Oftentimes, I find myself slipping back into being one of the grammar police. Things like descriptive, comparative, and superlative adjectives, their usage, and appropriateness at times spring to mind.
This semester, my third, has been busy. Busier than second, and first. Making it the busiest. Descriptive, comparative, superlative. Why has this been busy? Well, third semester has many new things that first and second didn't. First, and most happily, I am breaking out of laying the dirty, non-medical groundwork. I get to deal with pathology, microbiology, real patients--well, one real patient--and many others. Secondly, I've had my parents, aunt LaVerne, uncle Mike, my mother-in-law Eileen, sister-in-law Sherry, and two nephews, Evan and Eric visit.
The visits were great. We did things that Becky and I had been saving for when family visits--different beaches, scuba diving, cliff jumping. Things that help take my mind off of the gnawing feeling that if something really life-changing were to happen and I had to leave, I'd have a hard time finding an appropriate job. I don't think I could go back and be a chemist happily again. Being a computer guy isn't interesting. I feel like a half-sculpted statue. I'm not what I was, but I'm not what I want to be yet.
The weather is changing here. We're coming out of the wet season and into the dry season. Becky and I can tell it. It's a lot hotter. The humidity is now what I would call "fulminant". That's a word I wouldn't have used before my pathology class. Other things are changing, too. It appears that Dominica has now developed Giardia, or beaver-fever, on the island--that's not a change anyone could have predicted easily. Our clothes dryer has been broken for nearly three weeks. The chicken across the street has stopped laying me the occasional egg. The only thing that's constant is change. But, we all knew that, didn't we?
Becky has been slightly more upbeat since we crossed the six-months-to-go mark. It's something that hasn't been lost on me, either. Dominica is a beautiful country with plenty of reasons to visit, or even live here. But, Becky and I aren't the type of people who would emigrate here permanently. We like snow too much. Talking to most of the other students here, they take the common tack that I remember when we were back in the States. No one seems to like winter anymore and I don't understand it. The changing of the seasons is something that I've always liked. Snow affords certain privileges of silence, light, and renewed care around familiar things and places. Frost clears the air in ways that Dominica likely hasn't seen since it had erupting volcanoes. Nebraska and Dominica remind you not to be complacent in different ways, and I like Nebraska's reminders better.
Monday is my second set of examinations for semester 3. I don't feel quite as prepared for this set as I was for the last set--but I'm not too worried. Nothing will happen that will be anything to keep me back. After that, it's going to be the final sprint of the semester. I'll have two oral exams, one paper, a couple of lab exams, and then a whole set of different finals and step exams. Becky and I are vaguely hoping for a bit of time in Puerto Rico after the semester is over, but that's very hypothetical at this point. We'd have to find someone to watch the dogs--so if anyone needs a first or second Dominica experience, let us know.
Cheers!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment