Thanks for a good time 2011!

Happy New Years 2012!!!

2011  has been quite a year for me and Rob. We began our year still in Cairo, Egypt, where I was working for Dr. Zahi Hawass and the Supreme Council of Antiquities.  At first it seemed like it would be just another normal year, but no. Egypt, the most stable Middle Eastern country, decided to join in on the Arab Spring, and began a revolution. It was a bit scary at times, but we were lucky to live and work in Zamalek, an area of Cairo largely unaffected during the protests. Not that it mattered to me, I had to work right on through the revolution. I worked every single day in February. As a gift to myself, I plan on NOT working a single day in February 2012.  Rob and I even went down to Tahrir Square, ground zero of the Cairo protests, the night Mubarak stepped down. It was interesting to see how quickly the protesting turned into partying.  While I wouldn't want to do it again, it's kinda cool to say that you've lived through a revolution! As far as I know, Rob and I (and our friends Beth, Damian, Tom, Haisam, Kei, and Rania) are the only people I know who can say that! I really hope that 2012 will be the year that safe and positive change comes to Egypt.

In April Rob and I did some traveling before we left Egypt. Our first excursion was to Wadi el Hitan, a site out in the middle of the desert where you can find fossils of whales. WHALES WITH LEGS!!! We dragged all of our friends along and played in the desert all day. You used to be able to drive, but a couple years ago some jerk diplomats drove their fancy car over some fossils, so now you have to just wander through the sand looking for bones. It's awesome. The erosion patterns on the rocks are really cool, I think it's because they all used to be underwater, but hey, I'm not a geologist. If you think acting like idiots in the desert doesn't sound like fun, clearly you've never done it!

The second trip was to the White Desert. If you want to see the White Desert you have to camp, cause it is no where near any cities or towns. So, if you know anything about me, you know I am not interested in camping. However, I had heard that seeing the White Desert is a must, so I bit the bullet and booked a three day camping trip. I slept in a tent, yuck, and peed outside for the first time in my life. I was completely traumatized. However, the White Desert was in fact amazing. The best part was by far the Fennec Foxes! They are easily the cutest animals on the planet. I want to cuddle them. Hard. The real reason people go to the White Desert is to see the big white chalk formations, called Inselbergs. They look like icebergs floating in the desert. At sunrise and sunset they turn pink, orange, and yellow. It's beautiful. I'm really glad I did it, cause there is no way I want to do it again. I hate camping, no matter what the payoff!

Next we were off to the Sinai Peninsula and St. Catherine's Monastery. I have always wanted to go to St. Catherine and Mt. Sinai, it has a lot of great icons that survived the iconoclasts, and the site is holy to the three major religions. Hiking up Mt. Sinai to see the sunrise is a major thing. It is where Moses (allegedly) received the commandments from God. To get up to the top by sunrise, you need to start hiking at 3 am. Yay...  You can walk up or ride a camel (they don't go all the way to the top though). We walked up with our tiny, old, Bedouin guide. I don't know how he did it, but he practically ran up the mountain. After three hours, we made it to the top of the mountain, and watched the sun came up. It would have been perfect, except there was a group of Spanish tourist singing Kumbaya. Once we we had hiked back down, we toured the monastery and saw a bunch of cool icons (at least I thought they were cool), the Well of Moses, and the Burning Bush. Also, we saw a bunch of gnarly cats. Rob took lots of cat pictures. When I told him it was weird he told me it was weird that I love old dead mummies. Touche. 

Our last excursion before leaving the Middle East was a visit to Jordan. I have been dying to go to Jordan for a LONG time. We started in Jerash, an ancient Roman city. I do not know a whole lot about the site, but it was amazing. Next we headed to Petra, and spent two days there. My favorite movie is Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail, and in the movie the Holy Grail is located in a tomb in the city of Petra. I Loved Petra. I love everything about it, and I think everyone should go. I took about 1000 pictures. No lie. I whittled them down to my favorite 400. Click here and here if you want to see them. After Petra, we headed north to the Dead Sea. We slathered mud all over ourselves and floated in some super salty water. It was very therapeutic.

Finally in April, Rob and I moved home to the states. We came home in time for Easter and my friend Melissa's wedding. April was a big month.

We spent the rest of the summer in Georgia, mostly in Atlanta (my parents) and Athens (Rob's parents). We also visited NYC/NJ, and Washington state and VANCOUVER ISLAND (nyc/NJ to visit my family, and Washington state to visit with Rob's grandparents). I also had a girls weekend cruise with my mother, Aunt Patty, Aunt Diane, my cousin Nicole (and her friend Jackie), and my friend Mauri. We went to the Bahamas, and Mauri, Jackie, Nicole, and I got to go swimming with dolphins!

At the end of the summer, Rob and I moved to St. Kitts so that he could begin Vet School at Ross University.  Rob studied his butt off and made a 3.0 this semester! I relaxed my butt off by hanging out with my new VIP friends (VIPs are the spouses/loved ones of Ross students) at the beach!  

We've had a crazy year. We've lived in three different countries, traveled to some really amazing places in six different countries, lived through a revolution, and taken the next step to realizing Rob's dream of becoming a veterinarian.  We have made loads of amazing friends along the way, and we're pretty thankful for all the cool things and people we have in our lives. 

I hope that 2012 is just as much fun as 2011 (although, I really hope St. Kitts doesn't stage a revolution), and I can't wait to see what the future holds for me and Rob!

We both hope that all of our friends and family have a safe, happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year in 2012! We love you all!

Monsters of the deep!

I love snorkeling. I love being in the ocean. However, I also tend to panic the first few minutes of snorkeling in the ocean (or sea). I'm positive I am going to touch the reef and destroy it as I swim over it, or that I am going to get poked by an urchin and immediately die, or that I'll spook a puffer fish and get poked and immediately die. Once I get over the reef, I'm fine. I stop panicking and have lots of fun.

When I go snorkeling with Trevor and he sees something cool, he usually yells out, "Holy Shit!" underwater (excuse the language).  Of course, this causes an immediate panic attack in me, cause I know I'm about to die. This was the case a couple weeks ago when he saw a big old spotted eagle ray flying through the water around us. Once I saw it, and realized it wasn't a giant squid, great white shark, or killer whale, I was just fine. Actually, I was super excited I got to see it! It was really big, and just cruising along looking for a snack. Of course I didn't have my camera (cause I hate swimming with it), and missed an awesome photo op.

I usually snorkel at Shipwreck, down along the beach, and then around these big huge rocks, and what is called the old dolphin enclosure. I have no idea if there were ever dolphins there, but whatever. Once you get out by the big rocks, the water gets much deeper and the water is more cloudy and murky. Anyone who has ever watched shark week knows that murky water is prime shark hunting ground. So, even though I have never seen a shark (while swimming) in St. Kitts, I am on high alert when I'm near the rocks.

This Wednesday I remembered my camera while snorkeling. There wasn't anything too spectacular to see, just the same fish in their usually hangouts.  We got all the way down to the big rocks, and I got a wicked foot cramp. The kind where you can't even move your foot or leg without crazy pain shooting through you. I slowed down to try to rub my foot through my fin, with my back towards the open ocean. Of course, this is the moment Trevor chooses to scream holy shit while back-peddling (is it still back back-peddling if you're swimming?). I think my life might have flashed before my goggle clad eyes.

Giant stingray. A terrible picture, cause it's hard to imagine how big he really was.

Before my heart rate could return to normal, I saw the cause of my near heart attack. A GIGANTIC stingray, just chilling on the ocean floor below us. Thank God the water is deep out by the rocks, and thank God stingrays are so lazy. There was no way I was diving down close to get a picture, and since it is sand colored, I couldn't get a good shot of it from the surface.  Trevor was brave enough to dive down a bit for the photo.  This picture does not do Stingy (that is what I've named him) justice. He looks small and not terrifying. He was enormous, maybe 6 feet across, or more, maybe 60. I can't be sure. Needless to say, I was ready to get the hell out of the water. I was pretty sure that with my foot cramp injury I could easily be eaten by a 60 foot stingray.

Clean up your beach!

As you know, St. Kitts is lucky to be home to several species of sea turtle. Ross students and VIPs try to help out the turtles as much as they can. Today, Rob and I, plus about 40 other people, participated in one of the many beach clean-ups held throughout the semester.

Sign at North Friar's Beach. Don't get in the water...

On beach clean-up days, everyone meets at the IGA parking lot at 7am. I usually say no, cause I am selfish and love sleeping late. Well, Rob went ahead and signed us (yep US), up anyway. He didn't bother telling me, I found out when I got a confirmation email. Being married is awesome :) Today, we got out butts out of bed at 6:30, I get dressed, go put my shoes on, and happen to glance out the window. It was POURING!!! Oy vey.

View down the beach with the the clean up in full swing.

When we got to IGA, there were so many people that we split in half to cover two beaches. Half of the group went to Keys beach, and our group went to North Friar's beach. NF Beach is not really a swimming beach; it is on the Atlantic side and has pretty rough surf, and (according to a sign) a terrible rip tide.  It is also a beach that turtles nest on. There were about 23-28 people on our beach, and we each got a bag and started picking up trash. There were tons of small bits of plastic- synthetic rope, bottles and bottle caps, wrappers, hair clips, broken toys... Rob and I even found 4 different shoes and 7 pieces of plywood (with rusty nails sticking out). Other people found shoes too, and huge pieces of plastic and foamy material. It was pretty disgusting. I think everyone filled up at least two bags. Plus, there was still tons of small bits of plastic that would take forever to completely clear. So, that's about 50 bags of trash, a bunch of wood pieces, plus any trash brought up from the beach after I left. Yuck! I felt pretty bad as I cleaned up. I wondered how many times I carelessly threw something away without making sure it landed in the trash... Humans are wasteful and dirty!

Just a portion of the trash we collected. 

Even though I hate waking up early, I would definitely go to another beach clean-up. I want the turtles to have a clean and safe place to nest. I don't want the mommy or baby turtles to get hurt or sick!

Only in St. Kitts... 

As a final bonus, on the way home from the beach, Kate and I passed a pretty ridiculous site. A broken light post, with power lines still attached, held up by a ladder. Not an A-frame ladder, a lean against the wall kind of ladder. Don't worry though, there were two cones, so it was totally safe!

For all the beach clean up pictures, click here.

Thanksgiving Surprise!

Last week my Aunt Patty flew me back to the states for Thanksgiving!  My parents, brother, and two dogs were planning on spending the holiday at her house in Florida, and Aunt Patty figured it would be a great surprise for them if I was there too!

This meant that I had to lie to my parents, brother, and two dogs continuously for a month, and keep a big secret from the rest of my family. This is not easy. I am terrible at keeping exciting secrets, especially from my family. Actually, my entire family is terrible at keeping secrets from each other, so the fact that I was able to keep a secret is a big deal. So instead I told everyone here in St. Kitts about it.

My Aunt Patty and Uncle Bobby- Thanks for flying me up!

Last Tuesday (11/22) I flew into Miami and met my aunt. First order of business? Pizza. Pizza. Pizza. I freakin' love pizza, it's my favorite food, and I tend to move to countries that wouldn't know good pizza if I crammed it in their faces. Not that I would do that, it would be a waste of perfectly good pizza. So, we got to my aunt and uncle's local pizza joint RIGHT AFTER THEY CLOSED!!! I almost cried, luckily, I got my pizza anyway, cause they were all impressed with my adventurous international life style, especially the fact that I've lived through a revolution! After four slices of pizza, I pretty much passed out cold.

Wednesday morning I was all antsy for my family to arrive... I made the brine for the T-day turkey, read my book, and stared out the window. When my parents, brother, and two dogs finally pulled up outside, I couldn't wait for them to come inside, so I ran out to surprise them. They were shocked! My dad said at first he though, weird, Patty and Bobby have a friend that looks just like Stephanie. Then he asked my brother, "Is that Stephanie?!"  I think my mom hugged me for like 10 minutes straight. Roxy and Rhythm were ambivalent. They were mostly interested in peeing, pooping, and chasing lizards.

My brother, Zach, on his bike

After the excitement of the surprise, the guys decided to go for a ride (my dad and brother towed their Harley's down), and us ladies went shopping cause I needed some supplies to bring back home to St. Kitts. I had to go to a bunch of different stores, but I was so excited to see Target that I danced in the parking lot. Mom and Aunt Patty walked pretty far behind me. After a long day of getting everything I needed, we headed back home. We picked up the boys and went out and got Greek food for dinner. Yum yum yum!  I need to get my yiayia's avgolemono soup recipe (yiayia, if you are reading this, please send it to me!).

Thanksgiving day my aunt and uncle had over 32 people. My uncle has a big Italian family. We had a mess of appetizers, two turkeys, a huge honey baked ham, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted veg, sauteed broccoli with garlic, stuffed mushrooms, stuffed artichokes, some kind of eggplant dish, and my favorite part- stuffing. My mom and aunt make this insanely good stuffing (but only on holidays), and I realized for the first time this year, that I have no idea what they put in it or how it is so much more delicious then any other stuffing. I'm gonna have to figure that out in the very near future. I went overboard on the ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and stuffed mushrooms. I think I ate more on Thanksgiving then I have since I have been in St. Kitts... it was not pretty. But it was totally worth it.

Me and Zach on Thanksgiving

Friday the boys went for another ride, and my mom, aunt, and I poked around town, and tried to avoid  big shopping areas. Also, I was super excited, cause my aunt took us to a brick oven pizza parlor for lunch!! I had 5 slices of pizza with fresh slices of mozzarella and roasted plum tomatoes. Holy crap. So good. I didn't want to leave the place. All I could think of was the "pizza" I could get in St. Kitts- dominos (ew) or pizza boys (they don't even use pizza ovens!!!!) After lunch we met the boys at the new house my aunt and uncle just bought, and then ended the night eating leftovers and hanging out (at the house they still live in).

My dad on his bike

I was super sad that my family was leaving Saturday morning. Zach had to work Sunday morning, so they couldn't stay longer. Luckily, it would only be three weeks til we were home for Christmas. Aunt Patty kept me busy and not sad by helping me with a project. I found a super cute easy dress project online, so we made three cute dresses on Saturday. There were a few mishaps, but my aunt is a sewing genius, so there was no crisis she couldn't figure out!  Saturday night we ate super yummy Thai food. I went nuts on dumplings, wonton soup, and stir fry shrimp and veg with ginger. I also tend to move to countries that wouldn't know good Asian food from good pizza.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to the airport... I was sad to leave the states, but even more excited to get back to Rob and the Caribbean beaches!  Also, if any of you talk to Rob in the next two weeks, be sure to wish him good luck on his finals!  Only two weeks til he is finished with his first semester of vet school- I am so proud of him!

Two weeks from tomorrow we will be on our way back to the states, and one month from tomorrow we will be moving into our new house in Half Moon Bay!

Help Sea Turtles this holiday season!

St. Kitts is lucky to be a nesting ground for Green, Hawksbill, and primarily Leatherback sea turtles. The Leatherback turtle is sadly a critically endangered species. Luckily, our local turtles have a great support system on the island- The St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network.

This is Olivia. She is an Olive Ridley sea turtle. She has lost both flippers on the right side of her body, and must spend the rest of her life in captivity. She would love to be adopted for Christmas or Hanukkah!

The primary objectives of the SKSTMN are :
-To implement a long standing sea turtle conservation management program
-To promote community awareness of the plight of sea turtles
-To provide non consumable sources of income to communities as an alternative to the sea turtle harvest in an effort to decrease pressure on SK turtle populations.

Baby Sea Turtle says please help us out!

Loads of Ross students and VIPs volunteer their time to help out our local turtle friends. There is a tagging program to track turtles, a rehabilitation center, an adoption program (for nesting turtles and turtles in rehab), and a recycled and sea glass jewelry workshop on island (staffed on a voluntary basis by many of my VIP friends); the beautiful jewelry is sold on the website and locally around St. Kitts. For the eco-tourists out there, SKSTMN even offers eco-tours during Leatherback nesting season (April-June).  Of course, they are always accepting donations to help in the conservation and protection of turtles. If you are interested in adopting or donating please visit the SKSTMN website here.

Olivia says thank you for any help you can give the sea turtles of St. Kitts!

This holiday season, it would be great if you would consider helping out the turtles! If you aren't interested in adopting a turtle or making a donation, there are loads of American stores (Amazon, Best Buy, LL Bean, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Gap, iTunes- to name a few) that will make a donation to the St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitor Network when you shop online through goodseach.com! It is free to join, and it will make a HUGE difference! Please join today and add SKSTMN as your charity!  Click here to start Christmas shopping for a great cause!

Even if one person who reads my blog donates to this cause I will consider it a victory towards the protection of the turtles! Of course, I hope you all donate, and thank you so much for all of you who decide to help!

Paradise Found

Shipwreck beach, on South Friars Bay, is quickly becoming my favorite beach on St. Kitts. It has great views, a reef to snorkel, and some tasty drinks! Yesterday and today were beautiful here in the Caribbean, and I had two spectacular Shipwreck days!

Shipwreck beach on South Friars Bay on Tuesday
The water was like glass

Tuesday I met Catherine and Diana at the beach for some snorkeling. We could not have picked a better day. The water was so calm that waves were barely breaking on the shore- the water was lapping up on the shore like a lake. The calm water plus the sunny sky made for sparkly clear conditions underwater.  We saw puffer fish, octopus, squid, trumpet fish, big fat starfish, and a baby conch! There was also about a billion minnows swimming around in huge schools. It was by far the best snorkeling I have done since arriving. Everything was so colorful and beautiful! The best part was that I actually remembered to take my camera with me, so I was able to capture some great pictures of the reef and fish; I also got shots of how calm the water was and some of the resident monkeys!  Click here if you want to see them all! Oh, and the pictures are in the same album as Rob's football pictures that I posted last time, so the new ones start after them!

Me with a big fat starfish!

Puffer Fish

Today was another beach day. On Wednesdays, Trevor and I head to the beach to relax and talk about how awesome our life is here in St. Kitts. Today was no exception. What made today even better was the sweet 5 mast pirate ship anchored in South Friars Bay!  Ok, it wasn't a pirate ship, it was the Royal Clipper, part of a swanky cruise company that sails the Mediterranean Sea in the summer and the Caribbean Sea in the winter. I hope that the crew speaks in pirate slang... and that passengers have to walk the plank... I want to get on that ship so bad. This evening, after the ship left and the sun had set, we saw it off the coast all lit up. It was amazing!  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today when we went to the beach, so I did not get any close up shots of it. However, my friend Candace got a picture from campus with it's sails up. It was really amazing! I can't wait til it comes to port again so I can get a better picture!

The Royal Clipper leaving port with sails up

I know it's not Thanksgiving yet, but I am really thankful to be living in St. Kitts. I know I don't have a job, and I'm giving up a career or pursuing my PhD to be down here, but I am really glad to be able to spend part of my life in St. Kitts! Paradise suits me!

Volcanos and Football!

Rob had quite the weekend. Saturday he hiked up to the summit of Mt. Liamuiga and today his football team played in the playoffs!


Yesterday Rob woke up super early for the hike.  The summit hike is different from the hike to the crater of the volcano that I did in October. When I went, we hiked up Liamuiga to the edge of the crater, but not the highest point. Rob, and some VIPs and students, went ALL the way to the top of the volcano. He was gone for 12 hours. I asked Rob if he would write a blog post about the hike up, and this is what I got:

Rob on the Mt. Liamuiga Summit Hike. In the rain/cloud forest.

I went with about 10 others on a St. Kitts VOLCANO hike yesterday! We left school at 6:15am and came back at 6:00pm. It stared with a 15 min drive through the sugar cane field, then about 1 hour through loose understory, about a half-hour on an elevated land bridge (2 ft wide mt. ridge) that led into a denser understory. THEN about 30 min on a washed out rocky-mud path before we left the canopy and spent 2 hours on a STEADY HAND-over-FOOT scramble up the steepest slopes with thin foot paths, some 70 degree inclines (many with ropes up the muddy/slimy rocks), but mostly about 50 degree inclines. We finally made it to the top but the cloud layers were so dense that we only caught 2 seconds of the view as the sun burst through the clouds (out of a 45 min lunch break)! I guess I'll have to go again and get that view! The was down took about as long due to the rain, mud, and poor conditions of the trail. YES! IT rains in the rain forest!... Who knew?


Rob also told me there is no way I would be able to do the hike- to intense for my wimpy arms!  He took tons of pictures, and you can see them here. 

Playing in the football playoffs. Rob is in the red shirt.

Today was playoffs for flag football.  I haven't been to any games, and since Rob's team was playing the VIP team I went along to cheer on my hubs and my friends. During the regular season, the VIPs won by a single point! This game was just as close, and pretty intense.  In the end the VIPs won by just a touchdown or two (I can't remember exactly).  The Red Rockets (Rob's team) were bummed out, but in January we have semester Olympics again and then a new football season. They can kick more butt soon enough. Pictures from the football game, as well as some recent pictures around the island, can be found here!

Sunset from campus, over the Caribbean Sea. One of Rob's classmates took this picture.

As a side note, Rob had heard that there was a place to smoke shisha on the island. Even though we aren't smokers, we really enjoyed shisha while we were living in Egypt. Last night we found the place! Kate, Trevor, Rob, and I smoked strawberry shisha, which wasn't so bad. I would have preferred rose or peach, but hey, I'll take what I can get here! I got pretty nostalgic for Egypt, and think that koshary and bird tongue soup will be on the menu this week! YUM!!!