Break Time

I realized I have a bunch of drafts I have yet to finish, so today I am putting some finishing touches on long over-due posts.

Monday, September 17th, 2012

Today was a big deal, Ross had his first final and quiz of his medical school career!

He wrote a post about it!

And here it is: 

"So today I took my first Final and the unified quiz. I was really anxious about the whole thing as it was the first measurement of what I have done so far. Bioethics didn't seem to be too hard but apparently they frown on using mechanical pencils for some odd reason. I used the one provided to me by the proctors but others brought their own and several were told not to use them if they were mechanical. I have no idea what it was about but the guy sitting next to me had that problem, got the replacement wood pencil, then promptly broke the tip off when he tried to bubble an answer. It was a little funny. Then some macaroni and cheese and about an hour and a half later it was time for the unified. I have had lots of prompting and been informed by several people of all the resources and tips and tricks to studying so the unified wasn't too big of a shock. It was still a test but I felt prepared."

Turns out he did great on them! We both feel like he is in a really great position with the grades he got, and word on the street is that grades on midterms are even higher. Midterms are October 8th-12th.

But before I lose your attention... Pictures!

After Ross was done with his tests, we decided to head to downtown St. George's, because Ross hasn't been yet. But by the time we got some lunch and caught a bus out of our neighborhood I had a feeling we were too late... And we were!

Late? For what?

Well, right around 3:00 or 4:00pm things start closing down. By the time we arrived downtown it was really busy with everyone getting out of school and stores starting to close, and to add a little more variety some very very dark clouds began to roll in.

We tried to do some running around, but it started pouring rain! Here is Ross by the corner where the Spice Market is, that he still hasn't gone in, good thing we'll be here for a couple years!

We ran for cover and waited a little bit, you can kind of see in the picture below how hard it was raining. And yes, I have seen a few KFCs down here, but no other American chains. Haha.

We wanted to try this food place I saw in my Frommer's guide called, "Deyna's Tasty Food," luckily I knew where it was so we ran over to it but not for stopping for a second to hear a room full of young students pounding out tunes on a steel pan! It was pretty cool. I don't know if it was an afterschool music program or what but there were about 20 or so students crammed in a room in their school uniforms, with their pans. We both immediately thought of our good friend Mike and how amazing he is at playing in and all types of steel drums! :) His concerts were always so much fun to go to.

Deyna's Tasty Food is a "closely guarded secret among locals," says Frommer's, and it is located almost exactly across the street from the bus terminal. As we entered the restaurant the people looked at us like we were crazy and I think laughed a little, but we were seated.

We were the only ones there and I am wondering if maybe they are more busy around lunch? It looked like they had an Al a Carte deal for lunch. The Frommer's guide said she had the national dish, "Oil Down" as well as things like savory stuffed crabs. She told us the menu so I don't know if we missed those, but we didn't hear her mention them, so we just got a combo-type plate.

This is my plate! So let's start with the easily identifiable rice and beans and work clock-wise. The green stuff next to it is callaloo, a leaf vegetable that I didn't much care for. Next too that is a breadfruit pudding type thing that was really pretty good! I definitely want some more or... I suppose I could cook it myself since they sell breadfruits. Then you have classic veggies, and the orange/yellow chunks are pumpkin. Fresh pumpkin is really popular here! Then at the bottom is stewed pork! It was really good. Then hiding in there somewhere are some cooked green bananas. Grenadians pluck them when they are green and use them in cooking. I wasn't too crazy about them.

Ross got the same thing, but with a BBQ type chicken. They chicken was really good!
And the juice was a passionfruit- guava mix.

It was fun to try local food, but maybe I would go back around lunch time so I could pick the parts I like in an Al a Carte fashion. And maybe they have a lunch price, because it was also a little pricey for my liking (I think it was $15-20 EC a dish).

BUT also saw they have manicou as a meat option.
What is manicou?

I, unfortunately, do not own the rights to this photo.

Opossum! Yum! Next time.

The rain let up a little and we did some exploring by the Fish Market. Across the street they have an ultra scary Meat Market I have heard horror stories about.
Pretty sure Upton Sinclair would be all over that.

My favorite part was when Ross was like, "but they don't use it anymore right?"
WRONG. People were buying meat within those scary blood stained walls with dangling hooks and chains not but a few hours ago! To think we missed out, shucks!

But to make up for the manicou and meat market photos, I will give you a lovely one!

I am really happy we bought a camera at the last minute because for a point and shoot camera it takes pretty incredible photos.

Then we headed back to our tiny home, but not without some photos taken out of the bus window as the sun was setting.

So even though it was kind of a bummer trip, especially being Ross's first trip downtown, it was fun to be able to spend time together! Maybe after midterms we will have to take Deyna up on that manicou!