Superbowl Sunday

Well, after a long, busy, but wonderful Christmas break I'm back in Grenada. I have been so busy getting things settled over the last two weeks that I haven't had any time to write about it. So much has happened! My fiance, Nick, got out of the army right before Christmas and he came down here with me, but over the break we were busy planning for the wedding, being with family and running around getting things done to come down here. We also were very busy looking for a dog (we visited eight local animal shelters and were unable to find one!) and finally found one on Craigslist. He is a Siberian Husky named Maverick and he was nine months when we got him the day after Christmas.

One of the stresses was trying to get Maverick ready to fly.  He is great in the car, but I wasn't sure how he would do on a long flight! But we got him through security and to our gate just fine. When he got on the plane, he was a little scared, so we had him lay across our laps for about an hour until he settled down. After that, Nick got him to lay on the floor by our feet and he slept quietly for the rest of the flight to Orlando. Then we had to fly from Orlando to Miami, which was only about a 50 minute flight and he did great. When we got to Miami, we found a lot of my classmates with their dogs. I took Maverick out in both Orlando and Miami to try to get him to go potty, but he was just too distracted and couldn't go. Then again, he also wouldn't really eat or drink anything. He wound up holding it until we got to Grenada, which was about 20 hours after we left LA. What a good boy! The flight from Miami to Grenada was almost all students and there were about 20 dogs and 4 cats on the plane. But since all of them belonged to vet students, there wasn't any issue with any of them and they all were mostly quiet for the whole flight.  We landed on Friday night and my classmates/neighbors, Mike and Crystal, who I shared a car with last term had already gotten us a car again and picked us up.  Luckily they are awesome friends and had already gotten the keys to my apartment and turned on the AC and fans so it was cooling down by the time we got here.

We're living at Grand View Inn again, but this time I have a one bedroom instead of a two bedroom apartment. It's not very big, but it serves its purpose and we enjoy it. This term we got a 1996 Honda CRV as our car. It's nicer than our Escudo in that all the doors and windows are functional, the air conditioner works, the radio works, and it has power steering. However, it's really a give and take because our car has already had to go to the mechanic, whereas our car last term never did. This car has already overheated once and it doesn't turn over every time it's started. Often you have to pump the gas a lot while you crank it to get it to start. One time, thank goodness we were only going about five miles an hour, I was driving it and tried to break, but the car wouldn't stop! I pulled the emergency brake and pumped the brakes a bit and tried them again and it still didn't work! I turned the car off and back on and they wound up being fine. Mike was in the car with me and we drove away laughing saying "TIG," but then we decided that we shouldn't be laughing at what potentially could have been a life-and-death situation but then again... TIG. Nick learned about the pot holes yesterday while driving here for the first time. He was driving us back to our apartment and hit one and learned that they are so bad they will bend your rim. Then we learned that the cars don't come with jacks big enough to jack up the car. Luckily we were able to get one that almost went high enough, plus a block of wood to add those extra couple of inches. We also learned that while on the side of the road changing a tire, every local who drives by will ask you if you are "Getting through." We weren't really sure how to respond, although I'm pretty sure we got through.

Nick has been learning ropes down here and has learned a few things through trial and error. He plugged our toaster directly into the wall and, while that is the fastest way to produce a piece of toast, it also turns converts the toaster into a one time use one and produces a lovely fireworks. He also just learned (just, as in he just came back while I was writing this and told me) that you can't leave your running shoes on the beach to go run in the sand, or Grenadians will steal them. Shiesty Grenadians. But Nick has also made a couple of friends with other husbands who live in the complex. He went on a run with the Grenada Hash House Harriers, which is a running club that is all over the world. There was a cruise ship in port that had a bunch of people who were part of their hash club, so they went on a run and Nick joined them. After the run, they all go to a local bar and get lunch and some beers. The club's motto is "Drinkers with a Running Problem." Nick had a lot of fun doing that and has taken Maverick on the route he went on a couple times. Other than that, Nick has been an amazing house fiancé; he does the laundry, cooks for me, takes care of our doggy, plays Xbox, watches movies, reads books. He's also been spear fishing, and although he's been able to hit some fish, none of them have been big enough to eat yet. He needs to find a better place to go with bigger fish.

He took me snorkeling on Sunday and he brought his spear. We had to climb down a cliff to the spot where he wanted to go. I was very scared, but he helped guide me down. The place he found is a beautiful coral reef where there are lots of fish and cool coral to see. It was really amazing to see. He called me over and pointed out this cool looking fish, which we later found out was a smooth trunk fish, and so I was swimming over it and enjoying it for a while. All of a sudden, BOOM! He shot it! I was sad because I liked that fish, but he needed to practice with his spear and the fishy was slow. We also saw a really cool eel and some other fish that was blue with even brighter blue spots. The snorkeling down here really is nice.

Maverick has been a good boy, but he has taken some patience on our ends to get him adjusted to being down here. He is a crazy Husky, so he doesn't really know how to come when called yet. We have been working with him  and Nick successfully took him to the laundry room the other day without a leash, but when he tried it again Maverick got distracted and started running. He doesn't run away so much as just wanting to play, but he's very difficult to catch. Luckily Nick was able to catch him and everything worked out fine.

Yesterday we went to St. George's to go to the fish market, which is a pretty gross place to begin with. We went there last week to look for fish but they didn't really have anything. Across the street is the meat market and the day before, next door to the meat market, I had seen some cows and pigs in this building and I stopped and looked at them for a few minutes. The next day we were back in St. George's trying to set up our Internet and I told Brandi and Kim, "Oh, coming up after the meat market we're going to get to see some cows and pigs!" We got to the building and there weren't any animals. I said, "That's weird, they were here yesterday," and before any of us could put two and two together a Grenadian man walked out and said, "We keeeeled dem." Brandi said, " Oh! Well that's not very nice," and we walked away kind of in shock. It makes sense that the slaughter house is right next to the meat market, but it's just not something we expected to see in the city, I suppose. The fish market is a big warehouse with rolled up doors and locals sitting behind counters with their catches. Depending on the day, they may have a lot or they may have nothing. Yesterday all they had was shark, so we didn't get anything. They use a big machete to cut the fish into pieces and then take a big stick that's crudely carved into a club and hit the machete to make it cut through the fish. Then they take that same machete and fillet the fish. The precision they have with a machete is pretty impressive.

On the way out of St. George's, you have to drive up a huge hill before you can drive back down into the Carenage and exit. We have been having problems with our car overheating, but the guy we rent from took it to the mechanic the other day and brought it back, saying he installed a new fan. Crystal was driving and our car was slowly crawling up the hill, but before we made it to the top, the car stopped. It was still on and in drive, but we were rolling backwards. Nick got out of the car and tried pushing it to give it the last little bit of power, but it just wasn't enough. She had to put it in reverse and back down the hill to take a side street. We started driving to find a less steep route out, but all of a sudden as we were climbing a less steep hill, the car just turned off and died. It had over heated once again. We were able to get it to the side of the road, which luckily wasn't busy and popped the hood. Just then, it started to rain pretty hard and the water was flash boiling off the engine. We just sat there unsure of what to do. Crystal tried calling our renter to tell him, but he didn't pick up and we weren't even sure how to tell him where we were. An old Grenadian man walked out into his yard and told Nick to take the radiator cap off and add water, at least we think that's what he said; his local accent was very thick and we really couldn't understand him. When Nick told him it was still too hot, he disappeared and returned with a thick leather glove and removed the cap for us. No steam came out because the radiator was bone dry! Luckily, the nicest Grenadian ever pulled over and had a five liter jug of water in his car that was half full. He poured it in and it immediately boiled off. The old man took it inside and filled it and the car took the entire thing. We were finally able to start it after it had cooled down and water was added. The guy who pulled over lived here, but is training in England to become a professional boxer. He was extremely buff and very nice and asked us about living here as students. We were very thankful for him. We got home and got a hold of the owner of our car, who came to pick it up, and we're still waiting to hear when we're going to get it back.

Today is Superbowl Sunday and the weather is beautiful. There is a sailboat race happening in the Grand Anse Bay below us and we've been watching it a bit. It's funny to watch because the sail boats have to be home made and while some of them do pretty well, a lot of them tip over and the water has to be bailed out. It's pretty entertaining. Unfortunately I have a quiz tomorrow so I will be spending most of the day studying. We will watch the game in a little bit when it starts, though. It surprised me that it won't be starting here until 7:30PM because at home I'm used to the game being early afternoon, but I guess I am four hours ahead than normal.

This week will be full of classes and quizzes and studying. But I'm sure something interesting will occur and I'll blog about it next week, until then, go 49ers!