Sorry about the delay...started having so much fun in the summer, I forgot all about my responsibilities of the blog! Anyways, I'm back, both on the blog and in Chicago. Not done with Peace Corps, just home for Christmas.

First a recap of what has been going on in Saint Lucia the past 4 months or so. I am working with the Education Committee of the Dennery Development Foundation on a project called Dennery's Promise. It is a project where we work with kids from Dennery who did not complete secondary school for whatever reason and provide them with support and training in whatever area they would like to pursue. Our first round of classes for the first group of kids will be commencing in January. The courses that will be offered are: cosmetology, tourguiding, IT, plumbing and electrical installation. So that is exciting and hopefully things work out.

I am also working a project funded through UNESCO for training in areas related to tourism. There are four areas: traditional music and dance, tourguiding (linked with Dennery's Promise), food and drink vending and art and craft vending. We have secured facilitators for each area and are now working on getting the courses accredited.

The Dennery Youth Ambassadors hosted a Youth Rally for HIV and AIDS where we brought in a top guest speaker, had music and entertainment and invited people from all over Dennery to come. Our turnout was not as high as we would have liked, but in all, I would definitely say the rally was a success.

That's about all that has been going on...well at least all of the major things. There are always small things popping up here and there, but those first two projects will be keeping me busy for a while. Oh! I just remembered something else. A bunch of friends and I have started playing Capture the Flag. One of my favorite games growing up, it is not popular on the island at all. In fact, none of them had ever heard of it. So we have played a couple times at night and everyone has gotten into it and gotten all camoflauged in black. It's been fun.

Anyways, I'm home now. I got in late on Wednesday and believe me, the cold was shocking. In a year and a half in Saint Lucia, the temperature has never been below 75 degrees, and was 80 when I left. Upon touching down in Chicago, the oh so kind stewardess informed us all that it was 8 degrees. At first I thought she said 80, but I guess that was wishful thinking haha. I was broke as a joke when I got back, so I spent Thursday and Friday working downtown with my parents at my dad's company. I will probably go in on Monday, too. Gotta make that cash for the Christmas shopping, right? Haha.

Speaking of Christmas shopping, a friend and I stopped into Circuit City yesterday because it was going out of business and having a 70-90% off sale. Not only did they have all of their merchandise on sale, as you would expect, but they were selling everything. Shelving, signs on the walls, even the red Circuit City shopping carts were available for $3. I asked how much for their metal detectors at the door, but apparently they were the only things not integral to the structural integrety of the buildging that were NOT for sale. Oh well.

So the plan for the rest of the week is to work a bit and do some more shopping, then just enjoying Christmas. It's definitely a white Christmas as I saw firsthand when I was risking fingers and toes shoveling the driveway. Someone ran over a newspaper with our snowblower and broke it, which means manual labor until it gets fixed. While I was out there, I decided to take advantage and play around a bit. I threw my first snowball in 2 years and even made a snow angel for someone (you know who you are lol).

Everything's been good, so I'm off to enjoy the rest of my vacation. I'll try to remember to post again after I get back to Saint Lucia. So until then, Happy Holidays to everyone and take care.

One Love,

Gregory

But things have been absolutely crazy for me lately. I believe I left everyone with an update through the end of April, so I will try to continue on from there.

Basically, May was dedicated to the Jazz Festival in St. Lucia, so everyone was excited about that and heading all over the island to go to shows. You would think with a name like 'Jazz Festival,' there would be jazz music. Well, not really. There is some of course, but this year's headliners were acts such as Wyclef Jean, Air Supply and Michael Bolton. Last year, John Legend played, which would have been awesome since Johnny L rocks. I caught a little bit of a free show on the square in town, but it really wasn't my vibe so I didn't stay long.

Once Jazz quited down, it was time to get into Carnival mode. Most of you have probably heard of Carnival, but don't really know what it is, so here's a (brief) explanation. It is very similar to Mardi Gras in that it is a celebration that takes place on the Monday and Tuesday (Fat Tuesday) before Ash Wednesday and Lent. However, for tourism reasons, several countries have moved their Carnival celebrations to other times of the year. In St. Lucia, we celebrate Carnival throughout June and July, with it culminating at National Carnival in Castries a week or two from now. My village has its own smaller Carnival celebration and I was on the committee to plan it. That pretty much took up all of my time in June before I left.

I flew out of St. Lucia on June 22nd and stayed in New York (well Jersey, actually) with my friend Kate. I had two full days (Monday and Tuesday) to venture around the city and do the tourist thing. We went crazy and saw more things in two days than is humanly possible, I think. From MSG and Times Square, through Central Park and the Upper East and West Sides, through Harlem, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and all the way to downtown, I'm pretty sure we saw just about everything. My pictures are up and I must say, there are some fantastic pictures from the trip.

Wednesday afternoon, I flew into Chicago. It had been a year since I was back there, but everything fit right into place. I was a little worried about being surrounded by white people all of the time haha, but that didn't seem as weird as when it happens in St. Lucia. There were some crazy new buildings in random places that I hadn't seen before, but that was the most shocking thing about being back. So, I had ten days to see the family, hang out with friends and enjoy myself. It turned out to be the perfect amount of time. I saw both sets of grandparents and spent plenty of time with my parents. I only got to see David for a few days and I didn't get to see Scott at all, but something tells me they will all be back in St. Lucia for Christmas again haha. I saw friends from high school and friends from college. Went to a Cubs game at Wrigley, Frontier Days and the Taste of Chicago. And I spent a few nights out on the town. All in all, it was great to see everyone, but I can honestly say that I do not miss life in the States. Things here in St. Lucia are so nice and relaxed and definitely more my style, so I was plenty ready to get back. Plus, I got back just in time for Dennery Carnival.

Carnival has many events, but the crux of it is the parade that takes place over two days. Due to airline luggage complications and no sleep Friday night, I only made it out for the parade on Sunday, but looking back I should have said 'screw my luggage and sleeping' and went down on Saturday, too. Basically, the parade is separated into what are called 'bands.' Each band has their own dress, whether it be just a t shirt or a full out costume. They will also have their own truck with a sound system on it. So the trucks move along really slowly while the sound system plays the music out over the street. Everyone in the band dances in their costumes in the street, which is known as 'jumping.' So my band was the 'Campari band,' which was named after the liquor that sponsored us. So we all got t shirts and enjoyed ourselves making the slow route through the village. I do have some pictures up of this, however they are only the tamer pictures haha.

There are still some Carnival-related events, but those are all up in Castries, so I don't know how many I will make it to. It's pretty much back to work now, and I do have a few things coming up. That HIV/AIDS proposal I mentioned last fall has advanced through the ranks of the funding agency, so it is looking like it may happen this fall sometime. I am also working on a proposal that just got approved for a project dealing with tourism. It will help train people in four areas: selling crafts, selling food, tour guiding and dancing. All four of those skill areas are big in tourism and hopefully some people can take that training and turn it into work once the resort gets opened up down the road from the village. Aside from that, just doing the same stuff: working with the vendors association, the youth group and the development foundation. The next post will focus more on work than on play, I promise haha. That's about all I got for now. It was good to see everyone while I was home, so take care and come visit.

One Love,

Gregory

I cannot believe that it is already May. Scott's birthday is right around the corner and so is my trip home. I am leaving St. Lucia on June 22nd and flying into New York. I am touring New York for two full days before making my way to Chicago on June 25th. While I am home, I will be looking forward to the Taste of Chicago, Summerfest, Frontier Days, fireworks, the Cubs and much more, so mark your calendars and be prepared to hit up some of those places with me.

As far as what is going on here, I am back into the flow after the holiday in Barbados. Sri Lanka came in to play the West Indies side in cricket, which was basically a national holiday. Schools and everything had a half day so people could get up north and watch the match which started at 2. Some of the other Peace Corps Volunteers decided to give ourselves a half day as well and partake in the national excitement by going to see the game (pictures are up on my picasa site). It was a 20-20 match, so that means each side bats for 20 overs (over = 6 balls, so 120 balls total). We held them to a decent score, so we had a shot to beat them, but it started raining. Since it was a friendly series and didn't count, and West Indies won the first two matches of the three, the match was just canceled and everyone made their way home.

The Dennery Fish Fiesta had its first popular artist perform live the other weekend when Crocadile, a local reggae artist, came and sang. It was pretty good, but the advertising was terrible (no fault of our own) and not as many people came as would have otherwise. A step in the right direction, though.

The Dennery Development Foundation launched today. The DDF is a group with which I have worked very closely. It is made up of three committees: The Social and Cultural Development Committee, which focuses on Carnival and artistic activities in the community; the Economic and Finance Committee, which focuses on poverty and skills training; and the Education Committee, which focuses on improving the state of education in Dennery and a mentoring program. I have been working with each of the committees, and now that we have gotten settled, we decided it was time to launch the organization in the community. It was a lot of work setting stuff up and decorating, but well worth it. People enjoyed the ceremony and food, but in particular, they enjoyed the Education Committee's booth that I spent hours and hours working on. So that was good.

There is a position called VAC representative in Peace Corps. VAC stands for Volunteer Advisory Committee, which consists of one current volunteer from each island who get together every so often to talk about issues facing volunteers and what to do about them. It is an elected position and I am running for it. Elections are Friday, so we will see how that goes. Other than that, I don't have a girlfriend for those of you who always ask. I have now lost 45 pounds total and still don't eat meat or drink pop. I have drank alcohol maybe 5 times in the past 2 months (excluding Barbados). That's the secret. Right it down.

Listen to Duane Stephenson. Buy his tracks on iTunes or something. Especially 'Ghetto Pain,' 'Cottage in Negril' and 'August Town.'

See you all in June.

One Love,

Gregory

I got back from Barbados Tuesday afternoon, and let me tell you, it was awesome. Seven days of rest, relaxation, surfing and hanging out on the beach. Now, you might think that's no different than everyday life here in St. Lucia, but you would be wrong. First of all, Barbados apparently blocks a lot of the waves coming towards St. Lucia, so there aren't any surfable waves anywhere on the island, save for rare occasions like storms and hurricanes. Second, Barbados is a coral island surrounded by a reef, so that makes the conditions even better. Kelly Slater, one of the top couple of surfers in the world, said Barbados is one of his top 10 surfing destinations.

Our flight leaving St. Lucia was just after 6:00pm, so it was light leaving St. Lucia and dark arriving in Barbados. The views from the plane were spectacular and I got some great pictures. Mike, who is a Peace Corps Volunteer on the island of Grenada, flew in earlier in the day, so the plan was to meet up with him at the hotel. On the drive from the airport to the hotel, it was already apparent that Barbados is more developed than St. Lucia. Plus, since Barbados is a coral island, it is very flat. I don't know if it is Illinois flat haha, but compared to St. Lucia it is super flat. So once we got to the hotel, we made dinner with some groceries from the local shop and then headed down the strip to see what was going on. We stayed near Dover Beach in the parish of Christ Church, so we were right down the street from St. Lawrence Gap, where most of the nice restaurants and clubs are located. It was a Tuesday night, so nothing much was happening, but it was cool to see everything nonetheless.

The next day we woke up early because we had our surfing tour. The whole trip was a package set up by a company called Barbados Surf Trips, and part of that package was a tour around part of the island to show us some of the good spots to surf. So our guide, Melanie, took us and a couple who just arrived on the cruise ship that morning out to a couple spots and then we had a two hour session at a small time break on the South coast. I got a quick tutorial and then headed out to try my luck. With my swimming background, paddling out wasn't too much work, however balancing on the board was. When you are racing front crawl, it is faster to roll your shoulders and reach your arms as far out in front of you as possible, however when paddling on a board, if you roll your shoulders, it will throw you off balance and might even knock you off the board. It took a little time to get used to paddling without rolling my shoulders, but I was slowly getting the hang of it. While I was out there, I was able to catch about two waves, but with my limited experience, I didn't even attempt to pop up onto the board. After the session, we hit up a local fast food place called Big John's. It's not quite like any fast food place around Chicago. It was almost like a trailer, but it was permanent. The seating was all outside, right next to the 'kitchen,' and it was just covered with some umbrellas. They sold fish, chicken and this thing called a roti. It is like a burrito, but it has meat, potatoes and veggies in it. They also had a vegetarian option. We would come to find out that all fast food places in Barbados do, even the McDonald's ripoff called Chefette. After lunch, we dropped off the couple and continued up the East coast looking at surf spots. We went from about the center of the South coast all the way up to the Northernmost tip of the island on day 1. Pretty cool.

The second day we got our rental car and were on our own. We strapped the boards to the top and took off for where we heard the waves would be good. Not even 10 seconds into the trip, we realized driving on the left side of the road and from the right side of the car was more challenging than it seems when you're riding a bus in St. Lucia haha. We almost had a couple of minor collisions and we almost went the wrong way down a one way street, but once we were off and going, everything was fine. We made it up to the parish of St. Lucy in the North and paddled out. I tried to catch a couple of waves, but it was really ripping out there and even the experienced surfers I was with thought it was pretty big. Not the ideal place to learn to surf haha. I likened it to stepping into a high school varsity basketball game and trying to shoot your first free throw ever. A little rough at times. We got to know some of the local surfers while we were out there and we decided to head back with one (Tyrone) to a restaurant in his village for lunch. This was the most Peace Corp-esque experience we had since we were staying in a posh part of the island. After lunch, we went with him to another beach for some more surfing. We later realized that Mike's imitation Ray Ban sunglasses were gone, and after much speculation, we came to the conclusion that they were swiped by Tyrone. It was either that or they walked away under their own power and Ray Bans are nice sunglasses, but they aren't THAT nice. They were knock offs, though, so they only cost $10 US. No worries.

I awoke on day three a little bit sore and a lot bit chafed. I was wearing a shirt because I was told your chest can get chafed if you're not used to being on the board so much, so that wasn't a problem. However, I was still having balance problems, and the easiest way to stop a little roll onto my side was to throw my leg over the side of the board and balance myself. Little did I know that this would lead to chafing behind my knees. I felt some discomfort after the first time, but I chalked it up to laying on the board and getting some sun on the back of my legs, but after day two, it was apparent it was chafing and it was apparent that it hurt. A lot. The back of my knees are peeling to this day. So I rubbed them up with aloe vera and decided it would be a good day to take a break from surfing and see what Bridgetown had to offer. Bridgetown is the capital of Barbados and it is just down the main road from where we were staying. After asking around, I found out where the bus stop was and I caught a transport van into town. Now, on the outside, the van looked very similar to a bus in St. Lucia. However, in St. Lucia, there is a one person per seat rule, with very few exceptions. In Barbados, there is an every man for himself rule. In a van with 13 seats, we fit 18 people and that doesn't count the driver or the conductor (the conductor is the man running the show in the back). So it was an experience to say the least. Bridgetown is pretty cool, not all that different than Castries. I walked around a little, checked out some stores and picked up a local sim card for my phone haha so I could talk to the local girls that gave me their phone numbers. On the way back, the driver took a short cut to attempt to avoid some of the afternoon traffic, but right as he was about to head back onto the main road, a police officer was pulling in and stopped him. He walked up to the window and they started jawing back and forth. In Barbados, they only speak English, however they have a very thick accent. You might not think it would be that different from St. Lucia, however it really is. It took me about 3 or 4 days to get to the point where I was understanding it. But at this point, I still wasn't getting it all, especially when the driver and the officer were excited and practically yelling at each other. It went on for a minute or so and then the officer gave the driver the ticket. Walking away, he said in perfectly understandable English, "Have a nice day!" Haha it was the only line of the whole exchange that I understood. Must be a universal joke for police officers to say that when they hand out a ticket.

After healing up a bit, I got in one more session out on the waves. This time I put in some serious effort. By the end, I was catching pretty much any good wave that I went for, but I still couldn't get the hang of standing up on the board. I'm sure if I had concentrated on surfing all week instead of exploring and talking to girls, I would have been golden at the end, but such is life. Everyone has priorities haha. Later on, we went down the main road away from town to a place called Oistins for their fish fry. It was very similar to Dennery, with the tiny exception that each vendor had their own permanent structure with electricity and there was a nice permanent stage in the middle. Plus, there were vendors selling arts and crafts, too. It was a very nice set up they had, and maybe something for Dennery to aspire to haha.

All in all, it was a great trip. I got to try something I have always wanted to do in surfing. We had some great food we hadn't had since leaving the States, such as Mexican and Chinese food. We got plenty of rest and relaxation. And I got a chance to hang out with some Bajans and learn more about their country. I think we were all in agreement that we would be back at some point. It is definitely a good trip and I will recommend it to anyone who is considering going.

It's been a while since my last post, so there have been a bunch of things going on. In the order that I think of them, here they are:

I leave for Barbados on April 1st. I know I mentioned this earlier, but now that it's getting closer, I have started to get pretty excited about it. I've watched some surfing instructional clips online to kinda get a feel for it, so hopefully I'll pick it up fairly quickly. Haha but if not, I will still be in Barbados and life could be a tad bit worse.

I just got internet at my home last week. Just in time for the tournament haha so I could watch basketball, check the other scores and check my place in the pool all from my couch. It was glorious. So I'll try to post a little more often now that I have that convenience.

After a six week break for lent, the Dennery Fish Fiesta is coming back this weekend. We have a sponsorship from Bounty Rum (The Spirit of St. Lucia) and they are bringing in a band, tents and everything else you can imagine. Should be a fun Saturday and I'm looking forward to it.

I went up to the zip line course last week. I had been up there once before, but I was just walking around, I didn't actually go on the course. I did see a girl going down one of the lines and she was spinning in circles and screaming haha so it didn't inspire much confidence. But my friend Ramel was taking his class there for a field trip type thing and I tagged along. Pictures are already up on Facebook and I'll be putting the pictures up on my Picasa site next, so those have some shots of us all decked out in our zip line gear. It turned out to be pretty fun and I definitely want to go again.

I've seen a couple of movies, 10,000 B.C. and First Sunday. 10,000 B.C. was alright. It was a nice action flick with some good animation, but a little lacking in plot. If you're looking to pass the time or just be entertained, then it's not a bad choice. First Sunday was hilarious. I went in unsure of whether or not I was going to laugh and I was pretty much laughing the entire movie. Katt Williams is great. Maybe a little inappropriate in places for a younger crowd.

Easter was pretty good. I'm not used to not having family around for Easter, so I just went to church and didn't go out to eat or anything. Church here is great. I go to the local Evangelical church and it is very similar to my church from back home, so that was nice. Haha except during the singing, people get a lot more into it here than they do at home.

I officially hate going through customs when receiving a package haha. All of the other packages I've gotten have gone right through, no problems. The most recent package got detained. Instead of getting a package, I got a slip that said I need to go in to FedEx to take care of it. So I get on a bus and go up north to the FedEx office. I get there at like 12:15, but the hours for customs are 10-11:30 and 2:30-3:30. So I had to come back at 2:30. I get back there later and I'm like fifth in line. It takes me like an hour before they call me in. I go into this small room and there's my package on the table. The customs guy hands me this giant knife and tells me to open the package. I start opening it and I jokingly ask him if anyone has lost a finger opening a package with this giant knife. He says, "no." No laugh, not even a smile haha. So I get the package open and he starts checking the receipts to see if they match what my mom put on the sheet when she sent it. But, there is no receipt for a phone that I bought. So he estimates that it cost like $250 US and I was like wait, that's ridiculous it was like $150. I had to find a computer with internet and pull up the receipt I was emailed when I bought the phone to show them how much it really cost. Once all of that was settled, I thought I was ready to go. Wrong. I was ready to go but my package was not. I had to reseal the package and leave it there until the next day. I have no idea why. We talked him into letting us take some track shoes that were for some local athletes leaving for the Carifta Games in St. Kitts the next morning. However, I had to leave my hat and phone there until the next day. They told me come in anytime after 11. I got there like noon to get finally get my package and the lady tells me to come back at like 2:30. No reason. Just come back at 2:30. I told her I'm not from town and I had to take a bus to get here, so I can't just go home and come back. She goes into the back and after like 15 minutes comes back with my package. Finally. It would have been easier and faster if I had come to Chicago to get the package myself.

I can't really think of anything else at the moment, but if I do, I can just pop open the laptop and add it.

One Love,

Gregory

So I have reached the six month mark here in St. Lucia. It seems like just yesterday that I was cruising around the island and hitting up a couple of fish fries to celebrate my birthday and now we just passed my half birthday (I know all of your cards are in the mail haha). After half a year down here, I feel like I am pretty well adjusted to the climate (defrosted, as they say). The other night I slept without a fan, and I was so chilly that I had to sleep under a sheet. I NEVER thought I would do that when I first arrived in St. Lucia. I say chilly because I know what cold really means, and I'm not even near that ballpark yet haha.

Things are good. Some of my projects are getting larger and more involved, so that's good. I'm in the process of getting high speed internet in my house, so that might make these posts a little more frequent. I'm sure that will excite my mother and probably no one else haha.

Tomorrow is Independence Day in St. Lucia, so that's exciting. There was a rally at the Dennery schools this morning, which was a cool site. I took some pictures, so hopefully I can put those up soon. Speaking of Independence Day, I have decided that I will be coming back home around the 4th of July. I'll probably be home for about two weeks, so hopefully that will be long enough to divide my time amongst the throngs of people that have been asking me when I come home. I chose July for two reasons. First, I'm getting excited already for some Taste of Chicago, Frontier Days and rooftop action. So plan on doing some of those things. Second, it will be absolutely too cold for me to come home at any other point of the year haha. July will probably be too cold at night, but I guess I'll live. So there's that.

Oh! I have also made some lifestyle changes since I've been down here (and no, not THAT kind of lifestyle change). I have become a vegetarian. This will probably last until the first time someone asks me to go to Chipotle or Taco Bell once I get home, but we'll see how it goes. I went on the rice diet. I ate rice, bran cereal with soy milk, fruits and vegetables for a week and I lost about 7 pounds. Also, it significantly cut down on my appetite. I really don't get hungry anymore. Now I'm dropping weight without even really trying.

That's really about all that's happening down here. I'm just straight up livin. Feel free to update me on happenings at home. Sometimes I feel a bit cut off from anything that doesn't get mentioned on CNN.

One Love,

Greg

Sorry that it has taken me so long to post again, but as quiet as things get during Christmas, they get really busy just after. So to make up for it, this could be a long post haha.

For New Year's Eve, a bunch of my friends from Dennery and I were going to go up north to one of the dance clubs called Indies. They were having some New Year's special, but we couldn't get our act together in time to get up there. Then, a few days later, I heard someone got stabbed at Indies, so it turned out to be good that we didn't go. Instead, we just hung out at my house and watched BET count down the top 100 videos of the year. Soulja Boy beat out Alicia Keys, which was a joke. At midnight we went by the restaurant across the street to watch them shoot off some fireworks. When I heard that was going to happen, I was thinking it was going to be the little sparklers that the kids are always shooting off, but no, they had some serious fireworks over there. They were just like the ones from the Fourth of July, where they shoot way up and break into multiple colors and stuff. Well, I had never been close enough to where they shoot them off to see how they work. There was a series of about five tubes molded together, side by side. The fireworks go inside and they are lit, with the tubes guiding them straight up into the sky. So the first twenty or so worked perfectly and it was a nice little show. Then, one of the tubes fell over on its side and started shooting fireworks at all of us who were standing there watching. So we all ran away laughing trying to hide. Then the next tube fell over and started shooting fireworks the other way. One of the fireworks landed in the brush and started a brush fire. Thank goodness the fire department was on hand, so they hurried over there and started to put it out. After a minute or so, someone realized that one of the other fireworks went across the street and into an open doorway, lighting the floor and a couch on fire. So the firemen had to get over there and put that one out too. There were two older ladies living in the house, so two of my friends who are volunteer firefighters had to run inside and carry them out. It turned into a pretty crazy night.

Last weekend was also crazy, but in a less destructive way. On Saturday, the Vendors Association that I've been working with had a Fish Fiesta that was sponsored by Piton. Piton is the local beer brand here on St. Lucia. For a couple weeks, I had been talking with the brand manager for Piton about a sponsorship, and he also made his way out to Dennery to meet with the vendors. The date was set for the last weekend in January because Lent is starting soon and during those six weeks, none of villages on the island that usually have a fish festival will have one. Lent is taken more seriously here than back in the states, maybe in part because the majority of people on the island are Catholic. People stay away from parties and loud music, and some bars just close up until after Easter. Anyways, Piton agreed to sponsor us for the last weekend in January and they did a bunch of radio advertisements, brought in a stage, and had a battle between two sound systems. It was a nice event and something that I put some time into, so it was good to see it happen without any hitches.

Sunday morning, the youth group hosted a fun walk to raise funds and promote a healthy lifestyle. The only problem is that, even though it is January, it gets too hot to do long workouts outside after like nine in the morning. So, we had to start early. We wanted to start the walk by five in the morning, so we had to arrive, set up, and register people before that. Since the Fish Fiesta went until about 2:30 the night before and I had to be up at 4, I decided to have a Red Bull and go straight through the night.

This was our second attempt at a fun walk - the first attempt failed due to rain. This time around, we had a decent turnout and a good set up. We had a trophy for first place, medals for second and third and gift certificates for the oldest to finish, youngest to finish and last to finish. I won a gift certificate, but I'm not going to say for which category because you will all make fun of me haha. After cleaning up and everything, I got home and finally got to bed at 10:30. Needless to say, I missed church, but I did manage to get up for a 4pm meeting of the Dennery Development Foundation. It was a meeting to have elections, so it was important...oh and by the way, the food was worth cutting my nap short - local juice, bakes, pretzels with peanut butter and individual pizzas!

All in all, it was a loooong weekend and I'm glad it's over.

I made it into town today to do some grocery shopping...finally. I was getting close to running out of money for the month, but Peace Corps paid me just in time. I opened up my fridge this morning and I had enough cereal and soy milk for one bowl. And that's it. Yesterday, I finished my bag of rice and had a mango. So it's safe to say I haven't been living large the past few days. Jessica and I were joking that we should publish a book called "The Peace Corps Diet," it will be 100 pages and the only word in the whole book will be: rice. We could make millions.

I also bought my plane tickets for Barbados this morning. That's right, I'm going on a surfing trip to Barbados, a place which Kelly Slator called one of his top ten surfing spots in the world, or so I hear. Now, I know what you're all thinking, and the answer is: no, I do not know how to surf. But, that's not going to stop me - I'm going to learn. Just like Dwyane Wade says - fall down seven times, get up eight - right? Right. So duuuuude, I'm so totally stoked about the trip, bro!

So that's about all the major things that have happened recently, but there are some things on the agenda for the immediate future. The youth group is going to help organize a quiz competition for all of the groups in Dennery. I had a look at some of the questions, and I must say it was kind of a humbling experience. I like to think that I am a pretty smart guy. I watch Jeopardy. But I was useless when it comes to St. Lucian trivia haha. Useless. Anyways, we are going to work on making that happen, as well as having a few social activities to take the place of the missing Fish Fiestas.

I'll try to keep you all posted...more regularly this time...I hope haha.

One Love,

Greg

Christmas can kind of sneak up on you when it stays at 80 degrees all year. If I didn't watch TV, I wouldn't have even known it was Christmastime until a week before. There aren't that many Christmas decorations here, unlike in the states where stores break out Christmas decorations as early as September. Instead of decorations and presents, the thing St. Lucians really look forward to around Christmas is the chance to enjoy themselves. I think I must be half St. Lucian because that is my favorite part of Christmas as well.

It is pretty common to have a party the night before any holiday. The party can be a small gathering or a huge party, but the common theme is that they go very late. Oftentimes until 8am. My friends from the youth group and I had a Christmas party of our own on Christmas Eve night. We didn't quite make it until 8am, but I would say 4am is a pretty decent showing. My friend Mikey brought over an amp and a speaker and we hooked it up to my laptop so we could blast some tunes. We had plenty of food, beverages and dancing. I think I surprised some people with my moves on the dance floor. Haha surprised in a good way that is.

The week before Christmas, my family made the trip down to St. Lucia to take in its beauty, lounge on the beach and, I guess, visit me. They stayed up north at Almond Smuggler's Cove, which is an all-inclusive resort. If you're not familiar with the term, that means that you pay upfront and then all of the food, drinks and everything else at the resort are free. Unbelievable concept. I would lay on a chair at the beach sipping on a mango daiquiri and when I was done, I could walk over to the bar and get another one! For free! And then we'd go to dinner and get items like fried calamari, shrimp linguini, and dessert. It was a wonderful week and a far cry from my usual menu that consists of cereal, chicken patties, ham sandwiches, and pb & j.

The only downside to an all-inclusive resort is that there is no reason to leave the resort. I mean, you have already paid for the food, so if you leave and eat somewhere else, you're paying for dinner twice. The resort has everything you could possibly need, but it's not really a St. Lucian vacation if the only part of St. Lucia you see is along the highway on your drive from the airport to the resort. We managed to make a trek around the island on Friday, with the main destination being Gros Piton, a mountain along the west coast of the island. Gros Piton is just over 2600 feet above sea level, but it is a really cool sight because it rises right out of the sea. There are guides that will take you up to the top, from which point you can see most of the island.

Well, the five of us started off a little after noon, hoping to make it up and see the sights, but it was not to be. My mom made it to the halfway point. About halfway between the halfway point and the three quarters point, I began to get very dizzy and lightheaded. I thought for sure I was going to faint, so I sat down. About ten seconds later, I leaned over and just puked all over the place. I'm not sure what caused it, I wasn't feeling muscularly tired at all. I was definitely out of breath, maybe due to the change in elevation, but mostly due to being out of shape. My brother Scott says it was because I was dehydrated. Maybe. Embarrassing none the less. At least I made it farther than my mom haha. My dad made the three quarters point and then he came back to the halfway point, where my mom and I were waiting. Scott and Dave made it all of the way up to the top, so I'm sure I won't ever hear the end of that. We'll be having Christmas dinner 40 years from now and they'll still bring it up haha. Oh well, I decided I'll do some training over the next year, and then if they all come back down next year, I'll have another go at it. We'll see.

It was a fun week, the pictures are all up on my Picasa site. Now that Christmas is over, it is time to focus my attention towards New Year's and see what St. Lucia has in store for me then.

One Love,

Greg

Our Caribbean Thanksgiving was a huge success. Almost all of the Peace Corps Volunteers and some of the staff traveled down to Eric's house in Laborie for a traditional American cornucopia of dishes. We had three turkeys, one with cajun seasoning and two others with seasonings that I can't remember offhand. We also had two huge dishes of delicious stuffing, green bean casserole, gravy, salad, cranberry sauce, and lots of snacks. We even had a bag of the Gardetto's garlic rye chips, which I never knew existed. I mean those are by far the best part of Gardetto's, so it is only logical that they make special bags just for those pieces.

While we filled up on food that we don't normally get here on St. Lucia, we were able to partake in the other key area of Thanksgiving, and that's watching American football. Props to Eric for making this happen. He doesn't usually have cable or even a tv at his house, but he split the cable from next door and borrowed a tv from the school he works at just so we could watch some American football. Unfortunately, the two games that interested people - the Colts game and the Packers/Lions game - weren't on tv. The Cowboys and Jets weren't great to watch, but hey, it's American football on Thanksgiving.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, things are a little bit slow as we head into Christmas. I'm just working on the fun walk with the youth group and planning for the arrival of my family. For some reason, they decided it would be nicer to spend Christmas on the beach in 80-degree weather than in the snow at home. I can't say that I blame them, I was actually quite chilly last night when it dipped down to 72, which is the coldest I've seen it here, so I don't know how I would feel when it's 11 at home. I don't know how I've survived for so many years haha.

When they come, they'll be staying at a super sweet resort up north, which means Greg gets to eat some fancy food. Variety really isn't a big part of my diet right now. I pretty much rotate between cereal, pb&j, ham sandwiches, and chicken patty sandwiches. Oh and sometimes I make a spinach salad. Variety may be the spice of life, but it doesn't have a place in my refrigerator. I have lost some serious weight while I've been down here and I haven't started exercising yet. But I digress, the resort rocks.

http://www.almondresorts.com/Resorts/AlmondSmugglers/

EDIT:-------

I forgot to mention in my initial post that we had an earthquake here last week. It was a 7.3 or 7.5 on the Scale, so it was pretty serious. I was upstairs at the office and the whole building started shaking. At first, I thought it was a truck. The highway is right outside and sometimes a big truck can cause some shaking. I looked outside and didn't see anything. I was confused for a moment, and then I realized it was an earthquake. By this time, it had gotten into full swing and I thought the building was going to fall down and I didn't want to be in it when it did. So I unplugged my computer and ran outside. I didn't even pause iTunes, so my computer was closed and in my hands while still playing some Starting Line as I stood outside. All in all, it lasted for a couple of minutes and startled me a bit. Being from Chicago, this was my first earthquake. Had I been from California, I'm sure it would have seemed like no big deal. So I've survived a hurricane and an earthquake now. Great fun.

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That's about all I've got for now. Pictures should be up soon.

One Love,

Greg

OK, so I finally got my pictures up on my Picasa site (link is on the right). They are now up to date all the way through Jounen Kweyol from the last post. Sorry about that, the wireless internet here at the office is not the greatest, but it's free, so I'm diggin it.

Nothing too crazy has been happening down here. I've started to really settle into the routine. I've got a couple of projects going on right now, so those are keeping my busy enough. There is not nearly as much time at the beach as I had thought and probably you are all thinking, haha, but that's alright with me. It's comforting knowing I could be at a nice beach in half an hour if I wanted to.

My village does have a beach, which is about a ten minute walk, but it's a fishing village, so all of the boats don't make it a great place to swim. Plus, most of the drains and toilets eventually find their way into the bay, and that's not counting the people who skip the drains and toilets and just use the bay. So, it's not ideal for swimming, and this from the guy who thought he would swim in anything haha.

Some people have been asking what I've been working on. So far there are a few things. I am still working with the Vendors Association on the weekly Fish Fiesta. Progress has been slow so far, so I am just trying to get to know them all and learn about the group right now. I have some ideas, so as things move ahead, eventually we will get to those.

The group I spend the most time with right now are the Dennery Youth Ambassadors. It is a youth group composed mainly of people 19-25 from the Dennery area who want to make a difference in the community and work with the other youths who are unemployed and have nothing to do. We just started a little less than a month ago, so right now we are doing the beginning things like writing a constitution, electing officers, etc. It is a fun group to work with and help get off the ground. We have already had a clean up campaign in Dennery and are looking to have a fun walk next month to raise some funds for the group so we can start doing some AIDS projects and other things.

I am still waiting to hear back about the AIDS proposal we turned in last month. There is supposed to be a meeting about this week coming up, so we'll see how that goes and what kind of funding we got. It was originally supposed to be for World AIDS Day on December 1st, but things have been moving kind of slowly and if we get funding, we are going to have to push the date back and do it early 2008. Most likely, the Youth Ambassadors will be the group that puts it together.

I have also been helping out some individuals in the community. My friend, Anton, is looking to start up a small business and get some funding to buy speakers for a sound system. Sound systems are pretty big here because most outdoor events have music and they usually hire a sound system for the setup and a DJ to spin some tunes. If he can get speakers, then he can get hired for events. Also, he is a member of the Youth Ambassadors, so when we put on an event that needs music, we can get it from him cheaply. Right now, he has given me a bunch of information about his plans and we are putting together a business plan to turn into banks and government agencies for funding. Also, his aunt is looking to buy some property in the village and open up a bar and wholesale store. So I have talked to her about that and we are in the beginning stages of putting together a business plan for her.

I am looking to get involved at the Secondary School, which is like junior high with freshmen and sophomores. They have a Young Leaders Programs, which is run by one of my friends. He and I have been talking about it, and when he returns from a conference in Africa, I am going to get started working with them. He is also the president of the Youth In Sports Council, which is the main community organization for sporting activities, so I am looking to get involved there as well.

That's about it for now. Other than working, I have been following the presidential campaign trails from back home. Things are starting to heat up and I have some thoughts, but that is a conversation for another time and place. I hope everything back home is going well for everyone.

One Love,

Greg

Before I talk about today's holiday, Jounen Kweyol, a quick note. I tried again to put my pictures up, but the internet connection between my laptop and the router here at the office is not good enough to let me upload pictures. So don't worry, I haven't stopped taking pictures, I just can't put them up right now. That will be fixed as soon as I get my next package with a flash drive.

Today was Jounen Kweyol, or Creole Day. It is always the last Sunday in October, I believe, and it is hosted in a couple of different sites around the island each year. This year, the main celebration was in Belle Vue, which is very far south. Very far is a relative term, you can get anywhere on the island in an hour and a half. So I made my way down to Belle Vue with a couple of friends to enjoy the festivities.

Creole Day is a chance for St. Lucians to celebrate their heritage. Many people dress up in 'madras,' which are dresses, skirts and other articles of clothing made out of a plaid material. Also, many of the people make their outfits. I didn't make an outfit, but I did roll in there wearing my plaid shorts from the GAP. So I was like halfway between being Lucian and a tourist. There are many tents with people making and selling Creole food. I had some food that was really good and I wish I took a picture of it, but I didn't. It was a broth that had pig snout, red beans, dumplings, and fried plantains. It was served in this thing called a calabash bowl. The calabash is the fruit from the national tree and it resembles a coconut from the outside, but smooth. There is nothing edible in the calabash, so people cut it in half, hollow it out, and let it dry out to become hard. It makes a nice little bowl and I washed mine out and took it home with me. The final piece to the celebration was the entertainment. There is lots of traditional music and dancing and also some plays where people get all dressed up in costumes.

It was a fun time, especially since I am 'defrosting' and have started to get used to the heat a little more. It reminded me a lot of Chicago in the summertime. Not the weather, the festival. There were a couple of thousand people all walking around outside, very much like the Fourth of July Festivals and especially the Taste of Chicago, just on a smaller scale. And of course I really didn't mind all the Lucian girls dressed up in their Creole Day outfits haha.

I am loving everything about living here. Right now, the only challenge is trying to feel productive. I am just starting to get involved in some groups, so I don't really have many responsibilities at this point. But that all should come with time, so I've just got to keep working on it and enjoying myself.

I hope everything is going well back home and I'll try to get pictures up soon.

Greg

I'm starting to settle into my new house. I like pretty much everything about it. It's a nice size and stays cool pretty well, so that's good. However I have had three bug stories that I'm going to share.

First, I was sitting on my couch watching some TV, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw something crawl around the corner and into the living room. It was a centipede. In St. Lucia, centipedes are not two inches long like back home. Rather, they are a foot long, sometimes longer, and if they bite you and the bite goes untreated, you could die. So this thing comes around the corner into the living room. I immediately jump up and grab my broom to sweep this thing out the door. It crawls under the door on its own, but on the outside of the door, there is a little piece at the bottom to prevent things from crawling IN. Now, it was stopping the bug from crawling out. So with the broom in one hand and the door in the other, I began to swing the door back and forth, trying to get the centipede out from under the door so I could sweep it out. After a ten minute battle, it finally crawled to the hinge side and out of the house. Then I ran out after it and took a golf swing with the broom for good measure.

The second story happened just the other day. I had just gotten out of bed, so obviously I was still half asleep, and I stepped into the shower. Within seconds I hear a buzzing sound and see a cockroach flying around in my shower. It lands on a wall and is just sitting there. When I first got to St. Lucia, I learned that if you kill a cockroach, its eggs will come out and that's where they will hatch. The last thing I want is a bunch of cockroaches hatching in my shower. But, I really had no other choice at the moment. I took my shampoo bottle and hit it. Apparently, they have a stronger shell than I thought because I didn't kill it. Instead, it jumps off the wall. Now, cockroaches are not like normal bugs. Normal bugs run away from you when you try to kill them. Cockroaches run at you. And this one made a bee line straight for my feet. I jumped over it once, but it turned around and came at me again. I dodged it again and it darted under my shower curtain. I smacked it again and killed it. I cleaned my shower floor to the best of my abilities, so here's to hoping no cockroach eggs are presently hatching in my shower.

I saved this story for last because it is the grossest. The other night I woke up at 3am. I felt something on my head, but because there are mosquitoes all over the place at night, I assumed that's what it was. I swatted it off and didn't think anything of it. A few seconds later, I heard it bumping into the wall by my bed. I thought to myself, "mosquitoes don't bump into the wall." I then thought maybe it was a toad because there are toads here that are the size of the end of your thumb and I had seen one in my house earlier. I got up to turn on the light and check it out. It wasn't a mosquito or a toad. It was a cockroach. And not a normal sized cockroach, either. It was probably the size of my phone. And it was just chilling on my forehead. I don't know how long it was there. It could have been there for a couple of hours. It could have been laying eggs in my hair, I don't know. I did know that I didn't want to kill it in my bedroom and spread eggs all over, so I had to catch it. I knocked it off the wall and into my laundry basket, then I grabbed the basket and brought it outside. Then I had to go back to sleep and hope there weren't anymore cockroaches in my room.

That's all of the entertaining stuff that's been going on. I have a meeting with someone tomorrow to put the final touches on our proposal before it gets submitted to the ministry, so that's exciting. Other than that, I hope everything is well at home.

Greg

Just a quick update. On Monday, I moved into my own apartment. It is a 2 story house - I have the bottom floor and my landlord lives upstairs with her family. I have a living room with 2 chairs, a couch, a tv, and most importantly, a fan. My kitchen is pretty much fully stocked. I still need to get a blender and I'm going to get a Foreman grill, I don't care what Holyfield says. I have 2 bedrooms, one has bunkbeds, both have fans. And I have a bathroom with the biggest shower I have ever seen. So the apartment is pretty nice so far. The best part is definitely living on my own. Eating what I want when I want. So I'm excited. What's left to be seen is how much money I'll have to spend because we are on a tight budget.

Baseball playoffs are coming up, and as everyone knows by now, the Cubbies will be taking part. At first I was disappointed because our cable here doesn't have FOX or TBS. So I thought I wouldn't get to see any of the games. But, instead of ESPN, we have ESPN vivo. And ESPN vivo simulcasts the games from FOX and TBS, so I will get to see the games. That's great news.

Here's what I'm working on right now. My main project is working with the Dennery Seafood Vendors Association, who are in charge of the weekly fish party in the village. I'm going to be trying to help them make the party bigger and better and also to make more money. So I have been on that for a couple of weeks - going to the fish parties and their meetings, to try to get a better understanding of the situation. The other thing that I've been working on this week is a project for World AIDS Day on December 1st. We are trying to organize a 2 week event with workshops, information and entertainment. That's pretty far away, but now we are working on a proposal for funding that is due this Saturday. I've got a meeting about that right now, so I'm going to head out. More to come later.

CUBS WIN!!!

Greg

One more week of living with a host family in Dennery and then I will be moving into my own place, which will have more consistent internet. So I'll be able to update more often.

Things are going well so far. I went to my first fish fry as a Dennerian last Saturday night. It's basically a huge street party where fishermen sell fish, baked goods, and drinks. It was pretty fun, and what's even better is that it is my job to work with the vendors ON the street party. So that should be fun. Pictures take a long time to upload, so I'll get on that within a week. Feel free to email me with any questions or just to say hi.

gregorymeves@gmail.com

I'm not homesick at all, but my mom thinks it will be a more realistic blog if I mention things I don't like. So, here's a list of things I don't like, in no particular order.

The humidity. Everyone sweats a lot.

Mosquitoes. They are everywhere at night. And since it's warm, they are here all year. But they no longer bother me.

There is no FOX station on the cable. That means I'll miss half of the Bears games. If they keep playing like they did against the Cowboys, it doesn't really matter.

OK, well that about sums it up. I can't think of anything else that I don't like. If I do, I'll mention it.

As they say in the Caribbean:

One Love,

Greg

Two weeks of Phase II training down, one week to go. This week was particularly brutal. Between field trips here, field trips there, a 14 hour day, and karaoke, all I want to do on this lovely Saturday is to lime at the beach.

The beach here in Laborie is pretty sweet. We are on the Caribbean Sea (West) side of the island, so that means calmer waters. The water is protected by reefs, which cuts down the waves and makes it almost like hanging out in a very large bathtub. Good for relaxing, bad for the surfers among us. The best part is that the beach is about a 5 minute walk from my house. Life is good.

Last Wednesday was karaoke at one of the local establishments, and we decided to head over and take in the festivities. I'm sure there will be some pictures on my site pretty soon, so those might be of some enjoyment.

I'm starting to get excited about moving into my community. I'll be making the move one week from today. I talked to the current Peace Corps Volunteer in Dennery, Dallase, and she said she knew my homestay family and that they were really nice. She also has seen the house I will be living in when I am on my own. It is the bottom floor of a two story, and there is a family that lives above me. I haven't actually seen it myself, but I'll be there soon.

We've got a busy week coming up, so that's it for now. Keep in touch.

Greg

Back to the blog. Sorry about the delay between posts - it was a combination of being busy, not having access to the internet, and getting permission, but now that I'm back on, hopefully I'll post more frequently.

Lots of stuff has happened since my last post, so I'll try to recap. We arrived in St. Lucia the 27th of July. We had one night at a hotel by the airport and the next day it was off to meet our host families in the community we would live in for the next 3 weeks. My community was Ti Rocher, which is a quiet town just up the hill from the main road. It was about 2.5 miles from the beach, so that made for a perfect run.

My host family consisted of my mom, Josie, my brother Steve (23) and my sister Crystal (21). I loved my host family. They were really nice and it was great to have some people my age to show me the ropes. There were 23 volunteers living in Ti Rocher and we trained together everyday. A couple times a week, we would catch a bus over to Mon Repos, another volunteer community, where we would have class as a big group. Training was long, but it was fun really getting to know the other volunteers.

The best part of the first 3 weeks was definitely my birthday. It happened to fall on the second Saturday, which was the absolute perfect day for it. Friday night, we headed to Anse La Raye in the northwest part of the island for their fish fry. It is an outdoor festival they have every Friday night. There is currently a Peace Corps Volunteer there who has been there a year and he invited us all to come out there. About 40 or so out of the 70 of us made the trip out. It was a lot of fun to celebrate my birthday while all of us were still together. It was a fun night, capped off by a sterling rendition of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry", if I do say so myself.

Early the next morning, a group of 12 of us went for a birthday trip around the island. The first stop was Sulfur Springs. It's a place where sulfur runs in a little river and people have built a tub where you can lounge in a pool of sulfur. It was warm even though we got there early. If you get there too close to the middle of the day, it is way to hot to even get in. We were there early enough to hang out for a while. Supposedly the sulfur is good for your skin. Sulfur Springs is right in what they call the "drive in volcano." It is the remnants of an old volcano that collapsed and is now presumed dormant. After leaving Sulfur Springs, we headed up the west coast of the island, which is an absolute chore. It is very mountainous over there, so the road is just switchbacks up the hill, followed by switchbacks down the hill. It is not a long distance to Castries, but it is actually faster to head south around the bottom of the island and up the east coast to Castries. It was cool to take the long road to see the views, which were incredible. Once we got to Castries, my awesome friends had our lunch picked out. Domino's Pizza. It was a delicious little slice of home. We followed up lunch with some shopping in the Castries market and then headed home. It was a long day, but there's no rest for the weary as we had more stuff to do that night.

Back in our communities, we had Cultural Night that night. Cultural Night is basically a talent show for volunteers and host families to display American culture and St. Lucian culture. My only role in the show was the hot dog leg of the food eating relay at the end. I had never been in an eating contest before, but I was third in the relay and had to put down 3 hot dogs in buns before our anchorman could start chugging his coconut water. It was much harder than I had anticipated, but we pulled through and Ti Rocher took home the title.

After Cultural Night, a group of us went to the fish fry in Dennery. It was a little more low key the the previous night, but fun nonetheless.

That pretty much sums up the birthday weekend. The other big news was that I found out that I am staying on St. Lucia for the 27 months. Very excited about that. I have loved pretty much every day that I have been here, so hopefully, the next 26 months will be just as good.

After our first 3 weeks were up, everyone departed to their islands, and those of us staying in St. Lucia moved over to a city on the southwestern side called Laborie. Laborie is known around the island for having some of the best beach areas, so that is pretty sweet. There are currently 13 of us living in Laborie and training for another 2 weeks before spreading out into our various communities. We just recently found out who is going to which community, and I found out that I am going to Dennery, which is a city on the eastern coast about halfway up the island, the same place that had the fish fry we went to for my birthday. I should be pretty close to the beach and my job is going to be working with the vendor's association, who are the vendors that sell at the fish fry. So, I'm really excited about going over there in 2 weeks.

And I think that pretty much sums it up to this point. I put up all of the pictures I have taken so far, but hopefully I'll be taking more soon. Thanks for making it this far haha and stay in touch! I'll post again soon.

Greg

So I headed to the airport this morning, bright and early, to begin this seemingly overwhelming journey. The first stop was Miami, where Mikey Mares was waiting for me in his sweet wrangler. After loading up his car we headed to South Beach to grab a bite to eat before I had to be at the hotel to check in. And if you didn't know, South Beach is awesome. We cruised on by the Miami Ink Tattoo parlor, which was pretty cool even though I have never seen the show. Miami is pretty much a mixture of LA and, well, Mexico. It's been pretty cool so far.

After getting to the hotel, I headed upstairs to the room to shower and change shirts (somehow I got bbq sauce on my first shirt even though I was being super careful and leaning over, but such is life). After the quick change, my roommate and I headed down to registration. Now, the thing that I was most nervous about coming in was that I didn't fill out one of the forms correctly and would be sent home. So needless to say, I was quite pleased when informed that all of my forms were filled out correctly. Basically, our meeting was 3 hours of safety stuff and the like, so it was no sweat.

Following our little discussion, a (large) group of us decided to head over to South Beach for a night on the town. We bussed it over, which meant that we made a 15 minute ride into a 45 minute adventure. We ended up in this like outdoor gauntlet thing with mostly restaurants on both sides. The thing was, the restaurants all had outdoor seating in the middle of the gauntlet. So if you can picture what I'm poorly describing, you would notice that we were seemingly walking in the middle of an outdoor restaurant. It was actually kinda cool. I've got some pictures that I'll put up when I have a chance. We picked one of the restaurants and sat down for some food, which was actually pretty good. However, we were interrupted three times. First, a crazy lady kept asking us for food. We gave her our last roll and she left. Second, a guy came over to try and sell us his reggae cd. 59 songs for $5. I almost bought it, but I didn't because I didn't want to get out my wallet while I was eating. And third, a bald comes out of nowhere and just starts playing some Italian love song to the girls at our table. When he finishes, he says in perfect English "Thank you, thank you for your tips." Then when we asked why we should tip him if we didn't want him to play, he responds again in perfect English, "I don't speak English." So we just paid him to leave.

We followed up dinner with a walk to the beach itself. The beach was pretty cool, I mean I guess it was cool if you like perfect white sand and warm water. By this point, the lack of sleep the night before had caught up with all of us and it was time to call it a night. More meetings tomorrow and then Friday morning it's off to the Caribbean. More to come soon.

Greg

Alright....finally got around to setting up the site. I'm basically going to use this to write about my experiences in the Caribbean. I'm not sure how often I am going to be able to update this and whatnot, but I will try to as often as possible. So, thanks for reading and please leave comments - I would love to correspond.

Greg