Culebra and the Catamaran

Yesterday was my favorite day in Puerto Rico all semester. We took a catamaran out of Fajardo to Culebra where we did some snorkeling and some sitting in the sand. It was a much needed day of relaxation. Culebra was beautiful and there were tons of awesome fish in the coral reef where we went snokeling. I was more than a little freaked out by the jelly fish. The guide told us they were just moon jelly fish and that even if we got stung by one that it would hurt less than a fire ant bite. Wish I would have known that before I was in the water and not when we were done snorkeling. There were actually quite a few of them. We also saw two stingrays. Jason took my camera and dove down to get the closeup of the one. It was really cool. I love having a waterproof camera here! So today is Thanksgiving. We are going to celebrate tomorrow at my friend Liz's house. Her husband is in the Coast Guard and had duty tonight. It will be our second Thanksgiving, thanks to the Canadians who wanted to celebrate in October when there Thanksgiving is. I'm so thankful to have a great group of friends/classmates. We have really formed our own little family here and it makes being away from family on the holidays just a little bit easier. I would be absolutely miserable here without them.

The Riggs Wedding

Sorry it took me so long to post about this, but I thought I would share a few pictures and try and update everyone on life here in PR and my little visit back home.

The most exciting news from this semester was Jim and Nicole's wedding. I flew home at the end of October for a weekend to be in the wedding. I was supposed to fly into Milwaukee on Thursday afternoon, but due to delays, I didn't get home until almost one in the morning. Stephen picked me up from the airport and it was so nice to catch up with him. I'm so lucky to have great friends.

Friday morning was pedicures with the aunts and a few cousins and then a last minute dress fitting. I had to have it taken in again!! I was pretty happy about that. Then we had a massage and went to set up the reception hall. After was the rehearsal dinner. I will say that there was not a dull minute with the wedding party. Definitely no shortage of personality there.

The wedding was perfect. It was outside at Devil's Head Resort. The weather was awesome. Even with my acclimation to the heat, I didn't even freeze too badly in our one strap dresses. I really loved our bridesmaid dresses. Nicole could not have looked more beautiful and it was amazing how smoothly everything went. Nicole was brought in on a horse drawn carriage with a team of four Percherons. The carriage even matched the colors of the wedding. It was an absolute fairy tale.

The reception was really fun too. I was so happy to see so many of the people that I miss from home. Chris and Terese and Kathy even drove up for the wedding. I was super nervous for my maid of honor speech, but it went smoother than I expected. I had to drink a couple glasses of wine first, but I made it through. I had a back up plan to just burst out sobbing if I started to fumble it up. Glad I didn't have to use it.

They also had a bounce house which was amazing. The whole wedding party went down it. It was really for the kids, but it was this giant slide. I think I had more fun on it than the kids.

My only complaint was that my visit was just too short. I've really missed home this semester and I had a super hard time leaving. My attitude since I got back really sucked too. The weekend reminded me how much life moves on even when I'm not there to see it. I know I'm moving forward in life by going to school, but it comes with the price of putting every other aspect of life on hold. That feeling and my crazy stress level this semester put me in a really bad funk. So bad that I didn't even wan to blog because it would just sound like me bitching. One night after I got back, dad called me to tell me that he wished I was with him at a Will Hoge show and I burst into tears. I didn't get out of it til this past weekend when I had a chance to breathe and go to the beach and a pitbull concert. I needed it.

I Finally Have Something To Say

For more that the last month I have been hulled away in my room studying. They are trying to test my mental endurance this year. I didn't write anything because it would have been the same post over and over and would have gone something like this, "I am once again studying tonight and will probably be getting up at 5 am to study some more. I really can't wait for the weekend so I can study some more, but actually get a full nights sleep and if I'm really lucky, I can go to the grocery store." So since it would sound like I was just whining about it, I didn't write anything.

This weekend really gave me something to write about though. Friday night we had a "Optometry around the world" where each class had to represent a country and cook food from that country. We were Canada. We made putene which is french fries with cheese and gravy and Caesars which are kind of like bloody mary's. The first years were Mexico and they all wore these cute little black mustaches. It was pretty funny. They also had a DJ and there was dancing and karaoke.

Yesterday was the real story. We went Zip lining at a place called Toro Verde (Green Bull) and it was really fun. The zip lines are some of the longest and highest in the world. We were really looking forward to doing this one called "The Beast" which was one where they put you in a different kind of harness and you go across superman style.

Everything was fine for most of it, other than the harnesses aren't terribly comfortable, until our last regular zip line. It was the longest of the 8 we went on at 2500 ft long and at least 400 ft high. Kerri went right before me and they told her that if she felt bumps in the line, she needed to take her breaking hand off of the wire so she would have enough speed to make it all the way across. When she took her breaking hand off the line, she twisted and was coming into the landing area with her back to the landing platform. This had happened on many of the other lines and no one had a problem. But this time Kerri turned her head to see when she was going to hit the break and ended up taking the wooded block covered in foam to the eye. We don't know if she actually had a concussion, but her pupils were still not the same size when we got home last night. What we do know is that we spent 10 hours at two different hospitals.

There was a physician on the tour with us who looked at her first and then the Toro Verde medic looked at her. The first hospital that we went to was small and they didn't have xray equipment supposedly. I didn't really object to going to a different hospital as Kerri and I both thought the doctor was stoned. His eyes were really red. Thank god two guys from Toro Verde stayed with us the whole time. Jeffrey was awesome. He translated some when we needed him to and he had us follow him to the hospital. Those mountain roads are crazy and not marked. We would have never made it without him.

We had an awesome guy named Calvin who did Kerri's CT scans at the next hospital. He let us look at the CT scans and showed us the fluid in her maxillary sinus. It was pretty crazy. Kerri said it made her day, which was a good thing because she was a hurting unit.

The reason that we were waiting for so long is because the radiologist wouldn't answer his phone, so there was no one to look at the scans for 7 hours. We don't even know for sure if it was the radiologist that ended up looking at them. We brought a set of film back to show some of our professors.

It was another 1 1/2 hours drive home so we finally pulled in at home at almost 3 am. It was crazy. We didn't get any pics of us in our gear because we were a bit preoccupied, but I have a nice pic of Kerri's shiner and a video of Toro Verde.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0RnO4kiDm4

Settled

Sorry I haven't posted yet. In true PR style, I just got internet today. We've supposedly had it for over a week, but nothing is ever that simple. The school's network blocks blogger.com, so I had to wait to make a post.

My trip back was fine. No big complaints other than getting up at three in the morning and then taking a tour of the airports in the US before getting back to my apartment at midnight. I flew from Madison to MKE, to Laguardia to Philly to PR. and it wasn't even cheap. Oh well, I made it.

After my first week of school, I am already a little stressed out. My classes are going to be challenge and more than that, it seems like we are always in class. Our Wednesdays are 12 hour days. It is just hard to maintain focus for that long, but you don't have a choice because we have so little time outside of class to study, so you really need to get something out of lecture. That is sometimes easier said than done. We have one professor that we think is Haitian who has a really thick accent. He is almost harder to understand than the professor who actually lectures to us in Spanish.

Other than that, all is fine here. Nothing newsy. I'll try and post some pics of my new apartment soon. And hopefully a new car. I'm in the process of shopping for one right now.

Texas and Back

I can't believe how many states I am visiting in such a short period of time. My flight to Texas wasn't exactly how the crow would do it. I flew to Philly first and then to Dallas. Two 4 hour flights. I stopped in O'Hare on the way home and now today, I will be driving to Nebraska. I was really glad to be back on the mainland. My family reunion was a blast. I saw a few cousins that I haven't seen since I was a kid and a few others that I may have never met before. We camped out on the family property and got caught up with everyone. Dad did a ton of fishing. I love to fish and would have had fun going with him, but they have water moccasin's and they freak me out. For some reason snakes scare me more when they are in the water. Brett rode around on his cousin's dirtbike and went to a waterpark one day. He also got a haircut and a cowboy hat. Dad gave him his cowboy boots and now Brett thinks he is a real cowboy. He still has a thing or two to learn about riding, but he just might get there.

The last night we were in Texas, we all stayed with Cat and her Dad. It was so good to see Cat, Steve, and Jill. I wish Laurie would have been there too. Laurie was on a business trip to Chicago. Dad and Steve hit it off and talked about cars most of the night. I wish we would have had more time, but we got stuck cleaning at the reunion (it was amazing how fast everyone disappeared when it came time to clean up) and Dad and I didn't want to leave Grandma and my great aunt to do all of it. Even if it was a short visit, it was wonderful. I miss my Catherine! I was struggling toward the end of the night. None of us had slept more than four hours the whole time we were in TX and it caught up to me. We were all talking and I kept doing the head bob. Somehow I managed to make it until about 1:30, but we were up to go to the airport at 4:40 am. I honestly don't remember taking off from Chicago to Milwaukee. I woke up as we landed. Dad was struggling to stay awake the whole drive home.

I only saw Wendy for about an hour when I got back. She was heading out for a horse show in Roscoe, IL. They will be there all weekend. I still haven't seen Dean at all. I think he went straight there after he was done with calls. Nicole is here all weekend taking care of the farm and working. Nicole, Jim, Brett and I went to go see Pirates of the Caribbean last night. It feels so good to be home. ...for a day anyway.

almost home

I can't say how much I wish I was home already. Finals week always sucks, but for some reason this one is worse. All I can think about is getting on that plane. Being gone a whole semester is far too long. I miss everyone like crazy and it seems like I'm so close to being done but have a ton left to do. My empty house is more than a little depressing too. Brett and I have a count down. Five days til I get to see little man. I made it four months, but the last week is the worst.


On a much better note, the proficiency that I thought I screwed up didn't really go that bad. 94.7%. I can live with that, it just felt much worse as it was happening.

Alright back to primary eye care. See you all soon!

New Home!!

I am not homeless!!!! Thank god. Cathleen, Sundeep and I are moving into an apartment that currently has three third years in it. They will be leaving to do their rotations and won't need it anymore. It is amazing!! I couldn't be happier and the whole situation has worked out really well. The apartment is fully furnished and really cute!! It is a penthouse with a huge roof that is half covered. The guys that live there now won't be moving until July, but they let us move all of our stuff in early to make it easier for us. It was still a huge pain in the butt to move in the middle of finals week, but I would have had to pack and move down to the first floor even if we weren't moving out of here. It is comforting knowing that we are living in a place with wonderful landlords (that invited us out for dinner when we get back in Aug) and in a place where there are not problems. As it turns out, Steve O and his family lived in the apartments that we are moving to, just a few years ago. I know my phone photography skills leave much to be desired, but this is a little bit of an idea of what it looks like.

Bachelorette Party

The ladies and I threw my roommate Cathleen a bachelorette party last night. It was a success. We had so much fun! We had a limo, ate at a great restaurant on the ocean, danced our butts off and stayed out way too late. We played a scavenger hunt game where we had two teams and had to take pictures doing silly things like taking a picture with a cop, or kissing a guy on the cheek or my personal favorite, taking a picture of a shirtless man wearing the Travis mask (Travis is Cathleen's fiance). There are some really funny pics from the night, but most of them are under lock and key due to some inappropriate bachelorette memorabilia. Cathleen's fiance is here visiting (and to help us move) and all of our boys here took him out for a bachelor party of his own. They had a crazy night too. I thought I would share some of the ok pics. It is sad to think that this was the most fun we have had all semester and it is also our last day of fun. Now it is nose to the books.

Closer to home.

Ugh. I actually have news to report and most of it isn't exactly good news. My proficiency didn't go as planned. I didn't have my SOSH card (which we rarely use because it is for people who can't see the big E on the chart.) I was so flustered, but I borrowed one from Cathleen right at the beginning of the proficiency. It shook me up so bad that I never fully recovered. I passed, although I still don't know what my grade was. It should have been an easy A for me, instead I was shaking like a leaf the whole exam and struggled to give my instructions in Spanish because I couldn't calm my nerves. Awful experience. And worse because I know I am capable of doing everything correctly.

The other fun news is that our housing people are jerking us around again. They want to make us pay for the unused rooms in our apartments unless we want to move everything we own down two floors into another apartment. It wouldn't have been a big deal had they told us this when we moved in, but we were told that we could pay $100 a month to keep our stuff here when we were gone. Then we were told last week that we would have to pay the full $500 a month while we were gone. Now it is up to $1000/month while we are gone if we chose not to move all of our things into an apartment with everyone else who lives in our building. This is really just because they are going to let high schoolers live in our apartment while they are at NASA camp. I probably would have moved my things without complaint had we been given notice, but we are about to enter finals week and I don't have time to deal with all of this. I am leaving here on May 28th, my last final is on May 27th. Had she given us some notice I would have stayed longer to move after finals. It pissed Cathleen and I off enough that we are going to move out of the student housing. I'm sick of surprise roommates, not getting my mail when it arrives and getting jerked around.

Winding down

The school is finally winding down and I'm ready for it!! I have one last exam and Proficiency before we hit finals week. Proficiency is where we are tested on our ability to perform all of procedures that we have learned in Primary Eye Care. Basically it is all of the pretesting, which isn't really a problem for me. I don't think I would be as nervous about it if we didn't have to do it in Spanish. We have to take the patient's history (both medical and ocular). Even though we worked on it in Spanish class, it is 100 questions long and I'm worried I will miss something. We have to ask all of the questions that would be on a health history form, without the form. In real life, you fill out the form, we review it and ask any questions that require clarification. We also have to perform all of the procedures while giving instructions and explanations in Spanish. I'm sure I'll be fine, I know it all, I just don't want to blank under pressure. We also have a time constraint of 30 mins start to finish. In the real world, I would probably get fired if I consistently took 30 mins to do the tests that we are performing, but everything we do here is manual, nothing is automated, so it does actually take a lot longer than it should. Wish me luck!!

I apologize to all of you who read this for not writing more lately and probably only adding a few more posts before I go home. I honestly haven't been doing anything other than studying. It is hard to find something exciting to say about that. The rest of this month will only have 2 days of fun. One is this Saturday when I go to watch the Mosley vs. Pacquiao fight, and later this month for Cathleen's bachelorette party. If anything else exciting or noteworthy comes up, I'll be sure to post it, but seeing as the spot where I study in the corner of the couch is starting to get a butt dent, I'm not holding my breath!

Spring Break.

Elizabeth came to visit me on the 12th and stayed for a week. She has been to the island before, so I wanted to show her parts of the island that she hadn't seen yet. The night she flew in, we all went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Old San Juan. Many of my friends left on either Wednesday or Friday to go home for spring break and I wanted her to have a chance to meet them. On Wednesday, after class, Elizabeth and I dropped Cathleen off at the airport and went to Old San Juan and walked around the fortress. We also did a little bit of shopping. Thursday was IAUPR-School of Optometry's 30th anniversary. We didn't have class, but there were things going on all day. Elizabeth and I volunteered with some elementary school children in the morning and watched some of the performers that were going all day. When that was over, we went to Club Cabana where our class was having a fundraiser for our white coat ceremony. They gave us a portion of the profits from the night. They have really good wings.

Friday was the start of the real fun. After class (and Elizabeth's eye exam) we drove to Cabo Rojo. Cabo Rojo is the very Southwestern tip of Puerto Rico. We heard that it took about 2 1/2 hours to get there, which seemed like a long time for how far it was mileage wise. In the states I think we could have made it in an hour and a half. By the time we actually got to Cabo Rojo, we were wishing it only took 2 1/2 hours. It took us four hours to get there, partly due to terrential downpours, partly due to the fact that GPS sucks on this island because no one can decide whether to put it in English or in Spanish and end up mixing the two, and mostly because people drive slower here and have no concept of moving over to the right lane if the cars behind are moving faster. It also didn't seem to help that we were like our own distraction on the road. Cabo Rojo is a place where Puerto Ricans go to vacation and there are very few American tourists. I think that because we were so far away from San Juan, the locals all did a double take at us, even if that meant slowing down or speeding up to stare at us. I can't even tell you how many times it happened. You would have thought we had a giraffe in our car, not just a redhead. I really wish I could blend in a little more. I'm jealous of the girls here who have to open their mouth before it is apparent that they aren't Puerto Rican.

That was hardly the only excitement of the drive to Cabo Rojo. We realized that we had gotten off course and were looking for a place to turn around when Elizabeth nearly hit a chicken that had decided to cross the road. After a few profanities and a lot of laughing we found a place to pull over and reorient ourselves on the map. This guy came out of his house and walked across the street. Elizabeth was watching him intently as I looked at the map. All of a sudden she starts freaking out saying that she thought the guy was stalking one of the chickens on the side of the road. She thought he was going to kill it right in front of us. I looked up and watched him walking toward the chickens. He inched closer and closer to one of them and then --opened his mailbox. It was hilarious.

When we finally found our hotel, we were pleasantly surprised. It was beautiful. It is called the Boqueron Beach Resort in Boqueron, PR> We had the best room in the whole place. Top floor in the corner with a view of the ocean, the pool and the town. We loved our hotel and the Cabo Rojo area so much, we decided to stay for an extra day.

While in Cabo Rojo, we ate at this adorable restaurant called "Marena." The food was amazing. I had grilled tuna and tostones. Elizabeth had a burger, a mojito and one of those salads that is tomato, basil and mozzarella. After dinner we looked at all of the stuff that the stores and street vendors were selling. It was a cute little downtown area. They had many carts with clams and oysters, others with jewelry and hair things, and leather goods.

The next day we hung our by the pool for a bit. Elizabeth wanted to get tan enough to look like she had just come back to from the Caribbean. I hid in the shade and read a magazine. After we tried to go to the lighthouse, but they only allow a certain number of cars in and we were not one of the lucky ones. Instead we had lunch at a resort right next to the entrance to the park. It was part of the Bahia resort. It is easily the most breathtaking view from a restaurant I have ever seen...and the food was good there too. Elizabeth and I each had penne with shrimp. So good. If I ever go back, I might stay at that resort instead just because of the proximity to the lighthouse beach and that awesome restaurant. After lunch, Elizabeth and I headed to Buye Beach. It was also beautiful. The beaches were busier than I expected, but they were mainly full of high school kids who were on spring break, so I guess I should have expected it.

When we got back, we realized that Elizabeth had burned herself. She had tried to strategically place sunscreen, but all she managed to do was burn herself like an appaloosa. We both thought it was pretty funny, but we were much more careful about the sunscreen for the rest of the weekend. I didn't get burnt, but my freckles do look darker. I really hate it when that happens. I guess that means that Elizabeth wasn't the only appaloosa!

On Sunday we left the hotel early and went to the lighthouse beach. It was so amazing. We hiked around and looked in the tide pools. There were tons of sea urchins. The coast line was awesome. It is all limestone cliffs all cut out by the water. The beach itself was a little bay with beautiful white sand and a view of the cliffs and the lighthouse. If we had packed better shoes we could have hiked along more of the shore line.

On Monday Steve-O, Elizabeth and I went to Fajardo at 6:30 am to catch a ferry to Culebra. Once again, things did not go as planned. We got to Fajardo and got in line to buy tickets for the ferry. The line was forever and a day long. I can't explain why it would take so long to sell tickets for a ferry with a computer system, but apparently it does. We were not able to get tickets to Culebra because they sold out. They even added an extra ferry. So we waited for the ferry to Vieques. We waited and waited. Three hours in the line. We didn't even get on a ferry until 1 pm. Thank god Vieques was beautiful and Elizabeth was entertained by the local stray cat population. Steve-O dubbed her the "Crazy cat lady." When we finally got there, we went to a different beach that I went to the last time I was in Vieques. This time we went to the red beach. It was prettier than the one I went to the time before. I loved it. More white sand and perfectly blue water. The water was cooler than I expected, but it felt wonderful. After our fill of sun, we went back on the ferry to Fajardo. Steve-O took us to one of his Domino's for dinner. He made us a couple of pizza's and some wings. So good.

Elizabeth had to leave at five in the morning on Tuesday. I was sad to see her go. She says she wants to make it a yearly thing and I hope she means it. It was wonderful having her here. I just feel bad that I sent her home so tired. I wasn't expecting to run around as much as we did and the sun has a way of sucking the energy right out of you.

Since she left, spring break has not been nearly as exciting. Most of my closest friends aren't here anymore and the ones who are either already had plans or just are vegging out. I'm not going to lie, I am bored out of my mind. I have taken to watching old movies and studying for tests that are weeks away. I even got so bored I started organizing. We all know how bored I have to be for that to happen. Yikes. Hopefully someone will want to do something tomorrow. I need to socialize.

Market

Today for Spanish class we went to the market in Rio Piedras. It was really cool. They had a ton of fresh fruits and vegetables. They also had meat stands. Some of the weirder things were dried out salty looking fish with the skin still on. I wasn't curious enough to buy one. They also had these things that they call botánicas. They sold insence and all sort of herbs (no, not the illegal kind). Puerto Ricans are all into herbal remedies for everything.

I just bought some cilantro, an avacado (aguacate in español) and some tarmarindos. The picture is of tamarindos. They have a shell on them and the inside is kind of sticky. They have the consistency of apricots with the little seeds inside. They are both sweet and better at the same time. I like them, but they are a lot of work to eat.

Apparently I don't just attract creepers in the states either. I had a man who had to be mentally ill following me around for quite a while. It was pretty bad. Roble let me pretend he was my boyfriend and even told the guy to leave me alone. It was one of the first times in PR that I have truly been creeped out. He was like a shadow and he would get right up into my personal space every time I stopped. Even when I was walking arm in arm with Roble. We were window shopping at a shoe store and he grabbed a shoe off the rack and tried to put it on my foot. My friends thought it was hilarious at first, but eventually they were all just creeped out too. I'm not sure how we lost him, but I'm glad we did because he just kept giving me this direct stare-down that was making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Countdown til Elizabeth gets here: 4 days!!

Quick Update

So normally I don't like to brag about grades, especially when it is a B, but I think I am going to just this one time. Between this last weekend and most of last week, I studied over 45 hours for a Pharmaology exam. The amount of material on that thing was insane. I don't know the exact number of drugs that I had to memorize, but there were 10 lectures and one of them had 50 drugs on its own. I'll give you an example of what all we had to know:

Aspirin (Acetyl Salicylic Acid): NSAID. antipyretic, analgesic at low doses. Anti-inflammatory at high doses. Inhibits platelet aggregation. At low doses decreases risk of recurrence of myocardial infarction. At high doses has protective effect against myocardial infarction, decreases risk of stroke and colon cancer. Irreversibly inhibits TxA2. Prevents synthesis of PGE2 and PGI2 responsible for maintaining renal flow. May cause sodium retention, edema and hyperkalemia. Only NSAID to not cause interstitial nephritis. Adverse effects: epigastric distress, nausea, vomit, microscopic bleeding. Prolongs bleeding time due to anti-coagulant characteristics. Should be discontinued one week prior to surgery. In toxic does causes respiratory depression and both respiratory and metabolic acidosis. 15% of patients will have an adverse reaction to ASA, but anaphylactic shock is uncommon. Associated with Reye Syndrome which is fatal fulminating hepatitis with cerebral edema. Is specially encountered in children.


And that was just one of a couple hundred. Anyway I studied like a madman and didn't go into that exam with a whole lot of confidence. I really just wanted to minimize the damage that I though that exam was going to do to my grade. I was hoping to fix it with the next exam with a more manageable amount of material. My brain was on crazy overload and I kept getting things switched in my head. But when I actually took the test, I just recognized what I needed to. I was the first one done and it only took me about 20 mins to take the 50 question exam. Normally I go back through a second time and check my answers, but I just went with my gut and didn't change anything.

When grades went up about an hour later, I was scared to check because I felt good about it and didn't want to ruin that feeling. I ended up with a B. The class average was a 61% D. And as of right now we think it is the second highest grade in the class. My friend Krista got the only A. She always does. She works for it, but she has a crazy memory too. We call her Kristapedia. Anyway, enough bragging. Lets see if I can pull off another one with Pathology on Monday.

I'm in the middle of another round of tests. Aren't I always? I just keep repeating to myself....This is what I want, this is what I want....I signed up for this....I signed up for this. I had Ocular Anatomy this afternoon and both Optics and Primary Eye Care last week. Pharmacology is on Mon. It is going to be the hardest. Our professor did a horrible job of splitting up the material, so there is 8 weeks worth of Pharm and only 3 weeks worth of material for the next one. That means that I have about 200 drugs to memorize this weekend. They all sound the same and I don't really know how to pronounce most of them. Fun.

I also had another wonderful surprise from the housing lady. She stopped by with a guy who was updating all of our fire extinguishers and as a side note told us that we are getting another roommate. We had 48hours notice that a fourth year was coming back to take boards and would now be living with us. Perfect. She is actually pretty nice and only staying for about 3 weeks, but it pissed me off that she is using our apartment like a hotel. And worse that she didn't see what the big deal was that we had almost no notice. Only in Puerto Rico.

That's it for any recent developments here. Once I have a chance to breathe, I'll write more. I have some pretty cool things planned for when Elizabeth comes to visit in 11 days, so hopefully I will have pictures and better stores to tell.

The Eye Ball

The EYE Ball was so much fun!! It is pretty much exactly what we anticipated. First we had dinner and then a short awards ceremony followed by dancing and mingling. Miss Krista was my "date" for the EYE Ball. Most of our friends had their significant others but Krista's boyfriend couldn't make it, so it worked out pretty well. Krista also won an award for highest GPA in our class. We call her Kristapedia because of her crazy photographic memory. (It kind of embarrasses her.) She is one of my favorites down here. She is just as sweet as can be. Liz's husband, Oscar was really fun too. He is an amazing dancer and watching them together was too cute. They have a five year old named Alex. I threaten to kidnap him all the time. Oscar finally got his transfer (he is in the Coastguard) from Miami so their little family can be together. I'm so happy for them. I couldn't imagine having to be so far away from my child. Luckily the tickets from here to Miami are pretty cheap and Liz goes home often.

I am so looking forward to Elizabeth's visit. I've been missing home the last few weeks more than ever and I think her visit will help, or at least make me forget that I am homesick for a little while. I really don't have too long now. Two months to the day until my last final of the semester!! Back to reality...Pharm and Ocular Anatomy.

Short and Sweet.

This week is back to reality. Two exams. One tomorrow and one on Friday. Then one a week until spring break. I don't really mind one exam a week. That is manageable. We do have Ocular Anatomy next Friday and then Pharmacology on Monday. That will be a bit rough. Pharmacology is the most challenging class for me. Our professor tries really hard and knows his stuff, but he tries to make his tests intentionally tricky. The problem comes in when you add a slight language barrier. It isn't an issue in class, because if we aren't quite sure, we just ask him to answer the question in a different way. Exams are different. We haven't had a test yet that didn't have double negatives or grammatical errors. They really throw me off. Sometimes I get hung up on questions that are meant to be straight forward, but I start thinking that he is trying to trick me. It is a bit frustrating because even if I know the material really well, I don't always get the answer right...or the grade that I want. Not to mention we have two classes with this professor this semester and one last semester. I can't complain too much. I got a B in his class last semester and that is where I am at now, but I want an A!!!

The third years have us freaking out a little too. They took the board exam last week and said it was not what they expected at all. Last year a whole bunch of students from the optometry school in Boston were caught cheating on the board exam. They had access to questions from previous board exams and some of them are repeated. They ended up redoing the entire exam, and even the distribution of questions was not the same. We are told that about 30% of the exam is optics...not true anymore. They also had many more questions on basic anatomy. There were a few students that took last years exam and this years exam and said the new board exam is way more difficult than it has even been in the past. That isn't exactly what we wanted to hear.

I woke up yesterday with my first cold of the year. Not thrilled about it. Especially now that exams are about to be in full swing again. Sleep and water, sleep and water. (And Wendy, you can tell Dean that I am taking my vitamins. )

Our Eyeball dance is on Friday. We are all pretty excited about it. Cathleen's fiance is flying down for it and so are most of my friend's significant others. Krista's boyfriend couldn't fly down from Canada, so we decided we will be each other's date. We know it is dorky, but we love to get dressed up. I'll take lots of pictures.

Taberna Lupulo

I have to vent a minute. Last night we went out for dinner at a place called Taberna Lupulo for one of my classmates birthdays. The only thing that we knew about it, was that it supposedly had 120 types of beer on tap. If there is one thing that I have learned in Puerto Rico, it is that you should always be prepared for anything. First off, there were 15 of us and the place had 5 four person tables. We had no idea it was going to be that small. Also, I'm not sure people in Puerto Rico know what "on tap" means. I have never seen beer on tap anywhere on the island. Apparently it is really hard to get kegs, so all beer is served in bottles. Even if you order a pitcher, they just fill the pitcher with bottles or cans. Taberna Lupulo was no exception. Like any good Wisconsin girl, I really miss Spotted Cow and Honey Weiss. Medalla, Heinekin and an occasional Corona are no replacement for anything that Leinenkugel's or Capital Brewery make. I was super excited for the prospect of having good beer. They handed us menus and they did have 120 types of beer, but not a single one was from Wisconsin (or Canada). We talked to one of the guys who did the ordering and he said that they have a hard time getting Canadian beer because of issues with importing it. I asked him why they didn't have any Wisconsin beers and he told me that it was easier to get beer from the coasts (which would have made sense if they didn't have Goose Island from Chicago). AND THEN HE SAID, "Wisconsin is starting to get into making better beer. They have some new microbreweries that are finally putting out decent beer." Does he not realize that we have a history so deep in beer that we have a baseball team named after it? I mean really, Wisconsin has been brewing beer since before some of the west coast states were states. He is just lucky the coconut crusted chicken wrap with mango sauce was good and so was the company. (Even though I'm complaining, it was still a fun night. The waiter just rubbed me the wrong way. Don't knock my state or my beer.)

P.S. I still want a Spotted Cow.

Rincon Again!!

This weekend was one hell of an adventure from start to finish. We found out on Thursday that Steve-O wouldn't be able to get the keys for the beach house and we already had all of the food bought for the weekend for all 12 people. Cathleen, Krista, and I went into crazy beach house hunting mode. We called so many places, but because it is the busy season, most places were either booked or out of our price range. We ended up settling for the only place that we could find with one day's notice. It claimed to house 7, but it was a 2 bedroom with 1 double bed in each room and a futon. I would say that using the futon, it could comfortable hold 4-6. We had 12 people. We had brought three air mattresses, one double and two twins. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work, but there were two hammocks and a lot of lawn furniture that were made into makeshift beds. I was really glad that I brought my bed, because we all know how pleasant I can be when I don't sleep well. The good new is that it was right on the ocean. It was an amazing view and the ocean waves were so loud.

The beach house itself was really cute. It reminded us more of something you would find on a lake, than the beach. The funny thing was that it was on this row of mansions. It was sandwiched between two huge stucco houses with private pools. When I was looking online, some of the places like the ones next to our little cottage were going for over $1000/night. I don't remember exactly what we paid for our house but each of us paid $35 which covered both nights. I guess that is 12*35, I just don't feel like doing the math. Either way, it wasn't that expensive.

Saturday morning we got up and met up with our surf instructors. Nine of us tried surfing. Jason had been quite a few times before and Krista had taken lessons with the group that taught us. I was a little scared. I'm not an outstanding swimmer by any means and some of the waves were above my head. For some reason, my fear went away once I was in the water. I was using a board that was made of plastic and some of the my friends were on boards that were more foam like. Mine was harder to balance on and I think that I wasn't scared anymore because I was concentrating too hard at staying on...and because our instructor told us that there were two rules of surfing "keep your mouth shut because swallowing water is how you drown and no panicking." I think it is safe to say that no one will be asking me to star in the sequel to "Blue Crush" but I did almost get up a few times. It is much harder than it looks, and much more tiring. Twice I got stuck in a long series of waves that just keep pushing you back. The trick is to paddle straight into the waves. It was super tiring. There is a good reason that surfers are so in shape.

After surfing, we went home and had some lunch. I took a little cat nap in the hammock and then we all went to Tamboo Tavern for a few drinks with our surf instructors. Roger who own the company is Brazilian, and Nago, the one who taught me was Puerto Rican. He had been surfing all of his life, but surprisingly, it isn't his first love. He is also a boxer. He was telling us that he boxed and played baseball for the University of Puerto Rico. It seemed kind of crazy to me, but he had his Master's in Business Administration. I think that part of the reason that someone with a masters is a surf instructor in Puerto Rico is because there aren't many opportunities here. A woman who sold us shoes at Aldo told us that she had gotten her master's from IAUPR, granted I don't know what in, but someone with a Master's shouldn't be selling shoes at the mall.

Sunday was a lazy day. None of us moved until 10 am. And when I did move, I realized I hurt in places I didn't know I could hurt. I had gotten sun burnt at the beach in weird places like the back of one of my calves and places that got uncovered when my tank top got stretched out surfing and the surf board bruised my knees and hips. My armpits killed, but not nearly as much as my abs. I had to use my hands to sit up they hurt so bad. They still hurt today, but it was good for me. We made breakfast together and then cleaned out the house. We went for a walk on the beach and Jason cracked open some coconuts for us. It was a great day to relax. Just what we needed after last month.

In other new here, I started training for a 5k. I know that most people can run a 5K no problem, but I can't so this is going to be a challenge for me. We thought we had a race picked out for May 1st, but then we realized we have a test the next day and proficiencies start that same week. I hope we find another one, but either way, this will be good for me. I may need some help with motivation. I really don't like running all that much.

Elizabeth is going to come and visit me in April!!! I can't wait for her to come down. It will be so nice to have one of my close friends around. I'm already trying to plan out things I want to show her.

Ruta de Centenial 99!!

Yesterday was amazing. We took a two hour bus ride to Ponce to the main campus for the school system that the Optometry school is a part of. Typically I just call it IAUPR, but its actual name is the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, or Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico. It has five of six branches across the island. They have an anniversary celebration every year and this year was the school's 99th year. Next year is going to be an even bigger party. It was crazy. They had a ton of different things going on. We first listened to a few speeches, I'm not going to lie, I only understood about half of it. A couple of the larger schools came in with drums, horns, and singing. It was really cool to watch. Then we looked at different vendors who were selling little crafts, baked goods, and leather goods. We ate lunch and then listened to this awesome 80s cover band. At first one of my friends thought the lead singer was lip syncing, but he was just that good. He played some Bon Jovi, Journey and a whole bunch of other stuff. We were all excited because it was in English and we don't hear music in English here very often.

I also bought a book. They had a book signing for a book called Equus Rex. It is a compilation of stories about famous horses and riders. It is goes from mythology to present day. I almost didn't get it because it is in Spanish, but my friend Liz and the author talked me into it. They both thought it would be a great way to expand my Spanish, and I think they are right. I still maintain the author was just being nice, but I took a lot of crap yesterday because he gave me his card and told me that I could call him if there was anything that I didn't understand in the book. My friends thought he was hitting on me, but he was about 60, so I didn't really take it that way. And if I don't understand, I will ask Liz for a translation, but I don't think I'll be making any personal calls to the author.

After that, we went and listened to some traditional Puerto Rican music. It is so amazing to me how much music is a part of the culture here. I love it. Everyone dances. It doesn't matter how old a person is, even the people in the wheel chairs dance. It is so cool to watch. The whole crowd seems to move together. No one is offbeat. This is going to sound corny, but it is almost like watching ocean waves because so many people move all together. They do this dance that has the same steps as the electric slide, but doesn't look like the electric slide. I tried to get it on video yesterday, but the camera on my phone doesn't do all that well with movement and the sound was awful. They also have some really cool traditional songs. One of them we heard when we were at the Gran Melia and again yesterday. It is called "Manaña por la Manaña". The link is to another band playing it, not one I have actually seen, but the song is really cool. All of the traditional bands that I have seen are set up just the same. There are at least three men singing and they all dance together and they have multiple drummers with Congas and all types of percussion instruments and a decent sized brass section. Their songs also last forever. It isn't unusual for a song to go on for 10 mins and then just fade into another song. I really wish I had puertorican rhythm.

It was cool being able to see the southern part of the island. It was actually pretty different from the Northern part. It is not nearly as green and is way drier. It is amazing what a difference a 2 hour drive can make.

Done.

Wow. I'm finally done with this round of exams. I couldn't be happier to have a little break. Yay!!!! I don't know that we are going to do anything tonight to celebrate because about half of my friends are running a 10k on Sunday. I was not that ambitious, but everyone is trying to keep it low key for the weekend. I am going to something called the "Road to the Centennial." I'm not going to lie, I have no idea what I signed myself up for. From what I understand it is some sort of celebration for the 100 year anniversary of IAUPR. It is being held at the main campus in Ponce. I've never been to Ponce and basically I just sign up for anything that gets me off the campus for a little bit. None of us really know what we are doing once we get there. The only thing I do know is that everything will be in Spanish. Hopefully I'll learn something. I just got an email saying that the bus leaves at 8:30 am and that we are all going to have matching shirts. Either blue polos or green t-shirts. It kind of reminded me of our sixth grade trip to D.C. Hopefully the trip will give me something interesting to write about. (FYI this is the IAUPR campus, not the UPR campus where all the riots are, so I think we are pretty safe.)

On an even more exciting note, we are going on a mini trip next weekend. Steve O (the one who threw us a superbowl party) is taking us to his uncle's beach house in Rincon!!!! He made it sound like there is room for all of us, but I think about 10 of us are going and it is a two bedroom beach house. I'm bringing my air mattress and Steve O has two more air matresses, but I think it still might be a tight squeeze. We don't really care, we are getting out of Bayamon for a little bit.

I'll write some more when exciting stuff actually happens and isn't just in the works!!

Thank god for music

I thought that I wouldn't have anything to write about for a while, mainly because I haven't left the compound for two weeks. Last weekend I didn't even leave my apartment once, other than to take out the trash. Pharmacology consumed my life. I know that Optometrists like the dark, but I seriously need some sunshine before I go all out vampire. I think we are going to take our notes to the beach this weekend for a few hours. Once next week is over, I will be able to have a bit of breathing room. I am going to need it. Dr. May told me before I ever left, that I had to get out and have some fun every once in a while or I would go crazy in Optometry school. He was right. This month is really testing the limits of my sanity. I mostly blame Pharmacology for that. It is extremely hard to memorize lists of words that you have never heard of and don't know how to pronounce. I had to take a little break on Sunday after studying for 10 hours straight because my neurons were a bit wore out. I picked out a movie with the intentions of watching half of it and going through flash cards while watching the second half. I ended up streaming what I thought was going to be a cheesy chick flick staring Betty White and Jennifer Love Hewitt called "The Lost Valentine". I really needed to watch something that didn't require much thought, and a Hallmark Original Movie seemed about perfect. It was a little cheesy, but I have a soft spot for all members of the Golden Girls cast. By the end I was a sobbing mess. I'm either becoming a softy in my old age, or the stress got to me a bit. It may have been a combination of both.

The one thing that has always kept me sane (ish) is my music. I found a new band the other week that I fell in love with. They are called Needtobreathe. Don't ask my why there aren't spaces, still haven't figured that one out. They used to tour with Will Hoge and they are extremely talented. I looked up their tour schedule and was really excited to see they were going to be in Milwaukee this summer. Unfortunately, I clicked on the ticket information and realized that they are opening up for Taylor Swift. As much as I love them, I don't know that I could sit through that kind of torture again. I saw her once at the state fair before she became ultra famous and she was awful, like I wanted to take an ice auger to my ears awful. Not to mention I'm sure the tickets are going for something way out of my price range and I would have to listen to thousands of screaming adolescents. Needtobreathe is going to be on a cruise called the "Rock Boat" next year over my x-mas break. Will Hoge, Sister Hazel and Marc Broussard do it every year too. It is a week long cruise with a ton of bands. I told Dad that I would give up presents for xmas and my birthday for the next five years if we could go (plus it would be some good father-daughter time) but he didn't respond, so I'm gonna take that as a no. Damn, I wish I had Brett's ability to talk Dad into stuff. I would probably even enlist his help, but he isn't old enough to go. I hope it is still in operation by the time I can afford it by myself.
Here are a couple of links to Needtobreathe, if you are curious.
Something Beautiful
Said to Much

As Promised.

They all actually put their prescriptions in the trial frames. Jeanna is my favorite because she is a +6.00 in each eye so her lenses make her look like Bubbles from the "Trailer Park Boys." Hahahaha!!!!! Go Packers!

One Memorable Weekend!

Well this was a weekend I am sure I will never forget. Friday was entirely uneventful. Lots of studying, which is also what I did all day Saturday. Saturday night we went out for Simran and Cathleen's birthdays. First we had dinner at an Italian Restaurant called Sofia's. The food was amazing. I had a steak risotto with a mushroom barbera sauce. It was in Old San Juan and any restaurant in the tourist parts is over-priced, but it was one of the best meals I have had on the island. There were 19 of us for dinner. It was crazy and it took forever. We thought we were going to miss our boat, but we made it. We took a boat called La Rumba into the bay by Old San Juan. It was a double decker boat with two dance floors and a DJ. It was a bit weird because some people brought their kids. And not like teenagers. There was a kid who was sucking his thumb and another in a stroller. I think it just seemed weird because we didn't get on it til nine-thirty at night and the boat had a bar on it. I think that views on drinking are different here. The drinking age is 18, but they serve people who look younger than that to me without ever checking IDs. They are also very open about drinking and driving. People will drive their cars with a Medalla in the cup holder and not worry about taking a sip in front of a cop. I guess it is more weird because the laws against drinking and driving do exist here, they just don't enforce a whole lot of their laws (especially driving laws) as far as I can tell. Anyway, we were on this boat for a good long while when all of a sudden people stopped dancing and I turned around to realize that some guy was lying on the dance floor having a seizure. I grabbed my friend Steve O and took him up to the DJ to have him shut off the strobe lights. I didn't know the word for induce or seizure. It is amazing the words that you don't think you are ever going to need. Anyway, the DJ wouldn't shut off the strobe lights or the flashing lights on the dance floor. Steve O got so mad at him and they were just screaming at each other. I heard some words that I did understand in Spanish and knew it wasn't going to be good. Simran saw Steve O yelling at the DJ and came over to help. She told the DJ that we were all doctors and that they needed to shut the lights off immediately. They actually listened to her. And to be fair she never specified what kind of doctors or whether we were in training or not, Hahaha! We all got a kick out of it. We don't know for sure, but I think the guy is going to be ok. I saw him sit up when they pulled into port. They got him down the stair and off the boat, but his seizure lasted for about a minute and a half. It is amazing how fast you can switch gears when you have to wonder if you are going to put CPR training into play. Yikes. After the boat there was a short visit to Señor Frogs. They made the girls go on stage and sang them happy birthday, but the guys who worked there pushed the cake into the face of the girls and spilled a red drink on Simran's dress so we decided to call it a night. We were actually snug in our beds by 2:00 am. Considering that most of the night life is up and going until 6am, that was pretty good.

I was up studying again at eight and hit the books hard so I could enjoy the superbowl. Steve O had us all over. Steve O is a friend of my classmate, Liz, that lives here with his family. He and his dad own 14 Domino's pizza's on the island and his dad is a gourmet chef. Steve O had us over one other time for the Pacquio fight, but not nearly this many of us. His dad went all out. He made us steak and veggie kabobs, burgers, hotdogs, corn on the grill, home made mango salsa, and flan for desert. It was absolutely amazing. We were so spoiled!! Their house is really cool too. It is in a gated community where you have to go through two manned gates to get to their house. Once you are in the gates, it is like you just stepped off the island into somewhere else that is not even close to the rest of Puerto Rico. The best part of the night for me was that all of my closest friends were rooting for the Steelers. We had a class bet that you had to pick a team, and if your team lost, you would have to wear trial frames to class all day. Most of the Canadian's don't watch American Football, and didn't know any better, but my friend Phil is from just outside Pittsburgh and he convinced them to all root for the Steelers. They decided to stick together so that if they had to wear trial frames, they wouldn't have to do it alone. Only Steve O, Mohit, Roble and I were rooting for the Packers. Roble was so funny about it. He borrowed one of my Packer shirts and was telling everyone that he was born and raised in Green Bay, Somalia where he has been a life long Packer fan. He is actually from Somalia, but he has lived in Buffalo for a lot of years and is a Bills fan (and you have to be a true fan to love the Bills). We were loving it. I couldn't sit still. I was on the edge of my seat. I'm so glad we pulled it off. Only about 10 of the 50 people in my class chose the Packers to win, so I can't wait to see the rest of them in their trial frames tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll take a picture. It was an amazing win, but a little more suspenseful than I would have liked.

Oh and to follow up from my last post, this is a link to an article about what is going on at the UPR campus. Our Spanish Prof. sent us the link.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maritza-stanchich-phd/violence-against-student-_b_817297.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=uopx

Calm before the Storm.

To follow up my last blog, most of the perogies were a success. A few of them lost their contents, but I think we are pretty impressed with ourselves. I tried to call Grandma Nielsen because I thought she would get a kick out of the perogie making.

I am so excited for this weekend. I've been studying like a madman all week in preparation. Today is my roommate, Cathleen's, birthday. We are going to go to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Sophie's and then on a cruise through the bay on double decker boat with live salsa music. Another one of my classmates, Liz, was supposed to teach us how to salsa in preparation, but we just haven't had time. Liz is Colombian and knows how to salsa, meringue, and some other type of dance that starts with a B. (Baracha I think. Apparently that one is hard). I guess we will have to take the crash course. It ought to be a blast. I'll take pictures.

Last night our downstairs neighbor's threw Cathleen a surprise get together. Mike made a cake from scratch and had some appetizers. It was really fun and our Spanish professor came too. She is about our age maybe a few years older. She is super interesting. She is Puerto Rican, but she has lived in Brazil, been to most of Europe, and did part of her master's program in NY. Currently she teaches us Spanish and IAUPR, and at UPR she teaches a Spanish class. She speaks four languages. She was working on her PhD in Literature here on the island, but she was telling us about all the rioting and problems they are having on some of the other campuses. It was a really interesting conversation. We knew that some of the students were boycotting other colleges. There is a general feeling that the Puerto Rican government is pretty corrupt and that most of the people in power are either drug or mafia related (or both). It has gotten so bad that the police plant undercover cops into the campus and have them try to start riots and damage things. I guess they also severely cut funding to most of the programs, took away most of the academic and athletic scholarships. Many people here feel that the government wants to encourage the more educated people to leave the island, and they are leaving because their programs are being cut. The people are leaving here by the thousands and the ones who are staying are the ones who aren't educated or don't have the money to leave. It is pretty sad that the government is encouraging the dumbing of a population, but I guess that will make the people easier to control. Wend if you are reading this, skip to the next paragraph because I don't want any worried phone calls from you, but Puerto Rico has has 122 murders so far this year. Its only the 5th of Feb. Most of them are gang/mafia/drug related, but still. We had no idea that it was that bad. It is crazy. For the most part we are safe because of where we live and where we are. I'll try to keep you all updated on that situation, but we are so cut off from the news that updates may be few and far between.

This weekend is going to be the last chance to do anything fun for a while. After this week, we will have two exams every week all month. Ick. We may take our notes to the beach, but there certainly won't be any exploring the island for a while. March is a much better month. We have our annual "Eye-Ball" party on March 25th. We are all pretty excited. We love any excuse to get dressed up. There is also a chance that my cousin, Bri, will come visit me over her spring break. I would love it. I don't have any exams near her visit, so it would work perfect. It would give me something to look forward to since Dad and Brett are going to make a trip to Texas to see great-grandma this year and won't be making it down to visit anymore.

On an entirely different note, GO PACKERS!!!!! They have to pull this off. I don't want to wear these to class.

Back in the sand.

Holy cow, so much has happened. I actually wrote a blog entry last week, but somehow it got deleted and I was frustrated and didn't have time to write it again. First off, classes are great. I really like this semester so far. We are learning things that actually have to due with the eyes. I am taking Pathology, Pharmacology, Ocular Anatomy & Physiology, Spanish, Optics of the Eyes and Instruments, and Primary Eye Care. Primary Eye Care is cool because we are in the clinic learning how to do procedures every week. So far we haven't done anything that I haven't done as a tech, but it is still cool. My equipment also showed up this week. We were so excited to play with everything. Having the equipment makes everything feel more real. And DAMN is medical equipment expensive. We only have the equipment that we need for this semester and it was over $3,000. At least they spread it out over a couple of years. Some of the stuff is not worth what we paid for it either. The stereo book and 3D glasses go for $150-175 alone. And I know they are regulated, but I bet they cost less than $3 to make.

Last weekend was convention. We stayed at the Gran Meliá which is a Trump International Resort. It is supposed to be the nicest resort on the island and I believe it. It is amazing. Cathleen, Jeanna, and I stayed in a "bungalow". We had educational classes on Sat morning, but most of the convention was about fun. We had beach games in the afternoon on Sat. There was a dance competition which we still think we dominated. A girl in my class is a choreographer and put together an awesome dance with a most of our class as a flash mob. Right now the only video of our dance that I know of is on fb and it is locked by privacy settings. This is a video of the Third years who beat us. Our dance was better by a lot, but they beat us with cross dressing. Its actually pretty funny though. http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=lGHWDGjsjSE We also did a tug-o-war, beach volleyball and a relay race. We ended up in second place, but it was really close and we have video of the 2nd years cheating. So we tell them they have a win with an asterisk. There was also another presentation and a formal dinner at night. We all go dressed up and had fun. After we danced for hours. My feet hurt so bad for two days, but my shoes were pretty!!

I also learned something really bizarre in Spanish class. Our professor told us that it is completely normal to marry your cousins here. It still happens all the time. I understand why that might have happened years ago since this is an island with a limited number of people, but it seems weird at this point. She asked us why we were so weirded out by that and we tried to explain birth defects and other factors about why it isn't legal in the states. Hmmm.

Tomorrow Jason, Krista and I are going to make homemade pierogies. I might have to call grandma for the recipe. Most of the Canadians here are Polish and Urkranian. They all love pierogies as much as I do. Hopefully it will be a success. Jason has made them before so I'll let you know how that goes.

Another random thing. When I got back from break, Russ, the guy who was taking care of my hermit crab found a whole bunch more and put them in my container. Another kid from my class gave me three more. I didn't really want any others, but now I have 10. I meant to take a few of them back to the beach when we went today, but I forgot them. When I got back home I added the three new ones and watched them a bit. I also added a couple new shells. I actually saw one of them change shells. It was cool. One of the new ones just molted and he is still soft. He looks a little funny and the other ones seem to pick on him. I hope they don't kill him.

Sorry this isn't my most cohesive blog. I've been thinking about things that I wanted to put on here and none of them really have to do with each other.

Christmas Break

I wish I could say that I enjoyed my break, but I didn't. I want a re-do. The problems started before I even got home. My flight from Chicago to Madison was canceled, and that wasn't near the worst of it. There was a car accident, a lost suitcase, a death of a distant relative, and a crazy emergency heart surgery of one of my best friend's dads. I could keep going, but I'm kind of sick of whining about it. I just wish I could have spent more time with my friends and done more that I hoped to do while home.

There were a few highlights. The biggest of which was Nicole's engagement!! ...and the subsequent bridesmaid dress shopping. There was a good day with Aunt Donna, one hell of an '80s New Years Eve party, and an awesome week spent with my family in Racine.

I spent about three nights a week working with little man on his homework. He was struggling a bit, but I think we have him on the right track again. I'm just a little worried that he doesn't show all that much interest. We will see.

I left this morning at 4:15 am. It was 5 degrees outside. It was 82 when I landed. That I can't complain about. It happened to work out that Cathleen and I were able to share a cab back to school. We wanted to rent a car to do some shopping but both Hertz and Enterprise were out of cars. We will try to get one tomorrow. We were a more than a bit worried about what state our apartment would be in when we got back, but were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't bad at all. (We heard some horror stories about mold growing because the air conditioners weren't run).

I am going to miss my family dearly, but having such a crappy break made it a little easier to go back. I'm ready to dive into another semester. I think knowing that Dad and Brett are going to visit me over my spring break will keep me going.