First Week Back in GND

The first few days here in a new apartment and I’m reliving all the idiocy from my first apartment in Saint Louis. I have a dozen cans of vegetables and beans and no can opener. We live next to an abandoned hotel that was destroyed by Ivan. Everyone living inside is squatting, including the Head of Distribution for Carib Breweries. He was nice enough to sell Winston (roomate) his car for a song. This car has neon blue lights inside and I think I’m in a Pontiac commercial. The windows aren’t so much tinted as they are painted black, so checking our mirrors is impossible.

We have a bit of an ant problem. We went out and bought ant traps, the ones where they carry the poison back to their queen and everyone dies. I got bored the other day, set one out, and pulled up a chair to watch the drama unfold. You could sell this as its own TV show. I was so excited watching the first scout come get a taste to be followed by all of his ant brothers swarming it minutes later. After ten minutes of this, I ran around the house putting the other five traps out, cycling between each one so that I wouldn’t miss a moment. It was a full afternoon.

My main classes this term are Neuro and Physio, each 5 credits. They are hard. It helped matters none that the first week and weekend here were spent running the Footsteps/Orientation program. So two weeks in and I am a week behind in material that makes me wonder if I have the chops to be a medical student. Yes, I am wallowing.

Some may remember a while back I wrote about never bartending again. Well, over the summer I bought a fancy computer so for the rest of the term my belt will be a little tight. When the opportunity came to save a cover fee by agreeing to man the bar at Grand Anse for two hours, I took it. I figured this would be fun the way that Sandblast was not since it would be without the responsibilities. Imagine my surprise when they tell me that I am slated to be bar captain. Oh horror.

Well, everything happened again. My hands got soggy from all of the water and started getting cut by broken bottles posing as ice. People screaming, asking for drinks, bottle-openers missing, everyone running out of beer, liquor, soda. By the end everyone was gone, the place was cleaned, and the people running the party were actually grateful! They put a case of beer and a few pieces of Carib merchandise into our car. I wish it always ended that way.

I apologize for bouncing all over the place, but my roomates watch way too many movies. Each of them brought a DVD binder, and all told we have over 200 titles in the house. Not one day passes where fewer than two movies play in this house. It is distracting. Worse yet, they have the first seasons of Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy, and Band of Brothers. I am on the losing end of this war with entertainment.

No kidding, I’m worried about this term. I already feel overextended [sic]. I have my classes in the morning, then I’m tutoring anatomy and biochemistry once a week. The afternoons are broken up with Clinical Skills or Professional Development or Neuro lab or Physio lab. I also joined an Anatomy research program that just started at the school. The guy running it was recently poached from American University of the Caribbean and has been the captain of the winning team at the Anatomical something or other competition the last three years running. He’s faculty at Harvard and wants nothing more than to develop a similar program at SGU. So that fell into our laps. Not done yet. My roomates have decided that we, as a house, are doing the Navy Seals workout over the next 6 months, complete with before and after pictures. I’m two days in and dying. I know Anna (Wash U Grad student) has more on her plate than that and handling it with aplomb, but it’s a lot for me.

I have completely stopped going out in order to stay on top of all this. I also have three classes (Genetics, Immuno, Parasitology) that are being taught consecutively through the term. The Genetics final is Monday. Can you believe that, a two week crash course for 1 credit?

I’m sure (I hope) that I will find my rythm soon and can begin enjoying life again. When that happens, these emails will get a little more sun and so will I.

Treading, topher.