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08-08-2005, 10:57 PM
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Im back, it was great
Hi everyone,
I just got back from Aruba, and as promised I will give you a full update. First of all, Aruba is a great place with great people, one happy island. yada yada yada. I warn you though, if you are some young whipper snapper that has been living with your parents and you are looking to be on your own, Aruba will be one big wake up call. Life there can be rough, you have to know how to handle yourself and practice self control in the face of Carlo's and Charlie's. The island of Aruba holds two very different extremes of living. First you have the super poor places, the proverbial "ghetto" if you will, and I’m sure you can find a place there for next to nothing, but be careful, better to pay a little more for peace of mind. Then there is the super rich places, like Palm Beach, next to the high rise hotels, but be prepared to pay for it. It’s all cut and dry in Aruba, and looking for suitable housing can be a pain. The reason I say that is because you are pretty much on your own. Now, I pledge my academic allegiance and honesty to Xavier but I also pledge my honesty to you, my fellow student. Having said that, ******* Arends is a joke. He took me to the place I wanted to stay and said one price. The next day I went by myself to the place and the landlord quoted a price that was 150 USD per month less, she even showed it to me in print. I know He works for the school and what not, but come on, wake up and smell the coffee; He is trying to take the students for a ride. We are pretty much on our own, so be smart, and go with people you can trust. When I looked at individual apartments, most of them looked great; I think ******* sent you all an email about Keveys, a red building with a pool. Looks pretty great in the pictures, but all around the outside it is horrible, really in the dumps. The place is not finished yet either and he says he doesn’t know when it will be finished. Also, you are taking a risk living in an all student building, because people will know that most students will be out during school hours, which makes that building a prime target for burglary. Other than those two things, that building is pretty great. I didn’t look at many places to be honest, I decided to get the first place I looked at, I had already decided to get that place even before I left, and it was a great move especially after I saw the other places for one of my other friends. So the moral of this paragraph is, don't get here one day before school starts to look for a place, take the time, it will be worth it, you are on your own so use common sense. As for gyms, there are tons of them. One called Corpus Sanctus is open 24 hours and it is on the second floor with a panorama of windows. There is also one close to school, pretty nice, with Tae Bo, Salsa, Tae Kwan Do, and other type of lessons. Also next to the airport is a manly man's gym with weights and steroid vending machines. (Just kidding!) Cost is not that bad, different plans, different strokes for different folks. Now if you get a fairly nice place, it should come with a pool, probably a Jacuzzi too. There isn't much of anything on campus, maybe a basketball court, I think. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum there is food like no other. You can get anything, at any time pretty much. All the fast food that I have seen back in the southern United States pretty much is in Aruba. Also, there are plenty of nice restaurants. When it comes to grocery shopping, I thought it wasn’t all that great until I walked into Ling and Sons IGA, there my knees buckled. Now, I am coming from Bonaire, where eating in general is a necessary evil because the food in the grocery store is either rotten, covered in bugs, or Dutch. Sometimes all three. So when I walked into Ling and Sons, this huge smile came across my face. This was perfection, this was Ling and Sons. All the American food, all reasonably priced (in southern standards.) You name it they had it. The key is getting a place to live with a fridge and freezer, get a car, and go directly to Ling and Sons. Ah yes, "get a car" struck you as odd and unusual in describing life on a tropical island? Well, I wasn't kidding, get one. Things are very far apart. Granted, it will cost extra but consider splitting the cost with your roommate or a classmate that lives in the same complex. Aha, you say you can do me one better and get a nice motor bike or a scooter and pay little for it and have small gas payments? Well, in the words of one of my local friends on Bonaire if you get a motorbike get your coffin as well, and he is right, traffic will be crazy. Unless you really know how to drive a bike don't get one. Also, if you are one of those young kids who likes all those fancy cars because the paint job changes color under certain sunlight, and all you care about is putting a giant exhaust on it so your lawnmower engine can sound like a Ferrari engine, and you act like you know everything there is to know about cars because you watch "monster garage" and "pimp my ride" but you couldn't change the oil or even a tire to save your life, I warn you especially, do not get enticed by the fancy cars for sale in Aruba. There is a reason that the bright red 2002 BMW is selling only for 3,000, use common sense. Buy something economical and affordable, and buy it on the island, do not have it shipped from America or where ever, there is going to be massive taxes placed on it. Another thing my mechanic said, if you are driving at night time and you see two sets of lights coming at you, get out of the way, they are street racing, especially down by the straight away with the traffic lights next to the high rise hotels. And from personally seeing it, I can tell you that it is true. Drive carefully, because other people are not. As for other stores in Aruba, tons of clothing stores, electronics stores, but buy your electronics from the country you are coming from. There is a massive price difference in bigger electronic items (price wise) (laptops especially.) But as for TV's, buy them here; because it is less of a hassle to bring it and you might have to pay taxes, they have some good prices on TV's, just look around. Also, any new things such as laptops and printers, take them out of the box it came in so it doesn’t look new, they will place taxes on those items that are still in the box. Of course, small electronic items (price wise) you can buy them here. Clothing wise, there are tons of great American stores, if I am not mistaken, Xavier is in downtown close to Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, all the nice stores. There are also more moderately priced stores close by. They also have many stores for school supplies in the malls, when I went there were big sales because it was back to school time. Much like America, you all should be quite comfortable. There is wireless access all over campus, so bring a laptop with you, it is not an option it is absolutely necessary. The school runs on laptops. Nothing fancy, make sure it has wireless, make sure it has Microsoft Office Suite, and USB and DVD drives. Also bring a USB jump, pen, stick, portable memory (whatever you want to call it) drive. You can get DSL in your house by the way, you will need to get a phone line first, in that case bring a wireless router for your house too, and make sure to have it password protected so someone doesn’t steal your internet. The school and the library are pretty nice, nothing fancy, in fact the campus in Bonaire seems to look better but the campus and buildings in Aruba are much bigger and more advanced. As with any college located in a city compared to ones in the country. But no worries, I am sure the school is taking on a campus beautification project, the sheer beauty of the Bonaire campus is a perfect example, also I know they are expanding to other buildings to make it even bigger. The school has labs, and I know that they are fast on their way to getting cadavers; these continuous and quick improvements are helped because the school has such great ties with the hospitals in Aruba and the government. Alright then, if you have any more questions feel free to post them. I may have forgotten a few things. Hope to see you all in Aruba. -GoodFella
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"The education of a man is never complete until he dies."-General Robert E. Lee Last edited by GoodFella; 08-09-2005 at 12:46 PM.     |
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08-08-2005, 11:39 PM
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did u just say...WHO?
Quote:
 But i couldn't help noticing what u said in the quote i've included...did the school actually tell u this or were they more like, "yeah, we're in talks with WHO," or "we're sure to get WHO recognition," etc? Cuz then it'd just be plain weird that the Admisisons guy hasn't come right out and said this on valueMD. |
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08-09-2005, 12:21 AM
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Thanx
U really cleared up a lot of the ??'s that I had thank u for acting as Geraldo & giving what seems to be a fair & accurate report much appreciated from a new arrival to the caribbean scene. Look forward to seeing u on the isle & thanx again
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Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much for they reside in that grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat |
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08-09-2005, 12:31 AM
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Thanks
Thanks for this post
 The info is quite useful to us Xavier is already on my list... When I receive a word from all the schools I applied for, I will then decide where to go in January. This is really helpful
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Something that bothers you, just flush it off and wipe the remaining patiently. RS-Stanislas |
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08-09-2005, 01:07 AM
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great review for a vacation catalogue
Did you forget to mention the important stuff, such as: qualified faculty members, administration, facilities, clinical rotations, USMLE prep. course, financial aid? All the other stuff about gyms," Palm Beach- like" living conditions, jacuzzis, clothing & electronic stores is not that relevant.
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08-09-2005, 10:09 AM
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Please Be Advised
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Xavier Admissions Xavier University School of Medicine |
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08-12-2005, 01:26 AM
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the best answers lead to more questions
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....  Anyhoooo...I did find the next quote interesting:Quote:
Also, if anyone can tell me which states an Xavier grad can practice medicine in, with or without WHO recognition, that would also be very helpful. Thanks a bunch |
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08-12-2005, 01:39 PM
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none
"which states an Xavier grad can practice medicine in, with or without WHO recognition, that would also be very helpful. Thanks a bunch"
you need who, or imed listing to be certified by the ecfmg to even sit for the exams.....
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OBGYN PGY II I see light at the end of the tunnel!!!...wait a minute its just another freakin tunnel! |
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