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“Someday we’ll look back on this moment and plow into a parked car.”
~ Evan Davis

dearest Nevis,

this is my last letter to you. my last monthly update. my last few weeks on your little gem of an island. i’m swamped with the expected mixture of excitement about moving on and sadness at leaving you behind. i don’t doubt i will look back fondly on my time here. and will probably miss you more as the years roll by and my glasses become tinted with the rose-color of passing time. like a long-lost ex-boyfriend, i’ll easily forget the way you left your socks everywhere and spend my memories sighing over the times you surprised me with hand-picked flowers.

March came and went in the blink of an eye. i’ll believe you when you tell me that there were 31 days, but will probably look to a calendar for proof. April 1st feels like a Fool’s Day joke straight from Father Time. if i had a dime for each time i’ve commented on how fast the days are flying, i could probably pay off a significant portion of my student debt. i’m sure you’re sick of hearing it. i’m learning to hold on tight to the rollercoaster and enjoy it. because i really don’t think it’s going to slow down anytime soon.

and i’m okay with that.

my friend, Brigette came all the way from Vancouver to visit during the last week of February. it was positively wonderful to have her giddy laugh fill our little house for those 7 days. and let’s not forget the fact that more than half of her suitcase was filled with sugary Canadian goodies! she got a funny sunburn and an upset tummy from Pizza Beach, but i hope she found the rest and rejuvenation she needed. plus, she got to see monkeys and donkeys and goats and sheep and hummingbirds and cockroaches and sand and surf and the bottom of a white wine bottle. i certainly enjoyed her visit here as an excuse to take some time off myself.

Brandon made a new friend in late February. he named her Georgia and we enjoyed multiple daily visits from her for several weeks. she would crawl under the chain-link fence and come sit by our kitchen window in the morning and evenings. one night she even stopped by at 2am and ferociously guarded our house from some predator of the dark. we knew she was there because her incessant barking also protected us from soundly sleeping any more that night. Brandon toyed with the idea of taking her back home to Nebraska, but i think he decided in the end that it would be unfair to ask her to give up the free roam she has here on Nevis in exchange for even the biggest backyard.

we haven’t seen Georgia in a few days now and are hoping that doesn’t mean something bad has happened to her. maybe she just moved on to another kitchen window.

speaking of kitchens and food, i will miss the care packages full of sugary love. friends and family back home were wonderfully supportive with their diabetes-inducing boxes that took weeks and months to arrive. but i’ll trade those in any day for a grocery store with fresh organic produce that doesn’t cost as much as a month’s tuition. i won’t miss checking expiry dates and shopping in the frozen-canned-packaged food sections. i guess the day has finally arrived: i’m a little sick of Eggos.

the New Building on campus opened its’ doors to MED 5′s for our final few exams and classes are being held there as of March 25th. most of us that have been at MUA for any length of time (and those of you that have moved on to clinical rotations in the USA) can hardly believe it’s actually open. it feels like it has been under construction for-ever (since well before i got here in September 2007), but looks like it was well worth the wait. the new classrooms are gorgeous and the bathrooms are positively decadent.

the phases of the moon wax and wane. the tides roll in and out. i arrived on Nevis like a wave crashing onto the beach. and am about to be sucked back to the sea.

be sure to keep in touch. don’t be a stranger. take care of yourself.

all my love,
`Jennifer XO

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