"Pack my bags and never look back"?

I just had an admired Dominican man ask my advice about his life. His parents have helped him obtain a Green card, and he has to decide in the next 4 months if he wants to leave his home and live in the US permanently. With no family or job options lined up there, the prospect of uprooting one's life and starting new & alone seems terrifying to me. Granted, he wouldn't be completely alone as he would be bringing his 4-yr-old daughter along, but wow, that makes it even more difficult. I couldn't do it, not alone, and not without a strong driving force/goal in mind. It's way too hard to be gone for long. I only left my own life temporarily, but I'm constantly looking back - I make a terrible runaway (pretty sure nobody that reads this will catch the reference, but it still felt good to say ;)). I always wanted to get out of Michigan, move somewhere warm & make a fresh start in some exciting new place, but as time passes I find myself appreciating the familiarity and taking pride in the place I was raised. I still maintain that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in my hometown, but I doubt I'll make it quite so far away as I had intended.

In other news, mini (test) 1 of 4th semester is Monday, and I've been busily trying to cram drugs & bacteria & viruses into my brain, and it sort of makes me (along with everyone else) crazy. [For any non-Ross readers, a mini is a test that contains roughly 4 weeks worth of material from all of our classes packed into ~120 questions & 2.5-3hrs. The week leading up to that is pretty much chaos for all those involved.] On top of the already tense situation, the box that my mom sent is now a week overdue, and I ran out of a medication.. oh, about a week ago. Rock on. Just another reminder that you can NOT rely on island mail/international shipping.

Okay, now for the joy of the week. Are you ready for this? So I have some friends that went to Roseau (the capital) on Thursday to stock up on supplies (because the options are slightly more plentiful there), and they asked if I wanted anything. I'd heard tell that real milk existed at times, but never witnessed this miracle for myself. So I laughingly asked for milk. Mind you, the one time I went to Roseau to visit the new Save-a-Lot I had that one mission in mind, and my hopes & dreams were crushed as they were sold out (a frequent occurrence of island life). BUT... drumroll please....

The shocking thing is that that beautiful stuff costs ~$9.40USD/gallon. The even more shocking thing is that that is CHEAPER than the ~$11.25USD/gallon that I pay for the not-so-awesome shelf milk:
Yes, I know that's an insane price to pay, but I only use it for my cereal in the mornings, and there are some comforts a person just needs. And those 2 half gallons of milk that Gabe brought me back from Save-a-Lot brought me more joy than a normal person could imagine. One is in the freezer to potentially help me survive the week prior to mini 2. ;)