My earlier post may have been...

...a bit...premature.

Remember how I was excited that my trip so far has had NO problems and I was SUPER happy?

...Halfway to NY, the pilot tells us that we have a technical error. Great. Tell a hundred people stuck in a pressurized sardine can that we have a problem, at 10,000+ feet. Fan...tastic.

Apparently, something went wrong with the sensors, and we had to turn back around to Trinidad.

After sitting around on the plane for about two hours (did I mention, that it's HOT and STUFFY in the plane?), they gave us food and something to drink...but you can tell that more and more people were getting annoyed by the heat and the restlessness. So finally, the pilot told us to disembark, and now I'm back at the gate. YAY!

...grr. Forget my "get to NYC by 10pm" plan. It's looking more and more like I'll get there by morning.

TRINIDAD!

Piarco's airport picked up the slack! Last time I was here, I only remember there being a KFC which closed down by 9pm, so I was starving all night with a bottle of water. Now? Subway, Church's, a sushi joint?!? Where am I? and this place is WAYYY better than GND's airport. What the heck?

This trip, surprisingly, is looking really good so far.

GND

1) I was not charged the "departure tax" that many usually pay. It's 60 ECs or about $24

2) My checked bag was close to 70 lbs, 20 lbs over the limit...no charge.

3) My carryon was also wayyy over. Again, no problem.

4) My flight was only 5 minutes late. To anyone that's flown out of GND, that's ridiculous. 2 hours delayed in the standard.

5) My flight arrived to Trinidad 10 minutes earlier than scheduled.

TRINIDAD

1) Church's chicken.

2) My checked bag, again, super over. Again, no words.

3) My carryon was over, but they let me check in 2 bags, so again, no charge.

The only downside is that whenever I'm getting on a puddle jumper (think small prop planes), usually, I'm assigned seats next to either fun people or attractive females. The problem arises when the flight attendant comes over, tells the fun person/attractive female to get up and switch seats with the biggest/fattest/angriest person on the plane to "balance out the weight."

Is it karma? Is it my girlfriend who called the airlines ahead? Do I put that past her? Of course. ...

The abomination sitting next to me from GND --> POS (Trinidad) reminded me of my 5th grade gym teacher. She was big, and she was angry. She breathed heavily and noisily, and she was doing her puzzle book, which meant she had to stick her elbows out (her side fat didn't allow her to keep her elbows to herself) and push my tiny ass frame to the aisle. Why was she so angry? Quite possibly because the tiny ass asian kid next to her was taking over her 2nd seat.

Anywho, plans when returning home:

1) try not to die on the way home from JFK

2) order chinese food

3) shower

that's about it. I hope to find some time away from work to see a few people that'll be in nyc this summer.

I'm done.

I've been behind. Post-midterms, I was hauling major butt (6 - 8 hours a day in the library) and it seemed a little wrong for me to take time away to keep up the blog (although I did find other distractions)...I woulda felt guilty about the 10 minutes I spent, even though I would have spent the 10 minutes waiting on food. Bizarre. I know.

I'm currently at the airport, waiting to board my flight...I board in about an hour, but we all know that my flight will be delayed. Why? Because it always is. I just hope it doesn't delay to the point I miss my connecting flight.

This semester had its ups and downs, but mostly ups. Studying was difficult, as I had never spent this much time studying in my entire life...consistently. My last semester at Emory, people always knew me to be in the library, but even then, I was there at 9 - 10pm, and I left promptly around 2am. Here, it's been from 7 - 8pm straight til 2am, and even then, I felt inadequately prepared. I hope that this is a wakeup call for me, that nothing from here on out will be easy, as everything will be harder as the semester progresses.

I've met some wonderful people here, and although my reputation as a jerk, a douchebag, manwhore, jack@ss, etc. will carry on, I will miss them dearly; whether it be because they will be away in the UK doing the KBT program for a year, or because they didn't make it. Despite my comments (my "pool" at the beginning of the year), I truly believed that everyone that worked hard deserved to make it through, and I truly believe most of us did. To my friends and colleagues of those who missed it by a few points, don't give up. I hope to see you as an MD in 4 years.

As much as I complained about the program, the country, the professors, etc., I found myself complaining about the idea of returning to NY to work. As I go through the memories I've had over the short four months, I truly did enjoy my time here. I've been through wonderful experiences with people that I will probably never forget and people that will remain by my side for the next decade. In retrospect, even with the studying, GND has been a vacation for me.

As far as my plans for the summer, I will be returning to NY for work until about July, and then taking about 4 - 6 weeks off in the summer to rest, relax, possibly shadow someone, and to study and be somewhat prepared for August.

I shall be going through security soon, but I will try to update in Trinidad. Last time I was there (august 09), it was a craphouse that made the airport in GND look like the Westin...apparently, they have remodeled + rebuilt to the point it rivals JFK. I am skeptical. We shall see.