Home from Florida

Katie and I are both back from Florida and settling in for the start of the spring quarter Monday. Katie learned a lot at her conference and it helped both of us to get off Island for a few days. Epcot center was incredible and we got some spectacular pictures of the fireworks and laser light display that closes the evening. We did a lot of shopping as we always do when we are in the States. It was also nice to catch up with family and see our niece and nephew. Last night we went out to a sports bar to watch the Texas basketball game in the NCAA tournament and this weekend is being spent doing the pre-quarter faculty meeting and getting ready for the new quarter. Will take a break tomorrow to watch the Horns in the Elite 8.

Friday in Central Florida

Katie and I are in Orlando tonight at the hotel which has free Internet access. We flew up to Tampa today and after a bank run drove over to Orlando where this evening we have been running errands and picking up items that are too expensive on the Island. Tomorrow is another day of shopping, errands and some fun with family. We are planning on doing Epcot Sunday and then I head home Monday while Katie stays for her conference the rest for the week.

We found out something fascinating about Cayman today that we didn't know. Camping is illegal on the Island year round except for three days, Good Friday through Easter Sunday when many of the Island residents camp out on the beach. Many people asked us if we were going camping and there were ads in the paper for camping supplies. Today we asked our neighbor Randy why the camping at this time of year and he related that it is a throw back to the era of slavery when the plantation owners would let their slaves free for the Easter weekend and the slaves would go down to the beach and camp with their families. There were very few slaves on Cayman which did not have many plantations but the tradition has now come down through the years and many Caymanians will be out on the beach the next two nights.

The quarter is over and this vacation and trip away could not have come at a better time.

Last week of Winter Quarter

It seems like the quarter just started but we have just four days left. That has meant dealing with registrations for the spring and finishing up this quarter. Katie is teaching the Intro to College Studies class next quarter so she is busy getting ready for that while still holding down all her registrar duties. She is also really looking forward to her first registrar conference in Orlando after the quarter ends. We leave Friday morning and fly up to Tampa then drive over to Orlando. Good Friday and Easter Monday are both national holidays so I am heading up for the long weekend to spend some time in Orlando before Katie's conference with her. I head home Monday as her conference starts and she comes home that Thursday. We have a week between quarters so Katie being gone for a week wont bring the entire college's activities to a halt.

We are both looking forward to a fun weekend in Orlando. Between meeting family and friends from the area and getting to see some of the amusement parks it will be a full weekend. Of course any trip to the U.S. means a long list of errands. We already have trips planned to costco, best buy and target as well as a bank run. There is also the mandatory scrap booking run.

I have joined the Kiwanis and yesterday spent a couple of hours at the Savannah Fosters helping to raise money for the Buy a Kid Breakfast program. There is no government meal program at the schools and so Kiwanis sponsors the breakfast program at five of the primary schools. We meet weekly for lunch in George town at the Britannia Golf Course which might be one of the strangest golf courses I have seen. A beautiful course designed by Jack Nicholas, it is also an iguana preserve and they lay out sunning themselves on the various holes. Katie and I are both trying to get more involved in the community and this is a good place for me. Katie is looking into joining the national choir starting in April and has also been talking to some fellow scrapbookers on the island.

Welcome Sarah Elizabeth Bezemek

On Monday night Gary and Elizabeth welcomed Sarah Elizabeth Bezemek to the world. Congratulations to them, we cant wait to meet her.

Back to Central Time

Cayman does not have daylight savings time so we awoke on Sunday to a new time zone. For the last four months we have been on Eastern time and our television shows have come on starting at 8:00 p.m. We don't get to watch TV during the week but on the weekends when we do it means late nights and no news until 11 p.m. Now that we are back to Central time we get shows starting at 7:00 p.m. and and actually get to watch the late news from the states before going to bed. Just two weeks left in our Winter quarter. Next quarter Katie is teaching the EN 100 Intro to College Studies class and she is doing it with an online component so she has been spending the last couple of weekends preparing for the class. Both of us have been sick with the flu which has been going around the Island like wildfire.

Constitutional Referendum

Here on Cayman it is election season also. In May the Caymanian citizens and status holders vote in a constitutional referendum on the proposed new constitution. As work permit holders Katie and I do not vote in the election and we stay as non-political as we can because the college has to operate in whatever political environment exists and we cant be in the business of choosing sides.

It is somewhat difficult to follow the debate. There is no question that Cayman is not looking for independence and wants to remain a protectorate. There is a debate about what that status means. Yesterday I attended a meeting of a civic organization I am joining, and the guest speaker was from the constitutional authority to talk about the referendum. She spoke of the current situation and why Cayman is drafting a new constitution. There was a similar process prior to Ivan but it failed and then when Ivan came along was shelved. This new process is well along and is ready to be put to a vote of the people.

After the speaker finished the floor was opened for questions. There were a few questions about helping the Cubans and about the impact on the roll over policy. Then a few softball questions about whether the referendum might get pushed back and the voting places that have been chosen. Eventually, the questions started coming fast and furious on whether or not the new constitution would have a bill of rights. At first I thought the questions must be because people wanted a bill of rights but it quickly became obvious that wasn't the case. In fact, it is having the bill of rights section that most concerned the questioners and finally someone said what apparently everyone else had been thinking but not saying which was does this new constitution and the bill of rights mean Cayman is going to have gay marriage?

Apparently there is concern here that since the U.K. has civil unions that will be imposed on Cayman and Caymanians are concerned that the new Constitution and the bill of rights in it is the vehicle for that. The speaker kept assuring the group that this was not the case and that the constitution does not change the definition of marriage. It was a stark reminder of just how conservative this Island is.

West Bay

The two hardest parts of the Island to get to from Red Bay are Northside and West Bay. We make it up to Northside every couple of months to go snorkeling at Cayman Kai or go out to Rum Point but other than two short trips early last summer we haven't been to West Bay at all. West Bay is the northwest part of the Island. It is at the top of seven mile beach and looks like the head of a wrench on the map. Hell is located in West Bay as are many restaurants and dive spots.

On Friday we decided to do something new for our date night and passed on another sushi run. Instead we made reservations at Pappagallos an upscale Italian restaurant in West Bay. It was about a 25 minute drive and once again we were reminded how spoiled we have gotten as that ride seemed to take forever. We used to not bat an eye traveling 30 plus minutes to Arlington or elsewhere to go to a restaurant but now 25 minutes seems like so long. There is only one road going into West Bay. It is the Seven Mile Beach Road that turns into the West Bay road. As soon as you enter West Bay you can tell it is the high population part of the Island. The density of houses and people is dramatic. We had been told that West Bay was where a lot of people lived but until we drove through it never really could picture it any differently than the other districts on the Island.

The houses ranged from obviously high income people to some neighborhoods that could best be described as a little sketchy. The richest people on the Island live right before West Bay on Boat Club drive and many have moved out to Savannah but the younger crowd that wants to be where all the action is live in West Bay. As we drove through we both realized that it was definitely not a place we would enjoy living in, too many people, too much traffic, not to mention the commute we would have to make out to Newlands.

Pappagallos was a really nice restaurant on an inlet near the top of West Bay. We didn't eat out on the deck as it was being used for a private party. Instead we ate inside which had a roof designed to look like a huge thatch hut. Around the outside of the room were parrot cages with brightly colored Cayman parrots. The food was very good and the atmosphere was really nice. We did notice a lot of tourists dressed like tourists. The other really high end restaurant we have been to, Grand Old House, people got dressed up to go to (even the tourists). At Pappagallos they were in their shorts and sun shirts. This isn't a restaurant we will go to very often, for one its pretty expensive (even more than Grand Old House) and its distance from our home is a factor. However, it is a special restaurant and can be used for some special occasions.

On Saturday we went to the movies and saw Juno. We are trying to catch up on all the Oscar movies as we hadn't seen any of the best picture nominees. There are just three weeks left in our Winter quarter and we are definitely ready for this quarter to be over. The cats are doing well, still fighting their ringworm medicine but settling in and walking around like they own the place.

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.

Visit from Missouri Southern State University

Yesterday we hosted a contingent from the School of Business at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Missouri. The Dean of their business school and the head of their finance department came for the visit. We are in negotiations for an agreement to transfer credits and give our students an opportunity to pursue additional degrees or certificates in the United States as well as some distance learning opportunities. We spent most of the day in meetings but also got a chance to introduce them to some of our students and they passed out literature about their programs. The next step will be a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions.

We are very excited, because since Ivan the college has not pursued this type of partnership with a foreign institution. This is the first one the new administrative staff had been a part of pursuing. Before Ivan the college had many such partnerships which helped students who wanted to start their education in Cayman and complete it abroad. It did mean a long day for us both starting with leaving our home to pick them up for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and ending when we closed up the college at 10:35 p.m. We put them on their flight home this morning and are looking forward to a very productive relationship with their institution.

We learned about Missouri Southern at a conference last fall where there was a presentation on their partnership with a college in the British Virgin Islands. They have a very international outlook and their mission statement includes partnerships abroad. We contacted them to see if they would be interested in something in the Cayman Islands and they were interested enough to send down the contingent. The students who met with them yesterday were excited because they have been pushing us to get arrangements with U.S. institutions and this showed them we were pursuing options for them. We suspect they would be in for a bit of a culture shock going from Cayman to Joplin, Missouri but that is what going away to college is sometimes suppossed to be about. Equally exciting though is the distance learning capabilities for our students to take MSSU courses here in Cayman.

This weekend we are hosting a Super Bowl party for some of the folks in our office. It is a rest weekend for us as next weekend we head up to Miami for the seminar. Next Wednesday is a national holiday here on the Island and is the big agricultural festival. We are also in the final planning stages for the annual college to castle walk which benefits the college scholarship fund. It is on Saturday the 16th at 6:30 in the morning (all events like that have to be early to avoid the heat). The students have responded well and we already have several who have signed up for the walk and posted the flyers at their work places. Our goal was to raise $500 for the scholarship fund we think we may double that at the pace we are going with registrations.

Our cats have both broken out with something on their heads and we are taking them in to the vet tomorrow for a check up. Neither one reacts with any pain when you touch them where they have broken out but it is worrisome since they both broke out in the same place with very similar looking sores. The kitty cats are much more like puppies than cats. They come running to the door when we get home each night and are very demanding of attention. The clincher was when we got back from the Brac. Usually cats give you the cold shoulder when you go away to let you know how angry they are with you, ginger and gypsy came running to the door and were so happy to see us back just like little puppies wagging their tails and licking us. We will let you know how the vet visit tomorrow goes.

Cayman Brac Holiday Weekend

We haven't posted for a while as things have been very busy here. The start of classes, work on the second accreditation report and completion of the Caribcert program have been taking up most of our time. Today is National Heroes Day in Cayman and is a national holiday. Katie and I took advantage of the holiday weekend to get away for a couple of days to one of the sister islands Cayman Brac. Located about 90 miles northwest of Grand Cayman, "the Brac" as it is referred to by Caymanians has a much more Caribbean feel than Grand Cayman which can sometimes feel like Miami south. The Brac was actually the spot where Christopher Columbus in 1503 discovered the Cayman Islands and claimed them for Spain. He sailed along the Northern coast of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman the third island in the group which is located about 5 miles west of the Brac. There were no inhabitants other than turtles until 1833, though pirates often used the two sister Islands before they were settled to hide their booty and make repairs.

We flew over on Saturday morning at 7:45 a.m. on a small prop plane that seated 18 people and was packed. The flight took less than 40 minutes and by 8:30 we had arrived and gotten our luggage. A short cab ride took us to the Brac Reef resort where we had gotten a special deal they give to locals, two nights plus the flight plus the Saturday evening dinner. One of the reasons Katie chose this resort was the bike rentals. It turned out that the bikes were free for guests so after we checked in and unpacked we headed out to explore the Island. We had brought our own bike helmets and our water bottles so we were in great shape for a long exploratory ride.

Cayman Brac is a long thin island that looks a lot like a piece of rice. It rises from sea level on the western side where we stayed up a bluff that gets to 140 feet at the eastern edge of the Island. We rode our bikes from the southwestern corner where our resort was located over the western edge of the bluff and to the north side of the island about a 1 and a half mile ride. We stopped at the local market and had sandwiches for lunch. Feeling adventurous we set out east on the northern road. The bluff is full of caves that were and sometimes still are used by locals to hide in during storms. We stopped at a cave called Half Way Ground Cave (see picture to the right) and went exploring. You could walk well into the cave without flashlights (next time we go we are bringing flashlights to explore deeper). We then biked to the road in the middle of the Island that cuts over the bluff and connects the north and south side. Heading back west on the southern road we came to the Bat Cave which went deep into the southern side of the bluff. We explored as far as we could with the natural light, we saw one bat very briefly fly into the darkness but otherwise didn't see the bats or owls that live in the cave.

Arriving back at the hotel after our approximately 12 mile bike ride we decided to take advantage of the hammocks that were set up throughout the beach and read and sleep. Saturday night we walked to the western edge of the Island and watched the sunset then headed back to the resort for the Saturday dinner. Dinner included lobster bisque, seafood newburg, beef wellington and many side dishes. After our active day it was a great way to wind down.

Before going to the Brac everyone had said you couldn't get to the top of the bluff unless you rented a car. We took that as a challenge. Sunday morning we got up and after eating breakfast got on our bikes headed to the summit of the bluff. Saturday afternoon we had gone back to the market and picked up granola bars, apples and two 64 oz bottles of Gatorade. We refilled our 64 oz water bottles as well and were well stocked with energy food and liquids. Saturday evening we had watched some of the discovery channel before going to dinner and it was showing an episode on Everest and interviewing people who had summitted. We decided that with everyone telling us we couldn't do without a car, the bluff (yes all 140 feet of it) was our Everest and were going sans the auto.

We started off great and less than an hour into our ride were over half way there. Then disaster struck. The bikes were only one speed and with chains that had rusted from salt exposure. As I headed up a sharp incline my chain cracked, rendering the bike useless. We had brought our cell phone so we called the resort to come get the bikes. I told Katie I was sorry it loked like our summit would have to wait but Katie was undaunted. She suggested we hike the 6 remaining miles up the bluff to the lighthouse that sat on the eastern edge. With plenty of liquids and food and feeling like we wanted to finish what we had started we set out on our trek. It took us about three hours to get from the parrot preserve where my bike broke to the lighthouse. Along the way we actually deviated from the shortest route cutting over to an old path used by the lightkeepers before the road was built. The path went through shrub land and over black coral a beautiful but often difficult hiking trail. When we got to the eastern bluff we were met with incredibly beautiful scenery and breathtaking overlook.
The lighthouse, which is actually just a light not the traditional house and light, sits near a brown booby bird nesting site and we could see the birds nesting on the bluff in amongst the rocks. We took pictures, ate our apples and feeling like we had accomplished a lot headed back west. The trip back to the resort was over 15 miles with the winding road and having already walked seven miles we didn't expect to make it. Our goal was go as far as we could then call for a cab. We hiked for about two hours from the lighthouse making it back to the parrot preserve our starting point for the hike when we both reached our limit. We called the resort for a ride and while waiting for it to arrive actually got to see some Brac parrots eating on a tree near the road.

Dinner Sunday night was at the Tipsy Turtle Pub but after a seven mile ride and 14 mile hike we didn't care what we were eating, we just chugged it down. We headed back to the hammocks on the beach and enjoyed another sunset over the water. This morning we went out cayaking on the southern side of the Island, something Katie has been wanting to do for a while. We played some ping pong and then checked out. With only 18 people to check in we didnt have to go to the airport until 30 minutes before our flight. This was a really incredible vacation and we will definitely be heading back to the Brac again. We plan to go to Little Cayman in May and see the third island in the group.

First week of classes

This week marked the beginning of the Winter Quarter. Katie and I are back to the nighttime work hours and having our mornings to exercise, run errands or simply sleep in. We have set up a regimen of run-walking and bicycling though this past week was harder because of the adjustment to the new hours. The first week went pretty well and we are both getting back into the swing of things.

The cats are definitely settling in. Gypsy is an attention hog and loves to sleep on the bed with us. She also prevents Ginger from getting up on the bed which leaves her downstairs crying a lot during the night. We try to call her up but she wont come. Katie is going out of her way to give Ginger attention when we get home and we will often split up the cats so that both of them feel like they are the center of our individual attention. We have bought them a cat tree and toys that are now spread out throughout the house. Its not that Gypsy is mean to Ginger she just demands attention and ginger defers to her. Ginger is the more curious and we have now opened up the entire house, except for the upstairs guest room, to them so they have a lot to see and do.

Last night we went to a party for the Pirates Week volunteers at Breezes by the Bay a restaurant right on the George Town Harbor. The food was good and it was a chance to catch up with one of our board members who does a lot of work for the Heritage Days that happen during Pirates week. We had manned a small stand for ICCI during the Savannah Heritage Day which got us the invite to the celebration.

Earlier in the day was our winter faculty meeting which had a great turnout. I am also working on my two classes, a grad course and an undergraduate course. Katie is working on a newsletter that will come out every month and is also doing a math skills class for our caribcert students during the day. Our winter enrollment is larger than our fall enrollment which means each of the last two quarters ICCI has had its biggest enrollment since Hurricane Ivan. The accrediting agency has asked for more information so we are once again working on a new response. We have found that the process of working on those is actually quite helpful in getting issues at the college identified and addressed. We are all very optimistic about where things are headed and all that we have accomplished in the six months since we arrived.

As I write this I am watching the Cowboys game on TV and watching Katie take a nap on the big couch with Gypsy asleep by her feet. A nice lazy Sunday afternoon for us both.

Ginger & Gypsy

By Katie

This morning we picked up our new family members Ginger and Gypsy. They are sisters who are each about 2 years old. Ginger is the orange one and Gypsy is the orange and white one. They had a home but the family had to leave the island and were unable to take them.

We were expecting them to be timid as they entered a new home but they have been very curious and bold. Both of them are out and about. They were a little wary of the stairs either going up or down but they have gotten used to them and now enjoy running up and down. Ginger loves Scott's shoes and has, as the picture shows, made herself at home on top of them. The two of them follow us around from room to room and are quite demanding for attention.

They have brought many smiles to our faces since they have arrived and we are very happy to have them.

Sweater weather

The same cold front that is freezing Florida is affecting us down here in the western Caribbean. The temperature has dipped into the low 60's and everyone is wearing sweaters and acting like it is freezing cold. Our blood must not have thinned just yet because we are still walking around in short sleeve shirts and this morning did our exercise walk in shorts and t-shirts. Scott made another TV appearance yesterday and we are both working on orientation for the new students tonight. Tomorrow is our date night and we are going to Deckers on Seven Mile Beach to use the gift certificate Scott's cousin Chuck and his wife Twila gave us. We are also trying out the new movie theatre at Cayamana Bay the new American style mall and seeing National Treasure on Saturday.

Happy New Year

As 2008 began we were fast asleep but firecrackers are very popular here on the Island and right at midnight an explosion of them went off waking us up and giving us the opportunity to wish each other a happy new year and then roll over and go back to sleep. We had celebrated with our traditional spaghetti and clams along with a bottle of sparkling wine. Around nine we both were exhausted and decided to call it an early night. We fell asleep well before midnight and only the massive fireworks by our neighbors brought us out of our slumber.

We got up at 7 this morning and did a 2 hour bike ride out to the Ipigenia marker in Boddentown. Then this afternoon we went out snorkeling up at Cayman Kai. It has been a busy New Year's Day as we try to stick tpo our plan of running one day then bike riding the next. We are both trying to work off the holiday weight and also the weight we put on last fall. We have even started a bet with Katie's parents based around the biggest losers.

Our new quarter starts next Monday and Orientation is Thursday so we are getting back to the busy times at ICCI. Scott is teaching two classes and we are both teaching Caribcert during the month of January. We plan to go to Cayman Brac at the end of the month so that gives us something to look forward to.