Doctor Nick Riviera
Prickly Bay, Grenada

Where do medical students go to work on their tan while studying anatomy? The Caribbean, of course!

I was trying to catch a minibus into St. George this morning when I flagged down a guy driving a small van, who turned out to be in his third year of veterinary school here in Grenada. Apparently the Grenadian University of Medicine is sitting on a hill that practically overlooks the bay the Odessa is anchored in.

Jesse was nice enough to give me a lift into town, and to tell me about the island, the school, and the local nightlife. It would seem that students interested in becoming either human or animal doctors typically come to the island university for three years and then transfer to the U.S. to get their official degree from a recognized accredited institution. Some kids are here because they couldn't get in anywhere else, others can't afford the big universities back in the States, while others just want to be some place warm. Whatever the reason, I seem to have stumbled upon a large mass of interesting twenty-somethings trying to become doctors.

Earlier this evening I was walking around Grand Anse when I came across an absolutely adorable, blond, Southern Belle named Jenny. She told me that tomorrow is a huge exam day for nearly all the med students, and she was out jogging, taking a break from hours of studying. We walked and chatted for an hour—talking of travels and listening to a few of her horror stories from six months spent on St. Kitts.

Afterward I ran into David, a friendly Texan who told me about the exam decompression (party) scene for tomorrow night. Hopefully he'll be able to give me directions (via e-mail) to an entertaining event the kids have here called a "screw party." Upon entering the bar/nightclub/house the guys get a bolt and the girls get a nut, and a mingling game of matching up the like parts is used to… well, you get the idea.

Hummmm, Valentine's Day is on Tuesday—will anyone be my Valentine?

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