A Couple of Updates

Recent events:

Abby and I had a Ladies of Leisure going away party at Karma Beach Bar on Wednesday evening. Even though the party was just for the females, a few of the desperate househusbands happened to crash it! Well...technically, they were looking for something to do because they were bored...and I invited them. But me saying they 'crashed' our evening sounds much more dramatic and fun.

Anyway, it was so very nice to see everyone and to be out of the house. Also, Wednesday was the day that our Caribbean 'winter' began. The breeze was so strong and so cool that night. Dare I suggest we were a little...cold? Yes I know! Crazy! We experienced such a heat-blistering summer that it was nice to finally catch a break..not that I'm complaining since I will soon be back in Michigan where it's currently snowing. But back to our evening at Karma: Thanks to everyone who attended! Abby and I enjoyed your company...or maybe that was because of the free shots of tequila. Eh well. Haha, I kid. I kid.

The next event that occurred was Matthew's Transition Ceremony, which is quite similar to the White Coat Ceremony. But instead of being inducted into the veterinary medicine field with the presentation of a white coat, the students are presented with an instrument pack with their initials engraved on each piece. Fancy, huh?! I was pretty effing hungover, (wow this seems like a trend lately), but I managed to attend and enjoy the ceremony.

On Friday, Matty played in the championship flag football game. As per usual, it was Pink vs. Black, and Matty's semester/D12 team won the whole thing. Congrats girls and boys!

Lastly, I'm going to end this post with an irrelevant, but adorable photo of Kittsy and Trooper. How cute are they?

VIP group photo @ Karma.

One more try...

Jackie, Matty, and Ashley @ the Transition Ceremony.

Matty and Sharon

The NC State crew: Matty, Kirsten, Greg, Margaret, Rhiannon, and Juan

Vet Prep Crew - May 2010

D12 Flag Football Champions!

Bringing it in, one more time.

Booze.

I told you they were cute...

Commence the Celebrations!

Matty's finals are O-V-E-R!!! Hooray! Yahoo! Yay! Woot woot! (I'm not sure who's more excited: me or him!?)

It's now time to live. it. up. during these last five days of SK living. Live de Life, people. 

Fun in the sun, here we come! (We gotta make sure we're looking sunkissed before we return to our gray/blue/sunless Mitten state.) :-)

Beneath the Moon and Stars

A couple of weeks ago, I made plans to take Matty on a little adventure. One of the professors at RUSVM takes groups for stand up paddleboarding trips every month when the moon is full. (I believe that he also takes other groups during the daytime.) Since we don't have much time left in St. Kitts, I decided that this was something we should try to fit into our schedules before we leave. I mean, who knows when the next chance to do something like this will be?

We met our group down at The Strip on Thursday at 7:45 p.m. Once we figured out the logistics, we piled into our cars and headed to Whitehouse Bay to begin our night time fun. Matthew and I have never paddleboarded before, so I won't lie—I was a little nervous. I wasn't sure if I'd have the balance, and I definitely didn't want to fall in. You know...because it's dark out. And we're in the ocean. However, Dr. Spac gave us a short, but helpful tutorial and sent us on our way with glow sticks. And guess what?! Matty and I did a pretty good job; we were able to keep up with our group and we never fell in. Thank the lord! (I highly doubt something awful would happen, but you just never know what's swimming below you...muhahaha.) ;)

It took us about 1.5 hours to paddleboard from Whitehouse Bay all the way to The Strip. The moon guided our way, and it was beautiful to see the moonlight illuminating SK's rolling hills and lush landscape. At one point, we were able to sit on our boards as the current pulled us in, which was nice because we could finally relax a bit, and enjoy the beautiful view of the big bright moon and the shining stars, (without losing balance and risking a fall-in). 

I didn't bring my camera because it isn't water-proof, but Bess was kind enough to bring hers and take a few pics.

Nick, Matty, and Frank

Stand up paddleboarders in action...

Sitting around and enjoying the view of the shining stars above.

Our group.

We made it!

The entire trip was incredible, and I definitely recommend it!

Black Semester Banquet

On Saturday, November 24th, we attended Matthew's banquet celebration. This particular event is essentially the end-all party of the semester. Technically, we do have several parties after banquet, but this one is different. It's always held in the evening and everyone gets what I call, island fancy. The boys get out their ties and long pants, and the girls pull out their high heels and wedges from the back of the closet. (We don't normally wear heels down here unless for special occasions...flippies are our staple. Sand, rocks, hills...you get the idea.) We all know we're going to sweat our asses off, and that for us girls, our makeup is going to melt, but we deal with it. We deal with it, because we must. It's tradition; it's island fancy...or vain stupidity. However you want to look at it. Anyway, in addition to our sweaty selves, there's always dj music, food, booze, lots of dancing, and for some—a feeling of sentimentality floating in the air. It's pretty much a guaranteed good time.

Just like Pink Semester's banquet in July, Matthew's class chose Spice Mill as the venue. Since this restaurant is situated on Cockleshell Beach, we had a beautiful view of Nevis, as well as the serene coastline scenery of the peninsula. And what I love most about nighttime beach parties like this one, is that I always have the option to escape the loudness of the crowd. I can head to the shore and listen to the waves crawl and crash their way onto the beach.  S u p e r.  R e l a x i n g. 

Overall, we had a great time, but it was a little surreal to be there. I just can't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that Matthew and his classmates are almost finished with their 7th semester. Amazing! But sad. But amazing!

Here are a few photos from the event...

Group picture @ Timothy Hill scenic turn-out.

Photo credit: Paul Orchard

Photo credit: Paul Orchard

Photo credit: Paul Orchard

Photo credit: Paul Orchard

Lindsay, Rhiannon, me.

Matty G. & Matty D. are having a great time! Can't you tell?

Photo credit: Paul Orchard

WIVC Brimstone Gala 2012

Last week, RUSVM hosted the West Indies Veterinary Conference. Veterinarians and Ross alumni from all over (the world?) flew to St. Kitts to attend this week-long event. Someday Matthew and I hope to do the same. He can go to the continuing education segments, and I'll do...what I do now. :)

On Friday, our good friends Shane and Cristina invited us to attend the Brimstone Gala with them, (which was the closing event for the vet conference). Having never been to Brimstone Hill Fortress at night, it was quite the sight to see. It was absolutely beautiful and the view of the sunset was amazing! Just thinking about how nice this evening was, is making me feel sad about leaving our tropical island home in 36 days.

Here are some photos from the soiree. Enjoy!

Seriously. How pretty is this?

Matty, me, and lovely Rhiannon.

A group of Black Semester students and Dr. Wallace.

Shane, Cristina, me, and Matty.

Inside the tent.

After dinner, the stilt-walkers came out to entertain us. So tall!

Pretty cool, right? We had a lovely time, and we're so thankful that Shane and Cristina invited us to come along. :)

Pink Semester Banquet Photo

Remember when Matty and I went to Pink Semester's Banquet in July? We had such a fun time, despite the fact that I was ill for most of the evening. Ahhh, memories.

I have already shared photos from the event in a previous post, but I recently stumbled upon the picture below and thought to post it for your viewing pleasure. We might not get fancy often, but we clean up nicely. {Photo credit: Paul Orchard.}

From left to right, starting with back line: Dr. Mark Freeman, Nandra Morris, Tony Hall, me, and Matty.

7th Semester Update

Matty's Crazy Schedule

We are already half-way through the semester, people. This week, Matthew has an emergency rotation and his schedule for that is:

Wednesday: On-call: 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. (Thankfully, he didn't get called.)
Thursday: Work: 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
Friday: Work: 12:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.
Sunday: Work: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Sound like a couple of long days/nights to you? Yeah, well, this is just his schedule for his emergency rotation. He still has other responsibilities like going to class and SOAPing his sheep twice a day at 7:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., every single day. By the way, SOAPing stands for: subjective, objective, assessment, plan. Basically this means that the students have to check on their sheep and provide a report...at least I think that's what happens. Anyway, SOAPing occurs on the weekends too. Blah! I'd be so exhausted if I were him. Well, he is, but he's much less of a sour patch than I would be.

Soooo essentially, he left this morning at 6:15 a.m., and probably won't be home until sometime after midnight! What am I doing in the mean time, you ask? Well, actually, both Daisy and Tiffany are in California this week, so they aren't around to hang out with me. However, since Tiff is gone, her dogs need tending to while her student is in class, so I've been helping with that. I also started reading a new book series by Ally Condie called Matched. I finished the first book the other day, and am on the second one currently. I also caught up on all of the Dexter seasons. Other than that, just the usual stay-at-home daily life things: cook, clean, hang out with the pets, blog, bake, etc. 

NC State

I actually don't have a lot of updates regarding this...haha. We haven't found a place to live yet, and we aren't sure when we're going to move there. What I do know, is that he begins rotations January 14, 2013, and his orientation starts on January 9th. 

Island Life

I haaaaaaaaaate mosquitoes. I actually believe that they are little aliens. Recently, they very irritatingly made their presence known by swarming me in our laundry room, and biting me about a million times. Matty and I are also finding a lot of them in our house, which is crazy because we are usually very mosquito-free due to our intense hate for them. We don't leave our door open past 5:00 p.m. and if we go in and out after it's dark, you run in and run out! There isn't any of this 'lingering' business. And I'm telling you, our mosquito-hunting skills are now in our genes and will be passed on to our kid(s). Anyway, I think there's been an increase in numbers because of Tropical Storm Rafael and all the rain we received...creates lots of opportunities for those pesky mosquitoes to breed in the stagnant ponds of water. Also, Matthew recently cut our grass, and I think that stirred something up in their little communities. 

Okay, I think that's about it. I'll wrap up this post with a few photos of our island cat, Kitsy. He has certainly adopted us, (against our will), and has also managed to make our home, his home.

 

 

Happy Birthday, Matty!

Matthew's birthday was yesterday, October 1st. Unlike myself, he's very low-key when it comes to celebrating...well, anything. So, we decided on doing a typical birthday dinner with some of our favorites this Thursday at Bombay Blues.

In the mean time, Sharon baked him a delicious pie and brought it to class yesterday. And I went ahead and created a Facebook event with this lovely photo for the main page:

I thought it was pretty hilarious. Matty kind of just smirked at me and shook his head. Whatevs. I think he was just jealous of that mustache.

This morning, our friend, Rhiannon, messaged me on Gmail chat saying that Matthew made an interesting appearance on Dr. Wallace's web site. Obviously not understanding what she meant, she went ahead and sent me here. In case the link doesn't work, here's a screen shot:

Yep, there he is! Dr. Wallace showed everyone in class today. Hahahahaha. Sorry, Matty. Your 'low-key' birthday idea has been officially squashed.

The Dincaus Will Head to NC STATE

As I had recently mentioned, this was a big week for us. Not only did Matthew have his first cat spay surgery, we also found out where we'll be living come January. We are excited to share with you that we will heading to North Carolina State University for Matthew's clinical year. We feel very blessed/lucky/amazed/appreciative/surprised/thankful that he will be attending this school. If you'd like to know why, read the following email:

If you scrolled down and skipped the email, here's the summary: NC State is a sought-after school. Forty-six students listed it as one of their top choices. Only six from Matthew's semester were selected to attend. He's one of the lucky six.

Moving on. I have already spent a significant amount of time researching our soon-to-be home, chatting extensively with both Emily and Andrew who are both North Carolinians, and I have notified my friend, (and fellow VIP), Ryan, to start apartment shopping for us—since he and his wife, Kate, recently moved there from St. Kitts in August.

OMG! And Matty's twin, Rhiannon, who has been with him at RUSVM since Vet Prep, (May 2010), is going to NC State too!!! Which means that Sami will be there as well. I suppose Ryan, Sami, and I will just have to start our own SK-to-NC VIP group. Haha.

And regarding football, we will be called The Wolfpack and this is our mascot, Tuffy:

And of course, I had to google map the state as well as the driving distance (all pertinent information, you know):

It should take us about 15 hours from Manistee, MI to Raleigh, NC. 

And lastly, here are five interesting facts for you:

1. NC State is tied with CO State as the # 3 ranked veterinary med school in the US.

2. The capital city is Raleigh with the largest city being Charlotte.

3. A state culinary staple of North Carolina is pork barbecue. (Matthew is ecstatic about this, naturally.)

4. Growing Christmas trees has recently become an important industry (in NC).

5. North Carolina has 17 major river basins.