Snorkeling at Eden Rock

Katie and I had not been out snorkeling in several weeks and so this morning we decided to head over to Eden Rock and check out what we had been told was one of the top snorkeling sites on the Island. Eden Rock is just below the George Town Harbor as you come into town on South Church street which is what South Sound road becomes after you turn north at the southwestern edge of the Island. The entrance is at a dive shop. The diving costs money though it is cheap for locals, the snorkeling free if you bring your own gear. We walked out over the black coral shore on a concrete path to a ladder that we climbed down into the water. The water was already 4 or 5 feet at the edge of the rocks and a kick away from the ladder saw the depth drop to at least ten feet. Of course with the clear water you have no sense of the depth and it looks like the bottom is just below you when in fact it is several feet.

The species of fish we saw were incredible. There were a ton of Sergeant Majors and Blue fins and some other species we didn't recognize. One fish had a turquoise body with pink spots, bright blue spots above its eyes, little yellow streaks on its belly and an orange streak on its tail that was absolutely incredible. Our friends were right this place is definitely the best snorkeling we have seen on the Island so far.

We spent about 45 minutes out in the water then headed back to the dive site. We are headed over to the college this afternoon to continue getting ready for the accrediting visit. We also got the news that the Governor of the Island is going to be a guest lecturer on Monday the 8th which ironically is also the first day of our accrediting team visit. Long week ahead.

We finally got cable TV yesterday though our ABC channel is from Tampa so the college football regional telecast was no help in watching Texas. A trip over to Davie Jones Sports Locker gave me the chance to watch the game of which we will speak no more. Katie and I have finished House season three and are now working our way through Desperate Housewives season three.

Article on Anniversary

The Cayman Compass ran a story on our anniversary ceremony and it is linked below.

http://www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=1025344

37th Anniversary Celebration for ICCI

Yesterday was the ceremony to celebrate the 37th anniversary of the college and to dedicate a plaque in honor of the students, faculty and staff from the fall of 2004 who kept the college open in the wake of Hurricane Ivan. There was a threat of rain all afternoon but it never came and so the outdoor ceremony in front of Friends Hall came off without a hitch.

Katie and I drove over to the college around 10:00 a.m to set up chairs under the tent that had been delivered on Friday (as had the chairs). We then stuck around to help the student activities committee set up the decorations. Around 1:15 we ran home to shower and get changed before the three o'clock ceremony. The ceremony didn't start until about 3:20 which we have discovered is the norm here on Cayman. It lasted about 45 minutes and as the master of ceremonies I had to introduce the speakers and even made my musical debut leading the singing of the National Anthem (that would be God Save the Queen down here). I sang the first line over the mike then smartly put the mike down and let the crowd pick up from there. Katie told me later that my first line was fine to get everyone started but she was really glad I put the mike down as my ability to carry a note doesn't last very long.

We got to see a movie made in 1973 about the college and it was nice to see the people in attendance recognize themselves from 30 plus years ago. The event was catered and I made the mistake of grazing too much. I say mistake because later Katie and I went to Yoshi's sushi for dinner and I was too stuffed to eat.

Didn't get to see any of the Texas game and by the time we got home from the sushi it was already the third quarter and Texas was winning 41-7 so I didn't head over to Davy Jones to watch the second half. Katie and I have been watching the third season of House that we picked up in Florida so we watched an episode then had some late night sushi that we had brought back.

This morning we went for a bike ride and the afternoon is a cleaning time as we do a couple of weeks of laundry and try to clean up the house. The accrediting visit looms in two weeks and that is pretty much all we are working on at the college (well that and trying to not mortgage the present to clean up the past).

Florida Getaway

When we first moved here, we got a magazine called New Resident. It had lots of helpful tips for getting drivers licenses, immigration paperwork, stores restaurants and activities on the Island. It also had a chapter on vacation trips off Island and pointedly said that most people after about three months of just Cayman will get Island fever and will need to go somewhere. That hit Katie and I almost on schedule a little over three months in, so this past weekend we got away to Florida for some shopping and relaxation.

We flew up to Miami Friday afternoon and after picking up our rental drove down to Kendall a suburb where we were staying. We spent Friday night at an Amerisuites on Kendall Drive a main road with two shopping malls about three miles apart and every imaginable store and restaurant packed in between. We headed over to Staples first to recycle about a hundred printer cartridges from the college. You get a $3 store credit coupon for each one and we had high hopes of bringing $300 worth of office supplies back to the college. Unfortunately, the company policy (written on the coupons) was only to allow 3 coupons a day per person. So we each picked up nine dollars worth of office supplies and made plans to come back each of the next two days before we left. We then made a trip over to Toys R Us to pick up a gift a co-worker asked us to get her son and then to Best Buy for DVD's (House, Desperate Housewives and Friday Night Lights) and more gifts people asked us to pick up.

Coming out of Best Buy I had my first driving moment. I had gotten back into right side driving pretty easily but when you come up to entry and exit areas I had to rearrange my thinking and as I went to exit Best Buy I started to pull left and Katie had to remind me to go right. We had dinner at a Red Lobster which was across from the hotel and after an evening of eating and shopping went to sleep.

We slept in Saturday then had breakfast at the hotel and checked out. A quick trip over to Staples to spend 6 more coupons, some Starbucks for the first time in four months and then we drove over to Dadeland Mall near Highway One. Dadeland is definitely the Galleria of Malls in Miami and Katie was very happy to find an Aveda Salon so she could get her hair cut. While she was getting her hair done I wandered around and bought another Texas cap. After she finished her hair appointment we did some more clothing shopping and finally around 1 p.m. called a halt to the shopping part of the trip (at least until Sunday).

We drove down into the keys to our hotel in Key Largo a Holiday Inn resort just below Pennecamp State Park. Lunch at one of the restaurants in the resort was followed by me getting to watch the Texas-Central Florida game. Once again the Horns decided to play with my emotions keeping the game much closer than it should have been and almost giving it away at the end. However, a 35-32 win meant Saturday dinner wouldn't be ruined. Katie was craving Mexican food and Saturday night we went to a place called Señor Frijoles and had really good fajitas. We ended the night at the Tiki bar by the pool with a daiquiri and piña colada.

Sunday morning we had every intention of getting up real early and driving all the way to Key West. But the early wake up call was not to be as we both rolled over and went back to sleep. We did get up around nine and decided to drive a little south into the keys seeing Islamorada but then deciding to wander back slowly doing the last of the shopping we needed. We found a CVS pharmacy where Katie got a hairdryer and I got a two month supply of my acid reflux medicine which is now OTC, thank goodness, but is ridiculously expensive here in Cayman. We stopped at the Outlet mall in Florida City and Katie got some shoes while I picked up some more short sleeve button up shirts. Lunch at an Applebees was followed by another stop at Best Buy in Homestead for our birthday presents to each other and Anna's Linens to get some rugs for our bathroom. We then drove back into Miami and over to the Staples for one last run. We had been watching for Staples throughout our trip and though we saw many an Officemax and Office Depot we never came across another Staples. After a final stop at a Barnes and Noble we returned the car to Enterprise and headed to the airport. Our half empty bags on arrival now packed with stuff we had bought.

I panicked a little on our customs form returning to Cayman. You can bring back up to $350 CI per person without paying a duty and we had about $500 U.S. in stuff but only had one form. After two tries at estimating I pulled out the receipts and filled out the form coming in at over $350 U.S. We bravely went forward hoping that we didnt need two forms one for each of us. Surprisingly the flight was full of returning residents and status holders so the line at immigration for us was much longer than the visitors line. We cleared immigration and customs with no problem so my paranoia about properly filling out the form turned out to be just that, paranoia.

We arrived home safe and refreshed ready to start a long week that includes another round of comprehensive exams and culminates in the 37th Anniversary celebration for the college this Saturday where we dedicate the plaque to the 2004 class that survived Ivan.

Wednesday Morning Bike Ride

This morning Katie and I broke out the bikes and for the first time in a long while went for a bike ride. We headed west from our house down south sound road toward George Town. We had forgotten how refreshing going for a ride was and as we biked along the shore a real sense of calm struck us. We made it all the way to the southern end of the George Town Harbor to the Eden Rock dive point. It is supposed to be one of the best snorkel places on the Island and we definitely need to get back there to snorkel. The ride out seemed very easy and we thought that we were just getting right back into riding no big deal. Then on the way back we realized that the ride out was mostly downhill and that tailwind which made for an easy ride out was now a headwind and sometimes crosswind making our 25 minute ride out an almost 45 minute ride home. Still it was great to be back out on the road and it helps us reconnect with the fact that our lives are not all work. Speaking of work, Caribcert went well and the college is getting into its fall routine. Two days to our Florida excursion and we cant wait to get away.

Watching College Football in Cayman

After spending another afternoon at the college catching up on work that never seems to end, Katie and I headed over to Davy Jones Locker a sports bar in Grand Harbour about a 2/3rds of a mile from our place. Many of the major US colleges were represented as ex pats wearing shirts from Michigan, Florida, Florida State, Alabama, Texas (that was me) and Texas A&M gathered to watch football. Katie was the only female in the bar for a good hour plus after we arrived except for the waitress, a fact she pointed out to me several times.

The Texas game didn't come on until the second quarter as the early game went to triple OT which would have been really cool to watch except I knew the longer that it went on the less of the Texas game I would get to see. When the Texas game did come on, Katie who had already eaten her nachos and finished a margarita decided to abandon me and go home to talk to her sister on windows live. With only one vehicle that meant I got to walk home after the game. As soon as she left, Texas fell behind 10-0 on two interceptions and I was convinced she had jinxed us by leaving. That 10-0 halftime deficit had me considering thoughts of just how much alcohol I could imbibe and still safely walk home. Fortunately the second half saw Texas actually show up and make plays outscoring the Horned Frogs 34-3 to win 34-13.

This will be an easier week for my former law partner Jerry Bullard in Fort Worth, home of TCU. Gary sold my ticket to this game for a profit and I might actually make money on my Texas season tickets this year if he continues to be able to sell them at the pace he is going (no pressure Gary but keep up the good work). I am loosely planning to try and get back to the Texas Tech game in November which falls on a holiday weekend here on the Island, if my wife will let me and if our budget isn't too strained.

When the game ended I started my walk home. It had rained so there were a lot of puddles and Cayman is not big on sidewalks outside of George Town. I maneuvered around the water and watched for traffic walking on the main road then turning up Selkirk. I got about halfway up Selkirk, when Katie drove up and took me the rest of the way home. She said she saw on the Internet that the game was over and thought she would drive to the bar and give me a ride home (I have an awesome wife).

Davy Jones was not a bad place to watch but the quality of the big screens was pretty poor and the food from the Black Pearl Galley next door was just OK. In a few weeks for the Rice game we will try Lone Star in town. Of course next weekend we will be in Florida so if I get to see the Texas game against Central Florida at all it will be at a US sports bar in the keys.

Tomorrow we start our Caribcert program. We have 20 apprentices who come to the International College two days a week for classes this fall. The Orientation and pictures with the Minister of Tourism are at 8:30 a.m. That means a long day for Katie and I because our normal classes also meet until 10:30 at night. Once the program gets going it wont be as big a deal because I teach at 1:00 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays so I will still have my normal work days but tomorrow will just end up being a full day. Katie draws the black bean because she will be working on our Annual Institutional Report all day which is much harder than what I have to do. We are really excited about the tourism program because it is the first partnership with the other college on the Island and the government and because it is obvious the University College and the government didn't want us involved and thought we would drop out, but we never have and now it is actually happening.

The other big looming event is our 37th anniversary celebration on September 22nd. We have the plaque and invitations are going out Monday. We need to finish the program and finalize the speakers but it should be a great PR event for the college. We have invited the Governor and most of the government and private industry big wigs to the college so if even a few show up it is good for the college.

We are both counting the days until Friday and our getaway weekend. Katie is furiously looking for a hairdresser place near our Miami hotel on Friday for an appointment and seems to be looking forward more to a vist to Target for clothes than Key West to watch the sunset. Beaches and sun lose their appeal when you live near them but cheap clothes that you cant get on Island grow in stature the less access you have to them.

First Week of Fall Quarter

This past week has seemed like a whirlwind. We started the Fall Quarter on Monday (there is no Labor Day Holiday in Cayman) and as we wrapped up almost all of the registrations were happy to discover that we will have the largest student population for a quarter since Hurricane Ivan. While it is still well below where the college was pre-Ivan and significantly below where it was at its peak, we feel like it is a great step and that there is movement. The students seem more energized and the faculty is more enthusiastic. Although we still have a lot of work to go it feels like the momentum is moving in a positive direction.

I am teaching two law courses one on General Principles (UK based) and one on Business Law (US based). The General Principles class is unusual in that I really don't know English procedure so while I can teach all the elements of the different actions almost all of which are similar or the same to US law, I am having to learn the legal procedure as we go. I am lining up several guest speakers on procedure so that they can answer any of questions my students might have on Cayman procedure. I am also doing a class for the Caribcert program we are involved in with the Department of Tourism and the University College. We have 20 apprentices on Mondays and Tuesdays for 6 hours during the day and I am teaching Business Communication and Writing. Katie is not teaching this quarter as the registrar job of getting all the records ready for the ACICS visit and for future ease of use is a full time job. She is working on our Annual Institutional Report right now and that is a monumental task.

We got our first electric bill for 20 days in August and almost fell over. The rates here are much higher than the US. Our bill was more than any bill I ever got for my place on McCart and it was only for 20 days in August we didn't have AC for a week. Price of living in paradise. The water bill should be a similar sobering experience. We have to budget for utilities much higher than we thought at least during the summer months. We are told that the winter bills go down dramatically.

Our mornings this week were spent running errands and getting the small jobs done that we need for the house. We still haven't fixed the kitchen sink and that is my job for this morning. We did have to run over to immigration to get a special stamp for Katie. Her work permit application is still pending and her temporary has expired. She can continue to work as long as the permit application is pending but if we want to leave Island we need a special stamp. We have both been feeling a little burned out and suffering the normal three month cases of Island fever so we are doing a getaway weekend next weekend to the Florida Keys. We got Katie's passport stamped so she can leave Island and return for the next two weeks.

The trip to Florida will be multi purpose. We fly to Miami Friday night and will spend that night in Kendall a suburb with a shopping mall. Katie wants to find a Tony & Guy to get her hair cut and a Walmart and Target for some clothes, shoes and other items that are too expensive here in the Island (I want to find sunflower seeds and cornnuts). We also need to go to a Bank of America to make a deposit. So Saturday morning in Miami will be for running all those errands. But in the late morning we will head down to the keys and get some relaxation before heading back to Cayman Sunday late afternoon.

We haven't had a chance to go snorkeling in two weeks and no bike riding either. Last Sunday was rainy and wet which didn't give us a chance to go out and do something, and our mornings always seem full of little things that need to get done. We are hoping to get out tomorrow and do some though with Caribcert starting Monday we may have to spend some time on that. We are headed over to college to get some work done this morning. Tonight we are going to a sports bar called Davy Jones Locker in Grand Harbour to watch the Texas-TCU football game.

We realize we dodged another bullet with Felix. That is one of the strange things about living here, every morning, every afternoon and every evening we check the National Hurricane Center website. Based on the experience from hurricane Dean we drafted a preparedness plan which starts from the time a storm is first identified (hopefully up to five days before it would impact us) and follows right through the post storm cleanup. What that means is following on the web any systems that could be of concern.

First Day of Football Season

We awoke this morning to the strains of the Eyes of Texas. My awesome most wonderful wife had set the I-home to play that song as our alarm music. She also had hung our Texas Flag in our front window so when I came downstairs you could see the sun streaming in through the flag. First day of football season had arrived.

The day began with us headed to the college for a faculty meeting at 10:30 and to proctor a couple of final exams for the summer quarter which ended this week. At the beginning of the day I thought I would be headed home and listening to the game on the Internet. But after the faculty meeting I checked my personal email and I had gotten an invitation from another Texas Ex here on the Island to a game watching party at his house where he was getting the game off a satellite. I had emailed him earlier in the week to see if there was going to be a game watching party and hadn't heard anything and all but given up. We headed home from the college at 2 after a couple of hours of meetings, paperwork and file work.

The A/C guy arrived around 3:30 and fixed our air conditioning which had made this week a tough one at the house. The machine was in desperate need of freon and the filters were filthy. When he finished we headed out to buy some new air filters and then on up to West Bay to watch the game. Texas did not play well and almost tried to give away the game at the end but held on for a way too close for comfort 21-13 win over a team they should have beat by 40 points. The house we went to to watch the game was incredible. The TV room was a huge big screen with surround sound and speakers throughout the house so you could hear the game wherever you were. The main house was two stories with a widows peak third level. The guest house was bigger than our place. The property sits on two full plots and faces the water with bed rooms for the kids bigger than our living room. The folks we watched with were awesome and so down to earth you would never know they were obviously multi multi multi millionaires (he is a land developer here with his father and they own several huge commercial properties). Katie even said she had fun and you all know how she feels about football.

We start the fall quarter Monday which isn't a holiday here. One month to our accreditation visit and things that were already crazy busy are about to be ramped up even more. We are keeping an eye on Hurricane Felix way to our south but he looks like he will not be an issue for Cayman and lets hope it stays that way.