Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Perfect Temperatures

I made it to Hong Kong safe and sound and I'm loving the temperatures! It's about 18 degrees Celsius around so it's like the environment's just air conditioned. =] A shirt and sweater is all I need really. It's just the right amount of cold =D

So, as a quick update:
  • I got my new phone! The Nokia N97 mini. Lovely piece of machinery. Getting used to the technology it holds.
  • NY is super cold! My flight from Barbados got delayed due to weather conditions...it was snowing! After a 2 hour delay, we got going and arrived to a wonderfully white winter.
  • Had my first experiences with snow! It's so pretty and white........until it starts melting away and looks all wet and grey, then it's not so pretty anymore.
  • Travelled to Hong Kong in Business First Class on Continental Airlines. Loved it. Made the 15 hour flight seem much shorter. With full, hot, fresh meals served on plates with real cutlery, a chair that lengthens out about 170 degrees to almost give you a flat bed, over 300 movie choices, over 50 tv show choices, over 80 games, and over 100 albums of music, what more could one ask for?

The trip has only just begun! I'm sure there will be lots to happen and such. And my phone, my camera and myself will all be there to capture the memories =D

Christmas is almost here. And I'm finally in a Christmas mood! =P

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Where's my vacation?

All I see everywhere is books...books...and more books. I'm tired of all this studying! I keep wondering if it'll all be for naught or if something may actually come of it...it's hard to tell with the course co-ordinator for my last two final exams.

So far my med exams have turned out to be better than I could possibly have expected, so I'm happy for that. I just hope my grades reflect the wonderfully positive feeling I have tumbling around inside. Despite that, I still have this negativity tumbling around with it.

The prospect for any exam that comes from the course co-ordinator that I feel...extreme dislike for is usually never good. Looking at the incourse grades is almost depressing...the majority of the class did extremely bad...barely passing...or just failing. And so...I dread the next, and final, two exams left: The Digestive System and The Endocrine System & Skin. They could be interesting...I believed them to be so but it never helps when you have bad lecturers that literally teach you nothing useful for your medical career.

As such, I've been having sleeping problems for the past few days. It's probably from underlying stress. I say underlying because I honestly don't feel stressed out and I only really know when I'm stressed when I get some physical manifestations of it. Different things happen depending on the situation. Sometimes I get back pains, a stiff neck, break out or, a new one, I have trouble falling asleep. I've had to try numerous things to get myself to sleep at night and eventually one of them works and I manage to fall asleep and whenever I wake up, I feel extremely wide awake.

Now, once my sleeping pattern is disrupted then it's quite the indicator that I'm overly stressed and worried (though I don't really feel that way). I'm the kind of person who can normally get to sleep easily whenever, however and wherever. I've never had a problem with it. Until now.
This week just needs to end.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Harsh times ahead


Burning the midnight oil

It's that time of the academic year. The semester is just at its close and classes are over. And now, examinations have begun.

My exams started yesterday with Caribbean Civilisation, an exam in which I was to write 2 essays in a period of 2 hours. I managed to successfully complete such a task. I studied 3 topics and, with the worst luck imaginable, only 1 of the 3 topics I studied got a question on the exam.

An exam consisting of 8 questions, 2 of which were to be answered. Well, I managed to get the slightest bit of luck back on my side when I saw a question on Creole language, a topic I covered in English during summer school. Not to mention it was a question that I could easily make up stuff for and still get a decent grade for...hopefully. Well, all I require is a "Pass" from the course anyway. Grades won't matter. I'll be getting my 3 credits.

Medical exams begin on the 10th. Four exams to sit in this semester. Three major systems and...another course - medically related, of course.
  • The Cardiovascular System
  • The Digestive System
  • The Endocrine System & Skin
  • Health & The Environment
To everyone in the midst of their final examinations: I wish you the best of luck! Study hard...but not too hard...and be sure to take care of yourselves!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Parang! Parang!

Parang: derived from the Spanish word "parranda" (meaning "spree"), it is folk music originating from Trinidad & Tobago. With influences from the Caribbean and Latin America, parang is played mainly around the Christmas season.

Parang bands consist of a number of singers accompanied by a number of instruments including: violin, guitar, tambourine, maracas (chac chac), claves (toc-toc), box bass and mandolin.


Having lived my childhood in Trinidad, I'm rather attached to many things Trinidadian. One of them being parang. It's lively and the fun of the music is absolutely contagious. My Trinidadian family is really big on parang...in fact they've formed a band and they go around playing at little venues around Trinidad: the Homer Parranderos. I only met them a few years ago but they're quite a lively bunch of folks. The band's made up of a single family unit, a rather large family unit: parents and their many children of varying ages.

I found Sharlene Flores' parang CD! Haha. I'm so glad we still have it =]

I was at the Drive In last Saturday to watch New Moon, and I heard parang on the Drive In's radio station and it made me reminiscent. It's pretty old parang music but I loved it anyway..after all, what's better than the traditional folk music? It was so much fun to hear! And it was only when I heard parang that I felt Christmas coming.

After all, parang is played mainly around Christmas in Trinidad. It's fun and festive and Christmasy. =]

Now that Independence has passed and December is here, I woke up to some Christmas tunes coming over the air waves.

Hello December!

Monday, November 30, 2009

43 Years

Today, we celebrate 43 years of independence here in Barbados. 43 years away from colonialism. Happy Independence to you, Barbados.

I watched the Independence parade last night for the first time in my life...and only because a friend asked me to. In the end I never spotted her *sigh*. So, for those who know me, it's not much of a surprise that I don't like Barbados very much. It's small, it's boring, there's absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to go and all I can ever tell people is that it's a great place to vacation. Because it is. I just don't like it very much. And the parade did not help my opinion of the island.

I love my friend. And she's awesome and all but...that parade was the most pathetic thing I've ever seen...it was more of a ceremony than a parade. The "music" was just sound as far as I'm concerned. It felt incredibly empty and dull. These military organisations were ridiculous...I've never seen any such organisation march with so little life. Such flacid bodies and arm swingers! Only a select few really looked like they were marching but as for the rest...awful. But seriously, why so lifeless? Our Independence should be something to celebrate, no? So why not be more lively in playing that music? Why not take a more lively step in that march?

Another friend of mine was up with me watching the ever-awful-torture-to-watch parade and so the night was made just that much more enjoyable as we sat and chatted about how awful things were, imagining a number of things and just plain old making fun of people. Bad as that sounds, it was the only entertainment of the parade. People yapping while they marched! One girl looked at the other girl and then started grinning...mid-march. A couple of people stumbled. Only one or two sets of people were in sync...never saw anything so out of sync in my life.

A most shameful parade in my opinion. Absolutely.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Oh Little Kernel

Oh little Kernel, won't you please leave me today?

Sunday afternoon I was enjoying a nice bowl of popcorn at home. Then a small piece of a popcorn kernel gets stuck in my right tonsil. It's been stuck there for awhile.

In fact, today marks Day Four.

I've already been to the doctor to get it removed because it was really irritating my tongue. I ended up paying $70 for nothing because, obviously, it's still there. Such a waste. They didn't have the nozzle to spray the lidocaine in the back of my throat so that they could conduct a procedure. The bottle and all the other equipment were there, but the nozzle for the bottle, in all of the building, was missing. Plus, they didn't have a new bottle of lidocaine that would have come with the nozzle. Just my luck.

Four days later, I've decided to just live with it and keep hoping for it to dislodge soon. It's been bothering me less than initially. So I'm hoping for the best.

Oh little kernel, please disappear soon.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Wuthering Heights

I was staring at one of my bookshelves last night while waiting for my Dell to be responsive and I kept eyeing this one particular book: Wuthering Heights.

It's a book that I got from my Aunt years and years ago and it belonged to one of my cousins so it's fairly old. It's been sitting there on the shelf in its wonderfully nice cover for so many years. I attempted reading it awhile ago but it never did quite work out. I can't recall how much of it i managed to conquer but I'm pretty sure it wasn't much at all. I was probably about 11 or 12 and I really just couldn't handle the language! I believe I gave it another go around 14 but still it was too much...and so after the second attempt, it was placed on the shelf and has been settled there ever since.

So I picked up this age-old book to find the cover looking as nice as ever whilst the pages brown away on the inside. Yup. So old they've gone past yellow and started turning brown. Looks a little like parchment. I flipped the pages. I read two chapters. I needed a dictionary.
I don't know if you can really tell but it's not white as it should be...and the edges are the prettiest of browns

Haha it's quite sad really. I can take on the language now but the vocabulary is still as foreign to me as ever. In all of 2 chapters, I looked up about 5 words but no matter. I still found it enjoyable. Exams are coming up though, so I'll pick up from where I left off during the vacation...after I return from my trip.

There are many books for me to read over the vacation! And so little time to do it in. I guess we'll see how much I can accomplish in the new year. =]

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Just another month to go...

Christmas is slowly inching its way across and I can't wait for it to arrive! I've never been the most festive of persons when the Season comes around but it certainly sends a fun vibe around the island. I haven't heard any Christmas songs come over the radio quite yet but that time's almost here! Independence day just needs to pass by first. =]

Marshmallow peeps!

I saw these little fellows in the Supermarket the other day and I couldn't resist...I had to buy a pack! I haven't had those little marshmallow peeps in such a long time...maybe a few years ago...and it was for Easter. Yum yum yum!

I've got my examination timetable and it looks like the semester ends on the 18th for me! Just in time for my departure to New York on the 19th! In exactly 4 weeks, I should be on a flight to JFK international. Oh yea! Which also means that in 4 weeks, I'll be getting my new cellphone! I can't wait to play around with it =D New toys for Christmas? =P

Hong Kong's waiting for me on the 21st and I just can't wait for that time to come. It's been three years and I miss it there so much! If I actually lived in Hong Kong, I'm relatively sure that I'll never be at risk for putting on fat because I'll be so active. I really like travelling around there because public transportation is seemingly more convenient than private...who needs a car there anyway? Just the super rich folks really...because there are more buses and taxis than private cars on the road. =]

Anywho, I'll stop the babbling...exams begin on the 3rd of December...2 weeks time so I gotta get cracking on that work!

Are you looking forward to the holidays too?

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The Logos Experience

Logos Hope - "bringing knowledge, help and hope"

At the moment, the Logos Hope sits in the port in Bridgetown Barbados until Monday night. Everyone knows it as the "book boat". It's more or less one of the biggest, if the not the biggest, floating book fairs in the world!

A lot of people just visit the ship for the books. Arrive, search, buy, leave. Some others get a chance to talk to and be friendly with crew members. My friends and I befriended one of the staff and we were offered to have a tour of the ship.

Books galore. Seriously.

The Logos Hope, part of Operation Mobilization (OM), is an international Christian organisation aiming to spread knowledge, help and hope to people around the world. All the crew and staff on board are Christians and volunteers looking to help others. With over 47 different nationalities and over 300 people working on board, all crew and staff - from Captain to cook - are Christians and volunteers. Persons work on a contract - from 2 weeks to 2 years - and are exposed to different cultures and identities all over the world.

The Logos Hope has a sister ship, Doulos, which mainly visits the countries on the other side of the world - Asia, Australia, etc -. Currently, it's harboured in Singapore. And it's an apparently very old ship...sailing from the days of Titanic. =o

I'd like to participate in the experience, sometime later in life, for a couple of months. It's inspiring to see how these individuals interact with each other and with the locals of the countries they visit.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Medical Specialties?

There are so many medical specialties out there to study!

Today, our pathology lecturer was talking about a medical specialty aptitude test which determines the particular field of medicine you should enter into according to your personality. So my friend went to look it up and sent me the link for the aptitude test on the University of Virginia's website.
http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/specialties/TestStructure.cfm

My results came out as:
  1. Pediatrics (used to be interested in it until I decided on Holistic medicine)
  2. Dermatology (I never liked this)
  3. Med oncology (sorta interesting...)
  4. Gastroenterology
  5. Ophthalmology (sorta interesting too...I've got bad eyesight anyway)
  6. General internal medicine
  7. Urology (ew. No thank you)
  8. Occupational medicine (not interesting at all)
  9. Radiation oncology
  10. Aerospace medicine (sounds interesting. Might not be but it's got a cool ring to it)
Not bad really. Since I'm interested in natural/holistic medicine, I'll be going into that. It's certainly one thing that I'm passionate and super happy about. =]

Saturday, October 24, 2009

It's A Beach Thing!


I had an amazing time at the beach today! It was a little lime we had going on for the first and second years to interact a bit more than we do at school...a casual setting for us to get along. =] Not a whole lot of people turned up but we all still had a lot of fun. I guess those who decided to stay home and do work missed out! =P

So I was watching the sunset this evening too. It was absolutely gorgeous and the horizon was totally clear of clouds. I always hear about the green flash that occurs just as the sun dips under the horizon but I didn't see it! I'm pretty sure people have told me that they've seen it but I didn't and I was making sure not to blink and everything! Quite the disappointment. =( So either this green flash doesn't exist or I was looking at the sun for too long as it was setting. I'll go with the former. =)

The last time the beach saw me was during August, if I remember correctly. So far it's seen me twice for the year! Amazing, huh? I live on an island with such wonderful beaches and yet I don't visit them often. Maybe once a year...three times if I really bother. It's nice though. I got me a sweet little tan today...hopefully no burns. =]

Hopefully, the next lime that's organised with the first and second years will have a much better turn out...it would most likely be an end-of-semester sort of thing. But I'll most likely not get to go since I leave the island the day after our final exam. *sigh* Aw well.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Living Life

"Looking at the hand of time we've been given here
This is all we've got and we've gotta start picking it
Every second counts on a clock that's ticking"
[The Script - Live Like We're Dying]

Life is such a precious gift granted to us and we don't have a whole lot of time to live it.
"We've only got 86 400 seconds in a day to
Turn it all around or throw it all away"
[The Script - Live Like We're Dying]
A lot of people spend such an incredible amount of time being depressed and "in the blue" and forget that there are others around them who care for them. It's understandable to feel a little down when certain events occur. It's unreasonable to
believe that there's something so wrong with you that you believe your existence is nothing but a hindrance in the life of others.
"He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on the solid ground and steadied me as I walked along"
[Psalm 40:2, NLT]
Death remains a mystery. Does one really get the freedom one looks for in death? Or does one suffer much agony if one takes one's life? I'm in no rush to find out.
"We never know a good thing till it's gone
You never see a crash until it's head on"
[The Script - Live Like We're Dying]
There are so many great things on Earth to live for. Adventures, mysteries, sights and wonders of the earth and universe in the sky above, goals, family, friends...even strangers. It is my goal to become the best person I can be to help others...friends and strangers alike...because the life of another means the world to me. Sometimes just a simple "hello" is all the comfort a person needs.

What happens next? No one can really know. But I look forward to it each step a take, over the good stones and the bad.

So tell me, what are you living for?

Monday, October 19, 2009

A Belated Bloggerversary!

=o

I completely forgot something totally important yesterday! I'm so ashamed of myself =[

Sunday, October 18th was this blog's first birthday! The first anniversary since the first blog entry. Ah such fond memories...Funny enough, this entry makes the first entry after the 100th. If this made the 100th entry instead of the 101st then that would be way cool but this works well too: the first entry after the bloggerversary!

It's a wonderfully happy [belated] bloggerversary to Symplicity Me! We made it through a year! *jumps for joy*

Unfortunately, in all my forgetfulness and, of course, lack of time, I've had no time to make up any pretty gifts/banners to celebrate the occasion. Oh well. It'll have to wait for next year! But this lovely photo will do for now =]

Be happy and excited with me! xD

Thursday, October 15, 2009

A Show Not To Be Forgotten!

I think I've been complaining more than I'd like to lately. And I haven't made an entry in ages! Well...now I've got something nice. Why? Because I saw something awesome.


In honour of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the Guangdong Arts Group is travelling to Dominica, Barbados and Grenada from the Guangdong Province of China.













The performances were just...excellent! There was acrobatics, music, dancing, singing, magic (not the lame kind) and martial arts. Super enjoyable. And it didn't cost much either but that's because the group wasn't really doing it for money. I've been so excited about it that I've been telling everyone who didn't go and I've been showing off pictures and everything!

Balance & strength...and lots of it!

These shows aren't really anything new to me. I've got China's Central Television 9 (CCTV9) on my cable so I always watch this show called Center Stage. Basically shows concerts (boring and not-so-boring), some of the best works of some famous chinese musicians, choreographers etc and the best performances at galas and festivals. Festivals and galas have acrobatics, music, singing and dancing so it was like watching 3 episodes of Center Stage (it runs for 30 mins) but in person! So it was quite exciting. It's always a different feel when your actually there for the experience. =D

Monday, October 5, 2009

Rants & Anger

She speaks as if she knows what she's talking about and the class corrects her. The actual answer to her own question is the opposite to what she was saying. Her response followed: "I guess I didn't sleep well last night." One of a number of excuses she's given in the past. One to add to the list. "It's too early. My brain must be still sleeping." or "It's Friday." are among this list.

And she says it with a laugh. I'm sorry but I'm not laughing with her. I can't laugh off the fact that my education is in the hands of a woman who cannot teach the things that I require for my degree...for my career...for my future.

No teacher has ever pissed me off before. I'm so annoyed at her and I really just want her gone from my life. I don't want to hear her. I don't want to see her. I don't want any reminders of her existence. I want someone who can teach me. I care about my education. If I didn't have to attend 80% of my classes, I'd never show up to hers.

I'm so sick and tired of this.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Make A Switch

Yup.

More people in my class have been coming to the realisation that I'm in ownership of an ever-sacred Mac. Yup. Admiration. My not-so-little 17" Macbook Pro has gotten quite a bit of attention from some people in class and I even got some future PC to Mac converts. =]. Oh yeah.

There's this one guy in class who loves watching Mac ads yet stands to represent PC. So he's PC and I'm Mac. I've got 2 definite converts and one would be if she knew me before she got her Dell. So she's a future prospect as well.

It's a Mac. Come to the bright side.

Communication Barrier

Making my first attempt at breaking the language barrier between Mandarin and English. Although, this does little for the communication barrier that exists between most of my family and myself. After all, my family speaks Cantonese. Thankfully, 2 members speak Mandarin since one of them is from China and the other is married to her. ^_^ So, even though learning Mandarin does little, a little can go a long way. =]

My Mom and I are planning to travel to visit family in Hong Kong and China this Christmas (YAY! I can't wait for the time to come already!) so, as I should've done ages ago, I'm learning Chinese (Mandarin). And Rosetta Stone is my learning companion.

I started coming down to the end of summer and I haven't really gotten particularly far. I just finished lesson 2 and I'm ready to start lesson 3. I haven't really gone through anything in over 2 weeks so most of the information was temporarily forgotten. I completed lesson 2 this evening and most of the stuff came right back to me =D

I'm also learning Japanese and started lesson 4 but I haven't been back at it in a couple of weeks either. Mandarin is taking current priority since China is in a few months. After all, Japanese is merely a hobby language because I love watching anime and it would be nice to not be totally dependent on subtitles.
Rosetta has been fairly fun all the way so far. It's actually quite wonderful. Sometimes I'd like to see worded translations of some terms but I figure out the images after a few examples...guess that's really just one way to learn. Either way, it's been pretty fun and I'm hoping it will continue to be. If your thinking about using Rosetta Stone, go ahead...I know it's costly but I think you can get a good set out of it (once you keep at it).

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Sheer Natural

So my Mom decided a little while ago that she'd give the Sheer Cover Mineral Makeup a try and ordered the little 30 day starter kit which came with everything you see in the photo.

I'm not a makeup person, and I've just about never put makeup on by myself before. I decided that I'd try out Sheer Cover on the night of the first year matriculation ceremony a couple of weeks ago but I had to put it on all by myself since my Mom wouldn't have been home. It was actually quite simple. The kit was a simple little thing: moisturiser, cleanser, duo concealer, mineral foundation, mascara, brushes, and a new handy little piece consisting of lip gloss, highlighter and cream eyeliner. I don't use mascara though so that remained untouched and there's a special brush that works perfectly with the cream eyeliner that didn't come in the kit, so that remained untouched as well. It was all easy to do and was as nice as it looked on the commercials!

I gave it another try recently. This time I wore it for a full day. And I got exposed to the sun which meant that I was exposed to extreme heat resulting in some sweat. Sweat...which did absolutely nothing to the makeup. In fact, no one knew I was wearing anything on my face since it looks so natural as opposed to having foundation caked onto your face. It's as light as people say it is...quite easy to forget I'm wearing makeup of any kind on my face.

I don't like makeup. But Sheer Cover could really change my mind about that. If only we had access to the rest of their makeup line...it looks so awesome.

Priority: Impression?

If I didn't know any better, I'd think that my faculty at UWI is doing anything they can to make the first years more comfortable so that they'll give a good impression. Now, while I'm quite happy that they took some of our complaints and improved on some things for the first years, I'm not at all appreciating how we've been placed at the bottom of the To-Do list for everything that they do.

Where are the books that we second years need? The university bookstore has only ordered 10 of the each of the 3 texts that we've been recommended, whereas the first years have ALL of theirs. Not to mention, only first year books have been placed on the shelves, leaving second year books in the store room at the back. Gee. I feel so utterly special.

After about 3 months of school not being in session, they were able to get the first year timetable to them at a quite timely manner: before the start of the semester. We, on the other hand, got ours the weekend before the new semester and found out on the first day of classes that it still hasn't been finalised. Ridiculous.

All lab manuals have been prepared before the start of the semester...for first and second years. Wonderful! So why did the first years receive their timetable, lab manuals and whatever else in a rather lovely little folder while we were merely handed three little booklets and emailed our yet-to-be-finalised timetable?

I can understand that the faculty wants to make sure the first years are fine but I see no need for being pushed away. While I'm sure we aren't, I feel very much like a last thought. Some of us are just trying to help out the first years in getting settled, opting to be their med brothers and sisters since we are aware of how the faculty and its lecturers operate. Yet we're being shoved away. They no longer want us to be their med siblings, for what reason I cannot understand and want to hand them over to the 4th and 5th years! I've never spoken to my 4th (now 5th) year med sister since the day I met her. She doesn't even remember me...walked right past me on the road once. And we're right next door to the first years, so who better to help them?

So it's the end of the first week of the new semester and I'm against what the faculty is doing already. It's all so very very frustrating.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Playing Tag With Time

Whether you do or don't realise it, at some point in time, everyone starts playing a game of tag with time. Somehow, procrastination becomes a new friend for many and, with it, comes baggage: excuses.

Time is a precious commodity that, once lost, cannot be regained.

The majority of teenagers and young adults choose to remain awake until the wee hours of the morning. Why? A common excuse: "I'm afraid I'll miss out on something important." However, whatever happens at night, is bound to be reported during the day...for those who were asleep. Does this mean that those spouting this excuse think that nothing happens during the day? And what could be worth putting your body's circadian rhythm out of tune? One can't possibly think that it does any good for the body's health, or am I wrong?

I'd say that excuse is pretty lousy, but then, all excuses are. Why wait until the last minute to do important stuff? Procrastinating until the night before a deadline to get around to "studying" for an exam or to rush to start and complete a project/assignment in a single night? Some people say that this works for them, but I'm fairly sure it's not something that can work for everything.

I was once a crammer. It worked incredibly well for me. Studying? That wasn't something I could manage easily. Now, where cramming once got me a B or A, I'll barely get passes. Studying is a habit that I had to learn. If I play around for just a week, I'll only be giving myself a hard time catching up. Trying to reclaim time that was merely wasted. Of course, I don't overwork myself. It does me no good to run my brain till it shuts down.

Limitation is key to good time management. I just think that some people shouldn't push their luck and suffer the consequences of it. Straighten up your priorities, get rid of bad habits and set your mind to it. Don't say "It's not that easy". It's as hard as you want it to be. Limitations are good...but only in your lifestyle.

Don't limit your possibilities. After all, without our dreams, what would we be living for?

Thursday, September 10, 2009

A Fun Day in the Sun

The University Student Guild usually holds a variety of events during the first week of the new academic year: Fresher's Week. Just different activities to acquaint new students to university life, introduce them to the different clubs and societies within the university and, for overseas students, an introduction to Barbados.
Get a feel for some "rock" climbing?

Today was a "Fun Day" hosted by the Guild. Three basic activities were around: mechanic bull, "rock" climbing (it's completely blown up) and a large blown up slide.
Take a ride on the mechanical bull!

Or maybe you'd like to please the child within?

It was a pretty fun afternoon. Chilling out with some friends and watching them go at it (on the bull in particular).

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Publicity

It's a light first couple of weeks for the new semester and my class has graduated from Year 1 guinea pigs to Year 2 guinea pigs. The new first years sure have things easy but I'm glad they'll have less trouble (not that they won't have any at all, because they're bound to run into those) than we did.

We're still the class to experiment with though. And we will be until we move onto our clinical years from 4th year (since that's nothing new in Barbados...only the pre-clinical programme is new). The first year curriculum has changed so much that it almost sounds like something totally different! If things get better, I'm fine with it though. =]

Awhile ago, I had a good friend tell me that I should try to get my poems out there...like...into the public. Initially, I laughed it off but then I started considering it but I never knew how to go about it. He suggested that I enter my poems in NIFCA but I was never confident enough to go about it. The National Independence Festival for Creative Arts (NIFCA) is a sort of competition that showcases the artistic talents of Barbadians of all ages in literary arts to photography to dance. Sometime later he suggested a poetry bar (or something like that) located in town...but I certainly don't have the courage for that either (not to mention, I don't like town). So after those suggestions, as much as I would've liked to get my poems out, I never did.

Just last month, I found out that my friend's sister is working for the Nation (one of our local newspapers) and that she's the editor of a youth magazine that the Nation is starting up. She wanted to know if any of her brother's friends write. I showed her my blog and a couple of my poems and she decided to take them in. I got a call earlier and found out that the magazine came out today and my poem (or poems?) is in it! I'm quite ecstatic xD

I'll be getting my copy of the magazine tomorrow so I'll get to show it off =D Can't wait to see it!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Buh Bye Summer!

Tomorrow starts the new academic year. Now I'm a second year med student...one year down, 4 to go! Today is the final day of my final full summer holiday of my life. From now summers shall be reduced till there's none left. Prior to our 3rd year, we're blessed with a month to vacation wisely! In fact, my Mom and I are hoping to visit France! But we'll see how well that'll work out.

About half of the first year class is made up of Trinidadians! I wonder why so many of them came here...I'll ask them about it sometime, I guess. The class supposedly has 63 people...much more than my little 39.

The start of classes signals 3 things that last until the next vacation, in this case Christmas:
  1. the termination of MSN usage - goodbye chatting!
  2. the beginning of the never ending cycle of study
  3. a goodbye to boredom! I much prefer being busy anyway.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

A Child Unleashed

Mickey's Magic Show was here in Barbados for a few days and, like the children my Mum and I are, we got tickets to go! Watched the 1:30 show today and it was so much fun! Second row, aisle seats were awesome. Mickey's Magic Show was also in Trinidad during my last week there!

The second half of the show was the most entertaining for me...the first part more for the little kiddies with a few of the Disney princesses like Belle, Cinderella and Snow White. The levitation acts were the most enthralling and I really liked the more active of the two magician guys =D

VIP seats!

It's always nice when we get these little international acts coming to this small rock in the sea. My Mum and I were talking about that on our way back home. We were talking about how not-so-expensive tickets were to go see them. VIP tickets were only $75 BDS (about $37.50 US). I don't think it would cost that amount for those kinds of seats on larger continents.

We'd been to a Cirque du Soleil show when we went to New York a year or two ago and it was awesome! But it also certainly cost over $100 (or 200?) US for a ticket! Ah well. It was totally worth it. My Mum was saying she expected VIP tickets to have been at least $100 BDS. The fact that not very many acts come down here is fairly obvious to the average Barbadian.

Our little discussion came to the conclusion that they don't make much of a profit from coming to our island since they would be expected to have lower prices than they would normally charge. I really don't think the typical Barbadian would want to pay $200-400 for tickets. It seems insane but that's what prices are like elsewhere, or at least in our experience it's been that way. So I can't really blame international people for not wanting to put up shows here much. It takes a lot of time and labour and people need to be paid for that, it's understandable. =]

Guess that's another reason, I'd like to move away someday. The lack of entertainment around. Local acts are nice, e.g. bands, but we don't have everything.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Students Galore

Oh boy was today sweltering hot! Honestly. The heat was insane. On my way home my car gave me a temperature reading of 36 degrees Celsius. Mad hot.

I went to the new students' orientation this morning! I was out the house running some errands and so I decided to drop by U.W.I. to get my student ID renewed. I had a friend who's amongst the first years so I figured I'd stick around and keep her and her friends company ^_^ In doing so, I ran into a bunch of old acquaintances and an old friend who I don't get to see often. I'm so glad he'll be at U.W.I. with the rest of the us now! Not that it would matter much, since I rarely see my friends around campus.

Ended up learning a thing or two about some stuff on campus that are new. They've set up drink machines around more places on campus so that'll make some people happy. They're apparently building a pharmacy and bus shelters (they've got students waiting on the U.W.I. bus in the sun. Poor souls). I got to take a look at the Medical Sciences building (still under construction, of cou
rse) and it's come along pretty far. I'm impressed. They've started painting/putting on trowel plastic (I'm not sure which since I couldn't get closer but most likely the latter since it's cheaper and looks better).

Of course, I don't walk around with my digital camera and my cellphone camera no longer works so my friend took a picture with hers =] At this rate, we'll finally be able to move in to our own faculty building by second semester instead of use random classrooms around campus for whatever need we have. Yay!
There are so many first years. I wonder how many are in my faculty. I can't wait to meet them!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Trust, Change & Friendship

Life is an ocean tide
Love is the sweetest honey
Friendship is a double-edged sword
And betrayal runs as deep as the scarlet flowing within us.
By: Me

I've been thinking about a lot of things recently. For some reason, a trip to Trinidad always gives me some sort of revelation of what's happening in my life. I guess that's another reason why I look forward to my trips back there almost every year.

Friendships are precious things, aren't they? But not many of them stay with you for as long as you'd like. People change. There will always be people around to help out and many acquaintances to be made, but how many are true friends? People grow apart as they grow in life. Our experiences make us who we are. Sometimes people grow closer with change. We are who we are. We can't always flow smoothly along the river just because we want to. There are things that we have no control over. So when it's time to let go, then we must learn to do so.

Letting go can be painful. But if there's a person bringing down your good moods and is just being a constant drag on your spirit, then it's necessary. Such a person can only be holding you back being the best you can be and holding you back from spreading your wings, whether they're aware of it or not. Nobody deserves to be unhappy. Chaos and confusion - no thanks. A simple talk can lead to an argument and I much prefer to avoid confrontations such as those. I like it when everyone can get along without one person trying to take charge. Of course, reality is what it is and humans are unpredictable beings.

Change is a part of life. We all need to learn to accept it and move on. It doesn't help to live in the past.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Time Traveler's Wife

I went to watch The Time Traveler's Wife with a my Mum and a friend tonight and I really enjoyed it. I must say though, that the trailer gives away quite a bit so there were things that I knew would happen despite what was going on in the movie. How it happened was the only mystery. The mystery of watching the movie the first time around is always what's most enjoyable!

On a side note, I must say that I always have to make a very conscious effort not to type 2 L's every time I spell out Traveler. I'm just so accustomed to using two L's not one. It's just like how I'm used to using "re" in words like centre and "ou" in words like neighbour.

Back on topic, I quite enjoyed the movie. Nearly shed a few tears over it but managed to hold them back. Crying in public: not happening. lol. I'm curious to read the book. Hopefully I can get around to that before the new semester starts.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Escape No More...

So today is my final day in Trinidad. The end of my two-week getaway...my great escape. It truly was an escape and I've enjoyed every minute of it. As was the usual, I enjoyed my last week here more than the first. I always wonder why that is...could it be because the pressure of the end of my trip is nearing? Nevertheless, I still enjoy myself.

I do wish that I could stick around a little longer. I normally always want to stick around just another week longer but I haven't wanted to stay this much in quite a few years. I can't believe that it's been a decade since I moved away from the island. It only hit me just recently. A decade.

Trinidad is a pretty neat place to be able to keep yourself busy, I think. It helps to have friends. Ah...good friendships...old friendships. I love that I still get along well with old friends...friends that I've known for as far back as I can possibly remember.

In more than one way, this trip has been an incredibly special one for me. A decade.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Let The Floodgates Open!


Monday afternoon was a pretty heavy afternoon in terms of rain, thunder and lightning! The weather in Trinidad is pretty wacky on it's own: super hot and sunny with a sudden change in weather - rain and thunder for a couple of hours - then the return of the sun till it sets. Well, just when I thought it was another one of the wacky days of Trinidadian weather, it was about 3 times heavier than usual.

Electricity went out in some areas. At home it was for about 10 minutes. At work it was a good few hours. The flooding was way worse at the office than at home but either way no one could get anywhere easily.

After a few hours, we looked outside and it was just totally flooded out!

Apparently, there was a tornado somewhere in central Trinidad too!

Both pictures taken outside my Dad's office

It all dried up after a couple of hours, of course. Didn't take incredibly long. At least the heat is good for something. =P

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Cube

I've been seeing the little Nissan Cube everywhere around Trinidad. They're so...square (duh).

Never saw any of these in Barbados though so it was just about the first time I saw one (apart from those colourful tv ads).

They're apparently 7-seaters and quite spacious inside but I don't really like them though, in terms of appearance. Apart from knowing where the front and the back of the vehicle end, without much of a doubt, a vehicle that looks like that is the last thing I'd want to be driving around. But that's just my opinion. =].

Saturday, August 8, 2009

For those who asked.

Here's a very brief, non-detailed description of the first week here. ^_^

Monday
Got coconut water from a roadside stall in St. Augustine. Ate the coconut jelly. Delicious. Ran some errands. Went to Trincity. Ran more errands. Went to Digicel. Got an inexpensive prepaid cellphone. Now I walk around like most other Trinidadians: with two cellphones.

Tuesday
Met a friend of my Dad's. Called up some friends. Sorted out some movie plans.

Wednesday
Rediscovered Pokemon on Cartoon Network. Spent some time at my Dad's office while he worked during the afternoon.

Thursday
Took a drive into Port-of-Spain to run some errands. Was cool. Sat in with my Dad's evening appointments. Was quite interesting. Learnt one very important thing: must review first year work.

Friday
Went to the radio station with my Dad to do a radio show (him, not me). Met up with Danny. Went to Movietowne. Watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince after we browsed Movietowne. It didn’t feel as long as it really was, which is good I think. Didn’t feel like there was much going on in the movie…which is probably why it felt like a normal length movie as opposed to 2 ½ hours.

It's been a pretty quiet trip so far...more or less.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Escape to TnT

Arrived safe and sound to blue skies and bright sun! It's currently overcast with the occasional showers now though! It's actually quite hot here as well, of course. I think it's typically 1 or 2 degrees hotter than Barbados but it feels about the same I guess. As I said in my previous post, I'm staying with my Dad this time around. He's got a pretty nice house, it's neat and comfy. I'm not entirely sure of what I'll be doing over the next two weeks but I'll do what I can to enjoy things here =]

I brought along my camera and the battery charger but I completely forgot to bring the camera cable! So I won't be able to put up any pics on my computer and blog! Boooooo! Ah well. Such is life. Something was bound to be forgotten. I'll try not to make that mistake again next time. =]

Saturday, August 1, 2009

A Two-week Getaway

Tomorrow starts my two-week getaway from the island of Barbados to the neighbouring island of Trinidad. Much larger and many more things to do and places to go than Barbados, I'm just about dying to get out of here!

It's nothing particularly special though. Just my usual 2 week summer trip to Trinidad. I usually try to go every year for 2 weeks ever since I moved from there when I was 9. I haven't kept in touch with many of my friends, unfortunately, but somehow I've always kept in touch with one of them. I always wonder how long it would last...it's been 10 years since I moved and we still get along well despite how we've both changed over the years. I normally stay over at her house as well, but this year I'll be staying with my Dad so it should be an interesting enough trip, I think. =] Plus, he's got internet (my friend doesn't) so I won't get totally bored if I get such a chance.

I'm quite happy to be going away. After awhile, I always get really bored here in Barbados. I'm not very big on the beach scene and I absolutely despise Bridgetown, our biggest mall is so small that one can take your time walking around it and walk every inch of the place in 15 minutes tops. Of course, I'm not really big on nightlife either. Which leaves very few options for fun: lime at a friend's house (or have a lime at mine), go to the drive in for a movie or two, go to the theatre or go mini golfing, among others. I don't know...just gets so boring here. =[. Barbados is an amazing vacation spot or even a good place to retire but it's not somewhere that I would want to spend my life in. While the slow-pace and peacefulness is nice, it's also quite frustrating.

I must say though, I have no intentions of staying and working in Barbados for the rest of my life. Whenever I think about the future, it's not in Barbados. I'm not sure where I'll find myself but here doesn't feel like the place I really want to be. I love my friends though! They keep me happy and satisfied enough here =D

Well, I'll be returning home in Barbados on August 16th! The new year begins on August 31st so I'll have another two weeks to get myself sorted out and back on track for classes again.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Fun Times

Yesterday morning I went to Town to meet up with a couple of my friends. One of them was leaving to go home to St. Vincent for the month before the next semester starts, so we were meeting up before he made his way. My other friend chose Bridgetown as our meeting venue, just to walk around and stuff. As far as I'm concerned, there's little to do there.

I actually don't like town very much. Not to mention, we went on a Saturday so there were a lot of people around. It was hot, as one would expect. But I'll admit, it wasn't as hot as it normally is (not in the morning anyway) so I was thankful for that much at least =D I tend to do my best to avoid going to town, since I can get just about everything I need outside of it (thankfully!)

Town is usually boring, hot, crowded and small...and there's absolutely nothing I like about it. But I decided to go anyway and I actually enjoyed myself! The three of us spent a good set of our time in Italia Coffee House poking fun at each other and sipping down Frescante Espressos!

Across the street from Italia Coffee House

We were looking at this building and thinking that it was weird cuz the railing said "Barbados Mutual Life Assurance Society". Something no one would've noticed unless they were sitting down and staring at it...like us. One corner of the building, also inconspicuously written, was something about the building being around from 1840...I think. Yet the little triangular piece at the top of the building has "1894". The 1800s...what a long time ago. Before Barbados got its Independence. Back in the plantation days, I guess.

We visited "AnimeSpot", a little store selling anime andmanga and was setup for playing anime games. Quite little. And filled with testosterone. But there wasn't much in there. Not much at all. Independence Square was our third stop. It's quite nice now. Didn't used to be so pretty with a fountain and all. We hung around there taking silly pictures and stuff. I was forced into the picture taking silliness...*sigh*...I prefer to be behind the camera than in front of it though! Ah well...sometimes it's hard to get away =]

Part of Independence Square and beyond...

Yesterday was quite possibly the most fun I've had in Town...ever!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Clannad

About 2 months ago, I was watching the first season of an anime called Clannad. I really loved it too. It was cute and totally random and strange (certainly kept me laughing) but I loved watching the characters develop in their own way. There are two seasons to the series: the first, simply entitled Clannad, mainly took place in high school; the second, entitled Clannad After Story, had a little more school but then graduation came...along with living and independence. I decided to start off my official Summer vacation with Clannad After Story and ended up finishing it in the same day.

Clannad After Story was really the most touching of the two, I think. Maybe it's because it shows how different life after high school can be. I was smiling, laughing and crying quite equally throughout the series. Never really expected to cry, but then, I wasn't expecting the plot to be so deep. It looks like an adorable anime that one would watch when one's bored but it turned out to be something more. One thing I really liked about it.

From Clannad After Story

It's not filled with action, like Bleach. It isn't extremely humorous, like Yakitate!! Japan. And it certainly isn't filled with extreme tactics and intelligence, like Code Geass. So I'm pretty sure this anime wouldn't be so appealing to lots of people. After all, it's just about a bunch of people in high school and whatever happens to them afterward but despite that, it's not as simple and boring as it sounds. Many of these characters have problems that made them into who they were and together they pulled through the challenges, supporting each other along the way.

This has definitely become my favourite anime!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Downpour

Our only living tree which has yet to bear any fruit and some ficus plants that aren't growing too well.
A uniformly cloudy sky and some not-so-green grass beyond our fence.


There's apparently a not-so-little system hanging over Barbados and from the satellite pictures I've seen, looks like our lovely weather may persist for a couple more days. Of course, I'm not one to predict the weather, after all, I'm a medical student not a meteorologist but that's just my very vague amateur's guess. =)

While the skies throw water down onto the earth keeps the temperature far from sizzling, I did only just wash the SUV yesterday. If the rain keeps up till tomorrow, it'll get all dirty again =( That's the part I don't like. Not to mention, I just realised that another downside of a lot of rain means that there are more millipedes trying to make a home out of my own home. Not well appreciated by one who's got a phobia of anything with waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many legs o.O *shudders*

Other than that, I love the rain. We don't get it often enough and at least it keeps are soil from going dry and us from having to water them every day so that what few plants we've got living around the house don't die. =) But then again, this flat little island doesn't do well when too much rain falls at any one time. Areas get flooded out pretty badly after a day, or even a few hours, of heavy rain. Too flat. I live on a hill so I don't get that problem much.

Despite it all, I'm in love with the rain anyways. =)

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Over the canefields

We went mini golfing the other day and it was loads of fun! I was actually a little afraid that it would rain since it was overcast but the weather in Barbados is so iffy, it's just not so predictable sometimes. Luckily for us, the rain didn't come till we were done with the course 2 hours later.

We were at about hole 8 when a friend of mine pointed out a good set of green beyond the fence. I didn't realise there was a huge canefield next to the miniature golf course. There was so much...green! It's nice to see so much green sometimes =] It's so hot and there's so much sun that lots of our grass ends up...not so green.

...two tall lone trees standing in the distance...

My last exam is Tuesday morning. It's an essay that I've already written and just have to re-write. Sounds like the easiest exam. Ever. Except that I have a bunch of citations that I'll need to memorise. Should be easy enough. And then...I can finally have myself a real summer!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Ice Cream Bowl!

I'm such a sucker for adorable things! I was in PriceSmart with my Mom earlier today and she saw these cute ice cream bowls that came with little spoons. I was like "Oh Oh Oh!! We have to buy that!" She was like "Are you sure?" Then she took it up anyways. She adores it just as much =D

We don't even have ice cream very often. Just every now and then as a little treat to ourselves. In fact, when we went to Supercentre afterwards, I saw her looking at ice cream lol and we bought a little one x3 So, the little bowls won't be just for show!