(Conversations)

My friend Catherine has her own blog about living in St. Kitts, and she does a {Conversations} segment in which she recounts hilarious conversations that have taken place here in St. Kitts. I was even featured in one of these segments, check it out!

Well, I have had two moments that I think fit the {Conversations} genre.

While shopping in Karibhana's (a SK department store):
Kate- Do you know what I really want?
Me- What?
Kate - A machete. (dead serious)
Me- Yeah, we really do need one. (dead serious)

While playing trivia:
Brett- Up in the Arctic, there's water under the ice, right?
Me- No.
Trevor- It's ice all the way down. Ice, ice, ice, HOT LAVA.

After living in Egypt and now in the Caribbean, I am pretty sure that the amount of time I spend in the sun is directly linked to how well my brain works. More sun = less brain activity.

A British Invasion of the Royal Persuasion!

The British royal family is coming to St. Kitts!!!

Ok, only kind of. In celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, her youngest child, Prince Edward, Duke of Wessex and his wife Sophie, Countess of Wessex, will be visiting St. Kitts. Very exciting, right? Below is a write up my friend Catherine found:

Earl and Countess of Wessex to visit St. Kitts and Nevis for Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
The Earl and Countess of Wessex will visit the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis as part of a Caribbean tour to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, Buckingham Palace has announced.

The Royal couple will also visit Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Gibraltar

Although details of royal engagements and specific dates have yet to be released, it's likely that host countries will put on grand events for the visits that will celebrate the Queen's 60-year reign.

While senior royals will visit the Queen's 15 realms - nations where the sovereign is head of state - major Commonwealth countries and other destinations with close links to the UK, it is the younger royals trips that are likely to garner the most interest

 

So, it's not the Queen or Will and Kate, but hey, it's still pretty cool! Maybe I'll get a glimpse of the royal couple while they are here in Sunny St. Kitts!

Things that are Awesome!

I have started to volunteer at the prepschool in the after school program. I am teaching some of the 5th and 6th graders art history and archaeology! The kids are really smart and really excited about the class. At the museum I used to work at, we had stuffed animal-esque organs that we would use to teach kids about mummification. I thought that would be a great project to do with the kids in my program here. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find pretend stuffed lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines here in St. Kitts. Weird, right?

Luckily, I have a secret weapon (awesome thing #1)- my friend Catherine! She is super crafty, and most important, she can sew, which I cannot do. After a relaxing pool day at our friend Tiffany's house on Thursday, we went to our adorable tiny fabric store and got some pinky-beige fabric. We then headed to Catherine's house for some organ making. After some brainstorming and google image searching, we were able to produce some decent looking organs (awesome things #2). I literally would not have been able to do it without Catherine; I am super thankful we are friends!

Anatomically correct organs... filled with beans. Yay for Catherine!

Friday was FULL of awesome things! Trevor and I had to run some errands, and one of the items on our list was an electric bug killer. There has been quite a bit of rain lately, and the mosquitoes have been out of control at night (also, they have infiltrated both of our cars, so there is a total mosquito onslaught when we need to go anywhere!). Now, I know that when I said electric bug killer, you immediately pictured this:

If you thinking, yep, that is what I thought of, you would be wrong. Terribly wrong. While those are brightly lit and effective, we had something more fun and sinister in mind. The tennis racket-electric bug killer hybrid. Or as the Chinese packaging called it a "Electronic Mosquito Bat." Either way, it is maybe my favorite purchase on the island, and it is awesome thing #3. It doesn't even need batteries, cause it's rechargeable. AND, it has a light on it so you can sniper the stupid little skeeters! I love it.

My favorite thing EVER!!!

Our friend Dave has one, and he often brings it to Trivia. He told us that he bought it at TDC, so that is where Trevor and I began our search. We looked all over the store with no luck. We asked about it, and were told they are kept up by the front desk and we would have to ask for one. Cool. No, not cool. They were sold out! Luckily, our cashier lady was very nice and recommended we check out Courts or Rams in Basseterre. We journeyed into town and visited Courts first, since we were not interested in buying computers or appliances, they could not help us out. We tried Rams next, and after explaining what we wanted to an employee, she took us to the regular old fly swatters. I was distraught! I could not go another night dealing with a million mosquitoes keeping me awake! Crestfallen, Trevor and I left Rams unsure of what to do about the plague of mosquitoes waging war on the Dolphin House. Before leaving town, we decided to visit the new Chinese grocery store across from Rams.

This store immediately lifted our spirits. First, we found awesome thing #4- Chinese Dumplings (or pot stickers, if you prefer). We hadn't eaten lunch, and quickly decided we needed a bag of 40 pork and veg dumplings. Probably the best decision of the day, but we will get back to that later. So, we walked around the store bought some supplies for a new cocktail we wanted to try to make, but still couldn't find our Electronic Mosquito Bat (EMB). As he paid, Trevor asked our cashier if they had any EMBs. She said YES!!!! She pointed out the aisle, and I took off. After hastily searching the shelves, I didn't find them. I was about to leave when a shelf stocker happened by. I asked if he knew where they were, and he did. Right behind me. On the shelf I had just been looking at. Yeah, I'm not so smart sometimes. So, after deciding the boys would be mad if I bought the pink one, I picked up the red EMB and ran to the front, proudly waving my new prize whilst killing any bugs in my electronic path! The best part was that it was pretty cheap, only $20 EC- less than $10 US.

I tore open the bag back in the car. If you remember, I had mentioned the damn blood suckers had been getting in the cars. I fired up the EMB and it freaking exploded there were so many bugs! I think I zapped 30 in less than 4 seconds. It felt great. I love my EMB.

Our final stop before home was the liquor store/duty free beachy shop for amaretto and pool floats. Trev got the booze and I was able to find a floaty ring (awesome thing #5) to use in my pool (yes mom, I still want you to bring some bigger ones down when you come! love you!)

Delicious dumplings

Once back home Trevor went to town on dumpling and cocktail making while I began to make some brownies I promised Kate. All creations were complete successes. I stuffed four Chinese pouches of goodness into my mouth, as I said earlier- best decision of our day buying those things. I am gonna be eating them like crazy. The cocktails were a reverse engineering attempt at a drink the bartender at Carembola's made for us. Amaretto, dark rum, and cranberry, cherry, and lime juices. It was tasty at the restaurant and just as tasty at the Dolphin House! Kate had sent me a brownie recipe she found, so I threw it together yesterday afternoon. Even though it was a scratch recipe, it was really easy to make with just a few ingredients. I only had one piece, but when I woke up this morning, two thirds of the brownies were gone. I think she liked them. I also made one of my favorite sweet treats- chocolate covered gummi bears. If you have never had them you are probably thinking, chocolate covered gummi bears, eh I don't know. Again, you would be wrong. They are delicious. I guess you could say that the cocktails, brownies, and chocolate gummi bears are awesome things #6-8).

Yummy chocolate bears. mmmm....

After all our food and drink making, we headed out to celebrate Kate's birthday which had been earlier in the week. We dined at Copper Chimney and then headed to Bamboo, one of my local haunts. A good time was had by all. The drinks were flowing, the dancing was so fun that not only the girls danced (like I wouldn't dance!) even the boys danced! Zach, Brayton, Trevor, and Rob were all shaking what their momma's gave them! That would be awesome thing #9- hilariously awesome man dancing. We even had a new to Ross couple meet us out at Bamboo. Emily and Andrew just moved here so Andrew could attend school, and they needed to get out and have some fun. It was great to meet them and hang out with a new couple. I hope they had as much fun out as we did! New friends = awesome thing #10.

We invited everyone back to our house for some shisha smoking and drinks. Trevor and Venessa decided to box. It was mildly hilarious and Venessa got mad cause Trevor hit her in the face. It only got better when she shoved an unsuspecting Trevor in the pool (awesome thing #11). Of course, Venessa was the next thrown into the pool. Oy vey, there is always someone being thrown into the pool at the Dolphin House! As long as it's not me and no one is getting hurt, who cares!

Of course, I have to include the most adorably awesome thing, #12: AUTUMN!!! She is getting big fast and she is super cute! Today she got her new green necklace and name tag. She isn't quite sure what to make of them, going so far as to try and back out of her collar. Hilarious and cute!

In summary all these awesome things add up to my life being pretty awesome here in St. Kitts. Now you will have to excuse me, I think it's pool time :)

They're Men, Men in Tights (and heels)!

If you read my blog at the beginning of Rob's first semester, you will remember that Ross holds Olympic Games the first week of classes. Part of the Olympics that I did not mention last year (mainly cause I found it lame and boring) was the Mr. Ross pageant.

This pageant is basically a way the mostly female student body can objectify their male classmates. As you can imagine, it's put on in the classiest of ways. The two hosts make lots of sexual jokes, which are more uncomfortable than funny, the judges (professors) are given copious amounts of alcohol, and the contestants are given even more alcohol, and act like drunken monkeys. This semester, Rob was the contestant for 2nd semester.

The men of Ross

Now, He did not plan on being his class representative, but since NO OTHER guys in his class volunteered he stepped up to the plate... Of course, he only accepted after Dr. Dusty Spencer, one of his anatomy professors offered to buy beer, appear in a skit, AND give one extra full point on the final anatomy grade to whoever would be Mr. Ross.  ROb's no idiot- he loves beer! Just kidding, he wanted that point!

Since my brave husband decided to join the pageant late in the game (some classes prepare all semester and bring crazy props back from the states), he and his class had to come up with some fun skits quick! The categories were Real Men of Genius (based on the Bud Light commercials), Favorite Cartoon or Nursery Rhyme, Talent, and Formal wear- the animal in you. Rob gathered an amazing team of co-stars, dancers, singers, and writers. There is no way he could have pulled it off without all of them! In my opinion, they had two killer skits, and two skits that could go either way.

Rob is a real man of genius

For Rob's Real Men of Genius, Trevor wrote a great skit entitled, "Ross Men of Genius: Mr. Any Species but Human Doctor." It was pure gold. Also, Rob got to wear his overalls and perform open heart surgery on a cuttlefish, so I gave it an A+. His favorite Cartoon skit consisted of Rob dressed as a red Power Ranger, kicking the ass of some of the more difficult parts of vet school. It was alright. For his formal wear, he was Taz- the Tasmanian Devil. Again, it was alright.

Rob as Taz

The talent portion of Rob's act should have won him the whole thing. If you watch Saturday Night Live, you have probably seen the beyonce- Justin Timberlake Single Ladies skit. If you haven't click here before continuing on. If you have already seen it, click that link anyway, that skit is freakin' hilarious!

Ok, back to the story at hand. Katie, one of Rob's classmates and a friend from out orientation group, suggested doing that skit. Of course, everyone thought with Rob's God-given talent in dance, it would be perfect! So, we wrangled two other brave men- Zach and Nick, and began searching high and low for high heels and black leotards in adult man size. Oh, wait, I bet you want to know who played beyonce. Remember how I said one of Rob's professor's bribed him to be Mr. Ross by saying she would be in his skit? Yeah, that's right, Dr. Dusty Spencer was cast as Beyonce. B-Rilliant!

To be honest, there are absolutely NO WORDS that can describe the skit. There are some things you just cannot unsee! Luckily for you the entire event was filmed, both by my friend Leann, and by Ross University! Oh yes, I do plan on buying the DVD to show our children and grandchildren. Here is Leann's version for your viewing pleasure.

All in all, I think Mike, from 4th semester should have won. He was hilarious, and all his skits were well put together and thoughtout. I think Rob should have gotten second or third. The problem is, the pageant is pretty much rigged. Upper semesters, usually 7th, take the win cause they are the "senior" class. Mike got second place, and the guy from 7th got first. I think almost everyone booed (I say almost cause 7th semester was obviously pleased that their hastily thrown together skits actually won). I was pleased to hear later from Dr. Spaccarelli that he was under the impression Mike and Rob were going to take 1st and 2nd placed based on the votes that the judges actually cast. Good to know that the 7th semester students tallying the votes know how to count properly since they'll be vets soon.

I am one lucky lady!

In light of this voting scandal, I plan on taking the case to the Supreme Court of the Dolphin House! Oh, yay- they have already returned with their verdict. MIKE AND ROB WIN! Yay! haha.

Oh, and in other Dolphin House news, Kate and trevor have gone animal crazy this week! First, Kate brings home Lucy, the one-eyed cow cat. Yes, the one-eyed cow cat, you did read that correctly. Kate used to work for a shelter, and is passionate about fostering animals. So, We are hosting Lucy until the first adoption event at the end of January. She is really sweet, and is white with black spots, like a cow. Her one eye is my favorite part. I love physically handicapped animals. It's a shame she is isn't three-legged. Oh well, a girl can dream.

Lucy! And no, she is not winking at you... or is she?

So, we have lucy all of 1.5 days when Kate and trev get wind of puppies being dropped off at the clinic (and by "get wind,"I mean I found out about them and immediately told Kate). This story is kind of sad: a local who works at the Ross clinic took two week old puppies from their mom (HIS DOG!), and brought them to the clinic so they could be adopted. Unfortunately, the adoption group has a freeze on incoming animals. So, he just left them in a box in the clinic with a note saying, "please take one." He didn't bother to mention it to anyone, so no one knows how long the pups were without food and water before one of the student techs saw them. If you are thinking, "hm, two weeks old? Shouldn't they still be with their mom?" The answer is YES!!! One of the puppies died last night. Super sad. So, now all these puppies have to be bottle fed and stimulated (that means you have to rub their butt holes til they poop. Kate and Trevor have experience with this, but only for kittens. Incidentally, I only have experience doing this with lion, tiger, jaguar, bear, and wolf babies. I imagine it's easier with kittens and puppies).  So, long story short- there is now an adorable little girl puppy in residence. Her name is Autumn and she is super cute!

Proud new parents of Autumn the Wonderpup!

PUPPY!!!

One last thing. In case you forgot how amazing St. Kitts is, we just picked a coconut from one of our own trees, and drank the coconut milk. Then we turned the coconut milk into Pina Coladas. Yay for the tropics!

Home Sweet Home: Dolphin Style

After a really great trip back home for Christmas and New Years, Rob and I are back on the Rock. We spent two and a half glorious weeks with our family, who we really love, but we were both excited to get back to St. Kitts. It's too cold in the states for me now... All this desert and tropical island living has ruined me for winter! :)

The best part about coming back to the island was NOT having to live on campus anymore! It took a few days of cleaning and organizing (and a little bit of party-throwing) but we are finally settled into our new home- The Dolphin House. If you missed my original post about the DH, it got it's name from the enormous mural painted on the back of our pool. It is a delightful portrayal of a happy mommy and baby orca living in their salty underwater world. Yes, I know orcas are not dolphins (although they are in the dolphin family), but they apparently look like dolphins from the golf course behind our house.

View over our pool out to the Atlantic Ocean

Rob and I are sharing the house with Kate and Trevor. Kate and Rob and both in second semester, and we were all in the same orientation group last year. Our house is pretty awesome. We have a huge kitchen with tons of storage and a gas stove (thank God) and oven (double thank God), a giant tv and comfy couches, and a HUGE deck with a sweet sweet pool. Oh yeah, we also have private balconies of each of our bedrooms.  The awesome-est part of the Dolphin House is the incredible view. I can even see the ocean when I shower! Seriously though, we have a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean, completely uninterrupted. Life is good in the Dolphin House.

The pool

Rob's best friend Zack met us in St. Kitts for some island fun before Rob started school. They hiked to the top of Mt. Liamuiga on Wednesday, and they also cut the cast off of Rob's broken arm. Why you ask? "It had to come off Stephanie, it had to come off," was the response I got from my husband. It's strange though, because I don't remember Rob going to medical school or having a osteopathic medical degree...

Thursday was Trevor's 27th birthday, so we invited all our friends to come over for a party. I think everyone had a really great time. I had a lot of fun, minus the part where I was physically assaulted and thrown into the pool against my will. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you hang out with a bunch of lushes.

Our bedroom

Friday we took a catamaran trip to Nevis. We loaded on the the cat, did a bit of snorkeling in good ol' Shitten Bay, then headed across the Narrows to Nevis. We had lunch on the beach, played in the water, and cruised on home.

Saturday Rob, Zack, and Trevor hiked up to the Bat Cave, while some friends and I went and had brunch at the Marriott and lounged on the beach all day.  I have to ease back into my lifestyle or I might hurt myself. Baby steps... haha just kidding, my life is a piece of cake right now, and I love it!

Sunday was a quiet day... Kate and Rob got ready for school and that was about it. Today they were back to the books, and Trevor and I went to our VIP meeting then grocery shopping. Big day right? Now the groceries are put away and we're waiting for the kids to get out of school at 3. Life has gone back to normal for me here in SK.

To see more pictures of our house and it's view click here!

Oh, and if you haven't heard yet: I got a job offer to go back to Egypt to work on an expedition. My old boss, Dr. Peter Lacovara heads up an dig at Malqata on an 18th Dynasty harem palace that may have been a childhood home to King Tut. As of right now I am planning on going next January and February to work with him.  We will see what the next year holds for Egypt before I book any flights!