Semester 3 is over! Yay! However, like the last two breaks, most of it is being spent in Dominica. So, not a lot of things going on for me. Becky is working on a degree in Exercise Science, and it really looks like between my classes and hers, we won't really have a time in the next 18 months that we both have a break at the same time. I guess that's part of being and adult, though. Right?
So far, it's been a mostly interesting break. I took my final and had the afternoon off before I went with a group of friends to Fort Young's waterfront restaurant for a good meal to celebrate. Then on Thursday, Becky and I were employed by the Tomato restaurant to tend bar at their downstairs bar. Friday, we were invited to Sugar's, the new restaurant around Ross, for the Tomato end of semester celebration. Saturday Becky had me help her with her new job, personal training. Then, yesterday, we went sailing with a group of Canadian ex-patriots on a really nice little sailing yacht.
There are a few things that bear mentioning about the sail trip. First is: Becky and I are landlubbers. I will freely admit that. In fact, given some of the boat trips I've been on, I've pretty much decided that one trip a decade in water that's too large to see land over the horizon is enough. So, for three longer-than-two-hour boat trips in 6 months is quite a feat for us. Second is, Sunday was pretty much a day made for sailing. There was a breeze, not a wind. The water was fairly calm, and the bay wasn't terribly busy. Third is, we were sport fishing off the back of the sailboat. And, finally, we saw whales!
The whale part was actually really, REALLY exciting, and had a bit of drama, too. How it was happening is we were just sailing along, minding our own business, when the "crew-member" of the boat, a trained whale-watcher says "Oh, it looks like there are some whales over by that boat". So, we watch for a bit, and see how many there are. There is the occasional spout, and we're pretty content.
But, we have a pretty good breeze. The captain lets the gib, the sail at the front of the boat, out a bit more, and we begin chase. We sail closer to the ship and the whales and are generally having a good time watching and catching up to everything. We come to the conclusion that this is a small pod of about 6 or so sperm whales, possibly mating. Then, the boat we're catching up with starts yelling at us but we can't quite hear them due to the distance we are apart, and the different sounds of a sailboat.
We tool around watching the whales for a while, and then one of the bulls starts to breach the water. I must say, a bull sperm whale breaching the water is a sight to see. It looked like something the size of a 2000 gallon anhydrous ammonia tank shooting up 3/4 of the way out of the water vertically and then splashing over. This happened 5 or 6 times, and there were several tail slaps, and it all was quite amazing.
As this is going on, the crew-member gets the radio hooked up and we come around closer to the vessel which has Halifax, Nova Scotia painted on its side, and no one really knows what flag its under. They yell some things at us, and our crew-member yells some things at them, and we sail off. It all looked mostly like a bunch of macho posturing. In all reality, I think the other boat was frustrated because our boat was sailing faster than they were going with motors. All testosterone, and no sense.
After we had our fun with the whales, we started heading back to port and hit a small doldrum in the wind. We saw some more wind coming, so we trimmed our sails in preparation. Soon, that wind hit, and we were clipping along with a 30 degree port list (left) and we had a barracuda hit the line. We reeled that it and were ready to gaff it when the fish fell off the line which was good enough as we had to come about to continue to tack back to port. When we came about, we were taking a 30 degree starboard list from the wind, and I was so close to the water, I skimmed my hand in it without leaving my seat.
After all was said and done, and the boat was moored in the port, I hopped overboard and swam ashore. Then, Becky and I walked to PBH for cokes and supper, and a quick cab ride home to sleep by 7:30 p.m.
Don't worry, though. I'm no sailor. I still have basically no inclination for that life.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
2 April 2008, Bored, but busy
Many of you are on Becky's list as well as mine. Last update, I tried creeping around the issue that our friend Addie and her son Noah went home to Indiana. Becky simply stated it. Since then, our neighbor Kit, Addie's husband, has also gone to Indiana on a medical withdrawal from the semester. Our good friend Ashley has also dropped out of medical school--I'm pretty sure her withdrawal is permanent. What this means is that the good portion of Becky and my social lives have left the island, leaving a big hole in our non-academic lives.
This has really made me think about a lot of things. Both Kit and Ashley were really great students here. I think both of them had 4.0 gpa's. Medical school is hard--everyone who uses a doctor has a good reason to expect that it is. We want well-qualified, intelligent, broadly educated physicians. However, we rarely think about the cost that it has on the students.
One medical school I've heard of was having an orientation ceremony for its incoming new class. The dean of students told all of the students to introduce themselves to the student to their left, and the student to their right. Then, the dean told them to remember that name well, because statistically one of the people they just introduced themselves to will not be graduating. Why don't people graduate from medical school? What I've found thus far is that it usually isn't failing academically. What seems to be the reason is that life derails us.
That's the part that is hard to get out of my head. We can dream all of the dreams we want, but we still have to deal with realities. Here are some harsh realities I've heard of people dealing with: pregnancy, physical illness, family illness, mental illness, lack of interest in medicine, disillusionment, and administrative hijinks. Add to that uncertainty in grades, the sheer difficulty of medicine, culture shock of living in Dominica, and the odd earthquake or hurricane, and you've got a lot of things to keep your dreams as just that, dreams.
We all work hard to make sure that we can attain our dreams. And, with the subject this is on, you could certainly be led to believe that I am second-guessing mine right now. I'm not. I am trying to wrap my brain around the attrition rate at medical school, though. It's really a hard thing to think about because whenever I do, I come to the conclusions of both the students and the schools having unreasonable visions of the other that then make for "irreconcilable differences" when the two mix for up to four years.
What does this all add up to? Well, essentially, I've spent a lot more time in innerspace the last few weeks than gallavanting over Dominica. There's lots to do, but when you lack people to do things with, oftentimes you just wait for the people to come. Sadly, I don't think they're coming before the end of the semester. So, Becky and I will spend a lot of time entertaining ourselves.
This has really made me think about a lot of things. Both Kit and Ashley were really great students here. I think both of them had 4.0 gpa's. Medical school is hard--everyone who uses a doctor has a good reason to expect that it is. We want well-qualified, intelligent, broadly educated physicians. However, we rarely think about the cost that it has on the students.
One medical school I've heard of was having an orientation ceremony for its incoming new class. The dean of students told all of the students to introduce themselves to the student to their left, and the student to their right. Then, the dean told them to remember that name well, because statistically one of the people they just introduced themselves to will not be graduating. Why don't people graduate from medical school? What I've found thus far is that it usually isn't failing academically. What seems to be the reason is that life derails us.
That's the part that is hard to get out of my head. We can dream all of the dreams we want, but we still have to deal with realities. Here are some harsh realities I've heard of people dealing with: pregnancy, physical illness, family illness, mental illness, lack of interest in medicine, disillusionment, and administrative hijinks. Add to that uncertainty in grades, the sheer difficulty of medicine, culture shock of living in Dominica, and the odd earthquake or hurricane, and you've got a lot of things to keep your dreams as just that, dreams.
We all work hard to make sure that we can attain our dreams. And, with the subject this is on, you could certainly be led to believe that I am second-guessing mine right now. I'm not. I am trying to wrap my brain around the attrition rate at medical school, though. It's really a hard thing to think about because whenever I do, I come to the conclusions of both the students and the schools having unreasonable visions of the other that then make for "irreconcilable differences" when the two mix for up to four years.
What does this all add up to? Well, essentially, I've spent a lot more time in innerspace the last few weeks than gallavanting over Dominica. There's lots to do, but when you lack people to do things with, oftentimes you just wait for the people to come. Sadly, I don't think they're coming before the end of the semester. So, Becky and I will spend a lot of time entertaining ourselves.
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