Master Diver!!!

Last Monday, Phillip and I both just studied…boring! Tuesday, Phillip had to leave super early, pick up 3 friends, and head to the Dutch hospital for a rotation in pediatrics. They basically just shadowed the doctor from 7:30-8:30am. They stopped at Top Carrot on the way home. The 3 girls that were riding with him – that’s their favorite restaurant! They got smoothies and sandwiches to save for lunch. Phillip got a turkey sandwich for himself and a veggie sandwich for me. Their sandwiches were really good! I had always heard about them, so was excited to try them! They’re on French bread of course. Mine had avocado instead of meat. Delicious on a sandwich!!!! They had lettuce, tomato, brussel sprouts, and of course, they were topped with carrots. (Top Carrot…get it??) I went to AUC later that morning to meet a couple more people who were buying things from us. While there, I checked the money on our laundry card. I had $6 left. The exact amount for one load of laundry. I figured maybe I had some money on it still, so I had put sheets and towels in the car in case. (I needed to wash towels for sure because someone was buying extra bath towels from me a couple days later. So it worked out perfect.) I studied in the dorms while I did the load of laundry. Then I went back to the cafeteria to return our laundry card and get my $10 deposit back!!!! Nice! I won’t need it anymore, and haven’t been using it this semester at all actually, because a friend who moved into our apartment complex is letting me do laundry at her place. Sweet!!! It uses her electricity and water (which are expensive here) so I kept track of the number of loads and will pay her before leaving here. That evening, Phillip practiced doing a physical exam on me.

Wednesday morning, I went to school with Phillip so I could be his patient. (The students had to bring their own patient. Lots of students just found a partner and then took turns being the patient. This saved Phillip about an hour though since he didn’t have to be anyone’s patient.) Anyway, the students had a list of 200 things they were supposed to check during the physical exam. Phillip did great on the exam!!!! It was kind of fun being his patient and seeing some of the things he has been learning. His professor told me afterwards, “You should be proud of your husband. He’s a good student.” What a great thing to hear from a professor!!!!!! I am very proud of my husband!!!

That evening when I was cooking dinner, I had everything on the stove, ready to cook. I just had to pour in the milk. I opened our last box of milk and it was clear liquid with white chunks in it. Gross!!!!! So much for that meal huh? That’s what I thought at first, then I remembered that the little grocery store nearby is open and I decided to go there. So I messaged Phillip to tell him dinner would be late, and headed to the grocery store! Thank goodness for that little grocery store! Sure would have been nice if it was open the whole time we were here instead of just the last few months!!!

I studied all day Thursday and then went to meet someone around 5:00 to sell the towels and my air purifier!!! I was super glad the air purifier sold since it was one of our bigger purchases here! I was kind of sad to give it up though. I sure hope that my allergies don’t go crazy for the last couple of weeks I’m here!!!

Friday afternoon, Phillip had another exam!!! He has exams like every week now pretty much! Poor guy!! I spent the day reading my CR manual because I had a CPR class scheduled for Monday. That evening, we were actually able to hang out together!!! It was great to just blast the airco, chill, and watch a movie together! :-)

Saturday morning, Phillip had a 4 hour ER rotation in the Dutch hospital. That’s in Philipsburg, so I decided to go along and go shopping one last time! I dropped him off at the hospital and headed to Front Street. I was able to exchange a pair of sunglasses at Del Sol. (They have the best guarantees on their sunglasses. When they are old and wear out or if they break or something, they’ll replace them at no charge. It’s awesome!) Then I said goodbye to “my purse guy!” I will miss him and his store. He gave me (and all of our visitors) great deals because I always brought him more customers! He’s so nice! (He always offered us free drinks too!) After Front Street, I was planning to go grocery shopping, but it was still a little early. I had too much time to kill before picking Phillip up. So I stopped at a casino! Good plan right?!? Hehe! I wasted a couple bucks and about 40 minutes…not bad! Then I went to Cost U Less and Grande Marche for the last time!!!!! Then I went back to the hospital to wait for Phillip. The timing was great…I only had to wait about 5 minutes for him. He actually really enjoyed his ER rotation! The emergency doctor that day was the same doctor that Phillip worked the airport disaster drill with. She recognized him as soon as he walked in! She even gave him an update. Phillip wrote a 10 page paper with recommendations on how the airport could better handle a disaster. One of his recommendations was that the firemen should be trained as EMT’s. They are now in the process of getting that set up! Way to go Phillip!!!! Too cool!

Anyway, his ER rotation was great. The doctor showed him around and he got to see her treat 15 patients! We thought that was a ton! The most interesting was a guy who majorly cut all of his fingers!!!! They were just sliced open! Blood gushing everywhere. She had to stitch them up and even glue one of them. Yikes!!!!

We stopped at McDonalds/Bubble Tea on the way home! It works out great since they are right by each other! He got McDonalds and I got a fish sandwich and a fruit smoothie from Bubble Tea. I will miss that place!!!! It’s my favorite!!!

We had a very interesting day on Sunday! We loaded our car with the stuff (that we brought from home last time) for the orphanage! We had all kinds of stuff…toys, books, math flashcards, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soaps, shirts, etc. Tons of toys!!! We drove to the orphanage to drop it off. The kids weren’t there because they were all at church. We would have loved to see their expressions when they saw the toys, but honestly it’s probably best this way. Now the workers can sort through it and get part of them out at a time. Maybe they’ll last longer this way! The worker was so excited to get it all! There are now 31 kids in the orphanage!!! It’s truly an amazing place!!!

After the orphanage, we went to the Westin for brunch! You have to have reservations for the Westin brunch and they only have it on Sundays from 12-3! The Westin is an expensive, super fancy resort!!! Most of our friends have been to the brunch several times. It is super expensive, so of course we hadn’t ever been before!!! We decided to splurge and try it though. We have been wanting to go for a very long time! So we decided that was a good thing to splurge on right before moving home!!! It was delicious!!! We couldn’t believe all the different foods they had! They had lunchmeat trays, fruit trays, rolls, potato salad, slaw, salads, veggies, every breakfast food you can imagine, an omelet station, a pasta station, an Indonesian section, another section with weird (but yummy) foreign meats and sides, and a seafood section with oysters, clams, crab legs, and peel and eat shrimp! The shrimp and crab legs were delicious and I didn’t even have to work for them. They already had the crab legs cut in half, so you just had to pull the meat out. And the shrimp was already peeled. Those shrimp were huge! Sooo good! And the dessert bar was amazing…tons of different kinds of desserts! Plus ice cream and a dark chocolate fountain!!! They had fresh pineapple, honeydew, and cantaloupe for the chocolate fountain. Delicious! The meal also included champagne, juice, and sodas WITH refills. Nice!

After eating way too much, we went swimming for a little while in their beautiful pools! Then we went to their resort casino. Phillip got a free players card which came with $10 to use in the slot machines and a free t-shirt!!!! (I didn’t take my purse since he was driving…stupid…I didn’t have an ID on me, so I couldn’t get the free stuff. That’ll teach me!) He shared his $10 with me though and we played for awhile, then headed home! It was such a nice day. I’m so glad we could spend the day together and truly enjoy “our island” one more time!

On the way home, Phillip drove through the McDonalds drive through so he could get a beer at the drive through!!!!! He had never done that before. We still think it’s so weird that you can do that here!

When I got home, I did something really random. A friend of ours had a crib to donate. Jane’s cleaning lady has a friend who is pregnant, due mid August, and has nothing. So I went with Jane while she drove the cleaning lady home. The friend lived close to cleaning lady, so we went there to drop off the crib. I have certainly never been to that part of the island before. The cleaning lady now has no power and no running water. That’s pretty normal for a lot of islanders I think. It was a very run down part of town. Tiny little houses, people just sitting around outside. Eye opening experience. Her friend was so grateful. She gave me a big hug and just held on to me for awhile! I seriously teared up that evening when I was telling Phillip about it. It was a very humbling experience. We should be grateful for everything that we have!!!!

I was super busy Monday!!!! I started the morning by washing the car and vacuuming out the car. By washing, I mean a bucket of water, no hose. By vacuuming, I mean using a wet washcloth to wipe (over and over and over) the sand out of the car. I was sooooo hot and sweaty! But the car looked nice! Then I drove to Simpson Bay to fill the car up with gas. I also went to the Nagico (car insurance) office in Simpson Bay to see about cancelling our insurance and getting a refund for what’s left of the year. We should get a $76 check…we’ll see! I’ll believe that when we see the check! Ha! I was right across the street from McDonalds and Bubble Tea at that point…so I made one last trip to each! I got lunch for Phillip at McDonalds and lunch for me at Bubble Tea!!! I LOVE BUBBLE TEA!!!!

I met Phillip at school and was actually able to eat lunch with him during his break. Then I went home to get all of the paperwork ready and then returned to school to meet the buyer of our car. I created the Bill of Sale and handled all of the paperwork and everything on my own. (Maybe this is silly, but I’m kind of proud of that!) It felt weird to give up the car, but I am so grateful that we were able to sell it! (Especially since we didn’t even have to come down any on the price!!!) I am grateful that my little Atos was good to me during our time on the island. I actually grew quite fond of that little car!! I still think it’s hilarious that the construction workers picked it up and moved it once. Hehehe!!! I am grateful that the buyer agreed to let us keep the car so long also. We definitely used it a lot those last few days!!!

The rest of the day was actually just as busy. Phillip and I had our last underwater photography session from 3:00-4:00 that day. Then I had a CPR class. CPR was required to complete the rescue diver course I did awhile back. After finishing CPR, it was official. I am now a MASTER DIVER!!!! I have been scuba diving for less than a year. During that time, I did my open water certification, my advanced certification, rescue diver certification, and 5 specialties – wreck diving, deep diving, night diving, underwater photography, and enriched air diving. I am so proud of this accomplishment!!! It’s something I never dreamed that I would do! I absolutely love Octopus Diving…Sally and Chris are so nice!!!! I haven’t explained much of this on here, but I’m the President of DOC (Dive with Octopus Club). It actually did take a lot of time because I’m the one that organized dive events and certifications for the med students. I emailed about events, scheduled everyone, and took care of payments. Because of this, most of my dives and certifications were free!!!! I couldn’t have done all of this without that amazing deal from Octopus Diving! We got a lot of students certified and interested in diving, so we feel like it worked out great for them also. I sure will miss them!!!!

Tuesday, I went with Julia to an international tennis tournament in Cole Bay!!! It was at the Princess Casino. They have 7 super nice tennis courts there! It was a junior (18 and under) tournament. Julia was actually working. They wanted a physical therapist to work it, so her boss had asked her to work that day. She asked me to go along and I was super excited! It was great to watch tennis (those kids were GOOD) and hang out with Julia all day!!!!

Yesterday, I spent the whole day studying! I studied in Jane’s apartment all afternoon though because I was apartment sitting! She had a worker there and didn’t want to leave him in there alone. But she wanted to go run errands for a “couple hours.” Well that was interesting…10 minutes after she left, the worker sat down on a bucket and started reading a book. (He was out on the balcony. He’s closing in half of the balcony to make it into an extra bedroom.) He read for 50 minutes. Then (I think he finished his book!) he spread out a tablecloth on the ground and laid down to take a nap!!!!! I had told Jane on the phone but she didn’t want me to have to deal with him. So she called his boss around 1:00. (That was 10 minutes into the worker’s naptime and an hour into his total break.) His boss arrived at 1:57 and the worker was still napping. The boss quietly told him in Spanish (I’m sure he figured I couldn’t understand him…but I could!) to follow him out of the apartment. The worker must have jumped up and started to try to work. The boss said no and told him again to follow him out. They left, didn’t say a word to me on the way out. The worker came back 15 minutes later and started working. 15 minutes is a long time to get yelled at if that’s what happened…which I assume so!!! I also bet he doesn’t get paid for 2 hours of that work day!! Serves him right though!!!

While I was apartment sitting, I also did 3 loads of laundry!!! Jane hooked up a washer and dryer in the closet between the apartments! All 3 of her apartments can use that one washer and dryer. It was soooooo nice to be able to do laundry here! (That sure would have been nice to have the whole time!!!!) Oh well…I’m just glad it’s there now. I can enjoy it for a little while and it sure will make life easier for Phillip once I’m gone. I fly home on July 21st and he’ll be here for 3 and a half weeks without me!

This morning I finally started packing. I packed one suitcase. Then I had to quit because Jane wanted me to watch her apartment again. (I think this is going to get old fast…going to have to say no tomorrow!!!) Luckily I was only there for a couple hours today, because the workers left at 2:10!!! Must be nice to arrive to work at 9:40 and leave at 2:10!!! Not bad huh?!?!?