Andrew & Cristina

Alright, so that’s a lie. We’ve BEEN back from our trip to St. Maarten for a few days, but I got a bit lazy.

My parents’ visit to Saba was quite lovely, though I’m sure they found it rather boring. I guess I’ve gotten used to the Caribbean lifestyle a little more than I thought I did. I’m pretty sure we showed them most everything that’s of any interest on Saba and we still managed to do it in under three days, with time to twiddle one’s thumbs at the end.

St. Maarten was a lot more exciting and full of things to see and do, but I’m surprised to say that it made me long for our little island. Between the plentiful restaurants, undersea boat ride, dinner cruise, and the butterfly farm, we were certainly not bored for a single minute of our stay there. I can’t wait to return to some of those places in August, but I’ll be very glad to know it’s only a vacation and that I have the peace and quiet of Saba to return to.

In the meantime, our lives here on Saba are rather boring. Everyone seems to be off the island, which makes things extra quiet. Andrew has been “gardening” if you can call it that and he’s even managed to mulch part of our yard. My projects include trying not to kill a couple of herbs we just planted from seed in a small indoor planter and attempting to workout on a somewhat regular basis. We’ll see how that works out.

Third semester is coming to an end here on Saba and I can’t believe we’re so much closer to fifth semester. Final exam week starts today and, while a bit stressful, this is a very exciting time for most people. For some of the students it means they are about to go on break and relax a little bit before returning for another semester. For others it marks the end of their stay here on Saba. Fifth semester students are taking the Kaplan diagnostic exam today, which is followed by the basic sciences recognition ceremony. Good luck to all of you on this exam, the USMLE Step 1, and all your clinical rotations. You’ve come so far.

Not to ignore Andrew’s class, you show those shelf exams who’s boss!

Look who made it onto Travel & Leisure’s list of The World’s Scariest Runways. It’s none other than Saba’s own little runway. The picture really doesn’t do it justice. You have to see it to believe just how short it is. Who’s up for a visit?

I finally finished our taxes this afternoon, after procrastinating for weeks. I had started working on them a while ago, but I’d gotten so frustrated with them that I pushed them out of my mind for as long as I could. I normally don’t have an issue with filing taxes, it’s just that living on this island has complicated things quite a bit. I have some papers here with us, some of them are at home with my parents, and some of them are only available online. They’re all done and I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Here are a couple of things that bothered me, though. The first one is that H & R Block’s so called free e-file is not exactly free. Nope. If you used them in the past, they will ever so helpfully offer to import last’s year’s information for you. That’s great, no? Sure, it’s just not so great when they charge you $14.95 for the convenience. I was too tired and in no mood to go through the entire process again, but it’s a good lesson to remember for next year. Keep a copy of your tax returns handy and don’t pay this ridiculous fee.

The other thing that was a bit shocking was the amount of medical expenses we’ve had this past year. I know how much we pay in health insurance premium but it’s still hard to look at the grand total for the year. I know that the point of insurance is to be here in case of some sort of catastrophe and we’re lucky we haven’t needed to use it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

That is all. Go finish YOUR taxes.

The camera is finally here and it’ so much better than I expected. I almost changed my mind about buying this in favor of the older Canon Digital Rebel XT, but I’m really glad I didn’t. It looks like I’ll have quite a bit to learn about photography in the coming months. The photo above is the first somewhat decent looking shot I took with the fully manual 50mm lens.

Here are a few more photos which were taken with the kit lens. I’d be happy with this lens alone, at least for now, but I’m going to try my hardest to master the 50mm prime lens. It’s not easy but I like a challenge once in a while.

This is it for today. Changing poopy diapers and crib sheets has gotten to me.

Yesterday I got an email notification from our shipping service here on Saba saying that I had mail at their office. I just about cried for joy and rushed to get the package, thinking it would be my brand new Nikon D40. Well, it turns out it was Andrew’s 500 GB external hard drive. So now I’m bummed out and I have to wait who knows how much longer for my new toy. The hard lives we have on this island. Can you imagine? Truth be told, I’m only halfway joking.

In any case, here are some neat websites I found while surfing around yesterday:

Food Photography Tips – I’ll be sure to use those once I finally get the camera.

Advertising vs. Reality – I don’t know about you, but at least half of those products look really appetizing to me, especially the Maggi, Kinder, and Milka products.

Above and Beyond: You Love Netflix… – One of the many reasons for which I love and miss Netflix. That’s one thing that goes on my list of things I’m looking forward to once we return to the US.

What a dreary day today is! Days like this are rare here on Saba and they really throw me off. I was totally unprepared for this when I left home so I wore flip-flops and jeans. Needless to say, my jeans are now soaked up to my ankle. Yes, I know, there’s the world’s tiniest violin playing the world’s saddest song. Just for me.

I was going to write yesterday to complain about how my car died, but I held off on announcing that to the world. My car’s now running again and all it needed was to have its battery recharged. That was the last thing I needed to do yesterday, you now with the house upside down and two day’s worth of dishes piling up in the sink, but we had no choice. We got in the car and went for a 30 minute drive around the island. In the end it wasn’t bad at all because we got out of our routine and the ride reminded me of the fact that Saba is a really beautiful island when I take the time to look around. I sometimes forget that.

For those of you searching the web for “Saba Island roads”, they’re tiny and forever winding. I think the top speed here is 30 miles per hour, though I’ve heard of people who have managed to go well above that speed on the few stretches of road that are relatively straight. I wouldn’t recommend it for many reasons. First of all, there have been a few people who crashed off the side of the island and you don’t want that to happen to you, do you? Secondly, if you do get into a crash and you need serious medical care, you’ll need to be flown off the island in a helicopter that comes from several islands away. From what I hear, the helicopter also has to make a stop to refuel. Lastly, no matter how good of a driver you think you are, there are others on this road who aren’t that great and you have to watch out for them too. The fact that the accident wasn’t your fault won’t be of much consolation to you if your car makes it off the edge of the cliff. Don’t do it.