January is almost over!!

January is almost through. How crazy is that! It really seems like it just began. I mean yah ACC seems like a long time ago but it doesn't seem like that much time has passed. And then on the other hand it seems like forever ago that we got back to BIM and started readjusting. Weird how time happens. A friend the other day said that time goes quickly when we're having fun or getting old. I choose to believe it's passing by quickly b/c of the fun part...that and I'd like to add that time goes quickly when we're busy and I am definitely busy.

My Apartment

So I realized I never put pictures of my apartment up anywhere...so here they are. Enjoy the tour.

My front door. Welcome to my apartment.

My half of the room. Under bed storage is nice.


My closet.

The living room and eating area.






The Kitchen with no dishwasher and an oven that cooks on super speed.

1 bathroom for 4






THE END.

finally some cold

I went home for Christmas. Well home being Orlando. We were in the States for 2 weeks. 1 was spent at our respective locations and the 2nd was in Atlanta for Crusade's Unveiled conference.

A lot happened in 2 weeks and looking back I'm surprised I survived but God is faithful and it was pretty fun. Here's a run down and some random thoughts.

Week One: Orlando: family and Kyle
-speed Scrabble (Mike won)
-lots of food
-Matt's graduation party (congrats Matt!!)
-best Christmas Eve tradition ever!! (Asian food and Hercules w/ the Thomases)
-Christmas
-some golf
-movies (2nd National Treasure, We Are Marshall, and Ocean's 13)
-Office and I Love Lucy
-no coldness. Orlando was like high 70's-80's.
-pool
-late nights talking w/ Kyle

Week Two: Atlanta: UF folk and SE CCC Staff, the STINT team (minus Ricquel)
-VERY COLD
-good speakers
-some good time with God
-thinking about my future
-New Years Dance Party
-lots of conversations
-lots of talking about Barbados
-ultimate in freezing conditions...totally worth it though
-Prayer Journey

Favorite things I got for Christmas:
-I Love Lucy episodes on DVD
-travel Yahtzee
-Office Calendar
-chocolate
-running shorts

Random Dad:
My dad kept calling Barbados Bajanland and now my whole family has caught the phrase. crazy.

earliest I went to sleep: 12:40 am
latest I went to sleep: 4:00 am

Things I miss/appreciate about home:
-CARPET
-AC
-dryer
-access to a car
-later store hours
-good Chinese food

Christmas break was good. I'm not sure if I'm ready yet to be back in Barbados but for better or worse I am. I am excited to be here and excited for this next semester though parts of me still want more time in the US. But time will fly. I'm working on engaging here while I still am.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...kind of

So it's December 16th and it's only now sort of feeling like Christmas. You go into Bridgetown and the population and quadrupled with Christmas shopping. There's a cool night breeze. Spatters of houses have Christmas lights up. Occasionally you'll hear a Caribbean altered Christmas song. The most telling evidence is exams are almost complete and students are eager for a break.

Some of the team would argue that it is not feeling like Christmas. You can still build a good sweat walking down the hill. The sun is still bright and shinny. The low is in the upper 70's. We don't really have a Christmas tree and there's no eggnog but we're managing. I'm looking forward to going home and having a slightly cooler temperature. It's been 80 some in Orlando this past week...it'd better get cold quickly if it knows what is good for it. But maybe it will be a good transition/buffer before I hit Atlanta. I'm definitely built for southern climates. God knew what He was up to when He sent me to Barbados.

The Grocery Shuttle

Today Amber and I waited over an hour and a half for the grocery shuttle. If you shop at Jordan's they have a shuttle which will take you home. It's incredibly awesome since otherwise we'd have to take a bus and then a ZR and then walk the rest or take a bus and walk a long way.

However, the shuttle is not always time efficient. All you Americans with cars be thankful that you can go to the grocery store and back in under an hour! It takes us around 3 round trip.

The One String Law

Apparently according to some there is a one string of Christmas lights per building law in Barbados. We think it's a scam considering the people who told us about it. :-P

We put up Christmas lights tonight!! And blasted Christmas music on the i-pod. Amazing! I went into town on Tuesday and bought a white board for Evaluation and Planning (ENP) as well as Christmas decorations!! Amanda was disappointed that I didn't get colored lights so next time I will for Amanda but hey, white can be classy. 

Amber and I looped them with the help of Levan while Stephen adamantly claimed that they would not be up in the morning. We didn't listen to him. Unfortunately part of one string is mysteriously not working already. We're not sure why. We twisted all the bulbs and everything. Boo. 

Oh well. It's finally beginning to feel a bit like Christmas. Still warm though.

Bajan Independence

Yesterday was Independence Day for Barbados. No school, no work. Whoo hooo! I started out the morning by sleeping in a bit and then went running w/ my pose. (Jeffrey, Michael and now Amit) Good run. I actually made it all the way up the hill. Quite an accomplishment if you've seen the hill. of course Jeffrey and Michael make it look super easy.

Later in the evening we started getting ready for our Independence Lime. We set the start time at 7 but really people didn't come till 8 something though we did have some wonderful students there early to help get ready and cook. We provided BBQ chicken and hamburgers and lots of chips (or fries) and real chips and muabi juice and other fun things.

It was also a costume party and like any true foreigner trying to fit in I pulled out my blues and blacks and yellows. Even complete with some face painting. I'll get a picture up here or on facebook soon.

What a blast of a night. We sang and danced and ate and laughed. My favorite part was just seeing students come that we've built relationships with over the past 3 months. In some ways it was a bit of the result of our work this semester. Yay for celebrating!