaxed" state of mind after running 110% over the past 4 months.  Hopefully I'll find that state before my 2 week break is up and I have to start back in 2nd semester.  Monday I will be going on a catamaran trip with some students who are also staying over break and then my Mom will be coming into town next week.  Hope to show her all the awesome and beautiful parts that make this island one amazing paradise...when not sitting as a desk studying.

Round 1 Completed!!!

About three weeks ago I was finishing my last set of midterms and starting the long haul to finals.  I didn't think studying for finals would take all that time... but it did.  In this past 4 months I have studied about 10 times more than the entirety of my undergraduate career.  And it paid off!!!  I will be joining our Blue class as it makes its journey into 2nd semester.

Finals was a very weird time for me.  Spent copious amounts of time studying, very little time eating, and an even smaller time sleeping.  I did get plenty of rest up until the week of finals.  Then, when I did get to sleep, my "dreaming" consisted of canine and equine muscle groups being pulled away from bone with exposed vasculature.  Or mixing of the feed of a dairy herd making sure that the right proportions of nutrients went in to make sure they all didn't get rumen acidosis(too much acid produced in the rumen during digestion).

One other very difficult part of finals is that they do not release your grades until all exams have been taken.  The reason for this of course is to keep you from not performing well on one exam because you already found out you failed another one.  It still is very stressful.  You definitely learn how to compartmentalize your emotions and thoughts about other classes to try and focus on what's in front of you.

Grades are supposed to be posted my noon on the Saturday after exams... that would be today.  We found out yesterday our class grades.  The website to find these grades however, is a little confusing.  At first I didn't know what unofficial transcript I was looking at (pre or post final exams).  But it ended up being post, and I ended up passing.  I also ended up passing with a 3.5, which made me eligible for the deans list!!! A few friends of mine made it on the President's list which is 4.0.  A very large accomplishment considering the stress and copious amounts of material needed to absorb in the short amount of time available.

I just moved out of the dorms on campus into my new place which I will talk about soon once I finish unpacking and getting pictures uploaded.  Bye for now!

"Insert witty title with veterinary pun here"

So it's been just over a month since my last post.  So much for that post a week nonsense I was talking about when I started this. :-)  I didn't really think I would be as busy as I have been over the past 5 weeks.

So I have had 1-2 exams/quizzes every week for the past 5 weeks which has kept the majority of my awake time busy with studying.  It has even cut into the sleeping time as well.  I cannot remember the last time I had a dream that didn't involve some subject in vet school.  It's actually kind of funny.  You just can't escape this stuff, even in your dreams!

Grade-wise I am doing well.  The consensus here seems to be: study for exams but never feel truly prepared, take the exam, leave the exam room feeling like you failed the exam, get your grade back a few days passing said exam.  It's definitely a different feeling than from undergrad.  And the most interesting part of that whole process is, most of that information actually stays in my brain... at least for now it does.  Ask me again 10 months from now which epithelial layer lines the bladder and I'm not sure if I'll be able to tell you ;-)

Even will all the "complaining" it's amazing things we are learning and I still can't believe I'm on this amazing tropical paradise!  I will probably never truly believe it until I leave.

After my last midterm Wednesday, I have two weeks off then a week of final exams.  At that point I will be packing up my things here and moving off-campus.  My hope is to have an entire post related to that milestone: talking about finding the place, getting a car, island license, etc.

Until then, Same island time, Same island channel!