Bugs, Drugs and Hugs

Before you start worrying that I've gotten into the wrong sort of habits, let me just tell you: this is what I've dubbed the first block of semester 3 of med school. The reason being that they are focused on learning tons of diseases (the bugs), as well as pharmacology (the drugs), and mixing in plenty of patient interaction experience (the hugs; because, you know, you gotta be good to the patients). Most students already call it "Bugs and drugs", but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to throw in more rhymes.

Interesting thing that Melissa found today: in addition to this being the birthday of Julius Richard Petri (the one who invented the eponymous dish), they were able to capture a molecule at the single atom level. The pictures look a lot like the diagrams in textbooks, apparently. You see, these are the kind of things Melissa finds when she's taking a study break. A STUDY BREAK AND SHE'S READING MORE SCIENCE. She crazy.

Also, in case you were wondering, she listens to a lot of classical music when studying, but today her ear was apparently craving the scores from the first four Harry Potter films (at least, she was only through four at 2 this afternoon; I'm willing to be she made it at least through Half-Blood Prince). So folks, the next time you're at the doctor's office, ask him/her what their go-to "study music" is. It should be an interesting answer.

Speaking of music, I'm in a band! You see, I had already been playing bass for about half the worship services with Ross Christian Fellowship, but a fellow spouse approached me a few weeks ago to join up with him and a couple students. These guys are pretty legit, especially compared to someone with relatively little "professional" bass experience. Luckily my natural inclination to play music from however many years of band I've had translated into a passable first practice last Saturday. And we even have some gigs this semester. In front of people, even! I'll keep you posted with how those go, and hopefully I can snag a pic or two from the events.

To close, I'll just tell you now: tomorrow officially ushers in hurricane season in the Caribbean. But based on the weather these last couple weeks, it feels like it's already here. We are getting a lot of rain (and even a bit of thunder/lightning!), and that has led to a couple days of reduced water or no water whatsoever. Don't worry: I try to keep the fridge stocked with reserves, so we're not going to dehydrate. Just be thankful for the water you have whenever you need it!

Take care you all!

-Eric

Whit Monday in Les Saintes (aka yet another Picto blog!)

Let me explain, because I'm sure some things in the title need clarifying. Firstly, "Whit Monday" is a Dominican holiday celebrating the workday following Pentecost Sunday. Since it's a national holiday, Ross gives the students the day off. So Melissa and her friends decided to hire a boat (a catamaran, to be precise) to take us to Les Saintes, or the smaller islands that make up Guadeloupe. And in case you missed the other ones, a picto blog is one where I just upload a bunch of pictures and put captions under them.  Enjoy!

Here we are at pier, bright and early. Our boat is the one right behind the rightmost wooden poles on the dock. Er, or the one to the right of that. No, it's the first one. A real live catamaran!

We're on the boat! And I have my sweet Raphael shirt on. I already knew at this point that it would be a good day.

Kaydee, Kara, and Sara with Captain Marc in the background. He's French! 

Luckily for us, Frances here is quite fluent in French, and she graciously translated for us throughout our voyage. Not sure what she's looking at here...

...Oh. Maybe this. This is Andrew. He took a lot of the pictures that I'm using for this blog today. Thanks, Andrew. 

This is Melanie, the First-mate on board. She was pretty chill; she's also French, but she travels all over the place. In fact, I think she was getting ready to go to Canada pretty soon! 

The inner cabin of the boat. Downstairs, they had a bathroom, but it was advised to not use while we were out on the water. The reason being that when we're on the waves, seasickness comes much more quickly when you can't see the water. Luckily we didn't have much trouble in general, but there was some Dramamine taken pre-emptively by some.

The boat that took us to the boat. A modest little vessel. 

The sail!

Remember that guy from earlier? Yeah, they let him drive the boat. Don't worry, he didn't hit anything (I think).

In Les Saintes. It has a very nice vibe to it. Very bright and clean, with lots of little souvenir shops and restaurants near the port. We walked up and down the main road a few times looking for a good bakery to get some French bread. Due to poor timing, we didn't get any. But we still ate well (see below)!

A church we saw. 'Twas nice. 

A statue of some sort. It was in this little garden in between two roads. 

Here's us walking back to the restaurant for lunch. We tried going right after getting off the boat, but they didn't open until noon. Hence the walking.

At lunch. The new face on the far left is Andre, the First mate on the other boat that traveled with us. As you can see, we were all having a great time throughout the day. Everyone was able to relax and enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of Les Saintes.

The food was so good, we took pictures of it. This was Curry Chicken that Kara got. She liked it.

I think this was Kaydee's fish. She also liked it. The food was really spectacular, and plated with care and precision. For a bunch of students used to Subway and fare from "the Shacks", this was ambrosia.

Who doesn't like a cup of coffee after lunch? Me, apparently.

After lunch, we got back on the catamaran and moved over to a good snorkeling spot. Frances has an underwater camera, so we were able to get some fish shots!

Here's some nice orange coral. The fish were a little finicky about being on camera.

There were some nice conch shells lying on the bottom of the sea bed, but when I went down to try to get one, a little black fish came out from nowhere and poked me on the arm! He seemed angry, so I left the shells alone. It was weird, but pretty funny.

Candid! Just chilling in the water before heading back to Dominica.

On the way back, a few of us brave souls ventured as far as allowed up the bow of the boat to try and catch some waves as they broke underneath. It was more exciting than it looks. And yes, that is netting on either side of me, but no, I didn't test it too thoroughly.

See? Everyone is still smiling and enjoying themselves. When your group looks this good in the 12th hour of your trip, you've had a good trip.

And the sunset on the way back. Probably the best day trip possible. And of course, there's already talk about planning another one...

Well, I hope you liked the pictures. Thanks to Andrew, Kaydee, Kara and Frances for being good photographers and taking lots of pictures for me to choose from.

If you get the chance, take a boat somewhere! It's fun!


-Eric