F&*@ing Hurricane Ike...

So its been quite a while since I last updated. I made all my old posts prive and now I figured now that I'm in med school, I should slowly bring this thing back to life to vent when I need to. I even changed the title bc WTF was I thinking with the old title??? I can't think of anything cool and unique like "Periphrastic Penguin," so here's to the lame, generic new title. *High five* I'm awesome.

My first three weeks of med school were... GREAT. I loved it. Everything is so interesting and all the stuff we learn is finally what I have been wanting to do for so long. Anatomy lab was a little disturbing at first, but now its just a part of the day. I got used to it pretty quickly. I think part of that is me dissociating from the idea that the cadaver was an actual walking talking person at one point in time. If I think about that too much, it'll hamper me learning anatomy. I will tell you this though: when we uncovered the hands for the first time, I got a little freaked out. I dunno what will happen when we get to the face. (The face is covered right now and will be covered until we start looking at the anatomy of the face.)

So I was studying hard and enjoying it at the same time. I was making friends and stuff. It was going pretty well for me. I had figured out a study schedule for Ramadan and it was working very well. I would wake up, go to campus/class until 2, and then I would stay at the library and study until 6 or 6:30. Then I would go home and take a nap until 7:20, wake up and fix dinner, eat, pray and relax until 8:30. Then I would continue studying until 11 or 11:30 which is when I would go to bed. Simple schedule and very effective. I got a lot done. A week and a half passed by just like that with no problems. Then came Ike.

Stupid stupid hurricane. True, it was one of the single most scary things I have ever been through, and I'm glad everyone is ok. But I severely underestimated how bad the damage would be after the hurricane. Both my homes are broken, one livable the other closed for repairs. Classes are supposed to start on Oct 6th, and we're supposed to have an exam on Oct 10th. I don't understand how this can possibly happen bc NO ONE has housing except for the people who live above the 2nd floor. Third and fourth years have been distributed all around other Texas med schools to do their rotations, but us first and second years are stuck. Its really not so bad for first years because they can continue into the summer with no consequences for us, but the second years are kind of pressed for time since they take their USMLE Step 1 in June. Either way, we've all been a bit screwed over by the damn hurricane. I know I should be thankful that I only had 8 inches of water in my place, but its so hard to keep up a positive attitude... Most of my furniture is gone. Messed up moldy pieces of junk. I lost my sofa (the one from home about 10 yrs old), coffee table (that I had for 3 yrs now), night stand (2 wks old), dresser (3.5 wks old), tv stand (3.5 wks old), desk legs (3.5 wks old), and maybe the side table. Other things include my suitcase, laundry basket, trashcans (they got tipped over by the water and had been lying in contaminated water for a long time), ironing board, carpet, walls, etc. I'm pretty sure the appliances are messed up now too. The good thing about all this is that the complex that I'm living at has flood insurance and they're going to take care of all the repairs. The bad news is that I have to find another place to live for at least 6 months (pretty much the rest of the school year). There's not much available on the island itself since the water damage was so extensive, but we found a place near campus and we already put down a deposit on it. I don't particularly like the place; its more ghetto than my place, and the surrounding area SMELLS terrible from the debris and mold growing nearby. I dunno how long its going to take to fix the surrounding area nor do I know the risk of mold and mildew of that place. The realtor is supposed to let us know, but so far she hasn't contacted us. The only other places available for me are off the island, which will mean a loooong commute everyday. There's a girl who has a house and she's willing to let me live there for 6 months and she's only asking for money for gas and food, not even rent. Its a good deal, but an hour commute each way everyday, and I think I'd feel like I'd be a burden on her and her husband. She says she doesn't mind since she offered her place to me, but I was more or less hoping for someone who has an extra room in their apartment or something. *Sigh* We'll see what happens. I've applied for FEMA, but I doubt they'll be much help, and I've asked UTMB for help (they told us to if we need housing). But, at the worst, there is the apartment on the island. I'm going to call around and see what's available in Texas City.

Picture time:

Downed powerline as we were driving back home from the "look and leave" day on Sept 16th.

Jet-ski on the Causeway

Hole in my parents' closet. Water was leaking in the corner. It was smelling really bad and we couldn't figure out what was wrong until my dad stepped to the back of the closet and felt the carpet, which was soaked, and the sheetrock, which was also soaked. So, he pulled out the carpet and tore off the wet sheet rock and insulaiton. We didn't find this until about a week after the hurricane.

Debris on the way to my place for the "look and leave" day

Boat... On the edge of campus

They cleared up the streets pretty fast.

My condo complex parking lot. Those are the carports that were pretty much torn and twisted like paper by the wind's force.

More damage in the parking lot...

My parking spot survived!

How we protected our electronics and sofa when the ceiling began to sag...

What the wind did to the poor bushes.. My mom went and tried to bring the two pieces back together again by tying them together with string. We'll see if it helps in a few weeks.

Debris on the way to my place. Lots of people's boats.
Look at the overturned boat.
Debris on 45 after coming over the causeway

Debris in the front yard the morning after the hurricane
More debris in the yard
View from the front door. Yup, those white sheets are parts of the living room ceiling.
Cleaning up after the ceiling collapsed
More debris in the yard. I thnk they all came from across the street bc almost all of their shingles were blown off the house.

What our living room looked like after the ceiling collapsed. Now, the fan is gone (ruined bc of water dripped through the motor), and the hole is covered by a giant plastic sheet stapled to the ceiling and beams.
Can't really see it, but there's a hole in our roof. The covers of the exhaust ducts got blown off the roof, leaving these ginormous holes on the roof, which let the rain in, which started leaking through the ceiling, and which ultimately made our ceiling collapse.
Another hole in the roof
How we tried protecting the bed and carpet from water dripping from the ceiling in the bedroom. I couldn't take pictures of the rest of the house because it was PURE INSANITY at that time, but our living room floor and kitchen were covered with plastic and buckets and pots and plastic boxes. Our house was really leaky... My dad even went up in the attic to put buckets and plastic containers to catch the water leaking in to prevent the ceiling from becoming even more wet.
Our arrangement for sleeping during the storm. My dad didn't want my brother or me to sleep in our own rooms because of the huge trees we have right outside our rooms that could have potentially broken and fallen on our rooms.

I hope there are never any more hurricanes in this area in my lifetime!!!

Ok, since I am back, I will try to update regularly now. So, until the next one then.