Laundry day in Grenada!

So I finally stopped being lazy (and felt like I had enough time to let clothes dry on the line before heading out) to actually do laundry today. So that is what I did. I ran 2 loads through the washer  and set out to hang them on the line next to our house. The entire time the clothes were in the washer it was scorching hot outside and sunny, but not even 5 minutes after putting the 2nd load on the line it started to sprinkle. I tried to reason with mother nature, but sure enough a few minutes later we got a nice Grenadian downpour! I knew it wouldn't last long, so it wasn't even worth trying to salvage the almost dry articles of clothing, and instead I just sat back and watched the rain. I love the smell during and after the rain here, and it looks so cool to see the rain come down over the ocean. So, looks like our clothes got washed twice today! It's back to being hot and sunny now, so that is good!

Oh, and guess what surprise I got when doing the 2nd load of the laundry today? A centipede. Iiiiick! I was Skyping with my mom while doing the load and thought I saw something fall into the washer... I quickly felt around, moving the laundry about and found nothing (in retrospect, thank goodness I didn't find it, because I may have slightly freaked out). So anyways, I figured it must have been a drawstring in one our many pairs of athletic shorts, and moved on. Well, when emptying the laundry much to my dismay there was a nasty centipede at the bottom. I hate those things-- they gross me out. I told Nick I didn't want him to feel left out of the fun and that I was leaving it for him to deal with when he got home. Aren't I a nice girlfriend? We will be hitting up Ace for some Bop bug spray ASAP-- which for the record Bop is awesome and in my opinion a must have in Grenada for killing and keeping away bugs around the house or around your chair/towel at the beach and pool. Don't put it on your skin though, it is really strong.  

All of our clothes re-drying after the rain... it's nice and sunny now!!!

The incredibly nasty centipede that made it's way into our laundry-- TIG... iick!!

Girl Friends!

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to hang out with a few of the other SOs (significant others) at the beach yesterday! Yay friends! It was really nice to meet some girls who are in the same boat I am and who can help me learn the in and outs of the island! They invited me to tag along with them on their trip to Magazine Beach, which was absolutely gorgeous! I didn't bring my snorkel stuff, but will have to next time... I think it is about time I actually learn how to use it! I am really excited about having girl friends down here, and think it will really help to make our time on the island that much better! Also, with all the talk about Limes (the school program the SOs run) yesterday I am soooo excited to begin volunteering next week! It sounds so up my ally and can't wait to see what opportunities the programs has for me to get involved!  Also, on the way back from the beach I got to meet a few of the kids who attend the program because Stephanie needed to stop by their house. Omgosh, talk about cuteness- they were so silly! Like I said, I am very excited to start next week! :)

Unfortunately my camera battery died so I only got one picture of the beach (amateur mistake) but good thing I am sure I will see much more of Magazine Beach over the next year and half so I'll survive this time!

Hard to believe, but it is even more beautiful in real life!!
Magazine Beach was great too because it was much more quiet than Grand Anse Beach :)

Also, I have to add, as I am writing this, I am watching one the most beautiful sunsets I have yet to see in Grenada!! I love that I can watch them from my house and/or back porch... so spoiled!

Yeah, sunsets like these never get old and continue to amaze me! I'm a pretty lucky girl eh?

Crab Races!

Yep, you heard right, I said crab races! At Owls, one of the local bars around here, they have crab races every Monday night.  I have heard about them for some time now and could not wait to see what it was all about.  Oh my goodness, was it hilarious!! I was expecting it to be the "fast crabs" that I saw on campus when I visited last term, but no it was the superrrrrr slow crabs... seriously, so funny and we loved every minute of it! Everyone literally sits in a big circle, then crabs are brought out with numbers on their backs for people to bet on. Some races you bet on who will be the slowest out of the circle, other times the fastest, and during certain races you can buy your own crab for 5 e.c and hope he's a fast crab and wins! We participated in the buy your own crab race, and entered 2 crabs- Victor and Frank the Tank. Unfortunately neither of them won, but it sure was fun! Frank the Tank was close and came in 2nd or 3rd, but good ol' Victor was either confused by the rules or completely unamused by our games, because he never left the starting spot... haha! Marty did win that race however, with good ol' "Kentucky Crab" coming in first place!! If we had to lose at least we lost to a friend, who won 85 e.c and shared the winnings by buying everyone a few drinks!

Big ol' bucket of crabs!

Victor!! He appeared to be feisty here!

Frank the Tank!  

And the race is on! hhaha

Big winner! Because according to him- "Kentucky never loses"

Hashing! On-on!

Nick, Jessica, Mark, and I officially completed our first hash! Hashing is a hike that takes place somewhere on the island, where hundreds of people (locals, students, visitors, and children) all participate.  It is a huge event, that takes place world-wide! We were very excited to be able to participate in our first hash, and the experience did not disappoint! Every aspect of hashing was pretty awesome.  There is no way that I can even begin to describe how amazing and fun of an experience that is in this blog post, so the best thing I can say is to go out and experience it for yourself. You will not regret it.

Nick and I started out our first hashing experience in a rather unique way.  We have not yet mastered the bus schedule here so we missed the 12:45pm bus and much to our dismay realized the next bus would not be arriving until 2:00 pm.  This was very unfortunate because we were supposed to meet the group in downtown St. George at 1:30 to head to the hash.... so that being said, we really had one option... to walk.  In our minds, while this was not ideal, it was not overly hard either. We'd walked to our friend's house, which was on the way, so we figured we could make it and still get to downtown on time. Well, let me just say it was NOT a short walk. It was around 4-5 miles (from the University Club in Lance Aux Epines to the the Texico for those of you on the island!), in blistering sun and heat. nice. Nothing like a 4-5 mile walk before hashing-- nice little warm up! We were super worried we would miss the bus in downtown but luckily Grenada time worked in our favor and we made it!!

The hash that we participated took place in St. Marks, which is one of the highest points on the island.  Although, the drive was long (over an hour) it was worth it, and it was fun to be able to see different towns and parts of the ocean along the way.  We lucked into grabbing a van with some wonderful British people because they had extra space and saved us from the side of the road where we were desperately trying to catch a bus to the hash! The starting point on the hash was unbelievably gorgeous!! The hike itself was about 1.5 hours long, and you  may chose to either run or walk.  We chose to walk, and I was really glad we did. 1) because this girl is NOT in running shape, and 2) because it allowed us to go at our own pace and stop and take pictures and enjoy the scenery whenever we wanted! The way hashing works is that after you decide which trail you wish to follow (the walkers trail or runners trail) then you follow piles of shredded paper that point you in the right direction. Piles of shredded paper mean you are going the right way, a circle of paper means there are several different trails and you have to find the right one by picking a trail and hoping you can go about 10 piles of paper without finding a paper X meaning you went the wrong way and need retrace your steps back to the circle to try another path.  It's really fun, I'll post a link at the end of this that will break down the rules a little more! Upon finishing the hash, you end up back at the starting point, where there are tents filled with food, drinks, and basically an after party! It was really very, very cool! 

This link describes hashing and the rules, so if you like hiking take a look! It is a great way to explore the island (or any place you are visiting that participates in hashing! Seriously, it is world-wide, and something I will def look into when I travel from now on)  http://grenadahash.com/hash-faqs

View from the has starting point

Pretty eh?

The 4 hashing champs

Fresh Coca

Climbing up some big rocks! 

Cool!

Bamboo!

Pretty!!

We successfully completed our 1st hash! 

Home Sweet Grenadian Home!

Got some better pictures of our cute little Grenadian abode!! It still amazes me every time I wake up, walk down the street, or shoot, look up from my computer and see our yard.  All of our windows go out to the backyard, which means all of our windows look out onto the ocean. Seriously, that view can NEVER get old. We really hit the jackpot with this place. I am absolutely in love. The inside is nice enough too! It's newly painted, with screens on most (trying to get them on a few more) windows.  With the ocean in our backyard, we get a great breeze most days that really helps cool down the house.  It is spacious and perfect for us.  Really, I would have settled for  much worse just to have this backyard, so we are truly lucky! Not to mention, we have a constant soundtrack of the waves crashing against the rocks, which is just to die for!!! I don't even listen to music as much here so far because I just want to hear the water... or if I do, it is  on low... although, it does take a lot to drown out the sound of the ocean... not to rub that in anyones face or anything ;)

Some pictures! We are working on setting up a mailbox through St. George's because there are no mailboxes or even address numbers here.  Seriously, one house is called the "house below the hill."  haha!

Here she is!!! We are going to put a hammock on the back porch too :) 

Nick walking down toward the edge of our backyard 

And this is what you see!!! Amaaaaazzzzing!! 

Kitchen 

Kitchen again

Dining area

Living room

Gigantic bathroom

Sunset from our porch!

Officially in Grenada!!!

Well, it is official-- Nick left again for Grenada to start Term 2 of medical school on January 4, 2012 and this time I did not have to stay behind at home!! We have been here for several days and have almost completely settled in.  The key word here however, is almost. I have quickly learned why the phrase TIG or "This is Grenada" is so commonly used. I obviously heard Nick say it a million times last term, and would even chime in myself and say it when he was telling me a story about something that happened to him or a friend, but living here gives TIG an entirely different meaning!

Here are a few of our TIG moments in our first couple of days:
- The first night we arrived there were hundreds of little, tiny bugs running around on the counter top in the kitchen.  It was late, so although really kinda gross, we were exhausted and decided to just deal with it in the morning. However, when we woke up and they were gone and we have not seen them since.  We told a few people about them who live near us and have come to find out these mysterious bugs appear once a month at night and disappear in the morning routinely. Sure, that makes sense? TIG.

- On the first night we got a first hand experience of what happens when you do not convert electricity correctly.  We bought this little adapter gadget thing at Brookstone back home and were SO excited to use it. So as we are unpacking we decide to plug in the little fan I brought with me to help pull some fresh air inside. Well, Nick grabs the adapter and plugs in the fan and a few minutes later I'm looking at it and saying "Nick I think something smells funny" so he comes in the room and notices that it is smoking and the next we know it sparks and dies. Adios fan. Turns out our wonderful little gadget was ONLY  an adapter, not an adapter AND a step down transformer.  Good to know!  TIG (Appliance #1 broken.)

- Nick was taking a shower and all of a sudden we hear a loud snap/pop noise, like something had exploded. Sure enough something had indeed, and this time it was the shower heater. The TIG moment... the water heater is all ghetto-rigged up INSIDE  the shower.  So, after the loud noise, a decent amount of smoke and a horrible burning smell, there was no more water heater due to it getting wet during Nick's shower (because you know, putting a water heater inside a shower is a very dry and safe place).  So, showers are a bit more exciting here... luckily, we are so hot during the day we don't really want warm water anyways! Cold showers for the win. TIG. (Appliance # 2 broken.)

- A few hours after the shower explodes we hear a really loud, high pitched sound coming from somewhere in the house. We look around and can't find anything. I was convinced the house was about to go up in flames and suggested we just "run and get out"... but luckily Nick was a little more level headed and discovered that the source of the loud sound = a cricket who had found its way inside... TIG.

- Today, we find a transformer under the sink and are all super excited because this will allow us to use more american style plugs! So, naturally, I go to plug in a surge strip and BAM, loud noise, a spark, and the surge strip is dead. Nice. Just when we thought we were getting the hang of it. (Applicance # 3 broken).

So, needless to say it has been an exciting first couple of days on the island! Ace hardware (which yes, does exist on the island!) has been our best friend, and the workers there have been extraordinarily helpful and haven't laughed at us too much.  After killing 3 appliances, including a transformer, we splurged on a larger 750 watt transformer and have since had no problems! Although,  I must admit I have become a transformer nazi and am constantly saying "what's the voltage?" "how many watts?" and "please unplug everything else before you use that".... ya know "just to be safe".  How long till those phrases get super old to Nick? haha TIG. On the plus side- I now know much more about electrical stuff than I ever thought I would. Every day/hour here is a learning experience!

Merry Christmas!

Hard to believe that it is already the day after Christmas!! And I must say, Santa was very generous this year! Got lots of fun stuff to take with me to Grenada, and all are small and light weight, so they will perfect to pack! I really can't believe how quickly time is passing... ah, 9 days until I leave and live in a different country than my family!! Starting to feel a little homesick before I even leave :(

We are currently enjoying a day after Christmas lazy day.  We went out to breakfast with Mama and Papa Leo, and now Nick is playing video games (modern warfare 3 of course) and I am lounging and blogging. Neither of us have voices, so we also have lots and lots of hot tea and honey :) This is what we get for running around in the snow Thursday night, but what do you expect when we haven't had any snow yet this winter?! Bring on the snooooowww! 

I really should be packing though. It is time to make some major moves on that and get a big chunk done... I can only put it off for so much longer.

Things still left to do: 

-finish emptying out bedroom

-box up winter clothes

-pack up summer clothes I plan to take with me

-box up summer clothes that isn't going to Grenada

-wash blankets then pack the 2 that are [hopefully] coming to Grenada and box up the rest

-buy makeup/toilet trees/sunscreen/lotion/etc. 

-clean bathroom

-empty closet

-take boxes of school stuff down to basement

-find suitcases and start strategically packing

-spend time with family as much as possibleeee

-and probably a million things I am forgetting, gah.