To get to the tide pools you walk a little ways down form our house, take a left at the roundabout, go up a quiet road, take a left at the end, walk down the cutest path lined with beautiful vegetation, and there you are! These pictures were taken in February, but today we took a walk to the same tide pools and it was one of the best yet. The sky was pink and blue and cloudy, and the night was cool. Jared slipped his arm around my waist, and we talked about how sad we would be to leave our Grenada walks behind in just a little over a month. Although we're really excited for lots of America things, I doubt wherever we move next will have nearby walks that compare to these.
One of the nicest ports (probably the nicest) in Grenada is Port Louis Marina. This is where outrageously wealthy individuals and companies park their private super-yachts that are bigger than chapels. There's a restaurant there (can't remember what it's called) that Jared and I have eaten at two or three times. They serve the best chicken alfredo we've ever tasted.
These pictures are from a time when we went to the marina and explored out more than we usually do. We stumbled upon a big, grassy field where all these 20-something yacht people were playing frisbee with each other. It was so weird to watch these people, who are our age, and imagine their lifestyle. IMAGINE WITH ME. It's nuts. Yachting around the world with personal chefs.
I do love cultural things like this though! The two Grenadians came dancing down the stairs together to reggae music and then danced until one of them got too tired and had to sit out while the other lady taught the whole class herself, haha. Don't worry, I got that on film! It'll be in my video highlights at the end of the term.
I am officially further behind on blog posts than I have ever been in the history of my blog. I'm really not sure I'll ever be able to recover. I think there are, like, 15 batches of pictures from things I still need to post? I lit 15 tea candles around my room and plugged in some Christmas lights, so I am now ready to snuggle up with my laptop for a night full of sub-par blogging.
Grenada has several really good sit-down places to eat. However, these tend to run a bit pricy and require us to set aside an hour or two for ordering, receiving our food, eating, and getting our check. Oh, island time. I really will miss these relaxed vibes when we're gone.
But if you need to eat on the fly, basically your only good options are Subway and KFC. I think it was at the end of our 2nd term, when I was pretty fed up with cooking and doing dishes, that we realized that we could in theory eat at Subway for lunch and dinner every day of the week and not spend any more than we were spending on groceries. I guess I'll lay it out for you in case you're living in Grenada or will soon be living in Grenada, because it's nice to have a place where you can go to eat without feeling guilty about it when you NEED a break from cooking and doing dishes in an overheated, non-air conditioned kitchen.
Basically, Jared and I spend an average of $300 ec a week on groceries/eating out (that's the equivalent of around $110 US). This is fairly average for a couple living in Grenada. You could definitely eat a bit cheaper if you bought mostly local food (much of the food at the grocery store is imported and so the prices are inflated). It's also very easy to eat more expensively than this on a week-to-week basis, and we would be if it weren't for the fact that we bring loads of snacks with us from the States every time we visit home.
There are two Subways you can visit: the one on campus (gross ew flies no), and the one right by the local Excel Plaza movie theater (yes do this one always). Every day there's a new "combo of the day" (see third picture down). You can get a 6-inch sandwich combo for $13 ec, which includes chips and a drink (we always get Caribbean Cola because the rest of the local sodas are kind of weird, crazy sweet, or always "out"), or you can get a footlong combo for $21 ec. It's $18 ec if you get just the sandwich. Jared and I always split the footlong combo and that fills us both (but Jared doesn't seem to require as much food as the average man--he usually eats just a little more than I do). So if we were to do this for lunch and dinner every day, seven days a week, we would be spending exactly $294 ec on food. If we just split the sandwich and brought our own water (we do this a lot), then it would be $252 ec on food each week. That would leave us $50 ec for breakfast food and snacks (eeeeeasily done--you can get 2 dozen eggs for $20 ec at the farmer's market, plus lots of cheap fruits and vegetables).
So anyway, that's not to say that we eat at Subway for every meal. We don't. That's just to say that we don't ever feel guilty about eating at Subway if I don't have the time/will power to make a home-cooked meal. It's pretty cheap, pretty healthy, and pretty filling. We eat Subway on average once a week. Occasionally we'll switch it up with KFC, but that makes us feel grease nasty and it's a little bit more. Although Jared and I will be all-to-happy if we don't have to look a Subway sandwich in the face for the next 10 years of our lives when we're done with Grenada, we're pretty happy it's got our backs here.
Grenada's sunsets are usually soft, pink, and short-lived. Once the sun starts setting, it goes fast. Golden hour lasts all of maybe 25 minutes. Although I do miss longer sunsets and days filled with indirect sunlight, the quickness of it all here makes the brief bit before the sun disappears all the sweeter. Jared and I try to get a little walk in most evenings if his class schedule will allow it, and sometimes he'll even let me snap a few pictures. Jared hates photoshoots, and although he supports my hobbies, one of which is taking pictures, he still hates photoshoots.
On this particular evening, we got a 10-minute sun shower. The rain sprinkled down, but the sun stayed out. This type of weather makes for the most gorgeous sunsets. They're deep and they're orange and I wish they'd stay forever.
p.s. Just updated the "about" page, so if that's your favorite part of reading blogs like it is mine, then go ahead and have at it!
We brought my boogie board in hopes of some waves, but as you can see, the water was smooth as glass. Woe is us. More often than not we end up using the boogie board as a floatie toy because these Caribbean waters are known for being calm and clear. And the very best color, am I right?
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| Jared, Me, Caitlin, Chris, Jordan, Tim |
Last weekend, Jared and I made a quick trip to Utah for my brother Chris's wedding. I was hoping that this post would be my most visually appealing yet, showcasing my spazzy family outside the Salt Lake temple, the gorgeous copper dress I wore to their lovely greenhouse reception, mine and Jared's engagementversary overlooking Utah Valley on pi day, and video footage of the whole thing. I rented an excellent camera and a seriously gorgeous lens for the weekend (for my photographer friends, it was a 50mm 1.2L lens---I KNOW), but upon arriving home in Grenada, I was devastated to discover that the memory card I used all weekend had failed.
I tried a variety of recovery options, called the camera rental place for advice, and even took the card to Jared's school's staff photographer for him to work on it. No luck. It's all gone for good. On the downside, soooo many good pictures and videos gone (thankfully I wasn't the official wedding photographer or videographer), including a video shoot of my friends Sally and Trent in their wedding clothes for my portfolio. On the upside, I'm really glad I learned this lesson before I start taking paying clients. From here on out I'll invest in quality cards and use a camera that can write to two cards at once, just in case. Have any of you had this happen to you before?
Despite the pictures being gone, I still wanna write a post about our weekend back home. I haven't journaled this yet, so it may be a long one. On Friday, Jared and I nearly cried when we went through a Wendy's drive-thru because, holy moly, America and value menus and convenience and CUSTOMER SERVICE. The girl at the window even smiled at us. Do you realize that customer service isn't a thing in many places outside the US? You'd think that having visited home so many times during our Grenada adventure we'd be over it by now, but we're not. And I hope we never are.
That evening, Jared went night skiing with my brothers for Chris's bachelor party, and I went to Texas Roadhouse with my mom and grandma. Again, AMERICA. Mom was a bit on edge because our wait time was nearly an hour and the restaurant was pretty loud, but I was all smiles because our wait time was only an hour (that's like 10 minutes in island time) and my water glass was kept full the entire time and I can't even remember the last time I had a good steak before that day. And then that dry Utah air and vivid Utah sunset walking out? Oh gosh. I felt like a newborn baby, experiencing the world for the first time.
Saturday was the wedding. The whole day felt like the Home Alone airport scene. Chris and my parents left early, so my brothers and Jared and I were in charge of just making it to the wedding on time and driving Omi (our grandma) there. Well, as we got in the car to leave in a very timely manner, it came out that Omi had forgotten her temple recommend. She lives about 15 minutes form my parents' house in the opposite direction of the Salt Lake temple, so we were going to be cutting it reallll close if we ran back to get it. My speed-demon brother Jordan was driving though and he took this as a personal challenge. We made it to the sealing room exactly three minutes before the wedding, even with Jordan being pulled over for a ticket a block before we got there. All hail Jordan.
The wedding was lovely. My Uncle Al was able to do the sealing, and the weather outside was perfect for pictures. Chris looked so dapper with his scruff and his emerald green tie, and Caitlin was so pretty in her knee-length lacy white dress. Jordan, Tim, Jared, and I were alone in the party van for the drive home. We stopped at a Chick-fil-A (more weeping was involved because America and frozen lemonade and a girl taking our order while we waited in the drive-thru line because heaven forbid getting our food take us longer than 3 minutes!), and then sped on home because Jordan's ski rentals from the bachelor party were due back right then.
Jare and I went along with him, hoping for some relaxing Jordan time, but we wound up taking several flustered-sounding calls from Chris and running last-minute reception errands. When we finally finished those we had about 3 minutes of time at home to change into our dinner/reception clothes and dash down to the reception center. The dinner/reception was held in a nursery. Everything was green and pretty. The food was excellent. We killed it with our toasts. And there were Italian sodas and cobblers served at the reception! Jordan's girlfriend Amanda met us there with supplies to decorate/suran wrap the getaway car. And then we embarrassed ourselves so hard in the flash mob dance that we had rehearsed like twice. We're so happy to have Caitlin in the family now! Yay for finally having a sister to offset all the testosterone at family functions.
The next day was our last one in Utah. It was filled with church and family time and watching old family home videos. It was really odd saying goodbye to everyone and all our things this time around, knowing we'll be back for good in just two months time. These past two years in Grenada have gone by entirely too fast and entirely too slow, all at the same time.
The Limas Family from Laura Lambert on Vimeo.
A few weeks ago I took some pictures and shot a video for this cute family. Brandon is a term 2 med student at Jared's school and their family goes to church with us. Allie is super sweet and was a dance major at BYU. She's in a dance group here with some other friends of ours and they are awesome! And their baby . . . don't even get me started. She is such a fun lil' cutie. Love these guys!
I'm still a bit of a photo/video rookie, but every time I step out of my comfort zone to do something like this I learn so much! And although I'm excited to upgrade my gear later this year, I'm also grateful that I'm stuck with what I've got in Grenada (no technology stores around these parts). It's forced me to focus on technique and do a lot more research than I may be doing if I had fancy stabilization equipment and top-quality lenses to lean on. Plus, I'm grateful that people here want to hire me so I'll actually be able to afford upgrades later on. Lots of things to be grateful for in Grenada.
Oh and hey, I'm getting ready to launch a website in the coming month or two. I'm thinking it'll be half videography website, half blog. I figure if I'm going to pay for a domain name, I may as well put both on it. Thoughts on a name? Unfortunately, "Simpleton Pleasures" proooobably isn't the best choice for a videography website. It may be time to move past this space *tear*. I'm thinking that for simplicity, I may just use my own name for my budding business. You know, Laura Lambert Films or something generic like that. Thoughts? Experiences? Business name suggestions for me? Please and thank you!
A pictureless, stream-of-consciousness style post. Yust for fun.
Jared and I are in the Miami airport right now. For nine hours. Huzzah! We're going to go see my brother get married real quick, and then we'll come right back.
The Miami airport is the worst because it doesn't have free wi-fi and it's freezing (probably I'm just a Caribbean cry-baby). But my mom was like, "Girl, you're not sitting there for nine hours without Internet. That's not going to be a thing." And then she funded our airport Internet for the day. Thanks, parents!
Jared just finished writing a school essay for like five hours and so now it's my turn on the computer. What did we even do before computers?? (Also, am I even qualified to ask such a question when I literally have never known life without computers?) Since all of my fun personal projects are on my laptop in Grenada, the only things I can even do on here are blog and read the 200-Facebook-message-long spontaneous lip-syncing contest between 30 of us Grenada girls that just blew up my FB. Hulurius. Love those Grenada gurls.
Jared can NOT stop talking about how much he loves the GI tract. Is this normal?
And on a related note, just found out how much Jared does NOT love my facial features. Me: "I hope our babies have your lips and your amazing eyelashes and your nose. But I like my ears. They can have my ears." Jared: "Ehhhh, I actually like my ears a little better. They should have my ears." Me: "Ok, but what else? Build your perfect baby, Jare." Jared: "My nose, my eyes, my lips, my ears, my hair, my jaw." Me: Do they get anything of mine? Do I have ANY superior features to you?" Jared (in total seriousness): "Well, you just get used to seeing your face in the mirror for so long and that's what you come to like. I guess they could have your smile though." THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Our first two years of marriage were filled with much less harsh honesty than this one is. This one's funnier though. I'll take the trade-off.
Speaking of funny...
After we got off the plane we walked by this Asian food place in the airport. Jared looks over and shouts, "Hey look, it's ramen!" really loudly. But what he didn't realize was that as he pointed at the ramen, a suave airport worker with a name badge reading "Roman" walked right where Jared was pointing. Jared kept walking, Roman gave him the most sincerely confused look, and I fell to the floor, dead from laughing. I seriously don't think I've laughed so hard in years. It took me a full three minutes to calm down enough to explain the Roman/ramen thing to Jared. It was the most perfectly timed irony the universe has ever given me. I am so happy right now.
Jared and I are in the Miami airport right now. For nine hours. Huzzah! We're going to go see my brother get married real quick, and then we'll come right back.
The Miami airport is the worst because it doesn't have free wi-fi and it's freezing (probably I'm just a Caribbean cry-baby). But my mom was like, "Girl, you're not sitting there for nine hours without Internet. That's not going to be a thing." And then she funded our airport Internet for the day. Thanks, parents!
Jared just finished writing a school essay for like five hours and so now it's my turn on the computer. What did we even do before computers?? (Also, am I even qualified to ask such a question when I literally have never known life without computers?) Since all of my fun personal projects are on my laptop in Grenada, the only things I can even do on here are blog and read the 200-Facebook-message-long spontaneous lip-syncing contest between 30 of us Grenada girls that just blew up my FB. Hulurius. Love those Grenada gurls.
Jared can NOT stop talking about how much he loves the GI tract. Is this normal?
And on a related note, just found out how much Jared does NOT love my facial features. Me: "I hope our babies have your lips and your amazing eyelashes and your nose. But I like my ears. They can have my ears." Jared: "Ehhhh, I actually like my ears a little better. They should have my ears." Me: "Ok, but what else? Build your perfect baby, Jare." Jared: "My nose, my eyes, my lips, my ears, my hair, my jaw." Me: Do they get anything of mine? Do I have ANY superior features to you?" Jared (in total seriousness): "Well, you just get used to seeing your face in the mirror for so long and that's what you come to like. I guess they could have your smile though." THE TRUTH COMES OUT. Our first two years of marriage were filled with much less harsh honesty than this one is. This one's funnier though. I'll take the trade-off.
Speaking of funny...
After we got off the plane we walked by this Asian food place in the airport. Jared looks over and shouts, "Hey look, it's ramen!" really loudly. But what he didn't realize was that as he pointed at the ramen, a suave airport worker with a name badge reading "Roman" walked right where Jared was pointing. Jared kept walking, Roman gave him the most sincerely confused look, and I fell to the floor, dead from laughing. I seriously don't think I've laughed so hard in years. It took me a full three minutes to calm down enough to explain the Roman/ramen thing to Jared. It was the most perfectly timed irony the universe has ever given me. I am so happy right now.
As happy as we'll be to get back to America, we're really going to miss this place! I've been feeling nostalgic all term, but it didn't hit Jared until this last week that he might be a little sad to say goodbye to our island home. It happened when he looked up our flight itinerary for the end of the term. When he told me we'd be going home on May 14, I gasped. That's only a day after his finals! That means no last-minute island explorations or beach days together free of school stress before we go home.
When I explained this to him, he thought about if for a bit and then worry lines started to creep across his forehead. "Oh no! It's going to be kind of sad when we leave, huh?" He said, with something between worry, panic, and regret in his voice. Without me even prompting him, he suggested that I write down all the highlights of Grenada—all the things we can't miss doing together before we leave. Then he told me to pick a Saturday for us to do all those things together, and he'd make sure during the week to get ahead on his studies so we can give Grenada a proper farewell.
(1) Jared took his first set of midterms for his FINAL term here in Grenada, and, no surprises, knocked 'em out of the park. He came out of them really worried since they were some of the hardest tests he's taken so far, but the curve saved him. He got straight A's. Thass my guy.
I feel like the only time you hear about Jared on this blog is when I'm like, "Jared took a test today. Aced it." "Jared studied less than usual. We even went outside." "Jared studied more than usual. I got so much work done." That's because med school has taken all of his former hobbies and ground them into our tile floors. There is NOTHING to his life besides medical school. It's fine because studying medicine is the best hobby ever in his mind and I do surprisingly well being left to my own devices all the time. But it still makes me a bit sad for him. It is what it is though, and will continue to be this way for at least six more years.
(2) I made another video for a cute little family. It's not done yet, or else I'd post it. I offered to do a mini photoshoot for them too because I want to get some practice. However, what with med school being the way I described it in the last point, Allie wanted to do the photos and video all at the same time because her husband couldn't afford to take more than one two-hour period off from studying. I love that every time I do one of these shoots I learn so much--like never ever do a photo and video shoot simultaneously. Whoops! It turned out fine, but was crazy stressful.
(3) We submitted our clinical rotation preferences! Much thinking and praying and strategizing went into our decision, but in the end we went with Nevada, California, and Georgia. Obviously we're hoping for our first choice, but we could essentially be put anywhere. Even somewhere not in our top three. Like New Jersey. But honestly, that would be fine. It's only going to be for a year or so. Now I'm spending all my free time looking for housing options in all of the areas we put on our list. It's so fun to imagine what our life will be like six months from now. We won't find out where we're placed until mid-July, and then Jared's rotations start mid-August. THANKS SGU. Fingers crossed we'll be able to find decent housing two weeks in advance of us moving.
(4) I finished putting together my first blog book. It covers my first two years of blog posts and is 250 pages long. Sheesh! It was waaay more of a time investment than I thought it would be. I worked on it several hours a day for two weeks straight to get the formatting right. I used lulu.com because it was the best value and we so poor. It'll be good to have a physical copy of this space in case the Internet ever mysteriously disappears.
(5) We pooled together all the Amazon gift card money we've received for birthdays and Christmas over the past year and bought an expensive camping pad!!!! It's like a cross between an air mattress, a foam pad, and an actual real-life mattress. And it's big enough for the two of us. I've been dreaming of this camping pad for months. I love love love camping. Jared kind of likes the idea of camping, but struggles with the sleeping aspect of it. Hard. Like one time sleeping on the hard ground caused him to throw out his back and he was basically paralyzed and in extreme pain for two solid weeks. I've been making it my mission over the past year to slowly collect all the most unreasonably comfortable camping gear on the market so that camping can be something we both enjoy. For Jared's back and med school schedule we'll probably be confined to car camping, but that doesn't bother me. We'll be sleeping like royalty out there.
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