My address is:
Megan Puchlerz, Box #1560
St. George's University
Box 7
University Centre
St. George's
Grenada, West Indies
I'd love to have a card or letter. Anything else is too spendy so don't bother. I also am now on Yahoo IM and Skype. Skype is fantastic as I can talk to people for FREE if they're on Skype too. Just go to skype.com and download the software. Takes a second. I'm under the name Meg Puchlerz. We can then call each other. The sound is great thus far and I'd love to hear everyone's voice. And I have a cell phone. It is free for me to receive calls...I have no idea what it is for you to call me. Number is 473-456-1549. No country code necessary.
Now then...where to start. "Rum is like the sunshine"...this was a quote from one of our professors in the required substance abuse course the med students and veterinary students had to take together. The island certainly does like their rum. Beer is also free flowing. They have a very yummy Caribbean beer called Carib that has been handed out like water at several school social events free of charge.
The school is filled to the brim with dorks and nerds like me. Even the big dumb jock will suddenly start gushing about his summer job splitting chromosomes using photosynthetic protons and lasers. I just nod like I understand what people are talking about half the time. The med school has 500 people in this entering class from all walks and talks of life. The veterinary school is much smaller at 65 people. SGU is truly international with 40% of the students being from non-US countries. I have met more people from foreign countries this week then in my entire life. I've also learned more about my culture and others cultures then I imagined possible for being here one week. One of our professors said that culture is what makes us a stranger when we leave home. That really struck a chord with me. I'm definitely learning. Do you know where Guyana is? I do now. Ate some fish from there. (Hint...it's not in Africa like I thought). My friends of the week are Francisco from Puerto Rico, Jed the Afrikaner, Tricia of Trinidad, Tepe of Botswana, Matt of N. Carolina and Ivonne from New York City. And of course there's my roomies from Russia/New Jersey and Idaho. They're turning out to be fantastic roommates and we have already held several study sessions together, and illegally watched movies from the internet (sorry...know its wrong). Haven't met a fellow Oregonian yet...or Montanan.
The family left on Wednesday, and with them my feeling that I was on a holiday. No more fancy dinners out on beach side docks for me. It was nice having them here. Molly and I got a dive trip in, and I have pin pointed some diving buddies for future trips who are in the Exotic & Wildlife (E&W) veterinary club. Next dive site is Shark Reef. Filled to the brim with little nurse sharks. I'm buying a diving "season pass" which will help keep me motivated to spend some time in the water and away from my books. In a couple of months the E&W group is going to help out with the Loggerhead Turtle mass rush for the beach and ocean during breeding season. How cool is that?
On Wednesday we had our white coat ceremony and I found myself strangely on the verge of tears at receiving mine. All of a sudden we all looked like doctors. Medical school is turning out to be exceptionally trying. School started on Wednesday and it was as if most of the students vanished. Med students to their respective holes in the library, and the veterinary students to their section of campus. I had a hundred pages to read on the first day. I'm enjoying it though. Anatomy lab is taught by a crazy, Italian. He's actually quite famous in the veterinary world so I was awestruck when he introduced himself. He wrote THE book on animal anatomy. He is one of those professors that keeps you nervously paying attention. If your brain wanders you'll quickly find him sitting next to you asking loudly if he's boring you. He's REALLY excited about anatomy and works himself into quite a tither discussing it. As fate would have it I got paired with the only other hunters in the veterinary class which is working out to our benefit in anatomy class. We had our dog skinned before most people had made their first incision. Our prof. was very proud.
But I'm settling in. In many ways I feel like I've been here for months instead of just one week. I'm getting use to the cars on the left side of the road, the gardeners who "weed wack" the sidewalks of school using machetes, and the stunning view that is always there. Today I studied on the Grand Anse Beach while watching the Grenada Regatta with all its grandeur and sails take place. Despite my current problem of being unable to remember the difference between the atlanto-occipital joint and the atlanto-axial joint, this is truly not a bad place to be.
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