Kayaking at La Sagess

this week some friends and I went up to La Sagesse Beach for the morning/afternoon.
It is such a beautiful beach, I've blogged about it a couple times before...
but this was the first time I went kayaking there, and it was an experience! ha!

our mistake was me, Vanessa, and Megan all got into 1 kayak.  It was built for 3 people, but it was insanely unbalanced. we weren't even off the beach before we flipped over, and luckily we did, it was our practice run.
we get out (way too far into the ocean for my comfort actually) and my entire body was clenched trying to balance this boat against the coming waves and we flipped again!! ah!!!
Megan and I were terrified of sharks!  there aren't really sharks in Grenada, but if there were they would be on the Atlantic side of the island, where we were!
we scrambled to flip it over and climb back in (no easy feat) the kayak and our other friends Ashley and Emily paddled over and I climbed into their boat because their's seemed more stable, and it was 100x better.

overall it was beautiful ride and the waves are really fun when your boat isn't flipping over :)

Busy busy busy!!

Sunday, after Lee led worship at church, we spent the day at Aquarium/Magazine Beach. Every Sunday the Aquarium Restaurant has a BBQ.  The food was great, the service was beyond lousy.  I know it's Caribbean and things are slower and blah blah blah but it sucked.  We got water when we first got there and were never asked again if  we wanted something to drink or a refill on the water... the only time someone came to the table was to drop off the food, and we asked for the bill 3 times.   I had chicken kabobs and a baked potato, Lee had jerk chicken and salad, Lynda had salad, and Peter had swordfish. It was good!
Afterward we went snorkeling and spent time on the beach and I got to use my underwater camera!

The restaurant is built right against the rocky hillside 

BBQ right on the beach

I look kinda weird here... but you can see some of the restaurant

in the middle of the picture you can see a fish-thing sitting on the bottom, after I took this it swam at me!

I want to learn how to make this baskets!!! I know how to make a fish out of the palm fronds already...

Monday we spent the morning at the University Club at the pool and we went kayaking and had fresh coconuts picked for us!  Lee had class at 1... and his parents came to the orphanage with me in the afternoon!  It was fun, the kids love to have new people around, and they like to have men around to play with, so they really liked Lee's Dad.  In the evening we went to the restaurant at the Flamboyant hotel, I think it was called Beach Side Terrace.  Monday night was pasta buffet night... and it was delicious! the best food I've had in Grenada!! I even ate corn chowder, it was so good.  My favorites were the Nutmeg Potato Pie, the sauce for the pasta, the chowder soup, and the eclairs we had for dessert... and the Bentleys we had to drink... it's their homemade version of the LLB soda, lemon, lime, and bitters.

after dinner we went down to the Owl, which is the Flamboyant hotel's pub.  Every Monday night they have hermit crab races!! It was pretty cool to see it, although after 2 races I'd seen enough.  

Our friend Timothy climbed right up the tree after coconuts! 

friends at the crab races!

Today we relaxed a bit.... I was pretty worn out!  Lee and his parents went to Limes with me today to see what I do all the time!  It was fun!  I didn't take pictures though because I forgot my memory card.  Afterward we had Chinese food from the bus stop and went shopping at the Spiceland Mall... which had about 2 stores and the IGA open....

I'm excited for the rest of the week!  It should be busy as well!

Cloudy Day...

Today Lee finally had a couple hours of spare time to go to the beach with me... his 2nd time since we've been here! I've been at least 10 times.  Today was also the first time that Lee has left campus in almost 2 weeks..... craziness.
We got up early and since this is Thursday we can to to the University Club, where there is the pool and kayaking... so we took the bus over to Lance Aux Epines... and the sky was BLACK. no sun =( 
and it was almost chilly out.... its weird how much the sun makes a difference. the pool wasn't fun b/c it was cold.... laying in a chair wasn't fun b/c there wasn't sun.... so we went kayaking, which I was happy about because Lee loves it so much.
There is a lot of freedom there to kinda go as far as you want in the kayak... and Lee is really brave. lol. we went a little further than I would have liked, but there were some small waves today that made it really fun to go up and down and get a little splashed. and kayaking is so much more fun when you have a strong man with you to do all the work =)

and since today is Thursday, it was also MILK DAY! yay! We actually hadn't used all of the milk I bought last week yet, but you've got to get it while you can!  oooh and I found generic Mountain Dew for $5EC for a 2 liter! pretty good.

tonight we're having my mom's recipe for shredded chicken sandwiches... on freshly backed Grenadian wheat buns. mmmmmmmmmmm

Great Day in Grenada =)

Today has been good... I went to the University Club this morning, which is a country club type place for professors and people visiting the school to stay (atleast that's what I think it is) anyway, they have a pool and the SOs (Significant Other's of students) get to use it on Mondays and Thursdays... and it is amazing. I went with Amber, my footsteps buddy (who they matched me up with to ask questions before I moved to the island) and she is so sweet, so I lucked out with the footsteps buddy =) hopefully next term I can be one... I want to help people adjust here, b/c it's not that easy.... and I met a couple other SOs there too. We also went ocean kayaking.... in the marina area, not out on the open water (DAD) so that was quite a workout... I wish I still had my underwater camera! uuugh it would be so perfect here. but it broke on our honeymoon =(

the pool at the University Club 

 

 the sky looks so cloudy, but I don't remember it looking that way....

The I came home and ate lunch & got to see Lee for about 20 minutes! & went to the grocery to scout out some milk.  and was successful! so Thursday is definitely the day for the IGA.

I decided to take a picture of my food I bought...

 

Sugar and salt come in a plain plastic bag tied shut. but it is pretty cheap! less than $3EC for sugar, so that's around a $1 USD. pretty sweet deal. pun intended.

Bananas, and Banana pop! it's soooo sweet, but I love it.

Macaroni, which I think I like more than Kraft? gasp. the cheese looks like pinkish until you add milk though.

Cream cheese.... and they even have starwberry philadelphia cream cheese!

Milk - cold milk in a gallon is a luxury and hard to find

Cereal, which I think this was on sale today b/c I don't remember seeing cereal this cheap before, it was about $3 USD... brand name cereal is like 5 or 6 dollars a box.

Mak-C is like koolaid, but you don't have to add sugar. it's good and cheap.

Powdered sugar, flour, cinnamon -all pretty cheap because they can make it here or in Trinidad

Ketchup, non name brand because Heinz was like $9 US! no way I'd pay that.

Banana Ketchup.... never had it, but it was only $2.50 EC, which is like less than a dollar... and I love bananas, so I thought I'd be adventurous.

Chinese sauce... not soy, not teriyaki... just chinese sauce.lol. it was cheap and teriyaki wasn't so I thought we'd try it.

and an onion.

I think I am a pretty good shopper.... I got all of that for $60 EC, which is about $22.  Some people here are such sticklers for name brand that they spend sooooo much money, and considering we don't have any money, I've been pretty frugal.  I really really really want ice cream though.. they didn't have any good flavors today... but it's also $15 for a big thing of it, I don't think it's quite a gallon, but $15 US. I guess if you think about going out for ice cream it's so expensive, and we could eat a gallon forever.... but we're also trying to be healthy. so we've been eating jello. haha. watermellon jello is awesome.

A guy in Lee's class offered to pay me to go to the grocery for him... b/c the med students are just soooo overwhelmingly busy they don't even have time to take care of themselves... and Lee was talking about how happy he is to have me so he doesn't have to worry about cooking or shopping or laundry (haha, which is fine, I have accepted my role as caretaker for Lee for the next 4 years... not that I have much else to do anyway) so we'll see what happens... I may have started my own grocery delivery service.