It has been a while since my last post but trying to prepare for my first exam has taken top priority. Med 1's first exam is in two weeks and I am feeling the weight of the material starting to bare down on my shoulders. However, I am slowly catching up and I am sure that by tomorrow morning I will be completely caught up with reviewing and feeling comfortable with my notes....then on to the next set of lecture topics. However, it isn't all work and no fun. This past Sunday my friends and I held our first weekly pot luck dinner and it was amazingly yummy. We all seemed to gorge ourselves since this is the first decent meal we all have had since we have arrived on the island. Chicken, Salad, potatoes, and even fried plantains!!!! It was my first time having plantains and it is now officially my favorite food ever!!!! My roommate did a great job. One of the boys even purchased a cheesecake! Oh, how us Americans missed Sara Lee. So much for those 15 lbs I have lost since I arrived on the island 3 weeks ago.
I also thought I should also state how much I love my apartment!! A very neglected topic! Coming from a small 4x10 bedroom and a shared bathroom at home to my current apartment has been quite enjoyable!!!! I now had a queen size bed, my own bathroom and a giant dresser! I have so much space I don't even know what to do with myself!!!! I will be sure to post more pictures later on of my actually bedroom just for you mom!!!! It is amazing!!!
However, sadly there are some individuals that don't really like their apartments and find it beneath them to live there....I would love to see where they were living before. No, it isn't the most glamorous but I really do love it here and all the people that call Utopia home. If you do live in one of the outside facing apartments you will have an issue with ants.....but Antigua is a big giant ant farm as far as I am concerned. They are at the school (inside and out)....on all the sidewalks....in most apartments, and they have our pool at our apartment surrounded and held hostage!!!! Be careful to not set your book bag down on the ground anywhere on the island otherwise you will have a bag with ants running all over it and I am sure you will end up bringing several of them back to your apartment. These ants also bite! My legs the first two weeks I lived here were covered in red spots that resembled chicken poxs. Itchy!!! I found this article to prove my point!
http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=59625.
This past week was the first full legitimate week of classes and lab. The required labs for med 1 students are foundations of clinical medicine (FCM), anatomical small group session, and cadaver lab. During FCM we have being taking each others blood pressure, and practicing taking patient histories. It may seem simply but it is strangely intimidating to get in front of a group of your peers and perform these task. Plus you don't want to loose points for forgetting steps to the interview process. The purpose of anatomical group is to review what was learned in human structure and function that week and apply it to actual cases. We are expected to participate, answer questions and debate the validity of our answers. It is very helpful and is by far my favorite class on campus. It truly adds another layer to the learning process and helps to clarify gaps you might have in regard to the material. This past week in cadaver lab we studied the basics of the cardiovascular system and were presented with two cadavers and several individual hearts to study. Again very fun and breathtaking!!!! Getting to see the actual valves for the first time was nothing short of amazing. God is truly great for making something so beautiful and perfect inside our bodies.
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