I saw a boa constrictor!!

AHHH!!  Absolute craziness!   So there are two things I want to see during my time in Dominica. A leather-back turtle and a boa constrictor.  Today, I was able to check one of them off the list.

I was walking up to the gym to drop off my recycling, casually minding my own business.  On the walk up to campus, I walked by a small banana farm.  Now there are normally goats and cows hanging out there but today, I saw a boa constrictor!!  It was semi-hiding in the grass but I did see it!  If I had to guess, it was probably 8-feet long.  I didn't stand around for too long because I didn't want the boa to get interested in me.  I kept on walking (I treated it like the I treat the cows....give it a wide berth and just kind of ignore it).  I really wish I had my camera because it was definitely one of the most amazing things I have seen since coming to the island!

This does make me slightly worried about walking that path at night.  It would be pretty terrifying to be trudging along after studying all day and then....BAM...come face-to-face with an 8-foot long snake.  Nope, not my cup of tea.  I think I might take the long way home for a while.  Give the boa time to move on to a new home.  Also I have the boa doesn't decide my apartment complex would make a great new home.  I know it has nice gardens and all but I really don't want to have having to battle a boa constrictor for my hammock.

My worst nightmare!  Having to wrestle a boa in my apartment!  (picture link)

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Hahaha!  So you know what is the best thing about living on a tropical island?  You can come up with a great April Fools story that people believe.  I successfully tricked everyone today!  So hopefully I continued that trend by tricking you as well!

I loved how everyone reacted differently to hearing my story of seeing a giant snake.  My mom was extremely concerned for my safety,  my sister wanted to know if I took a picture, Carter wanted to know if the snake moved fast and my dad wanted to know if I had seen a parrot yet.  At least everyone believed me haha.

Well hopefully this brought a smile to your face and just remember...........APRIL FOOLS from the sunny island of Dominica!

Dominican Easter

I wrote this Friday but never got around to uploading it from my iPad. Happy Belated Easter everyone!!!
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I was walking to campus Friday morning around 8am and was shocked by how deserted the streets where! Classes didn't start until 10 so there weren't many students out and about. The main thing missing was all the "buses" on the street, the weed-wackers cutting the grass and the locals at the shacks starting to prepare our meals. Also, the IGA parking lot was absolutely empty! It was eerily quiet. (I did like the fact no one was burning their garbage though. It meant I could actually breathe when I went outside.)

It turns out that the entire island basically shuts down for the Easter weekend (including Good Friday and the "Easter Monday"). This poses a slight problem because I normally go grocery shopping Saturday morning. I didn't realize the IGA was going to be closed for so long so I am going to have to get creative with my food choices. Right now it is looking like saltines with peanut butter, some grapefruit and an avocado with have to get me through until Monday when the Subway on campus opens up again.

The worst part of not having food was having to skype my family back home. My mom is visiting my sister for Easter, so I got to hear all about their wonderful Easter brunch plans, how good the popcorn was that they were eating, how they were going to get Auntie Anne's pretzels, etc. Such torture!!!!! I think they enjoyed teasing me.

Another semi-sad thing about Dominican Easter is that they don't have any Easter candy. No chocolate bunnies, Reese's eggs or even Peeps. I was debating trying to make a Pinterest version of some of the candy but then I realize I didn't have any ingredients.

I think this lack of commercialization of Easter is why I was shocked by everything closing down. It kind of snuck up on me. I am so used to the constant easter advertising in the States. So between the lack of Easter candy in the grocery store and my isolation due to studying, I was definitely caught off guard that it was Easter time. But I ended up celebrating my drawing a mustached Easter bunny so it ended up being a good day after all.

Never Order Dominican Takeout

I wrote this last week but never got around to actually posting it.  Its my story of Dominican takeout and how I am never ordering it again.

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I have been so busy studying for the past week that I haven't had time to go to the grocery store. When I have gone, they have been pretty much out of all normal food.  No milk, no chicken breasts, no bread, no fresh vegetables, only weird canned tuna, "paw-paw" and "dasheen".  This resulted in today's very interesting food choices.

My day started off with the decision to try this canned "coffee milk" which a lot of the Dominicans use.  The can was written mostly in French with little tiny English writing.  It was on 69 cents (EC) so I decided it was worth a shot.  YUCK! Not good at all!   I put some in my coffee and it made everything taste slimey.  I looked at the can closer and saw that it was constituted skimmed milk with vegetable oil.  I had to wash it down the sink. So I wasted an entire pot of my Hazelnut coffee (my coffee maker only makes 3 cups at a time which fits in my mug).

For lunch I figured I would try the canned tuna fish I bought. It wasn't a brand I recognized but I figured it was canned tuna so it couldn't be that bad.  Just opening it up, I realized it wasn't going to be good.  The tuna was extremely dark and the texture was punky.  I still decided to give it a shot and mixed it up into a tuna salad.  One bite and I was done. Couldn't eat that one either.  

After exhausting the majority of my canned food options, I decided to try Dominican take-out for dinner.  My options were Chinese, Chinese, Chinese and some more Chinese.  There are no legitimate pizza places that I have heard of, definitely no Thai food, no burger/fry places, etc...just Chinese restaurants.  (I can't even dream of getting a salad or something with vegetables.)  I have heard from friends which places to avoid and which places serve eatable food.  I decided to go with the restaurant that I have heard the best reviews about.  I ordered General Tsos chicken because I figured that would be pretty hard to mess up, after all the places in mall food courts can serve a semi-eatable General Tsos.

My food arrived after an hour and half (faster than the two hours I expected).  I opened my chicken up and was confused at first.  It looked like they had sent me a container of maraschino cherries.  That's how pink the sauce was and how round the pieces of chicken were. I ate some of it.  It didn't taste terrible but it definitely was the strangest-tasting General Tsos chicken I have ever tried.  However, I soon realized it was a mistake to have eaten it.  Within two hours, I threw up.  Not so much fun!  Especially when I was trying to study for my exam.  So needless to say, I am never ordering Domincian Chinese takeout again.

Conversations

With the ability to watch lectures at home and the lack of study space on campus, I have been spending the majority of my time studying at home.  I will occasionally leave to go the gym, my small group session and to the grocery store but the majority of time is spent with my books or computer. My classmates are all pretty much the same...studying at home and briefly come out for their errands and meetings. We all joke that we are dating our computers because we spend so much time on them (all our lectures notes, study products, practice questions are electronic). 

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to actually have a conversation with a fellow EMS member.  Sitting up all night and talking reminded me how much I missed EMS back home.  When you are stuck with someone for an extended period of time, especially if it is during the wee hours of the morning, you learn a lot about each other.  This is how the majority of my friendships in college where made--the long and sometimes very random conversations that take place at 3am. These are the friendships that are actually meaningful, the ones that are built on an initial conversation regarding shared interests, rather than a quick friending on Facebook and subsequent likings of statuses and profile pictures.  It was a refreshing break from the constant deluge of my electronic studying!  It also made me miss those Saturday nights back at Cornell spent talking with my fellow EMSers, waiting for the "drunkies" and sharing totally random stories. 

People often wonder why emergency responders are such a close-knit family.  I believe it is because we actually talk with each other.  We know each other and this knowledge builds the trust that is absolutely essential in an emergency situation. I think this is why I love emergency medicine so much, not just the adrenaline and unexpected nature of the field, but the people.  We are a unique subset who when the time comes, will support each unconditionally.  The adrenaline definitely doesn't hurt though!

***Sorry for the lack of humor in the post!  I will try to come up with a funny one after my next exam. Thanks to everyone who is reading my blog. I am almost at 2000 views!!***

Filtering Water

Special thanks to my mom and dad for sending down an amazing water filter.  After the water situation earlier this semester, we all decided that I probably shouldn't be drinking the tap water.  Since I went to school in Ithaca, the land of extreme recycling, I did not want to keep drinking bottled water especially since Domincia doesn't recycle. (I have noticed that a lot of times, they burn their trash and don't even take to a waste facility.) So the solution...filter all my drinking water!!

You can see the difference between the dirty and clean!

It was amazing to see how much clearer the water was after filtering!  I think the hardest part is remembering to filter the water before you run out (I always like to keep a bottle cold in the fridge).  The actual filter is really easy to use.  I fill it up in my kitchen sink and then hang it from my shower head.  Within 10 minutes  I have 4 liters of freshly filtered water!

Parrot Drawing

After my exam I decided to take a drawing break.  Here is the result....

Parrot!!!!

An incredible act of humanity

One night I was watching the trailers move down my street and I heard a lot of yelling. Not only was there a lot of yelling, all the traffic police started running to the driveway across from my apartment.  I had my camera and I was videotaping the trailers so I turned the camera to the driveway.  This what I saw...

A guy had driven his car up a 2x4 onto a cinder block and was attempting to change its oil.  For some reason he left the car running and didn't put the parking brake on, which resulted in the car coming off of the cinder block and pinning him against the wall.  What the video shows is how the movers lifted the car off of the guy.

After realizing what was going on, I dropped my camera, grabbed my first aid kit and went over to see if I could help.  I was expecting some awful scene and wasn't really sure that if I could actually help but I figured it was worth a shot.  It turns out that the guy was extremely lucky, he only injured his knee.  I had a local run to the bar and grab some ice (I think everyone was surprised when I started barking orders...my crew chief training definitely took over).  I waited with the injured man until the ambulance came and took him to the hospital to get checked out.    Everyone was extremely grateful that I helped out.  I even got lots of hugs!

The whole experience was something you only read about or see on youtube.  It was so surprising to see it happen right outside my window and truly heartwarming to see how everyone ran to help.