Before we moved to Nassau, I read a book called An Embarrassment of Mangoes. It was about a couple who traveled around the Caribbean on a boat for quite some time (it was at least a year, I think). Anyway, they got to one point in the year and talked about how there were mangoes everywhere. Well, we are to that point in the year here. There are three mango trees in our yard and they are all covered in fruit.
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We had our first random celebrity sighting downtown today!
“The Little Couple” was pretty easy to spot since they were being filmed for the show. At least I assume that’s why they were preceded down the sidewalk by a camera operator, a guy guiding the camera operator (since he was walking backwards to film them drinking their Starbucks and chatting with friends…), and a boom mike operator. Then they were followed by a whole pack of people — other tourists trying to get in on the action, I guess. It was pretty crazy!
One of the most interesting things about living in new places is learning all the things that are different than what you are used to. In the Bahamas, I’ve found that I’m learning a lot about plants and animals that I’ve never seen before. Like the heron that lives in our pool (at least when Laika’s not around to chase him away). And the avocado tree in our backyard. The seasons — as much as we have them — are interesting to me, too. All the plants don’t bloom at the same time, like I’m used to with a traditional 4-season climate. Here, I’ll notice one tree blooming, and another will be dying at the same time. For example, currently the dilly tree in our neighbors’ backyard is busy dropping ripe fruit over the fence into our yard, the mango trees in the neighborhood have half-ripe mangoes, the avocado tree is just starting to bloom, and there’s a tree in our front yard (I have yet to discover what it is) that just dropped all of its leaves in the past week. There’s always something new happening and last week I noticed this:
Shawn’s been in Washington since last Sunday for training. I was supposed to pick him up at the airport yesterday, but then this happened. So he can’t get a flight back to Nassau until Monday morning. It’s been a long week without him. I’ve tried to keep busy, but seeing as I’m kind of a homebody anyway, it takes a lot of effort to go out.
Last weekend was possibly the busiest since we arrived in Nassau, but it was definitely the most fun. On Saturday I went with a group of friends to Jollification, an annual craft and Christmas fair. I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, but there was some really nice stuff. I’m not sure where these artists and craftspeople are hiding out most of this time. And it seemed like a good potential venue for Witty Designs if I can get my act together and get some designing and sewing done before next year.
Nassau is a weird post in the Foreign Service world as far as housing goes. Housing at most posts comes complete with the standard issue Foreign Service furniture. It’s kind of weird to see pictures from people’s homes around the world and think, “Hey - I have that exact same living room set.” However, in Nassau, all housing is landlord-furnished. As you could guess, this can either be really good, or really bad.
I’m disappointed (or kind of grossed-out, really) to learn that winter is the time of year that all the rats on the island come out to play. There seem to be a lot of them. And they are large - I saw one this morning that was 8-ish inches long, plus tail. You would think that all of the roaming potcakes would keep the rat population under control, but not so.
I survived my first solo trip to the grocery store this morning! Besides the fact that I hate grocery shopping in general (regardless of what country I’m in), this is a big deal because it meant that I drove somewhere by myself for the first time since moving here.
As we get settled, it seems like not much of any excitement is going on. We did go to our first movie in The Bahamas today, which was rather exciting. The fact that they show first-run American movies (in English) at all is more than we’re used to. And to top that off, the prices aren’t even bad - $6 per ticket, and I think we only spent $10-ish at the concession stand. So even though things are “boring,” here are some pictures I took of downtown Nassau last week:
We’re slowly getting settled. Of course, it’s much faster than the last overseas move (our final shipment of goods is arriving today, 19 days after our arrival, rather than the 3 months it took in Kyiv), but there’s still adjusting to do. We’ve spent the last two weekends exploring shopping options - there are at least 4 major options for grocery stores, all carrying a different assortment of items. And there’s been a lot of driving on the weekends, mostly for practice. I’ve finally gotten past the point where I think we’re going to die at least once per trip because omg, we’re on the wrong side of the road! Driving on the left side still just looks so wrong to me.
Visit my Etsy shop
