St. Maarten Sherpas

Caribbean Sherpas

Another week of feverent panic and overwhelming resolution has once again arrived and departed. By conquering the second set of block exams, the incoming May 2009 class now have 10% of the steps necessary to complete the basic sciences portion of this epic journey towards the Grail-like M.D....only 90% more to go ;-). What a way to begin a day---a one hour 50 question Histolgy exam, followed by a 40 minute break, only to jump right into the 40 quesiton Molecular Cell Biology exam, and rounding off the A.M. with another 40 question written exam on Human Anatomy. What happiness, 180 hours of studying regurgitated in 3 seperate and sequential 50 minute sessions.

Study through lunch

The last hour of the testing day was spent staring at formaldeyhde infused cadavers squinting our eyes to identify tiny phrenic and chorda typmani nerves and fantastic muscles like the salpingopharyngeus (i promise that this is truly a real name). Many sleepless nights, aching backs and computer strained eyes were suddenly relieved as "time" was called on the last exam of the day. Upon that magical sound, the crown of sun starved students broke out to all areas of the compass in search of their respective extracurricular activities and libations of choice.

Several of us chose to unwind at Happy Bay, a small seculded beach that is about a 20 minute hike from Friar's Bay. This beach is the picture that comes to your mind when someone says "Caribbean Beach", it has all the sterotypical elements: beautifuly soft sand, turquoise green water that is clear like a windowpane, long palm trees slightly bent by the constant refreshing trade winds, and a gentle crashing surf that broke over a colorful reef. Perfect!

We also decided that snorkeling would not be sufficient to explore the underwater world that Happy Bay had to offer, Scuba would be the only way to completely unwind the tension brought on from the rigors of the previous weeks madding study marathon. But how to get the gear across mountain on a 20 minute hike. Ingenuity that's how. A quick dissasembly of two mops and the de-bedspreading of one of our beds made a wonderful boy-scout like stretcher that could pack the Scuba tank and other necessary gear. But to our dismay once the women-type folk found that this trip included the utilization of sherpas to pack large cumbersome objects (such as weighted down beach bags) they quickly added to the already mountanous amount of gear that we were taking to our area of unwinding.

We had the entire beach to ourselves, (which was kind of by default since the nudists left when we arrived with all that gear in tow, parading in with 2 wild dogs).

With the aforementioned invaders of "Our Happy Bay" removed from the area, we set up camp under the cool shade of a group of verdent mangroves and began the much deserved unwinding process.

James and Amanda enjoying the sunny day

There was not alot of activity mostly just relaxing and talking about everything in the world that did not involve a nerve lesion syndrome or some type of protein metabolism. The diving was OK, we started late in the evening when the sun had already began setting so the visibilty was not what is would have been at 3PM, but we did see a nice black and white sea snake, not sure which kind but it was fantastic. I was able to check that off of my all time top under sea life to see over this next lifetime of diving.

A little coconut milk mixed with a dash (or maybe a little more than a dash) of sweet Caribbean rum was the perfect topper to a perfectly perfect day. Drinking right from the source is the only way to be a true islander.

James, Allison and I enjoying the coconut milk after Block 2

Iva has quickly conquered her once overbearing fear of the ocean that she displayed only 7 short days ago, she spent most of the day running about in circles at top speed and playing with her new found friend, Layla, the Coconut Retriever that belongs to our neighbors.

Iva also discovered that she not only enjoys running about in the sand, but that it is also a tasty treat as well. She spent a good portion of her time digging an enormous hole in the sand and eating the contents. Well you do know what goes into a hyper dog must come out of a hyper dog....and it did. The next morning we found a perfectly shaped dog poo sand castle lying in the middle of the living room floor.

I'm back in the study pits after my customary "Tueday after blocks study free day" so I must return to my Genetics book and hope that I can somehow manage to understand these chrosomal abnormality diseases before the pirates show back up.

I hope I brought enough coffee....