Settling in...

Sorry for the delay in updates...been busy getting settled in (which has taken me a little longer than others I think) and getting into a routine.

I still am waking up at like 5 when the sun comes up, but now I get up, take a shower, and then get back into bed for a little nap before breakfast. It seems to be working out great; I get a nice hot shower and don't disturb anyone else, get back in bed, listen to some music, and have a nice rest before the day starts.

The lime burn at Good Hope was a lot of fun. We ate jerk chicken (which by the way is tourist Jamaican food, not real Jamaican food, they really don't eat a lot of jerk), vegetable soup, breadfruit salad (similar to potato salad), and coconut bread. My favorite was definitely the coconut bread -- think similar to those Hawaiian rolls. We walked around the property which is huge, toured the great house, and swam in the Martha Brae river (see facebook for photos). It was a good day and nice to be out in the mountains where it is quieter for a bit.

Sunday was spent lazing around the Manse and at the beach. It was cloudy though so no sun. I wouldn't be surprised if I came home the same color as when I left. That 70 spf really does work, but I kind of hope it lets a little bit of color through.

Monday was like any other Monday. You'd think that Mondays in Jamaica would be different, but nope. I didn't feel like I got much accomplished yesterday as I worked on doing the courthouse gate in CAD all day. But I finished it today, it looks awesome, and I got a lot of other stuff done too. It was quite a productive day. I actually started putting stuff in sketchup and hopefully by the end of the summer, I will have mastered the program.

We watched the sun set tonight - it was so beautiful. I didn't take any pictures, my bad, but I figure I'll see another one over the next weeks. The clouds looked like they just ended in the ocean. It was pretty cool to see.

I am learning more and more about Jamaican culture, etc. and how it really is much different from the US. It is more aggressive and that is hard to explain, but it is. And not aggressive as in violent b/c they will have arguments and yell and situations that normally at home would result in a fight, here they don't. It ends at the argument. And it is a male dominated society even though the women do so much. They really do basically do everything. But don't start thinking that the men are chauvinists or not nice to girls b/c they are. It's just really interesting to see how different cultures work and it's almost better to accept the fact that you won't understand why they do what they do. I guess it goes both ways.

Tomorrow is market day. Well the main market day. There's a market on the weekends too, but not nearly as many people come in to sell goods. We are taking Calvin with us so that we get the best deals on fruits. Our goals are to get sour sop, sweet sop, and jack fruit. We had some sour sop yesterday and it is a strange texture, but really good. It's kind of custardy I guess you could say. I have had watermelon, pineapple, Julie Mangos, and regular mangos. In order, my fav is the watermelon, Julie Mango, pineapple, and reg mango. The pineapple here doesn't even compare to the stuff at home. I really don't like pineapple at home at all, but here it is really good. Plus. the fruit guy a block from the manse is really good and will get us anything we ask usually. And he is an artist at cutting the pineapple up, it's so cool to watch.

Oh and the height of Jamaican fashion for men is mesh tank tops. There are some that are sold with sleeves, but some very lucky friends of mine may be getting mesh tank tops as souvenirs. Like they wear them in all colors. No joke. I have gotten so used to seeing them though that I don't even do double takes when people wear them. Peter makes them look good. Lila even told us the proper way to wear one i.e. don't tuck it in and don't wear your pants too high when you are wearing the tank top.

Well Sean and I have a "date" at 10:30 - he stood me up last time (he was having computer problems) so I don't want to be late....

j

--What if we all got along & people loved each other & sang songs about peace? he said. Would that be a good world? & I said I didn't know about that, but it would be a good summer camp & he looked at me & shook his head & said, It's no wonder you're leaving us with such a mess. --