1 May 2008; one year here

A year ago, this day was a long time off. Today is the anniversary of my first full day in Dominica. Since anniversaries are a good time to reflect back and look ahead, I figured I would not break with tradition.

My past year here has been pretty eventful, even aside from the simple eventfulness of schooling. I've weathered a hurricane, climbed to the world's second-largest boiling lake (which begs the question of the location of the largest), seen whales, and done the uprooting-the-family dance so I could come here.

What do the next few years hold for me? I'll start with the things about Dominica I'll be certain to miss, but I'll leave the exercise of listing the things I won't to you, gentle reader. Going for runs here is something I'll miss, not so much for the location or the places to run, but more for the ability to drink green coconut water as a recovery drink. That stuff is amazing--beats almost everything I've tried as a recovery drink. No cicadas in the summer to keep me awake is something I'll miss--even though the cicadas are something I miss here. They're great for a couple of days, but then it gets old.

But, you know what's a thing that Becky and I haven't got here? Junk mail. Now, my mother-in-law will protest and say that she's got it all in Utica, NE. But, it still stands. When you have no real address in a country, you can bet that you'll get no junk mail. I'll miss not getting junk mail. I will be happy to get a daily newspaper again, but with no real junk mail here, there's very little worry about things like identity theft. I get about three pieces of mail from Ross each semester, the occasional expected package, and probably one other piece of unexpected mail each semester. But, from a credit card, magazine, charity, or school organization? Bupkis. It's nice.

What am I looking forward to? Well, two big things. Becky, Helena (a new good friend), and I are signing up for our first ultra-marathon. We're planning on running a 50k race in Hell, MI called Dances With Dirt. It's billed as an all-trail over-the-woods-and-through-the-river run guaranteed to leave you muddy and half-lost. It seems like our kind of insanity.

I'm also looking forward to moving somewhere with a weather forecast. With no radar here, there's no real weather report. Weather comes through and hits other islands then we sort of track it backward to explain why the weather was terrible three days ago. Sure, we knew about the hurricane, but that's really the only thing. It definitely makes a difference, changing from that kind of lifestyle where you plan on knowing about the weather. The lifestyle here is at both times blissfully unaware, and necessarily over-prepared. But, having a reasonable expectation that a nice day will stay nice all day will be welcome.

I'm also looking forward to going to a wilderness medicine elective. I'm torn between two that sound really exciting. One is put on in Tennessee. This is a US-based wilderness type of medicine experience. It goes through how to do wilderness medicine where you have modern medical treatment available, even if it may be difficult to get to the patient. However, the other one I'm looking at makes the Tennessee program seem like a program for dilettantes. It's a month-long program in Belize, or another similarly remote area. The thing that surprises me, is the international program I'm looking at is based out of Norfolk, NE, and accredited through UNMC in Omaha, NE. I guess that just goes to show you what goes on behind closed doors right next to you.

But, as of writing this, Becky and I are planning to travel to San Juan in three weeks for a few days, and we've also purchased our tickets for our planned return to the US in August. We have already heard of offers to help us move through the grapevine, and we really appreciate them. We're not telling anyone definitively no right now. But, our current plans are to fly to Miami, FL, get our dogs and freight, rent a car one-way to Omaha, and then catch up with family. We're still operating under the assumption that we'll be in Miami for fifth semester (September through December), but I'm applying to the Saginaw, MI program as soon as I find out the process and timeline. We'd both prefer going somewhere and seeing the change from early fall to winter. Unfortunately, there will be no breath-holding, but we're still going to try.

So, after one year here, I'm acclimated to Dominica. At least mostly. But, when you remind me that there are only four short months left for my time here, you will find a 200 watt smile lighting up my face. Island paradises are great, when you have nowhere to be and no time to be there. Island paradises while you have 8 hours of lecture a day, exams, and large expenses leave you with a significantly different feeling. But, I'm wanting to look ahead because, well, I have to. My four semesters here were all planned out by the time I got here. But after this, I have to decide what electives I want to take, where I want to take them, and all kinds of other scheduling and placing. Once I'm done with that, I get to throw myself into the residency application meat-market. Then, hopefully, I get to practice medicine how I'd like. We'll see what that practice looks like in a few years.