About a 10 minute walk away on the other side of campus is a private black sands beach with little blue shelled crabs scurrying amongst the rocks. All of the beaches are spotless. You forget that beaches don't always have trash on them. The first years are wandering about a bit awestruck...like they might start laughing at any second. It is definitely a bit overwhelming. My room is extremely spartan and I am glad that I got every last ounce of stuff into my bags. It's nice to be able to check out campus and not have to rush to the store for things. I did a campus tour this morning with a large group of med students and a couple veterinary students. It was my first taste of "island time". The tour was a "mini campus tour" that was suppose to last a half hour. Our student tour guide was a Grenadian though, and after two hours, several stories, and many vocabulary introductions later, he released us. I was as impressed with the facilities as I've been with the setting. We even got to go down into the med student lab with the cadavers. Glad I'm not doing that. They actually use butcher knives and I saw some Dewalt power tools laying around (shudder). This school surpasses a lot of the state schools I researched. Last year's graduating class beat the Harvard veterinary students on the same exams by 2%. Not too shabby. Hoofing it everywhere is the main method of transportation on campus. The dorms are down by the ocean and all of the classrooms are on top of this very pretty, ridiculously steep bluff. I am going to be one fit girl in a couple weeks. But for now I puff my way up the steep road and feel a bit like I'm trying to breathe through a straw. Humidity is certainly a factor. I passed a lot of first years who looked like they were going to die and obviously were bemoaning their choice of schools.
The campus is absolutely crawling with cats. Ten were waiting at the front door last night. I was a bit flabbergasted by them since I hadn't seen a one an hour before. I guess there is a campus veterinary program going to trap and neuter them but they literally reproduce like rabbits. There are also campus dogs. All collared and licensed who follow you from place to place. "Lola" walked with me for about 15 minutes this morning before peeling off to do whatever campus dogs do. I saw her a few hours later keeping people company at the bus stop.
The Grenadians I've met are fantastic. Such an open community. Very joyful and you usually get a hug instead of a handshake. Their independence day is coming up on Feb. 7th and the celebration is already beginning. This would be the independence day that the US was involved in. It took about 10 minutes for the invasion to be brought up by our first Grenada native encounter (our cabbie). The locals call it the "intervention" and they absolutely love that the US came swooping on in. So apparently once upon a time we did do an invasion correctly.
Despite three applications of 70 (aka fireproof) sunblock I am a bit rosy this evening, but I am actually beginning to think that I just might end up tanning after all. I should probably try and befriend one of the med students whose set on becoming a dermatologist though. Tomorrow the family and I are going on a walking tour of the city and a tour of Concord Falls and the nutmeg factory. I'm excited to get up into the rainforest to see some monkeys. We have more hikes later in the week and then Molly and I are diving on Sunday. We're debating about diving above some coral or a shipwreck...I think I'll let the dive master decide that though based on our tiny bit of experience.
I do miss all of you horribly. It's almost a crushing feeling at times. I'm looking for visitors around Easter...
Cheers and love,
Meg (aka Nutmeg the Spice Girl)
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