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.

Here Goes Nothing.

Well, Monday begins finals week. My biggest two finals are first. Monday is Anatomy and Wednesday is Physiology. Those are really the only two I am worried about. Cumulative finals are insane especially with the level of detail we are expected to know. My strategy is to study as much as I can and still get my sleep. It is just an enormous amount of material. Between the two classes I have to know every organ, muscle, artery, vein, and nerve in the body, how they work and how they are connected. The brain is the hardest because all of the nuclei sound the same. I struggle with the inferolateral geniculate and the inferomedial geniculate kind of stuff. I guess my job is just to study my butt off and put down everything that stuck onto that exam.

I shouldn't even complain. I don't have it nearly as bad as Molly's 8 hour exam that was 100% of her grade from last year. That is insane pressure.

I will be flying home on Dec 11th!!! I can't wait. I miss everyone soooo much. Puerto Rico is amazing, fun, and beautiful, but I haven't seen much of it lately. I haven't had the opportunity to leave our little campus except for a little x-mas shopping. I think that is just adding to my being antsy about getting home. It is going to be quite a temperature shock. Right now it is 80 degrees and sunny. I hope Nicole doesn't forget to bring my coat when she picks me up from the airport!

I better get back to at least 8 hours of studying today!

A Few More Differences

I learned something interesting this week about Puerto Rico. I think it might be a perfect place for Anna Moeller to move to. Most people here do not use peanut butter. Our Spanish prof told us that peanut butter and pickles are two things that just never caught on here. Apparently we shipped them a whole bunch of peanut butter for the school lunch programs and they didn't know what to do with it. Adriana (my prof.) said that the first time they shipped it to the school she was in elementary school and they used an ice cream scoop and just put a glob of it on everyone's plate. When no one ate it, they then put it in a glass and filled it with milk. Still not a hit. Haha. I like peanut butter, but that is just nasty. I guess that explains why I went through the isles at Sam's four times and couldn't find any. At least they sell it at the normal grocery stores.

Another thing that is different from home is funerals. Our campus is on the top of a hill that overlooks a ginormous cemetery. There are a whole bunch of trees so, unless you live in one of the dorms that faces the cemetery or go on the roof, you can't see it. For the longest time, Cathleen and I would hear music and could never figure out where it was coming from. It always sounded like there were speakers in the dense row of trees behind the school. It was always this upbeat reggaeton that made Cathleen and I wonder what celebration we were missing. When we first got here we tried to figure it out and after a couple of weeks someone told us that it was coming from funerals in the cemetery. At first I thought it was really bizarre music for a funeral, but the more I think about it, it makes it seem like they are celebrating life rather than playing sad stuff, that makes you even more depressed than you are in that kind of situation.

I really wish that Puerto Rico had a better English newspaper. There is only one that I know of and it sucks. http://www.prdailysun.com/ I feel detached from the politics and some of puerto rican culture just because I can't fully understand everything in a Spanish newspaper. Jim, if you get sick of Rice Lake, I know an island that could use your help Hahaha.

Craziness

I haven't posted in a while, because I haven't really done anything worth writing about. Last night was the first time I have left the "compound" in two weeks unless you count when I walked to Sam's Club for milk and bagels. I have been studying my butt off. I'm drained, exhausted and already starting to study for finals. I am so ready to be home.

Yesterday we had an exam in Optics, which is my favorite class. I won't bore you with a ton of details, but part of what we were tested on was labeling optical systems. Our optics tutor does a great job of going over every type of question Dr. Morales could ask us, so I usually go to his reviews before an exam. Our tutor told us a "short cut" for labeling optical systems, and it seemed to make sense. One of my friends asked Dr. Morales about it in class and he said that he wasn't sure if it worked in all cases, but when we used it for all of the examples in our book, they all worked. Our exam was only 25 questions long and questions 7-18 were on this optical system. I did the problem the long way (not using the "shortcut" our tutor gave us) and didn't have any problems. Unfortunately, about 35 of my classmates used the short cut and it didn't work on this optical system. Every single on of those questions were related. If you got the first question wrong, you got them all wrong. It has turned into a fiasco because our tutor (who is a second year student) took the blame for it and now our professor doesn't know what to do. There is going to be a big meeting about it with the Dean of Students, our prof, our class president and the tutor. Basically, if the grades were to stand, 35-40 people in my class would have failed that exam. I'm glad I did it the long way so no matter what happens, it doesn't really effect me.

So this is officially my first holiday without my family. I thought that we were going to do a big Thanksgiving dinner here, but Dr. Cabello who was going to set it up has been gone due to some family issues. My friends and I were so wrapped up in exams and studying that we never had time to get stuff together for it. Last night we decided that we were going to put something together, but our dinner will be on Saturday. Most of my Canadian friends weren't able to go home for Thanksgiving either. Canadian Thanksgiving is in October so this really isn't a holiday for them anyway. It will be nice to have a dinner with all of them, but I would really like to be with my family. A semester is a really long time to be away. Most of the time I am too busy to be homesick, but today is a little harder than most. I really wish I was in Kathy's kitchen right now helping get everything ready while my uncles watch football and my cousins chase each other around the house...and I really want some of Wendy's sweet potatoes and Donna's homemade noodles. Maybe I'll ask for both when I go home. At least it is 78degrees outside and doesn't feel like Thanksgiving, that will make it easier to spend the day studying anatomy.

Food and Culture.

I have been trying really hard to get more in touch with Puerto Rican culture lately. It is easy to hide behind the gates of our school and not ever get a feel for where we are living. I have decided that every trip to the grocery store I am going to buy some food that I have never heard of and try to learn how to cook with it. This week I bought a Chayote. I cooked it and stuffed it with rice, beef, seasoning and cheese (as directed by my Spanish teacher). I really liked it. It is in the squash family, but is located next to the root vegestables at the grocery store. It is almost like a cross between a squash and a potato. I'm sure that some of my foods won't be that exotic to some of you, but to me they are still "mystery food".

The food isn't the only different thing about the grocery store. First off, everything (except alcohol) is way more expensive than home. Seafood is even more expensive. I still haven't figured that one out. The cuts of meat also aren't the same. They aren't unrecognizable, but they aren't like home. They eat a lot of this really thinly cut steak here. (Skirt steak maybe? I'm not really sure.) They also fry everything. It is extremely hard to go out to eat anything authentic and not have it fried in some way. Because it is so humid, most of the fresh produce goes bad really quickly. I think that is why they have so much processed food here. It is hard to eat right here unless you have the ability to go to the grocery store at least once a week (which I do not).

Another interesting fact about Puerto Rican culture is that they are a people who take pride in how they look. Except for the exceedingly poor, everyone is always done up. Women do their hair, dress up, and wear stilettos all the time. I swear 90% of women here don't even know what sensible shoes are. Fat, skinny, young, old...they still are wearing crazy shoes that I would have classified at home as "stripper heels." They dress like this in the grocery store, at work, and when they go out. I could never last 8 hours in the shoes they wear. As a whole, women wear things that are tighter and smaller than at home too. This is true even if you aren't a size two. Our Spanish teacher is a native Puerto Rican and fills us in on things that we may have a hard time picking up on. One of those things is that Puerto Rican men typically do not like skinny women. They don't like really fat women either, but they aren't interested if you don't have curves. The crazy amount of upkeep isn't reserved for women. The younger generation of me wax everything and they pluck their eyebrows. Everyone is incredibly manicured. It is sort of bizarre. Oh and rat-tails are in style on men. Cathleen nicknamed this one popular hair style the mo-rat because it is a cross between a mohawk and a rat-tail. I would take a picture, but I don't know how without being rude. I'll work on that for a future post.

As for school, it is still going well. I had one test that didn't go as well as I would have liked in anatomy, but I will be okay. It was just frustrating because I worked my butt of and panicked a little when I got the exam. She basically had us list every tiny detail she taught us. Ick and some of the nuclei of the brain sound so similar they are really hard to keep straight. Ugh. I'll keep plugging away.

Life outside of school is still great too. I am so lucky to have a great group of friends. We all get along super well and look out for each other. We went for another visit to La Placita for Krista's birthday on Friday. It was a blast. I danced so much that the back of my leg was sore on Saturday. We are also picking up on some Spanish by getting out. La Placita is all locals and a great atmosphere. I am picking up some Latin dance moves too...and no, I won't bust them out at home. We are starting to recognize some of the music too. Reggaeton grows on you pretty quickly. I will put a link to a couple of the songs that we hear all the time. They aren't the best lyrics, but they are catchy.

Danza Kuduro

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