Westerhall, Grenada

Marathon Training: 11.50 miles, 1:52:57.

One of my goals before moving here was to run across Grenada. Being approximately 15 miles wide and 28 miles from top to bottom, I thought this was completely reasonable, I mean come on, what else do I have to do now? Then I got here. And after my first three mile run, I put that dream aside. The hills, the heat, the incessant humidty and sun that never seem to give up, squashed my goals. However, after over two months of dedicated training, we nearly did just that. Cayley's husband, Nick, drove us directly east, up and down the mountains, and deserted us in the rainforest miles away from what we now call home. You can see our route here: Our Cross-Island Route, it really is almost across the island!

Cayley, Tee and I (taking the picture) about to start 11 miles!

Nick had run the route the day before us and described his experience as nearly deathly as the hills are treacherous and the sun, inescapable. After hearing that, I began to dread 4:00pm Sunday. So I did what I do and I over prepared- even going so far as to make a huge bowel of pasta at 4 am with Pat (it’s not unusual for us to be up that late..). After completing the run essentially ache free and with energy to spare, I’m thankful for Nick for psyching me out.

Westerhall, Grenada, West Indies

In other news, I have a semi-job now! A busy and overwhelmed med-student was looking for someone to help with his laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, and taking care of his two huge, but adorable Labradors. Basically I’m doing everything I already do at home, but for money. It’s not much in pay, but it will bring in enough to help with groceries and my student loans bills. Which is a HUGE relief.

I also visited Calivigny Island for some potential income. The man who owns the island is a French billionaire who put 400 million dollars into renovating his own play ground just off the coast of Grenada. My land lord is his sister. I’ll update if this one pans out. At least I got dog walking and laundry for now..

Other than that, the past two weeks have been slightly uneventful. Pat has been almost stress free now that he’s over the midterm hump and aside from our monetary issues, we’re not doing too bad down here. But lets back up here to the ‘monetary issues’ part. We did some minor budgeting before coming down here, but we did not take into account the insane cost of electricity. Insane as in $700.00 USD electricity bill. After first receiving it, I immediately assumed we were being taken advantage of (paranoid a bit?). So I did my research and learned everything I could about the cost of electricity and wattage usage so I would have an arsenal of facts to present my land lord with, and thus, she would realize she was wrong and take away our bill. That did not happen. She says we use too much air conditioning and that she “warned us to keep an eye on it!”. Too much air conditioning as in we only run it for the 8 hours we are sleeping (and suffer the rest of the day in our mosquito filled hot box), and after some ‘careful monitoring for three days’ she says we are still responsible for the bill. Fail.

So our next adventure is finding a new apartment. We have some appointments tomorrow to go out with a landlord and find a new home. Since we are locked into our lease until December, we will not move until second term. But I have budgeted our entire life, and with a much more affordable apartment, and electricity bill, we should make it through next term just fine.

And since I can’t have a blog without some careful reflection, here is a small look into what’s been on my mind lately: I’m still trying to figure out the whole “live life in the moment” thing. Sometimes I step back, usually while running, and think “wow! I live here, this is amazing and not many people can say they lived in the Caribbean, much less in a third world country!” I look around and think about how this experience has already shaped me so much. Not just me, but my relationship, and how I view relationships in general. I have met so many amazing, warm, friendly, helpful people, that are now my friends. I have encountered cultural barriers and misunderstandings from a foreigners view- something I believe everyone should experience at some point in life. And not just while you’re on vacation, I mean really try to live and go about life as an outsider. It is immensely confusing, wonderfully entertaining, and incredibly frustrating at times. I now know prejudice more than ever. This is an experience I would not give up for anything. But at times, I am still antsy. I still need to know that I will go to school, work full time again, and be able to succeed in life. I wish it were easier for me to just sit back and soak in this experience. Maybe, with time, I will be able to do just that- cause I also never thought I would nearly run across Grenada.

Dengue fever...or not.

Marathon Training: 9.26 miles, 1:31:45. (holy cow!)

So it's been a few days.....err, weeks since I last posted, but apparently I've been busy! Not to mention exhausted after even a half-day spent out-n-about, so most of my nights have ended up with me, face down in a pillow, half watching Greys Anatomy until Pat gets home around 1 am. And about that.. My boyfriend is an extremely hard worker. I did not realize how much he could focus until I moved here with him. He had midterms last week, and he was studying 18 hours a day, every day leading up until exams. Thankfully he saw the fruits of his labors in his grades, as he did great, and I am extremely proud of him.

So with midterms behind us, we actually got to spend a few days together during his break this weekend!

For the past few weeks, the girls and I had been thinking of all the things we wanted to do with our men after midterms were over. We had a big weekend planned, but quite honestly I didn't have high expectations as I knew the boys would be tired from studying all week. Surprisingly, we actually did quite a few things on our list AND... Patrick came on a Hash! Trust me, I was just as surprised as you all. But he did it, and although he might of suffered through it, I do give him props for putting on his game face and doing this with me and our friends- especially since one of our good "couple friends" are the ones who set the hash (basically that means they created the trails through the jungle that we all later hiked through).

Pat and his 'study buddy' Brian 

Me, Cayley and Courtney after the hash

The rest of our weekend was relaxing. We met up for cigars at the University Club on Friday night, and smoked hookah (just tobacco, promise!) on a patio after the Hash. Sunday we did brunch with our friends and then spent the rest of the day in bed watching football and movies. Not a bad weekend, minus the Patriots losing which set us back for a few hours.. On that note, I'll give a little update on the fantasy football situation: With zero real knowledge about football... I am number one in our SO league (knock on wood!), and frankly that is the only reason I like it so far.

So what else is new? As I mentioned, one thing I do a lot down here is cook... And I think I might be starting to really, really like it. I search the internet for easy, healthy recipes on a daily basis, and then set out to the IGA to see if we actually have any of the ingredients listed (click on the link to see where I shop for groceries in Grenada!). One thing I do use a lot here is spice. It is cheap, and can completely transform a meal.

Because we are logging more and more miles every week, and because I want to keep Pat and myself energized (read: sane) through this journey, I have done some research on what we should be eating (and I've just always had a weird obsession with nutrition and food, kind of like the blood thing..). Anyway, last weekend after my 8 mile run, I was so tired and sore I thought I had acquired dengue fever and was surely going to die in our bed hours before Pat got home from the library... apparently all I needed was some protein and gatorade (electrolytes!). Eating healthy when you're working out that hard is essential, especially when considering the heat and hills of Grenada. This article was super helpful for easy things to fit into my diet, even on a low budget.

In addition to staying fueled and ache free, I truly believe good nutrition is imperative to a healthy state of mind, and even more so now since we have undergone such dramatic changes in culture, lifestyle and medical school-related stress. These articles explained what to eat to ease stress and depression.

In summation: We eat A LOT of bananas, and I'm overly obsessed with quinoa. We should eat lots of protein often, and complex carbohydrates that take awhile to be digested by the body and I will be able to run this marathon and we both should be free of mood swings. Hopefully.

Eat me for a better run AND a better relationship. 

"Please choose your country"

Week 5; 7.15 miles 1:05:48

Musings:
It's amazing the way life can change so quickly on you. I say that as if I didn't have a choice in the matter. As if life took me by the hand and said "let's go!"- and just when I thought we were going one direction, life took a detour- possibly it preferred the more scenic route- and now I'm here: 25, in Grenada, with a man I met a mere year ago. Despite the reactions of the people around me (which ranged from "are you out of your mind?" to "Yes! Take a chance and live life!) this move was not out of character for me. For the first time in my life I am neither working nor in school. So here I am, trying to live in the moment; to really enjoy my surroundings, or as the kid at the bus stop said "you can use this time to find yourself, whatever that means" (sometimes it seems like there is a sign on my head begging people to talk to me..). But with all this working, and studying and moving, and overall 'avoiding'- how much my life has changed in the past year didn't hit me until I was filling out a survey and came upon the prompt: "please choose your country".

Alright, I guess I'll choose Grenada ;)

Before we came out here I set some goals. Maybe I needed a way to add justification to the decision I was making to move here. The plan was to use the first four months to accomplish said goals, and then I would hopefully be accepted to school beginning in January and I could study along side Pat for the remainder of our time on the island.

Goals:
Learn to cook (this has been an interesting one)
Run a marathon (on my way!)
Learn Spanish (still trying to find a cheap Rosetta Stone on amazon)
Start a blog (.....)
Apply to grad schools (in the process)
Study for the GRE again (eh)
Volunteer (SAMS, Limes)
READ!

Since arriving I have some additional Goals:
Learn about a new culture (I ate salt fish.. Trust me, you are NOT missing anything)
Immerse myself in new culture
Figure out how to stretch a dollar in another currency, in a foreign country (ugh)
Try new things (hashing!)
Learn to drive a moped (check!)
Cultivate patience and understanding in my relationship with Pat (and a million other relationship things that could take up a whole new blog but shouldn't because it would be quite revealing)

That last one is important. Apparently medical school is difficult (?!) and takes A LOT of time (huh??) and can make one, hard working student (Pat) very stressed. The difficult part here is separating what is  new in our relationship because we are living together, and what is new to the relationship simply because of school, and all the additional emotional upheavals that come with it.

Some of the recipes I have tried: Quinoa Patties, Confetti Chicken Pasta, Sauteed Chicken Chunks with Coconut Milk

Overview of weeks 6 and 7: Pat had his first exams of med school! He did well but now he is preparing for midterms and is back to heavy-duty studying.

I have continued to volunteer at the hospital; cool story of the week: A man with a constricted urethra (due to BPH) came in to the clinic unable to urinate. It was near impossible to cath the man so our doc used a large bore IV needle and inserted into his abdomen and directly into his bladder to drain the urine- problem solved (for a short while anyway).

Thought you'd all like a visual...

Giving up on our washing machine, I have resorted to doing laundry by hand. 'Nuff said.

I've since added a drying rack and clothes line, but you get the idea...

Our bike broke down and I took it to get it fixed at the local mechanic- interesting experience to say the least.

Our sweet ride