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September 14th 2008
Published: September 14th 2008
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New pictures: http://brookeroebuck.shutterfly.com

Saturday, Sept 6
5:28am
Location: Terminal B, Logan Airport

Well well well… Break has come and gone and now it’s time to return to the island. DOH. I haven’t written for some time, so let’s take a trip to the past and relive some of what I’ve been up to.
Hmmm… studying, studying, and… perhaps more studying?? Yeah, exciting, huh. The last two weeks of school were pretty trying - we had quite a few exams all in a row, not to mention the distracting excitement of returning home. I really didn’t do much of anything but study, eat, and sleep. And let me tell ya, that’s not a good combination for a beach body… I do have a bit of an exciting trip to talk about - the day before I returned home, a few hours after the last cumulative final (god it was hard), I went out sailing with some friends from class. We took some sort of big sailboat and sailed around the carib inlet near the school. It was pretty glorious. The day was beautiful - it had been very, very hot, so it was nice to get out in the ocean breeze. We sailed around for a few hours, and guess what we saw - DOLPHINS!! Yes, it was spectacular. There were two bottle nose dolphins that began to play around the wake of our boat - they didn’t stay too long and when they left, we decided to try to chase them, but I don’t think that was the best idea we’ve ever had… Our sailboat was big and fast, but they were faster and became disinterested in us quickly, to our dismay. I did however get some pictures and videos of them, which I will load onto Shutterfly and share. Now, I have mentioned my fear of open water… I dunno probably in just about every blog!?! So I am sure that you can imagine how I might have been feeling to be on this big sailboat in the ocean. I mean, it was fun and all, don’t get me wrong, but there were also definitely times when I thought we were going to flip over. I do not understand this whole sailing thing. I think it’s really bothersome to travel at such a list - I mean, isn’t that just weird?? I would think boats are supposed to stay upright, but what do I know. Yeah so we had the sails going and everything and well, we only had one seasoned veteran on the ship, the captain, and he only had one arm, so I was scared. But he did a great job and we all had a great time and got home safely.
Then, FINALLY, Wednesday came and I was ready to bust that island for home!! My transport came to pick me up at 330am (no, I didn’t go to bed that night), and then I got stuffed (literally) into a van with about 30 other people and their luggage. I, as usual, was squashed between the window, the hub of the wheel well, and a drunk girl sleeping on me on the long, windy road to the airport. We finally arrived at the good ole airport of Dominica. We then finally boarded the place and I was up up and AWAY to the wonderful island of Antigua for a layover - or so I thought (the plot thickens). So we get to Antigua, deboard, go through security, and then wait to be called for boarding. We get called for boarding, and just as I am handing my ticket to the woman, she announces that she has to stop boarding because our plane is having “mechanical issues.” So, we stand around for a little while and then we are discreetly told we will begin boarding again - and this time travelling to the lovely island of Dominica. WHAT!?! Silly lady, we’re going to San Juan. Funny joke. And she was like, yes that’s right. You’re going back to Dominica - we want to fill the plane with more bodies (our flight to Antigua was COMPLETELY FULL). So, as you can imagine, we almost began rioting because once you get off that island, you do not want to go back for a long, long time. Not to mention EVERYONE was going to miss their connecting flights through San Juan. So has any American would do, we demanded to see the manager, as picking up three people in Dominica, after we had already flown to Antigua from Dominica, didn’t make any sense. And as in any West Indies nation, there either is no such thing as a manager, or they conveniently employ “island time” so that they never step foot near the enraged captives of Liat airlines. So we made a big stink, which didn’t help anyway, and were then flown all the way back to Dominica. Then they made us deboard again in Dominica for security reasons (PUHlease), which again enraged the captives and then they had us board again and finally flew us to Puerto Rico, where we were supposed to arrive three hours earlier. Needless to say, I missed my connecting an literally ran around the San Juan airport like a crazy chicken with my head cut off trying to find new flights. I then had to convince security that my new flight was leaving in ten minutes and that I needed help getting through the security line, which by the way tagged me for EXTRA patting down and bag searches. So I walked onto my plane about one minute before the doors closed. ***Boarding to fly to Puerto Rico - will write there.***


Saturday, Sept 13
10:43pm
Location: My bed in Dominica

Well, a week has passed since my arrival back in Dominica and I have still failed to finish this blog. So, I’m gonna cut to the chase.
I finally arrived home in Boston to my wonderful family and spent the rest of my time travelling to visit family, friends, and coworkers. I spent time in NY, Michigan, Boston, and NH. I had a great visit, but it was much too short. I didn’t get the chance to see everyone I wanted to see, nor was I able to spend as much time with everyone as I would have liked, but I am thankful for being able to spend time with my family and being able to catch up with those whom I was able to see. My break ended quickly, and all of the sudden it was time to prepare for my trip back to the island.
I have since returned to the island and started my second semester in medical school. That’s like the second half of the first year. Things are going well so far - we’re only a week in, so there’s been a lot of surface, introductory information. I probably should mention the anatomy lab we had the other day - we were dissecting the skull and the brain. Never have I had an experience such as looking into the skull of a human being - at the point that I saw it, as another group did the dissection, the brain was removed, but I was able to see the brain stem coming through the base of the skull, as well as many of the nerves coming through the skull, such as eye and face nerves, etc. I have to admit, it was a bit of a nauseating experience - Perhaps just a little too graphic for the first day back to classes. Other than that, things have been pretty status quo school-wise.
I do have one exciting development to report - we have a new “7-11”! Now, before you get all excited like I did, let me just say that it’s not the chain 7-11 like we have at home, but it IS a convenience store, or “grocery store,” that’s open seven days a week, 11 hours a day, which is spectacular. It’s pretty close to where I live, which is great. They have some standard stuff here, but the location and hours are key. Now if only they start delivering…
While I’m thinking about it, I’ve also started a new list of things that sweat - these are body parts that you never knew could sweat. I’ve added two parts this past week - toes, and the front of the knees. In other words, yes, it’s been ungodly hot here.
I don’t have much else to report at the moment, so I am going to end here and post this thing before another month passes. Tomorrow, I am planning to go scuba diving, so if you don’t hear from me, it’s because a shark ate me. Please pray.
Miss you all.
Love,
Brooke



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14th September 2008

brookey!
hope you make it safely through the waters! :) skull!!!! brain!!!!!!!!!!!
14th September 2008

SHARK!
Well hopefully you won't see any people-eating creatures in the sea... Study hard!
15th September 2008

have fun!
Hey Brooke!! I hope you have fun scuba diving! I wish I was going with you. Miss you already! Shan:)

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