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