Term 5 ponderings

"You're term 5?!?! Wow, you've been here forever and must be so excited to be almost done with Grenada!" 

I can't tell you the number of times I have heard that just in the past week! What's the saying? If I had a dime for every time someone said it, I'd be rich? Yes. Yes I would be.

The thing is though, my feelings about being term 5 are not so one-sided or black and white... but how would I even begin to explain this to someone who has only been here a handful of days and is still transitioning to island life and the thought of completing 2 years and 5 terms of medical school (or whatever program or alotted time frame for your situation) is still overwhelmingly daunting... Yes I am thrilled to be term 5! This means Nick is one step closer to achieving his dream. This means he has so far conquered the basic sciences portion of med school like a freakin' champ. This means 4th term is behind us. This means I am one step closer to a job that includes a paycheck. However, we've been here a year and half- not forever. Yes, at the end of each term does it sometimes feel that way? Certainly. But really we love Grenada and all in all when I think about our time here on this wonderful little island, I think good things and that time has literally flown by! And when it comes to leave for good it will absolutely be bittersweet.

Another thing that always sits with me funny is the "done with Grenada" part. Will we ever really be done with Grenada? I don't think so. And I sure hope not. It's hard to top the feeling I get when I see the kids with big smiles on their faces racing toward me like it's the greatest thing in the entire world. And they react that way every time! It's unconditional love at it's best. At the same time, as much as I will miss being hands on with the kids, and seeing pictures of other volunteers with them will be wonderful but also make me miss them entirely too much- there is almost more I can do to help these kids from the United States. In the U.S I can do fundraisers and help in many ways that I am unable to here due to financial restrictions and distance from those I am hoping to reach out to for support once we get home. So, it's 6 in one- half a dozen in the other. For my own personal fulfillment, I will miss their cute faces and squeezes every day... but at the same time, I find solace in that I know there are many volunteers here who will continue to love on them, and I can take my talents and help them even more from a distance. Oh, and of course hopefully visit again in the not too far off future when Nick comes back to SGU as a guest lecturer and I can come back and play... hey, a girl can dream right? :)

To me- living abroad... more specifically, living in Grenada comes down to this: it is what YOU make of it. You have control to decide what type of experience have here. You are in charge of the extra activities you seek out to fill your time. You control your attitude. No one else is going to make Grenada be a certain way for you, but you can choose to make it the best couple of years possible.

Does this mean it will be amazing 100% of the time? No. I doubt it. I think you could have the most positive outlook on life ever and still have days that drive you bonkers... but honestly, that is just life in general- not just life here on this tiny island. I think it is easy to forget that sometimes.

Change can be a good thing- try to embrace it!
There are things to do in Grenada- go seek them out and explore!
Meet people & make friends- there are many other people in your similar shoes!
Start a new hobby- something that a hectic life in the U.S may not allow time for!
Remember the grass is always greener on the other side- in a few years when you are working a 9-5 job, sitting in rush hour traffic, surrounded by buildings and congestion- this life might seem more glamorous!
Volunteer- the kids in Grenada will undoubtedly steal your heart, or find some other organization you are passionate about. Whatever it is- Get involved!
Keep an open mind- your own small life box is not all the world has to offer, learn from new people and experiences!
Laugh at things beyond your control- tomorrow, next month, or next year... it will make a good story!

Look at me being so bossy... ha, but seriously. 2-3 years... is not forever. And with a little effort, positive thinking, and a little less focus on the negative, you just might find these few years go by super fast. You might find you had some fun. You might find you grow a lot as a person by stepping outside the box. You might find that Grenada steals a piece of your heart that you don't ever intend to leave completely behind.

Mmmm... Ants?!

Well...

I was just about to go to bed and wanted a glass of water.

I reach for the water that I had just poured and placed by the bed maybe 3 minutes ago...

I drink it. I swallow it. I open my eyes...

The cup is filled with ants.

Process of elimination tells me- I just swallowed a cup of ants.

Anddddd, officially welcome back to Grenada. 

My life is awesome.

2012- A year filled with adventures & blessings!

Last post was on December 15, 2012. Whew! What a wonderful whirlwind life has been since then!

I'll start out by saying 2012 was a great year! Just maybe, the best year ever. Seriously, let me do a quick run down of what the wonderful year of 2012 had to offer.  I kicked it off with a bang by officially moving to Grenada with Nick on January 4th. This was the big medical school year for Nick as he would complete 3 terms of school before the year was over and we would spend about 9  out of the 12 months of 2012 living in Grenada. Life in Grenada is never dull. This can mean it is full of excitement, new adventures, beautiful Grenadian children and sunshine OR it can mean broken fridges, fires in the shower, endless bugs, cat calls, and non-stop sweating- however, regardless of whichever way the arrow points for that day, life here is always an adventure and a good story to tell. Living in Grenada has been a huge blessing that I would not trade in for all the AC, season changes, and convenience of the United States for anything. God has a plan, his plan is good, and we are better for it!

Summer of 2012 brought a wonderful surprise in the form of the sweetest proposal ever from my main squeeze! There are no words for the way I felt that day, but I can easily say I have never been more surprised, shocked, excited, and happy- ever. It was perfect! I enjoyed every aspect of being engaged and wedding planning and thanks to a ton of help from our parents and my sister, the whole planning process was smooth, enjoyable, and stress-free... and even living in the time warp that is Grenada- our 6 months of engaged life flew by!

Starting in August, we braced ourselves for 4th term of medical school. The looming giant and stormy cloud that had been slowly approaching had finally arrived. We'd heard the stories, we'd witnessed others go through it before us, and now it was our turn. On top of Nick's hectic and stressful schedule, I was also busy as a member of the SO board, wedding planning, and had my hands full with studying for my social work board exam. The madness ended with nothing but smiles however, as we both kicked major butt and came out on the other side with Nick getting all great grades in his hardest term ever AND I passed my exam!  It's so rewarding to see all of Nick's endless hours of studying pay off and he continues to impress me daily with his motivation, dedication to learning, and incredible study habits.

To celebrate our recent successes and to help bring the crazy, yet wonderful, year to an end- we took a trip down the aisle! I'll start by saying-  I want to get married every day! Everything about our wedding was perfect. We got a dusting of snow the day before, the roads were perfect the day of, although the day started out a bit gray and cloudy the sun and blue skies appeared 45 minutes prior to our ceremony and remained the rest of the evening. We were surrounded by hundreds of our closest family members and friends and felt so much love and support that we were completely overwhelmed (in a good way of course). The day went by SO FAST, but I had been told by many to try and take a step back throughout the day to just take everything in... and I am so glad I did! We are so blessed to have so many special people in our lives who really helped us pull everything together and who did a good chunk of the leg work for us because without them, it would not have been possible! 12-22-12 was a great day- and as it was said, the world did not end on the 21st, but on the 22nd a new beginning and chapter began for us and for our families :)

We celebrated our first married Christmas together just a few short days later surrounded by many family members and friends as we made our rounds hitting 5 different Christmas parties! We wouldn't have had it any other way however, because it gave us the opportunity to see everyone again before it was time to head home to Grenada.

We ended 2012 on a cruise ship celebrating our new marriage, love, and happiness the best way Nick and I know how... in the sun, playing all kinds of silly games, going on fun outdoorsy adventures, and eating more than any 2 people should! My luggage may not have made it on the cruise ship with us, thus giving me a new nickname of "giftshop dress girl" thanks to needing to wear the only dress they had for sale in the gift shop on New Years Eve... but it made for some great stories and that was literally the only snafu we encountered the entire trip! All in all, it was SO WONDERFUL to have my main man back from the claws of medschool and to enjoy nothing but relaxation and fun together to celebrate a fabulous year of great accomplishments and to get us ready to take on 2013 which promises to be filled with just as much craziness!

We are now back in Grenada and it is so hard to believe we are in the final stretch. Where has time gone? I seriously remember Nick walking through airport security to head to this unknown little island without me like it was yesterday and now here we are starting to finalize our plans to leave Grenada for good which is definitely bittersweet. Time. Flies.

So here's to 2012 and all the happiness and love it brought and all the wonderful memories I will forever cherish! Cheers to 2013 and all the many fun, crazy, most likely a little stressful, but amazing adventures that this new year has to bring! Oh, and double cheers to not having any studying left to do and to having very few responsibilities this term outside playing with and loving on the children here in Grenada for the next 5 months! Hard work and sacrifice paid off, and I most certainly intend to make the most out of it!

Chow for now! :)

Peace Out, 4th Term!

I've been home a little over 2 weeks and honestly am not sure where time has gone! Life has been busy, but a fun busy! I've been running all over doing last minute wedding stuff- dotting our Is and crossing our Ts. Thankfully, we got SO much help from family here on the home front while we were gone that although I feel like I have been doing a lot non-stop- really, there was not too much left that needed to be done :) We are SO appreciative of all the help because it has allowed this process to stay fun and relatively free of stress!

The final missing piece to the puzzle lands in the U.S in a few short hours!!! YES, Nick has OFFICIALLY completed 4th term and I could not be more proud! Now, I say this each term and after each test (and genuinely mean it each time because he amazes me) but let me tell you... 4th term, was hard. It was draining. It was exhausting. It was stressful. It was consumed by Pathology, with several other classes also demanding attention as well. It was long. And Nick handled it like a freakin' champ and now I get to brag on him a bit :) He ran on just a few hours of sleep each night and endured 12+ hour days filled with class, followed by lab, further followed by hours of studying... for 5 months straight. Yet, through it all he still managed to come home with a smile on his face more days than not. Still managed to leave his stress from studying at the door more days than not. Still would surprise me with help around the house whenever he could. And still sent me sweet messages on Skype, when the days got long and we were hardly seeing each other. Annnnnddd, on top of all that, he ROCKED Pathology, a 13 credit, hard as can be class. He's a rock star. And probably not going to be a fan of all my bragging about him... but it's deserved, and I am allowed :)

Tomorrow starts wedding week! And I am so excited to have him home to be a part of it! I love how excited he is and how much he likes to be involved :) Nothing sounds better than a week of pre-wedding last minute things in front of Christmas movies with my favorite guy, family, and closest friends!

Good riddance 4th term! I'll GLADLY take my student back now :) So proud of Nick and all of my 4th term friends and their SOs for surviving this beast of a term!

Social Work Exam- CHECK!

I most definitely have some major catching up to do. For starters, as I've mentioned, the reason for my lack of blogging and fun recently has been due to studying for my Social Work Board exam. I've heard over and over again about what a tough exam it is and the practice tests I took definitely had me studying EXTRA hard out of fear of failing. Well, all the hours put in on campus and all the hours and days spent bummin' because I had to miss out on Limes and time with kids paid off because... I PASSED!!!!! There are no words to describe my relief and excitement! It is obviously so rewarding and nice to see all my hard work pay off, but even more than that, I am just beyond happy that I don't have to split or sacrifice time with the Limes babies next term... it was such a sacrifice for me to do this term, and I often felt distanced by others when my attendance started to dwindle that it really made for a couple of rough months and so when I saw I had passed I literally got to my car and cried. All the stress, hard work, and sacrifices had paid off... not to mention, it was the hardest exam of my life, so I was down right just proud to have passed! SO yes, just a huge relief and SO looking forward to being able to soak up tons of kiddo time during our final term in Grenada starting in January :)

Social Work licensure is strange in that, in order to be fully licensed in Michigan (currently I have my temporary license, which is good for 6 years) you need to pass the ASWB board exam and work 2 years PAID full time. It's so interesting and odd to me that what they require as a requisit for "doing social work" is a paycheck. Some of the best and most valuable social work I have done in my life has been in Grenada through different things and I am NOT receiving a paycheck to do it. I don't know, maybe I am the only who thinks it is weird, but I do. It doesn't matter, because I have all the hard parts done for my licensure, and will complete my 2 years well before my 6 years is up, but still... when it comes to Social Work- it's funny to me that something like a paycheck is what they deem the greatest factor in determining whether you have experience or not.

A highlight in the final weeks before I left Grenada was in thanks to two of my lovely friends in Grenada- Jessica and Desiree who put together a Grenadian Bachelorette Party for me!! It was so much fun and so sweet of them to do! We went on a sunset boat cruise, played some games, enjoyed some drinks, and had a full boat dance party- the bonus to having an entire catamaraan to ourselves! It was perfect! I am so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends in Grenada, they definitely know how to make a girl feel special! It was especially fun because I had been oddly MIA from activities in the last month and half leading up to the party due to studying my butt off, so it was really nice to see them and I definitely appreciated everyone for coming out!!!

Thanksgiving in Grenada

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It always has been. Growing up Thanksgiving was marked by waking up extremely early (or so it seemed to me- I've never been a morning person a day in my life) and heading downtown to meet up with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to go to the Thanksgiving Day Parade. We'd all meet at big boy and eat lots of yummy breakfast before putting a million layers of clothing and bracing ourselves to fight for a close spot on the street for the parade. Thanksgiving morning always seemed to be one of the coldest Michigan days of the year, but we were armed with hats, gloves, hand warmers, boots, and everything else my parents wisely thought to bring to keep young kids happy (ish)... in -0 temperatures, said kids may have just been crying, cold, handfuls... But, when we were super young we got the perks of having a really tall dad and got a shoulder view, and when we got a little older, we had the fun of weaseling through the crowds, and pushing aside other people to successful get to the street side- in perfect position to high five the parade people, snag some candy, and of course see Santa. It was the best!

As we got older we stopped going to the parade but still the days were marked by other things I loved. No school. Family. Lions football. And lots and lots of food. Who wouldn't love a day filled with those things?

I also love the sentiment surrounding Thanksgiving. I love that this time of year forces us all to focus our attention on what we are thankful for and the many blessings we have in life. It's so easy to get caught up in stress and negativity that it such a nice, and heartwarming change. 

That brings me to this Thanksgiving. My first Thanksgiving away from home EVER. My first Thanksgiving not surrounded by tons of family members. Not curled up watching the Lions game on a real TV. Not picking an outfit that will allow me to over-eat all the delicious Thanksgiving food. Instead, we are here in Grenada, where if it weren't for Facebook updates telling me it is indeed Thanksgiving, I'd never know it. I woke up hot to sun beating in the window. Nick left for classes somewhere around 7:15. And my agenda basically consisted of heading to campus to study with the Lions game on in the background. All in all, it was just a pretty normal day here on the island.

However, whether it feels like Thanksgiving or not, I have SO much to be extra thankful for this year.  I of course am thankful for family, friends, health, opportunity, and adventures of all kinds. In addition to the normal blessings, this year I am thankful for the opportunity to be in Grenada and for Nick to have the opportunity to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. I am thankful for the life- changing experience of living on this island, which opens my eyes to the importance of the small things in life and where the children warm my heart unconditionally. Although we may yearn for home and to be surrounded with family and friends, there is no denying that Grenada will always be like a second home to us and will always hold a super special place in our hearts.

For a couple of weeks I had been planning on trying to cook us something "Thanksgiving-ish" for today without breaking the bank as the cost of Turkey here can be pricey and without taking too much time away from studying. But then a wonderful opportunity presented itself. Several of the volunteers who work with Limes have put together a fundraiser to help send one of our little girls (Kylie) and her mom to the States so that Kylie can have brain surgery.  Kylie was diagnosed with a tumor and needs to have a shunt put in and while it has been arranged for the surgery to be done pro-bono and her mom will be able to stay at Ronald McDonald House for free, the flights to get them there are not cheap. So of course, our wonderful Limes coordinators put their heads together and came up with an excellent idea of offering a hot, home cooked Thanksgiving meal, on campus! Boy, was it a success! They sold out of all their food in under 10 minutes!! Needless to say, although we did not make it there quick enough to snag a plate, the over-all goal was to help Kylie and they certainly accomplished that! She's such a sweet baby, and so so loved by so many of the volunteers, and it was great to see so many people pull together and help and support her! One of the downsides to studying for my test is that I feel much less able to help with things like this, but my heart is so happy seeing all the hard work of fellow SOs pay off.

And, with some help from some friends, I was able to toss together some mashed potatoes which allowed us entry into a Thanksgiving dinner later on, so we still got our Thanksgiving meal :) 

All in all, a pretty successful Thanksgiving if I do say so myself!

Slacker blogger award

Time is passing SO quickly these days, I can't even believe it!

Life update since my blogging has been less than stellar... Nick survived the second round of exams and once again did awesome! He successfully completed Microbiology and is happy to check yet another class off the list! There is no doubt that the past 7 weeks were the hardest in medical school. They were unbelievably exhausting, but all the hard work and lack of sleep paid off :) I am extremely proud! Since Microbiology is officially done, he has started Nutrition as a replacement, but compared to Micro, it is much easier and so the trade was welcomed with open arms! Nutrition is only a 1 credit class that he has for 2 weeks (his final is already on Monday) and then is done and he will only have Pathology and CPD for the remainder of the term. Although the term is not over yet, and finals promise to be hard as always, I think we can officially say there is a small light at the end of the tunnel!!

Lots of beautiful sunsets these days!!! Since we've both been studying on campus, we've been enjoying dinner in front of them almost every night!!!  I sure don't hate it!

In other news: Nick's parents came to visit, so we had a blast doing some fun things and Nick was able to break away from studying to hang out with them more than we expected, which was great! There was lots of beach time and just hanging out, and the highlight of the trip was easily deep sea fishing! We've been before but did not catch anything so we were excited to go again and try our luck... and this time caught SEVEN FISH! It was SO awesome! All in all we caught 1 Tuna, 2 Rainbow Runners, and 4 Barracuda! This was my first time catching anything ever deep sea fishing so I was pumped! Having visitors is always so nice, especially when you haven't seen anyone from home in 5 months!!!!

Showin' all those fish what is up... Yeah.. wasn't expecting to be handed a slimy fishy though!

Otherwise, life has been a little more boring for me. I haven't been able to go to Limes much at all the past couple of weeks because I have been on house arrest studying for my board exam (that I take in only 20 days... eeek!) It makes me sad to miss out on Limes and definitely makes me realize how much those Limes children have made my life here as great as it is... but unfortunately, for now, studying has to be main priority. Still bums me out though. I miss those kids SO much and am hoping to get there at least a couple times before I leave to head home in 2 weeks!

And lastly, wedding planning is coming along amazingly!! I still love it and enjoy every minute of it! Definitely starting to feel the crunch a little bit (37!!! days!!) and can not wait to be home and more hands on in the getting ready process! Thank goodness for so many people at home helping with calls, setting appointments, and doing a lot of the leg work for us because otherwise this whole planning thing would not have been possible! All in all too, I think we are really on top of things, and everything should continue to run smoothly (Mom, don't think about the number of days left!) Reality that it is so close still has not completely hit me though because the weather here makes me feel like it is still a couple months away, but we are really excited and looking forward to it! It is the perfect way to end this crazy term!

FINALLY got to see our invitation in person!!! You can't even imagine my excitement!!!!