Saturday Night

Well, it's Saturday night at 10:30pm and I'm sitting alone at home! Haven't done that in a while. H has gone to school to look at the cadavers cause he has two exams on Monday and Tuesday. The weather here is so weird! We woke up to a beautiful sunny day. So hot that we had all the fans on full blast and we were still sweating! Then this afternoon it was cloudy but still quite hot and humid and now it's torrential downpour with thunder and lightning! I tried to get some pictures of the lightening but I wasn't quick enough and then the battery died on my (Rehman's) camera. Oh well, it is supposed to be like this for the whole month so I'll keep trying. I can only imagine how creepy it must be for H to be in a room with 7 cadavers listening to the thunder and lightning. Seems like the perfect setting for a scary movie. Well, I'm gonna stop thinking about that before I scare myself! Everyone seems to go home very quickly once the rain starts. The bar downstairs is closed already and it was packed about half an hour ago. Oddly enough, there is a man that keeps yelling things somewhere down the street. I can't quite make out what he's saying but I'm pretty sure he's drunk!

I had a really relaxing day today. Went for a nice walk then read, painted and went to the glass blowing studio to clean the beads I made last time. They turned out beautifully! One looks like a little rose so I made a nice keychain with it! One of the girls from SOS stopped by today cause they were hanging out having smoothies at Saba Snack just down the road. People here just come right to your door- nobody really bothers to call! I love it! And we always have our door open so it's really fun to get visitors throughout the day. The other daily visitor we have is a lizard that hangs out at the window sill in front of H's desk. He comes right inside just past the window but hasn't ventured in further. We were feeding him some little bugs that were right by the window so I think that's why he keeps coming back! He's really cute but we should probably stop feeding him or he may tell his friends!

Lizzy the Lizard

I woke up this morning with a huge bump on half of my lower lip! I woke up in the middle of the night and it felt like I had been biting my lip while I was sleeping or something like that so I assume that's when it happened. H looked a little scared of me this morning and when we looked at it more closely you could see where I had been stung! So gross to imagine some little rodent crawling on my face and into my mouth. My lip is basically back to normal now so it wasn't anything dangerous. I was told a story about the giant caterpillars that live on the island coming through an open window and biting a tourists head. When he woke up he had a massive bump on his head and he was losing his hair on that spot! Not all of our windows have mosquito nets so ever since hearing that story we've been making sure to close those windows at night.

So, remember how I was talking about the straps on my dresses and tank tops ripping at the seams? Well I've encountered a new issue. Glue seems to lose it's adhesiveness! I have a new pair of flats that the soles are coming undone already and the bead on one of my necklaces popped off today so looks like I may need to get some superglue or a glue gun.

I think that's all I have to report. Oh yea... we finally got our phone number with MagicJack!! So this means that anyone in Vancouver can call us for FREE!! So please call us!! We would love to hear from everyone! Well, the drunk man is screaming again. I'm gonna go check it out. Hope everyone is doing wonderful! Talk soon

Oh my goodness! Harris just got home and told me that he saw an albino monkey cross the street on his way home!!! You dont understand... when we first got here H was asking the locals if there were any monkeys on the island and a girl told us that no there weren't any on the island but a local had brought one over from St. Maarten but it had escaped and she had never heard about it since. How strange is that!! And we just went to go brush our teeth to go to bed and there were 2 tiny frogs in the bathroom! Goodness so much wildlife!!! I am not used to this but I better get used to it!!

Pictures of the Week

The entrance to our new place



Our living room

  

The kitchen



Our bedroom



Harris studying hard in his office

The guest bedroom- where you could be staying!!

  

Harris's speech- this is when he did a shout out to me!!!



Shaking the Dean's hand



Harris receiving his white coat at the ceremony

 

Walking away- looking very proud!!

Harris reciting the Doctor's oath

Me and my hot husband!!

 

Can you spot Harris?
(Clue: he's on the right side)

 

Random cool car on the island

 

The men hard at work after the bull killing

I wanted to paint his toenails!

I can't believe I'm doing this!



Mom with 2 of the babies. It was so cute to watch them walk.



The babies are only 1/2 hour old!!



My New Life

Just sitting on the porch, back from a walk to see if the new ring I made in glass blowing class was ready but unfortunately the studio is closed due to Mother's Day. On my walk I realized that this is my new life and I couldn't be happier. I was walking past the little goat pen with it's 3 new babies that are 2 days old listening to the church bells ringing and it dawned on me that this isn't vacation- this is our new home.

Harris had his white coat ceremony on Friday night. It was really nice to see him in his new element and meet some of his new classmates. I gotta say, I have the sweetest husband! All the students had to introduce themselves and say where they had gone to school and what they had studied. Harris added that wanted to thank his supportive wife and that he couldn't do it without me! I swear my heart melted and there was some awwing and sighs around the room! After the ceremony we went out to a night club near the school and partied it up! It's so fun partying at outdoor clubs listening to reggae music! We made sure to get to bed early so that H could study the next day so we could wake up in time for the bi-annual bull killing. However, that started at 5:30am and neither of us could do it. I even heard gun shot but it was too early. I really wanted to see the shooting but I'm sure if I had, I would of regretted it. We did wake up around 7am, in time to see them cutting the meat and there was still half the cow hanging from a tree basically in our backyard.

Fantastic news!! I got the job that I applied for at Juliana's Hotel working at the front desk. It is a beautiful hotel with cottages, a restaurant, pool and hot tub! They play movies every Friday night outside on a 12 x 18 foot projector screen and do really good Grill Nights a couple times a week as well. I don't start there till June 1st so I've been keeping busy working at a fine dining restaurant, Eden, a couple times a week and learning glass blowing which I must say I am OBSESSED!! I am having so much fun but keep trying to get ahead of myself by doing things I wanna make before learning the basics. Like the ring I made! I should probably say tried to make but I will keep you posted. 

We moved into our new place and we couldn't be happier. I think I said this before but it's 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. We have turned one of the rooms into a permanent guest bedroom so please let us know when you wanna come here!! One room is H's office and then the other room is our bedroom. According to island standards, we lucked out! The restaurant down below is always playing great music and we are in the middle of all the action. There are stairs coming up to our place that I love to sit on and read or do my nails and it feels like I'm in heaven!

I've been making some friends here- locals and wives of the students. Everyone is so friendly and really make you feel welcome. I will be hanging out with a group called SOS (Spouses of Saba) tomorrow learning to quilt. I can't really say I've ever been interested in learning to quilt but it will be fun to hang out with the group and learn to sew. The group gets together frequently to do things like hikes and dinners etc and I lucked out cause the group of girls are all around my age!

So, we now have a phone line here and magic jack hooked up. Our home line is (from Vancouver) 011 599 416 2496. I haven't been able to get a Vancouver magic jack number so we are only able to call out but not receive calls. Once I figure it out I'll let you know the number.

I have been learning about the wildlife on the island and there's a lot more than I thought there was. We saw a snake the other day (they are harmless) and we had 2 tiny frogs in our place the other night! They were so cute! We were trying to get them outside but their little feet are so sticky that it was hard! We eventually led them into a water bottle and left that outside. Because we leave all the doors open all the time we get one cockroach inside every night. It's turned into a fun game of who can find him first! We also had 2 baby lizards inside our place! Those were really fun to chase outside! There are apparently scorpians, land crabs (who knew those existed) and massive caterpillars with hard shells that live on the island. Those are not common to see during the day so we will have to go hunting for those at night!
Side Note- Everytime I said we, I actually meant Harris.

One funny thing about the humidy here- The straps on some of my dresses and tank tops are ripping!! Weird but I've had it happen 5 times so I have started to carry around a little sewing kit cause I don't like wearing a bra here. Otherwise the locals may see a little too much of me!

Hope everyone back home is doing very well. Love you all. And thanks for reading!!