Me: Jared there's a weird tan moth in the bathroom. Can you come get it?
Jared: Don't hurt him! He's my friend. He is good.
Me: Ok, well it's creepy and watches me while I go to the bathroom, so...
Jared: Be nice to my friend! I talked to him last night and he told me he likes you. Let him stay!
On millipedes (we get lots of millipedes in our apartment, so this type of conversation happens probably every other day)...
Me: Jared, I was just in your study room. Did you know there's a gross black millipede on the floor by your desk?
Jared: Yes! He came two days ago. He is my friend.
Me: Ok...
Jared: I told him he can stay. His name is Moses.
Me: Moses?
Jared: Yeah. The other ones were Charlotte, Grey, Weeder, and Steadman. The next one can be yours to name.
*****
Me: Jared, there's a dead little friend (millipede) under the sink.
Jared: Don't hurt him!
Me: But he's already dead...
Jared: No, he's just resting. Maybe he's hiding under there so you won't hurt him.
Me: Jared, I'm not going to hurt him! We get millipedes all the time and I've never hurt any of them.
Jared: Yes, but you hurt their feelings. They know what you say about them.
On earthworms (I've never seen an earthworm here, but this happened all the time when we lived in Utah)...
Me, walking along the sidewalk after a rainstorm: Ewwwww!
Jared: *picks up each worm one by one and puts them in the grass so they'll be safe*
On cockroaches:
Jared: Die! Die! Die! Evil! Bad! Die!
Why yes, for those of you with suspicions, a good half of these photos were totally posed. ("Work it, work it!" shouted a very entertained Jared between study breaks, egging it on.) AT LEAST I'M HONEST. But no, the bananas were not supposed to be part of that! I legit brought them as a snack and then they somehow wandered into every single picture. I think it's hilarious. If you didn't notice, then I invite you to scroll up and go fruit hunting. The coconut that looks like a small dog is also a fruit.
The pictures were taken at the beautiful and secluded Secret Beach a good, oh, two months ago. Better late than never? I really like this beach and this swimming suit (is there a Swimsuits Anonymous somewhere I can join?), so I couldn't just NOT put these pictures on my blog. We can call this a fashion post if you like labels. I guess that's what you call a blog post with 1,897 pictures of yourself in a swimming suit. Fashion post. Yes. My name is Laura, and I am a fashion blogger with a swimsuit addiction and I use fruit and my husband as props.
As I mentioned yesterday, Jared recently had his first day of visiting Grenada's public hospital to follow a doctor around with his cute little med student group. He's been looking forward to this day since first term, and it was monumental. The first of many many many MANY days spent learning in a hospital, which is what Jared's dreams are made of. He came home wearing his white jacket, which is major attractiveness points in my opinion. I didn't get a picture, buuut I'm sure there will be dozens of white coat pictures in the future.
The trip left him exhausted. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that the public hospital here is not air conditioned, and they cram as many patients as possible into each room. #thirdworldproblems. Apparently the patient that Jared's group was working with was a nice Grenadian woman who lived in England for several years. When they asked her if they could check her heartbeat and some other things she was like, "Ya sure!" And then she unexpectedly tore open her blouse. The doctor came back after that and was like, "Maybe next time let's close the curtains off to give her some privacy when you listen to her heart sounds." No one was phased though. I think it's kind of cool that Jared gets to experience a whole different hospital culture. I asked Jared if he had anything to say about the day that he'd like me to write. This is what he said:
"The nicest person I've met in Grenada is a woman with sickle cell anemia, one lung, and a diaphragmatic hernia. She was the first patient I observed in the St. George's general hospital, and she's the most positive person I've met here. Clinicals can't come soon enough! Sitting down with books all day is taking its toll on me. I want to interact with doctors and patients."
There you have it. The picture at the top of this post is of the hospital. It's on some prime real estate and has a gorgeous view of the ocean and some pretty beaches. Maybe the patients don't get to appreciate the view as much as others might, but the constant breeze there probably makes a world of difference.
^^This jumpsuit is knee-length!! Aka tropical heaven!!!!
When he got home from the hospital he was pooped. Like, soooo tired. And he had only been there for 4 or 5 hours! I shudder to think about his upcoming residency years, when he will be at the hospital literally 100 hours a week. That's 2 1/2 full-time jobs. Ugh. He will be the walking dead. But the good part about Jared being exhausted is that I can slowly talk him away from his studies to spend a bit of time in the fresh air.
The other day we accidentally discovered that our favorite nearby smoothie stand started selling wings. And they're pretty dern good, and pretty cheap! The buffalo wings are our favorite so far. The jerk wings were good too but so spicy that we both started crying. Yesterday we swung by for 6 buffalo wings and 4 parmesan wings, and we took them to Quarantine Point to check out the massive Disney cruise ship that docked here yesterday. It looked to be the the same size as the city it was parked in front of (St. George's—Grenada's biggest city), and it's not even the biggest ship that's ported here. It's officially cruise season in Grenada from now until May. I like cruise season because it's fun to go see the huge ships, but I also don't like it because all the beaches get crowded and all the locals start thinking I'm a tourist and try to squeeze money out of me.
I love waves! The calm beaches near us are beautiful, but I tend to get bored with them within an hour or two (although they are great for snorkeling). I would love if there were a few beaches around us with big waves so I could learn to surf. There's a baby "surf spot" a walking distance from our house, but it's really shallow and crazy urchin-infested. Jared says I need to wait until he takes me to Hawaii someday, and that's the place to learn to surf. I can wait—I've picked up some other hobbies here that are keeping me busy and excited. Here's to taking advantage of these winter waves while they last!
See pictures from our trip to La Sagesse beach last January here.
My favorite perk of the nice weather is that it's come during a relatively nice term for Jared. We spent Saturday boogie boarding at La Sagesse beach, and we've gotten out of the house together every evening this week. Monday we read on the veranda, Tuesday we walked to the surf spot around the corner to watch the sunset, Wednesday we had a picnic on a bench overlooking the crab field, and tonight we found a new quiet spot called "quarantine point" where we ate KFC and made friends with a Grenadian man named Sylvan. He just got back from visiting his Swedish girlfriend in, well, Sweden, and he was wearing a "Lake Tahoe" shirt. The people here (including me) seem more friendly in the dry season too. It's good that it's good to be back.
Jared and I don't get as much pillow talk in as I'd like. He studies and studies so hard that by the time he's done at night he is flat-out exhausted. When his head hits that pillow, the lights had better be out because he needs darkness to sleep and he's tired enough to be out in 15 seconds flat.
We're in the blessed, reasonable fifth term now though. And classes just started on Monday, so there's a feeling of "we can do this" in the air. An aura of lightness that hasn't been around since, well, before this whole med school biz. It's wonderful. The other night when the lights went out (all except the string of Christmas lights still above our bed, because we're those people), we had a nice chat about silly things--I don't remember what about exactly, but there was lots of giggling. And then as Jared adjusted the temperature down a degree Celsius, he remarked on how our AC remote looks like Bert, as in Bert and Ernie. See!
We laughed about that for forever and then I poured myself half a gulp of NyQuil, because I brought a nasty sleep-ruining cold with me from the States (the stuff also conveniently helped me adjust four hours ahead to the Grenada time zone). It was in this moment that I learned that I can thank NyQuil for our marriage. See, Jared always told me that he knew I was the girl for him because he never felt nervous or anxious around me--everything just came naturally. Come to find out, he actually threw down a swig of NyQuil each morning before our German class in the weeks just before and after we started dating to fend off the nerves (he now knows that that is not a sound medical practice)! That's why you never felt anxious around me, bubs! So I guess I'll be adding NyQuil to my gratitude turkey every Thanksgiving from now on.
We're in the blessed, reasonable fifth term now though. And classes just started on Monday, so there's a feeling of "we can do this" in the air. An aura of lightness that hasn't been around since, well, before this whole med school biz. It's wonderful. The other night when the lights went out (all except the string of Christmas lights still above our bed, because we're those people), we had a nice chat about silly things--I don't remember what about exactly, but there was lots of giggling. And then as Jared adjusted the temperature down a degree Celsius, he remarked on how our AC remote looks like Bert, as in Bert and Ernie. See!
On our last day in Washington, Jared took me for a little date in Seattle. Mostly we just walked around and explored, but we also got some amazing clam chowder in bread bowls at Pike Place. Jared also got a tuna fish sandwich that was, like, fresh outta the ocean. Our eyes got all huge after our first bites because never have we ever tasted such sublime tuna in all our lives. Afterward we checked out the fresh new gum wall (the old one was torn down because the sugar from the gum was eating away at the bricks or something), grabbed some mini donuts, and went to explore the Seattle public library. We spent most of our time in the children's books section. I love our dates.
All of Jared's siblings went ice skating together one day over the break. Jared and Marie actually took ice skating when they were younger (though Jared lied to all his friends about it because he thought it was embarrassing), so they're actually pretty good. Jared taught me how to ice skate during our first married winter. I'm not as good as he is, but I only fell once this time around! And it was fun to watch everyone rally around their youngest sibling, Will, to teach him how to skate for the first time. He originally didn't want to come, but he wound up loving it. Must be a family thing.
And then Jared realized that he couldn't find the keys to the car. They were gone. We started to panic just a little because it was cold and we were hungry and we had no cell service and even if we could get cell service, Jared's mom was the only one with a phone and it was almost out of battery! Jared was sure that the keys had fallen out of his pocket at some point, so he started jogging along the trail while us ladies walked toward the main road to try to get cell service. We eventually were able to call Marie to come rescue us, but as we walked back toward our car we worried that Marie might not make it (the roads were getting icy) and that Jared would freeze and die on the trail (he left his coat at the car and was really hungry). But just a short time later, we heard Jared shouting our names and he came jogging into view with the keys! He had left them at the very end of the trail, meaning that he must be a really fast runner because that was a loooong hike. On the way home, we called off the search party and got some hot tortilla soup at Ixtapa's. Yay memories!
I spy a cut little Jared and a cute little Will.
My favorite day of the break was the day spent driving an hour or two up into the mountains to go sledding. These pictures don't do it a bit of justice. I was going to have Annie send me the pictures she took with her fancy new camera, but if I wait for that then this post will never happen. So these will do. Honestly, the drive was my favorite part. Everywhere we looked were hundred and hundreds of tall, snow-covered evergreens. The sledding was fun too. We went down a hill that had a little tow-line to pull you back up. Unfortunately the line was really long, so we only lasted a couple runs before seeking shelter and hot chocolate in the lodge and then driving home.
On the way home we caught a gorgeous sunset. Everyone else was exhausted and perhaps a bit carsick, but I love long drives and mountains and trees and sunsets, so this was my jam. We stopped at a Mexican place called Ixtapa for dinner. It was amazing. I haven't had Mexican food like that since before Los Hermanos changed up their menu and the quality went down. I got a chimichanga, and Jared's tortilla soup was to die for. In fact, we went back again just a couple days later on the way home from a hike gone awry (more on that in the next post).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)