Uppers? Downers?

This week all the guys had their first exams which meant that they got one day off to spend with us. After their exam on Monday morning we all got together and went to grooms beach. We spent the afternoon enjoying the water and each other's company. We ate lunch at a resort on the beach called La Luna and then Evan and I went to Prickly Bay Marina for our dinner of pizza and a milkshake. So far it was the best pizza I've had on the island. The next morning it was back to non stop studying for the guys and trying to find things to keep us busy for the girls.

Evan and I at Grooms beach

The group at La Luna 

I decided to buy a rolling pin so that I could branch out and cook some new things.  So far all of the tortillas we have had are not very good and they are pretty expensive so I decided to make my own!  The first time they were super thick and greasy so I tried a new recipe, better, but still not the right shape or thickness (partially because of my lack of tortilla rolling skills).  After reading some tips online I decided to try again with a different recipe.  I was planning on going to an activity on campus but missed the bus because it left early.  I decided to take my frustrations out on a batch of tortillas and it worked really well until I halved everything but the water.  I made a HUGE mess.  The dough was all over my hands and the counter and it was super hard to get off.  After cleaning up I decided to start over and I'm really glad because they turned out great!

 

The sticky mess of dough

Second attempt turned out much better than the first

One afternoon some of my friend and I decided to cool off at Grand Anse Beach. While there we met a super nice guy. He asked us if we had seen any sand dollars and we said no so he went out with his snorkel gear to grab some for us. When they wash up on the shore they turn white in the sun, but while they are still alive they are a dark grey color and they all have slightly different designs on their shell. After our snorkeling adventure last week we had a couple questions for him about the types of things we found. One of them being sea urchins. He told us that they are only really harmful if you step on one and went and found one so we could hold it. It's crazy, they suction to your hand and you can turn your hand upside down and it will stay on. We also talked about church a little bit with him. He said that he didn't know how anyone couldn't explore the ocean and not believe in God. It was a really fun experience.

 

My cool sand dollar

The other side

After a couple of days it started turning green!

At the end of the week we decided to take a trip into downtown St. George's for some girls to get fans and then to just explore. There's a smoothie shop in the mall there that is amazing! I got a chocolate banana smoothie that was more like a milkshake and was only $3! I have been craving one everyday since. We went into a couple of fun gift shops and explored the spice market. I have heard a lot about the spice market, but had never been. They have some really cool stuff. They of course have spices there, but there's also fresh honey, pure vanilla, and tons of hand made treasures. I can't wait to take Evan there someday.  

On our way back I rode with my friend on her scooter.  At one point we were waiting for the car to catch back up with us and were pulled off on the side of the road in Lance Aux Epines.  This random guy approached us and started talking to us.  He seemed nice and we initially thought he was just being friendly and saying hi, but then he offered us drugs.  Totally unexpected.  We have been offered drugs one other time, but when the dealer introduces himself as the pharmacist it's much less surprising.  Thank you Grenada for always keeping me on my toes!

Dancing for Money

Since our washer wasn't installed on Saturday like it was supposed to be, I emailed our landlord again on Monday to let her know and she was surprised.  When she called she was told that "we missed them" and they left us a note.  We were home all day...and there was never a note on our door.  I'm not sure how they could have gone to the wrong house when they had been to ours several times already, but when your address is the orange house on Coffee Street in Calliste I guess it can get a little confusing.  Anyway, they FINALLY came and installed the washer the next morning.  

That night we did our first load of laundry in our apartment.  Now if you had seen the plumbing that was put in (which for some reason I never took a picture of), you would worry that when the washer drained the water would come right back out the pipe rather than flow through the pipe.  So I sat on our couch and waited to hear the draining start and sure enough I heard water pouring onto our floor right at the beginning of the first drain cycle.  I jumped up and paused the cycle as fast as I could.  We then pushed the washer over to the sink so it could drain into our kitchen sink and we could finish running the load.  The plumber came back a few days later to add onto the pipes and by the end of our fourth week on the island we officially had a working and problem free washer in our apartment.

Our first load of laundry air drying in our apartment

My first adventure of the week this week was bingo night at Prickly Bay Marina.  You pay 25 EC for a bingo card and the day we went there were 5 games of bingo to play.  At the beginning of the round there will be some small cash prizes as you build up to the black out bingo and those prizes are the best.  Here is what we were playing for:
Game 1: Cash and 2 goats
Game 2: A Grenadian pig farm (4 pigs)
Game 3: A bunny
Game 4: A dinghy
Game 5: A car
The night started out fairly tame, but as it progressed it got more and more interesting.  At the beginning the caller would randomly choose people's cards as dance cards and would make them dance for their prize.  Or if there was more than one winner they had to have a dance off for the prize.  Towards the end every card is a dance card haha.  By the time I won a bingo, the caller tried to make my card a kiss card.  I just said I was married and convinced him that it should be a dance card instead.  So I publicly humiliated myself dancing up on the stage for 50 EC and a free pizza.  The good news is by that point of the night everyone was pretty drunk (except for my cool mormon friends of course) and probably doesn't remember it ever happening :)  By the end of the last game when we were competing for the car two of my friends and I only needed one more number called, but sadly none of us ended up winning.  It all made for a pretty interesting and memorable night.

I accidentally deleted the picture of my almost
black out bingo, but here's my semi-lucky card!

Me up on the bingo stage

Speaking of dancing, this week was a particularly difficult one because I all of a sudden realized just how much I miss dancing and teaching.  Seeing all my old students post pictures of them back at dance on Instagram really got me thinking about it.  I looked at some old videos and pictures of our BYU dance days and convinced myself that for now yoga will just have to be a good enough substitute.  This wasn't our best performance, but it was fun to watch and reminisce anyway!  Here's the link if you feel like watching it: http://youtu.be/-iMxges9YaY

Speaking of yoga, we did headstands this week and my friend who is 8 months pregnant totally rocked it!  She inspires all of us so much, she is one tough cookie.

My yoga headstand

This week's adventures also consisted of two beach days.  The first one was at BBC beach where it started raining the second we got there!  We decided that the water was probably warmer than the rain and went swimming anyway.  When you have good company even a rainy day on the beach can be loads of fun.  I got my first snorkeling experience where I saw a couple of big fish and we also found a starfish!  Our next beach trip was to Magazine beach.  No starfish there, but the snorkeling was incredible!  I felt like I was watching Finding Nemo in real life.  We were swimming around the reef for at least an hour just loving every second of it.  Right before we came in we were talking and when we put our masks back on we saw that we were surrounded by hundreds of little fish.  It was truly an unforgettable moment.

The cool starfish we found

Snorkeling at Magazine Beach

We met this really nice Grenadian, Terry, at Magazine Beach
and he made us these cool birds!

To wrap up our week we went to a bakery to get some donuts early on Saturday morning.  After living across the street from the Provo Bakery for a year I was really starting to miss donuts.  They were delicious and we got to have a fun conversation with the owner after we ate.  She was super nice and I am looking forward to going back one of these days!

Family Pictures

You would think that with all my free time I would have worked on these photos a long time ago, but it just kept getting pushed aside.  Better late than never I guess!  We didn't get a chance to take very many pictures, but I still think we got a couple decent ones :)  I don't know why my Dad's shirt is so neon in some of the pictures, it's not like that when I look at the file.  Oh well I guess!

Not a bad looking group :)

The handsome men of the family

My Grandpa is cooler than yours!

58 years and counting! Love these two :)

The best parents a girl could ask for!

Bret and Brynn, I miss living only 4 hours away from them!

The only picture of us that Cam didn't photobomb

Forever alone

I have the best siblings in the world, I love these crazy kids!

Washer Woes

Week 3 in Grenada was a very interesting one.  The company that our new washer was purchased from was supposed to be coming by to install our washer on tuesday so naturally I stayed at home all day waiting for them.  We tried to get a time frame that they might be coming, but we were told that they didn't do that.   By the late afternoon I was starting to get really frustrated and impatient and after they didn't show up at all I was extremely mad.  It's amazing how spending the whole day in the apartment really gets to you.  Even getting out for just an hour makes a huge difference.  At the end of the day I wanted some popcorn so I threw a bag in the microwave and turned it on.  After a couple minutes I started smelling something burning, I took the bag out and it had a hole scorched in the bottom of it.  I was so upset that I almost started crying...over popcorn.  And the worst part of it all is that there's nothing I can do about it.  Calling and complaining would do no good because they just don't care.

My burned bag of popcorn.

The next morning my landlord called and the company came pretty early to install the washer, however, they couldn't.  We needed new plumbing (which was obvious since the new washer wouldn't fit where the old one was, but again, nothing we could do).  I swear my landlord knows when I'm about to leave because she always calls to ask if I'm home when I'm about to leave.  It was pool day and I was on my way out when she came by with the plumber.  She said she would take care of it and I could still go if I wanted.  So I left, a decision I would later regret.  Evan had been sick most of the week and the day the plumber came was his worst day, he ended up leaving school early go to home and rest.  He opened the door to a soaking wet kitchen/living room floor.  The pipe that the plumber installed cracked when they turned the water back on and our apartment was flooded.

Don't worry, the excitement doesn't stop there.  The washer guy was supposed to come the next day to install it once all the plumbing was done but wouldn't return any of my landlord's calls and never came.  After calling the company to complain she was told we were "on the list for tomorrow."  Because of everything I had been through I was sick of waiting around all day for nothing to happen, but because it was Saturday we were home anyway.  Nobody came.  So another week down with no washer.

In other news, I tried some new things this week and am adjusting to cooking here.  I have accepted that any time I cook I am going to be dripping with sweat by the end (no exaggeration, it's pretty bad).  I am also learning to cook with new ingredients like eggplant and am getting better at adjusting recipes based off of what I can find in the grocery store that week.  Grocery shopping is getting less overwhelming as well which is good.

First time ever cooking or eating eggplant!

My friends and I decided to try a yoga class near the beach this week and for 3 of us it was our first yoga class ever.  We had a really great time and decided that we would try to go to every class just because it will give us something to do and look forward to and because it's good exercise.

After our first yoga class.

For lunch on Friday I went with some of the other wives to burger Friday.  There's a bakery on the way into downtown St. George's that sells burgers for only 10 EC with fresh buns and all the toppings you could want.  It's one of the best deals there is here for food and was one of the best burgers I have ever had, granted I have lowered my standards a lot, but it did not disappoint!

Friday night was the white coat ceremony on campus.  It was nice to have a good reason to get dressed up and actually straighten my hair.  Afterwards we went out with 2 other couples and got some food and ice cream.  It was a great way to end the week and it was nice to spent time together and forget about studying just for a couple of hours.

Evan looking really excited about going to the white coat ceremony 

Evan, Billy, and Zach getting their white coats put on  

Reciting the professional commitment 

Dr. Evan :)

After the ceremony

Island Time

During our first week on the island we got a slight introduction to "island time" when it came to getting our internet troubles taken care of.  But because there were so many students also trying to set up their internet and because of Carnival,  we ignored it a little bit.  During week two though it became harder to ignore.  We went to do a load of laundry and realized that our washer smelled awful.  And I mean really awful.  I didn't even have to sniff it, I just opened the door and the smell hit me like a sack of bricks.  We decided it would be a good idea to run a bleach cycle before we put clothes in it so we bought some bleach.  Evan poured a cup of bleach in and turned the washer on.  The lights flashed and we pressed buttons, but nothing happened.  Cool.

We notified our landlord and they sent someone out to repair it.  They showed up half an hour late, looked at the washer for a few minutes and asked me if they could come back the next day at 12:15.  I said sure and waited at home for them the next day.  Several hours after they were supposed to come I finally gave up waiting.  The next several days consisted of calls and emails back and forth between our landlord, manager, and us.  You need a new washer, it can't be fixed.  Then it was they want to try to fix it one more time and take measurements for a new one if needed.  I waited at home and nobody showed, again.  Then it was we bought a washer...we are looking tomorrow...we are buying one tomorrow.  We just couldn't get a straight answer about what was going on, it was very frustrating.  In the mean time, I am hauling our laundry back and forth from campus because we were completely out of clothes.  After a couple days we finally were told it was purchased and would be delivered by friday.  On Saturday they finally brought it (don't worry I stayed home ALL day friday waiting for it).   They came on saturday while I was gone at the grocery store and this is what I came home to:

The new washer next to the old one

See the problems?  1.  The old washer is under the counter and is a front loader.  2.  New washer is a top loader so it can't go under the counter even if it would fit.  3.  The new washer is HUGE and there's no way it could fit where the old one was even if the counter top was removed.  4.  It wasn't hooked up!  They told us they would come back on Tuesday to hook it up.  Now if you understand basic logic you would look at the washer and it's new placement and realize that there is no way the hoses they brought with it would reach the old hook-ups.  So even though they were supposed to be coming on Tuesday, we knew they wouldn't actually be able to hook it up, and there was nothing we could do about it.  A couple of positive things about the new washer.  Because it is huge it will actually hold 3X what the old one held and because it's brand new it is really nice :)

There was also a really bad rain storm this week and we learned that the ceiling over our bath tub leaked.  Our landlord is still working something out to get that fixed.  It seems like everything that could go wrong has with our apartment so far, but we are hoping that once it all gets fixed it will start to feel more like home.

Now onto the better parts of the week!  Monday was an exciting day.  It was Evan's first day of med school!  It was also a pool day for me.  On Mondays and Thursdays the significant others get use of the University Club facilities.  They have a beautiful pool with a view of the beach.  It gives us all something to look forward to twice a week!  AND it was also our anniversary.  After Evan got home from class we went out to dinner at a restaurant that had a view of the beach.  It was dark, but we could hear the waves rolling onto the sand and that made for a peaceful setting.  After we finished eating we went to the crab races.  They have a series of 5 races.  The first race was the fastest crab and each crab represents a different country.  They put six labeled crabs into a bowl and turn it upside down.  Then they draw a circle in the sand, take bets, and lift the bowl.  The first crab to reach the circle is the winner.  The second race is the opposite and the last crab out of the circle is the winner.  You can only bet 2ec so it's pretty harmless and we placed a bet.  We won and the odds were 2-1 so we got 4ec back.  The third and fifth races were jackpot races where you can pay 5ec, pick your own crab out of a box, give it a name and then the winner gets 75% of the pool.  It's so entertaining to hear everyone shouting at their crabs.  The fourth race was the Presidential race and they names the 6 crabs after political leaders in different countries.  We bet 2ec on that race as well and lost, so we came out even.  We had a really great time.

Evan's "first day of school" picture

At the crab races

The University Club Pool

Now this is where our night got less fun.  One of the school busses was about to pass so we decided to grab that instead of taking a taxi home.  The bus that would then take us from campus to our house was no longer running so we would be taking the extra night bus home.  We passed it on the way into campus and realized when we got there that it only comes once an hour.  So we got to sit at the bus stop for 55 minutes waiting, it sucked.  In that moment we decided it was time to look into purchasing our own method of transportation.

This week I also got my first sunburn on the island and it was also by far the worst sunburn I have ever had.  It hurt so bad that I could barely sleep.  I bought some aloe at the grocery store, but because it's so hot here it wasn't very soothing at room temperature so I put it in the freezer.  Evan greatly enjoyed squirting freezing cold lotion on my back.

On Wednesday I went with some friends to a farmer's market and had a really great time.  The selection of fresh vegetables in the grocery stores is pretty limited and they tend to be on the pricy side, so I really stocked up at the market.  It was nice to have some fresh salad makings to go with dinner for the next several days.

Lots of fresh food from the Farmers Market

I had to add this picture just because I think
it's cool, this is an avocado.  They look totally
different than the ones in the states.

At the end of the week Evan took a break from studying and we got to catch up on Master Chef.  For every 30 seconds or so of watching you have to go back 10 seconds to reload the content, but it was nice to just get to spend some time together!

Trip to Grenada/First Week on the Island

Our Travels

After countless hours of packing and weighing suitcases, we were finally ready to go.  Our trip started off with a red-eye flight from PDX to JFK.  We payed to check our bags and were told that they would be good to go all the way to Grenada.  Checking in went much smoother than expected since we didn't have a returning flight to the US.  We got on the plane hoping to sleep through the first flight.  After freezing on other plane rides we took this summer, I was prepared and brought a travel blanket.  Sadly though the flight was extra cold, we froze the whole way there and hardly slept.  I was so excited to get off the plane only to find that the airport was even colder.  We waited a few hours and then we were off to Barbados!  The next plane was much warmer and we both were able to sleep almost the entire way there.  We walked off of the plane and found where we were supposed to go for connecting flights and found this:

Barbados airport connecting flight check-in counter

Nobody.  We sat down and waited for a little while until we were told that we would have to go to the main check in counter at the front of the airport.  Despite being told our bags were good all the way through, we had to get them from baggage claim and re-check them.  There were probably 5 people in front of us at the check-in counter and it took 45 minutes.  Good thing we had 8 hours to kill!  We also found out while we were in line that our carry on bags could only weigh 15 pounds!  We rearranged as much as we could by putting stuff into our backpacks.  They were so full we could barely zip them.  We got them down to about 18 pounds and were crossing our fingers that it was close enough.  Turns out they don't weight everyones carry-ons and we could have just left our stuff where it was.  But better safe than sorry right?  Once we were checked in we sat down to eat lunch.  We were lucky to find an internet connection so we could check in with our parents and let them know we were safe.

Barbados airport after we checking in

After we passed through security we no longer had an internet connection so we relied on movies and books for entertainment.  After a long day of waiting our flight was delayed an hour.  Nothing like waiting 9 hours for a 45 minute flight.  When we got to baggage claim in Grenada we found that only one of our 4 suitcases actually come on the flight with us.  Thankfully we had packed two days of clothes into our carry-ons.  We made it to our apartment, showered, and slept as best as we could with our travel blanket and neck pillows.  It was a long trip but we were grateful to arrive safely at
our new home.

Our First Week

The first week on the island was difficult.  Our internet was supposed to be turned on the morning after we arrived, but for some reason it wasn't working.  When we woke up in the morning we went straight to campus to use the internet there and figure out Evan's orientation schedule.  We ended up taking two campus tours that day, one walking around campus (which was rough because it was SO hot out) and then one bus tour that showed us where the grocery store was.  By the time we were done with all that we found out our bags and arrived and we went to the airport to pick them up.  Then it was time for dinner at KFC and our first grocery shopping experience.  That was really hard for me.  Everything here is already expensive, but when it's priced in a different currency it makes it seem even more overpriced.  

We weren't really sure how to get to church, but our neighbors had looked into it, so we walked to church with them on Sunday morning.  Our church building has an amazing view of Grand Anse Beach.

Grand Anse Beach

Beautiful view from our church building

On Sunday night we were invited to a game night at someone's house and that was a blast.  It was good to get to meet other couples in the branch.  

The next couple of days were pretty rough.  It was Carnival which is a holiday here that if I could describe I would.  All I know is that pretty much everything is closed.  So we were left hanging out with no internet and hardly anything to do.  We went exploring to find a beach near our house and had a good time there until we heard thunder.  It had been pretty stormy the night before and we didn't want to risk getting caught in a rain storm.  We left the beach earlier than we had originally planned, but we still had a good time.

Groom's Beach.  The small quite beach we found near our apartment.

Black sand.  We have heard that there are some beaches that have
mostly black sand, I'm excited to see them someday!

On Tuesday we went on another campus tour that took us up to the Grand Etang Forest and Annandale Falls.  In theory it would have been really fun, but because of Carnival we had to take the backroads there and we couldn't drive through downtown St. George's on our way back like we were supposed to.  The hike we went on was cut short because the University doesn't want to be liable for any injuries.  We hiked to the top of this super muddy hill and then there wasn't even a good view up there.  Then we went down to see a crater lake that is supposed to be the only freshwater lake on the island.  That was pretty until we got caught in a rain storm.  When it rains the fog comes in thick, so thick that we couldn't even see the lake anymore.  Annandale falls came next.  We were allowed to jump in, but with 60 people there on the tour it was just a little too crowded for our liking.  We will have to go back sometime with a smaller group because it seems like it could be a really fun place to spend an afternoon.

The beautiful freshwater lake

You can see the thick fog clearing out after it rained

The rest of the week Evan was busy with student orientation meetings.  On Friday night we finally had a chance to explore a little bit and we found a new grocery store and were able to familiarize ourselves with the area more.  Saturday we showed some friends around the area we had just explored and then we went swimming at Grand Anse Beach.  We enjoyed cooling off in the water and watching the sunset before returning home for the night.

Sunset at Grand Anse Beach

To wrap up orientation week the University had a bazaar on campus.  We got lots of free food and drinks and got to see what all the local businesses had to offer.  It was a pretty fun event and a good way to spend our last night before classes started.