Dinners in Dominica

  The food in Dominica is what you make of it, and I've been having trouble. I've tried to make several meals, most have been disasters. The first meal, spaghetti with sausage and marinara sauce, had potential until the propane tank ran out half way through cooking the pasta. I ended up dumping it all in a bowl and microwaving it. Bleh.
  Then we moved and got a new stove! For my first meal here I very unsuccessfully made a stir fry. There were several problems. With rice, it's a 2 to 1 ration rice to water. Of course, I did a 1 to 1 ratio until halfway through when I realized my mistake and added the other cups of water, only to have the rice turn out mushy. Also, it didn't occur to me to thaw the stir fry veggies beforehand. I was lcuky enough to find them at Tina's grocery store. The result was a very watery mess of veggies in the pan, to which I mistakenly just added some soy sauce and the rice and called it done. Needless to say, it was not good.
  Thinking I needed a break from cooking, the next night we ate out at a place called Riverside, which you guessed it, is by the riverside! haha.. I had a yummy plate of Chicken Pad Thai which tasted great but ended up turning my stomach by the nights end. Next was the Ross Welcome BBQ dinner, which was decent. It was a hamburger, with onions, ketchup, and mayo but no where near the ballpark of a good In-N-Out. Sadly, there were no side dishes left for us at the end of the line.
  Last night I was really craving Mexican. I found a can of real refried beans at Tina's Grocery (!) for 7.95EC, which works out to be $3.06 American. No, this is not one of those double sized cans.

  So I made up some ground beef with onions, garlic, cumin, chili.. you know, taco spices.  And feeling lazy because I'm literally dripping with sweat at this point, I tossed the can of beans in too and dubbed it mexican chili!  I served it with flour tortillas for dipping or rolling burritos with.  I bought the tortillas frozen an hour and a half away in the city of Rosseau, the capital of Dominica.  Imagine having to go to the capital city just for tortillas! There is more to that story, but I'll do a shopping post some other time.  Like I was saying, I called it dinner.

  Looks kinda gross, but it was pretty good.  Tonight though Chris tells me that his stomach was upset all day.  Now, who knows if it was the mexican chili from last night, or any number of other reasons.  Not to mention that he starts medical school on Monday.  I'm hoping it was some reason other than my dinner.
  Tonight was twisty pasta with hot dogs, onions, garlic, cheese and marina.  Kinda odd combination, but it was the best I could do with what I had.  It turned out... alright.  *Sigh* Generally, I consider myself to be a better than average cook.  Dominica has made me lose my groove.  Super expensive groceries, boiling temperatures, propane stoves, and lack of ingredients are my excuse.  But that's not going to fly for much longer.

The Move

Before we got here, we had to leave our house.  That was the worst bit of this whole thing.  Super hot, super sweaty, super tricky to get everything we own into one upstairs storage unit.  The last two nights, I got about 2 hours of sleep because there was no time to stop.  It had to get done and it did.  Rodney Atkins says it all:

If your going through hell

Keep on going, don't slow down

If you're scared don't show it

You might get out

Before the devil even knows you're there

Yeah, If you're going through hell

Keep on moving, face that fire

Walk right through it

You might get out

Before the devil even knows you're there

Love that song.  By the time we left, the house looked amazing.  It is a night and day difference from when we moved in.  Our tenant is one lucky guy, and we are one lucky set of landlords to have him.  Here are some before and after pictures of our home.  

 
After the carpets were cleaned and I handed my keys over to our Realtor, it was off to the airport for us.  Chris dropped the Shelby off at his parents and then we went to the bank and took out a huge chunk of our savings in cash for the trip and to get our bank account started here.  Then we headed to my sister Julie’s house, cats and all.  Thankfully, the cats and carrier weighed exactly 20.0 pounds (see last post).  

So with the kitties in tow, off we went to the airport still stuffing things into every last nook and cranny of our luggage.  Chris even put on two shirts and was stuffing shorts into his sweatshirt pocket.  Little did we know, the airline wasn’t even going to check if we had less than 70 pounds of luggage.  After all that careful planning and weighing, we could have brought 30 more pounds each!  *sigh*  I’m sure that if we had packed 100 pounds of luggage each, we would have been held to the 70 pound rule, as life often does.  Thankfully, Chris got to unload his pockets and extras into the luggage before it got sent off.

When we got to security, they told us we would have to take the cats out of their carriers and walk them through the metal detectors while they x-rayed the carrier and our luggage.  Thank goodness we were prepared for this with harnesses!  My mom is a genius for thinking of this ahead of time.  The kitties made it through just fine, and back into their crate they went for another... 24 hours or so.  If you can believe it, they were quieter than any of the children on board the planes.  No one even knew they were there!  And, no, neither of them had any “accidents.” 

The flight from LAX to Miami was quick and easy. I slept pretty much the whole time until the captain came on the next morning saying that Miami was currently closed due to weather and we would be circling until it cleared.  Great.  A few minutes later the captain comes on again and says that our fuel light is on and we are being diverted to Alabama, or something like that.  Fantastic.  Then, on he comes again, but with good news!  We are landing, but nearly an hour later than scheduled.  Off we run to the next terminal to catch our next flight to Puerto Rico which leaves in 30 minutes.  The last ones on the plane, they take Chris’s carry-on and without checking put down Puerto Rico as it’s final destination.  So, once we landed Chris had to go out through the airport to baggage, find his luggage, and go back through security.

Finally, we made our last flight to Dominica on a teeny tiny plane.  Customs was easy, it was even smaller than at Cabo.  Of course, none of our checked baggage made it, but we were kind of prepared for that, and we eventually got it two days later on Saturday.  

The first thing I have to say about the island is: It’s Hot!  Not California dry hot, but out of control, dripping sweat, feels like you’re in a sauna hot.  I’m sure I’ll adjust but it’s my biggest obstacle right now.  Walking anywhere is just torture.  There is no point in putting make up on, because it’s going to melt off.  No point in doing your hair, because it’s going to be dripping with sweat in 10 minutes.  God bless the people who have lived their whole lives here. 

Our apartment here is actually pretty nice, now that we’ve moved.  We spent the first 2 days in a middle floor apartment that was pretty small, but then our landlord suggested that we move to the top floor for $50 more a month to a much bigger place.  Not only is it bigger, but it’s nicer with a full sized stove, working windows, a bigger bed, 2 closets, and a vanity.   These seem like insignificant things until you don’t have them!  Here's a video of our new place.

Pretty much, island life has been about survival for the last week.  Getting the cat’s food (frozen ground beef), finding a litter box (literally a box of sand from the beach), learning to use a match to light the propane stove, figuring out what to do when your propane runs out halfway through cooking dinner, and more significantly getting Chris ready to start school with all the orientation stuff and check in’s, etc.

I’m going to be glad for things to settle down next week when his classes start.  Maybe I can find a groove here.  And after the groove, maybe a part time job or school.  We’ll just have to see!

Cat Conundrum

For the cats to travel in one pet carrier on AA, the carrier must weigh less than 20 pounds in all.  This is what I found out in the last hour by doing research online.  Of course, it's 1 in the morning, and I'm a little too tired to round them up and do the scale right now.  BUT, I will absolutely be doing that tomorrow before I pack a carry-on bag that may not actually be going on the trip because the cat carrier counts as one carry-on for us.  Positive thinking here.  We will be able to take both in one.

Today we got Adam and Eve their first collars, tags, and harnesses.  Here is Adam with his new bow-tie collar.

Isn't he handsome?  And here is Eve with her collar and harness on.

Dressed for Success! Also, I learned in my reading that we have to actually take the cats out of the carrier and walk them through the metal detector.  This could spell disaster.  I guess you can ask for a private screening room at security.. but who knows if that is true.  We'll just have to see what happens when we get to the airport Wednesday!

Countdown: 7 days

Where did the last few weeks go?  I've started the dual packing process: storage and luggage.  Currently, I'm worried about how everything we need is going to weigh less than 70 pounds each.  I think it will all fit, but the weight is adding up quickly.  Packing is the worst. 


Today we went to LA and got the USDA certificate for the cats.  Glad that is all taken care of.  And we found a renter!  What a relief!  Now I've gotta finish packing the house up, get our luggage under control, take care of changing our address at umpteen places, move our stuff into storage, and not lose my sanity.

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

If you liked The Time Traveler's Wife, read this book. Although more reincarnation than time travel, the story is written with the same transitions between past and present. A little confusing at the get go, the story unfolds in a beautiful way that makes you want more of the past and more the present at the same time. I love how the author switches between first person and third person when changing times. This is a love story between Daniel who has ability to remember past lives and his soul mate who does not. The ending felt a bit unfinished, but I wouldn't want to ruin it for you. Overall, My Name is Memory was an enjoyable read with an original story that left me wishing for more chapters.