June, July, August, September, October

Last weekend was Midsemester Break, and instead of utilizing that extra day like a good student would- catching up on work, re-listening to lectures, the works- I spent those three days watching Grey's Anatomy or Black Mirror on Netflix. I finally got to sleep for once. And, most importantly, I was able to recover from the absolute hell of the previous three weeks. Then I said, "Oh hey! I never actually posted my blog post from September that I wrote. Let's go see how the blog is going." *reads last post was from June*

.....

So in a quick rehash,  I passed all my 4th semester classes and made it to 5th semester. Over the break I spent a week at home seeing my family, friends, and horses, and then spent a few days visiting my best vet school friend up in Boston with lots of horseback riding and barn time (and shopping in a real mall again!!) Then I flew over to Tucson to visit Matt for a week. Long distance relationships are hard, but he makes it so worth it.

My first time seeing the Grand Canyon!!!!

The next week and 4 flights later saw me back on the island again and man did we just jump right into the deep end of work. I'm currently taking Small Animal Medicine, Anesthesiology, Diagnostic Imaging, and Toxicology and my workload is insane. Well, I shouldn't say insane because as long as I manage my time well, the information is doable. It's the fact that I lack almost all self-control that makes it hard for me.

Week 2 of Hell. Two more exams to follow next week. We had also had
a SAM exam the previous week.

During the first seven weeks of the semester everything was fine until right around Week 5-7. I had the equivalent of a midterm for every exam; by midterm, I mean each exam was roughly between 20-40 points on average and constituted 30-40% of my grade. I had my first live patient anesthesia on a dog named Quinn (ironic since that's one of my horses' names at home.) I had signed up for two additional ultrasound labs (equine distal limb ultrasound and a reproductive ultrasound wet lab) during that week as well as an equine dentistry wet lab. I was taking care of not just Toothless, but two other puppies from SAFE and one puppy who I am private fostering for a girl living in the dorms. Olivia and Cyrus came to me as 2 week old pups who had just lost their mother to a hit by car accident, and I would bring them with me to study so I wouldn't have to drive home every three hours to bottle feed them. However, the experience was so rewarding- Olivia just got adopted last night and is currently on a plane to America to her new owner, and Cyrus is a little scamp who I am trying very hard not to fall in love with. 

"Adopt me! I'm a good boy!"

Freaking cute as hell Olivia

(Shameless plug: if you or anyone you know wants this adorable island hound, please feel free to message me! He is the absolute sweetest!)

So Mom & Dad if you're reading this, at least I did well on my exams! (I'm also waiting for my notes to print off so before you say 'get back to studying,' I'm already doing so. Love you!) Besides, I only went out for Halloween twice and once because I was a host for trivia night- the rest of the time I spent in the library studying my butt off.

I do want to let anybody know who is planning on coming down here for veterinary school that there have been a number of events in the past month or two alone that can be frightening to the best of us. For example, there is an insane man living near the bypass who thinks it's fun to throw rocks through people's windshields as they drive by (luckily I just barely missed him and had no damage to my car). My two friends weren't so lucky as I. The police are regularly called to deal with him, but as there are few mental health opportunities for therapy here, the police have no choice but to let him go about his business. Then, just this morning, it was brought to the school's attention that someone had left out poisoned meat on a popular walking route near campus. Two students' dogs have died this morning and afternoon from it. There have additionally been numerous anecdotes from students about abuse towards their dogs- one student had her dog safely on a leash and was threatened by a local with a machete. Toothless just last week at the beach was minding her own business under a chair, and from my spot in the water I saw two little girls picking up large rocks and trying to throw them at her. In yet another example, a horse that appeared across from campus at the beginning of the semester literally had a deep infected wound from a machete across her withers that even 2 months later is barely healed.
I am writing this to warn students that this is not paradise. And I feel that a majority of blogs written about Ross skim over the bad aspects of living here because who wants to read about poisoned dogs or machetes? Let's look at pictures of people having fun and drinking on the beach and loving their lives in vet school. For future students: please remain vigilant. Please be safe. Recognize that you are not in America anymore and that the local communities do not think of dogs or even other animals the way that we do. I am not trying to dissuade anyone from coming here- St. Kitts is a beautiful country and the majority of the locals are very nice and welcoming. Vet school is hard enough. Vet school on an island is even harder. I want people to understand the realities of living down here, and not just an Instagram or Facebook-worthy "perfect, happy life." I love what I'm learning and I love what I'm going to do. I still am counting down the days until I'm back on American soil for good.

Since I'm running out of time to finish writing this thanks to my vent session above, here's a quick rundown of the rest of my semester. Future upcoming events for me include a sheep anesthesia lab, some snorkeling with some professors and friends thanks to a last minute bid on a faculty auction post, several more exams, and some finals and come December 16th, I will be flying back to the States for a few weeks of family and vacation!