June 30-July 3

A busy week! Carnival and Island Life

Island life has caught up to me. I'm posting Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (and Friday) all at once, since I'm a bit behind. The days have not been any less exciting or any more busy, but I have found things to do other than sit and write on the blog. I take that back, I guess I have been busier! I did go for a lovely run on Tuesday evening. I went on a beach walk at Francis Bay on Wednesday. It's Thursday and my calves are a little tight and I'm anxious to ingest some potassium to loosen up the muscles and break down the lactic acid build-up. Now it's Friday and I've made a trip to St. Thomas with Keith and his son, Breslyn, and picked up two guests at the airport. While in St. Thomas, we made a short shopping trip to Kmart and the Grocery to pick up a few items for WAY less than it would have been in St. John.

I encountered my first motor vehicle collision, of sorts, on Wednesday evening. There was a cement post involved. Nobody is hurt and the damage could arguably be repaired using nothing more than some touch-up paint and a nice buffer. Or, here on the island, it's “nothing.” Now that I've grabbed your attention and at the same time not made you start holding your breath in fear that something awful and terrible has happened, here's the dramatic version...

The driveway into my housing unit is harrowing, at best. The main roads on the island are few and far between. There is Centerline Rd. There is also Northshore Rd. Other than these two roads, you're on your own. My house, Island Fancy, is just off Northshore Rd, by way of a unpaved, switch-backing, bumpy, steep, sloped, angled, twisty, did I say bumpy yet, road. The driveway, which is a nice bit of graded concrete, breaks off the dirt trail and drops at about a 45 degree angle and ends with the concrete disappearing into deep and thick vegetation about 100 ft. from Maho Bay's shoreline. At the end of the concrete, there is a dirt driveway on the right and left. On the left, there is a house and a fairly easy to use driveway. On the right, my place, the driveway is impossibly scary to use. The huge concrete posts holding up a cast iron gate declaring the residence as “Island Fancy,” are wonderful and historic, yet in the way and annoying, for parking. I totally respect the need to keep the home close to its original look and feel, but when the thing gets in the way of using the driveway... I have issues. If you look at the driveway to the property, the large concrete post is on the immediate right, just as the concrete leads towards the house, just slightly. On the left, about 5 feet ahead, there is a very large slab of concrete about 5 inches above the lay of the land, with a sparkly new generator perched on top of the concrete. The angles involved make me surprised that something like what happened on Wednesday has not happened sooner or more often to other persons visiting the property.

I woke up today, Thursday, to the sound of squawking creatures near my window. I think it could have been some wild mongoose having beach party. It may have been some wrestling rats in the attic. On Friday, more animal sounds outside the window ensured I was awake around 5:00AM. As you all may know, I am not usually someone that fancies getting up early in the morning. I have changed entirely since moving here to St. John. I would prefer to be awake by 6, at work by 7 and done with my day by 3 or 3:30. That leaves plenty of time in the afternoon for adventures and a bedtime of something like 9pm or thereabouts. I have had the difficult challenge of car sharing and working with other folks' schedules to arrive and leave when it is convenient for other people. I'm finding getting in around 8pm and leaving around 5pm is less enjoyable. That, and having less than 2 hours of sunlight once the day is complete is a bit annoying and useless, for planning any kind of beach trip or hike. Keith, my supervisor, has made available the vehicle for official business, which includes transportation to/from work. I think I may try to use that privilege to get in earlier in the day rather than carpool and come in so much later, as much as I would like to save the gas and environment from having one more vehicle on the road.

For lunch on Thursday, I made the attempt to fetch some tasty Paté with Christy. I hear paté is the island specialty and it is a dish that must be tried. It's basically a fresh-made deep-fried hot pocket. There is an outer layer of delicious bread with a tasty inside middle stuffing. The places Christy and I tried declared no paté would be available until after 5 or 6pm, or on the weekends, in a non-carnival situation. The plan is now to re-attempt a paté meal on the next Saturday possible.

Skipping around to another topic, I did some shopping in St. John on Friday, the day off and Federal Holiday that was enjoyed by many around here. I went to the Plaza Extra in St. Thomas and was highly pleased with some of the “deals” that I found, as compared to prices in St. John's groceries.
Plaza Extra in St. Thomas
1 lb. Caribbean mountain coffee, $9.99
2 lb. Kraft Mexican Cheese Shredded, $10.29
Bird's Eye 5 lb. Mixed vegetables, $7.29
1 Can Green Pigeon Peas, $1.29
California Valencia Oranges, 4 ct., $3.58
Fresh Ripe Caribbean Grown Bananas, $.75/lb
Red Seedless Grapes, 1 lb., $3.14
Handle of Cruzan Rum, $7.88
12 pk Coke, $3.99
Box of Ritz Crackers, $4.99

While in St. Thomas there was another stop at Kmart, where I took the opportunity to get myself an early birthday present and purchased a lovely Timex watch. It's a Timex and hopefully it will last me a long chunk of time (ha, ha....time...)

Let's rewind a smidge and review the week....

I still love life here on the rock. The island is full of the most amazing scenery and every day off is splendid... you're essentially at one of the best destinations for vacations, as soon as you clock out! There are struggles in day-to-day life here just as there would be anywhere else on the planet. What's different here is the amazing sunset that greets you every night, no matter the day or the challenges in getting through the day. I am pleased by all of the folks that are here who have been so welcoming and friendly to me as I get acclimated to life on the island. It really is wonderful to have friendly faces and smiles to greet you each day.

Homesickness has not filtered its way into my thoughts. I think I'm not missing home mostly because of the views and the nice people I've found along the way. I'm also happy to have things to fill my time and people to share my experiences with, here on the island. I am in fairly good contact with home on the phone and internet and I've tried to keep in touch with several friends using the same channels, which seems to be working out so far. I think I'd like to talk to Becca a bit more, but I keep getting her voice mail.

Friday's trip to St. Thomas was awesome. We loaded onto the car barge from Cruz Bay and landed in Red Hook some 30-40 minutes later. We stopped off first thing at the Fat Turtle for lunch. I got to try the island favorite drink, a bushwhacker. Whoa! It's like a white russian on steroids and it's delicious. I had a tasty cheeseburger and felt wonderful. The trip to Kmart and grocery are mentioned above with the prices, to give you a feel for what it's like down here. After shopping, we stopped at the airport to pick up two of Keith's friends visiting from Ft. Lauderdale. There were a few adult beverages that we got from the nice tiki-style bar near baggage claim. Then, on the barge ride back onto St. John, there were more refreshments to be enjoyed. Back on St. John, we unloaded and I headed home to put my groceries away. A little while later, I headed out for a small party and fun times with Breslyn and a few of his friends here on the island. I stayed up the latest I've stayed up here, I think, which was just before midnight.

In other random news, Mom sent me my first provisional care package! I totally needed a few more shorts, some aloe for the impending sunburn of doom that I will likely get soon if I'm not careful, some other toiletries, and a computer bag since I don't have anything to pseudo rain-proof my gear while traveling to/from the office. I'm very happy to have someone at home to take care of me and send me awesomeness in a flat rate box. I think the package is $14 flat rate, no matter what you fit into the box... if it fits, it ships. Even though they say delivery 2-3 business days, I'm hoping for getting it in less than 14 days, on the optimistic side.

Tuesday or Wednesday... my days are running together a little bit, I went for a boat ride in the superintendent's boat! We tested out his newly repaired boat and jetted across the northern shore of the island about as far as Mary Point. Then, we dabbled across the waters and hovered near the international water line and got a peak at the British Virgin Islands. Without our passports handy and a not eager to deal with customs, we only saw the BVI from a distance and did not pull into any ports there. We headed back for St. John and went around the south western part of the island and then finished the ride back at Cruz Bay. It's so wonderful to just be on a boat! I think I've said it before, but I definitely prefer being on or in water to being on land.

As the week unfolded, Carnival here really heated up. It is an annual festival that is like Christmas, but so much bigger. Children have a carnival village of their own each night during the week, where they can buy tickets and play games for tokens. In turn, the tokens can be traded for toys like stuffed animals or skateboards. What makes the whole thing so special though is stuffed animals and skateboards aren't even available on St. John. You'd have to make a trip to St. John or further to get some of the toys they were handing out. Very cool. I had the awesome pleasure of checking out the carnival events mid-week on Wednesday with some park folks here on the island. Part of the night included stopping at the Surly Cantina and getting two soft tacos with spicy chicken. For $3.00 a taco, dinner can't get much more affordable on the island. The Surly Cantina has a bit of a reputation for not being open when you're in desperate need of a tasty taco, so finding the place open, even with a full belly after eating a dinner of four tablespoons of peanut butter, I splurged and got some tacos. They were tasty and totally worth every penny. One of their specialties there is the Surly Corona- a corona beer with a lime, a dash of salt on the rim, plus some hot sauce, drizzled around the rim of the bottle. Interesting. I didn't try one, but it seems to be a fun thing to try at least once. The other local drink is a rum and root beer. I hear it's also quite tasty.

I perhaps forgot to mention a small pestilence on the island. I have not seen them. I've only heard them scraping through the attic and across the ceilings. I've seen their poop on the floors and counter-tops in the mornings. Rats. I am suspicious that there are no rats, despite what the locals tell me. I wonder if they're really just mongoose, only somehow domesticated because they find a way to live in your house more often than not. The mongoose I've seen on the island are much like a squirrel you might see at home, only with a rat-like tail. They are fuzzy and cross the roads in front of your car, escaping at the last minute. We got tired of the rats scurrying about, pooping on our house's surfaces, and scaring us halfway through the night. The solution.... a RAT ZAPPER! I don't know why I've not heard about this amazing invention sooner. It's a small plastic cylindrical square with a metal grate on one end. You put some bait into the one end near the grate and turn on the device. Allegedly, once something enters the trap, ZAP! I wish Billy Mays was still around so I could see how he might market the Rat Zapper to a rat-tired public. We used a piece of dog food coated in peanut butter for our bait. Once the zapper has caught something, there is a little blinking red light that should tell us to empty the trap. To empty, you simply pour the rat into the trash. It's a bit morbid, but I hope we catch a rat soon. After two days and still no rats, we considered disabling the zapper to help get the rats used to the idea of getting fed from the trap each day. Then, after a few days, switch the zap back on, and boom!

On Thursday... I ate some tuna that is a few days old on saltines for lunch, which is a typical meal here. I'm stoked to visit St. Thomas tomorrow and get some real produce to fill up my belly with nutrients. Indeed, as you read above, I got some veggies and I got some fruits and I should have maximum nutrients in the next few days, for sure.