Centipedes, Dipterans, and Spiders OH MY!

So it's been awhile and I"m sure the last thing any of you want to hear about are bugs, but they've been plaguing me this semester! I don't know if it's the rain, the heat or the fact that the universe what's to juxtapose my studies of microscopic bugs (bacteria/viruses/etc) with the really LARGE kind; but I'm a little tired of all these bugs! Since all I ever seem to do anymore is attend classes, study, and sleep the only really interesting adventures I've had of late have involved my encounters with these pests!

So I'll begin my story with the bane of my existence, especially while in class or on campus studying, the FLIES! I'm pretty sure I'm slowly developing fly worry! If you've ever stepped inside the Student Union or sat in one of the classrooms, you've most likely had a fly land on you. Many a lecture I have been sitting taking when all of a sudden the professor starts flailing about because a fly won't mind it's manners. I apologize to those of you who sit next to me because just today I starting convulsing out of control because of the two flies that insisted on landing on/near me. Now I know what your thinking, maybe you should all shower more, just because you work with animals doesn't mean you have to smell like one! Well I'll tell you that no matter how "sweet" you smell the flies will be a nuisance and I'm tired of it.

I know I have posted about centipedes before, but believe me when I tell you that those were all just babies! I'm currently cat sitting for my neighbor and about a week ago I went into her apartment to take care of the cats in the morning. I was running late so I decided to get ready over at her house so I could spend a little extra time with the kitties. Big mistake! I turned on the faucet in her bathroom and  GIANT centipede starts squirming out of the drain. My legs instantly turned to jelly and my heart was racing. I ran into the kitchen, grabbed the broom and started stabbing it with the non-bristle side. After sufficient guts were spilled I took a picture and flushed it down the toilet before the cats (who were patiently waiting for me to leave) ate it. I was wide awake during classes that day! Note the picture I took for size comparison doesn't do this guy justice because he shrank from the water and the dying!

My next adventure begins in my car. I'm driving to school getting ready to take my quiz this morning when through my rear view mirror I see a GIANT spider on my back windshield. I realized it was outside (the only reason my car isn't stuck in a ditch right now and I'm not dead). On my 4 minute drive to school it left my line of sight and I was worried that it was going to come into the driver's side window (since it doesn't roll up all the way). I parked, inspected the car and found it on my back bumper all spread out ready to take over my car! In St. Kitts these are called Banana Spiders because of their yellow coloring, apparently they don't bite but I was still terrified. (Note: picture is representative of the spider I saw, but I was waayyyy to scared to take a picture). I threw a couple of rocks at my car, but I totally missed the spider and it crawled under my car. All day during class I cringed as I thought about getting back into my car to go home and made my friends inspect my car before getting into it. I started to drive off and my friend saw the spider come out from underneath and tried to fling it off using her water bottle. That clearly didn't work because when I went to get gas the attendant told me she saw the spider. I proceeded to drive through every puddle I passed faster than I normally would to try to dislodge this spider from my car. Nothing seemed to work and when I got out my car there he was! I grabbed the hose with the nozzle on it and sprayed the crap out of the back of my car. I didn't see the spider fall but I stopped spraying only to see him crawl out from under my front tire 5 seconds later unharmed. I threw the hose over the fence and sprayed the spider up close this time and he finally fell off my car. Why didn't I just step on him you ask, well because I had flip-flops on and I was too chicken. So I continuously spray him till he's in a tight ball halfway down the street and to my surprise the resilient little bastard is still alive and crawling. I keep spraying him and finally get him near a curb where I smashed him between the curb and a rock! Having spilled his guts I pronounced him dead!

So that's my bug stories...I assure you there are more. For instance only this morning I found a bunch of sugar cane ants (teeny tiny brown ants) in my air-tight sugar container. It's the rainy season but tonight the sky turned an awesome shade of pink and it was really pretty. I tried to get a picture but it just doesn't do it justice. Miss everyone from back home and hope you are enjoying Summer :).

RUSVM Granted Full AVMA Accreditation :)

Today is an exciting day for me and everyone on campus since the AVMA has finally granted Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine full accreditation until their next site visit in 2018! This is extremely exciting news and the morale on campus is high. As I walked onto campus this morning I was met with more smiling faces than I've seen in a long time and the campus is just buzzing with excitement. Outside of my first class one of my classmates was outside the door in tears because she was just that ecstatic! During the lunch hour the entire campus gathered on the lawn outside of the Student Union for a picture to commemorate this great accomplishment. As Dr. Burns, one of deans, shared, "I've never seen an organization hit one so far out of the park as we did in gaining accreditation". For many all this accreditation means is that they don't have to take yet another standardized test to "prove" their intelligence, but to others it means much more. AVMA accreditation opens up many opportunities for Ross grads, but also proves that our school is just as good as any other. As relayed by one of my professors, students on campus now have affirmation that they made a good decision in choosing to come to this school; now they can proudly tell their families that they made the right choice. While here at Ross we meet day to day challenges that we most likely wouldn't in the states, our experience here is a great one. People before us worked hard for this to happen and we will continue that work into the future. Ross has created a fantastic reputation and it is well known in the veterinary community that Ross graduates make awesome veterinarians. Now with accreditation we are on exact same playing field as our fellow colleagues at state schools and it feels good!

Mid-Semester Break, Kennel Clean-Out, & Life Goes On.

Last week marked the middle of the semester and while this semester has flown by it also seems to have dragged on for eternity. I can honestly say that it was wonderful having a day off last week, but I probably need another month off to fully recover and recharge this semester. Everyone I know seems to be at their breaking point, and hey the glass is still half full (ugh!). Haha, leave it to me to turn an optimistic statement into a pessimistic one!

Since I haven't written in a while I'll start with last weekend, since you know, I actually had a little bit of fun. Friday's Burrito Night was a huge success and I'm pretty sure we all had fun with that. I pretty much did nothing, but sleep all day Saturday, but Saturday night we went on a Cat Trip (that stands for catamaran, sorry no kitties were involved). The trip was lots of fun although there were times that I was extremely happy that I knew the captain because the water was ROUGH! The rest of the weekend was sort of a blur because I slept pretty much the entire time… can you tell vet school is draining?

Aside from that this week was pretty uneventful. I made pizza dough on Friday and that was a messy adventure here in the humidity that is St. Kitts. Yesterday, (Saturday) was a very productive day (if you discount studying since none of that got done), but in the morning I went to the PAWS Adoption Day and spoke with the founders of a new Non-For-Profit called CARE-Nevis. I'm trying to do some foster work with them since they are trying to set up a rescue organization over on Nevis, the sister island of St. Kitts. After adoption day I headed over to the Campus Kennels for the AOCC sponsored Kennel Clean-Out. We had an amazing turn out and everyone really pitched in to both bath the colony dogs and wash all of the kennels. While gross, it was a very rewarding experience and you could just tell that the dogs really appreciated it!

As for this upcoming week, I have a bunch to do and including a parasitology exam. I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but to those of you who I don't see/ get to talk to I really do miss you and I can't wait until I'm back in the States for a little while in April!

Don't Be A Helper T-cell...

Sooo I believe I told you all that I have an immunology test coming up and today was the culmination of lecture material for the exam. My professor, who people (who shall remain nameless) say sounds like Rafiki (sp?) from The Lion King gave us some sage advice just in time for Valentine's Day next week. He proclaimed "don't behave like a helper T-cell", don't "bind" to someone and forget about them... make sure you send the card and the roses. Now I know he was trying to make a joke because let's face it activation of T cells and immunology in general can be rather boring, but does a silly insincere holiday need to consume us so much that we find reference for it in cells that help destroy the nasty microbes that invade our bodies? Living on this small island really does create a disconnect from the real world and all of the consumerism that revolves around holidays. Think about it, if you didn't watch TV, went to stores that weren't plastered with pink and red decorations and didn't sell those candy hearts with those silly sayings I bet most of you wouldn't even remember that Valentine's Day is next week. I didn't, haha I barely know it's February! I figured I would just voice my opinion and say that Valentine's Day is just another day and if you are going to "behave like helper T cells" every other day of your life then why should Valentine's Day be any different. Is it okay to express feelings on a holiday devoted to candy, flowers, and cards just because everyone else is also doing it or because these are easy superficial ways to say, "hey, I care about you"? You might think I'm being cynical and I usually don't use these posts to rant about "society", but my brain is so fried from all the formalin fumes I've breathed in in the last few days in the anatomy lab. Just thinking about things other than T cell selection and vessels of the thoracic limb and thought I would share!

And Life is Flying By

So I know I sort of promised I would stay in touch and write to you all once in a while, but like the title of this post blatantly implies this semester is just flying by. I've been extremely busy trying to balance this hectic work intense semester with getting out there and living life a little. As I write this post I am now in week 5 of my semester and that means that it is nearly 1/3 of the way over! Oh and it's already February…it seems hard to believe. This is all well and good, but you see I haven't noticed the time passing because I spend roughly 8 hours a day on campus in classes, endless hours studying the afternoon and night away and of course I have to sleep! I'm trying this new thing with trying to get out and do something at least one day a week (usually Friday afternoon/evening) so I feel like I'm not literally studying my life away which was basically my experience last semester. We've been doing fun things like going to the movies (yes I know some of you wouldn't believe that there is a legit movie theater on St. Kitts and that I've been to it TWICE in the last few weeks), dinner, or the beach. This past weekend (yes I know it's Wednesday and most of you won't see this until tomorrow anyway, but the day of the week means nothing to me anymore as some of you will attest to by reading my away messages on AIM)…back to the subject at hand, this past weekend was a lot of fun because we didn't have any exams this week even though we have two to prepare for next week. I went to the beach every day this weekend which was awesome for my tan and gave my mind the relaxation needed to jump start into this week (which actually seems to be dragging). Yesterday I was on campus for over 12 hours between classes and studying and my brain is tired already! Anyway, Saturday was really fun because I took Tucker to Shipwreck Beach and we had a lot of fun! Tucker made a new puppy friend and he finally swam in the water and wasn't afraid!!! Although this weekend was fun and this week has been pretty hellish, next week is for sure going to be worse so please don't expect to hear from me for awhile. Starting on Sunday afternoon my group will me walking the kennel dogs and we have exams on Monday and Wednesday along with a quiz on Thursday…translation Hell on Earth. This blog might not make much sense, but it gives you all a good idea of both what I've been up too and how "well" my brain in functioning right now. Miss you all!

A New Year, A New Semester, A New Beginning

 

Well I know you haven't heard from me in a while, but most of you know by now that I successfully completed my first semester of vet school and am about to embark on a new semester. I just arrived back to the island on Friday after a three week break in the cold and snow which was actually very welcome. While this is a new beginning, the beginning of a new semester it feels like everything is exactly the same as before I left. I start classes tomorrow and I'm a little nervous about the intensity of this semester, but we'll see. It was a good weekend back hanging out with my pup and getting to see everyone. We went out to dinner last night and took the dogs to the beach today which was a lot of fun. Tucker was afraid of the water, but it was his first time so maybe he'll start to like it more. Not sure how much you'll hear from me this semester, but I'll try to keep you all posted!

Everybody Hurts...

So you all know that Ru's head was broken a few weeks ago and now she's finally back to normal. I figured I would update you all about with some pictures that she sent me.

Speaking of injuries everybody in our class is getting hurt lately. So first it was vines trying to kill Ru, then Belinda tripped up the stairs at school and tore her knee open to the point where you could see her patellar ligament which was so cool and everything, then Alex got sick and has had a fever for weeks, etc, etc. So of course I had to be the next one to injure myself, it was only a matter of time. I guess the universe decided it had to be now rather than later. So Thursday, yes it was Thanksgiving Day, but considering I'm no longer in the United States that doesn't mean anything and we still had classes. I was minding my own business walking between the two gravel parking lots at school when I tripped and fell on the gravel. Well everything was fine until I was hit with an intense pain in my right knee and I looked down and saw a rock lodged in my knee and blood gushing everywhere. Did I mention I was in the middle of the road? Well I was. Without really thinking I grabbed the rock out of my knee and threw it down as even more blood gushed out of the wound. Thank God Nicole was with me as I had no motivation to move ever again. Like I said I was in the middle of the road...I kind of felt like a poor helpless animal about to become road kill, hit once and ready to take on death. Haha, I told Nicole that I couldn't get up, but she convinced me to make it to the car so at least I could sit down while she got the nurse. My neighbor Tracey was close by so she stayed with me and made sure I didn't pass out from the pain while Nicole ran to get the nurse. Unfortunately the nurse said I would need stitches even though I begged her not to make me get them and even asked if one of the vets at the teaching hospital could do it. Of course she responded with a no, but she called a local doctor instead of making me go to the hospital. So I received my first stitches in St. Kitt's. This whole vet school thing really is full of new experiences, although most of them have nothing to do with school. The past couple of days I haven't been able to move and it is the most frustrating thing I've ever experienced. Even more frustrating than packing to get to this island, which those of you who remember what I went through should realize just how frustrating it's been for me. I don't have any pictures of my injury for you b/c it's really not that cool looking and I refuse to have my picture taken when I look so bad, lol. Let's just say I can't wait for this semester to be over. Oh and did I mention that last night I got a call from another classmate, my friend Liz saying, "Hey do you still have those crutches and do you really need them? I blew out my knee and I can't really move!". Just another injury...my class seems cursed!