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...