Spicy Grenada Drivel
The adventures and misadventures of living outside of Canada on the small Caribbean island of Grenada. Discover the whirlwind tale of one man and one woman against the odds. Become enchanted with the enthralling lives of two people you may or may not know. Prepare to be amazed.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
I Live
So I finally realized that maybe I left some of you folks in the lurch; Internet lurchers, lurching about. There was something very un-final like with this blog, with this part of my life in general. Before arriving in/on Grenada we scoured blogs looking for information and the general pace and patter of life. One interesting blog I found interesting was one that suddenly stopped. One's left to think that most likely all of their fingers got busy. Maybe they are having an affair with the piano -who knows, the point is it will forever remain a mystery to me.
It's time to close the chapter. There's nothing like reading a good book and then finding that key pages have been torn out or the author simply gave up and somehow the whole thing went to press anyway. Some of you may have caught my trip to New Zealand. That's really where this blog lead into -from swashbuckling pirates to fantastical hobbits and a ridiculous number of sheep. Wow, I finally just figured out why I slept so well there. You can catch my epic journey across that countryside on "Full of Zeal", but I digress.
Grenada will always be a special place for me that opened my eyes up to a lot of things. Those reading this in hesitation of going, all I can say is -do it. Life is too short to worry about what may come of it; and I can tell you what will come of it, Life. Go with eyes wide open. It's not the cushy western world you may be used to but the people, the environment, and the lifestyle will move you if you let it. It made me realize the things I take for granted and also all the things I frankly can do without.
"But wait, this is your final chapter, and you are no longer there" you say. Well Life happened as it always does. If you're not wearing your boots you'll have to side step a puddle here or there and change your route. Rain metaphors. That's right, I am back in Vancouver now. I guess my writing style does reflect my environment. I'm hoping this blog's return wet your appetite and the clouds have cleared in your idea of my whereabouts. There's so much more to say, this really is just a drop in the bucket. Okay, enough with the puns, when it rains it pours.
That's all he wrote.
Fini.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Getting Gourmet
You're
probably intensely interested in what we eat and cook here in
Grenada. It's really not all that intriguing or spectacular, but for blogging's
sake, I'll build the suspense just a little more. It is a blend of fanciful
gourmet delights for the most discerning of connoisseurs of all
things delicious. Sometimes it's just macaroni or take out pizza...gourmet
macaroni and gourmet take out pizza. That's a marketing trick for you that I am
growing wise of. Throw gourmet in front of anything and it sounds amazing.
There aren't any governing bodies to decide once something passes into the
realm of gourmet. Even the definition seems a bit
subjective. I suppose the trick doesn't work for everything though. I don't
think we will see Nike selling gourmet sneakers any time soon - they'd probably
still smell like a stinky blue cheese though.
Last week was soup week. That has nothing to do with
Grenada, just our apparent eating habits. We made broccoli soup, which was
fantastic, with a side of quesadillas. We had that probably 3 nights in a row.
Then I made carrot soup, with guidance from the gourmet chef I live with, and
we had that for 3 more days (also with quesadillas). It was at the end of the
week when we realized that yes, we like soup, but really, we were just using it
as our excuse to eat quesadillas. There’s something to be said about cheese
melted in a tortilla. I don’t know what it is; maybe it’s “I like quesadillas”?
I’ve been experimenting with our dessert options as well. I
got a popsicle maker for Christmas and it really seems to fit the bill here in
Grenada. That probably doesn’t sound all that exciting if all you are picturing
is a plastic mold you fill up with grape drink and throw in the freezer. No,
what I have is the future. It is a technological advancement in the way home
popsicles will be made from now on. It’s a game changer. It’s Zoku! I mean
gourmet Zoku! It allows you to make frozen treats in about 7-10 minutes. The
reason that is so great is because it allows you to make multi-layered popsicles or what I have been making, creamsicles. Wow, how much can one person
write about popsicles? Let’s find out.
Here are my tools:
Elaborate Pen Holder |
Paper Weights |
Gourmet Ingredients |
And here’s how it’s done:
Creamy looking sicles |
The idea is, you freeze the bathtub shaped Zoku thing for a
day and then fill it up with whatever you want. For creamsicles I just had to
fill the thing up for a minute, then suck out the excess juice so all I had was
a thin shell. Then I poured some melted ice cream inside, and bada bing bada
boom, mango creamsicles.
Contracted Model |
Deliciousness |
If you’re following my blog for some insight into Grenada,
sorry about the soup and popsicle bit. Oil down is a traditional dish
that I haven’t actually tried yet. It involves a lot of local ingredients and
is supposedly quite tasty. I haven’t seen it served at any restaurants I have
been to as of yet. We may have to find ourselves a recipe.
You’d think we would be getting to be chunky monkeys with
all the cheese and popsicles we’ve been eating.
Our walks with the dogs have been counteracting the process. Walking at
sunset is really quite phenomenal here. Every view seems to be a good one. The
island feels like an elaborate botanical garden. One that I hadn't even begun
to appreciate enough until we starting strolling through it and exploring our
neighbourhood. Flowers seem to bloom year round. As much as we love the walks,
the dogs, and us for that matter, have been having a lot of fun at quick dip
beach. Each dog has his or her strengths. C-Dog (Sea dog) loves the water and
excels at nautical retrieving. K-Dog(…Kinder) can’t be bested on the surf. He
hasn’t figured out that he needs to raise his ball filled mouth while swimming
or he’s in for a muzzle full of water.
Caribbean Sea Otters |
Kinder's figured out you have to run before the ball is thrown. Cammy—not so much. |
I’ve mentioned all the things we have been making lately.
The dogs have been working on a thing or two also:
Why?? |
You may have been confused by my usage of “TIG” at the end of my last post. Or you may
not have been. I haven’t had anyone question me on it. TIG is an acronym of unknown origins to me, but I think it stemmed from students. It stands for “This is Grenada”. I think it began as a way to complain about
life here and perhaps the oddities of the island. Most of the time it just
seems like a way to complain because most of their complaints could happen
anywhere else on the planet. Like “The store ran out of milk, TIG”, or “I
stubbed my toe on a mango tree, TIG”, or “There are too many people on this
amazingly nice beach where there is likely to be lots of people, TIG”. I prefer to go the other way with it. “It’s
sunny every day, TIG”. “I have a variety of fruit trees growing outside my
window, TIG”. “My farmer’s tan is really turning out nicely, TIG”. I guess that’s one thing I am noticing more.
People tend to notice all the things they don’t have more than what they do.
I’m often surprised by how eager some students are to leave this Caribbean
island. I am perfectly content right now
with my gourmet popsicles and a view of some palm trees, TIG.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Getting Here Again
It's 2012 now. I guess it's the time for resolutions. I thought
one of mine would be to write more blog posts. I think a resolution implies a
problem though. Writing often is more of a desire than the means to solving a
particular problem in my case. After about ten minutes of pondering what a
resolution really is and means I realized my real problem is over-thinking.
Maybe my second resolution will be to minimize over-thinking when
it's unnecessary. So without further adieu I am just going to kill 2
resolutions with one stone and start writing.
The day we left Vancouver was the only day it snowed for the
entire month we were home. I hear it has been a number of degrees subzero since
we left. At first I was disappointed about missing the snow on our way out, but
there sure ain't (I know it isn't a word, but
ain't colloquialisms grand?) anything wrong with thawing out in
Grenada. Getting here was a scheduled 22 hours, an estimate that wasn't exactly
accurate.
YVR was our first
hiccup. This trip we planned to bring our dogs with us. Their paperwork had all its i's dotted, t's crossed, and was thrice checked. We were worried
something might go wrong and we wouldn't be able to bring them; it turns out
they could get on the plane, but they almost had to leave without me. Overly
dramatic pause... It wasn't actually that big of a deal, it came down
to space. Sorry, I mean a space. The airline's computer
somewhere along the way combined my middle and last name to create one super
name. This little space was just enough to refuse me from checking in. Panic!
We called the airline and explained the situation and after half an hour we had
the ticket reissued and were back in line to check in. When we got there they
advised us that yes, in fact my name was changed but now my middle name was my
last name and my last name vice versa. Subdued Panic! We were in line at the
first class desk this time though. She let us through no problem. They must
save the grumpy attendants for us regular folk. We rushed out, dropped our luggage
on the conveyor belt, and checked the time—we were still 2 hours early. Good thing we were paranoid enough to
come 4 hours ahead.
YVR to LAX was pretty uneventful. It was smooth sailing (sky
sailing). We had a full row to ourselves and the flight attendants paid no
notice of the dogs on our laps. When we landed we thought the pups might be
full to bursting. We went in search for a spot they could go. It seems that the
policy is no dogs on the tarmac. Workers at the airport suggested newspaper in
the bathroom. I took Kinder, because he is a boy, and my female accomplice took
Cammy, because she is a girl. We didn't want to get any strange looks from
anyone else in the washroom. Kinder wasn't very much interested in the paper.
He preferred kissing the ankles of the guy in the next stall. It was
unfortunate that his affection was not returned so kindly. I had no luck with Kinder, so
I picked up my paper, and gave a nod to the janitor waiting at the door. We
briefly thought that maybe if we went on the paper first, the dogs would take their
cue (by the way, we had no luck with Cammy as well). We abandoned that idea
pretty quickly though. We were MIA bound and I was just hoping that the
pressure difference would have no effect on their bladders.
We had about 9 hours in Miami so we headed to Miami Beach. We've
never been and have heard good things. It was pretty desolate at 7AM and we
expected it to be a lot warmer than it was, but it was beautiful just the same.
Just in case you haven't been or seen it in CSI, I took a couple snaps.
Miami Beach and woman in pink. |
Grenada's sand is nicer. |
What I didn't get photos of was the public workout equipment. I
thought that was a pretty good initiative for keeping fit. At the
same time, it seemed to me that ripped muscle bound guys were the only ones
glistening in the sun flexing their biceps and showing off. Fair is fair
though, girls in their smallest bikinis were playing beach volleyball right
next door. There isn't anything wrong with that. But I did find it pretty gosh
darn creepy that at least a dozen middle-aged men were taking photos from the
sidelines.
After a bit of a walk, both of the dogs were still pretty restless
and we took the opportunity to run them out. Being younger, Kinder's energy is pretty bountiful. We took turns chasing and being chased by him.
K-Dog and A Human |
He stole my wallet. |
When we got tired he went after an unsuspecting Cammy.
"I'm too old for this shtick" |
It was a spot of luck that the weekend we were travelling was also
an auto show on Ocean Drive. There were plenty of old dolled up cars to ogle
over. It was pretty neat to see these old cars from the 50's against the art
deco style buildings lining the street. To balance it out they had no less than
80 homemade jewelry booths littered up and down the drive. After a few hours at
Miami Beach, we headed back to MIA for our next flight to GND.
We sat in the plane for an extra 2 hours before taking off. The
aircraft was overweight by 300 pounds of mail apparently. Considering each one
of our suitcases was about 50lbs each, it seemed like it took an awful long
time to move the mail. One can only assume the packages must have been a mixed
bag of both sphere and pyramid shapes. That's all to say, we got into Grenada a
little later than anticipated and we were getting pretty tired.
Things had a large overtone of familiarity to them. From
the customs office to cab ride to our rickety gate (sorry to our new neighbours
for the racket), it felt nice to come back to our Caribbean home. What wasn't
so familiar were the lights that wouldn't turn on and the lack of electricity.
Even less recognizable was the oversized petri dish that was our refrigerator.
We opted to leave it closed for the night for fear of whatever had evolved in
there might escape.
When the sun came up and I was out and about the familiarity
returned. The guys from Grenlec (the electric company) came out fairly quickly and remedied our issue
post-haste and were very friendly all the while. It was good to hear the Soca
on the bus and feel the sun on my shoulders again. I probably should have worn
sunscreen.
We've been taking the dogs for sunset walks every night. And more
so than ever, we are appreciating the island. T.I.G.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Getting Thirsty?
Let me quench your thirst with a tall glass of
blog. The title of this blog is brought to you by my lovely's new catch phrase.
Keeping hydrated greatly affects our mood and I am not exaggerating when I say
that the words "I'm thirsty" come out of her mouth more than routinely.
Next up, Carib's Leap in the town of Sauteurs.
Sauteurs in French means "jumpers". No, the people in this town did
not wear cozy little pullovers—it was named by the French not the British,
remember. It was when the French decided to try and colonize the island that the aboriginal Caribs became hostile to the idea, and rightly so. Unfortunately, the
French fortified and killed nearly all of the Caribs on the island. The
survivors were cornered to what is now known as Carib's Leap. An estimated 40
Caribs jumped to their deaths to avoid surrender and enslavement.
Belmont Estate is part of what they call the
Agro-Tourism business. Currently, it is cocoa plantation. We learned a whole
heck of a lot about the process of harvesting cocoa, a process that I guess I
had absolutely know prior knowledge about. First of all, did you know that this
where the cocoa bean comes from?
For me something seemed slightly awry when all
the tourists (white skin in nature) rang this bell. I can see keeping the bell
for tourism's sake, but am not too sure why the Grenadian people didn't choose
to destroy it instead. I guess it is possible that such a bell's role was
reversed and sounded to mark freedom as well.
I was fairly misleading at the end of my last
post by promising a new entry shortly after. I got busy! I'm going to try to
get back on track here though. I hope I haven't lost too many of you frequent
visitors. My apologies.
What I really wanted to talk about was our
island tour with the significant others group. At the time it was probably our
favourite day thus far. The goal was to circumnavigate the island and hit some
of the hotspots along the way. We did something very similar when our parents
were here but in the reverse direction. I wouldn't hesitate to say that this
was our new favourite day. And just because I really want to induce some
confusion, I am going to attempt to tackle some of the overlapping events at
the same time.
All the forts on the island are
quite fascinating. We visited Fort Frederick, Fort Matthew, and Fort
George. It stretches one's imagination to picture the time and circumstance that
they were built. I often forget that people have stood where I am standing and
had an entirely different experience. We were lucky on our first visit to Fort
Frederick to have a great tour guide who refers to herself as "Alice in
Wonderland".
Alice In Wonderland |
When the French took over from the British, they
were able to do so by attacking from inland, rather than the expected naval
assault. This is why Fort Frederick, cunningly built by the French, has all of
its cannons pointed inland and was also given the nickname the "Backwards
Facing Fort". Even more interesting than that, Alice in Wonderland told us
her story of hurricane Ivan (as a quick recap, hurricane Ivan in 2004
practically obliterated the island. It was the worst since hurricane Janet in
1955). The winds were treacherous. She took her bed sheets and tied her
children to her body and furthermore, to the top
of their roof to keep it from blowing off. Wisely, she had a knife at the ready should
she need to cut them free. Her story had a bit more impact because of the tremendous wind we felt up there that day.
A lot of hairspray was needed in the making of this shot |
Fort Matthew, the friendly neighbour of Fort
Fred, has its own stories to tell. From the perspective of tourism, Fort
Frederick is far more popular. If you are asking me, I think Matt has the edge.
At one point it was a mental hospital. After seeing some of the wreckage and
the intricate tunnels here, I'd wonder what a place like this would do to
someone's psyche, let alone someone's whose is already delicate. This Fort is
not as well preserved as its kin, but I think it has a lot of charm. One of the
reasons it is in rougher shape is the US intervention in 1983 (they came
in to extract American SGU students and to put the kibosh on a violent
revolution involving Cuban and Russian communists). Unfortunately, a US
bomb meant for Frederick hit Matthew instead, leaving much of it in a more
ruined state. One could go on an on about the place, but I suggest you visit
the bar that it now houses.
I hope she's taking a better shot than this one |
Fort number three is Fort George. As I just
recently read, the French originally named it Fort Royal. As with the other
forts, there is a great deal of history here. One tid-bit I'd like to mention
is that apparently there were connecting tunnels between all three of these
forts. Given that two, Fred and Matt, are on the hill, and George down at sea
level, it seems like a pretty astonishing distance to me to have a tunnel. Fort
George is where Maurice Bishop, the prime minister at the time of the
revolution in 1983, met his demise in the way of execution at the hands of the
revolutionaries from his own government. This would be the straw that broke the
camels back when the US decided it was time to intervene. For a somewhat B
movie recommendation, watch Heartbreak Ridge—it's a Clint Eastwood flick with
a dash of Operation Urgent Fury attached to the end (actually, don't waste your
time).
Atop Fort George |
Leapers Hill Monument |
Inside the beans are covered in a white flesh
that is sweet. Part of our tour here let us try sucking on a bean. Depending on
your tour group size, it may be off-putting to see a dozen different dirty
hands in one cocoa pod fumbling around for a white gooey bean. I thought it
tasted good regardless. They take all the beans from the pods and cover them up
in banana leaves and burlap and let them ferment for 8 days. From there, they
dry them in the sun thoroughly and every half hour someone needs to walk the
cocoa to turn the beans over. What I mean by that is this:
Walking the Cocoa |
I think if they can get a new tour group every
half hour they'd have it made. For those that are concerned about the possible
toe jam in their Butterfinger, the actual cocoa comes from inside the bean
after they crack it open. But you can take pause and think of our sweaty feet
next time you sip a hot chocolate. Before cocoa, the estate also was a sugar cane
plantation and a cotton plantation and was an estate run by the labour of
slaves. Interestingly enough, here remains the slave bell they would call them
with.
Belmont Slave Bell |
Belmont has cocoa, history, oh, and of course a
petting zoo.
Who is petting who? |
On to Pearl's Airport i.e. an eerie abandoned
runway that they sometimes do drag racing on. It was built on Amerindian
remnants. Later my lovely's father and I attended a talk by a US Marine that
was part of the US intervention. He mentioned to us this airstrip was partially
funded by the Russians to increase tourism to the island, however, the strip
was just wide enough for Russian military aircrafts and not the typical
passenger flying aircraft of the time. If there is truth in this, I have
absolutely no idea. There is a couple of old planes still sitting on the side
of the strip. They apparently have a bull guarding them (this is likely
happenstance because there are cattle and goats along the entire strip). During
our time there with the SOs some of us played matador so others could get
photos of themselves with the plane. I think he just wanted some attention.
See, I wasn't bull-shtuffing |
This is where most of the overlap finishes. If
you want more info on any of the places we went to, I'd highly recommend coming
for a visit. I think my idle banter and photos can only do so much justice to
the place.
Again, I am left with enough material to write
another blog post and so you will be spared until the next post. No promises on
when that will be this time. But I truthfully really want to have it done sooner
rather than later. We may be four hours ahead of many of you (daylight savings doesn't affect
us), but I think the Grenada pace is really starting to take hold.
For the new mothers out there, I will leave you with this...
For the new mothers out there, I will leave you with this...
Behind a fish store in Grenville |
Monday, October 17, 2011
Getting over the hill
That's it! Midterms are over. It's an accomplishment that marks the halfway point of the semester. For those counting the days, Wednesday the 12th was the actual halfway point. It looks like we both came out alive. It was dicey for a little while there. Every morsel of snack food slowly vanished from the corners of our cupboards as study fodder. An emergency trip for Sun Chips had to be made to fuel the study-machine. She arrived out of the book-laden trenches victorious on her first of many battles.
We celebrated by going to a dinner for a fellow student and friend at a restaurant near our place. We had a table of ten. At SGU they have a photography club that recently started up. Apparently this means when a group of five or more students show up in a given location, a photographer materializes and then dematerializes with captured photos of you with which you have no idea what they will do. I decided to join the club. Dinner was good and fun. There are few significant others of first term veterinary medicine students, and at this dinner I was the only one. Being the night of their final, and toughest, midterm they were fairly inclined to talk shop. I was mostly pretty lost, I'll admit, but it was a fun night regardless. They clearly had something on their minds.
On Saturday we went for a relaxing day at Grand Anse. The beach was littered with SGU students. Some were still stuck in study mode. One student created an enormous sand sculpture of a dog's scapula with all its intricacies. Everyone was taking guesses at what they thought it was. What worries me is that all the future doctor, current HUMAN medicine student folk apparently guessed it was a penis. I fear for all the poor men who may endure botched vasectomies or knee surgery. I think we spent a solid four hours soaking in the sea and the sun. Feeling fairly waterlogged we made our way to the IGA to pick up a couple things. We got way more than we thought, so it made more sense to catch a cab than a free bus that is overcrowded. We were left somewhat stranded though because I tried to talk the driver down by 5 EC. My bargaining skills need some work. It was extra embarrassing when the next cab that came by twenty minutes later was the same one and I had to eat my words and pony up the extra coins.
We have been doing more research on transferring back to a Canadian school. Grenada and the school are fantastic. But we have been thinking about the transfer option because it means we are closer to family, it's way lighter on the wallet, and I would be able to work more easily. There are only five veterinary medicine schools in Canada and only three will accept transfer students. In some cases it makes no sense to transfer—the Quebec school is a 5-year program, and you need to redo a year of schooling. This essentially adds an additional two years to your program, compared to continuing studies here in Grenada. In Saskatchewan the program is 4 years, but you need to redo a year. And finally in PEI, it is not certain, but you may not have to redo anything. The main setback on all of them though is getting in. Spots only become available if their class isn't at capacity. At PEI, for instance, they have been plum full for the last 4 years, and this year they were even over their normal maximum. The process seams daunting and a long shot, but we're crossing our fingers and snorkeling in the meantime.
That's what we did this Thanksgiving. We took an eco-tour by boat around some of the island. The guide provided some great information on some of the species we might see and some background on Grenadian culture. More on that later. Our first stop was snorkeling. We spotted an iguana and some pelicans en-route which was a bonus.
Under the sea we saw a school of squid drifting along near the coast. These were pretty easily the coolest things I had seen that day. Although, it took me quite sometime to even understand what kind of creature I was looking at. Their eyes being at their back perplexed me and the way their tentacles undulated was fascinating. When we pulled our heads from the water we realized we were a ways from our group. Granted we may have been a bit more advanced in our snorkeling skills, those with a life vest, a pool noodle, and a life preserver seemed a bit overkill. Any more floatation devices on a single person and I think one might take flight. We actually didn't stop in this bay just to see squid and a plethora of colourful fish. The prime reason was to see the sculpture park. Local artisans have created fifty or sixty different under the sea attractions. Some are objects like a bike, or a desk that as articles and information laminated to it. Others are sculptures and statues actually based on locals of Grenada. Coral and corrosion has taken to them largely, adding to their intrigue. We'd forgotten our underwater disposable camera, but here is a shot from National Geographic:
It turns out the flesh that encapsulates the seeds is sweet and
somewhat custard like in texture. You should try one,
but try it for the first time blindfolded or in the dark.
We celebrated by going to a dinner for a fellow student and friend at a restaurant near our place. We had a table of ten. At SGU they have a photography club that recently started up. Apparently this means when a group of five or more students show up in a given location, a photographer materializes and then dematerializes with captured photos of you with which you have no idea what they will do. I decided to join the club. Dinner was good and fun. There are few significant others of first term veterinary medicine students, and at this dinner I was the only one. Being the night of their final, and toughest, midterm they were fairly inclined to talk shop. I was mostly pretty lost, I'll admit, but it was a fun night regardless. They clearly had something on their minds.
On Saturday we went for a relaxing day at Grand Anse. The beach was littered with SGU students. Some were still stuck in study mode. One student created an enormous sand sculpture of a dog's scapula with all its intricacies. Everyone was taking guesses at what they thought it was. What worries me is that all the future doctor, current HUMAN medicine student folk apparently guessed it was a penis. I fear for all the poor men who may endure botched vasectomies or knee surgery. I think we spent a solid four hours soaking in the sea and the sun. Feeling fairly waterlogged we made our way to the IGA to pick up a couple things. We got way more than we thought, so it made more sense to catch a cab than a free bus that is overcrowded. We were left somewhat stranded though because I tried to talk the driver down by 5 EC. My bargaining skills need some work. It was extra embarrassing when the next cab that came by twenty minutes later was the same one and I had to eat my words and pony up the extra coins.
We have been doing more research on transferring back to a Canadian school. Grenada and the school are fantastic. But we have been thinking about the transfer option because it means we are closer to family, it's way lighter on the wallet, and I would be able to work more easily. There are only five veterinary medicine schools in Canada and only three will accept transfer students. In some cases it makes no sense to transfer—the Quebec school is a 5-year program, and you need to redo a year of schooling. This essentially adds an additional two years to your program, compared to continuing studies here in Grenada. In Saskatchewan the program is 4 years, but you need to redo a year. And finally in PEI, it is not certain, but you may not have to redo anything. The main setback on all of them though is getting in. Spots only become available if their class isn't at capacity. At PEI, for instance, they have been plum full for the last 4 years, and this year they were even over their normal maximum. The process seams daunting and a long shot, but we're crossing our fingers and snorkeling in the meantime.
That's what we did this Thanksgiving. We took an eco-tour by boat around some of the island. The guide provided some great information on some of the species we might see and some background on Grenadian culture. More on that later. Our first stop was snorkeling. We spotted an iguana and some pelicans en-route which was a bonus.
Pelican, briefly. |
National Geographic photo of the underwater sculpture park. |
Our second stop was in the Carenage, a naturally formed volcanic bay ideal for a harbour. Historically, it was where large ships would dock and have their hulls cleaned. They physically roped their boat and pulled it nearly horizontal to clean each side of the bottom. Now the Carenage is part of St. Georges where restaurants and storefronts and a great deal of colourful buildings are scattered along the waterside.
It's from here we were able to see the prison. There are approximately 400 inmates and in Grenada apparently there is no chance for parole; however, I think having one of the best views on the island from the hillside might significantly lessen the dejection of their stay. The prison is entirely self-sustained, even rearing their own cattle. After hurricane Ivan all of the prisoners escaped the prison. A number of them incarcerated for drug trafficking were able to hijack small boats and brave the short 150-200km Ocean back to South America. Others, native to the island, either voluntarily came back, or were very quickly rounded up. Being that the island is so small, there are very few places to hide and word travels rapidly.
Oh yeah, the fiancée also made us a delicious Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. The pre-made graham wafer crust we were going to use expired last January. I find this strange, because I thought I bought it a couple weeks ago. We had to come up with an alternative and we had none of the usual ingredients to create a crust. We did have chocolate chip cookie dough though. Somewhat surprisingly, it worked out very well and the pie was über tasty. We managed to forget about cranberry sauce and stuffing and the other Thanksgiving fixin's all together (But I'll admit that now I am looking forward to Christmas for these things). Instead we had cocoa ball tea, a Grenadian specialty. They use cocoa and a variety of spices, often including nutmeg, to create a hard little ball. They smell edible, and the fellow shopper we asked laughed at us when we asked if we could. We were lucky that she was there to explain to us that you boil them in water. What you are left with is a sort of a spiced up hot chocolate that I would definitely recommend trying.
The other thing we tried was the lumpy looking Atemoya I took a photo of in one of my previous posts. They are commonly known as sugar apples. They look disgusting when you crack them open:
Carenage |
Grenada Prison |
Cocoa Balls |
The other thing we tried was the lumpy looking Atemoya I took a photo of in one of my previous posts. They are commonly known as sugar apples. They look disgusting when you crack them open:
Disgusting looking Atemoya |
Yum! |
It's been far too long since my
last my post and I have enough material for another already so
I'll cut this one off here. Stay tuned.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Getting Curious?
For those waiting with bated breath, de-bate. We
still have frogs. Not much has changed on that front. Although I think we have
finally gotten the concept across to our landlady. I guess the confusion was
somewhere between frogs living with us and frogs living at us. I think the
former being our issue. The irony I find is in the herpetology club.
They go on walks and are routinely amazed by the frogs they discover. I am
thinking about inviting them over as a field trip. But hopping along…
On the subject of pictures, I think I want to
put it into my daily schedule to be overlooking the beach with my camera at
sunset. I was a hair late here, but you can see the tail end of what was an
amazing sky:
Midterms are upon us. Students are studying like
mad. You know what they say about medical students though. The more they study,
the more they think they have what they are studying. I've felt this first hand
whenever I look up my own symptoms online. By my count, I have had lupus at
least five times in my life. Fair enough, it happens. I am beginning to find it
a little odd when certain veterinary students start diagnosing themselves
though. Ninety-nine percent of the time I am sure she just has a hairball or is
adjusting to her new food.
Please feel free to comment if there is anything of particular interest you'd like to see featured in any of my posts. I'm not likely to describe the texture of off-brand Cheetos, or driving on the left. This would probably only happen if I were eating said faux-eezies while making illegal right turns at stop signs. I would be happy to talk about pretty well anything else. Often I wonder if readers like to hear about some of the more mundane things like our 1/2 ply toilet paper.
Our landlady does not actually reside
in Grenada at present, and so we've been dealing with her proxy. I think I have
mentioned her a couple times. She's a very nice lady. We were told not long ago
that a new 'official' bill-taker etcetera type person would be coming. She just
landed back on the island the other day. We ran into her. She introduced
herself as the landlady's name and so we were confused. I assume she knew that
we knew that she wasn't exactly who she said she was. She was someone else. It
certainly was pretty plainly obvious to us as she drove away from the house—the same house the landlady resides while she is here. It all got
sorted today when the first proxy outted the second by introducing
her as her actual name. The peculiar bit is that I feel she had no
real motive to be someone else. She seems pleasant. I guess it's possible
she doesn't like her name. Or perhaps she has always been jealous of our
landlady. Perhaps she is stealing her identity. Maybe we are at the very root
of a giant Grenadian conspiracy tree. Did I mention we watched the Bourne
Ultimatum the other day—it was a good flick. And
that lady actually is nice.
We feel pretty secure in our home. We are in one
of the nicest neighbourhoods on the island, Lance Aux Epines. SGU has security
driving by frequently to deter any unrest or suspicious activity. And lastly,
we have an entirely fenced yard with a gate that is locked at all times. By the
way, we only have one key to this gate. Typically my student (I don't teach,
she just happens to be mine) gives me a quick ring or text as the bus arrives
at our stop. I meet her at the gate and let her in. She left her phone at home
and today she was left straddling the fence. I can't really surmise how long
because I was grooving to my music when I was suddenly disturbed by a rapping
at the door. She made it over; she's the only one that can attest to how long I
may or may not have left her stranded. I can only imagine what security thought
as they passed by. I am guessing she didn't seem too threatening jumping into someone’s
yard with a computer, unless of course she was hacking our wireless network in
an attempt to unleash a dangerous new computer virus under her hacker alias
orca_4219. No, we haven't watched Hackers,
or The
Net, or basically any movie where the Internet is the focus of the
plot recently.
During the summers in BC, one would have to be
sure to mow their lawn frequently. Leaving it for a week or two meant a little
extra work. Your grass was a little shaggy. I've mentioned the grass here
before. I honestly thought it was long at the time. It had been chopped down
since. Our field now reminds us of flowing wheat in the prairies. One
gets pretty hypnotized staring into it as the wind tosses it back and
forth, rippling it like waves on the ocean. It has been about a week
and a half since its last buzz cut:
Trade a wood for a wheat? |
A typical sunset in Grenada. |
Please feel free to comment if there is anything of particular interest you'd like to see featured in any of my posts. I'm not likely to describe the texture of off-brand Cheetos, or driving on the left. This would probably only happen if I were eating said faux-eezies while making illegal right turns at stop signs. I would be happy to talk about pretty well anything else. Often I wonder if readers like to hear about some of the more mundane things like our 1/2 ply toilet paper.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Getting Older
Today is the first of a few birthdays I will likely be having on
the island. It's a bit surreal to be on a Caribbean island on your birthday. Of
course being apart from family, and especially my sister on our birthday (we
are twins 4 years apart; my mother had an extremely long labour) is a bit
tough. We've spent the majority, if not all of them together. But as I said, we
are on a Caribbean island, and that does tend to be a good cure for
many ails. My pulchritudinous fiancée made my day an amazing one.
She tried to have me killed.
The day was a surprise. I didn't know where we would be going or
what we would be doing. We took a stroll along our quick dip beach, of which a
hotel is attached. The hotel also has a dive shop that caters to tourists and
guests of the hotel. We didn't go diving. To keep a long story short, I have a
temporary filling that I need to have fixed before hand. Instead she had us
booked for some water sports. We were going out tubing. They have one big
triangular tube that the both of us were able to clamour onto. Look at us here
all clamoured up:
That fish skeleton looks ominous |
Contrary to the photo, we were actually laying the other direction on our stomachs for the ride. You pay per
quarter hour. I figured we'd end up going at least twice. I've done quite a bit
of tubing in the inlet back home and at Ruby Lake. At least I thought I had.
Prior experience had not prepared me for the extreme gauntlet this
3-400 horsepower behemoth would whip us through. The air we must have
had on any single bump must have been between five and ten feet. On a number of
occasions I felt my body perpendicular to the tube. On others the tube was perpendicular to the ocean as well. Fortunately we managed to
somehow stay on. I guess our primal instincts must have kicked in. Had we let
go, I think we might have landed on campus somewhere. We should have had an inkling beforehand when he said, "Keep your tongue in… No, seriously". It was awesome; but
the muscles in our arms are pretty sore and 15 minutes was enough for the week.
Typing never seemed so taxing. After the tubing we made our way to a new beach.
Getting there on a Sunday proved to be far more difficult than any other day.
Even the busses that constantly honk at you, convincing you to ride them, were
nowhere to be seen (I can't tell you how many times they almost had me with
their honking and I would have been on my way to Grenville). A friend finally drove by, picked us up, and dropped us on the main road. It was smooth sailing to Magazine Beach from
there. They didn't have any selections of Macleans or People, but I wouldn't
put it past anyone to bring books and magazines here. It is yet another
phenomenal beach I could see spending hours on. We took to the sea for a short
jaunt around the reef with our snorkels. We spotted a small school of squid,
and some trumpet fish. We were without our flippers and not as mobile as we
otherwise would be. Our future sessions look to show some promise though. The
real reason for coming here was the great restaurant called Aquarium. Not that
they need one, given that they are on the ocean, but the aquarium they had did
look a little sad with just 2 fish. They had live music, good food, and they
gave me a free piece of cake. They've won me over on all three accounts. It was
a fantastic day. But now I am going back in time for some other news…
Accreditation. The AVMA this week announced that SGU is now accredited.
This is absolutely huge news. For all veterinary students, including fiancée. This means
there is no need to write any foreign graduate exams after completion of their
program. This is a real boon for them in terms of cost and stress of such an
exam. What the accreditation really speaks volumes of, however, is the quality
of the program here at SGU. You can check out an article on the announcement
here: AVMA Article.
There looks to be some mighty happy folks in their photo.
People that are also happy are us. We found another perfect
scenario in which to capture our amphibian acquaintance. Back into frog hunter
mode, we sealed every hole the room, including the last one. That frog would
not escape. Had we been in there too long, we'd have asphyxiated. We had gained a lot of knowledge from our past foray into
frog hunting. This time we managed to capture him within moments. It was then
when our conscience finally spoke to us. Jiminy helped us as we debated whether
we should turn him loose to the cruel bitter outside world or if we should
seriously just let him go back under our tub. Fiancée felt a little worse for
him than I did. She is the veterinary student. I assured her he would make lots
of friends and would find himself assimilated into the croaking community in no
time flat. We let him go…with a little water dish filled with water, should
he ever be homesick and wish to visit. She was pleased (that may be the wrong
word) to hear more chirping the next morning. He had roommates. To make matters
worse, I found there were children in the mix yesterday. Perhaps
we separated him from his family. Perhaps his however many kids he
has, now think of him as a deadbeat dad. Frog culture is so complicated.
Fiancée is game to evict them all now, including Jiminy.
P.S. - Those with commenting issues, I have opened it up to everyone now. The flood gates are open.
P.S. - Those with commenting issues, I have opened it up to everyone now. The flood gates are open.
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