On The Island || SGU MSAP Week 2
Week 2 is done! After work Friday, I hopped onto a plane for my first solo trip ever. Since I live in California, I had to make a stop in New York. I had a brief two-hour layover to get some iced coffee and then set off for another 6-hour flight to Grenada. My last flight was filled with friendly locals. They were all very friendly and knew I was going to visit the school. I appreciated the welcome and their advice about Grenada. Even though I took a Jet Blue flight with wifi, within 30 minutes there was no internet. So much for studying, but hello Grenada!
Life This Week:
I went to SGU! And I enjoyed it! Thanks to the See SGU experience, I got to enjoy a fully expensed hotel and airplane accommodations. SGU even scheduled an island and campus tour.
When I landed, I fumbled through customs and the small airport. After I grabbed my bags, I walk outside these double doors and was greeted by chaos. The humidity was as abrupt as heckling of the taxi drivers trying to get your business. In the small crowd of people, I didn’t see anyone in an orange T-shirt that my email said would be waiting for me. My cellphone service didn’t cover international and there is no wifi at the airport.
I paced the small outside area of the airport. A couple people in plain clothes and some in button-ups could see I was obviously foreign and asked if I needed a cab. It was hard to find any airport staff, but the 1-2 ones I found knew nothing about the SGU program. After an hour or so, my cellphone was dying and the heat of the eyes watching me felt like a burden. I can’t believe I took my first solo trip and felt so trapped. I gave in and asked a man who said he was a cab driver to take me to the hotel in my email. He grabbed the handle of my rolling luggage that I was holding onto and led me away. A guy in a tie and a lanyard grabbed my other wrist and told me firmly to not leave with this man because he was not a real taxi driver! The lanyard man led me back towards the airport where other landyard men where and got me an official taxi. This man was very nice and enjoyed introducing me to Grenada on the way to the hotel. I had never taken a taxi, so when we got out I awkwardly asked the fare. He said 20 dollars. I only had USD and handed him $20. Later his surprise had sense when I realized he meant 20 ECD ($ 1USD ~ 2.70 ECD).
I checked into a beautiful hotel with views out of this world. The staff walked me to my room. I remember closing the door and immediately charging my phone so I could call my family on the wifi. I cried in the shower and wanted so badly to go home or at least never leave the hotel. When I finally reached my family and boyfriend, they calmed me down and reminded me of I came all this way.
Our island tour was driven by by an awesome driver named Dragon. Real or not, that’s legit. We got to do a small hike and see monkeys, a waterfall, learned about the history of Grenada, and the delicious fruits. It was cool to see the surrounding area and gauge where I’d like to live. Apparently, there’s even an underwater park for scuba divers. Add get a scuba certification onto the to-do list!
On the campus tour, we toured the gym, dorms, stores, and lecture halls. It was surreal how beautiful and bright the campus was. During lecture, the students didn’t look too sad despite everyone being far from home and the impending finals. The lecture discussed hemorrhagic shock and I understood maybe 20% of it. It was inspiring to think I’d get a chance to learn something actually relevant to life and helping others -unlike physics, ugh.
MSAP Week 2:
This week was heavy in biochemistry heavy and neuro and musculoskeletal concepts. Geez, it was rough. I realized I don’t know how to learn this depth of anatomy. I’ve never had to learn the action and innervation of all these muscles. After trying to listen to lectures again and take notes or rewrite them, I found drawing muscles and nerves helped me visualize their relationships. Instead of memorizing words, it was easier to picture their location and then action. This method isn’t quite time-effective so I’ll have to see what other resources are out there. Also, did you know the Anki has an image occlusion tool so you practice naming things on pictures?! Nerve pathways, don’t get me started.
I was terrible this week at adhering to my schedule due to traveling. I was learning up until Saturday night. My process is to outline the learning objectives and pre-answer them. Then listen to lectures and alter the learning objectives by the end of Wednesday. Thursday, I hope to make ANKI cards and review them Friday and Saturday. My grade for sticking to this plan this week: C haha like my grade on the quiz.
The quiz was quite tough. The questions demand more than pure memorization, including application to clinical situations.
I didn’t feel like I was going to medical school until this trip. Crazy isn’t it?
Warmly, Rainee