Quarles Life

Nearly time to say good-bye

2010-04-23T20:44:00.001-04:00

This is the point I've been dreading for 16 months. In three days time, Ryan and I will be leaving Dominica. I'm not even sure with where to start with this post. I'm sorry if this comes across as a bit disorganized!

Sixteen months ago, we arrived on the island hot, tired, and a bit overwhelmed. Everything here seemed a bit scary and strange and uncomfortable. We had experiences like seeing a cow be slaughtered and having a friends dog nearly die from an infection he picked up on the beach. We struggled with the difficulties of keeping in touch with people back home, and Ryan dealt with a long walk (over a mile) to class every morning.

But then we started to make friends and found a routine. I became involved in the Ross Spouses Organization and PAWS, and started to volunteer in the school once a week. Ryan found friends to study with, while I went on hikes and to the beach with new found friends.

As we got into the groove in Dominica, it really became our home. I've come to realized that Dominica is once of the most peaceful, healing, and spiritual places I've ever been. I think Ryan said it best at church last week. "Dominica has taught us the difference between just being a part of a community and creating a community." I loved the way he put it. Ryan and I have always talked about how we wanted to live in a place with a true sense of community, and we've found it here in Dominica.

It really feels like everyone knows everyone else here, and not only that, but they really care about each other. Birthdays are a massive event that everyone attends. Everyone looks out for the children in the community. People go on trips and to church together. I think it helps that so few people have cars here- we don't just meet up at places, we walk or ride together. We run into one another while we walk to the store or to campus. It's hard to be isolated here unless you spend all day in your apartment- which would get hot and boring very quickly! The people who work in the local stores all know me and we'll chat about how the day is going. People I've met only once or twice will wave at me and call me by name- and Ryan has had the same experiences. I was talking with a friend's husband the other day about what we'd miss about Dominica. I said I'd miss the people, of course, but that I'd also miss the island itself. He said he knows he'll miss the people the most, because even if you came back to visit, you wouldn't find the same people and going to the familiar places without your close friends wouldn't be the same.

Dominica is amazingly gorgeous, from its 365 rivers to its coral reefs to its volcanic peeks. We've had heartbreaks while we're here, like the loss of our cat Jolie. We've seen some tough things through our involvement in PAWS. But we've also had amazing victories and found incredibly close friendships. I'll miss girls nights out at DeChamps, and long, lazy days at the beach. I'll miss snorkeling and swimming in the ocean. I'll miss the absolutely spectacular hikes, and I'll REALLY miss the waterfalls. I'll miss the friendly people- locals and students alike. I'll miss writing for the paper and my work with PAWS. I'll miss my bible study and I know Ryan will miss his weekly men's church group. We'll miss going to church with our friends and chatting about the message afterwards.

I think my message in this post is that we've been incredibly blessed while here in Dominica. We've become closer to one another and to God. We were blessed with our first child, who we will be so happy to meet in August. Because of Dominica, we've learned to rely on ourselves and each other more than we would have in the States. We've really been shown how few material things you need in life, as long as you have one another and a strong faith in God to show you the way.

It is going to break my heart to leave on Tuesday. Since we're leaving on a cruise ship, we'll have the unique experience among students of watching Dominica slowly fade into the distance. I may be looking forward to Michigan, but my heart breaks at the thought of leaving this place which has really become home. I never thought I would love a place as much as I do Upstate New York, but I now know that Dominica has taken up a huge part of my heart. This has been our home for 16 months, and it is really hard to know that there is a chance we'll never come back. I'm trying to be optimistic that we'll be able to come again one day, but I know it may not happen.

Ryan and I are taking comfort in the fact that we've lived life here to the fullest. We got involved in clubs and activities. We volunteered and had a great deal of fun hosting several litters of kittens and puppies. We went on countless hikes and visited numerous beaches. We spent a lot of time snorkeling, and much more with friends. I don't feel like we wasted a moment here, and we're leaving without regrets. Think of us on Tuesday as we wave good-bye to our beautiful island and head toward our new life in Michigan!

Seven Waterfalls

2010-04-22T15:38:00.001-04:00

Last Friday was a pretty busy day for me... because I went on a hike! It'll probably end up being my last hike on the island, and what a hike it was. It was incredible, and probably is one of my favorite hikes yet.

Seven Waterfalls is a five hour long hike (yup, crazy 5 month pregnant lady decides to do a 5 hour hike) and I'd call it pretty challenging. It wasn't as hard as Boiling Lake, but it did require a fair bit of agility, endurance, and strength. Seven Waterfalls is named for (big surprise) the seven waterfalls you will see while hiking along a river.

The first hour of the hike was fairly brutal. We hiked up and over a VERY steep ridge, and I was hot and feeling pretty miserable as we approached the river. When we took a break at the river, all I could think was "Did I make a mistake thinking I could do this?!"

Once I reached the river, I was alright. There were still lots of boulders to clamber over and ledges to climb, but in between we'd be wading up a river that ranged from waist deep to above my head. The guides (Espry and Vivian- who was a guy) kept offering to carry my pack, but I told them I could hike through cool water all day long. It was like a dream- I'd get hot and get to wade through cold mountain water. AMAZING. I'm pretty sure I'd be happier walking to and from campus if I could cross a river like that!

The guides were great at helping me when I needed it (and sometimes when I didn't!) as well. Espry saw I was nervous in the initial descent to the river on the steep (like steeper than a set of stairs steep) and long descent to the river, so he cut me a hiking stick, which probably saved my butt several times. They also laughed at my short legs (thanks Dad for that genetic trait!) and would grab my hands to give me a boost onto the larger boulders.

The waterfalls were amazing! There was such a range in size from short to tall to narrow to wide. Many of them we could swim in- and as you'll see in the photos we didn't bother to take our soaked clothes off before swimming! We were already drenched, no point in stripping down to our bathing suits! It was an incredible hike, and I really loved it.

When it we got near the end, we left the river and hiked up another ridge on the opposite side of the river. We paused partway up for the last two falls, and then continued on our way. I was thinking I was doing pretty well, although I was a bit tired, when Espry pointed ahead and said "There is your last challenge!" It was a cliff! Oh goodness! I hadn't thought I was signing up for cliff climbing, I'd thought it was a fairly level hike. But since it's a new trail I didn't really know anyone who'd done the last portion, so the cliff climbing was a bit of a surprise. I did just fine and clambered up the roots and vines. It reminded me a lot of Aba Wavine Cyrique, a hike I did twice on the island. I was very happy to see the van when we got to the top of the ridge- I was tired and ready for a ride home!

Ryan and I went to bed early that night- about 8pm, and I slept until about 7am. I was sore for a few days (my arms and quads, ow!) but had no ill effects. I really enjoyed it, and really recommend it to my friends who are still on the island. Enjoy the photos!

Addition to the shower post and bump comparisons...

2010-04-20T11:18:00.002-04:00

In case it seems like I've forgotten island life to focus on baby, I swear the next post won't be baby related! I may even get it up later today, depending on how work and job applications and the like goes.

But first, I wanted to share one of the amazing gifts from my shower. I can't believe I didn't include it yesterday- that's what I get for posting tired! A friend named Meagan painted me this beautiful water color. This is me on the beach by school with several of the dogs. It brings tears to my eyes to look at it. I've spent so much time on that beach, and so much time with these dogs, and so much of that time has been JUST LIKE this painting. Of course, I rarely plan to bring the dogs to the beach. I think they sort of stalk me if they think I may be going somewhere interesting, especially if that interesting place may involve food! Look at this amazing watercolor. I can't wait to frame it and hang it!

I also wanted to share photos of my bump! The first photo (in the white top) is me at 11 weeks. The next photo, in the brown top, is me at about 19 and a half weeks. The last photo was taken last night, and I'm 21 weeks today. Yay! I love my bump, and I love seeing it grow!

Eleven weeks:

Nineteen and a half weeks:

Twenty-one weeks:

Baby Shower!

2010-04-19T21:56:00.001-04:00

So my friends in Dominica threw me a LOVELY shower about a week ago! It was absolutely incredible, and so much fun. I really felt so loved and it was such an amazing afternoon. I was so happy to finally be showing so I really felt pregnant at my shower!

We played a few fun games, like the clothes pin game where you're not allowed to say 'baby' and if someone does, your friend can steal your clothes pin. My friend Anna mentioned Baby Q in the opening blessing, and her clothes pin was promptly stolen, which made me laugh. You weren't even safe in prayer! There was also a game where people were split into teams and had to make a maternity outfit using a pillow and toilet paper. The last game involved remember the names of children of famous television and movie families. Quick! Who can name the Brady Bunch, Fred Flinstone's daughter, and the children in Family Matters?

I had an amazing time and felt very blessed by the money tree, the advice tree, and the beautiful glider several of my friends pitched in to buy for me. I cannot WAIT to use it with Baby Q, I'm very excited! Here are some photos of my Dominican Baby shower for you all to enjoy. The amazing cake was made by my incredibly talented friend Anna!

So I lied...

2010-04-01T21:54:00.001-04:00

We're going to go to Michigan! I'm very excited- this was SO unexpected and is so much more economically feasible.

We had asked to be put onto a waiting list, and were basically told a waiting list is stupid since no one ever says no to Michigan. Well, someone did. I don't know who, but I would give them a hug and bake them cinnamon rolls if I could!

We are also pleased to announce that we've got a place to live! We're living in a LOVELY townhouse in a nice part of Saginaw. It has two bedrooms and we plan to be there through January. The kitchen is a little small, but we'll do just fine I think. There's just the two of us (well, three) and, of course, our pets. I think the townhouse looks nice and I cannot wait to move in and settle in. We'll do a lot of furnishing off of craigslist- nice and cheap!

I'll upload photos of our soon to be home in a few days. It sounds so nice- washer and dryer, new carpets, 1.5 baths.... There's even a lab mix living in the same block of townhouses, so Frazier will be happy too!

Baby Q Update!

2010-03-28T08:44:00.002-04:00

Baby Q has been doing very well! I'll be 18 weeks pregnant (WOW, time flies) on Tuesday, and I'm starting to have a bit of a bump! It's very exciting to have some evidence of what's going on in there.

Two weeks ago, when my family was here (more on that in another post), Ryan and I went to an ultrasound. I was nervous at first- I've never seen my baby! At the first ultrasound the doctor let Ryan look but not me. The room we had this second ultrasound in was nice. We got to watch the whole thing on a large LCD tv on the wall. I was tense at first, and nearly panicked because when the baby popped up it wasn't moving at all. Then I saw it's little heart thump-thump-thumping away, and I took a big breath! Almost immediately baby started wiggling around, ALL over the place.

The ultrasound tech was awesome (I love my doctor's office). Ryan and I really expected a quick 5 to 10 minute scan of baby- she took closer to 45 minutes! She showed us baby's head (there's a nice brain in the skull), and face (two eyes, nose, mouth), heart (four chambers, yay!), stomach, spine, internal organs, legs, arms, and hands and feet. Everything looks great. It was hard for her to follow Baby Q and get all the measurements because Baby Q didn't want to hold still. It was too early to tell sex (boys and girls usually look the same at 16 weeks) and Ryan and I want to wait anyways.

Our favorite part of the ultrasound? When the tech was showing us baby's right hand. She said "There are one, two, three, four, five fingers, yay!" And Baby Q gave us a thumbs up! We started laughing, it totally made my day. Baby wanted to let us know everything is going just fine.

We ended the ultrasound when Baby Q put his or her hands over his/her ears. Baby was saying "Enough! I'm done for today!" The tech printed off a photo for us (not the thumbs up one, but that's ok) and so I've posted it here. You can see Baby Q's little hands covering his or her ears. The slight alien appearance is normal- don't worry! I think Baby Q is absolutely adorable, and I'm sure you'll agree.

Baby Q is currently breech, but that really means absolutely nothing at this stage in the game. He or she has WEEKS to flip over, and probably will flip over and flip back a few times. That's just the way Baby Q felt like hanging out for the ultrasound.

I hope you enjoy the photo, feel free to give our baby a thumbs up!

Moving on...

2010-03-23T18:10:00.001-04:00

So it is breaking my heart that it is almost time to leave this beautiful island. This island is our home, and it hurts more than I can say to leave it. This is where we started our married life, and this is were we started our family. It's an amazing place, and I can't believe it's almost time to leave.

I'm thinking about that a lot today, because Ross just announced assignments for fifth semester. As I've said, Ryan and I were hoping we'd be assigned to Saginaw, Michigan. Well, we learned today that we'll be heading to Miami with a large portion of the class.

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit disappointed. I was counting on Saginaw. I'd sent my application to jobs, found a place for the horse, and was thinking about apartments. Miami has really thrown me for a loop and the higher cost of living is stressing me out a bit right now. I also think the likelihood of me finding a summer job while pregnant and not being fluent in Spanish is extremely low. I'm pretty bummed too because between the cost of horse care near Miami and some horse related crimes that have been happening in the Miami-Dade county it's several more months away from my ponies, which was more than I was counting on.

I'm not ready to say good-bye to friends. Many will still be here in Dominica, and Neil and Jen will be in Michigan. Grace and Whitney will be in Miami with me, but I can't imagine being apart from Jen and Neil. I knew we had to all say goodbye one day, but I guess I was counting on one day being a lot farther away than it is now. I've got so many close friends down here, and I know that this will be a final goodbye for many of them. It's going to be so hard, and I think the thought of saying goodbye is really tearing me up right now. Dominica is our home, and we made a life here, with close friendships and routines and it will be hard to leave- especially since we were so hoping to go to Michigan.

But hey, it's life, right? We've got few more months of sunshine before we're done with this tropical weather. And there are benefits to Miami. I have many friends in Miami right now, some of whom I thought I'd never see again. I have family in Florida. It's not forever- we couldn't afford it for very long while living off of loans- and who knows, we may love it.

And, of course, there is the big benefit. Many of you know my intense adoration of CSI Miami. The acting is just indescribable. Who would have thought that a person could convey as much emotion as Horatio Kane does when he removes his sunglasses? What talent! He absolutely blows me away with his skills.

Yes, I'm joking- mocking Horatio Kane is one of my favorite pastimes, and I think my goal for Miami will be to end up as an extra on the show. I'll let you know if I make it- I'll remove my sunglasses in the background. It'll be stellar.

Don't you think I'd be a great addition to this poster? If they let such bad actors onto the show, I know I have a shot as the overly emotional pregnant woman (with a tragic past, of course!).

What the heck?!

2010-02-12T08:59:00.003-04:00

That was my first thought when I woke up. The floor was gritty, my pillow felt gritty, my computer felt gritty... there was this super fine dust all over everything.

One of my first thoughts was that a volcano had blown somewhere, and I was at least partially right! The volcano on Monsterrat (a tiny island two islands north of us) blew ash 9 miles into the air last night. This is the same island that had a big explosion in 1997, after which half the island's population moved away. Here's a link to a news story about it:

Montserrat Volcano

The ash is pretty gross. It's all over my clean (well, formerly clean) dishes, my toothbrush, our bed, our clothes, us, the floor... I tried to sweep, and got a lot, but the cloud of ash is still here so it didn't do much. I'll sweep and dust again later. For now everything is gritty and icky. Everyone is coughing and sneezing, but don't worry, it isn't dangerous. Volcanic ash can cause irritation if you already have a condition like emphysema or asthma, and it is VERY dangerous for planes, as it clogs engines. It can cause irritation to eyes, and contact users are encouraged to be cautious- don't worry, I'll be careful!

Here are some photos a geologist took of the ash cloud moving in over Portsmouth:

And here are some photos that I took of the ash that is coating our apartment. Again, YUCK!

I hope everyone is having a great day and that it is less exciting than ours... a snowstorm sounds like much more fun than an ash cloud. I just feel gritty and dirty! Dominica always has a surprise up its sleeve!

Feeling better!

2010-02-10T21:48:00.001-04:00

Last week I was incredibly sick. Baby was kicking my butt! I couldn't stand it, I felt awful. I've been pretty sick the whole pregnancy, but last week was simply terrible and I couldn't keep anything down, not even water. I was miserable and nothing was working. I was trying ginger tea, lots of small meals, crackers, small sips of water... and I was still very sick.

Thursday night Ryan actually called a friend who is also on Ross's EMS squad and asked him if it would be possible to give me some fluids. Brian was nice enough to come over and give me a liter of lactated ringers IV. Where else can you sit on your couch (or sort of sleep on your couch) while you get an IV? If we'd been in the States I would have ended up in the ER. Ryan and I were really hoping that I was just sick from being dehydrated and that getting fluids in would help me. The fluids did help that night- I was feeling a great deal better on Thursday evening.

Unfortunately, Friday morning was awful again. I made the mistake of trying to drink some water before we were supposed to catch the transport to Roseau for my doctor's appointment. Big mistake! I was so sick that we ended up having to rent a car for the one hour drive. I was so glad that Ryan was driving. I made him stop four times! The appointment itself went well, although we had to wait a long time. The doctor was very nice and reassuring, and he gave me some medicine to help with the morning sickness. He was much nicer than the doctor I see locally- Ryan says I don't have to see her again, because she talks about things she doesn't know about and scares me! I'm so glad that I have a doctor I like and trust now.

And I am SO GLAD that I can eat again. This weekend was great. I'm only taking a pill or two a day (I can take three) and have been able to eat and drink water and juice and smoothies and not feel sick at all. I ate SO much this weekend. I'd lost about 10 pounds, and I really felt like I was trying to regain all 10 pounds in one weekend. Don't worry though- I may have lost weight, but baby is still growing and happy. My pants have all become tight! It's nice that I get to eat enough to feed baby and myself now. I was nervous about meds at first, because of the risk of side effects, but the doctor reassured me that these medicines have been VERY well studied and have shown no risk. Also, it was to the point where Baby Q and I were at more risk from being so sick than from the medicines.

In the end, the good news is that I am feeling MUCH better. Yesterday was Ryan's first mini of fourth semester, and he feels that the test went pretty well. I'm so proud of him! He works SO hard, each and every day. We went out to lunch with Neil and Jen (and I ate!) and then we spent several hours at the beach and the pool. It was great to be out of the apartment, I've felt so trapped the last few weeks!

Here are some photos of me getting my IV on the couch (yes, it is the world's ugliest couch!).

The IV bag, hanging on the window... do you like my snowflakes?

Laying on our ugly couch, with a towel (tags still attached!) over my arm to help keep it warm...

We're happy to announce...

2010-02-01T18:24:00.003-04:00

that in late August we'll have a new addition to our family! Baby Quarles will be born right around Ryan's birthday (August 19th) and we couldn't be happier.

We are absolutely thrilled and very excited. We'd planned to wait a few more years before having children, but our new motto is "You plan, God laughs!". Who are we to argue if God feels that the time is right? We're healthy, happy, and we'll be back in the States in late April so this is pretty good timing. We will be moving to either Michigan or Miami, and we will keep you updated as we know more.

To answer some questions I'm sure you have- no we don't know if it is a boy or a girl. We had our first ultrasound, but it is still a bit early to tell. I'm just about three months now. Even if it wasn't too early, Ryan and I do want to wait to find out if we're going to be having a little boy or a little girl. The idea of it being a surprise really excites us- and we really don't care either way! Although Ryan did dream it was a little boy the other night... we'll have to wait and see if he's right!

Yes, there is health care and prenatal care down here. We found out I was pregnant over break, and I brought prenatal vitamins back with me. I've seen the doctors on campus and I have an appointment with an OB-GYN in Roseau. Apparently he's a REALLY great guy, he was recommended to me by a friend. We'll be seeing him on Friday afternoon. We will be back in the States before I am six months, so there's no need to worry about traveling, and we will find an OB-GYN wherever we end up. You don't need to worry that baby and I are missing out on any important tests or care while we're down on the island!

Yup, I've been feeling pretty yucky. Morning sickness is such a lie, it lasts all day! I've been feeling sick for about a month, and there have only been a couple of days that I haven't actually gotten sick. I try to manage it by eating a lot of small meals, every few hours, and I try to avoid foods that gross me out (like eggs, which I normally love, and can't stand the sight or smell of now). Yes, I'm eating plenty of fruits and vegetables! I have actually been having fruit smoothies practically every day since we've been back. They're good, and I can keep them down easily. Other than feeling sick, I'm just tired, but I'm told that I can only expect to be more tired after the baby is born, so I'm considering this as practice!

I've included photos of our first ultrasound- it's not very clear, as the ultrasound machine near campus isn't the best quality. There is a much better one in Roseau. But this does allow you to catch a glimpse of our little one. Ryan's convinced that this is the cutest baby ever- although don't ask us which end is the head and which end is the feet!

Keep us in your prayers- We'd really, really love to end up in Michigan, which is a much cheaper location than Miami, which is especially important with a baby on the way. We hope that if we go to Michigan we can stay there for about 2 years while Ryan starts his rotations. Pray that this morning sickness ends- it can be pretty tiring!

We are so happy to be able to share our news with you, and we are sorry we weren't able to so earlier... it has been very hard not to share this happy news!

Why I've been busy... (Part 1)

2009-12-20T11:31:00.001-04:00

So I've got about a dozen blog updates I want to make, but I thought that my first should explain a bit about why I've been so busy for the past few weeks! Well, this might actually be multiple posts. So.... Why I've been busy Part 1 is dedicated to PAWS!

PAWS has been crazy. My friend Andrew, who was the president, left the island unexpectedly early, so I ended up being president. I swear, the animals wanted to give me a trial by fire. The day after Andrew left, things just started going crazy.

It started with the doberman I have named Rupert. Yup, a Doberman. Not exactly a typical island breed, so he probably belonged to a student or more wealthy landlord who could afford to ship in an expensive dog. Rupert's about two years old, and the slide show below shows the day that I found him. Press play, it's pretty horrific. This was on Halloween, and you can see why I didn't think he was going to survive.

I am incredibly happy to report that Rupert is doing WONDERFULLY. A month and a half later he has put on about fifty to fifty-five pounds. He has gotten his vaccinations and I've started the paperwork to send him to the States. That's right, Rupert is heading to the States! I found a wonderful woman in Pennsylvania who has been rescuing Dobermans for more than 20 years. She is totally in love with Rupert, who she met via photos, and will be paying his way home to her. Rupert will be flying home in the middle of January. Yay for Rupert! Here are his more recent photos! Doesn't he look incredible?

I couldn't have helped Rupert without the help of Danielle and Petrina, who have been fostering him. I couldn't foster Rupert, as I had my hands full with a second extremely skinny dog who also had behavioral issues. I picked up Soca for what was supposed to be one night. I thought he had a guarenteed home, and so we took him overnight. The home fell through, so I kept him one more night, and then one more. Then I told Ryan there was no way I could put this skinny, neurotic mess of a dog out on the streets. I'd fallen in love. Soca is about 10 months old and came to us with a crippling fear of men, locals, cars, other dogs, strangers, cows, loud noises, being alone... the list goes on. Walking him was difficult and he'd bolt blindly and without warning when he was frightened. I truly loved this dog, and wanted to keep him, but our landlord was reluctant. He loves how much I do for the dogs and cats down here, but if he let us keep a dog permanently, he'd have to let someone else. I was heartbroken, but I did find the perfect spot for Soca- with a couple who had studied at Ross and since left the island. Jo and Andrew live near Chicago and already had one island dog. They described their lifestyle and their other dog and I knew it would be perfect. On Tuesday, December 15th, Soca hopped on a jet and flew out of Dominica forever.

Soca wasn't alone on that flight however! Dom, a dog that had been used to train fighting dogs (he's too sweet to fight back and was used to give other dogs confidence), flew out as well. He found his forever home with Mary, a current student. Dom flew with Soca to Miami, where the two split up. Dom then continued on his way to Philadelphia, while Soca headed toward Miami. It was so great to see Dom- who is missing an ear and is covered with scars- heading to a loving home. He's such a friendly, kind dog! He really deserves a wonderful life.

And yes, there is a third dog. I put a collar with my number on young Lily when she was about four and a half months old. We didn't have a home for her, so we had to leave her loose. A few weeks later, a student and his wife offered to adopt her. When they'd owned her about three weeks, a local came forward and claimed that she was his dog, and that he owned Lily's mother. This made me furious for several reasons. First of all, Lily's mother is one of my favorite dogs and she's been VERY poorly treated. It made me mad that this guy owned her and did so little to take care of her! It also made me mad that he could claim to own this puppy, when he hadn't bothered to call the number on the collar that had miraculously appeared around her neck. At first, this local was insisting that he wanted Lily back. We were terrified. Lily's mother is incredibly skinny, and is about 9-10 and has a litter every few months (and awful things happen to those litters). We knew that Lily was doomed to the same fate of too many puppies and too little food. Luckily, we convinced him to sell us this mutt puppy, although he WAY overcharged us. I now pretty much hate this guy, and really want to steal Lily's mother. Poor old girl... she's the sweetest thing. Anyone want a gorgeous, sweet old lady?

In order for animals to leave the island, they need all their vaccines (even though rabies and distemper aren't present on Dominica) and they need a health inspection ten or fewer days before they fly out. The vet charges a lot less (and is in a much happier mood) if the animals get done in one inspection all at once, than if the owners all set up individual appointments. Dr. Thomas asked me to coordinate as many animals as possible, and I had thirteen dogs in my apartment, and Jen had six cats in her apartment, and there were a dog and a cat at a different apartment, who didn't get along with other animals at all. Dr. Thomas loved that we saved him that many trips, and gave us a good discount. He still had a few other people to help, but it saved him a lot of time. It took a LOT of coordination and time on the phone, but it was worth it! All the dogs and cats passed inspection and are heading home.

I thought that after finding homes for Rupert and Soca and coordinating the vet appointment, I'd be able to relax on our last day before flying home for break. Not so. I got a call early on Wednesday that a fourth semester student was abandoning their kitten when they flew off the island. This made me FURIOUS. It is never right to abandon an animal, but it is a death sentence to do so in Dominica. First, the cars drive like crazy, and a kitten who is rarely outside doesn't know to avoid cars. This kitten had been outside, but never off the porch. Second, there are dogs with very high prey drives down there, who will kill cats if they are hungry enough, and over break with few students providing food, the dogs will be hungry. This kitten had PLAYED with dogs in the past. She didn't know to run and hide from dogs. Then, there is the rat poison some locals lay out to try to deal with the stray overpopulation. This kitten, who had been provided two meals a day and didn't know how to hunt, would certainly have been at a big risk for eating what seemed like an easy meal of chicken, with hidden rat poison.

So I got up and walked out to this girl's house. I was proud that I didn't yell at her or loose my temper. She asked if she could just keep her kitten until Sunday, and I said no, I was taking it now. I did have trouble keeping my temper when she kissed the kitten all her its face and said she loved it. If she loved it, she'd have taken it home. So then the kitten, Mero, and I made the walk home. Mero is a GORGEOUS girl. She's lovely. I made a single phone call and found her a home that would pick her up Thursday morning, and a few more phone calls found her a place to stay Wednesday night, since Ryan and I were flying out very early on Thursday. Mero is now very happy in a loving home, no thanks to her terrible former owner.

Here are a few photos of some of the dogs of Dominica! The first album shows Soca and Lily (the pretty little white girl) and a few photos of Rupert. Then there are photos of the vet appointment, and some of the dogs in my apartment. You can also see Mr. Dom, sprawling on the ground. I haven't uploaded photos of Miss Mero yet, but I will!

A Farewell

2009-11-11T16:15:00.001-04:00

I've been putting off writing this post for several days now, and I have to say that this is a very hard post to write.

As you all know, Jolie, our sweet Momma Cat, has been living on our porch or outside our front door for about six months now. She's chased off all the stray dogs (so viciously that many are scared to come near our building) and charmed all of our neighbors into feeding her. Jolie quickly became the Green Homes Cat and everyone knew her funny meow, which sounded like she'd been smoking a pack a day for twenty years.

On Saturday night, Jolie fought off a local's dog with her usual style just before we went to sleep. When we fell asleep, she was outside our front door, dozing on the mat. Sadly, our friend Neil found our beloved Jolie next to the building on Sunday morning. We don't know what happened, but we're both heartbroken.

I can't tell you how much I miss her. She was always underfoot, supervising me as I cooked and begging scraps. When we'd offer her a bit, she'd swat it from our fingertips and dive on top of it. When she was happily anticipating food, she'd do this funny little dance- shifting her hind feet around and sticking her tail straight up in the air while twitching it wildly. I cried today when the only kitten we have left did the tail dance.

I think I hear Jolie a dozen times a day, and both Ryan and I still expect her to come bolting in the moment our door is opened. She owned our apartment, you know. We're trying to take comfort in the fact that we took good care of her while we had her. She was well feed and loved and had a good home she would have gone to. We do not know if she fell or was hit by a car. Our landlord was kind enough that he allowed us to bury her in a corner beneath some bushes, so that she can always be near Green Homes. She truly loved it here. This is where she raised her kittens. This is where she could beg food from all of the residents. This is where she lounged for hours on the railings, soaking up the sun and watching the world go by.

We miss our cat, and I'm sure that many of you will miss hearing about her. I wanted so badly to be able to post the day she flew back to the States... but she is home now.

PAWS Spay/Neuter Day

2009-10-08T21:06:00.001-04:00

In mid-September PAWS ran a spay and neuter day, and got a number of the local dogs and cats fixed.

It was wonderfully successful. In total, we fixed four male dogs, one male cat, one female cat, and one female dog. The female dog was Fly, a locally owned dog who has had 12 puppies in 9 months! WOW! Fly's owner finally agreed to allow us to spay her, so we scheduled the date as soon as possible. The fact that Fly is spayed is a huge relief. Not only did she produce many puppies, but her owner also didn't confine her or the puppies and many of her puppies were tragically killed. Since Fly was in heat when we rounded her up, we also caught two of her boyfriends- who are very skittish so we'd have never gotten our hands on them otherwise. One of Fly's older puppies (Mowgli) had been neutered before, but he followed anyways, as did the remaining pup from Fly's most recent litter, Amigo.

Fly's boyfriends and Amigo were three of the male dogs neutered, the fourth was Shep. Shep's a handsome white German Shepherd cross that vanished the last time we tried to do a spay/neuter. We'd hunted for hours and gave up... and then Shep turned up about half an hour after the vet left. This time, however, we successfully caught and neutered him!

The two cats were the kittens from Jolie's first litter. The male was Neville, the little one who tumbled from our porch and who is owned by Jen and Neil. The female is Samba, owned by a student named Amanda.

So now that you know the 'victims', let me explain how spays and neuters work in Dominica. In the States, you take your dog or cat to the vet's office and sign a few forms. The staff takes your pet into the back and you receive instructions to return that night or the next morning. You come back to find your pet is neatly stitched and clean-up. No blood, no mess. The animal might be slightly sleepy, but is perfectly capable of walking. The surgery is performed in a hospital, with oxygen masks, surgical drapes, and autoclave sterilized instruments.

Now in Dominica, we rounded up the dogs and cats and penned them in a fenced yard near the campus. A Paws member named Rodney lived there, and as his landlord lives on another island and the vet could drive directly onto the property, we decided to hold our 'event' there. The spays and neuters were done outside, by the wonderful Dr. Toussaint and a second vet whose name I didn't catch. The anesthetic was a simple injection. Not only were the surgeries done outside, but the surgical tables were the beds of pick-up trucks! As the surgeries were finished, the male dogs were laid out on the grass. The cats and Fly were placed in crates.

Poor Mowgli though that we were doing something pretty nasty... all of his buddies were PASSED OUT on the grass! He couldn't figure out what was doing on. All the animals came through the surgery just fine, although some of the owners were concerned about how sleepy their animals were! In the States you never see your animal completely drugged up.

Here are some photos of our spay/ neuter day. Some of these are graphic, so don't press play unless you can handle a bit of blood. All of the animals came through their surgeries just fine, and all of the animals were completely unconscious during these surgeries. If you see any open eyes, don't worry, that's just a side effect of the drug. Enjoy!

Toucari Bay!

2009-10-03T17:12:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday I went on a fun snorkeling trip to Toucari Bay, which is about fifteen minutes north of where we live. It's pronounced TOO-car-ee, and it was beautiful. There were about fifteen other spouses who went, and it really turned out to be a lovely day.

I've done a lot of snorkeling on the island, but this was some of the most spectacular. The coral formations were absolutely breathtaking, and I couldn't get over the colors! Of course, every time I snorkel I spend the entire time thinking "OH WOW!" so it isn't that unusual.

Jen, Briana, and Elyse and I all headed out together. I was very glad to be in a crowd when we reached the drop off. There's something frightening and thrilling about drifting over the drop-off... it's incredible to watch the coral and ground suddenly vanish into blue-black water that could contain anything at all. We'd swum out initially along the southern edge of the bay, and when we reached the drop-off, I asked Briana if she knew where the shipwreck was. She thought that it was on the other side of the bay. Well, we decided that rather than swim all the way back in, walk over, and swim all the way back out, we'd just swim across the mouth of the bay. Oh my, it was a long way- probably a mile! We were very silly, I know, but we're all strong swimmers and in good shape, we were in a group, and the Caribbean doesn't have strong currents like the Atlantic. So we were safe but tired!

We didn't end up seeing the shipwreck, but my friend Nick knows where it is and offered to show us sometime. Nick is down here with his wife and adorable daughter. The swim back in along the north end of the bay was interesting. It was sandier, and had fishing traps and nets along the bottom. You'll remember I mentioned fishing traps when Ryan and I went fishing down here! I found a few amazing sand dollars which I love diving for. Many of the sand dollars down here are very fragile, but I found one that was lovely and thick!

I have a very funny story to tell you about the walk down the beach, but I'll save that for another post. Here are a few photos that were taken by Kristen, who is down here with her husband, who is a professor at Ross. Aren't they spectacular?! When we exchange my broken camera at Christmas time, Ryan and I want an underwater camera. Look at these photos... LOVELY!

Can you see Mr. Octopus hiding in that last one? Look closely! I didn't see him unfortunately. Kristen always sees the most amazing things! I have seen squid, but no octopus.

Kitten Update!

2009-10-02T23:02:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone!

I hope you're all doing well. Sorry for the break between posts- it was my busy week, what with the paper being published and it's the week before the mini, which you know means lots to do and lots of stress!

I have a lot of fun things to update you on, but I have had several requests for kitten updates. I thought I'd let you know about my daily kitten schedule so that you can see some of the things that they've been up to.

When I get up in the morning, one of the first things I do is clean up Jolie's litter box. She always makes a stinky mess of it overnight! We just use sand, as litter is expensive down here, so I dump it out and then clean the pan in the faucet outside our apartment complex. I use dilute bleach just about every other day, to keep things smelling good! I keep a pail with a lid on the porch filled with sand, and I top up the litter box from that.

Then it's inspection time! I check over Jolie first- she's the one doing all the work! I also clean her up a bit- she gets a bit messy from nursing five kittens. She seems to enjoy being wiped down with a damp cloth and I spend a few minutes fussing over her and telling her what a good cat she is. She's spectacular with the kittens, and so trusting of all visitors! I rinse her food and water bowl, and top them up. She drinks and eats a LOT.

It's pretty warm on the porch in the morning- but don't worry! There's plenty of shade so Jolie and babies are very comfortable. I just get very warm standing in the sun and taking care of them! I pull the kittens out of the box one at a time to look them over. At other times of day they'll stagger their way out of the box to see me (they aren't QUITE walking yet, but they're nearly there!), but in the morning they're sleeping and enjoying the shade. I just fuss over them, make sure they have fat, milk filled bellies, and that they seem alert and healthy.

After that I sweep the porch. Jolie's a bit messy and kicks sand everywhere, which then gets tracked into the house if I'm not constantly sweeping it up. I also will sweep and clean the litter box again in the evening if it's needed.

Throughout the day, I constantly check on them. Jolie's water needs to be refilled about 2-3 times a day, and I try to make sure she always has food available. Unfortunately I am not feeding a very high quality food down here, but that's all that's available. Nursing cats are supposed to be feed high protein, fat, and calcium diets. The food we have... well, it sort of stinks. So I supplement in a few ways. I'll soak her food in a bit of milk once a day (very little, as cats have trouble digesting dairy products) and give her a bit of chicken, turkey, or cheese every day. I'm doing the best I can with what I have- and I have the ingredients ready to make a homemade kitten milk replacement just in case she starts to struggle to feed all her babies. So far Jolie is doing GREAT!

I also spend lots of time handling and playing with the kittens, so that they're very friendly and tame! Each kitten gets at least ten minutes of individual handling each day, as well as group playtimes! I try to encourage Jolie to take a little bit of relaxation time every day. I put her out about twice a day. Sometimes she'll follow while I clean her litterbox. Other times she wanders the apartment complex. Many times she just relaxes by our door. She's never out longer than about 15 minutes, but I think she'll take longer 'breaks' as the kittens get older. She'll also come in and lay on the floor and supervise as I cook and clean up around the house. When I left the door open to the porch once, she moved two of her kittens behind the couch! It's pretty normal for mother cats to move their kittens around fairly frequently. Jolie REALLY likes it under our bed and keeps trying to sneak into the bedroom (where she's not allowed due to Ryan's allergies) and sulks when we close the door in her face. She'd love to move her kittens there!

Ryan and I decided to name them after famous genetic scientists (we are both bio geeks!), so here are their names! There's the biggest one, a black male named Darwin, for Charles Darwin obviously! Then there's his sister who is nearly identical to him, who is Rosalind, for Rosalind Franklin who contributed to Watson and Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA. The little tiger and white male is named Gregor, for Gregor Mendel, a major researcher of inheritance patterns. You can blame him for drawing all those punnett squares in biology class! The black and white female is BB, short for Barbara McClintock, the discoverer of 'jumping genes'. Last but not least is the little tiger. We're not quite sure if the tiger is a male or female... we jokingly call him Side Effect, in reference to the dewormer we gave to his momma before we knew she was pregnant! Really, he's (she's?) named Francis, for Francis Crick. That way he can be either Francis or Francine, as needed! This little guy is our favorite... shhhh! Don't tell the other four!

Enjoy the photos! They aren't great quality for a few reasons... First, I took them at night, so the flash is casting funny shadows. Second, it is very hard to take photos of kittens that keep crawling as close to you as they can get! Third, it's just tricky taking pictures of things that close to the ground. As you can see their eyes ARE open and they can sort of stand (with shaking legs) but they are still moving with that half crawl, half stagger. Poor Darwin is the only one who hasn't QUITE mastered it... he's so much bigger and weighs so much, and it takes a lot to support that weight.

Chicken Little and the Flower Massacre

2009-09-20T14:47:00.001-04:00

As you can see I redesigned the blog a little bit- I hope you like it!

Chicken Little was right- the sky is falling! Friday night Ryan and I were awoken by part of our bathroom ceiling falling. It's not bad- it's just a hunk of plaster- but I have a feeling it's going to be a pain to repair. They'll have to redo the whole ceiling. Does anyone know how long it takes to plaster a ceiling? I'll multiply that amount of time by two and have a rough idea of how long men will be working in our bathroom.

Here's a photo of the damaged ceiling- it's really just plywood behind a thin sheet of plaster. Do you like the little pile of plaster pieces?

I believe I've mentioned before that gardening down here is a bit brutal. Lawns are mowed almost to the dirt with weed whackers (no lawn mowers here) and gardens are maintained with a machete. I'm sure that you could maintain a nice garden with a machete, just trimming back the excess and making sure you always have beautiful plants around.... but that's not the way it works here. They wait until the garden is overgrown, spilling over the fence and across the pathway, and then they move in with their machetes. They spend all day hacking away at the garden until all that is left is a bunch of twigs. The lucky plants still have some leaves. Then the garden is left alone for a few months until it is once again overgrown- things do grow fast here! It is a bit depressing and shocking to walk into our complex right now. The freshly weed-whacked lawn has huge bare patches and the flowers are just sad! Here are some photos of what we jokingly called the flower massacre.

More About the Kittens!

2009-09-16T21:59:00.001-04:00

When we woke up this morning there were still only five kittens, which was nice because five kittens means five homes... which will be tricky enough to find! We won't know if they're boys or girls for another few weeks- they're just too tiny to tell right now!

All five kittens are doing well today. They are nursing well and moving around fairly well (they can't walk yet but they kind of drag themselves around) and they all have nice loud voices when they get a little bit seperated from their littermates or when their poor mother goes to grab a bite of food.

They eat and sleep constantly. When they're sleeping their poor mother tries to sneak away (and away is all of five feet) to get some food they wake up and start to cry so she goes rushing back. She's such a good mother, but she must be so tired and hungry! Don't worry, Jolie does get plenty of food, she just has to eat it a bite or two at a time.

We've already started spreading the word about the kittens and there are a few people interested in giving a kitten a home! We don't have five homes yet, but they were only born last night so I don't think we're doing too badly!

I didn't realize how stressed out I was and how much I was worrying about Jolie! It was scary how large she was and I was nervous about her delivery. There are no emergency vets down here, and a c-section would have been pretty much impossible. She's not a big cat and her belly was so large it made me very nervous. I was also worried about how many kittens she was going to have. I'd guessed she would have three. Five kittens is more than I'd have liked, but it is much better than eight- which was what some people guessed!

Here's a photo of me giving a kiss to the #4- the little one I helped be born. Doesn't he have the cutest little face?

Here is Jolie with all five of her babies. Aren't they sweet? She purrs constantly when she's with her babies.

I delayed today's post in the hopes...

2009-09-15T22:46:00.001-04:00

that I'd be able to tell you we had kittens!

Jolie seemed restless all day. She just wasn't acting like herself. I kept checking on her, hoping to see her going into labor, but there was nothing for a long time.

Then we got back from a meeting about 6:30 and she was definitely in labor at last! She moved through pretty quickly and had her fifth kitten about forty minutes ago (about 10:00). We've decided to let her rest for the night now. Jolie is one tired kitty! If we get up to find a sixth kitten... well, so be it. She's a great momma and has been a real star so she'll be just fine.

I managed to see numbers three, four, and five be born. I actually helped her out with number four! She was struggling to tear the bag open, so I did it for her. She's had one litter before, but she seemed to be having trouble so I gave her a hand. It was amazing to watch number four take its first breath and start to move and cry after I had helped it!

Five was born when our neighbors (who also feed Jolie) stopped up to check on her and her kittens. I'm restricting visitors, but since she wasn't at all bothered by Ryan and I being there, I didn't think she would mind having a quick visit from the other people who feed her- and she didn't! She's a sweet cat and a good mother- but this is her last litter, even if I have to ship her back to the States to be spayed... does anyone want a cat? Just kidding!

I've posted a slide show, but it is a tad gory in parts. Nothing bad at all, but you do see some blood (we got photos of kitten number four being born) so if that bothers you, don't play the slide show.

Updates!

2009-09-14T21:12:00.001-04:00

I thought I'd just do a quick post about what has been going on in our lives the last few days!

Ryan has started his third semester of medical school- which means he's officially a second year med student! I'm so proud of my amazing husband. I can't tell you how hard he works! He studies all day, every day, generally from about 8AM until bed time. He does of course, take breaks for food... although when test time rolls around he just studies while he eats! That's just what he has to do to keep up in classes. Not only does he work incredibly hard at med school, but he's an amazing husband. Even though he's busy he still takes the time to talk to me about my day and makes sure that we get to spend time together just relaxing. This semester he'll be working even harder- before he'd have four to five hours of class a day. This semester he have six to eight hours of lecture per day! Wow!

I've been starting to work on my articles for the newspaper. The other editor and I worked it out- I'll be in charge of putting the paper together (which means I'll get experience with Microsoft Publisher!) and Liz will be in charge of printing and distributing the paper. Our first issue will be out October 1st... I'll have to link to it so that you can all read it!

Our big news of the week is that we have running water in our apartment once more! When it rains hard, the filters in the pipes tend to clog with mud and the water pressure drops big time. Since we live up a pretty populated hill, on the third floor of a large building, we actually tend to lose pressure about once a day. Normally it's not too bad- we just can't shower during peak use hours. But after the really heavy storms we'll lose water for a few days at a time- which is why we keep a pretty big stock of water on hand! Generally we have about four to five gallons of drinkable water (which we can refill on campus as needed) and about ten or more gallons of undrinkable water. This water isn't really dirty- we do treat it with bleach- and we use it to flush the toliet, wash the dishes, wash our hands... that sort of thing.

There are still no kittens, although I am REALLY hoping that they arrive soon! Jolie is absolutely huge. I worry about her a bit! She's still her sweet friendly self- just a lot slower moving than usual. I kitten proofed the porch, so that no more kittens can take a tumble! I know I keep saying it will happen soon, but I really think it will be tonight or tomorrow. I've been wrong before though, so don't hold me to it!

She's at it again!

2009-09-10T23:01:00.001-04:00

As you know I'm part of PAWS, which works with the strays on campus. PAWS tried to set up a spay/neuter date, but the vet had to cancel because he had some sort of emergency appointment- which is very understandable when you're the only vet on the island! Well, he's not the only one, but one vet does not practice and has no equipment and the other one believes that spaying and neutering is against God's plan. Dr. Toussaint, who helps out with PAWS, is absolutely wonderful and we appreciate all that he does.

Right now PAWS doesn't have the money to spay and neuter, we got to get money from Ross. But as you can see, it is a bit late to spay her. It is still possible... but I'm pretty sure that this cat's about to go any day now and I don't think we can set up an appointment that quickly. This is just another part of island life. There are a lot more animals than there are vets, and there's just not enough time in the day for the vets to care for them all. I really can't complain, because I know that it's the same for healthcare for the people of the island.

On a lighter note, here are some photos of Jolie! She is not very agile at all right now and has a lot of trouble getting onto chairs or jumping into our laps. She doesn't really want to move around much- normally she is pretty active and only spends a few nights a week on our porch. Jolie hasn't wanted to leave the porch for a few days now! I thought earlier that she might be going into labor, but now I'm not so sure. The poor cat can't turn quickly at all- she has a very wide turning radius at the moment!

Sometimes I'd Kill for a...

2009-09-08T21:38:00.001-04:00

TARGET!

I'm serious. Of all the stores I miss, I really think that Target is at the top of the list. It's just such a nice clean store and it has good prices and good selection. I'd take Target over Walmart any day! Although there are times I long for a Walmart Supercenter, it really is Target I miss the most.

Like right now, for example. Ryan and I have spent the last month or so looking for a set of speakers. We don't want to ship a pair in and pay the ridiculous customs fees, but we would love a pair for our television. Our television has terrible sound quality, it always plays the background music much louder than the dialogue, no matter what setting we use. It's frustrating at times, and it means we can't watch loud action movies or musicals on our television. We thought that if we had a cheap but decent set of speakers the sound issue would be all fixed.

We have had no luck at all! There were no students selling them at the fourth semester sale. We checked a number of stores, but most of them are selling these HUGE speaker systems that are designed for cars or dance clubs, and no small speakers. We finally did find a small set of speakers- and they cost about 200 dollars US! That's just ridiculous!

There are so many other things I'd love to buy... body wash, shave gel, a few good books, a new camera, a new waffle maker, hair ties, new clothes (I love Target's clothes!)... I could go on and on! So indulge me in a virtual shopping spree! We'll start with the speakers, which are only thirty bucks! Wow! That's a big savings from two hundred!

Now for the camera. Mine hasn't been acting right at all since the last time Ryan and I went to Aba Wavine Cyrique. We didn't drop it and it was a dry hike, so the camera didn't get wet- it spent the hike in a plastic bag in its case! Every time I turn the camera on, it takes a photo every ten seconds and will not stop until the camera is turned off again. I can't tell it to take a photo myself- it doesn't work. I just turn it on and point it toward what I want a photo of and wait. I can't zoom in or out or take a video- although my camera will take videos on its own occasionally. It also started to turn itself off and on. The battery suddenly stopped charging, so now the camera really is useless with absolutely no battery. We tried leaving my camera in a box of rice for awhile, which is a great fix because sometimes electronic things are damaged by the humidity down here, but even that failed! We plan on exchanging the camera (which has a protection plan) when we're home next but it's still frustrating to be without a camera! Here's my pick for my replacement!

And last but not least, our waffle maker sadly died a few days ago, mid-breakfast! Ryan and I bought one from a spouse down here (our nice one is in storage in the States) and we LOVED it. Jen and Neil borrowed it frequently too, and they were also very sad to learn of the wafflemaker's passing. Belgian waffles... so good!

None of these things are things we need, and we are happy down here. But there are times that I wish I could just go to a store and find everything I need for once! It would be nice! Do me a favor and go visit a Target for me... let me know how it was!

A Rough Sunday

2009-09-07T20:24:00.001-04:00

Well, I guess Sunday wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't a lot of fun either!

Ryan and I were working our second to last Welcoming Committee activity, the Island Tour. The Island Tour visits Freshwater Lake, Tralfagar Falls, Morne Bruce, and Scott's Heads... which makes for a very long day. It isn't that bad of a trip, but it is our third time doing it, so we weren't really looking forward to it. We were relieved to find that the first semester students on our buses were all really nice and courteous, which made the trip much better than last semester!

A large part of the problem is that I was not feeling well at all. I went to the clinic today and the doctor is pretty sure that I have a stomach ulcer. Ryan keeps joking that he stressed me out by being around all break and gave me an ulcer. That's not true of course, but my stomach really does hurt a lot! We'll know for sure that it's an ulcer when we get the test results back, but for now I have some nice medicines which helps me feel better. I also have to cut caffiene, soda, juice, fruits, tomato products, spicy foods, tea... basically everything fun!

Yesterday was rough for Ryan for another reason. He was bit by a centipede! Oh my gosh, I am so, so scared of those bugs and then poor Ryan was bitten! We were sitting at a picnic table at Scott's Head, on the beach, when he all of a sudden yelped and slapped at his arm. Then he yelled "CENTIPEDE!" and smacked my leg... when he knocked it off his arm it fell onto my leg. I was really, really lucky and didn't get bit. They're grouchy little bugs! He was lucky too- it was just a little baby centipede, only an inch or so long. It wasn't even red yet! He did still get a big red welt and it swelled up- but it could've been worse!

We did, of course, kill the centipede. Here's Ryan holding his 'prize'. He smashed it so hard that it stuck to the rock. He banged the centipede probably five or six times HARD and then I pounded it a bit- I don't trust them!- and it was STILL MOVING about twenty minutes later! These things don't die!!!

We were very happy to get home last night and were very happy to curl up together and watch a movie. It was a very relaxing end to a long day. It POURED last night in the middle of the night, so we didn't get a completely restful night- Ryan had to get up in the middle of the night to close the windows because it was raining on our bed!

Boiling Lake Fail....

2009-09-05T10:48:00.002-04:00

So we didn't get to hike Boiling Lake yesterday. It turns out that Tropical Storm Erika dumped way too much rain on the mountains. The trail to the lake starts at Titou Gorge, and the volume of water was absolutely SHOCKING. The water in the gorge is used for electricity, and the grates that normally protect swimmers from being swept through the tubes into the turbines had been washed away. There were signs of a recent flash flood (there were debris and water damage about ten feet HIGHER than the already high water). The power of the water was terrifying.

The trouble started even before we reached the trailhead though. The force of the water running down the sides of the mountains had washed away large portions of the road, which meant that we had to take several long detours and drive very slowly. The roads were AWFUL. So we already had a late start, on one of the two hikes that you should never, ever have a late start on in Dominica. That made us all a bit nervous (as did the idea that while we were hiking the roads could be washed out MORE which would've trapped us on the mountain overnight).

Ryan and I were supposed to act as guides for Jen and Neil and Jen's sister and her husband, Jess and Dan. But as soon as we saw Titou Gorge and then looked up the trail (which resembled a waterfall tumbling down a flight of stairs) we knew that it would not be safe to attempt a 6-8 hour hike. There was also some thunder and lightening, and since we would have had to hike several miles along a ridge, that would be dangerous as well. We could have tried to hike to the first river to see what it looked like. But Ryan and I knew that Breakfast River (the first one) was the easiest of the river crossings. There would be several more crossings, including one in the Valley of Desolation. If the water volume was that high on a mountain- how high would it be in a valley? Part of the hike in the Valley was along a river, and we weren't sure if that would be safe. The Breakfast River was only about an hour in, so we thought about trying to hike to reach it, but we decided not to risk it. Crossing an overflowing river is dangerous, no matter where you are. In a rainforest on a volcano with frequent rapids and waterfalls... well, that's a good way to drown if you slip and fall.

So Boiling Lake did not happen. Instead of hiking, we explored Titou Gorge a bit and marveled at the water flowing through it and down the trail. A whole new waterfall had formed INTO the gorge, which was impressive. The whole trail was flooded and it was raining- we were glad to have our rain coats! We headed back to the car and met a friendly little kitten. He was adorable, but he was also well feed and friendly, so I'm sure he lived in the nearby village. He was a very sad kitten and was hiding from the rain in one of the hiking shelters. Poor little boy didn't want to get wet! We also took some photos in the village of Laudat on the the way down. Some local apparently didn't like the 'chemical' (ie-water) pipe that Domlec (Dominica's power company) built running down the mountain from Freshwater Lake and Titou Gorge.

After we managed to drive off the mountain (yay, the roads weren't washed out!) we headed to Screw's Spa to enjoy soaking in the hot sulfur springs. Neil had never been, and of course Jess and Dan hadn't been there. It was a fun way to relax, although we were all a bit disappointed not to be able to hike. None of us wanted to be "those idiots who drowned trying to hike Boiling Lake after a storm" so we think we made the right choice. People have died trying to hike Boiling Lake, so it's not a hike to mess around with!

After the spa we headed into Roseau for lunch at the Garage, which was pretty good. It's a bar and grill in an old ruined building with, of course, an auto parts store below it! The Garage is a fun spot to eat, with televisions set to sports games on all the walls (we don't understand cricket at ALL) and open windows to the street. There are shutters to allow the owners to look up at night! The food was very good and very reasonable. It wasn't as nice as Red Rock, but we did have fun. We ran a few errands afterwards and then returned home to meet up with Rowdy's owners. They'd been delayed in Puerto Rico because of the storm and were very happy to finally see him! They were stuck in Puerto Rico for two nights.

Here are some photos of our day!

Red Rock Dinner

2009-09-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

Well, we didn't make it out for lunch at Red Rock last night, but we did make it there for dinner! A lot of businesses were closed due to the storm so we got our rental van at 4:30pm rather than 9am. We didn't have to pay, luckily, but it did mess our plans up a bit.

In the end we decided that we were very happy to have dinner at Red Rock. The atmosphere was lovely and the food was wonderful! Ryan and I were watching the waves and he asked me how we could ever take a vacation again when we'd lived in such a beautiful spot. He was joking of course, but the beauty down here really is shocking.

I cannot say enough about how great the food was. I had the Caribbean Pizza and Sweet Potato Fries. So amazing! The owner's dogs knew who the softy of the table was and sat right behind me. We reassured the owners that they weren't bothering us. It was nice to see some fat dogs because we see so many skinny ones!

While we were waiting for our food and exploring the beach I found a lovely large shell that is perfectly intact. I was so excited! I brought it back with me of course, and will have to find a place of honor for it. I've never found such a large, perfect shell before. Enjoy the photos of our night!

I actually am writing this post on Thursday night, but it will be posted on Friday, while we are hiking. My computer does lovely things like that for me. So while you read this, think of us hiking those huge, volcanic hills!

Good Show Erika!

2009-09-03T11:07:00.001-04:00

Today Ryan and I are having a relaxing start to the morning. We're supposed to be heading out to hike and have lunch with some friends, but Tropical Storm Erika has delayed those plans a bit.

The storm is pretty quiet, really more of a light rain than a storm, but we're going to wait a few more hours to see if things will clear up a bit. Erika's center is already past up, but she is a very poorly organized very LARGE storm so we're getting a fair bit of rain.

There was a bit of thunder and lightening last night, and it rained most of the night, but we've definitely seen worse! Right now we're just praying that it clears up a little bit so that we can enjoy Red Rocks. Our friends Jen and Neil spent their one year anniversary at the little hotel at Red Rocks, and they really enjoyed hiking and exploring the red rock cliffs that give the area its name. Since Jen's sister Jess and her husband Dan are visiting, they wanted to show it to them, and Ryan and I were going to tag along.

We've got a van rented, Red Rocks is serving food, and we've got plenty of gas in the van (gas can be hard to find down here!) but we're still stuck, waiting for this rain to pass. We'll be heading out a little later this afternoon, no matter the weather. At least we'll have a nice meal!

Tomorrow we're going to be hiking Boiling Lake again. You remember, that's the three hour (one way) hike where you hike UP a mountain, down into the Valley of Desolation, and back UP the mountain to the lake. We may be crazy. If I can't post tomorrow, assume it's because I am too sore to sit up.

Painting!

2009-09-01T13:26:00.002-04:00

During break Ryan and I have been taking the time to really clean our apartment- sort of like a spring cleaning! We're emptying out all of our cabinets and spraying for bugs (darn those grease ants!). We're going through all of our stored food to make sure that it hasn't been infested by any meal moths. Then we sort everything and put it all back! We've also been reorganizing our bookshelf, our bathroom cabinet, and under our bed. Since we have a tile floor, dust and dirt tends to collect in those areas not swept very often- like behind our couch and under our bed. Yuck! The place looks great though- we've removed everything from under our bed (we used to have our suitcases there) and put all of our shoes into baskets. We rearranged our living room a bit, and have gotten rid of some food. I did find a VERY gross collection of food behind our set of drawers. There was a LOT of half eaten bags of food that wasn't from us- and we don't think it was from the people here before. We have no idea how old the mess was but it had certainly attracted cockroaches. YUCK! That's all gone and the whole area was cleaned and sprayed, so the cockroaches are gone, thank god!

We're not the only ones making things look nice. Our landlord has been working on painting the building, and has been working very hard over break. Our little house guest, Rowdy the dog, is not too impressed with men working right outside our door when I'm in the apartment alone! He doesn't seem bothered when Ryan is here, and our neighbors say that he is pretty quiet when here alone, but when it's just me he will growl and bark at the door. He's a funny little dog that we will certainly miss! The painting is looking really nice! I was surprised that the building was too be painted because I thought that it looked pretty nice. I didn't really see any marks or anything on the wall, but it must have been worse that I thought, because now that the painting is progressing the whole building looks much, much brighter and better cared for. We'll have to post some new photos of the apartment building!

I do have to share a funny story about Rowdy. We went down to dinner at Jen and Neil's the night before Justin and Grace were leaving. Since we had to leave Rowdy all day, Jen and Neil were nice enough to say that he could come down for a visit. We decided to bring him down, and if Neville (Jen and Neil's kitten, remember?) was at all stressed out or upset, we'd bring Rowdy RIGHT back upstairs. Well, things didn't work out QUITE the way we planned. Neville hadn't seen a dog since he was about 4 weeks old (and on that occasion he and his sister both hissed and snarled), and that was Facundo, our friend's laid back dog. Since Rowdy's well behaved we thought that it would be good for Neville to meet him. Neville agreed. He was FASCINATED by this other creature, and kept creeping closer and trying to sniff Rowdy and check him out. It wasn't Neville that was scared, it was Rowdy. Rowdy cowered in my lap, whimpering, whining, and SHAKING. I finally took the poor dog back upstairs so that he could escape the "evil demon kitten"! Poor little Rowdy- scared of a kitten! Neville at least loved it- it just kind of reinforced in his mind that he's a pretty darn special cat- which he is!

Fishing

2009-08-29T14:16:00.005-04:00

On Wednesday Ryan and I went fishing! Now, this wasn't just any fishing trip. We contacted a spouse who hires local fishermen to take people out for a day of fishing, Dominica style! Our guide was Roy and his friend, Alpha. It was an absolutely incredible day! We really enjoyed it, it was such a nice break from our traditional island activities.

We met Roy and Alpha at the dock at the mouth of the Indian River. They had a little wooden boat, like a bit rowboat with an outboard motor on the boat. We hopped in the boat and headed toward the beach to Roy's shack to pick up our equipment for the day. Now, the local fishermen here don't fish with poles and reels. They do something called 'hand reel' fishing. I'm sure everyone has seen fishing line for sale. It's sold on those plastic spools. Well, those plastic spools are what we used to fish! Actually, Ryan's first spool was just fishing line wrapped around an empty plastic water bottle. But we eventually 'graduated' to using the plastic spools of line. Our weight was just a pebble, and we baited the two hooks on our line with pieces of fish Roy caught the day before. Roy and Alpha both used lines with four hooks!

We were fishing for red snapper at depths of about 200 feet, and we just tossed our line overboard and waited for the bite, holding the line in our hands. When you felt a tug on the line, you'd set the hook by jerking back on the line- just like you would with a reel, just using our hands rather than a reel. If you caught a fish, you'd pull the line in hand over hand, and worry about coiling your line AFTER you landed the fish. Ryan and I were actually the first ones to catch a fish- although his first fish was the 'one that got away'! It hit the line so hard that by the time he pulled it in, the hook and lure were gone.

The first fish we landed was a little red snapper, and he was quickly followed by many others. The first fish I caught was a decent sized red, spotted fish. I can't remember the name of it, but Ryan ate it that night and LOVED it! After we were done fishing, we stopped at Roy's fish traps. The traps are a lot like lobster traps, and Roy baits them with coconut and pieces of fish. Ryan and I steered the boat while Roy and Alpha hauled up the traps. There were about four traps, and one was filled with about ten eels! They were nasty things that kept trying to bite while Roy was emptying the traps. They weren't very happy with the idea of being caught! The ones that were too little to eat Roy and Alpha would toss overboard. The birds have learned this and would try to snatch the fish before they could swim away. Two birds got into an argument and dropped a fish about ten feet away from the boat. He fell with a big splash and swam away very quickly!

That night we had Neil and Jen up to enjoy some of our fish. We kept all the fish we caught, and Roy gave us some of his as well. The red snapper was absolutely amazing and we loved it! If you enjoy fishing, Dominica is certainly a great place to do this. Come visit- you can go spear fishing and hand reel fishing, and I know of at least one place that takes out deep sea fishing expeditions!

The last few days we've been working with the Welcoming Committee and around our apartment, reorganizing things and cleaning behind furniture and such.

Another update from break

2009-08-29T14:07:00.003-04:00

Ryan and I have been working a lot lately. The last few days we've been working a lot welcoming students fresh off the plane to Ross. They're all tired, jet lagged, and a bit shell-shocked. Some of the parents struggle a lot, but we've found that a friendly face and someone willing to answer questions really helps them relax. We meet them as they get off the bus from the airport, answer questions while they wait for their landlords and gather their luggage, and then take them to a local restaurant for dinner if they're hungry. It's very tiring, and sometimes a bit stressful.

We've got to keep a cheerful face and be very positive. We have struggled a bit to remain positive over the last few days because I received some bad news from home. My grandmother, my father's mother, passed away Thursday after a long and fulfilling life. She knew the end was coming and was ready, but it is still hard to come to terms with it. She will be badly missed by her friends and family, all of whom were very blessed to have known her. Ryan and I ask for your prayers right now, as the last few days have been hard. One of the most difficult things about living in Dominica is that it can be very difficult to get home at a short notice. It is very expensive and flights book up quickly. It is beautiful here, but we struggle knowing that we can't always be there for our families when they need us.

Parrots!

2009-08-25T22:28:00.002-04:00

We had a lovely day! Ryan and I rented a car yesterday, and we took it to Roseau with Jen and Neil to do some shopping. Since we had a two day rental, we really wanted to use it for some fun today! We returned to Morne Diablotin National Park on a mission to see some parrots in the wild. We haven't hiked Morne Diablotin yet (it's 4,747 feet high) but we did hike Syndicate Falls (aka Milton Falls) twice before. Neil and Jen hadn't seen the falls yet, so it was new to them. While Ryan and I had done the falls before, we hadn't realized that we'd missed the Syndicate Visitor's Center and Nature Trail, which was several miles farther along this one lane, winding road with constant blind corners. Morn Diablotin is the ideal spot to see the two species of Amazonian parrot native to the island. The Jacko is a bright green parrot with a blue head and red on his wings and neck. The Sisserou is a larger parrot, darker green with a blue head.

The Visitor's Center was pretty cool- it had a plaster relief map of Dominica. This island really is steep! We enjoyed exploring the Visitor's Center before we hit the nature trail. The trail was probably only an hour long, but it took us a few hours. We really took our time, taking photos and looking for birds. Every time a bird called we would all freeze and search the local trees. At one point Jen and I were posing for a photo and heard a buzzing noise- only to whip around and see a hummingbird hovering over our heads! Our patience paid off and we saw a Sisserou Parrot, which is the national bird of Dominica and the second most rare of the Amazonian parrots. We heard a LOT more parrots than we saw- they are so loud! We also found two parrot feathers, which was pretty awesome.

The hike to Syndicate (or Milton) Falls is a pretty easy one, only about 15 minutes with two shallow river crossings. I forgot my sandals and my wonderful husband gave me piggy-back rides across the river so that I wouldn't soak my sneakers. Isn't he the best? One the walk to the trail head we heard this incredibly loud shrieking and looked up to see two beautiful Jacko parrots flying overhead. Ryan got a distant photo of the Jacko parrots, but none of the parrots landed in front of us and posed happily for photos unfortunately!

We did have a lot of fun today and we have big plans for tomorrow- but you'll have to wait to see what we're doing! If I'm not too exhausted I'll put up another post tomorrow. Ryan and I are both pretty excited! Thursday we start working for Welcoming Committee, and we'll be working everyday until Tuesday, and then we'll work the next two Sundays. Please enjoy these photos of our day today!

A quick update!

2009-08-22T16:48:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone!

It is that wonderful time again- break time! Ryan and I have two weeks ahead of us, and we really plan to enjoy it. We have no big plans yet, but we do think we'll rent a car at some point. We'll be working Welcoming Committee again, and I have to start doing things for the paper.

But today we're just relaxing. Thursday night we went out to celebrate the end of finals, Ryan's birthday, and my job. It was a lovely date night! On Ryan's actual birthday we had Jen and Neil up for tacos and cake- I'll have to post photos of the cake I decorated for him. Sadly, my cake decorating set broke, so I may have to ship one in! It is so much fun to do! I worked at the day school on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The day school is for the kids of the medical students and faculty, and the summer program just ended. I was substituting, and it was a lot of fun, but very tiring! Last night Ryan and I went to celebrate with some friends, because our friend Sonny is leaving to get married! I threw a bridal shower for his fiance Ivana, but we didn't want Sonny to feel left out. So we went to DeChamp and played poker. Sonny won- and he had never played Texas Hold'em!

Ryan and I will be pet=sitting over break, for a small terrier named Rowdy. He's been here since Thursday evening and is fun to have! He's a sweet, quiet boy and is very friendly. He can't figure out why the cat hates him- she is just furious that another animal has invaded "her" home!

We miss you all and hope you are having a good day!

Good news!

2009-08-18T22:17:00.003-04:00

As I'm sure you've all realized, we made it through Tropical Storm Ana just fine. In fact, we were a surprised- it only rained for about 45 minutes and then thunder and lightening only lasted a few hours. There was no damage or wind at all! Now that the cat spent the night in, however, she's become pretty sure that she owns the place. If we open our door at all, she bolts in, sits down, and gives us that look all cats are good at- clearly saying, "I am better than you and honor you with my presence". I swear, we don't have a cat. We have cat food, cat bowls, and a litter box set up on the porch and she's always around... but we don't own a cat. Promise. Speaking of cats we don't own, does anyone have suggestions for names? We can't keep calling her Mom-Cat. If you have suggestions, post them in the comments!

The other good news is that Hurricane Bill should miss us by several hundred miles. I'm sure you've see that the storm is tracking pretty obviously northwest and will come nowhere near us. So we don't need to worry about that!

And our last piece of news for the day... I have a job! I applied for a job with the school's newspaper "The Physical Examiner". The paper was looking for new editors, so I thought I would give it a shot. I had applied last semester, and didn't get the position, but I was lucky enough to this semester! I'll hold the position until I leave the island, so I'm really excited. It was a great day- Ryan did well on his first final and I got a job! Ryan has two more tests this week, so keep your fingers crossed!

Batten the Hatches!

2009-08-16T19:08:00.002-04:00

I have two bits of good news for you! Tropical Storm Bill (which will still likely become a hurricane) should miss us by several hundred miles. Yay! And Tropical Storm Ana is now tropical depression Ana.

Ana will pass about 15 miles away, so it will be very windy and rainy, but we'll be just fine. The school is closed until 6AM on Tuesday, so we'll be spending tomorrow stuck indoors. We've got a ton of food, lots of water, and a desk and a table for Ryan to use to study.

His tests are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so unfortunatly he'll spend his birthday taking tests. But there won't be a hurricane, so that's good news!

Ana should be moving in late tonight or early tomorrow, and it'll probably be pretty wet and windy. But we'll be safe and happy!

Ana and Bill are coming for a visit!

2009-08-15T18:56:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone!

This is a fairly important update. As of right now, Saturday evening, we have two tropical storms heading our way. I just wanted to let you guys know what's going on, reassure you that we'll be safe, and show you how to track the paths of the storms. I also wanted to note that internet and phones may be down here for a few days if the storms do hit, so please do not worry if you don't hear from us for a few days! I am going to be as honest as possible and use all the stats from the National Hurricane service. I'm doing this so you guys don't worry, so please don't read this and panic! We'll do great. If you ever get nervous, just reread the final section on this page- WHY WE'RE SAFE!

So, Ana is up first. Ana's a tropical storm that Ryan and I have been watching since she was just a little low pressure system way on the other side of the Atlantic. Right now, we're on the edge of her projected three-day forecast cone. Right now, she's predicted to hit Antigua on Monday afternoon. Ana should be passing just north of us, although her path can change. It doesn't look like she'll be hitting us directly, though I imagine it'll be a bit rainy and windy! Dominica's got about a 50% chance of tropical storm force winds (or 120 mph). We're estimated to have winds at 105mph thanks to Ana. There's about a 20% chance Ana will turn into a category 1 hurricane by the time she reaches us. The probability of Ana becoming a hurricane increases AFTER she passes over us, so worry about the poor people in Cuba and Miami, not the ones here!

Right behind Ana is her buddy Bill. From the very beginning, we've been a bit more worried about Bill. We've also been watching him since he was a little, unnamed low pressure system! Bill's five day track passes pretty much directly over us at some point between 2pm Wednesday and 2pm Thursday- probably Wednesday morning. Just so you know, it is predicted that Bill is going to turn into a hurricane before he reaches us (about 70%)- so we may get to experience a hurricane while we're down here after all.

Remember that either of these storms can change direction. Ana could change so that she passes right over us and Bill could change so that he passes north of us. Right now, since Bill is more of a concern and more likely to turn into a hurricane, it'd be just fine for us if Ana came to visit instead of Bill! We also could be completely missed by both storms and have the lovely, sunny weather we're so used to. I think we'll at least get a bit of rain, which will be too bad because I'm supposed to go on a field trip with the day school kids on Wednesday!

Now, there are some people I'm going to ask all of you to pray for! Many of the locals can't afford hurricane safe housing, so please pray for their safety. Since many of them are fishers or farmers, pray that their boats and farms are not destroyed by the wind and waves. Pray for all the stray dogs and cats I've come to love here. And don't worry- Angelina (Mom-cat) will be spending the storm safely indoors. Pray for all the people who have booked flights off of the island for break- many of them will be devastated if they aren't able to get home to visit their friends and families. Also, on top of the storm, Ryan's finals are scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next week, so pray that he does his absolute best! And yes, I have wondered if he paid off Mother Nature to send a hurricane through so that he had a few days more to study!

To track the storms yourself (although I will provide updates when I am able!) just follow the link below. Right now there are three storms being traced- Hurricane Guillermo (in the Pacific) and Tropical Storms Ana and Bill. CLICK HERE TO TRACK THE STORMS After reaching the link you can just scroll down and click on the Warnings and Three Day Cone map so that you can see the storm's projected path. CLICK HERE FOR A MAP OF THE CARIBBEAN so that you can see where Dominica is located. We're just north of the 15th parallel, south east of Puerto Rico, and south of Antigua. At the top of the webpage on the first link, you'll see any current announcements by the National Weather Service.

Ok, here's the part you've been waiting for:

WHY WE'RE SAFE!

~Dominica is a very mountainous country. We've no need to worry about flooding.

~We're in a hurricane safe house.

~We live on a hill.

~We have a generator, so power outages won't affect us.

~We live on the leeward side of the island, so we're protected from the worst of the winds by those very tall mountains.

~We've got about 15 gallons of water stored at all times, and now is no exception.

~We've got plenty of food we don't need electricity or gas to prepare- like bread, peanut butter, tuna, canned chicken, crackers, jelly... the list goes on and on!

~We have a lot of friends living in our building and around our building. So we've got help nearby if we need it!

~We've got each other.

~Ross will accept anyone who needs housing during a hurricane, so we can go to campus if we have to.

~This is all part of the adventure!

Cake Decorating Class

2009-08-14T11:16:00.002-04:00

While I've been down in Dominica I've been blessed to have the time to do bible studies- which I never had time for in the States! Last semester I was involved in one with several students, which was a lot of fun because it let me connect with girls I would've never known otherwise. This semester I joined a second study with a number of my friends among the spouses. We read the book "The Shack", which I highly recommend. It really brought us close and we had a lot of great conversations throughout the semester. I enjoyed both of my bible studies this past semester and look forward to continuing them next semester- although my friends who are leaving the island will be missed!

This Wednesday, while all the students were busy studying, the other spouses and I from "The Shack" study got together for some fun. Anna did a lot of cake decorating back in the States, and she was kind enough to teach us a few tricks of the trade. It was a lot of fun! We also had a wonderful surprise. Grace and Jen have been learning to sew on Grace's sewing machine this semester, and they made each of us an apron! Now we all match. Wherever we are in the world, we all have matching aprons! I really love mine, it's a great color!

We practiced decorating cupcakes with flowers (which are a bit tricky to make!) and then we each decorated a small cake. We decided to put palm trees on our cakes and make them for our hard-working husbands. It was so much fun! We really enjoyed making the cakes and spending time together. Here are a few samples of our work!

We took a photo of us pretending to eat the cakes we'd worked so hard on!

My cupcakes! The cupcake on the left is a rosebud, the one on the right is a rose. Not bad for my fist try!

Here are all the lovely ladies posing in our matching aprons! In the front, from left to right, is Jen (second semester), Monique (first semester), Grace (second semester), and Nina (first semester). In the back, again from left to right, is Emily (first semester), me (of course!), and Anna (first semester). Anna was our teacher for the night. She was a wonderful teacher. She made it so much fun, it all seemed so easy. Thank you Anna!

Waiter Race

2009-08-13T16:13:00.003-04:00

The waiter race is just what it sounds like- a race for waiters! It took place in May, which was Tourism and Hospitality Month here in Dominica. There were a lot of events going on during the month to celebrate the restaurants and hotels which serve Dominica's tourists.

The waiter race was for anyone who worked as a waiter or waitress in a restaurant in Dominica. The basic idea was that the waiters and waitresses would each be given a tray with three full glasses of water and an opened Red Bull (Red Bull sponsored the event). Using only one hand, the racers would carry their tray as quickly as they could at a walk (no running was allowed!) through a previously laid out course. The course started at the Old Market at the bay front in Roseau, ran all the way to the new market, and then down a side street back to the start to make a loop. The trickiest part of the course was when the racers had to pass through the Old Market- a cluster of close-set stalls which the contestants wove through- all while walking on cobblestones! The whole race was tricky though- they didn't stop traffic or have any race officials to clear people out of the way, so the racers had to dodge cars and shoppers and carry a tray with drinks that got heavy pretty quickly! They had to go through the course twice- it was about a mile in total.

The winner of each category- men and women competed separately- was determined based on finish time and the amount of liquid spilled. The more liquid you spilled from your cups and can of Red Bull, the more of time penalty you would recieve.

I went to the race to cheer for my friends Lindsey and Ike, who work at Comfortel de Champ, a bar and hotel near campus. Lindsey is a spouse, like me. Her boyfriend, Kieran, is also a second semester student at Ross. In order to get support for their two competitors, Hans and Lise, who own De Champ, offered rides to the waiter race, beverages, and t-shirts for 25ec (about 10 dollars US). My friend Ivana, Lindsey's boyfriend Kieran, and I all decided to go cheer her on. It was so much fun! We really enjoyed it.

The most exciting part of the day was when Lindsey placed third! There were about 12 women competing, and Lindsey did very well. She got some amazing prizes! She was so excited. She got a pair of custom leather sandals, dinner for two at Mirage, incense, and a free massage! Oh, and she also received a whole case of Red Bull, since they were the event sponsors. It was a great day! Here's a short video clip of the Old Market section of the race. You can see cars passing by between the racers. This was on the second loop, so they're all pretty tired. You can also hear Lise and I discussing where Ike is- he was near the front on the first lap, but he disappeared on the second! He ended up placing sixth overall. Enjoy the photos as well. Yay for Ike and Lindsey!

BIG NEWS!

2009-08-10T12:16:00.002-04:00

Alright everyone, brace yourselves. I have absolutely incredible news! This is wonderful, incredible, amazing news! It's life changing!

Are you ready for it?

Are you sure you're ready?

Get ready! You'd better brace yourself! You won't believe this!

Two of the three stores in Picard now have AIR CONDITIONING!

How incredible is that? Miyana's 7-11 (which as far as I know has nothing to do with the 7-11 in the States, the name refers only to its hours) and Picard Grocery both have air conditioning

Which means that now I get to walk about 10 minutes to the store in 90 plus degree heat with lots and lots of lovely humidity (or in the pouring rain) and then wander around in lovely air conditioning while I find my groceries, wait in line, and pay. Then I load up my canvas bags (the plastic bags the store gives you tear very easily so canvas bags are important) and trudge back home through the heat with my groceries.

Now, the air conditioning is lovely, but don't get too much of a false impression of shopping here. It's not easy. The stores I shop at are about the size of a gas station convenience store and have about the same amount of selection. There are no shopping carts and the aisles aren't very well organized.

Now to give you an idea about the weight I haul home from the store, imagine yourself following me as I walk the aisles (narrow, dirty, poorly lit, disorganized, but AIR CONDITIONED) at one of the stores.

Oh, there's pasta! The brand we like, Carib Pasta (which is the only one that doesn't dissolve while cooking), is hard to find in this area so I'd better grab a few pounds. I pop them into my basket and turn. Diced tomatoes! Fresh tomatoes are going out of season and are getting more and more expensive, so I'm using more and more canned tomatoes. And I use them in everything. Spaghetti sauce, lasagna, pizza sauce, salads, salsa, chili... the list goes on and on. I used my last two cans last night and I wanted to make spaghetti tonight, so I'd better grab a lot of cans. I grab four, and then I spot tomato sauce, and so I grab a few cans of that as well.

A little farther down, there's cream of mushroom soup, which I use in a lot of my cassaroles, so I grab a few cans of that as well. My basket is starting to get heavy. I check my list and move to the next aisle to grab a bottle of italian salad dressing and a large tub of margarine. Since we can't buy stick margarine here, I go through the tubs pretty quickly when I am baking. And Ryan asked for ramen noodles for lunch, so I'd better not forget that!

Alright, it's time to pay and walk home. My walk home is hot (more than 90 degrees), humid, hilly (2 big hills), and ten minutes long. Let's list what I have: 3 pounds of pasta, four cans diced tomatoes, two cans tomato sauce, two cans cream of mushroom, a bottle of salad dressing, a large tub of margarine, and several packs of ramen noodles. Doesn't that sound like it will be fun to carry home? I can't wait for the large grocery stores of the States, where you can push a cart around while you gather your groceries, and then push your cart out to your car, which you can drive home with the radio and air conditioning blasting. How amazing is that?!

I hope this gives you an idea about why I am so happy that the local stores have air conditioning! It's such a break to be able to cool down a little before sweating on the walk home again. And remember how I said that two of the three local stores now have AC? Well, don't think that James Store is being left out. They're improving too. They removed whatever poor dead thing that has been rotting near their registers for the past few months. The store still smells a bit (you didn't expect them to CLEAN did you?) but there's been improvement!

Our Guests (take two)

2009-08-09T08:58:00.003-04:00

We were very lucky to have Ryan's mother and brother visit us for 11 days. The arrived the day Ryan took one his Minis, so that he would hopefully be able to spend more time with them. He did manage to take off a lot of time studying- he took off several days and pretty much every evening. It was great to have him around!

Ryan and I managed to find them an apartment very close to us, which they rented for the time they were here. It wasn't very large, but it had really nice furnishings and it was bigger than a hotel room. It actually had some of the nicest furnishings I've seen down here on the island!

I really enjoyed showing off some of my favorite spots on the island. We went to Cabrits, Bense Pool, Emerald Pool, the Carib Territory, Scotts Head, Champagne Bay, Syndicate Falls, Purple Turtle Beach, Tralfagar Falls, Titou Gorge, Douglas Bay, Coconut Beach, Roseau, and Screw's Spa. That's a lot of activity in eleven days, especially considering the effort it takes to coordinate transport down here!

We also, of course, showed them the highlights of our daily lives down here. We enjoyed showing them around the campus and around our small town of Picard. They got to see what the local stores are like- and why shopping can be such a pain! They learned how we order meat and where on campus we go to work out.

Here are a number of photos of their visit- i hope you enjoy them! Ryan and I definitely enjoyed having visitors, it was a nice change in routine!

Our Guests

2009-08-06T11:17:00.003-04:00

Many of you know that Ryan's mother and brother visited us for 11 days in July, but those aren't the guests I'm referring to. The guests I am talking about are a whole lot smaller, furrier, and have a few more legs. I'm a member of PAWS, the organization that works to help the stray animals living near the campus. My friends all know I'm a member, so they'll call me with any animal issues they notice. Several weeks ago, one of my friends told me about a litter of kittens that had turned up on a student's doorstep. Apparently the student had been feeding the mother for a few months, and when she had kittens, she decided to bring them to his house.

The kittens were about four weeks old and very small and vulnerable- and time consuming! It was too much work for the student to take care of the kittens on top of studying. So one Wednesday afternoon I swung by with a cat carrier and picked up the mother cat and two of her kittens. There were originally four in the litter, but two were already eating solid foods and had found homes. I took the mother and the two less developed kittens home with me and made up a pen in the corner of the kitchen. The kittens were as tiny and adorable as you'd expect! The mother is a pretty gray tiger with a lot of white. The female kitten is a dark calico, and the male kitten is a handsome tiger who looks a lot like his mother.

Ryan and I didn't worry about the kittens that night- we just shut the door to the bedroom and slept. The next morning I was horrified- the mother cat had been a bit naughty overnight! She'd gotten onto my counter and dug out and ate my houseplant, as well as took bites of several onions I had laying out. She ripped open the bag of dog food we kept around to feed some of the strays. She pooped on my cloth shopping bags which were in a basket by the door. It was a shock to wake up to!

After that we moved the mother and her kittens onto our porch. It is enclosed and sheltered and we would still let the kittens inside to play, but we'd also be able to look them up when we couldn't supervise them. It made things a lot easier to know that my house wouldn't be wrecked when I came home from running errands!

The kittens were so much fun- it was amazing to watch them grow and develop! They became more and more playful and adventurous... which is what got the little boy into trouble. One Saturday night as I was doing dishes I heard pathetic cry and ran to the porch door... to see the mother cat staring over the railing. I knew immediately what happened and raced downstairs. The little boy had tried to jump onto the porch railing and had fallen- three stories!

He landed on our Jen and Neil's tiled porch, and then tumbled another few feet to the concrete path. I was convinced, as I raced downstairs screaming for Ryan, that I'd find a dead kitten at the bottom of the building. I was so relieved to see him looking at me, all in one piece, that I nearly cried. Ryan and I carefully eased him onto a sheet of cardboard and then lifted him into a box to transport him up the stairs. It was very scary, because I could tell that he had a dislocated hip and I was very worried about internal injuries... and since this was Saturday night, and everything in Dominica shuts down from Saturday evening to Monday morning, I knew that I couldn't have him checked out by a vet.

I called Northway Animal Emergency Clinic, located about 20 minutes north of my home in New York, and begged for advice about how to prevent shock. They were very kind and honest, and I really appreciated it. They had no reason to help me- most vet clinics refuse to give out information over the phone because of liability issues- but they did anyways. I settled the kitten into a cat carrier with food, water, and a rice filled sock as a heating pad. My friend Jen, who is a nurse, had come up to help me, and we decided to call the kitten Neville- after the character in the Harry Potter series who fell three stories and bounced.

I was up about every hour all Saturday night, checking on Neville, checking his breathing, heart rate, and making sure he had food and water. I was afraid that he'd be dead every time I looked into the crate- if he'd had internal injuries we would have been unable to help him. But each time I peered in, he'd be looking back at me sleepily. And the next morning I was shocked to discover that he was very anxious to escape the crate. We settled him in the bathroom by himself- the emergency clinic cautioned us against putting him with his mom or sister who might unintentionally hurt him- and watched him carefully. We carried him to the food, water, and litter box several times that day. By that evening he was limping around a bit- he popped his hip back in on his own! Within a few days he was once again nursing from his mother and playing with his sister- on three legs!

The kittens stayed a total of three weeks, so they left when they were seven weeks old. The female kitten went to a wonderful local woman named Shirley and her family. They adore this sweet girl's beauty and her playful attitude. Neville... well, he went to our friend's Jen and Neil- the ones whose porch he landed on! He's doing very well. When he sits and lays down, he does hold his leg at a slightly awkward angle, but for the most part, you can't tell anything happened! You can occasionally spot a slight limp, but he's leaping and running and playing just like a mischievous kitten should.

The day after her kittens left I took Mom-cat home, back to the student who had been feeding her. He lives about a mile away from my apartment, and he'd been feeding her for six months, so I thought that she'd be pretty happy there. The next morning, I opened my door... and found a very familiar face! Mom-cat has been hanging around ever since, and has been fed by my neighbors both in this building and in nearby buildings.

The Bahamas!

2009-08-03T14:53:00.005-04:00

As some of you know, Ryan and recently spent a weekend in the Bahamas, courtesy of Ross University. We didn't pay for a thing except the groceries we took back to the island! Ross even gave us cash for dinner out. The story is that Ross has two campuses. There is the main campus in Dominica, and then they're developing a secondary campus in the Bahamas, on the island of Grand Bahama, which is only about fifty miles from Florida. Ross flew a bunch of students to the island in an attempt to get a whole bunch of us to sign up to transfer to this other campus for third and fourth semester.

I do have to admit the campus and island are nice. The island is much more developed than Dominica. There were four lane roads and traffic lights! There were fast food restaurants, strip malls, and real, full sized grocery stores. There were shopping centers with nice clothing and the roads were in decent repair and there were these huge, sprawling parking lots... we don't really have enough flat space for parking lots in Dominica.

The campus seemed pretty decent. It was actually in two wings of a converted strip mall- but once you were inside you couldn't tell it was a strip mall. They're working on building an actual campus, but it won't be set for a few years. The apartments we saw were certainly beautiful. The furniture was in great shape... and some had touches like a dishwasher and granite countertops! There wasn't that much difference in rent price, although everyone down there owns a scooter or a car since things are more spread out. I sort of felt like I was in a small city in Florida... lots of long, low buildings all sprawled out on very flat land. The flat land really sort of freaked me out. We're used to Dominica with its huge mountains.

In the end, however, we decided that we love Dominica and want to stay. Ryan doesn't see that he will get a large educational benefit from transferring, and so we don't think it will be worth the move. We do have several friends who are leaving for the Bahamas, which is sad- we will miss them very much!

We do, however, have some photos of our visit. The photo of Ryan and I has a very special background... that's one of Jack Sparrow's ships from Pirates of the Caribbean! There's also a photo from the beach party thrown on our first night on the island, and a few photos of our hotel... which was lovely! All in all it made for a great weekend away from home.

Victoria Falls

2009-08-03T10:06:00.006-04:00

I want to apologize for not posting in so long. I've gotten so caught up in living my life down here that sharing it didn't seem as important... until I got so many requests to start updating it again! Ryan and I were really touched to realize how many people enjoy reading about our adventures down here!

Last Tuesday I went on a trip to Victoria Falls with the spouses organization. I am the activity coordinator- which means that I create the calender of trips, plan the trips, hire the drivers, and spread the word about the trips so that plenty of people sign up. It can be a bit stressful at times, what with balancing the weather, people's interest in the activities, and the schedules of a lot of different people... but it is a lot of fun and I enjoy it most of the time. I'd hired Theo for the trip to Victoria Falls, and then a LOT of people signed up. Theo's friend Otis ended up driving as well, so we headed to the other side of the island on Tuesday morning with two vans full of excited spouses!

Victoria Falls is a long drive away from Picard, where we live. Ross is located on the North western coast, and Victoria Falls is way down in the south-eastern part of the island. It took us about an hour and forty-five minutes to get there... which is quite a while when the island isn't even fifty miles long from tip to tip! In the States, the same drive would've taken about forty-five minutes... but with the huge mountains and the thick rain forest down here, the roads are very narrow and very curvy!

Victoria Falls is not the tallest falls on the island- that honor goes to Middleham Falls (which I visited about a month ago). But Victoria Falls has the largest volume of water of any of the falls on the island- and it's amazing! It's no Niagara Falls, but it is incredibly breathtaking in its own right. I was completely blown away by the beauty of the falls.

The hike in was a LOT of fun. The locals are very proud of the fact that Dominica has 365 rivers- one for every day of the year. When you go hiking on an island this small with that many rivers, you're going to get wet. Victoria Falls was definitely the wettest hike I've been on so far- it was even wetter than Sari Sari! Sari Sari we had to hike up a river, but there were submerged rocks to step on so that you could stay SOMEWHAT dry, as long as you didn't slip (which of course, I did, and went from ankle deep water to water over my head).

But Victoria Fall's trail was wild! I lost count of the river crossings... I think we crossed three or four rivers, and then we started hiking up the river to reach the falls. And when I say we hiked up the river, I don't mean that we walked along a pretty path next to the river. I mean that we waded up the river bed itself, scrambling over boulders and helping each other through mini rapids. There were spots where the water was reached my chest!

The hike was about an hour one way, and of course we went swimming as soon as we reached the falls itself. We were already soaked, why not? It was so beautiful, and a perfect spot for lunch! The hike out was a lot of fun too, although I was very glad that I had dry clothes and shoes waiting for me in the van!

Here are some photos of Victoria Falls. I've also included photos of my friend Ivana's bridal shower! Ivana is flying off the island to Miami today. She came down to Dominica with her fiance Sonny. They will be married over the August semester break, a few days after he gets home. Ivana went home early to finish up all the last minute wedding details. We'll miss her, but we are so happy for her! We wanted to be able to celebrate with her, so I hosted a 'bridal shower' last Monday evening. We couldn't really shower her with presents down here, but we shared marriage advice and our favorite recipes, and wished her well! We also did natural facials, so that's why we look pretty sill in several of the photos! It was a lot of fun. Down here it is so important to do these special things- otherwise you feel like your life is on pause. Life goes on- we have to celebrate it!

The puppy was the 'official' greeter of Victoria Falls. He belonged to one of the farmers who was working at the trail head. As for the sign... I cannot decide if that is a misspelling of restaurant or if it is a brilliant play on words for a rasta style eatery! Rasta is the religion/ life-style started by Bob Marley.

EDIT- It has been pointed out to me that Bob Marley did not start Rasta, he merely practiced it (and made it pretty popular due to his fame).

Welcoming Committee

2009-05-23T22:07:00.001-04:00

Our break was wonderful! I really can’t emphasize enough how great it was to have no schedule and to have time to spend together. During the semester we’re pretty short on time, so it was nice to be able to relax and enjoy exploring the island together.

The decision to rent a car was a great one. It allowed us to explore the island on our own time. We didn’t have to make a schedule and we could sleep in without worrying about missing our bus or holding anyone else up. We named our car Darwin, for Charles Darwin. What else would two bio majors name their car?

I loved being able to show Ryan my favorite parts of the island, and I loved seeing a few new ones with him. He’s normally so busy that he doesn’t have time to explore the island as much as I do, so it was great that he was able to see so much of it!

For a two week break, we sure managed to cram a lot of things in! Our first task, of course, was moving. It was a bit stressful to pack up all of our things- we’ve accumulated so much down here! I was really surprised, but it made sense. Between food and kitchen supplies, we’ve really increased the amount of stuff we own.

We also had to work over break, since we were both on Welcoming Committee. It was a lot of fun to introduce new students to Ross and Dominica! Many of them were so overwhelmed when they got off the plane- there were all tired after a long day of traveling and in a completely unfamiliar setting. Most of them were pretty accepting and very curious about life on the island. We were able to give them lots of hints and tips about living on the island, and to reassure the concerns of many new students. One of my favorite questions came from a parent who walked up to me and asked me if the tap water was dangerous to drink. I quickly reassured him that I had been drinking tap water for 4 months and had no ill effects so far. He blinked at me for a moment and then declared loudly, “But I was told that that tap water here can kill you!” I wasn’t sure what to say, I mean, I was clearly standing in front of him still alive.

Another good moment was when we took a group on the Island Tour, and the bus I was on stopped to look at the parrots at the Botanical Gardens. There were two cages with Sisserou (the Dominican national bird) and the Jacko parrots. A boy leapt out of the bus and hurried up to me and asked, “These parrots talk, right? I want to talk to one!” I was unable to keep my incredulous look off of my face. These weren’t pet parrots, and even most pet parrots don’t talk. If they do talk, it’s only in mimicry- it’s not actual conversation. I can’t believe that some of these people got into medical school!

The next post I will upload some photos of our adventure! I just have to grab the images off of Ryan’s computer.

Our New Place

2009-05-21T21:53:00.002-04:00

I know I promised everyone a tour of our new place- well, here it is! We still absolutely love it here. Ryan realized the other day that we called our last place ‘the apartment’- as in “when will you be back to the apartment?” or “I’m at the apartment, did you need something?”. We call our new place home. It’s just so much nicer than our last place in so many ways. It may cost more a month, but it is well worth it. It’s a wonderful place and we’re very happy here.

Moving out was a bit dramatic. Our last landlord seemed wonderful when we moved in, and was great right up until the time we said we would be moving out. They filled the apartment right away- so it wasn’t like they lost any money. But they stopped saying hi when we saw them (and they lived below us) and the maid stopped coming, which is frustrating because we were paying for the service (it’s required at most apartments) and because we didn’t really have any cleaning supplies of our own. We were also told that since someone was moving in on the 29th, we had to move out on the 28th, even though we’d paid for the full month of April. Luckily we were able to move out in time, so we didn’t have to fight them on that issue. We weren’t about to be thrown out onto the streets with no place to sleep!

The real issue was when we tried to get our security deposit back. Our landlord claimed that we’d left sneaker marks on the walls in the bedroom, and that he knew it had been us because he had painted the room right before we moved in. Now, we did not leave those marks on the wall. They’d been there when we moved it. Ryan tried to argue with the landlord by pointing out the stickers left on the wall by the last tenant- he or she must have stacked books along the wall, because there were labels such as ‘histology’, ‘anatamy’, and ‘biochemistry’. There’s no way you’d paint a room and the replace the stickers on the wall! But we didn’t manage to convince our landlord and ended up paying about $80 US to have the room repainted. I wish we knew who lived there now, I’m curious to see if the room was actually painted. I doubt it was, I bet our security deposit went towards a nice dinner for our landlord and his family!

The video explains a lot of what we love about our new place, but I will list some of that here. First impressions always count, and our new place just seems so much warmer and more welcoming. It doesn’t feel as cold and impersonal as our last place. The whole apartment is just brighter and has a lot more natural light.

There’s also a lovely breeze, since we are on the top floor. The breeze is really important because it makes such a difference is the temperature of the entire apartment. Many of our friends are using air conditioning at night in order to feel comfortable, while Ryan and I are still just using our fan- and there have been a few nights we’ve been too cold and had to turn the fan off! This will make a huge difference in our electricity bill. Electricity is very expensive here.

Our new place is HUGE compared to our last apartment. The kitchen is spacey and well laid out and the bedroom is absolutely massive. We also love that we have a living room of sorts, with a couch where we can sit and watch television! It’s great to have a bedroom, kitchen, and a living room! Having divided spaces just makes the whole place feel that much bigger than it would otherwise, and it helps me keep out of Ryan’s way while he’s studying. It’s also great that we can both get ready in the morning or cook together without running into each other constantly and stepping on one another’s toes.

We’ll also be able to entertain more, because our new place is so much larger and more open, and because we’re so much closer to everyone else. We joke that we live in ‘Spouse Central’. There are three spouses living in Green Homes (our building), two living across the street, one in the building next to us, one living two buildings up the hill, and one living in the building behind us. Being near other people is one reason we really wanted to move. It’s so much easier to see other people and do things when you’re not isolated from them. It’s also a much shorter walk to campus, which is nice for both of us.

I feel much safer on the walk home as well. Our last place was so isolated that it was a bit nerveracking to walk home at times. Even if it was the middle of the day, there were often men working or parked along the side of the road, and of course, they all had to hassle any girl that walked past. Many men here are perfectly friendly and respectable, but culturally, women are not as well respected here as they are in the States, and it isn’t uncommon to have them yell at you, talk to you, or hiss at you as you walk past. It’s kind of like walking past a construction site in NYC every single day. I quickly learned to ignore the guys who hassled me, but it was a bit scary to walk past them when there was no one else around. There was a long stretch of the road that had no buildings and since there weren’t many students living out there, it made me feel a bit vulnerable. There are still guys to yell things on the walk to our new place, but there are a LOT more people around, which just makes me feel safer.

The other great thing is that we have a generator! We never have to worry about power outages ever again. This is especially important as it gets hotter, and life grows more and more unbearable without a fan. Power outages rarely last more than a few hours here, but it can still be frustrating because you can’t check your email, you can’t run a fan, you can’t get hot water.... it’s wonderful that our life can still go on, even when the power goes out.

As for the rest of it, I’ll let you see it for yourself. We’re so happy here, I hope you all enjoy it!

Our New Place!

It has been awhile!

2009-05-03T19:57:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone! I'm sorry that I have not posted in so long! As you can imagine, things got very busy at the end of the semester, with Ryan taking a lot of tests. Things were pretty stressful, as you can imagine. He had a big practical, then a week later he had his last mini of semester one, and five days later he had his final. It was intense! I thought I'd at least do one big catch-up post, and then I'll make other, shorter posts with more details about our activities over the next few days.

But now it's the most wonderful time in the world... semester break! Ryan and I are loving this time together. It has been wonderful to be able to have this time to spend with each other and not have to worry about him needing to leave to go study, or about the next test. For now we have all the time in the world! And the wonderful news is that Ryan passed all of his exams and did very well- we're now in second semester!

We have been keeping ourselves very busy despite the break. First of all- the big news is that we have moved! We moved out of our old apartment on the 28th of April, and into our big, beautiful new place. We've taken a video of it, but Ryan's trying to make it all fancy with special effects, so it might not be up for another day or two. This place is wonderful, and we love it very much! We are so happy we moved. We did end up having a bit of drama when we left our old place- the landlord refused to give us back all of our security deposit! He claimed we'd left sneaker marks on the walls, which he insisted were freshly painted when we moved in.

Ok, y'all, those walls had sneaker marks when we moved in, and there is no way that place was freshly painted when we moved in. The previous tenant had placed stickers on the wall, labels that said things like 'histo' and 'anatomy'. Clearly he or she had placed their books and notes along the wall. The labels were there when we moved in, and still there when we moved out. When we tried to point out that it was unlikely that he (the landlord) would've painted and then replaced the stickers, he refused to listen. Oh well, we are out of there and that's well worth the 168 EC that it cost us.

Other than that, we've been busy working with Welcoming Committee. Yes, we are actually making money! Our job is to work different events that help the new students settle in. We took a group shopping in Roseau, and we've spent a few nights welcoming students that have just arrived on the island. It's very busy, and the students all have a lot of questions, but it is a lot of fun. When we're not working, we've been exploring the island! We rented a car for the break and have really been enjoying it. We've gone on several different hikes and been shopping in Roseau. The car was also wonderful when we were moving!

Well, I'll stop for now. Ryan and I are going to relax and watch a movie- we're pretty tired! I'll update more tomorrow with details on our activities!

Sari Sari Falls

2009-04-11T13:04:00.004-04:00

On Monday I went on another hike with the spouses. This one was to Sari Sari Falls, which is on the other side of the island. It's actually not too far away from Aba Wavine Cyrique, which is the waterfall off of a cliff that Ryan and I hiked a few weeks ago.

It was a fun hike in. There were a lot of hills (as always!) and a lot of river crossings. We all pretty much gave up trying to keep our shoes dry and just hiked through the water. The rocks were all slick and wet and it was better to get your shoes wet than to slip off a rock and soak your whole body! Looking back, it was more than just river crossings. At one point you just hike up the river! There's no trail on the side, you just walk/wade/swim through the water, depending on how agile you are.

I managed to stay out of the water for the hike there at least- on the way back I slipped off of a submerged rock and went from ankle deep water to water above my waist! Luckily Chris was behind me and grabbed my pack off of my back before everything inside was soaked. I really do enjoy hiking down here. It is pretty intense, don't let me lie to you. Even an easy hike is like 30 minutes on a stair climber- up and down and up and down! And things are ALWAYS wet and slippery here, and being that it's nature, the 'stairs' aren't nice and even. There may be logs lining the stairs, but they may be loose or just treacherously slippery. The stairs are never even or level, and there are parts where you have to clamber down slick rocks. But it is so much fun! You never know what you'll find around the next turn- nice, fairly even steps made of mud and logs, or a series of four foot high 'steps' cut into a slimy rock. I love it!

The falls itself was beautiful. Our last bit of hiking was to climb/slither through a narrow gap between some boulders- it was like being lifted up to see the beautiful falls tumbling into the secluded pool. The wind was almost overpowering- it kicked the spray up so badly that it was actually hard to see! I was worried about losing a contact- I am hoping the contacts I have will last me until Ryan and I return to the States in December. I actually went swimming in my hiking shoes- they were already wet from crossing rivers, and there were a lot of rocks beneath the surface and the water wasn't very clear. As always, when you reach a waterfall where swimming is permitted, the first goal is to get as close as possible to the waterfall- underneath it if at all feasible.

Getting to the actual waterfall was a LOT more difficult at Sari Sari than it was at any of the falls I've been to so far. Our first attempt was to simply swim (backwards, due to the spray) across the pool to the falls. This has worked in the past, but the current and the wind and spray were so strong that I doubt we made it halfway across the pool. It was very hard to judge our progress, because we were completely blinded whenever we tried to turn to look at the falls. You can see us swimming backwards in this photo. Those of us in the back caught up when the first group realized that they were swimming but not moving!

Chris had made it to the falls with success, so Summer and I adopted his method next. I guess we were the stubborn ones who really wanted to make it to the falls! The others climbed on the rocks above the pool and took photos. We made our way along the edge of the pool, clinging to the rocks along the edge and feeling for our footing. It wasn't easy, because of being blinded by the spray, but it was fun! I couldn't find a photo of us by the falls, but I marked the rock we reached. We pretty much reached it, looked at each other, said "That was fun," and headed back! With the spray and wind we didn't want to linger.

I also included a photo of the group. This was our 'silly shot'! I hope you like it!

The Epic Battle

2009-04-06T23:47:00.004-04:00

**Ryan's First Post**

So I have been very impressed with Sarah's posts and I knew that if I were ever going to take a moment to post about something from my perceptive it would have to be something really good.

Well this is it.

So there is a running joke between Sarah and I about centipede killing. I think it would be perfectly fine to have a machete of my own for centipede killing, but Sarah rightfully points out that it is a far too dangerous of a tool for a guy with boyish tendencies to have. Especially if I ever want to be a surgeon, I will need all the fingers I can get.

I actually like the idea since I am now challenged to use more "creative" means of killing my prey (the centipede). So far I have killed two on the sidewalks to campus. Both were about 6-8 inches long and I have used my anatomy textbook's spine once (which was very effective) and my foot the other time. Centipedes the size of the ones I have killed are what I feel comfortable with, I am not ready for the foot long beast that I encountered one night. If fact I will admit that he won. Not only did he keep his life, but he convinced me to walk on the other side of the road as far from him as I could be.

Well tonight I met my largest challenge yet and I will preface the story with the outcome. My foe and I agreed to a draw. I spared his life and he spared mine. He let me go home and I let him do whatever he wanted to do. It was a draw, but only after an epic battle. Here is the story.

I have gotten very comfortable walking without a flashlight at night since there are only a few spots that the street lights do not illuminate and I find that it ruins my night vision which I need for centipede to hunting. On this night I was almost home, just making the last turn down the steep hill to our place, which of course is one of the only dark areas on the walk home. Now keep in mind that I will often run down the hill because it is easier than walking. I am glad I did not do that this evening.

At the bottom of the hill was my neighbor who was staring at something in the path. I immediately thought it was a centipede and got exited, but it was a more worthy foe. A snake, a boa of some sort we are guessing, who apparently felt that it was his duty to guard the path and not let anyone pass. We were stuck. Kept from our warm beds and beautiful wives by a mortal enemy.

I have been around snakes before, including some very dangerous ones in Costa Rica, but I have never been so close to one that was so mad. He was lunging and biting at anything that got close. He was not afraid of rocks, water, sticks or anything else we tried to use to scare him into the bushes. No matter what we did he was determined to make sure that no one made it down the path.

Multiple attempts were made by my neighbor and I to outwit, scare, distract and overpower our foe while one of us tried to pass, but every close call with a bite widdled our courage down.

This called for backup. My trusty wife, asleep in bed, came to our rescue with flashlights, a broom and of course the camera.

Multiple uses of the broom were considered including flinging the snake into the ditch and pinning it down, but non seemed as logical or safe as using it as a barrier to bites.

The broom was bit a total of three times before we both got past!

As I said before I truly believe that this encounter was a draw. Snake and man have both walked and slithered home to lick their wounds and further prepare themselves for the next encounter.

I believe that after tonight I will be a better centipede killer. My encounter with the snake has made me stronger, quicker and more aware of what a truly worthy opponent is. Foot long centipedes will not scare me to the other side of the road anymore. I will ask Sarah to make sure to post more of my centipede killing and snake charming escapades in the future so that all of you are aware of what I am really learning down here.

And now, so you all don't think that was just a clever story are some pictures:

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Get your own

Why the heck would the US import oranges...

2009-04-04T21:34:00.001-04:00

... when they could be importing soursop? I know, I know, it doesn't sound as nice. And it certainly isn't as pretty as the perfectly spherical and brightly colored orange, with it's perfectly compartmentalized flesh. And I do love oranges, and until now I thought that I tall glass of orange juice was the perfect way to start the day. But now I have learned of the true wonder that is the soursop fruit, I don't know how I ever got along without it. To compare the taste of an orange to a soursop would be like comparing a can of dog food to a sirloin steak.

Yes, it is that good. Soursop is sweet and... well, I am not sure how to describe it. I feel very, very sorry for everyone back in the States who doesn't get to taste the wonder that is soursop fruit. And for once I'm glad that none of you are down here visiting... because I'd have to share my soursop juice. And I really don't want to do that. It's all for me! Well, and Ryan too, I suppose. We both love it and I'm sure we will drink a great deal of soursop juice before the end of its season.

The tale of our soursop adventure starts a few days ago, when I was buying lettuce from Betsy, one of the ladies who sells fruit out of the shacks by campus. I had heard of soursop from a few other spouses, and been told to watch out for it and buy it as soon as I saw it. So when I noticed a green spiky fruit, I excitedly asked if this was soursop... and immediately bought some. The fruit was very hard when I bought it, and Betsy told me that I would have to wait until it was soft before I could eat it. The fruit has been sitting on the counter next to my fruit basket since I bought it- the soursop is so heavy that I worried it would crush and bruise the other fruit if I placed it in the basket. Ryan and I have been checking the progress of the soursop several times a day, and each time... nothing. It was still very hard. The second or third time we checked today though... it was soft!

I was very surprised because this was no gradual softening. The fruit was very hard... and then suddenly it was very soft and I was afraid to squeeze too hard and damage the fruit. The skin is very tough, however, sort of like a banana skin but much thinner, and so the flesh of the fruit is somewhat protected. We were so excited that the soursop was ready that Ryan took a study break this evening to help me prepare it.

We weren't precisely sure how to proceed. I'd been told that soursop is VERY juicy- but it also has a tough flesh and large seeds. When I make grapefruit or orange juice, I simply slice the fruit in half and use my little juice squeezer. But that wasn't an option here, due to the shape of the fruit and the pliability of the skin. So we basically just cut the fruit open and started peeling away chunks of flesh and dropping them into the blender. We had to be careful though, since the seeds are very large and very well hidden! Once we'd removed all of the fruit's flesh, we added some water and turned on the blender to break the flesh up a bit and mix the water and the fruit.

It came along very nicely- although we had missed a few seeds! We ended up running the juice through a strainer to catch the seeds and the remaining pulpy flesh- anything that hadn't broken up in the blender was probably tougher than anything we wanted to drink! The two soursop fruit made an IMPRESSIVE amount of juice- about a gallon's worth. And, as I said before, it is very delicious. Here are a few photos of our soursop adventure!

The outside of the fruit. The spines are tough, but they don't really hurt. This is an average sized soursop.

The fleshy interior. You can see how thin the skin of the fruit is, and if you look closely at the fruit you can see the thick, fibrous center- it's the non-shiny part. Ryan's picking through the fruit here, looking for seeds, before dropping it into the blender.

And here it is, a whole pitcher of fruity goodness! Yay!

Cockroaches

2009-04-01T16:33:00.002-04:00

So our apartment has cockroaches. I’m pretty good with most bugs, ticks freak me out a bit and I don’t really like the centipedes here.... but I absolutely HATE cockroaches.I blame my fear on the time during my freshmen year at Hartwick that I was trying to kill a large cockroach and it flew off the wall and into my face. Not fun. Our apartment has cockroaches in only one specific place. The bathroom.

And, since cockroaches are nocturnal, they’re only out and about at night. So that means going to the bathroom in the middle of the night is a very frightening experience. I always turn on the light and carefully inspect my surroundings, including the toliet paper. The first cockroach I found in our apartment was on our toilet paper. The second one I found on the wall next to our mirror. Both the first and second cockroaches escaped before they could be killed, so I spent the rest of the night waiting for them to come seek their vengeance on us by crawling onto my pillow and waving their antennae in my face when I woke up. Ryan found one in our bathroom one night and managed to kill it- in the process breaking our shelves and knocking a lot of things down. It was alright though. The shelves went back together and it was worth the mess to know a cockroach was dead.

The other night, however, one took me by surprise. I was washing my hands when I glanced in the mirror and saw one run across the door. He was just hanging out on the door a few feet from the floor when I turned around, and he was clearly mocking me. I normally call Ryan into the bathroom to deal with our little intruders while I try to stay out of the way. But this clever beast had trapped me in the bathroom with him. There was no way I could open the door and call Ryan in to give me a hand. The bug would just have run off as soon as I took my eyes off him and bolted off to place unknown- like my pillow, which is only about 10 feet from the bathroom. Much too close to comfort.

So the cockroach and I surveyed each other for a few moments while I looked around for useful weapons. Nothing. I’d picked up earlier and all our shoes were right where they belonged- under the bed. They’d have been useful, but again, I couldn’t open the door! This cockroach was a clever little creature, and I swear it was mocking me as it wandered back and forth on the door. I took a quick inventory of all bottles and containers, but they wouldn’t work either. All the bottles were rounded and none had a nice flat bottom or side with which to smush a cockroach. That and the hard plastic these things are made out of has a nasty habit of shattering which makes a big mess. And this was before my birthday package arrived, so I didn't have the electronic bug zapper yet.

Then I spotted it. The hair spray.

Hair spray is a pretty effective bug killer. The sticky hair spray clings to the bug and as it hardens it cuts off the bug’s air supply- unpleasant but effective. So I grabbed the hairspray and went after the evil intruder. I have to say it was quite a battle. He bolted to the side and then tried to bolt downwards to try to run under the door and ~GASP~ into our bedroom. I managed to drive him away from the bottom part of the door with a concentrated blast of hairspray, and the battle finally ended by the shelves in our bathroom when he stopped running (I didn’t dare turn away from him until he was unable to flee, just in case) at which point I opened the door and wailed ‘“Cockroach!”.

My hero of a husband woke up at once and grabbed a shoe to come to my rescue. He said that he didn’t need to hit it, the thing was already dead, but I made him hit it anyways. Just in case. Then we flushed the body down the toilet.

Victory to the humans (and the hairspray)! I’m still nervous I will wake up one night to see this bug’s brother peering at me in an angry sort of way. I’m really hoping cockroaches are not an issue in our new apartment.

Ryan just pointed out to me that I wrote a post about a battle of wits with a cockroach. I realize that it may sound silly, but I swear that thing was smart. And you can’t underestimate cockroaches- they’re the ones that will still be around after the rest of life on earth has been wiped out. So I’m posting this anyways, even if it does make me sound a little foolish. Cockroaches are evil, and I’m sticking to my story. I hope you all enjoyed it.

Birthday- Round two!

2009-03-30T18:57:00.003-04:00

So the birthday package from my parents arrived today! It took about three weeks, but it finally arrived. We were so excited. The customs officials were great. I've heard of them opening birthday presents before, but they only opened one package- which happened to contain cadbury eggs (yummy!) and so we were only charged $5EC (About $2US) for the entire package. It was great to get away so cheaply because sometimes people get hit hard with high customs taxes. Keep your fingers crossed, we have another package coming in soon, let's hope we get off easy on that one too.

My birthday package was filled with all sorts of goodies, besides the Cadbury eggs. There were mini M&Ms, Ryan and I have already each had a package. I also got two nice sleeveless shirts, which will come in handy since it's soon going to get hot around here! I am in love with this pretty gray sundress I got. It's so lightweight and comfortable, and it looks really cute as well. I also got a copy of one of my favorite books, 'The Life of Pi'. I HIGHLY recommend it, the story is so well woven and so fascinating. I can't wait to curl up with the book! Since I lost a bottom to one of my bikinis (not while swimming, I lost it while packing at some point), I'd asked for a replacement, and I am pleased to say that the color matches perfectly! My grandma included a little rubber horse that looks almost exactly like my Nickel. The kids on the deck truly enjoyed playing with it. From my sister I got a beach cover-up, which is really cute. I love the color and it fits really well. The last few things are what I think Ryan is most excited about. We got a wonderful cake pan so that I can bake even more things.

And, by far, Ryan's favorite of all my presents... the mosquito zappers. These are essentially small plastic tennis rackets with an electrified grid. You turn it on, wave it about in the air, and ZAP you kill a bug! If it's on the floor you just lower the zapper down and touch it to the bug. I love them, I can't wait for a mosquito to make its way in here so that I can go to town! I also got a lot of cards today, from my aunt and uncle and my grandmother in Florida, as well as a bunch of them in the package. They were all great!

And, one of my favorite parts- the photos of our niece, Rebecca, included in one of the cards. Little Miss Rebecca turned one year old the day after my birthday- March 26th. She's now eating pizza and loving it- she wasn't eating pizza when I left! I can't believe how much she has grown, and both Ryan and I miss her desperately. We love you Miss Rebecca!

My Ears

2009-03-28T21:50:00.003-04:00

The last few weeks I've really been struggling with my ears. They've been very painful and I've had a lot of appointments at the campus health clinic to try to clear up a nasty ear infection. I was on three different ear antibiotics and one oral one, as well as a prescription pain killer. The prescription pain killer was pretty nasty as well- as if I didn't feel sick enough it made me incredibly nauseaous. Despite the repeated appointments and all the meds, I was still pretty sick and was really struggling with the pain, dizziness, and the fever. I'm just tired all the time and feel pretty off. My last appointment at the Ross clinic, which was just supposed to be a follow up, was a bit of a surprise to me. She'd gotten my tests back and I had two different types of bacteria in my ear, which should have been knocked out pretty well by the drugs.

Stubborn ear infections are pretty common here so I thought that she would just tell me to keep on the meds and see her in a few more days. Instead she said that there should be some improvment and she was fairly concerned and wanted me to see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist in Roseau.

Oops, did I say an ENT? I mean THE ENT, the only one on the whole island. When we first called, on Tuesday, there wasn't an available appointment until next Friday- which seemed like a really long time to wait! Luckily, there was a cancelation and Ryan and I rented a car on Friday and drove into Roseau for an appointment. Well, Ryan drove, we didn't think it'd be a good idea for me to drive, being as dizzy as I was.

Driving here is a bit of an experience. First, you drive on the opposite side of the road, so Ryan, as the driver, was on the right hand side of the car. Second, these roads are WINDY and very narrow and there are a lot of blind turns. And third... people speed. Like crazy. It's a little frightening, but since we had to be in Roseau at a specific time and transports are notoriuosly unreliable unless you hire one all to yourself (which is just as expensive as renting a car) I knew that we'd risk missing the appointment. The other thing that made us nervous was that when we got the car there was only an eigth of a tank of gas! That's what the previous renter returned it with, so that's what we got.

We drove to Portsmouth to try to buy gas, but both of those stations were out. There is no gas between Portsmouth and Roseau, so we just said a little prayer and set out to Roseau. I was very nervous about running out, since there is no such thing as AAA down here. We might have been able to call the car rental company- but it would have been two hours before they got to us with gas. And there is no shoulder or safe spot to pull off on Dominican roads. The gas light came on as we came close to Roseau and I started praying again because we were at the worst part of the road. A cliff on one side and a ten foot drop to the ocean on the other, on a road that would be a one way anywhere else but is a two way road here. Fortunately there was gas in Roseau and we did make it- what a relief!

Once we found the office, which was a bit tricky since many streets in Roseau have no street signs which made my map a bit useless, we realized why it was hard to get an appointment. Look at his hours- I just had to take a photo of his sign!

The waiting room was crowded! It was a tiny little room with 8 chairs scattered around. Unfortunately there were way more people than chairs, and at first I was panicked about how long we'd have to wait. It was pretty clear pretty quickly that many of the groups were together. Why a mother and father and all three children need to go to an ENT together, I do not know. But we did eventually get seats (which was great because I felt like I was about to fall over) and I was seen pretty quickly- only about an hour after my actual appointment. I've heard horror stories about people waiting three hours for an appointment, so I was pretty happy to be seen so quickly.

The doctor did all these tests, which I think Ryan found sort of interesting to watch. After getting my history and checking out my ears, the doctor started testing my hearing and balance. There was no test score, but I'm still pretty sure that I failed. The first thing he did was whisper numbers next to my ear to see if I could hear. I was supposed to repeat them, and according to Ryan (who was on the other side of the tiny exam room) I got more than half of them wrong. Oops! Then he kept moving a ringing tuning fork around my head to see where I could and couldn't hear it. There were times that I KNEW it was vibrating, but I still couldn't hear it. The final test was that I had to stand and put my arms out in front of me- then close my eyes. Apparently the moment I closed my eyes I started to sway back and forth and the doctor put his arms to catch me- just in case!

Pretty much, my ear infection is all cleared up. Apparently, on that trip to Bense Pool a few weeks ago, I damaged my eustachian tubes, which are the tubes that lead from your ears to your nose and allow for drainage and help you adjust the pressure in your ears. In fact, I crushed them pretty well. It's alright though, it will heal and the doctor gave me some meds to help me get better. One is a nasal spray to help the passage heal from that end, and the other is a steriod, which should help it open back up. Apparently this damage to the eustachian tubes is pretty common in divers. The only problem is that this could take as long as six weeks to heal. I was happy about two things- one, this isn't permanent. Six weeks is a long time and that is a bit frustrating, but this could be so much worse. If this dizziness and inability to balance was permanent I could kiss driving and horseback riding good-bye. But I'm lucky and it will heal. And the second thing I'm happy about- no more ear drops! I've had ear drops for the past two weeks and between three ear drops four times a day, I've been laying on my side for two hours a day while Ryan has to keep interrupting studying to put the medicine in my ear. We're both happy to be done with that!

Things are looking up. It's still frustrating to be dizzy so often, and it's a bit scary at times too. My ears are still pretty painful, but these new meds should help and things will get better. I'm just thanking God that it wasn't permanent damage.

Here are some photos of our drive and our car, which we named 'Bobby' for the day.

My Birthday

2009-03-28T20:14:00.006-04:00

My birthday was Wednesday, and it was wonderful! Even though I was sick, it was absolutely incredible. Ryan woke up early in the morning and made me breakfast in bed! I woke up when he climbed out of bed, but I went right back to sleep. I'm never great about getting up in the morning, and this has only gotten worse since I've been sick. I'm tired all the time.

But Ryan managed to make me pancakes, freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, my favorite tea, and bacon, all without waking me up! He's so amazing... I loved it! Breakfast is always my favorite meal of the day, and it was an incredible surprise and a great meal. It was a wonderful way to start out the day. The best part of the breakfast? There was a candle in my pancakes and Ryan sang 'Happy Birthday' to me while I ate!

He had a break from classes later so I met up with him and a few other students. I didn't participate much in the conversation- since I can't hear well right now, it's really hard to understand groups of people, because I have to be turned toward a person to hear them correctly when they're talking. But it was amazing to sit out in the sunshine with a group of people, holding Ryan's hand. It has been hard to be social due to the dizziness caused by my ears.

After lunch I met up with Grace and Jen at Ritual's, which is a lot like Starbucks. We just sat and talked and had fun girl-time. I loved it and had an absolutely amazing cheesecake. Very unhealthy, but very delicious. And it was my birthday, and I'm pretty sure that you don't need to worry about eating healthy on your birthday. Your birthday and Christmas are two days that calories and fat don't count.

I had an appointment, and then I got a bit of shopping done. Since I've been feeling sick I haven't really been shopping and we were running badly low on several things. Can you see that I was trying to pretend I wasn't sick? I may have overdone it a bit...

Dinner was incredible. I have a friend, a fellow spouse named Lindsey, who works up at Comfortel de Champ, a bar/restaurant/ hotel that's way up on the hill overlooking the campus so it has an incredible view. On Wednesdays the bar is technically not open to the public, and is supposed to be reserved for hotel guests, but Lindsey told us to come on up anyways. We we so glad we did! We had the same thing to eat- cheeseburgers and fries! They were so incredible good- United States quality for sure! It is hard to find a REALLY good cheeseburger down here, but these definitely qualified.

The sunset... was indescripable. It was absolutely beautiful, and it was a wonderful way to end my birthday. I've included a slide show of the sunset. It was so perfect! Of course, I way overdid it and after we got home I felt pretty tired and just plain yucky... but it was a great birthday! I got to talk to so many people from back home and I got several birthday cards and a blender from Ryan's family. And, I'll be able to have another 'mini birthday' since the Dominican mail system is being typical and I haven't recieved the package from my family yet, although it was sent out three weeks ago! Ryan has a package coming in for me two, and that should be here any day now too.

And I also had a surprise party! On Thursday I felt absolutely terrible but I rested all day to go to game night. I was tired of being stuck inside and I wanted to see my friends. They threw a little birthday party for me, complete with cake and candles and hats! It was great and there were a lot of very yummy snacks. I loved it, it really made my day. I've made so many great friends since I have been here, and I already know that I will miss them when it's time to leave. These are the people Ryan and I will exchange Christmas cards with for many, many years.

Island Flowers

2009-03-24T19:17:00.005-04:00

I know that it is now technically spring back in the States, but I also know that just because it is 'officially' spring it doesn't mean that it's actually warm and pleasant! I'm sure many of you are still dealing with snow and chilly weather. This was always the hardest time of year for me- I always wanted it to be warm and free of snow for my birthday.... living in upstate New York, and being that my birthday is the 25th of March... I didn't always get my wish.

It is hard to believe that there is still snow back home, since it's starting to get really hot and humid here. We're in dry season, actually we've been in dry season since we got here, but it was much rainier than usual earlier this year. Now it is just very hot and very humid, with no rain showers to cool things off. And those rain showers produced lots of lovely breezes. I'm told that it's going to be unbearably hot later in the year, and that it's a good idea to just go to class with Ryan so I can sit in the AC or to stand in the pool for hours at a time.

Since I'm sure you are all MORE than ready for spring (as I would be) I thought I'd share some of the beautiful plants we've found down here! They're simply gorgeous, and they're everywhere. There are about a dozen different ones on our walk to school, all along the sidewalk and draped over the fences. The flowerless plants are beautiful as well. Many of them have interesting leaves with bright colors or cool patterns. The plants are actually some of my favorite things to photograph, since each one is different- but each one is also beautiful! I don't know how anyone could look at some of these steep hillsides covered in brightly colored flowers and wildly patterned leaves and not have their spirits uplifted. Maybe that's part of the reason that studies show that Dominicans are the happiest people in the world! I want to share a bit of that happiness and joy with you all, so here's a slide show of some (just SOME) of my favorite plants. I've also included a link to the album, in case anyone would like to save or print a particular photo- I can't send any of you live tropical flowers for Easter, but I can send you one to print out and brighten up your fridge!

Here's the slide show, please enjoy!

And here is the link to the album:

Tropical Flowers

Old Place, New Place

2009-03-22T16:25:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been updating this week. I've actually been pretty sick with an ear infection. I never really had them as a kid, so I guess this is my turn. Ear infections are actually pretty common down here. It's easy to pick up bacteria from the ocean and then it's not so easy to kill the bacteria. I'm on all sorts of medicines that are theoretically supposed to make me feel better, although I'd have to disagree with the 'feel better' part. Hopefully I'll be over it soon... this has been going on for a week! I feel very bad for little children who develop ear infections. This is very painful for me... poor kids!

The really big news is that on Friday Ryan and I signed a lease for a new apartment! We are so excited. It is currently occupied by some of our friends, a fourth semester student and his wife. They're very kind and have given us a lot of advice during our time here... and we really loved their apartment, so when they move out sometime at the end of April, we will be moving in! The housing market is pretty fluid here- you don't sign leases for any set period, so it's not like we're paying penalties to leave our current place after only a month.

Ryan and I made a video of some of the reasons we want a new place, so please enjoy! The main reasons are that this place is just small for a couple. For a single person it'd be fine, but we're tired of walking into each other while we're cooking or getting ready in the mornings or just trying to brush our teeth! The kitchen is extremely small. I have one countertop of space, which I have to use for all my chopping and stirring and for rolling out dough... I use the table a lot, but it's pretty low to chop on! The lighting isn't great- but that is a very common complaint about the apartments down here. Again, with the size... there just isn't enough storage space. I feel like I'm always picking up because there is just not enough space for everything. Besides the size, our main complaint is the distance from campus. It's a good 10-15 minute walk... and it's on the very secluded end of Picard. There are only about 20 people who live out this way, so it's a bit of a lonely walk- which is scary at night.

To be fair, there is a lot we've liked- good internet, friendly and helpful landlords, a wonderful maid that we consider a friend... but we needed more, so we went apartment shopping!

When we were looking for a place, we were looking for something with more space. We were DESPERATE for a couch and a larger kitchen. Anything with a couch and a larger kitchen made our list! Other things we looked for was the general layout (it's nice if you can have friends over!), the view (it is so beautiful down here we want to enjoy it), a private porch (we share ours now), a good breeze into the apartment (another MAJOR requirement as this saves a lot of electricity since the apartment stays cooler), an open layout (it's nice to be able to have friends over), a good sized table, and plenty of storage space in the kitchen.

We looked at a lot of places. Well, I looked at most of them alone and took notes and photos to share with Ryan, although he did accompany me some of the time. I looked at places ranging in price from $500 to well over $1400 dollars a month!

I had no idea that the one apartment was so much a month before we looked, we just saw a nice building and knocked on the door. The $500 dollar place was horrible. It was small, windless, had no couch... and the door had a square of security glass in it! True, it was painted black for privacy, but still. There were only two windows in the whole place! We also saw a nice little place that was the top floor of a pretty yellow house. We liked the layout, the two bedrooms, the homey feel... but the kitchen was worse than ours! The upper cabinets were above my head- I'd have to stand on a chair to get things in and out. The yellow house was still third on our list, though, just because it sort of reminded us of a summer camp- places we've both loved. Number two was a nice two bedroom apartment that was $100 a month more than our new place. It had a WONDERFULLY nice landlord who I really liked and it had an attached laundry- a HUGE find down here. But the kitchen was long and narrow- like a hallway! It was sort of tunnel like, with a door at one end and a window at the other, and the two bedrooms off of one side.

But our top choice remained the place we ended up with. We originally thought we could find one for a bit less, but there is a huge difference in price in the quality of apartments. We really wanted to be closer, so that we could both feel safe walking to the campus at night (although Ryan still doesn't like me walking alone). There is a price jump as you move closer, and everything in our current price range was pretty miserable. The place we ended up with is a good price though, and well within our budget. It has absolutely everything on our list- and more! I'm very excited about the larger refrigerator and stove. Another big plus- it is right upstairs from our friends Neil and Jen and a short walk away from Grace and Justin. The layout is wonderful and we're very happy with our choice. I think one thing we're most excited about is the couch. It's great to have a comfy place to relax, other than the bed!

Here's a photo of the outside of our new apartment building. It's called 'Green Homes' and it is the very bright green one closer to the top of the hill. Our apartment is on the other side of the building. When we move I'll post a new video tour of our new place.

Aba Wavine Cyrique- The beach adventure!

2009-03-17T15:46:00.003-04:00

I mentioned in the other Aba Wavine Cyrique post that reaching the rock beneath the waterfall was quite an adventure. If you haven't read that post yet, I'd read that one before you read this one... it explains more of our adventure!

This first photo shows two other spouses and I trying to plan our dash out to the rock. We were trying to see if there were any big rocks between us and the rock beneath the falls... but the sea was much to rough to tell so we just risked it and went for it! Part of the problem was that the waves were so unpredictable and wild. They weren't rhythmic... they were random and rough and some were large and some were small. From left to right below that is me, Kawtar, and Briana.

Here Briana and I have reached the rock and are about to try climbing it... which was hard because the base of the rock was narrower than the top so there was nowhere to step and the whole thing was SLIPPERY so it was hard to grab. If you look at this photo, however, you can see what we both missed... the enormous wave bearing down on us! I love that you can't even see the top of the wave but what you can see is already over our heads!

Yup, and here we are, washed away. Well here I am, you can't even see Briana. I think she's somewhere in the white foam to my right, at least that's where she popped up a few seconds later. We didn't give up however, and headed right back out! Well, as soon as the wave died down enough that we COULD make our way back out to the rock.... which as you can see has completely disappeared in this shot.

Success at last! Briana and I are celebrating beneath the waterfall... which was cold! The ocean was nice and warm but the waterfall was very cold and it landed hard enough that it sort of hurt... but it was so much fun!

Aba Wavine Cyrique- The hike and beach!

2009-03-15T19:03:00.004-04:00

I have a new favorite spot on the island! On Sunday Ryan and I went on a trip with the Spouses Organization to Aba Wavine Cyrique, which is on the other side of the island. There were ten of us total, plus our guide/bus driver Theo. Theo's also the one who took the spouses to Bense Pool not long ago. It was a long bus ride (about an hour and forty five minutes which is a pretty miserable length on these windy roads) but no one was carsick, which was a nice change!

Aba Wavine Cyrique is essentially a waterfall that lands directly in the Atlantic Ocean. We'd heard about it, and I've wanted to go ever since. We'd also heard about the hike... which is the really adventurous part! To get to the trail head you have to drive out along a peninsula until the road ends, which is when you start hiking down steps for about ten minutes (it started to feel a bit like Boiling Lake) and then you reach the first cliff. This hike is memorable because you don't really hike. You lower yourself backwards down cliffs using vines and roots and ropes. Crazy, but fun! And they are real cliffs, not just steep hills. Nice straight up and down cliffs.

Since I am SO fond of heights (yes that is sarcastic) I was afraid I would completely panic, but it is such a work out and you are so focused on your next step you hardly have time to be nervous. There were three descents in total, as well as a number of spots where you edged along a narrow ledge to reach the next descent. Theo stopped along the way to show us cinnamon bark as well as this fern that left 'tattoos' on your skin. Pretty cool! The hike down was about forty-five minutes, which wasn't long at all, especially considering there are parts where only one person can go at a time.

It is definitely 'at-your-own-risk' hiking... most people climbing like this in the States would be wearing a harness and other safety equipment. Not here! It was a LOT of fun, however! It was very adventurous and everyone enjoyed it, including Theo! He actually made some money off of us... some locals didn't think we'd make it all the way to the bottom and back up. They were wrong, and we did the whole thing!

Here's a photo of our first descent... this is the part just before it gets REALLY steep. It's hard to tell here, but it is pretty much straight up and down. The ropes were thick and prickly and everyone had blisters from holding on so tightly!

This was the 'double rope zone'. It was tricky because the trees and roots were so thick that there were times you'd be five feet out from the cliff face! You can see that I'm focusing so hard that I didn't even look up for a photo! The scariest part (at least for me) was at the base of this cliff.... we moved onto a rope ladder that would sway and jerk as you climbed down to reach this narrow ledge. The rope ladder was so flat against the cliff face that it was hard to get a good grip with your feet and the ropes securing it were MUCH narrower... pretty much everyone admitted that this was the most frightening part. If the rope ladder broke you'd have a nice long drop onto the rocks below! Somehow I trust the roots and vines more than the rope ladder.

At last! Here's the waterfall, just off one of the amazing black sand beaches that Dominica is famous for. All those volcanoes help make some amazing black beaches! The beach really is that color, it's not just darker because it's wet. I'm still used to the yellow beaches you see in the States and on tv and in movies... the pitch black beach is still startling to me! But it is very beautiful!

And here's a photo of Ryan and I out on the rock below the waterfall! We're hard to see, but we're those tiny figures out on the rock in the middle of the waves. And those waves are INTENSE... I'm going to post a little 'story' about another spouse and I trying to reach the rock! The Atlantic is very rough down here and it will really batter you if you're not careful.

I can't imagine a more wonderful hike than this... although I have yet to see Victoria Falls, which is apparently amazing! I'll definitely have to go on that hike before I leave the island... although I'm not really sure if it'll be able to beat out Aba Wavine to become my favorite spot on the island. I can't wait for another trip to Aba Wavine.

What I miss...

2009-03-14T13:05:00.005-04:00

So lately I've been missing home... but a particular thing about home. I know that it is still cold and snowy in New York, but for some reason it doesn't seem that way to me. Since it's so warm here and it feels like summer I kind of picture it as summer back home. And summer is sort of always what I lived for at home... taking out rides at Bennetts, eating steak on dinner rides and unsaddling horses in the dark, rushing off to the rodeo...

Specifically what I miss is sitting around a fire with the people I care about. I love summer in the Adirondacks because it will be so hot during the day and you'll be sweating as you ride your horse in jeans and a long sleeved shirt... and then the night comes and there is that cool, pine scented breeze. I MISS that breeze. Ryan was teasing me last night that I am one of the few people in this world who would gladly trade a palm tree for a pine tree. And I would! I always said that I was addicted to the smell of horses... apparently I am addicted to the smell of pine trees as well!

Right now I'd give almost anything to be sitting around a campfire, after a long day of riding Nickel and going swimming with him, and then giving both of my horses long and luxurious baths. It'd be the sort of weather where once the sun has gone down you're glad you're wearing jeans... and I'd have slipped on my Quiet Run hoodie (I MISS that thing Catherine!) because the breeze is chilly. We'd all sit around the fire and talk and tell stories and jokes for hours. We'd be making s'mores and drinking beer and just relaxing.

And the sparks would fly up between the branches of the pine trees and when we left our clothes would smell like horse and wood smoke and pine trees.... that is the perfect combination!

I hope this post didn't make me sound too depressed! I'm not upset at all, just a bit homesick for my family and friends and horses and the smell of pine trees. All my Bennett's Babes will understand. But things are going great here, just to reassure you... we're going out to dinner tonight with friends so look for a post later tonight about the food we had there (apparently dinners are served on banana leaves) and the delicious dinner I made last night... I love trying new recipes!

Here are a few photos of things I wish I could have right now.

This first one's a photo of me on my boy Snickers. You can see my other horse (the white one), Nickel, in the background. The other photo is of the horses at Bennett's waiting for breakfast

Good food!

2009-03-14T10:54:00.005-04:00

So I thought that I would share some of the delicious things we've had to eat and drink down here. Needless to say, we have an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables... although unlike in the States, if fruits or veggies are out of season, they're not available. But when they are in season, they're great! Here's a photo of the rum that I bought from the spice man. It's coconut rum that he made himself... and it has ruined me for any sort of coconut rum from the states. It is AMAZING. I may have to bring it back as a present for some of you for next Christmas!

Friday night dinner was AMAZING. Ground beef here is REALLY expensive so I've often used ground chicken or ground turkey as a replacement. But a week or two ago I found a hamburger recipe that mixes the ground beef with refried beans, to make it healthier and to stretch the ground beef. I had to alter the recipe a bit (things like pepper jack cheese and ground jalapeno aren't available here) but it turned out wonderfully. Here's a photo of the ground beef patties with cheddar cheese on top. They're rectangular because they're served in tortilla wraps instead of on hamburger buns. Tortillas are cheaper and healthier. The recipe called for baking them because the patties are more fragile due to being mixed with the refried and if you tried to flip them they'd fall apart.

And here is my homemade salsa! I'm actually really proud of this, since I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when it made this and it was a bit of a surprise that it turned out well in the end. It has tomato sauce and tomatoes (obviously) and sauteed peppers and onions. Since Ryan likes things spicy, I add the oil that I sauteed the peppers and onions in as well as black pepper, crushed red pepper, and cayenne pepper. I also add a little bit of the local pepper sauce... it's amazing! That is another thing that we'll have to bring home with us. It's delicious and cheap and I am really going to miss it. The salsa is great... I think it's all the fresh vegetables! It's definitely better than the salsa that's shipped in here and it is MUCH less expensive! This batch also had beans in the salsa, from the beans that I'd been soaking for two days and had cooked Friday night.

And here is the finished product! It was amazing, and so filling! We had baked potatoes on the side (french fries are more expensive) and we both ate too much! There was still plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day. I was so glad that I stumbled across this recipe, it's a great southwestern style dish... and it's pretty healthy as well!

Mini 2 is over!

2009-03-11T21:15:00.007-04:00

So as you can tell by the title, the second mini of the semester is over. Minis, if you remember, are the big tests that happen three times a semester. The minis and the final determine the student's grade, with any practicals factored in as well. The mini combines all subjects... there aren't seperate exams for each topic.

I know a few posts ago I said I wouldn't be as stressed out about this test... but I lied. It was really hard this time because Ryan and the other first semester students were really stressed. This mini covered a LOT more material than the first, and they were all worried about being able to really learn all of it and be able to process it for the exam. The spouses all hung out Sunday... and we were all stressed out about the exam. I tried to stay busy Monday afternoon when Ryan was taking the test by volunteering in the school. That SORT of worked... I was only looking at the time every ten minutes as opposed to every five. The teacher said that the kids all act up more around mini time. They're picking up on the stress at home and on campus.

Mini time is also hard because the students disappear. They have to study a lot and can't spend as much time at home with their families. The spouses always try to plan lots of activities around this time so that we can stay busy too. But the good news is that all that work paid off ! Ryan did really well on this exam, the same grade that I got last time.

The other news is that Ryan got a haircut! We received a set of clippers in the barrels, and Ryan convinced me to help him cut his hair. Despite my doubts (and anyone who has seen my poodle Annie after I gave her a haircut would understand my doubts... poor poodle) I think it went pretty well. Here are two photos, one of him partway through and one of him after it was all done. I think he looks very handsome! If you look close you can see the tan line on his forehead from his bangs... it makes me laugh. A lot. But it's alright, Ryan knows I love him!

NOTE- See photos below!

Trying to post those photos...

2009-03-11T21:15:00.005-04:00

Week Summary and Bense Pool

2009-03-06T17:02:00.003-04:00

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.

Barrel Day!

2009-03-06T16:20:00.000-04:00

So after nearly a month of waiting, our barrels finally arrived last night! We were so excited! One of the big things was that we needed the part for Ryan's computer. Originally it didn't seem that bad... only two weeks of sharing. Then the barrels were delayed shipping out (we had to wait for things we ordered to arrive at the house) and it took longer than we thought to arrange pick-up. So there was some extra time there. Then Tropical Shipping claimed they'd never recieved our paperwork, and the barrels spent two weeks sitting in Miami. That was ridiculous. They knew enough to pick the barrels up in Massachusetts and truck them to New Jersey, and then put them on a train to Miami, so obviously they had our paperwork at SOME point. The bad thing was that they didn't call us and say that they'd lost our barrels... they just let our barrels sit there!

Arranging for our barrels to be picked up was a bit of a hassle as well. I had really wanted to call Ren, who's a great bus driver used by a lot of the spouses. But since we live at the bottom of the hill of death, and I knew that Ren's van would never be able to make it back up, I had to try to make reservations with one of the taxi companies who have pick-up trucks. A pick-up truck could make it back up the hill, I figured.

Well, I originally had reservations with a company called A1 (yup, just like the one in Oneonta), but then they told me they were unable to pick up the barrel till Friday. Since I went on a trip today, that wouldn't have worked. So instead I called Alexis taxi.

Alexis taxi told me that they'd call at some point in the morning with a rough estimate of the drop off time. I waited till 11:30 and then gave them a call. I'd run a few errands earlier in the morning, but I'd been reluctant to run too many since I wanted to stay close to home in case the barrels came. At 11:30 they told me that they'd drop the barrel off by five at the latest.

Ryan came home for dinner about 5:30. I'd wanted to wait to cook something from the barrel, but since it hadn't even shown up, I couldn't do much. We gave Alexis another call and poor Ryan had to turn right around and go to the Alexis taxi office so that he could pay. The barrels were in Picard! And, despite my efforts, they still had to move the barrels down the hill by hand. The truck Alexis took to pick up the barrels was a big flat-bed truck that would have spent the rest of it's life at the bottom of our hill. I gave the poor driver a glass of water- he needed it!

We stayed strong and waited to unpack until we'd eaten dinner. The actual unpacking didn't take very long at all, so Ryan hung around for that. The putting away took awhile, but it was alright. Ryan was busy studying so it was nice to have a project. We took a few photos of the unpacking, so you can see some of our goodies. It's so nice to have full cupboards and shelves... and it's all food I didn't have to carry for a mile or two from the store home!

Some of the more exciting things we got were two pairs of snorkeling gear, some loaf pans and pizza pans and a skillet and griddle, Ryan's power supply, lots and LOTS of food (much of which we can't get down here), Ryan's dress clothes, and some coffee mugs for Ryan (which I think really made his day!). It was very tiring to put it all away, but now it's all done, which is a great feeling!

Wine Cruise

2009-03-03T23:59:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone! So my big adventure this weekend was a wine cruise on Saturday. The spouses organization set up a wine cruise with Cabrits Dive School, which is run by a husband and wife who I believe moved down here from Canada. They apparently do this cruise every semester... load a bunch of spouses onto a boat with a large number of bottles of wine (and it was good wine!) and take us down the coast a ways before letting us swim and snorkel a bit. It was amazing! This is a shot of our ship, before the party started. This ship is a fishing boat that they have yet to convert to a scuba vessel. They lost their last boat in the last hurricane.

Here we enjoying the GORGEOUS blue waters at Secret Beach. It is beautiful there and I can't wait to go back with Ryan! Secret Beach is actually pretty close to home... this was on the way back. We traveled slowly down the western coast for an hour and a half, and then turned around and headed back. It was fun to recognize villages that we travel through on the way to Roseau and to see what they looked like from the water! This photo shows me (obviously), Kawtar, Ally, and Jess.

And here's a photo os us all a few minutes from home! It was an amazing afternoon- we all loved it! I can't wait for another one.

Ready for the weekend!

2009-02-27T16:23:00.002-04:00

So it's Finally Friday! and Ryan and I are very happy that we'll be able to sleep in tomorrow. We aren't going to market (which requires us to get up about 6AM on Saturday mornings) because we still have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables from last week. It just feels like it's been a long week, and we're both pretty tired and ready to sleep in. Maybe we're still recovering from Boiling Lake!

Ryan is gearing up for another mini (the second mini is on Monday, March 9th, so send the good thoughts our way) so he's been studying a fair amount this week. I feel much more relaxed about this mini that I was about the first one. Another spouse thinks that the minis are harder on the spouses than the students. They are the ones that know the material and how well they know it and they have some control over how well they do. We just wait and home and pace and pray until we hear how things turned out! But now that I know more about how minis work, I think this next one won't be as scary. I also feel more relaxed because Ryan did so well on the first mini!

Other than Boiling Lake, it's been a fairly quiet week. Monday we did head down to Portsmouth for a few hours to enjoy carnival before things got too wild. Apparently things pick up about sundown. Ryan and I went down with a small group of friends. We were hoping to see the parade, but we ended up being a few hours early and the sun was VERY hot, so we had some ice cream and listened to a steel drum band and then walked home.

Tuesday I substituted in the school on campus for a few hours. My friend had agreed to substitute that day for the kindergarten, but then remembered she had a previous obligation in the morning, so I watched the kids for a little while. They were very cute and very well behaved. It was nice to get to know them a bit better, since I normally help out in the first and second grade class. It was Jen's birthday so she and I went to Ritual's (a little coffee shop that's a LOT like Starbucks) for a bit in the afternoon.

I ended up getting pretty sick on Tuesday night. I think I picked up some sort of 24-hour bug, and I was very grateful to Ryan for taking such great care of me. I was very impressed that he managed to take care of me and still get lots of studying done! He's a very hard worker, and I'm very proud of him.

Yesterday I spent a few hours on campus while Ryan was in anatomy lab and then I went to yoga. The yoga class is wonderful, and is located on the deck right over the ocean. It's beautiful and peaceful and the instructor is wonderful. It's a lot of fun and it really helps my hip. It's definitely something I'll bring visitors to! How many times in your life will you be able to do yoga by the sea?

This weekend should be WONDERFUL! There is a wine cruise for the spouses tomorrow. It was canceled once before due to rough seas and lack of gas, so I'm hoping this time it all works out. Saturday night there is a little carnival on campus, which should be fun. Most of the groups on campus are doing some sort of fun activity. The spouses organization is doing a ring toss, which I'll be working for awhile. PAWS will be doing a 'doggy kissing booth'. Students will buy tickets and vote which of three professors they'd like to see kiss a dog! It's very family oriented and sounds like fun.

Sunday we'll obviously have church, and it often ends up being a relaxing day that I use to catch up on housework and cooking. We miss you all and hope that you're all doing well!

Boiling Lake

2009-02-23T20:00:00.011-04:00

Sunday, Ryan and I hiked Boiling Lake on a trip that was sponsored by the Wellness Club. One guidebook states that Boiling Lake is one of two places you 'must see' when you travel to Dominica. The other is Tralfagar Falls, which you'll remember we saw at the beginning of January. Don't worry! We are nowhere NEAR done exploring the island! There is so much to do here and I am so incredibly grateful that we are able to call this island home. We left yesterday morning about 6AM and returned about 7PM. It's an hour and half bus ride one way, and we had a huge variety of hiking ability in our group... and it's a hard hike so it took a long time.

For your learning pleasure, I looked up a few stats about Boiling Lake (something I did not do before we hiked, and I sort of wish I had, as the site advised packing a change of clothes to be left on the bus... that would've been nice). The hike starts out at Titou Gorge (1,690 ft) and climbs steadily from there for about forty-five minutes. Ryan and I were out front with the guides at this point and feeling pretty cocky. It was steep but doable and we weren't working too hard. It seemed like this wasn't going to be as bad as we had heard... we did learn our lesson later! I agree with the guide I found online... the walk back down this part seems to take FOREVER and it is one of the muddiest parts of the hike. The trail then descends SHARPLY to Breakfast River (and on the way back this uphill really makes you understand why this trail has made many people cry). Breakfast River is traditionally the first breakpoint, where you stop for a snack, because, as our guides warn, you will need it! The hike rapidly grows incredibly intense.

The second part of the hike, from Breakfast River to the top of the Valley of Desolation (and yes, that is it's real name and it is REALLY appropriate) takes about an hour. I have hiked a lot, and you all know that I've done a lot of horseback riding over varied terrain, and I have never seen slopes quite like this. According to the guide, from Breakfast River you climb steeply (and they aren't kidding) uphill to 2,500 feet followed by a steady southeast climb to 3,168 feet. And trust me, that peak was miserable. It was misty and windy and cold. The whole ridge and peak (and it turns out the rest of the hike to Boiling Lake) was done under the battery of these amazing winds. We estimated that there was a near constant 20 mph wind, with gusts up to 50 or 60 mph. The gusts could, and frequently did, push everyone back several strides as you fought against them. This photo shows how one of the hikers handled it... by using one of our guides as a tow rope! The guide was far more patient than I would have been. From the peak, it takes about 20 more minutes to reach the top of the Valley of Desolation.

I doubt if I will ever be in a place for which the name is more fitting for the rest of my life. The Valley of Desolation is just that... desolate. It's basically just a lot of scorched rocks (which give off heat) and pools of varying colors of HOT water. The trail gets a bit vague here, and crisscrosses the stream several times as you move down the Valley. The Valley itself is a bit hard to enter, since you have to slide down a steep, smooth rock... which sort of inspires the question of how the heck you're going to climb it on the way back. There is, surprisingly, some vegetation which grows there. You know it has to be hardy because of the heat, the wind, and the sulphuric qualities of the water. Passing through the Valley we saw a geyser or two and more hot springs than we could count. It was also a bit disconcerting to look back and see the slope you'd have to climb back up to leave the Valley of Desolation. Isn't that a nice photo? We really did climb that, although when I looked back and saw that, I joked to Ryan that he'd have to build me a house in the Valley since I didn't plan on leaving ever if I had to climb out that way.

As we were crossing the Valley, the rain hit. Remember how I mentioned that the winds were intense? Imagine rain hitting you at that speed. It was painful and loud and very hard to see... not to mention the fact that it's hard to rock climb (which was necessary on many parts of the trail) when the rocks are soaked! We were completely drenched in a matter of minutes, even though we'd been wearing our coats in an attempt to stay warm in the wind. It rained twice more on our trip- once as we hit the peak above the Valley on the way back and again when we were under the trees in the Rainforest. And despite what you may have heard, the trees do not block all the rain from hitting the ground.

From the Valley it's (obviously) uphill for most of the rest of the way. Our guides kept saying we were close, but they lied. Once we got to the Lake itself, there was nothing there. We stood on a ledge and looked at a lot of steam. I'm kidding, it was pretty cool, and when the wind blew the right way you could look down the cliffs (the lake was surrounding by cliffs) and see that the water really was boiling, which was pretty cool. The air itself was cool as well. We may be in the Caribbean but the air temperature in the mountains can still get pretty chilly... and we were soaked at this point. The elevation of the Lake is 2,640 feet. At one point, when the temperature of the water was measured, the water at the edge was about 90 degrees Celsius. They were unable to measure the temperature in the center, where the Lake is actively boiling. There have been fluctuations in the level of the lake... apparently at the end of 2004 it practically emptied! This also happened in 1887, 1900, 1971, and 1988. We were glad it wasn't emptied when we arrived! It would have been disappointing, and dangerous! Hikers have been overcome and killed by the sulphurous gases emitted from the emptied lake. Apparently after it empties, it takes a few months to refill, with some incredibly quick fluctuations in the water level and temperature while it changes. Here's a photo of Ryan and I happy but exhausted at the lake. If you look at the photo of the lake, you can see the bubbling water of the lake through the steam.

The hike down was faster, and took about 2 and a half hours. We stopped caring about avoiding the mud or trying to leap from rock to rock to cross rivers. We were already soaked, so why not get more wet? I won't lie... it was hard. I really struggled with my hip, and my left leg would shake whenever we stopped. But we did it! We're both pretty sore today, and I swear, our bed has NEVER felt as comfortable as it did last night. But we did it! On the way home we were saying we'd never do it again... but today we were talking about doing it with some friends! Maybe we're crazy! If you come to visit us and would like to hike it, make sure you bring clothes that you can ruin and good hiking shoes. You will need them.

At the bottom, we staggered out muddy, exhausted, sweating, and smelly and found a cruise ship group enjoying Titou Gorge. They were spotless and shocked at our appearance, but the good news was that some of the locals had set up tables to sell things to the people from the ships. They'd charge the students a third of what they charged the tourists for food and drink, so Ryan and I were able to enjoy a coke each. It was a good end to a good day!

Our 'Peaceful' Valentine's Day

2009-02-17T14:21:00.002-04:00

So Ryan and I decided to avoid the crowds and have a nice peaceful Valentine's day at home. We even splurged and bought chocolate cake mix (we don't have the ingredients to make the cake from scratch). It sounded absolutely amazing... we've had very little sweet things since we've been here.

I used my trusty glass cassarole pan for a cake pan. We have no aluminum 9x13 pans, but this pan was (notice I said was) an oval glass pan about the size of a 9x13. Our oven does not bake evenly (the front is MUCH hotter than the back) so we have to rotate things to help them cook evenly. Halfway through, when I opened the oven, I noticed the cake had started to rise above the cake pan. I'd thought that there was plenty of room to rise (the batter had only filled the pan a quarter of the way up the pan's sides), but apparently there wasn't.

Ryan and I considered the issue for a moment (I really didn't want half-baked cake batter splattered around in my oven) and decided to put our cookie sheet beneath the glass pan so that any overflow would be caught by the cookie sheet. We let the cookie sheet warm up a bit (and you have to understand, this is a THIN, CHEAP cookie sheet, so it gets burning hot in about the time it takes you to cough) and then slid the cake pan onto the cookie sheet and set the cookie sheet and cake pan back onto the oven rack.

The oven rack was pulled out for this, and as we slid it back in, it happened. There was this massive POPPING sound, and glass flew EVERYWHERE. The pan had exploded! We both screamed and jumped back, and luckily, neither of us were hurt. Someone was looking out for us... we had our faces down next to the cake as we both worked to manuver our cake around in the miniscule oven.

The mess was incredible. There was glass and cake everywhere in our kitchen and all over our oven! Luckily Ryan thought quickly and turned off the stove (so that the globs of cake batter wouldn't bake and burn in the oven) and turned down our dinner so it wouldn't burn (it was perfect, by the way). I think we were both a bit shocked. The pan shouldn't have just exploded like that. If the cookie pan had been really cold, I could have understood, or if we'd dropped or banged the pan it'd have made sense. But really, it was just a cheap glass pan.

It's kind of proof that you get what you pay for. I've found that true here especially. Back at home I'm always buying off-brands, but not here. Off-brand dishsoap won't suds up and off-brand PAM doesn't spray. You save money, but it turns out to be a waste since you can't use the product and end up buying the brand name item in the end. The pan was one we bought our second day here, when we hadn't learned to shop yet. It was the cheapest on the shelf.

I double checked after the explosion, and yes, the pan WAS rated for use in ovens. It just apparently was only good for a certain amount of uses! Just kidding... I think it was a combination of shoddy workmanship on the part of the company and bad luck on our part. It happens I guess. It just stinks because I used the glass pan all the time... it was a great cassarole dish! Cassaroles are great, because it's only one dish to clean by hand, rather than seven. And they also alway me to make them and cook them at different times- which is great if I have something to do in the late afternoon or early evening.

I bought another glass pan today. It's not brand name (of course, no store HAS brand name right now) but it seems like a decent piece. And it's not so expensive that I'll feel guilty buying a new one when I see one that's well made.

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! We did have a good day, and I'm sure we will laugh when we think of our first Valentine's Day as a married couple. Looking back, I realize we didn't even give each other cards! There's such a poor selection here, we were going to make them at home... but we got distracted cleaning up chocolate cake batter and glass shards. Oh well, we had fun, and it's yet another memory.

Happy Valentines Day!

2009-02-14T14:41:00.002-04:00

We wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! We've had a bit of a communication issue lately... internet is down island-wide. Pretty much the only spot to get internet at the moment is at Ross. It's a bit frustrating, it's been down since Thursday night, and before that it was really spotty. Since the internet is our main communication tool, it's been annoying. We haven't been able to call anyone back home or send out emails or anything! I guess you don't realize how much you depend on the internet until it's gone.

Things are good here though, despite the lack of internet. Ryan had a histology practical on Friday, and he has an anatomy practical on Tuesday. He's studying and working hard, but we do take time to enjoy living here. On Friday we went to a surprise party that a friend threw for her husband, who's a first semester student at Ross. It was nice to visit with other people and to meet some new people, so we enjoyed it. We also met an adorable puppy named Mulligan. He's one of the island dogs that a friend took in because she was worried he wasn't going to find a good home. The former owner wanted to walk into a classroom and hold the puppy up and ask who wanted it. Some impulsive student would have taken the puppy... and then not wanted it anymore when they realized that having a puppy is like having an infant.

I joined PAWS, the organization that works to help the stray dogs and cats on the island. There are some of the most amazing, caring, and loving people in the world in this group. I really think we'll be able to make a difference. There are so many dogs that need help here. Some of them HAD homes... they were adopted by students who left them behind when they realized it would be expensive to ship them back to the states. And they're all lovely dogs as well. Anybody want one? Come on! Come for a Caribbean vacation and bring home a four-legged souvenir.

This morning Ryan and I went into Roseau. It was the first time that he'd been there, and we managed to get some shopping done, and then have a small lunch at Rituals, which is an amazing coffee shop. One just opened in Picard, right next to the campus, but I am trying to pretend that it isn't there, or else I would be very broke and very overweight.

Hope everyone back home is doing well! We miss you all very much, and send you all our love. And for a weather update... it's about 80 today and very sunny. Hope you are all enjoying that nice cold weather!!

Catch-up, the first mini, and SAND BLAST!

2009-02-10T19:18:00.002-04:00

So much has happened since I was last able to write! Things have been busy around here. Ryan had to prepare for his mini, which is a big test. Each semester there are three minis and a final, so the test counts for quite a bit, and so he and every other student have been VERY busy lately. Since he needed the computer for studying and classes, I haven't really had any time to update. Sorry about that! It should be better now, since the mini is over, and as soon as the barrels arrive with Ryan's power adaptor, I'll be right back to posting every other day. Yay!

About the barrels... I don't think I mentioned that Ryan and I are shipping in barrels! His mom was nice enough to pack them and do a lot of shopping for us, and my parents sent a bunch of stuff too. Some of the amazing things we'll be getting are: pillows and an egg crate foam pad for the bed (remember I mentioned how bad the bed and pillows are), loaf pans so I can bake some bread, my riding helmet, hot pads (we don't have any here, and I keep burning my fingers when I use kitchen towels), snorkeling gear (YAY!), Ryan's dress clothes (silly guy forgot them), an iron (it'll be so nice to not be wrinkled!), and a lot of other assorted items, including lots and lots of food! We're really excited, and the other spouses have promised that opening the barrels is better than Christmas! I cannot wait for them to arrive. We're using a company called Tropical Shipping. They picked the barrels up in Massachusetts and shipped them to the port in New Jersey, where they'll be picked up on Friday and put on a train to Miami. From Miami they'll be loaded onto a ship and brought to Roseau. We then hire a taxi driver to pick the barrels up from customs and drive them to Picard and help us get them into the house. I have no idea how we'll get them down the hill... but we'll worry about that when they arrive. The barrels should take about two weeks to get here.

On Saturday I went into Roseau for the morning to get some shopping done (and to stay busy while Ryan was studying!). There were a bunch of other spouses along, and we hit the big stores quickly. Astaphan's and IGA are two amazing stores where you can get good deals. For example, cheese is HALF the price in Roseau than it is in Picard! A hunk of cheese that costs $3 (US) in Roseau will cost $6 (US) in Picard. The stores are also larger and so they have a much better selection and you can find things you'd never find around here. We wrapped up the morning with a stop at Rituals, a great little coffee shop that has AMAZING burgers. They're building one just up the road in Portsmouth... I'd better be careful or I'll gain a lot of weight from burgers and lattes! On the trip home we got stuck in the first traffic jam I've seen since I was on the island. Normally cars just blow past slower moving vehicles, blasting their horns. But these slow moving vehicles were a caravan of about fifteen or so vans and pick-up trucks, all loaded down with people and loud speakers. It was a rolling christian revival... a very slowly rolling christian revival. We nearly got into a head on collision passing them (our driver was incredible... and I could NEVER EVER drive here, I'd be too scared).

We made it home in one piece, and then many of the spouses retired to the pool in the afternoon. The pool has a major advantage over the beach... comfy chairs! I'm sure everyone pictures me spending every day sprawled in the sun, but this was actually the first time I've just relaxed and lay in the sun. It was wonderful... and it allowed all the students to focus on their studies!

That evening, Ryan and I went to a potluck hosted by a friend and her husband. The students pretty much hung around to eat, and then took off to study, but the spouses stayed for awhile and played a game called Celebrity, which is quickly becoming one of my favorites. The Bennett's Babes would love it... we'll have to get together when I'm home! I did lose my cell phone, and was worried about it until a friend found it in her car. I'm just glad I didn't drop it on the dark walk over to the potluck, because the phone would have been rained on.

Sunday was a relaxing day. I had some cleaning to do in the house, and I worked on planning meals and shopping for the week. We didn't go to church this week, but I'm pretty sure a lot of students skipped out on it. I spent some time quizzing Ryan with the flash cards. I think I'm starting to learn some of this stuff!

The mini was Monday, and Ryan thinks he did pretty well. They sent out the raw scores and we're both pretty happy with how he did. It's a good start to medical school. After the mini, Ross threw a big party on the beach. The school rented out the catamarans and the kayacks, and of course there was food and a DJ! They brought in the 'Juice Man' with his wonderful juice, and Cabrits Dive school even showed up and gave free ten minute lessons to anyone who wanted. Of course Ryan and I dove, and it was AWESOME! Breathing underwater is amazing... the only problem is that we loved it so much that now we want to get our certifications, which can be expensive. We waited in a really long line to get a free t-shirt, and then an even longer line to get free food. The food line took forever, but we hung out and chatted with Justin and Grace and Neil and Jen, so it wasn't too bad.

All in all, it's been a good week. Sorry the last few weeks have been so spotty! It's hard to only have one computer between the two of us... and it's also hard because there were a few times that I DID have the computer... and the power and internet would be out, so I couldn't post.

My Weekend Adventure

2009-02-03T15:34:00.000-04:00

As most of you know, I've been involved in the Ross Spouses Organization (RSO) since I've been here. It's a lot of fun and a really great way to get to know people around campus. RSO is basically my social life, since it seems like the spouses are the only ones with time to socialize... and even we have less time than most people think!

This past Saturday was one of RSO's trips. We took a bus to Jacko Falls, Emerald Pool, and the Carib Territory. Bruno, our bus driver, was awesome and made the ride really fun. He'd stop to point out interesting things and was very friendly and helpful.

Jacko Falls was beautiful, and right off the road. We originally were going to go to Spinney Falls, but since there were a few kids along and Spinney Falls is pretty muddy, we opted to go to Jacko instead. Jacko's only about 10 minutes out of the way when you're driving to Emerald Falls, and to hike to it, you really just walk through a narrow banana field and down a very steep, very wet set of stairs, and there you are. Of course, the fact that the stairs are wet is no surprise. Everything is always wet here. Almost everyone waded a bit. Jacko Falls is rockier and not as large or as deep as Emerald Pool, so there wasn't a good spot to swim, although two spouses did go in. There was a large rock in the center of the pool though, and if you were agile enough, you could make your way out to it. I made it out to the rock fine, but the way back.... well, let's just say that I though a particular rock was about six inches below the surface when it was really about three feet. I got my shorts a bit wet and scraped my leg a bit, but no big deal. Here's a photo of the lovely Jacko Falls.

Emerald Pool was as beautiful as I remembered, and it was much more fun without the large crowd. It was a nice relaxing break from the day, although toward the end of our time there a lot of people from cruise ships started showing up, so we decided to head out. On the way out, we spotted an agouti, which is sort of like a guinea pig body with rabbit legs. It was very neat to see, and the little kids loved it. Before we left, I bought a hand-painted tile that had a map of Dominica on it. Some of Ryan and my favorite spots were labeled... such as Emerald Pool and Scotts Head!

On the way to the Carib Territory, we stopped briefly at Castle Bruce, to take photos of the beautiful beach there. It's on the Atlantic side of the island, so the sea is incredibly rough and powerful, but the view is amazing! There was an old fishing boat there that I enjoyed using in my photos.

At the Carib Territory, I finally bought baskets! I got one large basket for fruit, which we buy every week at the market. I also got a basket that they called a 'hand-bag basket' which had a pattern I just LOVED. I also bought a number of smaller baskets in a variety of shapes and colors. My last purchase, and possibly my favorite, is a hand-carved half of a coconut shell. The shell has a beautifully done bird on it, in front of an intricate pattern that covers the rest of the shell. I'd really wanted to buy one of these before this, but I hadn't yet found a design I really like. I love the carving and detail on this shell, and am thrilled that I was able to buy it.

When I got home, I unpacked my bag and then took a short nap, after which Ryan and I went out to dinner at a chinese restaraunt called 'The Golden Dragon' which had been highly recommended. We really enjoyed it, the food was good and the prices were reasonable, and since we were both tired (Ryan from studying and me from the day's adventures) it was a nice break from cooking.

All in all it was an amazing day!

Completely Gross!

2009-02-03T15:07:00.000-04:00

So first, I want to apologize for not posting in so long. There have been computer issues.... specifically issues with Ryan's computer. The AC adaptor was fried (we think there must have been a power surge on campus) and since his need to study and me keeping up with my writing is more important than me updating the blog.... the blog is one of the things I haven't done.

But I had to share what we found in our fridge the other day... it's bad, be warned. And yes, of course I took photos of the nastiness! And let me make it clear, this is nothing that Ryan or I did... this mess was left over from the previous tenant and we were just lucky enough to find it.

There'd been this nasty smell in the kitchen for a few days, and we had looked for it a few times, but never managed to find it. I kept thinking that it must be coming in from outside, that something had died close to our building and that was what we were smelling. Turns out, I was wrong, the smell was inside the whole time.

One night, it bothered Ryan enough that he started tearing the kitchen apart looking for it. He opened every single food container we had in the kitchen, checked all the cupboards, pulled everything out of the fridge, looked under the fridge and stove and cupboards in case there was something dead under there... but he had no luck, until he checked the drip tray of the fridge.

As soon as he found it, he pulled it out and yelled for me to grab the camera and come get a photo. I walked into the kitchen and honestly felt nauseous for a moment. That smell was BAD. The tray was filled with water and fungus and bacteria, and other things I probably don't want to know about. We hadn't really spilled anything in the fridge, so we're guessing that the previous tenant must have, just before he or she moved out. Then we plug in the fridge, let the drip tray get nice and warm, and make a perfect little bacteria habitat. YUCK!

I'm sure you all want to see photos, so here you go!

Cabrits National Park

2009-01-25T10:24:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, Ryan and I took part of the day to go for a hike. Just across the bay, there's a national park set on two dead volcanoes. We'd been trying to get over there since we arrived, but it hadn't happened yet. So late Saturday morning, after a few hours of work, we took a bus over to Purple Turtle Beach (which is right next to Cabrits) and hiked over to it. It was about a fifteen minute hike along the coast. It was when we were crossing a culvert that we spotted our little eel friend that I told you about.

Cabrits is named for the french word for 'goat', after the goats that were released by soldiers to run wild on the island so that they would always have a fresh source of meat available. Later, the two hills were nearly cleared (pretty impressive, considering they're covered in thick jungle) and a fort was built to defend St. Ruperts Bay and the town of Portsmouth. This was when Portsmouth was the capital of Dominica. The fort was later abandoned and overgrown. Since then it has been partially restored. The restoration is beautifully done, and you can see where they are continuing to work. But my favorite part was to hike back up into the rainforest, amongst the ruins of the fort. You'd be climbing down this steep him and suddenly find the ruins of an old three story building, with trees and vines all over it, all tucked behind a wall defended with cannons, looking out over the water (what you could see of it through the trees). Or you'd round a corner and find a half-buried cannon in the middle of the trail. It was truly beautiful and unique, and while we didn't have enough time to see it all, it is definitely something we want to do again. While we were leaving, they were setting up for a wedding in the restored part of the fort. I bet it was beautiful... the water was an especially beautiful shade of blue on Saturday, and the view was amazing. We hiked all the way home, which was quite a ways, so we were pretty worn out by the time we got back to the apartment.

Here's one of the cannons, looking out over Portsmouth.

I took this from the inside of a ruined three story building (the top floor, walls included is totally gone and there are no support joists or anything left) looking out toward Douglas Bay, which is the bay on the opposite side of Cabrits from St. Ruperts Bay.

This is a cute photo of us, and it also give you an idea of our walk home. On the far right side of the photo is a peak. Just to the left of the little valley beside the peak is our apartment. Really, I'm not exaggerating. We were very tired that night.

One last story to share before I go. On Monday night, I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. When I spun the toilet paper, a roach, which had been hiding inside the cardboard tube, ran out over my hand and just sat there, on the toilet paper, staring at me with his little beady roachy eyes. Now, I'm not scared of bugs, but a roach running across my hand while I'm reaching for toilet paper in the middle of the night when I'm half asleep is a little bit much, and I screamed. Then I went and woke up Ryan so he could deal with Mr Roach (and Mr Roach was a rather large cockroach) but unfortunately for us Mr Roach got away. So there is still a large toilet-paper-loving cockroach somewhere in our apartment.

Today Ryan had his first day with his small group. Ross works hard to make sure that even though it's a large school, the students still work part of the time in small groups, so the group works on various cases under the guidance of the faculty. He said he enjoyed it, so I was very happy for him. Tomorrow I'll be spending the morning at the school on Ross's campus, for the children of students and faculty. I will be volunteering in the first grade every Thursday morning. I'm looking forward to it.

Purple Turtle Beach

2009-01-25T10:21:00.000-04:00

So on Friday Ryan didn't have class, due to a 'research day'. He studied in the morning, and in the afternoon we decided to head over to Purple Turtle Beach. Neil and Jen came too, and it was a great afternoon. Purple Turtle Beach is only a short bus ride away, on the other side of Portsmouth. It is a beautiful, sandy beach. There were a lot of yachts anchored just off shore. We really enjoyed just swimming around and relaxing in the sun.

Later we brought the kite out and had a lot of fun flying it... and a lot of spectators too! Because it's a narrow beach we had to actually stand in the water to fly the kite, and so the kite had it's first dunking in the ocean. We rinsed it out when we got home so that it wouldn't be hurt by the salt water. But we did spend about an hour flying it... and laughing at the 'pilot' when the kite crashed.

Here are a few photos of the beach:

Oh and here is a lovely photo of the large eel-like creature Ryan and I saw on Saturday, right next to where we were swimming at Purple Turtle Beach. He looks friendly, doesn't he? He's about two feet long and as fat as my wrist.

Dasheen... the devil food

2009-01-22T17:54:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it took me the majority of the afternoon to make the dasheen. It was a pain to peel (the surface was slippery and the center was hard and it was all complicated by the gloves I had to wear) and it took forever (about 2 hours!) to come to a boil. Frying it was a pain in the but, since all it seemed to do was get sort of .... bubbly... not golden colored like the recipe promised.

But that doesn't prepare you for the finished product. I haven't tried it yet, since it's so massively unappealing and was a disappointment after that much preparation. It's kind of mushy and brownish, like rotten potatoes. Ryan says it tastes like very salty potatoes.... and I used hardly any salt! Oh well, I guess I won't be buying these things again.

Go ahead... take a BIIIIIIIIIG bite....

If anyone wants, I'll ship it up to them... it'll probably look the same when it gets there as it does now!!

And also, we wanted to make a prayer request.... a few of the dogs on the island have had a tough few days. The neighbor's dog, Ginger, went missing for a few days only to turn up with a broken leg and a large puncture wound in his hip... we think he was stolen for boar hunting poor dog. At first we thought he'd loose that leg, but it looks like he'll be able to keep it, which is good. He's being a very good patient.

Then Jester, my little beach buddy, the little crab hunter was hit by a car. He escaped with a broken leg. Thank God, because it could have been so much worse. But the good news is that he has a new home! One of the students has taken him in and she'll take him home when she leaves the island. Jester is now Snoopy, and his new mom apparently adores him. I'm so happy for him.

The big one is Peanut. Peanut belongs to one of our neighbors, and he's a great golden retriever. He's come down with some sort of bacterial infection, and he's in bad shape. He is responding well to antibiotics and he ate and drank yesterday and drank some chicken broth today which is good. He has a long way to go and his poor owners are very worried. I feel bad for them. Damon's in class worrying about him and Chellie's home taking care of Peanut and worrying. He's a very tired very uncomfortable dog right now, and he's got a long way to go.

So please... pray for quick healing for Ginger and Jester and Peanut! They're all good dogs and they all deserve to be healthy and happy again.

Cooking Dasheen

2009-01-22T15:28:00.000-04:00

So today I thought I'd be a bit adventurous. Last Saturday, at the Portsmouth Market, we bought a lot of fresh fruit (probably more than we needed but it was all so cheap and there was so much variety we couldn't resist) and one of those things we bought was three dasheens. According to wikipedia, dasheen is a tropical vegetable that is toxic in its raw form, but the toxins are killed by cooking.

I found a recipe in the Ross Spouses Cookbook (which is AMAZING) for dasheen french fries. And so, since these things have been sitting on my counter for a week, I decided to try it. The first thing the recipe tells you is to wear gloves when preparing dasheen, since it releases a toxin that causes an itchy reaction in the skin. I'll have to let you know how it turns out. I'm not sure if this is working right (I'm on the frying stage and I think I may have boiled them too long... they're a bit soft.... but I boiled them for less time than the recipe says so who knows).

Here are a few photos from my dasheen cooking adventure.

Yum! A pot full of toxic, uncooked dasheen waiting to boil!

The second dasheen I cut up. As you can see, it looks a bit like very white, very... textured potato. What you can't see is the icky slime that's left whitish residue on my counters and in my sink which I will have to clean carefully because I don't really want an 'itchy skin reaction'.

And the last dasheen, not cut up yet. Looks yummy huh? And in case you can tell, yes that is a hairy, hard covering. And it's slimy, did I mention that?

I'l have to post later to let you guys know how they tasted. I might let Ryan be my guinea pig... the slimy was a bit nasty and I'm not sure if I really want to eat it. Although the fried bits are no longer slimy so maybe I'll be brave.

White Coat Ceremony Part II

2009-01-21T10:09:00.000-04:00

Yay! Here is Ryan being helped into his white coat during the ceremony. I was so proud! I couldn't get a photo of the whole process because other students kept walking past him in their white coats.

Ryan's accepting his pin and his scroll (which turned out to be a copy of the 'physician's morning prayer' on it) from another member of the faculty. And yes, I was kneeling on a table to get this photo and the previous one. I wasn't tall enough on my own... and I couldn't stand on the desk because a)I thought that behavior would be frowned upon and b)I was wearing a skirt.

Ryan is all smiles as he walks back to his seat. Doesn't he look handsome in the white coat?

The other spouses and I were so proud of our significant others. We were all excited and laughing and rushing around to get good photos.

And I FINALLY got him to turn around and look at me so that you can all see how handsome he looks! You can see the Ross University patch over this pocket, the gold pin on his lapel, and his ID badge clipped to his coat. He looks great!

White Coat Ceremony

2009-01-21T10:00:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a few days since I last updated. It's been a bit busy around here. But we do think of all of you often, and we are definitely enjoying our time down here!

Friday, as many of you may know, was Ryan's white coat ceremony. I know some of you had troublee with the link to watch the live feed online, so here's a quick summary of what you may have missed. The white coat ceremony was first introduced at the University of Chicago in 1989. A professor there was concerned that many of the new medical students were far more concerned with the clinical and scientific aspect of medicine and were forgetting about the human aspect of medicine. Since then this ceremony has been used at medical schools all around the world, as well as at dental, veterinary, podiatry, and optometry schools to name a few. White coat ceremonies typically address the issue of medical ethics.

As you may have guessed, Ryan's white coat ceremony was huge. We now know that there are 452 students in his class (about 20% will fail out of this first semester). They range in age from 20-54. You'd expect a ceremony involving that many people to be busy, and you'd be right. What you might not expect was the number of PARENTS who attended the ceremony. I don't know if they have the sort of job that allows them to escort their child down to medical school and stay for three weeks so that they can attend the ceremony, or if they are just rich enough that they can fly down to the island for a weekend. There were also a LOT of local dignitaries in attendence, including (there are many I'm forgetting I'm sure) the President of Dominica and his wife, the mayor of Portsmouth, the principal of the local school, the dean of Dominica's college, the minister of communication, the minister of transport... and they were all introduced with long rounds of applause.

When Ryan and I fist arrived, before the ceremony started, we were told that spouses would actually have to sit outside and would not be permitted to enter the ceremony. Later, just before it started, all the guests waiting outside were invited to try to find seats. And guess who they let in first... parents! The spouses were not allowed to enter until after the ceremony was started, as they were introducing the president, and we didn't actually get to sit until probably ten minutes into the ceremony. But at least we made it in.

The keynote speaker was pretty good, he reminded the students to remember their duty was first to their patients. He pointed out several historic cases in which patients had not been the first priority. Some of the cases he spoke about were the Eugenics Program in America, the Tuskeegee Study, and several others. He reminded students not to be blinded by the money and fame that research or a discovery might bring, but to remember the value of human life and to ensure first and foremost that they were moral and ethical. He also spoke some about more minor ethical dilemmas they might face, involving patient care and insurance companies and the like.

Then there was the actual white coat ceremony! I have several photos of Ryan that I thought you might all enjoy seeing.

This photo gives you an idea of the size of the room. There are four large screens in the front of the room, and those TVs you see are plasma screen tvs, probably about 45 inches. There are fifteen of them in the room, so that no matter where you sit it's easy to see. This room is where Ryan attends class.

Sorry this photo is sideways! That's Ryan's ear. He's in the blue polo shirt. I was very excited to finally find him in the large crowd.

And here is Ryan standing up front, waiting to have his white coat put on by a member of the faculty. I'll have to make another post with photos of him actually putting on his coat and of him in his coat, since blogger doesn't seem to let me put too many photos in one post.

Clean-up After the Attack of the Flying Ants

2009-01-18T15:14:00.000-04:00

One of the piles of ants.... pretty aren't they?

Ryan squishing the bugs. He joked that it's not often you get to kill so many bugs at one time.

Scooping up the remains of the ants....

When bugs attack!

2009-01-18T11:29:00.000-04:00

Friday night, Ryan and I spent some time playing cards in the kitchen. At one point, we got a phone call and went into the bedroom to answer it (as some of you know when we try to talk to you in the kitchen, it is very echo-y). We were only in there about 15-20 minutes and we had a rather large shock when we walked back into the kitchen.

There were a few THOUSAND bugs all over our walls, table, chairs, counters, stove, fridge, windows, ceiling, curtains, and light. The vast majority of the bugs were dead. At the time, we thought they were fruit flies, but we were later told that they were flying ants. These ants apparently come out every month or two, and they are annoying but harmless. They are very attracted to light, which is why so many of ours were dead. We think they ran into our light, died, and were blown about the room by our fan. We were also told that when the flying ants are out, not to wear white, as they are very attracted to that color. While Ryan and I cleaned up the ants (with a broom) I was wearing a white tank top and they were EVERYWHERE on my shirt. Yuck.

But here are some photos of our ant adventure!

Dead ants on the floor... each tile is about eight inches by eight inches.

Ants on our fridge. Every little black speck is a flying ant.

Classes and Day to Day Life

2009-01-14T19:16:00.000-04:00

Well, things around here are becoming pretty busy. Ryan started classes on Monday, and things have been a bit hectic as we start to settle into this new schedule. He's lucky in that he was accepted to the PACE program so he can 'media-site' from our apartment. Media-site is basically a nifty little program that tapes and posts the lectures on-line, within a half an hour of the lecture ending. So if you miss a class or just need to review what a professor said, you can watch the lecture again online. And it's a pretty fancy little program I guess, since he can watch lectures twice as fast, twice as slow, pause, rewind, fast forward... all that fancy stuff. I also feel very blessed that he can study at home, because that means he's at least nearby. Otherwise he'd have to go to campus to study. This way we're together, even if we're both busy.

And yes, we are both busy. I'm working on a few articles right now. One thing I'm working on is finding a newspaper that would publish a series of articles somewhat like this blog. Even if I don't make a lot of money from it, at least it'd be experience on my resume and any income is better than none.

Things also take much longer on this island than they do anywhere else, so that keeps me busy as well. Take yesterday. I had a wonderful RSO meeting (Ross Spouses Organization) where I received a lot of good hints and tips, some support, a lot of potential new friends, and free pizza! Then I came home and started some laundry. An average size load of laundry took me more than two and a half hours! I have to do it by hand, in my trusty laundry bucket and the kitchen sink. There are no laundromats, and the laundry services are pretty expensive, so I'm doing it by hand for awhile. It's exhausting work though! My arms and shoulders ached afterwards. I'm going to have some serious muscles when I go back to the States! After the laundry, it took me about two hours total to make dinner. Part of that time was due to the fact that I had to run out to buy an onion... which took half an hour. The rest of the time was taken up by making meatballs. And if you want meatballs you need breadcrumbs. And if you don't have breadcrumbs... yes, that's right, I had to crumble bread by hand. But we had a great dinner. The meatballs added a lot to our spaghetti, and I added chopped cucumbers and tomatoes to the sauce to make it taste a little better. And yes, in case you can't tell, I am proud of that meal. It took forever but it was worth it.

I worked on some research about writing markets and such for freelancers last night, and spoke to a few people on skype. By the time 9:30 rolled around however, I couldn't even keep my eyes open and went to bed. Poor Ryan, who'd spent the whole day studying while I was working at home, stayed up studying until about 11:00. I know that doesn't sound late... but the sun comes up EARLY and since we don't have shades, we're awake and doing things about 6:30AM. Somehow everything on this island makes us feel more tired than we would in the States. Maybe it's that 'memory foam mattress' we have... or the fact the we are awakened a few times a night by a cow or donkey or chicken or dog... oh well. We do love

it here and we're having so much fun. It's hard to believe this place is our home!

Today my big activity was working on an article that I'm hopefully going to submit tonight or tomorrow. No, you don't get to know where. You can know after it's published. :-) Jen and I made a shopping run to a grocery store we hadn't tried yet, and I picked up stuff I needed for dinner, as well as BREAD CRUMBS! I haven't seen them in any other store, so it was a nice surprise to fine them. They cost about $3.50 US but they were worth it. Now I can make meatballs and meatloaf... and everything is MUCH easier. Ryan and I did manage to have some beach time today. We go to the beach every day, but lately it's just been a walk. Today we both took a break so that we could go swimming... and it was wonderful! I'm still not used to ocean water being WARM. I'm so used to it being cold. And just to prove that we DO eat (since I know we complained about issues finding food at first) I tried out a new chicken recipe tonight. I don't know if I'll use it again, but it wasn't bad and we both ate a LOT of food tonight.

Here's a photo of our emergency power-outage candles ready and waiting! We set them up during the power outage on Sunday. Like our candle-holders? They work well when they're filled with a bit of dirt. You can also see our matches in the front of the photo. Those are very useful for starting the stove or oven or emergency candles.

Love you all! Try to stay warm, I heard that there is a cold snap this week. Know that we're thinking of you and we miss you all very much! Kisses and hugs!

A lazy Sunday and the first day of classes

2009-01-12T13:58:00.000-04:00

Since Saturday was so busy and today was the first day of classes, Ryan and I decided to have a nice, lazy, relaxing day yesterday. We slept in as long as possible (which isn't easy because the sun rises so early that our bedroom is completely lit up by 6:30) and then got up and had bannana pancakes for breakfast. The fruit here is amazing! After breakfast we played rummy and phase ten for a bit. Having all the games here is wonderful. We tried bananagram the other day and it was a lot of fun. In fact we've played pretty much all the games and we've had people over a few times. I don't know anyone else who brought games, and I am very glad we did.

We had a wonderful lunch that Ryan made for us, of ingredients he just found around. Boiled chicken with sauteed onion in noodles with seasoning, margarine, and tomato. It was GREAT, and very filling.

After lunch we FINALLY had time to try out the kite Emily, Dan, and Becca gave us for a wedding present. We can't fly it on 'our' beach because it is so narrow and lined with power line and palm trees. Maybe later, when we are better at controlling it... but not now. I did bring it on the island tour with me, but we weren't sure how long it took to take out and put away and since we had a limited time at each spot, we didn't want to hold anyone up.

But yesterday was finally the day. We had to wait for a few showers to pass (as always) and then we headed to a field used for intramural sports. I wish we had a video of us trying to fly this kite... you'd have thought that two smart people would have figured out which direction the wind was coming from much more quickly than we did. But we had a lot of fun laughing and teasing each other, and I'm sure we were a funny sight. We'd cheer loudly whenever the kite took flight... and then groan when it hit the ground again. But we FINALLY figured out where the wind was coming from and got a few minutes of wonderful flight in... before the wind died. Honestly, it's windy every other day and then we try to fly the kite... and the wind goes all gusty. But we did both fly it several times, enough to start to get a feel for it and to try a few tricks. It's hard to do a trick when the wind drops and the kite nosedives in the middle of a loop... but we'll get the hang of it and now we know how to assemble it and use it so we're all set. As I said, we don't have a video, but I do have these photos.

SUCCESS AT LAST!

And down again...

When the wind finally quit completely on us, we went home to change quickly and then hit the beach. We did have a bit of surprise on our walk down- we came upon a man who'd just slaughtered a bull on the path to the beach. Luckily we're both pretty calm people and neither of us freaked out. It was one of the island cows that wanders around the town unrestrained. It was a bit of a shock though, definitely NOT what we were expecting to find on our way to the beach!

We had a lovely 'sea bath' (as the islanders call it) and saw a few Ross students rent out a catamaran and attempt to sail off in it... they did fairly well once they got well out into the bay. Close to shore they had the same issue we did with the kite- lack of wind. Ryan and I will definitely rent a hobie cat one of these days... and I really want to rent kayacks and take them around the point to Secret Beach (which isn't really a secret, but has amazing snorkeling and is only accessible from the sea).

There was a short (about an hour) power outage last night, but it wasn't too bad. We cooked dinner by candlelight, and then had our neighbor Alicia over for a few hands of cards. All in all, not a bad day at all.

A Busy Saturday

2009-01-11T19:21:00.000-04:00

Wow! Yesterday was exhausting, in a way that only a day spent on Dominican 'busses' on Dominican roads can be. I'll have to remember to discuss the roads at some point... they are ridiculous and I cannot believe how many people drive, walk, and bike along them.

Last week Ryan and I had signed up for the island tour with Jennifer and Neil. It was a really nice day actually, and we really enjoyed it... despite the number of hours spent on the bus (since everything on Dominica is about an hour apart on winding roads). There are always interesting things to see out the window on the bus though- pretty little towns, funny signs, mountain or beach views... the scenery is remarkable.

We left yesterday at 8AM from in front of the library. We made sure not to get onto our 'special' bus from last time. Instead we picked a bus that looked younger than we were (really, we have doubts about the age of our last bus) and were lucky enough to find two pairs of seats, one behind the other, so we all managed to sit together.

Our first stop was Freshwater Lake, which is high in the mountains. In typical Ross fashion, it wasn't until our busses were pulling away that we were told that it is high enough in the mountains that it is really pretty cold up there. That knowledge would have been much more useful when we were packing, but oh well. It was quite a drive up to the lake... and of course, I ended up against the window, so I could see DOWN the loooong drops that ran beside the mountain road. I swear, that thing was only one lane... even though we met a lot of cars coming in the opposite direction. The roads were narrow enough that when we turned off the AC and opened the windows, branches and vegetation would 'whip' into the windows as we drove.

The lake itself was a bit of a let down. It was small compared to lakes we're used to (for those who know, it was probably a bit bigger than Pine Lake) and it was FOGGY. Well, not when we arrived but it got foggy pretty quickly. Really quickly. Ryan and I were posing so that Jennifer could take our photo and as I looked over Jen's shoulder I thought 'oh that'd be a nice photo, I'll get one after we're done'. Ten seconds later the lovely mountains I wanted to photograph were totally hidden behind thick fog. You can actually see the fog coming towards us in this photo... it moved FAST... this was the last one we took.

Our second stop was Tralfagar Falls. It was BEAUTIFUL! Tralfagar Falls is one

of the two things we were told we 'have to do' while we're on the island. Tralfagar turned out to be this beautiful double falls, atop this pile of massive boulders. Once again, it's somewhere we will want to go with a few less people. The people you see on the rocks are all from Ross, and it lets you see the size of the boulders and of the falls. The hike to the falls was really cool because we crossed over a little stream that must have been feed by hot springs (remember, the island is volcanic!). On the way back we stopped and soaked our feet for awhile... it felt wonderful! Jennifer and I agreed that the springs warranted a spouses trip. There's actually a pool large enough that you can sit in it.

We made a brief stop at a sulfur spring, which wasn't really that exciting, and then we went on to our final destination... Scotts Head! This is a beautiful narrow strip of land (like 20 yards wide) that divides the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean Sea. There's a very pretty village situated at one end of the strip of land, and at the other there's this massive rocky hill that sticks WAAAAAAAAAY up into the air. And guesss who climbed it... ME! Which is a huge accomplishment considering that I'm terrified of heights (like near tears, shaking type terrified). I would have turned back a few times on the climb up, but Ryan was a huge help and I was really glad that I made it to the top. This photo shows you how tall this thing is... and yes it really is VERY narrow at the top... this side has the 'hill', meaning that the bottom was slightly wider than the top. The other side was a cliff. A big one leading down to the water and rocks. Big rocks.

The view was great... even if I had trouble admiring it because I was so focused on the fact that it was a narrow (VERY NARROW) little rock with massive cliffs on every side. Scary!! The climb up was absolutely ridiculous... it was BARELY wide enough for one person and one slip would send you down the hill... and it's thoughts like that that make me so scared of heights. I've included photos of the view so you can see how high Ryan made me climb. Notice how tightly I am holding his leg in this photo. And notice how narrow it is... you can see the rock drop off not even a foot to Ryan's left. Trust me, I was not any farther away from the edge. But I am happy because I did make it all the way up and even explored for a few minutes up there, before I was done and just sat down and waited for everyone else to be done. And I was one of the few people who climbed all the way to the top... a lot of people gave up halfway up or didn't try at all. So go me! In case you're wondering, that's the rough Atlantic on the right (note the waves and the white surf) and the gentle Caribbean on the right. The Caribbean was so nice and peaceful... the Atlantic was noisy! It was very rocky and you could hear the constant clatter of rocks between the crashing of the waves.

We did get a bit delayed leaving Scotts Head, since our 'special' bus from last time (the one we were smart enough not to get on this time) would not start. Unfortunately our bus was parked BEHIND that bus, so we'd have been stuck too, but luckily they did get the bus started. A funny moment was watching all the guys from the bus trying to push start it (every vehicle here is standard). The bus's issues did give us a few more minutes to enjoy the beautiful location, and for us to enjoy a Kubuuli... which is the island's beer. It's pretty good, and a beer on a lovely beach is a nice combination.

We made it home about six, ate dinner, watched a movie, talked to some family back home, and then went to bed. We were both exhausted, and I didn't even mind the memory foam mattress or popcorn pillow last night! I was just so happy to be home.

Memory Foam Mattresses and Popcorn Pillows

2009-01-09T21:02:00.000-04:00

As you all realize, we rented a 'fully furnished' apartment when we arrived... although the definition of 'fully furnished' is somewhat debatable (and will be discussed later). This fully furnished apartment came with a bed, two pillows, and a sheet set, which consisted of a flat sheet, a fitted sheet, and two pillow cases.

Now let me explain, before you think I'm complaining, that we were somewhat lucky in the bed accessory department. When our friends Jennifer and Neil went to bed their first night in their apartment, they found out they had only one pillow and two fitted sheets... with no flat sheets at all. Of course, the fitted sheets did match, so I suppose that counts for something. Poor Neil spent a few nights using his hoodie as a pillow until the managed to get to the bookstore to purchase one.

Our sheets were not much to speak of... within a few hours of falling asleep on our first night, the fitted sheet, which was incredibly stretched and worn from God knows how many years of use, had slipped off all four corners and was kind of floating about the bed throughout the night. It was hot (since we didn't have a fan yet, and our AC was unusable since it dripped- loudly- inside when we had it on) so whenever either sheet- flat or fitted- came near us we just kind of shoved it away and both ended up in little piles at the end of the bed. Needless to say, we bought a new sheet set the next day.

The bed itself is not bad at all, it's a decent size and the frame is wood and fairly attractive looking. It even matches (pretty much) our bureau. The mattress now... it's our own special 'memory foam' mattress! As Neil said, it's a memory foam mattress because you'll remember it forever. This thing is essentially a large, thick slab of foam. Hard foam, hard enough that once you lay down you're stuck. You never move at night because you sink so far into the mattress that it's impossible. It's hard to get out of the bed in the morning... not because we're tired but because of the sheer effort involved in prying yourself out of the body-shaped ditch you're lying in.

Then there are our pillows. Imagine taking a pillow and stuffing it full of damp (and therefore somewhat soft and not crunchy) popcorn. When you lay on it, you can feel hundreds and hundreds of individual bumps. They, unlike the mattress, aren't very squishy, so while your body sinks, your head just kind of sits on top of the pillow.

All joking aside, it's not a bad bed really. We're not uncomfortable, and we definitely have no problem falling asleep... which may be due to the fact that by the end of the day we're exhausted from exploring. Once you get used to it, it's actually somewhat comfortable... as long as you don't want to move in the middle of the night!

Good news day!

2009-01-09T13:36:00.000-04:00

So I wanted to publish a short post about some of the good news we've gotten today, and over the past few days. Before I start, I wanted to let you all know that we're doing well and we're happy. We're making friends, mostly among the other couples (which make sense, because we have the most in common with them). We've got plenty of food and supplies, and while we do miss a few things, or miss the quality of certain items that's available in the states, we're very happy on this little island. Alright, on to the good news.

The first bit of good news, which is a few days old, is that Frazier is alright! Frazier's living with Ryan's parents while we're down in the Caribbean, since it's very expensive to keep a dog on the island and there's not a lot of room to run around, which a lab needs to be happy. On Monday night, Frazier must have either broken the gate and jumped it, or it was already broken and he jumped it. Their other dog, Hope, stayed in the yard like a good girl, but not our Frazier. Again, Frazier is fine, but he was hit by a car. The poor driver is a senior in high school and was apparently very upset, so I feel very sorry for him. But seeing a black dog at night is very hard to do, and Frazier was trained to AVOID cars as a guide dog, so I can't figure out why he went in the road at all. But Ryan's poor family was at the vet hospital with him till about midnight, making sure that our pup was still in one piece. I guess Frazier's favoring one leg pretty badly, but he has no broken bones or internal bleeding, thank god. He's on pain meds right now and he's been very quiet. Hopefully he'll feel better soon, and hopefully he'll remember that roads and cars are dangerous! Ryan and I are just thankful that Frazier is receiving such great care and so much love.

The other bit of good news... I found horses! It's a small stable called Rainforest Riding, and it's run by a woman named Valerie, from Canada. She seems very nice and like she really cares about her horses. The nursing mares are a bit thin, but the rest are in pretty good shape considering that there is currently a shortage of pellets and that pellets are incredibly expensive! I'll probably go down a few times a week to help feed, ride and train some young horses, and help with lessons and trail rides. I'll be able to get my horse fix! It's not too far away, it's about a mile outside of Portsmouth, which is only a 6 minute bus ride away.

And one last note... our TV gets ABC! So I got to watch my Grey's Anatomy last night, which totally made my night. This means that Ryan will be able to watch Lost, and that we'll be able to watch Desperate Housewives. The station is broadcast out of Puerto Rico, which means about half the commercials are in spanish, but we're pretty happy. This means we can watch our shows when we have the time.

The photos I promised

2009-01-08T11:19:00.000-04:00

Here are the photos I promised you all yesterday!

This is Jester pup. We ran into him in downtown Picard (which is the village where the school is actually located) today, near the restaurants. I think he was looking for some softy to beg food from.

And this is the massive boat we saw in the harbor yesterday. There are four radars on this boat! It's huge! Notice the little white speck beside it... that's a nice little speed boat that's probably about 18-20 feet long. That gives you an idea how large this boat is. And if you can't tell from the photo, yes those are electric sails.

Settling in...

2009-01-07T19:32:00.000-04:00

Yesterday and today were good days. This place is slowly starting to feel more and more like home. Ryan and I both feel pretty comfortable here. We're figuring out where to get food and supplies and we're getting used to everything running at least ten minutes late due to island time. We're also working on our back-up supplies. Apparently we need to keep enough food, cash, and water on hand for a few days in case of emergency or rain or power outages. So we're working on building that up, and we're working on settling into our apartment.

Yesterday I had my own orientation while Ryan was going to his. Apparently most of his are a pretty big waste of time, and I really feel like my orientation was yesterday. There were very few spouses (spouses refers not only to actual spouses, but also to girlfriends, boyfriends, or fiances who are accompanying a student), and most of the attendees were parents. Yes, there are a LOT of parents down here... I actually want to write a whole posting on the parents who came down with their students, but I don't want to go into it here, since it'd take so long. But the whole orientation was taken up by stupid, repetitive questions, and I didn't feel I learned very much useful information at all. One good thing I did learn was that the centipedes (again, I'll cover island wild- or not so wild- life in another post) are not actually poisonous... it's just very very painful to be bitten.

Today I came to one of Ryan's orientation events- Food on Dominica. It was given by a nutritionist who grew up on the island and now works at Ross and the local hospital. She was very funny and very realistic about where and how to get safe food, especially safe fruits and vegetables. She really drove home the importance of eating well and keeping a good weight, and she had a lot of fruits and veggies with her so that she could show us different sources of different vitamins and supplements. She also had AMAZING suggestions about where to get protein, since there is limited meat, and no beef available on the island. Next Saturday I will be going with her to the Portsmouth market to buy fresh food right from the farmers and fishermen. She'll show me (and anyone else there) the best stands and introduce us to the farmers and tell them not to overcharge us. I think it'll be great to know where the best (and safest) stands are. She also told us how to safely wash fruits and vegetables.

Tonight Ryan and I decorated our apartment! We hung a bunch of photos that we brought with us, so this place is really starting to feel like home. It looks pretty nice, I'll have to set up another video tour so you can all see what our home looks like now. With the photos up it feels much more personal and home-like. It's our first place and we love it.

I experimented today and did some laundry in the sink. There are no Laundromats and the only way to do it is in the sink or to pay a lot of money to have someone else do it. So I'll be doing the lighter and smaller articles in the sink. I think that some of the pants and heavy shorts and blankets will be easier to pay someone else to do since the bucket I do laundry in is not that big. But the good news is I think that the clothes are clean and I didn't ruin anything and everything is sprawled out across our apartment drying. It takes forever to dry because the humidity is so high.

We saw an enormous boat off of 'our' beach today, and we'll have to get photos up of it. But since we have some friends coming over to play cards soon, I don't think I'll have time to upload the photos now. But they'll be up tomorrow! I also want to put up photos of our new buddy, Jester. He's a perky little mixed breed dog (one of the dozens of strays) who likes to follow us around on the beach, and will follow us home when we leave. We keep telling him we already have a puppy and we can't let him in anyways, since we signed a contract with our landlord and all. It's kind of fun to have a beach buddy though, and he chases the crabs, which is really funny to watch. So tomorrow (or later tonight) I'll update this post with photos of the massive boat we saw, along with a photo of our beach buddy.

We're on island time now...

2009-01-06T08:58:00.001-04:00

So Ryan and I had our first real experience with 'island time' yesterday. Yesterday was the day that all students (they won't tell us how many, but most estimates hover around 500) needed to get their photos taken for their student IDs. I went with Ryan, since a few Ross workers had said that I could have my photo taken for my ID as well. Ryan and I had the day all planned out... we'd drop our laptops off to be configured to the Ross network, then we'd get our ID photos taken, we'd pick up his white coat, we'd open up a local bank account, and then we'd go back to the apartment for lunch and spend the afternoon relaxing on the beach until orientation started at 6pm.

Sounds great, right? Too bad that's not the way things worked out. We left the apartment a little later than we planned, since our maid showed up. Yup, our maid. Maid service is included in almost all apartments on the island. It's not optional. And to me it's a bit awkward, since I hate to be sitting there relaxing while someone else works... especially working cleaning my dishes or sweeping my floor.

Once we eventually got to campus, we were told that they were not taking any more laptops today, but that we could pay to configure his laptop (mine's free since it's a mac). Surprise surprise, we couldn't actually pay at the technology desk, we had to go get a receipt from another building. It was in the same direction as where they were handing out coats and taking photos, so we figured it would be easy enough to do.... then we saw the line. The line for the white coats was pretty long, but it moved fairly quickly. Ryan got his coat (and yes, he looks very handsome in it) and then it was time to join the line for the ID photos... which wrapped halfway around the building.

No biggie, we figured, it's a long line, but it's just photos... how long could that take? Very long as it turns out. We got into line at about 10AM. We finally left campus and started home at 3:30!!!! That's five an a half hours in the sun! It turns out that there was only one person taking ID photos (for about five hundred students remember!) and it took about two minutes a person to get their ID photo. There would be periods of more than half an hour when the line wouldn't move at all. Everyone in line grabbed chairs from the nearby pavilon (the one near the Subway that's on campus) and just waited. It's amazing how long people will wait in a line... but we were also told that photos might not be taken again for a few weeks, so it was today or we'd have to wait a long time. We got to know the other people in line pretty well, and most people were frustrated but only a few people got really pissed off. It's just part of the laid-back island life... why hurry? You've got all day.

I was glad I was waiting with Ryan, since he was able to run a few errands while we waited. He got the letter from Ross stating that he was a student and eligible for a local bank account and he paid for his lap-top to be configured (which took about half an hour) and then he waited in the long subway line to grab us lunch. We don't have bread in our apartment yet, so it's not like one of us could have run home to grab sandwiches. Anyways, Ryan was waiting at Subway for probably forty-five minutes... but don't feel bad for him, he was in the AC. And he missed the worst part of the wait... this stretch of cement pavement with no shade at all, right in the direct sun... and there was not a single breeze. It was ridiculously hot, everyone was bright red and dripping and guzzling water.

The funny (or not so funny at the time) part is that... guess who couldn't get their ID? Spouses!!! I had waited all day and they told me after I got all the way up to the counter that spouse ID's won't be taken till next week. The kicker is that they couldn't even tell me WHEN next week... just sometime next week. Lovely.

But in all seriousness, we did get a few things done... and we rushed home to have a half hour on the beach before we had to cook dinner and go to orientation. We're both pretty red from yesterday. If we'd realized how long we'd be out, we'd have used sunscreen. That's a lesson learned I guess.

I have to run in a few minutes to go to my orientation. Ryan left for his about an hour ago. I also have to figure out what I'm cooking for dinner, but I can't really do that until I see what's available at the grocery store. The school gave us a recipe book, but I don't have a pan to bake in yet, and all of the entrees require baking. I'll see what James Store has for sale later.

Oh... and big news on the food front! We're buying some frozen chicken off our neighbor (she bought like 40 pounds of it I guess) and we found BREAD last night. I don't think any of you can understand how excited we were to find bread. It was amazing.... We're having it for dinner tonight. Yay!

Quick reminder... we do have a phone down here, set up through our computers. So if you don't know our number, just ask either of our parents or send us and email and we'll let you know. Calls are always welcome and if we're out, you can leave us a voicemail.

About the photos posted below.... yes, for all you Pirates of the Caribbean fans.... those hills DO look familiar for a reason. The Black Pearl sails around them in more than one scene. These are the volcanoes that protect Portsmouth harbor... although the Caribbean is a very quiet sea compared to the Atlantic Ocean. The photo on the top shows the view from Coconut Beach (the one three minutes walk from our home) and the one on the bottom is a photo I snapped on campus while waiting in the very long line yesterday. I'll keep adding photos so that everyone can see what life is like down here! I promise, I'll have photos up of some of the more... interesting... aspects of island life soon. Love y'all!

Our First Few Days

2009-01-05T10:27:00.001-04:00

I'm sure you've all heard that we made it here safely, despite a one night delay in Antigua. The delay was fine, the airline put us up in a hotel and paid for dinner, so we did enjoy it. We have an apartment here, and it's great. It's small by american standards, but it's a two room apartment and is a good size for a couple, and larger than average in this area. It's down a steep hill... but since we went to Hartwick we're used to it! The big plus of our apartment... it's about three minutes from Coconut Beach.

Yesterday was great. We got up (the sun rises early here btw, so because of that and the cost of electricity we might get up around 6 every day and go to sleep about 10) and met a group from the college at the library about 9. Another married couple was there as well (they're just like us... he's going to school and she's staying as well) so it was nice to get to know them a bit. Their names are Neil and Jennifer and they're from Illinois.

It was like a caravan of buses, and of course, the bus we were on had it's AC fail within half an hour, so we had to have the windows open the whole day. That wouldn't have been bad, except our bus also seemed to have transmission issues, so it was at the back of the line and got lots of bus fumes. But no one complained, everyone seemed to have a pretty good attitude about the whole thing.

We stopped at a few lookout points along the way to the Carib Reservation, where we stopped and tried some native coconut flatbread... it was very good! We also stopped at a little market to do some shopping. Ryan and I bought a pair of birds (lovebirds we decided) carved out of a coconut. Very cool! We want to go back again with this other couple to buy baskets and such when there won't be such a crowd.

We stopped for lunch at this little roadside place. They had a pretty nice buffet, and it wasn't too terribly pricey. We had the first meat we've had since we were on the island... we haven't found the butcher yet! After that we hit our final destination... Emerald Pool.

Emerald Pool is this little rocky pool created by a waterfall in the middle of the rainforest. The walk in was amazing... Ryan's seen the rainforest but it was my first time. The pool was awesome! Ryan and I were among the handful of people who went it... it was sort of like spectator swimming since so many people were standing there watching. That made it a bit awkward but it was SUCH an incredible experience. The falls were small enough that you could actually swim over and stand underneath them... it was amazing! The water came down hard, but it was still fun. I was a bit worried about losing a contact... but I was lucky and I didn't loose one after all... which was pretty amazing considering the amount of spray and the force of the water landing on top of us.

The water was cool, but a comfy sort of cool. Much warmer than the lakes in Maine or the Adirondacks! A few kids complained about the water temperature, so we told them they needed to swim in the northern parts of the US before they got to complain.
It was a GREAT day, and a lot of fun. There was a social on the beach last night, and it was a lot of fun. We met our neighbors, another couple who brought their golden retriever named Peanut. Ross gave us appetizers, which was nice. Food here is expensive... EVERYTHING is expensive. A jar of peanut butter (a small jar of off-brand no less) is about four US dollars. Pricey, but so far we are really enjoying it.

I want to get involved in the spouse's organization, it's supposed to be great. They do a lot of fun things... they'll have cooking seminars, little trips, parties, games tournaments... sadly, I'm looking forward to cooking seminars the most. I love cooking and I'm really looking forward to learning how to cook on the island. Things are different here.

Hope you are all having a good time! We love and miss you all, and we want to thank you again for all you did to help us with our wedding and our big move. We hope that many of you will be able to visit... and that's only partly because we want you to bring us stuff! Mostly we just look forward to seeing you all.