Glorious Days

Now you know what i did last fall

2007-12-16T08:33:00.001-08:00

My Life as a Caribbean Medical Student (or add another cute intro title here)

It's nice to be back to the States, and be done with 1 semester of medical school. Here's a little taste of what i was up to during the school year, which i was too busy to post.

Before i found my beloved Ross Adventist Fellowship family I was able to attend some revival meetings which were held under a tent. Here are pics of the Carib Sea baptisms. There are actually a lot of 7th Day Adventists in Dominica. I prefer to go into the water to scuba dive but I guess being baptized in the Carib Sea ain't bad either.

This is where we had our white coat ceremony. This is our lecture hall, the "Annex". This semester (semester alone mind you. We have a new class every semester) numbered 400+ students. As you can tell we have the state of the art technology, at least 5 plasma TVs and 4 large projection screens for the power point presentations. We have media site so that you can watch the whole lecture on line if you like.

The Dominican military leading the president of Dominica out for his speech to the incoming class.

Handsome Eddie and me posing after the ceremony.

This is a picture taken in the middle of our campus.

The view from the other side in the same spot.

My Ross Adventist Fellowship family.

Roomie's b-day party.

Thanksgiving in Dominica. My friend has the picture of the delicious turkey I baked.

Dominican cat. This picture is for my Maryland friends, Sonica and Una. This is right outside our subway deck eating area on campus.

Notice that there are outgrowths from the branches...they grow down and become roots, that's what I surmised from observing the tree once during lunch.

Yes, this is part of the campus. This is where they have the yoga classes.

Dominica's version of the highway i guess. This road runs completely around the whole island. You can see my favorite place to grab lunch, the shwarma truck, yummm.

The "shacks" this is where we grab our lunches and dinners and snacks. They sell mostly local fare for food. You can grab local fruits and veggies and tropical drinks as well. You could consider this our version of a cafeteria.

A different view of the same.

This is our eating area, just take the stairs up from the shacks. Posing in the pic are a couple of our security officers.

This is how they sell fish out in Dominica. When do they sell the fish? When they catch 'em, duhhh. Can u see the simple weighing system in the back? The guy holding the fish is the one who caught it, or at least he says so.

Um, that sign would be an accurate description for everything in Dominica ;).

OK, yeah it's beautiful but how often do you think i get to see this? Yes, this all takes place while i'm in the library staring at the notes or computer.

The real reason i came to school in the Caribbean.

This is our local mute and deaf guy. He will start yelling incoherently as you pass by sometimes point to dirty flip flops and jeans (;) that was for you Soni, ha ha haaa).

My study group friends hanging out at Tomato's restaurant, post Mini 2. This is where the set of "Pirates of the Caribbean" ate while they were filming.

My daughter i never told you about, nah just kidding. Brother Maglore and his family and me. He helps out with our Ross Adventist Fellowship ministry on campus.

The campus iguanas, they hang out right outside the gate on campus. I think it's a boy iguana chasing a girl iguana, we're not much different than lizards huh.

You still reading this?! If so, here a picture of me studying in classroom 4 for the final with 'lil sis.

The beginning of the end of fun on the island

2007-08-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

There has been a big SDA revival meeting that's being put on by the crusadors here in Dominica so I got to go to a huge service this Saturday out in the field. I was a visitor so i sat all the way in the front, the back probably spanned about 3 times what u see up front and about twice the size on both sides. The music was sooo beautiful and inspiring. The praise singers were professional quality and the sermon was superb. There is an advent student group on campus so after school starts I will probably attend service there but it was fun to attend this huge revival meeting, will attend again next Saturday.

The reason i came to this island, oh yeah...school! Above is a picture of the school's main entrance.

So, while I have the chance I am getting in as much fun as possible since when school starts it will be full speed ahead with little time to do anything but study. I got a chance to do some scuba diving, socializing and exploring of the island. School orientation starts this evening and will go on for the rest of the week. Before the first welcome i got a chance to take a dip and discover the whole new world of coral reefs, it's another world which filled me with wonderment and awe, if only I could share the pictures of the reef with you! My ears are still adjusting to the pressure on land. Here are some pictures of the fun from this past week.

A picture of my instructor Chris and me before heading out into the ocean for a dive. That weight belt and that tank weighs a ton, it's such a relief to go into the water to take the weight off.

This is the way we get around and get our scuba gear to our destiation.

This is the entry way to my new place, to the direct right is our living room and to the direct left is our kitchen. My bedroom is a little further down the hall to the right.

Our living room.

Kitchen.

A view of the ocean from our front door balcony (can u see it? ;)).

Just liked this pic. The landlord picked some jelly coconuts for us to drink from our backyard.

This is my bedroom.

A view from the other side.

This was taken along one of the stops on the way to Emerald pool.

This is how the native indians make casava bread. The root is poisonous so they have to soak it for a while to get the toxins out. The mixture is made up of casava root, coconut shreds and sugar. It has a chewy and sticky kind of texture, very tasty.

Some brave male students dancing with the local indians. You got to hand it to these guys, they sure are good sports.

Finally, our destination. Yes, i got out there swam in the pool and even sat under the waterfall, it was a very nice cool, hard water massage. Ahhh, refreshing.

After our trip my room-mate's mother cooked up a delicious persian meal.

Some of the guys in our group enjoying the good eats.

So, as u can see having fun before all the stress starts. School starts next Monday, but starting tomorrow we will be having orientation that pretty much takes up all day! Please write every so often if you have time, would love for you to send me your love.

Home sweet home

2007-08-23T16:20:00.000-07:00

My room-mate and me at the front of our new home.
We have the whole top floor of this house. It's a 3 bedroom and 2 bath place. We're still in the search for a 3rd room mate. The place is probably less than 5 mins walk to campus and the rent should be about $300 or so a month when we get the 3rd room mate.

This is the view from our backyard, Dominica is very lush and mountainous as you can tell.

More pics from the back yard.

In the backyard we have a mango tree, a cocunut tree and a soursop tree.

This is the South side of the apt. Today I had my first scuba lesson in contained water. We swam in a shallow area of the beach close to campus. It was amazing. The water was clear and there were little fishies swimming around. We didn't really get to swim around since we were just learning our skills today but tomorrow we should be able to swim around a bit and discover a little more. I will be able to take pictures of myself in my scuba gear tomorrow :).

Arrived in Dominica

2007-08-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

At the Ft. Lauderdale airport in FL: 6:25 am

There wasn’t much of a chance to sleep on the plane, ugh if you’ve ever taken a red eye flight you know what I mean. We are waiting to board the plane which will make it’s way to San Juan and then we’ll make our way to Dominica. Before taking off from LAX I had a wee bit of a problem with my carry on. You know now you can bring liquids in your carry on…but it must be less than 3.5 oz. Needless to say I had some liquids that exceeded the allowable content size, when I went down to the baggage check in area again they wouldn’t let me check another bag (my carry on) in so the woman behind the counter told me to chuck my liquids. Yikes that was my mega expensive facial treatment, my perfume and much loved shampoo… Well, I thought maybe I could just give the stuff to one of the TSA ladies. Sadly I made my back up to the inspection station (because you know I had already gone through when they told me to go down and check in the carry on bag), when I realized I might still be able to make it and stash the stuff into one of my big bags I had already checked in…I rushed down and caught the bag before they took it away to put on the plane and stuffed all my illegal liquids into the bag, so I’ll be able to continue my fight with the wrinkles on my face and smell nice J he he he, what a woman will do huh? I just hope that the bags don’t get lost…keep your fingers crossed! I think we can start to board soon, its light out now…

Here I am on the bus to the plane on the airstrip in Puerto Rico airport.

Waiting for the plane to take off in the 36 or so seater.

Flying over Dominica, soon to land. When we were landing we newbies were so scared because from the window all we could see were mountains..."where's the air strip?! Yikes". We did land, though since it was such a small plane it was really shakey.

Getting off at the Melville airport strip. Can u see the ocean in the background?

This is baggage claim, they just bring out the bags on this cart set it in front and you grab what you can find. They lost both my friend's suitcases and one of mine, not bad-I expected worse :). All part of the adventure.

Hmm, lucked out look at this huh? They ran out of housing so they put me up in the faculty housing at Ross University Housing (RUH) for free. We were supposed to go on a housing tour afterwards but Marcus one of the employees told us that it would be delayed...didn't give a reason why, just said it would be delayed. Once i got into the room i read a letter about some evacuation because of some hurricane...yeah, i thought it's all part of the island med school experience. After walking around a bit and talking with the students finishing up class...uh apparently it's not, they were freaked out! The were leaving the island as soon as they could, some even chartered private planes to leave as soon as possible. There was a little bit of pandemonium on Thursday the last day before flights were canceled. The new students kept coming. One of my friends KW and R fly in just to be driven straight to the hurrican shelter. Welcome to Ross. Here I am before i realized that the hurricane warning was not just another part of the Ross experience.

You can see the menacing clouds in the sky above the hills and the men boarding up the windows on campus.

What do u say about putting this on the welcome packet for Ross huh? ;)

This was the hurrican shelter, Room 6, where we students were imprisoned for 2 1/2 days. Mention room 6 to any of us and we'll shudder at the thought. The room was like an icebox. I never thought that I could dislike watching movie after movie after movie. Our beds were the hard tables, the swivel chairs or the floor, take ur pick. Needless to say i spend most of my time either playing computer games or eating our little snacks or shivering. I may have slept a total of 4 hours those 2 1/2 days. Welp just all part of the residency preparations! You can see of the good people I made friends with in the picture.

Here we all are at Bob's chinese restaraunt off of banana trail. We sure bonded during the Deaner. What a team! Oh speaking of bananas, they are excellent here. Lots of banana farms u see along the road. There are tons of mango trees, almond trees and other fruit trees on campus. The house that I will be living in has a mango tree in the backyard! The shacks sells these excellent smoothies and fruit juices, you wouldn't believe. There's strawberry and passion fruit, very yummy pineapple juice, shall i go on? Anyway one of the students picked some passion fruit, pinapple and some other fruits from his neighbors yard! Ha ha ha.

Here's the group in S's room. See Bruno? He's our mascot, cool dog he's part of the family. We're an interesting eclectic group. 'Course this isn't everyone but a good pic in any case.

Anyway, I had videos of the hurrican from the shelter as it passed through but i can't seem to upload it on here, if you have any suggestions please do write and let me know how to do that.

I have a place to live as u read. There are many different students here, one of my friends is 41 from New Jersey (I know u wanted to know JR so just added that on there :)). So far i've really enjoyed the island, the locals, the students, the beach, the mountains, the food (surprisingly) and so forth. I am not enjoying the darn mosquitos who seem to love me. I must have at least 30 bites by now.

A student, who was visiting from her routations from the states, told me that their classes' average step one scores was 245! Wow, that's really high considering that it's out of 280. One of the students in her class had a 280 which raised the average like crazy. For those of you who are not familiar with the scoring students who have above 240 pretty much have their pick of residencies, so i feel really good about the school. I will just have to work hard and be deligent! Please keep me motivated! Love you all and miss you! Wish you could be here with me. I will need all your encouragement and prayers. If you have anything you would like me to pray to you about please let me know.

Dancing with the stars (out)

2007-06-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

Chillin' with the villain

Learning how to shake my booty 'properly'

There's just something exhilarating when a man dips you on the dance floor!

Striking a pose for the camera

Hmm, I have a video of me getting down and learning how to do the bachata, I can't seem to download it on the blog...so just use your imagination!!! The music is awesome.

Endings and beginnings

2007-06-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well, this has certainly been a busy weekend full of good byes and hellos. This Friday our Cerritos bible study group met up with the other small groups to get a chance to catch up with our fellow small groupers. One special occasion to celebrate was Jonathan's graduation. He will be leaving for Hawaii to do his Psychiatry residency, poor baby huh?! Sad to see him leaving on Thursday. We wish him the best in his training and life in Hawaii. Wish I could go with! Jonathan will be ending his school training and beginning his practical training. WE'LL MISS YOU JONATHAN!!!

Jonathan's always so good about making me laugh

This past Saturday was the last one which our little Advent Hope group met up at Susie and Eli's place. Sad to say that they are also leaving, to Florida. Like Jonathan, Eli has graduated and will be starting his residency, but he will be starting this new chapter in his life in Florida. So regretfully we said good bye to Susie and Eli and in honor of their departure we had a surprise farewell party for them. WAAAH, WE'LL MISS YOU SUSIE AND ELI!!!

Time to eat some food to drown our sorrows!

It was quite a delicious feast

Better hurry or the food will all be gone

The ladies of the group talking

Even Miso is sad

Awww, two happy couples

After the lunch it was off to Eli and Susie's place to start preparations for Janie's bridal shower. Phew, thought we would be able to fit in a nap, yeah right! I had to get to work cutting up the strawberries for a delectable strawberry shortcake. The spread was amazing, what talented women. Wow, they prepared some fancy foods and desserts. Needless to say I had to forget about the big fat loser contest on this day. It's a celebration to ring in the end of single life for Janie but the beginning of a life as a couple with Paul. Will you marry Yoo?

Mmmm, dessert anyone?

Isn't that clever?! Mashed potatoes in martini glasses.

We decked the whole place out.

We even decked out the bride to be.

Some ladies decked out their recipes for Janie, cute huh?

Well...we decked out some of the gals in toilet paper wedding gowns and even a toilet paper engagement ring. Kar Yee is modeling the Vera Wong outfit that won the contest.

All the women who were such good sports, don't they all look beautiful in their toilet paper gowns?

Susie had the same idea as I did, the picnic basket...back to the drawing board. Will get your present this weekend Janie!

Shimmery presents too.

And of course naughty presents, look at that underwear!

After a crazy fun night of showering the bride there was no way I was going to travel to SD and wake up at 6am to run the marathon. Ummm, sorry I had to pass. But, hey why not use the day to drop by and say hello the very tired and raw footed Jasmin and friends. The girl ran 18 miles!!! That's pretty impressive. Maybe next year buddies! We topped the race off with a race to the famously wonderful Extraordinary Desserts. I wish I had taken pictures before we dug in, but it looked so delicious we didn't even think of taking pictures. Wow, it's art and food and that kiwi lemonade, spectacular just like the waiter said it was.

Graduation Day

2007-05-31T21:19:00.000-07:00

I had the great privelage of being invited to Eli's graduation from Loma Linda University Medical School. It was a busy day Sunday. Woke up at about 7am (ahhh Sunday's are for sleeping in!) to try and make it to Loma Linda by 8:30am. Although late I did make it! Here are some pictures from the graduation! CONGRATULATIONS ELI!!! So sorry to see Eli and Susie leave for Florida as he is doing his residency there but glad to see them move on to bigger and better things.

There's the proud wife reading the announcements, followed by friends Paul and Janie.

Dr. Carson was the special speaker. What an inspiring and compassionate speach he gave! Full of warmth and good advice.

Eli handing Miso over to Susie, Miso got to walk too!

The happy grad.

It was such a pleasure sharing such a special day with such special people.

Our Advent Hope group.

I ran into the newlyweds Michelle and Andy there too.

Awww, there's the happy couple at their home. The cupcakes have graduation hats and Eli written on them, mmmm delish cupcakes.

Miso doned a graduation hat for the occasion.

Then it was off to the dental hygiene and dental school graduation. Here's Jeanette and me.

My graduation party lady buddies from lt to rt: Elisa, Teresa, Mua, Nicole and Julie.

And the wonderful Andrew, who is always full of energy and fun times, graduated too!

BTW if you want to see all the pictures from the graduation let me know and I will give you the Picasa link.

Medical school dilemma

2007-05-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite pictures...look at the clear turquoise colored water!

As many of you may know I have been having some second thoughts about medical school, wondering about going. It's been a rough few weeks as I have debated about how this decision has the potential to take me into two totally different worlds. As I've talked to the good people around me there has been a lot of support and belief in me pursuing this endeavor. I was so surprised to find that people had such wonderful thoughts of me. Don, from work, kept telling me (in a mantra type rhythm) "Go - to - school, go - to - school and don't - look - back". He told me later that he saw great potential in me and told me how strongly he believed that I should go to medical school. Jonathan, also from work, has also been encouraging me to go. Linda gave me a super wonderful compliment telling me that she sees me doing it all...being a mother, wife and doctor. Janelle agreed and told me how she felt that I would be a terrific doctor, one that would care so much for her patients. Thanks to you all and the others who have been with me through this time. I hope to have as much faith in myself as you all have in me.

I will buy my tickets to Dominica today!

I will try to use this blog to post pictures of my future home and school. Hopefully I can bring the island wonders and beauty to you via this blog. Dominica is called the nature island because it is one of the most "untouched" and "unspoiled" of all the Caribbean islands. The island attracts scuba divers from all over the world with it's underwater volcanoes that create bubbles in the water like champagne, migrating whales and colorful sea creatures like the sea horse and the batfish. A good reason to get my scuba diving license while I'm there. Just some trivia: Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3 were filmed partly on Dominica.

A dog the size of a horse!

2007-05-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

Hercules was recently awarded the honourable distinction of Worlds
Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff
And has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.
With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the
Three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's
Standard 200lb. Limit. Hercules owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules
Weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet:
"I fed him normal food and he just grew".... And grew. And grew. And grew.

Can you imagine the dog food bill?! His paw is about the size of Miso.

Hmmm, but look again...can you say photoshop? This is not the real Hercules, the real one is not quite as cute, you can find the real one on this web site: http://urbanlegends.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://vsm.cape.com/%7Etrailbos/Hercules.html

Saturday Advent Hope group on a field trip

2007-05-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

Alpha-Kai spelling out their name in front of David.

Ken and Susie in front of the Moses statue.

A picture of all the gals. Lt to right, me, sweet Teresa, bubbly Susie, smiling Janie and our new friend (um sorry I forgot her name! but she has a cool british accent).

Miso and me.

Alex giving us all the 411 on the statue inside this building. The guy whole painted it brought it from Poland for the world fair, but it was too big! Well after the fair he tried to ship it back home but it was too expensive and had to leave it in the US. The owner of forest lawn saw it after the artist died and had a building made just to show it, the painting stretched across this whole building....but we never got to see it.

A copy of the pieta. Eli's checking out the physical wounds with his expert physician's eyes.

This past Saturday our little Advent Hope group took a little field trip to Forest Lawn in Glendale.

Ofcourse we had our regular yummy potluck lunch at Susie Q and Eli's place. We went from there to Glendale. The first stop was the stained glass version of the last supper (of which the original painting is located in Milan Italy). We got in trouble for trying to bring Miso in, having cameras, and then finally for taking pictures while in the showroom, ooops. On the second stop we were supposed to see a huge painting that covers the whole length of the building. You can see the building in this picture where some of our group is standing in front of. The exhibit was closed because a. the lady who runs the viewing was sick, or b. there were mechanical problems...hmmm which could it be?!

After Alex led us through the grounds we headed back to Loma Linda to Susie Q's again to have dinner and watch some of Paul's DVD "Planet Earth" which was fantastic! We learned about some of weirdest looking creatures like the eyeless salimander which lives in caves, river dolphins, sea otters that chase away crocodiles (which later succesfully attacks a water buffalo), how bats can leave a dung pile that reaches 100 meters and more! It was a fun Saturday spent with my friends from church.

Ken (the Kai of AlphaKai) and I decided to participate in a big fat loser's contest. The race is on to lose our big fat!! We'll be weighing in each Saturday to see how we're doing. I will keep you all posted! :)

2007-05-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

Swing that leg, fast as lightening. Don't wanna get in front of that foot.

2007-05-10T17:01:00.000-07:00

Watch out Gui!

2007-05-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Someone's gonna take someone down!

2007-05-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

Steve mastering the art of the meia lua compasso. Lift that butt in the air ;).

2007-05-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

Steph, getting ready to kick some butt. You go girl!

2007-05-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

Steve getting ready to queixada.

2007-05-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

That's Steph stretching her legs out before she works it out again.

Cicking Butt in Capoeira class

2007-05-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of my friends and me in Capoeira class. Steve, Stephanie and I all go to class together on Thursdays during our lunch hour.