The Hassels of International Travel.....

Hmmmph! Is what I have to say to start.  Boy is it complicated to go and study in another country.  Or atleast it has been complicated further by the fact that I need to be there by certain dates, versus my own personal wants of wanting to be home at certain times of the year.

Luckily for me, I did not have to deal with calling the travel company back and forth, as my mother lovingly offered to do that for me.

Initially I has was hoping to leave Montreal on January 4th to be their on the 5th.  This way, I could have spent New Year`s with my family along with my birthday which is on January 3rd.  Unfortunately after verifying with the school, my arrival dates were pretty much, December 29th/30th or January 1st/2nd as they want us to be there for the beginning of orientation which begins on the morning of January 3rd.  Luckily for me, Ill be enjoying my birthday while getting a tour of my new school and its facilities, although to be honest I would have much preferred to spend it with my brother, friend and family.   On the upside atleast I get to spend New Year`s although I always have the possibility of coming back for New Year`s in the future, as school is normally off during that time.  Although i was planning on making my first return trip at the end of the summer semester, which would be around August 16th, so if that were the case i do not think i could afford t come back again 3 months later.  As each round ticket is costing about $1000.

So back to my travel plans, I inform my mother who informs the travel agent, that I need to be there for January 2nd.  She gives me the information, so pretty much the options were to leave on the 1st at 5pm and arrive on the island of St. Kitt on January 2nd at 1pm, which includes a 12hr lay over in N.Y.  The second option was to leave on the 1st at 7 and arrive in St. Kitt at noon. Since I know I do not feel like leaving super early on the 1st, as I know I will most likely be a little bit tired from New Year`s, I am going with option 2.  Even if it includes a 12hr delay, which could be an interesting 12hr stop, as long as I don`t lose everything I have. :P I may just post up inside the airport and kill some time. :)    Id rather leave Montreal a bit later, than having to worry about, oh crap I have a plain that leaves at 9 in the morning, which is in like 3 hours :P  Plus Id rather have a few hours to set-up in my place before orientation, than an entire day to kill.

Finally we booked the plane ticket, and now I realize we forgot to double check regarding the transport of my two cats, plus the fact that we made the initial return date for 30days post.  Unfortunately I noticed a nice big bold sentence on my travel plans that said: "Please ensure that your dated tickets are extended through at least the end of the semester."  :S  Apparently it has something to do with visa requirements needed to study on the island.  So now I am verifying if this will pose a problem for me with the people at St. Kitt, and if it does then I have to look into changing my already booked plane ticket.

Hopefully it should not cause me any problems.  Wish me luck

Jonathan =D
PS: Still no news from the bank regarding my application for my student line of credit, will let you know if anything ;)

My First Round of Vaccines......

Today was the day, the day where I got to be injected with all kind of virus particles to help boost my immune system so I can have hopefully a proper immunization to the associated viruses.  I wanted to take some pictures to show all of you all the lovely steps involved, but I luckily I forgot it at home.  I say luckily, because in the end, I chose to use my ipod to video record the events that occured. :)

So I presented myself at the Montreal General Hospital, a hospital that I have passed by countless times, but I can honestly say, I have never entered before.  I have more than a few friends who work there and seem to have nothing but good things to say.  Overall the staff were very friendly and helpful, the hospital itself a bit confusing to walk through and they have an eight story parking garage, which can be frustrating as you drive around in circles looking for parking, only to realize that there are none available :S

Although on this day, I arrived by the good ole B.M.W (bus; metro; walk - in case you didn't know).

 So as I wound my way through the hospital, I finally found the travel clinic, which was on the 10th floor located in Livingston Hall.  Enjoy the walk with me ;)

In general very nice people, except for the annoying trio of ladies working next door to the clinic.  I have never seen such un-professionalism, there are sick people sitting in the hall ways, some located right next to severe respiratory problems unit, and you have these three ladies, speaking, talking and laughing so loud that they block out everything else.  Not to mention their reenactment of the Lord of the Dance performance, which shook the floor as I sat there, waiting, making me only think how oblivious some people are to the pain and suffering of others, and even if it were in a regular business setting, how unprofessional.

I finally get called into the nurse's office, and once again of course I have to wait a few minutes.  To my joy, I get a nurse in training, so i have this nurse asking a bunch of questions as the head nurse (who was kind of cute) paced between multiple rooms as she was going away on vacation soon. 

I have to say, the nurse in training, unfortunately I no longer remember her name, did her job quite well.  Her injection techniques were excellent (as you will see) and she pleasant enough to talk to.   My favourite to watch is the TB (tuberculosis test), if you are a bit needle shy, then perhaps this video is not for you :P

Finally, all the injections are done, I tallied up my lovely bill of $285 and headed out.  Overall the experience was good, and long term, my arm was a bit sore, as if someone punched me in my shoulder a couple of times.  Other than that, I felt pretty good.

I had to head back to the hospital two days later to get the results of my TB test, although you always know the results before you get there.  If you have a reaction to the little stimulant they inject underneath your skin, the lesion will have grown in some shape or form.  If you do not react, your skin has returned back to normal, and hence a negative reaction, and therefore you have not been exposed to TB.  As for my TB results, they were negative! Yay! :)

Well that's it for now, sorry for the delay of this post, as I was having a few problems with the video recordings.  Have yourself a great week!

Jonathan =D