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.

Its no fun being an illegal alien

By Scott

As I drove the rental car back to Budget on Monday I listened to K-Rock the local "hard" rock radio station. Its really not hard rock so much as a combination of 70's rock, 80's pop and 90's hard rock. As I am driving an old song from Genesis came on and before I knew it I was singing along to "its no funnnn, being an illegal aliennnn". The irony of it was pretty strong since my visitor permit to stay on the island expires on Saturday and I don't have a flight off island.

With the prospect of being an illegal alien looming large, I went down to the main immigration office in George Town today to get another 30 day visitor stamp. Fortunately, the immigration office decided that I fall under the pastor/teacher category and stamped my passport with a two year work permit, even though I am not a pastor and I only applied for a one year permit. When the immigration officer asked me what I do I said I was the new Dean at ICCI, she said she was stamping my passport as a pastor/teacher and so I just kept my mouth shut and said thank you. I decided to double down my bet and pulled out Katie's passport to see if they would stamp hers but unfortunately she is still not approved and we are operating off the temporary permit she got when we landed that expires at the end of August. She hasnt been declined just "deferred".

It has been a crazy busy week at work, the registration rush is over but now we are dealing with the regular rush. On Saturday we have a campus wide meeting to meet the new dean and registrar. Next Monday is a holiday for Constitution Day so Katie and I are celebrating Fourth of July two days early. We hope to go out on a longer bike excursion Sunday or Monday. Will let you know how far we get.

Royal Reef Resort

By Scott:

This weekend we had our first anniversary getaway (four weeks later than planned). On Friday I picked up a rental at the airport (pass the dutchie on the left hand side man) and when 5 O'clock hit (well actually it was closer to 5:20) we were out the door and headed to East End. Surprisingly, enough we ended up with the exact same car as we had when we first got to the island, license plate 108-210 with the same scratch we saw the first time. The resort is only 18 miles from the college but feels like a whole different world. You take the Queen's Highway and drive east to the northeastern most point of the island and you find two resorts well away from George Town and the Seven Mile Beach crowd.

When we arrived Friday evening we checked in and dropped off our suitcase. We were in the smallest suite which meant we had a room about the size of our apartment. Every room in the resort has a balcony that faces the ocean, overlooking the two pools and the beach. You can tell the resort has dredged the beach since there aren't any rocks as there are at all the public beaches. We also discovered that every morning around 8 a crew walks the beach, raking up all remains from the high tide thus the beach has a very white sandy quality to it.

Our room had a kitchen area with a fridge and microwave and basic plates and silverware. There was a stand alone shower twice the size of the typical stand up shower in the bathroom as well as a jacuzzi tub in the main suite area separating the kitchen area from the bed. The tub was huge!! Katie took at least three baths and it gave me a reason to watch ESPN.

After unpacking, we had a romantic dinner at Castro's Hideaway. It is a second floor restaurant at the resort overlooking the ocean and we ate outside with a great view of the water. We both had pina coladas and discovered at this resort they top them with hot buttered rum. The restaurant has nothing to do with Fidel Castro; there used to be a parrot who hid up in the rafters of a restaurant called Castaways and the manager of the resort decided to re-name the restaurant Castro's Hideaway. The bar downstairs, on the beach ( which looked like every bar you ever see in a movie that takes place in the Caribbean) is also called Castro's bar. After dinner we wandered over to a Fosters Express and bought some sodas, microwave popcorn and ice cream. We decided to do a evening swim but decided not to go in the ocean. We walked out a pier and could see huge fish at least two or three foot long hanging around the end. They obviously were used to being fed as they would swim upside down looking for what ever we would throw them.

After walking out the pier we went first into the hot tub then into the pool for our swim. As we left the pool we were given two coconuts still in their husks by a man who was leaving the next morning. We were able to get the husk off in our room and open the top of the nut to get out the coconut water but didn't have a big enough knife to open the nut and get at the meat. We wandered down to the bar where the bartender used a large knife to crack the coconut. While we ate fresh coconut, we shared a drink called a Cayman Colada which is a pina colada with a cherry liqueur in the middle. We headed to bed having had more alcohol in one evening then in several months combined.

The next morning we hoped to watch the sunrise from our balcony but it was overcast so we went back to sleep at 5:20 a.m. and slept in. Katie ran over to Fosters and got us breakfast (donuts and some local meat filled pastries) which we ate out on the balcony. Then it was down to the beach and a couple of hours of swimming and napping on our beach chairs. We went to lunch at a local restaurant in East End called Viviene's Kitchen. "The food was not good and the service was worse" (that is a direct quote from Katie with which I am in total agreement). We are not ugly Americans, Vernette our business office co-worker had warned us about the place but we wanted to rise above local prejudices, you know what sometimes local prejudices exist for a reason. We are also pretty sure that the fish we shared was bad because we both got sick later in the afternoon. In our three plus weeks on the island this was the first bad experience with local food we have had.

After lunch we headed back to the resort and discovered that they were painting the adjoining suite. Our maid was shocked to see us because they thought both rooms were empty. Without us even asking she had the manager on her cell phone telling her we needed to be moved. We moved our stuff and headed back to the beach. We decided to get some snorkel gear and snorkeled at the resort beach. The water wasn't clear because of high wave activity so we decided to head west toward Cayman Kai. We drove back to the beach we had found our first weekend on the Island. The wave activity was still high and there was a strong current but the water was clear. We swam for a while and exhausted ourselves fighting the currents. We then headed back to the resort and showered before heading out for dinner. Dinner was at an Italian place in Gun Bay called Portofino Wreck View. We ate out on the balcony from which you can see the remains of a wrecked ship out on the reef.

Back to the resort and a nightcap of more Cayman colada down on the beach and then a luxurious bath for Kathleen while I watched cable and channel surfed. This morning was a free breakfast as the resort welcomed all their week long guests who were just starting their visit with an orientation. Since we didn't need that we just got our breakfast from the buffet and headed out to the balcony to eat. We checked out around 11 and headed back to Newlands. We dropped off our stuff and the decided to explore George Town and West Bay which is north of George Town on the western side of the Island. We drove up to the Turtle Farm and over to Hell. We took a couple of pictures of "Hell" and it is pretty interesting but obviously a tourist trap. The gift shop was closed today so we had it all to ourselves. After driving around George Town we called it a day and headed back to the college.

A quick comment, the service all weekend was awesome. The people were very friendly and we both highly recommend the resort. I guess we shouldn't be surprised, the resort is in competition with Seven Mile Beach and is offering an alternative so they need to have great service. Listening to other conversations it was pretty clear there are people who come to this resort a lot as they were recognized by employees and recognized each other. We will definitely be going back ourselves when we need getaways.

This will be another busy week at work. Finishing up registration, lots of academic advising, we are completing a new student hand book and on Saturday have a campus wide meeting to introduce ourselves and talk to the student body (at least those who show up). My tutoring of the Business Law course has now changed to me teaching that course also by reading and conference. I drafted a syllabus last week and the course starts this week. So I will also be teaching my two courses and Katie will be trying to catch up on several months of old transcript requests and hounding professors for their grades and attendance rosters for last quarter. We will update the blog as new things happen.

First Day as Teacher

By Scott:

Tonight I taught my first class as a College Professor. There were only three students and it is a graduate course that is a reading and conference class but it is still a big first step. With some advice from my brother Kevin who has been doing this for a while, I drafted a syllabus. The course is called Environment of Business, it is a Business law and ethics course so my J.D. is sufficient to qualify to teach. The students read a couple of chapters on their own then we have a one hour meeting to discuss the readings, basically a give and take where I throw out questions and issues and let the students run with it. I am grading them on a term paper, final exam and attendance at the 11 required meetings. I am also tutoring two undergraduates in Business Law who are taking the course by exam starting tomorrow.

Katie and I really feel like we are making a difference. You can tell the students are excited about evening staff and having someone who can answer their questions or at least start the process of getting an answer. I have set up a campus wide meeting next Saturday (the 30th) to have the students meet the new dean and registrar and I hope that we see a lot of attendees. The attitude here by the students seems to be antagonistic because there have been problems with student services in the past and that is a big reason we are here. We are working long hours but it definitely feels rewarding. The past two weeks have been end of the spring quarter, summer registration and start of summer quarter so we came during one of the four times a year rush. A baptism by fire. Hopefully things slow down as we get deeper into the quarter but our accreditation visit is looming in August-September and is going to be a ton of work.

I also had another reminder that the Dean's portfolio is rather large. We had a donation of furniture for our canteen so I spent an hour and a half moving furniture from a storage bin to a truck and then from the truck to our canteen. The first half done in a pair of slacks which wasn't the best use of clothing though all the dirt and grim seems to have washed out. Whatever needs to get done, that what the Dean does down here.

Yesterday we biked down to Fosters for a shopping run and then did an exercise ride up to North Sound. We are really looking forward to this weekend and our stay at the Reef Resort to celebrate, one month late, our first anniversary. We will let you all know what the resort is like.

Lake ICCI

We had a huge storm blow through here last night and now have lakes all around the island including one in the field next to the college buildings. There don't seem to be any fish but some really interesting birds have stopped in to wash and sun themselves.

We have a land crab who lives next to Clayton Strain hall which is the administration building. He has dug himself a huge hole and every once in a while, Keith our maintenance man fills it in. Now the crab is just below the ground so you can see him and we can just hear his thought, "the next person to try and fill in this hole, loses a hand".

We went biking this morning for the first time since Tuesday. First we went down to Fosters to get some groceries. Everything is closed on Sundays so we have to get enough to last and Monday is a national holiday (The Queen's birthday) so we wanted to stock up. We came back to the college (about two miles round trip) and dropped off the stuff then immediately headed back out. We wanted to bike east for an hour and see how far we got. We stopped in Bodden Town after a half hour to drink some water then biked on for the last thirty minutes making it to Breakers near a restaurant that looks like a lighthouse. We had lunch at a place called the South Coast Bar and Grill, just hamburgers but after the 10 mile ride out there they tasted incredible. There is still a lot of wind from the back end of the storm last night and the sea was rough but very pretty with the big crashing waves.

We put some ice into our water bottles and headed back. We made a quick stop again at Fosters to pick up a few more items then headed back to the college. We have discovered that going to Fosters and going east is pretty much all uphill. The rides back are so much easier as there are long stretches of downhill where you hardly pedal at all. Once you get to the coast, east of Bodden Town the ground evens out but for the first seven miles it is pretty much all at an incline. That does mean that the last seven coming back are easy which is good because we are usually exhausted. All told we think we did about 24 mile today so we are improving. Tomorrow is a day for a beach so we wont bike out as far, we might even borrow the van and go back up to Cayman Kai the beach we found our first weekend on the island.

The weekends are becomming our exploration time and really give us something to look forward to during the week. Next weekend we are going to the Reef Resort to make up the weekend lost when our passport and work permit issues arose. We plan to go to Stingray City to snorkel and basically be completely away from the college for two days.

We are really beginning to feel like this is home, today on the ride we could tell locals and tourists and even joked about those darn tourists on their mopeds trying desperately to remember to stay on the left side of the road.

Week in Review

By Scott:

This past week has really seemed like a whirlwind. Katie and I are supposed to be going into work Monday through Thursday at noon but on at least three of the four days we found ourselves going in around 10:30 and working until after 11 at night and on the fourth, Thursday we were in at 9:00 a.m. and didn't leave until 11:30 as an exam ran very late and we are the ones who lock up the campus and turn off the lights, A/C etc. when everyone leaves. Then Friday night we worked until 5 and then i proctored two exams from 7-9 p.m. We only got to ride our bikes once, on Tuesday when we made a run down to Fosters. This week was exam week and also registration for the summer quarter so things are hectic. The one problem with living at the college is that when we get bored we work and so it almost seems like we are working all the time.

We had a couple of storms blow through and are still dealing with the leak issues. The latest caused a small leak in our bedroom which is a major concern (it also created a lake as the post above shows). We are watching more and more leak points form in the ceiling with a lot of concern. The apartment is a really great place if you can use the whole place but with half of it unusable when it rains and therefore really not usable at all since it rains all the time that makes it rough. When it is finally fixed we will feel a lot better.

I am going to be teaching this summer after all. I have a graduate course called Environment of Business which is a Law Business and Society course, basically legal and ethical issues for businesses. I am also helping three under-grad students who are taking the Business Law course by exam with weekly tutoring sessions.

Katie has been working overtime on the registration, she is fixing the spring quarter that we just finished while also getting the summer quarter going. She is also adjusting to having two employees who answer to her, she is developing into quite a good manager with just two weeks under her belt. On Wednesday I attended a meeting of the Cayman Mathematics Association in George Town. ICCI hasn't been represented at associations like that for a while and I am getting my face out there and meeting potential professors. I drove Elsa's van and got my first taste of George Town traffic at 5:00 p.m. Everyone is trying to get out of town on a one lane each way road and that backs things up for miles. It took 55 minutes to go 8 miles from the school district (where 5 schools are all right next to each other) back to Newlands. We did orientation for new students Thursday evening and have been watching the first season of "House" most evenings to wind our brains down.

We are radically changing our diet. The food is very expensive and with bikes you cant carry a lot. Throw in the fact that we have no refrigerator and the one in the teachers lounge is small and only partly working so we keep just milk and a few essentials in there. That means very little meat for me which is a huge adjustment. We have been eating lots of pasta since that stores easily in cabinets before being made. While we don't have an oven or microwave, we do have two good burners and have made chili, corn on the cob, spaghetti, beans and rice and a really good stir fry with some chicken we had bought the same day. Before each meal I walk from our apartment into the college, get stuff from the refrigerator, put anything we need microwaved into the microwave in the teachers lounge and then walk back. We actually have a microwave but it blew out the extension cord and we think there is an electrical issue with it. The only thing we really microwave is popcorn to watch "House" so it just becomes part of the routine to walk into the lounge and use that microwave.

We are both losing weight and getting darker just from regular activity outside. When we get a car we still plan to do mostly biking but shopping will get easier and we can go into George Town some evenings. Our Cayman experience has been largely limited to Newlands and the bike excursions since we dropped off the rental with a few work related trips thrown in using the van.

The people here are very friendly once they realize you are friendly. Katie and I have both noticed that they maintain cold veneers at first but once you smile at them, wish them good morning and show interest (ie you aren't a snobby tourist afraid they are going to pick your pocket) they open up. It seems like the onus is on us to break the ice but once we break the ice everyone has been great from the cashiers at Fosters to our neighbors etc. There really are all the comforts of the U.S. from Domino's Pizza to Subway to supermarkets and a blockbuster, they are just a lot more expensive and without a car mostly inaccessible. Still, two weeks in and we are both happy to be here. The challenges will make great stories some day and the three buckets we have to put out will become ten and the leaks will become floods to rival Noah and we will thoroughly enjoy recounting our experiences.

Rumour

There's a rumour going around the college that the dean is sleeping with the registrar...

The Return of the Leak

By Katie

First torrential downpour in a week....

First comes the rain, then comes the

Saturday biking excursion

By Scott:

After a morning of work Katie and I took our first real long bike activity ride yesterday. We filled up our water bottles and made the six mile trip out to Bodden town on The Queen's Highway that circles the island. We stopped at the public beach and went swimming. The beach was nice but the ground was way too rocky and there was strong wave activity and currents so we pretty much have struck that beach from our list. The above picture is of the Bodden Town public beach. On our way back we decided to go down Beach Bay road off the highway and look for a beach Katie had read about. This is one of the rich neighborhoods and the houses were incredible. About a mile off the highway we found a pristine beach with what looks like a great swimming area that we will try today. We biked back to the highway and then back toward Newlands. We stopped off at the Domino's in Savannah and found out they had a carry out special. So we biked to Elsa's in Newlands and borrowed the van to go back and get a pizza. Our total bike trip was about 16 miles round trip and we were exhausted. Whatever else we may become, in shape is definitely one of them at this pace. Our librarian had the first two seasons of "House" on DVD, a series Katie and I started watching in the advice of her friend Jennifer, so we watched a couple of episodes while we ate the pizza. We are going out again today more to keep the stiffness from setting in, though we are looking forward to trying the beach we found.

The Grand Tour

By Katie

I had all intentions of doing this yesterday but then I got pulled into four hours of work.....
By the way, mom, all the lights were only on for the sake of the pictures. Usually we are good at turning off our lights.... :)

Our Kitchen

The kitchen, "living area" and "study" are all part of one big room. In this picture you can see our drying rack for towels on the right hand side, the stacking washer/dryer in the back left, and our table. It is nice having a washer/dryer but they are very, very small and so we have to wash about every other day. Also in the picture is the sink that doesn't work and the little fridge that doesn't work.




Our Living area
The door in the back is to the bathroom with the only working sink so we have to wash dishes there after every meal. You can also see how close it is to the "kitchen".





Our Study
The blue box you see in the bottom right corner with the water and bucket, etc is our hurricane kit. We are working on building it up by getting just a bit more every time we run to Fosters. You can just see a bit of the bathroom door to give you a feel for how close everything is.

Our Bedroom

What you can see is all there is besides the closet. The bed takes up about two thirds of the room and we had to turn it like that (where it goes from one side of the room to the other) so that we could fit in our "dressers" (see plastic drawers).

Our Closet
We have gone from having large, separate closets in our apartment in Fort Worth to sharing this one, very small closet.










The view from our front door
The door you see on the left is one of the entrances to the library and at 10:30 at night, often students will be slamming it on their way home.







The parking lot & field next to the building
There is a painted horse that grazes in that field. He was behind the large tree in the middle of the picture when I was out taking pictures.









Scott hard at work on a Saturday in his office







Katie hard at work on a Saturday in her office
I would like it noted that when I first got there last week, that desk was ENTIRELY covered in paper and files. I have gotten a lot done in cleaning and organizing.

Spiders and Frogs and Ants OH MY

By Scott:

Yesterday was an interesting exploration into God's lesser species down here in the Caribbean. When I got to the office I sat at my desk and started working on some procedures manuals I am supposed to update and revise. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I see movement. On the opposite wall a spider the size of a baseball had wandered up the corner and stopped half way. He almost certainly came out of my credenza where he had been making his home with the office empty and this was the first day I had opened it up and started using it. I called to Kelly (our librarian) in the office next door and asked her to come to my office but not into it. I asked her to look at the spider and let me know if it was poisonous. She jumped a few feet in the air when she saw it and said she didn't know but I should kill it. Kira from the business office and Vernette both came in along with Katie and after some discussion of the possible poison risk we decided upon "operation spider capture" as Kira called it and to catch the little guy and set him free in the world rather than end his life. Katie got a folder, I grabbed a trashcan and we maneuvered him (using masculine but for all I know it was a female) into the trashcan then carried him outside and set him free.

That evening I was closing up the classroom building around 10:20. I had turned off the outside lights and as I walked toward the vending room to go in and turn off the A/C a frog jumped from the roof of the building right onto my head. I about had a heart attack and honestly thought I was being attacked by a bird at first. I reacted, with some justification, quite violently pushing it off my head and onto the grass where it gave me a croak and promptly jumped away. I guess the croak was thanks for breaking its fall.

This afternoon while Katie and I had lunch we looked over at our door and we must have dropped something on our way in because a swarm of ants was crawling all over some food substance. Per our prior declaration we had a stomping party and killed probably a hundred or so of them then swept the bodies out, another reminder that we cant drop food and have to keep this place clean. The college is in the middle of a field and there are more ants than can be counted. Keith puts down poison every few weeks massacring millions but they keep coming back. He tells me that the rain washed away his last treatment so that is why they are a little more active now. Incidentally good news on that front, it rained last night and the roof seems to be working as there were no leaks. We are going to wait through one more rainstorm before starting to use the front room and closet.

First work week is done though both Katie and I are working tomorrow, I am proctoring an exam and she is doing some registration work. We are both enjoying our work though it is draining and sometimes you feel like for every problem you solve there are two new ones that arise. Still we are both very happy to be here and really enjoying the transition to Island life.

Security Dogs

by Katie

Note to Self:

Some houses in North Sound Estates have large, scary security dogs, unfenced. When riding, these dogs will chase you, barking and snapping at your heels. Must pick up pace when passing house or simply avoid these locations.

new roof, new bikes, new job

By Katie

Some people came and worked on the roof for two days; it seemed as if they were putting on a brand new roof. Everything is finished now but, since it hasn't really rained since Sunday, we haven't been able to put it to the test.

As you know, we got our bikes on Monday and tested them out. Yesterday we did a successful ride down to the Fosters to get groceries but we only brought one bag so Scott had a heavy bag on his back on the way back down. I'd wanted to go for a longer ride one of these mornings and spend some time before work at a beach but, as Scott pointed out, we will be exhausted after a long ride and then putting in long hours at work is going to be very difficult. I will just have to wait for Saturdays, until we get in better shape, before hitting the beach to swim!

We have been working very long days (put in twelve hours with two short breaks yesterday). I feel lucky that with my job, even though there is so much that needs to be done, everything that needs to be done consists of smaller steps. Therefore, I can do a small step, feel accomplished, and then move on to the next step. Scott's job is more abstract and so I don't think he feels the same sort of progress, no matter how slow. I have been spending about a quarter of my time trying to get things organized so that we know where things are in the office. I was a bit surprised to find that I do have two people that I supervise and have had to adjust accordingly. For the first time in my life (besides bossing my mom and sisters around when cleaning), I am in a manager's position. I am using all the great advice that I received from Mary Anna, Scott and all my experience of what not to do to help!

Crabs

by Katie

The crabs here are very interesting. The first day we walked, we noticed all of these squished crabs everywhere. On our long drive Sunday out to the north side, we noticed huge groups of little red crabs or one/two big grey land crabs out in the middle of the road. It is the best place for them to sun themselves so they all hang out right where tire tracks run! Scott had to have killed about twenty little crabs; although he is denial and claims that all of the crabs in the groups that we ran over were able to maneuver around his wheel. (More like two or three tops and there was nothing I could do when you are going 40 mph on one lane each way hwy and 10 of the little suckers run right out into your lane-Scott)

See I told you he was in denial!!

First full day on Job; First Bike Ride and other random facts

By Scott

We had our first full day on the job yesterday. We are working from Noon until Ten with a hour break for lunch and another hour break for dinner Monday thru Thursday (8-5 Fridays as there are no evening classes and some Saturday mornings as needed). That means we have the mornings for ourselves. Yesterday was our last day with the car so we needed to get maximum use. We got up at 6 a.m and walked north up Hirst road this time we kept going past the golf course all the way to the sound. There is a Heritage trail marker up there for Careenage which is the place where they used to turn the boats on side to clean the bottom. The sound is quite beautiful and very peaceful.

After finishing our walk and having breakfast we headed back into George Town looking for Uncle Bill's Home Improvement Center where we were told we could get high quality bikes. We found a pair of Trek bikes and bought them along with helmets and locks. Uncle Bill's delivered the bikes to the college. We also went back to the big Kirk's supermarket (like costco with bulk stuff - some of the items) and bought lots of food items for our hurricane kit including 5 galloons of fresh water, canned meat and fish, canned vegetables along with some non food items we hadn't gotten on Saturday like work gloves matches etc. We heard a news report on the radio while driving around that ended with the announcer saying in a totally normal voice "report from NOAA" (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), "no hurricane activity in next 48 hours". We looked at each other and laughed because down here that isn't a joke; they really mean you are clear the next 48 hours and that is important news. There are inserts in all the papers about hurricane kits and hurricane preparedness so we have taken very seriously getting a good kit together. Fortunately we had brought the most expensive items on island (first aid kit 25 in US 80 here, good flash light, batteries etc with us). We got more food for our use and headed back to the college.

In the afternoon, I returned the rental with Elsa following behind and then giving me a ride home. Katie began working in her new office organizing and inputting registration materials. In the evening I met with the current acting Dean and began sitting in on academic advising sessions and learning the Dean's part of the registration process which has just begun for the Summer quarter. We finished around 9:45 and called it an early night. I am currently drafting an exam for the Fundamentals of Business Law course people who are taking the class by exam (so it felt a little like old home-Scott).

This morning we took our bikes out for the first time. We rode up to the sound and back. Katie's back wheel seemed low so we tried to pump it up with our air pump but really only accomplished letting out all the air. Fortunately, Keith, Elsa's husband and the college maintenance man used to repair bikes in Jamaica. He had already helped us adjust the seats and now he helped us (really he did it) pump back up the tire using a good bike pump. He also pulled out the inner tube to make sure there was no puncture etc. and that the only reason it was low was because they hadn't pumped it up before delivery. We went out a second time to the sound and returned about 2 miles round trip so we biked about 4 miles this morning total. The trip out is downhill, back uphill. We didn't really realize how much exertion it was until we stopped after the first trip and realized we were drenched in sweat. This will be great exercise in addition to giving us a way to get around.

We did a little research on that song I hum to help with driving and, technically, the dutchie refers to a dutch oven and passing food from the dutchie but pretty much everyone on the net that I looked at said the song is slang for the happy weed so who knows, kind of like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, it is what you want it to mean.

There is tremendous amount of work and we keep reminding ourselves of something my mom told us before we left "we can't do it all in 24 hours". For those of you on windows live messenger/MSN we will usually be on in the mornings Monday thru Thursday and regular evenings Friday through Sunday.

The North Side

by Katie [because Scott is sweeping the apartment right now:) ]

After meeting this morning with the acting registrar, Scott and I decided to head out farther than before and make it all the way around the bend of the island, out to the North side.

Side note: We discovered during lunch how quickly the ants will move in. During lunch one of the sunflower seeds Scott had on his salad dropped without us knowing. It couldn't have been more than two or three minutes before Scott noticed a trail of ants and we discovered they had found that seed and were going for it. We swept, again, under the table but even after going to the beach, the ants are in force trying to find something under that table. The ants, dirt, and sand are all reasons why we have to do a full sweep every single night.

Anyways, after lunch, we started to drive. We stopped in at East End Lighthouse (not really a lighthouse but just a GPS station). It is the only thing labeled as a lighthouse on the island so we had to go and get lots of pictures for Scott. (There is actually an old lighthouse up there with the light removed behind the new GPS tower and a lot of historical markers so I had a blast-Scott)

We made it around the East End of the island and Scott stopped in at the Reef Resort to get a different date for our anniversary celebration since we weren't able to do it last weekend. We found Rum Point, which has a great beach with nice sand, good water, sand volleyball, a restaurant, bathrooms, etc. All of that meant that there were a lot of people; again, me and lots of people don't mix. In wandering back we found Cayman Kai public beach and chased away the couple that was getting out of their car (it is funny the people who you can tell are looking for an empty beach and will drive till they find one, like us!)

Cayman Kai beach was perfect. The beaches that we have found on the East End are usually framed by bits of beach that aren't sand. There are huge limestone deposits that create really rocky areas where it isn't safe to swim but this beach had a small area where you could get into the water between the rocks. We walked through the seaweed, which feels really weird on your toes, and then swam out to the bright blue part. The thing that amazed me was the lack of depth perception in the water because of the clarity of the water!! We swam out to get away from the seaweed and you could see everything on the bottom of the ocean. Then, as you put your legs down, you get a big shock because it is too deep to stand!! It is very strange to be able to see everything in water that is deeper than you are tall! (I used goggles which made it much easier on my eyes and I got to follow a school of fish around, the water is truly incredible-Scott).

We had dinner at a chinese restaurant on the main road from George Town and discovered that it is being moved to Savannah when the new road comes in about a month from now, so whenever we need our chinese food fix we have a place.

We can't wait for people to start to come and visit. As we explore more of the island, we keep seeing things that we want to share with all of you. Hurry up and come!!

Our first 48 hours

Bold by Scott; Italics by Katie:

Katie and I flew down here Thursday flying through Houston's Intercontinental Airport. We flew Cayman airways which was a great airline and Houston was much better than Miami for connecting down here. We did immediately get our first taste of Island life. The flight was due to leave at 2:10, around 2 O'clock I started getting nervous that no one was doing anything and we hadn't boarded and there was no announcement. At about 2:15 they called for Turtle club members and then some time passed and no new announcement but people kept getting in line and boarding the plane. After a while I realized that they weren't calling rows you just got on when you felt like it. Katie and I boarded and the flight left about 45 minutes late apparently because hey that's just the way it is. The service on the flight was great and the flight itself was smooth, we highly recommend Cayman Airways from Houston but dont be surprised if things run very casual in the boarding process.

We got in and went through immigration. Katie got her work permit stamp for 3 months but mine still needs some kind of letter so I was allowed into the country for 30 days, my permit is OK they just couldn't stamp it (I don't have to leave to get my stamp which is all I really cared about anyway). We got the rental car, a very small Daihatsu Charade with the wheel on the right side and the turn signal and wiper controllers backward from US cars. I kept humming a song from many years ago "Pass the Dutchie on the left hand side" to remind me to stay left, the song sounds like it is about the happy weed smoking but I remember seeing one of those I love the 90's shows on VH1 and it is actually some kind of kids toy in Jamaica. Anyway it is a handy way to keep reminding me. Driving on the left is a lot like when I was 17 and just learning to drive you have to really pay attention and you cant rely on your instincts because they are wrong, plus every time I went to turn at first I turned on the wipers not the blinker.

We got to Elsa's house to get the key to the apartment and learned that the heavy rains had flooded the front room of our apartment. I had brought down a load of stuff in April and the linens that I left in the front room along with several books and other items were soaked. The apartment also needed a cleaning so instead of unpacking we decided to just get a few clothes out for Friday then go shopping for cleaning materials and other stuff we would need. We also started drying out the stuff that had been soaked. We headed down to Fosters and got groceries, cleaning implements, some pots and a pan, a broom, dustpan, dirty clothes basket, trash can etc. With the prices down here you don't want to know how expensive that first grocery run was. We got in around nine and decided to put the groceries away, nothing on the floor and nothing exposed then went to sleep.

Around 1:30 it started raining and Katie mentioned to me that it sounded like it was inside. We turned on the light and walked into the main room and saw that it was dripping from two or three different spots. We used some coolers that were left over from a previous trip and a bucket we had bought to catch water. We also saw a seven inch long centipede meandering across our floor looking for somewhere to hide, with our suitcases out and the most likely destination and the poisonous nature of most centipedes, he had to die. It took three shots from my hiking boot(and a good squishing) but we ended the life of one of God's little creatures and flushed him down the toilet. Then with nothing else we could do we moved everything to the east end of the apartment, the apartment slopes west and the water was migrating to a corner where the front door, front room closet and front A/C vents were, and called it a night.

We woke up at 6:00 a.m Friday, the Caymans don't have daylight savings and are really in the Eastern Zone even though right now they are the same as Central time so it gets light out at 5:30 in the morning, of course that also means its dark here by 7 in the evening. We walked up Hirst road waving good morning to everyone we saw and generally had a great morning exercise/walk. We then drove to Fosters picked up some breakfast in their buffet (all the supermarkets here have buffets for each meal at around 4 dollars a pound for whatever you put in your container) and came back to the apartment to eat. We went in to work around 8:15 and worked until noon. I felt like a deer in the headlights learning everything new and for the next several weeks I am sure it will feel that way until I learn all the aspects of my job, it feels just like my first weeks as a lawyer. Katie has been doing her job remotely for a couple of months so her transition will be a lot easier.

At noon we headed out trying to get the most use out of our car. We knew about a sale at Cox Lumber and also wanted to find the other home stores and the other grocery stores in George Town proper. They have a supermarket like a Costco called Kirk's that sells bulk items and we will be using that when we want to take the 25 minute trip each way(only about 7 miles away). The island is small but traffic is heavy and with small one lane roads that wind around a lot you can't get anywhere fast. This trip, we got lost a couple of times and went through the same intersection no less than 6 times but eventually found what we were looking for and bought a plastic chest of drawers, some rolling carts (you can't have anything on the floor not just because of flooding but because of our little critter friends). I told Katie we would make a wary peace with the spiders who stayed up high since they would kill the mosquito's but it will be war with the ants and centipedes.

We proceeded to do a massive cleaning and move in, we actually got everything into the back room and closet, quite a feat when you consider we planned to use the front room as our walk in closet but until the leaks are fixed that room is unusable except for some storage of empty suitcases on the bed at a spot where there is no leaking. We finished the bathroom and bedroom using a Swiffer which swept and mopped the tile floor. We have an infestation of some kind of worm that looks like a sunflower seed in its cocoon and had to clean those out. We destroyed any spider webs at eye level and below and announced to the remaining spiders they could stay if they ate their quota of mosquito's. The rain has no where to go on the island and there is standing water everywhere. We bought bug spray that first night and use it every day. While we have no refrigerator or kitchen sink, the stove works so we made spaghetti for dinner and it tasted great after all that work. To celebrate really feeling like we had accomplished something cleaning the apartment and getting all the suitcases unpacked we went down to the Haagen Dazs in Savannah and had two ice cream cones.

This morning we had intended to get up at 5 and go watch the sunrise but it started raining around 3 a.m. and another session of putting out buckets and coolers ensued. It was still raining at 5 so we decided to sleep in. I then ran down to Fosters got some milk and cereal, while KT finished cleaning and putting away all the kitchen items, and we had breakfast. We are using the refrigerator in the teachers lounge so before each meal I run over and get what we need then either during or after take the stuff back. We were waiting on the construction man to come look at the roof but he had not arrived by noon so we decided to head out and get the last immediate need stuff from the home stores particularly stuff for our hurricane kit. After another drive through George Town (Pass the Dutchie on the left hand side) we came back to the apartment unloaded and headed east for a beach. We found Heritage Beach in Cottage and went for a swim.


A rain storm chased us back to the apartment where we met the construction man who hopefully will fix our roof though it will be next week at the earliest so some nights of bucket duty await as at least two tropical storms have bands hitting the Island. That's what you get when you move here during rainy season and right at beginning of hurricane season. There is a reason tourist season is November to April when it isn't hot, muggy, rainy, windy and the bugs aren't going crazy. Still after just two days this is beginning to feel like home. We have already talked to a couple of relatives on Windows live messenger with web cam and are signing up for AOL Aim and some other services to talk or chat with other relatives so let us know what capabilities you have and we can try and talk.

WE ARE HERE!

We are here and safe. We will fill you guys in later about our eventful first night.

Caymans Bound

Got the news this afternoon that our 6 month temporary work permits have been approved. Katie has her passport and we are all packed and ready to go. By this time tomorrow we will be in the Cayman Islands. Big thanks to Russ, Gail and Stephanie for putting up with us this past week. Its never easy having two unexpected house guests for an extended stay and we really appreciate it. Once we have cell phones in the islands we will forward numbers. Meanwhile you can email us and we will update the blog when we arrive.

Washington trip/ A week with the Loski's and Final Travel Plans

By Scott:

As the last entry indicated, all of our plans and schedules got shot to pieces last week by a combination of two governments, a broken computer and plumbing issues. We put off our travel plans for a week and have been living with the Loski's as we get everything together to make the move. We now have Katie's passport, our computer is back and we are totally out of the apartment and packed up to go.

Before everything went wrong last week, Katie and I had a good trip up to Washington state to visit her relatives and mine. We arrived Thursday morning and were picked up by Katie's Grandparents at the airport. We then met Katie's cousin Erica and the five of us went to Woodland Park zoo. Katie and I are huge zoo aficionados and I have to admit that the Seattle zoo is very impressive and I strongly recommend it to anyone from both our families visiting the greater Seattle area. From the zoo we headed over to the locks and the salmon ladder. After a full afternoon we went back into downtown and went to a Mariners game against the Anaheim Angels. A very full day.

Friday dawned bright and sunny. Katie and I picked up the rental in West Seattle and headed for the Olympic Peninsula. We just made the ferry over the sound and drove up to Sequim our ultimate destination for a 10 mile round trip hike out to a lighthouse which sat at the end of a long spit out in the bay. We started around 12:30 and had plenty of beach and good weather. The funny thing was as we walked out there were several groups of senior citizens coming back and they didn't even look winded. We also got several warnings to watch the tides. We got out to the lighthouse around 2:30 and had lunch then took some pictures. I got overly excited and instead of the 30 minutes we were supposed to spend out there it was closer to an hour and 15 minutes. When we left at 3:45 the weather had gotten cold and rainy and the race was on to beat the tide and the rain back off the spit. It started to rain with about two miles left to the shore and by then the tide had come in causing us to have to walk on the driftwood. That extra 45 minutes at the lighthouse had cost us. When we hit the shore line Katie and I both let out whoops of victory. Those senior citizens definitely have my respect as I felt that hike for four or five days after. From Sequim we headed back East and caught the ferry at Port Townsend over to Whidby. Once again we just made the ferry and got to my Mom's house around 8ish.

On Saturday we had planned to go out to San Juan Island but both of us felt like a slower day would do us good. The weather also had turned and while there would be spots of good weather rain was expected to dominate the day. We slept in and then went with my Mom over to the thrift shop. While Mom took care of some things Katie and I went across the street to the PBY museum and got to fly a simulator. We then headed out Fort Casey to do some kite flying. There were several clubs out there for kite flying and the winds there are so good coming off the sound that even someone who cant fly kites can. We had dinner at the Chinese buffet in Oak Harbor enjoyed a quiet evening. That evening we discovered that our rental had picked up a nail and had a flat tire. We talked to enterprise and decided to switch out cars Monday morning in Oak Harbor since we didn't want to drive back to Seattle on the spare.

The weather Sunday was very rainy and we headed down to Greenbank to see the stores, do some wine tasting and see the central part of the Island. We had planned to do dinner at Deception Pass but the weather made that impossible so we had the cook out at Mom's. Alex came over and we watched The 300 on DVD.

Monday we switched out the rental and headed back to Seattle for Katie's grandfather's 74th birthday. We took the boat shuttle across from West Seattle over to downtown and walked the public market then had lunch at the Crab Pot. After ice cream we headed to the airport and our flight home.

It was when we got home that our troubles started. We had talked to the passport people no less than seven times in the two prior weeks including calls on Friday as we drove up the peninsula and Monday afternoon while we were downtown. On each occasion they had told us everything was still being processed and there were no issues. But on our answering machine Monday night were three messages all asking us to call. We did that first thing Tuesday and discovered for the first time that apparently there was a problem with the application. They had it for 12 weeks and had cashed our check 8 weeks ago but now less than 48 hours before we were to leave they suddenly have an issue. We Fed Ex' d the new application and spent Tuesday cleaning the apartment and getting our stuff out. By Tuesday evening we knew that we would need to push back our flight. We decided to push back our plans by one week to give time for everything to get finished. That evening our computer had broken and that was an additional factor in our decision to push our plans back a week. Dell sent someone out to get it that same night they fixed it and had it back to us by Friday.

We had planned to do Six Flags as a wind down day and last Wednesday we spent the day at the park. By way of comment the last Wednesday before school gets out is the day to do Six Flags there were almost no lines and we got to ride everything we wanted.

We moved in with the Loski's Thursday and have been staying with them while we finish everything and wait on our work permits to get finally approved. Gail and Russ have been great and Stephanie graciously has let us stay in her room. We have been chomping at the bit to get going and this week has been difficult just because things out of our control have determined what is going to happen. Everything happens for a reason and this one week delay has been good because it has given us a chance to wrap up everything and let Katie spend some time with her family. On Friday she got to help her Mother clean out her school room which has been something of a yearly tradition. This week we are pretty much just marking time until Thursday and our departure.

Will update with a post when we get to the Caymans this weekend.

Best Laid Plans

By Scott:

Sometimes you're the window shield and sometimes you're the bug, today Katie and I have been the bug. No passport for Katie (long story she will tell soon), still waiting on the work permits (should come in this week and wouldn't be an issue if passport issue hadn't come up) and our computer broke along with the only toilet in our apartment. Computer is off to Austin to get fixed (Dell has great customer support and has been one bright spot in working with us).

Will update with much more later, new departure date is May 31. Also have much to tell about our trip to Washington state. When we have access to net will put in detailed posts. Will be at apartment through Thursday with our cell phones and then at Russ and Gail's until we leave on the 31st.

Moving is NOT fun

By Scott

As I write this post I am in my second to last day as a practicing lawyer and Kathleen and I are just 10 days away from our move to the Caribbean. We are now living in an empty apartment with our clothes and stuff we are taking to the Caymans, some TV trays, cooking implements and an I-home for our clock/radio/alarm. On Friday Kathleen oversaw a massive move that involved the complete removal of all our furniture and then a two phase trip for dropping stuff off, first to her parents home and then on to a storage facility. Katie had packed up just about everything, telling me that for the good of our marriage she would oversee everything and do it since we have such different philosophies on moving. She wants to move stuff in a timely fashion where as I want to delay and procrastinate and generally deny that I actually have to move until right up to the point where it absolutely has to be done. It meant that every morning last week I left to go to work and in the evening when I returned another room was completely packed. She did an awesome job and I am extremely lucky that she knew what to do because if it had been left to me we would still be dealing with it. I'm just not good with moving and the process of choosing what to take to Kevin, what to store with Gary, what to put in the facility and hardest of all, what to sell/donate when you have 36 years of stuff is no fun at all.

We spent Friday night at her parents house, which by the way is perhaps the best place in the whole world to do a garage sale. They are right on the corner of a major connecting street in Duncanville so we got a huge amount of traffic. Thanks to Russ and Gail who were incredible not just in letting us use their yard and driveway but also in letting us store stuff the night before, getting us limeaides during the hottest part of Saturday, getting lunch from Whataburger, helping translate and even moving some stuff for us. Thanks also to Stephanie who let us use her room Friday night.

Katie and I got up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and started moving everything out into the driveway and yard. We were selling our entire bed set with the two side stands and chest of drawers, our big couch, our kitchen set, 5 book cases, our patio set, electronics, TV stand and a whole lot of smaller items. We sold two of the book cases at 6:15 a.m. when a nice elderly lady walking by saw us setting up and bought them. She asked if I could deliver them right around the corner since her husband was in Nigeria with Wycliffe (ironically the organization Katie's parents worked for bible translating in Indonesia) so that was an auspicious beginning, except for the fact that right around the corner was really about three blocks and making two trips with the book cases I was winded and it wasn't even 7 a.m. yet our official start time. Traffic was constant all morning and early afternoon. We had placed an ad and I wish we had asked more people if they were drive by traffic or coming from the ad just to know, the ad was only 14 bucks but we probably could have gotten by without it. Some were definitely from the ad as they mentioned things that clued us in to that but most had to be drive by and I think all the big items went to drive by people who saw all the stuff out. We reached our financial goal by noon and still had the bed set. We eventually sold the bed set at a pretty reduced amount from our original number but it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to get rid of it. We ended up making enough to pay for our movers and give us some spending money for the Seattle trip coming up. It started to rain around 4 so we wrapped everything up. Russ and I took everything we had left to Goodwill and donated it. After dinner with Russ and Gail to thank them for everything it was back to the apartment for Katie and I and an early bed time for both of us.

When we woke up Sunday morning every muscle in our bodies ached. We had been moving furniture all during the garage sale and used muscles I at least hadn't used in a while. We had slept on an air mattress which is fine for one person but with two every time someone moves the air shifts and the other person feels it, so not the best of sleeps. Sunday afternoon it was back to Duncanville and a Mother's Day dinner for Gail, Russ grilled some steaks and we had picked up some steamed shrimp. A nice dinner that was actually our last Sunday dinner with Katie's family (a weekly event) for a while.

Kathleen has been really incredible getting the move done. I have not been handling it well. I don't react well to change and she has had to hold my hand every step of the way. Once the change is made I am fine but the process is no fun. We picked up a web cam and microphone Sunday and it is up and working. Please email Katie (she is also our tech person) to figure out which service to use (Windows live messenger, MSN. Yahoo etc.) so we can talk online. When we get to the Caymans we will be getting cell phones but International calls are way too expensive so we want to talk to everyone on line.

We head to Seattle Thursday to spend five days visit her relatives and mine. We plan to spend time with family, do some hiking on the peninsula and on San Juan Island and basically refresh and recharge. Next Tuesday we are doing Six Flags and then Wednesday is the catch all day to close out any remaining accounts, deal with any apartment issues etc.

We do still have a couple of government hoops to clear both in the US and Caymans. Our work permits are still before the Caymans Immigration board and awaiting approval. They were to be considered last week and we are hopeful that we get the news soon on those. Ironically it is the US govt and the passport mess that is a bigger concern. We put in the paperwork 13 weeks ago to get a name change (normal processing time is 4-6 weeks) on Katie's passport and still haven't gotten it back. They are so backlogged because of the law change for all people flying out of the country that they aren't even addressing issues until you are two weeks from your date of travel which for us is May 24. So last Thursday Katie called and after several attempts to get through finally got a customer service person and was told they would send an emergency email about our situation and we should call back Tuesday the 15th in the afternoon. They even asked what time we leave on the 24th to see if they could get us the passport the morning that we travel (we leave early so we have to have it by the 23rd). What a mess, but a good reminder to everyone get your passport stuff in now if you want to come visit, as bad as it is this year, it will be worse by an order of many magnitudes next year when it extends to road and cruise travel.

We will try and do an entry while we are in Washington. Thanks again to the Loski's for all their help on the garage sale.

Cinco de Mayo

by Katie

This past weekend, on Cinco de Mayo, Scott and I did Trader's Village in Grand Prairie. A giant flea market, Trader's Village is a place for people to sell basically anything. There are a lot of farmers with produce, florists, garage sales, random clothing and jewelry, basically anything you can think of. According to the people around us, people make good money if they know what to bring to sell and how to price it. Sadly, for us, Trader's Village was a complete bust!!

We got there at 7 in the morning to get set up and stayed till 4. It sprinkled most of the day; although, that didn't keep people from coming. They just didn't want candles. In that time, we sold 16 out of the 54 candles that we still needed to sell and we sold them at a huge loss. After this past weekend, I had to come to the realization that I just wasn't going to be able to break even in this business and I have now simply become a statistic. Ah well, it has been a learning experience and I enjoyed making the candles.

After that long day, we met Melanie, her new boyfriend Seth, and Stephanie in Dallas to celebrate Mel's 21st birthday (she is a Cinco de Mayo baby). Since our day had been so long, we left Mel and Seth to continue the night and went home to bed!

We had dinner with my family Sunday to celebrate Mel's birthday with the folks. Seth got to meet Mom and Dad for the first time; I think it went well.

I got the go-ahead from Scott to do a massive packing when he realized just how close we are to leaving, two weeks from tomorrow and five days of that we will be in Washington. The movers come on Friday to move most of our stuff to my parents who are letting us use their drive way for a garage sale and then the rest of the stuff to the storage unit in Duncanville. We are going to try to sell all of our furniture (except the hutch) and will therefore be sleeping on an air mattress and eating off TV trays for the remaining time. I hope that the garage sale on Saturday and Sunday goes much better than Trader's Village last weekend but whatever we don't sell is going to Salvation Army on Monday.

Wicked!!

By Katie

Last night in the middle of three major storm systems, my mom, sisters, and I went out to dinner and then to see Wicked for all of their birthdays. We were completely soaked by the time we walked through the parking lot as umbrellas did nothing to keep the sideways rain off us. Walking in high-heeled strappy sandals was a bit difficult for all of us and Mel even took off her shoes to make the trip. We were lucky they had to start late because of power problems before the play started or we might have been late. Scott says that the storms were crazy last night with hurricane force winds that blew down many power lines (on our way home there were portions of the highway that were dark because of power outages) and massive flooding. Even with the three times we lost power and the play had to stop while they reset their computers, it was a fantastic show! I think that everyone enjoyed it and I may have created at least one more Wicked obsessed person.

Yesterday I started getting the "Longhorn" room (which doesn't have much that is Texas Longhorns since all of that is down in Houston) packed. Scott handles change better if we do it in small steps so we are packing small bits of the apartment at a time. Everything will be packed away unless it is coming with us to the Caymans by next Thursday so that the movers can move it all to my parents for the garage sale or into the storage unit. Next weekend we will be living in a very empty apartment!

It is a bit scary to think that three weeks from today we will be heading down to the island. I know we are both very ready to get started but it is still scary. As Stephanie pointed out last night, we aren't going to be able to hang out like this anymore. No matter how ready I am to get started in the Caymans, it will be a bit hard to leave family.

Three Weeks from our Move

By Scott

I am back from my second visit to Grand Cayman where I went last weekend to present the Strategic Plan to the College Board of Trustee's. John and I flew down on Friday and got in around 6 in the evening. We stopped off at Fosters the supermarket about 2 miles from the college and got food and drinks for the weekend. Restaurant food is very expensive on the island and while groceries are more expensive than the US they are still far less expensive than we would pay in restaurants so we got enough for a couple of meals. We stayed in the apartment at the college that Katie and I are going to live in for our first six months on the Island. That night we unloaded the four full suitcases we had brought down of stuff (at 40 plus pounds each, those suitcases were heavy as all get out) and settled in to prepare for the board meeting the next morning.

Saturday morning we met with the Board and the President Dr. Elsa Cummings in the library at the college. Kathleen had put together a power point for us that went off without a hitch. The board seemed very enthusiastic and had lots of questions and comments. What I had planned to be a 30 minute presentation lasted almost two hours because of all the comments and discussion that was provoked.

On Saturday evening I had the opportunity to attend the launching of a new book written by Roy Bodden, a former Minister of Education in the Caymanian Government entitled The Cayman Islands in Transition. I drove back from the event with Elsa, my first time driving on the left side of the road which will definitely take some getting used to. I had paid attention as a passenger during our last visit but the first time you actually drive and not just watch as a passenger is intense. I kept thinking "left left left left" every time I came to a turn.

I have already started the book and am three chapters in. The work is a fascinating study of Caymanian politics and society. Sunday morning, John and I had brunch with Elsa up in West Bay and the photo below is of me on the deck of the Cracked Conch where we had our meal. The afternoon was spent out on the eastern end of the Island taking care of some things in preparation for our move. Sunday night we had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant and got in early for our 4:30 a.m. wake up call to make our 7:15 departing flight.

The flight back through Miami was fine though in the future we recommend avoiding that airport if you decide to come visit. There are non stop flights from Houston, Atlanta, Tampa, Charlotte and Fort Lauderdale (which we also suggest avoiding based on comments from John and April). We are going down through Houston in May and hopefully that is more pleasant than Miami which is under construction and which has a very time consuming customs and immigration check in because the lines are so long.

Katie and I head back on May 24. We will stay at the college the first two nights then go to a resort on the Eastern end of the island for our one year wedding anniversary. We officially start June 1 but unofficially will be helping beginning on May 28th as we move in.

Katie's weekend consisted of finishing up her volunteer work with Defend Darfur Dallas and spending quality time with her sisters. She is working on our wedding scrapbook which she is thoroughly enjoying. On Tuesday we were able to get out from under the Acura lease for substantially less than we thought we would have to pay and so we are a one car household for the next two and a half weeks presuming JJ (Katie's name for her Saturn) doesn't die on us. This weekend is our second try at traders village and assuming no tornado interruption we hope to unload the last of the candle supplies and materials. Next weekend is the garage sale, my last day of work is the 15th and on the 17th we head up to Seattle to visit Katie's Grandparents, my Mom and Brother for five days.

Scott In Caymans for Board Meeting

By Scott:

I am in Newlands today to attend a meeting of the College Board of Trustees and present a strategic plan we have been working on for the last several weeks. I will update next week with the highlights of my second visit to Grand Cayman. Katie is working on Global Days for Darfur this weekend back in Fort Worth and we will also let you know how that went.

Last week we were in Houston to visit Gary and Elizabeth and see Christopher who is growing in leaps and bounds. Thanks to them for a great weekend and also for keeping an eye on my Longhorn stuff while we are away.

Will update next week.

Georgia for Easter

By Scott

Katie and I drove a car full of boxes out to Georgia this past weekend. Kevin and Kristy graciously offered us part of their guestroom closet to store our wedding albums, scrapbooks and photo albums. The stuff that could not be replaced and which we were very leery of putting in a storage facility. We left Friday at Noon and after a brief stop in Duncanville to take some photos in the bluebonnets (thanks to Gail and Stephanie who came out with Terry to take the photos) it was on the road. We made Tuscaloosa Alabama by about 9:30 p.m. and called it a night. We awoke Saturday morning to a dramatic change in the weather. The temperature was in the 30's and as we entered northern Georgia we could see snow on the ground. We arrived in Macon around noon and had a great lunch with Katie's college friend Jennifer and her husband Ryan. Jennifer had just learned she was pregnant the day before and the lunch became a celebration.

Then it was on to Bonaire and fun with the Georgia Cummings clan along with Kathy Scott who was visiting. Kevin grilled some steaks, I got to spend time playing soccer with my nephew and Katie got to catch up with Kristy and Kelsey. Kelsey recently received written proof of what we already knew, she is smarter than all of us, and she has been invited to several college summer programs. Though only a freshman in HS the debate is already on, should she go to Harvard, Stanford, Princeton or Yale. No pressure there. Scott Kieren has top AR marks and has a mighty powerful soccer kick to boot. Kevin and I had another of our spirited political discussions (I'm sure Kristy had to tell Katie that we both enjoy arguing with each other far more than we actually care about what we are arguing about, the tragic consequences of too many years of debate).

Easter Sunday morning we went to mass with the family before hitting the road for the long drive back. We went to the 7:00 a.m. service and all but had the church to ourselves which was really nice. We got home around 10:00 p.m. and both agreed that long drives are for the birds.

We are selling the remainder of Katie's candles this weekend at Traders Village in Grand Prairie. Next week Katie starts her Access course at TCC and that weekend we head to Houston to say goodbye to friends down there and also drop off my Longhorn paraphernalia. The last weekend in April I head down to the Caymans for the board meeting while Katie is assisting with the Global Days for Darfur. My last day at work is now officially May 15th and after a trip up to Washington state to visit relatives we should head out May 24 or 25. It seems so strange to say this but in two months we will be in our new home working our new jobs. Thanks again to the Georgia Cummings for a great Easter weekend.