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.
