Easter beach trip

Yesterday was easter, and we decided on a couples trip to the beach.  10 of us piled in three cars and went to a new beach, which will be where the new sandals resort will open up. It was a really nice beach, but about a mile walk to get there.  Below us is the Easter cow who greeted us on our journey.  These were taken right out of my car window.  Isn't he cute!?

 This beach had a rock wall to stop the large waves from hitting us, which made the swimming area as calm as a pool.

 Sean got to hang out with some other guys, so they all had fun messing around all day. 

 Here's a picture of the completely deserted hotel.

 And the boys playing baseball with bamboo and coconuts.

 Their bamboo bat.

 And then we decided to force them in for a group picture. 

 And finally a couples picture at the end of the day.

A day in Grenada

 Sean finished his last midterm for term on friday, so this weekend we have gotten to do all types of fun things. On Saturday,  Sean, Sim and I went out to a nice lunch to celebrate our 4 year anniversary.  Lunch turned into dinner time on the beach, and it was a wonderful night...until the mosquitoes came out to play.  
This morning, we woke up early and decided to go hang out at Grand Anse.  We were able to see this giant cruise ship coming in. 

 And then we took a walk all the way down the beach.

 My mother would be in heaven looking at this picture.  There were rent-able beach chairs that went on for ever!

 And here is where she would have been staying if she did not blow off our trip and insist I come home to plan my wedding. (She is just no fun right?!)

 After our walk down the beach, we went to umbrellas to have a nice early lunch.  Here is our view from our table.

 There were a ton of boats out zooming along.

 Picture perfect view from lunch.

 I thought I would get a picture with my cute little car in it.  I think it ruins the picture.

 We decided to spoil ourselves a bit by ordering these.  Chocolate and vanilla milkshakes.  They were amazing.

 While we were talking to the owner of the restaurant.  This little thing pulled up.  I want one!  The owner told us they used to be very common cars, and are still seen in Barbados, but they are to dangerous for Grenada so he has not seen one is years. 

 After lunch, sean and I went for a drive around our neighborhood.  We have been looking for a new place to rent, so we just drove along until we found something we liked.  This is my favorite view while driving.  It's really much prettier in person! 

Wedding planning and my trip to the US

It has been a very long time since I have posted, and I figured it is about time for an update.  We have now lived in grenada about 6 months, and what a wonderful 6 months they have been.  I was keeping myself very busy until the bank took over my apartment complex and I lost my job in January.  Since then I have been very bored, reading lots of books and planning our wedding.  Sean is now in his second term of school, and studies all day every day. 
 I went home to the US in February to plan our wedding.  In the 10 days I was home, I met with the DJ, Photographer, Caterer, Florist ect.   I also got my dress in a total of two hours.  Here's some pictures from my trip home.

 Here is what we are serving for our dinner. 

 With lots of sauces.  And pretty tables. 

 We decided on the chicken on the right.  It is  chicken in plum sauce, and amazing. 

 And a divine cranberry and walnut salad

 And a steak with these veggies on the side.

I got home just in time for Sean's exams, so this last week has been very stressful!

Update Post

Hello everyone!
It has been a long time since I have posted, so I figured I would write an update.  Sean and I went home to the us for the holidays, and had a great time with friends and family. 
Sean's classes started last week, so he is now in his second term of medical school!  These first two weeks have been very easy, so we have been getting to spend a lot of time together.  He even has come to the grocery store with me, TWICE! 
My job has been...interesting.  A local real estate company, Terra Caribbean, took over the building in November.  I had no idea a take over was in order, so it was a bit of a shock to say the least.  Luckily, they have still kept me on, but I am no longer running the building, just doing extra things here and there when they need me, and being the after hours emergency contact. 
My mom just booked her tickets to come visit in march, so I cannot wait for that!
Dog training classes should be starting up soon, and my life will go back to normal. 
That is about all that is new, I'll try to get some pictures up of the beautiful weather and beach soon!

Thanksgiving in grenada

There is not much new going on in my Grenadian life.  I left the complex today for the first time in awhile, so that was exciting! 
Sean has two weeks until finals!  Which means we will be home in 27 days!  We already are debating what to do on our christmas holiday, and both of us have a list of things we want to do.  The first thing I will be ordering is indian food.  I miss it so much!  In Philly we had indian weekly, so I need my fix.  I also plan to go hang out with all of my long lost riding buddies, and see how sore I can make myself after not riding for 6 months. 

This year was a new experience for thanksgiving.  Sean had classes all day until 530, and I had to work all day.  We decided to eat out, and went right down the street to the red crab.  Our friend jessica and Michael joined us, so we had a nice double date.

I can't wait to get home and have a real thanksgiving meal! 

How not to buy a car in grenada

It has been a very long time since I have posted, but i wanted to give everyone an update on our life here in grenada.  After my mother left, my life went back to its normal boring self.  I wake up, help the maid get started, call the plumber/lester/air conditioner people/electricians/handymen/carpenters for the day, then collect rent, look at the sky and curse how damn hot it is, and work until sean comes home at 5 and begs for dinner becasue he did not eat lunch.  How is it my fault he did not eat lunch? Anyways, this is what i do all day, everyday.
I have recently begun teaching another dog training class for the GSPCA on Tuesday and Thursday.   It is a great group of people who come, and i love getting out and meeting a large variety of people from the island.  Most of the people that come to classes are older women, who own local restaurants, shops, and tour services. 
So, onto my experiences with my car.  My boss told he his friend was selling a car, and it was a great deal.  I knew i could trust my boss, and we went and test drove the car.  I looked it over, it looked shiny, the mechanic told me it was ok, and so I decided to buy it.  $4000 later, I was the proud owner of a 1998 rav 4, in a foreign country, where all car owning laws I thought i knew are thrown out the window.  My first mistake was paying for the car before I got the title transferred over to me.  There is no title per say, nor is there a pink slip or anything like that.  There is just a piece of paper down at the government where both parties sign and the car transfers.  I just assumed when i bought the car this would all be in the glove box, but I should have known better, this is another TIG(This is grenada) moment.
LESSON number #1  make sure you transfer your title the day of purchase, or else you could get screwed.  You and the owner need to go down to the ministries and transfer the title at the ministries.  If you cannot get the owner to come down but have his signature on the transfer slip, tears will have to work ;).  I have heard horror stories of people buying a car without the title transfer, and the owner coming back and calling the car stolen.  I got lucky and finalized my transfer this morning, a month and a half after taking ownership of the car. Each transfer costs $10 ec. 
LESSON # 2  Make sure the inspection is in date.  Each car has a small sticker which says the year and month the car will expire.  I had no idea they even had inspections in grenada, so this is an important thing to look at before purchasing.  If the car is out of date, you might even want to put in a clause in contract that the car must pass inspection before fully purchased. 
LESSON # 3, Actually look at the car you are purchasing.  Are the tires bald?  If so, tires in grenada cost about $150 us each.  If you get pulled over with bald tires, the police will give you a $150 fine, so my first purchase was to buy tires.  The next little surprise I found out about was that my windshield washer fluid line does not lead anywhere.  Luckily my plumbers are amazing and are helping me fix this.  My doors also do not open with the key, and the trunk needs to be beat up a bit for it to open.  Did I mention that I need to keep my windows up becasue they get stuck down if i move them.
Anyways, I got really lucky comparatively, the car drives wonderfully, its adorable, and I have AC!, but hopefully someone in the future will look at these things before making the decision to purchase.  My plumbers have offered me way over my purchase price for it already, so hopefully i did not make a horrible buy. 
Alright, rant over, I will be impressed if anyone actually reads this.  After spending the last 2 months praying and hoping that my car would finally become mine, I have learned some very valuable lessons, and hopefully someone may learn from them!

My moms visit: Second Week

 So mom has officially been here 10 days.  She says she is loving her trip, and  enjoying the island.  She is constantly trying to decide which house she would like to move in to in the future, so I would say she likes it. 
She has let me cook exactly one meal, and will never let me cook again.  I made pasta with vodka sauce, chicken, and some veggies.  She ate the smallest portion i would allow, and has forced us out to dinner since, I think she was trying to tell me something :).  Sean and I thought it was amazing, but oh well, I would love to see her try to cook something better.  Anyways, the bread next to the meal was made by our wonderful plumbers so my mom could try the local bread.  It was amazing!  And I thought my meal was a nice balanced creation.

 I took her on a tour of the school last week, and after the tour we went out to the cliffs.  Here she is! 

 The next day, my mom treated us to a spa day at Laluna hotel.  She thought she could google maps us to the hotel, so I took her word on how to get there and just drove.  It turns out the road google maps sent us down did not actually take us to the hotel, but dead ended, so we ended up having to walk along the beach.  It was a pretty walk at least! Here is the beach we walked along.

 And the pretty cliffs which surrounded the beach.

 Here is the beautiful shower at the spa.  A bit of luxury is very exciting for me here!  Look at that shower head! And they had real hot water!

 And here is the light fixtures.  The lizard seems to fit in doesn't he!

 Isn't he cute!?

 Here is a view of the spa.  You can see my mom drinking her new favorite tea.  It is water boiled with ginger root, and then honey added at the end.  Sean and mom are addicted! 

And a view of the landscape.  Very pretty.