Independence!

Well to be honest, I'm not what anyone would call patriotic. I really don't know much about my own country when I really think about it. Last week was apparently the week to be wearing Independence colours: blue and yellow...well more Friday than the entire week. I wore no such thing! Actually I wore black on Friday, and there IS black in the flag so that could pass as something.

Barbados celebrates its 42nd year of Independence after being under British colonialism for...centuries? Ah my history's a little rusty but let's assume that's right. Sometimes I don't really think we're all that independent when half of our constitution is still like Britain and we our Monarchy is Queen Elizabeth II. Where's true independence in that? So anyways, Barbados became "independent" on November 30, 1966.

My "Caribbean Politics & Society" teacher once clearly pointed out to us, that our own National Anthem doesn't really make much sense and doesn't seem to quite fit Barbados. This is the main part that isn't fit for the National Anthem of Barbados:

"These fields and hills beyond recall
Are now our very own"

Ohh look! Lots of green! But...it's all...flat! What fields and hills? Fields we have...hills we don't. Out on the Eastern side of the island though, I believe it's a little less flat but, really, I wouldn't say we have hills beyond recall...at all. Our highest point is called Mount Hillaby which is 343 m above sea level. Awesome.

Hmm. Maybe I should say some stuff about Bim that I like =) Ummmm...I like the beaches and the weather (although it's been a bit too hot this year) and most of the people here are nice. The island is small so it's easy to go from one place to the next. I love having the privilage of seeing some very gorgeous sunsets and being able to see the various colours produced during a sunset (although I'm told that that just means the world is getting more polluted). All in all, life can be quite simple and relaxing...depending on what you do =]

Yay! I was actually able to list a few things that I like about Barbados. Well I'm sure my list of dislikes is longer but since it's independence weekend I'll be nice =] I'm going to New York this weekend! On Independence Day in fact. I'm sad that we'll only be there for a day before we return but I have to study so I'll live with it =) I'll finally be getting my hair cut too! My hair isn't all that long but I've been growing tired of it recently lol.

I'll see you all when I return! Until then...be good =D
Oh and Happy Independence ^_^

Shades of Grey

Grey's all over the place today. I had an Ultrasonography lecture today and it was fairly interesting...listened to only half of it. I also had an ultrasonography lecture on Wednesday, except that one was at the hospital and it was late =[ All I learned from it is that it takes some real skills to be able to tell what's what when you're doing an ultrasound O.O Sometimes you can't even make out what's what even when they point it out to you...sometimes you can. Can you tell that the ultrasound picture is a liver? =O It's one of the few that I can make stuff out in haha.

The lecturer also brought along an ultrasound machine so she had some people volunteer to be used =) I volunteered my upper limb for viewing =D I thought it was really neat watching the muscles and tendons moved as I moved my shoulder and elbow. And it was even cooler when she showed my brachial artery and followed it up to the axilla. And I learned that veins collapse quite easily so if you press down too hard with the probe you won't see the vein. I also learned that when you hold your breath, blood flow stops in the veins due to the pressure in the lungs preventing the flow. I can't remember the name she told us though =(

My mom didn't make lunch today so I went ahead and bought myself a Chicken & Potato Roti from Chefette. Not anything like a real roti or anything though. Nothing beats the genuine stuff =D When I got home and spoke to my friend, I started thinking that I should've gotten some popcorn chicken from KFC instead since I can't recall ever having it before...oh well, next time! I think this is the most junk food I've had for awhile...

This afternoon decided that it wanted to be rainy! And the rain just couldn't wait till I got home to spread its terror...just before I got to the bank *sigh* At least the temperature is much cooler now =] But lots of heavy rain! And this island floods too easily but I blame the people who constructed our roads, they're made in such a way that it collects water much quicker than it should.

And I came home to find sheep in the plot of land behind my house! Well it's not the first time, but I think it's been awhile. There were only 2 of them...sometimes there are way way way more lol. Poor sheep...standing out in the rain.

Fun & Happyness

I went over to a friend's house to play Rock Band yesterday! And it was awesome =D I had lots and lots of fun and I also managed to squeeze in a bit of studying. I remember the names of a good few drugs that I had looked at yesterday so I think I did well =D It was like...5 hours of Rock Band goodness *sigh* but I don't think I played enough lol

Then afterwards I went to the Ship Inn for a friend's birthday. It was loads and loads of fun (after a somewhat boring start). His mom was there for like...2 hours before she finally left us and she wouldn't let him have any alcohol but everyone else at the table she bought for lol it was sooo funny! We came to the conclusion though, that she had told the bartender to make the drinks weak cuz everyone was complaining about that and I'm pretty sure I had the strongest drink at the table...white wine =] not much you can do to make wine any lighter =P Masala was playing...not like I really know much about them but they're pretty cool and they have the most awesome guitarist!!! Well that I've ever seen....live =] it was really cool to watch them play.

I also got to talk to a friend of mine about something that had been on my mind for a couple of weeks now and I ended up telling the entire truth about some stuff. *sigh*. I'm not sure if that was the wisest thing to do but now we both know how we both feel and things have gotten complicated again. I just wish we could have a simple friendship without any of our usual complications...just wanna be friends like I am with all my other friends. But I can't help but see him as somebody who's special to me and I don't know what to do about that. I just wish....*sigh*

But all in all, I had a really awesome fun-filled day! =D

One of those awesome-great days

I got a new bed yesterday! It's so awesome...and huge! My room feels a whee bit smaller cuz of it but that's ok cuz I love it anyways =D My mom also decided to go change my curtains while she was at it lol. It's a queen size! I know...it's so big for such a tiny person such as myself but I like to sleep with the comfort of knowing that it's unlikely for me to fall off =P We also decided to get a new frame as well and it looks really great. Yes, that's right, I like neutral colours. Nice though isn't it?

I also got 2 new bookshelves! My other ones are a bit small and they were filling up and stuff so I got some new ones and replaced the old ones. They look nice...the only thing is that it doesn't go with anything else in the room.The shelves are such a wonderfully dark brown while everything else...isn't. So yea, that's before I packed it with books of course. And the other bookshelf is somewhere else in the room. Ohh I'm gonna have to move that picture behind the shelf...almost forgot.

Finals are in two weeks and I've hardly started studying! I'm such a delinquent...really I am. But, instead of studying, I'll be going to my friend's house to play Rock Band! Well...I'm carring some work with me as well incase I can manage a little study time in there somewhere. But omg! FUN! Hahaha. I can't possibly stress enough how much I'm lacking in that for the past 2.5 months.

Oh! And my laptop's speakers are working like normal again! The sound they were giving off had diminished by like...5/8...and I had to turn it all the way up to hear anything...sometimes I just had to use headphones to make life simpler. But this morning, they just randomly came back to life! I'd like to think that I have a self-healing laptop xD Two years ago, a little child decided that he'd pour fruit punch on my laptop keyboard (and of course, everything that works the laptop is under there) but it was like a miracle! Nothing happened at all, except that the keys were sticky for awhile and I learnt a new feature of the laptop! The only thing that doesn't work anymore is the CD burner =( but oh well, I'll get a new one next year!

The Perfect Shade of Purple

I'm still not studying! And I'm quite ashamed of it. *sigh*

I went shopping with my mom this evening. Well she wanted to go for curtains and bedsheets but we ended up buying clothes and jewellery as well, haha. Fun stuff. But I did get a couple pairs of dress pants for whenever I have some semi-formal kind of things to go to for Med so now my wardrobe isn't all casual anymore! We also got this little fake plant thingy that I took a picture of in the dark for some reason. It looked really nice.Today was sunny! Yay! After the many days of rain and getting my car all dirty after washing it..twice *sigh* not much I can do about that I guess. Oh and I discovered I had other friends who didn't know I wrote poems lol I find this so fascinating. I've known these people for like 7 years! So I told him that I wrote a poem called "Boredom" one day and he wanted to read it...helping me realise that I couldn't find it! So I had to go get it from another friend who had it (luckily). So I thought I'd share it =)

Boredom

I sit here blankly.
Staring into non-existence.
Listening to the howling wind,
Hearing the rustling leaves.
All other sounds echo in my mind.
Seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, tasting
...senses whisked away by a fierce breeze.
Then,
Sight comes first.
And the smallest, brightest glimmers of light
Like silver glitter on the dark background
Like stars shining in the night sky.
Silence and darkness enveloping.
What do i do here?
Lost in oblivion,
Where can i go?

Looking Ahead

So, I found out that my friend of 7 years had no idea I wrote poems! So I showed him the ones I wrote yesterday and the some others that I had before and he thought they were all good. Made me feel a little better about them, but I still don't think they're that great. So, my goal is to improve my writing skills!

Just less than a month before the semester is over and I'll be on Christmas holiday! I can't wait! Exams start in 2.5 weeks (boo!) and I haven't started studying for them yet. Gosh I'm so ashamed of myself. Lots of work coming at us in the next two weeks! Hopefully I'll know enough stuff to do really well on the exam. I'll just keep my fingers crossed.

I've got a general idea of what I wanna be doing during my vacation. The plan is to pack it full of stuff that I normally can't do during the semester, including: reading, going out (lots hopefully), studying (have to keep up with the work!). I wanna give Twilight a read, since I've been hearing so much about it, I can't help my curiosity. If I like it, which I might, then I'll go on to read the others. And I've been missing my friends so much! I don't see or talk to them often...it's like I'm at a university overseas and we all attend the same one! *sigh* So I can't wait for that =D

I'm just looking for the days to go by quickly. And hopefully time could slow down during vacation. Haha. How likely is that?

Oh and...a new complaint for today! Our Director of Medical Education was telling us that she ordered the books for next semester early so we wouldn't have book problems like we did earlier in this semester. That was all fine and dandy until somebody asked her if it was possible to get the required booklist so that they could get it overseas/online cheaper. And that blew up into this one big disagreement and she didn't even try to be a little flexible about it! She was saying she either orders them or she doesn't...but the bookshop sells books quite expensively and some people can get them for cheaper without a problem so they'd wanna do that. But at the same time not everybody can purchase them online or anything so they'd have to depend on the bookshop. But Dr. Director was going on about how she can't do half and half...it's either or. THEN she went on to insult us saying "You guys aren't business students, you're medical students so let me handle this"

Unbelievable! She practically said that we have no knowledge of anything except medicine. Stupid. As if we don't have common sense to do basic profit and loss! Hmph!

Poetic Me

So today I went to a conference: Continuing Medical Education Conference and spent a good 6 hours there. It was just a series of lectures about varying topics. Most of them were fairly interesting, a couple of them lost my attention and my thoughts drifted and I ended up thinking about how I hadn't written a poem in awhile (since the beginning of April).

I quite miss doing those. It has a relatively relaxing effect on my mind when it comes to some rather emotional issues in my life and since I've been feeling a little emotionally unstable lately I thought I'd write something. I don't think they're that great, I'm very sure I've written much better. But my excuses are that I haven't written anything in ages so I'm rusty with the writing and I've been mentally tortured in the past 2-3 months so that part of my brain doesn't work so well at the moment ^_^

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You're My Happiness

Everyday I think of you
In everything I do,
Everything I say.
All my habits
Remind me of you.
Our friendship is my happiness.
Your happiness is my happiness.
Over time,
I know you won't see me
The same way again.
But I know my heart for you
Will never change.
Our history is clear.
Our memories are unforgettable.
I'll love you forever.
And I'll never forget about us.
Will you?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Warmth

I watch on as the flaky white snow
Falls lightly to the ground.
I watch on as it builds up slowly.
Such wonderful cold weather.
I'm all wrapped up
With my mug of coffee
Doing what I can to keep warm
And I can't help the way
My thoughts drift to you.
Wishing you were here with me
To keep my company
To keep my warm.
I sip my coffee
And stare blankly out the window.
Just thinking of you
Make me feel just a little bit warmer.

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Quantum of Solace

Huge sigh of disappointment. I mean...really? Not so great. All the hype about it was for nothing and I wasted both $12 and about 2 hours of my life lol. I could've been studying!...or browsing facebook..whichever =P

The plot didn't really seem like much of one. The bad guys...boring bad guys! I mean...there wasn't anything interesting about them and they're big crimes seemed like little ones. Not to mention there was a little too much action in it. I'm not all about watching action scene followed by action scene and more action scenes. In my opinion, there usually isn't much of a plot when so much action is taking place with no little twists. But then there probably aren't many twists one could fit into a poor plot like that. And where were all the cars? and girls? lol I sound like a dude for saying that but there really wasn't much of either. My favourite part of the movie was when they showed all the awesome cool gadgets and computerisation. So awesome.

So I spent about half the day out shopping with my friend! It wasn't too bad. I actually ended up doing a bit of shopping myself...not much though. I sure did end up finding out how well I could depress myself too (the only bit of drama existing in my uneventful life). Awesome.

We also met this little kid when we stopped by Cafe Blue for lunch. A disrespectful little boy with a rather irresponsible mother. She was apparently shopping and he was tired of it and he was hungry but she wasn't and she wanted to finish her shopping. So they had a little argument at the table I sat at and after getting him food, she just left him. So my friend and I decided we'd keep him company instead of leave him all alone...he was only 8. But boy did that kid have one mouth on him!

So there's my day! Quite interesting I guess. Definitely a nice change to being at home all day long studying. Which reminds me...I should really start studying for finals!

TGIF!

I couldn't be happier to see the week end! I'll be even happier when the semester ends...which I believe will be Dec 12th =) Although, recently, I've been having a slight fear of one of my tests being on Dec 1st, the day I'm returning from New York. I remember our lecturer telling us that it'll be the 2nd but when we got our exam timetable it said the 1st...now I'm all worried =|

Other than that I had a fairly fun and unproductive day! A few friends and I watched Casino Royale today in anticipation for tomorrow! We'll be going to watch Quantum of Solace at the Drive In and I sooo can't wait! For the first time during the semester, I get to lime with all of my friends and just have some fun! Old friends and new friends, joy! =D

I was surprised to learn that Quantum of Solace was coming out here before America. Huge shocker really since we usually get movies like 2-3 weeks (or up to 1 month) after they're released in the U.S. unless they're big movies. Like, Spiderman 3 and I had heard that Pirates of the Caribbean 3 came out at the same time (I wouldn't know since I was in England that month). Usually the Drive In shows 2 movies a night (unless the 1st movie is really long) but this time it's just Quantum of Solace and it's not even that long. A friend of mine came up with the theory that the people must've spent a good set to get it here so quick...even before the U.S., so I guess that made some amount of sense.

Ah! I haven't really gone out and had fun in so long that I'm so excited, I could jump up and down all day! Tomorrow I'm planning to go do a little shopping with a friend so that'll keep my mind off the movie for a bit! Which reminds me...I wonder if I'll need to fill up on gas tomorrow hmmm...Fuel and cooking gas prices went down! So happy!

I went to pick up my Associate Degree today. The lady who was dealing with me told me the most interesting thing. I apparently "look like a doctor". I think she's the second person to tell me so. The first person was a rep from St. George's University when I went to the College Fair a couple of years ago. Interesting no?

The week that I wanted to end quickly really did..for once. Usually when I want something like that to happen its like time slows down for spite or something haha.

Dreams & Reality

I had a dream this morning about anatomy! I don't remember it in much detail. But I was dreaming about a part of the lower limb that I'm sure I hadn't covered yet. It was so odd. Such a pity I can't remember any of it now =( The exam is tomorrow and I'm not ready! *sigh*

Apparently, I'm not the only one having dreams about work in the class =D There was a girl who was dreaming about Molecular Medicine (which was the test we had today) being on another day and she was so relieved and happy and then she woke up. Haha. Then another person was telling us about a girl who had a dream...or more like nightmare...that her Math notebook was chasing her then it got bigger and fell on top of her and then she was in class and all over the board there was Math Math Math. Imagining it was quite funny.

How interesting is it that work can come haunt you in your dreams? =P

The test today didn't turn out to be so bad actually. I left early...something I seem to be doing in almost all our tests. Well, of course I had to guess some of the stuff but all in all it wasn't half bad. I spoke to my lecturer about it afterwards and sounds like a couple of my guesses were right so yay! *does a little happy dance*

Now I'm just DYING for tomorrow to finish and then I'll feel so relieved...only to have to start studying for finals in 3 weeks. I think the exam timetable is up so I'll check it out tomorrow to see if I'll get screwed over from the beginning or if it'll come for me at the end. I'm hoping for the end. And I barely passed one of my exams from last week as well...54%...so horrible =(

The end of the week is drawing near! Yes! Quantum of Solace this weekend! I can't wait to go watch it...and lime with my friends...and have fun...for once. =D

There are better days...

I thought I could make it through the semester without getting frustrated with the Medical Sciences faculty...but it turns out I was wrong. Since the beginning of the week I've just been so frustrated with everything these people do and don't do. Maybe I should be grateful for their efforts, after all this is a new faculty, but I can't help but feel that they're not doing anything! I went to the faculty office to give them something that they asked me (the I.T. rep) to do, to find the secretary happily chatting on MSN and telling me that what I've been doing for the past 2 weeks for them was for naught.

It wasn't a large task really. I was asked to collect electronic pictures of all the members of the class (40 people) so that they can put it on their file. Mind you, this is nothing that I should have to be doing. Apparently they're too lazy to go to the Admissions department to get these pictures. And I practically had to hunt down some of these students for a simple picture. Gosh.

My anatomy lecturer...she's a very sweet lady...but she can't teach. And it's so unfortunate that she's our permanent anatomy lecturer. She's from India, and she has supposedly taught for 20 years, but it really doesn't show from the way she teaches. I wonder if it's just the language barrier because she seems to be convinced that she's saying one thing when she said another. For example, today she was doing a little review for our test on Thursday and she was saying that dorsiflexion at the ankle locks the knee. Huh? That makes no sense. So someone asked her about that. She's like "I didn't say that!" and then it turned out to be one big long debate over what she did or did not say. And this happens in practically EVERY class with her. Not only that, she doesn't let you finish your sentences and she answers your questions before you reach the 4th word. Ugh.

And then there's the fact that these people bring lecturers from the hospital...LOTS of different lecturers to teach us stuff and they all have different views. So when the exam comes around, these lecturers of ours don't seem to set any of our questions since it seems they never know when our exams are or what is supposed to be on them. They've been doing it for Embryology and Anatomy. And the same lecturer that I mentioned in the previous paragraph is the one who runs those courses, so she's the one setting the questions and she'll give us questions on what the other lecturers told us not to concentrate on. And that frustrates me so much! It just goes to show that there's is virtually NO communication going on within the faculty. Our last Embryology exam had questions about things that we've never been taught. Apparently those grades went up today so I'll check it out tomorrow.

We had over a month of Upper Limb lectures in anatomy and I think about a month for the Lower Limb. That's not right for a good few reasons.

1. the upper limb has fewer muscles than the lower limb to have to memorise
2. even though the upper and lower limb have the same number of compartments, in the lower limb the compartments do different things while in the upper limb it's all the same
3. the nerve supply from the spinal cord is much more complicated in the lower limb with more nerves to remember as well as what muscles they supply.
4. the foot has a heck of alot of muscles compared to..say..the hand, which by the way I STILL don't know anything about.
5. we're expected to learn about the leg (from the knee to the ankle) and foot in 2 lectures to be tested on them in the next week along with bone, joint and muscle diseases.

Basically, the lower limb is MUCH much more complex than the upper limb but we spent so much less time studying it. To be expected to know so much in so little time for ONE course is bad enough. But I've got lots of other tests around the same time too so that makes things even harder.

I hate how they pack all these tests in a week or 2 weeks. They've just been throwing tests at us since the beginning of October right up to the second to last week of lectures. There are 2 more weeks left till teaching ends and I cannot wait for that time to go. It also means I get to go to New York for Independence weekend and get some of my med text books and maybe a new phone! I would be so happy for a new one. I'd also be very happy for a new laptop as well since the audio has diminished by a little more than half since last week and I have to use headphones to hear anything properly.

I'm so tired of studying. And I'm so frustrated with our faculty. They just can't do anything properly! I understand it's the first year and all, but they should've been more prepared before they started the programme (I hear they've been planning it for years now...doesn't seem like it to me). We don't have our own building. We don't have our own equipment. We don't have anything that's ours! Not until next year...or so they say.

Ugh.
I feel much better now that I've typed out my frustrations =)

Such is Life

Independence day is on November 30th! I think there was a lighting ceremony in Bridgetown on the 1st of this month or so. During the month of November places around Barbados has up lights and stuff in celebration. Some of them are rather boring and plain and others...are still plain, but more interesting. They decorate the roundabouts along the highway. They've hung up some lights on some of the buildings in town...nothing special just a little yellow and blue. Kinda boring.
Also...the week is over! The week that usually holds all the hard tests! Wasn't a bad week after all actually =] Two more tests next week...with lots of work encompassed so, wish me luck with those! It's like another week like this one but with only 2 tests that are..back to back *sigh*

Back to the books!

The Collective

Today turned out to be a really good day! First, my Cell Biology test went better than I had expected so hopefully I did well there...hopefully...sometimes I doubt myself. Secondly, I met up with some friends who I haven't seen in about...forever! Three of my closest buddies, I've missed liming with them cuz it's been months! So we just hung around and chatted for awhile...hours! About 4 hours I think...wow! We were all starving by the time we left =P We (and a group of other people making up about...12 in total) have been friends for years now so we've were trying to decide on a group name of some sorts and quite randomly "The Collective" was the name decided on. Fun stuff! =D

I took the above picture when the sun looked like it was setting. It looks so nice, you'd never think its our lame looking uni! Hahaha

Two more tests this week, and two next week.
I'm looking forward to Christmas break. =D

"What Team?" "Wildcats!"

High School Musical 3 was soo amazing! I went to the drive in last night and watched that along with Beverly Hills Chihuahua, which by the way, turned out to be funnier than I expected.

I couldn't believe how many people were there, the drive in was just packed full will all these little critters for children running around, making noise and climbing on their parent's rooftops like monkeys. I'm glad they know when to be quiet though otherwise I would've really been annoyed. I hadn't expected the drive in to be so full. Of course, I was expecting the majority of the audience to be children but...not so many. The snackette always seemed to have an extremely long line, even during the movies, so I ended up not eating. But at least we bought some Chefette and ate it when we got there (but I still got hungry).

The songs were so great and the dances wowed me, I absolutely loved them all! I wasn't really expecting it to be that good but I think that was the best of the 3.

Ah today's gonna be a busy day. Have to study for my test tomorrow (which I haven't really started but we had the lectures last week so they're kinda fresh in my mind), do some work for my mom, wash the jeep, and study for other tests if I can.