Say what?! Final exam today?

So Tuesday morning (umm lets advance that now to Thursday morning :P) and I feel worse (still no change in reagards to that) than I did on Monday. Do not know if it just me sleeping badly or just a combination of life and school. It is definitely difficult to remain concentrated on the task at hand; which is passing this semester as all this would be for nothing if I did not make its to 7th semester. Heck I almost forgot about the PMJ (practice management and jurisdiction) exam I have in a couple of hours; which is definitely never a good a thing to be forgetting.  Luckily I cannot say I am in dire jeopardy of failing PMJ or any of my other classes but I am definitely borderline in my SAS class (Small Animal Surgery). Unfortunately SAS is one of those classes that is just kicking all of our asses; seems like no matter what we are doing as individuals as a class just doesn’t seem to be paying off.  Yet, I have faith; faith in myself and my fellow Greenies that we are going to make it out of this battle together. One thing about our semester is that we have great comradery and I am hoping that all of us would make it to next semester as it sucks to lose someone so close to finishing. It is quite sad; it is like one of those old stories from back in the day that use to talk about situations involving segregation of some kind. Like you were best friends with someone as a kid and then unfortunately something happens and the parents are no longer speaking so you cannot see them anymore but yet every time your paths do cross you give each other the biggest smile; knowing that deep down things have not changed rather just the situation or environment has changed. It kind of feels like that at times when one of your good friends has to repeat a semester over here.

At least I pretty much finished up the last of my tutor sessions yesterday along with my last TA session.  Ran through last semesters final exam for Physio II and I think most of my tutees were appreciative of it and seemed to have found it to be beneficial.  So I will most likely do the same thing next semester; although the time constraints involved will make it a little more challenging.  Sometimes it gets quite a bit challenging trying to tutor, TA, be involved in clubs and local community while trying to stay on top of my studies.  I have to say a part of me wishes that i did not have to do the TAing and tutoring for money; but another part of me really does enjoy teaching or aiding others; so I guess its been a welcomed unfortunate turn of events.

So hopefully we will all survive these next 2 weeks (my tutees being included in this), destroy finals and then we can all thoroughly enjoy our Christmas break. As for myself; my Christmas break will hopefully be very busy as I am planning on watching as many animals as I can. If all goes well with the money raised from watching my fellow classmate's animals that they entrust to me while they are gone over break; I can hopefully raise enough money to cover all of my living expense for next semester. Which means I would only have to worry about covering my tuition for next semester if all goes well back home; which hopefully Ill be finding an answer shortly. Ill be sure to keep you posted ;)

Onto the initial reason I started typing this blog entry this morning was to start telling you about some of my more memorable experiences during my time on this island. So let’s flash back a little bit……..

Duddle duddle duddle...................................

Okay so not the flash back picture; but it was the best i can do :P

 So my first break on St. Kittitia! I have to say April break is just a beautiful break to be here and just chill out and relax. The weather is comfortable and the cruise boats are starting to die down a little so the beaches and Porte aren’t ridiculously crammed with tourist. So if you feel like just lounging on the beach and just chilling out; then April break is definitely for you! :) I spent most of the April break with my good friend Xtina (Christina) and her dog Manson. Who is just a fabulous dog; love this dog! We would pretty much hang out almost every day at the beach and just chill out and watch movies. The dog is a complete goofball and so is my friend haha but that is a story for another day. As for Manson; Xtina would just tell him, “Go, Go, Go Get it!” and the dog would take off chasing who knows what. He would just be gone, then at some point she’d yell at him and he’d come running back. Plus every now and then the dog would go into stalking mode. We’d be chilling at my friend’s apartment; rather I should say someone who become my roommate and my best friend on this island’s apartment. They had this orange cat in the apartment named Jasper and Manson would just go into herding mode (just to make a bit of an “of course moment”; Manson is a Border collie and you say............ :P).

Since I know you were all curious; that be Manson ;)

I just always find it so impressive and was just too funny to watch him herding a cat around a chair. Jasper was Echo’s cat another friend who became a casualty of the island. As I mentioned in my previous post; in that what I believe that gets most students on this island, is the island. Echo was definitely no exception; if anything she is the classic case of what the island can do to someone. Unfortunately it was too much for her and she literally she packed her shit and left. I hope whatever she is doing now; she is happy and stress free.

Which brings my thoughts to second semester which for me was not a stressful semester at all; but it was the first semester where I truly felt the effect this island has on someone and what a devastating role it can play on someone. My good friend Stephanie Baker; who my thoughts still linger on quite regularly. She is one of the most amazing people I was talking about previously that should still be here and the only reason she is not is because of unfortunate circumstances. She is an amazing person and if there was one person that had a major impact in my last five years of life; she would have to be that person. She gave me perspective and insight into things I never really considered before. Something I constantly strive for in life is to try and see the world through other people’s eyes and try not to take things lightly or for granted as sometimes you cannot be aware of something until you get someone else’s perspective on it. She may not realize it, even though I told her many times but having her as a friend helped shape me and make me more complete as a person and if and when I become a veterinarian I would be honoured to have her by my side. As for the rest of second semester; the courses encompassed: Anatomy II; Physiology II; Parasitology & Immunology plus good ole Clinical skills. I also joined a bunch of clubs; ZEW (Zoo Exotics & Wildlife club), SCUBA (scuba club as I became SCUBA certified over break as well….Hooah!!!!!) as well as still being a member of PAWS and becoming its Educational co-ordinator. I posted in a few posts back about going to the school to see the kiddies and teach the about animal welfare and behavior; hopefully shaping the minds of the future. So just in case y’all forget here is a picture of my kids and also of me being awesome at scuba ;)

I be awesome ;)

So second semester finished; I finished up the semester nicely with like a 3.30GPA; finishing Physio II and Anatomy II will an A. Which I was very about considering the previous semester Anatomy I was my most challenging course. So it was a very nice turn around and since I did so well in Physio I & II; I decided to become a Physio II tutor and continue to TA Physio I & VP Physio. I realized I really do thoroughly enjoy teaching people and watching their eyes light up when it finally clicks in their minds. Perhaps a future in Academia? perhaps, but probably not for some time to come. Before considering that option, I want to get my hands “dirty” and see what kind of veterinarian I will become. As I hope I develop into the veterinarian I continually strive to be and that I become the veterinarian I’ve always envisioned myself becoming. That brings me to August break and “hurricane” season. Which I have to say overall was a very uneventful break and not very entertaining as well. I did get the chance to go home; which I was very happy to do and very happy to see my family but unfortunately it was to take care of a bunch of financial stuff which was needed for me to be able to continue in vet school. So I went home; ate waaaaaaay too much food; hung out with my brother; saw my family; saw some friends; bought some clothes, ran around a bunch and then back to St. Kitts. As for it being hurricane season; we had one major depression and when the hurricane did finally hit the island I have to say it was probably better than when we just had tropical storms hitting us. The week before and after the hurricane; it was raining non-stop. The hurricane hits and you get half days of sunshine with a bunch of wind but hardly any rain. Although the wind was quite enough on some days; especially when you were smart enough to think about going to the beach during that kind of weather. I have to say, sand plus massive amounts of wind equals your own personal sand blaster or skin depitheliazer. Ouch :P

On to third semester; hmm what can I say about third semester besides that it kind of sucked. Personally third semester was my least favourite semester; it was a bunch of classes involving pure memorization. We had to take: Bacteriology, Pharmacology, Pathology and Virology. Granted, pathology although we were bombarded with information was quite an interesting class and gave me a different perspective on pathology which I found very intriguing. Virology could have been an amazing course if perhaps structured a little better; as the viruses we were being taught about correlated well with our pathology class in a way but we did not have the time to properly absorb the information and come finals I have to say that the viro exam was probably one of the most stressful exams I have ever taken in my life. I do not really stress much but if you asked my Jenn K she would say “you were freaking out!” Which I totally was. I was just not prepared for that final; there was a period of about a week that I was not feeling well because I was most likely going through another bout of kidney stones. Then finally when I was feeling well again; I lost a week of studying and it was just so difficult to get caught up to the material. The way I explain third to people; is that the first half of the semester is pretty easy but do not let it get you into a sense of false security because the second half of the semester increases exponential in regards to the amount of material they expect you to learn. It’s like building a house; take your take with the foundation; nice and easy work then boom; walls and roof go up in a day. Well I was not ready for the roof or the walls; and my anxiety definitely showed. In the end I passed third semester relatively well. I dropped a full letter grade in viro (from B to C); wish always sucks but was totally fine by me considering the other option was failing the course and having to repeat; obviously something I could definitely not afford to do.

 Third semester done! Onto my first Holiday season on the island; which was a most excellent break :)  On that note; I think I shall leave you for now as I have my PMJ exam in a little over an hour from now. Ill finish up semester 4,5 and well 6 next time and I shall leave you with this pic I came across that just lightened up my day, so enjoy! ;)

Because, every day I be shuffling! ;)

So wish me luck!

Jonathan =)