Our Travel Blog

Easter beach trip

2013-04-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was easter, and we decided on a couples trip to the beach. 10 of us piled in three cars and went to a new beach, which will be where the new sandals resort will open up. It was a really nice beach, but about a mile walk to get there. Below us is the Easter cow who greeted us on our journey. These were taken right out of my car window. Isn't he cute!?

This beach had a rock wall to stop the large waves from hitting us, which made the swimming area as calm as a pool.

Sean got to hang out with some other guys, so they all had fun messing around all day.

Here's a picture of the completely deserted hotel.

And the boys playing baseball with bamboo and coconuts.

Their bamboo bat.

And then we decided to force them in for a group picture.

And finally a couples picture at the end of the day.

A day in Grenada

2013-03-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

Sean finished his last midterm for term on friday, so this weekend we have gotten to do all types of fun things. On Saturday, Sean, Sim and I went out to a nice lunch to celebrate our 4 year anniversary. Lunch turned into dinner time on the beach, and it was a wonderful night...until the mosquitoes came out to play.
This morning, we woke up early and decided to go hang out at Grand Anse. We were able to see this giant cruise ship coming in.

And then we took a walk all the way down the beach.

My mother would be in heaven looking at this picture. There were rent-able beach chairs that went on for ever!

And here is where she would have been staying if she did not blow off our trip and insist I come home to plan my wedding. (She is just no fun right?!)

After our walk down the beach, we went to umbrellas to have a nice early lunch. Here is our view from our table.

There were a ton of boats out zooming along.

Picture perfect view from lunch.

I thought I would get a picture with my cute little car in it. I think it ruins the picture.

We decided to spoil ourselves a bit by ordering these. Chocolate and vanilla milkshakes. They were amazing.

While we were talking to the owner of the restaurant. This little thing pulled up. I want one! The owner told us they used to be very common cars, and are still seen in Barbados, but they are to dangerous for Grenada so he has not seen one is years.

After lunch, sean and I went for a drive around our neighborhood. We have been looking for a new place to rent, so we just drove along until we found something we liked. This is my favorite view while driving. It's really much prettier in person!

Wedding planning and my trip to the US

2013-03-24T12:13:00.001-07:00

It has been a very long time since I have posted, and I figured it is about time for an update. We have now lived in grenada about 6 months, and what a wonderful 6 months they have been. I was keeping myself very busy until the bank took over my apartment complex and I lost my job in January. Since then I have been very bored, reading lots of books and planning our wedding. Sean is now in his second term of school, and studies all day every day.
I went home to the US in February to plan our wedding. In the 10 days I was home, I met with the DJ, Photographer, Caterer, Florist ect. I also got my dress in a total of two hours. Here's some pictures from my trip home.

Here is what we are serving for our dinner.

With lots of sauces. And pretty tables.

We decided on the chicken on the right. It is chicken in plum sauce, and amazing.

And a divine cranberry and walnut salad

And a steak with these veggies on the side.

I got home just in time for Sean's exams, so this last week has been very stressful!

Update Post

2013-01-21T05:40:00.002-08:00

Hello everyone!
It has been a long time since I have posted, so I figured I would write an update. Sean and I went home to the us for the holidays, and had a great time with friends and family.
Sean's classes started last week, so he is now in his second term of medical school! These first two weeks have been very easy, so we have been getting to spend a lot of time together. He even has come to the grocery store with me, TWICE!
My job has been...interesting. A local real estate company, Terra Caribbean, took over the building in November. I had no idea a take over was in order, so it was a bit of a shock to say the least. Luckily, they have still kept me on, but I am no longer running the building, just doing extra things here and there when they need me, and being the after hours emergency contact.
My mom just booked her tickets to come visit in march, so I cannot wait for that!
Dog training classes should be starting up soon, and my life will go back to normal.
That is about all that is new, I'll try to get some pictures up of the beautiful weather and beach soon!

Thanksgiving in grenada

2012-11-24T17:23:00.002-08:00

There is not much new going on in my Grenadian life. I left the complex today for the first time in awhile, so that was exciting!
Sean has two weeks until finals! Which means we will be home in 27 days! We already are debating what to do on our christmas holiday, and both of us have a list of things we want to do. The first thing I will be ordering is indian food. I miss it so much! In Philly we had indian weekly, so I need my fix. I also plan to go hang out with all of my long lost riding buddies, and see how sore I can make myself after not riding for 6 months.

This year was a new experience for thanksgiving. Sean had classes all day until 530, and I had to work all day. We decided to eat out, and went right down the street to the red crab. Our friend jessica and Michael joined us, so we had a nice double date.

I can't wait to get home and have a real thanksgiving meal!

How not to buy a car in grenada

2012-11-15T09:59:00.001-08:00

It has been a very long time since I have posted, but i wanted to give everyone an update on our life here in grenada. After my mother left, my life went back to its normal boring self. I wake up, help the maid get started, call the plumber/lester/air conditioner people/electricians/handymen/carpenters for the day, then collect rent, look at the sky and curse how damn hot it is, and work until sean comes home at 5 and begs for dinner becasue he did not eat lunch. How is it my fault he did not eat lunch? Anyways, this is what i do all day, everyday.
I have recently begun teaching another dog training class for the GSPCA on Tuesday and Thursday. It is a great group of people who come, and i love getting out and meeting a large variety of people from the island. Most of the people that come to classes are older women, who own local restaurants, shops, and tour services.
So, onto my experiences with my car. My boss told he his friend was selling a car, and it was a great deal. I knew i could trust my boss, and we went and test drove the car. I looked it over, it looked shiny, the mechanic told me it was ok, and so I decided to buy it. $4000 later, I was the proud owner of a 1998 rav 4, in a foreign country, where all car owning laws I thought i knew are thrown out the window. My first mistake was paying for the car before I got the title transferred over to me. There is no title per say, nor is there a pink slip or anything like that. There is just a piece of paper down at the government where both parties sign and the car transfers. I just assumed when i bought the car this would all be in the glove box, but I should have known better, this is another TIG(This is grenada) moment.
LESSON number #1 make sure you transfer your title the day of purchase, or else you could get screwed. You and the owner need to go down to the ministries and transfer the title at the ministries. If you cannot get the owner to come down but have his signature on the transfer slip, tears will have to work ;). I have heard horror stories of people buying a car without the title transfer, and the owner coming back and calling the car stolen. I got lucky and finalized my transfer this morning, a month and a half after taking ownership of the car. Each transfer costs $10 ec.
LESSON # 2 Make sure the inspection is in date. Each car has a small sticker which says the year and month the car will expire. I had no idea they even had inspections in grenada, so this is an important thing to look at before purchasing. If the car is out of date, you might even want to put in a clause in contract that the car must pass inspection before fully purchased.
LESSON # 3, Actually look at the car you are purchasing. Are the tires bald? If so, tires in grenada cost about $150 us each. If you get pulled over with bald tires, the police will give you a $150 fine, so my first purchase was to buy tires. The next little surprise I found out about was that my windshield washer fluid line does not lead anywhere. Luckily my plumbers are amazing and are helping me fix this. My doors also do not open with the key, and the trunk needs to be beat up a bit for it to open. Did I mention that I need to keep my windows up becasue they get stuck down if i move them.
Anyways, I got really lucky comparatively, the car drives wonderfully, its adorable, and I have AC!, but hopefully someone in the future will look at these things before making the decision to purchase. My plumbers have offered me way over my purchase price for it already, so hopefully i did not make a horrible buy.
Alright, rant over, I will be impressed if anyone actually reads this. After spending the last 2 months praying and hoping that my car would finally become mine, I have learned some very valuable lessons, and hopefully someone may learn from them!

My moms visit: Second Week

2012-10-21T07:54:00.001-07:00

So mom has officially been here 10 days. She says she is loving her trip, and enjoying the island. She is constantly trying to decide which house she would like to move in to in the future, so I would say she likes it.
She has let me cook exactly one meal, and will never let me cook again. I made pasta with vodka sauce, chicken, and some veggies. She ate the smallest portion i would allow, and has forced us out to dinner since, I think she was trying to tell me something :). Sean and I thought it was amazing, but oh well, I would love to see her try to cook something better. Anyways, the bread next to the meal was made by our wonderful plumbers so my mom could try the local bread. It was amazing! And I thought my meal was a nice balanced creation.

I took her on a tour of the school last week, and after the tour we went out to the cliffs. Here she is!

The next day, my mom treated us to a spa day at Laluna hotel. She thought she could google maps us to the hotel, so I took her word on how to get there and just drove. It turns out the road google maps sent us down did not actually take us to the hotel, but dead ended, so we ended up having to walk along the beach. It was a pretty walk at least! Here is the beach we walked along.

And the pretty cliffs which surrounded the beach.

Here is the beautiful shower at the spa. A bit of luxury is very exciting for me here! Look at that shower head! And they had real hot water!

And here is the light fixtures. The lizard seems to fit in doesn't he!

Isn't he cute!?

Here is a view of the spa. You can see my mom drinking her new favorite tea. It is water boiled with ginger root, and then honey added at the end. Sean and mom are addicted!

And a view of the landscape. Very pretty.

Mom's First Week: Part 2

2012-10-16T08:44:00.001-07:00

On Sunday morning we went to a wonderful brunch at Le Papillion Cafe. The owned came over and talked to us about being born and raised in Grenada. She explained that during the unrest of the 80's she and her family moved to Canada and could not wait to return to the island. The food was superb and we all left feeling like we gained a few pounds!!

This was Caitlin's french toast with cinnamon and nutmeg-- it was delicious.

For dessert we ordered apple fritters --just what we needed was dessert after our very appetizing brunch!!!

Today Caitlin and I went to St. George's,
which is the capital of Grenada. We started our tour at the spice market and met many very friendly Grendians. They all wanted to sell us many wonderful spices --which we decided not to purchase because there where just too many choices!!
After the market we walked through a one way tunnel with cars zooming past us and people walking the other direction so we are all trying to squeeze through this not very wide opening with nothing between us and the zooming cars!! I couldn't wait to get to the other side of the tunnel and I'm happy to announce --- we made it safely!!!

This is the view from the water looking onto St. George--the colors of the houses are so spectacular!! Ninety percent of the roofs were destroyed during hurricane Ivan in 1994 and rebuilding has been difficult because of financial restrains.

This is the restaurant where we had lunch. It was located on the water and had wonderful breezes and the water was so clear you could look down and see all the fish swimming around.

A guest blog: Moms first trip in grenada

2012-10-13T16:15:00.001-07:00

Well I arrived in Grenada last evening and most of the people on the flight from Miami where connected to St. George's University. The guy next to me was coming to visit his wife, another guy was a professor in the vet school, some where families coming to visit their kids, others where girlfriends coming to visit their significant other. We spent our time in the customs line talking about who we were going to visit and where did our trip originate. We had people flying in for just the weekend or a teacher from California drove 4 hours to the LA airport then took the red eye to Miami Once Caitlin met me at the airport, we decided to grab a quick dinner. There is no such thing as a quick meal in Grenadian, which was my first lesson in island life. We went to a little Italian restaurant, and ordered around 9. At 10, we received our food, and it was actually pretty good!

This morning we went on a tour of the island and I was able to take this beautiful picture of the east side of the island. Caitlin and Sean said they had never seen the surf so rough --- so we went to the west side to Grand Anse Beach, which was pristine and gorgeous. We swam and snorkeled for most of the afternoon then had lunch at Umbrellas, which is on the beach. From there we went to the grocery store and headed home.

We just got a letter! (Or a Package)

2012-10-10T14:52:00.001-07:00

So this has been an exciting few days. My mother comes in two days, so I have packed everything for work in the last few days. Sean has finished 2 out of 3 exams, so he is feeling a bit stressed. When he get stressed, he becomes OCD about cleaning and organizing anything around him. Last week he attacked the kitchen, and this week the casualty was our bedroom. Hopefully my closet is next. Anyways, we got a large package (38 lbs) from my mother today, and it was filled will all types of fun stuff. I got new business cloths, organizational items, old bay, zip block bags, and a blender! Here is a pile of clothing before I threw it into my closet.

I decided to organize our birthday cards from last month, and it took up a good bit of space. It also brought a bit of color to our white walls!

Here is our new organized room, our 156 square foot apartment almost looks good!

Here is our bathroom, with our new towels, and snorkel set next to the shower. I cannot wait to use it and take pictures under water!

And here is our new towel rack that my mom sent us. We really did not have a good place to dry towels, so this is great!
Anyways, I have a ton to do to get ready for my mom. I am sure there will be a ton of posts once she gets here!

Sheep, mexican food, and midterms

2012-10-07T14:53:00.003-07:00

Last night, my new friend Emily and I decided to get Mexican for dinner. There is a great little shack called mr. chipoltle right in front of campus, so we decided to stop there. Before dinner, we came along this heard of sheep. This herd causes all types of problems for the school, becasue they like to wander onto campus and eat the manicured lawns and flowers. Nothing more entertaining than a maintenance man chasing sheep to get them to vacate the soccer field.
Anyways, today they were hanging out right on the main road in front of the campus. There were maybe 40 of them, and they were very very cute!

They even knew to walk down the sidewalks!

This little one got left behind, and then made a running leap across the road.

This could be an interesting driving hazard, but people here are used to this type of thing

The motorcycle driver just weaved in between them like it was an every day thing (which it is.)

And then tonight our other neighbor Lenny made Sean and I some arroz con leche, which is very similar to rice pudding. It was amazing, and I have been munching all day!

Count down to my moms arrival is down to 5 days! Sean has his first midterm tomorrow, so this will be a very boring stressful week until mom gets here!

Maps and things

2012-10-06T13:56:00.001-07:00

Now that I have a car, I am expected to drive! Driving down here is completely different than in Maryland or Philadelphia. First, everything is backwards. The steering wheel is on the wrong side, as is she shift, turn signal, and speedometer(not that there are speed limits here). There are also no road signs, no stop signs, no painted lines in the road, and no warnings for things such as large cow crossings. People also really enjoy slamming on their breaks after a blind turn to talk to their friend/neighbor/family member, and they might repeat this stopping for every person they pass for a 2 mile drive. Parking lots seem to be the hardest thing for me, becasue I am not used to pulling in spots from the wrong direction! The other trouble I am having is actually getting the car on. The poor car is doing nothing wrong, but I cannot seem to figure out which direction to turn the key. Everything here is backwards, so the normal right tighty lefty loosy is opposite, and I just have not been able to get a handle on it yet. Oh well, people will see me driving down the street with my window wipers on because I am turning...at least they will know it is me!

Anyways, the top map is the drive from my apartment complex to the grocery store. I thought you all might like some maps of where I am driving. Up where B is located is where IGA is, our grocery store. That is also the location of the Spiceland mall, the most pitiful mall I have ever seen. They have a smoothy store, and a mini linens and things, so that is all I need!
Below is a map of the first route I took with my car, driving it back from the dealership. The dealership was up in the mountains, so it was a bit of a scarier drive. As you can see there is not very many roads around, so at least you cannot get lost!

And lastly, here is a map of how I would go about getting to the school. It is a quick route, but there are a ton of bumps that make it a slow drive. Above my purple route you can see the main road of Grenada, and the only straight highway on the whole island. It has 4 lanes and is a big deal!

My new car!

2012-10-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

So I figured while I have a free second I would empty my camera of pictures. We are now offically in the rainy season, and boy does it love to rain. We had about a week where it seemed to downpour non stop! With downpours comes floods, and here is a picture of one of these floods.

This is the road we see out our back window, which resembles more of a river.

On Tuesday, Lester (My Boss) took me to go pick up a package from my mother. I don't know what I was expecting from my package, but it was definitely not what I found. We got two large pillows, tons of candy, ice packs, and a bunch of towels.

Here is one of our cute lizard friends. They look like the ones you see in Florida, but twice the size. This guy was around 8 inches.

And here is my new car! Lester owned this little miniature car long ago, and it is in great condition! It just had a ton of work done to it, and it is ready to be my partner in crime. It is smaller than my coup back home, and just so cute!

I definitly need seat covers, but other than that it is in great condition. I also need to remove the ugly tint job, but those are small things. I have two working door handles, which open from both the inside and outside, it drives, and my mirrors even move when I press buttons. These are big accomplishments in Grenada!

My teeny tiny back seat.

And now, to end my day I bought myself a 2 liter jug of ice cream. Last week I brought cake batter to the factory, and they made me cake batter with sprinkles ice cream! How cool is that that they will make anything I ask. Any ways, it is delicious.

Painting with a twist

2012-10-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

So I am a horrible blogger, but thought I would post a quick update on life.
Work at the apartment complex has been tiring, with my boss being out of town, major disasters occuring daily, and a very needy fiance to play housewife for.
I got the chance to go out last night to a significant other event, and I jumped on the opportunity. It was painting with a twist, which basicly included wine and painting. I don't drink wine, nor do I paint, but it sounded like a good excuse for me to escape the complex/compound/jail.
I got to meet a ton of new people, and had a great time! I loaded myself up on hummus and brownies while watching everyone's creation come to life. In the end, I decided to paint something so I could join in the group painting photo, but it was a disaster. OH well, sean liked my creativity!
In other news, my mother comes to Grenada in a week! She will be staying in my apartment complex, upstairs, so she will be near by. I will let her do the blog posts for the 17 days she is here, since I will be working and playing entertainer at the same time.
Also, today my car comes! I bought my first grenadian car all by myself, and am going to pick it up today. I will post another blog tomorrow with pictures!

In the mean time, here is a picture from wine night last night. This picture was taken by Nichole Woody. It was a great group of girls and I had a great time meeting everyone!

A day in the life of me!

2012-09-22T10:21:00.001-07:00

So this week work has been brutal. I have been doing 12 hour days almost every day, which means my blogging got put to the side. Here is an example of something I do for work. I had to choose which shirt color I liked the best! Then put the logo on it,

I was all alone on the bus this morning, so I thought I would take some pretty pictures of my drive. I love this house!

And this view

And this color.

After my very long bus ride, I finally arrived at my destination. Dog training class! This is my second week running this class, and all proceeds are donated to The Goat Dairy. A ton of dogs show up, so its a bit hard to run a targeted class, but we make it work. Most of the dogs are puppies or rescues, so we focus a lot of our time on socializing the dogs. We were lucky enough to get an enclosed space this week, so we were able to let the dogs run a bit after we worked on some basics. They had a great time!

So many dogs getting along so well together! It was great. All of the owners got to sit back and relax as their puppies socialized.

And played in the water

And some over achieving class members even worked on their newly learned skills during play time.

On another note, Sean brought me home a special treat after his quizzes and final on Monday. He did wonderfully and got 3 A's and a B+. On your left you see two of the four honey buns with raisins. They were amazing! And only about $.75 each!
Sean also brought home a 2 foot long garlic and cheese loaf, which was amazing, along with two small round sourdough type breads. All for 20 ec, or about 7 US YUM!

Month 2 in Grenada

2012-09-15T10:50:00.001-07:00

So having a full time job is definitely cutting into my blogging abilities. I have not had time to go to the grocery store in a week, and it is a very rare occurrence I leave the apartment complex. But I love it! My boss is wonderful, and I could not have asked for a better job!
I do feel as though the only thing I do anymore is work, but hey, it could be worse! I am giving
tours of the apartment complex, making schedules for the maid, plumbers, electrition, and air conditioner fixers. I am taking complaints and rent. It is so much fun! I think this is definitely something I am good at, and so far I have a 100% success rate of people who come to see the apartment booking it.

In other news last wednesday after a significant other recipe swap(where I got to eat the best bread pudding I have ever tried) I got to go to an open market produce sale which happens every other Wednesday. I had already been to the big market downtown, so I was not expecting much, but the prices were amazing!
I got about 7 pounds of starfruit aka Five Finger, for 5 ec, 3 grapefruits for 1ec, and a bag of guavas for 2ec. I spent 8ec, which is about 3 us, for all of that fruit! I was certainly amazed, and Sean and I have been eating fruit all day every day. I have even been giving it out to all of the workers when they come around. I did pay the plumbers in coconuts one day :).
Today I held my first dog training class for the Significant others, and It went really well. About 12 dogs showed up, young dogs, old dogs, foster dogs, therapy dogs. It was very cool to get to meet everyone's pet, and it was definitely beneficial for all of the dogs to get to socialize with each other.

22 Birthday!

2012-09-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!
So I know i have not been able to post for a little while, but that is because I got a job! I am now the building manager for the FitzGarden apartment complex! So I have something to do all the time, which makes me feel much better!
My lovely landlord also offered me a job working for his security company, selling Honeywell alarm systems. I am excited to try my hand at something new, and I hope I will do well. We are in the process of getting a work permit- a very very hard thing to obtain in Grenada. $3000 plus a large amount of documentation, but once everything is complete I will have a dream job.
So far I have been calling television stations to get information about how to advertise with them during prime time viewing.

Anyways, today was my birthday, and I celebrated by laying in bed all day. Sounds relaxing right! Anyways, my neighbors cooked me some of my favorite foods, banana pop sickles and cake batter cookie dough bites. YUM. And they insisted they had to sing for me. It was a lot of fun and I really appreciate them coming over and feeding us! It was a great way to end my birthday!

Sunsets and Goats

2012-09-01T05:36:00.000-07:00

The other night our goat nanny friend took us to see the sunset on campus. It was a beautifle night hardly a cloud in the sky.
Here is a picture of a monument on campus.

Pictures of everyone's names/signatures.

And here is the beginning of the sunset.

We walked along the pier to get a better angle

And of course at the last moment, a cloud moved in.

Here is Sean and I, both looking very rough. It was hot, muggy, and humid.

And the pretty clouds with the moon

Yesterday, the baby goat came to play! She ran around all day, and a ton of Significant Other families came to see her. The kids just loved playing with her.

She had a grand time playing with leafs.

She was refusing to drink water all day, so i put a bit in the bottle to get her to start drinking.

After lunch and playtime, she cuddled up for nap time in amber's lap.

Goodnight baby goat!

And after 3 minutes of nap time, she was up and ready for more.

Cute baby goat pictures

2012-08-29T09:55:00.003-07:00

So today Kristen and I went to go meet the goat nanny for the second time. She had never played with livestock before, so it was fun watching her become more comfortable! This little girl was born two weeks early, and is just the cutest little thing. She loves jumping around and climbing the chair.

This is one of her two sheep brothers. We gave them a bath today as well, which they loved.

Kristen got to bottle feed her first baby goat! Hopefully there will be tons more to come.

Baby goat loved jumping in her lap. And then jumping down. Over and Over again.

How cute is she?

She is just starting to eat real food, so everything needed to be tasted.

Kristen got to sit in the seat with three amazingly behaved dogs on the way home. This one is my favorite. Marti picked us up, and gave us a ride home, so we were traveling in style (Thanks Marti!) She owns a wonderful home in Grand anse, it is built into the side of a hill, and is really beautiful.

In the back of her house she has bamboo stairs which lead up a steep path. We took baby goat on a walk to tire her out.

And I will leave you with a picture of our climb, with baby girl showing us up with her amazing climbing abilities.

Day 25

2012-08-28T15:25:00.002-07:00

So I made a pretty amazing dinner last night. Steak with stuffing. The steak cost us about 10 ec, and the stuffing was 10 as well. Overall, this meal cost us about $3.50 us each to eat, which is pretty good considering how expensive steak is here. And it tasted pretty good :).

Today Kristen and I went grocery shopping. I thought I would lay all of my purchases out so you could see everything I got(excluding the mac book.) I spent 60 ec on this all, so about 25 us. Pretty good for 7 bags of juice, a loofah, dish detergent, chips, a big sturdy mixing bowl, figs, macaroni and cheese, noodles, and Alfredo sauce.

Here is a picture of a new fruit I brought home today! I don't even know the name, nor do I know how to get into it, but we will figure it out.

I have been musing on the fact that I miss animals being down here. Everywhere you drive you see cows, chickens, goats, and wild dogs running around. I decided I wanted to have some of my own. I luckily have a wonderful landlord who is more than happy to help me build a shelter, and after studying I have decided I would like a goat. I was able to find the number for a local program called the grenada goat dairy, and am hoping to foster a baby goat or two for the first few months of their lives, until they are old enough to be useful farm animals for local farmers. Here is there website if you are interested in learning more about there cause, I really think it is wonderful what they do. http://thegoatdairy.org/
Overall, they give goats to farmers in need. Hopefully creating an eco friendly product, such as goat milk and cheese, will help these farmers succeed in their livelihood. They are working to "engage and assist the development of local, sustainable agricultural initiatives that can operate independently on the island, thereby increasing quality production." Anyways, if I can combind my love for animals with being able to help people on the island, I am all for it.
Today, a women affectionately called "the Goat Nanny" came over to teach me about local goat raising practices. She told me what they can eat, what they cannot, and showed me how to build them a proper enclosure. Tomorrow she is coming to pick Kristen and I up, and we are going to see a few week old baby girl. She has three more coming this week, and hopefully I can either help her with them at her house, or get my pen set up here.
I promise there will be pictures from my meeting with the kids tomorrow! (Get my joke :) )

A very rainy week

2012-08-27T10:32:00.001-07:00

This week has been very boring, so I figured I would save all of the activities up for one post. Some of the other SO's took Kristen and I to St. Georges one day. It was pouring, and we were both in white t shirts. We had to go change becasue we were completely see through!

They took us to a wonderful little store, the sunshine store or something like that. We were able to get tons of stuff for very cheap. I got everything in the picture, plus a broom, for 60 ec, or around 25 us.

After that, we went to a storage warehouse where you can buy bulk goods. It was busy with shipments coming in and out, so we just decided to get paper products. I got all of this for 30ec. Paper towels are 10ec each!

I have been making some good dinners, and Sean says my cooking is getting really good! I make rice with chicken stock, beef, peppers, and onions for around 10 us a person.

We also went to a new bulk grocery store, where we found a box of cock flavored soup. Ew. I am immature I know.

Almost every day this week Kristen and I have spent a large portion of the day in the pool. On Thursday, the landlord came down and was letting us sample some of the fruit that grows in the compound. He also told me I could get goats or chickens if I wanted! Here is a picture of a stalk of sugar cane which we were supposed to chew on. It did not taste very good.

And then It down poured when we were getting the tropical storm.

Here is one of my new favorite meals, chicken in vodka sauce. I thought I would post this particular picture because it shows one of my dumber moments. I emptied an entire case of frozen peas into my skillet. They did not crumble on contact with the sauce, it took about 20 minutes of crushing them until they defrosted.

White Coat Ceremony

2012-08-20T19:12:00.001-07:00

So today was Seans first day of classes. While he was at classes Kristen and I decided to go grocery shopping. We somehow managed to get on the wrong bus, and ended up going through one of the worst areas around us, but hey we found a new grocery store, and everything is much cheaper! There were tons of fruit stands today around, and I found a new fruit! These little balls of goodness are called water lemons. Don't let the odd insides throw you, they were delicious. They look like little balls of tadpoles which you have to suck out, but they taste more like pomegranate seeds than frogs.

After our shopping adventure, we came home and got ready for Sean's white coat ceremony. We decided to arrive at 230, thinking we would be right on time to get a seat for the 5pm opening. We were a bit to early, but once people started arriving around 315, we were happy to be up front. We almost witnessed a few parent brawls over who was in fourth or fifth place, who had flown farther to see their child walk, and who had the better ticket.
The photo on our left was when the students were being taught how to fold their coats. Picture 700 students all holding up their coats with confused looks on their faces, it was priceless.

And all the students with their white coats on!

Sean and his new bff Ross. Look how cute they are!

Ross and Kristen pose!

And sean and I...It was hot and my hair did not want to cooperate.

Sean and Ross have lockers RIGHT next to one another. They even have matching locks since Kristen and I bought them together this morning.

Sean was soooo happy to be done.

First Day Of Medical School Class

2012-08-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

So Sean starts classes tomorrow! And his white coat ceremony starts at 530 tomorrow, so were getting there at 2 to get seats.
Last night we were running low on food, so I decided to cook Alfredo. I grabbed a packet of Parmesan cheese, and a cup of heavy cream, add some chicken and mushrooms and we have this creation. It really was not that bad for how simple it was! After I cooked dinner last night- at 3- Amber invited me to her church enrichment program of women's volleyball. Luckily, I was not the worst player there, and it was fun! After my athletic venture we came home and had some fun with games. It was one of our latest nights so far, staying up until 10:30! Luckily they live right down stairs, so it was not a far walk home.

Today we went to the campus Bazaar. The school gave new students 30$ each to spend at this get together. There were tons of different food, some local and some very American. They were selling pizza, smoothies, samosas, crepes, sushi, chicken wings, and lots of local crafts and foods. We got a cheese bread pastry, a cream puff, a samosa, two smoothies, and $10 worth of fruit. I really wanted to try some local food, but I was afraid they might have fish in them. There was also a steel drum band, and tons of student organizations. We got to see the diversity of the campus and local population, and it was fun to try to guess what people were eating!

And finally here is our tickets for the white coat ceremony tomorrow. Sean is getting up early and going to the gym at 5, so I won't see him until he is in his white coat!

Magazine Beach

2012-08-18T12:22:00.001-07:00

So today Amber, one of our next door neighbors, took everyone to a new beach! This is called magazine beach, and is known for its great snorkeling and clear water.

Sean had a ton of fun snorkeling around, and taking pictures of the fish.

Here is one side of the beach. You can see a rocky coral area right next to the water.

Most of the rock that we could swim to was not actually living corals, but it was still fun.

Can you see the eel?

How about now?

There were tons of different types of fish around.

And rocks to look at.

Here is a restaurant called the aquarium.

I am in the process of cooking a new recipe as I type, and am getting ready to go play a sport at 5!

I am a Chef!

2012-08-17T17:16:00.002-07:00

So today was Seans second day of orientation, which meant I had the whole day to myself. My new next door neighbor, Kristen, was in the same boat I was. We walked our second halves to class and sent them on their way. With our free time we decided to go to the beach, and get a few items from the grocery store to cook broccoli and cheddar soup from Panera. Here is the recipe we used. http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2012/05/copy-cat-panera-bread-broccoli-cheese-soup-recipe/ Overall, it turned out amazing. We each got a bowl and had enough left over to bring a bowl downstairs to another friend.

While we were cooking, I got a present! Our landlord had this little baby installed in our kitchen. The only problem is we REALLY don't have space for a oven in our teeny tiny kitchen. Where it is right now, it blocks us from opening our fridge door, and leaves us about a foot and a half between the oven and table to maneuver. We have been thinking of either moving it outside, or into the bathroom. Just think I can cook and shower at the same time! Hopefully the landlord has some ideas for us. It is about half the size of an oven at home, so it is perfect for me!

Here is a picture of everyone chopping onions and waiting for the soup to be ready. I do have to note I did about a 10th of the actual cooking. Ross and Kristen noticed my...lack of knowledge, and decided to take on a large chunk of the cooking so the final product turned out edible :).

And TADA! Soup is completed.

Ross, our next door neighbor, made fancy looking garlic bread with Italian seasonings. I swear the bread is so much better here!

And the final product. Notice the extra added touch of the mason jar for a cup.

Tomorrow hopefully we will be going to a new beach with amber and our next door neighbors, I'm crossing my fingers!