Site Seeing & Snorkeling

Yesterday was wonderful.  I went on an incredible trip to Scott's Head and Champagne Bay and it couldn't have been a more perfect day for site seeing and snorkeling.  Scott's Head is at the Southern tip of Dominica where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean.

We walked up a short trail to an amazing lookout.  Clare and I are both "semi-retired" teachers who are so lucky to be traveling instead of being a part of the back to school madness happening in America right now. 

The water is so clear you can easily see the reef below where we went snorkeling.  Cabrit's Dive shop also offers scuba diving here, and I can't wait to see this place from a different perspective.  There is a drop off where the reef descends over a hundred feet. 

From Scott's Head, we drove up to Champagne Bay where the snorkeling is seriously out of this world. Bubbles of air stream from underneath this beautiful reef.

The photos of Champagne Bay are courtesy of Kristen Beevers, as my underwater camera is on the outs right now; one too many trips underwater. 

Champagne Bay is truly the best place I've ever snorkeled.  The water was calm and warm, hundreds of different kinds of fish were swimming around, there are multiple reefs within swimming distance, and the champagne bubbles were just icing on the cake. 

It's Our Domiversary!

 
Exactly one year ago today, Chris and I started our adventure in Dominica. In the last year we've had many ups and downs, but this is what I've taken from it:

- I am tougher than I give myself credit for

- chances are, someone else knows what you are going through

- I can live without a Target or Starbucks and still be happy 

- it's okay to take a break and do nothing for a while
 

- happiness isn't about what you have but who you're with

- everything, somehow, works out in the end

Bye Bye Baby

The alarm sounded early this morning to wake up and help my husband get ready to fly from Dominica to America.  My body was really confused between "is it really late or really early?"  Don't you hate that feeling?

Flying back and forth to the states is not cheap, it averages us about $1000 round-trip per ticket.  This break, we decided that it was worth it for Chris to go back to take care of some legal business for us and to visit his mom because she's had a hard time since his dad passed away earlier this year.  

So, I've got the house to myself for the next 10 days.  I made this tour of our apartment a few weeks ago to help an incoming spouse decide if she wanted to move in here (she did!). 



I'm pretty sure that someday I will look back on our time in this little apartment fondly.  There is something to be said for the simplicity of life in a 500 square foot home: or at least that is what I keep telling myself. 

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

What if magic was real?  Follow Quentin as he gets invited to join an elite magical college.  Mature readers who loved Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia will enjoy this new series where magic abounds both in our world and the land of Fillory.  The end of this first novel caught me by surprise, and I look forward to reading the next installment, The Magician King, which was released this August.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help was a great summer novel.  I've never been to "the south" and I felt like this book gave me a good idea of what it might have been like.  The characters were endearing and the "good wins over evil" theme made this book so lovely to read.  If you read The Help and want more, I recommend reading Cane River by Lalita Tademy.

Another one bites the dust

Ok, I admit it.  My life revolves around Chris's school schedule.  My friend Mark talked about his fiance Denise's dreaded "cycle" in this post recently on his blog, Sixteen Months in Dominica.  He even included this handy chart, in case you are a visual person.

I can pretty much attest to the validity of this information.  The Price household is currently experiencing the Uninformed Aftermath of a final.  There is a special agony in waiting for the results of the final to see if you get to move on or have to repeat a semester.  I'm talking first person here because even though I'm not the one taking the test it effects me just the same. 

As the sun sets on another semester in Dominica (pun intended) I'm trying to put my worries aside and believe that whatever happens, we will be okay. 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

To be honest, I didn't think I was going to like a book about a dog.  First of all I have cats not dogs, and secondly, race-car driving has never interested me in the slightest. However, I liked this book so much more than I thought I would. From the very first chapter I fell in love with Enzo and his way of looking at the world.  His ideas on how to be happy and what it means to live with morals were wise beyond his (dog) years. He even said some things that made me stop and think about how I live my life. Definitely worth reading.

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

Is this story for real?
The book felt more like a magazine article than a novel. The story is written from memory of the father, Pastor Todd. I don't doubt that his son Colton had an out of body, heaven experience. What makes me turn my head in question is how closely his answers match the bible. Did his 4 year old really say those things? Although Burpo tries to assert that he never taught his son many of the things he mentions about heaven, simply the fact that he was raised on bible stories and living in and around the church makes me question. Did I enjoy this book? Yes, I read it in two sittings. Did I believe every word? I'm not sure.

Blog Party!

I've been having a lot of fun learning more about blog design this week.  Clare and I worked together to create a fabulous new header for her blog C Squared.

It's especially fitting that she came up with the byline "mustaches & other musings" on the same day she posted a picture of her husband sporting a new flavor saver. 

Heidi and I have also been working on her blog, which I'll be sure to share once it's finished.  In the meantime, take a few minutes and explore my new Priceless Adventure design!  It is still a work in progress, but I'm happy with the changes so far.  Let me know if links aren't working for you, or if there's any problems on your end. 

iBooks

I am loving my iPad2, and especially iBooks.  It amazes me that I can convert a book with Calibre, email myself the file, and then open that email on my iPad to have it automatically install in iBooks.  I've been sharing books recently with my friends. Here is what my bookshelf looks like today:

I really am shocked at how much I like reading books on the iPad.  I thought I would never make the jump from paper-back to Kindle, but I did.  And the jump from Kindle to iPad has been even easier.  Check out the beautiful format I read with:

I'm reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman right now and loving every minute of it.  The best way I can describe it is Harry Potter meets The Chronicles of Narnia, but with college aged characters.  If you have an e-reader, I'm happy to let you borrow it!

With Love

Our sweet little Evie passed away yesterday.  She brought a lot of joy and happiness into our home.  We will miss her so very much.

Sick kitty

What a day we've had.  Little Evie wouldn't eat yesterday and we noticed that she was very lethargic and pale in the ears/nose/mouth.  Her health started deteriorating very quickly last night to the point that Chris and I starting feeding her sugar water with a syringe every few hours because she was barely moving and breathing rapidly.

laying on my homemade "heated waterbed"
(the Bloggess gets all the credit for that idea!)

This afternoon a local vet and vet tech both came over to help.  She was given fluids with an IV on our counter and several different shots.  They said that she is anemic and most likely has worms.  Apparently Advantix is not sufficient in Dominica to protect your animals.  If you have a pet the local vets need to give them a special type of medicine that protects against local parasites.  Please do this if you have a cat or dog on the island.

She started drinking water this evening, and I broke down and bought tuna for her to try eating, and it worked!  I read online that sometimes cats will eat tuna when they refuse to eat anything else.   If you know me, you also know that I have a mental allergy to all things "fish" so this was a big deal.  I also hope that she isn't allergic, but I'd rather her be scratching and with us.  My kitties have a terrible food allergy to poultry which makes feeding particularly tricky.

food allergies :(

Did you know that if a cat goes longer than 48 hours without food it's like a death sentence?  So terrible.  I am so thankful that the vet was able to come to our house.  

p.s. Tropical Storm Emily missed us almost entirely.