My Weekend

This past weekend was a bust.  It started out poorly with the beer incident and my mediocre attempt at making shrimp scampi.  I had everything going for dinner - rice and vegetables cooking and oil with garlic cloves heating up - when I realized I forgot to defrost the shrimp.  Shit.  I made a game time decision to simply put the frozen shrimp into the sizzling oil since I didn't have time to defrost them any other way.  This turned into a disaster because the shrimp had lots of frozen water on them.  So, when they defrosted the frying pan became a cesspool of melted shrimp water and oil.  This obviously wouldn't do, so I pulled the hot pan off the stove, drained the liquid off, and added fresh oil, white wine, and lemon juice to the shrimp.  Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to save the dish, the damage was done.  The shrimp tasted nothing like shrimp scampi and instead tasted like plain salt and peppered shrimp.  Not the worst thing in the world, but not delicious either.  Needless to say, I learned my lesson and next time I try to make shrimp scampi I will make sure to defrost the little buggers first.

The other major disappointment from this weekend was my attempt to get to the South Coast to say goodbye to a departing Fulbrighter.  My friend Sunera, who was a 2009-2010 Fulbrighter to Barbados, is leaving for the U.S. on Thursday and organized a farewell get together last night starting at 5pm.  Since the bar we were meeting at is on the South Coast, which can take an hour+ to get to, I decided to try to catch a 4pm bus to Oistins.  To do this, I got to my bus stop at 3:50, hoping that a bus would come by 4:20 at the latest.  The bus didn't show up until 4:45 AND since it was so unbelievably full, drove right past me.  Once again, shit.  I tried waiting for another bus, but by 5:30 I had had it and decided to just go home and tell Sunera that I couldn't make it.  Honestly, my worst experiences in Barbados so far have all been related to taking the buses.  Yes they are an inexpensive way to get around, but they are slow and too often uncomfortably crowded.  I could never live in Barbados long-term without a car.  That is a sad statement given how small the island is. 

Three good things did happen this weekend however.  First, I am basically finished with my second Globalization & Global governance essay.  I still have some editing to do but 95% of the essay is done.  Second, I came across this quote, which I really like:

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” -George Bernard Shaw

Finally, I came up with what I think are some interesting ideas regarding Iran's nuclear program and the rise of China.  I hope to post these ideas once I get caught up with some reading and put the finishing touches on my second essay.

That's all for tonight.  Gotta get back to work.  And remember everyone, be unreasonable every now and then.  Apparently it's good for progress.