Category: Diary

About: Diving at night is an adventure. How awesome it is to descend into the darkness with a group of your friends with flashlights in your hands, not knowing what's underneath! Highlights: Seeing marine life that come out at night. Seeing the real color of ocean life, without all the blue that's around during the day, Seeing fish that follow the light of your torch, Seeing glow-in-the-dark bioluminescent microorganisms. Continue reading

Last Tuesday, AUC held one of the best and most helpful events I’ve been to here on campus… the Clinical Symposium!! As our school’s affiliated teaching hospitals are spread across the United States from California to New York, and across England, the school makes an effort to bridge the familiarity gap between the Basic Sciences here in St. Maarten and… Continue reading

This Saturday, several of my classmates and I in Basic Sciences will be supporting our senior AUC schoolmates by volunteering for the most important ceremony in a medical student’s life, graduation. After 4 strenuous years, these 150 and more students have finally achieved their dream in becoming doctors, and their journeys have only begun. Two years since they left the… Continue reading

Hello everyone! Every semester, AUC brings in alumni to come share their experiences with current Basic Science students here in St. Maarten. This is a great opportunity for us to learn about what’s in store for us and give us a guideline on how to pursue what we want. Thanks MEAS for sharing this flier with everyone. I’ll definitely be… Continue reading

One of the first things new AUC students (and spouses) do when we arrive on the island is to fill up our new homes with new groceries and supplies. But, where do we go? Here, I’ve compiled a list of some of the more popular grocery stores both near and far from AUC’s campus. Within Walking Distance:

Tung Yuen Supermarket

… Continue reading

Here I've made a list of affordable, relatively-affordable, and not-so-affordable yet fun things you can do on this island and beyond. These activities are perfect for the AUC student who's strapped for cash but want to take a break from studying for a few hours, a day, or a weekend. A must-read for any traveler to St. Maarten!!! Continue reading

About: Scuba diving is amazing, especially with St. Maarten's hard-to-beat clear blue waters and outstanding marine life. Once you dive for the first time, you'll never want to go back to snorkeling. Your relationship with the ocean just got deeper. Pun intended. Highlights: Swimming with a huge school of fish, getting close to a sea turtle, swimming right above the coral and the sea grass, Blowing air bubbles. It's an absolutely beautiful world under the sea. Continue reading

One thing wonderful about going to school in another country is the chance to be immersed in a different culture, get to know its people, and witness its traditions. With concerts, festivals, street parties, band competitions, pageants, and parades, Carnival season came to St. Maarten this past month, a holiday celebrated throughout the Caribbean, Latin America, and New Orleans (where… Continue reading

Towards the end of last semester, I adopted a baby cat named Haiku. A good friend of mine found her abandoned along with three other stray kittens outside of Cupecoy Market. Since I felt it’d be nice to have a little furry friend in my otherwise lonely apartment, I took her in, and she has been my roommate ever since.… Continue reading

About: Lucas Bay is a very shallow bay with a few islands and sandbars just barely rising out of the shallow waters. The knee-deep water makes it a great trip to wade to the different islands in the bay. There are tons of sea urchins, star fish, hermit crabs, conchs, and other wildlife in the water, and you can easily pick them up in their natural habitat. Amazing! Highlights: Finding and picking up starfish and sea urchins in their natural habitats... no need to go visit a zoo! wading across the water to nearby islands, finding conch shells on the beach, watching people doing flips on their kite surfs. Continue reading

As Irene and I were driving around the French side after our diving session, we saw a lot of banners and advertisements for a festival in Cul-de-Sac. After seeing the several banners on the side of the road, Irene and I chuckled as we found the name so simple and straight to the point of what the festival was celebrating.… Continue reading

About: Loterie Farms on the French side is THE place to go zip lining on the island. From the top of the mountain, you zip across the valley from mountain to mountain, and walk above the trees on obstacle courses, until you reach the bottom. I highly recommend doing the Extreme Zip Lining. The other, more basic one doesn't take you up the mountain. Highlights: Speeding across the valley, tens of hundreds of feet above the treetops, Seeing an awesome view of St. Martin, Possibly see a monkey, Finishing the day with a good meal at Hidden Forest Cafe in Loterie Farms. Continue reading

About: Porto Cupecoy is a condo/yacht club/shopping/restaurant development in Cupecoy, on the western border of Dutch St. Maarten. You can drive or take the water taxi over for dinner here. The Blue Mall, which will open October 2011, will be a five-story upscale shopping mall. It will be the largest indoor shopping mall on the island. Highlights: Shopping, Eating at one of the fine restaurants, gelato, watching the beautiful yachts up close. Continue reading

About: Pinel Island is a small island off the coast of St. Martin. It is uninhabited and a getaway of a getaway. Ferries leave from Cul de Sac every half hour for $7 round trip. The last ferry returns to mainland St. Martin at 4pm. Highlights: Relaxing on the beautiful beach all day with a great view of St. Martin in the foreground. Checking out some of the restaurants and beach bar, snorkeling and more snorkeling, hiking the little island, checking out some of the shops. Continue reading

Now that all final exams are finished and I received all my grades back, I can now officially say that I am a third semester student! Second semester has been a tough one for me, hence I have been blogging much less than before. People say the second semester third block is when “med school truly begins,” and I find… Continue reading

The Van Wormer Student Judiciary Committee (SJC) is a student organization consisting of a body of selected students who mediate student judiciary cases as well as host workshops in ethics and academic honesty. Usually when there is a conflict between students or if the honor code has been breached by a student, the student(s) first appear in front of SJC… Continue reading

Hello everyone! Thanks so much for reading Diary of a Caribbean Med Student. Ever since I started this blog nine months ago, the site has expanded and the design has changed drastically. The number of visitors are ever increasing, and come from all over the world. According to Google Analytics, most of you come from the United States, followed by… Continue reading

This semester, I’ve really enjoyed being a TA in anatomy lab, assisting students in the learning process and at the same time reviewing the material myself and getting more opportunities in working with the cadavers. I’ve spent 28 extra hours so far in the lab this semester, and I’ve learned from the head TA’s how to do a craniotomy, expose… Continue reading

One thing I love about AUC is how involved the students are in giving back to the community. We are all here as guests on this island, and the least we can do is give back to the people who host us. There are numerous community outreach opportunities here, all organized and run by students. Yesterday morning, I participated in… Continue reading