I don't really have any updates, but today I made a video when I went to school just to show what it looks like out the bus window. Just copy and paste the link into your browser. Enjoy!
http://youtu.be/cdySaMVU8bo
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sandblast
It has been a couple weeks since I've posted a blog. I had midterms week and not only was I studying, but nothing worth telling was going on. I didn't figure anyone wanted to hear about my endless hours of studying the cardiovascular system or memorizing different levels of feed requirements. I am happy to report that I had a successful first round of midterms, although I can't believe I'm hardly passed halfway! I'm used to a 10 week quarter; 17 week terms are endless!! All of the exams here are multiple choice on Scantrons and the tests are monitored by proctors. I understand that the school wants everything to be fair and doesn't want any excuse for cheating, but the proctors take their jobs EXTREMELY seriously and are a little snippy about it. I got nearly scolded because I dared to walk into the exam with my sunglasses on me head. How dare I?! I could've written the answers on them! I'm so glad they caught me; I was in possession of magic glasses which showed me where to bubble. Again, I understand that there are rules, but the way they were about it was just a little bit ridiculous. Another girl got reprimanded for not wearing her hair in a ponytail on the day of the test, so she could have been using her hair to hide her eyes. We all survived and were so excited to take the weekend off and relax.
Friday night one of my friends called and told me he had rented a car and wanted to drive around the area where the buses don't go and invited me along. We drove down twisty, narrow roads to where the locals live. I knew that the areas where the students live are kept up nicely and are designed to entice us to live there, but the area we drove through made me so thankful to live in Grand Anse. There were countless stray dogs; one of which I thought was going to jump through my window. There were children running all over the streets. (Side note: Grenadians get offended if you call the youth "kids." Those are baby goats. The youth of Grenada are "children.") We passed a "mall" which was essentially a hut on the side of the road selling various odds and ends and there were many people randomly barbecuing. We passed a "nail salon" which was a wooden shack which was about 5 feet by 5 feet. It was an eye-opener to drive through this area and although I was glad I got to see it, I was also glad I wasn't driving. Wesley, my friend driving the car, and I picked up another friend and we went out to a local restaurant, "Dodgy Docks." It's a beautiful place connected to a hotel that overlooks one of the marinas. I had already eaten dinner, so I opted to get ice cream, since I don't eat it down here. Unfortunately the only flavor they had was nutmeg. I declined, but Wesley got some. It tasted like toilet cleaner. Nutmeg is not good in everything! I don't know what it was, but that night I wound up suffering from food poisoning. Let me tell you, when your air conditioner doesn't work that well and your toilet doesn't flush very well to begin with due to poor water pressure, food poisoning isn't exactly the condition you want to be dealing with. That is all I will say on the matter. Luckily, since I was sick for the rest of the weekend, it rained and I didn't miss nice beach days.
Last Saturday was St. Patrick's day and it was also the first weekend that everyone in the entire school was done with midterms. So every term the school throws a big beach party called "Sandblast" to celebrate and give us one day of a break, since we don't get spring break. For $35 EC, which is $13US, we got entry to the party, which was on Grand Anse, and a cup to fill with all you can drink beer and soft drinks. I don't particularly enjoy beer very much. but in honor of St. Patrick's day I had a couple. There was green Carib and green Stag (our two local beers), Guiness, Monster, various sodas and water, and coconut water. I waited in a long line for the guy to cut a hole in a coconut with a machete and when I finally drank it, it was not good. It basically tasted like warm, dirty water. But now I know. It was such a fun day with music (reggae of course!), a giant slip and slide, bubbles, and the beach. I had a lot of fun along with everyone else. I'll post a link at the bottom of the blog to look at pictures from the party.
Yesterday we had a guest lecturer come to my animal behavior class and demonstrate how to restrain animals using rope and taught us to tie various knots. He is the man in charge of the teaching farm down here. He was wearing overalls, a plaid flannel shirt and old boots. I figured he was an old cowboy, but he turned out to be an old British man. He taught us to tie the reef knot, reefer's knot, bowline, surgeon's, Tom's fool, among others. I enjoyed the lesson, but he moved around the room to help us and his body odor was so strong that it singed my nose hairs. I couldn't believe it! It was probably the worst BO I've ever encountered. But at the end of the day I am a good boy scout and can now tie a bunch of different knots.
At home, a couple of my friends tell me that I am a fanatic about shaving my legs. While that may be true, I have never understood how girls can go without shaving them, especially when wearing shorts! So being the leg shaving queen, I made sure to bring enough razors down here to suffice my need for smooth legs. I have used a couple and went to get another the other day before getting in the shower. Since they were in my bathroom, which grows mildew in a day in the tub and has extremely poor air circulation, all of my razors were rusted! Oh well, I'll just get a new one when I go to the store. I have looked all over and the only razor I have found was a Schick two-bladed razor which cost me $2 EC, which is less than a dollar. You can imagine the quality of this thing. I have never seen a razor head so skinny in my entire life. Even the free razors that usually come in goody bags are luxury compared to this thing. It would probably be safer and more effective to use my kitchen pairing knife that this sharp piece of death. I'm going to continue to look around to find a better one, but I now understand why the majority of women in Grenada seem to have the hairiest of armpits. If I can't find one, Nick is coming down here to visit me in a couple weeks and I'll have him bring me one.
Nothing else new is going on as far as classes. The bus system seems to have gotten worse as often the bus just doesn't come when it was scheduled, but it has been like that to a degree the entire time. I'm going to try to make a video of the scenery I see everyday on the way to school. There are some pretty cool things to see including a dry dock marina, project type housing, roundabouts everywhere and crazy driving in general. I won't take nearly as long to update my blog this time, but for now it's bedtime. Goodnight for now.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150690344978275.501272.781648274&type=3&l=4ceb579a9e
Friday night one of my friends called and told me he had rented a car and wanted to drive around the area where the buses don't go and invited me along. We drove down twisty, narrow roads to where the locals live. I knew that the areas where the students live are kept up nicely and are designed to entice us to live there, but the area we drove through made me so thankful to live in Grand Anse. There were countless stray dogs; one of which I thought was going to jump through my window. There were children running all over the streets. (Side note: Grenadians get offended if you call the youth "kids." Those are baby goats. The youth of Grenada are "children.") We passed a "mall" which was essentially a hut on the side of the road selling various odds and ends and there were many people randomly barbecuing. We passed a "nail salon" which was a wooden shack which was about 5 feet by 5 feet. It was an eye-opener to drive through this area and although I was glad I got to see it, I was also glad I wasn't driving. Wesley, my friend driving the car, and I picked up another friend and we went out to a local restaurant, "Dodgy Docks." It's a beautiful place connected to a hotel that overlooks one of the marinas. I had already eaten dinner, so I opted to get ice cream, since I don't eat it down here. Unfortunately the only flavor they had was nutmeg. I declined, but Wesley got some. It tasted like toilet cleaner. Nutmeg is not good in everything! I don't know what it was, but that night I wound up suffering from food poisoning. Let me tell you, when your air conditioner doesn't work that well and your toilet doesn't flush very well to begin with due to poor water pressure, food poisoning isn't exactly the condition you want to be dealing with. That is all I will say on the matter. Luckily, since I was sick for the rest of the weekend, it rained and I didn't miss nice beach days.
Last Saturday was St. Patrick's day and it was also the first weekend that everyone in the entire school was done with midterms. So every term the school throws a big beach party called "Sandblast" to celebrate and give us one day of a break, since we don't get spring break. For $35 EC, which is $13US, we got entry to the party, which was on Grand Anse, and a cup to fill with all you can drink beer and soft drinks. I don't particularly enjoy beer very much. but in honor of St. Patrick's day I had a couple. There was green Carib and green Stag (our two local beers), Guiness, Monster, various sodas and water, and coconut water. I waited in a long line for the guy to cut a hole in a coconut with a machete and when I finally drank it, it was not good. It basically tasted like warm, dirty water. But now I know. It was such a fun day with music (reggae of course!), a giant slip and slide, bubbles, and the beach. I had a lot of fun along with everyone else. I'll post a link at the bottom of the blog to look at pictures from the party.
Yesterday we had a guest lecturer come to my animal behavior class and demonstrate how to restrain animals using rope and taught us to tie various knots. He is the man in charge of the teaching farm down here. He was wearing overalls, a plaid flannel shirt and old boots. I figured he was an old cowboy, but he turned out to be an old British man. He taught us to tie the reef knot, reefer's knot, bowline, surgeon's, Tom's fool, among others. I enjoyed the lesson, but he moved around the room to help us and his body odor was so strong that it singed my nose hairs. I couldn't believe it! It was probably the worst BO I've ever encountered. But at the end of the day I am a good boy scout and can now tie a bunch of different knots.
At home, a couple of my friends tell me that I am a fanatic about shaving my legs. While that may be true, I have never understood how girls can go without shaving them, especially when wearing shorts! So being the leg shaving queen, I made sure to bring enough razors down here to suffice my need for smooth legs. I have used a couple and went to get another the other day before getting in the shower. Since they were in my bathroom, which grows mildew in a day in the tub and has extremely poor air circulation, all of my razors were rusted! Oh well, I'll just get a new one when I go to the store. I have looked all over and the only razor I have found was a Schick two-bladed razor which cost me $2 EC, which is less than a dollar. You can imagine the quality of this thing. I have never seen a razor head so skinny in my entire life. Even the free razors that usually come in goody bags are luxury compared to this thing. It would probably be safer and more effective to use my kitchen pairing knife that this sharp piece of death. I'm going to continue to look around to find a better one, but I now understand why the majority of women in Grenada seem to have the hairiest of armpits. If I can't find one, Nick is coming down here to visit me in a couple weeks and I'll have him bring me one.
Nothing else new is going on as far as classes. The bus system seems to have gotten worse as often the bus just doesn't come when it was scheduled, but it has been like that to a degree the entire time. I'm going to try to make a video of the scenery I see everyday on the way to school. There are some pretty cool things to see including a dry dock marina, project type housing, roundabouts everywhere and crazy driving in general. I won't take nearly as long to update my blog this time, but for now it's bedtime. Goodnight for now.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150690344978275.501272.781648274&type=3&l=4ceb579a9e
Friday, March 2, 2012
On a boat...
Living down here and having a birthday can be a lonely time, especially when you don't know everyone. My friend Maegan's birthday was on Friday and so I decided to bake her a cake. I couldn't find a cake pan, so I got two pie tins. I got the funfetti mix, food coloring and frosting and got ready to bake. The first problem presented was that my oven doesn't actually say how hot it is. Instead of numbers, it has more of a wedge that I assume means cooler on the skinny side and hotter on the fat side. Well how are you supposed to know how wide on the wedge to go for 350? I guessed. I don't have a bowl bigger than a cereal bowl, so I had to mix in two bowls and then mix them together. Another problem was that I don't have a mixer! So I used a spoon and stirred the old fashioned way. I poured the batter into the pie tins and put them in the oven. They baked and came out beautifully. They were really cute because I made them tie-dye. When I tried to get ready to stack them so I could frost, I realized another problem was that pie tin sides aren't at right angles to their bottoms so when I stacked them they weren't exactly even. Oh well. They were still tasty. I wanted to pipe her name on it but didn't have any cake supplies, so I used a zip lock with the end cut off. Nothing fancy, but it got the job done. The cake wound up being very yummy.
For her birthday we went to the fish fry on the northern part of the island. We got on a catamaran and it took us an hour ride to get there. After a long, hard, sweaty week of studying, being in the ocean breeze under billions of stars made everything seem so nice. The catamaran was nice, but it's still shocking to see the difference in safety standards outside of the US. There was a little hand rail around the sides of the bow, but none in the front or around the back of the boat. It would have been very easy to fall off if you weren't careful. We docked and had to walk through the "projects" of Grenada, so to speak. Houses the size of what we would think of as a living room were up on cinder blocks and people just sat on the side of the road drinking. There are a few stray dogs around where I live, but there were a ton of dogs in this area! All of them had mange and all of the females were pregnant. It's sad to see all of them in such poor conditions. We got to the fish fry and it was basically a hundred yards of alley with EZ ups and each of them had something different. There were fried fish balls, seafood lo mein, fish kabobs, fish pies, fish cakes, fish salad. We all got different things and tried each others. Everything was very good, that is, until Wes showed up with one of his purchases; fish ice cream! We all tried it. It was kind of like vanilla ice cream infused with fish. One of the other guys put it the best, "It's not bad, but it's not good. It just IS." And it really was. All in all, the catamaran ride was better than the actual fish fry itself, but it was a really good experience.
Being a Lebanese girl I have been influenced to find the best bang for my buck. I rarely pay retail price if I can help it. When I'm at the grocery store, I really don't mind buying the generic salsa instead of name brand, or whatever the product is. Especially in Grenada, all of the name brand items are expensive because they have to be shipped from the mainland, so buying store brand can save a lot of money. However, I have discovered that there are a few things I can't tolerate and I must buy the name brand. Milk; if I'm lucky enough to find milk AND it has an expiration date that's not today, it can't be local. I get the milk from Florida. Cream cheese; local cream cheese just isn't quite right. Aluminum foil; cheap aluminum foil is exactly that. Cheap. It's like quarter ply aluminum.
Speaking of Lebanese, I just found out that my landlords are Lebanese. The whole building I live in is owned by an older man who is quiet, but from what I understand is the "hammer" around here and is not to be messed with. His children are the ones whom I have dealt with for my apartment and they have been nothing but nice. They both said they were born and raised in Grenada, but they don't have the Grenadian accent. Also, there are two types of people in the Caribbean; black-looking and Indian-looking. They are neither. I figured they had to be middle eastern of some sort. The other day I was paying rent and finally asked the son what ethnicity his family is. He replied, "My family is from a little country called Lebanon." I told him me too! He laughed and gave me a high five. I wanted to say YAHADADEEN! But I didn't want to be subsequently evicted. For those of you who are not Leb, that is not what you should be telling another Leb who doesn't know how white you really are and that you actually have no idea how to speak Arabic.
I just took my first exam and got an A! It was my anatomy lab practical. Now I have a long weekend and week of studying because I have midterms all next week. Probably nothing eventful will happen between now and so I will write again on the other side.
For her birthday we went to the fish fry on the northern part of the island. We got on a catamaran and it took us an hour ride to get there. After a long, hard, sweaty week of studying, being in the ocean breeze under billions of stars made everything seem so nice. The catamaran was nice, but it's still shocking to see the difference in safety standards outside of the US. There was a little hand rail around the sides of the bow, but none in the front or around the back of the boat. It would have been very easy to fall off if you weren't careful. We docked and had to walk through the "projects" of Grenada, so to speak. Houses the size of what we would think of as a living room were up on cinder blocks and people just sat on the side of the road drinking. There are a few stray dogs around where I live, but there were a ton of dogs in this area! All of them had mange and all of the females were pregnant. It's sad to see all of them in such poor conditions. We got to the fish fry and it was basically a hundred yards of alley with EZ ups and each of them had something different. There were fried fish balls, seafood lo mein, fish kabobs, fish pies, fish cakes, fish salad. We all got different things and tried each others. Everything was very good, that is, until Wes showed up with one of his purchases; fish ice cream! We all tried it. It was kind of like vanilla ice cream infused with fish. One of the other guys put it the best, "It's not bad, but it's not good. It just IS." And it really was. All in all, the catamaran ride was better than the actual fish fry itself, but it was a really good experience.
Being a Lebanese girl I have been influenced to find the best bang for my buck. I rarely pay retail price if I can help it. When I'm at the grocery store, I really don't mind buying the generic salsa instead of name brand, or whatever the product is. Especially in Grenada, all of the name brand items are expensive because they have to be shipped from the mainland, so buying store brand can save a lot of money. However, I have discovered that there are a few things I can't tolerate and I must buy the name brand. Milk; if I'm lucky enough to find milk AND it has an expiration date that's not today, it can't be local. I get the milk from Florida. Cream cheese; local cream cheese just isn't quite right. Aluminum foil; cheap aluminum foil is exactly that. Cheap. It's like quarter ply aluminum.
Speaking of Lebanese, I just found out that my landlords are Lebanese. The whole building I live in is owned by an older man who is quiet, but from what I understand is the "hammer" around here and is not to be messed with. His children are the ones whom I have dealt with for my apartment and they have been nothing but nice. They both said they were born and raised in Grenada, but they don't have the Grenadian accent. Also, there are two types of people in the Caribbean; black-looking and Indian-looking. They are neither. I figured they had to be middle eastern of some sort. The other day I was paying rent and finally asked the son what ethnicity his family is. He replied, "My family is from a little country called Lebanon." I told him me too! He laughed and gave me a high five. I wanted to say YAHADADEEN! But I didn't want to be subsequently evicted. For those of you who are not Leb, that is not what you should be telling another Leb who doesn't know how white you really are and that you actually have no idea how to speak Arabic.
I just took my first exam and got an A! It was my anatomy lab practical. Now I have a long weekend and week of studying because I have midterms all next week. Probably nothing eventful will happen between now and so I will write again on the other side.
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