To The Happy Couple

Congratulations are in order to my great friends Rich Sevilla and Beth Ryerson. They got engaged on the 4th at some location in the States.. and that's about all I know actually :P I haven't heard the story yet, but I look forward to it once we have the time to in each of our schedules (FT school for them, and FT work for moi). So yeah, when I know... believe me, you'll know. heh. though I guess it may be a really long time before you know considering my current trend with updating my blog and all :) So yay again! I'm sooo happy for them!

Wedding's currently set for the 20th of October, next year... in pleasant Greenville, SC. Sadly, I'll prob be in Grenada at that time in the middle of med and all... hmm.. maybe American Airlines or something will have some extravagant sale right then... wouldn't that be Providential... I could always hot air balloon it too... hmm....

They're sooo cute!

Update

So I've been meaning to blog and update and all that good stuff.. and I have pics and stories, and so much to tell... but obviously I haven't exactly gotten around to it yet.

I get my wisdom teeth taken out tomorrow morning at 8:30, so I'll prob be loopy for that day, then probably really not feeling up to update then either... so that's just to let you know what's up.

I have started my practicum, and it's going great! Another thing I mean to blog about... um.. okay, guess that'll do for now. I need sleep.

Clean Slate

My laptop crashed for good last night, so since then I've been reformatting, reinstalling my OS... Currently I'm updating and reinstalling all the programs.. I have to say, I love updating and installing :) no wonder my laptop gets full so quickly. Anywho... when it's finally up to par, I'll update in more detail. Til then...

It's a Wonderful Life

Check this out! It's a vid Eugene, Rich, and others made.. gotta say it's rock'n! Even if depressing :P

its a wonderful life

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Much delayed

Well, I left Grenada at 7:40 this morning when I should have left at 7... and I've now been stuck in Antigua since 930 because Liat cancelled our flight to San Juan. So we're about to catch an American Airlines flight to San Juan in a few minutes but because of all the delay, I'm going to have to overnight it in San Juan. Bah. I guess it's just another sleepless night. More details of trip to come later. :(

Update

I know I have been really slack in updating my blog this term, and for that I sincerely apologize. Sorry to have to make this one short too, but after another long sleepless night studying for my last final, I must conserve the min. remaining energy for a final boost of mind energy... right. Anywho, the point is, I have my last final today at 1pm. I need to do ever so well on this to seriously give my grade a boost, for as it stands now, it is very pitiful indeed. There really is no margin for error. So please pray for me if you would. I also have to turn in my final copy of my Capstone paper as well as last term's Promotion's work. So there is still very much to do...

Tonight's my make-up dinner party for some friends so that should be fun and hopefully relaxing :P Then I'll pack and catch my early morning flight out on Friday! Yay! Then sleep :)

Updates will follow, I promise! Just no idea how soon after. You know how it goes. Okay, well, back to studying!

To end on a happy note, here's some pics of Vasco and the new additions to the fam..

Kingsley, Jill & Aaron's cat

Brocolli, Jill & Aaron's Dog

Kingsley & Minche's meet and greet.. Black vs. White

...and it's Vasco!

HbA1C

I just want to share the great news that my bro's most recent HbA1C was 5.9! This is the lowest it's ever been since he's been a diabetic and a really great improvement over the last couple of results. A normal person's HbA1C is between 4.5 and 5.7, so my bro's really getting there! This is definately a cause for great rejoicing! The doc said that he seemed to really be doing a good job regulating his insulin and controlling his diet. Yay. My bro's really starting to grow up and take responsiblity for himself. I'm so proud of him ^_~

He'll prob throttle me if he ever finds out I posted this... but I'll deal with that should the event occur :)

In Memory Of Lady

I am so sad and heartbroken right now. I'm sure some people won't understand how it is possible to be so emotional over the death of a dog, and one that wasn't even mine. Lady was Paul and Kate's dog, and to me she wasn't just "some dog." To me she was almost like a rambunctious, wild child who adored you and wanted only ever just be with you and play with you. She wanted so much to be with those she loved, and tried so hard to stay with them that in the end, she died trying.

But tonight, though tears have been shed and may very well still be shed, I take with me the picture of her lopsided happy grin, with her tongue hanging out... and adoring, ready to please eyes.


I'll miss you, Lady.

Skytop

This is the story of a house called Skytop. Well, not really, I guess it's more a recount of events relating to a house called Skytop. Which I guess is the same thing, only from my point of view? Eh, whatever. Okay, so my roomie, who we shall call Deann because, well, that's her name, and I have been planning on moving from our current place of residence in the Bouganvillea Apartments of Mourne Toute for the January term. We've been keeping a watch on the SGU Post for postings of available housing that seem to suit our needs. My roommate found a post for a 3 bedroom house in Lance Aux Epines. She went to visit, and called me right after seeing it. She was so excited and what she told me made me made me really excited to see the place.

So the following day, during my 12pm break between classes, Deann took me up to see the place. And wow. It was incredible. I was only able to see the outside since the doors were locked, but there was a clear view of the living room and patio from the back yard. And speaking of the yard... it was HUGE! I mean simply ginormous! And the view... the house is situated on top of a hill so that the backyard and driveway overlook Prickly Bay and the beach. You can even see the True Blue campus from the yard. The backyard was completely overgrown with grass coming up past the knees. There was no screening on an of the windows, and no furniture to be seen. But none of that mattered. I was in love :P My roomie was in love.


So we went back to the apartment and my roomie called up that was handling the house rental for the owners. And the news.. was grim. She told Deann that just that morning the wife of a visiting vet professor had come to look at the place and that they were going to move in at the end of the week. My roomie was devastated. I was crestfallen, but optimistic. I guess my roomie had an extra day on me for the house to grow on her, so it was hitting her a bit harder than me. She told the lady to take her number and that if anything happened or came up to give us a call. The lady promised and that was that. Deann was really down about it for days. It really was a let down. It seemed the perfect place and had everything we ever wanted for an incredible rent. I mean, I was disappointed, but I guess not obviously so, cuz Deann asked me, "How can you still be so peppy all the time? Is it a Christian thing?" I laughed and was kind of surprised even. I just told her that for me I just see it as God's will, even though I am kind of sad about it. But that if He wanted us to have it, He'd make it happen.

Heh. For days after we'd plot about stalking the couple who "stole" our house or how we could make the house unappealing to them. But we never followed up on it. They were supposed to move in on a Friday, and Sunday when I drove by on the bus to the Gardenghi's it seemed uninhabited with no car in the driveway and no seeming life inside. But of course that meant nothing because I mean, I don't have a car and the house is big enough that 2 people inside can be easily hidden :P

Then Wed or Thursday my roomie heard a piece of news... apparently the couple weren't very happy with the place and were looking to move elsewhere. This was a very encouraging piece of news, though did make me wonder what could have been so bad to have made them not want it. My roomie said she'd look the professor up and ask him about it and see if he was still considering moving and that if he was to tell her first cuz we wanted first dibs on the place. She finally caught up with him on Friday and called me right after. She was ecstatic. The couple apparently moved in Friday but moved out the very next day. A miracle! I mean, it was unbelievable. I asked how that could be and why, and she said that they were an older couple and since the house was completely unfinished with no screening, scant furniture they had gotten eaten up that Friday night by mosquitoes and found the place unappealing unfinished.

We were so excited! Immediately upon returning home my roomie called the lady up and she confirmed that the couple had moved out but that she had promised the house to someone else. Again, we were like, "WHAT?!" She said she was looking for the girl of a purple car that she had promised the house to. My roomie was like, "That's me!" Apparently the lady had lost Deann's number and had been trying to track her down all week and now we were contacting her! She said that we could go take another look around the place since there were workers there working on the house and the doors would be unlocked.

I was finally able to take a look around the inside of this wonderful dream house and the inside was just as the out. There are 3 spacious bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Each bedroom had lots of closet space. The master bedroom is huge with a walk-in closet and own bathroom. The other 2 bedrooms technically share a bathroom since they have adjoining doors to the bathroom, but with 3 bathrooms in the house, each roommate would have their own bathroom. The "separate" bathroom even has a pseudo bathtub. There is an extensive patio and large full size kitchen with full size stove and fridge. It also has plenty of cabinet space. Included is a washing machine that we plan on just using for emergencies to cut down on electricity cost.

When we got there the workers were putting up screening and the lady taking care of the house told us that she was going to put an A/C unit in one of the bedrooms. They had cut some of the lawn in the back so we could actually walk around a bit and see the back of the house. My roomie talked about how she could see all the study parties and barbecues she could throw and started planning out a house warming party :)



We called up our former 3rd roomie, Breon, to see if she could convince her father to let her move in with us. We gave her a lower rent because we knew her father had wanted her to move in the first place because the other place had been cheaper. Deann said that she had a friend that lived close to where Breon is now living and that her friend had just gotten robbed a few days ago in broad daylight and her boyfriend had gotten roughed up. Breon said she'd try to convince her dad. Well, Deann called me tonight with the sad news. Breon wasn't able to convince her parents to let her move. She hadn't even been able to say anything because her father didn't even want to hear about it. It was sad. Sad mostly for Breon, but for us as well, because now we're short a roommate and we'd rather not have to foot the whole rent on our own. So we've got an ad up in the SGU post and we'll see if we have any takers.

As it is I'll already be paying for 2 months rent for when I'm not even here to take advantage of it *sighs* oh well. We've called our landlady here and left messages to let her know that we were looking to move to another place. Since we haven't really actually signed a renewed lease, we're technically not obligated to stay. But we want to give her about a months notice to give her some time to find replacement tenants for our current apartment. Hopefully she'll let us go with not too much trouble. Deann will prob have to pay some money because of some damage the cats have done to the furniture here, but other than that, the place is still in good condition. We're hoping to move in around the 9th or 10th of October, though the 1st would be great as long as we can get out of this place. We'd rather not be paying for rent in two places and only staying in one. So yup yup... Things in housing are looking up :)

Genius Friends

Figures my friends are those who can so well make me feel so inferior :p

My bud Andy (who recently got the enthusiastic nod of approval from his girl Jemima Yumena's parents.. yay!), successfully completed the below quiz in 2 min 14 sec (he even friggin timed himself! Well, check out his blog and you wouldn't be so surprised). So... anyone care to challenge?

Japanese IQ Test

Here's a mind bending IQ test that should be at least relatively familiar to most of us. Thanks go to Paul for sending me the link. Took me about 10-15 min to solve, and even on repeat tries, I still had to think about it. How long does it take you?

New Advisor

So I've had a new advisor every term that I've been in the MPH program. First advisor was Mr. Gerald St. Cyr, current Capstone Practicum Coordinator. He was new to the staff and faculty when I started in January and gave up his advisees the following term due to the work load and responsibilities he had as the practicum coordinator. He was nice, til he started getting in the weeds with trying to get students practicum sites. I think he was frustrated and the myriad students coming up to him and all asking him the same questions about their practicum sites and when they were going to see results or whatever started getting to him. I can understand that. I'd prob start getting pretty peeved myself after the 58th person to ask me if I'd found them a practicum site yet.

Second term, I had Dr. Kianre Eouanzoui. He was our Biostats prof first term in Jan. I'm pretty sure I've blogged about that in the past, so I'll leave that for you to review. He's not here this term, though I'm not sure why. Maybe he had some unfinished business to take care of, or maybe he got sick of the students and some of the crazy attitudes and rumors he'd get from them.. not sure. He was signed on as the permanent Biostats prof, but this term, Dr. Forde is teaching it again, and Dr. Eouanzoui is nowhere to be found. Even his office has been reassigned to others. Kind of sad. I hope if he is gone for good, he doesn't leave with all together a bad impression. That would be sad and unfortunate

This term, I have a new advisor, Mr. Brian Neff. I didn't even know I had one til I was walking by the office and realized that Dr. Eouanzoui was gone. So I asked the secretary who m new advisor was and she informed me it was Mr. Neff. I thought it would be a good idea to at least intoduce myself and such so I went to his temp office and told him who I was and he said it would be great to just sit down and talk a bit. So we went to the back break room area and had a nice little chat. He's brand new to the University, but apparently here for good. He was a hydrologist from Michigan and I found some info online that he was doing some stuff with United States Geological Survey. He told me some more about himself and how he arrived with no info whatsoever. Didn't even get a welcome package that we students received when we first got accepted, so hasn’t' really had much to go on. He was offered the opportunity to do a PhD in microbiology while he is here on staff and after reviewing the program, is going to go for it. So he's kind of a student-teacher, but not. He seems really nice and cool. I like him and think that this may be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. lol. Anywho, he's going to be taking over teaching Environmental Health. He said he didn't even realize he was going to be teaching the class til he got here about 2-3 weeks ago, so he's been going over Dr. Forde's notes and slides and taking out things he doesn't need/want. I think he'll be a good prof, though of course my opinion is based only on a 15-20 min convo with him. We talked some about my practicum and he gave me some advice on that. I'd say he's prob advised me more profitably than either of my two previous advisors have combined. I left with some things to think about and consider, which is a good thing, and felt like we'd actually accomplished something.

So for my practicum, I'm looking into something maybe related to pediatrics and emergency medicine. Mr. Neff suggested maybe looking into doing something with disaster relief/preparation... even out of States. He thought maybe that the Red Cross, or other humanitarian societies would even pay for my flight, room, and board if I volunteered my time and services with them and I think it would definitely be something along my line of interest. Sounds like a great experience both learning of both hands on and head knowledge. Which is I think what it should be about. So, yeah. I like my new advisor. He's cool. Hope I still think so at the end of the term :) Presently, I have no reason to think otherwise.

Ack!

So I just found out that my class that was supposed to start today doesn't actually start til next week. So I could have actually stayed home for an extra 2 weeks.. though I did want to come for the opening activities, nevertheless, it would have been good to know. So here we were, the whole class, sitting in class waiting for our professor to come in, when Dr. Forde (another MPH prof, and vice chair of the dept) comes and tells us that there's been a mix up in the department with scheduling and that this class (Capstone) doesn't actually start til next week. *sighs* oh well. An extra week of break... and I guess I can use it to finalize my topic for my paper and "use my time wisely" or some such...

So I'm here....

So I've been on the island since Wednesday. I left Tuesday morning and all was well traveling to Puerto Rico. Had a minor tense moment when the US Airways check-in desk guy asked if Vasco could stand up and turn around in his carry-on bag, but he didn't actually make him do it so all was well. San Juan was great. Really enjoyed it. Wish I could have stayed longer to have been able to take the time to really enjoy it fully. Tried out 2 complimentary of drinks at the Wet Bar of the Water Club Hotel. Discovered that melon martinis are pretty good, and that I can't really hold my alcohol *grins* I wasn't drunk, but I did feel the effects. A tad tipsy... maybe what they call a buzz. heh. Well, guess that's my Asian heritage.

Flight out from San Juan was delayed for 30 min but no big deal. Flew in to Antigua where I was informed that they were going to switch my flight so I would now be traveling through Barbados because they said that they had overbooked the flight from St. Vincent to Grenada. But I told them I couldn't do that because I had a dog with me. Heh. Everytime I mentioned that I had a dog, the response was the same.. "WHAT?!" But yeah, Barbados has a new restrictions where they no longer allow animals through their airport. I wasn't about to fly there only to find out that I could go on but Vasco had to be sent back, so I told them that I wouldn't be able to fly out to Barbados... so after much trouble, I was finally put back on my original flight. Flight from Antigua to St. Vincent's was delayed for about 2 to 3 hours due to a mechanical failure of the air conditioning unit in the plane. The flight to St. Vinnies had quite a bit of turbulence and the plane wasn't exactly new either... much rattling and tremors and vibrations during the flight. The flight from St. Vinnies wasn't overbooked as I had been told. There were are least 3-4 empty seats. But arrived in one piece safe and sound in Grenada about 2.5 hours later than the intended arrival time. Was supposed to get in at 8, didn't get in til about 1030pm. Went through customs without any difficulty and got Dexter, a local taxi driver, to drive me back to my pad...

And what a surprise awaited me when I arrived at the apt. The cats had gone feral.. there was cat litter and cat food all over the floor... Cassie, my roomie's dog had 2 accidents on the floor.. a messy welcome to say the least. My roomie had been gone for about a month and had asked some friends to take care of the kiddies while she was gone. She also hired a guy to come take care of them when her friends weren't able to. I assume that the factors contributing to the messes were the fact that they lacked and missed the human interaction and contact that they usually get when my roomie or I are at the place and that whoever was responsible for the kiddies the day I got back either didn't come, or figured I'd get back early enough to take care of the last treatment for the day and so they didn't make the final round.

I woke up the following day, Thursday, thinking it was still Wednesday and cleaned up the place. Swept and mopped the floors, cleaned the bathroom, did laundry of clothes, curtains, bath mats, sofa covers, sheets, everything. Went to the store and stocked up the fridge. It was pretty productive I'd say, though tiring.

Friday, I went on the Rum Runner Cruise sponsored by the University for new incoming students. There was a smaller turnout this term compared to last term, and seemed a bit more tame. We went to a different beach... the one in front of the Rex Resort which was a smaller beach. I had brought snorkeling gear with me this term so had fun doing that apart from the main group. Lots of fishies, coral, plants, and the like. No sharks were to be found to my great relief. It was fun :)

Return to the Island

Well, sadly, my newest update is only just to let you all know that I'm heading back to Grenada this morning. My US Airways flight leaves from Charlotte, NC at 9:30am and will arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico around 1:11 pm. I'll be staying the day/night here then going on from there to Grenada tomorrow. I'll be taking Liat, leaving PR around 2:10pm, with a bunch of mini connecting flights through the islands before finally arriving in Grenada around 8pm.

I'm actually looking forward to going back. Should be hopefully a good term. Stupid Capstone paper thing. Hate papers. oh well... maybe I'll actually keep up with my updates here.. heh. right-o!

So it's now about 5:30am, with another sleepless night. But my bags are packed (only slightly overweight...) my room's actually clean.. .and I'm ready to go. Just have to take Vasco for a last walk around the hood and we'll both be set to go. Pray for us that we may have a safe flight and that there won't be any issues or delays due to the new security precautions/restrictions. Also that they don't look too closely at how much room Vasco has in his bag, cuz he's just about out grown it.. poor baby.

Update on Mateo - 2

Well, Mateo's got his splint off. It was removed last Thursday, and while at the vet it was discovered that he had a skin parasite, Demodex canis, which causes the condition that he now has, Demodectic mange. It's an inherited parasite that he got from his mother, but most dogs' immune system can overcome it and suppress it. However, Mateo's immune system was apparently not up to par, so hence he now has this mange thing. He's got a spot of it on his side where it's red and going bare. It's not contagious or anything, and hopefully will remain localized and not spread to anywhere else on his body, though I think I found a new spot the other day. He's on antibiotics for it and has another appointment coming up to check both the progress on his leg and the mange spot.

His leg is still weak and discolored. He still has a pronounced limp when he walks, but doesn't seem to slow him down too much. He's able to put some weight on it though, which is good. You can tell when comparing his two hind legs that there's been muscular atrophy because one thigh is much smaller than the other. Hopefully, it'll improve as he gets more use out of it.

Mateo, Faith, and Vasco all got bathed on Sunday, so now they're nice and clean. Let's hope they stay relatively clean til their next bath time... I'm hoping to get one more in before I leave because I know Faith, Hope, and Mateo won't get washed while I'm out... that's just the way things are. I'm the only one who takes the time to give them bathes. oh well...

Catching up is hard to do... Part 2

I know it's been about time since I actually updated my blog from when I said I'd update it so here's some of the past dates of possible interest..

Friday, May 26 - Scuba: Session 2


Today for our Open Water session we went to the Northern Exposure. This was really cool because we went during starfish breeding season when thousands of starfish come to this spot to mate. We went a few days after the week of prime mating so there weren't nearly as many starfish, but there were still hundreds of them all over the sea floor. It was so cool. They were huge! Some spanned over 2 feet in diameter. They come to this one spot during about a one week period every year to breed. I hope to come out again next year during this time and hopefully I'll have an underwater case for my digital and be able to take lots of pics!

Saturday, May 27 - Scuba: Session 3 & 4

For our final Open Water scuba sessions, we returned to the Northern Exposure for our first dive in the morning, and in the afternoon we went to the Victoria Wreck site. This wreck is that of a cargo ship that had started taking in water in the harbor. However, by the time the pumps from land arrived to help pump the water out of the ship, it had already sunk, the day prior to their arrival. Late by a day. Though if you know anything about how timely things typically run on the island, it comes as no surprise. So anyway, the dive shops in the area all got together and thought it would be great to have a wreck dive site that was close to the island that they could take their students and clients to. So they had the ship towed out to sea. However, enroute to the chosen site, the tow cable snapped and the ship once again sank. But it ended up working out well since the site the ship sank was on a nice coral reef so it was actually quite a nice dive site.

When we dove there, the wreck was about 10 years old and it was teeming with aquatic life. It was very neat as we were able to swim around the ship as well as in the cargo hold area. We even got to see some barracuda who left us alone as we them. One side of the ship's hull was bare while the other was covered with coral, barnicals and other from the way the current flowed.

And so the conclusion of our 4th and final Open Water dive signaled our graduation and certification as Open Water Scuba Divers! yay! So much fun. I can hardly wait to go out again. I've enjoyed it immensely. Much more than I ever thought I would. Now only to come up with the money to fund my joy dives :)

Update on Mateo

Well, Mateo doesn't have hip dysplasia. Not yet anyway. Rather he broke his leg. Not sure exactly how, but the speculation was either he tripped/got tangled in the lamp cord or the lamp fell on him. He got X-rays at the vet and there's a crack right above his growth plate on his femur. Since the bones did not seem to have pulled apart, the vet splinted the leg and hopefully it'll be able to heal up without surgery. Surgery would end up involving screws and stuff costing over $1000 at the least. Mateo though has been doing well so far. He seemed pretty depressed and down the first couple of days. Not having much of an appetite and not really moving around much. My mom suggested giving him buttermilk to help supplement calcium and protein to assist with the healing, and had I been thinking about it I would have said that dogs were lactose intolerant, but alas I did not. So Mateo and Vasco were both suffering from diarrhea for about a week. Even still now, they have pretty loose stools. It's gotta be hard for Mateo. But he seems much more perky now. Already he'll hobble around and even sometimes attempt to jog some if we're not watching. He's eating much better though still not up to his usual amount and plays with the other dogs. We have to be careful though because Vasco will try to sometimes jump on him and they can get a bit rough when they play. Mateo's supposed to try to no move around too much and get as much rest as possible to help the leg heal up. The vet said it should be good in about 2-3 weeks since he's still just a puppy and they apparently heal really fast. His last check up on the Monday following the incident showed no indication of any swelling, so we have another appointment scheduled for this upcoming Monday. I guess we'll see how things have progressed. My mom's bought beef liver for Mateo to supplement his food because liver's really good for this kind of thing. Hard to explain in English sometimes surprisingly the ideas that I originally learned in Chinese as a kid. We've tried to keep his leg in a plastic bag for several reasons: 1) the splint has to remain dry otherwise it'll have to be replaced and that will cost another $45 on top of the $190 I already spent on his vet bill, 2) it helps keep the splint clean esp when he goes outside, and 3) he first one or two days after his injury he would have accidents when he was either laying down on the bed or the couch and it would be a total mess. We had to clean him, the furniture, etc. The bag protects the splint in the event of an accident helping with reason number 1.

Mateo's Hurt

We're not sure what happened, and I wasn't home when it did, but when I came home this evening, my brother told me that Mateo seemed to have a permanant limp. He was unwilling or unable to use or put any weight on his left rear leg. My brother said that he wasn't sure, but that he thought it might be hip dysplasia since Mateo had earlier been able to do some pretty crazy things with his hind legs like do a complete split much like my roomie's cat would do. So Mateo's been really quiet this evening and has remained for the most part on my brother's bed without much movement. Even petting him, hugging him, talking to him usually doesn't even make him open his eyes. Only when someone new opens the door does he open his eyes and raise his head to see who it is. I'm planning on taking him to the vet in the morning, and hopefully we'll find out what's wrong. He's only a puppy, but they can get hip dsyplasia too.. And he's been jumping on and off the furniture and standing on his hind legs for a while now which can instigate or provoke this occurance. Hope it's not that.. but I guess we'll find out for sure in the morning. It's really sad to see him just laying really quietly on my bro's bed. He's almost never this calm and still. Usually he's utterly insane bouncing all over the place, play-fighting with Vasco or Hope. I suppose there's nothing much to do but wait and pray.

Jaw Surgery

I went to an orthodontics doctor before I left for Grenada my last term. This was sometime in April I think.. not sure if I blogged about it or not. But anyway, he said that my lower jaw had continued to grow after it was supposed to have stopped so now it's not in the correct position. So my back molars are now doing more work than they should be doing which means that in 5-20 years they may wear and breakdown. Whether or not this actually would happen would depend a lot on my genes. So my mom's opinion that my jaw is the way it is because I didn't stick with wearing my retainer wasn't valid. I have an underbite like my dad's from his genes. Bad genes. Why do I always get stuck with the bad genes and not the nice ones, like the ones that gave my mom her good looks *grins* Anyway, he gave me two options. 1 - jaw surgery, this is the only correction that could fix the problem "perfectly" and completely. 2 - serious rubberband work, this would not be guaranteed to work, and would only correct the problem partially, and would depend on me using them consistently. I told him that I would have to think about these options he presented and talk it over with my parents. He told me that after about 24 or 25 years of age, the bones don't heal as well or readily so the optimal time would be now if I was to go with the surgery. He gave me the name and number of an oral surgeon who he said did the type of surgery I needed often. Apparently he's the most experienced in this type of surgery in my region. Nice.

So anyway, I told my parents. Discussed it with them. Told them that the surgery would prob cost about $6500. My dad was told he should get the surgery too when he was younger, but he never did. He's still got all his teeth. So it's not like I have to get it it would seem. But I can tell there's something not quite right with my alignment in my mouth and it gets bothersome and annoying at times. So I told my parents I was okay with the surgery if they thought it was alright with them.

I then left for school with nothing really decided. During the end of the term I once again discussed the surgery option with my mom and she said that if the doc thought I needed it and it would help me in the long run, to go for it. Though she said that Chinese people usually use surgery only as a very last resort and don't recommend it as an option because it is seen to take 5-10 years off your life when you undergo surgery. More years the more severe and drastic the surgery. I guess maybe I've just been Americanized, or it's the youthful fearless outlook on life that nothing bad can possibly happen to me or something, but I find it difficult to let that dissuade me. So I set up an appointment for a consultation with the oral surgeon for the 24th of July. I was somewhat concerned at this late scheduling because that would give me only 3 weeks after that date to get my surgery and recover before I left again for Grenada on the 15th of August. Or so I thought anyway.

I returned to the states and this past week went in on Thursday to the orthodontist to get molds made of my teeth for them to send to the oral surgeon. I guess he needs them for his records when I go in for my consultation or something. I talked to the assistant lady who made my molds about my surgery and she said I wouldn't be going in for surgery right away because I needed to do at least 6-12 months of braces before I could get my surgery. This was news to me. I hadn't even considered that. My understanding now is that the braces or orthodontics work is to get my teeth to where they need to be so that when my jaw is moved back, my teeth will be aligned in the new position. Makes sense.

I asked for a copy of the letter that my orthodontist sent to the oral surgeon.. and it said that I have a "Class III dental and skeletal pattern due to a prognathic manible" and asked the oral surgeon to evaluate me for a "BSSO mandibular advancement." Dunno what that means, but maybe I'll google it later or something. It also said that the doc thought it would take about 12 months to orthodontically prepare me for surgery... so yeah. Something to look forward to. Braces. Again. At 23. Great.

Home again

Hey everyone who actually reads my blog!

I left Grenada at 730am Friday. I was up all night prior and early that morning packing my stuff and cleaning up the apt. I am happy to say that the apt was look'n pretty nice when I left. However, during the cleaning process was getting somewhat irritated and frustrated because there seemed to be so much to do and things just weren't going well. I found that one of the cats pooped in the bathroom sink, then I think my roomie's dog peed on the bath mat, so that ended up being more work, and at 1 in the morning there isn't exactly a washing machine that I could just easily go to and clean it up at. But everything got cleaned, and I think I packed everything I meant to pack. All the furry kiddies got taken care of, so I believe it all worked out in the end.

Dexter, the taxi driver, came and picked me up around 600 and took me to the airport. There were already a lot of people in line waiting to check in. Everyone looked bleary-eyed from lack of sleep whether due to late night/early morning partying, packing, or some of both. We flew from Grenada at 730 on American Airlines Flight 5077 to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was able to switch seats from my assigned seat to the front and ended up sitting by 3 of my other classmates. The first half of our flight, all of us crashed. We tried, however uncomfortably, to snatch what little sleep we could. When the flight attendant came by with juice and Doritos though, we woke back up and couldn't sleep again so we spent the last leg of our flight gabbing about classes, complaining and ranting against the Social and Behavioral final exam (another story in and of its own), Dr. Amuleru-Marshall, recapping and comparing S&B to Biostats, raving about Dr. Keku, and what not.

We arrived at San Juan and here, most of us parted and went our separate ways. Only 2 others went with me to Miami. My flight to Miami was uneventful. I flew a new type of plane I had not flown before. Arranged with double seats on the wings and 5 seats in the center. My seat partner originally was an older man, who seeing me converse with a fellow classmate sitting 2 rows in front offered to switch seats so that we could sit together. That was really cool of him. A few minutes later, we noticed that there were two empty rows behind us so my classmate, Carrie, moved to the empty row behind me giving us both a double to ourselves. Very nice I tell you the simple things in life :) I was able to spread out a bit more comfortably and both of us zonked out before the plane even took off. Vasco, as usual, remained "calm" and quite throughout the flight. Maybe he slept, maybe he didn't. Either way, there was no way for me to tell from the silence at my feet.

At the Miami airport, Carrie and I said our farewells. I was headed to Atlanta finally. Boarded and ended up in the window seat of a triple with a middle aged lady to my left and a guy to her left. Flight was fine. I again slept most of the way. However, when the flight attendants came by with the snacks I to my great misfortune deviated from my norm request of a cranapple juice to a sprite. An hour before landing I was most regretful for this choice of beverage as my stomach and intestines began to writhe. I attempted to sleep through it, and was successful for about 20 minutes but after which nothing helped. The fact that the pilot turned on the seat belt sign and announced for the flight attendants to prepare for landing and for us passengers to remain seated didn't help since that meant I was trapped. My poor seat buddy must have been quite perturbed at my constant squirming and tightly clasped hands. Maybe she thought I'd be sick, and she had no idea. Even better was the roughest landing I have ever, and from what I overheard, the flight attendants as well ever experienced. As soon as the pilot turned off the seat belt light and after counting to 10, I headed to the rear of the plane to take care of issues. heh.

I was the first to pick up my luggage at the baggage claim in the Atlanta airport, which was cool since I was the last one off the plane. However, not having a cell phone and not thinking to arrange prior to leaving Grenada with the family about where to meet, I had to make several phone calls and travel through a bit of the airport before finally meeting up with my waiting family about 30 minutes later. They seemed happy to see me and Vasco :)

We loaded up the car with my lone suitcase that I spent 30 minutes the night before repairing (ripped corner during incoming flight) and Vasco's crate. Then we were off and headed to a Chinese buffet my dad said he had been to once when he had come to Atlanta for one reason or another. It was a nice, well stocked, almost ritzy buffet. Had both a Mongolian Bar-B-Q and sushi bar in addition to about 6-7 individual hot and cold bars. Our attendant that took care of us didn't seem to really care much about doing his job. When I found an eyelash in my soup he just kind of shrugged and took it away without so much as even an apology. Humph! But no matter, the food was good. Prob the most expensive buffet my family other than myself has ever been to. For the 4 of us the total came to $50, and all we got to drink was water! I was surprised and even kind of impressed that my dad volunteered to take us here (yeah, materialistic, superficial, shallow, etc of me, I know). But if you know anything about typical Asian families, you'd be surprised and impressed too.

So yeah, now I'm home. Met Mateo for the first time and that boy is one crazy bundle of energy. He's pretty much been spoiled by my bro, doesn’t seem potty trained in the least and pretty much does what he pleases. Boy does he need work. Faith has gained more weight since I left, mostly as a result of being neutered and not having the advantage of the helpful hormones... Hope's about the same. All in all, it's pretty crazy having 4 dogs at home. Amusing too considering we started with none, moved to one, and slowly but surely have gone from no dogs allowed to dogs everywhere.

I know I have really not been good with updating my blog so I'll attempt to keep up with it at least ever couple of days. Show some love and support and who knows, maybe I'll be so encouraged to do so more often :p now I'm sounding like my dad. pooey. heh. okay, I'm off now. latas all!

You know you're losing it when...

you start dancing for your dog and think it's the greatest thing in the world and are vastly amused by it. but hey, it was fun! :)

The end is near...

Kate had her baby yesterday! Isaac Thomas-Allen Gardenghi was born yesterday at 8:38pm, weighing in at 8lbs 8oz. For more details please see
Kate's Blog and Paul's Blog. I'll try to blog more on that when I have time... but the experience was incredible. I'm still in awe of Kate. She was so incredibly strong and brave. When I first heard Isaac cry... words cannot express... they fail to express the sensation that overcame me. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Paul and Kate. He is so beautiful. Not at all like some of the other newborns who come forth wrinkly or discolored from the birthing experience. He was beautiful.. Perfect. I'm still grasping for words to describe those 18-19 hours in which Kate was in labor. But I will attempt to do so hopefully in the near future. While it is still fresh in my mind... though I do not believe I shall ever forget. Paul too was very strong. He thinks he did not do much, and perhaps comparatively not so much, but he was strong for Kate when she had such need for him to be so. I could tell it hurt him to see her in so much pain. But he did not desert her or wallow in helplessness. He was there, holding her hands, supporting her, whispering encouragment, breathing with her, kissing her, rubbing her in reassurance. Love cannot be more evident.

-------

Sadly, I myself am so bored and looking, hoping for, yet dreading distractions right now. I'm attempting to study for my last, and prob most massive final in Social and Behavioral Health. It's very slow going. I've barely made any progress. Barely started studying until today and the final's tomorrow evening. *sighs* I'm just kind of at a state where I don't want to care, but I'm afraid to completely give into that level of apathy. I'm just so mind weary. Just one more day... it will be over soon.

Doggie Beach Day

So yeah, I'm procrastinating again.. it would seem that the only time I actually update my blog is when I have something else I should be doing. heh. oh well, that's me.

So yeah, my roomie's been gone since sometime early this week. She went back to Barbados to visit family, being originally from there and all. So I'm here babysitting her kiddies (2 cats, 1 dog). Since today was a holiday (Corpus Cristi) and we didn't have classes, I had a little more free time (okay a lot of free time) and decided that Vasco was starting to look a bit chunky and could prob do with a good run. So I took him and my roomie's dog Cassie out to the beach for a nice stroll.. Well, I forgot that today being a holiday, the beach would prob be crowded.. and so it was. Lots of people. Now Cassie's not that much of a people person, though she tolerates them. but she cannot stand other dogs. She's def alpha female quality stuff. So she goes nutz at the sight of every dog, slipping her collar once even. But no big trauma, she just chased that dog into the water. So I took the kiddies to a relatively more isolated section of the beach and let them play around in the water and Vasco went a little crazy happy running around. But it was good for him. Good for them both I think. I had another ulterior motive, that being trying to work on getting rid of some stark tan lines on my back, but I doubt an hour in the sun will do much for them...

Anywho, so here's some pics of the furry kiddies we have at our place

Bella

Minchi
(Jap for: "Ground Beef")

Cassie
(don't let her calm exterior fool you, she's a trained killer! :p )

and of course...


Vasco!

run, Vasco, run!

mmm... salt water... tasty

just having some fun

Cassie and Vasco each "enjoyed" a nice bath upon thier return and some good grooming. So now they're both soft, clean, cuddly fluff balls. Let's see how long that lasts *grins*

Tooth Fairy

Hey everyone! My baby lost his first canine today! I know, I'm really pathetic now :p

Wonder what the tooth fairy'd give me for that... hmm....

Little Accomplishments

Guess what? Last night, Vasco took the spiral stairs to and from the apt all by himself! Okay, so mst dogs could prob have done it by now, but for him, it's an accomplishment. So yay! My baby's getting all grown up. He's prob grown about an inch or two since we've gotten here. So next time you see him, be sure to give him a pat on the back :)

Word's Out...

Morgan Freeman is on de Island! Now I dunno how accurate my roomie's source is, keep in mind this is just a sighting, but apparently she was driving behind him (he is said to drive way too slow lol). Word out is that he also likes to hang out at Bananna's. Now I'm not one really for spreading rumors and rumors of rumors but this seemed worthy cause for procrastinating. I know, I know, pathetic :)

okay, back to work.

Catching up is hard to do...

Okay, okay, I know I've haven't updated in a while. Things have been a bit hectic and I've been a tad swamped with group projects and individual projects and presentations... But I promise I haven't forgotten. I'll prob end up getting to it after this term's over or when I'm further procrastinating on something vitally important :p So anyway, here's a start...

Thurday, May 25 - Dodgeball

To celebrate the end of midterms, our MPH program organized a Dodgeball Tournament that took place on the basketball courts in front of the Student Center. I had heard that the first tournament, held 2 weeks ago, had been a great success so I was interested in participating. It was scheduled to begin at 9pm and I arrived about 9:30 and it was in full swing. There wasn't as large a turn out this time as last time, but it didn't take away from any of the competitive spirit among participants. It was relatively organized with some semblence of teams, ball handlers, and even a ref with a plastic whistle.

I joined right in and pleasantly surprised myself by not being half bad :) I remember in elementry school, I loved playing dodgeball in gym class but I wasn't really that great (couldn't throw, couldn't catch, etc) so I had some trepidation, but either everyone else was pretty bad or I just improved with age and lack of practice, I did a decent job. Still can't throw, but I can catch. yay! I even got picked over other guys and if you're a girl you know how it is always being among the last to get picked for a team because you're a girl and so people think you're whimpy, etc. blech. So that was cool and def a boost of the good 'ol self esteem. Hah.

Belmund, our MPH rep, had it in for me that night because I got him out several times. Several vocalizations of "Grace is an Animal!" and "You're dead, Grace! I owe you!" heh were yelled throughout the ensuing games. By the end though, an addition of "I'd go to war with you, Grace!" joined the other vocalizations. I think that was a compliment, but well, Belmund if you ever read this maybe you can clairfy with a comment :p

So that was a nice, fun, sweaty/active activity. About time.

Belmund's the dude in the red T, and blue shorts :p
(Be not fooled, there were more participants)

They're Over!

Yay! Midterms are over! Actually they were over yesterday, but I didn't turn in one of my take-home midterms due to my studies for the Social and Behavioral midterm, so I just finished it up today in class and turned it in. The prof was fine with it, and that's part of what I was relying on, his ambivalence *grins*. I know, I know, I'm bad, slacker, slothful, academic misfit, or whatever.. but it's all good. I'm just glad to have them over with and am looking forward to relaxing and sleeping for more than 3 hours a night.

To give you something else to be happy about, here's a really cute pic of Vasco a friend of mine, Marc Armstrong, took a couple weeks ago. Vasco's actually grown some I think since this pic was taken.



Ta-da! :)

Midterms

Well it's that time of the term again when things start to pile up (well, actually they've been piling up since last week and I've just been procrastinating like I am now by writing this post and have been all day if you haven't noticed that I'm at an all time high of 3 posts in one waking period :p ). I've been working for most of the night on a presentations my Community Health Promotions class (all 6 of us) is going to present to the La Sagesse community about drug abuse prevention interventions that have worked elsewhere so that they can choose a model that they believe they can modify to work in their community. For the rest of this now morning, I will be working on spewing out an 8-10 page paper for my take-home Health Policy midterm (extremely boring class). And tomorrow, well, rather to be accurate, today, I will spend all my non-class waking hours studying for my Social and Behavioral midterm that's scheduled for Wed night. The material covers over 600 slides and is purely memorization and I've barely started. So yeah. I'm excited! Yay! Whoo-hoo! It's great that my coffee's actually kicking in and having a "positive" effect this time so I'm all up and ready to goooo! Otherwise, I'd likely be in a state of despondence and despair over the seemingly insurmountable amount of material I need to cover in such a short period of time. Alrighty then, it's back to work with me!

Racist

I think Vasco's racist :p This afternoon when I was taking him out to do his thing, one of the girls who live next door asked if she could come walk Vasco with me. I was glad for this because Vasco hasn't had much interaction with children so this would be a good chance for him to do so. Her name is Camilla and she's in the 5th grade. I think she's a native, or at least of African decent. Anyway, Vasco was focused on getting to his plot of grass, found his spot and proceeded to pee.. in the process he looked up and saw Camilla. He then did this crazy kick spin thing with his legs and started barking at her. It was actually kind of funny, but he kept going on and was getting distracted from the main reason why he was out. My impression was that he had never had anyone with darker skin stay so close before. Strange as that is since the natives here in Grenada are mostly of African decent. Color blind or not, he can tell the difference. But after about 2 min he seemed to be a little better with her around. She asked if she and her sister could come over sometimes to play with Vasco. I said that that would actually be great. It'll help familiarize him with those of darker skin and children at the same time. It's great.

He's such a poser :)

Addendum:
Though now that I think about it, it may be because he was protecting his territory. He kind of considers where he does his business 3 times a day as his. I do remember now, that he did bark at this one white lady hanging her laundry out. So maybe that's it... Either way, more exposure to diverse populations will be good for him. :)

You know you’re tired when…

You go to bed at 3, wake up for your 8 o’clock class, thinking that the bus comes by at 8:45, only to realize as the bus passes you when you’re taking your puppy out that it actually comes by at 8:40. So you walk 10 min to the next bus route, propelled and compelled only by the fear that you may miss a random quiz in class, and catch that bus to campus, only to remember that “oh yeah, class isn’t til 9” which is fortunate for you because otherwise you would have been an hour late to class instead of 20 minutes. Then you see a bunch of your classmates walking from the building where all your classes are held and ask them if class has been canceled and have them look at you like you’re going crazy. And they say, “Grace, it’s Monday, you’re on the Tuesday schedule and you’re thinking too much Social[and Behavioral]. Go get some more sleep..” And you foolishly try to convince them that you know its Monday and you have morning classes on Monday… only to remember after they go by that oh right, that 9 o’clock class you thought you had at 8, was really tomorrow and you hadn’t had to get up til 12 today because your classes today didn’t start until 1pm.

So I’m finally back at my apt and going back to bed now :p

Commuting

Stupid Mont Toute bus was AWOL for 2 of it's departure times from campus, so I'm now stranded here for another 3 hours for class.. This'll be another chance for Vasco to demonstrate the resiliency of his bladder *grins*... It's the second time this has happened to me, only the previous time it never came to pick me up to take me to school. I ended up waiting, along with 2 other girls, for 45 min in the searing sun til the next bus came. And when I asked the bus driver if he had come by, he said he had.. What a bunch of bunk...

Series of Unfortunate Events

Last night, my Community Health Promotions class went back to La Sagesse village and presented to the community risk factors for the problem they told us they would like to address - Violence and Drug Abuse. We did a great presentation and all was well...

However, just now in class, my prof told us that one of our profs who came with us, Ms. Frame, on her way back home fell asleep while driving home and her car went over a precipice. She totaled her car, but only by God's grace, there was a tree that caught the car and saved her from almost certain death. Ms. Frame is okay and that is a miracle.

Also the mother of the girl who committed suicide 2 days ago, is associated with the Public Health dept. Two of the faculty/staff have buried family members in the past couple months. Sober events.

Death of a Student

Yesterday, an undergrad Business student here at St. George's committed suicide.

It was said that she had been having some trouble the past couple weeks with depression and stress, and had attended a counseling session here on campus and was scheduled to do more sessions that she missed. No one, it seems, checked up on her and it was said that there were other signs of trouble (she began cutting herself the last week). Her mother though didn't seem to be concerned because she went off on holiday so the girl was left on her own (they just finished classes 2 weeks ago). Her mother returned home to find her daughter hanging from a tree in the backyard.

She left a list of 30 reasons for why she was doing this.

First Dive Lesson

Okay, so I decided to go ahead and take diving lessons. Man, am I glad for that decision. I mean, the experience was amazing!

This past Sunday morning, I walked the 25 min to the dive shop, Dive Grenada (they specialize in wreck diving), located on the Grand Anse Beach and arrived around 8:30am. After liberally lathering myself up with suntan lotion, SPF 50, our party of 8 girls from the MPH program gather in a corner of the dive shop and watched a 35 min DVD that reviewed the first three modules in the PADI dive book we were to have read before coming for the lesson (I skimmed through most of it, but for all basic purposes, I read the whole thing :)

After the video we split into two groups. 4 girls with the dive shop owner, Phil, an older British man who's had hip replacement surgery. He's a very experienced diver, though of his experience I know little. The other group of 4, went with another dive instructor whose name escapes me presently since I wasn't in that group (oh yeah, his name's Mick). Along to help, since we were such a large group, was a Divemaster from Germany. She assisted the instructors with our learning.

My group was the first chosen to do the practical learning session first, while the other group did the academic/book work. We were first sized for our BDU dive jackets, weight belts, and fins. I ended up with an XXS jacket, size 8 weight belt, and size 3/4 fins. Not that I think that means anything to most of you who actually read this *grins* but I may as well draw this out as much as I can. We then learned how to attach the air tank to our jackets, fit the respirator apparatus to the tank, and choose proper fitting masks. Next we hiked the 100 ft to the pool located on the Flamboyant Hotel property. In the pool (wow, it was nice to get in and relieve the weight of the equipment!) we learned how to use the respirator to breathe underwater (the first time was so cool!), clear water from our goggles, retrieve a lost respirator, hand signals for communicating underwater, assisting another diver who's run out of air with the alternate air supply we all carry, swim underwater with our fins (I keep wanting to say flippers :p ), and adjust our buoyancy underwater (a tricky business, I tell you).

After we successfully learned how to do all the above mentioned and demonstrated proficiency in these tasks, it was our turn to do the academic/book work while the other group did their pool work. For the book work, we reviewed the 3 modules we had read, took quizzes on each module (easy quizzes). We ate lunch during this time and then after a short break the group of us (8) got our wetsuits (not altogether uncomfortable, surprisingly) and suited up for our first open water dive. The general feel from the other girls was one of both excitement and nervousness. I was just excited.. not really nervous, didn't see any reason for it, but that's just me ^_^

We rode on one of their 32 ft boats to Flamingo Bay, one of the top 3 dive sites in Grenada. "It offers the dive wall with the most prolific fish life. Shoals of Creaole wrasse, yellow chromis, grunts, and jack fish lead down the wall to 90 feet where grouper, jacks and rays can be seen." We learned how to do a backward roll of the boat and once in the water we followed a rope to the bottom. It was a decently shallow reef, we went down to a depth of about 40 ft and visibility was great, about 50 ft I was told. The aquatic life was amazing. I felt like I was swimming in a teeming aquarium. We swam around and over the reef. Seeing sea fans, angel fish, sea anemone, eels , flounder, and much much more. It was an amazing experience. I can't wait to do it again! I found myself time and time again wishing I had an underwater camera. Maybe a consideration for an underwater case for my digital... though there's a level of concern, more like paranoia, with that as well. Or maybe just get a relatively inexpensive digital for underwater use. Eh, to be determined.

Anyway, I'm greatly anticipating my next dive. I was told the subsequent dives with this dive shop will only be $5! That's incredible. Makes the whole thing much more worth while and is a definite incentive for going on more dives. Yay! I'm excited!

Meet Passion Mateo

Hey everyone! Meet the newest member to my family, Passion Mateo. The name is a tad odd, but my mom wants his first name to be Passion to remind my brother to focus on his studies for getting into med school. She said we could give him any middle name *grins* so we chose Mateo, which means "Devoted to God."


There is a story behind Mateo, but I only know a part of it. It's a sad story. My mom was coming home from work one morning and she stopped by a flea market. She said that she saw Passion (I'm going to use the names interchangably depending on who's involved) in a dirty cage with another dog. He was in a pittiful state and kind of sick apparently with an infection and some drainage from his genetils. She decided to rescue him, not really thinking that we would be able to keep him for long. But surprise, surprise.. .with just a little TLC, he's bounced back! Litterally.


My mom says he's completely healthy now, though a visit to the vet is still in order, and my brother tells me about Mateo's voracious appetite. He's always hungry and sometimes gobbles down his food so fast he gets hiccups. Dave said that the first time Mateo got hiccups, he thought he was having a seizure, but since they went away and he seemed fine he thinks they were just hiccups.


Needless to say, my brother adores the new puppy. He's a white/yellow lab and my bro has always wanted a lab. Purity of breed is somewhat questionable, though he apparntly came with papers. Dave tells me that Mateo follows him around everywhere and is very lovey and will just crawl into his lap and fall asleep.


They think he's about 11-12 weeks old. Only a few weeks younger than Vasco. I can't wait to get back so that Vasco can meet Mateo and the two of them can have some good puppy play time. He seems to get along well with the other dogs and the others with him. He's fearless. Dave said he was successful in barking Hope (our lab/shepherd mix) away from a papya peel. Believe me that is an impressive feat. Even Faith (our Sheltie) hasn't been successful in that. There's a vid clip my bro sent me where Faith and Mateo are outside and Mateo rolls over and does a stretch and Faith seeing this lays down and copies the move! How cute is that! :)


Wish I could be there to play with him, but I'll be there in a little while. I can't wait to meet him in person!

Morning at the Beach

This morning I took Vasco with me to Grand Anse Beach. This beach is one of the more popular beaches in Grenada and SGU has student housing located right on the beach. I however had never visited the beach, more from laziness and not really having any reason to (I guess if I had nothing to do and plenty of time and money, I'd got beach hopping in Grenada) but anyway, it was both Vasco and my first time at this beach, though it was Vasco's first time at the beach, period. It's a gorgeous beach. Better than I had ever envisioned. I can see now why it's so popular and why so many of the students love to live on the Grand Anse campus.

Anyway, I had to go visit the dive shop which was loctated on the beach to pick up my books and pay, so Vasco and I walked the 10 minutes to the beach and the 15 min it took to get to the other end of the beach where the dive shop was located.

When we first got to the beach, there was this little dog... dunno what type of breed.. small, short, white, fluffy tail with some sable patches. Her name was Angel and belonged to, I presume Grenadian, a guy who worked at another dive shop on the beach. She loved the water and would run into it, lay down in it, regardless of the waves washing up around or over her. She played tag with Vasco who didn't seem too interested in playing, but she sure didn't let up. She'd come at him full force, kind of like Lady does, and just pounce on him occasionally even knocking him over.


But Vasco seemed to enjoy himself on the beach. He'd run into the water when I called to him, even sometimes allow the waves to wash up to as much as his neck. He didn't seem afraid, just cautious.. Prob a few more outings on the beach, and he'll be chasing the waves.


But yeah, I was impressed by the beach. Got somewhat burned because I didn't think about the sun being up (duh) and I didn't realize the walk would be that long. No matter. It's all good...

Scuba

So I'm thinking of doing a PADI Open Water Course begining this Sunday with some of my classmates. It costs $250USD and will take 4 full days to complete. I am really interested ... the only think I'm hesitant about is the cost and whether or not I'll actually get anything out of it (e.g. use it) after the course is over. This course will allow me to dive with another person (without an intstructor), anywhere in the world where there's water, to a depth of 60 ft.

I'll prob do it. Go by the dive shop (Dive Grenada) tomorrow morning to pay and pick up the text. We'll see how that goes.. might not have room for me to join. But it would be cool...

New and Improved Grade

Well, I apparently did better in Epidemiology than originally had been posted on the class website. After the class ended last term, my final grade in the class was a B. However, I was curious as to why since all that the professor seemed to have calculated into the grade were the three exams we took in class. None of the homework, extra credit work, or other points (attendance and participation) had been included in the grading process. This was a big issue with many of the students who over break emailed the professor (including me, but mine was very polite and courteous I promise! ^_^). None of us received a reply. But it seems Dr. Amuleru-Marshall (dept chair) checked with Dr. Russell (Epi prof) and everything was sorted out and when the new grades were posted, I got an A! Yay! That was pretty encouraging.

Now, if I can just keep that up...

Back in Grenada

Well, if you don't know already, I've returned to St. George's University in Grenada for the second term of my MPH to MD program. This term I'll have 5 classes again: Health Policy and Management, Social and Behavioral Aspects of Public Health, Chronic Disease Epidemiology, International Public Health Practice, and Methods of Community Health Promotion.

So far I haven't been a very good student. I've missed either the entire first class of every class that's started so far or at least the beginning part where they go over the syllabus. This afternoon, I overslept and missed the bus to campus, so I ended up missing the first 30 min of Health Policy and Management. Not that it turned out to be anything important or meaningful apparently. Same with International Health, I missed the first two classes because I was still in the states. I had initially thought I was only going to miss one class, but they had a make up class on Friday that I wasn't aware of so I ended up missing two. But from what I've heard from my classmates from that class, I really didn't miss much if anything. This evening, I was sure I had a class, but when I talked to some of the other students, they assured me we didn't have class... well, after just coming home around almost 2am, I check my schedule and sure enough, I did have a class, just a different one from the one they were referring to... So I missed that class too. I have really not started off on the right foot this term.

Anywho, my trip down from the States to Grenada was crazy. Initially I was supposed to fly down Sat morning. My flight departed from Atlanta at 6:05am and the ATL airport (typically about a 2-3 hour drive from my home) opened at 4:30, so I need to get there by then. Well, Bruce was going to give me a ride to the airport, but of course I had put off packing until the last few days before I had to leave, so I was still making a mad rush to finish when he arrived. Then my luggage was overweight so we wasted time trying to fix that. We finally left home, but once on the highway we encountered torrential rainfall. It was so bad that at times, Bruce could only see the white line 2 feet in front of him on the road... but the lightning was spectacular. It seemed super close and lit up the sky like noon day only with ultra "white" light rather than the "yellow" of the sun. We had to slow down to about 45mph for a while and that prob set us back 20-30 min. When we finally arrived and got into the airport around 5am, there was a long line waiting to check in. We were in line with all my luggage, my roommate's dog (did I mention, my roommate shipped me her dog so I could bring her down with me?!), and Vasco, but for some reason I didn't think my flight was international (I mean, I was only going to Miami first...) and maybe we could check in faster if we used the self-check in computers. What a bad move. We lost our place and by the time we got back in line and up to the desk... the lady told me I had missed baggage check-in by 10 min. 10 minutes! Oi vey. And since they only flew to St. Kitts (where I was going to make a connecting flight on Liat, one of the local Caribbean puddle jumpers) once a day, I would have to wait til Sunday if I wanted to check in baggage.

I couldn't make an informed decision as to whether or not to take the Sunday flight because I had to make sure that I would be able to catch a flight from Liat to Grenada that day as well, otherwise I'd be stranded in St. Kitts with nothing to do and nowhere to go. So Bruce and I waited for about 1 1/2 hours for Liat's reservation desk to open so I could call and ask them. Bruce was so good about it even though he was tired and hungry. He lent me his phone so that I could use the web browser to check the websites and allowed me to call Liat, long distance, for almost 15-20 minutes which will prob cost him about $30. He's so good to me *smiles*.

Anywho, when I finally got through to Liat, they said I could change my flight; however, it would be an additional $160. Oi vey! That's more than the original cost of my ticket and I had already paid about $80 to get it changed once. This was definitely an expensive trip. And my credit cards were already maxed out from buying misc items for the house and lawn when I was home so I didn't have the available credit to buy the ticket. Once again, Bruce came to the rescue and told me he'd pay for the ticket. I'm not free loading, mind you. I'll pay him back... when my refund check finally arrives, but he's been quite a "trip" saver.

Bruce drove me back home after that. We stopped by the Mall of Georgia and took about a 2 hour nap in the car and had lunch in the Food Court. When I got home I gave Cassie (my new roomie's American Eskimo) a pretty good brushing and ended up with a small mountain of white hair... Her coat had been in quite a bad state with a lot of mats throughout. I also trimmed the hair on her paws so they looked semi neat. Before they were all gross and straggly. I knew that if she soiled herself during the crate, trimming the hairs would at least be a minor help in keeping her paws clean. Then I took about a 6 hour, much needed nap. Upon waking I was able to clean my room (since it had been left in a state of complete disarray) for my mom's use.

My mom came home from work about 45 min before I had to leave. She had no idea I was even home so she was very surprised, but I think happy to see me. For once, she'll be awake when I'm leaving *grins*

Anyway, Bruce came to pick me up around 2am and my mom decided that she wanted to come along to see me off and because she would feel it more appropriate if she came along rather than it just being Bruce and myself in the car. However, honestly, there wasn't much room. We were driving in a Towncar and its nice and roomy... pretty exansive, however, even if we moved things around so that everything was in the back, whoever sat in the middle would have zero room to even put their feet down. They'd have to put a foot in the drivers and a foot in the passengers feet area. Not that that'd be particularly hard to do, since I've done it before... however for a 2-3 hour drive it could not only be uncomfortable, but dangerous.

So I mean, I didn't really mind if my mom came, but Bruce didn't exactly do anything to attempt to make more room (though really it was packed full with 2 intermediate sized dog crates and a large suitcase, there wasn't any room to move anything), or at least voice willingness to have her come with us, so my mom was... let's just put it mildly, very displeased.. Okay, why play around with words, she hates him. *sighs* so I felt really bad and missed having her come with us.

Our trip down to Atlanta this time once again was impeded by weather... only this time it was fog. Thick, rolling fog. Not quite as "obviously" bad as the torrential rainfall, but more subtle. There would be periods when you could see fairly well through the fog but then all of a sudden, we'd be engulfed in a thick cloud of it.

We also got pulled over by the police. I was a bit nervous and asked Bruce if he had been speeding (I had fallen asleep) and he said he'd been going about 80-85 in a 70 mph zone. So yeah, there was reason to worry, but Bruce said there was no way the cop could have known he was speeding because he was going in the opposite direction and there were no other cars around that he could have compared our speed with. Anyway, we waited with sweaty palms and the officer asked where we were going, where Bruce had gotten the car (okay, so two 20 somethingers do look kind of odd in a champagne colored Towncar normally driven by those of an older distinction) and Bruce said it was his parents but they had just gotten it from his grandfather in NY the week before and that's why the plates/tags were still NY tags. He asked Bruce to get out of the car and go to the back with him. I was thinking he was going to get searched or something, but a few minutes later, Bruce came back and we were on our way. Apparently he just wanted to ask a couple more questions and that was that... Odd. Kind of just random. Maybe one of those random police checks, though I had never been involved in one before. But it was cool. We saw the cop driving actually under the speed limit by us when we pulled out behind a van. We wondered if he was going to pull the van over as well, though the van obviously wasn't going past the speed limit and lo and behold, a few minutes later the cop car pulls in front of us and behind the van and blue lights flash, end of story. It was an interesting ride to the airport to say the least.

Things went smoothing at the airport. Both my luggage were overweight, but I was only charged for one! Nice. The flight to Miami went by quickly, then at the Miami airport I walked about 12 min (according to the signs, though it felt much longer) to my terminal to wait for my flight to St. Kitts. Poor Vasco got jostled quite a lot during that walk and got a bit of motion sickness and threw up a bit. But after that he was just fine. He's a very good traveler. Slept the whole way pretty much to Grenada. In St. Kitts I changed flights to Liat and we flew to Antigua, where I got a connecting flight to St. Vincent then finally Grenada. I had a bit of trouble at St. Kitts with getting Vasco approved for travel in cabin, but there was a lady in line behind me who told the travel attendant at the desk that their website said it was allowed, so he allowed it. However when I tried to board the plane, the stewardess told me it wasn't allowed and Vasco had to be placed in his soft-sided carry-on into cargo. I was a bit worried, but they said that they'd secure him away from the rest of the cargo and since the flight was only 20-30 min, it would be too long. In Antigua, I learned my lesson and closed up all the ventilation flaps prior to boarding and pretty much bulled my way past the stewardess and stowed Vasco safely under the seat in front of me. The stewardess had more to worry about anyway since the flight had been overbooked. We had an unruly child aboard that cried, screamed, or whined the whole hour to St. Vincent, most of the 30 minutes we waited in the plane, then most of the 20 minute flight to Grenada. *sighs* I typically try to sleep on my flights because I know I'll be exhausted anyway and it gives me something to "do" so during the flight as I was dozing the little girl's screaming became one of those really annoying drones that you can't quite figure out why you're uncomfortable until you fully awake and your senses reattune to it. Dunno if I explained that clearly enough, but oh well.

Anywho, my new roomie Deann Ashby and a friend of hers came to pick me up from the airport. We got through customs without too much hassle and ended up not having to pay too much for the dogs, only 40EC each which is less than US $16. So that was cool. And so here I am... I'll update on my accommodations and hopefully put up some pics later.