The sadness that is our volleyball courts...

pictures. You're welcome.

All of this used to be nice flat and sandy. Now it is rocky. Plus a table.

New and Improved! Now with a mini-cliff!

Look down the coastline, see the grassy area?? Yeah.... that used to have sand over there covering those rocks. Also note the volleyball net pole in the water.

Well, there you have it. Really, I shouldn't complain. Volleyball is not a necessity although quite enjoyable. Lots of people had flooded homes, and some of the schools lost lots of textbooks and supplies when their classrooms flooded. The priorities should definitely go to fixing up homes and schools before they try to rebuild the beaches, but we will all be happy when we get more courts up!

It's been one of those weeks...

where I bake a lot.

It started with a chocolate craving, followed by ingestion of a horrible freezer cake (you know those boxed ones at the grocery store) which inevitably led to me experimenting with cocoa powder, baking soda, loads of flour and lots of muscle. You see, I don't have a hand mixer or a standing mixer, so all my baking is done by hand.... literally. More on baking later, but before I forget, news for the week!

Long lost picture... my first fast food in 8 months, taken in August on the way to Oregon (I think)

School is moving right along, I only have 3 days of class this week, which is more like 2.5 because I am done at noon tomorrow, so I'm pretty excited to actually take a break and get some sun this weekend. Yay volleyball! If I can manage it, I'll take some pictures of the beaches this weekend to show you all how much the weather did affect the beaches.

Matt and I had our anniversary yesterday... seven years! We had a very tame little celebration, but it was nice. We went to the Marriott for sushi which was okay, not amazing but not bad for St. Kitts sushi, then met up with friends who were playing bingo in the casino. They were the only table of people laughing and drinking... it was pretty obvious where they were amidst the sea of people. It was enjoyable, especially after taking the midterm that day. OH! Yes, my morning yesterday started with a Pharmacology 2 midterm. It was brutal. So... many... antibiotics.... and WHY must they name them so similarly??? I envy human doctors who only need to know how a drug works in one species. A drug that works great orally in a dog may not, and probably does not work so well in horses, or it could kill a horse but be safe in a dog! Or use it in dairy cows but not beef cows and the list goes on. Good thing there is this giant book we like to call a reference guide which is a necessity for keeping the drugs you don't use often straight.

After sushi at the Marriott. I'm becoming a pro at taking photos with an outstretched arm!

Back to baking....

I don't have any pictures of the chocolate cake I made from scratch, but if you're interested here is the recipe: Smitten Kitchen Everyday Chocolate Cake

I forgot about it in the oven, so mine got a bit crunchy on the outside, but having a kitchen timer would solve that. Also, the brown sugar we get here is exactly like the Hawaii "Sugar in the Raw" because well, it is. It is locally produced cane sugar granules... needless to say it doesn't create as smooth of a texture as regular brown sugar that you find in the states. The awesome part of it though, is how cheap it is! I paid 75 cents (US) for a 2 pound bag.

And the other baking project this week were these: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

With better pictures and an alternate, more health conscious recipe here: Erin's Food Files

The finished product, fresh out of the oven.

My changes were to use fresh pumpkin puree, because you can't find canned pumpkin here, but every store has giant chunks of pumpkin with a very thin green skin for about 50 cents (US)/ pound of pumpkin. Needless to say, pumpkin is CHEAP! I like to buy a couple of chunks, boil it down, smash it, then freeze it in batches for easy recipe use. If anyone is interested, I also have a couple of other good pumpkin recipes. It is, after all, October! Oh, and I only used about 1 tablespoon of butter in the streusel topping which kept it crumbly... 3 tablespoons I would've had mush! Here is the process:

This is the pumpkin based batter

Followed by a big spoonful of a cream cheese mixture right in the center

And topped off with a streusel pecan crumble (I forgot to take a picture until it was in the oven)

Nom nom nom!

And finally, for the second ever installment of "St. Kitts-ism of the week!" (a special double feature)
1. The electric department is going to shut off any accounts that have not been paid in over 60 days, but they haven't given out bills in MONTHS (some people haven't even received a bill for July yet). Even better, they state that having not received a bill is no excuse for not paying. Yup.

2. As of November 1st, a 17% VAT will apply to EVERYTHING imported to St. Kitts. Goodbye semi-affordable food, hello starvation. Even some apartments are subject to VAT on the rent! (Luckily not mine)

I nearly forgot... major disappointment after bringing animal cookies home from the grocery store...

Yes, it is all just one big glob of cookie and frosting.

Sigh...

Enjoy, and Happy Halloween! Keep chocolate away from you puppies and kitties please, nobody likes emergency vet visits.

Hello World,

It has been a while. Why don't we reacquaint ourselves?

My 4th semester of vet school is half over. Plus, my time spent on St. Kitts is also halfway over! Can you believe how quickly it has gone?

This term is going well, it is much more interesting than previous semesters. The courses include: Pharmacology 2, Pathology 2, Clinical Pathology, Epidemiology & Public Health, and finally Mechanisms of Disease. Yes, you counted correctly, that is FIVE classes. Ooooooooof. Two midterms are down... only... a billion more to go. I exaggerate from time to time.

Let's see... what else is new.

The island survived hurricane Earl with no problems at all, but then a few weeks later, with no warning, a tropical depression formed directly over us and stayed for about 6 days leaving the island a little less inviting. Houses flooded, roads flooded, roads washed out, roads became covered in a couple of feet of sand and had to be dug out, and the beaches eroded away quite drastically. Luckily everyone seemed to come out unscathed none the less. Most things returned to normal within a few days, some activities will take longer to rebuild. Most noteworthy to the students is the lack of space for our Friday beach volleyball league. Only 2 of our 6 courts were salvageable leaving 50+ volleyball teams with no where to play. Luckily we have one awesome volleyball league "director" who has been doing everything he can to get the games back in play. Hopefully the oceans will return some more sand and we'll be able to rebuild more courts for next semester.

BIRD UPDATE! Matt reports that 2 doves came back to our porch and sat on the chair where the nest used to be. I saw the fuzzy picture he was able to take, but we still aren't sure if they are the babies who are now adults, or the parents checking out the site for nesting again. Time will tell! I'll keep you all updated. 

Back in school land, things are going well. I'm learning lots of fun clinically-relevant things, which makes school more fun. I can now tie THREE knots in suture using instruments. Pretty cool, right? Oh, and I can read blood work results and make a few diagnoses from the results. It is like solving a puzzle with lots of rules. (If this is high, but that is low, then check this, if it is high then it is this, if not, check something else, if that is low, then it is this.... see how confusing it can get??)

I really should take more pictures. The island is a beautiful place, I just keep forgetting to take my camera out of the drawer. One day....

In other unrelated news, I am going to Europe!!! In between next semester (5th) during the break, so it will be the last week of April and the first week of May in 2011. I am very excited to go have an adventure with my friends. We're planning on going to: London, Venice, Florence, 2 undetermined cities in southern France (possibly Lyon and Nimes, or Marseilles, or somewhere), then to Barcelona. Lots of planning still to come, but I think it will be a lot of fun. I haven't quite figured out how I'll manage without seeing my family or visiting home during those 8 months (because I'll be in St. Kitts for 2 straight semesters, using the break to go to Europe) but we will see. Lots of skyping will have to suffice!

Speaking of home... Zoe and I have devised a list of activities to complete when we both get home. She would have been away for 6 months in India by Christmas, and only 4 for myself. There are lots of good things on that list though. Like going to Ikea for breakfast. And Grocery Outlet. and Sushi. Yes, most of them do revolve around food. We know, we like food, a lot.

And, to create a new section to my blog, for those of your with the attention span long enough to still be reading... the St. Kitts-ism of the week! (aka Joy of St. Kitts of the week, or an Only In St. Kitt's of the week, they will all fall into this category)

So, for the 1st time ever,
Laura's St. Kitts-ism for the week!
..... finding live larva in your applesauce! (bought in sealed containers from the grocery store)

ahhhh island living....

To be fair, it could have been crawling on the packaging and crawled in when I opened it. But still! Larva should not be in your applesauce. Ever.

Pathology is calling my name!! Or maybe it is the midterm on Wednesday.... wish me luck!