Week Summary and Bense Pool

It's been a crazy week! As I said in my last post, a lot of time was taken up trying to find someone to pick up our barrel from the shipping yard in Roseau and deliver it to our apartment in Roseau. Ryan's week has been spent- you guessed it- studying. It's mini time again. Remember, minis are the periodic tests that the students have. There are three minis a semester and one final. So now that it's time for mini 2, he's been very busy.

Tuesday I went to see a house for rent in Glanvillia. Glanvillia is a small town that's sort of wedged between Picard (where we live and the school is) and Portsmouth (the nearest big town, big being a... flexible... word). Glanvillia's about a fifteen minute walk from campus, depending on where you live. I was told to meet the landlord at the blue shack by the playing field. Along the road, right next to the playing field, is a small shack with three white sides and one sky blue side. I figured that HAD to be the shack the landlord meant... but no. He meant the shack OFF the road, not even visible from the road, that was painted a BRIGHT blue. Oh well, we did find each other eventually. The house was a cute three bedroom house, and I did like it. It did seem a little large for Ryan and I, however. We just don't need THAT much space. The kitchen was really nice, with a LOT of cabinet space and counter space... something I can REALLY appreciate. I think we could be happy there, but I'm not sure we want to pay that much a month and have THAT much space. Tuesday night is yoga night, which is always a lot of fun.

Wednesday I checked out what had been advertised as another house in Glanvillia. This time the landlord made me wait at the customs office at the nearby port. It was a pretty sketchy area... hardly anyone was around but the dock workers, which made me uncomfortable. The customs office was right next to a warehouse in front of which about a dozen guys were standing and staring at me. That was awkward enough, but then the landlord was late and I was yelled at by a customs official... apparently it's a violation of security or something to hang out at the customs office. I was just about to head home when the landlord showed up. The apartment- it was an apartment, not a house- was nice enough, but it was on the edge of the shipyard and was very loud and I couldn't imagine myself walking back and forth alone past the shipyards every day.

Thursday was barrel day, so I didn't do too much. I went to work out in the morning for an hour, and then stopped by Alia's apartment. Alia is a fourth semester spouse, so she and her husband are selling things off before they leave the island. I picked up a white board, a set of drawers (already filled with barrel things), an extension cord, a table cloth, and a bunch of rugs and a waffle-maker. I brought everything home but the rugs and waffle-maker. I'll pick those up when Adam (Alia's husband) leaves in April. I spent the rest of the afternoon at home, mostly just neatening up. I also made some cinnamon rolls, which I'll be baking for the Dough Hole. Another spouse started a little bakery, and she needs help, so I'll be helping her out with the cinnamon rolls and a few other things.

You all know about the barrel, so let's move on to today! I organized a RSO trip to Bense Pool today, and it was a lot of fun! We had a great turn out- 23 people!- and everyone seemed to have a LOT of fun. As you can see from the photos below, it's a beautiful place. The big attraction for Bense Pool is its depth- apparently it's so deep that no one really knows how deep it is. It's this beautiful dark green color, and it's nice and cool since it's located in the middle of the rainforest. The bus ride there was no picnic... the road was so bumpy and wild I felt like we were on a jungle theme park ride and I was ready for an animatronic t-rex to pop out at me at any moment!

As I said, the depth of Bense Pool is the best part. That's because you can go cliff diving! That tall rock on the right of the little falls that's smeared with green is the jumping spot. It's about a thirty foot drop into the cold water- and it's amazing! I did it, even though I'm scared of heights. It was a lot of fun. The other attraction is that little water fall you see... it makes a GREAT natural waterslide! The water moves so fast your butt doesn't even touch the rock! A few people did get scrapes on their elbows however. I wasn't prepared for the current of the falls, however. I'd already felt the STRONG current in the pool when I'd jumped... I'm a good swimmer and I can tell you it wasn't easy to work against that current! But the waterslide slammed you DEEP down into that pool and it was a bit scary when you were under the water. I'd do it again, definitely, but it would've been nice to know how strong the current was so that it wasn't as much of a shock. Bense Pool is DEFINITELY somewhere I'll take visitors... it's only about forty minutes away, so it's a lot of fun for a short bus ride.

The only problem... I'm apparently allergic to something in the water! After I went down the slide, I noticed that my skin was itchy... and then it got really red... and then I developed all these LOVELY bumps! Look at how swollen and bumpy I was! Yuck! We think I had some sort of reaction to the moss on the rocks... you have to slide right over the rocks on the waterslide. Next time I'll wear a t-shirt and shorts rather than a bikini! It was really itchy and spreading like CRAZY- it was all over my stomach and hips and shoulders and legs and back- but luckily one of the other girls had cortisone cream. I slathered it on and the itching and bumps went away in less than an hour. I guess I was a bit scary looking though... people would look at me and say "oh my god, are you ok?" and then ask if I was having any trouble breathing. Oh well, no biggie. I'll just take some benadryl next time I go to the pool!

For your viewing pleasure, I have a video of me jumping into the pool. You can't hear my girly shriek as I left the rock and fell thirty feet... but that's alright, I figure I'm allowed to scream when cliff jumping.