Motivation

Most kids would probably feel pressured after hearing/reading this, but to me, this is motivation to do well, and not just go through the motions, and most of all makes me feel loved:

I hope you are doing great and
"Dil laga kar study Karna"
our expectations are very high.
We all talk about you all the time and miss you a lot.
Love You, our sweetie pie.


Thanks, Cha Cha.

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Election Results

So, the results are out. I've won. But so did the other candidate. We both won. There was a re-election because of some candidates had some unfair publicity, and the third candidate did not accept the nomination to run for the position for which I ran. So there were two of us, for two seats available for that position. So, by default, we both won. Yay.

I'm not really all that disappointed. In fact, it was the opposite, I didn't have to pull friends to my side or anything, just took it easy instead. It was an easy win, AND now, I get to be a part of the student government for my 2nd semester. How exciting.

Yay. Thanks for supporting me peeps.

Election Day:

Okay, so I decided to run for Honor Council Representative for next semester beginning in Sept. The day of the elections, while I'm telling all my friends to vote for me, having not yet voted myself, I find out the people who typed up the ballot with the candidates names, misspelled my name. My closest friends didn't recognize: Lucua Mandviwala. I mean come on! Luckily, there was a glitch with the voting system, so they're redoing the entire election. I've re-nominated myself (I know), and this time I'm spelling my name out to everyone just in case they have a problem recognizing my first and last name. Hopefully the ballot people won't mess up my name again. But you never know. Now all my friends refer to me as Lucua, so I'm afraid some people I just met might really think my name is Lucua. haha. Oh well. Some of my friends said they voted for me just because they thought the name sounded exotic. Win-win situation, I guess.
We'll see how the election goes down this Friday.

Uprooted

Do you ever feel like you've been taken out of your original surroundings and thrust in a new environment? People expecting you to just flow into the soil, and smooth out the bumps naturally?

I started this post a long long time ago, and I really don't know where I was going with this, but I guess I can continue it with a different perspective on having come to Dominica. Although I am in a different land, of different people, I am actually completely surrounded by my peeps; that is, people of MY homeland. Not only is everyone from North America, their roots are predominantly desi too. haha. Go figure. So, not only do I mix with the Amreecan crowd, understanding (for the most part) the american culture, ethics, language, & idioms, I also am amongst people who call each other's friends' parents Aunties & Uncles, and who know who Abhisheikh Bachchan is and what the best "Indi Hindi" films are currently out there (not that we actually sit and watch them here--most people are content with episodes of The Office, or Entourage.)

Anyway, between the americans (all cultures included) who get drunk out of their minds at the post-mini (major exam!) party, and the muslims who gather and do their non-partying partying and the guys who just play basketball until 4 am, I really wonder what I'm part of. I go and enjoy laughing at the americans those getting drunk beyond belief, and hang with the dudes while they play a little ball, but at the same time, I don't mind just hanging chill for a night, at the non-party party, or where we all just lay on the pier and stare at the stars all night--honest to God Dominica has the best night sky I've seen since Punjab in Pakistan Summer of 95, or Yemen (even though we were too pooped to stay up later than 10pm) in summer of 99, just relaxing.

I guess, we, those of us raised in the west but who hold a good chunk of the eastern roots, we must have created a mutation in the gene. A new allele in the generally F1 generation. What will be the marker, that microsatellite, used to distinguish whether those in the F2 will have this allele? Will it be passed on genetically? Hardly. Undoubtedly, we'll have to do what the parental generation did, buy us McDonalds after our dentist appointments and bribe us.

P.S. If you're wondering where this picture is from, it's from a camping trip about an hour away from Atlanta. Yes I took it.

Back to Basics

Okay, it has been WAY too long since I've blogged. I don't even know where to begin. So, in lieu of having not written anything since I've come (when in fact I should have kept all of you up to date all this time on my new experiences) I'm going to start from now, and fill in the blanks if something spectacular comes to mind.

So, what am I up to right now? What are the things going through my head, at this very moment. Well, that I should be packing up my stuff from the library to head home in about 5 minutes. But besides the immediate stuff, I'm almost done with this semester. I can't believe it. I landed on April 23r, and now, it's already July 19th! Crazy. Less than one more month of school to go and then I'm home free. Almost. I like an idiot booked my ticket one week AFTER we get out thinking I might be able to handle all the logistics of finding a new apt, moving, etc (having never really to deal with that from semester/year to semester/year before)

I went from Bako home to apt in Atl, to getting married in same apt (more stuff now), to different apt mid semester with husband. So, I had never really had to deal with all that. Now I do, and I've realized that everyone takes care of that business mid semester, and leaves almost the same day as the final exam, if weather, space and Dominicans permit.

Anyway, I'm thinking, I hope I pass. I'm thinking, my friends are decent. The place ain't that bad. And I need to focus, and really kill these exams. I'm thinking, I need to learn this as if I'm going to be using it tomorrow. Because to a certain extent, (however much is actually applicable) I will be, in just one year, when Rotations/clerkships roll around. Most Carib schools are arounds about 2 years in the doing book work. Here at Ross, it's 1 1/2 yrs--16 months as most people like to think about it.

I do have to say, I was shocked by the number of brown people here. I mean, I see more light skinned folk in Pakistan. That's how many brown people are here. Yeah. But we're all the same. Born/raised in the US, and all shocked at how many of us "brownies" there are. There are a few that aren't born & raised, but they're sweet nonetheless. Just like in Ali G in da house, there are those that are "gangsta" desi, punjabi desi (doing bangra on their hike to and from the library), "oh my god , I broke a nail" desi, and nerdy fob desi. But the overwhelming majority are chill relaxed, unphased desis that really don't mind being desi, they don't SUPER embrace it, but they don't hate it either. If you ask them to listen to some old Juhi Chawla songs, they'll smile and say, "I remember the days when..." and tell some story that all of us relate to, saturday morning breakfasts in the US households, thursday morning in the Bahrain households, Friday morning in the Arabian households, they're mom and dad put on old songs and we'd all wake up to the music playing while mom made breakfast and dad read the newspaper. Same ol' story. And all of us say in unison "yeah, I remember that! The good ol' days."

Anyway, then we break our huddle, ending our break blocking the isles of the cubicles in the "icebox"--room in the libarary so cold everyone brings sweatshirts and fleece blankets to aid in their studying .


Okay, I have to head home, and do my little traditional routine of flipping through Netters index cards to review my anatomy that I've already forgotten on the hand muscles, thigh, leg, arm, and forearm, and back.

Anatomy, reminds me of a quote an Anatomy tutor spoke while holding a Scalpel and showing us some goodies. She said, "I was so scared, I almost dropped a scapula on my foot." Yeah. I switched my TA from then on.

Peace out folks.