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.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Tubing
One of the girls in my program has a birthday coming up, so she decided to celebrate it yesterday. Twelve of us decided to go tubing down a river north from where I live. So we loaded up one of the reggae buses and headed to St. George. First off, a reggae bus is what the students call the taxis around here. They are actually more the size of a Volkswagon bus, although they probably aren't as reliable. They're reggae buses because they are driven by locals and typically drive by with loud reggae music playing trying to get you to let them give you a ride. The upside to them is they are a really cheap form of transportation. The drive between where I live and downtown St. George is between 15 and 20 minutes. The fare is $2.50. That's a dollar US. Not too bad. So we went downtown, which is where the port is for the cruise ships. It looked very much like a tropical version of Ensanada. It was very dirty and crowded and all the little huts sold the same thing and promised to give you the best deal. From there we caught another reggae bus that took us 45 minutes north. That ride cost us $6. The worst part about the buses is that the drivers drive like maniacs. At home, these buses might safely hold 9 or 10 people. But in Grenada they hold 5 rows of people and as many as they can shove across. So now we're crammed into a bus that was way too small for how many people we had and there's no air conditioning! The windows were open, but it was still miserably hot. The people on the sides tried to stick their arms out the windows to make more room for everyone's shoulders, but the driver told us we weren't allowed to do that because he might pass too close to another car and our arms would get ripped off! The road to the river was very narrow and very twisty. There are no guard rails, so if the van goes off the side, all the passengers die. And this guy was flying around the corners!
We finally got to the tubing place and they gave us all life jackets. We got into our tubes and started on. It was so much fun! The river had rocks in it that created rapids so there was alternating smooth parts and rough parts. We had a blast. The water felt good and it felt great to do something that wasn't school-related.
When we were finally done, we hiked up a little embankment and there was a bus waiting for us to take us back to the top of the river. THIS bus made the reggae buses look like high class sports cars. It had a wooden bottom with no seats. They put a couple tubes on the floor and we sat on those and they took off. Unbelievable.
We got back and called for a taxi. They came and picked us up, but the bus already had a few people in it. Remember how I said at home this bus might hold 10 people max? We had 18. We were jammed! So we started hauling around corners back to St. George. There was a woman on the side of the road looking for a taxi, so the driver pulled over and said, "Plenty of room!" and made one of our guys scoot over. This woman had to half-sit on his lap. So the bus chugged along with 19 people and as we went, the transmission smelled worse and worse. Every time we slowed I thought for sure we wouldn't get power again. But we made it to St. George. We got on another bus and came back to Grand Anse, which is where I live.
We went to dinner at a place called Dodgy Docks. It is at a resort in the True Blue Bay and they had the best food I've had since I got here. I had grilled fish with some rice pilaf and grilled veggies and a salad. It was delicious. There was a live band to entertain us and people danced. It was such a nice evening.
Today I studied all day and the next couple weekends I will do the same because midterms are coming in a couple weeks. I have never been to school with terms this long. At Cal Poly we had 10 week long quarters. Here we have 17 week long terms and they are so long! I can't wait to be done and get home. I miss everyone and I miss good food and convenient lodging. But overall I am having fun and getting good experiences.
For new pictures click or copy into your browser:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150690344978275.501272.781648274&type=3&l=4ceb579a9e
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Sea crabs crawl. Crawl crabs crawl!
It's that time again. My air conditioning isn't particularly cold tonight, so I'm very hot and can't sleep. It's time to blog. Not too much has happened over the last week. Last Tuesday was Grenadian Independence Day so we had that day off. They've only been independent for 38 years, so the patriotism in this country is amazing. Since we didn't have school on Tuesday, we decided to go to a big event around here that goes on on Monday nights; crab races. They take place at one of the bars on the beach called Owls and we had heard about them but didn't know what to expect. What happens is they put the chairs in a big circle with probably a 30 foot diameter. Then they have a bowl a crabs which have numbers in chalk written on their backs. Bets are taken beforehand on the crabs and then the bowl is turned over in the sand. After the bowl is lifted the crabs begin to crawl. Don't turn your head or you might miss the movement! They are extremely slow. There are different races. The first race was between five crabs and the first one to make it out of the circle won. Then everyone who bet on that crab won. I saw people win up to 15 dollars depending on the odds. Not too shabby. The second race the winning crab was the last one in the circle. The third race was the one I bet on. There were 43 crabs and everyone got their own. The first crab out of the circle won. You can imagine that when the bowl was turned over it was a huge pile of crabs just heaped on top of each other. They slowly sorted themselves out while a huge group of crazy people stood on the sidelines yelling at the top of their lungs, "Number twenty-four!!! Crawl faster!!! I bet five dollars on you! C'mon! No, number seventeen you need to crawl the other way! Twenty-four!" Since these crabs are not the speediest, this yelling goes on for quite a while. It was very entertaining, I don't know how often I'll go back. I could just stand and watch the paint dry at school and probably more will be accomplished in a shorter amount of time. Side note: There is always something being painted at school because the weather conditions here are not conducive to keeping paint on the side of a building.
Since we didn't have class on Tuesday I headed to the beach for a little bit of tanning and swimming. There was a horrible rip tide which is very strange for my side of the island, which is very protected and usually calm. In the town it was like a ghost town. Absolutely everything was closed and as I walked across the street I didn't feel like I was going to get run over because there were hardly any cars out. On the beach people lounged all over the place. However, that also brought all of the beach sales people. People walk up and down the beach all day long trying to sell things to the tourists. There is one lady who I see every time I go who offers to braid hair. There is another guy who is constantly trying to sell these beaded necklaces. But on independence day, there were men walking the beach selling sacks of potatoes, bunches of carrots, Grenadian flags, you name it, they were selling it.
Most rental places in Grenada have a cleaning service that comes once or twice a week and does a general cleaning of your place. It's nice because then students don't have to buy cleaning supplies and brooms and mops. My room gets cleaned on Fridays. Since there are so many rooms in my building the lady is here every day and she also maintains the hallways and staircase. I leave my apartment at 8:30AM to get on the bus and every single Friday she's knocking on my door at 8:00. I always inform her, while still in my pajamas, that I will still not be leaving until 8:30, as I did last Friday. Then, without fail, she knocks on my door at 8:25. I answer the door and tell her that I'm packing my bag and I will be out in a few minutes. Whenever I leave she's standing there with her broom right outside my door and walks in as soon as I leave. She's really nice, but you can't tell me that there aren't other rooms in the entire building that need cleaning at that time. There are plenty of people who have class at 8:00 and leave at 7:30 or earlier. It's rather annoying to say the least. I enjoy coming home to a clean place, but I dread Fridays because I know she's going to be in my hair in the morning!
While I have enjoyed having an apartment of my own without a roommate, it does sometimes get a little lonely. There are good things about it, such as I never have to wait for the bathroom, but there are down sides like if no one reminds you to get toilet paper, you're not going to have any! That is the day you will be thankful you live across the street from the grocery store. I have also come to appreciate the dishwasher at home. Washing dishes by hand is very tedious and boring, but if you only have four plates and you don't keep up with the dish washing, pretty soon you either don't have a plate to eat on your you're forced to do the dishes. But it's sometimes a good thing not to have a roommate so that they don't see your embarrassing rookie mistakes, such as hard boiling eggs, only to crack them open and find the density to be a medium hardness. I can't think of a much less appetizing substance as a half-hard boiled egg. I guess I will try again tomorrow.
PS. Here are more pictures. They include the crab races. :) http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150690344978275.501272.781648274&type=3&l=4ceb579a9e
Since we didn't have class on Tuesday I headed to the beach for a little bit of tanning and swimming. There was a horrible rip tide which is very strange for my side of the island, which is very protected and usually calm. In the town it was like a ghost town. Absolutely everything was closed and as I walked across the street I didn't feel like I was going to get run over because there were hardly any cars out. On the beach people lounged all over the place. However, that also brought all of the beach sales people. People walk up and down the beach all day long trying to sell things to the tourists. There is one lady who I see every time I go who offers to braid hair. There is another guy who is constantly trying to sell these beaded necklaces. But on independence day, there were men walking the beach selling sacks of potatoes, bunches of carrots, Grenadian flags, you name it, they were selling it.
Most rental places in Grenada have a cleaning service that comes once or twice a week and does a general cleaning of your place. It's nice because then students don't have to buy cleaning supplies and brooms and mops. My room gets cleaned on Fridays. Since there are so many rooms in my building the lady is here every day and she also maintains the hallways and staircase. I leave my apartment at 8:30AM to get on the bus and every single Friday she's knocking on my door at 8:00. I always inform her, while still in my pajamas, that I will still not be leaving until 8:30, as I did last Friday. Then, without fail, she knocks on my door at 8:25. I answer the door and tell her that I'm packing my bag and I will be out in a few minutes. Whenever I leave she's standing there with her broom right outside my door and walks in as soon as I leave. She's really nice, but you can't tell me that there aren't other rooms in the entire building that need cleaning at that time. There are plenty of people who have class at 8:00 and leave at 7:30 or earlier. It's rather annoying to say the least. I enjoy coming home to a clean place, but I dread Fridays because I know she's going to be in my hair in the morning!
While I have enjoyed having an apartment of my own without a roommate, it does sometimes get a little lonely. There are good things about it, such as I never have to wait for the bathroom, but there are down sides like if no one reminds you to get toilet paper, you're not going to have any! That is the day you will be thankful you live across the street from the grocery store. I have also come to appreciate the dishwasher at home. Washing dishes by hand is very tedious and boring, but if you only have four plates and you don't keep up with the dish washing, pretty soon you either don't have a plate to eat on your you're forced to do the dishes. But it's sometimes a good thing not to have a roommate so that they don't see your embarrassing rookie mistakes, such as hard boiling eggs, only to crack them open and find the density to be a medium hardness. I can't think of a much less appetizing substance as a half-hard boiled egg. I guess I will try again tomorrow.
PS. Here are more pictures. They include the crab races. :) http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150690344978275.501272.781648274&type=3&l=4ceb579a9e
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Man overboard!
Although I'm a vet student, I must say that this first term of school has really made me miss animals! I get to work with my preserved dog, but she's not very cuddly. Most of the dogs running the island have some sort of disease or are so unsocial that they are afraid of humans, so I can't pet them. The cats here are all very feral and have diseases so I won't be petting them either. I really miss hugging my dog and my horse. Who would've thought that becoming a vet would deprive me of animals?
On Friday night a group of us went to a pizza place called Prickly Bay for one of the guys' birthdays. My friend, Maegan, and I got on the bus from campus. There are a couple different kinds of buses. The ones I usually take are just like a normal bus route that stop at designated stops to get off and on. But once it gets dark, there is the "night bus." Now, for any Harry Potter fans out there, let me say that the night bus here is exactly like the one in the book, except the guy with dreadlocks is the one actually driving the bus. The bus flies around corners, squeezes in between cars and swerves to avoid near collisions the entire time. This bus will drop you off at your doorstep if you live off of the bus route. So we told the driver we wanted to go to Prickly Bay. We were going into Lance Aux Epines, which is a neighborhood that neither of us were familiar with and in the dark it all looks the same. After driving down numerous gravel roads, up into the hills, and dropping every other student off who was in the bus, we were suddenly back at the Texaco station (the only gas station I've seen here), which is near school. We told the driver that he had missed our stop and he said, "I know, I'll get you on the next round." So we had to ride all the way back to school, pick up another round, drop EVERYONE else off again, and then he finally dropped us off. We were on the bus for over an hour, but TIG.
When we finally got there, the pizza was delicious. I have yet to have much delicious food on this island and was beginning to lose hope, but this is very good if you're willing to wait nearly an hour for pizza. The place was completely outside and there was a live band playing songs like "Footloose" and "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." The customers there were a mix of students and white people in their 60s and 70s. We couldn't believe that coincidentally this senior crowd was vacationing and all happened to end up in the same spot. After talking to a few people, we discovered that these were all retired people who live on boats in the bay and come to the island to party at night! Several of the people I spoke with live on their boat for 6 months and then live in England for 6 months. What fun loving people! And what a cool way to retire. That was a really fun night.
Yesterday a couple of us decided to go to the beach for a little bit in the morning to catch some sun. The wind was blowing really hard so the sand kept blowing on us, but it was actually good it was windy because there was a sail boat race going on in the bay. We stood in the water and watched for a little bit until the clouds rolled in and it began to pour on us. The sail boats were pretty small; a row boat by our standards with moderately large sails. The funny part was there were five large men in each boat so they hardly fit! The boats went pretty fast, but as we were watching, one boat started to lean really badly to the side. Pretty soon everyone except two men had jumped into the water and the two remaining were bailing water from their boat! We watched in concern that their boat was going to sink and before long, the wind caught their sail and the entire boat flipped over into the water! We were all shocked and worried about these men, but no one went to their rescue! None of them were wearing life jackets and they all clung to the edge of the boat. But before long, they righted the boat, bailed the rest of the water out, climbed back in and continued the race! We couldn't believe it! The longer we watched, the more boats tipped over, and every time it was the same. You would think they would make the sail more proportionate to the ship so that they didn't tip, but maybe that's part of the sport. Either way it was very entertaining to watch.
I finally found red tomatoes at the local fruit stand down the street from me. He has the best tomatoes, mangoes, papayas, among other fruits I've never heard of. Everything I've gotten from him is delicious.
I have been looking for a good map to show exactly where I live on the island and after a long search I have finally found one. If you click on the link and then scroll all the way down, I live in Grand Anse, which is on the south west part of the island. The school is in True Blue and many people I know live in Frequente and Lance Aux Epines. You can see how close the airport is to the school. The island is only 22 miles long, so everything is relatively close. If I can't walk I take the bus.
http://www.travelgrenada.com/maps.htm#
On Friday night a group of us went to a pizza place called Prickly Bay for one of the guys' birthdays. My friend, Maegan, and I got on the bus from campus. There are a couple different kinds of buses. The ones I usually take are just like a normal bus route that stop at designated stops to get off and on. But once it gets dark, there is the "night bus." Now, for any Harry Potter fans out there, let me say that the night bus here is exactly like the one in the book, except the guy with dreadlocks is the one actually driving the bus. The bus flies around corners, squeezes in between cars and swerves to avoid near collisions the entire time. This bus will drop you off at your doorstep if you live off of the bus route. So we told the driver we wanted to go to Prickly Bay. We were going into Lance Aux Epines, which is a neighborhood that neither of us were familiar with and in the dark it all looks the same. After driving down numerous gravel roads, up into the hills, and dropping every other student off who was in the bus, we were suddenly back at the Texaco station (the only gas station I've seen here), which is near school. We told the driver that he had missed our stop and he said, "I know, I'll get you on the next round." So we had to ride all the way back to school, pick up another round, drop EVERYONE else off again, and then he finally dropped us off. We were on the bus for over an hour, but TIG.
When we finally got there, the pizza was delicious. I have yet to have much delicious food on this island and was beginning to lose hope, but this is very good if you're willing to wait nearly an hour for pizza. The place was completely outside and there was a live band playing songs like "Footloose" and "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." The customers there were a mix of students and white people in their 60s and 70s. We couldn't believe that coincidentally this senior crowd was vacationing and all happened to end up in the same spot. After talking to a few people, we discovered that these were all retired people who live on boats in the bay and come to the island to party at night! Several of the people I spoke with live on their boat for 6 months and then live in England for 6 months. What fun loving people! And what a cool way to retire. That was a really fun night.
Yesterday a couple of us decided to go to the beach for a little bit in the morning to catch some sun. The wind was blowing really hard so the sand kept blowing on us, but it was actually good it was windy because there was a sail boat race going on in the bay. We stood in the water and watched for a little bit until the clouds rolled in and it began to pour on us. The sail boats were pretty small; a row boat by our standards with moderately large sails. The funny part was there were five large men in each boat so they hardly fit! The boats went pretty fast, but as we were watching, one boat started to lean really badly to the side. Pretty soon everyone except two men had jumped into the water and the two remaining were bailing water from their boat! We watched in concern that their boat was going to sink and before long, the wind caught their sail and the entire boat flipped over into the water! We were all shocked and worried about these men, but no one went to their rescue! None of them were wearing life jackets and they all clung to the edge of the boat. But before long, they righted the boat, bailed the rest of the water out, climbed back in and continued the race! We couldn't believe it! The longer we watched, the more boats tipped over, and every time it was the same. You would think they would make the sail more proportionate to the ship so that they didn't tip, but maybe that's part of the sport. Either way it was very entertaining to watch.
I finally found red tomatoes at the local fruit stand down the street from me. He has the best tomatoes, mangoes, papayas, among other fruits I've never heard of. Everything I've gotten from him is delicious.
I have been looking for a good map to show exactly where I live on the island and after a long search I have finally found one. If you click on the link and then scroll all the way down, I live in Grand Anse, which is on the south west part of the island. The school is in True Blue and many people I know live in Frequente and Lance Aux Epines. You can see how close the airport is to the school. The island is only 22 miles long, so everything is relatively close. If I can't walk I take the bus.
http://www.travelgrenada.com/maps.htm#
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Water, water everywhere...
Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to.... brush my teeth. The last few days have been pretty uneventful, but today I woke up and attempted to brush my teeth. But when I turned on the faucet, nothing came out. The story was the same with the shower and the kitchen. I have never turned on the water to be greeted with nothing unless the water main was shut off, but then again, I have never lived in a place where hot water did not come standard in a dwelling. I asked my neighbor and he said he didn't have water either. He spoke with our landlady and she said that the entire area of the island was without water because of a broken pipe somewhere. But just as I began thinking about brushing my teeth with a water bottle, it came back on! Thank goodness. I was only without water for about 30 minutes, but that made it so that I couldn't brush my teeth, I couldn't shower, I couldn't wash a dish, and I couldn't fill my glass with water to drink! Apparently during times of drought and during hurricanes, it is common to go without running water, so there are reserve water tanks for every building to be used in case of emergency. I have kind of assumed it was like the earthquake food we used to have to bring in elementary school that the teacher put in a Sterilte container and at the end of the year we all got to eat our fruit roll ups and canned peaches. Apparently that isn't so. So I will be buying some bottled water from the grocery store to keep in my apartment just in case we really do run out of water. At least I will be the one with clean teeth.
I have been having muscle spasms in my back and they are very painful. I wanted some comfort food because I wasn't feeling well and my two favorite foods are chocolate chip cookies and mashed potatoes; although not together of course. The only ingredient I had for cookies was flour and I don't own a cookie sheet, so right away baking was ruled out. I had a couple of potatoes so I peeled them and boiled them. But then I realized I don't own a potato masher, so I used a fork. But THEN I realized I don't own milk (due to circumstances mentioned in previous posts), so I pondered how to make my potatoes creamier. I looked through my fridge and found the next best thing: Fat Free Ranch Dressing. It's basically milk; it's nearly as watery and it's white. So I gave my potatoes a couple squirts, mixed them up, tasted, threw in a dash of soy sauce for flavor and I was ready to roll. I wouldn't call them the best potatoes I've ever had, but in a pinch, they will do the trick. I definitely can't wait to have good ones at home. Speaking of which, I am coming home May 9th at 6:40PM. I booked my ticket last week.
Another thing I miss from home are the avocados. They have avocados here that are the size of small cantaloupes so I got one to try. I made a chicken burrito tonight for dinner and I was so excited to slice up my avocado. The pit was about the size of the ones I'm used to seeing at home! I sliced out a little piece, took a bite and was disappointed. Very bland. So I don't think I will be buying them again. I also have yet to find a red tomato. There are tomatoes here, but they are all green and hard as rocks. They even serve burgers with those kinds of tomatoes on them! The poor Grenadians have been lied to all of their lives. If only they could have vine ripened, perfectly ripe tomatoes. I will say that the mangoes here are better than any I've ever had in the states and the eggplant is in abundance and is delicious!
Well, it's off to bed for me. I have class all day tomorrow. Hopefully when I wake up there will be water coming out of my faucet. But never know. TIG.
I have been having muscle spasms in my back and they are very painful. I wanted some comfort food because I wasn't feeling well and my two favorite foods are chocolate chip cookies and mashed potatoes; although not together of course. The only ingredient I had for cookies was flour and I don't own a cookie sheet, so right away baking was ruled out. I had a couple of potatoes so I peeled them and boiled them. But then I realized I don't own a potato masher, so I used a fork. But THEN I realized I don't own milk (due to circumstances mentioned in previous posts), so I pondered how to make my potatoes creamier. I looked through my fridge and found the next best thing: Fat Free Ranch Dressing. It's basically milk; it's nearly as watery and it's white. So I gave my potatoes a couple squirts, mixed them up, tasted, threw in a dash of soy sauce for flavor and I was ready to roll. I wouldn't call them the best potatoes I've ever had, but in a pinch, they will do the trick. I definitely can't wait to have good ones at home. Speaking of which, I am coming home May 9th at 6:40PM. I booked my ticket last week.
Another thing I miss from home are the avocados. They have avocados here that are the size of small cantaloupes so I got one to try. I made a chicken burrito tonight for dinner and I was so excited to slice up my avocado. The pit was about the size of the ones I'm used to seeing at home! I sliced out a little piece, took a bite and was disappointed. Very bland. So I don't think I will be buying them again. I also have yet to find a red tomato. There are tomatoes here, but they are all green and hard as rocks. They even serve burgers with those kinds of tomatoes on them! The poor Grenadians have been lied to all of their lives. If only they could have vine ripened, perfectly ripe tomatoes. I will say that the mangoes here are better than any I've ever had in the states and the eggplant is in abundance and is delicious!
Well, it's off to bed for me. I have class all day tomorrow. Hopefully when I wake up there will be water coming out of my faucet. But never know. TIG.
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