Someone I Used To Know

This is a video that I came across while looking up Physical Diagnosis videos on YouTube for my PD class. It's a parody of the 1 guitar song seen here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M&feature=related).

It's pretty hilarious and spot on (WARNING: Contains a couple foul words.)

Late Night Walk Home

Well, my car broke down today on the way to the gas station to fill 'er up. I initially thought that I may have run out of gas because it happened while I was driving and it just died. So I pushed it the rest of the way to the gas station (about 100 yards) and got gas. Well, that didn't fix the problem because she still wouldn't start after the fill up.

My broken down car (it was running when I took this pic btw)

So, I call my landlord (which was a chore because I didn't bring my island cell phone with me… have my US cell phone of course, that doesn't work local). She came and picked me up and later told me that her husband looked at the car and said it needed a new coil. I have absolutely NO clue what that means, but they have to get it from St. Maarten so it will be a day or two before I can get my car back. Until that time…

I get to walk back and forth to school. Luckily, my landlord works at the school, so I can get a ride with her in the morning if I go early. But at night, after I have studied all evening, no one is at school to drive me home, so tonight I walked. It's close to a 25 minute walk from school to my apartment and it was an amazing walk tonight. There were very few clouds in the sky, full moon, stars bright and shining. I LOVED the walk tonight and I also had my headphones in, listening to music as I walked. About halfway home a song came on that put it all in perspective: Jesus Calling by 33Miles. Talk about the song that I needed to hear at that very moment.

Verse 1What do you see when you look at your world today?
Is it so full of clutter that you feel like you're going insane?
And you can't fight back, cuz you're just too afraid.
And it seems like the clouds in your sky, don't wanna change.
Pre-chorus
You see, there's always another story
Another side to every coin
And how you see your circumstance
Is all about a choice
Chorus
When you see the rushing wind,
Feel the pouring rain,
Hear the thunder now,
As the clouds roll in.
You're blinded by the lightning,
Do you also hear that still, small voice saying,
"It's okay, You're not alone.
You may be scared to death, but I won't let you go."
You may think the sky above is falling,
But can you hear Jesus calling?
Verse 2
What do you see when you look at your world today?
Do you see a glimmer of hope,
or has it all turned to grey?
Well start by counting your blessings, one by one
And I'm sure right then,
You'll start to see the Son.
Pre-chorus
You see, there's always another story
Another side to every coin
And how you see your circumstance
Is all about a choice
Chorus
When you see the rushing wind,
Feel the pouring rain,
Hear the thunder now,
As the clouds roll in.
You're blinded by the lightning,
Do you also hear that still, small voice saying,
"It's okay, You're not alone.
You may be scared to death, but I won't let you go."
You may think the sky above is falling,
But can you hear Jesus calling?
Bridge
Oh calling out to you.
Because the darker the night,
The brighter HE can shine.
Chorus
When you see the rushing wind,
Feel the pouring rain,
Hear the thunder now,
As the clouds roll in.
You're blinded by the lightning,
Do you also hear that still, small voice saying,
"It's okay, You're not alone.
You may be scared to death, but I won't let you go."
You may think the sky above is falling,
But can you hear Jesus calling?

I bolded, underlined, blew up the last 2 lines in the pre-chorus because thats what really hit home with me on this song! As I walked down the dark street, surrounded by the trees, felt the strong ocean breeze in my face, I realized that if I view this place as misery, thats all I will ever be while I'm here… miserable. Some things are difficult to change about the island as well as some of the people here, but instead of seeing my circumstances here as all the bad things, I gotta look at the good. For example, yea, I would have preferred to stay at school another 20 minutes, studied a little more, got in my car and drove home in 3 mins, but I couldn't so I had to walk. Now, tonight was a PERFECT night to walk the 25 minutes home. It didn't rain on me. It wasn't humid. There was a strong, cool breeze. I walked by the moonlight, didn't even need the flashlight I had in my backpack. And best of all, I didn't encounter any goats, donkeys, angry cows, wild hogs (yes… I've seen one here and it has to weigh 300+ pounds), or angry dogs that want to eat me.
So, all in all, it was a wonderful walk home and I am glad I didn't have a car tonight to take me away from that 25 minutes of calm, study free, relaxing time (and I got some exercise that hasn't happened much since I've been here).
I'll end this by repeating the bridge from the song: Because the darker the night, the brighter HE can shine.

Finally some R&R

2 days of back to back big assignments was finally over today (seemed like forever!).

I had a Board Review exam on Monday and did really well on that, then prepped for a Path 2 quiz which I was very nervous about going into it. Ended up doing good on it as well, so overall, it's been a good week!

So, I treated myself to a lil R&R this evening by going on a Night Dive. Got an email last night about it and was like… Yep, I'm doing it! We went to a site called STENAPA Reef and it was amazing! I've never done a night dive before and had NO idea what to expect, but I had fun. Saw a Barracuda that was as long as my whole body, a couple turtles that could eat me for an appetizer for dinner, over 25 Sting Rays, lobsters, awesome coral, at least 5 lion fish (1 was the biggest I've ever seen) and much, much more!

Was a good, relaxing night and now I gotta try to study a little *crosses fingers*!

 

 

Christmas, Friends, Travel and The Like

Well, it's been a while since I blogged last. Had a full months break from school through Christmas and just finished up the first week back for my last semester (on the island)!!! I am sooo excited to get this behind me and be home for a while before starting clinicals!

Break was really good! Started it off with vacation with my family and then was home for almost all the rest of it. Had a wonderful Christmas and was able to hang out with my sis and bro-in-law for almost a week which was great! Went duck hunting with my bro-in-law and shot my first duck ever! So much fun! Enjoyed getting together with friends, both old and new! So many people I haven't seen in a while and was great catching up with them!

Sad part of it was saying goodbye to 2 of my best friends for the past 2 years, Jeremy and Bridget. Jeremy got a new job in Mississippi and him and Bridget moved down there right after I got home from school, so I was only able to see them for one day before they left. :( You can still come back Mississippi!!!!! ;)

The end of my break consisted of one of the highlights and then contained the low-lights of my vacation. My dad got me tickets to go to the Cotton Bowl where Arkansas whoooooped up on the Big 12 Kansas State! WOO PIG! Unfortunately, I picked up some baaaaaad food poisoning that afternoon of the game, so about halfway thru it, I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wished. Drove home the next day still feeling queazy, but made it home. The following day was when I was SUPPOSED to leave to head back to school, with a stop in Dallas to spend the night before finishing the journey the following morning. Welllllll, American Airlines had other plans for me and decided it wouldn't be a big deal if they cancelled my flight (which coincidentally was the last flight) from Fort Smith to Dallas about an hour and a half before I was supposed to leave. Therefore, my connection that left at 5:45am from Dallas would be missed and the trickle down effect continued all the way thru to Statia. So, leaving at 10:45 the next day from Fort Smith didn't put me into St. Maarten til 9 o'clock, just in time to not come even close to catching the last flight to Statia. So, yay for me..I get to spend a night in St. Maarten and fly standby for the whole day the following day because missing my flight to Statia meant there were no seats open until 24 hours later. Ughhhh! Finally made it to Statia and went straight to school to avoid missing any more classes than I already did. Trust me... American will be receiving a bill for my hotel room and expenses for their flight cancellation. They will regret doing it for sure!

Other than that, I'm just glad to be back for my last semester. It was hard leaving home, but this semester was the easiest to leave because I knew that in just 3 short months, I would be getting on a plane, leaving this island FOR GOOD! I get to go home to my friends and family for the summer while I study for my first Board exam. Can't wait for that day to come... I've actually already started a countdown: 92 days! I can do this!!!

Here are a few pics from my break to share:

Busch Stadium... Home of the WORLD CHAMPION Cardinals!!! 

My sis and bro-in-law in front of Busch Stadium with Stan Musial. 

My Christmas present. Ruger 10/22 with scope. Love this thing! :)

This is sad, but the highlight of one of my days over break was getting First Aid and DIT workbooks spiral bound at FedEx Office! haha! Those will be my life for the next 6 months! 

Day after Christmas, driving with the Top Down! Thanks to Marley for reminding me I could do such a thing... I've been away from my baby for too long when I forget these things! haha

Cowboy's stadium for the Cotton Bowl! Woo Pig Sooie!

D.J. Williams, former Razorback and current TE for the Packers, autographing my ticket for the game! :)

COTTON BOWL CHAMPS! WOO PIG!

Trophy time! 

Next year... the Silver ball on the trophy will be replaced with a crystal ball; the BCS National Championship! GO HOGS!

And I can't leave you without this little gem from Jerry Jones. Out at the pep rally for the Hogs before the game, Jerry got up on stage to talk about the game. Here is a small clip that I recorded with my phone. 

"Nothin gets me excited and makes me feel, as you can imagine, to have these Pigs playing in this place... This is a dream, we talked about it so many times. Wouldn't it be something, if we could build a great stadium and have the Arkansas Razorbacks come in here and kick people's ass???" ~Jerry Jones

Block 3 done, shelf exams to come!

WHEW!!!! That was a LONGGGGGGG week! Just finished my Block 3 exams yesterday and they went GREAT! :) I studied so hard for block 3 that I almost lost my mind! But I did really well on all 3 exams and now I just have to hold it together for the shelf exams (Friday and Tuesday) then I'm getting my butt on a plane and GOING HOME!!!

Just to prove how tired I was after these exams, I fell asleep last night at 8:30 after watching the newest episode of Dexter. Wasn't really planning on going to bed, just a little nap, but I didn't wake up til 4:30 in the morning. Woke up and watched a few TV episodes I have downloaded from before blocks and then went back to bed. Didn't wake up until noon! WHEW! Slept for 12 hours and I feel great now!

Just over 5 days until I get on a plane to St. Maarten and I'll be home the following day!!!! (7 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes to be exact)

 

Reason why you go to the Doctor and not WebMD or google when you are sick...

 

 

 

32 days...

I'm still alive! It's been a while since I have updated, but its been a crazy semester!

Just had exams this week, so I have a little down time to take a breath before the end of the semester chugs along and ramps up the heat!

Not a whole lot has happened this past month... except for the CARDINALS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!! WOO HOO!! Pretty awesome! My studying suffered a lil that weekend because if I weren't home watching the 2 games (5 and 7) of the Series, I was keeping up to date on my iPad while doing a little studying! But I was representing the Cards down here in Statia.

I took a trip to Saba after block 1 to see some of my friends, many of which are going to be leaving the island in a few short weeks to go prep for the Step 1 and on to clinicals. Only took one pic the whole time I was there and it was at the airport when I was leaving.

Me and Nancy, one of my best friends on Saba

Had fun while I was there and got some studying done at the same time which was an added bonus! :) And then on my way back to Statia, we had a layover in St. Maarten for about 2.5 hours so I got to go to the grocery store there and get some good meat to cook... Statia meet is pretty sketchy! Been cooking Pulled Pork BBQ, Beef Stroganoff and many other things in the slow cooker this semester. My roommate is blessed to have me as his roommate! ;) haha

Other than that, nothing new here. Just trying to turn on the study engine again to gear up for finals. 32 days til I leave this rock and head home for Christmas! Gonna be a fun-fillled break for sure! Hopefully get to see my best friend from undergrad's wedding in Dallas just before the New Year, going to Indy for family Christmas and a Colts game (Go Horse!) and being lazy at home with friends! :)

I leave you with the following, self explanatory picture:

GO CARDS!

Scubaaaaa!

This past weekend I went out for one dive with Goldenrock Dive Center here on Statia. It was me, one of my classmates and a tourist named Clem from Alabama.

We went to a site called Aquarium on the southwest side of the island and WOW!! It was definitely the best dive spot I have been to in the Caribbean! Tons of fish of all kinds of varieties! Also saw several Eels, lobster, and at least 3 Lionfish.

Now, the Lionfish are very pretty fish, but they are very bad for the other fish in the reef as well as the coral itself. They have no natural predators and will eat up the reef until they are fat and happy!

The Lionfish have big spines mixed into those fins that carry toxins that can even harm humans. Sooo, our dive instructor Glenn used a small speargun to kill them. He got 2 of them for sure and the biggest one got hit, but managed to get away, so he may or may not have died.

Its kinda sad that they have to kill them, but if they didn't, the waters around here would get over-run with lionfish and they would ruin the reefs. 

On our way back to the dock, it was definitely one of the prettiest days that I have seen while here on Statia. You could see The Quill very easily with no cloud cover over it. (The Quill is a dormant volcano that you can actually hike up into. I haven't done it yet, but I plan to before I leave here).

Snapped a photo with my iPhone!

Oh, and I got to use my new regulator and dive watch on the dive! Loved them both.. although I gotta figure something out with my wireless dive watch, because it kept losing signal with the transmitter on my back and was beeping in my ear. It was quite frustrating, so I'll figure that out and not have to deal with it so much! 

Anyway, Path quiz tomorrow, so off to studying! 

Seriously?

Did Chuck Norris come down here and punch the tropical storm in the face or something? Last night it started to rain and blow like we were on the edge of the storm, I went to bed and woke up to bright blue skies. Thinking maybe we were in the eye or something, I look on the internet and find the storm slowed down and hadn't come thru yet. Here I am 12 hours later and the storm is "right on top of us", but I don't even thinks it's rained for more than 20 mins today.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining at all, but I've been cooped up in my house all day for nothing. They closed up the school and no one could go there to study or anything b/c of the storm. Thats the only place I can get productive studying done, so today all I did was watch several episodes of Friday Night Lights (thanks mom for getting me hooked on that!) and watch football! Not a bad day by any means, but I do need to be studying! :/

So, now that they opened up the school, I am there now and attempting to study. As you can tell by me blogging, its not going well so far! loL! Ohhhh well! There is always tomorrow right?

Oh, and I'm keeping up to date with the Hogs game via Twitter! Go HOGS!

Woooooo Pig Sooie!!!

Tropical Storm Maria

Sounds harmless right? Well... I will let you know.

She is on her way here and is gonna give us basically a direct hit. The center is projected to hit a hundred miles south of us and travel southwest of us, but that means that we will be getting the Northeast side of the storm, which if you know anything about hurricanes, the Northeast side is the side that brings the most rain and winds.

I just got an email from the school and they told us that they were closing the school building to students at 5:00 today (they kicked everyone out about 20 mins ago) and they will reopen on Monday at 8:00 am. 8 AM?!?!?! This storm will be outta here by saturday afternoon... I can't study at home! UGHHH!!!!!!

My landlord of course does not have a generator, so if (and probably more appropriately WHEN) the power goes out, it will be dark, hot and miserable here. I have plenty of water and food, but its still gonna suck! :(

I'm ok with the storm as long as I have power... thats all I'm asking for is to not knock out the power. Just one little thing! Thats it.. simple as that!

Well, if I have power and internet, I'll update as it goes!

Until then... here is a look at sweet lil Maria on her way over here.

One more block weekend.

Well, today begins one final block weekend for this semester! Friday thru Monday will be devoted to studying Pharm, Micro and Neuro and hoping to do well one final time. Then we have a week off to study for the NBME Shelf exams... which I have to take 3 of, 2 of them back to back. Gonna be fun! But I'm doing good so far and as long as I can find the motivation to study hard this weekend, I'll be good!

And on that note... Off to neuro!

SIGECAPS

SIGECAPS is a mnemonic that we went over in Pharm while learning about Anti-depression medications. It stands for the following:

Sleep disturbance
Interest (lack of)
Guilt
Energy (lack of)
Concentration (lack of)
Appetite changes
Psychomotor retardation
Suicidal ideations

So if you have 5 out of those 8 criteria, you are clinically depressed and should be treated for depression.

Now, I share that with you to share this. Call it Med School Syndrome, or hypochondriac or whatever you wanna call it, but I would say that over 50% of med students have at least 5 of those 8 (Suicidal ideations may be a little over the top for most however).

Since I have been in med school have I had:
Sleep disturbances? CHECK
Lack of interest in things I used to love? CHECK
Guilt (maybe from not studying, or failing an exam)? CHECK
Lack of energy? CHECK
Lack of concentration? CHECK
Appetite changes? CHECK
Psychomotor retardation? Nah... ok there.
Suicidal ideations? Nope.

So, lets count that up shall we? 1...2...3...4...5...6  6 out of 8. And I said earlier that 5/8 is clinically depressed. And I guarantee I could find you AT LEAST 50% of my class that would have to say yes to at least 5 of those criteria as well. If many of them say no, they are lying.

Needless to say, Med School can easily make you clinically depressed. Not to say that you actually are depressed like some other people who suffer from depression, but the signs point right to it!

Studies have shown that 1 in 5 medical students do suffer from depression. Now, if you apply those criteria more generally to anyone, not suffering from depressed moods, those numbers would go up a lot!

I will tell you that I am by no means depressed, but as far as the criteria are applied, I fit the mold.

Just some food for thought! :)

1/3 of my way home!

With Block 1 being officially over now, I am 1/3rd of my way to going home in August. So far, this semester has been going by pretty quick. I think the next 2 blocks will prolly go quickly as well.

I'm relieved that the first exams are over and they went fairly well. Pharm was tough, but I passed it (unlike many other ppl). Micro and Neuro went well and I'm off to a good start! :)

I'm pretty sure after the exams were over (I skipped Neuro class due to the fact that I wasn't going to class right after taking 2 tough exams... Neuro exam was Monday and Pharm and Micro were Tuesday) I took like a 3+ hour nap! It was amazing!

I'm sitting in my classroom right now getting ready to start my second class of the day... Micro. Already had Pharm and we jumped straight into Anemia meds. I'm actually 4 days behind already for Micro because he finished block 1 info early and just started onto block 2 last week... of course I didn't pay attention to any of that because I had other things I had to study!

Well, bout time to start class, so I'll update more later... not much new happened since last update due to exams! I'm definitely relaxing this weekend! :)

T-7 days til Block 1 (Edit: Pics added)

Alright, its go time for hitting the books hard this week. Block 1 exams are a week from today and its gonna be intense. I'm feeling ok right now on the material. Pharm is intense, but luckily for me I have multiple choices for drug Tx's. My roommate and I have been studying almost every night together for Pharm and both of us agree that if we had to just name a drug off the top of our head it would be a whole lot more difficult than a multiple choice answer! On a similar note... I think I have found out why you can't read a Dr.'s writing on an Rx... its because we can't spell the drugs very well, so just give the Pharmacist a gist of it and let him figure it out! haha!

Micro is boring and I have learned nothing... gonna be one of those classes that the review I do for the Step will teach me the important things for the course (kinda like Biochem because of the awful prof at Saba I had).

Loving Neuro! The prof in there is great! He has a different way of teaching than most... he doesn't use PowerPoints at all! But it makes you draw out and take good notes in class where you learn it well that way the first time! So far so good anyway!

Well, gotta get to it. Prolly won't be updating much if at all for the next week or so. Might be meeting up with some Saba friends on St. Maarten the weekend after blocks for some R&R on the beach. Then after next block (Block 2), my parents and my sister are coming down for a vacation to visit and I'm gonna spend that weekend in St. Maarten with them! Yay! :)

I'll get some pics posted in a bit...

One of the beaches on the Caribbean side.

White Wall

View of the Caribben (right) and Atlantic (left) from White Wall

Looking up towards the Quill (volcano crater) 

Laundry... Caribbean style

So, today I needed to do laundry because I was running out of clothes. Having never done laundry in the Carib, this proved to be an adventure. (At Saba, there was a place to take your clothes to get cleaned). First, I had to fill up the washing machine with water... using a hose. 5 minutes later it was full of water. Added clothes and laundry detergent. Ran it for 15 minutes then pulled the clothes out of the soapy water and rung them out. Luckily, our washing machine has a spinner included with it (separate device tho), so into the spinner they went. 3 minutes on the spinner and they were nearly dry, but not enough! So, out to the clothesline they go. I can honestly say that I have never hung clothes up on a clothesline to dry before. Guess there is a first time for everything huh? 

Some new pics from Statia including a NEW CAR!!! *Plays Price is Right theme song*

Here are a few pics I have taken in the last few days on the island. 

This was a pic back when we had a full moon a few days ago. It was really pretty, but my phone took a pretty dark pic. I tried to adjust the brightness and contrast with an app on my phone, but it added a lot of noise. It's still kinda cool tho!

Karl (my roommate) and I went to a guys (another student) place for dinner the other night. This was his view from his backyard.

Another sunset pic, but with more of his backyard in view. It was really pretty there!

Now, for the good stuff!

This is our new ride! A '03 Kia Rio. Got it for cheap! :)

I'm pretty sure she will do 0-60 mph in about 34.9 seconds! haha!

And finally, this is a pic of our appt. Cozy lil place, but doesn't have internet unfortunately. But luckily I'm only a 5 min walk to campus... OR a 2 minute drive now! :) 

Thats all for now! 

~J

Tick Tock Tick Tock

I hear the clock counting down in my head. Only one more year on this island. Only 3 more semesters. Only 3 more months til I have a break. Only 2 more months til my parents and friend come visit. Only 1 more month til the first exams. Only 1 more day til another week of classes.

So far, Statia hasn't been a bad experience. I have enjoyed getting to know my classmates (and trying to remember everyone's name). I like my professors. And the school building... well, I guess this place isn't paradise! haha. I am getting settled in and my roommate should be here tomorrow afternoon to get settled in.

I don't feel terribly overwhelmed with the first week of school which is much more than I can say about the first DAY at Saba. After 1 day we all felt like we were behind.

The island here is different. Its MUCH flatter than Saba was, which is nice when you are trying to get somewhere, but its also not nice when you talk about temperatures. Saba was so high up that it caught a lot of the trade winds, so you would constantly have a 10-15 mph wind on Saba, but the wind isn't so strong or consistent here. Sometimes it blows, sometimes it doesn't. But it has been really hot and humid here lately.

Last night I went out with some guys from my class to Smoke Alley. Its a local restaurant that has some good food! I got the burger and it was pretty good. It wasn't very cheap, but it was good. About the time we got there, it started to rain and storms rolled in and I felt like I was back home in Arkansas! Thunder, lightning, heavy rain, flooding! Made me feel at home! (I have seen lightning like 2 other times down here, so it's not a common occurrence).

I've got a little of studying to do for Neuro, finish up some Micro and then review over Pharm and I'm good for the weekend. (Not having ANY classes on Friday, seems to help keep me sane too!)

In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out where my parents and my friend can stay when they come down to visit in July. I've gotten some good feedback from several students, but I am gonna ask a few more before I decide where to tell them! I am DEFINITELY looking forward to seeing them because it cuts my semester almost in half! :)

Well, back to studying and then off to home (Don't have internet at home, so I study, surf the web while I'm on campus.)

Cheers! (Thats for all my Canadian friends!)

EDIT: Here are some pics of the island so far. (You can click on the pics to make them bigger)

This is the view of the Caribbean Sea from the front porch of my appt. 

Pic of my room after I got everything moved in. 

This is the classroom building... Definitely nothing special about it! haha

 If you look close enough, you can see that these cows are grazing on cemetery property... Can honestly say that I have NEVER seen that before in my life! 

Sunset I saw one night, while walking to school.

And this is a view from the school. Under that red roof there is the cafeteria. Looking out to the Caribbean Sea. (Other side of the island is the Atlantic Ocean).

St. Eustatius

Well, I have arrived on the island. Got here on Friday. Orientation is tomorrow (Monday) and classes start Tuesday. Haven't registered for classes yet, but I have been told I will be taking Neruo, Micro and Pharm. Whew! Gonna be busy for sure!

The island is different from Saba, definitely much bigger and MUCH more flat! My appt is a 5 min walk to campus (only place I can get internet for the time being). So, needless to say, I have been at the school quite a bit so I can have something to do besides watch TV (and so I can talk to ppl back home!) :)

Umm... not a whole lot to say so far because I have only been here for 2 days. I'm sooo ready for August to get here so I can go home for a while. Hopefully I can get off this island for good by December, but it all will depend on how the class schedule works out. I'm basically one class behind their schedule since the transfer and it might bite me in the last semester. But if it is a better experience than Saba was, I will take it any day.

Well, I guess I will update with more info once I have more to say. I did find out that they only have exams every 4 weeks here instead of like Saba where it was every 3 weeks. So that makes it a lot less stress all the time, but there will be more material covered on exams, so that will kinda stink.

Anywho, I'm gonna walk back home and get some food to eat. It's either Frosted Flakes, Peanut Butter and Jelly or Pasta because that's all I got! LOL. Grocery store run tomorrow for sure!

Miss all you guys and Happy Mother's Day to the best mom in the world! :)