A New Addition

We have a new addition to the Scurlock family....And NO I do not mean THAT kind of new addition. 

A little over a month ago, Josh and I brought home a little guy that we think is pretty fabulous. 

He cost us a pretty penny, especially considering  that he is 14 years old. 

But we are quickly realizing that the amount of joy he brings into this family was worth the cost. 

He has a dingy white body and soot black feet and while he may not look super cute from the outside, it's really the inside that counts.

Luckily, we don't have to feed him much at all.  Which is good because we don't have much extra money.

He has to be coaxed into going up big hills.  And sometimes we wonder if he will really make it.

And he has some funny little quirks that we are quickly growing accustomed to.

But so far, he has treated us pretty well.  We named him Toby...

As in Toby Toyota.

Meet our 1997 Toyota Corolla Toby.  I'm not kidding when I say that he has some funny quirks.  You have to hold the door handle up when you close the door or it will unlock itself.  And I really do wonder if it will make it up some of the hills on this island on a regular basis.  He cost us $4,200, which if you are thinking is crazy for a 14 year old car, well, that's just how it works around here. Supposedly he won't depriciate much in value over the next year.  We don't have to fill up our gas tank but once a month since we are really only driving it within a 5 or 6 mile radius.  And it does make our lives SO much easier. 

I am so happy to have Toby around.  Especially when grocery shopping. :)

more fun in the SUN

There have been a lot of new faces around Grenada this past week with all the new students coming in.  Since we weren't actually in Grenada at this time last year, I don't know what the "norm" is.  But Kelsey tells me that the SO involvement is absurdly high this term, which I happen to think is just GREAT!  I also officially took a position on the SO Board as co-volunteer coordinator with Kelsey.  She has been volunteer coordinator for awhile now, so I will basically be following her lead.  There are board meetings every week and as volunteer coordinators we will be heading up the Limes Program for local school children which you can read about HERE, as well as other things. I'm excited to have something that I'm doing on a regular basis.

I've been making lots of new friends, which has been great.  Especially since I can already tell that 4th term is going to be every bit as hard and time consuming as they say.  Josh has been studying all day every day and it's only the first week!  Earlier in the week, we took a little walk to the lookout point at the end of Lance aux Epines Road with our new friends Laura, Mike, Nicole, and John.  It has a beautiful view of True Blue Bay, even though the drop off the point is a little scary.

Laura, Nicole, and I

I also took a little girls trip to Grand Anse for some snorkeling last week.  I found a number of sand dollars and saw lots of cool fish.  Kelsey even found a live starfish!

 And today, I spent some more time at Grand Anse.  Only this time I didn't snorkel.

This is Grenada...and I can't complain.

The Start of a New Term

Tomorrow Josh begins the dreaded Term 4.   From the moment he became an SGU student, we've been hearing about this terrible term.  The hardest term for most students here at SGU, or so we've been told.  Apparently the classes will be some of the toughest he's faced since the beginning of school, and he will have no time.  Which means I will be basically husbandless for the next four months.  Good thing there are so many new SO's on the island to hang out with!  My friend Kelsey and her husband already went through this last term.  If you want an idea of what I am talking about, read HERE.  But at least we've been warned right? 

We had planned to spend the night before the start of this term going out to dinner at Umbrellas, one of our favorite spots.  But due to Carnival (a Caribbean island holiday weekend), Umbrellas, along with just about every other restaurant on the island was closed.  So, we made our way to campus to the 24 hour bagel place for bagel sandwiches and Skittles from the convenience store.  We're living the high life I tell ya.   But I can't complain.  The bagel was good and the Skittles hit the spot. 

And since we were on campus just as the sun was getting ready to set, we took a walk to the backside of campus to watch it go down and grab some pictures.  It's not a bad place to catch a sunset on this island. 

Pretty stunning right?!?

Oh! And this one was from earlier in the weekend.

So here's to the start of Term 4.  May Josh and I get through it alive without killing each other!

A Forever Friend

When beginning this adventure into the foregin medical school world, I knew that one of the hardest parts of being away from home would be not having any friends near us.  At the start of school in England last August, I could only hope that I would meet a few girls that I could get to know and connect with on ANY sort of level.  And I did. I met a handful of fellow SO's who have become great friends whom I love dearly. 

In January, I was connected up with a girl that was coming to Newcastle.  She emailed me asking all kinds of questions like "Where do we bank? Where should we live?  Are the grocery stores normal?  What about converters?  How busy will my fiance be?"  I answered all of her questions and she continued to ask more and more.  The emails went back and forth until January when she moved with her fiance to Newcastle. 

Being the outgoing and talkative person that I am, I basically forced her to be my friend once she got to the UK.  :)  They lived just down the street from Josh and I and I met her face to face and kept asking her to do things with me.  After just a few weeks, a real friendship began to form.  Soon we were spending most days together, whether it was taking a walk in Jesmond Dene, heading into City Center to do errands, getting lunch, grocery shopping, or making up a bootcamp workout and having lunch at the park on sunny days, we were always together.

 
Josh and I even took a trip with them at the end of term to Ibiza, Spain.  And while we were home in CA for the break, they came to visit us in Bakersfield since they live only an hour away in Valencia.  She is heading back to the UK this month since her fiance has his second term starting next week.  We won't see them again until January when they join us in Grenada.  And. I. Can't. Wait.

  
I knew well before I left the UK in May that I had made a forever friend.  A girl that no matter the distance, I would continue to talk to and keep up with.  It sounds like a long distance relationship huh?!?  Well, I guess it kind of is.  We have continued to talk regularly through Facebook and Skype since I got to Grenada.

 
This past week, a package arrived for me from her.  A sweet note told me to open the present wrapped inside.  And here's what was inside.

My forever friend Julie asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding next July.  I was shocked, thrilled, and honored all at the same time.  I am SO excited to be a part of her and Kevin's special day.

It's not often that you make good friends like this, especially once out of college.  But I think Julie and I were meant to find each other.  God put us in the same place at the same time because He knew we needed each other.  I love this girl very much.

We're All In This Together

Today, or I guess right now as I write, Josh is off taking his final for Term 3.  Another term almost over and done with.  I just can't believe how quickly things are moving along in medical school.  At this time last year, we were just arriving in Newcastle.  Brand new term 1ers with NO IDEA what we were getting ourselves into.  WE I was nervous and scared about living in a foreign country and extremely unsure of how this whole medical school thing was going to work out.  Would I ever make friends?  Would I ever understand SGU's schedule?  Well, the answers to those questions are yes...and yes.  And now I find myself in the position to help other's, like us, who were brand new to this experience and needed a helping hand. 

In the past two days, I have taken mulitple newby's to the grocery store, helped pick up lost luggage at the airport, viewed an apartment for someone coming in January, and tried to answer any and all questions as best I can for people who are here and are as scared and nervous as I was last August.  I'm not trying to pat my own back here, I'm just trying to point out the importance of helping out others, people who are strangers, in this process. It is intimidating to say the very least.  We had sooo much help from our friends when moving to Grenada because we knew people who were ahead of us in Newcastle.  But when we moved to Newcastle, we were alone.  Yes, we figured things out, but it was hard and I wish someone could have been there for me, to answer my questions, and help me with my concerns.  Someone to tell me, "It's okay to be freaking out! I was too!"

So I will continue to offer my help to any new students or SO's that I meet, even if they don't ask for it.  And my hope is that when the next term rolls around and new students and SO's are piling off the planes in Grenada, that those that I helped will pay it forward and help somebody else.  I may at moments feel like I've spread myself a little too thin, but it makes such an enormous difference to those that you give help to.

I sometimes don't know how different people come across my blog, but if anyone sees this, and is a new student or SO coming to SGU now, or in the future, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns that you have about Newcastle, Grenada, or medical school in general.  I will try to answer you as best I can because afterall, we're all in this together.

St. George's

Last Friday, my friend Kelsey was kind enough to take me on a little sight-seeing tour of the city of St. George's.  It is the capital of Grenada and about a 15 minute drive from where we live. The city is a little chaotic and I don't know if I'd be ready to venture there alone yet, but it was definitely fun to see what is down there.

We went into the produce/spice market.  I didn't buy anything because most of it was similarly priced to the IGA, but two guys did reach out and grab my ponytail.  Very Weird.  I think Grenadian people are really intrigued by "white girl" hair and apparently, they don't understand the concept of personal space.

A view from the top.

We then proceeded to the local fish market.  Kelsey planned to cook some fresh caught fish for dinner.  I would have considered buying some fish if not for three reasons:
1. I don't know how to cook fish.
2. I'm not sure if I even LIKE fish.
3. If I could have stood in the fish market for longer than 5 minutes without feeling like I had to vomit.

A little mahi mahi

Scales flying everywhere! Yuck!

So needless to say, there was no fish buying for me. Maybe on another day. Or not.