Independence Day Brimstone Hill Run: For the Fit and Fearless!

Last Friday was Independence Day on the island. They were celebrating 25 years of independence, which is really cool. It also happens to be the only holiday we get off of school for... so we had a three-day weekend, which is always nice. There were lots of events going on that weekend, but the only one that I participated in was the run...

Brimstone Hill is a historical landmark here... There is a fortress up there that the British built to keep the French from taking over. It's huge... and beautiful. They used all volcanic rock, so the stones are black and the mortar between them is basically white. Apparently, it took over 100 years to build the entire thing. And it's on top of this big hill... you can see Eustacia and St. Maarten from the top. It's very cool...

So, for Independence Day, they decided to host a run that started at the bottom of the hill and went up to the fortress at the top. Of course, we didn't exactly know that's what we were going to be running when we signed up and found out when we got there. It was scary...

While we were waiting for the race to start, one of our professors this semester showed up. She had the great idea to take both of the cars up to the top and leave one there, so we could drive back down after the race... so we went up to the top with her, which was a good idea because we got a good idea of what we were in for! While we were at the top, some guy up there asked her for a ride down, so we gave him a ride...

A lot of students ended up going, which was really nice. So, the race started literally at the very bottom of the hill, it was a little longer than a mile and a half and at the top of the hill you are 800 ft up. It was really hard, but I was glad to say that I actually ran the whole thing (even if it was a sad and pathetic "run" towards the top!) and it took about 20 minutes to do the whole thing. It was *awesome*.

It was also a really nice set up. The whole thing was free, they gave away t-shirts and had water and soda with ice at the top. A lot more than I was expecting. Also at the top they had a tent set up to give away the awards and had a lot of people lined up to speak.

They had a trophy for each age group, and had it broken up unevenly... so that there were more awards for younger and older ages and less for all of the 19-30 type people. They also had a cash prize for each age group, for first through fourth place. $250 EC (about $100 US) was the first place prize. Even the Prime Minister ran the race! His age group only had two runners, so he was awarded a prize... but he choose to give it to the Special Olympics (they had people who had run the race as well).

There were a few representatives from Taiwan there also... apparently St. Kitts has been political allies with them since they gained their independence. The representatives gave short speeches along with other people important to the race, and the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister's speech was really good, and I was happy that he mentioned our little Ross group, and said that he was glad that we are trying to become integrated into the community. He's definitely a very cool guy. The most striking thing about him is that he's just like another person down here, no need to body guards and whatever... and he can just be hanging out down here and isn't swarmed my masses of people wanting to see him. It's like they all already know him and he's just another guy... It think that's pretty cool.

So, after everyone gave their speeches, we packed it up and went home. There are a bunch of pictures on the photo album website, I'll leave the web-address here: Photos of Brimstone Hill Run

Let the Countdown Begin...

only one month left before i leave again. i can't wait. The picture to the left is a pineapple that's growing in my yard... i had no idea they grew this way, but apparently it's true. I don't know if you can tell, but it's just a spikey bush-like plant with a pineapple growing in the center. Very cool. AND I just realized this morning that we have a pomegranate tree in our back yard. Crazy.

A few things have been going on since i last wrote... fourth of july was relatively disappointing. The fireworks were fewer and sadder than i had hoped. But we *did* have a bbq and made chicken with some dinosaur sauce from home and had a bunch of other yummy food. A lot of people came, and it was a pretty good time

I also did my necropsy for class, which was very interesting. The dog had a bacteria called Leptospirosis, which causes anemia and jaundice. Cool to watch. And we learned about that bacteria in bacteriology class a few days later, so that made it even more interesting... and just so you know, people can get lepto also. And apparently people have gotten it from drinking out of soda cans without wiping off the rim. It's spread by urine. Rats pee on the cans... thought you might like to know.

This week, Ian was admitted to the hospital and had surgery because he had appendicitis. It was scary, he didn't want to stay on the island for the surgery, but he had no choice. We went to visit him and the hospital was scary (like all hospitals) and it's set up funny; it's very open to the outside. Which makes sense because not all of the rooms have air conditioning.

Nothing else really exciting to be told... Brody is 3 months old now and getting big. I'm getting him microchipped today. Some club on campus is having a microchipping day and it's really cheap (only 20 EC) It's really hard to find him a puppy sitter... this is going to be interesting at christmas time, trying to get someone to watch him. Good times.

TICKS!

Literally within the last five minutes I pulled a tick off of myself and one off of Brody. I was yucky... I felt the need to share... I now feel like there are tons of little bugs crawling all over me... it's amazing...

Aside from that... pretty quiet week, I guess...

I've got my August plans booked for the most part... we picked a hotel to stay at while we are in NYC for a couple of days... It's the Sheraton in Times Square. It looks nice... I'm really looking forward to that part of the trip... and basically all the rest.

only 6 weeks of class left & then finals. Time is flying.

Last night was my friend Cathy's (non-roommate Cathy) birthday. It was a lot of fun, we met up at Amanda's house. It was kind of weird being there, I haven't been inside since I lived there. And afterwards we went out to the bars. There were a bunch of people out, and it was a really good time...

For the most part a quiet week. We have some time off before our next round of tests, so I'm playing the catch up game still... it's just way to easy to procrastinate this semester because we have so much spare time. It always feels like "there's time to do this later" until there really isn't. Good stuff...

Brody is good. He got a little sick with vomit and diarrhea last week. That was scary because parvo is a really severe disease that puppies can get which is basically running rampant down here. Since he's not done with his vaccines yet, it's possible he can get it... it was a little scary. But turns out he's doing just fine. Holding strong... eating rugs and playing too rough. But other than that trying to learn the rules :)

That's about all ...

Puppy & More...

So it's been three weeks of puppy glory... He is a lot of fun, but it was too much work having two puppies in the house at once. Especially with Ian so busy this semester... so, now Brody is living in a single-dog household... Makes things a lot easier on us! And he's a lot nicer because he has nobody else to socialize with and doesn't get as rile up... It's a lot of fun... except for the crying early in the morning so that he can go out. Not a huge fan of that part :)

I've got my tickets all ready to come home in August... can't wait! I'm really excited to go on a wine tour and be in the city and see everyone!! It's going to be amazing. I still have to figure out when I am going to Dayton, but that will happen...

We had a suprise birthday party for Ian last weekend... It was a lot of fun. It was hillarious trying to get him there. He's just so difficult sometimes. He was with Mike and didn't want to go to Maria's house... they were supposed to stop by to "pick up some physio tests for Mike" but Ian insisted that he had all of the tests that Maria had and drove right past. From there it was pretty impossible to get him back to her house... she basically had to beg him. And he was so frustrated that he had to come get her... it was funny when he realized what was going on. It was a really fun party... they made a hillarious birthday cake for him. Pirate ship with teddy-graham pirates. It was amazing...

And this past weekend was midsemester break (half way through!!) It wasn't much of a break though, because we had a test on our first day back (today!)... Still, Kathy and I managed to find time to go on a Catamaran trip. We had never been on a night one and they are a lot of fun... they just drive you over to Nevis, drop you off at a bar there and let you hang out for a few hours and then take you back...and there's an open bar on the boat for the whole trip. It was a really good time and we got to hang out with a lot of people that I normally don't hang out with; so that was nice....

And now we're back to the grind, trying to catch up on work for the second half of the semester and get ready for finals...

Kathy is getting scuba certified this semester, so hopefully there will be a lot more diving in my future now that i have a diving buddy :) We are hopefully (maybe) going on a trip to Statia later this semester... They take a catamaran trip over to the island, do a couple of dives, and then cat trip back... it sounds like a lot of fun. A little bit expensive, but hopefully worth it... I just don't know when the last day is to sign up, so I may have missed out already :/ But I'm determined to get more diving in at least next semester... time just flies by so fast...

Got a centipede...

This little monster was crawling around my house late last night... I was luckily brave enough to throw a text book on top of him and kill him before he could mount his attack. SCARY

He's next to a quarter to size comparison...

Birthday, etc...

Well, this past weekend was a good one :) Mine and Kathy's birthdays are one right after the other, so it was basically a whole weekend celebration...

On Friday after class, Kathy & I went to the Marriott to lay out by the pool. Which is always amazing, and seeing how we felt extra pale, it was good... while there we had a couple of beers and the bartender gave us a couple of mixed drinks b/c he knows us from way back at the end of first semester before I came home... So that was a lot of fun, and then we moved on to beach volleyball down at Timothy beach...

That is always a lot of fun... the whole school is basically down there and since Kathy and I made our own tank tops it became pretty obvious it was our birthdays... The shirts had the stag logo on them (it's a local beer) and said "stag me"... to try and gather up some free beers. It was fun...

After volley ball we went to Fisherman's Warf for dinner and had *amazing* fish fry. It was great... and then back out to the beach bars to dance away the rest of the night... and have people sign our shirts... it was fun :D

Saturday we spend most of the day at the Marriott laying out again, and later that night was the hockey game so we went over to the sports bar, Oasis. They have really good wings and potato skins and they are a lot cheaper than the Marriott, so it's overall a better place to go for the games...

There we brought a cake that I had made for Kathy and sang happy birthday and had a really good time :) Also, she had her present from me (tshirt) which was amazing and everybody loved it!

And that pretty much wrapped up the extravaganza... we had a test on Monday, so we spent all day on Sunday studying...

The test went well, so did the other one i took already... so classes are going really great. And our virology test got moved back a week, so it's a little more laid back than it was supposed to be... which is always nice

and then... the other big news is...

BRODY!

He's my new pup. Ian adopted one as well... they are six weeks old, Rottie mixes... and adorable. Isaac is Ian's puppy's name... they are a lot of fun. But also very loud at night :(

I'm sure i'll have a lot more stories about them to come, but for now that's all i've got (just got them yesterday!)

Another exciting weekend

This weekend was pretty exciting... a new bar opened up near the marriott so we went to check that out... it seemed pretty interesting, but when we got there it was way too packed and they had run out of beer, so we left and went to Timothy beach...

Also on Friday somebody had come down to give a talk about hurricane Katrina. He has a vet practice near New Orleans and was effected by the hurricane and so told all about his stories and it was very interesting. And it came with delicious dinner so that was really exciting...

There was also more hockey on Saturday... been watching a lot with Kathy. Her team made it to the Stanley Cup Finals last night, so it's pretty exciting stuff... except there's a bunch of kids who are Penguins fans (the other team) and they talk some pretty bad smack talk... a little on the low blow side, so we may not be watching the game at the marriott this weekend. Just depends if we can find someone else who will play it or not (we don't get that channel on our cable box).

AND we watched the Preakness on Saturday which was amazing... i can't wait for the Belmont... that horse is looking really good...

Classes are still going... our first test is coming up next week. Scary... but our schedule is so relaxed right now, it's been pretty easy to stay caught up so far...

I put some pics up on the other site of the inside of the apartment. Pretty sweet...

And I sold my half of the car to Amanda's friend Dana... so i am technically carless for now... kathy and i are sharing her vehicle, but i don't think i will technically go in halves with her... i'm not doing anything for the rest of the semester so that i can give myself some time to think about what will be best...

There are also new pics up from the stairs to the sea and my run this morning... i brought the camera because yesterday i had seen a troupe of monkeys hanging out around the picnic tables and they were amazing, so i wanted a pic... just my luck that if i bring the camera there is no monkey sighting to be had... so instead i walked down the stairs to the sea. They are a walkway that Hills built down through some woods on campus that lead to a gazebo that is right on the ocean. The view is beautiful and it's really peaceful and a nice place to sit. There are also a few of just the scenery and views from campus. I was having fun :)

For this week it looks like a lot of studying and getting ready for the weekend, seeing how we have hockey games to watch on saturday and monday (our test is on tuesday)... excitement abound :)