Nora Guestblogs Again

Hi everyone,

Stephen put me back on blogging duty.  We’ve been pretty busy since I got here on Tuesday and my gracious host wanted to keep everyone updated on our adventures, but he also wanted to take a nap.  That’s where I come in.

My first night here was pleasant and relatively uneventful, except that we got caught in some torrential rain on our way out to pick up dinner from a nearby BBQ place (excellent ribs and chicken).  Eventually we decided it was more important to get the food home warm than to get ourselves home dry, so we braved the storm and trudged back up the road.  Impressively, most cars actually slowed down to avoid splashing us, which is a courtesy I’ve never experienced.

The next day was perfect for the beach.   Pretty cloudy but not really rainy, so the beaches were not crowded and the heat wasn’t unbearable.  We splashed around in the sea for a while before getting delicious flying fish sandwiches for lunch. 

Thursday was spent basically doing nothing, with the exception of a nice walk around UWI’s main campus.  It was an interesting place, with some cool buildings and a big cricket field (oval?  Whatever they call it), but I prefer the frozen tundra of central New York.  That night, we wandered down a street in Holetown with a lot of nice-looking restaurants.  We ultimately settled on Indian.  That’s right: Stephen Okin went to an Indian restaurant.  And I hope you’re sitting down for this . . . he LOVED it.  Admittedly, I wasn’t much help describing the items on the menu so, other than my personal go-to favorites, we both had to make our best guess when ordering, but it turned out to be an excellent meal.  And a nice departure from the usual barbeque chicken and macaroni pie. 

Friday was dominated by errands.  We went grocery shopping and to the bank, and killed some time exploring Lime Grove, which is a brand new (mostly unfinished, actually) high-end shopping mall in Holetown.   It had very few stores up and running and a lot of it was under construction, but we agreed that the completed parts were the nicest shopping area either of us had ever seen.  There were beautiful seating areas and fountains, and a lot of it was covered but the whole complex is essentially outdoors.  I can only imagine how nice it would have been if they had actually completed it in December, as was the plan.  After our adventure in Holetown, we met up with one of Stephen’s friends and his girlfriend (who’s visiting from Canada) and went to Oistins for dinner.  It was a lot of fun and we had some really good, fresh fish and other typical Bajan fare from one of the many outdoor restaurants.  It was raining on and off, but I can definitely see how the area would turn into a huge party during the peak season.  There were plenty of people there (tourists and locals), a lot of music and some dancing, but I’m told it was really quiet for Friday night in Oistins.

We called it an early night on Friday because the next morning the 4 of us had to meet at 8 am to get picked up to go on a catamaran cruise.  The weather turned out to be perfect, and the cruise was fabulous.  Stephen had already been on one, so I’m sure he’s described it on this blog before, but let me summarize: 2 snorkeling stops (one to swim with sea turtles, the other to look at some sunken ships), a nice long sail up the coast, lunch, swimming in the sea, and sailing back to dock in Bridgetown.  Plus, an open bar throughout the whole excursion.  It was an amazing trip.  I had never been snorkeling before, so getting up close and personal with turtles and schools of bright tropical fish completely blew my mind.  The food they served was also really good, and the crew always made sure no one was without a drink in his hand.  It was so much fun I don’t even care that parts of me were fried to a crisp.

We were pretty exhausted by the time we got home yesterday, so last night was pretty quiet.  We just made dinner and relaxed.  Today we woke up to downpours and were happy we chose yesterday as our catamaran day.  After the rain had stopped for a while, we ventured out to Holetown to get smoothies and read at Lime Grove.  Unfortunately, everything was closed, so no smoothies for us.  We did hang out briefly in one of Lime Grove’s public seating areas, which was nice until we discovered we were being devoured by mosquitoes.  Oh well.  We tried. 

Thanks for sticking with this very long post. Stay tuned for more reports.

-Nora

Nora is Here!

Nora arrived in Barbados today for a week-long visit.  It is great to have her here and we are planning on doing som fun activities.  Stay tuned for updates on our adventues and perhaps the stray blog post from Nora herself (I am going to see if I can press her into blogging duty again...).

Almost Done!

Yesterday I handed in my last assignment until my one and only final on May 11th.  The semester is almost over!!  After my final I have just one more paper due on June 3rd and a class that runs from June 15th-30th before I am officially finished with classes at UWI.  CAN'T WAIT!

Last night my friends and I celebrated being done with classes for the semester by going out to a bar and today we went to a beach I had never been to: Brandon's beach, which is a bit of a walk from where I live but totally worth it.  It's a large beach with soft sand and was relatively unpopulated today.  There are also life guards which is good cause it makes leaving your stuff on the beach while you go swimming a lot safer.

So that's basically all that's new with me.  Classes are over for the semester and it's time to relax for a bit before I have to study for finals.

My Group Project Nightmare

The reason I haven't posted in a while is because I've been busy with school work.  The chief culprit has been a nightmare of a group project for my Sustainable Tourism class.  Basically, this project fits every stereotype of group projects: absentee members, shoddy work from partners, unequal burden sharing, etc.  The result is that I am left to write the majority of our paper despite having three "partners."  In short, the experience has been exactly like this commercial:

I can't wait till this project is over!  Just a few more days.

Good New Bajan Band

The other day my friend Stefanie introduced me to a new rock bank from Barbados called Threads of Scarlet.  Their sound is nothing original, but the music is still very good and tightly played.  I was particularly excited to find a Caribbean rock band as I am growing increasingly tired of Dancehall, Soca, and U.S. pop/rap.  No one listens to rock n' roll anymore (when was the last time a rock song was #1 in the U.S.?) and it makes me sad!  Anyway, I if you guys are interested I recommend you check out their album, which is called "Katharsis."  Here is a video of them playing live in Barbados from a couple weeks ago.  It's not the best quality footage, but you get the idea.

Jamaica Swaggers, Barbados Strolls

Yesterday in my Regional Integration and Development class, the professor spoke about how upon landing in Jamaica, one immediately feels in the heart of the Caribbean, a feeling one does not get upon landing in other Caribbean countries.  Based off my few days in Jamaica, I completely agree with this statement.  Jamaicans have a confidence and pride in who they are, their culture, their industry, etc that makes them walk tall.  They are Caribbean and proud of it.  They are loud and extroverted; cultural imperialists yet absorbers of almost every culture on earth.  In short, Jamaica, despite its diversity, seems to be extremely confident of its identity.  In fact, Jamaican identity is so strong that it is an integral part of their development strategy - the question of how to use "brand Jamaica" is discussed in all aspects of their economy. 

Contrast this to Barbados.  If Jamaica walks tall with a swagger, Barbados ambles along quietly.    Whereas Jamaica is confident of its culture and identity, Barbados is unsure of who it is.  Whereas Jamaicans can point to Bob Marley and Reggae, Rastafari, Jerk Chicken, Dancehall, and Usain Bolt as anchors of their identity, Barbadians can point to little other than Rihanna and perhaps, flying fish.  More than once, the question of a "Barbadian Identity" has come up in my classes.  Typically the question is phrased as such: If you had to advertise your country with just a few pictures, what would you choose?  In the case of Jamaica it could choose any of the cultural icons mentioned above.  Barbados....not much.  Banks beer is essentially unknown outside of Barbados.  Bajans eat way more pork and chicken than flying fish.  Half the population finds Rihanna's overt sexuality repulsive.  Even Bajans admit they wouldn't know what to put in the advertisement.  Suggestions of sun, beaches, and babes are valid but not unique - those things could represent any of the Caribbean countries.  Simply put, Barbados lacks a definitive identity beyond being conservative and the most "British" of all the Caribbean countries.

Of course some would argue this is one of the advantages of Barbados.  With no set culture or identity Bajans are free to be themselves more than citizens of other Caribbean islands.  This in turn breeds relative tolerance, diversity, and a pragmatic outlook.  Why is Barbados relatively developed compared to the rest of the Caribbean?  Some would say it is due to this laid back, non-domineering, and insecure society.  Whereas Jamaica feels no need to prove itself, Barbados does.  This need drives Bajans to be productive and down-to-earth, two qualities that have done well for Barbados.

A Good Joke

Here is a good joke I heard today, adapted to American politics:

A driver is stuck in a traffic jam going into Washington, D.C.

Nothing is moving north or south.

Suddenly a man knocks on his window.

The driver rolls down his window and asks, "What happened? What's the hold-up?"

"Terrorists have kidnapped John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid," says the man.

They are asking for a ten million dollar ransom...otherwise, they are going to douse them with gasoline and set them on fire.  We are going from car to car, taking up a collection."

The driver asks, "On average, how much is everyone giving?"

The man replies, "About two gallons!"