Life Beyond the Classroom

Now that I’m back on the contiguous 48 states of America, people often ask me how life feels now that I’ve inured third world conditions. Sure, I feel differently when I’m walking through the aisles of whatever jumbo sales store I’m at, looking for something I probably don’t need, but it hasn’t for one second felt as if I’ve braved  anything for the past year. I’ve still reveling in all the things Grenada offered, not in what I’ve had to live without. Instead of filing away the memories and experiences I’ve gained from living and learning abroad as so many of us are apt to doing once we move on, I’ve decided to wear them on my back a little longer. Being in a drastically different spot than I imagined a year before both mentally and physically, those very experiences serve as comfort in knowing that it is possible to regain your footing when you continually feel lost.

Leave Nothing but Footprints, Take Nothing but Toxins?

A monkey we saw at the Grand Etang National Park, Grenada

A couple days before, students in the Masters of Public Health Programs received orientation packets. The first piece of paper I uncovered was an interesting article entitled “Emergence of a new antibiotic resistance mechanism in India, Pakistan, and the UK…” Immediately, I thought I’d gotten a packet for the wrong academic program. A little further inspection led me onto a wild goose-chase for the punch line. Why was this article in here? Where were the connections and/or recurring themes? And then a light-bulb with an unparalleled luminescence flickered on (okay, so it was a bit dimmer than that).

Lessons Learned

It still astounds me but what was supposed to already be an 18 hour journey exacerbated into a 41 hour ordeal. Our (my girlfriend, Kate travelled as my partner-in-crime) first flight from Chicago to Miami was delayed three hours due to “technical difficulties”- little did we know then how soon we were to become the best of companions with these two little words. We learned of this as we were shuttled around to three different terminals before we were actually allowed to board the plane. Unfortunately, this was the first of many diversions. We reached Miami, downcast, however, as we were unable to make our connecting flight to Barbados, where we were to have a 7 hour layover until we flew over to Grenada at 6AM the following day.

The View from Our Backyard