For those of you worrying about hurricanes...

This will be short and sweet.

I know with Isaac hitting the States pretty hard right now some of you might be concerned about our safety here. You know, in the middle of the Caribbean. But as I found out, today is actually the 33rd anniversary of the last hurricane to hit Dominica. We went on a tour of the Indian river (which is where they shot the scenes in Pirates 2 and 3 involving Calypso or something). Our guide's name was Charlie Love. Cool dude. Saw a lot of crabs on the river bank.

But anyhow, them's the facts. Optimists among you might say, "Oh good! Their island hardly gets hit! Hooray!" 

Meanwhile, you glass-half-empty folk are thinking, "They're due."

Er, in short, don't worry. The island and the school are both well equipped for 'inclement weather'.

WE'LL BE FINE. [wait, that looks too intense]

we'll be fine.

-Eric

We have arrived!

Lots of walking...

Insane drivers...

Sweltering humidity...

...Wait, I thought we left Chicago!

But yes, we have left, and we are settling in here quite nicely. We got in on Friday evening, but our bags didn't make it until Saturday, due to some shuffling around caused by all the flight cancellations due to Tropical Storm Isaac.  But it seems we made it with relatively little trouble compared to some other students; people who booked flights for Wednesday and Thursday weren't able to come down because of the storm, and a lot of them are just getting in now. Apparently, Delta/Liat is going to be losing a lot of customers soon..

Our landlord is a pretty good guy. We live at the top of a hill, which is a pretty reasonable trek down, but an absolute bear back up. But he has an SUV, so a quick phone call and he drives us up. His name is Trevor. He has a cool accent (as do all of the islanders).

Since Dominica was once an English colony, all of the cars drive on the left side of the road. Yet only about half of the cars have the steering wheel on the right side, and the other half are left side steering wheel.  Trevor has a left side steering wheel, so it takes a little getting used to being on the wrong side of the road. Also, it takes some getting used to the speed at which most drivers navigate. Holy moley, I swear Melissa has had five mini heart attacks since Friday. Fast driving + narrow, poorly-lit roads + driving on the opposite side = premature graying.

A lot of upperclassmen (or uppersemesterians, I don't know) have been warning us about getting used to the island food. Honestly, we haven't had any problems yet. I think living in a city like Chicago where you can get 12 different ethnic dishes within a city block prepares you pretty well for anything.

So right now, we're just charging our computers (we have to pay for electricity in our apartment by the kWh, and it's stupid expensive) and heading off for a bite to eat. 

I feel like I just wrote a report for third grade or something. I'm not feeling especially witty just yet, but I'll get there once I get my bearings a little better. 

Pictures to be posted (hopefully) soon!

- Eric

P.S. Still playing around with fonts. I don't know how I got through that last one in Times New Roman. Blech. I may use Trebuchet or Verdana next time.

Starting It Up Before We Go!

In this day and age, it's remarkable how out of touch I can be. As a certain Clarissa Johnson can attest, as recently as last month I was under the impression that people still use Zynga.

Apparently that is not so.
But that sort of tells you about how long ago it was when I last considered making a blog (if Zynga was still in fashion). And even though my last consideration ended in futility (read: never happened), I am ready to go this time!

As many of you know (assuming I know you), Melissa is going to Ross University Medical School, and I am going with her. Now, this particular medical school happens to operate on the small Caribbean island of Dominica (if you're curious, here it is). Her program will consist of 4 accelerated semesters over a span of 16 months, after which we'll move back to the U.S. for clinical rotations and residency. Basically what Melissa will be doing at the Dominica campus is the equivalent of the first 2 years at a traditional med school.

And basically what I will be doing is keeping her sane.

I'm kidding. Probably. Maybe.

But that's why I want to start blogging: this way I can keep all of you posted about how we're doing. The last thing we want is for us to be completely isolated while we're down there.

Plus, this will give me something to do on a regular basis! As far as I can tell right now, employment at Ross will be part-time at best; they only need so many arms to practice drawing blood (oh how I hope it doesn't come to that...).

So yeah. Keeping you in the loop. Keeping myself busy. Keeping Melissa sane.

And most importantly: Keeping the posts at a reasonable length. Which, for this first entry, seems to be now.

- Eric

P.S. We are leaving for Dominica on Friday, August 24th, so if you want to hang out one more time before we vamoose, that's our deadline.