What a fun weekend!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a great weekend!

Mike and I had a very busy and fun weekend. On Saturday morning, I went to a suturing workshop! One of the M.D. professors taught the workshop and we learned 4 different stitches and practiced them on the cadavers. I learned a continuous stitch, an interrupted stitch (the type that most of you have probably seen used), a mattress stitch for very deep cuts, and an invisible stitch that would be used in places where you don't want scars or stitches showing. Suturing was harder than I thought it would be but it was really cool and I got the hang of it by the end and my stitches were actually really good! So I am really glad I did the workshop because it is a skill that will definitely come in handy!

While I was at the suture workshop, Mike, of course, was skimming at the beach :) Then in the afternoon, Mike and I ran all of the errands we had been putting off, like grocery shopping. But it was worth it because with our place stocked again with food, we were able to have my favorite (Mexican) for dinner and it was delicious! Then, on Saturday night, we went for a beer with a few friends at a bar/restaurant that is near our house and right on the lagoon and that was a good time.

On Sunday, Mike attended a swim meet for the school that he substitute teaches at and taught swim classes at! He swam in a relay against other schools on the island and his team got 1st place in their heat! The teams were huge and consisted of 8 students and 1 teacher (Mike) on each team. Mike's students told him they were very happy with his performance :) So while Mike was at his swim meet, I finally got to the beach for the first time in 2 weeks....long overdue! So I spent a couple of hours at the beach (it was wonderful) and then came back to the apartment and spent the rest of the afternoon studying.

For the Super Bowl, we went to our friends Micah & Katie's place to watch the game with some other friends. Katie (who is in the same boat as Mike - down here with a student) just got back yesterday after being off the island for 2 months so we were VERY excited to see her and hang out with her! She had gone home for the 2 months to help her sister who just had her first baby. We had a great time watching the Super Bowl, having some drinks, and sharing appetizers. Our friend Kathy came up with a really fun Super Bowl bingo game. You fill in your own bingo card with the commercials you think will play and then the first person to get 'bingo' won a bottle of liquor. Ironically, it was Kathy who wound up winning her own game! So the Super Bowl get together was a great time but I did struggle through class this morning since the game went so late and we didn't get home until the AM :)

Well, that is the update for now. Back to the daily school grind for me. It will be a busy week with class, review sessions, anatomy TAing, etc. Mike's week will be busy as well. He started his fake patient duties today (he said it went well) and he is substitute teaching tomorrow as well as tutoring...hopefully he will be able to squeeze his skim boarding into his busy week...he did vow that he would never go 3 days without going to the beach! Haha!

Have a great week everyone! We miss you all VERY much!!

Love,

Carly & Mike

P.S. Sodahls - you will appreciate this one: The other day I met a new student who is from Iowa but he has a cabin in MN. I asked him where and he said near Fergus Falls and I told him I lived there for a while so I asked specifically which lake his cabin is on and he said Pickerel Lake! What a small world...I come all the way to the Caribbean to meet someone who has a cabin on the lake we all spent so much time on together!