Matt's Favorite Things

Now that we are in our fourth semester here, we finally have down this whole island-living thing. Well, for the most part anyway.

Since the last few posts seem to be focusing on my experience, I thought I'd share with you a few of Matt's favorite things. And because Matt's experience here is much different than mine, it is all school related. Big nerd alert.

iPad
This guy uses this thing all the time. He does everything electronically. Books, notes, question banks. And the occasional Netflix.

Noise Cancelling Headphones
I made sure to clarify I wasn't the 'noise' he was needing to cancel. He promised I wasn't.

External Hard Drive
Because being a doctor means billions of books, videos, lectures, notes, etc. And I'm not exaggerating. Plus, with this, he can back up all of his supplies on different platforms in case of the unspeakable.

Power Strip
In case you haven't noticed, electricity here is uber expensive. So when he's on campus, he'll take his power strip and plug in all of his electronics. Handy!

USMLE First Aid Book
This is the only hard copy book he uses on a regular basis.

Good Walking Shoes
Because having sidewalks everywhere would be boring. Mud hill? Check. Dodging cows on the way to class? Check. Sometimes, you just need a reliable pair of shoes to drudge through knee deep water.

Good Pens and #2 Pencils
I told you. Nerd alert.

Waterproof Backpack
We live in a tropical climate. Five minutes ago it was raining. Now, sunshine. Always prepared like a good Boy Scout that he is. (ahem, Eagle Scout)

Evernote Subscription
He uses Evernote and Noteability to annotate his notes. Apparently this is a big deal.

A Wife
Aw! I take back the nerd comments.

Back in Dominica

Well, we made it back to Dominica for our last trip to the island. It was very strange to think that it would be our last trip here - for now anyway. And I only say that because I've learned when you say things like never coming back, life seems to challenge you.

The trip was rather uneventful. We flew American out of O'Hare, stayed the night in San Juan, and then continued on to Dom via Seaborne. I have to say, Seaborne provided a much better experience than alternate airlines we've encountered. Everything was on time for the most part, which is really all you can ask for.

Our overnight in San Juan was too short. Is it such a lovely island, and we would both like to return and spend some more time exploring.

We got on the plane in Chicago in freezing temperatures and snow, to get off the plane welcomed by sunny skies and 85 degrees. Not too bad.

So then it was off to Dom. We enjoyed our last 'American territory' meal, and made our way.

These photos make Dominica look very eerie to fly into. But it's really not that bad.

Landing in the mid afternoon allowed us to enjoy the beautiful ride on the way home from the airport. The weather here has gotten much more mild than from when we left. We haven't even been running fans during the day. Crazy!

Matt started classes again on Monday. I think he was pretty ready to get back into a routine and get going on the semester. This semester has a bit of a different schedule, so that will take some getting used to, but I'm sure he will figure it out.

Now, the countdown is on! Next month, my mom will be visiting, and then the semester is over in April. I'm sure it will go come and go so quickly. But for now, it's just enjoying our views and relishing our time here on the island!

Christmas Break

Yes, believe it or not, I am still blogging. It's been a pitiful month of no posts, but I'm still here. I do have a pretty good excuse. I was home. In America. With family and friends. Blogging became my last priority. You can't blame a girl.

So instead of following up on the million things we've done in past month, I'll share a few highlights. Tomorrow morning, it's back to Dom.

Tons of family time
Perhaps the best part of being home. Family time. Woo. We made it back in time to get snowed in. Sheila and Landon came over and we hunkered down for snowstorm 1 of 15 while we were home. Playing games, relaxing and catching up. The perfect first weekend home. And then of course there were Christmas's galore. So blessed to be able to be home for the holidays.

Office Time
I headed back to the Indy office for a few days. It's always so wonderful seeing everyone again and so refreshing to back. Unfortunately, time is never long enough.

Catching Up with Indy Friends
In our short time in Indy, we still had some time to catch up with our dear friends we haven't seen in so long. Special thanks to all who were able to make it out. There's something so centering about being surrounded by the people who know you best. Matt and I both needed it.

Pomeroy/Dempsey Wedding
Matt and I traveled 2,000 miles to come home to keep traveling across the states. But what better reason to travel than to see our dear friends tie the knot! Congrats to Bryan and Tabby! It was so wonderful to be there and be a part of your day. And it was so wonderful to be reuinted with our island family. It's just good for your soul to be with 'your people' again. Plus, it was just fun to be together in America!

SNOW

Yes. We got snow. And cold weather. It was fantastic. The snow was so debilitating that I wasn't able to go to Target for the first three weeks we were home. Yes, I'm just as shocked as you are. But we loved every minute of it. Even when it got to -40 degrees. There's something about not sweating that is just awesome.

So in recap, our trip home was nothing short of amazing. It was just what we wanted it to be. Now, we have a flight to San Juan then an overnight there. We should be in Dominica on Friday. It's funny to think that last year at this time we had just arrived in Dom. Now, a year later, we are heading back to the island for our last trip. It doesn't seem possible that it has gone this fast!

Black Friday

After our delicious Thanksgiving feast, I had another day of traditions we were missing back home. We aren't the crazy Black Friday shoppers who stand in line for days. We're the ones who go around 8 a.m. when everyone else has gone back to bed.

But here in Dom, there of course isn't Black Friday shopping in stores. So, I had to make due with online shopping and other adventures. Side note, online shopping is definitely the way to go. You can still get the same prices all from the comfort of your PJ's.

My friend Ashley and I decided to go on a little adventure and do some sight-seeing here in Dominica for our Black Friday. We went to Trafalger Falls, Screw Spa, and then to the French Bakery in Roseau for lunch. It was a fantastic way to spend Black Friday. Maybe a new tradition?

Trafalger Falls is park of the national park here. It's a set a twin waterfalls. Absolutely gorgeous!

Our favorite driver stopped along the way to Trafalger for a sneak peak of the falls. You can see them off in the distance. Isn't Dom beautiful?

The path is well kept. It's just a few stairs and about a 10 minute walk to the falls.

And when you get there, you see this.

Lovely!

From there, we went to Screw Spa. I've been here a couple times already, but it definitely doesn't get old. The natural sulfur spa makes your skin feel so soft and refreshed. And it's just a great place to go relax. We were there when it was a little rainy, but it made the hot pool that much more enjoyable.

Then we were off to Zam Zam's for lunch - a great Mexican restaurant right on the water. On our way there, Bruno drove us through the Botanical Gardens and showed us this school bus. This accident happened when Hurricane David hit the island in 1978. The bus is still here today. Thankfully, no one was inside the bus when it happened.

Then we got to Zam Zam's. I had been craving Mexican food, so I was really excited. Their food is delicious. But when we got there, it turned out it was closed. A car had crashed into the side of the building, so it was closed for repairs until further notice. Only in Dominica folks.

So we decided to head to the French Bakery for lunch instead. It does have a real name instead of French Bakery, but to be honest, I don't know what it is. The food, though, is wonderful. I went there first my first semester here. Then they were closed for a bit while they changed management. They are finally back open and serving wood fire pizzas. Hands down the best pizza on the island.

And after that, it was back to Picard. Of course, I had to bring the rest of the pizza home for Matt to enjoy. He loved it as much as I did!

As we were driving out of Roseau, we saw the cargo ship that transports all of our barrels. Each of those containers carries several items of cargo. Pretty cool!

There is a place on the drive back to Picard that is my favorite overlook on the island. And Bruno, being the fantastic driver that he is, always makes sure that we get all the photos we want. And I'll tell you, that's a lot of photos. So he pulled over and let me get a few shots. This is overlooking the town of St. Joseph.

On another note, Matt is down to his last final of this semester! He takes it on Wednesday, and then he'll be done! So keep him and the rest of the Ross student body in your prayers as it is a very stressful time for the students. 

He'll be done on Wednesday, and then we leave for home on Friday! We fly to San Juan, then direct to Chicago. We were talking about our plans for the weekend, and it was so exciting to be able to say 'next weekend' instead of next month, etc. To say we are looking forward to it is an understatement. Matt especially since he hasn't been home since April! And I'll tell you this, sitting around and talking about all of the delicious places to eat doesn't make the time go any faster!

So anyway, I should mention that Matt had class on Black Friday, so he hasn't gotten to enjoy any adventures yet. But soon enough, we will hopefully be able to enjoy them together!

A Dominican Thanksgiving

To be completely honest, I was dreading Thanksgiving. I had a stubborn moment where I decided I was just going to ignore it and take the vacation days as days to sleep in and relax, and forget all about the holiday because we couldn't be home celebrating with our families.

But I adjusted my outlook and realized that it was important to celebrate our holiday here, even if were were thousands of miles away from where we wanted to be.

So, we had Thanksgiving. My first solo Thanksgiving, and the first time I ever cooked anything for Thanksgiving. I went all out.

Ross doesn't observe Thanksgiving here in Dominica, so Matt still had class in the morning. To get in the Thanksgiving spirit, we started the day with Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks Via.

It turns out, the hardest part of Thanksgiving in Dominican is finding enough room in our small fridge to store everything, and enough pots and pans to cook everything in. We ended up going with a turkey loaf type dish because I wasn't sure a full size turkey could fit in our oven. Plus it was around $40 USD. No thanks.

But don't worry. We still didn't go hungry.

We had turkey, real mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, crescent rolls and cranberry sauce. Then for dessert, we had carrot cake, pumpkin cupcakes with cinnamon maple cream cheese frosting and peanut butter pie. Whew.

I cooked for three days to get ready for this feast.

But it was delicious. It turned out better than I could have hoped for.

We had our friend Bryan over to join us as his fiance' Tabby is back at home getting ready for their upcoming nuptials. We can't wait to celebrate with them and see the rest of our island family in just a few weeks!

So even though this Thanksgiving wasn't with our family, we still had a wonderful holiday with so much to be thankful for.