Boiling Lake...check!!

So I FINALLY did Boiling Lake. Let me tell you, I've actually been scared to do this hike for the past year. This is one of the "big 3" hikes in Dominica (and the longest at 10 miles). Some people say of the big 3 that it is the easiest, but it is definitely an endurance test. I purposefully did several long hikes (5 milers) that were moderately rated 2-3 out of 5, and then some harder rated hikes 4-5 out of 5, that were short in duration 1-1.5 hrs. This one takes the cake though...rated 5 out of 5 and takes anywhere from 2-4 hours...each way...yes, you are reading that correctly, a 4-8 hour hike. I finally decided this semester that I was going to do it, even if it killed me. So early last Saturday morning we head down south to Roseau to the start of the trail near Titou Gorge (where I've done the Canyoning trips). We started with 15 people (and we ended with only 13!) up the trail at around 8:30am. Now, I'm not fast (5 ft in height can only give you such large stepping ability), but I'm not the slowest person on earth either so I figured I'd be in the middle of the pack. As soon as we get there it starts raining (and rains the ENTIRE hike)...which I was actually glad for because it was a pleasant temperature and I'd much rather rain and slightly overcast rather than hot sun! The majority of the hike was in covered forest and much of the hike was stairs (basically this hike was 10 miles on a stair master). Quite a few river crossings and some scrambles up and down old river beds. The majority of the hike there is uphill. It trick ya...its kind of a low grade initially, then come all the stairs. There are some downhill parts, but everytime I came to those, I couldn't help thinking, damn, I have to go back up those (there is a pic on my facebook account if you want to see). :( I can do low grade incline nicely, but the steep parts are what always kill me. Luckily I knew that if I just took my time, I would eventually get there. When we finally got to the top of the first mountain, the views were amazing! And better yet, the next part was all downhill!!! We get to this crazy section where we are actually climbing down a waterfall (I kinda slide down it on my butt...I'm more secure that way) and then arrived in the Valley of Desolation (see pic above on bottom). This place has been described as "other worldly." Which I guess is true, especially if you are in Dominica where everything is green. Here you have to be careful because these are active fumaroles, so if you step in the wrong place (like I did), you sink into the mud/quicksand like areas and lose your shoe (I eventually got it back). There are streams running through here, but they are VERY hot, so you want to avoid them. The Valley of Desolation was pretty cool. After this, you walk through the (now) warm river, cross over another river, and more stairs up a second mountain, and then over another river. (Yes, I know by now you are singing "To Grandmother's House We Go!") A short scramble up an old river bed and then a short walk to arrive at the Boiling Lake (see pic above on top). And it only took me 3 hours to get this far!!! It is the 2nd largest boiling lake in the world. Not entirely what i expected though. There was a ton of steam (to be expected) and the majoring boiling part is in the middle (I thought it would be more like a rolling boil everywhere). This is because there is a magma chamber underneath it. We ended up on a ridge right above it, so I didn't go down right to the lake (it's not like you can take a dip in it anyways), but it was still pretty cool. (Take note that I get dehydrated REALLY easily so I came prepared with 2.5L of water and 500ml of Gatorade...At this point I've gone through 1.5L of water and the gatorade). We chilled out here only for about 30 minutes (I know, 3 hours of walking just to get there and we didn't stay very long), but this is because it started raining and it was FREEZING!!! I was huddled under part of a rock with another girl shivering, so we decided to head back. The hike home was uneventfuly, except that I did 90% of the hike back by myself! The fast group went ahead (took them 2 hours to get back), I was in the middle (took me 3 hours to get back, the rest of my water, and another liter after I was done!), and the slow group was behind me (4 hours to get back). See, going up was harder for the cardio, coming back was harder on the body (imagine walking down stairs for 3 hours). Let's just say, the next day the parts of me that were sore were my calves and my quads (not my butt like I thought)~ was unsore about 4 days later. Now, a little over a week out, the only nagging injury is a blister that burst on the way TO the lake (and then I had to hike 3 hours back with it), so I've got a hole in the side of my foot that is slowly healing, but I'm having to treat it like it was infected (I don't think it was, but just to be on the safe side...I like having all my extremities). So, when I got done with the hike my comment was, "One and done!" I'm glad that I did it (and in 6 hours, under my goal time of 6.5 hours) and it was cool to see and I can say that I've done it, but I don't know that I would ever do it again! :) I'll let you know when I do the other 2 hikes on the "big 3 list!"

A housemate has arrived!

I've got a new neighbor!!! Back story first though... So when I first moved into my apartment, and English couple (Tess and Kevin) lived below me with their three dogs (Honey, Bell, Ocho). They moved out in March of this year (have their own land and have built some eco-cottages near where I live). So for the past 5 months, I've essentially had the whole place to myself. Nice and quiet, but always can be unnerving at times (no male presence or dogs, just deter any potential problems). Also, lucky for me, I never had any issues with no one living below me. But all that has changed now!

At the end of August, a new Ross faculty named Molly (from Wisconsin/Minnesota~~and yes, she has the accent to prove it) moved in with her dog Cocoa (chocolate lab- who doesn't have the accent and rarely barks at all). And lucky for me, she's my age so potentially an instant friend. As fate would have it, we get along great. I love her dog (and my cats are adjusting to the dogs visits~ they're not running away as much and actually are coming to investigate) and it's nice to be able to take walks with someone else and an animal (safety in numbers, especially from all the locals trying to pick you up!), watch tv shows or movies with someone, and have dinner parties and eat on the patio furniture she brought with her! She gets along great with my friends that I have introduced her to as well, so extra special plus.

So hasta la vista empty house and buenos dias to company when you want it!! Woo hoo!! BTW...I may have several adventures (a la: the hiking kind) lined up for this semester so look forward to some new posts coming in the next couple of months!

I'm YOUR weather girl....

AAAAHHHH.....Hurricane season. :) Yes, that is a smiley face. So unless you've been living under a rock for the past two weeks you know that the Atlantic hurricane season is in full swing. Growing up on the southeast coast of the US, this is nothing new. I've been in my fair share of hurricanes (luckily I've lived a good ways inland so I haven't really been horribly affected by them), so nothing new to me. You would think that living in the caribbean, where all the hurricanes usually pass through first before they get to the states, I would see a lot more. Not so says I. Luckily for me the Windward Islands (of which Dominica is considered) are a little more southern so the hurricanes usually turn north before they get to us. Such as Earl and Fiona did this past week. (Sorry to all my peeps in NC who got battered by Earl yesterday.) Now, Fiona turned north much earlier and was of lesser caliber, so we didn't see any effects of her at all. Earl on the other hand...

Right now Dominica is hot. Hot, sunny, and humid. Yeah yeah..tough life, I know. But believe it or not, sunny tropical days get old (especially if it's upper 80's or low 90's and 80% humidity!). So when Earl in all its massiveness came through the area last week, it was actually kind of a nice change. (I know you're thinking, "What kind of crazy girl actually likes hurricanes?") See Hurricane Earl went much more north of us, so we didn't get it full on, just some of the southern leading bands. This meant cloudy skies with a little rain (not much), the wind picked up a bit (more so right on the water, I really couldn't tell that much at my house), and crazy seas. Crazy seas meaning 10-12 foot swells on the normally calm and flat Caribbean side of the island. A welcome from "gorgeous" weather. AND....I'm NOT the only one that thought that (three of my girlfriends said the same thing I'll have you know)! We actually sat on the beach and watched the waves and had a glass of wine and birthday cake.

Dominica does get hit head on by hurricanes and some nasty ones at that. I don't mind if they stay away while I'm here. The next storm (Gaston) is actually tracking to hit us dead on sometime in the middle of next week (luckily it is just a tropical depression so it should be a cake walk...but it makes me giggle to see everyone squirm who's never experienced one before). So the lesser of the hurricanes...BRING IT ON (you bigger ones can keep turning north however) this chica is excited for cloudy and stormy days every now and then! (Disclaimer: This blog may be updated next week to cancel out everything I just said if Gaston and the one behind it get bigger, hit us head on, and really mess things up! However, let's hope not.)

It's electric!! (boogie woogie woogie)

Today's society has too much sensory overload. You come to appreciate that living on a developing island. In the states, you're always running around doing something...driving you car while listening to the radio, texting or talking on your cell phone, surfing on the internet or even having your butt parked on your couch while watching television for hours on end. Now, don't get me wrong...you can do that all here too, just not always.

For example, we have days where the power is just off. No reason or warning, just "Sorry, you don't get electricity today." This morning I woke up (yeah yeah, I dragged myself out of bed at 10am, but in my defense I couldn't get to sleep last night until around 2:30am) and realized my fan was not working. I immediately knew that, "okay, today is going to be one of those mornings I don't have power." After you experience this a few times you get used to it and at least your first thought isn't "oh crap..." So I went on my morning like I normally do (feed the cats, clean the litter box, make breakfast...luckily the stove and oven are gas powered so at least you can eat when there's no electricity) and instead of eating my breakfast while watching tv, I sat at the kitchen table and read a magazine. At this point, the power still isn't on. So, I finish putting up my clothes from the four loads of laundry I did yesterday, sat and watched the rain for a bit, and then decided in the midst of a break in the rain that I was going to go for a walk/jog. The walk/jog killed about an hour (just over 3 miles) when otherwise I probably would've been inside watching tv. Others were out and about, playing in the sea, fishing, and chatting to their neighbors (when is the last time you just chatted with your neighbor?) even though there was a slight rain off and on (exercising in the rain is actually quite enjoyable). Came back home (still no power) but was thoroughly hot and soaked so I took a cold shower (still no power remember), which can actually be quite enjoyable once you get over the initial shock. Then finished reading a book that I had started a while back. Right at the end of my book (around 3:15pm) the power came back on. So after I finished my book I turned on the tv and caught the end of the gymnastics championships.

Now, not once today was I upset that I had no power. It's actually quite liberating to have this happen once in a while (luckily they always turn it back on before it gets dark, but I have candles and flashlights just in case). So, in the end, I challenge all of you (back in the states and leading your cushy lives with technology surrounding you) to go a whole day (let's say from the time you wake up until 5pm) without electricity (no tv, computer, internet, etc) and see what you can get out of it and if you actually enjoy going back to the "olden days." Peace out!!

New sports

This past weekend I had my first experience with cricket and actually I was pleasantly surprised. Since Dominica used to be occupied by the British at one point, it's no surprise that cricket is one of the two main sports here (obviously futbol, aka soccer, is the other). Now, I previously lived in Australia for about 6 months, at which time I went without being drawn into the cricket thing. I got exposed to "footy" (which I think EVERYONE needs to get into because that has to be the toughest, manliest sport in the world!), but always steered clear of cricket. This partly because cricket seems to get a bad rep for being extremely boring, but once you get it explained to you it isn't that bad (it's definitely better than baseball). The game or "test" I went to was a ODI (one day international) test between the West Indies (Windies) and South Africa. This is only the second time they've played in Dominica (I think our stadium has only been built for 2 years). There was a game on Friday that I didn't go to, and then one on Sunday (obviously I attended that one). Cricket is an all day thing (on the 5 day tests, they actually stop for tea!), so the test started at 9:30am and didn't finish until 6pm (there was a 45 min. break in there for lunch). The thing with cricket is that one entire team goes "up to bat" first to try to score as many runs as possible, then the other team will bat and see if they can beat that number of runs (as opposed to baseball where they keep trading off). Since it was a one day match, there were only 50 "overs" allowed per team (an over is 6 balls or pitches, aka bowls), so for the baseball inclined a team has 300 pitches to get as many runs as possible. Now I'll go ahead and tell you the final score for each team was over 300. So, I know you're scratching your head and saying, "How exactly does that work?" Well, if the batter hits the ball, he can get anywhere from 0 runs to 6 runs. Obviously if he hits the ball and doesn't run it's a 0, otherwise if he hits the ball he and his partner run to the opposite of the pitch to score a run~ as many times as possible before the other team gets the ball back to the wickets (that I'll explain later). There is also a large rope around the field. If the ball passes this rope (after it has touched the ground) it's an automatic 4 runs, while if the batter hits the ball over the rope before it touches the ground it counts as 6 runs (think of a grand slam in baseball). This way it's possible for a guy to score more than one run everyone he hits the ball. So I enjoyed and cheered the whole morning while the Windies were at bat~ we scored 303 runs!! In the afternoon when South Africa was batting I actually took a nap for quite a while (hehe, it was crazy hot and I had a headache) but then cheered the last 20 overs. Talk about a close but exciting game. It literally came down to the last ball...the score was tied at 303...and unfortunately the guy fumbled on the last chance and South Africa pulled out a win 304/3-303/6 (as it is reported, SA won by 7 wickets~ think of a wicket as an out and there are 10 outs in cricket). Anyway, a lot was learned and I would definitely go again. I think losing to the #2 team in the world (for ODIs) by one measly run isn't too bad. I think next year we play India!!! Until next time...

The people you meet...

One of the great things about living on a caribbean island is having a lot "outsiders" coming to visit. I've been hanging out with the owner of the dive shop in the Portsmouth area who just happens to also own a cafe which just happens to be on my way home from work. Most convenient for a glass of wine while watching the sun set over the caribbean ocean after a long day's work. (Insert all your sighs and jealous faces and eye rolls here.) This is also the location of a bay (Prince Rupert Bay, to be exact) that a lot of boats, yachts as they are called here, anchor for how ever long their stay is. Yachts mean mostly sailboats, single hulls over catamarans mainly, to the un-marine versed. These are yachts from all locales and crews from all walks of life. Some yachts are owned privately (including this crazy mega yacht "A" that stopped by for a brief afternoon~~you've got to google that boat!), while others are chartered out for different amounts of time. There are the frequent visitors, of which this blog will be expanding on, and those who just pass through. People from UK, New Zealand, France, Canada, US (I even met another North Carolinian), Swiss, other caribbean isles, etc. So it is always an interesting afternoon at the cafe because you never know who you're going to meet (and yes, I've definitely met a few hotties- mostly UK- to flirt with for a time).

Anyway, where is this going..well on Saturday, my friend Orla and I spent a lovely afternoon on a british lady named Susie's boat, "Spirited Lady of Fowley." Susie is one of those frequent visitors. She's been living on a boat and sailing the caribbean for the past 7 or 8 years. Her current boat is a beautiful 54 ft. single hull, which she also races. She rotates crew a lot and I might try to crew for her at some point, maybe as soon as August for a week or so. It just seems like it'd be a fun thing to do and I'd love to learn to sail! Susie is the owner of the dive shop's friend. I think I may have met Susie briefly on one of her prior trips. She's a lot of fun and Orla and I had a grand time just hanging out on her boat, doing some snorkeling off the bow, snacking on yummy caribbean treats, and spoiling her dog Shubie with love and attention (this is whom I'm pictured with). Without hanging out "with the locals" in a spot frequented by "yachties," I would've never met Susie, or the others that I have met and befriended. Hopefully there will be many more friends made and adventures to be had while I'm hanging out in Dominica. My advice to all is to "go native!"

Weekends are for Adventures

Gotta love the weekend. Especially if you're not a student in Dominica. You above all need to have a keen sense of adventure and be willing to go with the flow. Yesterday, 10 of us set off to go to Wavine Cyrique (hike to a waterfall) and to Scotts Head (snorkelling). We pile (cram is more like it~ 13 people total) into a transport and head south and east through the interior to an area south of Carib Territory. Mind you, it has been raining non-stop all night and thus far this morning. Of course, any trip wouldn't be complete without a flat tire (these locals can change a tire like a race track pit crew. Luckily we only had one flat tire, otherwise we would've been in big trouble!). Moving forward, we arrive at Riviere Cyrique. Two of the people had been here before, so we assumed they knew where we were going. We start walking down the trail and it splits. A normal person would follow the nice steps and landscaped part, but our fearless leaders remembered adamantly that it was really the less landscaped trail that meandered into the woods. So a nice trek through the woods ensues for a good 30 minutes, not knowing where to go, until we are rescued by our driver who shows us where to go (we should've followed the steps apparently). The steps end and we come to ropes and tree roots hanging down essentially a cliff (think rappelling with no harness). Of the 10 of us that have come to this point, only 5 of us continue (of course I continued, who are we kidding here!). I conveniently oriented myself in between the two largest guys (just in case I ran into any trouble in the form of slipping down a cliff). So after about 20 minutes of down-climbing using ropes and tree branches (I did mention before that it's been raining for a while, so the rope is wet and covered in mud, and the dirt is now mud too) we make it to the beach (Atlantic side, so much more rough). We walk down the beach a bit and find Wavine Cyrique (pictured), a beautiful waterfall coming out of the cliff into the ocean. Definitely worth the crazy climb. We hung out of the beach for about an hour, taking pics, playing in the waterfall and ocean (we were covered in mud so we cleaned up a bit~~ though I don't think it did any good bc we obviously had to climb out in the rain and mud). The climb out went much faster, though took a bit more strength (and then walking up steps is much harder than going down). So this hike I'm definitely getting some of my more adventurous friends to do!

The rest of the day went on pretty much without a hitch. Long drive back through the interior and south past Roseau, Roadside bar-b-q chicken (YUMMY), snorkeling at Scotts Head (beautiful fish, 1 eel, and 3 squid!), and a LONG drive home (in the rain). So moral of the story is even though it may be a yucky rainy day, as long as you have a bunch of friends and a sense of adventure, there are endless possibilities!

Island hopping = not easy

One would think that living in the caribbean you would island hop all the time. That's SSOOO not the case. I too naively thought that I would be taking weekend trips all the time to the neighboring islands (Guadeloupe and Martinique) and that it would be easy to do so. Nope! I have finally taken a day trip to Les Saintes (part of Guadelopue) and it was fun but not as exciting (or easy) as I thought it would be. See there are ferries that go from Dominica to Martinique, Guadeloupe, and St. Lucia, but they are kinda expensive and the schedules are not conducive to weekend getaways. Plus a lot of the time I can't find anyone to go with me and do I really want to go by myself?? Granted I did take a nice 4 day trip to Bermuda by myself and had a blast, so there really shouldn't be any problem. But I did go with a faculty group from school so I just showed up at the appropriate time with my passport and everything else was already pre-arranged. We (about 30 of us) sailed on a large catamaran (no sails). The crossing from Dominica to Terre de Haute, Les Saintes takes somewhere from 1-2 hours depending on the speed of the boat and the roughness of the seas. Now, I took some dramamine (actually Gravol, which is the canadian version of dramamine) on the way over and was fine, plus the seas weren't that bad (they way back was a different story, no drugs and rough seas = not a happy Kristjan). We didn't get to spend a lot of time there, but it was nice to be in a place that was a bit more civilized. Got to go shopping for (French) clothes, eat gelato (AWESOME!), eat nice French food, and walk around a bit. (We started to rent scooters, but that lasted about 5 minutes before we gave them back.) I think I would go back for a long weekend next time. It is a bit of a hassle because you have to change currency (Euro) and they pretty much only speak French (and I don't) so it's a bit tougher to get by. It was nice to have enough Canadian friends who spoke at least some French to help translate. So I think in the future I may try to do a bit more exploring of the adjacent islands but definitely for a longer time frame. I'll let you know what happens. (In the picture from left to right- Janelle, Mike, me, Orla. We are swimming in the bay in Terre de Haute, Les Saintes).

Rain, Rain, Come and Stay

So Dominica season's are definitely different than in the States. My poor family at home is freezing their butts off and getting tons of snow, while the temperature here hasn't varied more than a total of 20 degrees in the last 6 months. Haha! (Had to boast a bit!) The "winter" season as it is between November and March tend to be much cooler than the "summer" months. And let me tell you, I have enjoyed the temperature. However, now we are in the "dry" season. It hasn't rained more than one day in the last month (a few days after the volcano in Montserrat blew, so at least it washed the ash off of everything)! And for a country that gets an average of 350 inches of rain a year (in the mountains/ 40 inches on the western coast), that's a drought! Since it's so dry, we have all these brush fires that automatically flare up. (I recently saw one so big that I thought it was going to burn down the hotel near it!) My lovely green island is turning BROWN...and I don't like it. So, I really want (and it definitely needs) to rain. End this yucky drought. It's also gotten pretty hot again, and the rain would cool it down some. Rarely do people wish for rain, but I've learned since being here to make an exception and that sometimes rain is a good thing.

Manna from Heaven

Living in Dominica too long will make you a fruit juice snob. There is always FRESH fruit juice and it's so much better than juice you can get back home. This is one of the nice things about living in a country whose temperature variance is a total of about 20 degrees year round (never below 70F or higher than low 90F). Most of the fruits here are in the tropical or citrus variety. For example, in my backyard I have the following fruits growing that I can pick anytime I want to: lime, guava, papaya, orange, coconut, and banana. I get limes on a regular basis (great over grilled chicken) and on occasion oranges (on New Year's morning we picked oranges off the tree, squeezed them and had mimosas!!). There are also some variation in the names of fruits. What they call tangerines here are like clementines back home, while tangerines at home are mangerines here. They have ortanics (which is like an orange and tangerine hybrid). Passion fruit, avocados, plantains, etc. ABUNDANCE!! When you go to restaurants here, always ask what juices they have. Everyone is different and some things are actually seasonal. There are two separate juice vendors at the Shacks on campus. Roslyn is my preference (she's a sweetie) over the juice guy (don't know his name). She'll have juices ranging from orange, tangerine, sorrel (seasonal and my favorite!), cherry, lime (good in combination with cherry), passion fruit, guava, and i know i'm leaving some out, but there are just too many to remember! They're cheap too! For $3.50EC or about $1.30US, you get a 16oz cup! Sweet deal if you ask me. But this island is lacking in one of my favorite things...BERRIES. I love berries, and I miss berries. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries... They don't grow here and they generally don't import them. (I've found frozen blueberries in Roseau, but it's just NOT the same.) So yesterday, we went out for lunch and on the counter there were two BEAUTIFUL strawberries! Now, I haven't had strawberries since this summer before I left and I'm going in total withdrawl. I asked them where they got these strawberries and after lunch we found the place and I got to buy some. Now...don't freak out or think I'm an idiot or anything, but a pint of strawberries cost $23EC, which is $8.50US. I know I know, you wouldn't be caught dead paying that much for strawberries back home (and I wouldn't either), but you gotta understand my pain and desperation for these beautiful red berries. And I had a few with my chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and they were totally worth it! I can tell you I probably won't be buying strawberries that often (especially for that price), but every once in a while, you just have to give in to indulgence.

Colors of the rainbow

So weather wise this week has been a bit off. I know I know, all of you people are thinking, "You're living in the caribbean...please don't complain. I'm sure it's blue skies and paradise everyday." Well, most of the time you would be correct (yeah yeah, I am rubbing it in a little). Currently it's "winter" here. Or as much of a winter as you can get in the caribbean. (I know my friends and family from back home are rolling their eyes, as they have just gotten the biggest snowstorm in the last decade there! Sorry I'm missing it guys!!) Winter here means cooler weather (82-78 during the day and 73-70 at night). Perfect temps in fact. Though living down here as made my skin become thin, so its chilly to me. Also during this time of the year (usually starting in November and going through February) is the trade wind season. Think beautiful skies but tropical storm gusts of wind (probably around 40 mph~ that's a total guess by the way). These gusts of wind will blow everything around your house (curtains, papers, bottles, etc), and they've even awaken me at night.

So moving on to the weather of this week. I guess it really wasn't weird per se, just striking. Monday and Tuesday it rained constantly all day and night. As I was driving to work on Monday morning, the blandness of the day struck me. The tar on the road was gray, this gave way to the beaches where the rock and sand were gray/black (volcanic island- no white sandy beaches here), and the ocean was grey (reflecting off the sky), and subsequently the sky was grey, overcast and flat. All in all it was quite dreary (but really cool that everything was such a monotone and muted color). However, in true Dominican fashion on the horizon over the ocean was the brightest most brilliant rainbow I've seen. Not only was it the brightest one, but just above it but not quite as bright, was a second rainbow. This is not the first double rainbow I've seen (that one was in Australia) and I know it won't be the last (Dominica is the land of endless rainbows). But it is by far the most striking and memorable. It just goes to show you that even the most dreary and yucky days and parts of your life have specks of beauty and the promise of joy and life in the distance.

Home and back again

So it's been about a month since I went home to visit. Sorry I've been MIA from my blog for a while (was too busy having fun with friends visiting from back home!). It was definitely a nice change of pace to go back to the states to visit friends and family (a bit of a whirlwind is an understatement!), but I'm glad I'm back in Dominica. It was great to be able to "bundle up" in pants, scarfs, gloves, and long shirts (though I definitely still enjoy wearing short skirts and sleeveless tops all year round!). One thing that was apparent is that I definitely don't miss the stress and anxiety that comes from living in the states. For example, being back home I felt like everything was on such a strict time schedule. There was no room for relaxation and it was always go go go from one minute to the next. The slower pace of Dominica is divine. Back home, as soon as I got behind the wheel of a car, I was stressed out and got that minor "road rage" back when people weren't going the speed limit. In Dominica, there is no speed limit, so when you're behind someone that's really slow you just kinda deal with it. Therefore my conclusion about Dominica is that if you need less stress and a slower pace of life, this place is for you (I have an extra bedroom available for guests...hint hint). It wasn't all bad being home. I had a great time visiting my family (I love you mom and dad, but I still work best being around for a week or two at a time!), and I ate everything in sight (which I had planned on doing anyway~ though I gained 5lbs at home, I knew I'd lose it w/i a week or two once I got back here). The US is great for many reasons, but bad for many reasons too. The quality of living is definitely better in the US, but the quality of life is better in Dominica!