Second Semester

Second semester, out of seven, is almost over, and despite being a tough one for Andrew (frequent tests, late classes, dog walking obligations, etc.) it's been a great one. Recently I realized something about first semester (or rather, the first period of time living on this island) -- you don't know squat! I really underestimated how much more knowledgeable I'd feel returning to the island, and how much better that would make me feel about living here. I came back here knowing what to expect in terms of keeping myself busy, getting things accomplished and taking time to relax and really enjoy where I'm living.

I have been keeping busy teaching yoga at the school gym three days a week, which has the added bonus of getting me in really good shape. I have met a lot of great people in the process, like professor's spouses, more student's spouses and the other regular gym-goers. I've also enrolled Beau in the daycare program at the Ross Preperatory School a few days a week, which gives me time to do all of the things that Beau doesn't find so fun -- cleaning my place, food shopping and laundry. Beau LOVES his school, and especially his one teacher, a.k.a., his Black Mommy. :) I have also made a lot more plans for myself with the other mothers and their kids, and the other VIPs (student/professor spouse group). Even if it's just to hang out by a pool or go to a local beach, activities like this make my life here so much richer.

I knew I liked St. Kitts, but this semester I have really started to love it here. Of course, anything that is worth loving can be worthy of hating at times, and I still get frustrated by the limited selection at the grocery store and the over-priced goods. But I really feel a bond with the island and even the people -- the cool, aloof until you break the ice Kittitians -- which makes me feel like I'm on the "right" track in life.

Here are some recent photos showing our life down here:

This was taken on Beau's 1st birthday -- June 7th. We went to school in the morning to celebrate with all of the kids. Then we had a nice lunch with Daddy-o.

I made my first attempt at baking homemade cupcakes for Beau's class to celebrate his birthday. That night, after dinner, we let Beau feed one to himself. Apparently it's a tradition to let your 1 year old feed himself dessert. This tradition was definitely worth trying! Obviously I'm too much of a neat freak to let him do this clothed. I think I already had the bath filling when we took this picture!

Beau had an incredibly unique experience of meeting a leatherback sea turtle that had just hatched. The students and other residents here make a big effort to preserve these endangered animals by monitering the eggs and protecting them from birds and other predators the day they are born by releasing them at night to crawl into the water. They are beautiful creatures, and without knowing exactly what was happening, I think Beau understood what a rare experience this was!

As you can see, Beau is still loving the water! When we go to the beach, he crawls head-first towards the waves!

In June we went to Beaumont Park, the horse racing track in St. Kitts. Beau loved seeing the horses race by. He can't say many words yet, but he "neighs" just like a horse surprisingly well!

And our biggest update is that Beau has learned how to walk!! Since second semester began, Beau has been practicing his walking skills with the little walker that his Aunt Stacey gave him in the picture below. We would bring him out to walk by the "Seawall," which is a little lounge area in front of the ocean that borders our community, every day. He was getting really good at it. On July 1st, one day before Andrew's birthday, I noticed that Beau was standing in place without holding onto anything. When Andrew got home from class, I said, "look at Beau's new trick!" Andrew, being the genius that he is, pointed out that if he could stand on his own, maybe he could walk on his own. So we tried sitting a few feet apart and sending Beau back and forth between us. Lo and behold, he did it!!

On July10th, at our friend's pool party, Beau stood himself up on his own, and began walking. We have decided that July 10, 2010 is the official day that Beau became a bipedal. Congratulations, Beau!

Trip back to New York

During Andrew's first break, we went home to New York. We bounced around from Roslyn, to Brooklyn, to New Jersey, and saw tons of friends and family. Despite being a little under the weather, Beau was THRILLED to see so many people. He is such a social baby!

It was quite the culture shock going home. Andrew and I couldn't stop oohing and aahing over all of the "nice" Hondas and Toyotas, let alone the Mercedes and BMWs! Hey, it's all relative when a 1999 Rav 4 is the nicest car you've seen in a while.

Aunt Stacey threw Beau and Shira a combined 1st birthday party for all of the families to attend. It was not only beautiful, with delish food courtesy of Granny Etta, but also the best opportunity for us to see everyone we loved while we were home for such a short time. Thanks, Stacey! It was the best 1st birthday present ever!

We also got to meet all of our friends' babies-- aka -- Beau's future girlfriends.

But the best part was that we were genuinely excited to be in St. Kitts when we got back. Andrew and I chugged a Stag (local beer) and jumped in the pool with Beau within the first 15 minutes of getting home.

Family visit

Our last visitors over first semester were my parents and sister, Lindsay. We had such a great time showing them what it is we actually do here (what do we do here?). In addition to our normal swimming, playing and napping routine, we did a lot of Marriott brunches (think fat kid in a candy store), beach bar lunches, afternoon beers or pina coladas, and then evening meals at all of the restaurants I've been wanting to try for 3 months. What is the common thread? FOOD!




Beau had the best time with his Grandpa and Nana.

And Lindsay just doted on him the whole week. She bathed him, fed him and got lots of cuddling time in. He was loving it after so many months away from her!

They also got to see his newest tricks-- crawling properly (thanks to the soft mat Grandpa and Nana brought him from home) and pulling himself up to standing!

NEVIS

We took the ferry to Nevis to celebrate our friend Kimalee's birthday. We headed to Nesbitt Plantation, a heavenly beach on the North shore. We spent the day swimming and lying in the most picturesque hammock.


After an awesome meal at the beach restaurant, we had some St. Kitts and Nevis-sized cupcakes, care of Cache. Then we had the rare pleasure of watching Kimalee get drunk.

Sager Visit

Stacey, Adam, Shira and Yael came to visit us for one week from FREEEEEEZING cold New Jersey to sunny St. Kitts. It was such a great week for all of us, but especially Beau who seemed to thrive having his cuzzies around all day. Whenever the kids were all together, it felt like total chaos, but it was such a blast to see them feeding off of each other. In the midst of being trampled on and suffocated by his bigger, tougher cousins, Beau was just smiling and laughing and admiring the way they crawled and walked with such ease! In fact, I think they inspired him to get better at scooting across the room, which he now does at quite a good clip.

We brought the Sager family to all of our regular digs, including Friday night volleyball at Timothy Beach.

We even managed to have an adults-only night at The Spice Mill, down at Cockleshell Beach. We danced and partied until the wee hours of the morning... well maybe only 12:01 AM, but still.

They couldn't stay out of the warm, beautiful water! Stacey was so sun and fresh air-deprived, that she developed a sort of tick over the week. She'd randomly start muttering "perfect... perfect... perfect" when she was swimming in the ocean or playing with the kids in the sun.

It was a divine week for all of us, and we'll never forget it! Next time, 2 weeks!

End of Abbey's Visit - Caribelle

The rest of Abbey's trip here was fantastic! Beau got so much quality Abbey-time, it was awesome. While she was here, we also made an amateur film. It was so much fun to have her to bounce ideas off of and get creatively inspired. Thanks, Muse! You can see our film by clicking on the title of this blog post.

Abbey's visit so far...

Abbey came to visit us on January 20th for two weeks. We are half way through her trip, and having a great time. In the last week, we brought her to Reggae Beach, Shipwreck, the Marriott and of course, the Atlantic in our backyard. We went out to Mr. X's Shiggidy Shack on Saturday night, and were fortunate enough to hear our neighbor, Bob doing karaoke. She met Beau's buddies and got to go on the crater hike, where you hike to the top of the volcano. Here's Abbey drinking a pistachio snow cone served up by Sweet Elroy.

This is the view into the volcano from the top of the 5 hour crater hike.

Abbey has been touring around and seeing the amazing sights of St. Kitts.

Today we all ate at Kittitian Roti. Rotis are delicious, incredible, hot, curry Indian wraps. Abbey is IN with Beau because she lets him sample everything she's eating/drinking/touching.

Two new teeth and two new friends

Beau's two bottom teeth are officially here! Their emergence was accompanied by a lot of crying, whining, running nose, sore throat and even fever, so I think it's only right to make a big deal out of them. Andrew and I laugh about how cute he looks now when he smiles with his new teeth sticking out now.

We have also started playing regularly with two of the babies here-- Isaiah and Damon. The boys go swimming together, they eat sand together, and generally have a good time. Beau is the youngest, so he's fascinated by the way they run around and do so much.

End of orientation and White Coat Ceremony

We finished orientation week with a trip around St. Kitts to see the island's various sites. We visited a batik shop in the rainforest, Brimstone Hill which is an old fort, and Blackrock where the beach was created by a volcanic explosion, making the sand and rocks black. Along the way we got to see the island's many free-roaming goats. They're pretty cute, as long as you don't hit one of them as they run across the road.

The White Coat Ceremony was held at the end of the week, acknowledging the students' entry into the veterinary field. I was very proud to see Andrew and all of his orientation group buddies in their coats.

Catamaran trip to Nevis

As part of orientation week, we took a catamaran ride to Nevis. Some of the other students took advantage of one of the last opportunities to get a tan before classes started. We hung out in the shade with the other families and soaked up the scenery. Nevis was also a beautiful island. We got off of the boat for a bit and hung out just down the shore from the Four Seasons.


On the way back to St. Kitts, we saw the volcano on Montserrat erupting for the second time in three weeks. This means more ash and dust blowing over to St. Kitts in the next few weeks.

Live de Life

"Live de life" was the name of a boat I saw at Reggae Beach, on the southern peninsula of St. Kitts the other day. It's also a sort of slogan down here. We have been in St. Kitts since January 1st, and we are just beginning to figure out what that will mean for us over the next 2 years. So far, it means that we sleep to the sound of the ocean about 200 feet from our house, take a dunk in the pool or ocean in the morning, and then again in the evening to cool off from the 80+ degree weather, and leave Beau barefoot all of the time. It also means that anything promised in a few days will take a few weeks, taxi rides will feel more like a roller coaster, and we will, on occasion, lose power (and thankfully recover it a little bit later).

This week has been filled with Andrew's orientation events at Ross. So far we are pretty impressed with how well the school treats its students-- organizing a taxi to drive us everywhere until we get a car, welcoming spouses and kids, helping us with our first grocery shopping and bringing us to recreational sights on the island in addition to practical places. We were also impressed by the modern campus. It made me really excited for Andrew to get in there and start all of his nerdy medical work!

We are learning our way around the island, which will be important when we get our car in the next few days (and have to drive on the left side, with a steering wheel on the right side)... eek. There are lush mountains everywhere, with rain clouds at the top and long slopes that lead out to the ocean. Small beaches-- rougher on the Atlantic and softer on the Caribbean-- are everywhere you look. The beauty of St. Kitts far exceeded my expectations!

All things considered, not a bad first few days.