Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Tuesday, December 31st, 2014

As I sit her reflecting on the time my sister Marissa has been here, it's kind of hard. We had so much fun while she was here and we did so many things! We really tried our best to jam pack our days, and we were pretty successful. Even the day she left bright and early we had to go do just one more thing.

But I am still so sad to see her go. It kind of hurts to see how great Grenada could be if I had a great friend like my sister here with me (sisters are pretty hard to beat). But on the flip side of that, I am grateful for an amazing sister who will sacrifice to come see me. And I am grateful for a sister that is so incredible, she is hard to say goodbye to.

I kept telling her that if they offer her an overbooked-flight voucher call me ASAP and I will be at that airport to let her stay here for however long she would like.

Since I had so many excited GIFs to describe the anticipation of her coming and her stay here, it would only be appropriate to throw in at least a few more. 

As we said our final goodbyes:

As Rissa walked through the airport doors:

As Ross and I are driving away from the airport, hoping she might have the chance to take a voucher and stay:

Me a 15 seconds later when I knew that wasn't going to happen and she was really leaving & gone. 

Until next summer Rissa Roo! :)

2013 Review in Pictures

It's that time of the year again, Old Year's Day! A time to reflect on the year and drop your sister off at the airport. Okay, so that's not really a tradition, but this morning my beautiful sister Marissa took off on an aeroplane back to the USA. It wasn't bittersweet. It sucked.

We had tons of fun adventures, which I haven't even finished blogging about, but I was really sad to see her go.

Last year I summed up 2012 in 12 pictures, so this year, I will sum up 2013 in 13 pictures. Last year was a lot more dynamic as far as places and faces, but 2013 has been alright too.

2013 in 13 Pictures!

1) January

 January was a great month because Ross had a nice long break and we were able to see the island together. This country is so full of beauty. This picture is at Seven Sisters, in Grand Etang. The waterfall the furthest away looks kind of small but I think it is actually like 36 feet!

2) February

For being such a short month, I had a lot of great experiences in February. I went on an island tour with my friend Tammy, accomplished a crochet project I had been working on, and baked a TON of stuff. Still, this is my favorite picture from the month. It is from the annual Workboat Regatta on Grand Anse beach. It was very beautiful to watch all the colorful boats race in the Caribbean Sea. 

3) March

Hands down, one of my favorite, favorite, FAVORITE things about Grenada is Schnitzel Haus. I know, who woulda guessed it involved food?! ;) It is a German restaurant, owned and operated by none other than the most fantastic German couple. The food is just incredible. Meat and potatoes. That's what I call food! As you can see in this picture, it is located on the Carenage, a harbor just south of St. Greorge's city.

4) April

To be completely honest, there are waay too many pictures of not only Ross, but me with Ross. This year in review is not drawn to scale. But it's true that I usually see him about once a month. In April we took a trip to the fish market downtown. Ross had waay too much fun chopping off the fish heads, obviously.

5) May

Sometimes Ross calls me The Most Ridiculous Human in the World. But as you can see in the picture below, it's not my fault. May marked our return to the Land of Ice and Snow, aka a visit to Utah. After living in the Caribbean for almost 10 months, 40 degree weather with rain and wind was not cool. How foolish of me to think I could survive a few weeks of Utah summer with a mere hoodie and jeans.

On Memorial Day Ross and I hiked to the Mount Timpanogos Caves with various members of the Petersen Clan. The Caves get pretty cold and I am 99% sure I embarrassed 90% of  our hiking party with my bundled attire. All the Utahns were in t-shirts, and some were in shorts. I didn't get it. 

6) June

June by far has the most pictures of any other month this year. It included more hiking in Utah (duh!), a trip to Vernal, a trip to Idaho, hanging out with family and friends, our trip to California including a visit from Ross's brother, and running up down and around L.A. 

Ross and I went out to Vernal to hang out with my friends Kelli and Larry and while we were there we visited the Dinosaur Museum. Have I ever mentioned that I love dinosaurs? Here I am with some baby stegosaurus bones. 

7) July

In July Ross went to the ever-famous Getty Museum for the first time, in all his visits and living in Southern California. It is kind of a joke in my family because we all went to the Getty so much on field trips growing up that we just simply can't stomach the thought of having to see that Van Gogh's Irises one more time. #joke #2legit2quit

Here is a beautiful view from the balcony of the Getty.

8) August

I have to include a picture from Grenada's Spice Mas aka Carnival. Here we are with the Carnival Queen from the previous year at the Pretty Mas parade. 

9) September

One thing that I will miss about Grenada, are the incredible sunsets. I don't know what it is about the Fall time of year, but they seem to be consistently beautiful, and right out my front door. 

10) October

In October THE World Cup (trophy) came to GRENADA! It is touring the world before the games next year and Ross and I were able to see it! When else, in my entire life, will I be just a bus ride away from wandering over to the tent that houses the World Cup?! It was pretty amazing to see it, it's back there in the white tents.

11) November

I don't mean to paint a rosy, perfect picture of the year. I think this post highlights the only times I saw Ross each month. :) November was probably the worst month of the year, including the worst day of the year. Yes, it was so bad I specifically remember.

But, this picture was a really fun day. My dear friend threw a Diwali party and brought a sari for me to wear. She pinched and poked and tucked and wrapped to get it situated. The party was really fun, and the food was of course, absolutely incredible!

12) December

This one is just plain funny. My sister came down for Christmas, and brought with her almost 100 pounds of essentials and gifts from family and friends. My favorite, real bacon bits. Ross's favorite, peanut butter! What else can you find in the picture?

13) December

December gets two photos because unlike the wretched month before, this month was THE BEST! Rissa coming was, no contest, the best part of the year. It was so strange to have family in my little Grenada bubble, I think that is one of the reasons why it is was so fun. Grenada has kind of always seemed like it's only little weird compartment that is absent from friends, family, school, and any semblance of normalcy. While she was here we were able to see a ton of the island, hang out, and I gained a different love and appreciation for my situation and environment.

Here we are at dusk, the gleaming lights from the Carenage shinning on the water. 

2013 was filled with lots of fun moments and experiences, but overall I am ready for it to be over. Ross (and I) accomplished the dreaded 4th term of medical school and came out alive (unscathed? no promises).

I fought a good fight, and I am ready for a fresh start. So 2014, whatever you have, I'm ready.

Happy New Years Friends!

Goodbye 2013 Petersens!

Treat Yo' Self: Belmont Chocolate Factory

Monday, December 30th, 2014

I think we saved the busiest day for last, which is really saying something because we really had some busy days!

For Christmas Santa brought Rissa and Ross massage gift certificates! Monday morning ended up being #treatyoself Monday.















In honor of this day, we started with some donuts from Nick's Donut World in Lance aux Epines and had a picnic at Grand Anse. Eating donuts and looking out at the sea? Yes please. Rissa got her massage and said that it was amazing! Yay (go Santa!).

Then we headed up to the north side of the island through Grand Etang.

Ross was the master navigator and we somehow lucked out and avoided going through Grenville. Grenville is the second largest town in the country. It is located on the west coast and is the capital of the most populous parish. The Ross Route (TM) probably saved us at least 30 minutes and a massive headache trying to figure out how to get through the one-way route through town. Ross: 1.

Eventually and with a little uncertainty, we made it over to Belmont Estate. Aka The Chocolate Factory!



I have been here just once before with my friend Tammy on an around the island tour. I thought Rissa would like to visit because she is a big dark chocolate fan.


















You can pay for a tour, we got a student discount and it was about $10 or $13 EC. Ever wonder where chocolate comes from?

I have blogged about the cocoa fruit before. It comes from pods like these. They are yellow or red-ish, like our tour guide is holding below.

The cocoa fruit is actually pretty delicious. You just suck on the gooey white stuff, and the chocolate comes from the seed. During the tour they show you all about the process of collecting the beans, fermenting them, drying them, polishing them, processing them, the whole shebang, tree to bar!



In the olden days especially they would "walk de beans" throughout the day. Workers shuffle through the beans to turn them so they dry evenly. On the tour you get to try it out (not on real beans of course, you aren't that cool).

It is an interesting little tour, can't say I knew any of that beforehand. In my humble opinion, the best part is when they pull out these fancy dishes with CHOCOLATE (Brigette, you know what I am talking about). They let you sample some of their chocolate bars, 60% cocoa and 70% cocoa.

The woman also brewed us up some cocoa tea. It's a Grenadian drink, they mix up they chocolate balls ( cocoa + spices) with water or milk. Much like hot chocolate. It is absolutely delicious! After that tour we decided to go for the grand slam and do the Garden Tour as well. #treatyoself



It started with this display of local spices. How many can you name?

Hopefully you at least got #8. The garden tour was awesome!! I love plants and flowers. We got to go all over around and down the grounds of the Belmont Estate. We saw the herb garden, vanilla garden, vegetable garden, cocoa trees, and of course tons more. Top left is a stinky noni fruit, the middle right is a bunch of cocoa fruit blossoms, and the bottom left is a bunch of vanilla

It's hard to pick which photos to share, so much beauty all around.





































Belmont Estate also houses the Grenada Goat Dairy Project. It's a non-profit organization that helps local farmers transition to "sustainable income-generating production."

I think the Garden tour was better than the Chocolate Tour, and it lasted quite a bit longer. They have a mini tiny zoo area. Just some monkeys, and parrots and such.



Just a few more collages! Rissa is modeling some lovely local fruit. The five-finger fruit (starfuit) and one-finger fruit. Can you see the sea in the bottom picture?

Our guide knew everything. She was really fun and nice. She takes care of the gardens on the estate and does the floral arrangements. Just the evening before they had a wedding so the arrangements were still up.

At the end of the tour we got a big sampler of fresh fruit, straight from the garden! #treatyoself

















It was so delicious. Definitely glad we took the garden tour.



Since it was Treat Yo' Self day. I spoiled Rissa with some chocolate, truffles, and cocoa balls.



It was a very eventful visit to the Belmont Estate. It's funny because I didn't much care for dark chocolate before Grenada, but now I love it! The dark chocolate is really that good. You can eat as much as you want because dark chocolate makes you happy right?!

All dark chocolat'd up, we look pretty happy.























There is actually a documentary that was made about the Belmont Chocolate Company, the trailer is only a few minutes you can watch it here.

Since we were already so far north, we decided that we would head to a close-by windward beach.

To be continued...

SGU Campus Tour, Tidepools, and Lookout Point

Sunday, December 29th 2014

Sunday we went to church. Our church building is right on the sea. The beautiful white sands of Grand Anse beach end and its a bit rocky, that is where we go to church. It's a pretty beautiful view from the back hallway. It was probably a good idea that the chapel windows don't over look the sea because it would be distracting.

I think Rissa took some pictures with her camera. Ross and I are just spoiled so we didn't even think to bring the camera.

After church we fulfilled our Sabbath Day responsibility. Napping. That's my daily duty, but the responsibility is extra hefty on Sunday. When we had relaxed a little we moseyed over to campus to show Rissa where Ross lives and I work.

http://www.moderndaygilligan.com/2009/02/st_georges_university.html

Campus is pretty beautiful on the outside (yeah, that was kinda rude). It's a perfect setting and the bright oranges and blues are very complimentary. There is a reason why the school's promotional brochures catch everyone.

Featured in my lovely collage; Ross by his old locker, the bus stop, where I spend about a third of my life, me checking the mail (send me mail!), and the new paint job outside of Charter Hall.



Here we have the inside of a lecture hall where Ross typically spends 3 or 4 hours a day. The rest are pictures of the student center where they have a small (no TINY) convenience store, Subway, and some other places to eat including New York Bagles. Hopefully the people who make the signs aren't the same people who teach.

This is looking out from the student center, Charter Hall is on the left, Taylor Hall in the center-ish. A dorm there on the right.

We wandered to upper campus to DES where I work.



Lots of pretty views (and people) around campus!

A rare moment with Ross and I both on campus. 



It doesn't take long for a tour of campus, so after we headed to the tidepools in Lance aux Epines. Second to Grand Etang, I think this is Ross's favorite place in Grenada. It is always breezy out on the point with the tidepools.

I love the cacti! It seems so random that you could see beautiful, tropical bougainvillea then turn around and see prickly cacti.

We hung out for a while but decided that for the sunset we would go to lookout point for a better view.

Am I the only one who can't get over how beautiful my sister is? Lookout point is just a few minutes' drive from the tidepools. There is a lighthouse type thing. I always wonder what it's story is. It looks like someone is living/ squatting there now, but I wonder how it worked back in the day.

It was a perfect Sunday nice and chill. Watching the sunset was absolutely phenomenal. I still just cannot get enough of Rissa being here. It's the simple things, like watching the sunset with her, that make me so happy!