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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Money,the root of all of my problems

I have a wonderful life. I have four beautiful, well-behaved children, a wonderful suportive husband, and a nice home in the states. My home is not expensive and does not abound with interior decorator style, but I think I have made it pretty nice. I enjoy decorating and I have done what I could with the money that I have had available. "Money I have had available" is the key phrase.

I have not had an enormous or even piddly amount of avaiable money. My checking account is usually overdrawn and I can't go buy new makeup or clothing whenever I want. In fact I can never buy those things without taking it out of the budget from somewhere else. I wanted to change that for my children and my husband and myself. I went back to college to get my degree which started out as an education degree so that I could teach. The problem was that I was going to have so much debt that I would not be able to pay my student loans back on what I would make as a teacher. So, I began as a biology major (again, my first love and major). I had chosen not to do biology b/c it requires so much extra time out of class. Most of the medical school prereques were the only classes I lacked for graduation so not only did it allow me to do what I wanted to do when I was little girl it also allowed me to graduate two years earlier than an education degree would. Little did I know at that time that teachers would suffer the greatest job loss they had seen in decadeds. It was nice to know that I was not trying to get a teaching position at that time. In my excitement to get started with medical school, I began looking into medical programs and how to apply, etc. Imagine my surprise when I learn that I have to pay 255 dollars to take the MCAT. Then imagine my surprise when I realize that I also have to pay 160 for the first medical school application and 60 for the rest AND that they will most likely all send me a secondary which will ask more questions AND cost me 75-100 dollars more. Then I read that Kaplan suggests you apply to ten or twenty schools if your GPA isn't stellar (3.5-4.0). I am a mother of four children with bills to pay and my husband has a great job but it isn't THAT great of pay.
I couldn't afford to do pay that for medical school applications. There was no way. OH. I forgot to mention that most applicants use Kaplan study prep and that course is $2000. Again out of the question.
So I apply to caribbean medical schools. Most of which do not have federal loans. Most of which in fact have no loan program. Then I come across ____ which has a loan program although it is not Federal funding it could work in my somewhat desparate situation. The medical program is comparable to the states and the campus was beautiful. I was super excited to begin my term at ____.
I was accepted to a preview semester where I would have to pay my own way, but I could take online master's class to help with living expenses and my husband could help with incidentals along the way. It would seem that everything was going to work out.

Until yesterday, the school announces that the previous loan program is not an option. I was a little panicked. Ok, I was a lot panicked. So now I will have to work with the directors to come up with a creative way to finance my time here or return home and use the davenport living money to help me take the MCAT and apply medical school.

____ has been very helpful in working with me and speaking to me. I know that this situation is absolutely the worst for them as well. This semester was pegged to be the biggest class of students enrolled and without loan money some students may plan to wait which . . . well you get the point. . . . it isn't a good deal for anyone.

So now I have to study. I am going to try to do my very best on the tests that I have on Monday, but with all of this stress these may be my lowest scores yet which would cause further insult to injury.

If I had a million dollars I could fix all of my problems and my life really would be something to envy. I would donate the left over after funding my family's education, oh wait there would be nothing left over if I paid off all of my student loans and my husbands and put back money for all of my children.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Island Style



What do you do on a Sunday when you are on an island without your family and freinds? Lay out on the beach for two hours, what three movies on HBO, hang out at the casino for free drinks for two or more hours, eat dinner with a friend. Praise God that even though you had no money the guy behind the counter got your friends order wrong so you could have dinner, after all.

Today, I layed in the sun by the ocean and studied for my Physio exam on Monday. I actually remember more from two hours on the beach then I would have if I had been in my room for four to six hours.
It seems like when I am in my room without my family I feel so alone. I try to do everything I can to not study. Like watching three movies back-to-back. (Just a heads up, I am no literary genius and I am sure that my grammar and spelling leave something to be desired.) So, back to my story. I layed on the beach f
or two hours. I have a nice red tint to most of my body! It makes me look a little more alive I think.
So life on the island is great for me. Today I saw the tamed monkeys that locals will train so that they can make US money off the tourists on the beach. They have fingernails, the monkeys and tourists too I guess, but it was the monkey's nails that caught my attention. So not only did I learn that the adenohypophis recieves TRH from the Hyphothalamus which stimulates the relase of TSH which then stimulates the thyroid to release T3 and T4, but I learned that the monkeys here have a thumb and a finger nail. They were cute little monkeys.

So I went out to the Casino, as long you play their games they serve free drinks. I played one dollar and drank a strawberry daquiri for free. Good Deal on St. Kitts. The Jerk Chicken wings were the bomb too!

My friends always ask me how I get everything for free or cheap. I am not sure really.
Hopefully soon I will have a camera and Ill post pictures of everything every day. Just in case someone is looking for information on University of Medicine and Sciences at St. Kitts or morea affectionately known as SKB.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Lost Blogs

Well, I wanted to start blogging b/c I love to read blogs. I have failed. So I am starting again.

I got into UMHS. So I am on the island and my family is still in the states. The family is planning to move here in August, but it is expensive and takes a lot of planning. We have to rent our house in the states and store all of our belongings plus sell what we cannot afford to store.

Currently I am in ARP at UMHS. The program is a precursor program which reviews the prereques and preveiws several of the basic sciences. We have a test every week on the module that we finish. It mimics medical school but is a bit slower paced. Some modules may last four weeks and other modules last one week. Our tests are based on the number of weeks we have class. It isn't too hard and so I have some free time.

I have some great classmates which help to make it all interesting. Now that I have found my blog I will work to keep it updated. Hope you will find me here again soon.

Blessings