This Past Week

This past week I have gone to a lot of new places on the island. I started out by going to Batibou Beach on Tuesday. Now, this is not a new place for me, but I go every time I get a chance. Another day we went ziplining. This is where they harness you in and you swing through the jungle like Tarzan. It was such a blast and I felt very safe the entire time. I am not a thrill seeker by any means and this was just enough for me to have fun, and still feel at ease.



Another day I went on the Indian River tour, with Meagan, her aunt, and Taylor, which is only about 5 minutes from where we live. It was such a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed the feeling of serenity while we were out on the boat. It was so peaceful on the river. We saw a lot of crabs, birds, and fish. This is one of the spots where they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean.



The same day we went on the river trip, we also went to a place called Screw's Spa. It's a place situated in the jungle where they built pools with the natural sulphur springs that are all over the island. In the picture you can see how there are several different pools and each pool has a different temperature. Some are cool, others are warm, and some are even hot. It is supposed to be great for your skin and body and people pay a lot of money to visit these kinds of places all over the world. With our school IDs we only paid 10 EC, which included a tray of tropical fruits when we were done. It was a beautiful place that I would love to go back to again.


So now you have a little more of a taste what I do while Kyle studies all day. Oh and I do throw in daily delivered lunches and dinners, tutoring at the school in the afternoon, meetings, and trip organizing for the RSO. You can say I am never bored.

Island Vacation Here We Come!

It's done! Kyle and I have booked our trip to Barbados and St. Lucia for his break in August. We will be gone for a total of 9 days, 4 in Barbados and 5 in St. Lucia. We are both very excited about this trip, maybe Kyle is not as excited about the cost, but nonetheless I know we will have a great time. I call it our birthday/anniversary gifts. A little late on one and a little early on the other. Now, I know many of you are saying to yourselves, "Don't you already live on a beautiful tropical island? Why would you need to spend all that money to go to another one?" Good questions...and yes, we do live on an island, but where we live is quite different. In fact, in a conversation I had with my dad on our visit home it became very clear. He was trying to steer me away from the resorts and the touristy areas of each island, which normally I would completely agree with. However, we WANT resorts! I have local up to my eyeballs! That is my life. Local food, local people, local attitudes, local transportation, and quite frankly, by August we'll be ready to sit ourselves in a lounge chair on a beautiful white sand beach and sip a pina colada (or 2 or 3). We may also indulge in some "local" McDonald's and Pizza Hut. Don't get me wrong, we'll still visit many parts of each island, but I am just giving you a heads up so when you all our pictures and it looks like all we did was eat, drink, and stare at the water, that's probably because that's mostly what we're going to. Anyway, thought I would let you all know about our fabulous trip to come. We are both so very excited.

My Birthday

Yesterday, the 19th, was my birthday and I turned 24. I must say it was hard to spend my birthday away from my family, but then again I have been spending it away from Kyle for the last 6 years. After I graduated high school, I spent each birthday in a different country. I turned 19 in Slovenia, 20 in Turkey, 21 in Italy, 22 in Japan, 23 in Cambodia, and now 24 in Dominica. It's amazing to me to just think about that. This year was special in that I got to spend it with extended family...all the girls who care about me and give me support. They had a dual party for me and a girl getting married. Anna made us a cake, which was beautiful as always. Kyle had anatomy lab from 1-5pm so we plan on going out to a nice dinner this weekend to celebrate. I think the highlight of my day was the gift I got from Jared. It was a bag of double stuffed Oreos, cookies from Subway, and a bunch of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. Those kinds of things are hard to get around here so that really made me excited. Now I just have to keep Kyle away from them so they'll last a while. Thank you for all the birthday wishes from everyone. It was a wonderful day.

Back to Dominica, Back to Reality

I arrived in Dominica this afternoon and was welcomed by moist air, a loving and hungry husband, and a new place ready to be decorated and organized. Kyle and I both had such a great time on our visit home to AZ, but at the same time it was nice to get back to Dominica, for one main reason...we ran out of luggage space! Kyle and I each had 2 bags to check, weighing 50+ lbs. each, and we each had a carry-on and a LARGE personal item. I am sure we were both quite a sight as we walked through the airport. After an overnight layover in San Juan, made complete with an earthquake, and a flight delayed by an hour to Dominica. I was exhausted when I arrived, but I spent little time relaxing since I immediately wanted to start unpacking and organizing. Some of this time was spent redoing what Kyle had so "neatly" placed in cabinets and drawers. I appreciated the effort anyway. We grabbed dinner at KFC (it was one of the few places open on a Sunday night) and they surprisingly had chicken. By the way, Subway was open too, but they were out of bread. That night, as Kyle and I laid in bed we thought back to our wonderful trip home, so I thought I would share with you some of our favorite memories.

1. We, of course, loved getting to see family. We both took every advantage possible to see our families. We stayed with my parents, so we saw them often, and we were also able to be a part of a surprise award Beth, Kyle's mom, received for teaching. We had many dinners and lunches with everyone which is one of the main things that we miss while being here in Dominica. We also saw some of our closest friends while we were home. Unfortunately, our time seemed so short and we only got to see some of you briefly so I do apologize.
2. Kyle loved being able to go snowboarding in Utah, as well as golfing, fishing, and camping in AZ. He was quite a busy guy while we were at home. I hope he enjoyed every minute of it, since he is pretty much glued to the books while he's here. He really deserved the break. It's a lot of work to get straight A's, but he managed to do so. We're all so proud of him.
3. As many of you can imagine I did a fair amount of shopping. I shopped for not only clothes, but household items and home decor that would be practical for down here. In fact, Kyle and I went to Wal-Mart and were there for over 3 hours! I told him we needed to go up and down every isle, just in case we saw something we needed, and I don't think he thought I was serious, but sure enough we saw every inch of the store. Anyway, I can't wait to get everything together and take a video of our new place.
4. The day Kyle came back to Dominica, the 5th of May, I started work at Edible Arrangements with my mom as a temp. They use fill-in people around certain holidays, this one happened to be Mother's Day, and they were extremely busy. I worked Wednesday through Sunday for a total of 46 hours. I am not going to lie, I thought I would die the first day. It was so busy, we did over 200 orders, I wanted to take the skewer I put into the strawberries and stick it into my eye. I told this to my mom during our lunch break and she couldn't stop laughing. Glad she thinks my misery is funny, but I just couldn't believe she actually enjoyed her little part-time job. She explained to me that it wasn't always like this, so crazy, and if it were she wouldn't like it either. The next 4 days I was in charge of pineapple. Let me tell you, I never want to see another pineapple! Unfortunately, I believe it is about to be pineapple season here in Dominica. In the end, I actually had a great time and made some extra cash, which is always helpful.

That was our trip home in a nutshell. What a great time it was. Our next break, in August, we hope to visit another island. As for now, it's back to reality here in Dominica. For Kyle that means school and studying and for me that means...well, you all seem to have a good idea of my life here. Not such a bad reality, huh?