Let's try two pictures at once?

It's 8am... 7pm east coast time... my first tour isn't until 9.... Lando has already gone to the ship to load up his first tour... yesterday was a good day... almost all the tours were cancelled cuz the Destiny (Carnival) never sells ANYTHING! We got out over an hour early... so GREAT!!!

I think tomorrown Lando and I are both working the Disney ship which is AWESOME!!! Plus the ship is in subbase so that gets me out of the office which is priceless! Although the last time i was in subbase, my bag got overrun with Red Ants! It was so like something out of a movie... they were crawling EVERYWHERE... i dropped my bag to the ground not knowing whether to run or fight back... i stood there paralyzed until another tour operator gave me this flyer of hers to kill them with... since there were thousands it wasn't working to well... so then, thinking a little more clearly, i took everything out of the bag, through the bag on the ground and started stomping on it... SUCCESS! They bit me everywhere, but I WON!!! The passengers had a great time watching me. So lesson learned.... when working in subbase, go it alone and leave the bag in the car!

Let's see.. the pictures i think are of the cats...they really have a tough life out here.... they sleep all day... eagerly wait our return from work so we can feed them... and then just as we are ready to go to sleep they wake up and run around the house, up and over our faces as we are trying to fall asleep and then take to attacking our feet - which HURTS considering you can only sleep with a sheet on you here... at most! This morning they were doing thier usual run-around and somehow they unplugged our fan!!! So with no more cool air we were forced to get up a little early and feed them!

The other picture is a sunset over Secret Harbour... we heard they had good sunsets there so we went to check it out one night... it wasn't too great because it was pretty cloudy that day, but i LOVE that beach... we'll definitly go back!

Going to church this weekend was awesome! I started to recognize more of the kids.... they have all gotten so old! The younger ones don't remember me, but more of the older ones do. It was nice to be present in that culture once again. Since it was the last sunday of the month is was their youth sunday (yes, they have one a month!), so Kymnisha was doing the sermon... she was like 10 the first time i met her! They had the steel drum band, a youth band, the music is so upbeat and cool while still being hyms... it's worship with style! I'm super excited for Christmas and New Years!!!

TIDBITS: Even though the traffic is awful here, people are so gracious... you always stop to let people in and out; the Pharmacy by our office doesn't accept health insurance (IT'S A PHARMACY! - What kind of Pharmacy doesn't take insurance!); Marcus is moving down to join us in Paradise-i pick him up on Saturday; milk never tastes cold; if you see something in a store one day you better buy it, cuz it may not be there tomorrow; i'm really starting to dislike Harry Potter and the radio station we listen to in our car plays Jack Johnson all the time - I love it!.

ATTENTION STEVE BIEGNER: If you see Steve tell him that he really needs to come down here for some continuing education... to see what the church can be!

Church with a sand floor

So days off are SO the reason to live here! The other day we went over to a friends house - quite the adventure to get to - you just can't understand the terrain unless you've been here... but she lives tucked in the hill with a gorgeous view of Megans Bay...

Then we ventured off to find Hull Bay which is where everybody goes surfing and it's the only beach on the island where you can bring your dog... not that we have one, but if we did, we could bring it there. (Side note, Ruth who works is the accountant/bookkeeper here found the cutest puppy on the street on the way into work this morning! I so wish we could keep it... i don't think our cats would be too happy though!) Hull Bay is also where some of our friends keep their boats... i wish we had a boat!)

Anyhow, our next venture took us to Sapphire Beach... it's another hotel/resort beach and had some pretty cool views... we chilled out, read for awhile (some quality times with James Joyce and Louie L'Amour) took a tip, layed in the sun, then called it a day and headed home! So great... i love taking our wrangler apart and driving around... it's such a great island car!

Tonite we are going to an Ecumenical service at the Synagogue by our house... i'm super excited cuz it's the coolest place to worship... it has a sand floor (Steve it's how you wanted to do a service... just switch to Judiasm and you're in!) So i'm excited for the opportunity to worship there... Lando and i went and checked it out when we first got here so i'm excited to go back.

Lando's ferry should be getting in in a few minutes, so i have to jet, but keep posting your comments! I love reading them and it's nice to know somebody's listening to my rambling!

Tidbits: Lando and i didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving until a couple days ago! So strange with out the seasons!

Until next time...

Not an ideal Sunday

So it's a Sunday morning.... we've been here a month now and we STILL haven't been able to go to church... it's kind of bumming me out. Our December schedule looks good though! I'm sitting here on a Sunday morning and am stuck in the office for no real reason... one of the inefficient ways they do things here. There are three ships in today and I would be much more useful on the dock (not to mention that's the part of my job I love!)

Oh well, life goes on. We got out a little early yesterday and went to check out Morning Star beach which is the Marriott beach. All the beaches here are public, so even if it's a hotel beach, anyone can go. I love it cuz each beach has it's own character and it's fun to check 'em all out! We have a day off tomorrow and it think we are going to go check out either this kayak tour through the mangroves or this bike tour over on Water Island-which just became the 4th US Virgin Island! These tours and many more are FREE to all those friends and family who want to come visit us!!!

We found the library on Thursday and got library cards.... which was a pretty exciting event because we had tried to go to the library three times before that and it was always closed. Just because a place lists hours, doesn't mean that's when they are ACTUALLY open.

We went to CUZZIN'S for dinner the other night. Trip #3 people would have had the pleasure of eating there - the conch (pronounced conk) fritters and the Johnny cakes - mmmmm!!! It's a local West Indian food restaurant and it's so good! Eating out is expensive here so we don't do it often, but it sure is a treat!

Tidbits:
They play four commercials here that really get on my nerves:
1. The "I wish I could go back" woman - who wishes she would have acted when she felt the first signs of a stroke

2 & 3. Two commercials about kids who are "under the influence" - they make it seem like they are on drugs, but then twist is to say they are under the influence of their teen volunteer

4. The one with all these kids asking their mom millions of questions about what they should do in case of a terrorist attack. The commercial says your kids are good reasons for a family to have a plan.

All these commercials are so uplifting and some of them will play twice in any given commercial break.

There is a Saturday/Sunday paper here; you drive on the left; newly discovered beverages are Ting (like carbonated grapefruit juice) and Elephant Beer (uh-it's Danish-see the connection?) The Green House down the street recently posted a "Help Wanted from Matt White" sign, the Disney Ship is AMAZING!!!, we figured out how to install a wireless card in our computer, and we went to sleep at 8:30 last night.

Thinkin' about ya:
I can't get the voice of Alison Stroczkowski out of my head... this whole "Jando" name has stuck and i can still here her excited discovery of the name on the Roberts Weslyan campus... i think that means, Alison, that you are supposed to move out here and work on one of our giant cattamarans!

I have a ship on tuesday that's all rich Germans! I don't speak German! We'll see what happens...

One month later...

Hey All,

So it's one month later and i finally got internet access AND figured out how to re-enter this thing! Crazy... well i'm sitting in the office for another three hours with nothing much to do... but i can't really go home cuz i have to wait for Lando to get back from doing his afternoon St. John's tour - he takes people to the beach to go snorkling twice a day.

Here's the updates in a nut shell. We live at the Parsonage below Pastor Keinberger at Frederick Lutheran. It's got a great view of the Cruise Ship Harbor. We bought a white Jeep Wrangler which is really fun to drive around the island (wouldn't want one in the states though!) The cats have settled in, they've found their spots to sleep. Chloe caught her first cockroach the other day!

Tidbits: Traffic is horrible here, it's tough to find good fruits and vegatables, everything is expensive (except rum), the weather is wonderful, Iguanas and lizards are everywhere-i love it, the movie "Weatherman" is HORRIBLE-don't go see it, we have rockin carribbean music that poors into our windows every saturday night and I love having TWO DAYS OFF IN A ROW!!!

You meet a lot of random people here. You have the cruise ship passengers who seriously check their brains at the gangway when they board those ships for the first times, you have a bunch of young/not young but still act it tour operators who just run tours and drink all night and you have the West Indian people that i'm used to from doing trips down here. Unfortunatly since we've been working Sundays, i haven't gotten to see them a lot and i'm kinda home sick for that part of the island.

The other day Lando and I bought custom-made sandals and i came back from wandering around the store and found Lando talking to this old lady that works there talking about how she was mandated to go poop at least once a day when she was four and she met a nice boy who did it for her one day when she couldn't go-talk about kindness.

So this is pretty random, but so much has happened... i'll keep the rest short, simple and hopefully more entertaining... although i'll never quite reach the level of Matt White... he's an allstar!

Thinkin' about ya: Lando and I are really missing all the Chicago kids right now. You guys are traveling back today and we hope you had the GREATEST TRIP EVER. You guys are all so amazing! We miss being around people who are SO passionte about something the really matters (running tours to the beach just can't compare to working with you!)

Until next time...