Riding into a storm

Yesterday, we decided to try a new bike route. We decided to head west using the Crewe Road bypass and go by the Sports Complex and through some residential neighborhoods. When we pulled out from our house, the sun was shining and there was no real hint of bad weather. About 20 minutes into our ride though we could see the clouds gathering and the wind picking up. This was one of those fast moving Caribbean storms and it blew in very quickly. Suddenly, we were dealing with 30-40 mile an hour winds and a driving rain. We had to start aiming our bikes into traffic to combat the wind which was blowing us off the road. At first, the sand from the beaches was stinging our legs but once the rain started that stopped. Of course that meant we got soaked and our glasses (my real one's, Katie's sunglasses) suddenly needed wipers. At one point Katie called back to me that we were like a Nike commercial braving any elements to get our exercise in. This mini storm is not unusual here in the winter in fact our students call them the Christmas winds which come every year starting in December. As we pulled back into home, the rain slacked and the wind died down. We both started laughing as it seemed like it had been a test just for us.

Katie has started scrap booking our Keys trip from November with the scrap booking supplies we bought in Miami two weeks ago. She has also made contact with some scrap booking enthusiasts here on the Island. We went to a book store in George Town yesterday afternoon and she found some more supplies though they are much more expensive than the States. Gypsy loves to sleep on the scrap booking pages and we are constantly having to move her as she wants to participate in the process. We are watching season one of Heroes having finished season one of Grey's Anatomy. We figured out how to hook up the mini DVD player to the TV and watch the DVD's on the large television which has been nice.

The stores and newspapers are starting to put up signs for the 2008 Hurricane season which begins June 1. Although we had the huge scare with Dean last year, 2007 was a very quiet season with far less storms and hurricanes than predicted. 2006 was similarly quiet. Whatever global warming may be doing elsewhere it hasn't increased the number of hurricanes though there is some debate about whether it has increased their intensity. Down here some of the weather people talk about the false debate on global warming and hurricanes, saying that since we really couldn't accurately measure hurricanes its hard to say that they are "more intense" now than they were in the past. That isn't to say they discount global warming just the premise that global warming is affecting hurricanes here in the Caribbean basin. Some people want so desperately to argue the affects of global warming they see it in everything even when there is a real question whether it is having a particular affect. Its too bad since you can see global warming in many other things, why blow your credibility trying to link it to everything?

We don't get to follow US politics much down here but at least one candidate is doing the right things to make a play for Scott's vote. See the link at

http://mackbrown-texasfootball.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=40&url_article_id=3626&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2

and the video posted at:

http://mfile.akamai.com/39650/wmv/univtexas.download.akamai.com/39650/2008/02/022108_fb_obama.asx

That is if we can figure out how to vote and not lose our tax status of having permanent residence abroad and therefore being exempt from income taxes. To vote absentee in Texas you have to have a permanent residence in Texas so we are trying to figure out how to do that. We may end up just passing all together since we would probably just be cancelling each others votes out anyway.

How fast a year goes by

Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of our first visit to Grand Cayman. That three day trip to see the college, meet the people and interview with the Board of Trustees doesn't seem like it can have been over a year ago but it was. It has also been a little over a year of since we started this blog site to keep everyone updated on our news, that doesnt seem possible either but time really does fly.

We have put up pictures in the house to give it more of a home feel, we printed off wedding pictures in Miami and put up a collage in our upstairs hallway. We also did some football pictures for Scott and we put those up as well. Having cats has meant more constant cleaning as their hair gets into everything. It also means getting used to having their toys around. Gypsy likes to sleep on the bed but Ginger prefers the floor. We bought her a bed in Miami but except for a few times she has avoided it. She actually prefers sleeping on the top of a cardboard box. We continue to give them their medicine each day and they seem to be getting better though both still have visible signs of the ringworm on their foreheads.

Last night we went out to Bamboo a sushi place at the former Hyatt resort. It was OK but way too expensive. They obviously hike up their prices for the resort tourists and since those people don't know there is better and cheaper sushi just up the road they stayed busy. We have now sampled all the sushi places on the Island and Yoshi's is by far the best. We aren't having sushi every Friday anymore because it was starting to not be special. We are trying to check out different restaurants on our date night using the guide magazine we have.

We are getting back into biking and with the bypass to the middle of the Island now complete there are bike paths all the way from Red Bay where we live to Hirst Road in Savannah. Our long term goal of biking the entire Island is still a ways away but we are getting better. Four weeks left in the Winter Quarter then we head to Orlando for Easter to meet family and attend a conference of registrars.

Some Unique Caymanian Things

One thing that has really struck us since we moved to Grand Cayman is the number of people who are usually walking by the side of the road hitch hiking around. Because the Island is so small it is not at all uncommon to pick up people and give them a ride. It took us about a month to get used to it but now we will stop to pick people up and take them as far as we are going all the time. It really adds to a sense that this is a close knit community with people helping strangers for no personal benefit, just to be a good neighbor. We noticed it on Cayman Brac when several people slowed while we were hiking and asked us if we needed a ride. Its like everyone is looking out for each other. In the U.S. you just dont pick up hitchers, here it is normal and accepted.

Busy weekend in Cayman

This has been a really long week and weekend for us. On Thursday I was on a morning radio talk show called Cross-Talk getting interviewed on the Caribcert program. Also on the program was the Minister of Tourism so it was a great chance to promote ICCI and what we have been doing for the Tourism Apprentice Training Program. Doing the early morning things is hard since we dont get home from work until after 10:30 Monday through Thursdays but every chance we get even if it means little sleep we jump on. The show lasted over an hour and I got several plugs in for ICCI.

On Friday we had a booth at the Chamber of Commerce Job and Career Expo. The Expo was took place at Sir Vassell Hall on the campus of the University College so we were on unfriendly turf. Friday was for high school students and all the local schools brought their 11th and 12th year students. There are seven high schools all within about a two mile stretch that all the high schoolers on the Island go to. We passed out brochures that Katie has designed and also gave out key chains with ICCI and our phone number on a palm tree. Friday night was the welcome reception so after 4 hours in the afternoon with high school students we had another two hours with some big wigs like the Minister of Education and some industry leaders.

Saturday morning started at 4:30 a.m. as we woke up to start getting the donations for our memorial walk which began at 6:30 a.m. Katie had been planning this for two months and had lined up donations, sponsors and gotten everything ready. We drove over to the Island Taste factory and picked up patties for the walkers. On Friday we had gotten some donated fruit platters from Fosters Food Fair and had already picked up the donated drinks. It was a testament to good planning as everything went off without a hitch. Katie had made a banner with all the sponsers and we had stations set up at the half way mark and at the castle. We were the marshalls so we had to make sure everyone stayed safe. We walked fast at the beginning leading the group but later had to slow down and be the back end marshalls escorting the slower walkers to the finish. Even slowing down for the second half of the walk we finished in about an hour and 15 minutes so we kept a pretty good pace. It was a good first training walk for the half marathon we want to run/walk in December.

The college to castle walk is designed to raise money for the Hugh Cummings Scholarship Fund. We had almost 50 people pre-register and then another 20 plus walk ups, some didnt walk but over 60 people did all or part of the four mile walk. We raised over 800 dollars for the fund. It was a complete success and is something that we look forward to doing in the future.

After getting home from the walk Katie spent a day scrapbooking while I went back to UCCI for six more hours of the Expo. Katie had bought a lot of scrapbooking supplies in Miami last weekend and is working on a scrapbook of our Keys trip from last November. I headed back to the Expo for the Saturday session which was open to the public. We passed out a ton more keychains and brochures. We had taken five pages of call back sheets and filled up all five with potential students. It was also great for raising the visibility of the college. Lots of people came up to tell us they were happy to see us there and that it was great that ICCI was coming to events like this. It also helped that we had a really professional looking booth, with our web site called up on the lap top through wireless, brochures, pictures and program forms as well as the keychains.

In the evening we attended a Cayman Outreach Association dinner. It was a celebration of Valentines Day but both of us were so exhausted it was hard to really enjoy the occassion. We got home around 9:30 and the TV station was showing the Young Caymanian Leadership Association awards dinner from the Ritz Carlton. The guest speaker was Mike Huckabee, yes that Huckabee who actually gave a really good speech on perseverance and leadership with no politics mentioned. You can tell he was a preacher as he was very polished and was great story teller. Couldnt tell you a thing about his politics from last night but he is definitely a really good speaker.

The girls ringworm has definitely gotten better but we are still giving them medicine. They are getting smarter though and it is getting more and more difficult to get them to take the medicine without having to force it down their throats. We have the hurricane shutters off and the cats sit in the front window watching the world go by everyday when we leave. They like the toys we brought from Florida and Ginger has adopted several as her children and carries them up and down the stairs every morning and evening crying as she does to the ones she left behind not to worry she will be back soon. We are half way through the Winter Quarter and already planning for the summer and fall events. Cayman has been unusually hot this winter and everyone tells us that means a steamy summer.

33 hours in Miami

We made a quick trip to Miami this weekend to deposit money, do some much needed shopping and stop in on our Miami seminar. We arrived at 9:30 Saturday morning and were shopping or running errands straight through to nine in the evening. Today Katie had a hair appointment, we did the last of our shopping and headed home looking like a pair of refugee's with suitcases that had been empty yesterday now full of supplies for the college, dvd's for us and new clothes that would have been outrageously priced here on the Island. People on Cayman will literally fly up to Miami for the weekend to shop because it is so much cheaper in the US, even with import duties which we avoided by keeping our purchases under 800 CI which is 1000 US.

We also learned that cats will eat anything if mixed with clam, tuna or shrimp juice. We are now mixing the ring worm medicine in with the liquid from cans of various fish and crustaceans and both Ginger and Gypsy lap it up. There sores have gone down dramatically in the past week so they are both looking up.

We are on Island until the end of the quarter and Easter weekend when we go to Orlando for a conference that Katie is attending for registrars. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both national holidays so we are going early to meet family and see some of the parks.

Ash Wednesday

Today is a national holiday here on Cayman giving us a well needed day off. We had planned to go to the agricultural festival but as we drove toward Savannah the traffic was backed up a few miles from the fair grounds. Deciding that we really didnt want to sit in traffic for an hour and a half to get into the festival, we headed home to a rest day of watching Planet Earth and some pre-spring cleaning.

Gypsy and Ginger get medicine twice a day for their ringworm and while Ginger dociley accepts the liquid and the pills, Gypsy fights us like we are trying to kill her with each drop of the medicine. Ginger has stopped crying all night and is now sleeping on our bedroom floor. Gypsy continues to sleep in the bed. At least they still have the dog like characterisitic that after a few minutes of being mad at us after they get the medicine they want attention and as Katie calls it their Luvins.

On Saturday we are headed up to Miami for a quick shopping, banking, working trip. we will be stopping off at the seminar which is going on to check in with the students but for the most part doing a lot of personal errands. We get back Sunday afternoon so it is a less than 36 hour trip. The following week is our memorial walk which we are both looking forward to both for the exercise of the 4 and a half mile walk and for the way the community has been reacting with the registrations and support/donations we have gotten. Yesterday the Cayman National Bank agreed to sponser and man a water station for us and we already had gotten donations of breakfast for the first 50 walkers and a donation of water and gatoraide for two water stations. We are hoping to raise at least $500 for the scholarship fund but even more importantly get the college back in the public eye with these type of events.

Bathing cats

So it turns out that Gypsy and Ginger picked up ringworm while guests of the Cayman Humane Society. After a visit to the vet yesterday, we got some special ointment, pills, liquid medicine and shampoo. Last night we had to bathe the cats. Bathing cats is not a fun experience. We trapped them within the bath doors with each of us at one end. In the beginning they fight you, but then they become so dejected that they just sit there looking completely defeated. We used the shower head to get the water on them and then they had to sit with the special shampoo on for 7 minutes. We also had just forced them to take their pills so it was an all around bad experience.

They spent a good hour licking themselves after they got out of the bath. Surprizingly, they showed their puppy side with forgiving us fairly quickly.

The overall experience of giving them two pills a day, syringe of liquid medicine, rubbing in ointment, and weekly baths is frustrating but we love our girls and want them to get better. The treatment lasts a month and sometimes two so we will be doing this for a while.