A few observations

I'm sitting here at a little beach cafe with internet. I can't connect with my laptop, so I'm using their computer/internet as I sip my iced latte (served with a shot glass full of sugar syrup). As I was driving the 10 minutes between our house and this little place I was trying to keep track of all of the observations I want to record here. I'll see what I can remember -

- The trash truck came the other morning at 3am. We'd never heard it before and thought it was kind of mysterious that the garbage kept disappearing. I suppose that cluttering the 2 lane roads around the island with garbage trucks during normal hours would create a huge traffic problem. And, we were able to hear it because we were already awake listening to Noelle crying and the dogs barking. They don't do much in the way of recycling on the island.

- Barbados is on fire! This is sugar cane harvesting season. They apparently burn out a lot of growth before harvesting the cane. It is crazy to drive by these huge-ish, uncontained fires and see no one the least bit worried. There are little "chattel houses" (we'll show pics sometime) made of plywood that seem like they'd burn in about 2 minutes, but no one is concerned. We're just trusting that they've done this for a long time and know what they're doing! After the fires burn, the air smells sweet and warm, like slightly over-baked cookies.

- We're getting to know the unwritten rules of driving. There is a lot of honking, but it is usually friendly honking to say "I'm coming through" or "After you" as opposed to "Get out of my way" or "You're an idiot driver." I still feel like I'm in trouble if I get honked at, however. Although the driving sometimes feels crazy and reckless, people really look out for each other as far as being courteous. I've had people stop and flash their lights at me to let me out onto a road that isn't even busy. And, like the UK, the zebra stripes are LAW. People step out confidently onto them without even looking at the traffic. Since most of them are very faded, you kind of have to learn where they are. It's a pretty common thing for people to back into their parking spots. I'm not sure why this is so important as it causes at least as much of a traffic jam to let someone back into a spot as it would have to let them back out upon leaving, but it is the way it's done nonetheless. I haven't attempted it too much yet. And, I'd say that 75% of the cars are white. And almost all are automatic.

- "Alright!" Huh? We're learning the common greetings around here. Instead of California's "What's up?" or Scotland's "Hiya", we're hearing "Alright" when we see someone. You can also say "Okay". Or you can combine them and say "Alright, okay." I guess it makes as much sense as saying "What's up?" and not expecting an answer at all. If you're not using that greeting, you say good morning/afternoon/evening. This is apparently a pretty important greeting. The other afternoon, I took the kids to a local library and I heard everyone who entered after us say a relatively loud "good afternoon!" to everyone in in the library. It isn't as cheery as that exclamation mark makes it look. Imagine it as loud and obligatory.

- The grocery stores carry everything we could possibly need, which is great. I think the selection is better than what we got at Tesco - we even have cornmeal, chocolate chips, Eggos, and flavored creamer (!). But, that's not to say we can afford all of these delicacies. It is an expensive place to live! But we're getting used to seeing $13.95 on a box of cereal, which is half that in US dollars. There is a whole aisle of sugar, as it is their specialty. Every kind of sugar you could want. And, tons of coconut products - coconut oil, cream, flakes, etc. If you have any coconut recipes, let me know! After you buy your groceries, you leave your cart at the end of the conveyor belt. The person bagging your groceries at the other end (don't try to help them!) will bag everything, putting the cold items together, and load them onto a more parking lot-friendly cart and then take them to your car and load them in the trunk - no tip expected, though I don't think they mind tip-friendly Americans giving them a bit.

- Speaking of service, you don't pump your own gas here. You drive up, they come to the window (just as many women working as men) and ask how much money you want to put in. You give them the money and they pump for you. Again, no tip expected.

- Entertainment is a bit lacking on the island, although the satellite dishes outside of run down shacks is very, very common, so we know there is plenty of cable watching going on. One of the seemingly hot spots for weekend family fun for the locals is watching the planes arrive at the airport. We live right by the airport, so we get to drive by the landing strip all the time. It really is fun to watch them come in because you can get really, really close. The landing strip is fenced off, but you're still pretty close to the action. People park all along the area and just stand outside their cars to watch the planes, which arrive about every 15-20 minutes. I took Isaiah out the other night for a plane-watching date. It really was awesome to watch the plane come in from a distance, to spot the lights in the sky and watch it come closer adn closer until it flew just about over our heads and landed. We also watched one take off, which was so loud I was worried about Isaiah's hearing! There are houses all around, which must be used to it, but it was really loud.

- We've been really hot the last few days and were pleased to realize that we'd had a few days of 88 degrees, which is about as hot as it gets. Usually it is more like 84 this time of year. Today feels better. I realized that the constant temp/weather drives me a little bit crazy. I miss the energy that comes with a day that is different - a bright sunny day in the middle of a cloudy, grey week or a rainy, cozy afternoon after a sunny spell. It feels a little bit like that movie, Groundhog Day as every day feels the. exact. same. But, it is nice to always be able to plan on having good weather for outdoor adventures. Today our family was in the ocean by 9:30am. Isaiah snorkeled for the first time and LOVED IT. He was pretty good at it, too! He's really going to love it when we take him to a beach where he can see more than white sand and feet under the water.

We're looking forward to watching the Olympics this week. We're also hoping to see some of our belongings soon. Supposedly our UK items are "on Island", but we don't know how long it will take for them to clear customs. Our new house is looking pretty good. It has been totally repainted, which it was much in need of. The gutters have been repaired and the bats have been sealed out. There are 'commercial cleaners' coming in soon and then it should be ready for us. Although we've enjoyed being on the south coast for these first weeks, we're really looking forward to being on campus and FINALLY setting up our home after almost 8 months of transition. And the area we're moving to is really lush and green compaired to the dry, barren area we're in now. Yesterday afternoon we were on campus thinking, this is going to be a fun place for visitors! (hint, hint)

Thanks for keeping up with us -