Apartments, White Coats, and Beaches

So, long time no blog!  This is Di, and I want to apologize for the lack of blogging because I know that reading this is by far the best part of your day........

So contrary to popular belief, we have not had Hurricane Earl for 16 days!  However, we have had our share of shinnanigans!

The day after the hurricane we were scheduled to move into the Royal St. Kitts...but that never happened.  The moment we stepped into our room we knew that something was wrong - namely, that the room had a peculiar smell that was difficult to stand for more than 5 minutes at a time.  As we investigated further, we realized that the smell was MOLD!  Gross!  So, needless to say, we checked back into the Marriott and started looking for a different place to live. 

Long story short, after another 5 nights at the Marriott, a Monday, we were not able to move into our new apartment until the Friday!  thinking we were homeless, we immediately resorted to the ever popular and typical behavior of homeless people and began to feed the pigeons for well over an hour.  Being homeless would simply not do so, another 4 nights at the Marriott! (did i mention Andee started school on this day?)  I didn't think it would ever come to this, but we were actually excited to leave a 5 star resort!  And an even bigger shocker, we were sick of french fries!  No kitchen, no family, and no home makes Diana go what?  Go Crazy!

So we finally moved into our place this Friday, and were finally able to unpack all of our stuff!  Our apartment is beautiful, right on the 'Ocean's Edge', as the name suggests!  I did 10 loads of laundry, and we are finally caught up!  It is just wonderful to be getting settled after a long while of living out of a suitcase!

view from our apartment

And now for the positive half of this post!

On Wednesday, September 1st, Andee started his orientation at UMHS.  I was able to go with him as well, and the school is absolutely beautiful!  It is the only place on the island that makes me feel like I am back home, because the facilities are very new and kept up nicely!  You would think that you were in a North American Medical School!  We were taken on tours of the school, informed about Kititian culture and hurricanes, and met a lot of very nice and friendly students!  It was a lot of fun to visit the school, and I even got myself a "Wife of" Student ID so that I can visit the campus whenever I am bored!

On the Saturday, Dr. Ross hosted an amazing beach party at Cockleshell Beach!  It is on the Caribbean Sea, and there is a great bar and lots of fun activities such as snorkeling, banana boat rides, and lunch!  We went on an 8 person banana boat ride, which was tons of fun!  We also got to hang out with a lot of the new students, and it was great to meet and hang out with all of our new friends from UMHS before the studying started to take over!

On the following Saturday, Andee participated in the much anticipated White Coat Ceremony at UMHS!  All of the students took a student oath, and were rewarded with a symbolic and very snazzy white coat to commence their journey in becoming Medical Doctors!  It was a great ceremony, and I was very happy to be watching and supporting Andee as he made his transition into Medical School.

On Sunday, it was my birthday!  Andee got me a sweet St. Kitts beach bag that actually fits all of my beach stuff!  He also got me Swiss rolls (yum!), water shoes, and a bottle opener key chain (for my Ting, which is grapefruit soda)  Pretty good for someone without a car!  It also just so happened that another spouse of a student named Jessie was also celebrating her birthday on Sunday.  A bunch of the spouses went to play some Birthday Bingo at the Marriott (a big deal on a Sunday night!), and another spouse of a student named Kori won the jackpot!  It was the birthday luck!

Since then, Andee has been studying hard, and I have been slowly adjusting to St. Kitts living!  Andee has started dissecting his cadaver (fun times), which he finds to be quite interesting!  I, on the other hand, have been enjoying the beautiful weather and location of our apartment!  Within walking distance, I can go to the Marriott, the Royal St. Kitts, the beach right outside of our apartment, Ram's Express (a mini grocery store), a souvenir shop, and Rituals Coffee Shop, which, don't kill me, puts Tim Hortons to shame!  The donuts are massive and so delicious!  I have also made some great friends with some of the spouses of both UMHS and ROSS students.  Our activities have included swimming, Port Zante shopping, snorkeling, and beaching!  Just a typical day in the life of a St. Kitts desperate housewife!

Andee and I miss everyone so very much, and are looking forward to seeing everyone in December!  But until then, I think I will go for a swim!