Today, as one of my good friends so elegantly put, "St. Kitts beat me down today." Make it more of the past 3 days. Long rant to follow.

SHE WINKED. SHE ACTUALLY WINKED.
WHAT DOG EVEN DOES THAT.

Normally I love living here. The beautiful scenery and beaches, the challenges and puzzles of vet school, the strong drinks (5/6 rum with a dash of coke), etc. are usually enough to placate me until I go back home to the States. I am so incredibly blessed to be studying down here; to be living in places that normal people save up for years to vacation/honeymoon to. But I am writing this post to remind both my family and the future students who may read this blog that living here is not always sunshine and roses. Getting anything done here is so damn difficult, the "relaxed" culture is to the point of lazy that makes you want to pull your hair out, and you will face constant reminders of "everything you love and what you think is normal is thousands of miles away." I'm going to write today about every day challenges each RUSVM student will face, except this all hit me at once like a ton of bricks.

The car:

Every time someone tries to tell me about my car problems, I hear...

I drive a Toyota model named Melvin who is a year older than I am. If he were for sale in the states, he wouldn't even bring $1,000. But I bought him for $3,500 with all of his little island quirks because that's basically the minimum price for a used car in St. Kitts. His passenger side window is difficult to get down, the driver's side outside door handle broke off the second day after I bought him and the inside door handle recently broke at one pin so you have to gently pull it to open the door, the A/C had been working but now isn't, the high beams won't stay on- instead, they turn all the lights off, and the seat belts are starting to become stuck. Overall, however, Melvin has been a fairly reliable car who has only been out of commission from needing radiator hoses/caps replaced and several flat tires. So what's the issue? Where am I going with this?
Remember what I said about "relaxation" can be described as "lazy?" Wanna know how many times this month alone I've had to buy new tires? Three, at $150 EC each (about $55 US per tire). If it were once a year, I would completely be fine with this. What I'm NOT fine with is that each of these flats were caused by nails/screws left out by a construction site near my apartment. It's too lazy to sweep up or pick up any materials, especially considering that I only drive back to my house between 1-3 AM as I'm a night owl. Just like all the litter and garbage that surrounds the streets and highways of St. Kitts, it's customary to just leave a construction site with nails and screws everywhere. I digress.
Additionally I have a tail light that is out, and the other one is dimmed. Okay, fine. That I can deal with-it's an easy fix. But then last night I left the library after studying to find that someone had hit my front end and my low beam light is cracked (still working though!) I get in the car, and lo and behold, only my low beams work now- the high beams won't even turn on. Then this morning, at the same time I discovered the flat tire, the low beam on the hit side is now also broken and won't light. Normally I would just view this as another inconvenience, except that I am supposed to get my car fully inspected tomorrow and get my wheel tax done for the year (must be finished by the end of March). I'm not even sure if the place I'm taking the car to can even fix these things in one day- usually you give the mechanics here 3-4 days to get things done, and then give yourself another 2 days to figure out whether they just half-assed it or actually did the job right. We'll see tomorrow.

Toothless likes wine even more than I do... :|

The apartment:
My roommate and I are in different semesters, and both have different schedules with her classes beginning in the early morning and mine not starting until the afternoon. Lately our freezer has been prone to having ice form by the fan therefore impeding it and spoiling all of our frozen foods. And in the past few days, we've noticed that the refrigerator portion is also not cooling (yay more spoiled food). Finally, on Friday, we found that our regular lock is now broken- our house keys just spin the interior circle and don't actually lock the door. Thank God the deadbolt still works, but still. Our landlord came down to fix it, but it's still the same. Now it takes us 20 minutes to get into the house if it is locked from the inside.

The phone:
My precious, sweet iPhone. May you rest in piece in the hands of either the student or cleaning person who found you and won't return it, or you may be sleeping somewhere in my house- (as I've searched and cleaned every spot in the apartment and car since you've gone missing, I doubt that the second option is valid.)
Last Tuesday after our Path exam, another student and I were studying in the 24 hour room- a room filled with security cameras- for our BacT exam that Thursday. I had forgotten my phone charger at home and helplessly watched my phone die, then set it beside my computer in sadness. Around 1 AM, friend and I packed up our belongings and headed home. After the 10 minute drive back to my house, I went to charge my phone and realized my phone wasn't in any of my bags. Took my flashlight out and checked my car and the ground around the car- nothing. By the time I was done looking, it was 3 AM, and I had to be on campus by 7:30. I figured that since the room was being cleaned at 4:30 that morning and that there were cameras everywhere, and my phone was probably in my car regardless, I would just wait until I got to campus to see if it was still there.

Shockingly, it wasn't.

I asked on the student's page. I asked both Student Services and the workers at the LRC if anyone had turned in an iPhone. I scoured my car (with the aid of several other friends because I do a crappy job of searching for things), and I cleaned my room top to bottom after my next exam. After 3 days, it became clear to me that I hadn't just misplaced it, but likely that someone had stolen it. I'm still waiting to hear back from security after they check the video footage, but in the meantime, I've lost my watch, my camera, my iPod, my alarm clock, my nutrition/workout calendar, my contacts, etc. etc.

Stress:
In 2 weeks, I lost 10 pounds. I figured out that it was a combination of diet and exercise- rather, I was too nervous to eat much and wanted to run away from my problems and the stress of school. And after this round of exams, I gained every single pound back in 4 days. Both extremes are disgusting. I'm currently trying to establish a better routine for myself, but as the stress of classes continues to mount, I feel like a larger and larger failure in that I can't keep my life together. This is week....what? 9? I think. We just had two exams last week, we have a "week" off, a Viro exam on Tuesday, Path exam the week after, and another round of Path/BacT the week after. Most of my friends and I are in a dilemma- catch up on the other three classes as they'll have more complicated material we must master, or get a head start on the upcoming Viro exam.

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Needless to say, it's been a very tough past few days/weeks for me. However, with the support system of my family, friends, and boyfriend all helping me, I'm finally at a place where I think I can buckle down and push through all the trials and tribulations St. Kitts has thrown at me. In addition, there have been MANY good days and things that I have been up to:

It was our team, Mr. Krabs!
WE WERE NUMBER ONE!

•  I finally was able to take Toothless to the beach for a well-deserved and delayed mid semester break with my close friends
• The weekend before that those same friends and I gathered together for a potluck and some good homemade food
• Went on a birthday night-catamaran trip to Nevis (complete with good company and an open bar)
• Led some friends on yet another volcano hike
• Went to the movies to go see Zootopia with a bunch of other vet students
• Had a lovely movie night with Toothless, a bottle of wine, Matt, and me last Sunday
• Raptor Squad is still #1- had the most delicious homemade strawberry cheesecake pie.
• Was accepted into the "Rolex Experience" team over April break- will be able to see behind-the-scenes at Rolex 3 Day Event in Kentucky, speak with performance vets, etc. :D

“After all, tomorrow is another day!" -Scarlet O’Hara