Interests:Badminton, computers, rock climbing, ultimate frisbee, lacrosse, card games Expertise:Medicine, Electrical Engineering, Math Occupation:Student/Researcher Industry:Medicine/Engineering
Mon is 1pm-9pm: 4 hrs in class, 2 hrs in gym (cardio/tai chi), 3 hr break (dinner) Tues is 1pm-9pm: 7 hrs class, 1 hr break (dinner) Wed is 10am-9pm: 2 hr lab, 4 hr class, 3 hr gym (kickboxing, capoeira, kung fu), 2 hr break (lunch, snack) Thurs is 7:45am-9pm: 4 1/4 hr lab, 7 hr class, 2 hr break (lunch, dinner) Fri is 11am-11pm: 8 hr class, 2 hr gym (table tennis), 2 hr break (lunch, dinner) Sat is 10am-6:30pm: 4 hr class, 2 hr gym (self defense, capoeira), 1 hr football, 1 1/2 hr break (snack) Sun is 10am-5pm: 4 hr class, 1 hr gym (intense cardio), 2 hr break (2x snack)
That's 45 1/4 hrs in class, 12 hrs in the exercise, 11 1/2 hrs break (snacks, sometimes meals, walking time to class) that's 68.75 hrs of my week out of 168 hrs total. Ideally w/ 8 hrs sleep per day, another 56 hrs gone, about 43 hrs left for 1. studying, 2. groceries, 3. whatever left to relax, oh yeah and I have to eat. If studying requires about 4 hrs/day, that's 28 hrs and groceries takes 1 hr a week, so that's 14 hrs or 2 hrs per day of time (to basicallyeat my other meals, since I didn't factor in lunch or dinner in most days). So 0 hrs per day of actual "fun" or "screwing around". I bet you don't realize how much time you waste each day!!!
Woke up at 8am again, went on a tour of the capital (St. George's) from 9-12 and got to see (and take lots of pics, probably lousy ones though) lots of interesting places. The city is really nice, kinda what you'd expect from an island. There are 3 main markets: the fish market, fruit market, and spice market. 3 KFCs, 2 Subways, and a few pizza places. :) There are 2 malls that I know of, the first one has an IGA that is similar to that in Canada. We hiked around, the island is very mountainous, lots of steep hills. Went to a few old forts, saw some cathedrals, and witnessed the rebuilding (still) from the damage done by Hurricane Ivan. The Grenada General Hospital has the nicest view of any hospital I know of! There is only 1 tunnel in Grenada, which we walked through. There is a street called Wall Street, which has like 4 banks in a row!! Apparently, at night (after midnight), the places close and people open BBQ stands outside for some real "street meat!"
In the afternoon (2-5), took a tour of the nutmeg factory, followed by a trip to Concord Waterfalls. The factory was pretty boring actually, but learned a few interesting facts about how nutmeg is made and its uses. Outside the factory there was this woman selling "street corn." She cooks it over a charcoal burner and it's pretty good. Too bad I didn't have butter or salt. Next, we went to the waterfalls. Just a note, we have a SGU bus that is free and takes us pretty much everywhere but in the off chance it does't go somewhere, you can get to ANYWHERE on the island for $2.50 EC ($1 USD). The waterfalls was nice, the scenery and hiking was awesome - even though we didn't hike much. The water wasn't that cold and I walked around in the water in my new Teva shoes. We then ended the day with a humanism workshop from 6-7. The story was about a 10 year old with leukemia and how this med student cheered her up.
Day 5: Friday, August 15, 2008
Took a tour of the campus from 10-11, unfortunately I was at the back and couldn't hear anything, so I just took pics lol. From 11-12, had a substance abuse workshop, which was interesting... The lecturer was quite good and he talked about what not to do lol. Don't binge drink and don't get addicted to cocaine, heroin, or smoking (MJ or tobacco). Then had a long ass academic orientation from 1-4, where I learned that I will have NO life here and that I must learn to study "efficiently" every waking moment of my existence. Yeah that pretty much sums up the 3 hour lecture... My roommate (who just moved in yesterday) and I went with 2 others to Grand Anse beach - the nicest place on the island (pics will be up shortly). Then to the local supermarket then to KFC then to IGA. Alcohol is cheap here, my roommate really loaded up! Oh and I bought 2% milk for like $10 EC ($4 USD for 1/2 gallon!! mad expensive here).
Then we went back to our dorms and met people. Guess what... there were 0 girls in my dorm. Is that dry or what!! Can't escape engineering at all. So all the guys just happen to hang out outside my room, a few people brought more rum over and we had a few drinks. We left for the (supposedly) best party of the month at Aquarium around 10pm. It's a REALLY nice place. Bars, dancing, beach, food (more chicken!). Didn't really do too much except meet even more people - and those Indian names always confuse me... I'm like I can't hear you pronounce your weird name, is it Anjulan or Abdulla!?! Yeah... I'm sure there will be a lot of photos up soon, as soon as people sober up. I left around 1:30am and crashed at home, but we saw a lot of people heading to Bananas, the afterparty party...
Ok, so it’s been a little while since I’ve used this...
Day 1: Monday, August 11, 2008
Woke up at 6:30am and left for Pearson airport at 7am for my 10am flight (3
hours for international). Checked in and received boarding pass, then had breakfast
at McDs until 8am. Went through security pretty quickly, they didn’t even ask me anything or open any bags. So NY was having
severe thunderstorms or something and my flight was delayed until 4pm!! Finally
boarded this small plane (1, 2 seats per row) and left at 5pm. Arrived at JFK airport at
6:30pm and was lucky to get on the next flight to San Juan.
Boarded the 757 (2, 4, 2 seats per row) at 7:30pm and left at 8:30pm. Arrived in
San Juan around midnight, turns out that there is only one flight to Grenada a
day and that it’s always at the same time - 6:50pm! Just great - no luggage,
stuck in San Juan at midnight... they put us up at a very good hotel at least,
the Intercontinental (free wireless internet!) and gave us free vouchers for taxis,
1 night stay, breakfast ($5), lunch ($7), and dinner ($10). So I turn on my
computer at the hotel, and my touchpad doesn’t work... I finally fixed it later and slept around 4am.
Day 2: Tuesday, August 12, 2008
I’m a morning person - I woke up at 8am but rolled around in bed until 10am
lol. Went for breakfast at the Intercontinental, $5 gets me 2 pastries. They
weren’t even good. What crap, and I had to check out by noon!! I asked if I could
stay longer, yeah that will be $75 USD please. So I checked out at 12:30pm, and
walked around the area - carrying like 50 lbs. of stuff. Ate Church’s chicken
sandwich combo then went back to the hotel lobby since there was free internet.
Took the taxi to airport around 3pm.
Security is really tough here, had to go through this machine that blows
air at you or something. Had to take out my thermos so that they could examine
what it was. Bought snacks with my lunch voucher and ate Domino’s pizza for
dinner outside my gate with the dinner voucher. My flight was like 90% students
at SGU and it just had to be full. I was 5th on the waitlist, finally got on at
the last minute since the luggage load wasn’t that heavy. That was nerve
racking! I thought I wouldn’t get on. Boarded and left quickly, around 7pm on
this small propeller plane (2, 2 seats per row).
Finally arrived in Grenada around 9:30pm and I found my luggage! Customs
was super long, I think I finally got through around 11:30pm. Had to pay tax on
my laptop, $40 USD. SGU had a driver for the students, my dorm is SD2 (super
deformed!! haha, joke... its Super Dorm) FF4 (first floor, room 4, which isn’t
really the first floor - GF is ground floor and that’s the main level, first
floor is one level up). I didn’t update my virus definitions before I left so I
couldn’t access internet. Catch 22, how can I update my virus definitions if I
can’t access internet? Good thing I know how to explore computers and networks,
I discovered that I had access to MS OneCare. I downloaded that and finally
passed the security check and was allowed internet. I promptly uninstalled that
and reinstalled my free Avira AntiVir with updated definitions. My room is a
mess, made my bed though and slept around 2:30am.
Day 3: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Woke up at 8am, went to the orientation booth (aimlessly wandering
around, trying to follow large groups of students). Signed up for every tour
possible and then went on a mini campus tour - which didn’t really help at all.
Explored a bit afterwards and ate breakfast at the cafeteria. Ate breakfast
around 9:30pm, bacon and scrambled eggs and this SunnyD orange/citrus thing for
$6 USD. Walked around campus a bit more then bought a cell phone (533-7401) for
$199 EC (~$77 USD) with $210 EC credits (basically they paid ME $21 EC for a
phone lol). Then went to register and got a mailbox (send mail to Christopher
Woo, #580 / St. George’s University / P.O. Box 7 / University Centre / St.
George’s / Grenada, West Indies) - I bet no one is going to mail me anything
anyways, except Becca. Frigging hungry now, just came back to setup phone and
organize my room but I think I’m going to shower and nap... I have a few pics
of San Juan and my room in Grenada. Will post later...
