So I was just re-reading the last post about my first week in Nevis and how wonderful everything was, and now I'm winding down on time...how do the weeks pass by so quick!? I'm so sorry it's taken me a while to keep this ol'thang updated, it's incredible how little time I feel like I have in an average day. I was planning on emailing people daily, taking time to have at least one interesting adventure per day, accomplishing my readings on time, and still having enough free time to find other things to do...instead I still have a bit of reading to do, it's taken me three weeks to update this, and I've barely emailed anyone! At least I'll be home soon enough...scary!
So lets see. Let's rewind quite a bit shall we? I think I left off with the second weekend of being here...in any event, it was a wonderful weekend! After our first full week of excavating, what's a better way to celebrate our survival than a booze cruise? By some miracle, our professor was able to talk NC State into using our program funds to cover the cost of one of these cruises...needless to say it wasn't quite as interesting as the last cruise ;) (Differently disabled man and his small army of bikini clad women, I miss you guys!). The cruise was awesome, it took us out a ways from Oualie Beach and we got a really great sunset, unlike the last cloudy cruise we went on. We hung out with some of our new friends afterwards at the Oualie bar, and one of my friends graciously shared his crab with me...so I've at least had one really good local seafood meal! Unfortunately, seafood here can be dirt cheap as long as A) you know where to find it and B) you know how to cook it...two things I cannot do. Apparently lobster is about $6US here but it's that cooking thing I'm just a little rusty at...and by "rusty" I mean completely clueless =)
Saturday I went out with a small group into town in attempts to shop, but apparently a majority of shops are closed on the weekends. A bit ago I went back to get postcards and ended up talking to the lady at the counter about cultural differences, and how weekends are so different in the States compared to down here. Here, a majority of shops are opened Monday through Friday, and closed on the weekends so that chores can get done on Saturday and everyone can go to church and relax on Sundays. In the States as you all know, Saturday is our crazy shopping frenzy day, although our religious Sundays coincide. The nights are different around here too; I'm not exactly sure about the rest of the island but I know Oualie Bar is usually pretty poppin' throughout the week; they usually have different events going on like open mic night, local bands (Green House is a really good group around here, they put a little reggae spin on many songs we listen to back in the States such as U2) play, etc. Friday night is when Green House is usually there, and I think they close up early on Saturdays. Anyways, at this point in the trip I think we were a little on edge from being around people 24/7 so I decided to stay in for the night and take things easy. The problem with being in this location is that there is no way to get any peace and quiet alone time. We have work all day long, by the time we get a chance to go out it's dark and the bugs are terrible, and there's really no place around here to just sit alone. There is Breeze Beach but we don't really have enough time to get down the steep walk when it's light enough outside. It makes it especially hard when we're trying to study and everyone else wants to be social..there is nowhere to go close by to sit down and study outside of the bungalows except for the Oualie bar, and by this point I've gotten to meet so many people down there I'm bound to end up in hour long conversations with someone!
Sunday was the most exciting and 100% nerve wracking part of the weekend-and perhaps of the entire trip! We woke up early Sunday morning to climb the dun dun dun…Nevis Peak. This peak is the 3232ft. volcano that lies in the center of the island. There are literally no words to describe the trip, it was an excruciating 6 hrs. of climbing but amazingly worth it, I was just happy to see flat land afterwards! I remember talking to one of the guys staying in the wedding group at the bungalows a couple days before the hike and he was saying how challenging it was and that you had to use ropes for a majority of the trip…and here I was thinking he was just yanking our legs…nope. He was in fact 100% serious! A good third-half of the trip involved using arm muscles to climb up these ropes, trying to balance on roots and rocks along the way. It literally involved swinging one leg over a rock and having to pull ourselves up with the rope-a few guys in our group go hiking often and complained that now every other trail looks boring compared to this experience. Upon arriving back to the bungalows I was talking with Rachel and Alyson and we mentioned how at no point throughout the hike did we feel completely secure-even our breaks consisted of balancing on roots and rocks, hoping no one would fall backwards and bowl the rest of the group down! It was an incredibly challenging experience for me personally because I’m apparently terrified of un-secure heights, but I’m really glad I made it through-now I can officially say I pushed past my fears and completed one of the Caribbean’s most dangerous hikes!
So after the excruciating 6hr hike, we made it back in time just to watch the World Cup finals-VAMOS ESPANA!!!! A couple of our directors are Dutch so we were kind of made to go for the Netherlands, but common...Sarah Shepherd was in Spain studying abroad, and my babygirl needs to get to experience being in a country during a World Cup championship so of course I went for Espana! Plus it was fun opposing the majority (oh wait, do I sense a bit of my mother in me!?). So we went down to the Oualie bar and packed 20 of us around this tiny TV, it was an awesome memory to say the least-years from now I can say "I remember where I was during the 2010 World Cup finals...crowded around a TV in a bar on the beach in Nevis." Oh, did I mention we won? Cheers to you, Sarah Shep!
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