Phew! 3 exams done, 3 weeks before the next round of 5! :S

Wow! Crazy, has it already been 10 days since my last post?

Where does the time go, honestly i do not know.  Oh I know into studying and fixing my car, haha.  So unfortunately this last week and a half is a bit of a blurr to me, so this posting may not be as complete as my usual ones, but Ill try my best.

Although by popular request i will post the pictures of my home shortly after posting so everyone may enjoy the lovely environment I am living in.  I also realized that I never posted the pictures of my Catamaran trip, so i will post a couple of those right now, since well, most of them are just of a bunch of random people and pretty much the same 5 just kept showing up, along with a couple of nice coastline pics, but overall perhaps not my best picture day.  Im sure you can forgive me, considering I was on a boat and was getting soaked by waves that were crashing over the front of it, but still it was a very enjoyable experience that left me relatively nice and burnt.  Not to mention I thoroughly enjoyed my snorkeling experience, even though my camera does not take underwater pictures.  Personally I did not even realize they had cameras that could take video and pictures above and below the water for so cheap, and good photos at that, for pretty much the same price I paid for my camera, which I think takes relatively nice pictures but not as nice as I would like.  Heck for an extra 25$ I could have had one that went underwater.  Oh well, live and learn.

So without further ado, here is my Catamaran pics (which occurred in the first week of school.....oops a bit behind schedule :P)

Cool Ass Sail Boat

Pelican on a Dock

The mast of our boat

Tug Boat! Got to love em!

Coast line of St. Kitts

One of the two other boats with us.

Crew Setting up the sails

Sail starting to go up

Heave!

Ho!

Yay! Sail is Up! Good work boys! :)

I swear there was a fish there :S

Cool shipwrecked boat, got to Snorkel there!

Big ass boat! The picture does not do it justice.

Coast line of Nevis.

Tequila firebombs or something, darn strong.

Thin Mamma island dog!

Her puppy, awww :)

Speaking of adventures, I am going to be going Hiking up Mt. Liamuiga this saturday, which I am very excited about, although may be saying that when I am done with the hike and every part of my body is aching.  It is a mountain that rises 3800 feet above Sea Level, and we will be climing up 2000 of those feet, they call it a "challenging" hike.  So that should be fun for someone who hasnt really done to much hard physical labour in a while.  Still there will be some awesome pictures I am sure and Ill be sure to post them shortly afterwards, hopefully within a couple of days :)

So as for exams, well as I mentioned, I studied my butt off, although not as well as I should have, which goes to show you, you put in what you get out, no wait, you get out what you put in :P  Anyways, jokes aside, I did relatively well, but no where close to my standards, but I was pretty much above the average in all of my classes besides my first exam which was the Microanatomy exam, which i spoke about in a previous blog.  As for my other three exams, which were Physiology, Anatomy and Nutrition, I got an A, a B+ and a B respectively.  Which is pretty decent, but I could have done better, but i wont be to hard on myself, as the recurring proverb is over here:  What do you call the guy who got a C.......................A veterinarian! =D  So atleast I am on my way to be a vet, but still it is more of a personal thing, I have high standards for myself and I expect myself to perform.  I guess this means going out a bit less on the weekends, and making sure Im actually up to date on my readings.  Less booze, more books! :)

FYI, just so you are aware of the grading scheme over here, it is:
A = Excellent 90% or higher
B+ = Very good 87 - 89%
B = Good 80 - 86%
C+ = Average 77 - 79%
C = Passing 70 - 76%
F = Failing 69% or lower

So a pretty basic grading scheme, but like they have always told us, KISS (Keep It Simple Silly, I know some of you may know it another way, but still I never enjoyed the other word associated with the final letter). 


Still I do not like to be associated with Passing / Average or just Good.  No offense to any of my fellow colleagues who may read this from time to time, but to me anything in the C range is unacceptable, and if I can get a B, then I can damn sure get a B+.

Anyways, thanks y'all for reading, and sorry about the lack of details in regards to what has been going on in the last 10 days, but to be honest, it has been pretty much school and a couple of nights out, along with some physical activities (not those kind for those people with their minds in the gutter, hmmm or maybe just mine is :P), which including softball and soccer, which may be a reason why I felt a little behind, because I was just so darn tired after soccer, and well saturday was my day to clean up my house and do errands.

Like I said live and learn and a little more concentrated effort on my part and I should be able to get those As I am aiming for or at the very least those B+ ;)

Ill post again soon, when Im done with my mountain Hike :)

Jonathan =D
PS: Any charitable donations are always appreciated, its tough being a student ;)

One communications lab + one birthday party + one weekend of studying = one interesting week.

So another interesting week in vet school, although sunday is not done yet, I am hoping this sunday is relatively sane :P

Although in a few hours I do get to go visit the "zoo" finally.  As I mentioned in my last post, there were some complications involved in going to the zoo last weekend, so I never had the chance to get the rounds and see what I need to do to feed the animal and what not.   So I am going with a couple of friends today, that way i can be independent for next sunday when I need to go on my own.  Although most likely I will not be waiting until 11am to be going to the zoo as my friends are.  A tad late for me, but you know ladies, I guess they need there beauty rest.  Im more of an early riser, as I woke up at 7am this morning to make myself a delicious omelette along with some coffee and nice cool refreshing glass of OJ.  Mmmmm deliciouso ;) 

I figure in the future, be at the zoo for like 8h30-9h00 that way I could go to school and get a good start on the day with some studying.  I guess we will see how that pans out, because who knows what a saturday night will be like over here, I chose not to go out this saturday, or stay out too late on friday unlike some of my friends who are making it kind of a religious thing now.  Which i can totally understand the need to decompress, but staying out to (sorry if I offend anyone) some crappy bars until 3am every friday just seems a bit odd.  I know it is more the miggling with your colleague, and of course the drunken stupidness helps, but after doing it for the first three weekends, I think I am more or less over it.  Who knows maybe it because in Montreal, I could go to a different club/bur/pub every day of the week and probably still not have done every place in the entire year.  Over here, you have the Strip, which is pretty much where all the bars are located on the side of the beach, but pretty much only two of them are of any interest as the other ones are just swarmed by locals, who are worse then the predators (or creepers as my friends call them) back home.  Hence the same reason not to head to downtown Basseterre, where there are a couple of clubs apparently, but who wants to harassed all night.  Okay, fair enough I am a guy, and I have not been harassed as of yet, one of the advantages of being a man, not to mention one of the advantages of being a man at vet school on a Caribbean island where the girls easily outnumber you 4:1; but on the flip side, the school is so small, that word passes quickly.  Heck one of my friends who was sick in bed, found out I had a good time by the time she woke up in the morning, how is that even possible?  So one needs to be careful and precarious about what the do on this island.  Me personally, I have always said girls and schooling can be a bit problematic, they are a distraction and can just add unneeded stress to your already difficult and heavy course load.  Sure a fling once in a while would be nice and fun, but then it would have to literally be that, a fling and in my personal experience there is always one party who cannot handle that, me being one of them.  I realized awhile ago, I get to emotionally attached and not sure if I can do the "f**k+done" routine.  Some are quite good at it, me, not so much.  Who knows though, maybe in a few months that could change, but at the moment I am enjoying the company of one person, we just hang out and chill, she has a great sense of humour and we just seem to get along very well, although there are many complications surrounding her.  Hmmm why do the ones with problems always seem to draw me in, my first long term relationship the girl was still living with the guy when she met me, the one after that, had emotional imbalances and was seeing professional help, and now this one, well I will not get into online, but once again the mind is filled with emotional stress and complications.   I see things simply and never try and think to far down the road, you like me now, I like you now, that is all that matters.   I guess to each their own as I can totally understand the perspectives of others and why they may feel a certain way, but if the mind is clouded or unsure, then a decision can normally be found relatively quickly if you just thought about it for a bit.  Like I said for now I am enjoying myself and that is what really matters, I feel comfortable, something I have not felt in awhile.

Anyways it was my friends birthday on friday night, so we went to have supper at this nice little restaurant and actually the food was quite good.  I had a redsnapper fillet (Mmmmm very tasty) which was quite delicious, although perhaps a little on the dry side, and a bit of lemon zest or something would have been nice.  Overall the meal was excellent, although I arrived like 30mins late as I was baking my friend a cake; an upside down pineapple cake.  Which I think turned out nicely, Ill have to let them tell me if they find it delicious though ;)  So I arrived a bit late, which was not so bad as one of our friends, who arrived 2hrs late, slightly tipsy at that.  Which i just found a bit funny as he told us to order him something because he was on his way, so in the end we had to wait for him to eat as they only brought him his food when he got there (which is acceptable).  Either way it takes like 30mins to get and pay for your bills over here, so I guess waiting a little bit was not really waiting in the end :P  One of my other friends, became quite tipsy during the meal as she was sipping on a rum concauction that she brought in her water bottle, the waitress who was named Jolie (I told her it stood for pretty, she had never known that, I think she took a liking to me after that), found this quite amusing, actually she found out entire group a bit amusing I think hehe.  What can I say, we are just pretty darn awesome! :)

After the restaurant we mosied on down to the strip which was a short little walk away from the restaurant.  Of course in a span of a couple of hours the place was filled with students from Ross and within a couple of hours after that most people were very tipsy, some even too tipsy, or I guess you could say drunk :P  It is interesting to watch the interactions of others, I have always enjoyed doing that when on public transport or what not, but here to watch how people interact differently when out and about as they try and decompress from the long week makes it even more interesting.  I am sure Dr. Phil could give me a few interesting quidbits about how the human mind works.  One girl gets drunks and then constantly flirts with locals (something they told us never to do!), another friend flirting with a friend who they normally say are nasty as he flirts with everyone, another girl surprisingly flirting with someone I did not think she was interested in, other just being calm and reserved, others letting loose on the dance floor. 

Which leads me into my last topic in this blog, the human psyche and human interactions, or "communications" as the school would like to call it.  Earlier in the week, we had another communications lab, which is pretty much where they make you sit down and interact with the teachers in various scenarios.  They showed us this ridiculous video in class, where  an experienced vet just pretty ran towards a dog, overbearing on the animal, so of course the animal acted aggressively, then the flip side is always totally a different thing.  Reminded me of those infomercials where they would spill a mess "ever have this happen to you" and they would just spread the dirt around with a nasty mop, and then take out a new invention/improvement that would solve all of your problems.  Kind of funny.  Anyways, then they arranged us into groups and provided a scenario, where one of the teachers was a client with an animal who had fleas and we had to discuss with the client, showing various "qualities" that they were looking for.  Such as: empathy, reflective statements, acknowledging the client (with head agreements, verbal okays and mmmhms, or body language and so on).  Which is what they made us do with a video as well, where they had us do a video with our classmates and pretty much recorded ourselves doing the exact same thing, and then grading ourselves on how we did on those aspects.

I think these labs are actually quite nice, although a bit discomforting, especially when you do not really have a real patient or client, i think it would be easier to interact with a teacher if you had an animal in front of you and they were actually coming in for an appointment.  I can understand why they are doing this, as it can only help us for the future and make us more comfortable when we do finally have to see clients.  Some of it is a bit over the top, I have never seen a vet confirm and reiterate herself so many times, once at the beginning then throughout the conversation, then once again to confirm the plan at the end, and then one last summary before the client leaves.   Although apparently they have studies showing that all these things improve client compliance and hence improve income generated for the clinic.  I just find it a bit over the top and unnatural, I guess hence why they are trying to burn it into our brain starting in these early semesters.  If i can Ill post the video of the mock consultation I did earlier on, and you can rate me yourself :P  Although I know i missed a couple of key points that they wanted, such as reiterating the plan and reflecting a bit more with the client, but overall I think I did an excellent job.  Atleast my clients have always appreciated me and found me very receptive and I think that is partially because I already touch most of the points they wanted.

Anyways that is my wrap up for this week, I'm off to learn some anatomy, then the zoo, then to school for a microanatomy TA session (which I hope clarifies some things), then an Anatomy tutor session where I get to run through a mock exam, then finally some soccer and then if I am lucky supper ;)

Thanks y'all reading!

Jonathan =D
PS: remember if you ever can, I have a nice little DONATE button on the side bar, anything is appreciated as Ill explain my financial dilemmas in my next posting, the burden of being a Canadian resident and going to the school down here :S

One exam down and two new tires........

Yay!!!!!  Ill just start off with that, one exam down and now another 3 to go (just in case you are wondering, that would be: Anatomy, Physiology & finally Nutrition).

I am hoping by the end of this week, I will know my Anatomy inside and out, Nutrition partially and well physio somewhat, then hopefully destroy Physio this weekend along with Nutrition.  Out of my last three midterms, Physio actually concerns me the most, as the teacher presents a general overview of things, but there is a bunch of information and a lot of processes going on.  Even though I have taken physiology in the past, I still think it is a very difficult class and kinda wished it was one of the classes I did over, instead of having to redo Physics or Calculus.

So as for my Microanatomy/Histology exam that I did this morning, Id like to think I did very well.  There was a good rhythm going at one point, but the first 15 questions were kind of tricky, and also i believe I kind of went through it a bit too quickly the first time.  The teacher telling us we had about one minute per question got me a little nervous, so i kind of just flew threw the exam putting my first instinct.  I realized after re-reading it a second time (this time in a more controlled and calm manner), that i did a few careless mistakes and perhaps did not pay attention to the wording as well as I should have.  I ended up changing a good 10 of my answers, which could be either a very good thing, or perhaps I messed up and changed a couple of wrong answers. Although i am pretty sure at least half of them were initially wrong, which means that the other 5 were either initially wrong as well, or I switched it from a right answer to a wrong answer, which is always a bit frustrating when you get your answer sheet back.

On top of my exam I had my teacher asking me personally how I found it, as I think he believes i understand the course information well and was looking to me as a guide to his exam. I told him, that I found it was a decent and fair exam, although some of the questions could have been left out as he didnt put any emphasis on that really during the class.  On those questions I just made the best educated guess i could do.  Here's to crossing my fingers and hoping I aced it, because I personally do not want to accept anything less than that.

Now that i got that off of my chess, let me tell you about the rest of the week I had since my last posting.  Well the beginning of the week was relatively uneventful, although I have been hanging out with a very nice friend a bit more, and I have to say they are a lot of fun.   Nice to chill and study with someone, or a group of people for that matter who share a similar your kind of sense of humour, although it makes the study groups a little less effective.  In the future, Ill be sure to slap on my music and zone into my notes and studying, as I have to kick it hard core this week if I want to be able to pass everything the way I want and never mind just passing, I want to kill them and also remember it.  Nothing bothers me more, than learning something and not remembering all that information I learned. One of the nice differences of this school is that they actually seem to care about the information they are giving you, that they actually want you to remember it and not just regurgitate and pass like I have felt in some other schools.  The course load is heavy, but very doable.  Ill just have to restrict the amount of fun I am having over the next couple of weeks. 

Okay so back to my week, at least i think it was this week.  Well I had some pretty good Indian food, although apparently not the best on the island.  We went to Bombay Palace, and i tried a bit of my friends butter chicken, which was very good, then something similar to butter chicken but it had tofu instead of chicken.  My meal was like this spicy spinach concauction with delicious mutton (mmmm you know like in a nice MLT, you know a mutton lettuce tomato sandwich, when the mutton is just right........ for those of you who get this, you Rock!).   So it was good, but apparently the best Indian food on the island is Pride of India, which apparently we will check out in the next couple of weeks.  There is also apparently a Star of India (a restaurant I recognize from home, but apparently it sucks ass!!!!).

Then the rest of my week was me being somewhat studious, did a study group on thursday, which was very informative.  On friday I took it pretty easy, because I decided to go to Beach Fest.  Which is this giant party on the beach the entire day (I took some pictures with a friends camera, so hopefully i will get some of those pics and I could post them, although I have a feeling that will not occur :S).  Beach Fest was pretty nice, spent the day at the Beach drinking a bunch of free rum punches (for only 35EC = $13US), which I have to say I got my money's worth.  Although what i should not have done, was drink the rest of my friends two Vodka/Tings (for those of you who do not know, Ting is like this mild grapefruit/lemon drink, atleast I find it tastes like it), and here they call Vodka & Ting = Ting with a Sting, which is kind of a cute name.  Anyways by the time 16h30 rolled in, I wasnt feeling too hot, was feeling sun burnt and I actually felt dehydrated, thick tachy saliva, tachy mucous membranes, low energy, a small headache, I was like hmmm I actually dehydrated myself.  Luckily there was someone who wanted to leave, so I caught a ride with her and another person, and a good friend was kind enough to take care of me, although my stomach was turning on me, so I had to ingest water slowly.  A shower was great, not to mention the tylenol i popped.  I then passed out for like a ridiculous amount of time, fell asleep till about 21h30, woke up, tried to eat something, stomach started turning, so went back to bed and didnt wake up till about 07h00.  I havent slept like that in a long time.

Good news was, i wasnt hungover, and I felt in tip top shape ;)  Initially my sunday was going to be a busy day, but it seems like everything fell apart, I dropped a friend off at school then went back home for 8h00, so i could meet up with my mechanic.  Ever since he "fixed" my car, which I believe I mentioned included a change of almost everything, the car has been ridiculously noisy.  So I call him, and he is like okay I will be coming by, and I happen to mention that I believe the noise is due to the engine manifold.  The only reason I even knew this was because I brought my car to get an alignment (which btw is done in such a poorly done fashion over here, they have the little machine to check the alignment, but they just eyeball the level of it, they have no computers or machines to make sure ot it.  So after the initial alignment, my steering wheel was almost 90o from its original position, so I brought it back, had it redone, and now it is still a couple of degrees off to the right, meaning I put my wheel straight and I slide a bit to the left. :S  Once I find someone who can do a proper alignment on this island, Ill probably have it redone) and I had a chance to finally check the undercarriage of my car.  Luckily the guy did exhaust systems as well, something he actually seemed to know something about and he told me straight up, that it was the engine manifold, but that was not something he would take care of.   So back to my mechanic, I mentioned to him that it was that, and he is like, oh ya, that is what we talked about last time (which I do not really remember him mentioning, he said there was a minor hissing sound due to something, this is no hissing, I have an elf hitting some pots and pans in my engine cab). 

So my mechanic appointment was canceled as there was no use in him coming until he gets the parts.  My next meeting was at 10oclock at the local zoo, but I get an email from the girl I was supposed to meet, that she was hungover and that she couldnt make it and she wanted to reschedule.  I called her and said maybe, then later on I texted her saying I do not think it would be possible, as I had pre-arranged plans as I had an exam the next day.  She literally had the nerve to text me back "well we are all in vet school and all of our schedules are a bit tight, the only way the zoo functions is if everyone compromises and helps out, you are the only one who has not been trained, sorry about this morning but nothing I can do about it".  I shortened it a little, but that was the just of it.  So I text back, I understand about this morning, and that is fine, but unfortunately I was ready for my responsibilities this morning, unlike some, and if anything Ill go next sunday (when it is not my shift to see how it works).  I never got a response =P  Although I did get a response from the president of the ZEW club, and she agreed with me completely, and enjoyed my enthusiasm apparently. Either way apparently this girl has done things like this in the past and is not the most reliable person in the world.  

So anyways, then I had a TA session from 12-2, followed by a tutoring session from 2-4, which was cancelled unfortunately.  So my pretty all planned out day, more or less fell apart.  Although I did have the chance to play some soccer in the afternoon, it was quite enjoyable.....I am out of shape haha.

Then finally to top everything off right before my exam, I blew out a tire this morning, and then realized my jack was rusted shut and i did not have anything to remove my lug nuts :(  Luckily a few students stopped to help, the first one to give me a jack, which is when i realize i did not have anything to remove my lug nuts.  The next person to stop gave me one, but there's wouldnt fit on my lock nut, it was pretty much stripping it.  In the end I waited for security to come and help me change my tire and I had it to my morning class on time. 

Then I had my exam (which i think I did well, but I do not want well, i want amazing), then got out a bit early for lunch, so I drove, got me some supplies (a jack, a proper wrench and while i was at it, two brand new tires), which ended up costing me close to 450US or like 1200EC, which sucks, but atleast by the time I am done with this car it should be in better condition than when i got it, which intially i save 2000$ from the guy selling it, so put in another $1000-$1500 Im still doing pretty good :)

Then to wrap up my day, the school offered 1st semester students Pizza as a way to say, way to go you finished your first exam.  Which was very sweet.

That about covers it, wow, didnt think I had so much to say, although I think Ive said that before :S  Now it is mad studying time, it is currently almost midnight, just took a bit of a break to finish this blog, and then perhaps another 30mins of studying then dodo time.

Thanks Y'all for reading, until the next one =D

So much in just 5 days.....

WOW, I can't believe it has already been five days since my last post, well technically six days, but my last post was before the 24hr mark, so lets call it five still :P

I last left off with me heading to ZEW, which I have to say, it was not exactly what i thought it was going to be, but atleast it is something considering what they have to work with on the island.  Im sure in a few years this club will have developed much more.  My biggest interest in this club, is the chance to go help out the "zoo" animals and also the possibility of working with sea turtles so i can apply for a future position with one of the veterinarians here who works with locals to help save, educate and re-populated the leather back sea turtles (hmmm okay, Ill double check on the leather back part, it may be hawksbills :S). 

Either way, it would be an experience of a life time.  As to why I put zoo animals in quotations, well there zoo down here is more or less a wildanimal shelter/farm.  It has some goats, chickens, a peacock, an iguana, and I believe a couple of mongooses.  Either way, they are considered exotic animals and are animals I would not normally have a chance to work with.  Plus you can always take a trip to some exotic locations, such as Africa to help with animals over there.  Although one of those trips will normally cost you something in the range of $1500-2000US, which is something I could probably never afford :(  For now Ill just stay positive.

I joined one other club, which was PAWS.  Which I think is just awesome, because they are truly hear to try and help the animals of the island and help instill change by educating the locals.  Something that i volunteered for as well.  I think I am a pretty good speaker, my voice carries well, and well i think I would quite thoroughly enjoy going to local schools teaching young kids about what animals are, how they should be treated and what kind of care is considered acceptable or not.  Once again there is a very fine line that one must walk when doing this kind of project, as you cannot just impose change, but it must occur through enlightenment.  So i look forward to that. 

I am looking even more forward to the week I get to feed the tortoises at school, there is about eight of them on the school properties and I get to feed them for a full week (the school will reimburse me for any produce I buy).  I just cant, it will be a nice down time moment of my day, a very nice way to start my morning me thinks.

So back to the last five days, well it was been studying studying, and then too much slacking, which sucks.   As my first exam is on this coming monday, which is histology/microanatomy, then I have another 3 exams the week after, which is the real exams to worry about.  Nutrition, along with Physiology (a bunch of info, but teacher gives very little, makes me a bit worried), then the one I really want to kill, Anatomy!!!  So much to know, so many functions, but it is just a matter of hammering it home, and Im going to check out a tutoring sessing, as apparently it helps to speak to someone, and they will ask you similar question to the exam to get your mind thinking on the same page, such as: what are the muscles that stabilize the shoulder joint? what are the ones that help adduct the limb?  what muscles in general attach on the lateral epicondyl of the humerus? and so on.  So we shall see, the tutor told me, she will amaze me with what i can learn, I am leaving that up for judgement at the moment :P

So, on friday, we went out for a friends belated birthday, a friends birthday and a friends early birthday.  We had sushi!!!!  Mmmmmm sushi, it had been so long.  Okay not the best sushi in the world, considering it was served at the Marriot hotel, and well personally they added too much spicy asian mayo to everything, which kind of overpowered the other flavours in the sushi.  Overall it was a nice experience.  Then of course after supper, we just had to go out, well initially I did not want to, then everyone convinced me, to come out for an hour.  Of course when friends say an hour, it never means an hour, so i ended up staying out til a little past midnight, after being a little annoyed with a personal situation that was going on.  One reason why I have always said it is very difficult to deal with girls during school, I think sometimes the homosexual men of the school have it a bit easier :P  

Anyways, then on the way home, the best part, my car just dies!!!!  So now I am stuck in the middle of this dark ass road, trying to see into the hood of my car with the crappy light on my phone (thank god for that light attachment, I found it soooo silly initially, now I will never dis it again).   Luckily I had a nice jug of water in my car, as my car was already having a bit of a problem, initially i thought it was a leaky radiator, but oh no, it was more than that.  After waiting about 30mins, with my drunken friend passed out in the back seat (she was hammered shit face :P), the car starts up again and I am able to drop her off and get myself back home. 

First thing in the morning, I call a mechanic (a different one than the guy I initially used), to see if he cannot help me out.  Unfortunately he was off island on saturday, but he said he could come and get my car on sunday, which is amazing considering like everything is pretty much closed on sundays, very religious area.

So he picks up my car, and after a quick inspection with him and another mechanic, they pretty much decide it is my water gasket, which I looked up online, makes perfect sense, considering the puttering I was having, the stalling and what not.   For those of you who do not know, the water gasket is the seal along the side of your engine, that prevents water from leaking into your engine when running.  As some of you may or may not know, water + oil = does not mix well.  So the oil in my system, was turning into this lovely mixture, which technically could have really messed up something in my car at any point in time.  Lucky me that he was willing to start on it on a sunday, and even more lucky that there was a car parts store open on sunday.

While he was at it, I told him, do what I wanted the first guy to do, or atleast what he said he agreed to do for the price he asked for.  Which was 250EC to do a complete tune-up, which included changing the oil and oil filter, checking the air filter, changing the spark plugs and gas filter.  In the end I found out, that his idea of a complete tuneup meant checking that the solutions were okay and then making sure my lights worked, along with an oil change and oil filter.   So in the end I spent 400EC for the parts (which included everything I just mentioned including a gallon of oil, a gallon of antifreeze, a radiator cap, as the seal on mine was broken, and of course a water gasket, oh an sealant for the gasket).  Then I had to cough up another 600EC for the labour, which he got talked down from 800EC, so in total it cost me approx. $370US, which to be honest in the grand scheme of things it is not that bad.  Hopefully by the end Ill have a car that works relatively well, and one that I can actually keep with less difficulties for the rest of the time I am on this island.

So I am hoping to get my car back today, it was supposed to be yesterday, but apparently since most people do not have proper garages here on the island, he could not work on my car because it was raining most of the day before.   Because of that, I lost a wager to a friend, and it seems like I owe her a dinner now, which is suits me just fine ;)

Off I go to school now, since my lift will be here in a few minutes and I still have not brushed my teeth :S  

Hope everyone is having a lovely week and Ill speak to y'all again sometime soon ;)

Jonathan =D
PS: I made some amazing chilli and cheesecake this week, hope you are all jealous :P

Finally a regular updaet =D

Alrighty, sorry it took me a couple of days longer than expected (seems as if I am always apologizing for this), but unfortunately I lost my internet connection for a couple of days, something that happens quite regularly on this island, altthough Im lucky to say i have never lost my power as of yet (knock on wood)..........

Darn it, there goes my power.  Just kidding :P

So this week has been going well so far, have been concentrating on learning my Anatomy, which I truly believe is one of the most important classes for me right now.  I want to learn my anatomical features like the back of my hand, or the front, because honestly how often do you really look at the back of your hand?  Okay, maybe not even my hands at all, maybe know them as well as I know my ABCs :P

At the moment, most of it is sinking in pretty well, although that darn Omotransversarius is being the bane of my existance, i do not know why, I just cant seem to remember it.  We joke that Ill get it finally on the exam, and Ill be like "In your face -Omotransversarius, booooyaaah!"  Although I would probably be asked to leave the exam room for calling out an answer :P  Who knows maybe typing about it, Ill finally remember it hehe :)

As for my other classes, I am not to worried really at the moment, I have done quite a bit of Nutrition before hand and the information is being assimilated really well.  The other class Into to Vet Med, is pretty much an ethics and get to know the profession class, so it should be easy marks as long as i do the work on time and in a proper fashion, hoping to get most of it down in the next week, hopefully have it ready by the end of the weekend.  Then I have physiology, with a very amusing teacher, one of my classmates, who is quite amusing as well, said he sounds like Rafiki from the Lion King.  I have to say I would agree with that assessment, although I would never tell him :P  Physio should be a little harder than nutrition, but i am not to worried as well, especially since the exam is around mid -February mark.

My first exam coming up, which most students are stressing about it, is Microanatomy (with a bit of development biology mixed in).  I am acing the laboratory section, but the class part is a bit more challenging.  Especially since the teacher tends to give information and then tell us, "but you do not need to know that right now" or "this is more than you need to know at the moment".  So the exam is on January 31st, which means I really need to buckle down these next couple of days and on the weekend as to be honest I have not done much studying these last few days.

Although I do have a good reason, as I have been running around getting supplies for my car, as it has a small radiator leak and since most stores close at 5pm and I normally finish school at 4pm, that leaves me like an hour to go shopping :S 

Plus yesterday I just had an absolutely lovely day, as just I was about to get into class at 13h00, I get a phone call from administration asking "are you going to pick up your animals".  I was like huh?  What do you mean.  Apparently there were on the customs loading dock since 10h00, and how nice it was of them to call me a whole 3hrs later.  So I rush to the airport to pick up my two cats, but unfortunately they forgot to remind to me bring close 700EC with me to pay the airport for shipping, to sign the paperwork, to pay the veterinarian inspection fee (which was the big one at 460EC), and then another 60EC to release them from customs.

FYI: 1US dollar = 2.70EC (Eastern Caribbean dollars).

Luckily I had enough on me to pay the airport, and the veterinarian told me I could pay him later on in the day.  Unfortunately the customs agent, would not release them without payment, and the only thing accept is Cash!!!  So I had to run to the ATM at the airport, which I found out that apparently it is only a banking machine, not an ATM.  Meaning I could only use my debit card (I was hoping to take out the cash on my credit card initially), meaning I had to take out all the money then and there, which sucked because it used up about 3/4 of the available funds I had left over for myself.  So now I am pretty much broke with only a few hundred EC dollars left (approx.  like 100$ US maybe a bit more). 

Then, since my cats came a day earlier than I was expecting, I was realized, Shit!  I do not have a little pan, or litter, so I then spent the rest of the day running around trying to find one that wasnt ridiculously expensive, and at the same time I decided to invest in some supplies to build them a lovely scratching post, as the ones here would be very expensive to buy, close to like 200-300EC, although in retrospect, all the supplies cost me close to 200EC :S  But I realized I over estimated everything and i could have easily build like 3 scratching posts out of it, perhaps a small business I can start for the future ;)
 
So in the end I got my cats and there are now adjusting well to there new environment.  Pebbles was the first to relax a little (big surprise) and Luna soon followed.   Ill try and post a couple of pics of them soon if I can, so you can all see what they look like ;)

Well thats it for now, I am off to a ZEW (Zoo Exotics Wildlife) group to see what they are all about, then time to study!!!!!

Until the next time ;)

Jonathan =D

My first week on the island! :)

The first animal we helped save, and we've only been on the island for 2 days! =D

So to start off, my plane was to depart at 17h10 from Montreal to JFK, my best friend, my bro and my dad saw me off, which was very nice.  Right before leaving my dad gave me a nice card signed by himself and my step-mom Lillian, although she wrote my name JOHNathan, Grrrrr, I still do not know how many times I have to remind my own family, that there are not TWO H's in my name, but oh well, c'est la vie, maybe when I finally have a doctorate in veterinary medicine they will finally write it properly.   My dad gave me a beautiful trio of gifts, one a gorgeous pen to write with, the next, a beautiful bracelet that I have worn much since getting it, and a bad ass watch, which to be honest, I would not dare wearing here in St. Kitts, as the last thing i would want to locals to think is that I actually have some money.

Apparently Kittitians have this view of white people that we are all rich, and have lots of money, which is understandable as that is all they see on tv, and that is all they normally see when a bunch of white people come off of those massive cruise ships and dock here for a couple of days.  What they do not realize is that most students, have ZERO money, so its hard trying to bargain with them sometimes, but if there is one thing I will be extrememely good at by the time I leave, it is bargaining.  As it seems you can pretty much bargain over anything over here ;)

So back to my initial departure, well I can of overestimated the amount of time needed to get through baggage claims, and we arrived way to early at the airport, so I then spent the next 2hrs and a half lounging around the airport, waiting for my plane to leave.   Finally the time comes, and I get boarded onto my plane, and take a nice little flight to JFK which at night is not very impressive, but it was nice to fly over the city and see all the lights as we landed.  Then as I land, and this is what I see.........

Booo, one of my bags missing....waited a good 30mins, did they ever show up? Nah ah!  So one 2hr flight, and one 75lbs giant blue bag missing :S

So after spending the next 13hrs here!!! annoyed by the fact that I was missing a bag, not able to really sleep on the UNCOMFORTABLE chairs in the airport, plus the few cots they did leave out were being monopolized by people who were not even sleeping.  Then after a few hours, I finally asked, excuse me, will you be using that, as I could get some rest, they decide to finally lie down, and sleep....grrrr.   Finally, tired as shit, I got boarded onto my plane to St. Kitts; which I have to say thankfully, I had my Ipod, because the music helped in passing the time, plus I brought the Cleric Quintet, a series of books I have been wanting to read for quite some time, but never had the chance.  Although I think the rest of the book may have to wait until after this semester :P

 Once on the plane, i pretty much pass out, for like 3hrs, and then spent the rest of the time staring out of the window.  Which I have to say the view was beautiful, this was view as we were intially coming in, what a nice way to greet me to the island.

The view of the island as we approached.

 Us landing!

We landed!!!!!!!  A small airport, but I guess it does the job!

I get off the plane, and it takes about a good hour and a bit to get the 200 something people through customs, which they warned us about, everything here on the island moves veeeeery slowly.  You will just have to get used to it they say, which I have say, I am quite thoroughly enjoying the pace of things over here.

Our bitchen OL!

 So once through baggage claims, with one bag still missing, I met up with a group of Ross OLs (orientation leaders) and a bunch of other students, and they greeted us very warmly and began to show us around.  They had a lovely pre-programmed schedule for all of us, with some free spots for us to do as we wished with our OLs.   We got grouped together according to living areas, and I have to say our Orientation group rocked!!!  Not to mention, I have to say our OL was probably one of the better ones around.  He infomed us thoroughly of everything, allowed us to discuss and make decisions as a group as to which activities we felt like doine, although of course some of them were mandatory.  Which I have to say, our first week here was a real pleasure, they took excellent care of us, and made sure we at least felt somewhat comfortable in getting to know our surroundings, so that way when the first week of school hit we did not feel lost or too lonely.  Not to mention the groups helped build some minor 

friendships which Im sure will last til we leave this island :)

My first real picture of the island :)

My OL group!!!  =D

Trying on our white coats, so what size we needed.

One of the group of turtles kept at school, one of them is a bully :P

An Egret, there are lots of them
awesome birds!

Mmmm subway anyone?
There is also a Dominos! :O

The lovely pink Insurance building

The local police

A local dog, there are soooo many
just roaming the streets! :S

A lovely garden in the middle of the city.

One of the many churches on the island
more per capita than any other state!

The volcano!! Bah Bah Baaaaah!

The boat we spent the day on for our first saturday on the island, a beautiful catamaran trip!
Plus I got to go snorkeling!!! :)

A sign telling people about Diabetes and HIV

Black Rock - made by volcano!

One of the many goats roaming around

I liked the positive nature of it!

Brimstone - this bad boy sunk close to 500 naval ships

View from Brimstone to the ocean

Our day of ziplinning, was a lot of fun, but I think tourists are getting giped; $85 US = Dang!

Our cool ass Taxi driver that we had for the week......SHOWTIME!!!!!

A cute monkey, there are more monkeys than people on the island :S

The oldest tree on the island, close to 250yrs old

A couple of buddies of our OL, I have to say they made the week,
all that much more interesting, plus they enjoyed giving out free beer!!!
Thanks Jimbo; thanks Whin! =D

There you have it, my/our first week on the island in a nut shell.  I have to say that first week was awesome!!!

Hopefully from this point on, I can post daily to help keep things flowing a little better, although I will post some pics of my kicking house later on ;)

Cheers! =D