It’s Gra-nay-da, not Gra-nah-da

Today marks three weeks that Jade and I have been in Grenada and Saturday was five weeks of marriage for us!  What a month it has been!  To sum it up, Jade is entering his third week of medical school and is making friends quite easily.  School moves at an extremely fast pace and they expect a lot from the students.  It’s going to be tough for Jade, but he’s enjoying it so far and seems to be off to a good start.  We’re both adapting very well and really enjoying living here.  We love the excitement of being in a new place and we love our house.  I’ve gotten involved with a group here called the Significant Others Organization (SOO) and have made some new friends.  I’ve kept busy with various events and group opportunities, and even started working out a couple days a week with a new friend.  I needed time to learn my way around, get acquainted with everything here and establish something that loosely resembles a routine before I could begin my blog; now I have a ton to talk about!

For those with the time, here is the long version of the last three weeks (coming in multiple parts):

We left on Monday, August 8 and arrived in Grenada Tuesday the 9^th.  Since we applied to the university late and were accepted late we made our flight reservations late.  American Airlines took us from Little Rock to Dallas, Dallas to Miami, Miami to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Caribbean Airlines took us from Port of Spain to St. Georges, Grenada.  Whew.  You were exhausted just reading that.  We had just a long enough layover in POS that American Airlines could not check our bags all the way through, meaning we had to exit security, immigration and customs to get our bags and recheck them with Caribbean Airlines.  The positive here is that we got another stamp in our passports.  At the time all this was occurring we’d also heard the POS airport closes and that we wouldn’t be able to sleep there until it was time to check in.  Jade and I definitely thought we were going to sleep on a bus bench with our bags piled around us.  FYI, most smallish Caribbean airports do close at night, but it turned out that POS was not one of them.  So Jade and I made it through everything with an Arkansas girl who was starting term 1 in the vet program and Nick, a Minnesota guy who was starting term 1 in the med program with Jade.  When we finally sat down by the check in counters (that were all closed until 3am) we discovered numerous other students who were traveling to Grenada for the first time.  We kind of formed a little army and camped out on the floor together discussing experiences, expectations and taking turns watching each other’s bags so we could wander in search of food and restrooms.  During one such excursion Jade and I discovered Mauby. 

Jade and I, being the lovers of unknown foreign food and drink we are, bought a glass of said Mauby.  All we really got from the lady at the counter was that it is very popular in the Caribbean and made from tree bark.  I sipped first, pondered it a second, passed it to Jade before it really hit me and then had to control every muscle in my face from nonverbally telling the woman that I absolutely hated it.  I think I said something along the lines of, “it’s different!”  Here is what Wikipedia had to say about Mauby: “Its taste is initially sweet, somewhat like root beer, but changes to a prolonged, but not astringent bitter aftertaste.  To many, it is an acquired taste, and has been known to cause an initial laxative reaction unexpected to many first-time drinkers.”  Awesome.  So what did we do?  We brought our little cup back to our SGU army and conned everyone else into trying it.  Actually, we were honest about the taste and let everyone decide for themselves if they wanted to try it, but still, it was a fun experience.  I doubt Jade and I will be drinking it again.

With a little hassle we checked in for our final flight and checked our luggage through.  We made it through security in no time and promptly fell asleep in seats at our gate.  I froze to death.  Little did I know that was actually the last time I would be cold.  We finally got on our plane and I passed out before we even took off.  I slept the 40 minute flight and awoke just in time to see us coming in for a landing.  The airport is right on the ocean and immediately next to the university.  The plane descends over turquoise ocean and you’d think you were about to make a water landing when suddenly there is a runway strip and your tires hit it.  It’s just incredible.  The beauty of this island and our first glimpses could never be adequately described by me.

Now we’re awake and excited.  The excitement quickly vanished as we waited in lines for immigration and customs for three hours.  It’s almost enough to make you not want to go home on the breaks.  Eventually we made it through and made a couple friends in line.  I didn’t have to pay for my electronics since I wasn’t a student and Jade had to pay something like $40USD.  Not bad.  When we paid the deposit on our house before we left our landlord offered to have someone pick us up from the airport.  We assumed she’d arrange a taxi and we for sure thought the driver would have left us by now, especially if s/he arrived when our plane landed.  We finally got to walk through the automatic doors into daylight and saw a tall man holding a sign that said Jade and somebody King.  It was close to Natalie, but it definitely wasn’t that.  He lead us to the curb, went for his car and kindly loaded our ridiculously large bags into his car.  I went to get into the car and oh yeah, they drive on the opposite side of the road.  It’s so strange when you get in a car and the driver sits on the right!

We didn’t know it right then, but John is one of our landlords.  He also works in the library of the university.  We think he loves Sri Lanka (soccer team maybe?) and he has a lovely British accent.  John drove us to our new home, got our luggage in and left us to get some much needed rest with a promise to return later in the evening to take us to get some food.  And rest we did.  We slept for HOURS and woke up in the early evening.  He came back for us and was going to take us to buy some groceries for our refrigerator, but it was Carnival and everything was closed.  Think about what you know of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro and then just scale it back to fit the country of Granada.  We missed it this time, but we’ll definitely be here to experience it next year.  John instead took us to campus to get food from the student center.  Although Subway was our first meal on the island, we did get a little acquainted with the campus before the madness of Welcome Week began.  Oh yeah, and I got pooped on by a bird while walking under a tree.  Welcome to Grenada!

Before I move on to Welcome Week, I want to first say how much we love our place.  We live on the first floor of a family’s home.  Both John and the head of the family, Esther, are our landlords.  Esther and her son Kurlon work security at St. George’s University and Jade and I love when we see them on campus.  Our guess is that John and the family went into business together to build the bottom floor into its own separate apartment and share the revenue made off the renters.  Here’s a fun fact- many Grenadian houses are built second story first and a first floor is completed when and if the family has the money to finish.  I think there are several reasons for this.  For one, I assume the second story gets a better cross breeze, thus keeping the house cooler.  Two, it’s cheaper and more convenient if you really think about it.  If you build a first story then decide to expand upward you have to rip off the roof, put a temporary roof on in case of rain and you probably can’t be living in the house during this construction time.  If you build second story first you don’t have to mess with roofing and you can still live in your house while the construction of the first story is going on.  Finally, and this is merely speculation by me, I figure less pests get into your home if you live on stilts.  I think Grenadians are really onto something here.

Anyway, we’re the first to live here and there are still some things they’re working on to make it even better.  Jade and I feel as though we really lucked out.  Our landlords couldn’t be nicer or more helpful and we have a great place!  No little apartment for us.  We have a full kitchen, two bedrooms and our own washer and dryer.  We signed a year lease, but are already considering signing a two year lease because we love it that much.  It’s colorful and cozy.  Part of me thinks I’m totally in love with it simply because it is my first place.  Another part of me thinks I subconsciously feared our place would be much worse and that it’s my great relief that makes me love it so much.  Whatever the reason, I do love it.  Granted, this is nothing my friends and family would expect to find in the United States.  Our place has its quirks.  There is no mirror in the bathroom.  There is no hot water for the kitchen sink.  Our gas stove has no temperatures, only the numbers one through five listed on the middle dial.  There is a door that exits to the outside from our bathroom.  There is no door between our bathroom and the rest of the house for that matter.  There is a little switch next to each wall outlet that lets you turn the power on and off to that one outlet.  Our kitchen is lime green while our living room and bathroom are shrimp pink.  As strange as this may all sound, we wouldn’t trade it for anything we’ve seen yet!

Our living room and front door- the living room is bigger than it looks!

To the right of the first picture is the kitchen.

Would you know how to bake things with this?

This is my solution since I can't find an oven thermometer on the island!

Our kitchen table and plant and I can't seem to keep alive.

My lovely conch shell table decorations.

The split door that leads from kitchen to front patio.

To the left of the first picture is this hallway leading to the doorless bathroom.

Our bathroom!

Spare bedroom a.k.a. Jade's messy study.

Furniture in extra bedroom.

Our bedroom with air conditioner!

Our bedroom furniture.

Looking out our front door during a brief rain.  It's like a gated patio.

A beautiful Grenada sunset seen from our front yard.