Lawn Day Rant

The Grenadian lawn people are here.
One of my least favorite things about Grenada.
I literally dread this day.
Basically, any plans for the day- out the window as soon as they show up.
If there is laundry on the line- plan on re-doing it due to nasty fumes.
If you were planning to Skype or listen to  music or watch a show or think- too bad, it will be too loud.
If you wanted to sweep your house- don't bother all the little grass pieces will make their way inside somehow.
If you wanted to work out- dont. You'll look up to see a worker not working and staring at you instead.
If you wanted to cook- again don't. It's too close to the window and the guy will just stand and stare at you.
Also, it will always be the hottest day ever when they decide to visit, so even though you want to close your back door or window- you can't or you will die of heat.
Basically, when it's lawn day, the only option is to pull out your computer and blog/complain about it, while babysitting the workers to make sure nothing outside goes missing as they pick up every single thing of ours that we keep on our back porch.
And no, glaring at them when they do so will not deter them.
But, continue to give them a disapproving/grossed/annoyed look anyways to make yourself feel a little better.

I love most things about Grenada. I will miss a million things about Grenada when we leave. But I assure you, lawn day will not be one of them. As a matter of fact, I will probably never allow a lawn crew into my yard ever again as soon as I have that control.

So if someone wants to buy us a lawn mower for a house warming gift someday, that'd be excellent.

7 Sisters Waterfalls!!!

 I have been wanting to do the 7 Sisters Waterfall hike and falls jump since before Nick actually stepped foot in Grenada. When researching the island I heard all about it and decided then that I just had to do it! Well, today it finally happened!!! And, it was even better than I had hoped for, and let me tell you- I had high hopes!


7 Sisters is located in Grand Etang National Park.  It takes about 45 minutes to get there, and although the roads are very steep at times, the drive is a pretty easy one :) Once there you pay 5 E.C and if you want to jump the falls you need to get a local guide to help you. This is very important, as without proper guidance, jumping the falls can absolutely be dangerous!

The hike to the falls is a pretty easy one, mostly downhill, but also very muddy!! We stopped at The Honeymoon Falls on the way, which is not one you can jump, but is SO gorgeous and you can swim in the pool of water at the bottom. The water is sooo refreshing and awesome!

When jumping the falls you have to either commit to be all in or out. There is really no in between. Once you get to the top, the only way down is to jump the falls... all of them. They are each uniquely different with some being higher than others, some requiring you to adjust the way you fall because the pool of water isn't that deep, etc.  It's such an adrenaline rush! I was so excited that I didn't even give anyone else the chance to go first, I just volunteered myself and took the first leap of faith :)

Our guide was AWESOME, and carefully instructed us of where to stand, how to fall, and what spots to avoid. Although it was definitely scary at times, I did feel safe through the whole thing and can not wait to do it again!

The highest waterfall is 35 feet tall and if you want to get down, it is one you have to jump! There is really no way to explain the feeling of looking down 35 feet into water and knowing that you are about to free fall all the way down... Not to mention the jump is high enough that you have time to register "wow I am still in the air" while falling, and register the pounding and power of the water behind you! Again... it was awesome!!

5 of us did all 7 jumps and I am so glad we did and so proud of everyone! It definitely wasn't easy, but it was so worth it! Definitely one of the most fun things I've done in Grenada so far... well, really ever in my life!

Took lots of pictures (of course) and our friend Naomi did not jump, but the tallest fall is at the end of the jumps so she was able to get a few pictures of us doing the biggun! Check them out below!

My 35 ft jump!

Nick's 35 ft jump!

Honeymoon Falls!!! Before going in :) Pretty right?!

Oh ya know, just hanging out under a waterfall :) Life. Is. Good!
Honeymoon Falls

What did you do today? Oh we just woke up drove a short ways and were surrounded my all this beauty! Pretty unbelievable!

Group shot of the jumpers at the top of the 7 water falls :)

Zach doing the jump where you had to land like you were sitting in a chair since it was only approximately 5 ft deep!

Top picture is of the jumpers with our guide "Super butterfly" and the bottom is all of our hiking friends!

Oh, and my camera made every, single jump with us and is no worse for the wear! Seriously, best investment EVER!

Under the Sea!! Scuba Certified!!

YAY! After a week of learning about scuba and a couple days in the water, I can now say that I am officially certified to scuba dive!!  Wooo! With 4 dives under my belt I can definitely say I am confident in my skills and exploring the underwater world has become easy, relaxing, and funny enough... second nature. It is such a fun feeling to be under the water doing things you learned without thinking about it... not to mention breathing with ease at such great depths for an hour at a time!

Yep, I'm pretty much a fish now.

In our first 4 dives we went to 3 different sites: Glovers Island, The Underwater Sculpture Park/Marine Park and Flamingo Bay and went down as far as 60 feet!! Each location was awesome and we saw different and unique things at each spot! Among some of our sightings were: an octopus, sea horses, several different kinds of eels, porcupine fish, barracuda, french angel fish, lizard fish, azure vase sponge and barrel sponge, shrimp, and a lot more but those are just a few that come to mind!

Really though, getting certified was such a great decision and I am officially addicted to it! I could not have asked for a better group to learn with! Also, our instructor was awesome and really added to the experience :) We were certified through Aquanauts here in Grenada, and our experience was wonderful and I'd highly recommend them to anyone who wishes to get certified while on the island!

Best scuba certification group ever!!! So much fun learning with them and our fabulous instructor Reese!

The pictures from underwater were taken by Aquanauts, so I cannot claim them as my own! However, they are all things from our dive :) Since they were bringing down a camera I figured a) theirs is much nicer than mine, and b) why risk damage to mine when they know theirs for sure can go to that depth and I am not positive mine would survive 60ft... but I am so happy to have pictures from our first few dives- however, they don't even come close to doing justice to what it is really like under the sea :)

Exploring!! So much fun!! And of course lookin' good in scuba gear ;)

Getting briefed on the dive we were about to do

Puffer Fish!

Some of the underwater sculpture garden

Black Sea Horse! They're actually bigger than I thought they would be (still super small though)... and so cute!

Yikes! Biiig urchin! Watch out for these guys, they'll hurt ya!

Cowfish! Such a silly name, esp bc it looks more leopard print to me ;) 

Don't go chasing waterfallsssss...

Just kidding. Definitely do!!

Last weekend we visited Mt. Carmel and boy oh boy was it FUN! We crammed 16 people into 3 small cars and made the 45 min drive to the falls. Despite sitting on laps and driving with my head out the window to fit- it was  so absolutely worth it!! By far some of the most fun I've had on the island, and I easily could have played there all day!

First off you hike an easy, but very pretty trail, to a huge waterfall. Since we were all wearing bathing suits when we reached the fall everyone jumped into the water without any hesitation to swim under it. Yeah, awesome right?! Unfortunately, we were so anxious to do so that we decided heck with it and just left our clothes on... and I had decided to wear a white tank top. But I promise it is a swim suit you see under it... wardrobe faux pas for sure! Ooops! But regardless, the scenery was amazing and very few things in life beat swimming under a pounding waterfall!

After lots of playing in the fall, we hit up a rock waterslide!!! Best.thing.ever!!! There are locals there who help you sit in the right spot and then down ya go and plop into a pool of water! Again... a-m-a-z-i-n-g!! Then, being the adventurous people that we are we talked them into letting us try the upper part of the slide. This was much more challenging but with 2 local boys pushing me I did manage to make it all the way from top to bottom... with only a slight elbow injury! Winning!

Hopefully we make it back there before leaving here, and if you haven't been there and are living in Grenada I HIGHLY recommend you add Mt. Carmel to your bucket list :) It is well worth your time and the 3.50EC charge to do the hike!

3rd term academic update

So, since most of my posts lately have been about fun stuff that both Nick and I have been able to do during this magnificent 3rd term, I thought it might be time for a school update. This term Nick is more or less taking 3 subjects that were combined into 1 class under the umbrella term "Behavior Sciences and Medicine."  It breaks down something like this: 1 part- Behavioral Sciences, 1 part- Biostatistics/Epidemiology/Health Systems, and 1 part- Jurisprudence & Clinical Ethics. 

Obviously, I am not in the class, but the impression I have gotten is that some of it is super common sense and therefore makes for a really boring lecture, some stuff is interesting, some is a bit challenging, and some just falls somewhere in between... so really there is a mix of difficulty level, but all in all, seems doable without killing yourself (a nice break from previous terms.)

The bottom line for us has been that YES 3rd term is much more relaxed, but this doesn't mean that there isn't still a decent amount of studying per week (it just seems a lot less because the bar for studying was set SO high during the 1st year!) However, if you stay on top of lectures and studying, you can have a lot more time for relaxation and fun during this 6 weeks!

Nick's day pretty much consists of catching the 7:45 bus to campus, class from 8-noon, lunch, then a couple days a week he has small group for a couple hours after that. In between class and small group he will study, or on days where he doesn't have small group he will stay on campus for a couple hours to study. BUT that being said, with the exception of the week before finals, he has been home every night around 6:30pm-- which is awesome! 

The weekends have definitely been much more easy going, with a few hours of studying usually on Sunday, but for the most part as long as he has been able to stay on top of things during the week, his weekends have remained open for fun and island exploring!

Nick also keeps impressing me by pullin' in great grades as he absolutely rocked his midterm last week! Soooo proud! :) 

Hash # 737- Back After Dark...

Saturday was Bastille Day and in celebration the French community here in Grenada hosted the weekly hash at the Cabier Lodge in Crochu, St. Andrew. This was about a 45 minute to an hour drive from the SGU campus along the East Coast. In honor of Bastille Day, they requested that everyone come decked out in french colors and/or costumes to help them celebrate the day.

Obviously, we could not pass this up.

We pulled out the face paint and Nick and Marty ended up with the French flag covering their entire face, and I put smaller flags on my cheeks. We love any excuse to get dressed up ridiculously- and we were not the only ones, it was so much fun seeing everyone all done up French style!

SO many students decided to go this week and we could tell the bus was going to be packed as we sat and waited for the bus to pick us up from campus. It was late, as usual, so the crowd of students wishing to attend just kept growing, and growing, and growing. Finally, the bus arrived and it was literally a mad-dash to the bus. The good news = everyone made it in the bus. The bad news= we were standing, sitting on laps, sitting on the floor, and sitting 5-6 people per bench, when usually they sit 4.... YES the bus was packed to the gills with 45-50 students!

That fact alone made for an interesting ride. Marty was sitting by the driver who told him the whole time about how he had to drive the bus differently because it was so heavy... and if he messed up we would fall off the side of one of the cliffs and die. Thanks for the confidence boost there  Mr. Driver... but we made it there and back safely :)

The hash was a long one, with the runners trail being over 5 miles... and really closer to 6 for those of us who wandered down many a fake trail and ended up needing to retrace our steps. No joke, I think we ended up on the wrong trail at least 7 times... we just like to take the scenic route! 

We walked up hills, through rivers, by mini waterfalls, down rock ledges, trudged through mud, walked through an abandoned hotel, stopped and took a dip in the ocean, and much more! This hash literally had it all! Due to the combination of starting late, walking the runners trail, stopping to swim, and taking numerous wrong trails, we did not reach the end of the hash until around 7:15- 7:30pm- so yes, it was pitch black darkness outside for the last 45 minutes or so of our hash. Talk about upping the difficulty level a bit. We couldn't see anything, let alone tiny bunches of paper on the ground marking our trail. But at this point we could hear music and knew where we needed to end up, so that helped! But, lesson learned... we will always be armed with a flashlight in future, just in case! :)

Needless to say, we were exhausted, starving, and happy to see all the familiar faces at the end when we finally got there! What can we say... we just like to get the most adventure out of each hash as possible!

Waiting to catch the bus to the hash, all decked out in our French colors!!!

The  bus crammed full of students!!!! And this doesn't even show the 10 or so people sitting at the front!
The before is on the left, and the after on the right.

A few pictures of our adventures! The scenery was beautiful and the hash was challenging... we loved it!

Later today, I am going to get all the information and reading material to learn how to scuba dive!!! Eeek! Nick has been doing a ton of awesome dives, and they are currently giving a great group rate, so several of us are going to take the class together! Should be fun, and no better time to learn than 3rd term! :) Have I mentioned how much 3rd term rocks?

Hash #736 torture... I mean, fun!

Yesterday we went on a Hash that took place in Beaulieu, St. George, and was far from an easy hike. The terrain was steep and muddy which resulted to a lot of time spent on our bottoms sliding down the hill- sometimes intentionally, usually unintentionally.

It was so much fun!

The hash was different from others because it literally went in a big circle. We had further challenges due to our wonderful new french friends who thought it'd be fun to lead us down fake trails and all over the place... we may or may not have been lost for a little bit! Nick and I took a wrong turn somewhere on our own and after about 200 yards realized we were not on a trail but rather in almost shoulder high weeds... ooops!

Hashing continues to be one of my favorite things to do on the island, and I am hoping that we can squeeze in as many as possible during 3rd term! It is a great way to see the island and meet so many seriously awesome people! This hash was definitely exhausting and my body is sore as can be today, but just when we thought we were going to die, we approached the end and low and behold there was a rainbow!! Pretty cool sight to see at the end of a really challenging hike :)

On-On!

It was quite a muddy hash, we were covered from head to toe!

 Here is a link of to a video a fellow hasher put together of this hash! It really gives you a good feel for what a hash really is!

Happy Birthday America, From- Grenada

So far 3rd term has been wonderful. Nick has had class from 8-noon, maybe a few hours of studying after or a few hours in the evening, and then otherwise there has been time for fun! :)

Hard to believe 1 week of 3rd is already done though, and that midterms are already right around the corner. Yep, I think this term is going to pass entirely too quickly, and I really don't want it to... not ready to surrender Nick and friends over to 4th term yet!

The highlight of the week was definitely the 4th of July. We were all a little bummed not to be celebrating in the States, but that doesn't mean we didn't celebrate. Nick went to class until noon, and then we hit the beach, had 20 some people over for a BBQ, and went to bingo... all decked out in our red, white, and blue of course :) The only thing missing was fireworks!

Nick and Marty also spent several hours this week building a bags (or corn hole) set. It was a fabulous addition to our 4th of July festivities. We hauled it to the beach and had a blast! We had planned it out before the term began, so Nick and I had bought bean bags at home, with the hope that the lumber wouldnt be too expensive or hard to find.  It was hilarious because Grenadians have never seen this game before and they were so intrigued by it. On several occassions when we were playing there was literally a crowd standing or laying in the sand around us- hilarious! They all wanted to know the rules, how it was done, etc. Two guys even asked to throw a bag for a bet they had- if the one made it, the other had to do 19 back flips... sadly, the guy did not make it and we only got 2 back flips.. haha

 Cheers to America and cheers to crossing many fun things off our Grenada bucket list this term!

We're baaaack!!

After a long 30 hours of traveling and a day filled with unpacking, grocery shopping, and organizing we are officially settled back into our Grenada home!

The travel process is always an interesting one, and this time around was no exception. We were originally supposed to leave Thursday and spend the night in Chicago, but due to an overbooked flight and many very annoyed business people, we offered to give up our seats and stay the night in the Detroit airport instead for a couple vouchers. The woman working at our gate was thrilled that we offered and made her night by getting 2 of the angry 6-7 people off her back and quickly relinquished us each a $300.00 voucher each for future use!! We were already going to spend the night in the airport, so the fact that we got to get paid to do so... awesome!! She also smuggled us dinner, snacks, and blankets off an incoming plane which really made the night much better than it would have been otherwise. 

Our flight to Miami was smooth, our layover in Miami consisted of us soaking all of the American food and drink we could before leaving, and we caught our plane to Grenada without a hitch. 

Our luck-filled trip ended however with the 2 hours it took us to get through customs... Can't win 'em all. Now we have had slow service in customs before (it's expected really) but this was a new record. There were many workers to be seen, but only about 3 working. The others must have been on break for the day because we could see them with their feet up on a desk giving each other back massages... no worries though, we loved standing in a hot airport line for hours on end! Welcome back to Grenada! All of our bags (4 of them) did make it to Grenada with us however, so that in itself is definitely a victory!

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous and we got in some beach time, but today there has basically been a monsoon going on. Seriously, it has been pouring rain for hours on end and the ocean looks dark and angry. It's kinda fun and thankfully not too hot since we can't open windows.

Anyways, it is good to be back, and so life on the island continues to never be dull! Oh, and we only found a few dead bugs upon arrival!!!! No mice, or live bugs, or frogs, or lizards, to be found yet. Great success!

Haven't been to see my Limes babies yet though! Limes doesn't officially start back up for a couple months, but HOPING Laura and I will go see them soon :) Nick is going crazy because I just keep talking about how badly I need to see them! I hope Jada still likes to snuggle!