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.