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.