coffee :(

I broke my french press coffee maker while washing it this morning. It kind of sucks because I am a severe coffee addict... but at least it gives me an excuse to go into town. hopefully a new one isn't $40 or some other horrendous price (it probably will be). Oh well. That french press made it from Costa Rica back to Alberta, and then on to Grenada. it had a good run. tomorrow i will get up earlier and review some anatomy while drinking my (store-bought) morning coffee in the nice caribbean sun. could be worse.

St. George's Market

Yesterday, 2 friends and I got up at the crack of dawn and took the public bus to the spice and fruit market in the middle of downtown St. George's. It was really cool to get away from campus and explore the city, but we only had about an hour to look around because we had to go on a tour of the school's small animal hospital at 9:45am. I wish we could have stayed longer. I ended up buying 2 nice big plantains (I LOVE PLANTAINS), a small papaya, and a small bag of limes (for the papaya). There was so much more to see and do. I can't wait to go back.

Here are a few photos from the day.

Fish Friday

So last night, a whole bunch of people from my school went to Fish Friday. It is this nighttime seafood festival that takes place every week in the village of Gouyave. Gouyave is the fishing capital on the island; it is located in the parish of St. John - about a 45 minute drive up the western coast of the island from St. George's (where I live). To get there, one of my friends arranged for a cab company to take us. Our driver was named Sean and he drove us in a very large van/bus type of vehicle. My roommate had warned me in advance that the road there is filled with twists, turns, and bumps so I was allowed to have the front passenger seat to prevent pukeage. It is a good thing I got that advice in advance.... even sitting in the front seat, I had to sit very still and not take my eyes off the road to prevent from feeling nauseous.

We arrived without incident and went out to enjoy the festival. There were 18 people crammed into our bus, and multiple busses carrying students arrived at the festival that night, so the place was a mix of locals and students - all enjoying the festivities. We walked around and sampled the different things that each booth was selling. I tried a fishcake, a marlon fish-kebab, a piece of coconut bread, passionfruit juice, and a banana ice cream. (I know what you're thinking. That's not a lot of fish, Dayna.) Well I decided to be responsible and take it easy, since I anticipated the drive home to be even more puke-inducing than the drive there. My friends let me try bites of their stuff as well. I got to taste a tuna-kebab, breadfruit, grilled lobster, and a fish-noodle stir fry. I also ended up buying a local teenager a bowl of lambie soup (lambie is the Grenadian name for the meat of the critter that lives inside a conch shell). The kid was sitting in the gutter and begging for money. He asked me for $2 for some food, so I gave it to him. Then he asked me if I would buy him the soup with the $2... and I agreed because he looked kind of messed up and I thought it might be a good idea for him to remain sitting on the curb. The soup turned out to be $7, but I felt bad for the kid so I didn't mind. I think he was surprised when I actually came back with the hot seashell soup he asked for.... Then again, he could have totally been scamming me for a free meal. What can I say, i'm a sucker. I also ended up giving the stray dogs a lot of the food i ate. I couldn't help it, they were sooo skinny.

Anyway... we enjoyed the festival for a couple of hours; people were singing and dancing in the streets and many of my classmates were enjoying the rum punch and beer. We met up with our driver after a couple of hours, and to my horror he was drinking a rum punch as well. This had me quite worried since (as I have mentioned before) the drinks here are STRONG. The driver was behaving normally though so I tried not to think about it.

I was hoping that I wouldn't get car-sick on the drive home, and as it turns out I had nothing to worry about. Apparently, terror keeps nausea at bay. The driver was going ridiculously fast and spent a lot of time trying to pass a slower moving vehicle in front of him. At times he came literally inches from hitting it, at other times he would drive in the oncoming lane while going around blind corners, and often he would come really close to going off the edge of the road. Almost everybody else had been drinking and seemed to think it was hilarious. I thought we were all going to die. After about 20 minutes, the driver drove through a huge pothole on the road and the back tire exploded. We had to pull over and we all got out of the bus while Sean and and a few of the students put on the spare. After that, he took it easy for the rest of the drive. When we finally made it home, everybody sat around on the balcony of the main student centre and laughed and told stories. Aside from the almost dying in a firey car wreck on the side of a jungly mountain, I had a great time. But I think next time we go to Fish Friday, i'm going to insist we take the water-taxi (I hear its more fun anyway).

In conclusion, here are a few photos I took while at the festival. Tomorrow I will post some pics of the spice/fruit market in the heart of St. George's.

sorry if my story scared you, Mom.
xoxox
Dayna

Photo Randoms

Here are a couple of random photos for you today. The first one is a photo of me and a classmate in Anatomy class. We are not allowed to post photos of cadavers on the internet so I have covered up our study dog. Also, I know that children occasionally look at my blog and I don't want them (or anybody else) to be traumatized. The insides of an animal are not for everybody to see.

The second photo is a picture of me feeding the giant koi fish at the mall when I went for groceries after class today. Someday in the far off future when I have paid off my student loans, I want a house with a koi pond in the back yard. I love watching them. :)

ok that's it for today!
miss you all!

class pic

I had a long day and i'm tired. I got up, wrote my quiz, dissected the muscles of a dog, sat through 5 hours of lecture, went to an Emergency and Critical Care Club meeting (we can volunteer to work shifts at the emergency hospital) went to the gym, and studied. I am ready to relax for a bit before bed.

Here is a photo I stole off a classmate's facebook page. This image is from our Anatomy Palpation lab. Everybody is laughing and looks so happy. It was a really fun day.
The lady in the pink is one of our instructors, and she is married to the crazy-fun anatomy instructor. She is really nice and often comes to the lab to help out. She is also a vet and will teach us the animal wellfare class later this term. The little dog is named Bella and I got to snuggle her for a while that day. She is a Chinese Crested breed, and when you ask her to sing a song, she howls for you. Its adorable. She is also a working dog, and knows how to stand still and let all of us learn by poking and prodding her. She has been coming to anatomy labs for 7 years. Having live animals in our class makes me sooo happy. Today we had a baby Yorkshire terrier that the married professors are fostering. (Did I mention they have 13 dogs?)

ok that's it for tonight! xox

anatomy quiz

First quiz is tomorrow. Anatomy. The prof is going to ask us 20 questions, we need to get 10 correct to get full marks. He gave us a question booklet to memorize/study. The 20 questions will come directly from the booklet but there are 409 questions that he can choose from. It is a lot of information to process in less than a week. I hope I do well.

Wish me luck!

Afternoon Update: I got 19/20 correct!!! Yay! ^____^

anatomy class

My Anatomy professor is awesome. Today we had a palpation lab in the morning. All the students were encouraged to bring their dogs, and my prof and his wife (who is also a vet and teaches us our animal welfare course) brought their own 10 dogs to class. We all got our own dog to poke and prod. It was sooo fun. We listened to heartbeats, and did physical exams. I also learned a bunch of cool facts about the body that are important for clinical diagnoses.

Here's one: When drawing blood from a bird, always go in through the jugular vein. Why you ask?
Well, birds don't have platelets. Platelets are the cells found in the blood of mammals and aid a wound in clotting... so wounds in birds take a long time to clot.The jugular vein in the neck has muscles around it which provide pressure on the punctured vein and help the hole to clot faster. This way, the bird is less likely to get a big hematoma (a bunch of blood collecting under the skin)! That's why!

mah house

In response to a request from one of my fans, this post is dedicated to showing you all what my dorm is like. I have to admit, living on campus is pretty convenient.. I don't even mind sharing my space with somebody.

Anyway, on to the photos.
This first one is an aerial shot that I stole off the SGU website. I have added a large green arrow to indicate the location of my room. As you can see, the ocean is very close. I live in the largest dorm on campus and I am the only person in my entire class who lives in this building. Most of my friends are in a building across the soccer field from me. The hill behind my building leads to the administration offices and the library. It is very steep.

This is a photo of my building that I took while standing on the soccer field. My window has been marked with a yellow oval shape. There is a little bunch of trees near my window which helps in keeping the mid-day sun out. There is also a little pond. People often walk by my window so I keep my blinds shut all the time.

This is a view of the hallway leading to my apartment. My door is the second one on the right. I live in the middle wing of the building. I am happy that I live on the ground floor.

This is what you see as soon as you enter my apartment. As you can see, there is not a lot of counter space. There is also no oven and no drawer to put cutlery and utensils in. At some point, I hope I can find a used toaster oven to purchase....there is no way I would buy a new one here cause they're like a billion dollars. I bought the kettle on the table from a student yard sale for $20 EC which works out to about 8 Canadian dollars. It helps with my coffee addiction. :)

This is the view of the hallway when I stand in front of the little stove. My roommate's door is the nearest one on the left hand side, the middle door is for the empty room (our roommate never showed up so there are just two of us). The door at the end on the left is to my room. To the right, are the bathroom and shower room doors. Straight ahead is a locked closet door. Inside is the air conditioning unit. I only know this because some of my friends broke into their closet because they thought that it might be like a hotel party door that opens up into the next suite. It isn't.

Here is what the bathroom and shower room look like. They are both very small and plain but at least there aren't any cockroaches in the shower or frogs living in the toilet like there were in Costa Rica. (Actually.. I quite liked the frogs)

This is just another angle of the bathroom. I need to find some posters or something.

And here is the view of my room from inside the doorway. My desk is already a disaster... typical. I like my blue and green comforter, and I like how my computer sits right by my bed.

here is a view of my closet and messy desk area.

And here is the view I have when I look out of my window.

This place is pretty sparse, but compared to Costa Rica it is like a luxury resort. It is nice to not have cockroaches scuttle across my body while I am lying in bed, trying to fall asleep. I also like not having to check for scorpions before I step on the ground in the morning. I need to decorate my walls a little bit, but I didn't pack any posters or photos or anything. So if any of my friends or family have some photos, homemade art, fan-mail, or love letters that they want to send me (hint!) , here is my address.

Dayna Chetek, First Term SVM
True Blue Campus, St. Georges University
P.O. Box 7, University Centre,
St. George's, Grenada, West Indies

I can't wait for the letters to arrive! That's it for now!
xoxox
Dayna

Pot Hounds

The stray dogs of Grenada are called "pot hounds". I did not feed these dogs, but my classmates did.

"No, black dog. No! I love you, but you may not eat my brownie."


click to see a bigger version

quick morning post

I spent all of yesterday in class or studying. I also went to the gym because I think exercise will be a very good way to help me deal with stress from school. The stair machine kicked my ass but I felt great after I was finished.

I don't have a lot of time before I go to class, so I just thought I would share a quick photo. This was the view I had when I came out of class yesterday morning. I had to stop and stare for a minute or so because it just hasn't sunk in yet that I actually live here.
Enjoy. <3

time to study

So today was the first official day of "real" vet school. I had the following classes: anatomy lab, histology, physiology, anatomy lecture, and histology again. The histo and physio classes seem like they will be a lot of work... but manageable as long as I keep up with things. The anatomy course has a fantastic professor... but the amount of material we need to learn is CRAZY. Before the lab was over, I had begun to panic and had convinced myself that this was a mistake... that I should never have been let into vet school... and that I am far too stupid to cram all of this material into my head. I HATE feeling stupid. It is the worst feeling in the world.

Thankfully, after class my peers and I got to talking... and it turns out that all of us are feeling this way. Knowing that i'm not the only one makes me feel better. I am just going to do my best and make sure I do my reviews every night after class. From now on, the weekends will be reserved for making flash cards for the material we covered during the week and committing it to my memory. Hopefully there are enough hours in the day to get everything learned.

Tonight I made dinner (red thai curry with chicken and potatoes) and reviewed my histo and physio while it cooked. Then I reviewed anatomy for over an hour but I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface yet. Baby steps I guess. Now I am going to try to get some rest because I am tired and am no longer studying productively. I don't have class until 10am tomorrow, so I plan to get up at 8 and study for 1 more hour before class. woo!

One final note: I don't think this vet school blog is as exciting as my monkeyschool blog. I have barely seen any cool wildlife here yet. Hopefully I can keep things interesting so people keep reading. I still need to post photos of campus and my dorm room.
miss you all!
xoxo

White Coat!

So I just came back from my white coat ceremony. At first, I was feeling kind of sleepy and antisocial and didn't really feel like even attending. But in the end, I am glad I did. The ceremony was nice. We got to listen to some good (but short) speeches from the Dean and the Key Note Speaker, and we all got to walk across the stage where we were presented with our white coats that have "SGU School of Veterinary Medicine" embroidered on them. We then recited the veterinary oath which officially inducts into the profession. Here is the only photo that I could find on Facebook of me up on stage. It's an extreme profile shot... not very flattering but oh well.


At the end of the ceremony, the Dean of Admissions came up and congratulated me and gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. He was the one who interviewed me over the phone when I first applied to vet school and he is the one who gave me a strong recommendation for admission. Whenever I see him now, he is so nice and always makes a point of saying hello to me. This one time, when I was waiting in line at registration he even grabbed me out of the line and brought me to the front and told the ladies there to give me anything I needed. It really made my night when I saw him at the ceremony. I feel all special because I am on a first name basis with him and he told me to call his office phone if I ever need anything. It feels good when a faculty member has your back like that. Anyway, here is a photo of us. I would also like to note that my new white coat is wayyyy too big and needs some serious hemming and alterations in the body.



After the ceremony we were served some dinner and some little cakey type desserts. They were good. Now, everybody is going out to Bananas to celebrate. I kind of want to go and celebrate with them, but our first anatomy lab is tomorrow at 9am. I want to be alert and focused all day and I don't want to mess it up by staying out late. There is a veterinary party on friday at the black sand beach down by the school library, so I think I will make myself a deal. No Bananas tonight, and if I stay alert and make good notes in class, and review what I learned after each day for the rest of the week, then I can go to the black sand beach party as a reward. That's fair, right?

supplies

So here are all the neat school supplies I got the other day.

1. Dissection guide for anatomy.

2. Guide to small animals clinics.

3. Physiology text. I am a little nervous about this class because I have never taken physio before.

4. Dictionary. will probably come in handy.

5. A STETHOSCOPE! How doctor-ey eh?

6. Dissection kit. My one at home is much better. I didn't bring it though. poop.

7. Digital thermometer. Can take oral or anal temperatures. fun times.

8. A lead for dogs and one for farm animals.

9. And a halter for horses.


We have one more book that has not arrived yet. I don't really know which class it is for. These items are pretty cool. The leads and halters make me excited to get started the 'hands on' stuff.

Tomorrow we have a professional skills workshop, then our white coat ceremony. We will be given our doctor's jackets and will recite our oaths. I will post photos if I can convince friends to take one of me while I am up on the stage.

That's it for now!
gnite!!

Bazaar

Today was a big day. This morning at 10am we had "convocation". At the University of Calgary, convocation means the graduation ceremony where graduates are presented with their degrees. But here, convocation just means a long boring lecture where all the school officials talk to us and tell us about the different programs and services offered at the school. After convocation, we had 2.5 hours to kill, so a few of us decided to get some power beach time in. We bussed to the beach, swam, lay in the sun, and then bussed back just in time for our next lecture at 2:30.

The 2:30 lecture was an intro to the PAWS program.. which is basically a program where we are assigned a "buddy" student who has been here for a while. That student is supposed to show us around, help us, give us tips for success, that sort of thing. My buddy didn't bother to show up. Thankfully the buddy of another girl in my class adopted me and took me on the tour. She also said that she would give us her notes from last term as well as her practice exams. That should be a great help.

After the buddy program, the school held a big bazaar in the soccer field right outside my dorm. There were a whole bunch of student clubs and merchant tents there. We also got vouchers for $35 EC (caribbean dollars) to spend on whatever we wanted. I bought a passionfruit smoothie and a piece of pizza to eat. I also went to a fruit vendor and spent the rest of my free vouchers on bananas, mangos, grapefruits, and tomatoes. I was stoked because I was planning to go to the fruit market tomorrow and now I don't have to. That should last me all week!

I also joined the following student clubs:

• The emergency medicine club. Members of this club do shifts at the campus emergency vet clinic. We will be able to get lots of great clinical experience here.


• The exotics and wildlife club. This club has a lot of cool events... such as traveling to the north part of the island in the spring to assist with the egg laying of leatherback sea turtles, and whale watching.


• The herpetology club. This is for vet students who like reptiles. Members of this club can foster baby tortoises as well as go to extra lectures about reptile medicine.


• The canadian club. This club is mainly for med students, but they have a Tim Horton's night. nuff said.


• I wanted to join the hiking club, but I got distracted by all the stuff going on and ended up forgetting to go find the booth. I am sure that one of my friends signed up though, so I will just tag along to the first meeting and sign up then.

That is all.
Now I am in bed, trying to think about what to get ready for my first day of actual classes. The first 2 days are just a big seminar on professional skills. I think it will just be a chance to get to work together and really get to know the other people in my class. I hope its fun. Tomorrow, I will show you all the neat things that I got when I went to go get my textbook package. :)
Have a great night!
xoxox
Dayna

Grenada Randoms

Here are just a few random things.

• 2011 is the 250th anniversary of when people in France began the profession of veterinary medicine. (I learned that in a lecture yesterday. :D )


• My bed here is surprisingly comfortable. I sleep sooo well.


• The word Grenada is pronounced "Gren-EH-da" not "Gren-AHH-da". That is how the locals say it.


• English is the official language of Grenada... but when I listen to locals speak to each other, it doesn't sound like english at all to me! They use so many strange slang words. I love the sound of their accents though. Caribbean accents are probably THE coolest sounding accents in the world (in my opinion). Ay mon.


• Since coming to the island, I have lost weight. My summer clothes are no longer muffin-toppy, and I just feel better. I am definitely eating less, but I am also drinking tonns more water. My skin is also nicer. I am tanned, and I no longer have to use gallons of lotion to combat the dry-itchiness that comes with Alberta winters. Living in the tropics makes me look better! :)


• I have met one of my roommates so far. She is a 2nd term vet student and I like her. She seems like a mellow person so I think we will get along well. The other roommate hasn't arrived yet. Apparently she is a 2nd term med student.. but all the med students were supposed to be here by the 12th, so maybe she isn't coming? That would be kind of cool - sharing a 3 person suite with only one person. We shall see


• Went to the "cheap" grocery store today and I bought some extra provisions. The girl at the counter was super nice and gave us free cheese grater/carrot peelers. I also bought some cookies with lime filling in them. I love trying strange new foods that I have never seen before. They also had this really thick pistachio flavoured green alcohol of some kind. But I didn't buy that...


• Tonight the vet students have a little "welcome barbecue" in the soccer field that is right outside my dorm. Last night was the party at Aquarium. It was packed with drunk students. I did not drink anything besides water.... I did order one rum punch at the beginning of the night, but it was pretty much all rum with a splash of punch. I didn't like it so i left it on a table after 1 sip.

ok, that's it for now!
xox Dayna

Grand Etang Photos

Here is a quick little slideshow of the photos I took yesterday. So much fun!

It's official!

I fail at taking ID card photos... but at least my eyes are open in this one! :)

Grand Etang and Annadale Falls

I have been having more and more fun since last time I blogged. Last night, some vetschool friends and I went to a bar called Bananas that is just down the road from the school. Everybody was in a great mood. We laughed and had some drinks... and some shots... and before I realized, I was horribly, embarrassingly drunk. I only had 2 shots, and 2 drinks during the entire night... but I seriously underestimated the amount of alcohol that they give you in each drink. Normally, 4 drinks over a few hours would get me a nice happy buzz which would wear off before it was time to go home. But no. Last night when we left I could barely see, and I was slurring my words so badly that I just stopped talking because it was easier. pathetic! We took a cab back to campus, and when I got to my room I ate the entire bag of dried banana chips that I had sitting on my desk. They were so good. Then I forced myself to drink a giant jug of water so I wouldn't feel like death in the morning. good times

This morning, I got up to use the bathroom at 7am. We all have locks on our room doors to prevent theft, and apparently in my drunken retardedness the night before I forgot to pop the lock on mine. While I was in the bathroom, my door closed on its own and when I went to stumble back to my bed, I realized that I was locked out. awesome. I was wearing a little pair of booty shorts and a tank top so I didn't really want to go parading around the building looking for security to let me back into my room. Also, if I left the apartment to look for security, I would end up hungover, and half naked in the hallway with no key. I didn't know what to do. Luckily, after a minute another student walked by my door. He let me use his cell phone to call security and they came after about 5 minutes. I felt like a complete tard and went back to bed for a while so i could forget my ordeal.

I got up a few hours later and a bunch of us who went out the night before met up and ate some lunch. Then we all piled into the SGU busses for a tour of the Grand Etang Forest and Annandale Waterfall. We had a fantastic time. At the waterfall there was this group of locals who would climb up the rocks and jump off the falls. We watched them for a bit and then headed back to the busses to continue to Grand Etang Lake. On the way back there was a local man with a mona monkey on his shoulder. Everybody hollered to me to come over (cause I am the monkey girl) and they took my photo with the little monkey. I was really excited to see a mona monkey for the first time. they are quite a bit smaller than I expected... about the same size as a capuchin. I also felt really sad for the monkey cause it was quite young and the man had a leash around its little waist. :( monkeys should never be pets. ever.

After the falls, we went to Grand Etang Lake which is a dead volcano crater filled with water, way up high in the hills. The guy who was giving the tour says that the lake has no bottom... and I kind of believe him. I looked it up online and apparently when a different underwater volcano north of Grenada was actively bubbling, the waters in Grand Etang Lake were bubbling too. Maybe they are connected. creepy! After checking out the lake, we hiked up this crazy trail to the top of what felt like a mountain. I was so happy. I felt just like I was trekking through the jungles of Costa Rica again....except that there were about 100 people there with me, and there were none of my monkey friends. :( Many of the other students who came on the hike didn't have as much fun as I did. I overheard people complaining that it was the worst hike ever because the trail was muddy and slippery and people were falling all over the place. I guess they just aren't awesome jungle badasses like me. heh. When we got to the top of the hill, the view was incredible. I could see the ocean, and the misty forest, and all of the cute little houses of the city below. I will post photos tomorrow. Now, I am in my bed. All the mud has been washed off my feet, and I am looking forward to having a nice sleep and waking up refreshed and not hungover. There is a welcome party tomorrow at a bar called Aquarium. I am going to go, but I am not going to drink. Once is enough for this old lady.

In conclusion, here is a little movie I took today. It is one of the locals jumping off the falls. It looks like the video has been sped up, but it hasn't. Enjoy!

Grande-Anse!

So here are the photos that I took at Grande Anse beach yesterday. This place is literally a 5 minute bus ride from my school. Pretty sweet huh?

Today I took some photos from around campus, but I need to get a few more before the slideshow will be ready. Enjoy!
<3 Dayna

also, if you want to see a close up, just click the "view all" button to get to the full-size version!

Day One on the Island

What a day.

I got to Grenada safe and sound last night.... and after dealing with filling out a couple of forms for the baggage that was flying standby, me and a few other students were driven to school. I was given my room assignment by a student rep at the airport but when I got to my building, the room number that I was given didn't actually exist. To make matters worse, the RA (residential adviser) was not answering her door so I couldn't confirm my room or get any keys. She had a sign on her door that said "If I am not here, call security to let you into your room". However, having just stepped off a plane, I didn't have a cell phone. Thankfully a kind student came across me sitting in the hall waiting for the RA and let me use his cell. After about 2 hours of waiting, security was able to find my correct room and let me in so I could get some rest. By that time it was 1am and I was so wired I couldn't fall asleep for a long time.

Today, I got up and went to a meeting that I had with the Dean.... because my interview for school was over the phone, I had to meet with him in person to confirm that I am really me. After that, I went to find coffee and ran into a bunch of my vet school classmates. We all recognized each other through facebook and it was awesome to finally meet.

After breakfast and coffee, we all went to the student bookstore on campus and then took the school shuttle to the mall which is about a 5 minute drive away. A few people bought some groceries, but at that point I didn't have my room key yet so I just tagged along so I wouldn't be totally lost the next time. We then came back to campus so the others could put their things away, I got my room key, and then 5 of us took the shuttle to the Grand Anse beach. OMG is the beach ever beautiful. Don't worry, I took a ton of photos... i'm just too tired to resize them right now.

We swam for a bit, then walked along the beach and found this little hole in the wall beach restaurant. I got a rum punch to drink and a chicken roti to eat. The roti was this curried potato and chicken mixture all wrapped up in some kind of squishy indian tortilla. It was delicious. We then went back to campus all sandy and pink from the sun.

After the beach, we took a different shuttle (the shuttles are all free and come to the school every 15 minutes or so) to the airport to see if our bags had arrived. I wasn't expecting them to be there BUT THEY WERE! Every single person I hung out with today had lost at least one bag during the trip here, so we were all very happy to have our bedding, undies, and toiletry items. We took a cab back to campus and almost everybody went back to their dorms to unpack. Everybody except me and one other girl. Instead, her and I took one more shuttle back to the grocery store and did our shopping trip.

Now, I am lying in my bed, all showered and in my jammies. I will finish this update, and then I will have the best sleep of all time. Tomorrow should be another busy day. I will post photos soon and i'll write all about my day! I miss you all!

xoxox
Dayna

Just a couple more things before I go.

1. I don't seem to need as much sleep when I live in the tropics. The PHD student from Costa Rica said that he was the same.


2. My new camera is frakken awesome!!! It takes amazing HD video, and the photo quality is sooo clear. Here is a picture I took of a crab today... it looks allright. But check out how the same photo looks when you zoom in! Awesome huh? I am so glad I decided to buy it. ^___^

Barbados

Well, I made it to Barbados safe and sound. I have about 3 hours until my next flight leaves so i'm just sitting in the terminal trying to overdose on caffeine. My flights went pretty well. On the one from Edmonton to Toronto I got a window seat and there was nobody sitting in the middle spot next to me. I was able to curl up in a ball and kind of lie down a little. Despite having slightly more space, I didn't get much rest. The plane was making really loud noises... it sounded kind of like that air compressor sound you hear in an auto garage. I was scared that the plane was going to fall apart while we were taking off but I kept my eyes on the flight attendants and they didn't seem to be alarmed. Eventually I just put on my iPod and drowned out the noise.

The flight from Toronto to Barbados was ok. This one was a much larger plane: window, 2 seats, aisle, 3 seats, aisle, 2 seats, window. I had an old lady sitting beside me. Actually aside from a few other student types like me, the entire plane was crammed with old people. It felt like a senior's vacation or something. Anyway, I spent the flight dozing and watching episodes of Burn Notice on my computer (it is a really good show!). Neither flight served food or drinks at all (F-you Air Canada you cheap bastards) so by the time I got to Barbados, I was dying of starvation. Thankfully my mom sent a bunch of snacks with me in my carry-on. She's the best.

When I got to Barbados, I had to claim my baggage. There were no baggage carts anywhere so I felt a little lost for a few minutes trying to figure out how to carry both of my 50 pound bags, plus my backpack all the way through the airport. Luckily, I met some other SGU students who had found a porter with a cart and had extra room. The porter wheeled all of our bags all the way to the check-in counter so I didn't have to lug them around. It also gave me a chance to make some Canadian med-student friends.

I am flying on an airline called LIAT for the last leg of my journey. They have a retarded baggage policy. Only one bag is normally allowed per person. One of my bags gets to fly with me, and the other one gets to fly standby on a later flight for an additional $60 American. huh. They were kind enough to let me choose which bag to bring but they were packed so full, I couldn't tell which one was which. Either way, I either get clothes or bedding when I get to the school. I kind of hope I picked the clothes bag because I didn't put any shorts in my carry-on. Oh well, I am not stressing about it because there were probably 20 other SGU students in the same boat. The people at the school can help us, i'm sure.

Anyway, just a few more things before I sign off for now.

• So far I have met quite a few students, but they are all attending med school. I am looking forward to meeting my vet peeps.


• One of the girls who went through the check in with me had some trouble. The people at the desk couldn't find her reservation and suggested she buy another ticket (even though she already paid for one). She told me to go on ahead so I don't miss the flight. I hope they sorted everything out. Apparently island life is a little more laid back so "we can't find your reservation" is a common thing to hear. I guess a mellow attitude helps.


• My feet are hot, and I want very badly to put on my flip flops which may or may not be flying standby.

Ok that's it for now! i'm going to go find another coffee and find my gate. I would kill for a Timmy's right now.

xoxox
Dayna

Airport Fun

Yes. It's true. Your favorite blogatrix is back. I am currently sitting in the Edmonton International Airport waiting to board the flight that will take me to my new life. For those of you who need a little update, I am super excited to announce that I got accepted to a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at St. George's University in Grenada. Where exactly is that you ask? Right here. I know right? Isn't it awesome?

I am really excited to blog again. I love it! I even bought myself a nice new digital camera so I can take all kinds of fantastic photos to show you guys. I can't wait.

So here is my plan for today. I fly from Edmonton to Toronto. Wait 2 hours. Fly from Toronto to Barbados. Wait 6 hours. And then fly from Barbados to St. George's, Grenada where somebody from the school will be waiting for me and will take me to my new home. I will be living on campus for my first semester which is good and bad. It's good because moving to a new country can be a little crazy at first. It will be nice to have a home base which is safe and convenient. It's bad because I may or may not have to share a room with a complete stranger (I will find out when I get there), and also because I had to leave my sweet dog Neko at home. I cried a when I had to say goodbye to her, but she is staying with my parents and she LOVES them. So I know she will be ok.

Anyway, the plane is boarding soon so I should go. But I will leave you with a couple fun tidbits of info.

1. THERE ARE MONKEYS ON GRENADA! MONA MONKEYS FROM AFRICA! They look like this.



2. This is a photo of my school. And yes, its ok to be jealous. :D