The President's in Town!

There have been fighter jets going over campus all day! Apparently, President Obama is going to Trinidad (a nearby island) on Thursday so they are checking out the area. He is attending the Summit of the Americas.

I just had my first Easter away from the McShane house and spent it at the beach instead.

I will update with my Easter weekend festivities soon!

The Perks of Grenada

I had a really great day! (Well except for when I got superglue all over my fingers--it is fine now.) Lectures were hard but we got done early in Histo AND Biochem. That NEVER happens. Then I went to a class at the gym called Circuit Training and it kicked my butt! It was super hard but good. We switch stations every minute and it involves cardio, lifting, and balance. I'm good on cardio but my weekly lift time for arms is just not cutting it! It turns out that 2 of the 3 student instructors are from Minnesota too! They saw my St. Olaf shorts and recognized me as a fellow Minnesotan. We are amazed how many people are here from our state. MN Med School IS hard to get into...


Ok, then after a shower, Ashley and I made really awesome dinner with the fresh tomatoes and romaine lettuce I bought from the fruit and vegetable guy on campus. It's super fresh and cheap! I am spoiled now and will miss it! I bought a head of romaine and about a dozen plum tomatoes for about $3 US.


Anyway, we made spicy grilled chicken for a salad with balsamic dressing. Ashley also made homemade salsa with onions, tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, and a little bit of taco seasoning. Perfect!


I am making recipe book so that we can make this stuff again!

Ok, now I should try to study more. I am already sore from my workout :)

Some pictures!

So I went for a walk in the early morning and I saw a dog sitting in the volleyball court sand. I kept on taking pictures and the dog suddenly ran over to me. It was Lola--what a pleasant surprise! She went with me for most of my little tour of campus and her boyfriend, Brutus, came too :)

Let's see, what's first.... here's the dorm I live in: SD4 (superdorm 4). I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot. It IS a superdorm after all :) Those white slats you see are totally open. There isn't any glass or screen in between them. Also, the front doors are always open. My room is on the first floor, 5th from the right. And by first floor, I mean there is a Ground Floor and then you go up one flight of stairs to get to the First Floor. It is a British system and entirely confusing for all of the Americans!

From that spot, turn to the left and you see the football (soccer) field. Which is usually full of soccer games and American flag football. It gets quite rowdy. That building in the distance is Taylor Hall, a study building open 24 hours/day. The upstairs area is where the Histo Lab sessions are. It's a bit freezing in there and feels like Minnesota weather :(

So if I keep turning around, you can see my little sanctuary. I like to sit on a stone bench (there aren't ANY couches on campus) and study.

If we go straight through, we hit the ocean! It doens't even seem real!

Ok, I will post more pictures soon so stay tuned!

Update on my friend

I told you all about my friend, Mary, and her brain tumor awhile back. We were best friends in high school and have kept in touch throughout the years. She made it through surgery and then found out she has cancer. She is now starting chemotherapy/radiation. She is very positive and courageous and I would like to share her story with you. Be warned that you might get a bit emotional at times but it is a good message! I love her view on life!

http://marys-brain-cancer.blogspot.com/2009/03/introduction-to-my-brain-tumors.html

I'm Alive!!!

I hope you didn't give up on my lovely blog! I was bogged down with Midterms, etc. I passed! I got B's in all of my classes so I am happy with that :) I did come down with a horrible respiratory illness the week of exams so I want to be a bit healthier for Finals!


Did I tell you that I moved to a new dorm? No, I haven't. I think I moved right after the Unified Quiz and then that picture with Lola was in my new dorm. I was not a big fan of sharing a bedroom.


To get a new room, I signed up for a single with the Housing Department the first week of school. I got off the waiting list the Friday before our big quiz, and I was given a room assignment in a triple suite. A suite consists of three bedrooms with a shared kitchen, kitchen table, bathroom, and a separate shower room. I went over to the suite my new room would be in a few times that weekend but no one was ever home. Meeting the roommates BEFORE moving in is necessary!



My friend Ashley was in the same boat, so I went with her to check out her assigned suite. The girls flat out told her that she could not live there since she was a first termer! No way! She was not living there! We went back to the Housing Department and they gave us a list of rooms to go check out. We ended up literally running around campus to find a room! So many excuses! No one was home, no empty room there anymore, etc. Finally, we found a room for Ashley and a possible second room in the same suite for me! (My old dorm, Superdorm 1 is pictured on the right. My new dorm, Superdorm 4 is picture on the right, in the distance.)


Our other roommate, Natalie, is really cool. We are a good mix and we're planning on living together next term too :)

Lola, L-O-L-A, Lola

So the Vet School here takes care of a few dogs and they roam around campus freely. The most popular breed is the pothound. There's one with a blue collar and his name is Brutus or Bruno. There's one with a green collar and I call her Limey since I'm so creative when naming pets :) But my FAVORITE one is Lola. She cheers me up when I'm not feeling 100% and I run around with her until she spots a cat or something. She's kind of ADD! Dogs and cats can roam anywhere in Grenada and she followed me and Ashley into our dorm :)

I'm Officially Ethical!

I got my first official grade: A!!! in Bioethics & The Professional: Medicine in Society I. Now I only have 3 classes. But they are really hard! We have 16 biochem lectures in the next 2 weeks before mid-terms. It's all packed in so it'll be a lot of memorizing and rewriting pathways. Back to Taylor Hall to study :)

My First Test!

We had our final exam for Bioethics on Monday and a lot of the questions were ambiguous. I think I did fine since I went to all of the lectures/small group discussions and actually studied. I heard that if more than 70% of the class gets a question wrong, the department has to take that question out of the scoring. The professor got 150 emails afterwards so she has a lot of work to do for grades!

We also took a Unified Quiz on Monday. It's kind a pre-assessment for Term 1 med students so we know if we're studying enough or studying the most effective way. We had 25 questions from Biochem, Anatomy, and Histology.

Biochem

Class avg: 65%, me: 76% (B)

Anatomy

Class avg: 70%, me: 84% (B)

Histology

Class avg: 70%, me: 96% (A)

For our school, getting below a C is failing. Therefore, a lot of people failed the Unified. I think I'm on the right track so I'll keep up the good work. I would love to get A's but I also have to keep my sanity! Midterms are in 2.5 weeks!!! Ok, back to the books :)

Go Grenada!

So Grenada has been an independent country for 35 years now. I think people celebrate and take it more seriously than Americans since it was so recent. A lot of people were alive when independence was granted from Britain. I think almost all stores were closed. Except KFC which had a sign with God Bless Grenada on it. You would never see anything like that in the US!

I got a slight sunburn on my shoulders yesterday from the beach. Bummer. A visiting anatomy professor (he co-wrote Before We Are Born--he's famous!) and his wife sat next to us at Grand Anse beach and we had a nice conversation. He commended us on taking a break from the studying! We read magazines and reviewed bioethics terms.

Today has been a huge study day as well. Very productive. The big unified quiz is a week from Monday so I better keep it up! I did take a few breaks to enjoy the weather (84 and sunny) and even had some ice cream in there :)

Update

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blogs lately. Classes have kicked up a notch, labs have started, and I've been worrying about a MN friend's bad news. She has to get surgery for a brain tumor. She is very positive though and will be just fine! It's just hard to deal with things when I'm so far away. I will see her this summer when she's all better.

Last weekend I took a selective in Complementary Medicine. It consisted of alternatives to treating ADHD with pharmaceuticals. Some approaches were: binaural beat sound (a noise that makes you concentrate better), nutrition, psychology/TV/sleep, and basically getting in touch with your feelings. It was quite interesting. I also attended a workshop on Hatha Yoga and Progessive Relaxation. Great tools for stress relief!

I also took a class to be an official CPR instructor for the American Heart Association. It is all video-led so it will not be too stressful. Also, medical students will be pretty easy to teach. Good times!

Tonight I am going to Bel-Air Home to tutor orphans and mentally disabled children. Tomorrow I plan to hit the beach (and bring some flashcards of course). I have a quiz in all my classes a week from Monday so I'd better hit the books hard!

White Coat Ceremony

Even though I'm not officially a doctor yet, I sure look the part now!

What is the White Coat Ceremony? It was started by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to welcome entering medical students. We recited the Hippocratic Oath which outlines our responsibilites to the profession and community. It was first started in 1993 so is relatively new.

Our speaker was a graduate of Harvard Medical School and now teaches palliative care at Northwestern. The ceremony is about humanism and professionalism and he spoke about his experiences as a doctor that eases pain for chronically ill patients. Quite interesting. Then all of our names were called and we had a faculty member put the coat on us on stage. Pretty cool.

Then there was a nice reception outdoors and Ashley and I had a toast. I already have my sleeves rolled up for some hard work ahead of me!

One week down, 16 to go...

This week did not consist of gorgeous pictures of the outdoors. I was mostly indoors in the air-conditioned lecture halls and libraries. Let's see what I did today:

histology!

Luckily, this looks very familiar to me thanks to Dr. Lee. It is keratinized stratified squamous epithelium. Or skin.

Oh and I did a lot of biochem. We're doing regulation of blood volume, sodium levels, acidosis and alkalosis. It's really more physiology than biochem. I think next week is amino acids and more biochem-like.

Bioethics is just a 1-credit course that lasts for 4 weeks. I've taken a few courses on it at the U doing research and such so it is mostly review.

Anatomy is hard! Even though I took anatomy (like 5 years ago) I don't remember going quite this in depth. We start lab next week with the cadavers, small group case studies, and physical examinations of each other. The guys have to take their shirts off since we're doing the back and girls have to wear sports bras! I heard this is true at many med schools.

Tomorrow is the White Coat Ceremony so I am excited for that. I will get some pictures for the blog!

Classes have started

Well, I knew this was going to be hard. My full-time job is to study so that is what I will be doing most of the time. The school keeps repeating DON'T GET BEHIND! I am taking Anatomy/Embryology, Histology, Biochemistry, and Bioethics. So far, most of the histology and anatomy is review thanks to be a dermatology histotechnician and working in anesthesiology (knowing spine anatomy). But after this week, my experience won't help too much...oh well.

I found out my address in case anyone wants to send a letter or carepackage. I would love to hear from you!

Carrie McShane, Box No. 118

St. George's University

P.O. Box 7

University Centre

St. George's

Grenada, West Indies

This morning, I went to the gym. There is all new equipment!!! It was looking pretty sad last week. There was actually supposed to be a whole new student centre (with a gym) on the edge of campus but construction stopped since it would be a 3-story building at the end of the airport runway! I don't know how that plan even started...

Then I went and got my packets for anatomy and biochem and they are huge. And I signed up to be a CPR Instructor since I have taken CPR as a lifeguard for about 10 years now. It will be good experience for me to teach what I know!

I am cooking some pasta so I'd better check on that and head to class.

Aquarium

So after a day of academic orientation (learning skills for studying, time management, and stress reduction) and security orientation (Grenada is surprisingly very safe), we went out on the town. Well, out on the bus. Hundreds (maybe thousands?) of students took the bus out to Aquarium, a club/restaurant attached to a ritzy resort in Grenada.

http://www.aquarium-grenada.com/

<-- Silly pic of me with the official Aquarium Mermaid

It was dark out so the view wasn't perfect but we could still see the capital lights in the distance. Enjoying a beer by the sea can't be beat.

Here's Ashley, me, and Meg -->

It was a nice way to start the semester. It was fun and didn't get crazy. This morning I went to the beach and checked out the Orphanage Student Organization. Students go to Grand Anse Beach and play with local orphan children and make a meal for them. I guess there are fundraisers and stuff during the year too. Tomorrow there is a bazaar to sign up for clubs. I'm excited for that!

Today, I was supposed to go to Grand Etang National Forest and Annandale Falls (which I have pictures of from my Aunt Marie and Uncle Bill!) but it was pouring all afternoon. I will have to go some weekend or wait until next semester and go with the newbies. There is a BBQ tonight and then I think I'm going to chill out. It seems like the calm before the storm!

Photo Gallery

So I have decided to post my pictures on kodakgallery.com. Here is the link:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=16tgxb6h.a9jwpqtt&x=0&y=y2ci12&localeid=en_US&cm_mmc=site_email-_-site_share-_-core-_-view_photos_button

Hopefully that works!

I don't have orientation until 1PM today so I'm just dinking around in my room. I have been emailing/Facebooking my roommate and she came in late last night while I was sleeping. This morning, I was surprised to see that it was a completely different girl! Katie is a sweet girl though and I think we will be fine :) She is from Peru originally and then lived in NY for 5 years and Florida for the last year.

I should go for a walk and buy a new waterbottle today since I already lost mine. Bummer!

I have a full afternoon/night of orientation: academic, computer system ANGEL, and dorm. There is also a Welcome Back party at Aquarium and I am getting ready with a few of the girls beforehand. I'll keep you updated!

First Week in Grenada

So visiting 4 airports in one day is not recommended. I started at 5AM CST and got to my dorm at 11:30PM AST. I basically stayed up long enough to unpack and realize my internet didn't work. The next few days have gone MUCH better though!

I was adventurous and went to Grand Anse for groceries at IGA. I just got one of the school shuttles and got off where everyone else got off. Nothing seems to be labeled in Grenada. IGA looks just like a US supermarket except everything is in EC (Eastern Caribbean currency in Grenada) and looks super expensive. Then you realize it is still super expensive.

I also bought a local cell phone, went on a mini-tour of campus, registered, picked up about 800 lbs of textbooks, and went on a tour of the country capital St. George. St. George had some sweet markets:

I also met with my Footsteps Buddy, Becky. She is in her last semester and is from MN too :) I have the inside now! We even went to the first of many Wednesday night gatherings Stewart's, a bar in the True Blue Resort.

I went to Grand Anse Beach today and walked along the beach. It is one of the top 10 beaches in the world!!! I will definitely go back for a relaxing Saturday or two.