A sad turn of events

It is now pre-midterm week, and that means long days of a studying and a mildly stressed out Pat. I know he is holding up better than I would be, and now that he has first term under his belt, he *appears* to be a little more mentally prepared. Similarly, Cayley and I are up to running 8 miles already, and somehow it seems much easier than the first time we ran 8 miles back in October!
This post refers to my dengue-fever fake out after our first 8 mile run.

Tuesday of last week I picked up our new passports from the embassy, and it went a lot smoother than most things do in Grenada (did I mention we lost our passports in December..?) 

I guess not.. so here is the backstory: About two weeks prior to going home for winter break, Pat and I ended our lease at Secret Harbor and moved into our current apartment. Well, sometime during the move, our passports were either stolen or thrown away in the midsts of packing and unpacking (I swear I am more responsible than this...) Even more embarrassing, I didn't notice they were gone until 10 pm the night before we were supposed to fly out of the country. I say this is my fault because Pat had finals the week leading up to our departure and I was the one in charge of packing and making sure we were ready to leave. So learn from my mistake and always check for your passports at least a week before traveling! Had I done that, I would have realized they were missing and we could have had our emergency passports before we left for our regularly scheduled flight. When it was all said and done, I realized we learned a few life lessons (after hours of intermittent crying/panicking/freaking out). I will lay out the positives we found in this seemingly terrifying situation: 

1) We got to spend about 4 extra days of med-school free time in the caribbean! 
2) We learned how to contact and navigate the ins and outs of utilizing the US embassy in a foreign country (yay for taxes!)- thankfully, the embassy is actually located in our neighborhood and they will answer the phone at 1 am on a Saturday morning if you call the emergency line. 
3) We learned that we could simply rebook our flight out of Grenada for FREE because Pat is a student at SGU (we had to pay for any upgraded seats they could put us on, and we ended up sitting first class the entire way home for about 50$ US; I definitely utilized the free drinks after this experience!) *This is only with American Airlines that I know of, so for any SGU students traveling to Grenada, this is a huge perk!
4) We know now what to do if we lose our passports in a foreign country. While I never want to go through that again, it's nice to have that kind of random life experience. 

Thankful for Netflix during our long layovers :)

First class!!! 

Anyway, back to Tuesday. I ran into a friend a few weeks ago who asked if I would want to help do volunteer swim lessons for some kids on the island, and of course I jumped at the chance. So Tuesday afternoon I was picked up outside my apartment and we headed up into the hills on the west side of the island. A couple from the US is running swim lessons and also runs the local swim team. There were two groups of kids with different levels of experience coming from a variety of backgrounds. They are such a fun group of kids and I anticipate adding this to my weekly schedule. 

On Wednesday we got some very sad news from our close friends Cayley and Nick. As we later found out, both of their dogs, Nyla and Elly, had been poisoned with an herbicide called paraquat; something that is apparently not unheard of in Grenada, and was most likely done maliciously. Since I cannot restate what happened nearly as eloquently as Cayley, she allowed me to provide a link to her blog: Cayley's Blog (don't read it in public as it will undoubtably bring tears to your eyes). 

Aside from what was mentioned above, the rest of our week was pretty uneventful. We won our kickball game (!) and our kitten mastered the art of hunting lizards. Patrick continues to prepare for midterms and I am definitely looking forward to a few free days with him soon. 

yup, that's disgusting

FOOD!

Sunday: Slow Cooker Chicken and Salsa: This recipe was given to me by another SO and Minnesota native, Jessica- it is super easy and we always end up with extra to eat later in the week.

Monday: Yummy Pasta: It has bacon in it; 'nuff said. 

Tuesday: Honey Soy Tilapia : This ended up being so good that I made it twice this week. Thankfully neither of us is in danger of hypertension or heart disease yet because this was a lot of soy sauce!

Wednesday: Cayley hosted dinner and served some amazing chicken pot-pies!

Thursday: Spicy Thai Noodles: Incredibly spicy! If I make it again (it was still good!) I would halve the sesame oil and red pepper flakes.

Friday: More Tilapia

Sunday: Honey Dijon Chicken Tenders and garbanzo bean salad with asparagus- Courtney and I made this for Brian and Pat while they studied and it was incredibly easy and extremely tasty.

Beer Bread: The website boasted this was the best beer bread recipe in the world. I haven't eaten much beer bread, but for how freaking easy it was to make, it's pretty good.

And, thats a wrap. If you're still bored after reading this, (assuming thats why you're here in the first place), here are some of the articles that have kept me entertained when I'm procrastinating essays and applications: Overuse of Antibiotics in the US, Mummies gettin' CT scanned, and this TED talk: Ted talk on charitable giving

I'm back!

After a much needed glorious six weeks in the US, I am back in warm, sunny Grenada. While I am extremely happy to be settling back in here, I definitely needed the time at home, working, to rejuvenate and feel like myself again. After typing that I realize how ironic that sounds; most people go to the Caribbean to rejuvenate. However, after a month and a half of nearly 60 hour weeks, I was ready to leave the sub zero temps of St. Paul and be reunited with my boyfriend, and our new feline addition.

Our adopted Grenadian kitten. I am pretty much obsessed with her. 

I have pretty much returned to the same routine as last term, but I think I've been a little more secluded. I am overly focused on getting into grad school; something I fear may not actually happen, and thus have been spending a large amount of time writing and rewriting essays, scouring admissions profiles, and narrowing down the schools I hope to get in to. More on this later.

I have jumped back into running, and I'm surprised how quickly my body was able to bounce back after taking nearly 8 weeks off. Since we've also started to incorporate yoga into our weekly workouts, running has been much easier this term (click the link to see Grenada's Fountain of Youth Yoga Studio!). Cayley and her husband are planning to run the Aspen Valley marathon in Colorado this summer, and I have flirted with the idea of joining them. Altitude running is not something I think I'm ready for, but hey, it will be pretty at least :)

Since I was working so much and jumping between couches, I didn't cook much while I was home. Now that I'm back in Grenada, I have become mildly obsessed with it. We have also added "supper club" to our week with our friends Courtney and Brian and Nick and Cayley. Each week one couple hosts and makes dinner for the other two couples. I made grilled cheeseburger wraps (thanks to Cayley for the recipe) and roasted potatoes during my week to cook. Aside from slightly burning some of them, they turned out pretty good! It was also my first time cooking for more than two people, so I guess that fear has been squelched.

Since I don't have much room on the scooter, I decided that meal planning was the best way to make sure I get everything we need for the week in one grocery trip. It takes some time, but I think it will help in the long run, and I am hoping to stick to it. I also want to get better about blogging the recipes we have tried so that I can remember them for the future (when I have less time to sit for hours searching the internet!).

Monday: Three bean chili- this is a modified recipe- the original one was found on our SO recipe swap facebook page, and it was fantastic- We ate it over bow-tie noodles.

Tuesday: Crispy Quinoa Bake- another one I found on the SO website. It was pretty good; Pat is not a huge fan of quinoa but he did finish the pan so it couldn't have been that bad ;)

Wednesday: This was Courtney's turn to cook and she made phenomenal chicken fajita's (I will have to get the recipe from her!)

Thursday: Crispy Tilapia and roasted potatoes.

Saturday: Mussels in White Wine Sauce: I have never cooked with mussles and I'm not even sure if we like them, but they were extremely cheap at IGA and I surprisingly had everything needed for this recipe already in my kitchen, so I look forward to trying them!

I also made Zucchini Bread this week, one of my favorite foods, and it turned out better than I ever could have expected. I subbed half a cup of white sugar for brown sugar (simply because I ran out of the former) and I think that helped make the bread even more moist and amazing.

Final updates: We started playing on a kickball team with Courtney and Brian and some other friends we met first term. So far we have won two out of three games and I really look forward to spending time with Pat in this atmosphere. He even had a home run this week! Other than that, he is pretty much study, study, study all the time. He is also facilitating DES anatomy sessions (review sessions for first term students) one day a week. I am dorkishly proud of him.

Most of our kickball team: Kickaholics Anonymous (please ignore my awkward stance..)