Greetings friends....well can you believe it that we have been here 3 weeks tomorrow? I find it hard to believe that I live here....I go outside in the warm air and I look around at the incredible scenery and I think perhaps I am dreaming and any minute I am going to wake up to -39 wind chills and 5 feet of snow! It really is quite beautiful here and the island has alot of charm...it is unique and different from any place that I have ever been....it is raw nature and relatively undeveloped. The boys are having a ball with all of the lizards and fish and other creatures...Monty is now the lizard catching king, catchiing several a day and bringing them in the house to show me....they love the goats wandering the island (they are everywhere) and they often want to stop and get out and pet them (ah kids, they're wild!) They seem to think that if we get out and talk softly t hen the goats will want to be our friends...it is funny....today we went down to the harbour again adn on the way down we say an awesome 3 foot iguana, sunning himself on the side of the road (the little retaining wall that Ispoke of) we got quite close and he just sat there and stared...really cool. Down at the harbour, we were looking into the water at the tarpons again (very large fish) and at all the little Dory fish (from Nemo...aka blue tangs) They were so awesome....Monty was dying to go for a dip but we had just come from church so we didn't have suits...our friends Nathan and Amanda were there as well and so MOnty convinced all the boys to strip down to shorts and get in....so they did and they had a great time diving and swimming....the water was about 14 feet deep but clear as a bell so they could see right to the bottom....it was alot of fun....Christian even went in for a dip....of course I was a little overdressed for swimming so we will know that next time we go to church we will have to bring our bathing suits with us in case we want to go for a swim after!!
Things have been going well overall......we have had a few gliches here and there but really, we can't complain, we are in the caribbean after all, the land of eternal sunshine! I absolutely love this weather....I can't imagine how much it must suck to be in those horrible temps back home!! I am so thankful to be here, warm , wearing shorts and wandering in the water.....
The boys adjustment continues to go fairly well...Monty is still struggling with his teacher, and I don't blame him....it is a big adjustment for Monty (and for anyone really) ......Monty is struggling a bit with this, but he has a pretty good handle on it overall......so not sure how it will pan out....Monty also has found it a little difficult to make friends, there arne't any kids his age up around our place so is making friends with the organic gardening attendent across the street (and learning about gardens) and the farmer down the road (and going to visit his sheep and rabbits) and the pig farmer across the street (he often walks over with him to feed slop to the pigs and did I mention the pellet gun shooting? ) He loves many things about being here though...the weather, the island, the lizards, nature, being outdoors....he keeps saying, we are so lucky to be in the caribbean aren't we mom?
Christian is a little better off as he has 2 friends on our "street" that he plays with adn he has a lovely teacher so he is learning lots in kindergarten...he appears to really enjoy it here....and only at night does he get a little lonely for his nana and other family back home....I was saying to him last night "who loves this baby?" (a game we have played since he was little) and he lists off mom, dad, Monty....and I said what about nana? he said, yeah she can't love me now though,,,,I am in Saba and she is in PDI (gulp) He then said, I think i am gonig to cry now....so he has little bouts of loneliness but overall by day he is doing well......
I am loving many things about Saba.....the weather, the quiet, the view, nature, the water, the interesting sites, did i mention the weather?? ha ha.....there are a few things that i would change....I'd like to take real showers, not saba showers (turn water on, 1 full circle, turn water off, soap up, turn water on , circle for rinse, turn water off!) It is all about
water conservation and all water comes from rain water collected into a cistern so if you run out it isn't so good....I would flush the toilet after every use, not just #2.....again water conservation adn the saying here is "if it is yellow, let it mellow, if it is brown, flush er down!" I used to growl at the boys for forgetting to flush....now I growl at them for flushing too often.... ha ha.....poor confused boys.....Montys first shower here he was like I have to what??? turn off the water why??? You have to understand, Monty loves his nice long hot showers and gettin ghim out was always an issue!!! A few other things I would change.....I wouldn't work, I would just relax and enjoy myself....but alas it is hard to pass up a job when things are so expensive here.....I have gotten pretty good at this computer teaching thing,,....who knew? ( I can hear you laughing Krista!) sometimes I find the class sizes overwhelming but alot of the kids are very sweet.....I have a few nice friends so they drop by afternoons to chat and I am starting to get a tan! Just a wee hint of color but hey goal number 1 (remember 1tan and 2 skinny) I have jump started the skinny with a wee bout of food poisining (that was fun...NOT) soI think that I lost a pound or 2 from that...both MOnty and I got sick from food that we ate at a restaurant on Friday night....I felt better today and a little skinnier so I thought...hey it wasn't so bad.....now if only Joe will stop bringing snickers bars home perhaps I can continue to work towards the skinny goal!! Secretly I think that Joe likes me a little on the plump side! why else woudl he continue to stock the cupboard with chocolate..knowing full well that I have not one ounce of will power....
Oh and we have found a lovely church group....the Christian students association meet at the school on Sundays and it is very nice....a small group...Joe is doing the sound and I am singing....the people are very nice,mostly students but a few locals too....there is a little old fellow named Brother Reilly and we drive him to and from church and he kind of takes a grandfather role with the students (he is in his 80s and almost deaf) So we at least have a great place to worship and enjoy christian fellowship!
ANyway as you can see overall things are going great and we feel quite blessed to be here having this experience...I think that everyone should try something like this at some point.....it is really neat.....I guess that I should sign off and get to bed....I get tired here much earlier (all the fresh air and sunshine!) so it is off to bed I go!!! so take care friends and we will chat again soon! Night night, xoxo, God Bless.....
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
2 weeks already??
well hello there! So far i know that I am not doing a great job of updating my blog everyday...although to be fair, I did just get internet4 days ago!! So I am going to try from here on out to get to it at least weekly but hopefully every few days....... we have survived our first 2 weeks in Saba and it has been an adventure for sure! Life is very interesting here and I am so glad that we are in warm temperatures...I keep hearing from all of you dear follk about the cold temps back home and I am thankful and grateful to be here in the warmth....oh I was so meant to live in a tropical climate!Winter just doesn't work for me....it makes me cranky! So for now I am basking in eternal summer (at least for the next 20 months!!)
So we will start with Joe since he is the reason that we are here in the first place....Joe is in his glory! He absolutely loves it.....he likes the people, the island, and he is absolutely thrilled to be in medical school.....I mean thrilled, I don't think I have ever seen him this chipper and happy in the 16 years that I have known him....so this is his dream for sure.....he absolutely loves coming home after spending the day with Gus (his cadaver) and sometimes he even spends some time with Gus in the evenings as well.....the kids and I see him coming home from time with Gus (the telltale sign is the scrubs!) and we start plugging our nose and telling him to change out of his scrubs immediately! I am not in med school so I am in no way interested in smelling dead people...yuck.....so Joe giggles all the way to the bedroom saying "oh come on it isn't that bad now!" I am here to tell you that yes dear Joey ....it is that bad....go change! We even make him keep his scrubs in the trunk of his car...so he has been working hard, he has Block 1 exams today and tomorrow...anatomy lab exam today and then anatomy and histology exams tomorrow....Joe is taking an extra course as well each semester as this will allow him to have a combined degree,.....his MD of course, but also a Masters in Hyperbaric Medicine...which he is quite excited about. He has made some very nice friends...the old married guys they call themselves..although i think Joey is the oldest....but he has a great group....they are all keen and good study partners, mature and serious students, but really nice fellows....Nathan is a biochem major and Billy is a chiropractor (so he has offered free services to us if we would like our bones crunched) All in all, Joe is off to a good start and he is very happy!
The kids are doing quite well....maybe even better than i expected...they have had to make some pretty major adjustments in their lives so I am pretty pleased with how they are doing.....they are both attending the catholic school here. Christian finds it a bit difficult to go to school all day (7:30-12:15) but he is adjusting...he likes to come home and tell us how well he behaved each day...he is so darn cute.....Monty is doing fairly well...he has a very strict teacher....a bit like boot camp actually....at first I was quite worried about it...but I am starting to see that there may be a bonus here....Monty is wanting to avoid the wrath of his teacher so we have not had one homework battle since we got here! I think it is probably toughest for Mont as he does miss his friends and it is a little harder for his age to make new ones....and don't forget that he has switched over from french immersion into an all english curriculum.....they are doing more advanced math here than what he was doing at home so he is having to work hard to catch up ( and I am having to relearn grade 5 math so that I can help him!) We have both boys enrolled in soccer and they started on Saturday and it was great fun...apparently the plan is that we will all fly over to St Eustatias in a few months to play a game over there!! Doesn't that sound like fun....so i am going to help out with the soccer ( as much as my non athletic self can!!) so that I can go to0!!!!! Christian is in gymnastics and Monty is on a waitlist for the snorkel club....here you can sign up for 3 activities for the price of $3 US a month! Quite cheap! unfortunately that is about the only cheap thing on Saba!!!
I am doing fairly well ....I absolutely love the weather and the Island is quite unique so I think it will be a great adventure.....I have met some really nice girls...Lucia (who is due in 3 weeks to give birth!) she is from Canada, Amanda, from Ontario is Nathan (Joe's friend) wife and she is a very nice girl, and Lisa, Billy's wife, Julianna, one of Joes classmates and Lauren, another student's wife...there are 4-5 others that I have met as well...all very nice....Lucia and amanda live closest to me so I hang out with them a little more. So we arrived 2 mondays ago and I registsered the kids for school and they started on that Friday.....that same day I got a call from the principal of the school wantng to interview me for the teaching position that I applied for....so Ithought that I would go down for that....well I was hired in about 15 minutes and they told me that I had to start on Monday! I was not prepared for that so I did ask to wait a week but they needed me so I started....I had a very busy and hectic week as I was teaching 10 computer classes to Grades K-6 and then proving TA and guidance type support to all of the classes as well...I found it a bit overwhelming so I negotiated with the school to slow down my workload adn to have Mondays off for now until I am well adusted to the island....my hope is thta I can have Mondays off indefinitely.....we will see how that pans out :) So here I am teaching computers (yes computers Krista). I love the kids at the school...there are some very sweet little people there, some that need alot of TLC and attention....I am not keen on teaching the younger kids, the kindergarten or Grade 1's.....imagine 21 kindergarten kids in a computer lab with 9 working computers!!! A little hard on the head...the older kids (4, 5 and 6's) are great.....of course with all of my experience with adolescence, that age group would make more sense for me!
The island itself is very cool....a great big mountain....I am finally driving without holding my breath (a good t hing when you drive) I love the weekends as we all go exploring together so this weekend we went to the harbor on Saturday and watched the boats coming and going, chatted with the fishermen and looked into the water at the 6 foot tarpons!! very cool. we were able to wander around under the dock and touch the water...apparently we can swim and snorkel there but Joe is thinking there are 2 many boats coming and going so may not be safe.....Sunday we went to the tide pools and climbed on volcanic rock.....very cool and we got to see sea urchins adn other neat fish in thte litte pools....of course Joe tried to drown us.....ok so I exaggerate.....here is what happened....we get wandering into these little cave like things that you have to climb along the wall and the tide pools are very cool down there....the footing can be a bit slippery so I end up carrying Christian on my back....so I say to Joe , the marine biologist, "does the tide come in here? are we in any danger of the water rushing in and sweeping us away (because in the background the water is smashing against rocks with a fury!) And Joe says oh no I don't think so , we are pretty safe here......the words were just out of his mouth and what happens?? the water makes it over the boulders and rushes in around our feet....now it was only ankle deep but still...didn't I just ask if this very thing could happen....so Joe amends his explanation to well water will come in but it won't rush in and drown us! Anyway I made everyone get out of the cave! We then went to a man made tide pool where the kids were able to splash and play in the ocean.....it was lovely and refreshing!!
I guess that is enough for today.....this is my first day off! and so I am headed to the shower and then just going to relax for the morning....so I will talk to you all again soon! Stay warm dear friends!!!! God Bless!
So we will start with Joe since he is the reason that we are here in the first place....Joe is in his glory! He absolutely loves it.....he likes the people, the island, and he is absolutely thrilled to be in medical school.....I mean thrilled, I don't think I have ever seen him this chipper and happy in the 16 years that I have known him....so this is his dream for sure.....he absolutely loves coming home after spending the day with Gus (his cadaver) and sometimes he even spends some time with Gus in the evenings as well.....the kids and I see him coming home from time with Gus (the telltale sign is the scrubs!) and we start plugging our nose and telling him to change out of his scrubs immediately! I am not in med school so I am in no way interested in smelling dead people...yuck.....so Joe giggles all the way to the bedroom saying "oh come on it isn't that bad now!" I am here to tell you that yes dear Joey ....it is that bad....go change! We even make him keep his scrubs in the trunk of his car...so he has been working hard, he has Block 1 exams today and tomorrow...anatomy lab exam today and then anatomy and histology exams tomorrow....Joe is taking an extra course as well each semester as this will allow him to have a combined degree,.....his MD of course, but also a Masters in Hyperbaric Medicine...which he is quite excited about. He has made some very nice friends...the old married guys they call themselves..although i think Joey is the oldest....but he has a great group....they are all keen and good study partners, mature and serious students, but really nice fellows....Nathan is a biochem major and Billy is a chiropractor (so he has offered free services to us if we would like our bones crunched) All in all, Joe is off to a good start and he is very happy!
The kids are doing quite well....maybe even better than i expected...they have had to make some pretty major adjustments in their lives so I am pretty pleased with how they are doing.....they are both attending the catholic school here. Christian finds it a bit difficult to go to school all day (7:30-12:15) but he is adjusting...he likes to come home and tell us how well he behaved each day...he is so darn cute.....Monty is doing fairly well...he has a very strict teacher....a bit like boot camp actually....at first I was quite worried about it...but I am starting to see that there may be a bonus here....Monty is wanting to avoid the wrath of his teacher so we have not had one homework battle since we got here! I think it is probably toughest for Mont as he does miss his friends and it is a little harder for his age to make new ones....and don't forget that he has switched over from french immersion into an all english curriculum.....they are doing more advanced math here than what he was doing at home so he is having to work hard to catch up ( and I am having to relearn grade 5 math so that I can help him!) We have both boys enrolled in soccer and they started on Saturday and it was great fun...apparently the plan is that we will all fly over to St Eustatias in a few months to play a game over there!! Doesn't that sound like fun....so i am going to help out with the soccer ( as much as my non athletic self can!!) so that I can go to0!!!!! Christian is in gymnastics and Monty is on a waitlist for the snorkel club....here you can sign up for 3 activities for the price of $3 US a month! Quite cheap! unfortunately that is about the only cheap thing on Saba!!!
I am doing fairly well ....I absolutely love the weather and the Island is quite unique so I think it will be a great adventure.....I have met some really nice girls...Lucia (who is due in 3 weeks to give birth!) she is from Canada, Amanda, from Ontario is Nathan (Joe's friend) wife and she is a very nice girl, and Lisa, Billy's wife, Julianna, one of Joes classmates and Lauren, another student's wife...there are 4-5 others that I have met as well...all very nice....Lucia and amanda live closest to me so I hang out with them a little more. So we arrived 2 mondays ago and I registsered the kids for school and they started on that Friday.....that same day I got a call from the principal of the school wantng to interview me for the teaching position that I applied for....so Ithought that I would go down for that....well I was hired in about 15 minutes and they told me that I had to start on Monday! I was not prepared for that so I did ask to wait a week but they needed me so I started....I had a very busy and hectic week as I was teaching 10 computer classes to Grades K-6 and then proving TA and guidance type support to all of the classes as well...I found it a bit overwhelming so I negotiated with the school to slow down my workload adn to have Mondays off for now until I am well adusted to the island....my hope is thta I can have Mondays off indefinitely.....we will see how that pans out :) So here I am teaching computers (yes computers Krista). I love the kids at the school...there are some very sweet little people there, some that need alot of TLC and attention....I am not keen on teaching the younger kids, the kindergarten or Grade 1's.....imagine 21 kindergarten kids in a computer lab with 9 working computers!!! A little hard on the head...the older kids (4, 5 and 6's) are great.....of course with all of my experience with adolescence, that age group would make more sense for me!
The island itself is very cool....a great big mountain....I am finally driving without holding my breath (a good t hing when you drive) I love the weekends as we all go exploring together so this weekend we went to the harbor on Saturday and watched the boats coming and going, chatted with the fishermen and looked into the water at the 6 foot tarpons!! very cool. we were able to wander around under the dock and touch the water...apparently we can swim and snorkel there but Joe is thinking there are 2 many boats coming and going so may not be safe.....Sunday we went to the tide pools and climbed on volcanic rock.....very cool and we got to see sea urchins adn other neat fish in thte litte pools....of course Joe tried to drown us.....ok so I exaggerate.....here is what happened....we get wandering into these little cave like things that you have to climb along the wall and the tide pools are very cool down there....the footing can be a bit slippery so I end up carrying Christian on my back....so I say to Joe , the marine biologist, "does the tide come in here? are we in any danger of the water rushing in and sweeping us away (because in the background the water is smashing against rocks with a fury!) And Joe says oh no I don't think so , we are pretty safe here......the words were just out of his mouth and what happens?? the water makes it over the boulders and rushes in around our feet....now it was only ankle deep but still...didn't I just ask if this very thing could happen....so Joe amends his explanation to well water will come in but it won't rush in and drown us! Anyway I made everyone get out of the cave! We then went to a man made tide pool where the kids were able to splash and play in the ocean.....it was lovely and refreshing!!
I guess that is enough for today.....this is my first day off! and so I am headed to the shower and then just going to relax for the morning....so I will talk to you all again soon! Stay warm dear friends!!!! God Bless!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
We have arrived......so much to tell......
I apologize for my absence but I have not had internet until this very afternoon.....Praise the Lord that it is now hooked up....I was in serious withdrawl! So now I am working on getting my fix.....So the epilogue is that we are in Saba and so far so good.....but before i update you regarding our new home.....I want to continue the telling of the "journey to Saba"....and what a journey it has been.....
So I last left you with the story of the barfy kid and being rerouted to San Juan the next day...as it turns out the storm kept raging on and so we were postponed until the Saturday, which of course royally screwed up our plans of getting to Saba and there was alot of fanagling (sp) to get us where we needed to be so that Joe could start school on time......we were getting frustrated spending 2 nights in Halifax but we thought oh well lets make the b est of it.....we can have fun anyway....there is a pool in the hotel, blah blah blah.....so we head down to the hotel our first day there and oh my.....it is broken! the thermometer is not working and so the water is basically the same temp as the air.....the outside air I might add! The boys try to brave it but their teeth are chattering within minutes so out they come screaming for hot baths and showers (which they took many of for entertainment over the next 48 hours!) with the storm raging, we decided to hunker down and hang out in the room and get some food, although little did we know that this hotel only has a continental breakfast and no other food available!! So Joe had to take our rental car (barf and all...which they didn't charge us for!!!!) down the road in the blizzard and found a Tims so that the kids could eat.....we rented a movie and settled down for the night.....around 4 am I was awakened to the sounds of little pitter patter feet and another barfing child....oh no, there goes my theory of Monty just being a little car sick or over excited....we have now progressed to contagious barfing.....so Christian gets the stomach flu....he started to feel better by mid day and so we wandered through the blizzard in our non winter clothing for a snack ( hey we were moving to the Caribbean, give us a break...did we really think that gloves, hats and scarves would be necessary?) We could barely see the hotel across the street and we were slip sliding away in our non winter shoes when..oops....down goes Dawn! right onto her back.....my arm was not in good shape....the kids helped me up and we carried on into the restaurant for some snacks...that evening I wasn't feeling 100% and I started to worry that I would be the next victim of the ruthless stomach bug.......yup.....the next morning there I was ...talkiing on the porcelein phone.....not fun and I was not impressed....and the sickest I've been in a long time...Joe also became pretty sick...so we spent 3 nights in Hali trying to nurse sick people and keep kids entertained and keep our ever changing travel plans in order! I think we deserve an award or something??? Anyhoo (as Melissa would say), we finally left for st Maarten on Saturday morning and we didn't book a hotel there because we weren't sure that the storm was over and we didn't want to risk any more cancellation issues (the cancelled hotels may charge us) So we arrive in St Maarten, with a still very sick Dawn (almost passed out on the flight to NY, the attendant looked very worried, fussing over me) St Maarten was a really neat flight in right over the beach so that perked me up a little and I prayed that I would feel good enough to enjoy my stay here. We get to the airport with what seems like 4000 bags, all in one piece, Tigger stogged into a slightly too small carry on bag and we start talking about booking a hotel....well that would be a great idea IF we could figure out how to use the frickin phones!!! We keep asking and they keep looking at us like we are crazy, but i swear, we could not get the phones to work....finally some woman at the customer service desk, after answering our questions about 20 times, decided she better help us out or we would keep returning, looking a little more frazzled and crusty each time! She found us a h otel that would accept pets (1 on the island)...luckily they had space, however the VISA took a hit! It was so worth it though.....it was amazing place with a big courtyard that led to the beach or the pool or table tennis or the restaurant or the jet skiing etc.....LOVED it.....so we spent all day sunday just hanging around the resort.....it was so warm and the water was so pretty! We decided what the heck lets rent jet skiis so we even drove around in the lagoon for a while...it was pretty fun! We had to stay until Monday morning at 7 when we could finally get the first available flight over to Saba! So we pack up those 4000 bags again and drag them all to the airport and fly across in the tiniest airplane ever....I could not stand straight up and there was no room to move at all....Mike H if you are ever reading this...you could never fly on this airplane! Anyway, it turned out to be a very fun flying experience...this little plane can just take off and land ona dime...so the kids see Saba coming and they get very excited (and relieved that we will finally be done travelling and HOME)....we have, after all been on the roads for 6 days now......so all of a sudden the plane turns sharply and to my right if the window was open I could have touched the mountain!!!! It was insane, then I look down to the teeniest air strip I have ever seen adn i think NO WAY......but we drop down on it llike nothing and stop in about 300 feet.....crazy...and fun.....I'm glad that I did it.....so we get into Saba and it is beautiful and one big honking mountain.....it doesn't look like somewhere people can live.....we wait for our bags and oh,,,,no really? NO bags?? Well apparently sometimes Win air doesn't send the bags the same time as the people?? So they tell us to go home and maybe they will come today maybe not? we hail a taxi and up up and away.....as we climb higher and higher I think that I am surely going to plummet to my death...the kids are going "weeeeeeee, this is so cool, look mom" I have my eyes squeezed shut and I am praying to God that we please make it to our house so that I can start breathing again!! We finally get to our house and it is great....we love it, very cute and the weather is so warm and sunny.....our house is at 1686 feet above where the airport was so we basically drove straight up! All i can think of is that eventually I have to go back down....ok, hang on......the adventure is beginning......I'll write soon to update you regarding our new "Island life"....take care all....Dawn
So I last left you with the story of the barfy kid and being rerouted to San Juan the next day...as it turns out the storm kept raging on and so we were postponed until the Saturday, which of course royally screwed up our plans of getting to Saba and there was alot of fanagling (sp) to get us where we needed to be so that Joe could start school on time......we were getting frustrated spending 2 nights in Halifax but we thought oh well lets make the b est of it.....we can have fun anyway....there is a pool in the hotel, blah blah blah.....so we head down to the hotel our first day there and oh my.....it is broken! the thermometer is not working and so the water is basically the same temp as the air.....the outside air I might add! The boys try to brave it but their teeth are chattering within minutes so out they come screaming for hot baths and showers (which they took many of for entertainment over the next 48 hours!) with the storm raging, we decided to hunker down and hang out in the room and get some food, although little did we know that this hotel only has a continental breakfast and no other food available!! So Joe had to take our rental car (barf and all...which they didn't charge us for!!!!) down the road in the blizzard and found a Tims so that the kids could eat.....we rented a movie and settled down for the night.....around 4 am I was awakened to the sounds of little pitter patter feet and another barfing child....oh no, there goes my theory of Monty just being a little car sick or over excited....we have now progressed to contagious barfing.....so Christian gets the stomach flu....he started to feel better by mid day and so we wandered through the blizzard in our non winter clothing for a snack ( hey we were moving to the Caribbean, give us a break...did we really think that gloves, hats and scarves would be necessary?) We could barely see the hotel across the street and we were slip sliding away in our non winter shoes when..oops....down goes Dawn! right onto her back.....my arm was not in good shape....the kids helped me up and we carried on into the restaurant for some snacks...that evening I wasn't feeling 100% and I started to worry that I would be the next victim of the ruthless stomach bug.......yup.....the next morning there I was ...talkiing on the porcelein phone.....not fun and I was not impressed....and the sickest I've been in a long time...Joe also became pretty sick...so we spent 3 nights in Hali trying to nurse sick people and keep kids entertained and keep our ever changing travel plans in order! I think we deserve an award or something??? Anyhoo (as Melissa would say), we finally left for st Maarten on Saturday morning and we didn't book a hotel there because we weren't sure that the storm was over and we didn't want to risk any more cancellation issues (the cancelled hotels may charge us) So we arrive in St Maarten, with a still very sick Dawn (almost passed out on the flight to NY, the attendant looked very worried, fussing over me) St Maarten was a really neat flight in right over the beach so that perked me up a little and I prayed that I would feel good enough to enjoy my stay here. We get to the airport with what seems like 4000 bags, all in one piece, Tigger stogged into a slightly too small carry on bag and we start talking about booking a hotel....well that would be a great idea IF we could figure out how to use the frickin phones!!! We keep asking and they keep looking at us like we are crazy, but i swear, we could not get the phones to work....finally some woman at the customer service desk, after answering our questions about 20 times, decided she better help us out or we would keep returning, looking a little more frazzled and crusty each time! She found us a h otel that would accept pets (1 on the island)...luckily they had space, however the VISA took a hit! It was so worth it though.....it was amazing place with a big courtyard that led to the beach or the pool or table tennis or the restaurant or the jet skiing etc.....LOVED it.....so we spent all day sunday just hanging around the resort.....it was so warm and the water was so pretty! We decided what the heck lets rent jet skiis so we even drove around in the lagoon for a while...it was pretty fun! We had to stay until Monday morning at 7 when we could finally get the first available flight over to Saba! So we pack up those 4000 bags again and drag them all to the airport and fly across in the tiniest airplane ever....I could not stand straight up and there was no room to move at all....Mike H if you are ever reading this...you could never fly on this airplane! Anyway, it turned out to be a very fun flying experience...this little plane can just take off and land ona dime...so the kids see Saba coming and they get very excited (and relieved that we will finally be done travelling and HOME)....we have, after all been on the roads for 6 days now......so all of a sudden the plane turns sharply and to my right if the window was open I could have touched the mountain!!!! It was insane, then I look down to the teeniest air strip I have ever seen adn i think NO WAY......but we drop down on it llike nothing and stop in about 300 feet.....crazy...and fun.....I'm glad that I did it.....so we get into Saba and it is beautiful and one big honking mountain.....it doesn't look like somewhere people can live.....we wait for our bags and oh,,,,no really? NO bags?? Well apparently sometimes Win air doesn't send the bags the same time as the people?? So they tell us to go home and maybe they will come today maybe not? we hail a taxi and up up and away.....as we climb higher and higher I think that I am surely going to plummet to my death...the kids are going "weeeeeeee, this is so cool, look mom" I have my eyes squeezed shut and I am praying to God that we please make it to our house so that I can start breathing again!! We finally get to our house and it is great....we love it, very cute and the weather is so warm and sunny.....our house is at 1686 feet above where the airport was so we basically drove straight up! All i can think of is that eventually I have to go back down....ok, hang on......the adventure is beginning......I'll write soon to update you regarding our new "Island life"....take care all....Dawn
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