ANGUILLA!!!

O my god we had the best time ever!! Anguilla rocks, and the dolphins sealed the deal. But let me start at the beginning...

Sunday morning at 8 o'clock our win air plane actually left only 20 minutes late, we got to St Maarten relatively on time and our local statian bar owner (Cool Corner), Chucky was on the plane with us and he was so sweet as to drop us off at the french side's Marigot where the ferry to Anguilla goes. We got there right before 10 and w/i minutes a boat left. Unfortunately the ferry wasnt as romantic as we expected; it wasnt open, so instead we sat inside a cabin that smelled of petrol. Fortunately only 18 minutes later we set foot on wall of Anguilla. Now there wasnt a tourist desk as promised (and we hadnt actually booked a hotel or anything...) but the taxi drivers were very sweet and made some phonecalls and after a while they found us a very nice place to stay for only 78 dollars (which is extremely cheap for anguilla) called Sydans.
This appartment hotel is owned by An and she was very sweet and helpful. Although after New Zealand I had sworn I would never drive on the wrong side of the road before, the moment we got to Anguilla it became pretty clear that it would be a waste not to rent a car. And after I discovered that you can actually rent normal (left handed) cars and that it really isnt busy on the roads there we rented our own little blue transport from which turned out to be a Dutch person!

In order to drive on Anguilla you need to get an Anguillan drivers license, which is basically a little pink paper (much like ours) with one big message written on it: DRIVE ON THE LEFT hahaha even our keys had the same message printed on them...

It turns out driving on the left is easy --> I didnt even mess up once, just as long as the wheel stays on the left too!

However by this time we were extremely hungry and it was time for food. We got in our car and made it down to my now personal favorite Upper Shoal Bay East to Gwen's grill.
O my god that place is soo chill; it was an instant holiday feeling! A pretty much deserted beach, the bluest ocean, hammocks & seriously tasty barbeque food!

Shoal Bay East Upper Part

Now Anguilla is known for its beaches, it actually made it as the number one in the top ten beaches of the world, and there are 33 of them (see map on top) and we had only 2 days... so time to explore! Like I mentioned before Shoal Bay East Upper part became my instant favorite, but Shoal Bay West, Rendezvous Bay and Meads Bay are pretty darn nice too...

Shoal Bay East Lower Part

Shoal Bay West

Around 3 I started to get pretty nervous and desperately started looking around for a place with TV, as it turns out Anguillans arent too stressed about football, but finally we found one at the very nice resort called Cuisine Art on Rendezvous Bay; it was one of the most beautiful views that was completely ruined for me around 4:45....no more statements about football...

At the same bay is Dune Preserve, which is another ultimate chill place with hammocks, boats as private seats a seriously chill atmosphere and life music by the owner Bankie Banx & friends!

After having toured the entire island we made it home for a quick shower and then we faced with the seriously tough decission as to where to eat! The place we finally decided on turned out to be closed so after driving around for a while I pulled over the first locals I saw and they told us to go to Tasty's. Now this place was basically around the corner from where we started and not on a beach or anything but you gotta trust the locals rigth? And our trust wasnt hurt; the food was absolutely gorgeous; I had the pumpkin soup (as many know I love pumpkin soup) which had a nice added taste of cinnamon! and then I had the goat cheese salad which was made special, and different from all other goat cheese salads by its dressing...

After diner we tried 4 clubs/bars but none were booming so instead we watch a scary movie at home as to wake up early...

Which the next day we did; we put on our bathing suits and crossed the road to Sandy Ground for a morning dip; man what a hard life! :) After drying off we had breakfast right there on the beach at the no-nonsense Irie Life. After breakfast we got in the car as soon as possible in order to see as much of the island as possible, including the underwater life. So we made our way down to Shoal Bay once again to go snorkeling, which was seriously nice. We lay on the beach to dry up but by that time it was sooo hot we had to get out of there.

We decided to just go look at the dolphins at the dolphin discovery. But then we saw them and they were sooooooooo seriously cute and they tried to play with us etc. So I just asked (cant hurt right) how much it cost...waaay tooo much. So then I asked whether it was still even possible that day (why else worry about it right) which (un)fortunately it was...So then I asked about discounts...now here they had me; they were willing to take 60 dollars of the most expensive swim! So even though I am not really for institution like this, we did the Royal Swim and we got so lucky; it was just the 2 of us! We were in the water with Al & Calypso (the dolphins) for like 45 minutes. I have a video!!! We kissed them, swam with them, danced with them and did the "foot push". Now that was THE experience! You lie in the water flat on your tummy, with your arms stretched out in front of you and your feet flexed down and all of a sudden these 2 dolphins come and each one put their snout to your foot and then they push you to the other side of the pool!! I was seriously nervous and thought I wouldnt be able to do it but it was awesome; they actually raised me completely out of the water!! And because it was just the 2 of us we got to do it again; Oh you guys seriously got to watch the video (I'll try to put bits on Hyves)
Anyways one of the best experiences ever; I am still on a high!

Kissed by Calypso

After the dolphin swim we had a quick but nice bite at Roy's Grill; nice place on the beach after which we made our way back to Blowing point to catch the ferry. The way home went extremely smoothly...the moment we left the ferry, the bus came, we got off the bus and the next one came and the win air plane was on time again!!

Overall an absolutely perfect trip!

And now saturday morning I am going to St Kitts, with Warry, Fabian & Ronald, for the music festival/carnaval...:)

Hyperbaric, exams, poker & Evert's inauguration

So Time for an update I thought... Lets start with last weeks sunday. Since this was the sunday before exams and we always only seem to get hyperbaric patients in exam weeks, my phone started ringing at 21:00; time to go to the chamber. Now usually this means you loose about 2 hours max; you show up, go into the chamber for 45 minutes, drive a little bit maybe and then there will be someone to take over. However for me something changed this semester; I was made supervisor! Now it sounds cool, I mean I was honored by the "promotion" but honestly its not that much. Cause basically it means I am the first one there and the last one to leave (got to bed at 4 in the morning) and in between the only thing I do is tell other people what to do!!
So after that night my rhythm was kinda off....
And then thursday I had exams; which for the first time since I've been here did not go too well. Clin med just absolutely killed me! (and all of the rest of the class, so we are going to have to see how our grades turn out; cause something definetly aint right) I did fine on Path & Ethics, but again did not get the grade for psych that I wanted; I study for it, I like it and than I do (much) worse than I expect to do on the actual exam. Now I had this problem once before, with Neurowhich until this day is still my all time favorite subject, but that one didn't "click" till 3rd exams and I actually ended up with an A in that class....So there is still hope for Psych too. Now after the exams it was party time!!! :) None of the dutchie group were up for it but I had been dying for a good night out all week, it was the beginning of reading break, so I hung out with students. There was a party for Billy cause it was his birthday, which ended at Sonny's (local Chinese restaurant) with POKER :) and our own bottles on the table. I haven't had this much fun in ages! I played and more than that I won!! 6 rounds in a row! Check out my chips! Basically it ended with me not going to bed till it was light out...

Next day (friday) there was a bbq around (in) the pool as an early going away party of the boys and that night continued as so many friday nights at Smoke Alley & finally Chucky's

Now Saturday was a different story (i woke up at 3...) I accompanied Evert to his official inauguration as Secretary for the Lions Club (international volunteer orginisation). It was supposed to start at 7:30, we got there a bit late (see Everts blog for details) at 7:45 but were the second ones there!!! I think the ceremony didnt really start till like 9!!!Which also meant we didnt eat till 10! But the wine did flow till that point :) Good wine (yumm yumm) for the first time for me on Statia! After a thank you speech from one of the Lions, in which I was refered to as "Mrs. Evert", we showed Statians that white people do can dance :)

And tomorrow (sunday) morning I am leaving for Anguilla....:)

Website

Once again hello sweet people :)

So I dont feel like I have much to tell you guys but it's been a couple of weeks so it really is time for the next update. But let me start with thanking all of you; I had so many responses this time and although I tried to email everybody back personally I didnt get round to just everyone. But Thank you for the emails! they were great & so much fun to read :)

So first of all on the university front; still dont know much more. I heard from Nijmegen, Utrecht & Groningen that they are looking into me. Maastricht & VU said no. But so far Rotterdam & the Erasmus university look the most promising. Basically I've gotten a letter back from them saying that I made it thru the 1st round (I fit the criteria --> grades / education wise), next is determination of in what year they will place me (basically how much they would want me to repeat) and after that I am still not completely done cause than I have to request a spot (basically be put on a waitinglist). So yes I'm starting to be a bit worried about it all --> I have to cancel Kaplan by June 28th for instance...But thats the good thing about Statia; you cant get to worked up about these things here.

What has happened since last update? hmmm lots of fun thats for sure; the friday night diner group is absolutely gigantic right now (last friday we actually had diner with 23 people!!!!) On top of the usual 7 there are now 4 interns from holland (Tom & Fabian --> working on golf project plus Ronald & Warry --> working on making plans for new streets), 4 marines/navy guys and Jo & Grant (archeology) have like 8 volunteers right now.
June 1st I had my first exams which could/should have gone better but still no C's so I cant complain... The 3 programs I run are now all doing incredibly well; I tutor at least 3 full hours each week (great review), counseling is going smoothly (next session is tonight) & S4 (step 1 review sessions) is incredibly succesful --> we've had review meetings every wednesday & sunday for the past 3 weeks and every time at least 20 ppl showed up which is a great turn-out for S4.

After the 1st it was time to PARTY :) but instead of having the regular going out dutchie diner we had a BBq on the beach at Dive Statia --> man that was soo much fun. 19 dutch ppl, 50 hambugers & 5 crates of beer & then the moment you play Andre Hazes (or some other nostalgic dutch song/singer) everybody goes banana's (we have a movie to prove it :), which I will size down & put on Hyves). After the BBq most ppl left but a few of us hung in there and made it to Smoke Alley till late/early in the morning. Needless to say my saturday wasnt too productive, neither was my sunday for that matter hahaha. O no actually I had another party on saturday...


Then last week I started to get back in a routine and the fact that my study budy Tonia was put on bed rest actually helped a lot; I would go to her house at 5 everyday and go over all the lectures with her at the end so I am actually up to date on my lectures for a change :)
Friday was a huge diner as I said & then Saturday I ended up on the Divers boat. That was so much fun (feels like holiday), the weather was perfect & the visibility great so I actually got to see a lot --> so at least 6 turtles & 8 sting-rays :), the lunch afterwards at Blue Beads with all the boys completed the feeling of it being holiday. Then in the evening I had diner with Warry & Ronald (barbeque man) and finally played Machiavelli again!
Last but obviously not least; SUNDAY --> the Statia-world-championship-madness began. Due to the time difference I actually had to get up @ 9 just to watch the game, but the first 20 minutes definetly woke me up! :) A group of us here have actually started a Statia-WK-poule in which Evert (the guy who doesnt even know what offside is! --> check his website) is actually taking the lead by 2 games!! (i'm on second place) I will ask Tom if I can make a link for you guys...

That leads me to my last point (in case I still have your attention); I've made my website running again; up till july 7th 2005 I used it to just archive my emails to all you guys, but I thought it might be a nice plan to actually start using it now. So I've added all my previous emails that I could still find (there's a big gap between july 2005 & april 2006) to this side also you will find links to the site of most the people I hang out with here, so it might be nice to check out their sites of the stories you hear from me :) (all are in Dutch I believe). Links to the other 3 sites of mine where you can find pictures & movies and room to leave a message :)
Site: www.sgoslings.blogspot.com
I will post small notices & pictures on there (no sign-up required) but I will continue to sent out my mailinglist which then in turn I will put on the website; so come and check it out :)

I've updated Ringo; pictures of the barbeque etc, I will update picturetrail today (had to wait for Floor to remove the Koniginnedag pictures...) and Hyves too

Well I think that is definetly enough for today --> time for clin med lecture

Lots of Love!
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