Last block exam of med school approaching!

While this upcoming exam is not our last exam of med school (we still have two, half-semester classes next semester), this is our last full block exam! After this exam, and finals the week after, I will never again have to study for exams in 3 classes on one day. I will have to study for the USMLE, which will be far more work, but that's another story entirely. And, as my class discovered early in this semester, it is very easy to study for only two classes. That third class really adds a ton more work. I'm getting very excited to finally be a 5th semester. In first semester, it seemed like it would never happen, but now it's only a couple weeks away! I guess it won't be too much longer until I'm actually a doctor. That still seems like forever away right now, but I'm almost done the worst part (basic sciences).

In other news, the 5th semester party pics have all been uploaded. I had to hijack my parent's internet connection to get them all up in a reasonable amount of time, but they're done. I should have thought of doing that the last time I spent days uploading pics! It takes my internet here about 5 minutes to upload a single picture, and only a couple seconds with US internet speeds. They're all posted at flickr.com/photos/slevit1, but here's a few:

party pics update

Just FYI, I've finished editing the 5th semester pics and they're currently exporting from their original RAW file format to JPEGs. As soon as that's done, the uploading to flickr will begin. It's probably going to take a little while to get them completely up though, since the internet has been less than ideal lately. Stay tuned.

No thanks...

Cock flavored seasoning....I think I'll pass. One of many things that I've only ever seen in the caribbean :)

Another interesting SXM story...a friend got a 100 guilder ticket today by the friendly local police force for having an expired AUC parking permit! No, it was not campus police that pulled him over, but the regular St. Maarten police department! They pulled him over for a random check, as they often do to students. Unable to find anything else wrong with his car, they decided to give him a ticket for the expired hang tag. I'm not exactly sure how that's against the law, or why police should care about it, but he's now 100 guilders poorer.

Update: just talked to the person who actually got the ticket. He says he was pulled over because he had an AUC hang tag and they were only getting AUC students, but the ticket was actually for, and I quote, "I don't know." Almost as ridiculous as giving a ticket for an expired hang tag, the cop actually wrote "I don't know" as the reason for the ticket. When he asked what that was supposed to mean, another cop tore it up and wrote "muffler" and told him that he should mind his own business and let the police do their job. Awesome!

Gary's Weather Forecasting Stone

While procrastinating, came across this on the interwebs. Enjoy!

5th Semester Party pics!

OK, I'm not going to lie...I'm VERY happy with some of these pictures. I still have a ton to go and they certainly won't be done tonight (need to study!!), but they're coming along. Here's a small sample, while I pat myself on the back a little ;)
These are very low quality scaled down versions of the originals, but you get the point...
They'll be posted in full quality eventually.

Red Blood Cells...

I was up a little too late a few nights ago, and being a little delirious (and having studied too much about blood), I decided that red blood cells are my favorite cells. Most people probably don't have a favorite cell, but now I do. There are a lot of reasons that I came up with to support my choice of a favorite cell. Admittedly, I was not entirely lucid when I came up with them, but they still make sense.

First, I like their color, which is obviously red (or at least mostly red, when they're carrying oxygen). But, that's another thing I like about them...they change color all the time. Other cells are usually the same boring color. Next, they get to travel everywhere. All the cells in your blood travel everywhere, but they're lacking the red color, so they get knocked out of the running. Why spend your entire day in the large intestine, when you can shoot around everywhere in the body?

I also like their shape. While many cells are pretty much square shaped, they're round, with a dimple in the center. They remind me of donuts, which are delicious. No other cell that I'm aware of reminds me of a delicious donut. They can also squeeze into different shapes to fit into places that they really shouldn't be able to fit.

Finally, RBCs don't have a nucleus, so they're kind of loners. They don't need to be like anyone else and have all the same boring DNA as the rest of your body. They did at one time, but they gave it up to do their own thing. They don't replicate, which I would think would be boring, but to each his own. Besides, replication is pretty overrated when you're forced to do it alone ;)

So, that's what I like red blood cells. Plus, they basically keep you alive, which is pretty cool of them.

I hate mosquitos!

I'm not sure what's up with the mosquitos lately since it hasn't been unusually wet out lately, but I've killed like 5 of them in the past 5 minutes, while sitting and studying. This tennis racquet/bug zapper thing is really one of the best purchases I've ever made. Considering I'm covered in bites, I think I still have a while to go.

In other news, I've been asked to be the photographer for the 5th semester party again, this Friday. In a very thoughtful move, this 5th semester class scheduled their party shortly after the block exam, well before the next block and finals. So, for once, going to the 5th semester party (and editing pictures, for me), should not get anyone behind. It's at the Westin on the other side of the island, which should prove to be very nice. One more semester until my 5th semester party!!! :)

How do you get in?

I'm not sure how this happens (or why), but it can't be a good thing. Seen outside of Lal's indian restaurant.

Party at the gas station!

Sorry for the poor quality, but these people scared me a little, so I took the picture all stealth-like. There wound up being even more, after their friends joined them. They just sat around the gas pump drinking, and I'm pretty sure they were smoking too! Yet another reason that I didn't want to be too close. The only thing they weren't doing at the gas station was pumping gas.

candalope and oninos!

I do really like the food at the Cupecoy market, but the best part of going there may just be their produce tags. From the same place that brought you the corrat, comes the candalope and oninos. If you look closely, you may notice that the candalope is actually a honeydew, but I didn't have the heart to tell them :)