Shower with caution...

Not a morning person?  Me either.
Want a better way to add some extra spark into your morning routine? Well, I don't know how the rest of you do it, but in our household we tend to do things a little unconventionally... like say, taking an early morning (lukewarm) shower and starting a fire in the bathroom.

Yesterday morning I woke up to Nick cussing in the shower and a loud crash. In my sleepy haze I was convinced someone had broken into our house and so I leapt out of bed in pure panic.

The good news: no bad guys were in our house. The bad news: Our shower had gone up in flames WHILE Nick was showering. Sounds safe right? Most importantly though- Nick was not hurt too badly.  His neck is a bit sore from the fall, but otherwise he is no worse for the wear and for that we extremely thankful!

Luckily it didn't completely break the shower itself, so we can still take cold showers. So no fears, we won't be the smelly couple you want to avoid sitting near on the bus. But unfortunately my life has now turned into the never ending game of waiting to see when the repairman actually arrives. Oh, and then when he does arrive I get to hover around him while he does his job to make sure he actually replaces the piece that burst into flames and doesn't simply tape over it. Sorry Mr. Repairman, but it must be done.

I mean, this looks perfectly safe to me...so I cant imagine why it caught on fire...

And I thought the smell of burning from my hair straightener at home over summer made me freak out... yeah, there is a slight possibility we leave Grenada with some post-traumatic stress.

My life in Grenada...

...should be a sitcom.

Seriously.

2 nights ago I had a 10 minute full fledged fight with a cockroach. I am terrified of them and this one was gigantic! But, with Nick gone, I had no one else to pass the buck to and had to kill it myself.

So, I armed myself with bop (a bug killer) in one hand and a shoe in the other and headed into battle. This cockroach was terrifying. It kept dive bombing my head which resulted in me screaming, swinging the shoe recklessly, and spraying bop in a very unorganized and rather non-productive manner. I jumped on the couch, then it followed, so I jumped down... it landed on the floor, so I jumped on a chair... and this dance continued for a good 10 minutes. Finally, after spraying enough bop to kill a 300 pound man, flinging the shoe across the room, and enduring several near face to face collisions with the nasty creature- I won. Take that cockroach. Ugh.

Today, I have spent the last 3 hours killing ants. Yep, living the dream. While in the bathroom I noticed several around our window, so I killed them and moved on. Later, I noticed a few more, and after accessing the situation I realized they were nesting in our ceiling. Awesome. Even on one of our kitchen chairs I am only about a 3rd of the way up the bathroom wall. So I set off to create a trap to lure them down to the ant killer... and yes, it was quite an elaborate process that required lots of leaping off the chair and splattering the sugar killer as high as I could to lead a trail downward.... Anyways, 3 hours and thousands of ants later... I think we are well on our way to being back to ant free.

Just another exciting day in my life here in Grenada :) At least if Social Work falls through for me, I've got quite the resume to submit as an exterminator...

Warning:: Nick & Lindsey engagement picture overload!!!

4th term has hit us like a pound of bricks. We knew it was coming, but seriously it is amazing the difference that I saw in Nick after just one day of Pathology. The tension is higher and the exhaustion is already beginning to set in.

This week all 3 days, he has been out the door by 7:30am and home around 11:00-11:30pm. The schedule that I posted before is legit and in that15 hour + day (INSANE) he gets a short break for lunch and dinner and otherwise is in lecture, labs, and study hall. And no, this isn't a "finals week crunch"... this is just the life of a 4th term medical student. Holy schnikeees!

Soooo, on that note, I am now taking applications for a new island pal! I'm nice, fun, like hiking, adrenaline rushes, swimming, and kids. Oh, and reading, cooking, and basically anything you want if you will just hang out with me! Haha just kidding, I am not sitting around bored, but it is an adjustment getting used to talking to him only a handful of times through out the day and only seeing him for MAYBE an hour a day- nah, an hour is too generous... maybe a half hour a day.

BUT today there was a little bright spot in Nick's crazy day because we got our engagement pictures back!!! I wanted to get cutesy pictures around the island before we left and so when we got engaged I thought "HEY, what a perfect excuse?!" We are SO blessed to be on this beautiful island for 2 years and although I take a bajillion pictures, I wanted to get some nice ones to hang on the wall back home after we leave here. We are also SO lucky to have a ridiculously talented photographer friend, Kat, who was willing to spend a couple hours running around the island with us making us look good! She captured our special moments perfectly and the pictures are very, very Nick and Lindsey! We couldn't be more pleased and I am in love with them all (there are hundreds... so that is how good Kat is!) At least I can stare at Nick's cute face in these pictures if I forget what he looks like during this intense term ;)

Enough rambling... take a look for yourself. It was so hard to pick a few ... but here are several (okay, TONS) of our favorites! Love is in the air, in Grenada!

For more of Kat's amazing work check out her photography blog HERE!

4th term is here!!! Dun, Dun, Dun!

Nick is officially in week 2 of the dreaded 4th term and after looking at his schedule, let's just say- better him than me! 4th term is no joke. He is going to be one busy, busy, busy, BUSY, boy!

His classes for 4th term are: Pathology (13 credits), Microbiology (5 credits), Nutrition (1 credit) and a Communication Skills and Physical Diagnosis Class (aka "CPD", 3 credits).  So his day will more or less look like this for the next oh, 4 months:

•  6:30am wake up
• 8am-12pm- lecture
• 1-5pm - on most days, some sort of lab will most likely take place somewhere in here
• 6/7pm until he can't continue on any longer = studying
• Sleep, wake up, repeat... until December. 

So far, he has been putting in long hours trying to get ahead before classes pick up and the pure craziness/stress begins! I am so proud of him and his hard work and determination. I swear, I don't know how he does it! Like I said, better him than me! 

As for me, I have plenty to do to keep me busy this term as well. I am on the Significant Others Board this term, will continue to volunteer with LIMES (which starts up so soon and I can't wait!), am studying for my Social Work Board Exam (which after jumping through a million hoops is finally officially scheduled for December!), and of course wedding planning!

Needless to say, the next 4 months are going to fly by :) Speaking of which... we get married 4 months from Wednesday!!!! YAY!!

Reunited with our Limes Babies!!!

Yesterday a few of us went to visit several of the Limes kids at their house. Let me just say, there is nothing like their cute, excited shrieks as they saw us walking up toward their house! So excited! They were so silly! Kyla was cracking us up, showing off and being her typical sassy self, Jivvy seemed to want to give us the silent treatment at first and made us work to get some smiles out of her, and Mel-Mel was her typical lovey and thrilled to see you self. They were all just too cute for words

My heart was ready to explode with happiness as soon as I saw them and I couldn't get enough of their hugs and sassy commands to be picked up. They all sprouted up over the past several months and are so much taller!

Oh sweet Limes babies how I missed you! Can't wait for Limes to officially start up in the next couple weeks! We have several new SOs on the island, so hopefully that means more volunteers at Limes each week to play with these sweet kids!

J-Ouvert/Carnival in Grenada!

This past weekend we joined in Grenada's Carnival celebrations. This was my first time being here for Carnival and let me tell you, it is quite the experience!

Jouvert festivities started at midnight on Friday and I think we walked in our front door around 8am Saturday- yes, it is literally an all night country-wide party! We'd heard stories, but this being our first time were not completely sure what to expect, but were told "wear clothes you don't like, cover your hair, drink lots of fluids, nap, and be ready to be covered in paint and oil." My thoughts were pretty much "what in the world kind of party is this" and "what am I getting myself into?"

The answer?! We were in for hands down the most ridiculous night ever and would come home completely covered in paint and oil. And yes, 2 days later, still be trying to get it out of our hair.

Basically, the gist is that people get together and start to party and head out to St. George and continue to party until 4 am when the more formal celebrations begin. Students were given goodie bags which consisted of rum, a monster energy drink, red paint, a water bottle, a bandana, and a fireman hat. Once you have all these things, you run around and throw and smear paint over each other for hours while loud music begins to blare, dancing starts in the street, and Grenadians in bright colored costumes roam the streets. Like I said, it was bizarre, and nuts!

It was definitely not completely my scene, but I am glad we went. It was fun to participate in something that Grenadians do every year and that is such a great tradition in their culture.

Some of the dancing and outfits were definitely a bit inappropriate and slightly uncomfortable, but it didn't phase me too much because I was expecting it. For those who went in completely blind, I think it was a bit shocking! But what was hard for me was seeing all the kids who participated and roamed through the packed streets late into the night/early morning. Parents held babies on their shoulders and hips and didn't let them stop them from having a good time and basically if you were over the age of 3 it was apparently okay to wander about unsupervised... there were 3 adorable brothers we saw at one point and the oldest must have been 8 or 9 and he was holding on to his youngest brother's shirt as tight as he could so he didn't get separated. SO heartbreaking. They all looked overwhelmed and scared and so we gave them our fireman hats and chatted with them for a few minutes- but really I was ready to swoop them up and take them home away from all the madness.  Definitely a different kind of living here.

All in all quite the Grenadian experience and a really fun night! I was exhausted for 2 days after, but when will we ever get another chance to participate in something like that?

BEFORE being covered with paint

AFTER being covered in paint

The following pictures I did not take but gathered from other people because I thought they were awesome and showed off the costumes and crowd well!

A ride and a box of double stuffed oreos

I wouldn't say homesickness is typically a problem I encounter while in Grenada.
Technology is awesome and makes the distance seem much smaller- and I still talk to family and close friends multiple times a week.
There are days when I miss things and convenience, but for the most part I have learned I don't care much about stuff and I can live without those things.

But every now and then there is a day when the heat is annoying, sweating constantly is enough to have me admitted to a mental institution, the crappy internet connection is infuriating, and the thought of cooking another meal or cleaning another dish by hand could make me cry.

Today, may or may not have been one of those days.

And then I went grocery shopping. The mile walk was a million times more annoying than usual.
Seriously, stop honking, I don't want to get in your stupid bus. 
Really? You think whistling or making kissing noises out the window will make me think you are cool?
Is the sun always this damn hot?
Gah sweat is literally dripping in my eyes.
Crap, I forgot my shopping list.... think Lindsey think.. what was on that list... STOP HONKING... 
Am I walking slower than normal? Why is this taking so long?
Yes, I know you are selling mangos and grapefruit, I see you several times a week, but no, not today.

You get the picture. I was very pleasant...

But then, I ran into friends at the store and they offered me a ride home. I am usually perfectly fine riding the bus usually feel bad making people treck me out to the end of Lance Aux Epines, but today they insisted... and man, was I grateful!

And then another awesome thing happened... Grenada decided to throw me a bone and win me back... on the shelf hiding behind the nasty cookies was a package of double stuffed oreos!!!! It was like the sky opened, angels started singing, rainbows appeared and skittles fell from the sky. The island has not had double stuffed oreos since middle of 2nd term, and I had been wanting them SO bad. I rarely have snacks here, they are too expensive, but I had been checking the cookie aisle every shopping trip just to be let down that yet again, no oreo cookie shipment.

Today, I spent a good chunk of the day pretending I lived in Antarctica and was laying face down in the snow and then was pulled out of my funk by 2 things I hadn't even necessarily known I needed- nice and caring friends and a box of double stuffed oreos...

It is the small things in life and Grenada has indeed made me beyond thankful for all those small and wonderful little blessings that appear right when you need them in every day life <3