Day 1

Today was our first full day in St. Kitts!  We woke up to the bright sun radiating through our thick blinds, but were totally okay with it because when we opened them, we have a perfect ocean view!  I could get used to that!!

We got our first experience grocery shopping on the island this morning...  It was not as bad as everyone made it out to be!  From what we had heard, we thought their would be no 'American' food in the stores, but they were totally normal!!  All the food was labeled in EC's (eastern Caribbean) which is like 2.7 times more than American money, so it was hard to get accustomed to figuring things out.  We found out that some things were cheaper (green pepper was only like 1.50) but a 40 oz jar of peanut butter was 32 EC's (like 15 american)!  None the less, it wasn't bad and we had a successful first shopping trip!! We were able to get cold cuts and provolone, bread, mayo, Peanut Butter, some frozen veggies, chicken, pasta, OJ, milk, cereal, juice, lots of fresh water, popcorn!...the essentials for now!  Our total was like 300 EC's, but thats just around 100 American dollars, so it wasn't too bad and Peanut Butter was the MOST EXPENSIVE...ugh!   FOR MY FAMILY...THEY SELL SANDWICH SPREAD...=)

After the grocery store, we all piled back onto the bus, dropped our groceries off and headed to Reggae Beach.  It is located right now the South East tip of St Kitts, right before Nevis on the Caribbean side!  The trip there was eventful - as I am discovering most driving experiences are on this island- the roads are built into the side of mountains, in many places, and are very curvy, skinny and pothole infested!  The drivers are continually swerving all over the road to miss pot holes, then swerving back to miss cars!  It is a new experience for sure!  It was a beautiful place, with a 500 lb pig named Wilbur that lived on the beach (he pretty much sleeps, flips over, sleeps, drinks...you get it!) and a monkey and a goat in a cage together!  The monkey was really cool - but steals your sunglasses if you are not careful!  Aside from the animals, there were ladies giving massages on the side of the beach using Aloe straight out of the Aloe plant (I got a 'free sample shoulder rub' and Brayt a head rub)!  There was also a bar/restaurant on the beach like you would see in a resort and a rental place for snorkeling equipment, jet skis, boats and other fun stuff!  We all rented snorkling stuff and went out and explored the reefs nearby!  We did not see anything crazy (I guess they see lobsters and sting rays sometimes) but we saw some amazing, colorful fish, some sea urchins, a star fish and lots of other reef stuff! It was a very different experience, especially for me because i HATE fish, but Brayton loved it and was the guy picking up sea urchins and star fish off the bottom of the Ocean!  It was beautiful and I can't wait to do it again, hopefully this time with a mask that doesn't take in more water than it holds out!!!

After the beach, we came back to campus to find our 6 'missing' bags had arrived!!!!!!!!!  Brayton and I eagerly took on unpacking and it felt like Christmas!  We had forgot how much stuff we had fit into 7 bags and kept discovering new things we didn't even remember we had packed!  Based on the look of our bags, they never got searched and the only thing wrong was a couple plastic air tight containers had broken!  I don't think we can complain at all!  We unpacked everything, rearranged a bit more and got settled in.  I think the BEST part of the night was taking a shower - with soap!!!!  I cooked us dinner tonight on our little two top stove top - it took a while though because one burner is small so I had to fry the chicken, then fry the green pepper and onion, then warm up the water and cook the pasta, then warm up the vodka sauce...THEN we had a fabulous fettuccine  with vodka sauce and chicken and green peppers and onion.  Since we didn't have any seasonings, I made mock garlic bread....toast and butter!  It was a great first dinner in our new apartment!!  Now we are settled and it is time to sleep, for the first time, in our FULLY made bed!!!!!

Our cute little kitchen with our two stove cooktop, the extra bedside tables we moved to the kitchen for space and our little fridge!  And the cutting board/strainer that I am SOOO glad I brought <3

Our first dinner at Ross University - Woods 201!!

Another exciting day of beaching tomorrow!  Stay tuned =)