Time Flies When You are Having Fun!

I don't know how I manage to keep forgetting to update this blog, but here goes nothing:

• Ryan made it through his 3rd blocks with flying colors, and he is very happy to be done with such a terrible schedule. We went to Bay Rouge afterwards to relax. Here are some pictures from the beach:

• As some of you know.... the last Harry Potter movie came out!!!!! I have now officially seen it 3 times so far. I know.. I know. Get a life, huh? Well, each time was just as good as the last and I just love movies in 3D. Here are some pictures of my friend Priyal and I getting geared up for the show! 

                                

Gotta have your lightening bolt scar

 

Can't wait to see it!

 

Happy because it was so good but sad because it is the last one

• Last weekend, we went to the brunch at the Westin Resort here which was amazing! It was all you can eat and drink for 3 hours, and the resort was gorgeous. There was so much good food that it was overwhelming: shrimp, mussels, oysters, a whole seared tuna, rotisserie chicken, pasta table, sushi table, a whole wall of breakfast, an omelet station, fresh fruit with chocolate fountain, a dessert table, etc. 

Here is the link for the resort: http://www.westinstmaarten.com. We stayed afterwards to hang out and take advantage of such an awesome place.

The crew

We found a beach ball

• Yesterday was my first day to be an actual patient in front of a class of medical students.. I was so nervous! Once I got over the fear of it all, it was actually pretty fun. I had to perform 6 different patient cases- each being different. So- I improv'ed it, which is pretty interesting. I made up different symptoms, cases, etc. off of the top of my head and the students had to practice "setting the agenda" with me. It is harder than you think being a believable patient with different things to focus on, while at the same time- having to be perceptive of how the student is doing so that you can give accurate feedback (their positives and negatives). I think I did pretty good for my first day, but now I am looking forward to doing it again now that I sort of know the ropes. 

Here is a quote that one of my facebook friends posted, and I think it is perfect:

‎"There comes a time in your life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad, and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living."



So I think that's all for now! I will try to be better at updating this from now on. Who knew you could be so busy not working! I love it!

My Quest to Become a Better Cook

After much thoughtful deliberation and wonderful advice from other spouses here on the island, I have decided to try to become a better cook. Although I like to bake cakes, cupcakes, and cookies, I am not so sure about regular ole' cooking. Besides, you can't really live off of cookies can you? I would like to think that I could... maybe in heaven I can just eat candy and cookies.

My favorite: Funfetti cookies

I don't really know where this comes from either because I come from a family of great cooks. I recently have tried to get down to the bottom of why I have no interest in cooking:

• I love to eat.. so I know it is not that. Period.
• Is it because it takes too much time? Well, I have plenty of free time here so I would hope that I am not that lazy. I don't think this is it. 
• Is it because I don't like the mess that it makes in the kitchen that I will just have to clean up afterwards? Possibly.. but this seems a little silly because washing dishes doesn't really bother me. (I do it all of the time anyway because we don't have a dishwasher here... ugh) 
• Is it because I would rather go out to eat? Well, who doesn't love going out to eat but this is expensive, and I am not about to go out to eat by myself every single day and night when Ryan is studying. 
• Is it because I don't ever know what to cook when I look at the ingredients that I have and how to even make a meal out of them? Yeah.. a little bit
• Is it because it intimidates me? Kinda...
• Is it because I don't want to mess up and embarrass myself with my lack of cooking know-how and creativity? Yeah... kinda 

So I guess that explains why I would rather just make myself a sandwich and call it a day. I don't want to spend the time, money, and effort into planning and cooking a meal that turns out to be a bust. Poor Ryan. Luckily, he eats a lot of his meals on campus due to his constant studying.


Anyway, after talking to Lyssa, Alie, and Madeline (some awesome spouses here who are way better cooks than me) about my cooking woes, they gave me some awesome advice:


Try to cook one or two new recipes a week. This way, I will gradually increase my repertoire of recipes to use/or not use depending on how Ryan and I felt about them. Also, by increasing the amount of cooking that I do, I will also become better at it (hopefully) which will increase my creativity in the kitchen. Voila! It's genius! So, this is my new plan folks... Cook more. Try to enjoy it. Keep trying if at first you don't succeed.


Also, my mom gave me some great advice: have Ryan or myself rate the recipe so that I will know how often I want to make it again. If it is a 10, then that might be a once a weeker or if it is a 5, then that might be an every now and then kind of meal...Get it?


I have started collecting recipes from other spouses here, and I have also become a member of allrecipes.com to receive weekly newsletter emails with new ideas, recipes, etc. If anyone has any delicious, easy-to-follow recipes, send them my way please: jessicawkeen@gmail.com


So from now on, I will try to get over my fear of messing up and just cook. Plain and simple. Ryan will probably appreciate having more home-cooked meals, and I won't have to eat any more egg sandwiches... thank goodness!

Being a Pretend Patient

Since my last post of our scuba diving adventures, Ryan has become increasingly busy with school. Normally, I would be going crazy right about now with boredom because there is only so much working-out and getting tan that you can do (seriously, trust me), however I have been doing more things with the Spouses Organization. Thank goodness!

Last Thursday, a handful of us went to Philipsburg, which is the capital on the Dutch side.
http://www.sxm-philipsburg.com

It is where the cruise ships dock, so there are plenty of things to do there. There are 4 streets that run parallel to each other each with several shops, restaurants, local markets, etc. It reminded me a lot of New Orleans, LA mixed with Charleston, SC.. so I liked the atmosphere a lot.  The clothing stores weren't that great, but I enjoyed the local markets. One thing that Philipsburg is known for is the "Old Man Rum" store which sells the rum that is made here in the Caribbean. St. Maarten is famous for making the Guavaberry flavor (not my favorite though-very sweet and cough syruppy). Best of all, they offer free samples of every different kind of rum. I am always up for free samples! ha ha

See the cruise ship in Great Bay?

Here we are on the boardwalk of Great Bay! This is Madeline, Alie, and Lyssa.

Here is Alie, Lyssa, and me

Another thing that I liked about Philipsburg was the ability to haggle with anyone and everyone about prices. For instance, I was interested in buying some perfume. We went to a nice store that sold various perfumes, and I was able to talk the lady down about $30 dollars. I thought just regular old shopping was fun, but this new kind of bargaining made shopping way more entertaining. It was fun seeing how far down I could get things for. I was also interested in a watch, so we went to about 3 different jewelry stores looking to see where I could get the best deal. I had told myself that I wasn't going to buy it unless the price was $60 less... well guess what? As I went to each store, I got them to gradually come down lower than the last store. By the time that we went to the third and final jewelry store, I got my watch for $60 less and they even removed the links to size it to my wrist. I could seriously get used to this. I used to think that I was a bargain shopper back in the states, but now I really know that I am. Anyway, it was really fun.

Then, on Friday a few of the spouses went to Mullet Beach for a beach day which was nice to get out of the house again! I don't think that I will ever get tired of going to the beach.. (sigh)

One of the main things that has taken a lot of my time and attention recently has been becoming a Standardized Patient. On facebook, the Spouses Organization posts different job opportunities, social events, etc. One that caught my eye was the opportunity to interview to become a standardized patient for the medical students here on the island. I had kinda heard about this through Ryan and some of his friends, so I was interested in doing it for several reasons: I'm bored beyond all belief, I would like to make a little money, and it just sounds fun. So, I went and met with the lady that runs the program last week. She is a professionally trained actor from Holland who lives here and has basically started the Standardized Patient program to help prepare the students when they begin their clinicals. Here is a little bit about it:
       The standardized patient (SP) plays the role of someone visiting the doctor, who is portrayed by a
       medical student. A SP portrays a character with a certain age, background, life circumstances, and
       health issues. The purpose of the SP is to give medical students the opportunity to practice
       communication, diagnostic, and examination skills that they need before they begin their
       professional careers.

So, basically I will have to learn a script for a certain character and have to act it out in front of a class of medical students while they interview me, take my medical history, etc. Then, I will have to evaluate the student's performance.

Anyway, I got the job so that's great, and it will be part-time while I am here. We started doing training for it this week, and it is really fun to learn how to act, improv, etc. I also think that it will better prepare me for when I am dealing with my own patients with speech therapy. In the past, I have come into contact with many emotional people and situations, and I didn't feel like I was trained well enough to know exactly how to handle the situation or communicate. This is definitely going to benefit not only the students, but me as well. Nice!


On a completely different subject- One thing that I have recently noticed here on the island- (it literally just hit me): there are no squirrels here on the island. This may sound weird, but I have never lived somewhere where there were no squirrels. (This probably sounds very country, but oh well.) I was thinking this the other day while driving down the road, when I made the correlation. It hit me as I passed some fresh road-kill of a huge iguana. We don't have squirrels, but we have iguanas and lizards. You walk or drive down the road, and you see them everywhere. You hear something in the bushes, it is a lizard or an iguana. It is something that is completely different for me, but I think that it is really cool. I need to try to take some pictures of them, but they are so fast! Ryan said that one hissed at him one time, but I don't intend to get that close to them. I even saw one huge iguana jump off of the dock and swim underwater away from me!  I had no clue that this was possible.. I need to do some homework on these things apparently.

On to a different subject, I received another wonderful package from Ryan's parents! YAY! I wasn't expecting it at all which made it even more special to receive. They sent me some Juice Plus vitamins, which I used to religiously take on a daily basis but I had to stop before I moved down here to save money. I feel healthier already! Thank you so much!

Well, that's all for me. I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend! Happy Fourth of July, and happy birthday America! Shoot some fireworks for me!

Scuba Diving is Amazing

Some friends of ours gave Ryan and me the brilliant and unique gift of becoming scuba certified for a wedding gift. A huge thanks goes to: Ryan Hauser, Carissa Monterroso, Aaron DeWitt, Stosh Eichenauer, Tim Schainker, Prasanth Ravipati, Josh Mosdale, Amanda Davis, Ariel Crespo, Zach Fallon, Bobby Wang, and Jeff Silpe! Thank you so much! It was amazing, and I can’t wait to go on many more dives!

So, this past weekend Ryan and I used our wedding gift and became scuba certified! Hooray! It was a long and tiring weekend, but it was well worth it in the end.

The first day of the process, we basically learned how to take apart all of our equipment and we had to learn what to do in cases of emergencies- in and out of the water. So, this wasn’t that much fun because we had to do things like take off our goggles under water, put them back on, and clear them. We had to learn what it felt like to run out of air and share our buddy’s air underwater, etc. Even though those things were a little scary and not as fun as exploring, I am glad that we did them so that we can now know what to do without freaking out.

The second day was fun right from the beginning. We went to Creole Rock twice off of the coast of Grand Case, Saint Martin (the French side). Here are some pictures to give you an idea of where we were:

Creole Rock, Grand Case

We went over some more skills, but our group got to explore since we got all of our training done the day before. So, here are the details:

Location: Grand Case, St. Martin

Dive Site: Creole Rock

Weather Condition: Sunny and Windy

Water Condition: Choppy

Depth: 30 ft.

Visibility: 35 ft.

Bottom Time: 45 minutes

We saw some of the most amazing things down there! We saw eagle rays, sting rays, a baby moray eel, Pederson cleaning shrimp, bandit coral shrimp, and many beautiful fish. Here are some pictures:

That is me in the front with the yellow on my sleeves, and Ryan is in the back with his tall self! Our instructor is the guy on the right. 

Here we are practicing some skills.

It was weird taking pictures because you can't smile or you will flood your mask.. so you have to try to smize (smile with your eyes) ha ha

Here I am with Jamie, a friend and another spouse here. But.. we should have gotten in trouble for this picture because the thumbs-up sign signals that you need to go up to the water's surface. I was really bad about doing it, and our instructor joked that each time I did it, I would have to buy him a beer. I got up to 5 beers on the first day.. Woops!

Here is Ryan practicing his buoyancy skills

Here I am doing it now. Check out how flat Ryan's head looks due to the bubble lens on the camera! 

Then for our second dive of the day, we went to Turtle Reef in Grand Case which was equally amazing! Here are the diving details:

Location: Grand Case, St. Martin

Dive Site: Turtle Reef

Weather Condition: Sunny and Windy

Water Condition: Choppy

Depth: 26 ft.

Visibility: 25 ft.

Bottom Time: 45 minutes

We saw 2 hawksbill sea turtles and 1 green sea turtle! They were so beautiful looking, however I thought that they looked a little grumpy! The second hawksbill turtle that we saw was huge- like the size of our kitchen table, and he didn’t look very excited to see us.. but maybe he was just old.

Here is a blowfish!

Our instructor with an arrowhead crab

We went back to Creole Rock for the second time that day and saw a barracuda, a sea cucumber, a trumpet fish, and tons of brightly colored fish. It is amazing how all of those different kinds of fish get along together so well living in the same environment. It is also crazy how they aren’t that afraid of us as we were swimming in their space. It was like I was another fish! Here are some pictures:

After Creole Rock, we went back to Turtle Reef to practice using a compass and we saw 2 green sea turtles, 1 hawksbill turtle, a humongous southern sting ray, and an arrowhead crab.. plus tons of beautiful fish.

Here is the barracuda! He was pretty big too.

Ryan showing off his skills

Ryan is pretty good about smizing

Here we are checking our compass. 

Some sort of wreckage with some fish inside

The humongous sting ray.

Here I am doing the forbidden sign again

Peace

Sea turtle!

He is swimming!

After such an amazing morning, I was wondering how anything could top that for the afternoon’s agenda. I was pretty mistaken because I think each dive was just as fun as the last.. no matter what we saw. It is just crazy to think about going underwater that deep and seeing things that not many other people get to see or experience. At first, I thought that it would be scary and overwhelming but really, it is the opposite. It is very calming and relaxing, and I could swim for hours under there.. if I couldn’t run out of air that is. 

It was so much fun.. but I am still tired today from all of that hard work yesterday! Our instructor told us that a typical dive burns about 600 calories, and we did 4 dives! Wow! Maybe I should become a scuba instructor…That's all for now! 

It has been awhile!

I really don’t know where the time goes! I can’t believe that it is already the middle of June and that I have been here for almost 2 months now. Wow! Crazy!

I really haven’t had that much to write about because things have been a little slow around here since Ryan has been busy studying for his 2^nd blocks exams.  I have been doing the usual: washing dishes, washing clothes, buying groceries, and going to the pool when it’s sunny. With all of the rain that we have been having lately, I am starting to get a taste of what the rainy season will be like. And it’s not going to be very much fun! It’s strange: one minute it will be a little overcast, and then the next minute, the wind is blowing really hard and huge raindrops start falling from the sky in sheets! I can only imagine what it will be like when it starts raining every single day for months. I keep asking the locals around here when I can expect all of the rain, but they just say “You never can tell” (in a cool island accent of course).  Here are some pictures of a beautiful rainbow taken off of our balcony after the last rainstorm. It was huge, and you could see it from all over the island!

Another thing that I have asked a couple of locals about are the mosquitoes. They are absolutely terrible here, and I know what bad mosquitoes are- growing up in the Mississippi Delta where they are practically the state bird. The bad thing about the mosquitoes here is that they are fast and cunning. They swoop in and sting you and before you can even swat at them, they disappear. I, myself, have taken to just wearing bug spray or keeping a can next to me at all times to just spray them if they come close because it is just about impossible to kill them with just your hands! I also don’t go to restaurants without bug spray, because most restaurants here are outdoors.. which means there are mosquitoes. You don’t want to take the chance of relying on the restaurant to have bug spray.. so I just bring my own. One local woman who is from South America told me to eat a spoonful of an aloe plant to make my “blood bitter.” I was actually starting to believe her, but then she proceeded to tell me how aloe cleans out my whole body, including my uterus.. no thank you lady. I think I’ll just stick to bug spray. I asked another local woman who is from Jamaica, and she laughed and said that they bite her just as much too… so who knows?

Ryan took me to Uncle Harry’s for a date. Notice his nice smile that I tried to copy.

Yesterday, I finally received my 3 birthday packages from Erin Atkinson, my parents, and Mary Love Sledge.. only a month and a ½ later! I was so excited to finally get them, and it felt like Christmas!

Erin gave me a teal-colored work-out tank that says “The University of Mississippi,” so I can represent “The Sip” when I work out and do zumba here! Ha ha! And she sent me some Funfetti cupcake mix with the Funfetti icing and sprinkles! Yay! Ryan probably won’t get any of these! J I am ready to cook them now! Thank you so much Erin!

My parents sent me some canvases, acrylic paint, paintbrushes, and other essential painting things so that I can start to paint the beauty around me! Hopefully, I can add a little color on the walls here, because it’s a little bare! My parents also sent me a really cute card where my mom kissed it with lipstick on! Ha ha! Here is a picture! Hands down, I have the best parents ever!

Lastly, Mary Love sent me a really cute black and white beach bag with much needed essentials inside: such as Sour Patch kids, fruit roll-ups, sunflower seeds, a beach float, a cd that she burned for me, and some really cute cups and bowls to match the plates that she sent to me earlier. Yay! Thank you so much Mare!  The best part about each item inside the bag was that she labeled each item. For instance, the Sour Patch kids bag said “More candy for another cavity!” ha ha ha! I couldn’t stop laughing as I looked at each thing ! Reading the note on each item was just as much fun as receiving them!

We went to see the new “X-Men” movie last night, and I really enjoyed it. It goes back and shows how the X-Men became X-Men. The cast was perfect, and overall it was pretty cool. We also saw “The Hangover 2” and are planning on seeing “Bridesmaids” tomorrow night. I love going to the movies, and it is really fun here because all of the locals come to the movies before they go out to the clubs.. so they are really dressed up in their heels, short skirts, tube tops, etc. I have seen some pretty tacky and crazy outfits. Next time, I will try to take some pictures of them without getting caught! Wish me luck!

Well, that is all for now! I will try to post sooner next time!