Island Oddities

Well, Thursday Brian had only one class to attend since this is "block weekend", which means the students have exams Friday and Monday. So, when he arrived home, we headed to Heidi's for haircuts. Heidi's husband is in Med 1, and Heidi is a co-owner of a beauty salon in Vermont! Bonus, Bonus! Someone is on the island who can cut white hair! The only other place to get a haircut is the 4 Seasons, and that will set you back $44 US dollars! (Even for Brian!). Heidi is really nice and spunky and does a nice job on hair. She cut Nolan, Brian and me for $70 EC! (Translation = approx $26 US for all three of us!!!!)

After that we were on the hunt for contact lens solution. I had brought a full bottle, but we are running low. I had looked at two grocery stores on Wednesday, but neither carried any. So, we headed down to the "pharmacy". Well, the pharmacy didn't have contact solution either. Neither did the EYE DOCTOR! He said to try the pharmacy. So, we stopped at two more "grocery stores" and came up empty. As a last resort we headed to the 4 Seasons gift shop. Alas, 4 oz of multi-purpose contact lense solution for a mere $8 US, which is what 12 oz. costs at Target in Rockford! Still, cheaper than having mom and dad fedex a package of lens cleaner or taking a trip to Basseterre, St. Kitts aka: the toilet of the Caribbean.

Friday, the kids and I spent most of the early afternoon at Oualie. I love that place! There is a family that I think are staying there since I have now seen them twice. They are from Britain, and the mother is very very loud, fat, and weeeeeeeellllllllllllllll obnoxious. So are the kids. They have two boys who look to be very close in age and like to beat the crap out of each other. This seems to set one into a crying fit, which results in "Mummy" yelling and insisting the other apologize or else he will feel what it is like to get hit! I must say, I was reminded of Dudley Dursley and his parents from Harry Potter! Anyway, I thought I had seen it all on this island. Women without tops (even though this is a British island), stray dogs, goats running wild, cows in my yard, etc. Yet, I was in for a big surprise. At one point these boys (who are definitely old enough to "know better") were running around in their BIRTHDAY SUITS! Yes, two fat, young children running around with their yin-yangs flopping all over the place! My God! Then, they were in the water hanging on each other and hanging on "Mummy". Where is Freud when you need him? Poor Micha is now blind! LOL Today they were at the beach and Danielle noticed one of the boys had stripped down in the bar to change! I have to tell Jason (the head chef at Oualie) that I didn't realize he was running a strip club!

Friday only got better. We came home and showered then sat down to read. Nolan likes to read in the bedroom because there is a nice breeze. At one point he comes out and says "I have to chase the goats out of the yard, they stink". A little later he comes back in and insists that it can't be the goats because the herd was a group of little ones and they were at the back fence, which is a ways from the house. So, I go into the bedroom to see what's up. I get about halfway down our little hallway, and it hits me. It's not goat; it's cat. So, I go to the window and am about to puke when I notice the upstairs neighbor dumping water off her balcony. Great, she's cleaning the litter box! So, I have Nolan go outside to close the windows and I get out the powder fresh air freshener and use about half the can, but the apartment now smells like cat crap and powder fresh. In the meantime, Brian calls home for a ride, and I am pissed as hell because our house smells like Mary Remick's yews, but worse! So, I am griping at Brian the whole way home about how rude it is for the neighbor to dump her litter box right outside our bedroom window!!!!!!!! Brian gets into the house, enters the bedroom, and looks outside with his hands on his hips. Then, he turns around and walks out of the house in a funk. Next thing I know the upstairs neighbor is saying "I am so sorry." Well, come to find out it wasn't the litter box. It was ONLY THE WATER FROM RINSING THE LITTER BOX!!!!!!!!!!!! How foul and gross is that? How much cat crap was in that damn thing? Anyway, that is my rant on that. It is also a wonderful reminder as to WHY I HATE CATS!

Friday night Brian and I went on a date night. I will blog about that later and post some pictures. We had too much fun!

St. Maarten: Sunday

Our last day in St. Maarten was Sunday - yep, quick trip. Just so you know - most shops and restaurants are closed on Sunday. So, if your trip requires a Sunday, make that your all day at the beach day. Be aware though, even though tops are required on the Dutch side, most European women make tops optional. Tops are always optional on the French side (sometimes bottoms too!).

Jaime and Danielle knew of a restaurant for breakfast - Zee Best Restaurant, no kidding. The menu advertised the place as a great French restaurant without the attitude. They had a great selection of omlettes, eggs, crepes. The orange juice was fresh squeezed - very good! The kids ordered french toast, which was made with croissants! They really liked those too!

After breakfast we headed over to a little shopping area that had a few cabanas open. Danielle and I bought some wraps for a good price. Then we checked out of the hotel and headed to the "French side". Absolutely nothing was open over there except for a little restaurant. However, we got to see that side of the island and the views. One area called the French cul de Sac (picture below)looked beautiful and overlooks Orient Beach and the Atlantic Ocean - or as the map calls it Ocean Atlantique. Marigot, the capital is not nearly as beautiful as Philipsburg, but the shoreline is really nice and they have a huge, high-class mall right on the harbor, which, of course, was closed. Oh well!

We drove back to the Dutch side and grabbed a bite to eat at Pineapple Petes. That was the best margarita I have had in the entire Caribbean so far! I also ordered crab stuffed shrimp, and those were excellent! After that we drove down to the Maho Bay area. There is a huge resort there and a shopping district with shops that were actually open! It is really neat over there. Brian managed to buy a watch he had his eye on. Danielle, Jaime, and Julian were on an earlier flight, so they headed to the airport. So, we sat and had a drink at this outdoor cafe until we had to go. It was a nice weekend.

OK, this is only letting me post these two pictures right now - more later. Bye :)

St. Maarten: Saturday Pictures

Below is one view from our hotel room. The bay the hotel is located on is pretty big so I couldn't get it all in one shot. I think you pretty much get the idea though - blue water, nice sand, plenty of boats = pleasant view :))

Here are Nolan and Michaila outside of the Shipwrek Shop, which is a neat souvenier shop on Front Street in Philipsburg. I am still trying to figure out which one it the monkey. LOL

This is Danielle, me, Brian, and Jaime hanging out at the hotel, beach side. They had these great little seating areas there and plenty of shade. I would definitely recommend this hotel to someone else, especially if you like to be among all the shops.Danielle ordered a Mango Margarita at dinner. Jaime is also a student at MUA. They have one son, Julian, who is seven. He is a regular playmate for Nolan and Michaila. Danielle and Jaime are really nice people. They both run triathlons and are involved in the local club that organizes those type of events. They will be on Nevis until April, which is when Jaime will finish his basic science classes.

Well, last but not least, this is us at the hotel after dinner. Michaila was nice enough to take a snapshot. We have more pictures if anyone is interested, but I still need to post about Sunday's adventures - so, more later :)

St. Maarten: Saturday

I came from the north
escaping convention
modern invention
that won't let me be
To the shores of St. Martin
With my fiction addiction
to restart the fire
a dreamer's remedy - - J. Buffett

Saturday morning we flew to St. Maarten/St. Martin for a quick over-night trip. We met up with our friends, the Moreno family. The are really nice people and have been to St. Maarten before so they were wonderful tour guides. A little background. St. Maarten is not an independent country. It is actually two territories. The southern third of the island is Sint Maarten, which is a territory of the Netherlands. That makes Sint Maarten part of the Netherlands Antilles, which are spread all over the Caribbean and include five islands. The northern two-thirds of the island is Saint Martin, which is a territory of France along with several other Caribbean islands.

St. Maarten/Martin is is about the same size as Nevis at 35 square miles, but is what I would call a craggy island. Where Nevis is shaped like a tear drop, St. Maarten/Martin has inlets and lakes and a lot of bays. It is as if the volcanic lava flow spread out quickly and created little fingers of land. It is a very pretty island. It is also fairly well-developed and has a lot of shopping opportunities. (It also happens to have several Subways, McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC restaurants as well).

Saturday, we arrived and the Morenos met us at the airport. We picked up a little (and I mean little) rental car and headed into Philipsburg to check into the hotel. We stays at the Holland House Beach Resort, which is right on Great Bay. We had a great view and were right in the middle of the duty free shopping district. There is no place to park, so Jaime and Brian were driving around and around and around trying to find a place to put the cars. Once they were able to find spots, we headed out for a little shopping. There are more jewelry stores on Front Street in Philipsburg than you can imagine. We didn't buy a whole lot. Around noon we headed to a little restaurant down the street from the hotel. The food was pretty good, but our waitress could have used a personality adjustment. Right above this restaurant is a bar called the Blue B**** Bar. Couldn't believe that one so I had to take a picture!

After lunch we walked around. The kids wanted to swim, so they took off to the beach and the adults sat under the palm trees and chatted. That was nice and relaxing. I suppose we could have done more meandering and shopping, but I was perfectly content to sit and do nothing. That evening we drove over to the Simpson Bay area and had a little dinner at a seafood restaurant, which served mostly shrimp. Poor Danielle gets sick on shrimp so I felt bad about that. The place had live music. It was the worst rendition of Margaritaville that I have ever, ever, ever heard. When Brian suggests that I go sing instead, phew! After dinner we went back to the hotel and had a glass of wine. Nolan and Julian stayed upstairs to watch TV, which was nice for them and good for the adults too :)

OK, this isn't allowing me to post pictures. You will have to wait for those later. Sorry :)

July 4

Well, it is Independence Day in America. It is just July 4 here. No worries though, the Spouse of Students organization is hosting a July 4 barbeque on July 7. So, we are postponing celebrating until Friday when all the U.S. expatriates can gather and reminisce about real grocery stores, corn-on-the-cob, and driving on the right hand side of the road - LOL. In the meantime, Michaila is learning to play the Star Spangled Banner on her guitar.

Last night Brian, Michaila, and Pat (our upstairs neighbor) went to Nicole's primary school graduation. That's an interesting story. I couldn't go because I had a paper due and one of my team members decided to have her baby three weeks early, so I had to help finish her piece. Graduation was supposed to start at 4:00. Well, it started right on time, which is only 15 minutes late. They did not get home until 7:00! Apparently, they gave out awards, sang, etc. But in between people spoke. Brian said one woman spoke for 30 minutes on the 5 Qualities of a Good Teacher. Well, if these kids are graduating primary school, isn't that speech a bit late? Another guy used the opportunity to give a political speech, which apparently got everyone on their feet clapping. July 10 is election day here. I will post a blog on Nevisian electioneering later - LOL. Brian was a bit frantic when he got home, but I think he is glad he went since Clarestine and Nicole are on their own. Brian took several pictures so we are going to have them printed and framed for a graduation gift. Oh, Clarestine told Brian that Nicole received a scholarship to secondary school! Not sure what that means, but Clarestine is very happy.