Dominica: putting the "Swell" in "Swel(l)tering"

I just need to put this out there: it is 8:00 pm local time (same as Eastern time), and it has to still be in the 80s, temperature wise. Throw a little humidity on top with a side of no-breeze-whatsoever, and you've got quite a magical night in store. BLECH.

So my neighbors and I went splitsies on a mini washing machine. It's a cute little beast that hooks up to the sink, and does about half a normal load at a time. Since I got a late start on laundry today (because I couldn't figure out how to attach the hose to my faucet; turns out I just needed some 'oomph' to twist it off), I have several dozen articles of clothing (mostly mine) hanging on a line suspended from our bedroom closet across the room, drying. It probably isn't helping the whole humidity situation, now that I think about it. Darn. I plan to do much more laundry tomorrow, starting bright and early.

For those of you wondering about Melissa's test, DON'T WORRY - she passed! Actually, she got her best score yet! And people were saying that this specific block has the hardest mini. Go figure!

Although to be fair, if you talk to enough people at Ross, you'll hear that every block/semester is the hardest, so I never know what to believe. Although considering how well she did, I'm inclined to promote this piece of information. 

Also, Melissa wanted me to show y'all this list of residencies earned by Ross students last year. It has a break down state-by-state, and from the looks of it, Illinois has a lot of diverse and competitive choices available, and many are near Chicago to boot! Here's the link so you can check it out: https://www.rossu.edu/medical-school/residencyappointments.cfm (not sure if this will come up as a hyperlink...) 

For a puppy update, Rosco is getting a little bigger, and just as energetic as ever. The only good thing about this heat is that it ensures that he doesn't play outside ALL day. Just some of the day. 

Well, I hope you're all doing well. To those of you who are cold, please send me some cold. I want.

-Eric

Test Day ('n stuff)

As I'm typing this, Melissa is in the middle of her Mini. Or maybe it's almost done? I'm not very good at knowing all the details of her stuff. It's probably almost done about now. I honestly don't know how she takes all of those tests, let alone use all of her time. I've found that I tend to take most tests relatively quickly (for better or worse). After a certain amount of time, I just can't tolerate checking my work any more. But then if it seems like it's too early, I get paranoid about being done before anyone else has, so I just sit and stare at the test until someone else gets up to leave. But I don't get up right away; the trick is wait another minute after that first person, and then go. Piece of cake. That's how all of my teaching certification tests went. One of them was scheduled for 5 1/2 hours. Five and a half! I think I took 3 (don't worry, I passed). So anyway, Melissa is building up some amazing test endurance, which probably has other applications as well. *Shrugs*

In other news, did you know that it takes a lot of money to travel between countries? Especially when the two countries have NO direct flights? 'Cause let me tell you...yikes. Like I said before: we take a ferry to Guadeloupe, wait 2 days for the flight, fly to Haiti, week of mission trip, fly back to Guadeloupe, wait a day, then ferry back to Dominica. It is going to be a lot of traveling, and a bit more funds than we had originally expected. I hate to sound like a solicitor, but we really would appreciate any gifts to help offset the travel expenses. And of course we welcome prayers and keeping us in your thoughts as we get ready for this worthwhile cause.

To close, here's a more recent picture of Rosco and Melissa. He seems to be slowing down on the whole growing thing, but we discovered something amazing: he loves bananas! And the best part is how he eats them (I'm going to figure out how to record him with some later today, hopefully).



All the best,

Eric

It's already March?

Phew!

This has been a relatively busy couple of weeks here for me. I am still working as an SP down on campus (aka I pretend to be sick so students can examine me), and I had 2 days worth of work this week, in addition to meetings and practice for worship band (pluckin' some bass). I have to be careful whenever I say that I had a "busy day" or anything like that, because Melissa will give me a pretty good death stare. Which is deserved, I think. She is constantly working 14 times harder than me, at least!

Lately I've also been busy planning for our upcoming medical-mission trip to Haiti with a group called Project Compassion based out of California. And let me tell you: it has been no easy planning. You see, planes don't fly directly from Dominica to Haiti, so the best option is to take a ferry over to Guadeloupe or St. Martin's, then fly via Air France or Air Caraibes to Haiti (since they're all French territories). This is further complicated by the fact that ferries to and from Guadeloupe follow a rigid schedule, and a sparse one at that. So while in an ideal world we would merely stop over in Guadeloupe for only a couple hours or so each way, the reality is we're probably looking at 3 to 5 days in hotels waiting for the appropriate ferry or plane. Which should be fun, I hope. Better brush up on my French...

In the nearer future, Melissa's next mini is a week from tomorrow. This block is Renal/GI, so she's been putting up with my immature jokes constantly. 

Also, Rosco just keeps growing! And sleeping, which is nice. He seems to have a bad habit of stealing the downstairs puppy's chew sticks whenever he can. But other than that, he's a typical puppy who's happy to meet anybody and is figuring out how to be polite around strangers (i.e. no jumping!).

Well, that's all for now. I'll probably post again soon. 

Later,

-Eric

(also, here is a emoticon alligator that I found: >*^,^,^~~~ Use at your discretion)