Random Thoughts from Jamie

-Hurricane Igor decided to turn north thankfully. We should get some rain and wind from the outer bands tomorrow, but we'd much rather have that than the Category 4 monster storm that was heading straight for us earlier in the week.

-We bought a car. A 2002 Toyota Corolla, previously owned by a mechanic so we're hoping for the best. Definitely the quietest "island" car we've heard so far.

-I had my first island movie theater experience yesterday. Every Wednesday is Ladies night on the island and ladies get 1/2 price movie tickets! So the grand total of a ticket, medium popcorn and bottled water.....$9!! Movies are normally $6.50 so not bad anytime. The theaters are actually really nice and the seats are comfy and recline pretty far.

-I got to wear jeans for the first time in a month. It was very breezy here last night and driving home from the movies there was almost a hint of fall in the air. I'm hoping that is what the "winter" is like here.

-Salt air is great for you! My hair is lightening quiet a bit and is very soft, my nails are growing stronger and healthier than they have in years, and my skin is smooth and not dry at all.

-I'm walking a few mornings a week with some girls and feeling great. Now I just need to get back to the beach for some swimming and sunning before my tan fades and I burn again.

-There is a great coffee shop on the corner that I finally went to and believe I may be there frequently. Now if only they could get a pumpkin spice flavor.

-This weekend is Burrito weekend, leading into the students Blocks, aka exams. The spouses put together and bake burritos on Friday and sell them at the school on Saturday and Sunday. It's the main fundraiser for the group, and gives students a meal without having to break from studying. So that will be fun. The spouses group is a pretty nice group of girls. 

-We went to a Bible Study on campus lead by a professor, through the same group that does Sunday service. There were a good number of people there and should be a nice group to get involved in beyond just Sundays. 

-And finally the one annoying thing lately is the management and maintenance for our apartment building. They are the most retarded people we've dealt with. It's painful trying to get anything done. Hopefully things will be fixed soon and we won't have to deal with them anymore. On that note we're down to 1 working dryer out of 4 for the 32 apartments so we'll see how long that lasts. Someone is making bank off all us and neglecting the building and it's needs.

One Exciting Year

© Rogers Photography/www.rogersphoto.com

In honor of our first anniversary I'm going to post a couple of pictures from the wedding, our anniversary trip, and from Friday's White Coat. Crazy to think it's already been a year and to think of where we are now compared to a year ago. Who would have thought we'd be living where we honeymooned to. Things are good here. We're looking into buying a car, we'll see what happens there. We're watching Hurricane Igor intensify rapidly (already a category 4) as it heads our direction, hopefully it stays on the predicted path and turns north just before it gets to us. Owen is busy studying away, his first exam is next week. We went to a church service this morning held at the school which was really nice. We are going out to dinner later to celebrate one whole year of marriage. Other than that, nothing else to share right now. Enjoy the pictures, hope you're all doing well, and keep in touch.

One of our absolute favorite shots from the day
© Rogers Photography/www.rogersphoto.com

© Rogers Photography/www.rogersphoto.com

1st anniversary trip, deep sea fishing out of Gloucester 7/19/10

White Coat Ceremony 9/10/10

With some new friends, Thomas and Natalie (not Thomas' best picture)

White Coat

On Friday Owen has his White Coat ceremony. For those of you interested in watching via livefeed here is the link White Coat. It will begin at 5:30 EST. For anyone interested but not able to watch live, it looks like it will be available to view at the same link at your convenience. We will post some pictures from it this weekend.

First Day Photo

Owen's last first day of school ever.

Owen is now in his second week of school. I started tutoring today; schools have finally reopened after being closed all last week due to Earl. My kids are great, a boy and a girl both 6 grade. We attended the spouses dinner Friday night and met some nice people. We rented a wave runner on Saturday and went all around Simpson Bay Lagoon. There are a few pictures from that below. Most were blurry since they were on a waterproof point and shoot we borrowed from a friend. We bought a TV off another student and can now play our Wii. We have a mixer tonight at the school and Owen's white coat ceremony is Friday. I'll post a link for the streamed video of it this week. Other than that life is settling into a routine. Nothing else exciting to update right now. Here's a few pictures. Hope everyone is doing well, miss you all.

Wave Runner in the Lagoon

St Maarten's mountains

Marigot, French Side of Lagoon

Post-Hurricane

So now that you all have seen the island before the hurricane, I'm going to show some during and post hurricane pictures. First some updates.

-Working on day 3+ without power. Not expected to get it back until Thursday night at the earliest since we are last priority on the island and TS Fiona is hindering repair

-No power isn't so bad until you try to sleep when it's a very stagnant night with temps in the mid-80's and mosquitos biting all night (apparently they don't believe in screens here)

This is what we do during a hurricane

-Having only cold water to shower in has never felt so good!

-Tropical Depression Nine (unnamed storm as of now) is developing for next week, yay for hurricane season heating up!

-We've learned to no longer keep refrigerated or frozen stuff around during hurricane season since it's basically throwing away money

-Owen started classes today, things are a bit disorganized still, but so far so good

-I'm taking advantage of the AC at school and spending the day here. Tutoring starts tomorrow when area schools reopen

Other than that things are good. We're looking forward to getting back to the beach when the storms clear up and the water isn't so rough for swimming. Cleanup around the area has begun and once power is back things should be back to normal. We're pretty well settled and adjusted at this point, just need to work on making the apartment look more inviting instead of all white. That's all for now, we'll update again when we have more exciting things to post. I'll try posting videos another day. So onto pictures, enjoy!

Our beach during the hurricane (2 below as well)

20' waves, spilling onto the golf course

Owen balancing himself against the strong winds

Golf Course by the beach

Golf course on left, our beach on right 

The next day, our parking lot

Our street

Golf Course

Our beach back to normal color but still stronger waves than usual