Getting Older

Today is the first of a few birthdays I will likely be having on the island. It's a bit surreal to be on a Caribbean island on your birthday. Of course being apart from family, and especially my sister on our birthday (we are twins 4 years apart; my mother had an extremely long labour) is a bit tough. We've spent the majority, if not all of them together. But as I said, we are on a Caribbean island, and that does tend to be a good cure for many ails. My pulchritudinous fiancée made my day an amazing one. She tried to have me killed.

The day was a surprise. I didn't know where we would be going or what we would be doing. We took a stroll along our quick dip beach, of which a hotel is attached. The hotel also has a dive shop that caters to tourists and guests of the hotel. We didn't go diving. To keep a long story short, I have a temporary filling that I need to have fixed before hand. Instead she had us booked for some water sports. We were going out tubing. They have one big triangular tube that the both of us were able to clamour onto. Look at us here all clamoured up:

That fish skeleton looks ominous

Contrary to the photo, we were actually laying the other direction on our stomachs for the ride. You pay per quarter hour. I figured we'd end up going at least twice. I've done quite a bit of tubing in the inlet back home and at Ruby Lake. At least I thought I had. Prior experience had not prepared me for the extreme gauntlet this 3-400 horsepower behemoth would whip us through. The air we must have had on any single bump must have been between five and ten feet. On a number of occasions I felt my body perpendicular to the tube. On others the tube was perpendicular to the ocean as well. Fortunately we managed to somehow stay on. I guess our primal instincts must have kicked in. Had we let go, I think we might have landed on campus somewhere. We should have had an inkling beforehand when he said, "Keep your tongue in… No, seriously". It was awesome; but the muscles in our arms are pretty sore and 15 minutes was enough for the week. Typing never seemed so taxing. After the tubing we made our way to a new beach. Getting there on a Sunday proved to be far more difficult than any other day. Even the busses that constantly honk at you, convincing you to ride them, were nowhere to be seen (I can't tell you how many times they almost had me with their honking and I would have been on my way to Grenville). A friend finally drove by, picked us up, and dropped us on the main road. It was smooth sailing to Magazine Beach from there. They didn't have any selections of Macleans or People, but I wouldn't put it past anyone to bring books and magazines here. It is yet another phenomenal beach I could see spending hours on. We took to the sea for a short jaunt around the reef with our snorkels. We spotted a small school of squid, and some trumpet fish. We were without our flippers and not as mobile as we otherwise would be. Our future sessions look to show some promise though. The real reason for coming here was the great restaurant called Aquarium. Not that they need one, given that they are on the ocean, but the aquarium they had did look a little sad with just 2 fish. They had live music, good food, and they gave me a free piece of cake. They've won me over on all three accounts. It was a fantastic day. But now I am going back in time for some other news…

Accreditation. The AVMA this week announced that SGU is now accredited. This is absolutely huge news. For all veterinary students, including fiancée. This means there is no need to write any foreign graduate exams after completion of their program. This is a real boon for them in terms of cost and stress of such an exam. What the accreditation really speaks volumes of, however, is the quality of the program here at SGU. You can check out an article on the announcement here: AVMA Article. There looks to be some mighty happy folks in their photo.

People that are also happy are us. We found another perfect scenario in which to capture our amphibian acquaintance. Back into frog hunter mode, we sealed every hole the room, including the last one. That frog would not escape. Had we been in there too long, we'd have asphyxiated. We had gained a lot of knowledge from our past foray into frog hunting. This time we managed to capture him within moments. It was then when our conscience finally spoke to us. Jiminy helped us as we debated whether we should turn him loose to the cruel bitter outside world or if we should seriously just let him go back under our tub. Fiancée felt a little worse for him than I did. She is the veterinary student. I assured her he would make lots of friends and would find himself assimilated into the croaking community in no time flat. We let him go…with a little water dish filled with water, should he ever be homesick and wish to visit. She was pleased (that may be the wrong word) to hear more chirping the next morning. He had roommates. To make matters worse, I found there were children in the mix yesterday. Perhaps we separated him from his family. Perhaps his however many kids he has, now think of him as a deadbeat dad. Frog culture is so complicated. Fiancée is game to evict them all now, including Jiminy.

P.S. - Those with commenting issues, I have opened it up to everyone now. The flood gates are open.