Box of Breasts

It's still raining. It stopped on Friday, after I rewashed my sheets and hung then across my kitchen table to dry. Now I have a wet lab coat and some wet jeans thinking about not drying. At least it's not hot and it's still really pretty outside.

So with the rain, I awoke at ~5am, and got out-out of bed ~7am. Starving to death, I decided to cook misc the frozen chicken parts I had invested in the previous weekend. This box turned out to be a box of breasts (better than the thigh boxes I typically get). I spent about an hour deboning all my breasts and putting the big pieces (pectoralis major) in the crock pot and then I came up with the greatest idea: battering and frying the little pieces (pectoralis minor)!

I borrowed an egg from my roommate, which I paid her back for a few days later, and used the breadcrumbs they sell at the store here! Oh yum yum. It looked good before i tasted it. I dipped it in RANCH! No one eats ranch here; they say it's a Southern/Texas thang. Oh fried chicken tenders dipped in ranch. I can't even describe how wonderful. Best ones I’ve had, ever. I attribute it to the breadcrumbs which I will be smuggling off island in 2 years.

I miss hamburgers and fast food and restaurants and pickles and meat (without trichinella) and McDonald’s dipping sauce and wow, lots of things.

Happy Birthday MOM!

Today is Mom's birthday. She is... do I dare say how old?

I dare! 56, a whole 31 years older than me (after my 25th birthday in August). Bet she feels super now huh!

It's rained all day. All week. My laundry isn't dry from Monday. It keeps raining. Josh got mom a digital picture frame thingy. I got her all the pictures in it and emailed them to Josh. I've tried calling her several times, but no answer.

In other news, I got into a discussion with a few of my classmates and the consensus is that we all (in our entire class) have weird watery poo, tummy cramps, and weight loss. One girl went home for a week, was fine, but when she came back had Montezuma's revenge. And I tell you this now after you're locked in to come visit!

The rain scared the horses and I spent a few hours (in the pouring rain) tracking them down. I also have been walking campus dogs. I am so excited that Rudder is coming! I've been checking out dogs and taking them to my gross anatomy prof to check misc things (heart, hip) that they tell us in lecture that we can look for. I was talking about that to a few people and apparently I'm the only person to have ever checked out a dog (like a book from the library) and taken it inside a professor's office... with a plastic bone model to compare the live dog to. So I will continue to ignore the strange looks and pester sweet old professors and give good dogs lots of treats.

Ting

Here's a pict of me and Ting! the local island drink. It's "from Caribbean Grapefruit" which sounds bad, but it's pretty good and cheaper than coke with an undisclosed amount of calories.

Pica pica pica!

So I think that I have a sodium deficiency since I've had cravings for weird things (pica). I drank all the pickle juice out of 2 pickle jars, ate all the pickles out of one jar, ate a bag of chips (me), ate a bag of the A&M beef jerky Arnie sent me, AND I got a craving for a big, juicy, greasy hamburger with lots of pickles, mustard, mayo and ketchup, and even red onions. Imagine the Homer Simpson drool. And can you imagine how good anything dipped in ranch dressing could be at this point? Oh Layne's chicken fingers in ranch... drool. Or Mc Donald's buffalo wing dipping sauce. I think I'd even stoop to eat a Mc Donald's hamburger. My anatomy prof walked up to me on Friday because I was so spaced out thinking of food and asked how my dog, Onion, was doing (now that she lacks legs completely). All I could say was "HAMBURGER" and he almost hit the floor laughing. I drank some water to delay the desire.

My ride to the store couldn't go swimming yesterday morning, so I took 7 showers and panted in the sweltering heat of my apt all day. Late last night we went to the grocery store 'Best Buy' which should be called 'Most Expensive Buy.' I got sugar for the ponies, real grape juice ($20EC= $7.5US), rice, and 3 of the world's greatest tangerines. Total cost: ~$40EC, and their Scotia card machine was down. Good thing I'd gone to the ATM! For dinner, since I couldn't cook, I went down and found a SECOND chicken lady further down the street. Yum yum, but not as good as Valerie’s chicken.

Today, someone else took me to the other grocery store, 'IGA' which was out of the 2 major things I wanted: milk and misc frying chicken parts- thighs box. Fortunately, they had the 3rd item I'd wanted: a fly swatter. I finally settled on the breast box and boxed (ewwww) milk. I got really cute miniature bananas. Those bananas were $2.5EC and are the same mini bananas I've seen for $10US/lb at HEB! They are 2 bites and gone, but really cute. I also got a long thing of bread, more pickles, more noodles, and something else that ended up making my bill $70EC. Their Scotia card machine was down of course as well and I was now out of cash. This is never a good feeling, so I ran over three lines where my friend who drove me was checking out and bummed $60 from him (I found a $10 bill in my wallet). Nerve racking! So I'm at home here savoring my miniature bananas and rice and the super expensive grape juice I bought.

To make things more exciting in my life, which if you remember I aim to avoid excitement at all costs, I also think I have acquired Giardia. No worries, Parasitology is next semester so I'll find out then! I suppose that my pica could be from that, but as long as I don't have any major problems/symptoms, I'm just not going to deal with it. Gotta love the avoidance mechanism, but I'm down to 126lbs!!! Did I mention my hair turned blonde too! Flat abs, tan bod, I'm hot stuff.

FALL FLIGHT SALE to Caribbean

It's finally here everyone! The moment we've been waiting for: the aa fall flight sale!

From Dallas or Houston to STX or SKB is $350-450. (And it's <$200 from IL, go fig?) Here's the link: http://www.aa.com/apps/netSAAver/ViewNetSAAverFareSalesDetail.jhtml?saleId=1984&fileName=US.CRB_MEX.Sale.07.05.07.xml&repositoryName=FareToolSpecialContentRepository

Tickets must be purchased by July 17, 2007. Outbound travel is valid September 4, 2007 through December 11, 2007. Return travel must be completed by December 13, 2007.

Let me know BEFORE you book a flight if you want to come visit! I live on SKB, just in case you forgot.

***DFW to SKB on AA is $434 but...
if you fly AA from DFW to SJU (San Juan, Puerto Rico) it's $238 and then fly Liat from SJU to SKB it's $82 (varies between $35-125) and you're total cost will be $320, thus saving over $100!!! All depends on how much you want to spend. (The schemer in me wants to save that $100.) There's also a plane hitch-hiker service you can do to, but I think that's a little shady.

Happy 4th Everyone!

Many people have emailed or IMed me asking what I was going to do for the 4th and what the island typically does to celebrate this holiday. The answer is quite simple: I live in a foreign country and Independence Day is celebrated Sept 19th.

I had a long, but good day at school; of course classes were not canceled. We have our 3rd Gross Anatomy Lab Exam tomorrow, so I've been studying Onion and her friends. She is now down to one leg. When I'm at school during a holiday, I think to myself, one day closer to my DVM. That one day closer has a light at the end of the tunnel now that the days have turned into weeks, months, and years to prepare me.

When I got home and checked my email, I saw a new PhD Comic. I wanted to share because it is so perfect for today:

Mid Semester Break

Today is our 'mid semester break,' that's right, one day. I've spent the weekend and today at the beach! I decided that was the main perk of not going to a state school, that I'd I'll be a vet a full year before they are!

Friday night I tried the Ginger Beer from the Chicken Lady. (It's not really beer, ale is beer, beer is juice. I don't get it either.) Ginger beer is... not so great. Like peppermint drink... with more sugar to rot your teeth with. I think I'll stick with my passion fruit juice.

Saturday I totally slept in (‘til like 11am!) but so did the girl down stairs that goes swimming. So we went to Gong Beach around 1pm. Gong Beach is the best beach in the world, by far! It's a hidden crescent shaped beach, with white sand, on the peninsula across from the salt pond. We had to park in a ditch on an off shoot of the road that goes to the tip of the peninsula. Then we had to be on the look out for a rogue make monkey that has been attacking people lately! We didn't see him, probably because it was so hot. We hiked and hiked along this trail, then the bushes opened and there was the magical Gong Beach!

It's really spectacular. I need to take a picture, but that would not really show it's beauty. I think this is the only beach on island with sand in the water. It's the soft sand that you can wade out in and not worry about plants or fish or sea urchins. Perfect waves, not too salty, Atlantic side, perfect temperature.

Sunday was back to our regular beach, with the rocks and the rough surf making the water like the gulf. Saw another turtle though! Chased him for about 5 feet, then I got scared a shark would come and get me! One of my friends that never comes, came and lost the garnet ring her boyfriend gave her.

Today, we went to the bank first. My friend had to deposit her student loan check and I had to inquire about a discrepancy I found (several actually) relating to my meager account (donations welcome). Then we went to Gong Beach! Did I mention it was prefect?! I'm think of getting a car just so I can go to that beach. It also happens to be the only beach on island that allows dogs.

We came back to town and ran errands. First was the post office where I got a package! From Arnie! With Mr. Goodbars in it! (And prescription meds.) Then we went to the bank, again, to talk to someone who might know something that wasn't in at 8am. She said she's 'take care of it' so I'm calling in a few days to make sure they didn't forget. We went to the downtown grocery store, which was... interesting. Very dirty and over priced, BUT there were guys outside selling fruit. I walked up to this one guy and said 'ok, make me a deal, you know i want some star fruit.' He said 'deal huh, how bout 2 bags for $5EC?' I said, hell yea! There are 5 or 6 big star fruit in a bag. I am so hooked; I think I might never leave.

(In Dr. Carey's words) But wait, there's more! We are walking back to the car and my friend says we have to see if this lady is here, she sells sandwiches, salt fish or chicken, in a johnny cake. Mouth watering. We go, and she needs 5 min to set up. Wow, so this huge chicken sandwich, with real chicken, rotisserie style with lettuce stuffed in a huge johnny cake... for $5EC. Keep in mind $1US = $2.6882EC or $1EC = $0.37US. So our sandwich was $1.85UD, which is really freakin' cheap.

When Rudder gets shipped down I really think I might never leave. I was thinking of becoming a professor and coming back. Wonder what Granada is like? I really think St. Kitts is spectacular and think I should buy a house... eventually.