77 days of summer

Today I counted and I have 77 days left in Grenada.
77 precious days.

I decided to go out with a bang and have vowed that I will go to the beach every single day for the next 77 days.  everyday. even if it's just for a couple minutes.
even if it's raining.
ha

Tonight I started my tradition by watching the sunset on Grand Anse Beach...
it was gorgeous and peaceful and reminded me of how amazing this place is.

paint the sky red

Lee is disappointed with my blogging lately and he let me know today.
I should ask him to do an entry for this weekend!
yes! guest post by Lee!
You'll know if it ever happens.

I told him I hadn't updated b/c my family and friends at home don't even read this blog.... it's my friends in Grenada and people who want to know about Grenada and medical school.
I know people at home aren't reading it because when I talk to them they ask questions that have already been answered here. annoying.
Y'all don't really care what we're doing, you want info! and I don't have much of that this week.
{but if you are at home and do care about Lee and I's lives let me know}

I do have some excellent sunset pictures from a bonfire we had for a friend's birthday this week.
Grenada seriously takes my breath away sometimes.

Ohio it's going to be tough to compete with this....

Bonfire in the sunset

One of my favorite things I did when I was new to Grenada was go to a bonfire with some friends on Magazine Beach.  My [then] Grenada friends and I had several that first term and it was so much fun... and they were all greatly missed at this most recent beach bonfire.
But one of the facts of life here in Grenada is that friends move on and soon you're the only one left on this island... and you have to make new friends! and then you're the one leaving!
here are my sad goodbyes to some dear friends - Sarah, Amber, and Jessi :(

I'm not ready to leave. not one bit.  I'm trying to find a way to sabotage Lee's 5the semester so we can stay a little longer... haha. not really. and he will absolutely kill me if something does go wrong... and ship me back to America and force me to work.  ugh.

back to the bonfire. 
I wanted to have a get together with some friends and it soon grew into a huge party!  I was so surprised that so many people came... I'm used to the SOs not wanting to come out to anything.. and here they all were with bells on!
We met so many new people I'm still struggling with names... but it will all come together soon, just in time for me to board that plane back to North America and kiss my dream life goodbye...

Lee burning his notes from previous terms!! O happy day! 

picnik :)

Here's to many, many more bonfires with all my new friends!

!

Sunset City

This week Lee and I were able to catch two amazing sunsets, one at the beach and one at the pool.
I absolutely love being in the water at sunset.  The air starts to get cooler & the water feels warmer.  I love the reflection on the water & the warmness of the colors.
It is so beautiful.
We need to take more advantage of this!

 I merged two pictures we took together & edited it in picnik. you know I love picnik.


and these were taken the night we stayed at the University Club a little illegally past dark with our friends Stan and Natasha. sshhh.
it was gorgeous, so it was worth it.

I'm looking forward to many many more sunsets :)

out of the office

Mom and I are having WAY too much fun to blog.
we do something fun all day, everyday.
beach & pool & out for dinner & watching movies & sunsets & playing with kids & shopping (ish)

I'll tell you all about it next Wednesday when she leaves me :(
Don't go Mom!!
but my Dad really needs her at home. haha. he's helpless without her!

here's a tease of our awesome week so far :)

Yay Lee!

I need to update more often. shorter posts. more frequently.
that is the goal for this week. but probably not this post. lol

Saturday night Lee was inducted into IEA (Iota Epsilon Alpha) which is the international honor society of medical students!!  I'm so proud of him!! There were only a few people from his class who made it because to get in from first term you have to have a 4.0 and then in later terms you can be accepted with a 3.5.
They had a dinner for the inductees at the University Club, I however was the ONLY spouse. haha, oh well.  and they specifically said on the invitation the dinner was "business casual" just curious, but what does business casual mean to you?? b/c Lee and I have very different opinions I found out....
to me it means...... no tie. no need for high heels. and you can wear a cotton dress.... lol. or pants if you want.
well lets just say several other people showed up prepared to either go to a club or a black tie affair. haha.
whatever.  I wore a BRIGHT pink flowered cotton dress and flat sandals.  I had an awesome outfit picked out & changed my mind when I read the business casual thing, I didn't want to be the only one dressed up.

They told us to arrive at 6.  Well there was only a bus at 5 and a bus at 6, so we took the 5 o'clock bus up and went out on a cliff and watched the sunset (b/c the sun really does set that early) and took some pictures and walked back to the club around 6.... wellllllllll dinner wasn't served until after 8pm.  (TIG this is grenada!)
We were starrrrrrving.  I hadn't eaten much for lunch because I knew it was all you could eat buffet and thankfully it was worth the wait.
We were given dinner plates the size of a charger.... and I just went through the line and took some of everything that was offered to me.... salad, pasta salad, rolls, prime rib, fish, chicken (in some awesome creme sauce) mixed vegetables, rice, potatoes, lasagna, and lamb. AND about 5 desserts
my favorites were the chicken, pasta salad (shocking) and the lasagna.
It was all quite boring, but at least the food was good :) and I got to see Lee for a couple of hours away from the books!
I didn't take any pictures at the actual event b/c I was the only spouse there and I didn't want to embarrass Lee, like I was his Mom or something, haha. 

Lee4.0

Guess who's husband got a 4.0 his first term of medical school?! MINE!!! :)
I'm soooo proud of him!!!
This was his goal this whole semester, from day 1 he said I'm going to get a 4.0 and he did!
& for those of you thinking... "Oh it's Lee I'm not surprised" 
well be surprised! this was so much hard work... he never really had to work for good grades before, but he seriously worked his butt off for this one, only like 10% of his class got all As!
This is really important if he wants to go back to Canada for residency, they look at your grades more so than the board exams...

in other news, we're leaving the island tomorrow :(
I feel ready to go just because all our stuff is packed up (& moved into our new apartment!) but truthfully I'd never leave if I didn't have to.... I love all the nice conveniences of America, but I love walking outside at night & never thinking about being cold, I love the sunshine, seeing the ocean every single day.... oooooooh Grenada.
Lee is watching a basketball game right now & we just saw a commercial for Taco Bell's $2 meal deal, man o man I miss fast cheap food! A Wendy's crispy chicken sandwich is on the docket for tomorrow!!!

Lee and I have been spending every waking moment together the past few days & it has been wonderful, going to the beach, watching movies, taking walks, going to the pool, getting smoothies..... I'm so sad he's going to be working this summer.... his job controls his life. but we so desperately need the money, so I'll deal.  It is the first summer we're going to spend together after all so it won't be that bad!

here are some pictures from the last few days!

Birthday in Grenada!

I haven't updated in quite a while... I have been really busy, I've started babysitting a few days a week for a family & there's Limes & pool day & my sweet husband & my friend Chris is having a baby (maybe today!!) & it was my birthday & I've been building a website (not for a purpose really... it's just so much fun & I love doing it so I made a website! someday soon I'll share it.... ) and then there is another obsession that recently entered my life......... Dexter. dun dun dunnnn
I can't say that I suggest the show to others -mainly for violence, nudity, and language reasons....... but other than that, it's amazing! A friend gave me the first 3 seasons to watch and I've been hooked.. every evening I can be found staring into my computer doing 1 of 3 things... covering my eyes because something scary is going on, rolling my eyes are dexter's stupid sister, or laughing b/c it's so clever.

so anyway.......... this past Tuesday I had the pleasure of celebrating my 23rd Birthday in paradise.
The day started out with a surprise on my computer, Lee left a note and a bracelet we had saw in the mall for me :)  We also had a funny moment the day before when I came home from the store with a bag of Sunchips (b/c we don't buy chips often b/c they're expensive) and 2 LLBs and I said "Look what I got us for my birthday!!" and Lee said...... "are you serious" and he goes to his closet and pulls out a bag of Sunchips and Mt Dew! hahaha he knows me so well! :) So we had lots of chips and pop!!
Lee had class & lab all day Tuesday so in the morning I went to Grand Anse Beach with Amber & Sarah (another Sarah.lol) and then we had lunch at the Owl with Michelle, Alfonso, Sonia, and Adriana.... and during lunch there was a 22 degree halo that formed around the sun!! it was incredible! Lunch was so fun and delicious and my friends here are so sweet.. they made me cards and brought a flower and bought me lunch :)

After lunch and a trip to the store I went to Adriana's because she baked me a cake!! It was the first cake she had ever made! It was so sweet of her because otherwise I would not have had cake at all!

Afterward I went home to get ready to spend time with Lee after his classes and I found another surprise on my computer!  When he came home for lunch he left a necklace I pointed out to him a few weeks before at the mall hanging on the corner of  my laptop :)

We went down to Spiceland Mall to get smoothies!!  Unfortunately I decided to try something new and ended up not liking it, Sour Sop -yuck and Lee got grapefruit... so we ended up switching.  We drank our smoothies in the field next to the mall where some local club teams were playing cricket.  I don't know anything about cricket, but it was fun to watch for a while.

We headed over to Grand Anse Beach, which is just across the street with plans to take a walk and watch the sunset... however, so after getting on the beach I realized my camera battery was dead and I really wanted to take pictures.... so we hopped on a bus and came home to get my spare battery and ended up watching the sunset from campus, which was beautiful!  Lee was so sweet even though I knew he was thoroughly frustrated with having to go home to get the battery... but it was my birthday!  We then got BACK on a bus to go to La Boulangerie for dinner.  Luckily it was a Tuesday so buses were running very frequently and we only traveled in about a 2 mile radius.

a flower Lee picked for me

It was very busy, but so fun and so memorable - and my first 'married' birthday! Hopefully Lee and I have many many many more birthdays together... but I only have 1 more in Grenada.

Visitors!!!!

Lee's parents came to visit us!!
They got here Friday night.... we've been so busy I haven't had a chance to blog....

Friday we went to meet them at their hotel around 8 & went to the grocery so they could get some things for breakfast and snack... and then went to find somewhere to eat dinner, but everything was closed! on a Friday night! I'm a little bit embarrassed to say that Lee and I had not been further than the movie theater after dark! ha! and that was only once! We just don't go places at night... he studies and I blog :)
So I didn't really know when places would close, but apparently early.
We ended up at a little restaurant and I introduced Lee's Dad to LLB (Lemon, Lime, and Bitters) it's a non-alcoholic soda.... it's soooo good, it's not bitter, it's sweet.  I had a hamburger and fries (surprised?) Lee and his dad had Club sandwiches, and his mom had pumpkin soup.

Saturday morning we went to their hotel, The Flamboyant, to meet them to take them downtown St. George's shopping and site seeing.  and to my surprise they gave me an early Birthday present.... an UNDERWATER digital camera! yesssssssssssssss :) They had seen on my facebook that I wanted one and bought me one!  How awesome is that!? and Lee had told them that I wanted a blender... so that is what he expected them to bring me for my b-day, but they brought BOTH! :) yippie!
I cannot wait till after Lent to make smoothies every single day!!!!!
and they brought us sliverware! yay! we had really cheap silverware & a knife had just broke & a couple forks were loose..... now we have 8 sets of each! I never knew I'd be so happy over silverware
It was like Christmas.... they also brought clippers to cut Lee's hair, zip lock baggies, peanut butter, Caesar salad dressing, sunscreen, stuff for the orphans and Limes kids.... :) :) :)

So we took a reggae bus downtown and walked around.... I'll post pictures to document the trip.  It was fun and hot..... and so afterward we went down to Grand Anse Beach & cooled of... we had a beach day with the Limes kids scheduled, so I rushed to go to that... and then we relaxed a little and came to campus so we could get them passes for the buses and show them around campus a bit so they would know where to go.  We watched the sunset out on the peninsula and ate dinner... it was a good day!

explaining the spices...

sad fish market... 

 spices, spices, spices 

smoooooothies!

up the hill to Fort George

Carenage

later in the evening we walked out on the peninsula at the end of campus to watch the sunset