Our tour in Nassau has been, well….interesting. We’ve learned some valuable lessons for future bidding. Life at work affects life at home. (We already knew that one, but I guess life thought it was time for a refresher.) The people you surround yourself with is more important than the job you do. No matter how much sun there is or how many beaches you are surrounded by, it’s still annoying to be without power/water/gas/(insert general necessity of modern life here) on a weekly basis. And “island fever” is a real thing. People tried to tell us this before we arrived, but I was sure they were exaggerating. Thank goodness Nassau is only a 45 minute flight from the US. I’m not a huge fan of southern Florida, but it has saved my sanity more than once over the past two years.

As much as I am ready to get off this rock, I’m finding this move to be an emotionally challenging one.

First of all, I have made an amazing group of friends in the Stepping Stone Quilters. They took me in and made me feel like a part of the group from day one. And their support and friendship are quite possibly the only things that got me through some very difficult times here. On more than one Wednesday, I found myself in a situation where I would cry myself all the way from work to our weekly meeting, pull it together for the meeting, and then after two hours of sharing, talking, problem-solving (and sometimes even quilting…) find that I felt like I could face the world again. Two weeks ago, the women in the group presented me with a quilt that they had made for me. I can see each of them in the squares that they made. And I will remember how blessed I am to have each one of them in my life every time I look at it:

Secondly (and harder to put into words), is the fact that this place feels like our last connection to Laika. I know that she’s not here anymore, but the process of leaving is like we’re completely severing all ties to her. The non-emotional part of my brain knows that we made the right decision. Every update we get from the woman that is currently caring for her is positive: she’s overcome her fears of bicycles and thunderstorms, and she loves going to PetSmart on adoption days. (What? We would have never even attempted an outing like that…) She’s clearly thriving in her current environment. And I have to admit that our pack-out was way easier without her here. But I guess I just didn’t expect these emotions to surface again.

On the bright side: in just 4 days we will be back in the United States, home of good food and shopping. I actually had a dream the other night that I was waiting outside Target for the doors to open so that I could get the best deals. Weird, I know, but I think it’s definitely a sign that I need to get back to the US!

If you’re interested, the password is: Nassau.

Two Years in Nassau from Jennifer Kobb on Vimeo.

When we got to the beach this morning, there was no one there. Well, there was one Bahamian couple, but they were just sitting in their truck parked in the shade. Pretty normal behavior here. So it at least felt like we had it completely to ourselves. We moved a little way down the beach away from the parking lot, then I kicked off my flip flops and headed for the water while Shawn let Laika off-leash. The water is finally warm enough to actually get in, so I waded in up to my knees. It was so calm and clear today that I immediately noticed a school of tiny fish swimming around my legs. I turned around to see Laika sitting at Shawn’s feet starting to get impatient for him to throw the tennis ball that he didn’t even know he had. I had snuck it into his pocket when we got out of the car. I’m not sure how she knew that – maybe she could smell it?

I explained to him where the ball was and he pulled it out of his pocket and launched it down the beach and a few yards into the water. She charged into the water with absolutely no fear. This is somewhat unusual as she normally hates getting into water any deeper than her chest. (With good reason – I’ve never seen a dog that’s a more clumsy swimmer than she is.) But today she was all about the water. She threw herself again and again into the water to rescue the ball. Then she started her own game of dropping the ball on the sand, kicking at it repeatedly until it was buried, then frantically digging it up. An odd game to us, but she never got tired of it.

After about a half an hour of these games, she had managed to nearly split the ball in two. I think the felt was the only thing holding it together. Shawn tossed it once again out into the water and she went after it. But it filled with water and sunk to the bottom before she could get it. So she stood there in the 2-foot-deep water, looking at the ball (the water was that clear) and repeatedly dunking her head under trying to grab it. Her depth perception must have been off, or she was scared, because she couldn’t get her head deep enough to grab it. She looked at me, so I waded over to help. By the time I got there, she was kicking the water in an attempt to force the ball up. I got soaked in the process, but reached in and grabbed it for her, laughing at her attempts.

I tossed the ball toward Shawn on the beach and behind him I spotted something shiny and pink. I knew it had to be a conch shell, but it’s rare to find one on the beach. I’ve been looking for one every time we’ve gone to the beach since we arrived here. Conch is like the national dish of The Bahamas – you can get cracked conch, conch fritters, conch chowder, scorched conch…you get the idea. And you see vendors selling shells that they’ve cleaned up on the side of the road. The one we found today is almost completely intact, which is pretty amazing.

We spent about 45 minutes playing and enjoying the beach. I think it was one of the best trips to the beach we’ve ever had. When we left the house this morning, we had a conversation about whether or not we would ever go back to this particular beach, as it was the one we always took Laika to and had a lot of memories there. At one point while we were playing, I looked at Shawn, who was looking out at the boats on the horizon. He quietly said that this was his very favorite place on the island. I said, “We’ll come back, then.”

I’ll start with Charleston: what an amazing city! I definitely have to get back there when I’m not stuck in training for 8 hours a day. I have never seen so many great restaurants in such a small area. I very well may have eaten my body weight each day, particularly if you count locally produced beer in that total.

There was a group dinner at Bubba Gump’s Shrimp one night. This is about the cheesiest place ever, but I highly recommend experiencing it with a group of non-Americans who are: 1. totally excited just to be in America (There was an epic trip to Walmart on the first evening after our training class.); 2. super into Forrest Gump (They made us Americans look like we’d never even heard of the movie during the pre-dinner F.G. quiz.); and 3. eating shellfish for the first time (I lost count of how many photos were taken of people holding lobster claws.).

Another group event was a ghost tour of Charleston. I have always wanted to do one of these and I was totally into it. We had great weather for the walk and I found myself feeling pretty uneasy at a few points as our guide told us stories about Charleston history and hauntings. I’m sure all of these things can be explained away, but it was fun to get lost in the stories for a couple hours.

As I said, I was in training for 8 hours a day, so the only photo I have as proof that I was in Charleston is this shot taken from my hotel room:

Oh, wait, here it is a night, so I guess I have two photos as proof:

I returned to Nassau just in time to spend another Saturday working at the quilt show. This show is put on by the Stepping Stone Quilters (my quilt group) and all members show the work that they have done during the year. So there’s a wide variety of skill levels on display. And one of the highlights is that the quilts for our group challenge are all on display together. As I mentioned, before I left for my work trip, we had an open house for friends and family of the group members. Here’s most of the group:

Since I worked at the show two Saturdays in a row, I had a good chance to examine everyone’s work up close and picked out a few of my favorites here to share:

And here are all those challenges. It’s hard to believe that all of these quilts are based on Log Cabin Blocks!

This afternoon, we all worked together to take down the show. It was a little bittersweet because this is not only my first quilt show, but also my last one in Nassau. There’s another member of the group that will be moving away (because of her husband’s job) and also won’t be here for the show next year. We found ourselves standing off to the side as the other members divided up the supplies to store for the next show. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what the next year brings — maybe I can come back as a visitor to the 2012 show.

The Bean! I had never seen it in person before and it was much bigger than I realized. Here we are under it (note how bundled we are – it was COLD!):

Last evening we attended a college basketball double-header at Atlantis. Georgia Tech v. Richmond and Mississippi State v. Virginia Tech. It was fun and good people watching. I was amazed how many people seemed to be at Atlantis just to go to the games. I can’t imagine spending that much money traveling to see a game. Of course that’s easy for me to say since we were given free tickets. We determined that Virginia Tech must have the wealthiest alumni, as they seemed to have the biggest – and loudest – fan base there by far.

Atlantis had converted their large ballroom into a basketball court and brought in bleachers. We were seated in the third row behind the “home” bench, meaning we got to see inside the huddles of both Georgia Tech and Mississippi State. We were also seated two rows behind the leader of the Bahamian political opposition party, so it was fun to see him get special delivery of his concessions orders. (I wonder if Obama gets the same service when he goes to Georgetown games?) It got even more fun during the second game when we realized that the section next to ours seemed to be family members of the Mississippi State coaches. I grew up in a family of basketball coaches and I recognized the shrill screaming of the woman on the aisle as being filled with the desperation of a spouse that knows her Bahamian vacation will be absolutely ruined if the team loses the game. I’m sorry to say for her that it did not look good when we left at halftime.

As fun as the games were, the halftime entertainment was even better. Both halftimes were the same, but it was worth staying through it the second time. They started with some “dancers,” which were the equivalent of Pop Warner cheerleaders. Meh. But then they brought out some “tumblers” who ranged from tiny girls doing cartwheels to teenagers who looked like they must be preparing for the Olympics. Better. But then…out came the “All-Star” marching band from Government High School. They put on a great show. Good music, well-choreographed, and all around fun.

Note: There’s a video below that doesn’t seem to be showing up on Google Reader. Click on over to my site if you want to see it!

So far, we’ve harvested 47 bananas in total. This is after half of the bananas were mysteriously stolen on the same day that our gardener was fired. (Hmm.) And there are still 30 to 40 bananas left on the tree that will probably need to be picked this weekend.

Today I have made three loaves of banana bread and Shawn has made a batch of spiced banana ice cream. We also donated a large bunch that had gotten too ripe to the zoo. I’m sure the animals aren’t picky about that sort of thing. And it’s amazing how quickly they get ripe. I swear we went to bed last night and most of them were green — this morning they were all ready to be used. So I think there will be several more loaves of bread made this weekend.

Anybody have any other banana recipes they would like to share? I’m taking suggestions.

Today’s news is that we’re sitting and waiting to see if the tropical depression that has formed south of Cuba is going to hit us. At least it’s moving fast — it should come and go within the next two days or so.

What’s not moving fast is bidding season. We’re in the same holding pattern we’ve been in for the past few weeks. Waiting to see if anyone shows any interest. Shawn’s gotten word from a lot of his references that they’ve been contacted, but we haven’t heard much.  

I finally gave in and got a Kindle earlier this month. I think the librarian in me (I had dreams of becoming a librarian for quite some time, you know.) was lamenting the slow death of the book. But I have to admit that the Kindle is quite nifty. All those books in one place, so easy to carry with you. And once you hit “BUY,” you can be reading your new book in less time than you would have stood in line at the bookstore. My ”wish list” is already huge.  

Also of note this month, Shawn has switched jobs at the Embassy. We knew coming in that his tour was a “rotation,” so he would change positions after a year. (That’s right — we’ve been here a year!) The new job is much less “9-to-5″ which has been a challenge for my routine-loving self. I like knowing exactly what time we’re coming in, when we’re going to lunch, what time we’re leaving, etc. Well, that’s no more. And I’m working on coming to terms with it.

I guess that’s the September recap. Things are different, but still the same.

There’s been a lot of new road construction here lately, mostly work on two new roundabouts in our area.  But they got it all opened up in time for the start of the school year last week. And it went so well that it warranted this in Monday’s newspaper:

An official “introduction” to the new 6-legged roundabout! We tried to use this thing on Saturday to get to the movies and it was not pretty. In fact, it required two full laps of the roundabout. Of course, that was before we got our 16-step instructions on roundabout use.

And in case words aren’t your thing, there is a diagram with color-coded cars:

Realistically, this thing is going to be a mess until they get construction completely done. (They should have spent another week or two on, oh, I don’t know, completing all of the lanes in this diagram before they opened it, in my opinion.) Well, it’s still going to be a mess after that. There are just too many cars on too small an island to make traffic flow smoothly. I’m just waiting for my new Kindle to arrive so that I at least have something to do during my commute. Don’t worry — it’s safe when you have the car in Park anyway.

This is just what I cut up and froze yesterday. Earlier in the week, I had cut up four which I promptly turned into sorbet. Really, really good sorbet. And this morning there were two more ready to be cut and frozen. Now I’m looking for a good chutney or salsa recipe.

And by the looks of things, we will have an embarrassment of bananas next:

“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!