Enjoying your weekends

I really enjoy the weekend. One can relax, spend time with friends, watch some football/basketball/crummy movies or spend the weekend with your new best friend: a dead body. I'm not saying I don't enjoy spending time with dead bodies (well, I'm not saying that I actually do, either), but it was a different weekend than I might normally have, when I was not concerned with work and exams and more exams and a quiz.

Regardless, it was a good weekend. The Badgers loss notwithstanding, I'm ready for the week ahead. I am acutely aware, however, that is now Tuesday night (and the week ahead has been well-established). Where have the days gone? Already I am worried about our 'unified quiz'. A 20-25 point examination in each class destined to gauge our progress after four weeks of the term. It’s purposefully not worth many points, but it will shunt students into the Department of Educational Services if they score particularly poorly in any/all of the subjects.

Consequently, many of us spent our weekends with books and bodies, and did not do the things that would normally be considered fun and relaxing. The one truly fun activity I did have was grocery shopping. Having already braved my first experience, it was a pleasure to head back and learn more. For instance, the milk was fresh (not due to expire until January 26th), but the bread did not arrive to the store until after I had finished my shopping. This is apparently normal in Grenada. Although not devoutly religious, they observe many devoutly religious customs. Mainly, this includes not working on Sunday. It was by sheer luck that the grocery store was even open on Sunday morning (we actually arrived before 10.00am, and were turned away until that time).

Saturday, however, is an apparently different custom. Next to my dorm they are building another dorm to accommodate more students on campus (i.e., make more money so students can live on-campus and not off-campus). This is a great idea as I would personally love to be one of those students next term. One would think that the whole weekend would be sacred, especially considering the way the rest of life tends to operate around here.

This is not the case. Precisely at 7.30am, on Saturday, my first day of freedom to sleep, they began constructing a scaffolding directly outside of my room. I live on the end of the hall next to the new building, and they were simply going up. That would be fair enough, except that I swear they were using a steel press to build their own scaffolds and then assembling them with the Grenadian version of a jack-hammer. It’s great that they want to get an early start, but by noon, everyone is relaxing, taking naps on the trucks, randomly firing up grills and generally not working at all. Lest you think they are behaving like Spaniards, they are just chilling out on the worksite. Half the guys and moving around and doing things, the other half is basically lounging all over the place.

I guess you just can't win many battles around here. Right now, I'm going to head to a friend's room and we are going to quiz each other on Histology and Embryology, two subjects getting the short ends of our respective straws as we all are crazy over Anatomy and Biochemistry. It continues to be my great pleasure to write, and I'm glad that people are enjoying, at least a little, of what I have to say. I'm finding it is a great study break (who am I kidding, anything is a great study break) and I'm glad to oblige.

Finally, I do have my first exam on Thursday. I can honestly say I'm not worried about it, but actually happy to have a class with which I am confident of an A: CPR. So, wish me luck and remember, even though the new standards are 30 compressions to 2 breaths, the American Heart Association is still teaching 15:2 due to the lack of new materials with which to test people. It is nice to know that the AHA is taking some lessons from the Grenadian way of life.