We're starting to get closer to the day we start class! yay!
Yesterday pretty much consisted mostly of registering. When you first start orientation you are assigned to a group which you follow all week. I was assigned to a group that had afternoon orientation sessions, so yesterday I got to sleep in! Yesterday we actually registered for classes, filled out a bit more paperwork and got student cards. It was the day everyone got to see the picture that will follow them around for the next 4 years! I was happy enough with mine so all is good:) Now that we have these cards, you get access to the school whenever you want. Without them, you will not be able to get on campus. Even students from other schools are not able to get through the security gates, so carrying them around everywhere you go is a must. During orientation, the day is normally spent doing school related things, then in the evenings the welcoming committee plans events for everyone. Yesterday, anyone who was interested went to an Indian restaurant then to the Marriott for cheap mojito night. We got to met a few returning students at dinner who were just arriving back on the island after a two week break. Its neat as I will be in all the same classes next semester as a few of these people. Depending on the program you are in, there is overlap with students ahead of you. I will talk more about how it all works soon. Either way It was nice to hear some of their stories and experiences. To get back the the Marriott, just a word of caution. The prices are in american dollars, super expensive, and they don't accept anything except plastic.. So unless your really interested in going there, the best option is to head to the "strip" where everything is much much cheaper. The strip is about a 15 minutes walk from the Marriott where all the local bars / restaurants are. Its not a shopping place, only drinks and food. This is still a semi touristy area as there are a few other hotels / resorts along the route. After we finished at the Marriott, most people headed to the strip. I was surprised that on a Thursday, a normally busy night out in Ottawa was very quiet. There was really only one place open. It was nice though because everyone was there. A few of us were ready to head home around 0130/0145 so me and a few other people from my Neighbourhood headed out to find a cab. The strip is in an area of St. Kitts that the H-buses, the cheap local transportation I was talking about earlier, don't go. The Yellow license plate "cabs for hire" are the only option I believe to get in and out of the area. So at almost 2 in the morning you could imagine some cabbies use this to their advantage. I was told by one cab that the price since its "after hours" would be 35 american dollars, which is stupidly expensive. The normal fare for a one way ticket is 10-20 EC or 4-8 american dollars. So we quickly told him no thanks and found another cab for the normal price. To add to this, the school gives us contacts for local drivers who work? or are affiliated somehow? with UMHS. I'm not sure exactly how it works. They are the ones who pick students up each morning for class and drive us home in the evening. So if in need, you can always call one of them. At 2am however, most of them are not still on the road. Today was another late start. We went on a full campus tour ran by the President of the school. He is a very nice and knowledgeable guy. He gave updates with everything the school is working on as well as the status of a number of the schools undertakings. The campus is truly very beautiful. Full ocean view from pretty much every building. After taking the tour, it made me so much more anxious to start! Later today we are all heading back to the strip and going to some place called Mr. X's Shiggidy Shack for some live music and some form of fire entertainment.. Should be fun! Tomorrow is pretty much going to be the last day of school start up orientation stuff. We are attending a few seminars such as Hurricane safety, and Traffic safety. The rest of the weekend is all just fun stuff:) So more on that later.
Things to Keep in Mind
1) Today was supposed to be the day where if interested, you could open up a bank account with one of the local banks on the island (you can also do this anytime you have free time). In order to do so, you need to have a letter from your current bank that states the date your current bank account was opened and the means in which it is operated. This had to be an official letter and had to be the original or a notarized copy. Many of the students did not know that, so they are having to arrange for these laters to be drafted while being on the island. If your interested it might be easier to get that document before you leave. You need more forms as well, but those are all done at the school once you arrive. I can't give you a whole lot of informations about banking as I have yet to figure it all out myself. Once I get a good understanding I'll make a separate post about it. There are quite a few options for banks on the island and quite a few ways to manage without opening a bank account. I'll work on figuring that out.
2) Your experience on the island is very much what you make of it. I've been noticing a large variety emotions from the students ranging anywhere from being super worried about everything, sadness/homesick, anxiety, and of course excitement! My best advice for those who are considering coming to UMHS or any other foreign school would be to have have slightly lower expectations of the island experience and truly accept the idea of studying somewhere different before arriving. It may seem odd, but when knew I was likely going to come to St. Kitts, I started forming an image of what it was going to be like. My decision to come here was solely based on academics and the schools ability to get me to where I wanted to go. I didn't choose to come here because I hated winter and wanted to live somewhere tropical, I didn't give my self false illusions that I would be living in some beach house in the Caribbean or that I would be sipping piña coladas in the sun all day. Obviously I though about what it might be like living here, but I didn't build it up to be anything amazing. I didn't give my self false illusions of what it might be like and by doing this, everything was above and beyond my expectations. My house, the school, the island itself, everything was better then I thought. Im not saying imagine some desolate wasteland filled with deadly ocean creatures and terrible dangerous people roaming the streets, but try to have a reasonable image of what its going to be like. I hear a few people who say its not what they expected, as I do, but the difference is they expected something more and I expected something close to or slightly less. There are legitimate downsides to living on an island such as isolation, very hot temperatures, different cultures, and these are things that we can't do anything about. Approach your time here as a journey or an adventure. A chance to experience a side of medicine that most people will never get to experience. Make the best of it and the time here will be great. At the end of the day, you are only here for 4-6 semesters then off to the US. So don't wish your time here away! Have fun. Im sure Ill have moments of frustrations with the island, but I had many of those in Ottawa too.. Just don't let them get you down.
Future posts will include safety, buying / renting a car, banking, and anything else that pops into my head:)
Cheers,
Mike
Yesterday pretty much consisted mostly of registering. When you first start orientation you are assigned to a group which you follow all week. I was assigned to a group that had afternoon orientation sessions, so yesterday I got to sleep in! Yesterday we actually registered for classes, filled out a bit more paperwork and got student cards. It was the day everyone got to see the picture that will follow them around for the next 4 years! I was happy enough with mine so all is good:) Now that we have these cards, you get access to the school whenever you want. Without them, you will not be able to get on campus. Even students from other schools are not able to get through the security gates, so carrying them around everywhere you go is a must. During orientation, the day is normally spent doing school related things, then in the evenings the welcoming committee plans events for everyone. Yesterday, anyone who was interested went to an Indian restaurant then to the Marriott for cheap mojito night. We got to met a few returning students at dinner who were just arriving back on the island after a two week break. Its neat as I will be in all the same classes next semester as a few of these people. Depending on the program you are in, there is overlap with students ahead of you. I will talk more about how it all works soon. Either way It was nice to hear some of their stories and experiences. To get back the the Marriott, just a word of caution. The prices are in american dollars, super expensive, and they don't accept anything except plastic.. So unless your really interested in going there, the best option is to head to the "strip" where everything is much much cheaper. The strip is about a 15 minutes walk from the Marriott where all the local bars / restaurants are. Its not a shopping place, only drinks and food. This is still a semi touristy area as there are a few other hotels / resorts along the route. After we finished at the Marriott, most people headed to the strip. I was surprised that on a Thursday, a normally busy night out in Ottawa was very quiet. There was really only one place open. It was nice though because everyone was there. A few of us were ready to head home around 0130/0145 so me and a few other people from my Neighbourhood headed out to find a cab. The strip is in an area of St. Kitts that the H-buses, the cheap local transportation I was talking about earlier, don't go. The Yellow license plate "cabs for hire" are the only option I believe to get in and out of the area. So at almost 2 in the morning you could imagine some cabbies use this to their advantage. I was told by one cab that the price since its "after hours" would be 35 american dollars, which is stupidly expensive. The normal fare for a one way ticket is 10-20 EC or 4-8 american dollars. So we quickly told him no thanks and found another cab for the normal price. To add to this, the school gives us contacts for local drivers who work? or are affiliated somehow? with UMHS. I'm not sure exactly how it works. They are the ones who pick students up each morning for class and drive us home in the evening. So if in need, you can always call one of them. At 2am however, most of them are not still on the road. Today was another late start. We went on a full campus tour ran by the President of the school. He is a very nice and knowledgeable guy. He gave updates with everything the school is working on as well as the status of a number of the schools undertakings. The campus is truly very beautiful. Full ocean view from pretty much every building. After taking the tour, it made me so much more anxious to start! Later today we are all heading back to the strip and going to some place called Mr. X's Shiggidy Shack for some live music and some form of fire entertainment.. Should be fun! Tomorrow is pretty much going to be the last day of school start up orientation stuff. We are attending a few seminars such as Hurricane safety, and Traffic safety. The rest of the weekend is all just fun stuff:) So more on that later.
Things to Keep in Mind
1) Today was supposed to be the day where if interested, you could open up a bank account with one of the local banks on the island (you can also do this anytime you have free time). In order to do so, you need to have a letter from your current bank that states the date your current bank account was opened and the means in which it is operated. This had to be an official letter and had to be the original or a notarized copy. Many of the students did not know that, so they are having to arrange for these laters to be drafted while being on the island. If your interested it might be easier to get that document before you leave. You need more forms as well, but those are all done at the school once you arrive. I can't give you a whole lot of informations about banking as I have yet to figure it all out myself. Once I get a good understanding I'll make a separate post about it. There are quite a few options for banks on the island and quite a few ways to manage without opening a bank account. I'll work on figuring that out.
2) Your experience on the island is very much what you make of it. I've been noticing a large variety emotions from the students ranging anywhere from being super worried about everything, sadness/homesick, anxiety, and of course excitement! My best advice for those who are considering coming to UMHS or any other foreign school would be to have have slightly lower expectations of the island experience and truly accept the idea of studying somewhere different before arriving. It may seem odd, but when knew I was likely going to come to St. Kitts, I started forming an image of what it was going to be like. My decision to come here was solely based on academics and the schools ability to get me to where I wanted to go. I didn't choose to come here because I hated winter and wanted to live somewhere tropical, I didn't give my self false illusions that I would be living in some beach house in the Caribbean or that I would be sipping piña coladas in the sun all day. Obviously I though about what it might be like living here, but I didn't build it up to be anything amazing. I didn't give my self false illusions of what it might be like and by doing this, everything was above and beyond my expectations. My house, the school, the island itself, everything was better then I thought. Im not saying imagine some desolate wasteland filled with deadly ocean creatures and terrible dangerous people roaming the streets, but try to have a reasonable image of what its going to be like. I hear a few people who say its not what they expected, as I do, but the difference is they expected something more and I expected something close to or slightly less. There are legitimate downsides to living on an island such as isolation, very hot temperatures, different cultures, and these are things that we can't do anything about. Approach your time here as a journey or an adventure. A chance to experience a side of medicine that most people will never get to experience. Make the best of it and the time here will be great. At the end of the day, you are only here for 4-6 semesters then off to the US. So don't wish your time here away! Have fun. Im sure Ill have moments of frustrations with the island, but I had many of those in Ottawa too.. Just don't let them get you down.
Future posts will include safety, buying / renting a car, banking, and anything else that pops into my head:)
Cheers,
Mike