Daily Life

"Front" of AUC

I've been promising pictures of our apartment and AUC for a long time now. The AUC pictures are all from Christmas time, though the only thing that gives that away is the tree in the rotunda. I finally took some pictures of our apartment so I can share them with you (sorry they're a little dark, lighting in here can be tricky). It's not very big but we've tried to make it cozy and welcoming. Of course putting these up doesn't mean you don't have to come visit now ;) 

We have been staying busy lately, Owen's semester has been winding down and he's been studying a lot. They have the last set of exams and then finals within a week of each other so it's a lot of work to end the semester. I have been busy reorganizing the spouses group as the new VP and making sure we start off strong. I'm excited for the changes we're making and think it will be a great semester. I also recently attended a conference on Autism and Learning Disabilities in Young Children. It was hosted at the local university (St Martin, not AUC) and there were visitors from nearby islands attending as well. It was a very interesting day and a great chance to learn about the resources and needs for children in this country. I also was able to do some networking and am hoping to have some great opportunities come out of it. 

Anyway Owen is in the middle of finals as I write this, he will be on vacation by 4pm tonight! We'll be staying on island for the two week break, doing some snorkeling, exploring, diving (Owen), and hopefully a little getaway to a neighboring island or two. I'm sure we'll have lots of fun things to tell about after the break as well as an update from Owen now that he'll actually have a little time to write on here. We hope you are all doing well, keep in touch!

View of the Lagoon from AUC

Rotunda (at Christmas)

Owen's classroom

The real front of AUC, this is what we see when entering

Our Apartment Building (32 apts)

The door to our apartment, the laundry room is just around the corner

Our amazing car

From our front door, all 495sq ft of it

Living "room"

Kitchen

little bathroom but huge shower

Bedroom with balcony  

Another view of the bedroom

Life on an Island

Another update with mostly pictures (since I know that's what people are most interested in). But first things going on down here. Owen had another set of exams, he now has 2 left in 4 weeks and then a 2 week break (yay!!). He just started Introduction to Clinical Medicince, which focuses on patient interviewing and histories. I continue to tutor and will be Vice President on the board for the spouses group for the next couple semesters. We will be staying here over the April break and hopefully doing some island hopping. We also are officially going to South Africa over the August break for a medical missions trip, details to follow soon in a post from Owen. That's about all that's happening here. Onto the fun part, pictures!

from the regatta, notice the Heineken bottle

The first handful are from our favorite hike on the island, really one of the only hikes there are. It follows the coast line on the northwestern side of the island and brings you to a secluded beach, Petite Caye, only accessible from the hike. The next bunch are from the 31st Heineken Regatta, held the first weekend of March. We went to a nearby beach to watch the boats pass. The last are from a sunset recently, we often get beautiful sunsets from that beach. So over all, life on an island isn't too bad. We get to enjoy all the beautiful scenery and experiences. 

Titamare in the background, an island of St Martin

most of the hike is on coral, this is the only dirt section

The secluded beach

Cool piece of drift wood (and us)

Cacti on the hike, it's very arid on that side of the island

Cotton grows all over the island too

View from our apartment building

Airplane coming in for landing, just over the boats

Spinnaker (a sail boat with the this style front sail)

the beach/cliffs we watched from

Saba in the background

Playing Tourist with Alison

Alison and me at graduation 2007

Last week my friend from college came to visit! We had a great week with Alison, full adventures and relaxing beach days. We spent time on several different beaches around the island, went cliff jumping, did some shopping in Philipsburg, sailed to Anguilla for snorkeling, went zip lining on the french side, and even watched a crab race. We're so glad she was able to visit. Here are some pictures and videos (hopefully they work, if not I'll try to upload again later) from her visit. Enjoy!

Alison and I jumping together off 20ft cliff

My jump off 45ft cliff (we all jumped)

After our jump together

Nasty eel right where we were climbing out

Snorkeling at Prickly Pear, Anguilla

 

                                    

On the boat before lunch in Anguilla

Extreme Zip lining at Loterie Farms

View from starting point

One of many rope bridges between zip lines

Alison coming in on a zip line

Me on one of the long ziplines

Our photographer stopped for a picture :)

Hermit crab races at Kim Sha Beach (it's a local thing)

Pina Coladas at Baie Rouge (I think she had a pretty fun visit)

Officially a Triathlete

I completed my first triathlon!! There is a company on the island that holds races almost every week and it never costs more than $20 to participate. So I figured now is the best time to try it out. This race (Feb 6) was 3 mini triathlons held in a row. The distances for each event were 200m swim, 7km bike, 2km run. I did the first race and Owen did all three (the equivalent of a sprint triathlon). I had such a great time that I will be traveling to a nearby island in April to do two more. I'll be doing another "try-a-tri" as they call the really mini tri and relaying a medium tri (300m swim, 3km run, a friend will do the 30km bike). Check out the race pictures below. 

Marked for the swim

Other news from the island. Owen did well on his second set of exams on Monday. I'm still tutoring and seeing kids with the neurologist. I've been cooking more lately with great success. We went on a hike Monday after exams were over. It's a really pretty hike right on the water with "mountains" behind, you can see two other islands along the way and you end up at a secluded beach only accessible by the hike. It's nice to experience the beautiful, non tourist sections of the island. Owen is going scuba diving on Saturday to finish his certification. We have our first visitor coming in on Sunday! Alison, my good friend from college, will be here for a week and we have lots of fun things on the agenda. Another post with pictures from her visit will follow. I booked my flights to CT for Michelle and Evan's wedding in July! Not much else to report for now. Enjoy the pictures. Let us know how you all are.

Our swim on the first race. We started out this distance apart and maintained it the whole swim

Owen finishing the bike on his last race

Owen finishing the run, racing the other guy

Finishing my bike

Owen came back out to finish my run with me

After all the races