Another day, another blog post

I really don't have anything too exciting to post today, but I didn't want to go without posting either. One thing exciting that I did find out today is that the physio teacher's book (Cardiovascular Physiology) is available to be downloaded. Don't ask me how it got to be online, but it is. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be distributed this way, but fortunately we're in a country that's pretty corrupt and has little in the way of laws. Also, I think it kinda sucks of AUC to not tell us about this book before the new professor got here, only make 8 or 9 copies available, and then put them all on reserve so you can't check them out. So, if you have a mac, I've made it very easy for you to get a copy. Simply click on the "Go" menu in finder menu, click "iDisk," and then "other user's public folder." Type in my .Mac name (slevit1) and you'll see it there. Download the file and the Chmox program, which you'll need to read the file, and enjoy. She actually follows the book pretty much word for word, which is good news for those who don't want to go to class. Personally, I've recently decided just to go to class and use that time to study, instead of wasting it by going home and doing exactly nothing.

Also, they had a Buzz session today, which I attended (a meeting with 10 students and the dean). Just like the last one, this one was not terribly useful. Basically, the response we got to almost every question was, "I know, I agree, I can't do anything about it," referring to the fact that AUC is a family business and they don't always like to cough up the necessary money. With all the money we pay to go here, you'd think maybe they'd invest a little more of it. But, not for now...not with the shiny new DO school being built in Colorado! If nothing else, it's a tiny bit helpful to know that even though they can't do anything about it, the administration at least recognizes the problem and would like to help, if given the resources.

Oh...one of my currently 2 incoming students that I'm orientation advisor for finally got back to me today. I'm hoping the other guy contacts me sometime soon. If I am your OA, or if you've got another one assigned to you, don't be afraid to use us. I have heard some stories of deadbeat OA's in the past, but most of us really want to help. We're all too familiar with the fact that it's very difficult to get any kind of answer from AUC on anything, so it's nice to have someone in school to talk to if you have questions or concerns.

Just one more

This one was too funny not to post (from xkcd.com)

How I feel about classes right now:

MCB: Super ultra mega boring. Both because we've already had at least half of what we're doing and because it's just not interesting right now. It also doesn't help that it's the first class in the morning and the longest class

Immuno: Mostly boring, but at least we have Dr. Shupe teaching now. She's probably out best immunology professor. I still wish we had the guy from South Carolina, but she's good

Physio: New professor just started and I don't know that I'm gonna like her. I think she might be a little too smart for our own good. She is teaching cardiac physiology, and she wrote a book called Cardiac Physiology! She definitely knows what she's talking about, but she's dry and already said that her questions are going to be difficult. Seeing as it's a pretty good bet that we'll never have to calculate the equilibrium potential across a cell membrane, I'm not really sure why teachers insist on testing us on it! Hopefully though, her questions will only have one right answer and we won't have to guess which of the correct answers she wants us to put on the scantron! Good news though - after a couple bad questions were given back on the physio block exam, I now honored that exam!! :)

Useless Pictures

These really mean nothing, but I enjoy them anyway.



Edit: St. brings up a good point....all of these are from xkcd.com. It's a great website filled with tons of these that I recommend you check out. These were my favorites after a couple of minutes of browsing. If I could come up with these myself, I may not be in medical school ;)

Hello again

For a while there, I think I was doing pretty good...posting at least every day, sometimes multiple times a day. So, sorry for the brief intermission. This past weekend was pretty busy though, between the Phi Chi pledge scavenger hunt and studying for the immuno quiz that we had earlier today.

First, Friday night was the 3rd semester date auction. It was a fund raiser for the 3rd semester (as the name implies), but dates from every semester were up for auction by anyone at AUC. I thought that dates were gonna go for like $50 max, considering the typical med student budget. But, the average was probably around $200, and one guy (Vik) even went for $1050!! I'm glad people have over a thousand dollars to waste on a dinner date which is not romantic or a guarantee of anything after, in any way. I heard that the class actually had a little pool going for that one, so maybe it wasn't so bad after all. Since I didn't have my flash charged up, I didn't take my camera, secretly hoping that I wouldn't become the official photographer. However, as soon as i showed up, Song came up to me, gave me her camera, and said, "here, you're good at this, take pictures." So, I did, but she's got all the pictures and I have no idea when she'll get around to putting them up.

Saturday morning was the Phi Chi pledge scavenger hunt - one of 3 events that the pledges are required to participate in before they can be initiated. I won't go into event details since it's sort of a secret (and events are often repeated from semester to semester), but I think it was a good time for everyone. We had the pledges do some pretty amusing things to watch (don't worry, nothing that anyone would be upset about doing) and had a good end to the day on Happy Bay beach. If you're not familiar with the island, Happy Bay is a very nice and mostly private beach on the French Side. The reason it is so private though is that they only way to get there is a pretty decent hike. You can't get close to the beach by car. So, Matt and I took his little inflatable boat over to the beach, toting along and extremely oversized and very heavy cooler. It was quite a painful adventure, getting the cooler to the boat. The things I go through for the pledges.... :) In the end, I wound up with a sexy farmer's tan [burn].

I was not happy at all going into this immuno quiz. I think that the powerpoints we get are pretty terrible from this particular teacher and most people agree that explanations are a little lacking. Also, I am not a fan of little cutesy ways to remember things; B-cells and T-cells don't tango, and I wouldn't want to make a sandwich out of serum or antibody. And, as I expected, we were not so much tested on the concept of these little memorization techniques, but the actual memorization technique (which I think is a pretty terrible way to test). As it turned out though, I did well on the quiz, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. The information isn't presented well (in my opinion), but the quizzes are pretty easy, so it all works out in the end. Now, just wasting a couple hours between class and ICM.

Hillary v. Obama

Why I hope you will vote for Obama

I have already mentioned, in a previous blog post, one of the numerous reasons that I will not be voting for McCain. Largely, I will not support a candidate who thinks that his religious ideals have any place in his political decisions. Because of his religious beliefs, none of which are logical or could withstand a single inquiry for proof, he is against stem cell research, against abortion, and against gay marriage. As I'm in medical school, I strongly disagree with his views on abortion. I hate to be so blunt, but if you seriously believe that a soul enters the body (if you can call it a body) as soon as conception occurs and that somehow, this life is just as valuable as the life of someone who is currently living, breathing, dreaming, and quite possibly, suffering, well...you should have your head examined. Seriously, do it now, because there are people dying every day because of of others who share your similarly absurd beliefs. Anyway, enough about McCain.

So why shouldn't you vote for Hillary? Well aside from the fact that she is ultra liberal, believes that healthcare is an entitlement (one which small businesses should be forced to pay for), and the fact that as first lady, she was the leader of one of the largest political failures in recent times, Obama is just a better leader than she is. While she likes to talk big talk about how experienced she is, and how she is action while Obama is just words, her record can't back her up.

I just read a very interesting article by a lady who actually took the time to research what Obama and Clinton had done during their time as senator. It is a very unbiased article and I recommend you read it. Basically, it shows that while Clinton has introduced plenty of nice sounding bills (almost all related to women and children), a large portion of them never got a co-sponser, few passed, and they were limited in scope. Obama's bills, on the other hand, addressed much larger issues, had more co-sponsors, and were more likely to pass. As I would hope that our next president would be a strong leader and address all of the important issues facing our country, it seems obvious to me that Obama is the best choice for president. The article can be found here

Also, doesn't Hillary just seem a little desperate lately? She had to give her own campaign $5 million, while Obama breaks fundraising records, she hasn't congratulated him on a single one of his sweeping wins, and is singing her own praises on things that he's actually better with! If Clinton really cared about her party winning this presidential race, she would withdraw now and help to unite her whole party behind one strong candidate. Perhaps she hasn't read nearly every poll, which predicts that Obama may beat McCain, but she will not. I am a registered republican, but I will be voting Democrat in this election (once Obama secures the party nomination). Please join me in doing the same.

Date Auction

There is a date auction this coming Friday. I've never heard of or seen a date auction, outside of the movie Road Trip (of which I am a big fan). Not sure that I'll be attending since I don't need a date, but I might, just because it might be neat to see how one goes.

Anyway, we just got the flyer for it today. Out of all of the pictures that the people being auctioned off could have picked, two of them picked pictures which I took! They're the only two in the auction that I've taken pictures of, or else maybe there would have been more. They are good pictures, if I do say so myself. But, it's good to see that other people like them too.

Now, it's time to do some serious studying for the physio quiz tomorrow!

Lunar Eclipse [pictures]

Tonight, North and South America experienced the last total eclipse until 2010! Fortunately, here in St. Maarten, we had pretty perfect weather. It looked as though the clouds were going to obscure the view, but they blew away just in time. As soon as the eclipse was full though (but not until after I had gotten a bunch of pictures), they blew back in. I took about 100 pictures, but narrowed it down to the 11 best. They can all be found on my flickr site (http://flickr.com/photos/slevit1), but here are a couple of them.

Vista Wonders

Oh this is great...just watch it through. "Sinkhole of Support." amazing.

Edit: The original video was taken down. Hopefully this one will work!

You know what would be really great?

If AUC's internet were fast enough to load Gmail. Yes, it's that slow...it's rarely capable of even loading Gmail! If it loads at all, you usually get a message that it's taking longer than usual and that you should switch to the basic view. If only AUC would hire a competent computer person, or allocate enough money to make a reasonable school network. AUC is, in fact, so unwilling to part with its money that Angel (something similar, but likely cheaper than Blackboard) is not even available off campus. So, assuming any teacher knew how to use Angel and actually posted anything on it, we wouldn't be able to access it unless we were on campus.

Marigot

Heather and I hiked to the top of Fort Louis, which used to protect Marigot. It's really not much of a hike, probably only 5 minutes, but the view is worth the walk. This is definitely one of the best views that you'll get on the island. Hopefully, you're not too into history, because most of the informational plaques at the top of the fort have been destroyed. The fort may have largely withstood the test of time, but the plaques did not.

Me...if I were slightly less white :)

Orient Bay

I didn't bother with pictures of the beach (mostly because I forgot to bring the camera), but here's a picture of Orient Bay from the top of the road leading in.

As you may or may not know, Orient Beach is largely famous because part of it is a nude beach. They don't allow pictures on the nude part, but here's a picture that Heather took of one of the nude hotels there..I'm sure it's fantastic. Heather and I did briefly venture onto the nude side (we were not nude). Trust me, you don't want to go there. Do yourself a favor, ignore your curiosity, and take my word on this.

Leaving Orient Bay, and really anywhere else on the island, you never know when you might run into a couple of goats!

Pinel Island

As promised...pictures from the weekend. Here are a few from Pinel Island, which is about a 5 minute water taxi ride from St. Maarten.

Heather looking sexy (as always) at Pinel:

It's been fun, Mosquitos...

But unfortunately, your time has come to an end. For a while, I thought that the sudden lack of mosquitos was due to the fact that I moved away from campus. Well, I was wrong. The actual cause of the lack of itchy little bites every day was normal seasonal bug population changes. In any case, they've been back in force lately. Mostly, they fly around my computer while I try to study and I catch them out of the corner of my eye. Usually, this is followed by 5 minutes of trying to catch the little bastards before I wind up with another bite!

Things are now beginning to change though, after I purchased this little $10 beauty! It looks like a harmless tennis racket, but appearances are deceiving. This thing sends out one heck of a jolt of electricity. I should know, I touched it! Fortunately for me, there is a guard on either side to prevent touching the electrified wires when you don't want to try it out. Unfortunately for the mosquitos, the holes in the guard are much larger than they are. So, when one gets anywhere near me, it is quickly lit up with this harmless looking tennis racket. Sometimes, you get a satisfying little spark. Other times, they just fly into the racket and never fly out. Either way, the mosquitos had better tell their friend: their time is up, it's time to move on to another student. Because from now on, this student's packing heat!

I'm still alive

Heather has reminded me that I haven't posted since she got here! Sorry about that...so here's a blog! Yes, Heather is here, which I'm very excited about. She got here Thursday for Valentine's day and will be leaving tomorrow.

For Valentine's Day, we had a couples massage at the Sonesta Spa. the spa was not quite as nice as others I have been to, but it's also a lot cheaper than most I've been to. The massage was very good though. I got a guy and a girl masseuse because I wasn't sure how she'd feel about either one. She picked the girl, which gave me the guy. But, the guy was very good, so I was OK with it. At the end, they gave us two champagne glasses with hearts and our initials painted onto them, it was a cute idea. For dinner, we went to Sol é Luna restaurant in the French cul de sac. I had read reviews of the place online, which said the food was excellent and it was one of the most romantic places on the island. Well, they didn't disappoint. The location was great and the food was outstanding...some of the best I've had on the island. Most importantly, Heather seemed very happy with the whole night.

Friday, we went to Pinel island; the first time I had been. It's 5 euro/person round trip for the ferry over. On the island, there are a couple very good little restaurants, although kind of on the expensive side. There is also a very nice beach there with a good view of St. Maarten. There are a couple very little trails that you can take to walk to the other side of the island and get some amazing views of the island and the ocean. It's worth a visit over there, especially if you have someone as wonderful as heather to go with! :) After Pinel, we went to The Stone restaurant. I liked it a lot and thought it mostly lived up to its good reputation. Heather, however, did not like it. But, that's probably because her shrimp were very well seasoned and she found them incredibly spicy. To Heather, Old Bay seasoning is incredibly spicy!

Yesterday, I went Scuba diving. Heather attempted to go scuba diving also, but was too afraid to get her head underwater. So, she came on the boat, got some sun, and will hopefully try again next time. She was very nervous going into it, so at least she tried. We were also a little rushed because Marigot traffic made us over 1/2 hour late. So, that certainly didn't help her anxiety any. For lunch/dinner, we went to Pineapple Pete's because she wanted to see what all the fuss was about. As usual, it was good. We had planned to go out last night to the clubs, but we fell asleep around 6:00 and didn't wake up until this morning!!

So far today, we've gone to Zee Best for breakfast (maybe the best breakfast on the island), went to Fort Louis over in Marigot, and are now back here resting for a while. We may hit up the beach later. I'm sorry that I don't have pictures yet, but they're all on Heather's camera, so I'll upload them sometime today or tomorrow. More updates coming soon....

Umm....OK?

Today, we found out that AUC, as a product of their ever-changing curriculum, has decided to group the first and second semester MCB class together for the next month. So this morning, when we got to class, we found that although most of the second semester students were not in class today (after last night's post-block craziness), it was unusually crowded. I am not excited to see how crowded it is going to be on a regular day when most people are in class!! A couple of seconds semester were a little upset (and rightfully so) that their usual seats had been taken by the first semesters.

The reason for the grouping is that they are now teaching MCB in a different order. MCB is molecular and cellular bio, if you weren't already aware. Basically, in an attempt to make a more integrated curriculum, they have grouped together three classes (genetics, cell, and biochem) which go together about as well as anatomy and immunology would. It's very obvious, while taking the class, that all they really did was group 3 different classes together and turn it into one big class. There is little to no continuity between the classes and all parts are taught by different professors.

For some reason, which is beyond me, they decided to unnecessarily mix things up for our semester. I guess they thought it would make it seem more like one class and less like three. So, we had half of genetics last semester, and some MCB and cell, and we have some more of it this semester. Well, they realized that this probably wasn't the best way to go about it and now, first semester students take all of genetics the first semester. Not sure how the rest works out. In any case, its making for a very crowded classroom. That's really the point of this whole long post! :)

Windows Firewall

People often ask me why they should get a mac instead of a PC. Well, among other things, here is an easy to understand representation of PC security:

Party!!!

But, not for me :(

When I woke up today (at about 12:00), I walked outside and saw that there was at least twice the usual amount of cars outside, but had no idea why. I walked next door to see if Brian was there, but no answer. Then, I walked up to the pool deck. And sure enough, it would seem that the spouses are having a little party up there! Everyone but me that lives here likes to study on campus, so they just figured that everyone was gone. So, since we've got a nice pool, nice view, a great day, and nobody here, seems like a great place to have a party!

I don't mind at all since I haven't heard a thing from them all day. But, it sure makes me wish that I wasn't stuck inside studying for the rest of the day! But, in a couple of hours, the crazy studying will all be over....at least for another 5 weeks. And although I hate the new block schedule, I do like the quizzes. Since we have quizzes every week or so, it forces you to keep up with the material. So while I haven't looked at some of it in a while, I have at least studied all of it at some point. So, instead of playing catch up this weekend (like I was usually doing last semester), I am actually looking over stuff that I have already studied in the past couple weeks. Hopefully, it will pay off tomorrow.

Where have all the readers gone?

My blog usually has its ups and downs...periods where I'll get over a hundred visitors a day, and others where I get around 50-60. But, where has everyone gone lately? For the past little while, there has been a definite gradual decline, leading to only 28 visitors today!! Maybe it's because everyone else is studying for the block, but I didn't think that many people from AUC read my blog. Or, maybe it's because my posting has decreased in the past couple days. But, that's because I'm studying for the block also!!

It does seem like if I don't post every day, the numbers go down quickly. So, it's gonna be a little slow for another day or so, but I promise it'll pick up after that. Don't go away! :)

Today's happenings

Today I had a very productive day, and all before 1:00 in the afternoon! First, I had lunch at Pineapple Pete's. I really can't say enough good things about that place. It is one of the very very few places on the island that has consistently great food and service. It's one of the further places from school that I go to, but it's definitely worth the 15 or so minute drive. On my way back, I got caught by the bridge. But, this is exactly what I bought the scooter for. Instead of waiting in what would have been at least a 20 minute line of traffic (going towards school, much worse coming from), you just drive right up to the front of the line. I took the pictures while I was waiting of the bridge to go down. As you can see, it's a very nice day today.

Then, I stopped to get my hair cut. I go to a place in the airport and get Atena to do my hair. She's very nice and always does a good job. The airport here is the local hair, nails, and massage place, convenience store, and food court. This is the only place I know where people go to the airport to hang out. Again, having a scooter is convenient because you can drive around the gate and don't have to pay to park. Now, I've got the rest of the day to study! YAY!

Oh, and the lights went out in class today for about 20 minutes...that was exciting.

Great lunch spot

This is a new little place that I've started going to for lunch every once in a while, and it's very good! If you're here, you should try it out. I actually went there the first time because I was riding my scooter home and it began to pour. So, they let me park it under their little overhang. Today, it looked like rain again on the way home, so I stopped by again. They've got stewed beef, chicken, and fish, as well as excellent steamed fish (both whole and filet). The fish changes from day to day, but today that had delicious grouper and whole red snapper. It's $8 for a take out box filled to the top with food, so not a bad deal. Also, when the owner lady tells you that her homemade hot sauce is hot, she's not joking!

p.s. - I don't think I've ever posted a picture of my scooter, but you can see it peeking out from behind the SUV, under the overhang, again ;)

Time to let it go?

Alright, it's really time for the '72 Dolphins to give it a rest. Yes, they had an undefeated season, way back in 1972!! However, that was at a time when they played less games than they do now. Seems to me, the patriots just won 18 games in a row. And, last time I checked, 18 > 17. Someone check my math on that, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.

It's unfortunate for the Patriots that they didn't win the Superbowl and have an undefeated season. However, they still won more consecutive games than any other team in the NFL, including the '72 Dolphins. If they had won the Superbowl (and 19 consecutive games), it would have just further diminished the value of the Dolphins' season. So, maybe it's time for the Dolphins to stop with their little annual champagne party and start thinking about how they can maybe help the current Dolphins!

Biostats....DONE

I should be sleeping right now. But, as I'm clearly not, I thought I'd take a second to let everyone know how happy I am to be done with biostats!! Not that it wasn't a great time and all, but it will certainly be nice to reclaim 2 and a half hours of my day, tuesday through friday. Previously this semester, we had ICM on mondays, from 3:30 - 5:30, which basically ruins the day for studying. But every other day, we had biostats from 1-2. Since we get out of class otherwise at 11:20, that was just enough of a break to get nothing done. Too short to go home and too short to get any kind of studying done.

But, it's all over now. And, it couldn't have come at a better time! With block exams on Monday, It'll be nice to have the extra study time for the rest of the week. And what a block exam this is going to be, covering nearly the amount of information we would have been given last semester in 2 blocks!

Now...bed time!

What I've learned from Biostats

From the beginning of our 4 week long, 1 credit Biostats course, I knew that it would be important because there will likely be some related questions on the USMLE. But, I didn't really think the class would ever be particularly clinically relevant. Well, it turns out that I have finally found the answer to something that I've always wanted to know, because of Biostats.

When I used to get strep tests, I always wondered why they had to run two tests, one of which was fast, and one which took a little while. Well, turns out that the first test they do is highly specific, but not very sensitive. This means that the test will accurately determine everyone that does not have strep. Since it finds everyone who is disease free, if it says you do have strep, then you do. But, since it's not very sensitive, it also will say that some people who have strep, don't. So, if the first test says you've got strep, it's time to start antibiotics.

If the first test said you don't have strep though, you're not totally in the clear yet. The second test is very sensitive, but not as specific. So, it's able to detect just about everyone that does have strep. Now, if this one says that you don't have strep, you really don't have strep...congratulations! Now, you just have a sore throat and no explanation. ;) Turns out, the second test they do takes longer and costs more money (it's a culture).

The same principle works on HIV testing for blood donation, but in reverse. With donation, it's obviously very important to make sure that the blood doesn't have any HIV virus floating around. So first, they do a very sensitive test. If this test says the blood is HIV free, then it's good to send off to some guy or girl in a trauma center. But, this test will also come up with a bunch of positive results that aren't really positive. So, before they call you and give you the bad news, they'll run a very specific test (but not sensitive). If this one says you've got HIV, then you've got HIV. Hopefully though, in 3 months, you get yet another call from the Red Cross asking for more blood!

How in the world?

Well, I guess congratulations to the Giants, although I didn't particularly want them to win! First time a wild card team has one the Superbowl? Who woulda thunk it? I'm happy for the Giants because it's always nice to see the little guy win, but it really is a shame for the Patriots. After an undefeated season, seems to me like they deserved to win it all. But, I guess if you can't make it happen, then maybe you don't deserve to win.

And, who would have thought that I'd ever make a sports related post?! And now, back to what's important...studying for the biostats final tomorrow!

Wasting time

During one of my breaks today, I decided to waste a little time and make this postcardish (new word) photo for my landlady. She's been trying to advertise the place since a double room has just become available and studio will be available at the end of this semester, so I threw this together. I found a picture of a hibiscus on the internet, made it look kinda sunset-like in photoshop, created some text with a sunset-like glow, and there it was.

I also discovered a neat little program called Skitch today. It's basically a very quick and simple little program for uploading photos to the internet and sharing them in just about any way imaginable. It's the fastest way I've found yet to resize photos or add simple markups. The picture above is actually a very large picture, but it wouldn't fit on the blog page. So, I spent about 5 seconds in skitch shrinking it down to its current size. If I haven't already made it clear that I only use macs, Skitch is a mac-only program.

Immuno, Physio, and MCB

Those are the three main classes that we have this semester (we have ICM for about 8 days during the semester, and biostats for 4 weeks, which is about to end). The block is quickly approaching, so I thought now would be a good time to give a pre-block assessment on how things are going so far.

We have MCB first. I seem to do well in this class, but I really don't find it very interesting at all. It's mostly just memorization of a ton of pathways. But, as I've said in previous posts, it is becoming a little more clinical and thus, a little more interesting. I'm thinking I'll probably be able to pull off an A on the exam. But, this coming block exam covers almost twice as much information as any block last semester. So, we'll see how I do with this volume of information.

Immuno is the second class of the day. We have already had three professors in this class, who rotate topics, and I believe another is soon to come. I've decided that I think that the Immuno guy from the South Carolina medical school is better than any of the three we've had. So, to study, I've been looking at their notes, but listening to his lectures. I did well on the first quiz doing that and hopefully it will continue to work for the exam. Overall, I haven't found the material terribly challenging. It might just be because we have three different professors so far, but there seems to be a lot of overlap in the material. That's nice though because it helps tie everything together

Finally, we've got physio. Everyone in the class was complaining because he gave us PDF files instead of powerpoints, but I actually like the PDFs better. Of course, just when I start to like his PDFs, he switches over to powerpoint, to make everyone happy. However, he is apparently not aware that the internet is really very large and can hold very big files, so he doesn't think he can put them on the notes drive for everyone else to get a copy of. He is, of course, wrong. But, for the time being, we do not get copies of his powerpoints. Anyway, I think the class is just about to get interesting. We just finished action potentials, and man did we spend a lot of time going over them! I'm pretty confident that I am good with the action potential stuff. Now we're doing muscle, and I think cardio physio is coming up soon. I've heard it's difficult, but I think it will be interesting. Interestingly (and fortunately for many people in my class), physio is the only class that treats us as adults and does not take attendance. If you do decide to go to class though, you have plenty of room to spread out while you play web boggle....i mean...pay attention to the lectures. ;) He writes the hardest exams, so far, but I think I'll be able to pull of a decent grade in there too.

New Road!!

There used to be two ways to get to my apartment. Both of them were scenic, but both took just about 5 mintues from the main road, through the neighborhood, and to my place (they are very roundabout). There was always another road which went straight from the main road to my house, but it was a dirt road, and one of the worst I have ever seen. Even in a 4 wheel drive vehicle, it was a rough drive. And, if it had rained recently, you could forget it. Unfortunate, considering that road would only take a minute or less to drive down. Since it was in the shape that it was in, I figured that it would never get fixed and would just remain a useless road.

Well, much to my surprise, it's been paved! They did an awful job and the edges of the road are all over the place, but I don't care! The surface is mostly smooth and it almost cuts the time it takes to get to school in half! Before, it took almost exactly 10 minutes to get to school. Now, it takes just over 5. And the best part is that there are only 2 speedbumps!! The other 2 ways, which are also a lot longer, have at least 5 or 6. So, I'm happy :)