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.

Just wanted to update people on how sad I really am. My big thing/job for the day was to clean the fridge...not just tidy, but clean out the whole thing; pull out shelves, wash everything, throw out food... As I was doing it, and having way too much fun I might add, I realized how sad my life has gotten that I think that cleaning out a fridge is enough to be considered "the thing to do for the day". Only in Grenada...

Working the corner...

So today was the monthly bazaar up at school in which I sell my baked goods. I went today thinking that it would be a little slow due to the fact that most of the students have left for home already(all but the third and fourth term med). So I show up and there are three other girls there to sell stuff and as usual, the school forgot to set up the tent and the tables for us at the bus stop. So we waited and waited and then waited some more and no one showed up to bring them and set them up. Meanwhile both classes had been let out and our potential customers had gone. One girl called the school after waiting for an hour or so and found out that we were not, in fact, ever receiving said tent and tables!! So what was a girl to do?!?! I set up shop--right there on the ground and was hawking my wares like a mad woman. Zach walked by and was killing himself laughing, apparently I looked a little funny standing there looking like I was selling my pecan pie bars and banana chocolate chip muffins on the black market. A few people bought some things, but I think it was just cuz they felt sorry for me. Well, on the bright side, I didn't have to pay the fee for the table...

If it isn't one thing, it's another

Zach and I decided to do some long over-due laundry yesterday and we headed out to the laundry facilities on campus which are about a five minute walk away from our house. We had three rather large bags of dirty laundry (which are those big blue shopping bags from Ikea) and they were packed full. We got to the laundry room and there were people already there, so we decided that we were going to wait in line for the washers. Now, of the ten washing machines there, only five were working, and I'm using the term "working" loosely. So after a little wait we got two of our four large loads in and the other two went in after the first set. Once they were ready to dry one would assume that you could just put them in the dryers and that would be that. Well, not in Grenada. Of the 11 dryers, only four were working and one of those four was making the most aweful sound I have ever heard in my life, no joke. It sounded like a mix between a jet engine starting in a room the size of a bathroom, and ten sets of nails scratching on a chalkboard. So Zach and I decided to hightail it out of there and try our luck at line drying our clothes at home. By the time the ringing in our ears stopped, we were home and hung up our laundry around our apartment, did I mention that we had four LARGE loads?!? Well, this is what our little place looked like once we hung it all up...






There was more outside on some random lines I found, but we never got a shot of those. We also had towels and clothes all over our kitchen table, chairs, our bed, on the shower curtain rod and pretty much every available space we had. Now it sounds funny, but at the time it was anything but. Can't wait to use my rock-hard, salty/windy smelling bathtowel tonight...

Proud Aunt

I just found out that my niece Taylor, who is 7 and in the second grade, is having one of the short stories she's written published in a book this fall!! She participated in a nation-wide competition and won for her age category out of thousands of entries. I'm so proud of her, she is such a smart kid. She is up for a regional award for this story as well. So you can all go out and buy the book "Storyland Express" this fall and find out what a great writer she is!

I bet Jamie Oliver never had to deal with things like this...

The other night I was happily cooking away when I noticed that my chicken wasn't sizzling in the pan anymore. I did a double take and I noticed that I was out of propane(we have a gas stove). Well, as I mentioned before in my blog, in normal circumstances we would have just driven to the gas station to get some more, but this is Grenada. The gas stations here aren't open past 8pm and so we were out of luck...did I mention that I was in the MIDDLE of dinner?? Well, my kind neighbour, Bruno, let me cart all my stuff over to his place and let us use his stove to finish off dinner, but I still had no way of getting propane(that night or the next day, we don't have a car and our landlord is in England). The best was the next morning, when we were in a panic about not getting our caffeine intake for the day, and I had the brilliant idea of boiling the water in the microwave(sorry Linda, I know how you hate those things, but what is a girl to do??). I'll never forget the way Zach looked in his underwear with oven mits on checking the water every few minutes to see if it was boiling yet!! And when pouring the water out of the bowl and into our french-press, he spilled hot water all over the place! After that whole mess, not to mention having the haunting images of me carting the tanks on the school bus to the local gas station, we finally got a hold of the guy who is filling in for our landlord and we got him to come and take the tanks to be refilled. Now I have a working stove again and all is right with the world.

Goodbye lunches and hot showers...

In honor of Laura's last day here, a couple of girls went out for her goodbye lunch yesterday. It was a lot of fun, well, aside from the fact that we arrived at the restaurant only to be harassed by a guy trying to ask for money and sitting down with us at our table (and not leaving), and once he finally left (after I gave him 10EC for whatever cause he was "allegedly" peddling) we were told that the kitchen was out of chicken...that's right, completely out of chicken. Now, I've heard of a restaurant not having a specific item on their menu for whatever reason it may be, out of season, etc., but to be out of an entire type of meat is just wrong. With there not being any chicken we were down to about four choices. And, again, in normal circumstances (aka, back in North America) we would have left the restaurant and found some other place. Now Grenada is no normal circumstance and there aren't a lot of choices here, so we just decided to stay. The rest of the lunch went great though and it was good to spend one last afternoon with Laura.



Today our landlord came by and fixed our shower. We have had no hot water since I got here in February. Now most of you must think that in a hot country, one would not need a hot shower. Well, to you I say: come down here and try it on for size! It is not as refreshing or as great as you'd think. The water is stinkin' cold! And try shaving your legs in freezing water, good luck! So today I had my first hot shower in months and it was fabulous! Below is a picture of our lovely high-tech shower. That's right...those are exsposed wires that you are seeing so close to the water. We like to live, and shower, dangerously.

So long, farewell...

Well, I just found out that my good friend Laura is leaving this lovely island of Grenada a little earlier than expected. She was going to fly home on the 18th of May and instead she's leaving this thursday (the 3rd) due to the fact that she isn't feeling well and this is not the place to have any sort of health emergencies. She will most likely be fine, but you never what take a chance with your health, and specifically, you don't want to take that chance in a third world hospital. To give you a picture of how it is here, they don't have an incubator for babies, no intensive care unit...you get the picture.
So needless to say, I'm a little sad and feeling a little lost thinking about how I'm going to spend my time on this island. Laura and I spent many a day watching episodes of Desperate Housewives and just hanging out in general. Wow, I'm making it sound like she's dead!! But I am, in a sense, mourning a little since she's not going to be here next semester. She decided to stay home and find a job in the field that she is trained in, nursing, and get a little extra dough for their pockets! Personally I think that she is sick of not being close to a proper grocery store, but that's just me:)
Well, Laura, I'm going to miss you, but most of all...I'm going to miss your car (just kidding!!)...