It's been a while

Hello everyone,

It has been some time now since I've posted anything, so I thought I would try again. I had my second big test yesterday and I won't know my results until Friday because today and tomorrow are holidays for the locals and some of the departments are closed. I don't have class today, but I will have class tomorrow - oh well. I'm going to just relax since there is nothing to really study right now seeing as the test was yesterday. I guess I could study for the next practical or something, but I refuse to today. I have no idea how I did, but it certainly was not an easy test by any means. Ive talked to others and they felt the same way, and from what I understand (and rumors are well, rumors) that it normally is the hardest test of the 3 we take in the semester. Im really just glad to know that it's OVER.

Other than that, nothing exciting happens here. It's very much like High School and that gets old really fast. People judge each other here so much and then they gossip and I have heard so many rumors about people that it's absurb. I can see a girl dressed up from her normal scrubby look because she's going out and next thing I know, someone is saying that she's a slut, she made out with every guy that night, etc. And then the truth of the matter is that guys decided it was fun to say they made out with her because it was "funny" and now she looks like a whore. I mean it's ridiculous. I was getting up from my seat on the bus shuttle one day and I was carrying my bag and something equivalent to a gym bag and it took me a second to maneuver myself out of the seat and as I finally get up, this girl rolls her eyes at me and exhales loudly - I mean really? seriously? And then I overheard something saying that I was a bitch. Based on what, I have no idea. Im sure soon someone will say that Im a whore too because, Oh I don't, possibly because I work out and they don't so they're jealous or something of that nature. I can EASILY see this situation. It's frustrating to say the least and in the end it's like come on people, grow up! Problem is, I have to spend the next year with these people, the next YEAR! Maybe by the end I'll be the girl who like swims with dolphins or something or that I'm a mermaid - I wouldn't mind that one so much. Or maybe I'll be the girl who eats dead animals or something - that would be even more interesting. Well, anyways, you get my point. I want to go home at this point.

Hope all is well with all of you. 43 more days!
Barbara

Aria Grace Petry-Johnson

Congratulations to Seth and Mel for a new addition to their family, Aria Grace Petry-Johnson. She was born this past Sunday, after a LONG and I bet painful pregnancy, where Mel was a trooper. Weighing over 7 pounds, she gorgeous!

On a quick other note, life here is okay thus far. I have an exam in less than a week and a half now, and absolutely NOTHING exciting has happened to me - nothing. Although a professor of mine did equate a neutrophil (type of white blood cell) to a "navy seal" with "weapons of mass destruction." It was quite an exciting lecture - I picture her having pictures of these things in her house because they are apparently the "coolest cells in the body."

Barbara

Another teacher-ism

Dr. Riviere: "Kiss Sarah, Sarah." Me thinking in class: "What is he talking about?"

Realization: He was trying to sau Que Sera, Sera, which in Spanish means "what will be, will be." But he said is just like you would read what I wrote. It was hilarious. He also kept mentioning how Huntington's Disease stage 1 starts in your 30s and apparently one of the symptoms is "anamalistic sex" AND "strong sexual desires." Now, I get it, but he continued to mention this in class OVER and OVER again. Every time I read his notes or his name is brought up, all I can think about is "anamalistic sex" - THOSE TWO SHOULD NOT BE SYNONYMOUS.

Pictures

Alex and I at Bar deChamp

This is the bar. It's like the ONLY bar on this island, or so it seems. It has a roof, but as you can see, it is completely open to a DEEP drop :)

From left to right: Marissa, Me, Amira, Alex.

Another "A"

I passed my anatomy practical with an A apparently, and I am beyond excited. Now, normally of course, yes, this is exciting news, but it's more exciting because I thought I failed the practical. The tags on the practical were awful. They told us they weren't going to test us on the female breast, but they had 2 questions on there about it. Now, I still knew the information, but that's just not fair if you were a student who didn't. They said they weren't going to test us because not every cadaver in the lab was a female, so if yours wasn't, the only way you could see one is either through the pictures given to us in class - which are NOT realistic or you were supposed to go to lab on your own time and look at it if you were interested. Now, I did because I mean, it's cool to see what you're carrying (I AM a female - this is NOT up to discussion from any of you) and two, Im giving honest thoughts to OBGYN and that's kind of important in that position. So anyways, that was just one flaw of the practical, others included them trying to trick you in EVERY way they could like twisting an arm so that you really had to look where the muscle was/what it was. They cut other muscles so close to where they inserted that you couldn't quite tell that anything WAS cut, so you thought that what you were looking at was the top layer, but in reality it was the bottom/deeper layer. I mean craziness. I just NEVER, ever understood why teachers went to such extremes. They're supposed to be there to educate us not teach us how to mess others up - I know the information, but don't hide things in such a way that I can't figure it out. Some might say, well they do that because in real life you might miss something in a patient so this makes you be more careful and really look at things, but in real life, I would also be allowed to touch the person and move things around within the cavity (in surgery for example) if I wasn't sure what I was looking at - on the practical you can't touch anything and a lot of anatomy terms change based on landmarks within the body. So an artery changes names when it passes under, beside, over, etc. something, but if I can't see that something I can't really know for sure. You have a general idea of what area things are in, but when you give me two answers choices within that same area and nothing else to go off of, then I'm sorry but I doubt even YOU could answer the question had I done the same to you. So anyway, got an A but as you can see, the test upset me because I know a lot of people who did VERY poorly, but studying with them, I know they know most of their information and that test doesn't define them as a good or bad future doctor but in their minds, it's sort of like that - we tend to take things persnally here.

Oh and when we got the scores emailed to each of us, we were sitting in a lecture dealing with suicide, where one of the statistics was that female doctors kill themselves 3x more (rate) than male doctors because we tend to take things personally and really feel like we're not going to be good doctors if we do poorly, and that med school students are very in risk because it's such a stressful environment. For us, the teacher said it's even worse because we have to live on an island away from almost everything/everyone we know and care about that could be a support system. I mean the irony of it was a bit funny, but to some, it could be serious.

My Problem-Based Learning teacher is actually an emergency counselor on campus and she told us that thus far this semester, we have had more cases of suicide threats than EVER before on the campus within the time frame since school began (aka 1.5 months). No one has actually committed suicide, but some have been sent home/left school she said because they were honestly on the brink. So in all, needless to say, I was a bit nervous to check my email and when I did, I was thoroughly relieved.

On another note, there was another boxing match between the cows yesterday and this time, they were in my way as I was walking home on my path. I stopped, they stopped, they looked up, moved out of the way, and proceeded with their "fun" as the dogs egged them on. It never gets old - hehe.

Thank you all also for the constant emails and words of encouragement - they keep me going and they remind me that I'm NOT alone (don't worry, no suicide thoughts in mind).

Love you all!

Barbara

Funny Story

So I was at the clinic last night for like an hour, which is ridiculous in itself because I had an appointment, but that's not the funny story. So I realized that I apparently have ringworm on my tummy (a small spot) which is just a fungal infection, no big deal really, it just spreads is all but I got a cream, so it should go away. So anyways, Im sitting there and this big macho guy walks in and he has this HUGE rash all around his elbox area (cubital fossa if you must) and he sees his friend there and says "dude, I don't know what this is. I mean Ive had it for a week and didn't think anything of it, but now dude,I don't know. It's scary. I think it's from one of the cadavers - It gave me a disease." I started giggling because 1. Why is the inside of your ELBOW touching a cadaver - what are you doing with the cadaver and 2. The cadaver can't give you anything like that. He probably had a severe ringworm or an allergic reaction to something. I just thought it was funny, maybe you had to be there but it was so funny that he thought the cadaver gave him a disease. AND he was one of those "tough" guys haha:)

Okay, that was it.

Another test - haha

Okay, so I also passed the Histology Lab practical with an A, hooray! I have another practical test this friday for anatomy so Ill you all know how I did on that as well as soon as I have the results.

On another note, I was coming back from the gym yesterday and as I was filling up my water bottle, I heard a ton of barking in the small field we have between classroom where students play soccer or throw a ball around or whatever. It was dark at this point. I walk over and I see these two cows going at it (I think they were playing, but it looked like they were fighting). The funny part is that the stray dogs in Dominica, were like egging them on. So everytime they would hit each other with hteir heads, the dogs would bark and just run around them, it was hilarious. Eventually one of the cows ran away and the whole spectical was over, but for like a good 7 minutes it was one of the most entertaining things I have probably seen in this country. It was like a boxing match :)

Other notes about my one professor for Histology and the things he says:
1. "Funny blood will flow out" - in relation to what would happen if an aortic septum would mutate in formation
2. "placentar" - this is what he calls the placenta
3. "yumbylylical cord" - the umbilical cord
4. "hanky panky" - saying he knows we all do it, but that he doesn't
5. "Teet cells" - trying to say teeth
6. "I'm not normal, you're all normal" - he just said it in the middle of lecture

He is SO funny - sometimes you're like WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?!
Another professor likes to write MATER in his notes when he really wants to say MOTHER, and for a good 15-20 minutes the row I sit in was trying to figure out what the heck mater meant. We figured it out. He's a little odd too, and possibly sexist because he was lecturing us about masectomies and said that he doesn't recommend to women to get a full one because "men like us tend to throw them out afterwards." I mean WHAT THE HELL! If I want to cut off my breasts to save my life, who cares, they're just breasts!!

So anyway, it's very diverse in terms of teachers. I saw one of them at the gym yesterday, that was funny - he was one of those people that pretends to work out, kind of does a few things, checks his phone, etc. Another was playing soccer in the field I mentioned and he was just wearing a white cut-off, see-through tank-like top (he's British). It's strange to think they're people too and have normal lives :0