Hey all, it's Cory, I've decided to try posting some more blogs,.. usually Julia is the webmaster!
Here are some pictures of the waves we had recently. When it's big, it's big! Most of these pictures are of a visiting surfer from another island ripping it up, he was fun to watch, oh, and there's one of me catching the rights.
Every Sunday various teams from Ross play 5v5 on small fields. Here is some footage of our team 'F.C. Rossta' showing off our teamwork skillz.
A bunch of students just also joined a Kittitian Soccer League that will be 11v11 on regulation sized fields. It's nice to play real games again, but two 45 minute halves definately take their toll on us unconditioned old men!
There is a pasture across the street from Ross that is home to a small herd of horses, which belong to a company nearby that uses them for horseback tours through the rainforest. Recently, a few of them had babies, so Cory and I pulled over the other day on our way home to get a closer look.
Here is mom and baby
And again a little closer
The baby was so cute and so fluffy!
This horse wanted some attention too!
Check out the scenic place where they get to live!
There is a sign here on St. Kitts that tries to raise awareness for women to get mammograms, which is a great idea to keep women on top of their health. It is right along the main road, in front of one of the small grocery stores here. It also has a picture of a woman getting a mammogram done. The first time I ever saw it, I didn't think much of it. But upon closer inspection one day, I realized that it totally shows the lady's breast! They blur out the nurse's face and the woman's face, but not her boob being smashed in the mammogram machine! I don't know if that is going to encourage women to get it done, or scare them away!
I thought about getting a close up, because it is hard to see in this photo from further away. But I didn't want my blog to become x-rated!
Just the other day, I was leaving the Campus Living Residences to swing by the grocery store, and I encountered a loose cow. The large cow pasture at Ross is near the entrance to the Campus Living Residences, and one of the workers had accidentally shut off the electric fence in one section earlier in the day. So this single cow found her way out and decided to explore. I couldn't help but stop and take some pictures before calling someone to come get her.
Here she is enjoying the grass along with a white egret friend. In this case, the grass actually is greener on the other side!
And here are her buddies, watching her enjoy the green grass from the other side of the fence
Then she decided to head up the road and visit the Campus Living Residences
Finally, after some freedom, someone from the school came to put her back in the pasture.
While Cory and I were driving home on the motorcycle the other day, we took the back way home, and ended up exploring a dirt road that led us down to the water. What a great snorkel spot this could be! It is on the Caribbean side, right in front of these awesome apartments that look out over the water. Check out how pretty it was:
We'll have to come back sometime to check it out with our snorkel gear!
There was a 2nd semester party the other weekend at Godfather's beach out on the peninsula. Since the area is so far removed from the populated areas of the island like Frigate Bay, you can see what seems like every single star in the sky. We could even see the Milky Way, it was amazing!
But when we weren't looking at the sky or watching shooting stars, we were hanging out with friends
Well, we decided to pay the St. Kitts movie theater another visit, since our first experience wasn't as bad as everyone had said it would be...we actually found the experience pretty fun when we went there last to see Jackass 2 (that is when I took the picture above). So last night, Scott, Brad, Cory and I went to see Spiderman 3.
There were a lot of other Ross students there as well, included Brooke, Renee and Eric who were sitting behind us. We got there right as the movie was about to begin at 8pm.
Here are Cory and Scott, blinded by my flash
And Renee and Brooke behind us...
Suddenly the lights dim and the movie comes on....except that the images are upside down. So the lights come back on, and we wait about 15 minutes while they try to fix the movie reel. After awhile, the lights shut off again, and we are ready for it to start. This time, the movie is not only upside down, but they are speaking in Spanish! Lights back on, more waiting. Another 10-15 minutes go by, and we are still waiting....so I decide to take a quick video. Here is Brooke describing what is going on:
Finally, the image is fixed and nothing is upside down....but wait....this doesn't look like the beginning of the movie...?? Turns out they have loaded the second half of the movie first, and have decided that they will just let it play. When we aren't understanding what is going on in the movie, and are realizing this is obviously not the beginning, some people start complaining to the theater. I think if we hadn't said anything, they would have just let it play that way and we would only have seen half of the movie!!
So the lights come back on, yet again, and not long afterwards, they finally get it right when the lights shut off and we see a preview for the new movie "Surfs up". The preview is in Spanish, but we don't care. At least we know the beginning of the movie is next. If you want to see part of the Surfs up preview in Spanish, watch the short clip below...it was pretty funny:
But don't worry, there were no more problems with Spiderman 3, and it was in English this time (with Spanish sub-titles).
We had a great lunch at Stonewalls the other weekend. We went with Brad and Justin, and while the guys enjoyed some enormous burgers, I had awesome chicken enchiladas.
Our kitty Lladra has this strange quirk where anytime someone sneezes, she does this cute little meow. We don't know why...maybe she is saying bless you?
Anyway, people love trying it out when they come over sometimes. The other night when Brad and Carly came over to play Cranium, Brad sneezed a few times for her on their way out. This is her response:
The other day as I was walking back home to the Residence Halls from Ross, I saw a huge rainbow out on the water next to the peninsula, with Nevis in the background. I tried to take a few pictures, but they still don't do the rainbow justice.
And speaking of rainbow colors, a few weekends ago, Cory and I went to Shipwreck for some drinks, lunch, and study time for Cory.
I wanted to try something different, and ordered one of their specialty drinks from a small menu hanging up. This is what I got:
Pretty, huh? It's called the Green Flash, and like the bartender warned me, it's all alcohol except for a splash of pineapple juice. Very strong, but still pretty good.
So this morning around 6:45 I was driving home from the gym again, and there was ANOTHER police stop on the road before Ross. So I slow down to a stop and give the officer my drivers license, happy that I have my registration sticker up against the windshield this time (see "Ticket" post from last Friday for the back-story).
She hands my license back and asks me to roll up my window a bit. Confused, not thinking I heard her correctly, I ask her to repeat what she said. She says "roll up your window". So I roll it up about 4 inches, and she has me stop. She says, "pull over on the side of the road and remove all of the tint from every window on your car". What the heck? I'm all sweaty from the gym, and in a hurry to get home and shower so I can get to work, and now this.
When we bought our car, it came with tinted windows, and in all of the police road stops we have been through, they have never mentioned anything about the tint being too dark. Everyone and their mother has dark tinted windows on this island.
So I had to pull over and slowly peel the tint off of each window. As I was doing this, I was watching her stop each new car that approached, and while she had a few others pull over to do the same, she let most people go through, even people who had way darker window tinting than me!! That was what really upset me the most during the whole situation. If you are stopping people for a certain reason, why let most of them go? Knowing the St. Kitts police, they were probably letting all of their friends and relatives go by with no issue. But as soon as they see a potential Ross student...pull her over!
Lladra is just so cute, I can't help taking so many pictures of her. The other morning when we woke up, she had stretched herself across the bed into one long skinny shape. It was so cute, I just had to grab my camera.
And I just love when cats clean themselves....so cute!
After the craziness of orientation and the opening of the new Campus Living Residences at Ross had settled down a bit, the Dean of Student Affairs, Dr. Fox, took Keith, Treg and I to dinner at Marshall's to say thank you for all of our hard work. Marshall's is a really fancy place in Frigate Bay that has the best food. I had the filet with mashed potatoes, and espresso khalua cake for dessert!
This place is amazing. It is on a hillside overlooking the Caribbean...
...and has a huge pool in the middle of the restaurant (Treg decided he wanted to be in this picture)
Marlin and Judi, I think of you guys every time I go to Marshall's now, because I know it is a place you would just love! We'll put it on your list for your next visit!
A couple weeks ago, we were invited to our friends' apartment in Frigate Bay for a Mexican food dinner and cake to celebrate Justin's birthday. A bunch of our friends live in this enormous house that overlooks Timothy Beach in Frigate Bay. The owners of the house live on the top floor, and the rest of the place is divided into smaller apartments. Check out their amazing view:
There was a fire across the way on a hill by the water, and we had a great view of it from their place.
Dinner was amazing, we had huge burritos that were just stuffed with food
Here is the birthday boy helping himself
Then for dessert, they had made him a cake that was shaped like his cat, Nyxxie. See the resemblence?
Aren't we all amazing singers?
After dinner, everyone played a round of the card game Spoons. They got really into it, and it was pretty funny. Why they are singing that song while they are playing Spoons you ask?? No idea......
While we were having our fun downstairs, the owners of the building were having a huge party upstairs at their house. They invited all of us up, and offered us drinks and food. (Our burritos were really good, but they had some amazing food up there! Too bad I was so full already!).
They were also playing a betting game that ended up being a lot of fun. They had made 6 wooden cut-outs that looked like horse heads. Each horse was assigned to a girl, and they had to go to one end of the balcony at the starting line. Before the start of the race, you could bet on whichever horse you wanted to win (bets were $2EC, just under $1US). Then, once all of the bets were in, they would roll two dice. The first number signified which horse would get to move, and the next number rolled signified how many spaces they got to move.
Here are all of the horses lined up for the start of the race
And here are the girls with the horses
Cory and I actually walked away with more money than we came with (even if that meant we were only up $2EC....we were still up!)
Well, I got my first ticket on St. Kitts this morning. (and hopefully my only one)!
Our car registration was expiring on May 31st, so Cory went 2 weeks ahead of time to get our car inspection done and registration payment turned in. He got the new sticker, but we have been putting off sticking it on our car because we wanted to get the older stickers off first.
Well, this morning at 6:45 when I was driving home from the gym, I was caught in a traffic stop. When I realized that today was June 1st and I didn't have the sticker on the car, I was so upset with myself. Why didn't we just stick it on there 2 weeks ago when we got it?!?! So the lady wrote me the ticket for $100 EC ($40 US) for "failure to display sticker", and I drove home all pissed.
I get home and tell Cory I just got a ticket. And guess what he says.....the sticker is in the car, above the driver's seat tucked into the flap on the sun shade!!!
I had the sticker with me the entire time and never knew it! Ugghhh!
Oh well, I guess I have learned my lesson!
I was going to take a picture with my ticket, but I forgot. So here is all I could get....my receipt for paying my ticket!
And we thought moving to the Caribbean was a life-changing event! We have a baby on the way, and we are so excited to share the journey with our family and friends!
