Sunday, January 9, 2011

Round 2

Hey Everyone!

The Crew at Connecticut Children's Hospital
            First of all Happy New Year, welcome to 2011! So I have been in CT for the past few weeks on break from school and I must say I had a fabulous time visiting with family and friends. I have a ton to catch you all up on before I begin the blogs about Dominica and second semester! Also can you believe I’m already a second semester?! Crazy I know! While I was home I was able to go with my family on a holiday tour to the Connecticut Children’s Hospital and New Britain General Hospital to sing carols and give out gifts to the children, patients and families who had to spend their holiday in the hospital. It was a wonderful day the singing wasn’t the best but I hope we were able to bring smiles to those we saw. I also had the opportunity to speak with Mike Chaiken from the Bristol Obeserver to talk about my life in Dominica. Mike wrote an amazing article and you can read it on-line at http://www.bristolobserver.com/ or in print. Thank you Mike for taking the time to listen to my stories!
Mom and I at Christmas Eve
            While I was home we got a foot of snow in the Blizzard of 2010, it was amazing and I was really excited to see the snow after being on the island where it is way to hot to snow. Jay and I took a trip to Vermont and went snowboarding at Killington with his brother and some friends from Louisiana. The day was great with lots of fun trails and boarding adventures; I only had one really big fall and a few little falls along the way. Not bad for someone who hasn’t been snowboarding in a year! Christmas was filled with family time as we have many traditions that we do every year including a secret Santa with Jay’s family and a Grab-Bag with my family, roll cake on Christmas Day made by my Memere and many other wonderful traditions and memories made possible by my amazing family. While I was home I also got to spend time with great friends from high school and college, I also ate AMAZING food all the time. I think every time I wanted to eat I did and it was so nice to drive a car and get my hair done, all the perks of USA that I missed while away.
My Christmas Tree Game! 
            So being home was all around amazing I got to go to see the tree in NYC and have dinner at Butterfield 8, with some of my favorite QU girlies! Jay took me out to a fancy dinner at Flemming’s in West Hartford Center, which was phenomenal. We had a wonderful and romantic dinner and I got to get all dressed up for the night, my mom even let me wear her fur!  Speaking of romance I want to congratulate Denise and Mark, who are friends of mine from Ross who got engaged over break! Leaving home was sad and I will miss you all very very much.
Me and Jay
Jay and I before Flemming's
            Now on to the boring stuff or the fun stuff depending on how you think of it! School starts tomorrow morning at 8am. I start some new classes this semester and I get to learn Neurology. I’m nervous about Neuro. because we are doing it in 3 weeks which seems like madness and I’ve never taken Neuro before but it will be good, I’m actually very excited to learn all about the brain and how everything works. I start my second semester of gross anatomy this week in addition to all of the other classes that I am taking. I will keep you all posted on how the first week of classes go.                                         This semester will be interesting and I look forward to learning more and building on the foundation of what I have already learned. The Island is good, my flights in were smooth and no delays or extended layovers! Back to subway, and chicken! I have “fresh blood” again so my legs are covered in bites but soon they will hopefully be sick of me and move on. My apartment is still great and I added some decorations and pictures to the doors, as the walls are difficult to have things stick to them because they are cement. I haven’t gone on any island adventures since I’ve been back but I plan on doing a few when I take my breaks after my exams! So wish me well everyone and I will keep you posted on how my life and schooling is going! Please feel free to leave comments or shoot me an email updating me about life. Again if I don’t get back to you quickly I apologize but I am pretty busy and I like to respond with thoughtful emails not just quick responses so it takes me time, but I ALWAYS read them so keep-em coming!

Painting Pottery at the Clay Pen




Till next time….