Long Time No Post

Hi Friends!

I know I've kinda fallen off the face of the earth on here... not purposefully but because honestly I haven't really known what to say. I haven't figured out how to put what I want to say into words.

Do I talk about third year and how tough it was?
Do I talk about step 2?
Do I talk about fourth year?
Do I talk about applications?
Do I talk about interview season?

HONESTLY I don't really want to talk about any of them - hence why I haven't posted.

UNTIL TODAY

I realized all I want to do is reflect on this journey so far.

It has been long and tedious. I've been more exhausted than I can imagine. I've felt more homesick than I've ever felt. I've been able to live in so many exciting and new places. I've been able to see so many beautiful sights and things. I've seen things that are unimaginable. I've met with people I've never thought I'd meet. I've had experiences that not many people have experienced.

Everything I've seen/done/experienced so far have spanned from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. From the excitement of birthing a baby that a couple has been trying for for ages to the tears of a patient coming in from a trauma. I've gone through a whole range of emotions in just one 24 hour shift. And as much as I could not imagine doing anything different in my life I've noticed how it's changed me.

Not in a bad way, but not in a good way either.

In order to get through medical school you need to be tough. That's what I was always told. Okay be tough be tough. Got through Dominica and Step One. I WAS TOUGH. Then came the hospital. In order to get through day after day after day of caring for your patients it wears you out. You have some amazing beautiful encounters and you have some not so great encounters. You have people telling you you're doing great keep it up! Then you have people questioning why you did "x, y, z".

In order for me to cope with that I "became tougher". I hardened up - if something good happened - that's fine. If something bad happened - that's fine. There were no emotions anymore. I still cared so deeply for my patients wanting to make them feel comfortable and they were being cared for. But I wouldn't allow myself to feel emotions. I wouldn't get happy, sad, mad, angry, elated, joyous, scared or even homesick. I just did. I showed up. Cared for my patients and left. I couldn't handle the moments of excitement of helping a patient to the embarrassment of doing something incorrect and being spoken to about it. So I just wouldn't let myself feel either emotion.

So yeah you have to be tough to get through medical school, I'm not saying I am but I never TRULY realized what that meant until now. I've missed too many birthdays to count. I've missed get togethers, funerals, dinners, weddings, parties... YOU NAME IT I'VE MISSED IT.

I've lost contact with dear friends, I've felt like I haven't been able to be a good friend, a good sister, daughter or granddaughter. It can feel very isolating. Yet here I am still knowing that medicine is all I ever want to do.

I know medicine online can be glorified. Flatlays, fun study sessions, cool surgeries, cute scrubs.

AND IT IS ALL OF THOSE THINGS!!!

But there is also more. There's those tears of sadness, anger, frustration. Those 2 am eureka moments. Those disorganized desks with notes everywhere and UWorld ripping apart your soul. Those silent moments after a tough case. The exciting moments with patients.

And everything in between.

And I wouldn't change it for the world.

- Jen

Thankful

Hi my friends!

I'm halfway done my Pediatrics rotation and am currently in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) part of my rotation. The attendings I've been working with are so incredibly knowledgable and patient with me while I try to learn about Neonates.

I started noticing myself playing the dreadful "what if" game again with myself. I started comparing my journey and experience with others - and I thought to myself "Okay, if I'm doing this I'm sure others are as well" so here I am writing a blog post about it!

FIRST OF ALL, if you are reading this and you are in the medical field I wanted to say congratulations to you for choosing this path. From my very limited experience it is very rewarding but also extremely challenging. And no matter what part of your journey you are on I applaud you.

Now for some feelings I have directly towards my peers in MS3 - I know we spend all day with one another in the same hospital but in different rotations. I can almost guarantee we've all had the thought "I wish my rotation schedule was more like ____" or "I wish I had _______ attending".

I'd be lying if I said those thoughts never crossed my mind, they have, and I'll be the first to admit it.

BUT

After several different discussions I've had in the hospital with patients, nurses, residents, attendings and other students I've started to realize how thankful and lucky I am to even be on this journey. Not everyone is lucky enough to go to undergrad, get accepted to MERP, get accepted to medical school, go to medical school on a foreign island, (this felt weird to type) be fortunate enough to even write step one, rotate in a hospital, match into a program and eventually become an attending.

Some people may dream of it but are unable to attain it for whatever reason. Coming to the realization that I am lucky to be able to wake up early in the morning to go to the hospital to learn and then come home tired but still push through and study for upcoming exams has really helped my fatigued brain.

Suddenly when I've started just being thankful for being in medicine the comparisons I'd been making previously stopped - and I just wanted to experience the rotation in whatever order it had been given to me.

ANYWAYS, I need to stop procrastinating and start going through UWorld again.

- Jen

Life Happens

Hello crew!

I've been home for about three weeks now and I've had lots going on in my personal life - academic wise it's been on the back burner.

After two weeks at home I had the unfortunate experience of losing my grandmother. She experienced a quite sudden death so it came as a shock to my whole family. As for me it also came with a bit of frustration because as I looked back at her care over the past few months I saw so many systems errors that could have been prevented that would have allowed my grandmother to be much more comfortable as she was passing and would have given my family much more closure as her time was coming up.

The week my grandmother ended up in the hospital, for what would be her last time, I had begun an online course to help with step prep. With everything that unfolded it wouldn't be an understatement to say that my mind was all over the place. All of my plans for studying and attacking step had flown out the window.

I was almost in a state of shock.

I just remember a wave of panic overwhelming my whole body and the thought, "Jen you cannot screw this up".

I thankfully have some amazing, beautiful friends (you know who you are) who sent loving messages daily to make me feel like I wasn't going through this alone and I would get through it.

But there was still that panic. "You have eight weeks to study for comp... you can't mess this up".

Not only was I dealing with the loss of my grandmother and the frustrations that had attached to it, but I knew I had to keep moving forward. I instantly thought back to third year university, September 2013, first week of classes when my grandfather passed away and three weeks later my dad having surgery. I thought about how I dealt with those family stresses then... and how that ended up hurting me in the long run.

I tried to act tough and pretend it never really happened. Never letting myself actually process what happened. Sure that was great at the time... but I barely got through orgo chem 1 leading me to fail orgo 2.

NOW THAT WAS ROUGH. Big huge blow to the ego. How the heck was I going to apply to medical school now that I failed orgo 2.

Flashforward 3.5 years and obviously I got through it and made it to the medical school side. Now I'm facing my "medical school application" of medical school... step one. And I do not want to make the same mistakes I made the first time I had deaths in the family. I owed it to myself to learn from my previous mistakes.

And I want you all to learn from my previous mistakes too... Life happens while you're studying. You need to learn to deal with both.

So if you have a traumatic event happen to you or someone close to you and you feel like you need to take a step back for a little to recharge and reboot then do it. Take some time and process. Trust me when I say I've tried ignoring it and it doesn't work.

I'm currently trying to take my own advice and it's hard to not get frustrated with myself when I can't stay focused.

Believe me when I say if you're dealing with something similar you aren't dealing with it alone.

- Jen

Our family before the viewing

RIP my new angel

I'm Still Going!

Hi friends!

I know it's been a while since my last post - I've been so busy with my classes and clinical simulations that I've kind of neglected my little blog! Alas I'm here to write a post.

I've been struggling a little bit with keeping the motivation high and remembering why I'm going through medical school. As I've been sitting here in my own self doubt and negativity I've been scrolling through twitter, Facebook and instagram and I noticed this seems to be an ongoing thing for a decent amount of medical students right now. I don't know if it's the time of the year... something in the air... but from Ross to the US to Canada I've been seeing students struggling with motivation.

Then on my morning social media scroll I read a tweet from an account I follow and it said " Making it into and out of medical school alive are two separate things... medical school is hard, even though you get used to how hard it is". That got me to thinking and doing a little bit of reflecting - and I know I've mentioned in a previous blog post that we all need to be our own best friend before anything else.

If you look at the type of person in medical school I think I can say we all have one thing (definitely) in common. We are our own harshest critic. We all think we should push harder, study longer, read more, learn more, score higher ect ect. Whereas to people outside of medical school, (I'm talking to you my friends from back home) everyone thinks we're some type of robot who never takes time off and studies 24/7. When you take a step back and look at it - they aren't wrong. We wake up, put in 12-14 hour study days go to sleep and do it again. At first yeah it was an adjustment, then you become used to the long days, the leg cramps, the coffee shakes, the eye twitches, the aggressive yawns.

But still it's hard work!!! And even though we are used to it and call this "normal" it doesn't mean it isn't easy. It takes a toll on you mentally and physically. No matter what part of this medical journey you're on you need to think about yourself and take care of yourself. It's so easy getting caught up in studying for exam after exam then boards. There is so much to know and not enough time to learn it all. It's stressful - I'll fully admit I haven't figured out a balance for myself. I normally don't realize I'm working myself to the ground until thoughts and facts are running through my mind like crazy.

I don't have a fool proof answer to fix the medical school burn out and the self doubt, but what I do know is that you're not on this journey by accident. And you're not the first person to struggle through medical school and you definitely won't be the last. This is a difficult field to be in - but the only way you'll be able to stay in the field is if you take care of yourself first.

I have a mini coming up on Thursday so this is a stressful week coming up for me, but I'm going to try to keep the motivation and positive attitude high... I hope you do too :)

- Jen

Hospital Visit Number One!

Hello!

I had a few people ask me about my experience at Princess Margaret Hospital this past week so I figured I'd do a whole post about it!

For those of you who may not know in 4X at Ross we do two hospital visits to the main hospital in Dominica - Princess Margaret Hospital. The hospital is located in the capital of Dominica Roseau - about an hour drive from where the school is.

For this visit I was in the Dialysis and Oncology units in the morning and then I did a mock OSCE in the afternoon.

For those who don't know what OSCE is - it's a clinical exam we take - Step 2 CS. For the real exam, we go through 20 rooms, each with a standardized patient, and we perform an interview and physical exam and then we have 10 minutes to write a SOAP note after each room. The standardized patient grades us along with doctors who watch the video recordings of us in the room. Ours was not as intense (it still was though don't get me wrong - I definitely had my adrenaline pumping) we had 3 rooms instead of 20. But essentially everything else was the same. Even though it was very stressful I'm happy we were given the opportunity to practice our skills and go though a mock Step 2 CS exam.

As for the hospital itself - it looks nothing like a hospital you would imagine back at home. It was essentially blocks with covered walkways connecting different wards together. So we first went to the dialysis unit where patients come on two different regimens for their treatment; Monday, Wednesday, Friday OR Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Since these patients have kidneys that are functioning at very low levels they need to come three times a week so the dialysis machines can filter their blood for them. We had the honour of meeting two patients who allowed us to talk to them and learn more about their back story and how they ended up on dialysis.

We met one pleasant woman who was from the same area as Ross who allowed us to palpate her fistula (the connection of a vein to an artery) and it was different than a normal pulse that's for sure - I'm not even sure how to describe it. I've never been in a dialysis unit or palpated a fistula so this was all very new and interesting to me.

Next we went to the Oncology ward - unfortunately it wasn't a very busy day but we had the amazing opportunity to speak with one of the doctors, Dr. Malakar, who actually helped to find the discipline of Oncology in the medical field. I personally gained a lot more insight into Oncology and how doctors manage patients with a large team.

My next visit is on February 14th (Happy Valentines Day to me) and I will be going into two specialities for the day which I am very excited about. I'm crossing my fingers hoping I'm able to go into the OR or go into the Orthopaedic ward.

Jen

Find your Tribe

Hey guys!

So I was asked a really good question and I thought it would give me a perfect opportunity to write a blog post.

"How do you keep going when people doubt you?"

I have a long and a short answer to this one...

In short - DON'T LISTEN TO THEM!

Now my longer response. Everyone I've spoken to has had their fair share of people who didn't believe in them or didn't think that they would be able to get to whatever their dream goal was. I can only speak from my own experience but I've had my own non-believers in my life. It's difficult when you are seeing any sort of academic advisors and they tell you to "quit" or "drop out" or "try again later". So negative... and such a bone breaking way to crush someones soul. Coming back from situations like that are very difficult. But it all boils down to your support system.

I've been so incredibly grateful that my friends and family have always stood behind my back 150%. Whether they be at home (hi Mom, Dad, Alex and Babcia!), on the other side of the country (hi Mary Anne!) or on the other side of the world (hi Susan!) I know I have people who have so much belief and faith in me that it just keeps me going.

But back to getting over that initial soul crushing moment - it's going to be hard... and it will never get easier when someone says you can't do something. Turn those emotions around and take all that sadness and all of those tears and fight. Do everything you can to prove that person wrong. So what if they don't think you can make it into medical school. Half of the time they may not really even know what it takes to get into medical school (other than your usual GPA and MCAT statistics). And find someone who does believe in you.

I've been so fortunate that my parents have always told me to follow my dreams and they will always be there for me. Internally that wasn't enough. I wanted someone from an academic standpoint to believe in me too. Fortunately I was able to find professors who believed in me when I couldn't believe in myself. And I want to say thank you to them - for writing my letters of recommendation, letting me sit in your office to talk, welcoming me into your lab and for most importantly not putting any weight on my transcript and basing their opinion on me after knowing me as a person and as a student.

All in all - you will have people who will doubt you or criticize you on the way but take everything they say with a grain of salt and keep on pursuing your dreams.

- Jen

Getting ready for 3X

Hello my friends!!

I sit here the day after the heavily spoken about and internationally known boiling lake hike and let me tell you... muscles I didn't know could hurt are hurting.

As some of you may have seen on the news we're getting hit by a tropical depression Gaston. Winds are strong and there is a significant amount of rain falling. The weather wasn't as bad yesterday therefore we continued on with our hike.

The base of the hike is about 6.5 miles east of Rosseau (the capital of Dominica) so approximately 1.5 hour drive. The first part of the hike is through a heavily wooded area, with little steps for you to walk on guiding you to a small river where we had our first break. We sat there to cool off, hydrate and eat some food.

Next we hiked 1 km (1000 m) up. That was probably the most tiring part of this whole hike. It allowed me to do a lot of thinking (on my many breaks) - hiking is a lot like schooling - its beautiful when you take a step back and look around but when you focus in on yourself and lose sight of the beauty of the journey it turns into something a little more painstaking.

So, we finally made it to the top of this brutal summit. Our guide told us to start going back if we felt too tired but myself and two of my friends said we were going to make it to the lake.

Then our tour guide continued on...

The three of us caught our breath and continued down the other side of this summit. It didn't start off too bad, still more steps down - a little more difficult on this downward side. We then reached a point where there were no more steps and just a mountainous wall. The three of us saw our lives flash before our eyes countless times as we tried to figure out how to get down this mountain.

Once we finally made it down into the sulphur spring areas we took another break, and tried to bring down our adrenaline and calm our shaken nerves. We saw another guide leading a small group into a valley so we figured we should follow them. Once we actually made it to the valley we couldn't see where they could have gone but we followed the stream flowing down into boiling lake. Again, this started off not too bad but as we travelled deeper and deeper into this valley it was much more difficult. There were no places to put your feet, no rocks to hold on to, nothing. And I started to panic.

For the first time in a very long time I thought I made a completely wrong decision. We didn't know where we were, we had no one behind us telling us where to go and we had no idea if we were even heading in the right direction. We were yelling, trying to see if anyone could hear us... we felt so alone and lost. My one friend said she was going forward to see if she saw anyone and my other friend and I waited until we decided to try to head back from where we came from.

My legs were shaking, arms so sore, I was literally COVERED in sweat. Looking back and seeing where we struggled through was oddly beautiful. I could honestly say we got through all of that by ourselves and as much as I wanted to cry I turned back and tried to be as logical as possible to get back to an area where we knew where we were going.

That was probably one of the most mentally and physically challenging days I've had in my life. But do I regret it for a second? No.

I was scared for my life, I was tired, I felt weak and I felt so alone but I got through it (with the help of some friends). Although that may sound like a pretty scary way to start third semester I think it is beautiful. There are going to be ups and downs in your life and there are going to be times when you feel like you're lost and alone and you're so very close to giving up hope. But if you push through and persevere you can do ANYTHING you put your mind to.

Now even though my body is the most sore it's ever been I feel 100% ready to tackle M2!

- Jen

Putting Things Back into Perspective

I know I just wrote a post but I had the inspiration to write another when I found out about dear family friends back at home.

I'll try to keep this story as short as possible but here we go...

There was a couple who was happily married and had one boy and the mother was pregnant with their second, a little girl. When the mother went into labor her husband fell seriously ill and passed away leaving a mother of one toddler and one newborn to tackle the world. This lady was an amazing mother, she did everything and more for her children. Unfortunately she had a battle with breast cancer that she beat... the first time around. The relapse was worse and ended up affecting her brain. Through this all she was still doing everything she could with her children, along with the help of her sister. This relapse was too much for this strong, beautiful mother and she passed away leaving her sister and two children.

Through all of this, this family was one of the most positive people I've met. Forever fuelling me and reminding me to keep strong through the tough stuff. And when I thought I couldn't learn anymore from them I found out this lovely, young, happy boy is starting to exhibit symptoms of ALS.

When I got the text from my mom asking if I knew good hospitals for ALS or ALS research my heart sank and everything started falling into perspective.

Here I am complaining how tired I am, how much work I need to do and an exam grade I was not too happy about... and you have this family, who has been through more than I could ever imagine - going through day by day staying stronger than ever.

Although my heart is a little heavier my drive and perseverance has grown stronger.

I ended my last post telling you to remember why you're doing this... well here is part of my reason, and I won't stop until I succeed.

Jen

Hometown Family To Island Family

I recently got a question; "how do you handle being so far away from home, away from friends and family, on an island by yourself with only being able to study?"

I know I had this question before I came down to Dominica and it really festered in my mind, kept me up at night, and made me really worry. I was fortunate enough to know the other students in my MERP Canada class so that calmed some of my nerves but I was still nervous.

"All my friends are at home, I only know 10 people, my family is nowhere near, I can't go home on weekends like in undergrad" ... all these thoughts (and more) passed through my mind night after night as the big departure date was coming.

My mom came down with me and stayed for two weeks, and dad was able to come for the second week my mom was here - I couldn't have been happier to have them here as I settled in to a new country. But let me tell you - the night they were leaving I bawled my little eyes out. I was so upset. They were my last bit of home left on this island - and they were going BACK home. I was devastated - but with the pace of the material here you need to keep on track and trudge forward.

As the semester continued on and days were spent in a classroom or library time flew by and many new friendships were made. The best thing about being down in Dominica is that everybody is dealing with the same things you are. We have the same classes, same professors, same amount of work we need to do and most importantly we're all far away from home.

And you bond over that. You find your tribe, as I like to call my friends, because they are there day in and day out like a family. My island family has been with me through just about every type of emotion you can think of. When things get tough we band together and support one another.

I know for a fact there is no way I would have gotten through first semester on my own and I can thank each and every classmate for putting a smile on my face at one point in time last semester and this semester. My heart is so full with the love I have for my friends here.

I honestly didn't know how things would be down on the island.

Are the students going to be cut throat?
Are the upper semesters going to be intimidating?

The answer to both questions is no. I've never met a group of more supportive and encouraging group of students.

Do I still get homesick and wish I was with my family? Absolutely, there are good days and there are bad - but I've always got my second family here in Dominica and they mean the world to me.

Jen

One Month In

Hello friends!

I figured I'd write a post (definitely not doing this as procrastination) about one month in to my semester and let you guys know how life on the island is going.

I'm in my 2X semester, all the "X" means is I'm finishing the schooling portion of my MD in 16 months as opposed to 20. This semester, as I've been told, is very heavy in physiology which makes me a little nervous because physiology is not my strong suit. We've completed our Cardiovascular 1 and are finishing up our Respiratory 1 before our first Mini on Tuesday. So far we've had all physiology classes except for 4 lectures so there's been a lot of information thrown our way.

In second we also have ICM (clinical skills) and SGL's. The ICM's are hour long sessions where we learn how to perform various tests done during a physical exam. At the end of the semester we're going to be tested during a practical exam. SGL's are essentially case studies done in a small group. You spend one hour with a patient interviewing them and learning about their clinical case. The next hour is spent discussing with your group and then everyone is delegated a different aspect of the case to do research on before their next meeting. I have my first one tomorrow and I'm pretty nervous/excited to see how it will go.

As always school is a whirlwind of emotions. Some days I wake up and I wonder if I'll ever become a doctor, or if I'm in too far over my head and maybe this isn't for me. Those days are hard to get through, lectures seem so much longer, the material seems so much drier, I miss home so much more. I've experienced how straining this is mentally. I've never been so challenged academically and emotionally in my life. It seems so easy to give up. Go back home and figure life out. But then I have my island family who always manages to make the bad days better. They talk me out of my funk and remind me all of the reasons I fought to get here in the first place.

When it gets difficult, and it always does, I try to remember why I want this so badly. Why I'd make myself go through 14 hour days, barely any sleep, coffee as a lifeline... and I know, I know that once I get through medical school, get my MD, get through residency and become an attending I will never have to work a day in my life. Sure everything leading up to that attending position seems like it could be a deterrent - but honestly - there's nothing else I'd rather be doing with my time.

Jen

I love these crazy Canadian MERP-ers

Obsessed with sunsets

I can't help myself

Before CVS examination

Just Go For It.

Hello friends!

I'm writing this after my last mini of semester one of medical school (I still feel weird when I say I'm in medical school)! It's been a long (yet somewhat short) ride but I'm in the final stretch.

I've had this thought brewing in my mind for the past week and I thought I would share it with you all. I remember when I was applying to University thinking to myself  "I wonder if I've done all I can to prepare for this?" - and that same thought crossed my mind before I came down to start my medical school journey. Since that thought crossed my mind for a second time, and many times throughout this semester, I've realized that there are some things you cannot completely prepare for.

Yes, you can take pre-requisite courses and read every self help book and blog that people have written but until you've experienced the experience yourself you don't know how you're going to react. I thought I had mentally prepared for medical school and the amount of work we were going to have to go through, "I went to MERP, that was a great stepping stone, I'm so set for this!"

I was partially correct. Yes, MERP did help with my organization, note taking skills, study product skills, test taking skills ect ect. but unless you've gone to medical school you don't know what medical school is like.

You don't know how you will feel after sitting in class for four hours and then going directly to the library to re-learn the material until you go to sleep and then repeat that the next day.

You don't know how you will handle loads of information coming your way, some of it you pick up quickly, some it takes more time. And then balancing what you're learning and what you need to review in order to prepare for up coming exams.

I think the best way to approach medical school, or anything you haven't been exposed to before, is with humility and an open mind. You will never be the only person sitting in the library thinking "How the heck am I going to do this?!" - EVERYONE is thinking it. Everyone has topics they are stronger in - whether it's because they did their undergrad/masters in that field or just out of pure interest in certain subject areas.

Use your classmates and friends for help. We're all going through it together. I could talk someones ear off about biomechanics of movement or the gait cycle or the limbs... but talk to me about biochemistry and that conversation won't last long. I never really used my friends to help me understand concepts in undergrad and I really wish I would have just sucked up the fact that I can't know everything and asked for help. It's very easy to earn points on an exam if you just ask your friend if you understand a concept correctly.

We're all going through it together, and we will all do it together.

My friend group has become my family, and family sticks together through good times and bad.

So lets go rock our last week of first semester!

Jen

Future Dominica-ers

Hello friends!

I've gotten a few questions about what I brought to Dominica and how I got it here so I figured if some people have that question (and I know I had that question before coming down) more people do as well. So I brought a lot of stuff... I had four suitcases (two me, two my mom) and shipped two barrels.

In my suitcases I had

• Clothes(athletic shorts/tops, sports bras, bras, underwear, comfortable tops, jean shorts) - I highly suggest bringing clothes you are not too attached to. Sometimes things get lost in laundry or ruined down here (it rains a lot).
• Professional clothes - for first semester we had to dress up three times, and then once for white coat ceremony
• Hygiene products (shampoo, conditioner, soap, tweezers, nail clippers ect.) - I packed enough in my suitcase to tide me over until my barrels came
• Running shoes, sandals, nice flats, sperry's (my favourite)
• BRING RAIN BOOTS AND A RAIN JACKET - you'll thank me later
• School supplies - textbooks I really liked
• Water bottles - I highly suggest some larger bottles to use as a back up when the water looks brown
• External hard drive, laptop, phone, iPad
• Doubles of electronic chargers
• I couldn't leave Canada without a French Press and Starbucks coffee
• Some granola bars
• Ziplock bags
• Towels
• 2nd pair of glasses
• Contacts
• Sweaters and longer pants - all of the buildings on campus are CHILLY
• Coffee travel mugs
• UV water filter, rechargeable flash light
• Portable charging stations
• Bug spray - please don't forget this
• Sunscreen

In my barrels

• Lots and lots and lots of snack foods (granola bars, chocolate, protein bars, crackers, peanut butter, nutella) - trust me this stuff is expensive here. If you have a go to snack food I suggest you pack a decent amount of it
• Larger bottles of shampoo and conditioner
• Case of water
• Tissues
• Extra bed sheets
• Toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors
• More school supplies
• Gum
• Notebooks
• Blank Paper
• More coffee and tea
• First aid kit

That's a rough list of what I brought down here to the island - add or get rid of things as you see fit. One thing add is that you will get a weekly printing allowance - I could print my weekly notes on that with no problem. If you're worried about bringing a printer I say don't fret.

If you're wondering about anything else to bring down just send me a message or comment and I'll be happy to help you out!

Jen

Here's some island pictures

On the pier

Post Mini Dinner

It was raining hard one day and I had patient interviewing - so I hid my dress under my rain jacket

My grandma surprised me for lunch one day

The beach

Top 5 Vacation Spots

With the Canadian long weekend being this weekend I thought I'd be festive and make a post of my top 5 vacation spots!

1. St. Barths

• It's a cute little island just off of St. Maarten and you can get there by ferry or by a tiny, little plane. All of their beaches are public so there are no limitations on any beach you can go to. All of the locals are very friendly and none of them will bother you to buy anything off of them. The island is definitely a place to go if you want to sit back and relax. Since it's so small there is not a huge night life or clubbing scene. BUT it is the safest island in the Caribbean.

2. Barcelona, Spain

• I don't even know where to begin with Barcelona. The culture, the beaches, the city, the people... all of it is just so beautiful. You will never run out of things to do in Barcelona - during the day or at night. Plus the food is out of this world. If you're looking for a place to keep you busy all day and all night Barcelona is the place to be. Even travelling around to different cities is easy with the transit system in Spain.

3. New York, New York

• There is something so very special about New York and I don't know how to place a finger on it. It's so busy and so chaotic, but it can also be so beautiful and serene. Another amazing place where you will never run out of things to do. Between shows, museums, food, historical land marks and shopping you will never stop going. I don't think I've ever walked so much in my life - and gotten so many blisters - but I didn't even mind because New York was something you just have to experience.

4. Las Vegas, Nevada

• Where I went for my 21st birthday. The city that never sleeps, sin city, whatever you want to call it... I'm in love with it. I strongly believe that if I were to be any city in the world I would be Vegas. What a fun, energetic, HOT, crazy place to be. You do things in Vegas you would never be able to do anywhere else. Everything is so extravagant and beautiful. All of the hotels, the strip, the shopping... everywhere you look is stunning.

5. Costa Rica

• Words can't describe the greenery in Costa Rica until you've been there. Everything is so beautiful and fresh - and delicious. The people are so friendly and the weather is hot, hot, hot. I went during the rainy season so trust me when I say it's called rainy season for a reason. It will rain every day. And there is no use bringing stuff to do your hair because it will just automatically go frizzy. This place is definitely more of an "au natural" kinda place. But I wouldn't change it for the world. The water is so warm and so blue - and the wildlife is so vast. It's beautiful and you can't appreciate it until you've seen it yourself.

There you have it! My top 5 vacation spots! 

Where are your favourite places to vacation?

- Jen