Chuggin' Along!

It's hard to believe that it's already almost December. That's the one major drawback of living in a tropical climate such as this one; you lose track of the seasons you're used to. So Thanksgiving sort of snuck up on us, and it's looking like Christmas will do the same. Well, at least until we get back to the states.

At this point in the semester, Melissa basically has two weeks left. She takes Mini #3 next Monday, then has 3 practicals between Tuesday and Wednesday (behavioral, histology, and gross anatomy), then the following Monday she takes her final. Needless to say, you probably won't be hearing from her much during this time. Although I can tell you that she always needs a silly YouTube video or two for study breaks, so be sure to send those her way!

As you may know, Melissa and I will be heading to Colorado for Christmas/Laura's wedding (Melissa's sister). We're getting pretty excited to be back stateside. It will be nice to see paved sidewalks and traffic lights again. Although the honking won't be as pleasant (honking down here is like saying hi, and since everyone seems to know everyone...there's a lot of honking). 

I have this irrational fear that when we get back and try to eat some 'familiar' food (like Red Robin), my stomach will freak out because it's gotten used to island fare. I doubt it will happen, but I worry nonetheless. I am somewhat convinced that our dairy-light diets were messed up after we got a gallon of milk last week. So it doesn't take that long to happen...ugh. 

Anyhoo, I'm also taking the GRE in a little less than a month! So that's exciting. I've been looking over review materials, but it can be a little tricky a)not finding sites that trick you into buying some product after you start a practice quiz and b)not stealing. I really, REALLY don't want to pirate any software. So please don't send me any. Really, I mean it. Studying is going well, though. I mostly discover how much vocabulary I actually remember from middle/high school. It's those little things that make your day, you know? 

In closing, I hope you all had a stress-light Black Friday (virtually nonexistent down here), and are out chopping down Christmas trees (or getting Hannukah foliage? Are any of you reading this Jewish?). Keep posting lots of festive stuff on facebook. I enjoy the preparation vicariously through y'all (there's that 7th-grade vocab for you). 

Later, gators (and gatorettes)

-Eric

AAAHHHH UPDATE (w/ pictures)

Ugh, ugh.

Remember that one time? When I said I'd post pictures from our weekend to Roseau after we got back?

Well, I have them now!  The lesson I learned was, "Med students have trouble remembering things that aren't related to school". Basically, Chelsea (one of Melissa's friends who went with us) took the most - and best - pictures. And we kept asking her to send us the pictures we liked to Melissa so we could use them on the blog. But it was tricky because she took the pictures on her iPhone, and...she kept forgetting. But now, we have the pictures, I'm using Melissa's compy to access said computers, and here we go! 

This picture basically sums up our first 24-ish  hours in Roseau. We took a taxi early Saturday morning (from the excellent driver Peter), and got to Roseau at about 9 or 10. The only problem was that check-in at the hotel wasn't until 3, so we had some major time to kill. So, we did what any good tourists would, and wandered around the city. We walked west until we hit the Caribbean, then north until we hit the cricket stadium, then we saw a marching band, then we went to the botanical garden (the one with the smashed bus) and sat for a while, and then we wandered back to the hotel for lunch. 'Twas a buffet of signature Dominican dishes; some fish, some chicken, creole rice and a potato-type food. Then we had the brilliant idea of going to the grocery store we passed earlier to pick up breakfast foods so we could save some money (and to kill the last little bit of time before check-in). We got bagels, granola, fruit, and yogurt. Then we checked in and napped (lots of walking will do that to you). After all that, we found out that some other students had come down to Roseau for the day as well, so we met up with them for dinner (some actual Pizza Hut! amazing). So this picture is of Kara (other friend who came with), Melissa and me eating breakfast the following morning on Kara and Chelsea's patio. Note the pizza box that Chelsea was using as her seat. Yikes, this is a long caption.

Picture from their patio. Short caption!

Melissa in our taxi on the way to snorkeling! We had a nice old man driving us down to Scott's Head. Plus, he had a wicked sunroof. I'm not sure how Melissa feels about this picture. The angle makes her head look...wonky.

Here we are at Scott's Head. The Atlantic ocean sits on the left (lots of waves and riptides), and the Caribbean sea is on the right (calm and clear). Guess which side we snorkeled in? My one regret is that none of us had an underwater camera. There were some pretty nifty fish down there. I just wish saltwater didn't taste so horrible.

Great shot of the nearest city to Scott's Head (it's called Soufriere). This sort of helps show why Dominica hasn't been poisoned by tourism and cheesiness like other tropical islands; too many mountains and not enough sandy beaches. It makes for quiet and undisturbed oceanic ecosystems that are amazing to look at (and why Dominica is such a diving hot spot).

See, even our 'entry point' for snorkeling was covered in rocks. Definitely the worst part about snorkeling is the entry/exit. Those flippers are impossible to walk in, but if you take them off, you'll get urchined. I got a little poke from one on my finger. But it's better now. Mostly.

Another really great shot from the top of Scott's Head. After we were done snorkeling, our driver took us to a restaurant he knew of in town. Melissa and Chelsea saw that the menu was offering "Fried Fish and Chips", which they both assumed would be the traditional English dish of battered fish meat with french fries.

Well, they got the fries, and the fish was fried...

Yep. That's exactly what they got. Fried fish. Faces still attached (don't worry, the girls didn't eat the faces). By all accounts, the meat was tasty, just not quite what they expected.

At sunset on our second night, with dinner also bought at the grocery store. This is a little patio that the hotel owns, right on the water! I had sunglasses, but then I broke them. You're not supposed to throw those at the ground, apparently.

Better view of the sunset. But sadly, we didn't see the green flash either night.

All in all, the weekend was a lot of relaxing fun. Melissa was rested and ready to go on Tuesday morning, and all the girls seemed happy to get a little sun. Again, I'm sorry to be so lame about the extreme delay, but I hope you liked the photos! Also, I'm actually a bit jealous of all of you that have snow right now. I miss it. 

Ok, take care, y'all.

-Eric

Quick, pre-trip post

Hey there.

This weekend Dominican Independence celebration! Why is this significant, you ask?  Because Melissa has school off on Monday! And she just had her mini, so there's not a ton to study over the weekend. As this doesn't happen often, we are going to take a little vacation to another part of the island Saturday-Monday. We're going to basically just relax and enjoy the island during the festivities, and we may even go snorkeling.

I'll make sure to take pictures while we're out and post them up Monday or Tuesday. It should be a lot of fun!

I hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather you are most likely experiencing. Take care,

Eric