Crafty Afternoon

For those of you who know me, you thought "how is it possible that Myra can survive without her craft room in Grenada?"  Yes, the same thought had and has crossed my mind far too many times.  I came with only a 50 pack of crayola colored pencils, pouch of thin and thick markers, and three small canvas boards.

Well, almost three weeks into living in Grenada, I have found crafts to do!  I am trying to improve my drawing skills (with only mechanical pencils and extra printer paper that the printer spits out--it's stealing if you take any from the tray).  There is a store in the Spiceland Mall that sells pens, pencils, sketch pads, paint, etc.  It's my new favorite place and I only discovered it yesterday!!

Here's what I've done recently to release my creativity thus far!

Printed color sheets to color!

Took the "how to draw a head" tutorial  at the art academy I'm going to get my masters in

Painted sea shells

Sew up the hole in my travel pillow (with my travel sewing kit!)

And turned a t-shirt into a sleeveless top! (stole this idea from another SO who has a craft blog!)

Yay for distractions!

Knowledge is power, but the power is out.

The stove is out.

This was a picture I took so that I could complain about lack
of counter space...  Little did I know, that was the least of
my problems!

I noticed yesterday when I went to make some yummy desserts...  Normally when I set about the task of cooking, I go in order of the recipe, which is almost always "Pre-heat the oven to ___ degrees".  So I have a habit of always starting with the stove, oven, etc.  Then I pull my ingredients as they are summoned by the instructions.  I have found out that cooking on the stove makes things go a lot faster, so I decided I'd try out getting all my ingredients measured and set out so that when the instructions came, I was ready!  (I'm pretty new to this cooking business...).  I buttered my pan, pulled out my big pot, counted out the tablespoons of butter, 6 cups of rice crispy cereal, marshmallows, etc.  I turned the switch to the electric stove on, then turned the already misaligned dial to medium.  I then put my butter in, poured the cocoa on top, added the marshmallows, and by that time I was wondering why my butter wasn't melting any faster!  That's when I noticed neither light had come on (one on the switch and one on the stove).  Super frustrating!!
So now, I have a giant pot in my fridge with butter, cocoa, and marshmallows, another buttered pan waiting to be filled, and a huge bowl of off-brand rice cereal in my freezer.


AND, I had just gone grocery shopping, so my fridge was already full, including our meat for fajitas...which you also can't make without a stove.

So for dinner, I explained to Mark that we were going to have to go out for dinner.  He's been wanting to try the Mr. Chipotle (not to be confused with just the regular Chipotle) which is a shack at Options, just a 3 minute walk past the campus gates!  It was really tasty, too.  And I think we both needed to overindulge because we ate a lot.  His burrito was the size of a normal Chipotle burrito, and he got the spicy beef, which was apparently really good (though I will not taste things that are intentionally made spicy, so I wouldn't know).  And I had some chicken tacos.  They came in to go containers, so we decided against eating outside as the bugs feasted on our legs, and came back to the room to eat at our "dinning room table".  This is of course just Mark's desk.  :)

And yes, you may notice that my computer is on it as well.  Well, the power outlet by my desk does not work.  I will take the blame for this one.  I plugged dual voltage adapter for my computer into a surge protector into an adapter into the wall.  My bad.  I should have plugged my computer cable into the surge protector, into a transformer, into the wall.  Yeah, it popped and smelled like a little fire had just happened inside the surge protector.  I'm just happy to say Mark did it first.  Like our second day here.  :)  But I should have learned from that mistake...silly me.

This is what the outlet looks like next to Mark's desk.  We have 2 outlets in our room, each with 2 plugs.  Well, the breaker on the bedroom half is waiting to be fixed, along with the stove (which I believe is separate).  That right there is why power in Grenada is so frustrating!  On one side, you see a converter/adapter (which is WAY better than a transformer), power strip surge protector, and many other things, and on the other side is an adapter just for any dual voltage or 220v electronics with US plugs.

Oh and one last power complaint (and another laundry complaint)!  They unlocked the washer/dryer in our building last night!  Looks like they have fixed it!  But, there was no power to the washer or dryer (neither would start) or there is something even worse about this one...  Man, I hope the maintenance people will come today and push the magic buttons to make my life work again!  I tried to go reset some breakers last night, (the door downstairs is unlocked) but Mark wouldn't let me.  He said I don't know how the wiring is in these buildings.  Which isn't true.  When they came to reset it last time after Mark blew out the power strip we are currently using in the picture above, they had one person up in my room and one person down by the breakers, yelling at each other in between tries.  Now I know they aren't labeled and it's trial and error!  What else do I need?!

Today is what they call a gloomy day.  Mark is pretty stressed out because he has to learn all the back muscles this weekend, because if he doesn't, he'll be behind.  Next week they start arms.  Possibly two whole weeks on the arms.  He knows most of the vertebra, the general divisions, but now it's just all the layers of the muscles, their primary functions, etc.  And it didn't help that he woke up with a headache and stomachache.

I am stressed because of this stupid Art Institute.  I thought it would be fun to take some online courses on Photoshop, color theory, photography, etc.  So I started looking into a second bachelor's in advertising!  The more I read the course descriptions, the more I love the idea.  Psychology, marketing research, organized behavior, all that is like the people watching I love to do!  And the creative elements are the crafty things that I used to do in my spare time.  But I'm sick of the communication problem.  For an online campus, you would think they'd be better at email.  Unfortunately, everything seems to be based on phone calls, disorganization, and bad reviews.  So I have started my research from scratch again.  Uhg.  I know I could occupy all my time without classes, but I want that skill level to increase, and when I get back to the states, I probably won't make time for it.

And I think all the gloominess has caused it to rain outside, because for the entire morning and last 3 hours, I know understand why they call it "rainy season".  We have seen 30 second showers and 30 minutes showers, but today is lingering gloom.  And I usually am inspired by the rain.  It's time to turn today around!  I'm going to draw!  And eat some of my no-bake cookies I made this morning!  And listen to the calming effect of the rain hitting the windows and doors, the howling wind in the trees, and Mark's study music...  :)

Wind and rain outside the window...
And Mark texting his new friend that went to Chiropractor
school and knows a lot about back muscles!

Out our balcony; I got wet just opening it!

No-Bake Cookies!  Yum!

Plant a rock and watch it grow!

This was something that was told to us on our tour to Grand Etang.  I really like it though!

This is a common saying in Grenada (apparently) and it refers to how lush everything is!  It's so fertile that you could "plant a rock and watch it grow".  I am beginning to wonder if that is how this island got here.  It's too pretty to have formed in any sensible way.  The only explanation is fertile magic!

 The tour included a waterfall (Annandale Falls) and a muddy hike in a volcanic crater that is now filled with a "bottomless" lake!

The fall had touristy jumpers that you were supposed to leave a tip for.  You could also jump in the water if you were prepared or willing to be wet back on the buses.  Mark and I stuck our feet in and climbed on some rocks!

Also at the falls, there were a few trails that lead around some of the vegetation!  This was a great place to get photos of the pretty flowers!!

Here are some photos of us on the hike!  This was the muddiest some people have ever been!  We wore water shoes and didn't mind it much.  The top was pretty breathtaking!  :)

The Great Laundry Fiasco

Yes, we have our own laundry room for our building!  That sounds great; there are 10 rooms to our 1 washer and 1 dryer.  However, what they don't advertise is that SGU has "water shortages" and therefore locks the utility room.  It is supposed to be unlocked after 5pm and on weekends.  If only consistency was a word in the Grenadian vocabulary...  What we have seen is 1 day where we could wash our clothes, and that was Sunday, the same day as everyone else who had been moved in for about a week and desperately needed to wash their clothes, sheets, towels, etc., too.  Somehow, I managed to be the first in line.  I put our brand new towels and sheet in the washer (yes, we had been using brand new, never washed towels and sheets--not that fun).  When I went to move them over to the dryer, they were soaked.  Yay for a washer that has a broken spin cycle!  Mark and I wrung each piece out and moved them to the dryer.  They went through two dry cycles before I pulled them out and hung them around our room to dry.  I already felt bad that I met most of my neighbors by hogging the washer and dryer, but at least I got to forewarn them of the problem!

If that were the end of the story, I would be oh so happy!  But because I felt like a washer hog, and it was broken and already a too long ordeal, I decided I'd hold off on the clothes!  Well, last night, Wednesday night, I saw that they were unlocked for the first time this week (yes, they are supposed to be unlocked everyday after 5...).  Well, not ours, because they have been "working" on it, aka, the front cover is taken off and it's leaning on a wall; hasn't been touched in two days.  So I used the next building's utility room; it stinks so much, like wet dog and dead frog.  I finished washing the first load (because after a week and a half, two people have a lot of dirty clothes!), moved it to the dryer, and discovered their dryer doesn't work!  I would have taken it back to our dryer, but of course, it's locked because the washer doesn't work.  So then I unload the dryer and take it to the building two down from ours.  I start the dryer and figure since I'm already there, I'll just wash the second load in their washer.  Well, their washer has a trick (so I was told by a resident of that building--I did not discover this) in which you have to take the brick that props the door open, bang it on a certain spot on the top, right hand side of the lid.  That will kick it on, but then you have to leave the brick there, and put something heavy on top of it to ensure it runs for the entire cycle.  So of course, I decided to wash the second load in the stinky room....

Yet again, if that were the end of the story, at least I'd be sane.  But unfortunately, someone decided that SGU was having a water shortage still (even though it rained for about 30 minutes yesterday) and went and locked all the doors, except the building where the dryer was running.  So we pulled our clothes out of the dryer, called security to have them let us take our clothes out of the washer, who told us to call our RA, who said she didn't know why security told us to call her because she couldn't do anything, who then called security to reinforce that she couldn't do anything, and then called us back saying they were sending someone.  Well, we know how that works, so we waited about 10 minutes while I walked around and checked out the sd7 laundry facilities (4 buildings away) and contemplated the next time I would be doing my laundry there.  It is a superdorm, which means it's more like the undergrad housing.  There is a main entrance and then the dorms are all accessed from inside.  This one is 4 floors with laundry facilities on each floor.  And sd7 is the newest dorm meaning new washer and dryers!!  But that didn't solve the problem that we had wet clothes locked in the utility building next door.  After our 10 minutes of impatient waiting, I went and got a hanger.  It took Mark 2 minutes to reach the hanger through the door slats, hook the handle, and pull it down and open.  We then unloaded the washer, and took it to building 3, where it was still propped open!  We then proceeded to dry our clothes there.  We went back after the hour, taking the hanger just in case, because of course, someone had come by and closed the door, even though the dryer was running with our clothes in it.  It took Mark about 5 minutes this time, but once we were back in the room and I had all the clothes folded, hung and put away, I had such a sense of accomplishment!  And to think I used to hate doing laundry...now I really do!

When is a day just any ol' day?

Yesterday morning, in his sleep, Mark asked me to "describe my chest pains."  If this is any indication as to how consumed his mind will be, it's going to be a long and trying two years. After class, I asked what he had learned in Anatomy.  His response was back and boobs.  So glad Mark made it to medical school to discover where the boobs are!  But seriously, he is swamped with new stuff, slight familiar stuff, and a few things he knows.  He is pre-reading and staying with things marvelously...let's hope his first three days are a great indication for the next two years!

On another note, Rachel (another SO) and I went to Food Fair!  I was very impressed at their food selection and cheaper prices!  I even got some Hershey's chocolate for 10ec or less than $4usd!  Totally worth it!  :D

I made turkey sausage (like the same brand I buy at home) and rice for dinner.  I don't know where this rice is normally eaten, but the package called for 2.5 cups of water for every cup of rice...talk about mushy!  Luckily the sausage was good and Mark will eat anything with hot sauce!  We had to get rid of 2 bananas that would have spoiled if we left them in the fridge much longer, so I cut them into thick slices, heated up some Grenada-made dark chocolate, and we had fork fondue for dessert!  I'm getting the hang of this domestic business.  I was even complimented on our interior by the maintenance man!  Maybe I should look into interior design!

I finished the night off by helping Mark with some definitions.  He will need to study them at some point, but I just got to look through a medical dictionary and decipher words that make no sense and enter them into a word document.  He can weed through the extraneous info later, but it is just time consuming to get through (probably a little out of practice!).  Anyway off to my second beach for the day!  More info later!

Welcome to Grenada!

Today was Mark's first day of school. In actuality, it was his intro to all his classes, and his real class schedule starts tomorrow. But today was monumental none-the-less. Mark's received his white coat today, took some oath, and heard some inspiring speeches.



Bagel from NY Bagels where I met with the SO Board.
That is bright pink stuff is strawberry cream cheese!


I, on the other hand, had a meeting with the SO board to go over basic duties. As one of the two social chairs, I have a lot of fun times ahead. I already can't wait to put the cranium game to good use at a social game night! I also ventured to IGA for my second time while I was out and about. Prices seemed a whole lot cheaper today than before! I wonder if they mark up on SGU orientation tour days.... Anyway, now we have milk and a few more things. I need to make a comprehensive shopping list and hit up the food fare. I hear that's where you get some really good bargain prices! And I think someone will be selling eggs on campus tomorrow (it's like lazy grocery shopping)! I think I'm going to get adventurous in my cooking for Mark tomorrow. I bought some turkey bacon (healthier and cheaper) that I could try to make for breakfast tomorrow morning, however, I only have butter as a cooking oil, so we will see. I'm just stoked to get to eat cereal!!




Random "exciting" event of the day: brought a half inch barrel curling iron that I found in my room back home with us to Grenada. I love the small curls! Unfortunately, this curling iron just burnt my hair. It was so weird, just black, grimy, gooey burnt hair on the barrel. I had to cut some of my hair off that had the burnt residue...and it stunk up Mark's study area! :-/ Oh well, I will be tossing that! Anyone have a mini curling iron they want to ship to Grenada??





My hair is ready for the white coat ceremony!
"Quick Mark, take a picture before I lose all my curls!"




I'm ready for the White Coat ceremony!




Mark getting his white coat!




Mark, all ready to go be a doctor and stuff...once he gets past this med school stuff.




So proud of what he's done so far and so worried and sympathetic as to what he's committed to do for the next 2-7 years!


Since we've been on the island for nearly a week and I just started my blog today, I will definitely have to catch up. My main purpose of this blog is to record the day-to-day (not necessarily daily...) situations I encounter. This will serve as recorded memories to reference on days later in life when I might take a Wal-Mart, elevator, or fast food for granted.