Dogs & Cats

Alina posted this earlier, but I found it so delightful I had to repost... So funny... I need to get me a cat one of these days ^_^

The Dog's Diary

8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!

9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!

9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!

10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!

12:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!

1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!

3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!

5:00 pm - Dinner! My favorite thing!

7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!

8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with my people! My favorite thing!

11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!




The Cat's Diary

Day 983 of my captivity.

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I never heless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.

Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet.

I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. Bastards!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event.

However, I could hear the noises and smell the food.. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow, but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.

The bird must be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe.

For now...

Raqueting the Cockroach

So here I was minding my own business.. wasting my time in front of my laptop as I so often do at half-past midnight, when Aaron comes to my room in his usual manner..

"Hey! There's a cockroach in the kitchen on the wall! How do you think we should kill it? I can't reach it. It's up too high!"

So I follow Aaron back to the kitchen where I see this huge thumb drive sized cockroach chill'n out about 17ft up on the wall. I get the brilliant idea to try hitting it with a tennis ball. You can imagine the hilarity that ensued.. I had no idea that Aaron hated and had a general healthy respect for bugs of all shapes and sizes so when I threw the ball at the roach and hit about a foot away from it making it scurry off down the wall closer to us, Aaron backed away. I handed him the ball.

"You've got to try this! It's sooo much fun!"

Being as it was a long distance sport and involved standing far back from the roach Aaron and I proceeded to play racquetball with the roach... which ran back and forth along the wall as we did our best to hit it or make it come down the wall low enough to smush. Aaron called Jill out to participate in all the raucous and when she threw the ball at the roach she screamed bloody murder and ran back into her room. Man, I have to say I could not stop laughing throughout the event. I mean, picture mid-twenties adults attempting to peg an insect on a wall with a tennis ball and ducking as the tennis ball bounces back and all over the kitchen, chasing after the ball, laughing like it was a skit on SNL. Sure it was silliness to the extreme but it was so much fun!

Finally the roach was low enough to where I got on the kitchen table which proceeded to creak ominously and took Broccoli's water dish and rolled it over the roach, smearing roach innards all along the wall and the bowl. That was actually rather gross... I was going to leave it up on the wall as a reminder of the fun and because it was so disgusting I thought it would be a fantastic surprise for my other roommate Deann to see in the morning. heh. oh well. It turned out to be a tad too graphic for Jill and Aaron's taste so I climbed back up and unceremoniously wiped him off the face of the wall after giving a detailed description as to the color and similarities of its guts to chicken meat.

My one regret? Not catching everything, esp Jill, on camera ^_^

Musing...

what if we live today like it is the tomorrow we dream it will be and the yesterday we wish we could have done differently?

Oh them buddles of joy!

A friend of mine posted this as a note on her facebook, and it was so great I had to repost.. so have fun with this one... all I can say is I am sooooo ready. hah! riiiight.. bring it on! :P

HOW TO KNOW WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE READY TO HAVE KIDS

MESS TEST Smear peanut butter on the sofa and curtains. Place a fish stick behind the couch and leave it there all summer.

TOY TEST Obtain a 55 gallon box of Legos (or you may substitute roofing tacks). Have a friend spread them all over the house. Put on a blindfold. Try to walk to the bathroom or kitchen. Do not scream because this would wake a child at night.

GROCERY STORE TEST Borrow one or two small animals (goats are best) and take them with you as you shop. Always keep them in sight and pay for anything they eat or damage.

DRESSING TEST Obtain one large, unhappy, live octopus. Stuff into a small net bag making sure that all the arms stay inside.

FEEDING TEST Obtain a large plastic milk jug. Fill halfway with water. Suspend from the ceiling with a cord. Start the jug swinging. Try to insert spoonfuls of soggy cereal into the mouth of the jug, while pretending to be an airplane. Now dump the contents of the jug on the floor.

NIGHT TEST Prepare by obtaining a small cloth bag and fill it with 8-12 pounds of sand. Soak it thoroughly in water. At 3:00 p.m. begin to waltz and hum with the bag until 9:00 p.m. Lay down your bag and set your alarm for 10:00 p.m. Get up, pick up your bag, and sing every song you have ever heard. Make up about a dozen more and sing these too until 4:00 a.m. Set alarm for 5:00 a.m. Get up and make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.

INGENUITY TEST Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and pot of paint, turn it into an alligator. Now take a toilet paper tube and turn it into an attractive Christmas candle. Use only scotch tape and a piece of foil. Last, take a milk carton, a ping-pong ball, and an empty box of Cocoa Puffs. Make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower.

AUTOMOBILE TEST Forget the BMW and buy a station wagon. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there. Get a dime. Stick it into the cassette player. Take a family size package of chocolate chip cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car. There, perfect.

PHYSICAL TEST (Women) Obtain a large beanbag chair and attach it to the front of your clothes. Leave it there for 9 months. Now remove 10 of the beans. And try not to notice your closet full of clothes. You won't be wearing them for a while.

PHYSICAL TEST (Men) Go to the nearest drug store. Set your wallet on the counter. Ask the clerk to help himself. Now proceed to the nearest food store. Go to the head office and arrange for your paycheck to be directly deposited to the store. Purchase a newspaper. Go home and read it quietly for the last time.

FINAL ASSIGNMENT Find a couple who already have a small child. Lecture them on how they can improve their discipline, patience, tolerance, toilet training and child's table manners. Suggest many ways they can improve. Emphasize to them that they should never allow their children to run wild. Enjoy this experience. It will be the last time you will have all the answers.

I saw a bird the other day...

... with a broken wing in the middle of the road in front of Banana's. It was still alive and must have gotten hit by some errant car. It seemed to be trying very hard to "crawl" out of the road dragging its one broken wing whilst weakly flapping the good wing. I didn't see it til I had almost driven right past it. I looked in my rear view mirror and there were 4 more cars behind mine, one of which was a reggae bus. Fear gripped me and I knew that there was only the slightest chance that the bird could survive that many cars... I kept driving, and yet all the while I kept thinking about the bird and what could have happened to it and wondering if I should turn around and try somehow to save it. Maybe the VTH (Veterinary Teaching Hospital) would take it in. I could call my roommate and see if the VTH could even do anything about it. I turned my car around...

The entire way back, I kept saying, "please don't be dead.. please don't be dead.. please don't be dead"...

I drove past Banana's... all that was left was a flattened feathered remnant with a single down feather still twitching in the breeze. I don't know why.. but I felt a great sadness.. Sure it was only a bird.. but it hadn't seemed like some backwater scavenger bird.. it had been pretty and something about its feeble attempts at escaping from certain death had struck me in a way I couldn't ignore. I thought about that bird the entire way home...

Coming Soon!

This is for Shaheryar since you said you'd check and I wanted to make sure I actually have something here for when you check :)

I will update more.. now that I of course "have more time." heh. Will def try. It's on my TO DO list, along with get 3 jobs, go see the eye doc, orthodontist, give my dogs a bath, clean my room, unpack, have a yard sale, go to CA, get in shape, bench press 200lbs (lol), train Vasco to jump through flaming hoops, etc. You know, the usual :)

SGU on TV

So I could have been on TV...

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(Credit for the majority of this goes to Yon.. )


"GoGo Lucky Productions has approached SGU to use the school as a backdrop to film a docudrama about the struggle and challenges of life as a medical student in the Caribbean [think med school Grey's Anatomy reality TV]. The series will run on the Oxygen network [Oprah's network]. We would like to hear your feedback on the idea since obviously there are many pros and cons to go with it.

A little bit about GoGo Lucky productions is that it was responsible for the series "Laguna Beach" however, this docudrama has been said to be a "success show" and not Luguna Beach-esque. They recently have started a show called "Esquire" which is along the same lines as the idea proposed to SGU, except that it was done following a law student at Vanderbilt University. This show is yet to air on television so we do not know of its success or the impact it has had on the school. [also I heard they tried this idea at a US med school in CA, but it was really boring with little drama so the idea of med school in the Caribbean was broached and apparently seemed much more appealing...]

Here is a little information about how this docudrama will work....

The production company plans to select about 10 students to film and follow, starring as the "main characters" [and potentially up to 30 secondary supporting characters]. The creative ideas have been evolving since the inception of the idea, but the aim is to have about two incoming first term students that can be followed from the States to Grenada as well as students from other terms. About six of the main characters will be American students and the others may be international students, and the idea is to choose a diverse group to portray the cosmopolitan student body here at SGU.

Filming of these students will be 3-4 days a week, shot in scenes, not 24/hours a day like MTV's TheRealWorld. The camera crew will consist of about 5 people who may in some cases set up the shot and leave the camera rolling. They plan to film many moments in the students lives including preparing to leave for the island, arrival in Grenada, orientation, white coat ceremony, first day of classes, first day of labs, study groups with friends, DES sessions, entering and leaving exam halls, phone calls to home when homesick, nights out at bananas, sandblast.... you name it. They plan to film in lecture halls, libraries and study spaces to get the shots they need to portray the story.

Some things to note.... anyone caught on camera while filming the scene will have to sign a release form if the shot is to be aired on television. Thus people who do not want to be on TV can actively refuse to sign the form and the shot cannot be used.

Students selected to be on the show will be paid though we were advised that the sum is not very much. [I was told it would be about enough to cover our textbooks for a term...]

Now for the pros and cons.... this show, if successful, can portray SGU in a great light to the American public. It can be a medium for advertising the school and may even help abolish the stigma that Caribbean med schools are inferior to American schools by showing the dedication and drive of the students in addition to the facilities we have available here in Grenada.
However, should the show end up portraying the school or the students in a negative light, we would not want to jeopardize the credibility of SGU. [not to mention, that many students tend to celebrate the end of any major exam by getting plastered the evening after... not exactly something you want the admin looking at your application for residency seeing.. not to mention your future patients should they Google you... and let's not even mention Sandbast...]

With that said, the network has informed us that if SGU chooses not to participate, they will run the show at either American University of the Caribbean in St. Maarten or Saba University School of Medicine in the island of Saba. Now this has implifications for us, in that if the show is successful, America may think that all medical schools in the Caribbean are like these smaller schools, including SGU. This may in fact hurt our reputation.

Chancellor Modica has assured the SGA that he will not proceed with this idea unless the student body wants it, so please use this wall to voice your concerns, opinions on the idea so that the SGA can truly represent you on this matter. Please also feel free to talk to your SGA reps or email SGArep2010@gmail.com."

If decided on, casting call would have begun next term with filming commencing in January of 2008.

*************

Okay, so since all this buzz, the SGA met and voted AGAINST "SGU TV"

Email to the chancellor stated the following:

After a long discussion this evening, the Student Government Association voted overwhelmingly against the motion to have GO GO LUCKEY Productions film the "docu-drama" at St. George's University. Many students discussed the potential for the program to reflect badly on the university as well as the students. Additionally, the issue of privacy as well as distractions inside and outside the classroom were discussed. After considering the past projects the producer, Austyn Biggers, has been involved with, including "Hottest Mom in America", some students believed that the intentions of the network and/or producer may not have been presented completely. Although there were individuals who believed that there was some potential for the university to gain good exposure and publicity, the students believe the negative aspects could potentially be more damaging. They were concerned that they would be identified during residency interviews and elsewhere as "attending the school on that television show". Finally, the students were uncomfortable with the fact that the final decision of what was to be aired by the network was not clear, and that this could potentially be problematic for the university and those students involved and not involved in the filming."



The chancellor basically replied and said that he would inform the producers of the school's decision to NOT go through with it. Kind of cool that the "student" vote was the deciding factor.

***********

So I guess all you peeps back home will just have to satisfy yourselves with the occasional pic and even rarer blog to keep you up to date on the goings on here in the Caribbean... all I can say is that I'm lovin' it... most of the time anyway :P

MTV actually did a video of the school a while back.. you can find it here. Video options are at the bottom of the page.

I know, I know...

I haven't updated in a while. What else is new? Mainly it's cuz I've been waiting on pics from Vasco's emergency vet visit. For those who don't know he was attacked by a neighbor's dog while he was out in our backyard... I'll actually post the story when I do finally get the pics... but suffice it to say he had to get 20 stitches but he's doing great now.

Midterms are next week. Anatomy -Monday, Histology - Wednesday, and Biochemistry - Friday. Exciting. I think not. Is it bad if I'm already sick of it? I'm such a lazy bum :) What I've found interesting is that my worst class in undergrad is now my best class in med school and the classes I did fairly well in undergrad I find the most challenging. *shrugs*

Anyway, I'm tired, so I guess that's all I'll be updating now. In histo class now, and I don't know why I decided to actually come to class today. Maybe I thought that a new prof would actually make a difference, but alas, no. Ah well.. I chose this path, no? I'm happy. Really... I'm happy. am I? I'm just tired.

Luggage Woes

So I arrived in Grenada on Monday night and guess what? No luggage. I must have jinxed it on my flight. I was talking to this girl who was starting 5th term in St. Vincent and told her that Liat had been pretty decent with me luggagewise, as I had yet to lose my luggage with them. Well, I spoke too soon. It's Friday and still.. no luggage. I've called twice a day because there are two Liat flights daily from Puerto Rico. But alas, nothing. The Liat personnel are not very supportive or helpful. They just tell me there's nothing they can do and that it happens. What I don't understand is why it hasn't come so far. They promised it'd be back Thursday night, but when I got to Point Salines International Airport, they said that there wasn't enough room on the last flight so it had been left behind (along with about 30 other pieces of luggage) til Friday's flight. So we'll see...

Strange thing is that I've flown with them many other times, and there have been instances when the flight's been overbooked and everyone has 2 pieces of luggage weighing 50lbs or more and every piece of luggage makes it. Somehow, when we came in, there was a baggage embargo so you were only allowed 50lbs total for 2 pieces of luggage. And our flight wasn't overbooked, rather there were several empty seats.. and for reasons Liat cannot explain except to say "circumstances may have been different" there wasn't enough room or something. Either way, luggage was left behind. And not just mine, but several others on my flight did not get their luggage. I asked if I could be recompensed for expenses I would need to spend in the mean time for clothing and necessities and of course, Liat will not take any responsibility.

So I've been borrowing clothing and sheets from my roomies for the past 4 days. No big deal really. They're cool with it and offered.

So why do I fly with Liat when I have had so many issues with them? Cuz they're cheaper than if I fly straight with American. I typically save $300-400 per ticket. Is it worth it? I'm beginning to wonder...

Back to School

Well, I'm beginning my flight back to Grenada tomorrow/today. Leaving Sunday at 9:20AM from Charlotte, flying to Philly then onto San Juan, Puerto Rico for an overnight stay. Then I'll be flying out from PR Monday afternoon and finally arriving in Grenada around 8:05PM.

Things I'm concerned about:

1. I'm going to exceed the allotted weight limit... again.
2. I got Vasco a larger carry-on bag... it's a lot larger, so I'm concerned that if the peeps ask too many questions, they may not allow me to use it. It's pretty much only 4 inches taller and 2 inches wider.. and it'll "collapse" to fit any type of conformation for underseat storage, however, it still looks pretty massive.. so that's a major concern.
3. I'm sick. I haven't been feeling well since Friday morning and I'm still feeling pretty ick. Much of it is GI issues of which I shall not disgust you with details ... it's actually not that bad, but it's bad enough to cause concern and some major discomfort. Something I'd rather not deal with when traveling.

So if you think of it, pray for me. Thanks! :)

Oh and I just started packing like 2 hours ago, and am nowhere near finished. poo.

And this time, I found it much harder to feel ready to leave.. I don't feel nearly ready :( Yet I'm trying to psych myself for the trip and hope it'll be fun and one that is not full of regret but rather promise.