Teaching at the College Level

By Katie

This blog entry is dedicated to Gail Loski, Kristy Cummings, Denise Spetter, Aunt Beth Elliote, Jennifer McCaskill-Perry, Bridgette Harris, and elementary school teachers everywhere.

Tonight I taught my first college class, freshman composition. After a year in a fourth grade classroom that felt like doing a tour of duty in a war zone, I was a little apprehensive about taking over this course. Since the current professor had to leave the island quickly and no other substitute could be found, I was told by the Dean of ICCI, on Friday, that I would have to take over the class. (I was not happy about the Dean's decision and complained to my husband all weekend, but, for some reason, he wasn't sympathetic.) Yesterday afternoon, I received all the previous papers, grades, and handouts. I only had this morning to prepare for the class.

In looking through the materials, reading the comments the professor left on the papers, and remembering my college days, I realized how easy college professors have it. Unlike the world of elementary education, college professors are not held accountable for the things that their students do not learn. College professors are able to put the responsibility onto the students. In the world of elementary education, one cannot simply brush aside low test scores on the lack of motivation of the students. In elementary education, it is the teacher's responsibility to teach the material; whereas, in college, it is the student's responsibility to learn the material.

Planning is much easier because, as a college professor, you can continue to move on even when your students have not absorbed the material. The syllabus is set at the beginning of the quarter/semester and then the class progresses at that rate. The college administrators only request to see your general plans for the 11-15 weeks you will be teaching, but elementary principals want to see your daily plans for each block of time. Elementary teachers already are teaching straight for the seven and a half hours they are getting paid for, and yet they have at least three hours of outside planning and grading to do every day, for which they do not get paid.

Since the responsibility of learning the material falls on the student in college, it is not the responsibility of the professor to provide additional help. A good college professor will have the students come for extra tutoring during the set office hours. On the other hand, elementary teachers have to find time to reteach material while also moving forward since they do not have breaks in their day that they can use to help students.

On the syllabus I have received for this class, there is a total of seven items that I will have to have graded in order to figure each student's grade. Within one subject, in elementary school, there is at least 20 final grades that must be input. Since the performance on any given assignment steers the course of the instruction for elementary education, most elementary teachers grade more than double that number of assignments for each subject area.

Classroom management is much easier in college. If there is even a slight disruption in the class, the college professor can either brush it off because, again, it is the responsibility of the student to learn or can actually kick the student out of class. They don't have to worry about that student wandering off, getting hurt, not being under observation, disappearing, and many other options that would all be the fault of the elementary teacher in that situation.

I am not saying that college professors have an easy job but they have a much easier job than elementary teachers.

Working Weekend

By Scott:

This weekend, our ACICS consultant was on Island to work with us on getting ready for the accrediting team visit in October. Between proctoring the Comprehensive Exams Friday night until 10:30 while Katie met with the consultant at the college and then a weekend of meetings, this was not the weekend in paradise we usually look forward to. We were in the office for a good part of Saturday and most of Sunday morning. We knew when we came down here it would be long hours and that has been the case. Katie actually has a much harder part than I do for ACICS getting the Records for the school in the right condition. I have to get the faculty files in order but that is nothing compared to the student records.

We still had some time late Saturday afternoon and evening to go out. We were invited by Kira, our business manager, to go with her and Clay (her boyfriend) out to Willie's farm on the north side to pick some fruit and look at the West Indian Whistling Ducks, an endangered species. We picked some star fruit and cayman plumbs and bought some mangos. From there we headed over to the Morritts, a resort in East End (next to the Reef where we stayed in June). We ordered drinks out on the deck, talked and listened to music as the sun set and the moon rose. The almost full moon glistening on the water and the lapping of the waves was really quite beautiful.

Sunday afternoon, after we finished with the consultant, we borrowed the van and went over to the condo to do an inventory of the furnished items and get our key. We are just two weeks from the move and really can't wait. I think both of us feel we will have to slow down and once we aren't living at the college that will be a little easier. After the inventory we headed to Cottage beach to try the snorkeling there. This beach had a lot of seaweed and it took a while to get out to clear water. The seaweed though had a number of really pretty looking species of fish swimming in it and couple of things we weren't sure of but were definitely alive. The beach wasn't as nice as Cayman Kai or even Beach Bay but we want to try all of them on the Island and can now mark this one off our list. An early dinner of Chili a la Scott (one of the few things I can cook well in our Dutch Baby) and a couple of episodes of Scrubs on the lap top followed.

We called it a very early night on Sunday, I went to sleep around 7:45 and Katie followed not long after. This will be a long week as I make a presentation to the Cayman Human Resources Professional Organization on Tuesday and on Thursday make my television debut on a morning show doing an interview to promote the college as the new Dean. Katie continues with registration and tonight becomes a teacher again. Our Freshman English Composition professor had to leave Island and so Katie is substituting for the rest of the quarter. We will let you know how that experience is for her.

A visit from Katie's Parents

By Scott and Katie:

On Thursday, Russ and Gail stopped off in Cayman during their seven day cruise of the Caribbean. They got off the boat at around 7:15 in the morning and we met them in the harbor at the dock terminal. We drove first to our new place and showed them the condo. The owner was kind enough to let us in and show them everything. we are very excited about our pending move and counting the days to August 11th. From there we headed to Fosters and a true Scott and Katie breakfast buffet. A quick tour of the college followed and then out for a tour of the Island.

Our first stop was Beach Bay and some snorkeling. There were several schools of fish in the swim area and a couple of very large fish swimming around that we were able to follow. Scott's new prescription mask enabled him to really see everything and we bought a good mask for Katie and good snorkels and they are fast turning into the second best investment after our bikes that we have made.

From Beach Bay we drove east and then north. We stopped first briefly at Rum Point to look around and then headed over to Cayman Kai beach and a second round of snorkeling. There were tons more fish at Cayman Kai but a strong current and heavier waves meant we were exhausted by the time we got out of the water. We then drove over to Portofino in East End for lunch on their deck.

Russ and Gail had to be back to get on their boat by 2:45 so after a brief stop at the college to pick up some stuff we headed back to George Town and dropped them off at the terminal. The day went far too fast but it was great to see family.

Cars and Condos

By Scott:

When we first decided to move down here we expected to stay in the college apartment for six months for a variety of reasons. It would save money, it would mean we wouldn't need a car and it would give us time to find an affordable place, near work without the pressure of having to pick something immediately. But, through our first eight weeks on the island it has become increasingly clear that we needed to get away from the college when we weren't working and by living here that was all but impossible. That combined with the ever present leak has led us to push up our plans to move out.

Yesterday we went to look at a Condo behind Grand Harbor which is about 5 miles from the campus (a block and a half from Hurley's in Red Bay on the main road back toward George Town). The place is very similar to my old townhouse. It has two floors with three bedrooms, two baths, a huge living room and kitchen and a nice outside patio. The foundation is raised and the neighborhood doesn't have the low water areas that always flood when it rains. It is fully furnished (which is the norm here on Cayman). We both liked the place when we saw it and today we are signing a lease (12 months with an option on an additional 12). We got a great rate because the market is really down. We really weren't looking for a place that big but got it for the price of a two bedroom and actually for that size in George Town we would be paying double, we move in August 15th (or maybe the 11th depending on how things go today).

Getting the condo also meant we now need a car, so after looking at the condo we drove the van over to Budget and looked at cars. We saw one we liked and the price is right so we are going to get a small used compact car the first full week of August. Here on Cayman when you buy a car you pay for it up front, so between the move in, utilities turned on and the car, August will be an expensive month in the Cummings household. Less eating out and more pasta from the grocery store for a while.

We have fixed our ticket issue with Cayman Airways. They are still flying us to Miami but have gotten us a nonstop from Miami to DFW so no layover in Houston on the return trip in December.

We have both finished Harry Potter and are now in the process of going back and re-reading parts to pick up anything we might have missed the first time. On Sunday I spoke with my sister Johanna on the web cam and with my brother Kevin for just a moment when he called Jo and she put the phone up to the camera. Katie's parents arrive in less than 48 hours and now we can show them our future home. Will post pictures of it shortly.

Harry Potter Day

By Scott:

All week Kathleen has been all a twitter about "Harry Potter Day" on Saturday and while I have been looking forward to the day when we could get the book and see the movie (which debuted on Island last night), Katie has been practically beside herself. Sort of like me on "First Day of Football Season Day".

The day started at about 4:30 a.m. as I got up to drive Elsa and Keith to the airport for their trip to Jamaica. Katie graciously offered to come with but jumped pretty quick on my offer to drive them while she stayed at the apartment and slept. I dropped them off at the airport and headed back to the college as the sun came up which is around 5:30 here on Cayman. That meant Katie and I have the van until they return next Wednesday. The morning consisted of going back to sleep for a few hours and then waiting while the A/C man fixed the HVAC unit for the library.

Around noon we headed to George Town to address Katie's craving for Mexican food. Surprisingly, the choice for that variety of food is severely limited in Cayman and we ended up at Seňor Frogs just off Heroes Square by the Harbor. We ate out on the balcony and listened to a tremendous storm that must have been moving across the north end of the Island. My fajitas were OK and her enchiladas were not bad but for real Mexican food we will obviously have to go to Mexico or just back to Texas. We could hear booming thunder but no rain. We headed out hoping that the storm stayed to the north. There was almost no wind and the tree's were eerily calm.

After lunch we headed over to Books by the Bay and our 1:30 appointment to pick up the seventh book. When we got to the store it had lost power but they were open to distribute the pre-paid Harry Potter books so we picked up our copy and headed home. A quick stop at Willie's fruit stand to pick up some sweet sop, mango and a baggie of plums that look like over sized grapes, and then back to the college to read the first several chapters. The power outage was also affecting the college and we read out loud the first chapter in a somewhat steaming apartment. The power kicked back on about a half hour after we got home and while I surfed the net Katie read some chapters to herself. Then it was my turn while she played Big Kahuna Reef her new computer game obsession. We are each reading a few chapters then giving the book to the other so neither of us gets too far ahead.

At 4:30 it was time to head to the movie. The theatre is up on West Bay Road north of the Harbor district. We got to the theatre around 5 to get tickets for the 6:20 showing. Then we headed over to a diving shop on Seven Mile Beach to pick up a backpack for our bicycling trips. We also found a pair of prescription goggles for me and are going back early next week to get them and some snorkeling gear. We needed the backpack as the messenger bags we have been using while riding unevenly distribute weight and only put weight on one shoulder. From there it was over to a stand called Al La Kebob, a Greek place next to the movie theatre and gyros for the two of us. The gyros were really good and hit the spot before the film.

The movie theatre is an old style auditorium with a curtain that opens as the film begins. The auditorium is huge and must have seated at least 300 people. The place was packed with a truly multi cultural, multi racial audience. Really shows the impact of this series of books across cultural lines. They only show movies on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at the theatre which is the only one on the Island. Harry Potter is only there this weekend so this was our one shot. The pre-movie was like a trip to the 70's with very old strips on being quiet, going to the concession stand and picking up trash with the lights and disco music setting the mood. The Theatre has two auditoriums and every movie has an intermission. It was nice knowing that I had a built in bathroom break and hour or so into the movie.

We both enjoyed the movie but saw a lot of changes and differences from the book, Katie more than I as she read it again this spring while I haven't re-read the books yet. Driving at night and remembering to stay to the left take some getting used to and the drive back through town and then out to the District of Savannah was a new driving challenge.

After getting back to Savannah we made a quick shopping run to Fosters and then back up Hirst road to Newlands and the college apartment. As I type this Katie is reading away. Tomorrow we are going up to West Bay for a brunch at the restaurant where I went in April that had such a great spread and beautiful view. Life is great when you have a vehicle to get to the far away places. Monday we are looking at a condo to rent in Grand Harbor which is about 5 miles from the college. Its 1600 square feet and is owned by a professor who is moving to the Middle East and wants to keep it as an investment property. If it looks good we could move in in September. We are also looking into a vehicle and plan to buy one with our July paychecks probably from one of the rental car companies fleets.

This past week was literally five straight days of 14 hour work days. We didn't plan it that way but from Monday on it just happened where we had things to do each morning and were at work by nine and working until 11 that night. I made two presentations from a Power Point that Katie and I put together and Katie put together a brochure that went to a career development day for a big bank employer here on the Island. We plan to slow down this week but with the fall registration push will still be busy. Katie's parents arrive Thursday and we have taken a half day off and wont be going in until 5:00 p.m. so we can show them around Grand Cayman.

Cayman Airways has changed our flight in December from Houston to Miami which does us no good since our connection to Dallas is from Houston on another airline. Monday after looking at the condo and before looking for a car we plan to stop in at their offices and explain that to them and see if we can either get our flight back or get a credit. We want to get over to Cayman Brac one of the smaller islands and might use our flight credit for a weekend getaway if we lose our flight home.

We are both excited about seeing the place Monday and the possibility of getting to move off campus has both of us happy. Its great not having to pay rent or utilities but constantly being here is getting to be a drag on the rest of our lives and its hard to leave work when you never leave work because you live there. The other nice thing will be getting a car. This Island will get really small once we have that. Will let you know how all that shakes out.

One Day to Harry Potter

Long week with 4 straight fourteen hour work days but only one day to Harry Potter. The book arrives on Island at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and we are seeing the movie later that afternoon. Will update on the week later.

Grand Old House Restaurant

By Scott:

This evening Kathleen and I went out on a date night to the Grand Old House an elegant restaurant on South Sound road just as it turned to the north below George Town. The restaurant overlooked a rocky shore with a deck facing the west on which we ate. We arrived as the sun was just beginning to set and during the long meal got to go from light to darkness. The restaurant is actually owned by the current Austrian consul (honorary consul as he pointed out to us, which means he has some diplomatic immunity but still has to pay his traffic fines). The restaurant is located in the main house of the old Petra Plantation (hence the name Grand Old House).

I had actually gone to this restaurant on Tuesday for lunch with our insurance instructor who is a big wig with the insurance association. After eating lunch there I knew I had to bring Katie for dinner. We borrowed the van and headed out after a long Saturday at work which included a board meeting and then a couple of hours of paperwork catch up. We got there right as the restaurant opened for dinner and got a table at the edge of the deck overlooking the rocks. The water was crashing over the rocks and under the deck throughout the meal. The restaurant must have the deck just right because we never once got sprayed even though just a few feet to the right of the deck huge spray was coming well past where the deck started. There was an outdoor piano and the combination of piano playing and waves on the rocks was really soothing and added to the incredible ambiance of the meal.

I had a conch chowder for my soup and Katie had a cold soup of mango and mandarin orange that tasted more like a dessert. We had an appetizer called the Ceviche Duo consisting of lobster and mahi mahi in two different fruit sauces. Katie had a Curry seafood combination for her entree while I had a New York steak, my first steak in a month and a half. Katie got a great shot of the sunset from our table posted at right. As it got dark the lights on the deck drew a school of big fish that were at least three feet long and who must have amazing strength because the waves were crashing into the rocks with such power yet the fish stayed just a few feet from our table and didn't seem concerned about the waves or the rocks. As we enjoyed cheesecake and coffee to finish the meal, we both agreed we would have to come back and when we could bring family when they come down.

Katie and I are trying to do something special at least once a month and this night out at a romantic dinner spot is our July version of the resort weekend from back in June.

Free Range Roosters

By Scott:

If there is one thing that constantly reminds me I am on an Island in the Caribbean it is the ever present free range roosters. East of George Town and away from the heavy traffic, they are everywhere usually trailed by a couple of hens and sometimes chicks. Every time we go biking we pass several on the road and unlike all the other animal species from whom you often see corpses in the road, you never see roosters or hens so they must have an ingrained sense to know not to be on the road. Several of them hang out in the area by the abandoned third building on our campus and they wake us each morning with their calls to the sun.

Katie and I did a short bike out to Bodden Town yesterday before work and an even shorter ride up to North Sound today. A few things are happening to really get a feel for change on the campus. We got a working vending machine last Friday and I have been making change for students out of petty cash and the response has been really positive, something about actually having working vending machines meant a lot to the students. It also means our canteen is starting to actually be a canteen rather than an empty room We are also redoing the campus wide meeting tomorrow night to get some student committee's going and talk about the changes. Each academic advising session I have I talk to the students and universally they want ICCI to succeed and just need the motivation of seeing things getting done to get involved themselves. While we are still at the very beginning of changes and there are some days we feel totally overwhelmed by the work on those occasions where we get the positive student response to the changes so far it really spurs us to keep working harder for more. Its why we are here and gives us that sense of purpose we need.

Weekend

By Katie

Saturday morning we were supposed to get up at 6:30 to do another long ride out East but, predictably, we slept in, me much later than Scott. Around 9:00 we got up and made a big breakfast of turkey bacon, eggs, and pancakes. The pancake batter was too runny so it was actually more like thick crepes than pancakes as each pancake was about 12 inches in diameter.

We are getting really good use out of our three pans/pots, our dutch oven (not cast iron), skillet, and saucepan. The dutch oven doubles as a bowl a lot of the time as well.

Since it was too late in the morning, we couldn't go for the long ride so we opted to go to Pedro St. James, just about two miles from the college.

Pedro St. James is the birthplace of democracy in the Cayman Islands and the place where they read the proclamation freeing the slaves. We had to tiptoe around wedding preparations for a wedding taking place later on in the day (it was 7/7/07). We entered into their "theater" which was more like a stage set with three different stages with replications of the grounds. You sat in theater sets that were under tin roofs with gutters running down the sides. When you first entered, you could hear a storm inside the theater. They set it up so that the storm came closer and before the show started, "thunder and lighting" arrived, water started to pour from the gutters, and you were actually misted multiple times to feel like you were getting the spray from the rain dropping on the tin roof. The movie began by saying that the Cayman Islands have always been defined by the storms, which makes the first experience in the theater make sense. When the show started it moved between three different screens and the various stage sets that would light up when corresponding to a part of the story. It was really, really good. Both of us were definitely pleasantly surprised, a much better quality presentation than you usually see at historical sites.

The house was built by William Eden in the late 1700s when he came over from England and married a Bodden, one of the first families on the island. He built a big house at Pedro point modelled after a Jamaican plantation house. The house has 1-2 foot thick stone walls that go all the way from the bottom floor to the third floor of the house. Those walls are still standing and have lasted through multiple hurricanes, fires, storms, etc through the centuries.

The house was used as a courthouse, a jail, a meeting place, the location for the reading of public proclamations, a residence for the Edens and their descendants, a picnic ground in the early 1900s when it was abandoned, a tourist attraction(with false claims of it being a pirate castle) in the 1960s, and now a historical site (bought by the Cayman government in 1996).

In the early 1800s, the Caymanians realized that the Jamaicans, who were supposed to be governing them, were ignoring them and the British, who they were supposed to be a part of, hardly knew they existed so they decided they needed to create a government on the island. The Boddens, Edens, and Watlers got together and created a government. (The Boddens and the Watlers were the first families on the island and the Edens started with William Eden. All three of those families can still be found everywhere on the island.)

After the multimedia presentation, we toured the house. The stone is well preserved. All the wood had been destroyed in a 1877 fire so all of that is new but everything stone is original. We were limited when walking the grounds because of the wedding but we got some great cliff views down a small hiking trail, see pictures.

Today, Sunday, we decided to do a ride west instead of east and get a feel for what it is like riding towards George Town. We got started later than we wanted to, even though we woke up earlier, because we had a massive war with the ants and had to spray the house before we left.

We did about an 18 mile round trip ride today along the main road into George Town. Instead of turning up towards the airport, we rode along South Sound Road, a beautiful ride! There was definitely a lot more traffic going a lot faster than when we ride east. The road had more hills making the ride out and back just about the same difficulty, unlike when we ride East and it is climbing when we go out and downhill when we come back.

We discovered it will take us about a half hour to get to the book store two weeks from now to get Harry Potter and then about fifteen minutes to get back to the beach where we are going to read it out loud! We are excited! We are also making plans to see the movie next weekend, if we can.

Scott talked to his sister Jo and got to see his nephew Nicolas on the web cam tonight. We might have an interesting condo opportunity for rent that we will let you guys know more about as we find out more details.

Riding

By Katie

I've realized while riding around the island just how much you miss about your surroundings when you only experience it in a car.

Riding in a steel cage propelled by an engine with the music blaring and the air conditioning on, you miss so much about the island. You miss feeling the slight rises and falls in the land. You miss feeling the changes in temperature as you get closer to the water and the cool sea breeze starts to overwhelm the heat radiating from the road. You miss hearing the scurrying of animals in the bushes along the road as they panic when you get to close to them. You miss hearing the calls of birds and the fluttering of wings as a Cayman parrot flies higher into a tree. You miss seeing the detail of the flowers on the trees. The bright variations of green, blue, orange, red, and yellow in the trees, flowers, and water escape your observation. You miss even realizing that there is fruit in the many trees that line the roads. You miss hearing the waves as they crash, either on a distant reef or on the beach just a few feet to your side. You miss a physical understanding of the distance you have traveled. You miss the personal satisfaction of knowing that the distance you have traveled, you had to work for!

Living without television, cell phones or a car and more random stuff

By Scott:

Trying to give a little flavor of life here on the Island for Katie and I. I guess the biggest change is the lifestyle. We don't have a TV and at present have no plans to get one. In the fall when my football habit kicks in I will probably head to one of the sports bars in George Town to catch the Longhorn games that may be on but for now we simply don't have television. We watch DVDs on our lap top and can follow the news on the Internet so paying the ridiculous price for television and particularly cable down here just isn't an expense we want to pay. From our weekend at the resort we know that cable includes all the US basic channels from Miami and most of the regular cable channels. Eventually we will get a TV but for now we don't seem to miss it.

Similarly we haven't gotten cell phones yet as they are pretty expensive and frankly who would we call. The only reason to have one is for emergencies and again eventually we will but for now that is also an expense we are foregoing. The hardest thing is not having a car. We got our first paychecks at the end of June and sent some money back to be deposited into our US account to cover a portion of the huge credit card bill we had with our move and last half month in the U.S. We have been basically living on the remaining cash since then trying not to use the credit card. We cant deposit it into a bank here because to get an account you need several documents one of which comes from our bank in the U.S. We have ordered the letter and it is on its way by way of my brother in Georgia. The first checks would have been used up completely on a used car so we decided we could make it another month without a vehicle and wait for our July paychecks to get the car. Once we get the car we add the expense of insurance too so we are calculating exactly what we need. Here in Cayman you don't get an auto loan you pay entirely up front. That's the bad part, the good part is you can get a good used car for around 5000 CI (about 6250 US), you just have to make sure it isn't an Ivan car. we are probably going to buy from one of the rental agencies fleets so that wont be a problem.

Not having a car has pretty much meant that our exploration of the Island is east of Savannah. George Town is still a place largely unfamiliar to us though I have to go in every so often for meetings and borrow the van when I have to do so. On the two occasions that we rented a car we drove in to the big supermarket, Kirks, just north of the harbor district and also to the home improvement stores so we know how to get there. We also went up to West Bay just to drive around but it will take time to get familiar with it all. George Town really isnt that big so once we get a car it will be easy to get to know it though with all the traffic we want to avoid it as much as possible. The funny thing is we still haven't done the biggest tourist things like walk seven mile beach or go to the harbor area where all the shops for the tourists are or go out to Sting Ray City to snorkel. Eventually we will but for now we just accept that our little sphere extends only as far as we can bike.

We have made some new friends. Whenever we go to Fosters we look for Ms. Ethel one of the cashiers. She was our cashier the first time we shopped at Fosters on June 1 and had looked weird at us because of all the things we were buying. We were obviously not buying vacation groceries and we told her we were moving in at the college. Everytime we see her she always asks how we are doing and what new things we have seen or foods we have tried. Countryside Village where the Fosters Supermarket is located is fast becoming a popular place. Its a bit like an America out door mall with Fosters as the magnet then a computer store, a dry cleaners, a hair salon, hardware store, bank, Haagen Dazs ice cream, Subway and even a realtor in some of the other shops. If you don't notice that everyone is driving around on the left you would think you were in any town USA. There is even a Wendy's going up across the street next to the Texaco station. That has Kira our business manager very excited and Katie very disappointed.

We got out first mail from the States (Thanks Mom) which made us very excited. We are expecting a package and are excited to see if it will come out to our little Savannah post office where we get our general delivery mail or if we will have to go into the main office. Even though we live in Newlands, it isn't big enough to have a post office so we have to go down to Savannah. Our post office is the size of a small shack with post office boxes all around it on the outside. It actually looks like a small movable trailer though it is obviously attached to some foundation. We are staying general delivery because a box costs 80 CI a month and you have to rent for a year (which is over a thousand US just to get a mail box). Since we will be moving in January we didn't want to get a box in Savannah anyway particularly if we are going to live in Bodden Town Breakers or even East End and also we can save money by just stopping in when the post office is open and asking if we have any mail.

We are headed out today to visit Pedro St James Castle the birthplace of democracy in the Cayman Islands. Later we will head for a beach. The weekends are our only real time away from work so between biking, swimming and exploring we fill them up pretty quick. Will let you know what we find this weekend. For all our family who are traveling including my brother Kevin and his family, Katie's sister Stephanie, and anyone else out and about on summer vacation, be safe and have good trips, we will talk to you soon.

New Drivers Licenses and other random stuff

By Scott:

Now that both our passports are stamped with work permits the time had come to get drivers licenses. So this morning, Katie and I went down to the Cayman Department of Licensing to put in the paperwork and turn in our Texas licenses. We borrowed the van and headed to George Town. The office was in a building above a Wendy's. We spent about an hour getting everything done and then had to go to a second office a few blocks away to get our licenses since the machine that creates them at the first office was down. Interestingly, they did not take our Texas licenses but returned them. We asked if they needed them and they said no. We are checking back with TXDOT to find out what we need to do, the last thing we want is to get called for jury duty based on our Texas licenses not show up and then when we do eventually return have an outstanding warrant for failure to appear, so we are checking whether we need to send them back, put them on some abated status like my law license or what?

We made a brief stop in the Wendy's for my first fast food in months (Katie was not happy but did steal some of my fries and a bite of my hamburger). After a run over to the University College to pick up a textbook order that had inadvertently been shipped to the wrong college we headed back to Newlands. On the way back to the college we stopped off at a bookstore and put in a pre-order for the final Harry Potter book. On the morning of the 21'st we plan to bike to the store pick up the book and then head to a beach to do some reading.

Today might be a holiday back in the States but it was just another work day here on the Island. I had a meeting late in the day with the Cayman Islands Society of Professional Accountants looking for new faculty, grants and partnership possibilities. That also meant another experience with 5 O'clock George Town traffic though I now know to take South Sound road out, its a longer route but less traffic. We thought the pace of work might slow with registration over but if anything it has gotten even crazier. We are now dealing with a wide variety of issues from academic audits, institutional reports and our accreditation status to budgets and even textbook orders. It is overwhelming at times and everything seems like it is in emergency status. The days seem to fly by.

Katie is fully recovered from last Sunday's episode. On Tuesday we biked down to the Savannah post office to check for a package from my Mom and also to get some groceries at Fosters which is about a block and a half from the post office and everything went fine. We will probably do an early morning ride tomorrow to check again on the package and get more groceries and if that goes well will do something a little longer this weekend. Of course we will be taking into account all the lessons we learned last weekend. We bike down at least twice a week for groceries because we cant carry much and also because with no refrigerator except the small faculty one in the admin building we cant store much so there is no point in a big shopping trip for food. It is good exercise and also gives us an excuse to leave the college during the week. We are still holding off on getting a car and so long as the rainy season continues to be mild we are sticking with bikes as the preferred mode of transportation (sorry Texas you seem to be getting all our rain).

Katie is trying to keep up with birthday cards so if you were a June birthday and haven't yet gotten a card keep an eye out the mail here is pretty slow, it is on the way.

Hitting the Wall

By Scott:

Today for the second day in a row we tried to do a long bike ride the first time we have done back to back days of long rides over 20 miles since we got our bikes. Yesterday evening after we finished the board meeting and campus wide meeting (more on those some other time) we biked out east and got all the way to Frank Sound Road. We stopped at Fosters on the way back and were pretty proud of our little 24 mile jaunt when we pulled up to the college. We both take 64 oz water bottles and apples for energy. That has worked out great until today. We started today's ride late because we had a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs and fruit and we had slept in. By the time we got started it was already 10:45, hot and getting hotter.

The leaving time was mistake number one. We also decided just to take water not our apples since we planned to stop for lunch and we didn't want the extra weight, that was mistake number two. We biked out as far as we went yesterday and then turned north on Frank Sound road. When we passed Southcoast bar and grill in Breakers about a mile before Frank Sound Road, we decided to bike up Frank Sound and then come back before eating lunch (mistake number three). Frank Sound is a winding road that runs a little over 4 miles up to the north end of the island. We had stopped twice to drink water and as we pulled into Old Man Bay at the north end of the island Katie was getting tired and a little over heated. We stopped for about 15 minutes then started heading back to Breakers. We had to stop three times in that five mile return stretch to Breakers as Katie was getting lightheaded, nauseous and shaky. By that time she had finished her water and drank the rest of mine. I was verbally encouraging her the last mile to hang on as we were almost to the restaurant where we could get more water and get food because it was more an energy issue than water issue.

As we pulled into the restaurant it seemed like we had pushed the envelope but not broken it. We sat down drank some water and for about ten minutes as we waited on the food Katie was OK. That is until suddenly her body just gave out. She couldn't eat, couldn't keep her eyes open and kept saying she felt like throwing up. We know now that she had overheated and even replenishing our water and eating food wasn't going to be enough. She had to stop, cool down and sleep. After 45 minutes at the restaurant with Katie unable to eat because she was nauseous and wanting just to lay down and go to sleep we called Elsa and Keith who came out in the van and picked us up. We put the bikes on the top of the van and drove the 10 or so miles back to the college. Katie took a cold shower which brought her body temperature down and about a two hour nap. This evening her appetite is back and she is feeling a lot better. We know we were lucky! First that it only happened to one of us and not both and second that Elsa has given us her numbers for emergencies like this. Katie is in better shape than I am but that actually helped me according to her Internet research tonight, people in better shape build up a sweat faster draining their body of fluids and minerals and that led to her overheating sooner than I would have.

We learned several lessons. First we cant plan to be out for more than an hour tops between noon and around 4, its just too hot and humid. Second even if we are stopping to eat we need to take energy food. We were good on the water but Katie's Internet research indicated water isn't enough, our bodies need energy replacement too or we get overheated. Finally we cant push ourselves which is a hard lesson. We both want to get up to biking 50-60 miles a day (which is basically around the east end of the island and back from Newlands) and we just need to realize that will take time. Also the heat of July is not the time to do day long bike rides. Today would have been 32 miles (only 8 more than yesterday) and the boink point really came at 18 miles even though we biked the 5 miles back to Breakers after. We were fine at 24 miles yesterday but we had apples at 12 miles and it was in the evening so the temperature was not as high. Today was only 23 miles but the other factors intervened. So for the next two months until it cools down morning and evening rides but nothing during the 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. range.

Tomorrow will be a rest day, its a holiday for Constitution day so no school. If we bike at all it will be to a nearby beach to swim. Katie did talk to her parents tonight on the webcam which is really neat so as people get that capability let us know and we can do a video call. We feel lucky that the worst that happened is Elsa and Keith having to come get us and not Katie passing out on the road. Somebody upstairs definitely was keeping an eye on us and Elsa's forethought in getting me to put her numbers in my wallet and then coming out immediately when she and Keith got our call so that Katie could get back and get into the shower to cool down was incredibly important. We are really grateful to her and Keith who has been helping us with most everything bike and apartment related since we got down here.