July 19

After nearly 2 months, of travelling, the Angels of Mercy and Crafts arrived in Dominica. I am, of course, referring to the package sent by two friends that were residing in Toronto (who are transitioning towards the Montrealer side of things, no doubt for the poutine). Included in the package were muffins, wall-decoration for my dreary room, and among all...glitter. everywhere.

Which brings me to an important point: Glitter is the herpes of the crafting world. If you catch it, anyone you interact with will catch it, and its impossible to get rid of.

Today was a good day. The schedule is overloaded as hell because Friday is a mandatory day off, which means lectures from 8-5 this week, followed  by studying afterwards. Nonetheless, its been a great day.

Scratch that. I just killed 3 roaches in my apartment. It's been downgraded to a good day.

Ave Maria

Thanks to a late-night visit by Domlec electricians, I once again have 110V electricity in my apartment, which should make the coming weekend slightly better.

Never mind, it looks like the weekend is going to suck, as Tropical Storm Maria is definitely headed our way (http://www.stormpulse.com/atlantic?desc=NHC&idx=18&trk=1&sid=201114&lat=15.465&lon=-60.718&z=3&rd=0&cd=0&tk=1&ww=0&mo=0&sl=0&ht=0&mg=0&ob=0&wf=1&ml=1&ql=0). Just seconds ago it started pouring cats and dogs (and a few lizards and beetles).

And just like that, its over....for now.

Rock Me Like A

http://weather.gov.dm/weather_bulletin.php

Upside

While I've had a rougher st,art to the semester than I hoped, there have been positive developments in Ross and the community. Firstly, the semester's organization was changed and the first 6-week block was divided into 2 mini blocks, which will hopefully make studying for the block exam easier. Secondly, there are a few new food shacks that have opened up, serving great bakes, wraps, and tacos. Thirdly, the water filtration system seems to have undergone a major upgrade, as the taste and smell of the water now is far superior to even the best of times a month prior.

I'm also glad to see that our school has a crosswalk with bright LED lights and a sign, making this the first traffic sign I've seen since landing on Dominica months ago. The weather has been relatively pleasant (ie no hurricanes or thunderstorms as of yet), the number of midnight encounters with river crabs is at an all-time low, and I haven't even seen or heard a single critter in my apartment yet.

As far as personal development, I've since started using a notebook for additional learning/diagrams, and have started going to class (gasp!) instead of video-streaming. I've also begun 3 minutes of jump rope exercises each morning, which I hope to increase to 10 minutes, and eventually even add some running in the afternoons.

EDIT
time: 20 minutes after post
location: library
Well, I was wrong about the weather.

Somewhere

My fist sits, waits, it bides its time until the day I meet the engineer that developed my cursed air conditioner. Despite the multitude of modes, levels, and timers built into this monstrocity, then only setting it seems to produce is cold. Extreme cold. Waking up at 4AM because I can't feel my toes cold. Waking up at 6:30 again because my 4AM foray into the world of air conditioning was able to bring pain back into my toes. Anger soon followed.

I suppose the trip back hasn't been the smoothest. Luggage was delayed, my home's 110V circuit is broken (leaving only my fridge, lights, and a cursed AC unit working), and the material is piling up faster than my plate at Mandarin. Hell, even my trusty umbrella has abandoned me. WHY UMBRELLA WHY? I CAN CHANGE! I seem to have left my cap back home, as well as my wristwatch, both of which will be annoying to replace in the time being.

 Nonetheless, progress is being made, as the landlord's been called and slowly on his way. Furthermore, the unfortunately early start this morning gave me a whole hour to organize my apartment after my bag finally came in. I was also lucky enough to finish my banking in less than 30 minutes and even pay my rent.

Over the months here, I've noticed a slightly hightened awareness of scheduling, planning, and greatly strengthened memory. Its like my lazy brain finally received a wheelchair, and its rolling around yelling "WEEEEEE! as things get done. I was kind of hoping for a more noticeable change, as I seem to have an everlasting cloudyness to my brain, but at least, for a few minutes a day, its down to a light mist (maybe even a rainbow).

Neurology is....a lot of words. And for each word, there are another 8 words that can alternatively be used to name the location. Each location has some function, and of course this function's limitations change drastically depending on whom you ask. ie "the artery does NOT pass through this hole" vs "well actually the artery DOES pass through the hole". Fuuuuuuuu. Not sure what else to write, I can't really remember anything thats happened in the last 7 hours of lecture. Mental block. by which I mean a wooden block that I beat my head with every night so I can sleep in peace (possibly due to bleeding of the middle meningeal artery).


EDIT
time: about 2 hours after this post.
location: my house.
"KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!"

Daily Double Edit
time: midnight, 3 hours after I bought much electricity.
location: my house.
"DOMLEC YOU %$@^ I AM GOING TO $#!!@ YOU IN THE EYE-SOCKET UNTIL YOU @#$7%  IN THE #@$%"

As my observant readers can probably guess, there was still no electricity.