On this episode of...

Grenada grocery shopping:

On Sunday I needed to get a few groceries. It was one of those mornings where I did everything possible to get out of going, but in the end, a hungry husband and an empty fridge won.

I got the essentials ready for the grocery adventure: wallet, grocery list (and the back-up list of meals for the items that simply cannot be found that week...TIG), backpack, and reusable bags.  Forgetting any of these items, as anyone without a car in Grenada can attest to, means an even sweatier walk to IGA and back.

Usually, if I only have a few items to purchase, I head to Foodfair which is only about a 2 minute walk from our apartment. However, since it was Sunday, the only store open (really, the only store open near Grand Anse) was IGA.

I did the dreaded walk (I know, being a bit melodramatic) and searched for the items I needed. I decided to splurge that day and buy 6 cans of soda...we totally didn't need this, but after the last couple of weeks we have had, we could use the sugar lol!!!  Surprisingly, I found what I was looking for with ease (I have stopped looking for butter, altogether) and headed to the check-out. 

As the items started going through check-out I thought: "maybe today I will take a reggae-bus home". I was exhausted, sweaty and just plain cranky...maybe a reggae-bus would make my day (yes, never thought I would think that either).  As I stepped out of IGA guess what I saw....NO REGGAE-BUSES IN SIGHT!  I started the walk home and thought "really, not one bus doing the slow drive by asking 'hey pretty lady, want a ride'?" Yes, this pretty (sweaty-mess) lady did want a ride...where were you reggae-bus man?

By the time I reached the end of the street, near CIBC (for those who are all too familiar with this walk) I decided I could just suck it up and make it home. As I am nearing closer, counting my final steps to freedom, I suddenly realize my bags are much, much lighter and this is what I discovered....

The entire bottom of my reusable grocery bag had ripped open and my groceries were now up one end of the sidewalk, with cans of soda rolling into traffic. (It is moments like these that I must remember to always pack my camera).

Let me tell you, when you spend a small fortune on 6 cans of soda, you better believe that I am running after them all; those suckers are liquid gold.  Thankfully, we only lost one can. I was too embarrassed to chase after it, as it rolled along the road, against the sidewalk, spraying soda in every direction.

For those that may have heard about the crazy white lady running after her groceries on Sunday afternoon, yes it certainly was me!!

The hole

Down a soda

hahah they were all dented! Thankfully no one ran over any.

The inside damage

Until our next Grenada adventure...

Birthday, Midterms and Kickball

It has been another busy few weeks and it's about time that I shared some of the latest adventures (Julie, this is entirely for your reading pleasure)!


Birthday:

Over Easter break we celebrated Dave's birthday! Sadly for him, much of his weekend "off" was spent studying!!! However, we were able to get a few of our birthday traditions in including: birthday pancakes and cinnamon buns, the infamous 'birthday boy' pin (which Dave hates lol) and of course the 'Birthday center piece' that has travelled with us since our first year of marriage!

Getting things ready!!! Take note, I bought balloons that said "Happy Birthday" on the package. When I opened them they said "Happy New Years". TIG

Birthday breakfast almost ready!

Birthday Pancakes

Our 'Birthday Center piece', the 'Birthday Boy' pin in the back, and homemade cinnamon buns.  We didn't have the 'boot glass' this year, so we settled for the Grenada mug, but still with orange juice.

Bottom of the Cinnamon buns! Raisins, butter and cinnamon...so healthy!!!

Rolling the dough!

Our house smelled so delish! 

Before being cooked!

Fresh out of the oven!

We went out to dinner on Friday night (to Umbrellas of course hahah) for Dave's birthday dinner and without fail he got the umbrella burger (his favorite).  Saturday morning we headed to the beach to spend some time in the sun together, and simply for Dave to just get a bit of relaxing in...WITH NO STUDYING!!

 Let me tell you, Dave certainly got some relaxation time in!!!

You can barely make Dave out, just floating away in the ocean!

Doesn't this look relaxing?

 How he spent his birthday in Grenada! Sigh, we are going to miss this!

"Happy Birthday" Dave! ("Happy" was washed away by the waves).

Midterms:

This past week has certainly been another tiring and stressful midterm week for Dave. But we are so happy to say that he has finally completed and finished his LAST EVER midterms!  For the first time since being on this medical school journey, I saw just how tired and worn out Dave is.  Thankfully, after a very LONG week of studying and test taking, we got to spend some time enjoying the island; Dave certainly needed the break!

These photos pretty much sum up Dave's week! Between studying for four midterms and preparing for the USMLE he was pretty much going crazy lol!!!  And obviously so excited about me taking his photo to document these adventures!

I was so excited for Dave to be finished midterms (I could tell it was a long week for him), that I thought a little celebration was in order. When he got home I had made a sign celebrating being done midterms and had balloons up. I went to a local bakery in the afternoon to purchase some treats to go along with the celebration (I wanted cinnamon buns, but they were out so cookies had to do). However, I forgot to take a picture of all this! So here is what remains of the sign. You can see that I had to cover up a few areas where we ended up scribbling notes on it...and on the other side, writing a sign for Dave's mom who did AWESOME in a test that she had this week at school, as well!!!  But you get the idea!!!  LAST MIDTERMS EVER!! (hahah or so we think....)

When Dave arrived home friday we headed out for dinner at Umbrellas (surprise, surprise) and met up with Phil and Kimmy.  It is sad to think that these moments are quickly coming to an end, and that last two years enjoying this journey with so many incredible people, will be no more.  We truly are so grateful that we got to spend this medical journey meeting greet friends, and building forever friendships. We decided after dinner that we just wanted a night in.  So we made popcorn, curled up in a bed and watched movies...it was GLORIOUS! We went to bed so relaxed and glad to have been able to finally spend some time together.  Unfortunately, our wake up call came way too early!

Without going into great detail we were woken up at 4am thinking someone was breaking into our apartment. It turns out a drunk med student was trying to locate his friend and told our security guard that his friend lived in our apartment. So they began banging on our front door.

At one point, we heard them trying to take off our screen and open our front window (which turns out the drunk guy thought would be a great way to yell in and see if his friend was ok!!).  Nevertheless, we had quite the scare, which included me getting our our machete. Thank goodness I have a calm and rational husband who had the sense to grab the phone to call the police. Then listen to make out what the two men outside of our door were saying, and to look out the side window to see who it was.  I was ready to swing the machete but Dave realized it was our security guard. I was sure to tell him that he almost lost his life that night lol!

KickBall:

Saturday morning we got up (well Dave slept in for the first time since probably being on the island) and I got my things ready for a kickball tournament. I have been playing on a kickball team with some friends from the KBT program. I was asked a couple of months ago to join, because they needed some more girls, but I wasn't entirely sure about playing as I had no idea what I was doing! But it turned out to be such a fun experience. Dave ended up coming all day Saturday to watch our games, which I was excited for, and we spent most of the day on the field at SGU (so much for Dave having a break from the school lol).

Hahaha Keith trying hard!

We're so intense!

Jimmy ready for action!

Anil and his amazing pitching skills!

Smitha was ready!

Tariq after his grand slam and Ali being so kind to him!

I think I was actually dancing at third base !

Action shot!

Anil made it to first base!

Our team photo right after our big (FIRST and ONLY) win!

My jersey..."Mrs." since I was the only married one on the team.

The Mr. and the Mrs.

A little of this, and a little of that!

So I have a plethora of photos and events to blog about...surprise, surprise!!!  I can hardly believe that our weeks our flying by on this island. I still feel like there is way too many things to see, too many things to do, and certainly too many little faces to love on before these weeks are finished!!! 
I am not sure we will get all of our 'to do' list completed before we have to depart Grenada, but that certanily doesn't mean we aren't going to try!!!

Here are the events from the last few weeks

Dave finally makes it to Limes and I go picture crazy:

There are no words for the photos...seeing Dave with some of the littles made my heart so full! So thankful we get to share in these moments together.

 Dave's Keith B. Taylor Global Scholars Northumbria Graduation: (basically a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the England program).

Study Group

My hard working, handsome man!

Walking the stage with the Chancellor of Northumbria University

I joined a kick-ball team:
We didn't win any games, but we had awesome jerseys!!! 

Our 'hot mess' team photo!

Go Jimmy go!

I am hard core!

Clearly haven't moved that much!

Lol Sele...we love you!

Femi probably mad at how horrible we are playing!

I was the only married one on the team...18 is the day we got married!!!! 

USMLE BOOKED:

Dave is studying and preparing for midterms which, in his mind, means finals are quickly approaching. As well, he has booked his date for his USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Exam) and is stressfully counting down the days until he writes. I am counting down the days until he has written as well! I cannot wait to have my husband back for a few weeks in the summer!

USMLE BOOKED!  Note: this was a forced thumbs up...he's stressed already lol!

* Side note: Speaking of summer...I have been busily applying for positions at home for the summer and am not looking forward to being back in the 'real world'.  I think I am going to miss island life more than I realize!!!!!!

Tutoring, tutoring, tutoring:

I have also been busy (I mean have-no-time-to breathe busy) tutoring two students and it seems to be taking up much of my time. But let's be honest, I could spend hours lesson planning, and being on an island, you have to really get your creative juices flowing; with a lack of materials and resources, you do what you can!!!

Numeracy: Number hop  (number recognition...sight and sound)

Learning how to 'Build' a story!

Building a Story: Beginning (Top Bun) Middle Paragraphs (Lettuce, Tomatoes and toppings of sandwich) End (Bottom Bun)

Sight Word Practice: Each week my students get a new set of sight words and throughout the week we do various activities and tasks to learn these words.

Classroom Management Tool: Students must earn Pom-Poms through the week. If 5 pom-poms have been earned by the end of the week, the students receive 'Golden Time' (free choice activity) and a 'lucky dip' in the prize bag!

Classroom Management: Daily Schedule for students...once we have accomplished a task, it is removed and we do whatever is next.

Sight Word Practice

Numeracy: Learning about Calendars and the 12 months of the year

Sight Word Practice

Numeracy: Teaching the concepts 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.' Basically each day the student must: 1. Pop a balloon (understanding the concept 'yesterday') 2. Blow up a balloon (Understanding the concept 'Today') or 3. Put a deflated balloon in the pocket (Understanding the concept "tomorrow"). Dates of the week are rotated throughout the pockets.  Students visually, and kinesthetically do something each day to learn this concept.

Numeracy: Learning and ordering the months of the year.

Sight Word Practice

Guided Reading Tracker

Guided Reading: Student reads short stories. If completed without help, they earn a sticker that is added to their 'tally'. Once student reads 10 books, they earn a 'lucky dip' in the prize bag!

Literacy: Chapter comprehension.  Writing short sentences that ask questions, go deeper or predict new events while reading a novel.

I LOVE teaching and am so thankful for this opportunity, while living the island life! I  love my little students, the progress they are making and the 'make-shift' classroom we have designed!!!

My TIG Moment:

If you know me, you know that I have a love (rather, obsession) for chocolate milk. Clearly a warm climate and chocolate milk don't really go hand-in-hand, but I was oh so excited when in November I discovered Nesquik chocolate milk 'juice' boxes!  I bought one, skeptical of what it would taste like, but was so surprised, and happy, to have something closely resemble chocolate milk from home.
I went back to buy a few more and surprise, surprise they were out. (TIG)

The final one!!! You served me well, friend!

However about two weeks ago, those little 'juice boxes' reappeared (the chocolate milk saints heard me calling)!   So naturally, I did what any normal person would do when you haven't seen an item you are craving in months on the shelf...I bought as many as were out (about 15 in total) and stocked up our fridge.  *Yes, it was an impulse buy...and yes my husband was none-too-pleased with my not needed purchase. And just as a reference: foodfair wont let you return single chocolate milk 'juice' boxes from the fridge... if anyone is wondering hahah.

But sadly...the store is out of these said chocolate drinks and I am consuming the last one, with strict orders to stay away from them...even if they do reappear.  


Until next time.....