Ahhhhhh England!

Well I'm here and have been for almost a week. And wow, what an amazing country:) I can't get over how beautiful it is here. Every time I come, I'm amazed at it. The flight went really well, it was nice not to have to switch airports and planes about a hundred times! I'm running a bit short of time at the moment, but I wanted to let people know that I got here alright, not to mention alive:) I'll write more soon and post some pictures when I've bought a converter and have charged my camera battery.

Feeling the sand between his toes...

Earlier this week Zach was having a bit of a "been too long in Grenada" day. He was just feeling frustrated with dealing with the "easy going" locals. Life for them just runs at a very different pace, and it gets kinda old after a while. So he and I were talking about it in the afternoon and he decided that he needed to go for a run and try and clear his head. Well, he got outside to our porch to get his shoes(his brand new shoes he got in advance for his birthday, I might add) and they were not there. We looked everywhere in our apartment(which did not take long, it's small) and they were nowhere to be found. It dawned on us then that someone stole his shoes. Not good timing, let me tell you. Our porch is enclosed with bars and mesh and has a locked gate, that is ALWAYS locked(those of you who know Zach know that he would not have it any other way). Well, someone must have got a stick and fished them out through the bars on our front gate. Needless to say, Zach was NOT pleased. After that we decided to go for a walk to try and calm down(wearing our flip-flops. My shoes were still there, but I thought it best not to wear them...for obvious reasons). We brainstormed on the walk and decided to talk to his parents and see what we could come up with to get him new ones(he wasn't about to pay through the nose to buy ones here). Well, Zach's mom and her sister, Saralie who lives in California, got right on it. Within the next hour there were shoes being sent to Saralie's place in LA and then she was going to send them to our friends place in New York, Peter, so that he could bring them down when he came to visit his wife next. So until he gets his shoes in about a month, it's speed walks in flip flops with me and barefoot runs on the beach for him.

I'm off to the land of milk and honey...errrrrrr fish and chips!!

Zach and I found out that he'll be heading to another island for two weeks in the beginning of October for some in-hospital work. St. Vincent was the island that we were supposed to go to this term, but didn't end up going to due to many different(very scary) reasons. Students were given the option of heading there to do their hospital work for two weeks straight instead of doing them over the term here in Grenada. I'm pretty sure that they did this in a attempt to keep some of the jobs on that island and to not ruffle any feathers there. Well Zach and I decided that it would be beneficial for him to head out there, but not me. We also weren't comfortable with me staying home alone in Grenada, so off to England I go!! I'm pretty sure that I got the better end of the deal, but we won't tell Zach that:) I'm going to visit Astrid and Jo for two and a half weeks and I could not be more pumped about it. Cute kids, cool weather, long sleeves....ahhhh, that's the life! Now I just have to get through two weeks and two days of 40C weather.....

Felix is officially our first...

Well, Zach got his wish! We lived through our first category 1 hurricane. Hurricane Felix was just supposed to be a tropical storm, but it ended up gaining speed by the time it got to Grenada and just got worse. When Zach was going to bed at about 4am he noticed that the wind was getting a little crazy. At about 4:30am I woke up out of a dead sleep and was wondering what was going on. I turned to Zach and noticed that he was awake and asked him if he was sure that this was supposed to be just a storm and he reassured me it was. Well he was wrong. I could not believe how crazy those winds were, we found out today that they hit about 75miles and hour. Needless to say, I was freaked right out. Walking around today we noticed a lot of downed trees and debris. It was weird to think that we'd just lived through a hurricane, I think that we are still in shock... and Zach is happy beyond belief!!

Back in Greanda

Well I'm back in Grenada and it really hit me how behind I am in blogging. Man when I went back to Canada I thought that I would for sure keep it up, but boy was I wrong. Now I'm so behind it isn't even funny...how can I post on all the things that happened while we were "home"?! I'll give a list of all the major things that happened...
First Tom and Marcy got married on the 16th of June, we had a bunch of Starbucks, Jo and Astrid(my sister and brother in law) came to Canada as well with their son Jacob and new baby boy Asher, we had more Starbucks, Zach went golfing...A LOT, Ed and Linda(brother and sister in law) had a baby girl, Jamie, we had more Starbucks...at the first Starbucks ever at Pike Place Market in Seattle, and just a few days after we left Arv and Sophie(brother and sister in law) had a baby boy, Jackson!!! With Jackson being born, that brought the tally to 4 babies being born in the Kliewer family, in the last 9 months!! There was also more weddings, a garage sale that we held to get rid of a bunch of stuff, a vacation with my family, then one with friends and one with just Zach and I. Now if that wasn't an eventful summer, I don't know what was! There was a lot more in between it all, but it would take forever to write. Needless to say it was hectic.
Now we are back here and everything feels so slow and easygoing...typical Grenada:) It was great to see our friends out here again and spend some time with them. We haven't been to the beach though, not something that we are feeling that we must do everyday anymore(I know, you all think that we're weird). We had a hurricane warning...and that turned into a tropical storm warning...that turned into some rain and a lot of wind and lightning. Zach was disappointed, but that is just crazy Zach, me, I was happy that nothing bad happened.
Well, I'm going to cut it out with the writing and get to the good stuff...pictures! I'll try and get on track with the posting...


My very first Starbucks at home!!!


Marcy's staggette


Myself, Marcy and Tom at their wedding


The happy couple!(say it like you mean it Tom...HAAAAPPY couple!)


Jo and Astrid's second boy, Asher


Ryan, Dennis, James and Zach golfing in Whistler


Zach at our garage sale


Pike Place Starbucks...the mermaid is a little scandalous:)


Ed and Linda's third(and finally a girl!!), Jamie


Arv and Sophie's second, Jackson

Taking safety to a whole new level...

My friend Lisa and I went out for coffee this morning and as we were chatting I looked over and saw this...





I just burst out laughing(as did Lisa...and we continued to laugh for a long time!!) cuz the guy just looked so funny. I told Lisa I wished that I had taken a picture of him, I was so sad that I couldn't share it with others. Well, not five minutes later, the guy rode by again, so naturally I whipped out my camera and got a few shots. I've mentioned in previous posts about the "only in Grenada" thing and, well, I think that this guys was performing that one to a tee. I mean, only in Grenada would a guy ride around on a bike, with a banana seat no less(and "Harley" handlebars), in a hard hat and steel toe boots! Man this country never ceases to amaze me...

This ain't no day at the beach.

I can't believe that this semester has flown by so quick. I'm leaving for home in a week and it feels like I just got here. Poor Zach still has three weeks after I leave, but he'll be okay. He's going to be so busy with finals that he won't even miss me(I hope).
It's funny how your perspective on things can change so much once you know that you are leaving a place. I get these blinders on when I'm here, I don't really see the bad, but I'm not seeing the good either...I just cope. The thing about this country is that although it is incredibly beautiful, it has it's rough points(the men whistling/"psssting" at you, the general laziness). And when you are trying to live your daily life of, paying bills, grocery shopping, etc. you forget all the good. I don't go to the beach every day, as most people believe, it is just plain ol' too hot! We try and hide from the sun here. I don't surf or scuba dive or hang with the locals and listen to Bob Marley...life here is just not like that. It is boring and plain and dull. I think that people expect to hear of all these stories whenever we talk and I got nothing for them. It is always the same thing, Zach is STILL studying, I'm STILL watching tv, killing cockroaches....cooking. I guess in some ways it is an adventure and one day I will be looking back on it and think that it was, but right now I fail to see it. How can doing the same thing day after day, after day, be an adventure?! My friend here, Emily, says it's like Groundhog Day, it's the same old routine every day; and she's right, nothing changes. We ride the same buses, on the same five mile route, with the same weather, and the same people... you get the idea. I think that knowing I'm leaving in a couple of days makes me really look at the way my life is here and it seems so boring. It makes me look at all the negatives and harp on them. I think that I need a day at the beach to boost my attitude and make me realize where I am.