What I Really Learned in Med School

St. Maarten has been our island getaway for when we needed a taste of civilization. It is like our "city" (our Halifax, if you will) and our stopover on our way home and back. I went there 11 or 12 times and I loved it more every time. Well, except for that one time I got stranded there and I stayed in a sketchy hotel. Here are a few pictures of it in all its beauty. The first one is from Pinterest and the second one I stole from a friend after our flight over. And some pictures from my stopover trips there! Pictures of the planes going over Maho Beach are all over the internet, but I like my own because it reminds me of experiencing it. It is awesome.  

This semester has been pretty uneventful as far as social gatherings go, but we still take the one afternoon after exams off. I am still undergoing post-vacation detox so now I am thinking I will wait to retox until after the Exit Exam. After Block 1, Craig and Sara and I explored the Tide Pools . I’ve done it before but it is so beautiful and unique that it is worth doing again. Afterwards, we grabbed some pizza from SeaWitch and then headed to Steph’s with the rest of our group of friends. After Block 2, we had a BBQ on the beach at the Cove. People went snorkeling and we threw the football around. These are the types of days that I think I will look back on happily after I leave here. There are not many places in the world where you can have a beach party any day of the year. I was asked to take the photos for our class yearbook this semester so I did that recently. It is always interesting to watch people’s reactions to having their photo taken. I t...

I have finally made it to my last semester on Saba. I always thought that “the 5ths” had it all together – they knew all that they would learn in theory and they were as close to being doctors as anyone on this island. But now that I am one, I’m left looking around wondering how I got here. People ask me if this experience has flown by and in many ways it has. When I picked up my life and moved to the Caribbean, I thought that these two years would be ones that I had to “get through,” but I learned quickly that they are just as much a part of my journey as any other. I have met people that I have so much in common with and that I learn so much from. Some that I will stay connected to and many that I certainly will never forget. I like to think that I’ve grown in some small ways from the girl who failed her first histology exam, but in many ways I am still her. I’m excited about all that I have learned but the feeling of never knowing enough often consumes me. I have found way...

Need I say more? Because really... Paris was the city that I had the highest hopes for. It is a city that I (and many others) dream about for years and fall in love with before ever arriving. And I must say, it did not disappoint. It had great food, culture, architecture, romance, and old world charm. It really did look like a postcard. We did a bus tour of the city on our first morning before they set us free to roam and as I could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance, I had to make myself not look at it because I was too excited. When we were getting close, our Tour Manager, Matt, was going through some WWII history and getting us to count the windows of some big building to our left and of course I took it very seriously until he said “just kidding, I just wanted to distract you from what is on your right.” And when we turned – there it was. In all its glory. We had driven into the perfect view of it. You could hear people ooh and ahhing just as we pulled over to get of...