Orientation Events

Yesterday, we had a convocation where the Deans and important faculty and staff members were introduced to us. To be honest, it was quite boring and the auditorium we were in did not feel air conditioned so it got quite warm. Mahsa and I were slowly sliding down our chairs and ready to just doze off. After the convocation while the regular med students had their orientation and got their white coats for the white coat ceremony, I went to Spiceland Mall and did some grocery shopping. I finally was able to get some laundry detergent and do some much needed laundry. The dorms have 2 washers and dryers on each floor, one for each end of the hall. However, most of the knobs on the machines are missing, so if you want to adjust or change any of the settings, you're pretty much out of luck. I heard that they were stolen or something. I was able to find one set of machines on the third floor that had both their knobs still intact. Must be a recent acquisition by the school or something is my thought. But anyway, after I finished my shopping, I met up with some of the guys and ate lunch at the mini "food court" at Grill Master. Their special of the day was decently priced: BBQ chicken, rice, and vegetable or salad for 12EC (~$5USD).

There was an Orientation Bazzar in front of the Student Center as well. There were a couple of booths selling food, some selling souvenir stuff, one for signing up for student organizations. I signed up for Women in Medicine and Christian Student Association. I'm probably going to sign up for Asian/Pacific Islander Association too. But yeah, I spent way too much money there... oi I always fall for those tourist traps. I should just lock my money up from myself . There was this group of people that did some drum playing and dancing. They recruited people from the crowd and I ended up being one of them. So yeah, I limboed and was even forced to dance! oh my word.. I did.. they formed a large circle of people and everyone had to go one at a time to the middle and do a little dance. and well, I was the last and dragged out there I'm doomed now. heh. it was embarrassing and I blushed like nothing else, but it made me laugh, and apparently made my friends laugh too, so that was cool. I'm sure I looked the complete fool...

Check out this dude's hair!!!! Bob Marley...

That evening a group of about 12 of us got together and played Mafia. It was a blast, like bang, BANG! cool hah! and I met a lot of new people. We ended up having about 6 more people join us who were just passing by and saw us playing. It was kind of amusing because the "mafia" had no plan or no communication and organization when they played, so they didn't do too well with killing off the townsfolk.

I had a Professionalism Workshop this morning at 8am. (Bam, Bam, Bam) Boring. Basically it was the Provost's ppt about what professionalism was and what we should do, etc, etc, etc. ZZZzzzz... Also the faculty for the MPH program were introduced to us, and we met with our advisors for a bit, and that was it. Oh I found out from my advisor that it's illegal to swear in Grenada, and it's also of course against school policy (go figure), so a lot of the people I know are going to have to edit their speech habits with a "Bleep, Bleep!" or what not...yeah.

I was finally able to register, and got my ID card. My pic on the card looks retarded, but that's only to be expected for ID pics... Blech.


I met Paul and Kate for the first time since I got here on the island and went shopping at Spiceland Mall with Kate and another MPH classmate, Vanessa. Oh boy, food and a lot of other stuff are super-duper expensive here. I spent almost $90USD! on almost nothing... I mean, it was freak'n expensive!!! This stuff had better last me the rest of my life! or at least a month... Fresh foods are bad for your wallet... good for your health... so go broke, or die... well, okay, maybe not that extreme, but either way it's going to cause you pain...

I had my first class tonight from 5pm - 8pm. Concepts class. It was pretty straight-forward, also moderately boring. The room gets really cold after 3 hours of A/C. I found out that we were supposed to have read 3 chapters already, though how we were supposed to have known is beyond me. I guess we could have always asked... And the fact that the majority of the class don't even have their books... yeah. that would include me...