4th

Third semester is officially behind us, and thank God for that. It's a very tough semester that requires a lot of rote memorization. There are only two exams in each class so there is no margin for error. Through drop outs, fail outs, repeaters, and transfers, the class that started at 145 people one year ago is now down to about 110. Alex has been working harder than I knew a person could, and it pays off. Her brain was just about pudding by the time it was all over but she rocked it. Now on to fourth semester. As if final exams weren't exhausting enough, Al flew out the next day for a two week trip to Nicaragua. She gave up her vacation for the opportunity to work in communities in need doing spays, neuters, and exams on large and small animals. She loved it so much. She can speak to it much better than I can, but regardless to say she saw beautiful sights, made great new friends, and gained invaluable experiences. She was able to perform surgeries that people who are a year further along haven't even been able to do. This experience will continue to pay dividends over the next few years. I spent the past few months working the summer camp that the prep school provides. I was responsible for the oldest crew of kids and tried to find ways to keep them occupied and active. We did lots of hikes and trips to the beach. A lot of these kids are passive when they are at home, so i tried to expose them to new experiences. We worked together to cook a few times a week in hopes that they would learn some better eating habits, too. This is now over and the new scho year has begun. With alex gone I spent the two weeks with friends who were likewise abandoned. We hiked, snorkeled, and made video shorts. My friend Long has an amazing camera and a great deal of patience so we were able to mess around and make our "art".

My ability to maintain this blog has become, by my estimations, atrocious. I will continue to make efforts to keep this up to date but, as you can tell, I am not too diligent with it. For example, this current post you are reading was started nearly 4 months ago, but I am just now finalizing it and posting it. This post, meant to high light the start of fourth semester, is being posted with less than 3 weeks left in said semester. Sad.