So….where have I been this entire time? Well, the answer is simple: nowhere. I’ve been busy with school and this semester. As I said in my first post, I am not much of a writer so it’ll take some time to get used to the regular writing and writing about interesting things.  So…any advice from other writers out there? How do you come up with the ideas?

So I was thinking the other day, would I want to donate my body to science? Would you? I mean, as a medical student I greatly appreciate the people who do donate their bodies for our education. I mean, if I didn’t have the cadaver I am working on in lab, I would miss out on so much important anatomy that can only be understood with hands-on experience. At the same time, just the thought of someone else cutting me up after I am dead is kind of repelling. Also, I don’t think my religion allows it because then it doesn’t meet the proper requirements of burying a body ASAP and doing the proper showering and cleaning of the body before burial. Anyways, just wondering what other religions say about it and what makes other people want to or not want to donate their bodies.

 This takes us to the next event: bugs. On tuesday my roommate and I decided to have some friends over for dinner. The dinner was nice and we really enjoyed talking about all the limited topics we have here to talk about on the island. Then I decided to get up and wash dishes while my friend cleaned off the table. I was in the middle of my destressing diswashing event when all off a sudden I hear screams from the livingroom. The thing that took me by surprise was that it wasn’t just the girls screaming, our one and only guy friend who was there was screaming too. I was thinking that it must be something major to make them all scream like that. It turned out that a huge centipede (and they seriously are huge–this one’s length was from my wrist to the tip of my middle finger!) had come in when my friends came in and it was just sitting around while we ate and all. Then when they were picking up dishes, it tried to crawl up my friend’s leg. Luckily he shook it off. So this is what the scene looked like: my roommate standing on top of the dining table screaming at the top of her lungs, one of my friends standing on the couch, he too screaming at the top of his lungs, me still trying to figure out what the heck happened (standing with soapy hands) and my other friend swinging at the centipede with a broom. We finally (or she finally) killed it and I had the honors of cleaning the mess after it was killed.

 On wednesday we had a debate on campus that an organization that I am a part of had organized. It was about IQ and brain size in men vs women. Now, the most interesting part here was that the three women were arguing from the men’s side and the men were arguing from the women’s side. I didn’t think it was going to be that big of a hit, only because it sounds like a childish topic: “I’m smarter than you…nanny, nanny, boo, boo,” but it actually turned out to be very interesting. Probably because it was not opinion based, it was completely research based instead. We actually went and looked at what research is showing and if there have been any interesting results. Well, what I learned was that people have wayyyy too much time on their hands, seriously!!! There is soooo much research out there, but it all tells you the same damn thing: women are better at verbal skills, while men are better at spatial and mathematical skills. Now I am not going to sit here and write about all the stuff that I found (because then that would be my entire debate all over again), but I will say that both men and women excel in specific skills and it has to do with two things: the hormones that are present in our bodies during development and birth, which make certain areas of our brain develop differently, and our historical roles (men: hunters; women: gatherers). So…we’re both smart…I guess!!!

 This leads to my next topic. So, if we are both so smart, why are women so dumb sometimes!!! In our free time (which we don’t have much of), us desi (Pakistani, Indian, or anyone close to that) female medical students like to sit around and talk about how we are getting old and we will never get married because desi men are so damn afraid of women who actually have career goals and ambitions. I think we are so dumb for doing this to ourselves, but at the same time, WE CAN’T HELP IT!!! We aren’t asking for too much, but it always seems like we are. We wan’t what every woman wants, a nice, caring, loving husband who has a decent job and nice, open-minded parents. I don’t think that is too much to ask, but I guess in our desi world, it is. On top of that, men have this whole issue with a woman with a career. Desi men just want women who will sit around at home, cook, clean, take care of their parents, and wait for their husbands to come home so they have one more person so serve before bed. Anyways, this is not the way I was expecting this topic to go. I was actually wanting to ask a question to anyone reading this: why do women say one thing and do another? I know men do this too, but women do this sooooo much more!!! The reason I thought of this was because of a friend of mine. She is talking to this guy who is so beyond anything wrong for her. He will say anything to a girl just to get her in his bed (now that I think of it…this is a pretty common practice among men, isn’t it?). Also, he has this psycho girl after him who will just not let him go. So now my friend has gotten herself stuck in a situation where this guy is constantly hitting on her, this girl is giving her “the look of death” everytime she sees her, and my friend is not even interested in this guy!!! Just the other day she was telling me how this guy is such a player and she shouldn’t even talk to him (because she herself is trying to patch things up with her ex–living in another country right now). Then for the next couple of days I notice that she is still talking to this person (everyday!). Now what is this suppose to mean? Why the hell are women so dumb sometimes (yeah, I do mean sometimes…not all the time!).

Anyways, now I shall get back to my journey of studying medicine on an island with bugs that make my feet swell up when they bite, dodging goats, cows, dogs, and occasionnaly a sheep on my way to and from school while getting soaked from the rain because it can’t make up it’s mind about which direction it wants to come and go! Really, it’s not that bad ;o)

After A While 
   By: Veronica A. Shoffstall

After a while you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn
that love doesn't mean leaning
and company doesn't always mean security.
And you begin to learn
that kisses aren't contracts
and presents aren't promises
and you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of woman,
not the grief of a child
and you learn
to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow's ground is
too uncertain for plans
and futures have a way of falling down
in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns
if you get too much
so you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone
to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
you really are strong
you really do have worth
and you learn
and you learn
with every goodbye, you learn…

You are probably wondering why I named it Stranded, right? Well, I am currently a medical student attending a school on one of the Carribean islands. This island is actually not very well developed and there are not may things readily available here. It's like that question you probably have had to answer at least once in your life: if you were stranded on an island and you could only take 3 things with you, what would you take? Well, I am pretty much stranded on and island and what I brought was bug spray, books, and clothing.

My friends insisted that I start this blog so that they could keep up with my life and experiences more easily since God knows I don't have time to call and/or e-mail them every time. So here I go…I hope you all enjoy it and please feel free to give me feedback.