All I Want For Christmas Is YOU!
As I am approaching the 2 month mark of just Rhett and I here on the island (and of course the holidays) my mom and sister are planning to come down for another visit to keep me company for Christmas!
Ethridge and I did not think that the work permit process would take so long! Of course he is enjoying his time with his family-but I would like to have him with me for our first Christmas as a married couple!!
NEW FRIEND!
I have been taking Rhett on walks a lot at the beach. One day I met a couple of people on a puppy play date there at Calico Jacks. I didn’t even know there was such a thing! Well now I am a part of the puppy friendship of Rhett Bear and Calisi! They get along so well together and have so much in common! They both like to dig holes, run, and chew on each other!! Plus Taura and I get to enjoy the beach, a drink, and conversation while they play! We just have to be careful to take home the right dog because they look so alike!!!
First Family Visit!!!
I was so excited that my mom and sister were coming to visit me. The best part is that Kenita was coming to celebrate her 22nd Birthday! It was a short and fast 7 days! We pretty much did all of the tourist attractions and had a blast! It was fun to get to experience all of the amazing things to do here! We saw the sea turtles, dolphins, stingrays. Went on a pirate ship, had sushi, lobster. Went snorkeling, on boat rides, and of course spent time on the beach.
Rhett even got to stay the night at a 4 star hotel! :)
Pirates Week is Cayman’s National Festival filled with buccaneering and rum!
It is actually eleven fun filled days with music, street dances, competitions, games, wonderful local food and drink, kids day, glittering parade, sports events, Heritage Days, pirate invasion and fireworks galore! There is just too much going on for me to see and do it all.
Our school participated with the steel pan competition and that was so great to hear so many steel pan bands live!
On the first Saturday there is a mock ‘pirate invasion’ from the sea! Two old-time sailing vessels, loaded with pirates make a Saturday “surprise” landing at the bowl-shaped George Town harbour with the pirates capturing the Governor. I somehow was lucky enough to be a part of the crew to make the landing! Thousands of people line the streets to watch the spectacle and its all good-natured fun with a new twist every year. Families just love it and I got to see quite a few of my students as we landed and immediately headed the parade through Georgetown. It’s the only event of its kind in the Caribbean region and I was a part of it!
Remember remember the fifth of November! That was the Twilight in White Gala put on by the PTA. Everyone was to wear white and they decorated the restaurant in white butterflies! I really had a great time. Lucky for me I really enjoy being with the parents of my students. They have been amazing making sure that I feel welcome and are always on the lookout for my well-being. We had good food, fun auctions, and fantastic conversation! It was funny because I think everyone I know on the island was all in one place! Except for my students of course.
So I was grocery shopping before Halloween and I got a pumpkin to carve. BUT I live in West Bay and I felt being judged since many Caymans are very conservative and view it as a pagan holiday that worships the devil. (As one of my students so eloquently told me) Anyways it provoked me to buy a pineapple just confuse the check-out people.
So this is the end results! I made a Peanuts Themed Pumpkin with me as Lucy, Rhett as Snoopy, and Ethridge as Schroeder! Then the classic Jack O Lantern face on the pineapple! But they were both short lived as this is a tropical climate and cut fruit does not last long in this heat! :(
Lastly I decided to try to photograph the small lizards that are outside once it gets dark. They are pretty creepy so definitely belong in the Halloween post. They aren’t really any particular color (see through?) and are small and fast. They like to crawl up our porch walls and on the door. Probably harmless but still creepy!
Happy Halloween!
If you have not heard Ethridge was offered a job at John Grey Memorial Church as their Youth Ministry Leader! So Ethridge left on October 25 after of course we celebrated my first Cayman birthday. It was hard to let him go but I knew it was that he could come back and stay with a work permit rather as a tourist. Luckily I have had Rhett Bear to keep me company! He is SO entertaining and definitely keeps me busy! He also great at detecting centipedes which is the only insect that truly grosses me out so it’s amazing that this is his main talent right now!
BEACH LIFE!
Now that we have a car we go to the beach A LOT more. And I LOVE IT! It also helps Rhett blow off a bunch of puppy-energy. We just grab a couple towels, water, Rhetts toys and leash. Five minutes in the car and we are at our favorite beach! We didn’t take very many pictures of us at the beach because he is so hilarious. He loves to lay in the sand and dig and push the sand around. He also loves having sand on his nose for some reason! People are extra friendly now that we have Rhett and we meet a lot more people on the beach than we used to. I usually spend more time in the water than the boys but I drag Rhett in to swim back to shore. He immediately swims back and rolls in the sand! I’m trying to teach him to swim in any direction other than the shore but he is stubborn! The weather has been rainy and cool this week (82*) so I am hoping for warm sunny weather next week so Rhett and I can be beach bums on my week off!
THE DAY WE GOT OUR CAR!
It was a Thursday and I was pretty tired after school but I was so excited to go pick up our car. Ethridge had found it on Ecay Trade which is a Cayman version of Ebay. We went to the Medical Dormitory because we were buying it from a Nigerian Medical Student. When we got there we had to wait about 5 hours before we got it. So we made the most of it and had dinner and drinks at restaurant that had a patio while we waited. Then we walked around some of the shops. We still had more time after that so we walked to a nearby ice cream shop. I ordered a hot fudge sundae and the lady looked at me like I was a crazy person! The car still wasn’t there so we walked though an apartment complex to get to the beach access. It was beautiful because the sun had just gone down and everything was a blue twilight color. Then we went back to the dorms and waited inside the lobby. Rhett was more tired than I was by the end of the night and fell asleep on the sofa while we waited!
I am definitely getting into the humdrum of daily life. Luckily my students and Rhett keep me on my toes. Birthdays in school are always fun and break up the daily grind! This one was a giant surprise because my student had a sparkler in the shape of a 6 for his birthday candle!
