Oh, the Places You'll Go!: Lemon-Colored Limes and Lime-Colored Lemons

There are no Starbucks in Grenada. None.

No, but seriously. The course load I am taking is extremely demanding of my time and attention. I am currently in the process of building up the endurance to focus for long hours as efficiently as possible with a high retention rate. So, you can see my dilemma due to the fact that there are NO. STARBUCKS. IN. GRENADA.

We do have one cafe/restaurant/lounge on campus that will serve coffee with milk - no soy milk, no flavored high-fructose corn syrups, no whipped cream, no mochas... Sometimes, I cry. Oh, but can you guess what they do have for your coffee?

Nutmeg.

I've been enjoying my classes and getting accustomed to the various accents and teaching styles. I'm finding my bearings on campus and learning the nicknames the students have come up with for all the buildings. However, just when I thought I was getting the hang of hiking up and down the campus mountain several times a day, I was forced to add 20 pounds of textbooks to my daily routine. I have no idea what my grades will look like at the end of this semester, but I can tell you that my rearend is going to look AH-MAZING.

For those who haven't heard, we've been having some interesting weather arounds these parts as of late. Hurricane Isaac paid us a visit this week although it (he?) was only a tropical storm when it passed over Grenada. Apparently, tropical storms and hurricanes are pretty rare in Grenada since it's located below the hurricane belt. But alas, one of the MANDATORY orientation sessions we attended that first week was on disaster preparedness and what the students should do in case of a major hurricane. The school is the safest place on the island to be because it's on a cliff and has a lot of hills providing drainage to the beach preventing any major flooding from occurring (or so they tell us).

Definitely been getting the "whole" Caribbean experience already

I've never seen SO much rain. The clouds were pretty sweet.

Black Sands Beach by my dorm

The white caps were crazy!

Because it was pretty cloudy most of the week, we took advantage of what little sunshine we got by going to the BEACH!

Ophelia (left) is actually from DANVILLE! How crazy is that??

The students in the veterinary field are definitely the fun ones on campus. You know the old saying, "Work hard, play hard?" Yeah, I'm pretty sure vet students coined that term. The SGU Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medical Association (SCAVMA) started this year off with a bang by throwing a party on Black Sands Beach for all the students. Afterwards, they all headed to De Big Fish for the "unofficial after-party." If anybody asks, you didn't hear that from me. Apparently, student associations aren't allowed to throw parties with alcohol involved the first week of school. Why they are not allowed to the throw them the first week of school (when the workload is still bearable) but all the other weeks is a mystery to me. We're going on an 8 hour Catamaran cruise to snorkel at the underwater sculpture park, jump on a water trampoline, beach hop and kayak next weekend. Yes, please! Here's a picture of a bunch of us playing flip cup at the SCAVMA party.

Go Blue Team!

I finally went out to Bananas, the local student bar, on Friday night with a bunch of people from our dorm. It was way fun. The bar was surprisingly beautiful and if you couldn't tell already, I love the fact that all the bars and restaurants around here are outdoors. I am already beginning to see a lot of familiar faces out and about. However, this is not the place for the inexperienced or over-zealous drinker; the drinking age is 16, food is expensive, drinks are cheap, no over-serving laws are enforced PLUS it doesn't close until 6am! Need I even mention that we're in a foreign country? They actually have an attendant in the girls' bathroom whose sole purpose is to make sure that girls don't pass out in the stalls. And trust me, she's not handing out little mints, either. Now I understand the MANDATORY substance abuse seminar...

One of the outdoor bars.

Speaking of expensive food, during my weekly trip to the local grocery store, IGA, I snapped a few shots of the exotic fruit selection. They stock up their inventory on Fridays so Saturday is always a madhouse. It's fun watching students revert back to their basic, primitive instincts when the food source is so scarce. At first, I couldn't understand why so many students actually chose to eat at the restaurants on campus since they are stupid expensive, but I am quickly seeing its appeal to vet and med students. You see, to them, there are only four food groups: fast, frozen, instant and chocolate.

These are avocadoes... that stay green. Apparently, they're sweeter than normal
and not as creamy as we're used to. I bought one but I'm supposed to wait for it to ripen before
I can try it. Report to follow.

It's a little hard to get used to the new produce selection.

Lemons here are green... and limes are yellow. WTH?

Oranges are green, too, but they taste like... well... oranges!

I like the floral arrangements here better than home. :)

I definitely do a lot more cooking here than I did back home because everything is so expensive. When I first heard that there was a Chipotle on the island I literally peed a little.