Update
I knew it had been awhile since I had posted but I didn't realize it had been a month. In that time, my life on the island has drastically changed.
I finished my open water scuba certification in time to do a few dives with my parents. I rented a car while they were here. My parent's visit turned out to be a pretty fun time. This was their first trip outside the continental US. Day one - we did a total of three dives which were amazing but completely exhausting. Day two - we took the car over to St. John and explored that island. There my mom found several alcoholic beverages that she liked. Day three - we rode on the Atlantis sub which was fun but we agreed that it would have been more fun to be on the other side of the sub diving. Day four - Christmas Day - we spent most of the day at Magen's Beach (one of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world). Day five - we took a trip on a charter boat to the British Virgin Islands. We snorkeled at Waterlemon Cay, then went to The Baths on Virgin Gorda and then snorkeled at The Caves on Norman Island. Their visit was the best time I've ever had with them. It had actually been about 15 years since I went on a vacation with my parents. The last family vacation I went on was when I was 14 and they took my sister and me to Branson, Missouri (our 8th summer in a row to go there).
After my parents left, I moved into my new place. That's actually how I spent my New Year's Eve. One of my coworkers said that her best friend was looking for a roommate. So I went with her to look at his place. I took one step out on his balcony and said I'd take it. It's a two bedroom one bath condo at the tip top of one of the mountains on St. Thomas and the view is amazing! So I spent New Year's Eve at my new place with my new roommate's friends. We hung out on the balcony and watched the big fireworks show from the harbor. I've been here 17 days now and things are going well. My roommate had just barely started watching a few episodes of season 2 of Lost. Since I'm a Lost freak, I told him that he had to watch all of seasons 2, 3 and 4 before season 5 started on January 21. I just happened to have all those seasons on DVD. He only has ten episodes left. I think he's gonna make it.
Although my parents were only going to be here for a week, I rented the car for two weeks. At the end of those two weeks, I wasn't ready to give up my new found freedom. That was also around the same time that I moved into my place. So I decided that I would kept the rental car, until I could buy my own car. That has since turned out to be a nightmare (the DMV experience alone was enough to make me never want to buy another car on this island). I test drove a couple of cars before I decided to buy a 1997 white Pontiac Sunfire convertible. It's a fun car but is actually a beat up POS island car with a lot of body damage but it runs well (or so I thought). As of last Tuesday, the car was completely mine and paid for in full. Thursday night it overheated and is completely broken down. Today the previous owner of the car came to look at it and did some work on it for me. He was very apologetic about the whole situation. He even paid to have the car towed to his house so he could work on it some more. So right now, I'm stranded at the top of a mountain on the other side of the island from where I work. Hopefully, it'll be fixed before school starts on Tuesday.
As for diving, I've already moved up on the scuba ladder. I got certified as an Advanced Open Water scuba diver. Next will be rescue diver but I've got to get a few more dives under my belt before I start that training course.
As for teaching, the month of January I'm teaching a course called "The Math of Sports and Games" which I posted about awhile back. It's going along well but has been very time consuming and stressful. Yesterday, I took some of the students scuba diving and we did some experiments underwater at 33 feet. It was actually really interesting. This Tuesday, we have a fun afternoon of sailing planned. Then, on Wednesday, we are going over to St. John for a day of hiking. In February, we will be going back to teaching our regular classes.
My sister and her husband are officially in Iraq now. They can't really tell us much else but I do know that they will be getting the internet soon. I'm trying to get her to join LJ so I can keep up with her on a regular basis.
That's about all the news for now...
I finished my open water scuba certification in time to do a few dives with my parents. I rented a car while they were here. My parent's visit turned out to be a pretty fun time. This was their first trip outside the continental US. Day one - we did a total of three dives which were amazing but completely exhausting. Day two - we took the car over to St. John and explored that island. There my mom found several alcoholic beverages that she liked. Day three - we rode on the Atlantis sub which was fun but we agreed that it would have been more fun to be on the other side of the sub diving. Day four - Christmas Day - we spent most of the day at Magen's Beach (one of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world). Day five - we took a trip on a charter boat to the British Virgin Islands. We snorkeled at Waterlemon Cay, then went to The Baths on Virgin Gorda and then snorkeled at The Caves on Norman Island. Their visit was the best time I've ever had with them. It had actually been about 15 years since I went on a vacation with my parents. The last family vacation I went on was when I was 14 and they took my sister and me to Branson, Missouri (our 8th summer in a row to go there).
After my parents left, I moved into my new place. That's actually how I spent my New Year's Eve. One of my coworkers said that her best friend was looking for a roommate. So I went with her to look at his place. I took one step out on his balcony and said I'd take it. It's a two bedroom one bath condo at the tip top of one of the mountains on St. Thomas and the view is amazing! So I spent New Year's Eve at my new place with my new roommate's friends. We hung out on the balcony and watched the big fireworks show from the harbor. I've been here 17 days now and things are going well. My roommate had just barely started watching a few episodes of season 2 of Lost. Since I'm a Lost freak, I told him that he had to watch all of seasons 2, 3 and 4 before season 5 started on January 21. I just happened to have all those seasons on DVD. He only has ten episodes left. I think he's gonna make it.
Although my parents were only going to be here for a week, I rented the car for two weeks. At the end of those two weeks, I wasn't ready to give up my new found freedom. That was also around the same time that I moved into my place. So I decided that I would kept the rental car, until I could buy my own car. That has since turned out to be a nightmare (the DMV experience alone was enough to make me never want to buy another car on this island). I test drove a couple of cars before I decided to buy a 1997 white Pontiac Sunfire convertible. It's a fun car but is actually a beat up POS island car with a lot of body damage but it runs well (or so I thought). As of last Tuesday, the car was completely mine and paid for in full. Thursday night it overheated and is completely broken down. Today the previous owner of the car came to look at it and did some work on it for me. He was very apologetic about the whole situation. He even paid to have the car towed to his house so he could work on it some more. So right now, I'm stranded at the top of a mountain on the other side of the island from where I work. Hopefully, it'll be fixed before school starts on Tuesday.
As for diving, I've already moved up on the scuba ladder. I got certified as an Advanced Open Water scuba diver. Next will be rescue diver but I've got to get a few more dives under my belt before I start that training course.
As for teaching, the month of January I'm teaching a course called "The Math of Sports and Games" which I posted about awhile back. It's going along well but has been very time consuming and stressful. Yesterday, I took some of the students scuba diving and we did some experiments underwater at 33 feet. It was actually really interesting. This Tuesday, we have a fun afternoon of sailing planned. Then, on Wednesday, we are going over to St. John for a day of hiking. In February, we will be going back to teaching our regular classes.
My sister and her husband are officially in Iraq now. They can't really tell us much else but I do know that they will be getting the internet soon. I'm trying to get her to join LJ so I can keep up with her on a regular basis.
That's about all the news for now...