A Barracuda named George

The first day of orientation and we were non stop all day long. Sharon (our Orientation Leader) was on top of everything! First off was handing in paper work and getting fit for our white coats. Come Monday at 4 I will be at my white coat ceremony, where I will be fully inducted into the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. Getting fitted for my white coat felt so good, like all the hard work I did throughout high school and undergrad was this, for the moment that I am inducted and I become a real vet med student.

The rest of the day and week was filled with various lectures titled "Welcome to St. Kitts" or "Welcome to Ross" pretty much going over the same info that we all got as undergrads. The whole message was you are here for school, but enjoy the island as well. The safety and security lecture told us to pretty much never leave our apartments accept for class or at least they made it seem that way between the break ins that have occurred and the "killer centipedes". Really what it comes down to is just make sure you use your common sense and you are a visitor to this county so embrace it. Well that is just what I did...

One day was an Island tour where we drove around the whole outer edge of the Island learning about the history of ther Island well at least through our drivers (Proper Ting) eyes. We first visited Romney Manor to see Caribelle Batik preformed which is an ancient indonesian process of dying cloth and making patterns by setting wax on areas of the cloth so that it resists the dye. This is done over and over to dye certain areas a specific color. The end product is beautiful! We also went to an old British fort, Brimstone Hill fortress which was high enough that you could see the entire Northern Shoreline it was amazingly beautiful. The rest of the tour consisted of a few more scenic areas and some made up history by Jermaine and Phil.

Later on in the week an OL was looking for anyone who was open water SCUBA certified to go on a night dive. As soon as I heard the word SCUBA I was in! I had never been on a night dive before so I was excited and a little nervous all at the same time. We headed out of Port Zante on the "Lady Peggy" just at sunset. The air was so warm and smelled like that "Tropical Fresh" scent you can find in laundry detergent, but even better. We stopped at the wreck site the River Taw. After a quick review session and when we finished gearing up we were ready to go.

When I first jumped in the water it felt like I was descending into the black abyss. It was a bit nerve racking. Once we were all the bottom and all had our flash lights on it really wasn't that bad...well as long as you didn't think about the black abyss that surrounded us from all angles of our circle of light. It was one of the most most amazing dives ever.

I saw 6 sea turtles (both green and hawksbills), multiple lobsters, multiple sea cucumbers, multiple species of small fish, an octopus, a sting ray, a puffer fish, and a friendly barracuda named George who liked to follow our lights in order to catch fish we spotted. He definitely startled me a few times as he zoomed by my head. At the end of the dive we all gathered in a circle, turned off our lights, and waved our arms in order to stimulate the bio luminescence of the plankton. It was like watching fireflies under water.

The rest of the week was filled with shopping, dinners (anything from local food to fine french cuisine) beaches, parties and a catamaran trip around the Island. All of it was amazing and just felt like I was on vacation. Once classes started I was rudely awakened from my vacation daze.

Yeah this is real life...

The first thing I see when I wake up Sunday Morning is the big, beautiful, blue Caribbean Sea. It's an easy thing to get used to, but It's hard not to think that I am just on vacation. I'm sure reality will smack me in the face once classes start at 8am on Sept. 5th, but until then I am going to enjoy my free time!

Sunday was an adventure day for us, so our group decided to go zip lining or Jungle Surfing as they call it here. Phil (our driver) pulled up in his van "Proper Ting" (named after the delicious sprite like soft drink here, all of the vans are named) we took a winding route along the coast. It make me nervous to think that at some point I will be driving on these crazy roads (which the cars are on the opposite side) where people are zipping by, animals are crossing the road, and the cliff is just a brick or two from the wheels of your car. As we were zooming along I just could not get over how colorful everything is here, the houses, the cars, the lush green forests, and the various animals all against a back drop of the ocean or the beautiful volcanic mountains. We stopped along the coast to take a scenic picture as well as at the Rum Bottle Tree.

A quick turn down a dusty, pothole filled road and we pulled into the Central Forest Reserve National Park...jungle surfing here we come!

The staff at the zip lining place were fantastic and made everything so much fun. We were not allowed to go onto the next stage until everyone gave an enthusiastic "Yea Man!!" Once we were fitted with our equipment and we took a practice run, we were loaded up into a range rover jeep and climbed the steep, rocky, winding road to the top of the forest.

I had gone zip lining before, but this time it was different still beautiful, but instead of just amazing rain forest scenes we got fantastic views of the mountains and the sea. I took plenty of pictures, but I had to take a video as well just to show everyone the experience. I think zip lining should be a legit form of transportation around the island, it is a green way to go!

After a very sweaty and fun afternoon we had some down time before the real fun began with a pizza and paperwork party to get ready for the upcoming orientation week.

Come on Irene...

When I woke on Thursday August 25th I knew that my trip to vet school was not going to be an easy one. Hurricane Irene decided to shake up my plans a little bit. Irene pushed back all the flights out of Rochester so the woman at the ticket counter put me on an earlier scheduled flight to LaGuardia. So after all the hassle I had to go through with my 3 bags and I say a teary goodbye to my mom and sister, I get through security without a hitch. I'm thinking this is too easy. After about a half hour I go to check my flight to make sure it is still on time and I don't see it anywhere. Well apparently while I was going through security my flight was canceled and I was put on an even earlier flight to New York, they were calling my name over the PA System. So I had missed my flight and had to start from the beginning. Thankfully I had a great guy helping me out at the US Airways ticket counter. He not only got me on a flight for Saturday, but I got bumped up to first class for my flight from Charlotte to St. Kitts. The only problem was my bags were sent to Miami on my first flight. I was just happy to get on a flight! Plus it did give me a few more days with the family and my friends.

My flights on Saturday were perfect no problems at all, but I still had no idea where my bags were and if or when I was going to get them. The woman at the counter was awesome and helped my mom get in touch with the baggage people in Miami to see if they could find my bags. The flight to Charlotte was quick and first class flight to St. Kitts was awesome I took full advantage of the legroom, the food, and the free drinks :)

As we landed on St. Kitts all I could see was the big beautiful Caribbean Sea to my left and to my right, green jungles with tin roofs and dirt roads peeking out between the trees. As I stepped of the plane the heat hit me in a wave and as I stepped into the airport the AC did the same. I breezed through customs and went to talk to someone about my bags. A nice guy by the name of Phil showed me a bunch of bags that had been sent from Miami, but none of them were mine. He said that sometimes they magically appear and I should just wait. Well he was right all three of them appeared on the conveyor belt one right after the other. Soon after I was loaded into a van with my OL Sharon and our driver for the week and we were off. We were zooming down narrow roads that look like they could just fit two cars on. Brightly colored houses and lush green forests were a blur as we whizzed by them. We pulled on campus and up to my apartment building where I was given just enough time to throw my bags on my bed and change into shorts before we were off to the grocery store.

It was overwhelming stepping into the small store that was full of people. I knew what the exchange rate from US dollars to St. Kitts EC but it was still hard to figure out prices and everything was pretty expensive. Plus I had no idea what I even wanted to get. I just picked up a few things for breakfast and then we were back in the van zooming back to the school. I had only a short time to change and start to settle in my room before the group was off to dinner at the Sprat Net which was delicious! It is an open air cabana hut restaurant/bar with only Lobster, Chicken, Ribs, or Pizza on the menu it took a while to get the food (everything is on Island time here) but everything was so good. I was exhausted, but the night did not end there. We headed to Ziggy's Bar on the beach and had some drinks and played corn hole under the ridiculously beautiful clear, starry sky. It was a fun night, but as soon as I got home I made my bed and crashed.

Alright time for bed...next post will be all about my jungle surfing adventure :)