Another Stamp In My Passport (St. Kitts Weekend)

Saturday morning sunrise

Goodbye Saba

I just arrived back on Saba from the gorgeous island of St. Kitts. Our school puts on trips midway through the block so that you can get the opportunity to see more of the Caribbean while you are staying here. This semester the island was St. Kitts and at 7 a.m. Saturday morning about 50 of us boarded a ferry to take the two hour boat ride. We woke up to a gorgeous sunrise on the rock and made the rounds to each of the dorms to make sure everyone was awake. Coffee in our cups we headed down to the school to hitch a ride with some of the locals who were also jumping on the opportunity to get away. We ended up in a truck with a very nice local couple who told us about some of the history of the island on the way there. They said that 50 years ago they bought their furniture from St. Kitts because there was nothing on St. Maarten yet. They also said that St. Kitts was the island you headed to if you needed to see any type of specialist doctor and sometime it would take two days to get there because they were sailing and depended on the wind. I love this island! Everyone is so friendly and hitching is the only way to get around.

We all boarded the ferry and climbed up to the outside upper deck so we could watch as the island faded into the distance. Its such a strange place but it has so quickly become home and especially after seeing another island I realize how much I appreciate it for all its quirks.

Soon we arrived at St. Kitts and got off the boat and headed straight into the bustle of downtown which was very different from Saba. There is obviously a lot more poverty here and you just don't feel the same sense of security. We were put in shuttles and taken to the gorgeous Marriott Hotel and as we drove along the coast you realize just how stunning this island is. It has lush green mountains but also has beautiful white sand beaches and endless crystal clear caribbean waters and is much much larger than Saba.

We checked in and after grabbing lunch headed directly for the beach and pools where we spent the majority of the rest of the day. We did get some studying in because I think we would all feel stressed and guilty if we didn't at least try to not fall behind. Later that evening we headed out for the most delicious Caribbean style dinner. We had everything you could every dream of as we sat on the beach at picnic tables watching a storm out over the ocean and being surrounded by good friends. The food was AMAZING and the owner Cathy and her daughter were so warm and welcoming, we felt so well taken care of and I don't think I have ever eaten that much food but every single plate on the table was empty by the end of the meal.

After Cathy's we headed down the beach to a little spot called Mr. X's Shiggidy Shack for karaoke and dancing on the beach followed by a midnight swim in the ocean and pools at the hotel. It was a magical evening and we all had so much fun!

After another day lounging in the sun we headed home to beautiful Saba and our studies! It's another stamp on my passport but its so much more than that as I was able to gain some more perspective and get off this island so I can come back refreshed and ready to work hard.

The main pool at the Marriott

THE BEACH!

Studying in the shade, that may have
been the most comfy studying area I have
ever studied in... I need one of those chairs.

Dinner at Cathy's

The Ferry

Hard to tell if he's studying or napping

Sunset on the way home

Gorgeous sky!

What life has become...

Wow its been a while! Last time I posted was just before block 1 exams and all I want to recall about those two days is that I am done and I made it through.

After blocks we went out for dinner and swimming and just enjoyed not having 200 new slides to study from that day. Right as exams finished we also had our first Caribbean rainy season downpour and I don't think I have ever seen anything like it! It lasted about 10 minutes and then it was gone and we continued to enjoy the evening.

The next day we were right back to the grind and having finished lower limb we started on the upper limb, which thankfully, has many similarities to lower limb. Next up intrinsic muscles of the back and thorax.

My life here has become very routine and usually looks something like this:

6:45 Wake up
7:30 Leave for Class

Post Block Relaxation

8:00-10:00 Histology Starts
10:15-12:15 Gross Anatomy

12:15-1:00 Lunch

1:00 to 3:00 (OR 3:15 to 5:15*) Anatomy Lab
*depending on the week

Also on thursdays we have DPR (doctor patient relationship) for two hour in the alternate time to lab, the class is split in half for lab and DPR so we alternate times.

Then when I get home I usually try to get some studying in before making dinner. Then obviously more studying. Try to get to bed before 11:30 pm and get a decent nights sleep (apparently the key to survival here).

Contrary to popular belief there is time for fun in between trying to balance cramming the daily masses of information we are given and sleeping ... Mostly what you hear about when you are talking to someone in medical school is the hard work and how many hours they put into studying. Lots of times we will make dinner with each other (like homemade turkey lasagna YUM!) or spend time studying and drinking lots of Chai (Thanks R & A for this great addition! They make fabulous Chai from scratch and are teaching us the ways). Its important to take the time to get to know your peers and enjoy the people around you.

Time passes so strangely here because as of tomorrow I have officially been here one month but it feels like I have known the people here for so much longer.

Crabby Visitor

Hanging out at Scouts

Homemade lasagna with the boys

Block Weekend 1

Break time...

Its block weekend which essentially means the weekend before a huge test and I have no life. In case you don't know our semester is separated into 5 blocks with an exam at the end of each section (or block). For us first semesters our lab exam for block one will happen on monday morning and its a bell ringer. For those of you who have never heard of a bell ringer consider yourself lucky! Pretty much you have one minute at each station and you have to look at whatever structure they may have tagged on the cadaver or X-ray and figure out what it is and answer any question they ask about it. The questions range from what is it, to what does it do, to what muscle/nerve/vein has the opposite function to the structure that is tagged. These exams can be tough unless you really know your stuff (and we have "learned" the entire lower limb at this point), it means i'll be spending lots of extra hours in the lab this weekend. Then when your sixty seconds is up you move to the next spot and if you didn't figure it out in time then too bad because there's no going back. We had a mock exam thrown by the upper semester lab TA's (teaching assistants) which was great, it gave us all a chance to try out a bell ringer and become familiar with the feeling of being under pressure in the lab. I didn't do too poorly but thankfully I have a couple days to improve. Then after the bell ringer we have another two exams on tuesday for our histology lecture and anatomy lecture. Its going to be tough! Theres so much information for all of the classes but i'm definitely not alone.

Our class has a really great sense of community here because we are all far from home and we are all going through the exact same things. I've never been around a group of people who is this diverse and comes from so many different backgrounds but we are all united in a common goal... to get through this program. Its a very cool experience and I am very lucky to be around the people who are a part of this group!

 

I know that there are already plans in motion for some pretty cool post block activities (diving, hiking, swimming, not studying... for at least a day :) ) and so now I need to get back to studying so that I can enjoy those activities guilt free! I'll leave you with some pictures of a birthday cake I made for my fantastic new friend and classmate N.... I never want to make another cake without modern baking tools, we don't even have big mixing bowls, I had to use our large pot (never mind making the icing)... but it was well worth it and was pretty darn tasty!

Yes this is what the sunset looks like every night here...I pretty much live in the most beautiful place in the world (except for BC :)
)

First Week & White Coat Ceremony

So the first week of medical school is officially over and it was quite something! There were many new faces, all new professors, and an insane amount of information. Thankfully everyone (especially upper semesters) are very helpful and willing to take the time to help you out. There is a huge sense of community with this school because we are all far away from home and have to become each others support network.

We have classes everyday from 8 to 3 except on thursdays where we have it until 515. The classes are two hour blocks with a ten minute break halfway through. We also have 45 minutes for lunch, unless one of the professors happens to run late on lecture, which seems to happen often. So far classes are great and the classrooms have very comfy chairs and tons of screens so everyone can see the lecture slides. The rooms are usually very cold which is nice because it can get pretty sweltering and humid outside and it is much easier to concentrate in the cold.

Aside from lecture classes this week has also involved the first anatomy lab. I just want to say that it is quite an honour that we are given by the people who donate their bodies to further our education. I will never be able to thank this person or their families but the best I can do is honour them and work my hardest to learn from them. They are our greatest teachers and for them I have the utmost respect.


This has become quite a rigorous schedule and it starts pretty early. Luckily, however, getting up for class in time has posed no problem because I have a rooster that lives just outside my window (which is on the ground floor). He likes to wake us up at no later than 6 am, often he starts at 4 but I am usually still sleepy enough by that point to turn over and go back to sleep. Aside from our resident rooster (who I will try and catch a picture of later because he is very pretty) we also have various chickens and goats wandering around. It may be very different from Canada but it is starting to feel like home, goats and all. Also because we got our coffee from cafe luna who imports green coffee beans and then batch roasts to order, it is GREAT coffee!

Sept 2012 Class - 112 people, im dead center in the
bottom row

The end of first week culminated in a ceremony called the White Coat Ceremony where we all don our short white coats and repeat an oath as a class in the same form as the hippocratic oath in which we promise to conduct ourselves in a professional manor and respect the trust that is given to us by our future patients. We walk across the classroom in front of our teachers and peers and introduce ourselves and say a little bit about our backgrounds. We then are assisted into the white coat by one of our teachers.  It was very nice and it gave us a chance to get to know more of our classmates who we may not have had the chance to meet otherwise. There also happened to be a welcome back party where we got to meet the rest of the upper semesters. It was a very fun night!

Now I have lots of studying to do!

PS: I found a guava tree outside of my dorm and they are just starting to ripen! YUM! I wish I could put smell on here, it smells so good!

Before with N.

Grocery Wednesdays!

One of the things that I really didn't have much information on before coming to Saba was the availability and prices of food (specifically fruit and vegetables). There was so much hype about not being able to get any or that they would be super inhibitively expensive. Well they ARE available but thankfully they are only mildly more expensive. Definitely not so bad that you can't afford to eat properly!

The problem is, that they only come in on the boat on wednesdays so there is a crazy rush to get to the store after class ends on wednesdays.

If you know the shortcut you can beat the line but apparently i'm not very stealthy haha...

The store we go to is called my store and its a world of its own, maybe another time i'll get some pictures. At my store theres always lots of dry goods like rice and cereal but what fluctuates is the meat and produce. Another good thing about my store is that they will deliver if you buy enough. This is crucial since hauling all of this up the hill would be nearly impossible.

Anyways here's an example of what I bought today...

The haul includes some fruit and veggies such as apples and oranges (almost always available), lettuce (snatched quickly on wed), cucumber, tomato, cherries (yum!), zucchini, and peppers (the green ones are the cheapest!).

Protein this week was a bit more scarce (last week I scored a bunch of tilapia) this week I got some deli turkey, fake crab meat (not sure how i'll use it yet) and that tube in the front is ground turkey apparently (weird!) which i'm planning on making into either fajitas or pasta sauce. Luckily lentils and beans are pretty cheap here for some protein in between. Cheese is also surprisingly cheap here. I also got some snack foods for when i'm in study mode!

You can also apparently get some fresh fruit and veggies that are grown locally. I just missed mango season which, if you know how much I love mango, is very sad! Also there is a guy who has a small farmers market but he is away this week and he will be back next week. 

The rule of the island is take what you can get and don't get too attached because you may never see it again!





I am very lucky I got an oven because some of the best food I have made so far has been in the oven. For example last night (and lunch today) I had tilapia with cut up veggies covered in salsa and cheese and then baked. I love cooking in the oven because I don't have to sit and watch it cook, I can put on the timer and go back to studying. The only problem with being one of three quads that have an oven is that everyone else wants to use it, haha... our rule is as long as you do your own dishes!

Alright back to studying I go... any requests for pictures of something? Someone already asked me to put up more pictures of the campus...

Oh and also the restaurants here are AMAZING! Its like eating straight from a home kitchen, well they pretty much are home kitchens, theres nothing mass produced here! And when they run out they run out so you better get there early!