Yikes, I've been neglecting my blog for the past week. Sorry people! I have much to catch you up on. I've been busy (well not really) on various social outings, reading, sleeping, and a little cooking and cleaning. I devoted a lot of my time last week to finishing the monster novel Atlas Shrugged, all 1,100 pages. If you've read it, let's talk. Otherwise I won't get into it here although there is a lot to be said about Ayn Rand and her philosophy of objectivism.
Anyway, moving on to a recap of last week, last Friday night I joined some new friends to grill lobsters at Quarantine Point. This is a park on a rocky peninsula overlooking the ocean between campus and St. George. Beautiful views of the coastline for several miles in both directions. The leader of this event was a marine biologist at SGU who I met through an SO. He got several fresh lobsters from a local fisherman that morning. He grilled them right up and we had a little camp-style dinner. Delicious! The price for this lobster feast? 30EC or about $10. Yes, we are getting ripped off in the states!
Lobster on the grill
Fresh lobster with a butter mixture, yum!
Last Wednesday we went to St. George, the capital city, population approximately 7,000. It is about five miles from campus. To get there we take a school bus to a roundabout and then get off and wait for the number 1 city bus to pick us up. The city bus takes us into the heart of the city where there is a large bus terminal, a fish market, a produce market, a mall and lots of small shops and street vendors.
St. George is like an underdeveloped version of San Francisco. It is built on steep hills with gorgeous panoramic views of the ocean. The streets are narrow and winding. People are walking everywhere along with the occasional stray dog or rooster. The gutters here are open. It's hard to explain, but basically there is a huge ditch on each side of the street where water runs. It isn't as gross as it sounds but not as civilized as America and also requires that you always look down when you are walking or you are likely to break an ankle falling into a gutter. All of the buildings seem ancient and are charming and full of character in a dilapidated sort of way.
At the fish market you can watch ladies cut up and bag fresh fish brought in from the ocean that morning. The smell is intense and they don't put the fish on ice which makes you wonder a bit about sanitation. But the Grenadians don't seem to mind. The produce market is an outdoor market with dozens and dozens of booths where local farmers sell all kinds of fruits, vegetables, spices and souvenirs.
I like going into St. George's. I think the culture and the people and the buildings are fascinating. It's alive and bustling with activity. In the afternoon there are dozens of school children all wearing uniforms walking home after school. I could watch people on the street for hours wondering where they are going and what they are doing. It feels very different from home, but in a good way.
Steep street in St. George
Fish market
Lady working in the fish market
The edge of the produce market
Walking along the Carenage - the main harbor in St. George 
Last Tuesday I went to trivia night at a pizza place called Prickly Bay with my new friends from Texas, Craig and Adrea. Adrea works here at the vet school and Craig is her husband who is a retired (for the moment) firefighter. Adrea is from Burleson and Craig is from Cleburne, which means that Craig knows the husbands of two of my good friends who happen to be from Cleburne. And he knows the husband of my other friend's sister and the cousin of my friend's husband. So basically he knows everyone I know from Cleburne. How do you like that for small world? And of course we hit it off right away because we're all from the greatest country in the world, Texas!
Anyway, trivia night was really fun so I'll probably be going back tomorrow (it's every week). We had some tough questions like what is the largest citrus fruit in the world (grapefruit) what English company was the first to box chocolate (Cadbury) and what decade did the French outlaw the guillotine (1980s - who knew?).
Last Monday we went to a new beach (new to me anyway) at the Grenada Rex Resort. All beaches in Grenada are public so you can go to any resort beach even if you are not a guest there. At the Rex there are awesome lawn chairs where we lounged for a few hours. We also snorkeled and I saw some beautiful fish, urchin, coral and an eel that looked just like a snake. What I need is an underwater camera!
Not a bad view 
SOs chillaxin
The beach where we snorkeled
Two Fridays ago I went to Fish Friday which is basically an outdoor food carnival. It is a major attraction on the island. Vendors (are they restaurant owners or individuals? I don't know.) set up tents in an alley and sell all kinds of food. Fried fish and fish sandwiches and fish kabobs and shrimp stir fry and fish balls and fried breadfruit (tastes like french fries) and other things I could not identify and rum punch, of course.
It happens every Friday night in a town about 45 minutes from campus. Nine of us crammed into a bus taxi for the ride there. Cab fair was 20EC ($8 US) for the ride there and back (cheap!). The food was good although after an assortment of fried things I felt a little ill. Just like at the fair when you eat a bloomin onion, a funnel cake and a turkey leg all in the same night. You know what I mean.
Cooking up the fish
Making shrimp stir fry
Lots of fried goodies
SOs at Fish Friday
Typical menu
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