Last night was a total write off. Knowing it was essentially the weekend, I just came home, plopped on a bed and couldn't nap, so I ended up watching tv for a good hour or two. When I tried studying, my mind just wouldn't take it. I was moving at a pace of 1 page every 10 minutes, so I called it a night and focused on redoubling my efforts the next day.
Today was the next day, and it started off with a bang. More specifically, metaphorically banging my head against the wall for only correctly setting one of my alarm clocks, as the other was set for nearly 6AM when I was planning on waking for 7. Not that it would have mattered much, as I kept getting phone calls asking for Alex taxi.
Despite it being the first night where I had more than 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep, I still felt tired as hell this morning, and lecture flew by without absorbing much information. It puts me at a disadvantage when I effectively waste hours in lecture and don't learn anything. That's when I realized the only thing that had changed since the last few days was my attitude this morning. It was a single class, I was cranky as hell, and not in the mood to be in school....pretty much a repeat of my entire undergrad experience. The last few days, on the other hand, were all just self-induced cheer. Keep repeating 'be happy, you're on a tropical island, you're in med school" and it really does help phenomenally. Your attention to detail is more focused, you can miss entire meals without noticing it, and problems are merely small bumps on an otherwise smooth ride. Today, I could barely even focus on the powerpoint slide and gorged on several bananas before I figured out what was wrong and corrected my attitude, at which point I hit the library and ripped lysosomes and mitochondria a new one.
The white coat ceremony was a success, and once again I fought the status quo and wore a green polo to an otherwise white shirt and tie event. It was only about 2 hours after the white coat ceremony where my shipment of clothing, food, and school supplies arrived. Talk about island time. Lots of good speeches to be had by doctors, and the president of Dominica arrived and sat through the event. Walking around outside, I noticed he drives a BMW 700 series. Nice.
When I came with my boxes, I noticed 2 things. First, the cleaning lady had done a decent job. Second...my toilet actually works properly now. I don't know why. Not complaining either.
When I opened the first of the 5 glorious boxes, it hit an emotional nerve (im sure we will discuss this in a future neuroanatomy lecture). So much of what I was used to was sitting in those boxes (walnuts, almost, coffee, 3 cubic feet of chocolate) but as I started sorting through, I realized how little I needed. Even one box of carefully packed items would have done the job (namely, one big pot, a very sharp knife, and the remainder being clothes and shoes). In the last three weeks I'd learned to make do with what little I had, and that's when I actually started getting angry for no reason. Why do I have so much crap? Why do I have even more back home? Most of it was "just in case"...hell, I have enough canned food to last me through three hurricanes (I kid you not....well, I still haven't bought enough water though, as I keep putting off carrying 4 gallons up that hill). I finally received a D battery, meaning that the smoke detector in my apartment actually functions now. Also, with the clock/radio I bought, I can now listen to the local music/news of Dominica. Apparently, the temperature will continue to hover around 28 degrees C, and around 70% relative humidity.
Sounds great, but try walking into your home every day, unable to figure out why the hell its hotter inside than outside.
Peace!
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