Saskia....you are very bright for a woman of your age. In South Africa a woman of your age would have drank herself retarded by now.

Happy 20 + 11 Birfday to Me.

Awesome birthday weekend:

Friday Night

Happy Hour at Stingers for some magic and networking. Dinner at Copper Falls, a ridiculously yummy steakhouse where the owner picked out our steaks and the ribeye was like eating steak-flavored butter. So tender, so melt-in-your-mouth, so mmmmmmmm. Complimented by a fantastic Sticky Toffee Pudding dessert (you'd think I got out of the stupid singing at the table in a nice steakhouse but NO........) and a romantic run through a torrential rainstorm.

Saturday

Slept in till noon (what? shut it.). Intentions to hang out at the Margaritaville waterslide were rebuffed by the nasty rainclouds; instead spent the day being lazy in bed watching Youtube videos documenting the decline of a Pop Icon. Got moving early afternoon for a movie with Kip, chick flick called The Proposal (which was quite funny and showcased once again Betty White's unending humor). After the movie we checked out a very nice restaurant in Camana Bay called Abacus. Excellent atmosphere, saw our first "porn" on the island (a very tasteful photography book of nudes on display at the host area; seems the owner is from Europe, loves nude women, and would make the restaurant topless if he could get away with it) (he would be a gazillionaire if he could pull that of, by the way). After perusing the bookstore trying to find their copy of the naked chicks book bible, we wandered over to the dorms for yummy cake with Medi-Mike and Mr. Beau Beaus.

Sunday

Another lazy sleep-in day (shut it already, alright?). Watched the US get their asses handed to them in a football game they should have won, then yummy dinner at Yoshi (the best sushi on island) with classmates.

Despite the apparent laziness and lack of massive imbibing of libations, this weekend was everything I had hoped for and one of my best on island. Thank you to everyone for their birthday wishes, and thanks to Kip for an awesome 20+11! :)

PS - that quote in the heading is what we decided our South African physio prof would have said if he had been here for my birthday. Instead Kip said it in his best Dr. Roy voice. But it was like good ol' Roy was right there with us.

Pop Quiz: Do you take the Super Awesome but Expensive Canal View or the Super Cheap Ass Dump View (and by dump I mean quite literally)?

That is quite literally the longest title I've ever used and it's awesome and I won't change it (mom) no matter how offensive the word Ass may be perceived.

This is The Super Cheap Ass Dump View.

I really wanted to send this pic by itself to FR (who's blog is ironically titled This Place is a Dump!) and say 'I found our new apartment check out the view!' but I'm pretty sure she would have strangled me in my sleep.

And that wouldn't really be a healthy start to our roommate relationship, now would it?

Got back from The GC today. What a difference! I have mixed feelings about this place, to be honest. On one hand, its very much as if I won't be leaving home - the environment reminds me very much of St. Petersburg Beach in Florida but perhaps at three times the cost. However, the development is so high that the island has significantly lost its "Caribbean Island" feel that you get from some other places. We didn't get to explore the tail of the island (basically anything beyond Seven Mile Beach and its immediate neighbors), which may give space for adventurous exploration.

We arrived on Monday afternoon, and set about driving around to get our bearings of the various recommended neighborhoods for living and their respective location with reference to the school. It was a very weird feeling to get back on the left side of the road, more so because this time was behind a right-hand drive car.

These things are so damn cute.



I cannot count how many times I turned on the wipers when trying for the blinkers or put my right hand down by the door to try and shift...

Dinner that night was at the hotel restaurant, which boasted The Best Burgers on Island and they were right. I have been dreaming about that burger ever since. The bill, however, was quite surprising; it will take some time to get used to this exchange rate! My burger was about $8.95 CI (Cayman Island dollars) and that converts to a little over $11 USD!! The local beer Caybrew was $4.60 CI a bottle, about $5.75 USD.

Sticker shock continued to follow us as we investigated apartments (typically around $1800 CI/mth for a 2 bedroom), groceries, and cars. Cars were interesting because they were unusually reasonable (for islands, anyhow). We met a particularly...slick...salesman who has obviously worked with students in the past and has come up with an interesting scheme plan that provides students with guaranteed fixing of any issues while they have the car as well as guaranteed buyback at a previously agreed upon depreciation value. Sounds great on the outset, but when you do the math there are some potential kinks in the concept.

Tuesday we ran all over town meeting with various landlords and Realtors and tenants. We narrowed our list down to 5 options with prices all over the board as well as different pros/cons. Dinner that night involved dad and I listing out all of our considerations in an apartment and rating the five according to a very common insanely OCD system that pretty much only he and I understand.

Insane.

We know our rating system was unbiased since the one we were both in love with did not make the #1 slot. So we scrapped our list for a more favorable solution of posting a vote on my blog majority rules. After dinner activities included late-night email and picture swapping with FR to make sure the majority actually included her (it so did).

Ours is upstairs on the left (the one where it looks like my dad may hit his head on the balcony).

Our backyard.



Le Sigh.

Wednesday we had a tour with the school scheduled for 9am. Dad and I faithfully showed at 8:59am, and after about 20 minutes of waiting around decided to start knocking some heads to find out where our tour guide was hiding. Seems he mixed up the times and thought 10am! We had a little chat with the Student Services guy and then caught up with Matt (our guide) for a late but thorough tour of the school. This included a 20 minute drive out to another part of the island called Lower Valley where the Teaching Facility/Surgery Clinic is located.

The Teaching Facility or Surgical Center or whatev. There isn't a sign yet, so really I guess you can call it whatever your heart desires.

Anat lecture and lab. Mmmm....

Surgery and other fun stuff storage.



Horse and Bull area.

Large animal holders. Shut up, that is so the right term.



That little goat you see was playing chicken with...well....a chicken. And that little building you see in the distance is the GC Department of Agriculture/Dog Pound.



Two horses, two goats. Maybe some future sheep. Two clinic dogs. One bull owned by the GC government who was out to stud at the time of filming.

I have mixed thoughts about the school physically, mainly because I've come from such large schools in the past so it's hard to imagine an entire vet school working out of basically 6 office sized rooms and a house-sized Teaching Facility. However with nine students in my class, I doubt very much that we'll be stumbling over each other.

Whoa. Wait. Hold Up. What was that?

NINE?

(As in after 8 and before 10?)

I wish you all could have seen my jaw drop when the Student Services guy laid that one on us. I'm sure the noise was akin to playing egg toss with boulders.

I don't even know where to go with this. That's less people than were in the Von Trap family.

Oh how I wish these uniforms were red. Damn you Lack-of-Photoshop! Damn you!

To steal borrow from my classmate Paul: I'm leaving the room if people in class start randomly bursting out in song.

Anywho, after the tour we were scheduled to meet with some current first semester students for lunch so I could grill them a la CIA intelligence gathering ask them a few questions. However, the theme of the day seemed to be forgetting pre-arranged plans and in classic Saskia-Completely-Overextending-Herself-Style I not only messed up the time but also the place. Dad and I ended up sitting in a pretty neat restaurant called Eat for about a half hour before I finally ran back up to the room (hotel was right behind restaurant) and saw that the girls were sitting is Yoshi (as sushi joint) two doors down from Eat and had been there for at least an hour. I ran back down to the sushi joint, made my introductions/apologies, and begged the last ten minutes of their break to hang over at Eat so dad could meet them.

Needless to say, not such a great First Impression.

After lunch we made our way over to the licensing office to get my official Cayman driver's license! Course, I explained to dad that it more than likely would be a waste of our time since I had no phone/address/visa yet. I think he really just wanted to experience the joy that is Island Bureaucracy. And boy did they not let him down. After waiting in line for about 45 minutes we were told that I could pay for the license now but that I would need to supply my real address and phone number before they print a card or I'll have to pay an extra $20 CI for a card reprint at a later date. Huh. What do you think the chances will be that I'll have absolutely no trouble getting my card with just a paper receipt of payment? Hahahaha.

Plus side? At least the licenses in GC are actually plastic cards like the states instead of just a piece of paper.

After exhausting ourselves at the licensing office, we hung out in the hotel room making last minute decision changes before finally settling on the Super Awesome but Expensive Canal View apartment. Dad was able to negotiate a bit on the rent (awesome) and FR is unbelievably excited about our new digs. There is still the possibility of selling plasma or harvesting eggs in our future, but with some creative budgeting (read: eat nothing but white rice and peanut butter) hopefully neither of us will feel like the creepy Geico eyeballs are watching us.

Thursday morning we got up early so we could run some things over to the apartment and stop by the electric company to hook up the electricity so it'll all be move in ready in a few weeks! Then off to the airport where I'm happy to announce you can purchase Tortuga Dark Rum (98 proof) for a whopping $9 USD. And it's actually legal to bring into the states. Which we found out from the helpful customs guy is not always the case; seems some rums are illegal to bring into the states! Huh.

Sweet.

Overall a very informative and interesting trip. I'm looking forward to trying this island/school on for size.

And I'm pretty sure dad and I are the Harlem Globetrotters of moving to a foreign country.

We were pretty sweet in our time. Not sure what that other dude's name is, but he sure could balance a ball.

(So ghetto. In so many ways.)

Random other shots that didn't really fit into my Epic Novel but that I'm quite sure you are eager to see:

Awesome map of the island courtesy of...oh what was that car rental place....oh, yeah: Avis.

Areas circled in black show you where the top five apartments were located in reference to the school (circle at top). Official Apartment is the one labeled Snug (as in Snug Harbour, the most awesome place ever).

There's this new office park/condos/craziness that went up a few years ago and is only just now being finished. It's called Cabana Bay, and it was built by the family that owns the Dart Polystyrene company. As in basically every styrofoam or paper cup/plate/to-go container/etc. in the world has their name stamped on it.

As in ohmygodtheyhavetooooomuchmoneygivemesomeplease.

I took this pic of a measly garage because isn't the coolest looking garage you've ever seen?

About damn time people start putting some asthetic thought into even the most dismal parts of construction.

I have no idea what this building is but it just screams Dr. Suess.

Or LSD.

Ditto on the screaming LSD/Suess. But a really neat design for a fountain. Hard to see here, but the water constantly runs down the sides and is reused. And those colorful bits in amidst the stones are gorgeous hand blown glass bowls that dad confirmed are not cemented down.

(Note: FR and I are planning a little scavenger hunt there during the twilight hours to furnish our outrageously expensive digs.)

You know who you are and why I took this.

Random shot down a random street in town.



GC squirrels. These suckers are huge and fast as lightning.
I did not find out that last fact by testing them with a chase. I swear.
Please don't sic PETA on me.

Another random shot on a random corner.

One more random.

Click on the pic to see allllll the people. It was crazy. And that was just one of THREE ships parked out there today.

Quick tutorial on Right-Hand Drive.



Dad and I having our 10:30AM airport beer on our way out.

(I cannot begin to understand why all of my programs rotated this picture normally but when I upload it into Blogger it comes out upside down.)

(I can only infer it is meant to be.)

(Not such a flattering pic anyhow, maybe this way our fat will sort of shift.)

Totally snapped this by luck. Have no idea what orientation of the island it is though.



My new roommate. I hear she comes with a pretty cool human.

(No, neither of them was on this trip. But she's just so damn cute.)

By the way...did anyone happen to notice the distinct lack of any beach pics in this entire entry? Oh, yeah...that's because we didn't go there! Despite it being just a quick cross of the road away. Only one quick look at night in the dark. Boo.

I stomped grapes today and my friend Jay told me I'm going to get ringworm.

Technically this is my second post in....well...ten minutes. But really, the other one was written last night and this one was too good to wait, so whatev. Suck it up, my 7 faithful readers!

Today my folks and I mosied over to The Italian Festival in Centro Ybor. Initially the plan was to walk around and gorge ourselves on every yummy thing imaginable and then wander over to the activities tent to cheer on the Animal Coalition of Tampa team at the Grape Stompin Competition.

Then I got the call. JoAnne, flustered (as always), because it seems no one from ACT was going to show up. Ever the team player, she called in her Awesome Backup Group made up of me and her husband. I was informed that I had to leave immediately for the event, no moseying or meandering or wandering allowed.

After lighting a firecracker under my parent's respective asses (i believe today was the first time my father actually called me "annoying".) we set off to the festival. Between parking in the garage and walking to the entrance I received no less than 17 phone calls from JoAnne (well, one from her husband Nestor) frantically wanting to know where exactly I was at that very moment. You know, the moment right after the last time I called.

We arrived at the Stompin site with seconds to spare. JoAnne and I heaped all of our accessories onto my mom, gave my dad the camera, and went to work.

There are really no words I can use to describe the actual contest; well, nothing that is even remotely as amusing as the video. So watch it. Cause it's pretty much awesome.

[NOTE: there is music to this video, so if you are sitting in class ignoring your prof you might want to make sure the mute is on. and if you can, turn it way up. cause it's best when you get the 'whole picture'.]

In conclusion, have a wonderful night. And please don't hate me if you're catholic.

(i only find it mildly amusing to imagine the congragation's faces as they sip "the blood of Christ" and it's a goopy mess of yuck.)

OH! And check out what my mom made for dinner:

Squash Soup Stuff?

Or is it Grape Surprise?

Its PRICELESS, whatever it is.

PS....

....what is it about three glasses of red wine that makes you want to put on your headphones and belt out love songs at the top of your lungs?

Read: Cannot wait to move into an apartment. Anywhere. Need a night of cheesy love song belting while drunk on wine.

[Promise to Sugar Bear: wine night will be before classes start. Because after I will be studious, responsible, sober student of veterinary medicine whose only interest is gram negative bacteria and mucopurulent green pus.]

How to make free long distance calls and other ideas that (might) land you in jail eventually.

Today dad and I wandered into the Apple store to check out the MacBooks (don't get excited, we were looking for him). While dad was playing with the laptop, trying to get the hang of the awesome fingering abilities (which I sooooo had to hold back a snort when the cute little Apple Dork mentioned the 'fingering abilities'), I picked up the iPhone because I love it's fingering abilities (*snicker*).

All of a sudden I had an intense impulse to test out the phone. Calling St. Kitts. Twenty-five minutes later I got off the phone with SugarBear and an idea was formed. Who needs calling cards and long-distance phone plans when you can just wander into any Apple Store on a Saturday afternoon and make calls at any of their 20 working phones? Considering how busy they are on weekends, you could potentially make a call at the phone near the front of the store and then meander down to the back corner for another call. I'm pretty sure they won't catch on. Just make sure to mix up the days/times you go, since if there are regular calls at 2pm every Saturday to Japan you can bet their will be cops standing at the door eventually.

And I don't think you can call St Kitts as your one phone call in jail. So going there really isn't worth it.

I love the iPhone.

(since my graphics programs are limited [anyone have photoshop for me?] the funny line under "your credit" should read "What the Hell is Credit? It's FREE.)

(seriously? anyone? free photoshop?)

In other news, my family is insane. While I don't actually have confirmation from a shrink, I'm pretty sure its true.

At dinner tonight my dad described someone as my soulmate and I vehemently denied it because to me Soulmate implies love and marriage and making out. And that was not the case with this person. So my mom begins to agree with me about the Soulmate = Romantic Affiliation part and dad starts seriously defending his definition that Soulmate = Person With Whom You Have Strong Affinity (not to be confused with affinity of chemical substances). Mom tells dad to look it up in Websters, the dogs are panicking because they hear yelling but can't stay away because there's food involved, and I'm just sitting there in disbelief at how a simple comment can become a full-fledged battle royale.

Until we find that Soulmate is not in the dictionary. As if it doesn't exist.

Of course, Wikipedia has a very full and diverse definition here. But then they also have an incredibly colorful definiton of the formerly Canadian turned British pop group b4-4 that states (and I'm For Serious here) "the group performed impromptu rimjobs for the CEO of Sony USA" among other interesting tidbits. So can we really rely on Wiki for important information like the definition of Soulmates?

I'm of the mind that they don't exist at all. But then, I'm still in one of those Glass Half Empty of Vodka phases. So perhaps my opinion shouldn't count either.

This is like the best thing in the entire world. True Story.

Note To Self: lay off on the wine until after writing blog entry for the evening. Or at least save as draft until the morning when head is clearer before publishing.

Day Two: I Smell Like Poo.

Yes. I said I Smell like Poo. Or at least feel like it.

Day Two of The Worst Week of My Life is over. I'm pretty sure I got a B+ or higher on my parasit final. Which should make me ecstatic. I should be over-the-moon and all that jazz. And I would be...if the next two days of my life weren't going to determine My Entire Life's Direction.

That's some Major Pressure.

It's really hit me tonight. I could seriously lose my place here. I could seriously lose all I've worked towards for the last four years. I can't stop thinking about it, can't stop worrying. I realize that this is detrimental to performance in high stress situations, and I will probably fret for the next thirty minutes before channeling that energy into making sure I rock these F-ing exams.

But for now: ohmygodimightfailoutofvetschoolpleasemakeitstopican'ttakeitanymoremylifesucksi'mprettysuretherewillbemassiveamountsofpeoplelosingtheirmindsinthenexttwodaysi'mnottheonlyonewhereisthewinewho
needsaglassjustgivemethebottle.

Phew.

Alright. I am prepared. I have been preparing for this for four years. I have all of the answers. They are all there. I just have to focus, have to BE the exam, have to BE the answers. I can do this. After all, I've been through worse, right? Anyone remember Organic Chemistry? I mean at least Physio is in English.

Immuno isn't, but whatev. That's just memorization. Lots and lots (and lots and lots) of memorization.

Okay. Back to work. To all at home: I will see you in T minus 4 days, pretty much to the hour. Lynn: I'm looking forward to getting absolutely snookered with you Saturday night. Be forewarned: I plan on drinking on the plane.

This totally beats wine from a box.

Classes today were good, except the last one of the day (anatomy lecture). The lecturer was a verrrrrryyyy slllooooooowwww [mature] maaannn whhhoo spoooke verrrrrryy slooooowly and in a very monotone voice.
So we girls forsook our initial plans to migrate to the library this evening in exchange for an impromptu girl's wine night a la St. Kitts.
Since we didn't want to actually go anywhere, but it was too nice an evening to spend drinking in one of our rooms, we decided to smuggle some 'fermented grape juice product' onto the outdoor patio overlooking the ocean that is lovingly called The Wedge (due to it's wedge shape, which is due to it being shoved between two dorm buildings built at odd angles to each other). I say smuggle because it is policy to allow alcoholic beverages to be consumed in one's room only. On a campus of students who are an average of 25 years old. That's sad.
We each brought some snacks and drinking receptacles (ceramic mugs) and had ourselves a lovely relaxing few hours rehashing the unbearable 2 hours in anatomy lecture. The fun stuff, not the learning stuff.

The cheapest Merlot at IGA.....................$18.99EC.

Borrowed bottle opener from beer pong junkies.......$0.00.

Recycled plastic water bottle to smuggle the "juice" in............$0.00

Bag full of goodies for girl's night....................$25EC

Having to pretend you're drinking juice when you're 30 years old........................PRICELESS.

We enjoyed our girl's night of smuggled wine and delectable desserts. It was a nice night out, breezy and warm, with the sound of the ocean just steps from the dorms.
Then I went back to my room, drank some water and spent 4 hours in the study room working on nutrition notes. Ironic, isn't it? Me, in nutrition class. Ha! And yes, despite the 1.5ish glasses of wine I had, I can still tell you verbatim what was in those notes. But don't ask unless you really want to know. I'll give you a hint...it had to do with having more than one stomach, and how you digest your food with them. Yum.
Very tired now, and my left hand is in progress of falling off. Off to bed. Good night kids.