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Finally!!

Wow I've been bad at updating this! hehe and that while so much has changed! Remember that killer exam I had to take?; I wrote it (ages ago) and passed it :) YAY and since then all I've done is wait for a clinical spot which I now finally got; I start end of July with my (6 week) family-practice posting at the Purfleet Care Clinic. Purfleet is a tiny town on the ouskirts of Greater London... but much more than that I dont really know yet. I'm going there in about to weeks to meet with my clinical directors and figure out what to do about living; basically to figure out everything... :)
Besides for waiting and waiting and some more waiting I havent done much... It seems silly but the thing was each time I was told (or at least let to believe) that I would start my clinicals soon so I couldnt get a job (no one would hire me for 2 weeks or so) and I couldnt really leave to go traveling or something... So most of my time I spent emailing my clinical directors or phoning them... But thank god (knock on wood) that is all over now and I finally get to start (almost a year! after I finished on the island...)
But time here waiting other than being highly frustrating was highly amusing too; I got back into a routine with my friends which is awesome and I got to celebrate my favorite day of the year Queens day with them and this wonderful town again! Yay

I also took a small trip to Warsaw to see dad and then to Krakow to see Eddie and that was loads of fun and was like a mini vacation.
Last week 5 of us rented a car and spent a long weekend at our cottage in the woods which was awesome too (besides the 370 euro crack in our windshield)

K thats my life for the last couple of months. I'm sure that now that more stuff is happening in my life again and since I am moving away again I will try harder to keep this site posted! :)

Happy New Years

I wrote a super long update (about time) about pretty much everything and stored it to look up some links; and its gone. :(
So am no longer in the mood
I did however put new years pictures on Hyves, Ringo & Picturetrail so maybe soon I'll tell the surrounding stories about it.

Enjoy 2007!

Going gaga

O my god this step 1 stuff is driving me crazy. I've been home for almost 4 weeks now!! and I've only finished 2 subjects (granted I do know them [really] well). And yes the first week didn't really count seeing I didn't actually study and stuff... (how good am I at rationalization/ making up excuses?)
Before starting Kaplan I was planning on taking the Step 1 on the 15th of November, but then Kaplan showed me that a lot more work needed to be done so I planned it on the 21st. Then I realized I was not going to be even near to ready by then so I moved it to the 28th and now I am contemplating moving it to the 5th of December...
So new resolution: don't think about it too much and just keep going.
How does that sound? In any way believable? :) hahaha

Well but at least studying has become way more fun; Hannah and Floor have exams so are studying too and that makes company! :)

K today is questionbank day, so I better get started...

Talk to you all soon!

Much colder dutchie

So far for my good resolution... Chicago (Kaplan) was just too intense and hence not much time left or desire to sit behind the comp. and type stories. But it was awesome and I probably had a bit too much fun
And now I'm back in little cold frogland and its good to be home, although I've been acting like a hermit...I'm now planning to take the Step 1 at the end of November although I dont feel like I could ever be ready then... My routine (idealistically) is get up at 7 (doesnt always work out that way...:( ) and study 10 hours a day so idealistically I'd have my evenings free to meet with friends or just do anything BUT studying --> realistically it turns out I study most of the nights too since I didnt get done what I wanted to get done. But everyday I get a break by going to this "new" gym around the corner which is very nice; pool, steamroom, sauna you name it and all the classes you can think of included.
So thats always a good break to get my head cleared out plus get a some energy again...

Since my life consist of studying mostly I really dont have that much interesting to tell you all except offcourse that I am shocked by the weather; it actually hailed today! no kidding the stones were like 1 cm in diameter!! COME ON! well nothing like home sweet home... :)

Till next update
x, much colder dutchie!

Finally!! :)

Hey guys sorry for the long no posting session; I'll really try to be better from now on although right now I am seriously running out of time too.
In a nutshell; I took my finals and passed them all (pretty well actually..:, I graduated --> graduation was awesome (I'll write about it more next post), I went on a holiday for a whole week after that on Curacao! :) And then came straight to Chicago to start Kaplan on the 28th, which is a live prep course for the American (USMLE) board exams. The moment I got here my laptop crashed (yes another one!!) and it took me a while to get it replaced... Plus the schedule is seriously intense; am downstairs (the course is all-in in a resort) at 7:30 and usually we dont get done till 5:30 and then ... oh well you guys understand.
But despite the changes (not bad ones) just so that you guys know (in case you were wondering...); I am doing really good, life is good; I am just seriously busy and maybe a little overwhelmed with the real life sinking in here...:) haha

But I promise I will try harder to write more updates from now on! :)

Lots of love

Chris

This was seriously funny, sorry to have worried some of you with my warning cause nothing happened!!
Tuesday we got official warnings from all sites that tropical storm Chris was gonna hit us. Was weird to see the name of our island on CNN & weather channel and such :)
The school is our source when it comes to storm info and they didnt just sent an email as usual but they came into our classes to warn us to get prepared (water, candles, batteries, remove chairs and such from balconies) and that school including library and stuff was going to close completely!! Then Chippie (our mobile phone network) sent all its customers a warning too.... well then we started to take it a bit more serious. Everyone bought their candles, water and such and we warned our families that we might be unavailable for a while.

And then we barricaded ourselves inside, watched tv and used the internet just waiting for the moment that all that would dissappear. Around 00:00 i was getting seriously tired and decided to no longer wait for Chris to get us so went to bed; I even forgot to close my balcony door!! Next morning I woke up and there was only a tiny puddle of water that proofed that there had been some rain. Chris had turned about 1 hour before it was going to hit us!! Haha hilarious; we've had so many storms pass us sooo much closer and giving us soo much more grief (wind, rain, electricity outage)and we never got such excessive warnings for those... But thats enough on Chris, who didnt get to us :)

So what else been happening since I wrote last? I had my exams and they were excellent for change :) Psych actually didnt kick my butt and I was very happy with my A :) Also I brought my grades up for Clin Med so all is well in medical study land again (wonder if it had anything to do with lack of distractions...?)
Since exams i would have to admit i havent done much; first I partied a lot (mmmmm Loula rum...) and then i focused on my community patient project and then last weekend Evert came back and the dutchie group finally grew again (to a total of 4!) and Remco, Sonja and I "zenned" his house while he cooked us a lovely dinner.

Now the big board in class tells me that we have 14 days left and I am starting to accept it and am starting to feel ready. For a while I was actually thinking about coming back here after I am done in Chicago, but it feels like avoidance behaviour, it prolly will be all different anyways and it is time for something new...
One more week and then I will be taking my last finals ever!

One more month...

Wow I cant believe it is only one more month and my 2 years on this island are over. It makes me incredibly sad to be honest and even more honest really scared! :) I am gonna miss this place so much. Statia is like this little idealistic safe bubble; nothing drastic ever happens and everything that happens outside here cant really hurt you and actually goes completely past you ("o, there is another war in Isreal, really?" "O, our governement fell again? O like a month ago? Really?") and everything has its own pace. Thats going to be the biggest adjustment: getting used to the fast pace of the outside world (besides from the weather obviously).
But what scares me most of all? Clinicals! How can I possibly be ready to be let loose on actual patient, people with actual medical problems? I dont know anything! right? :) The fact that was actually soothing about having to transfer to Holland and having to do some time/courses over again was that I actually got to go back to school some more before they let me out in the real world (haha). I love studying and it sads me that that time is over...

Cause it looks like the England path as I described to you guys earlier is the way I am gonna go, although I am still waiting on news from Rotterdam. So that means August 27th I go to Chicago for 6 weeks to take Kaplan after that I plan to study anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks on my own for the Step-one, but where I dont know yet...probably the Netherlands but I might choose to stay in the States for that time and just take the exam there before I fly home. Then it takes several weeks for the results to come in so then clinicals & moving to England in like January, but its all still not certain so I'll keep you guys posted...

Anyways what happened the last 2 weeks?

First St Kitts obviously.

It was fun! Actually it is definetly my least favorite island of our neighbours (dont know why, it was kinda gloomy/depressing, although it reminded me of Africa) but I had soooo much fun at the music festival.
We saw Air Supply, Akon & Shaggy. Especially the last one got the party going. I just love festivals, chill atmosphere, sitting on the grass sipping your drink or standing in the crowd jumping up and down.
Now it took us some time to actually get there....Ala Statia :) We were supposed to leave at 9 but didnt leave until 3! with a different boat and a different captain then originally planned...But the boat ride was sooooooo much fun; it was really bumpy and for me it beats a roalercoaster everyday! :) I just did these little "screams" like "Weehee" to make it more exciting :) (hihi)

Once we got there and waited another 45 minutes to be cleared, we found our hotel ok. It had been really hard to still find a room, since the entire island was booked due to the festival and therefore more expensive but because we shared between the four (Fabian, Warry, Ronald & me)of us it was still affordable.

Views outside and inside our room

We spent the first couple of hours at the pool bar drinking cocktails and beers and then we found a really nice restaurant where I got to eat vegetarian food. And then it was festival time! :)
The next day we found a place on the beach to have breakfast/lunch and play several games of "toepen", but we thought we had to at least see some of the island so we found a taxi driver who drove us around the entire island, but the only thing I really like about it was a place called black rock.

Whole group

The next week was busy with Tom's birthday (karoake) and the first goodbye's :(
Wednesday Mattie left first and then later that night was the last night for the boys and Sanne so we had to do our normal wednesday-night routine of BBQ and then Chucky, who Ronald and I kept up till very early in the morning... And then after about 2 hours sleep I was at the airport saying goodbye :( (see previous post)
AND then the next day was once again a goodbye diner, but this time for one of the permanent "dutchies" Eygje! So right now until Evert comes back its just Remco, Sonja & me...which although I miss everyone very much might actually a good thing. Cause this week I actually got completely caught up, had meetings and tutored a lot.
Strange thing is that by friday I was actually ahead of schedule and right now I managed to be behind again.
O well thursday exams ...

Till after then!

P.S All the 3 sites that I use for more pictures have been updated:
Picturetrail
Ringo
Hyves

Bye Bye Dutchies!

The last (temporary) Dutchies left today and will be missed :(
Also I know I still owe you guys an update on St Kitts and it is coming but I thought that maybe until then I could keep you guys happy with just a picture?

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...:)