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!