Ben got off the island!

We've been living in Dominica for almost 15 months now, and until Sunday Ben had never left this tiny island. About a month ago he told me he was starting to get "island fever" and was really wanting a break. Luckily, this opportunity came along!

In Ben's first semester of medical school his cadaver had oat cell lung cancer. Yuri (pictured below with Ben) was in Ben's dissection group* and had a lot of expertise in that type of cancer from undergrad. Yuri spearheaded a research project for their group to put together and present at the school's research fair. Last May we found out that their project had been selected to present at the AACA Research Conference, with medical professionals from all over the world, and this year it was being held at St. Georges University in Grenada! Just a hop, skip and a jump (well really, two flights) from our little island! They got permission from the school miss some class so they could attend and present (and Ross even footed the bill!). 

Ben loved Grenada. He said the island is much more Americanized than Dominica, it seemed to be much more developed and have much nicer amenities. Also, as only someone who lives in Dominica would appreciate, the airport was an easy 5 minute drive from the campus (unlike our one hour drive on the windiest road known to man, makes us so sick every time). He was also so impressed with St. Georges campus. After attending the conference, he decided we probably should have chosen St. Georges over Ross, but live and learn right? He was just gone for 3 nights, but Chase and I sure missed him a lot and were so glad when he came home to us on Wednesday night.

Their presentation went well and Ben said it was definitely a learning experience. Towards the end of the conference Ben had the funniest conversation with an older Australian woman who came up to look at his poster. After continuously critiquing and judging the poster (with questions like "Did you really do this? Or did a professor just do it for you? How do I know this is your work?") she looked at Ben and said, "And you know, you really need to watch your physique."

What the heck?

Ben was kind of shocked- he's maybe put on a few pounds here, since his rigorous school schedule hasn't given him much extra time to work out, but Ben is by no means an overweight guy.
She went on to say that doctors need to look more fit and she recommended that he chain himself to a desk to study with the food just barely out of reach. Awesome idea right? We've had a good laugh about her comments several times since.

*Just to record how insane Ross can be at times, Ben's dissection group started out as 5 guys. Only three of them are even left on the island (the other two failed out) and one of them is no longer in Ben's class because he had to repeat 3rd semester. All three of them got to attend the conference, but it just shows how stressful passing is here!