It's been a while

So... it's been a long time since I've updated my blog that I actually need to change the name. Harris and I have moved to a neighbouring island called St. Eustatius or Statia for short. Leaving Saba was hard but I'm excited to have the opportunity to explore another island. So I guess my blog is now called Living on Statia with Myra. To be honest I'm a little disappointed with my blog name choice. It should be a little more witty and clever. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. I'll keep thinking on it. We have been here since May 5, 2012 and it's really cool. Very different from Saba- I can't emphasize that enough but Saba felt like a surreal movie set. My mom and Harris' dad came to visit Saba and they both loved it. Before we left Saba, we became certified divers! I can honestly say that it the best thing I have ever done. The diving sites on Saba are incredible. We went to a place called Ladder's Labyrinth and it felt like we were in a massive aquarium. You swim through channels of huge coral and sand. It felt like we were going thorough a maze. I was a little nervous about doing it but knew I would regret it if I didn't. On our last dive, our instructor Becca (who is awesome) showed us how to play with our buoyancy and we did barrel rolls, flips, handstands and so much fun stuff! Statia has a two large ship wrecks that I can not wait to explore!

We moved here on our friend, Nicky's fishing boat and even fished on the way over. Statia is really cool! There are animals everywhere- pigs, cows/bulls, donkeys, dogs, roosters, cats, macaw parrots, goats and sheep. I bought a bicycle- it's a light blue 7-speed Coaster (unfortunately,no basket or bell) and it is so much fun to ride around the island and explore. On any given day you can see about 20-30 cows/bulls, a pig playing in the mud (so cliche!) and of course a tons of goats and roosters. I have yet to see a donkey but I'm kinda nervous because I've heard that they are aggressive. I can't work here so I'm volunteering at the animal shelter. We currently have 2 dogs that are up for adoption. They are both such sweethearts. Harris and I fell in love with the first one that was brought in on my first day of volunteering (typical!) We named her Saba. I get to go feed and walk them every morning and then Harris and I usually also go back in the afternoon to take them on another walk. The shelter is located close to where a lot of cows/bulls and pigs hang out so it can be quite the adventure to get there! 

Harris and I go on a couple adventures throughout the week which we call H&M Adventures (again not a very clever name). We have discovered a lot of cool things about the island- we found this narrow 15 mile road that leads to the Botanical Gardens. Along the way, we saw a mama pig with about 10 cute piglets and narrowly escaped an attack by a massive swarm of bees. We have also gone Zeelandia beach where turtles come lay their eggs at this time of the year. No sightings yet, but I'm hoping to volunteer with Stenapa that monitors the turtles and cleans the beaches.

So, what else do I do? I'm taking a Modern Art course online through Oxford University. It has always been a dream of mine to attend Oxford so this will do for now. Harris is going to try to do his clinicals in London so that I can fulfill my dream and of course live near Perry, a little closer to Carola and my family. The program that I looked into includes weekend classes at the National Gallery! I get chills just thinking about it! The course is a little out of my realm. I have never studied art but have always been interested and intrigued by my family's collection of European posters. It is crazy the vast amount of thought and research that is put into one piece of art. I have never thought of art in this manner so it is very eye opening. Unfortunately, my class won't cover the posters that we have but it is always fun to learn about something new. Wow- that sounds nerdy! Oh well. I have also started cooking a lot here. This was definitely not the case back in Vancouver or Saba but I really enjoy it. Work was always my excuse not to cook but I can't use that here! 

Well, I promised Harris' mom at Christmas time that I would write more in my blog. I'm a couple months late Johan but I hope you enjoyed it. 

Thanks for reading my blog! I hope you feel more knowledgable or that it gave you warm fuzzies inside or just wasted a couple minutes of your time. xo Myra