Chiquita Wishes She Lived in Grenada…

…because we are being inundated with bananas!  This began yesterday when we went grocery shopping at the IGA.  We haven’t had bananas (or any fruit, for that matter) in a while.  IGA was selling standard bananas for $1.69EC per pound.  That’s not a bad price ($0.64USD per lb.).  So we picked up a bunch.  Then, to complete our grocery trip, we stopped by the fruit stand for some produce.  They had rock figs!  They never have rock figs!  Naturally, we bought two bunches.  Then, that same afternoon, Mr. Charles gave us two ripe coconuts and two more bunches of bananas from his garden!

The rock figs are the small brownish ones. They are not overripe, despite their coloration. They are only now ready to eat.

I am not sure what the warning signs are of banana overdose, but my vision is turning a little yellow.

I think I did mention in an earlier post that Ivan’s white coat ceremony was last Monday.  This is considered an important event—made evident by the fact that hors d’oeuvres are served in place of actual food—and students, as well as guests, are expected to dress formally.  The single formal dress I brought was solely for the white coat ceremony.  But I didn’t end up going.  I may have forgotten to mention that in my earlier post.

Prior to coming to the island, an email was sent to accepted students to make reservations for family attending the ceremony.  Assuming there would be a subsequent reminder, Ivan ignored the email.  One and a half weeks after we arrived in Grenada, Ivan registered as a term 1 medical student.  When he was fitted for a white coat, he was given a ticket of admittance for himself for the ceremony.  The hall was already full, so I couldn’t get a ticket.  There was the option to sign up to receive a ticket to view the ceremony on a monitor in an overflow room somewhere else on campus.  I said phooey to that because it sounded like a stuffy, lame substitute.  My unstuffy, less lame intention was to lounge in non-formals on our couch and stream the live feed online.  The live feed didn’t work, so a couple days later, I just settled on watching the online recording of the ceremony.

***Any future students: take note of our failure and just make reservations when you get that email!***

Ivan’s punishment for blatant procrastination came five days later in the form of a shutterbug wife.  He was made to wear the same formal outfit as the ceremony (black pants, button-up top, tie, and white coat) and pose with as much mustered pride as he could handle, while I snapped some photos for his friends and family to see.  (For all of the photos of Ivan, click HERE)

The only formality we skipped was footwear.  It’s hot in Grenada, folks!

In Ivan’s defense, had he not forgotten to reserve my seat, I may not have forced him to play dress up again, and we would have been short a handful of photos from Ivan’s humble medical beginnings.

The life of a medical student and his wife makes for a boring evening story.  But for a half hour each night, during which we watch The Daily Show, the loudest sound in the apartment is either the laborious clicking of our clock’s second hand or the clatter of my keyboard.  In between my epiphanic paragraphs and Ivan’s studious studiousness, the climax of our evenings is a solid mosquito kill.  Every evening I stay here, I’m getting closer to describing pinochle as thrilling.

I seriously might have a heart attack if I go to a nightclub.

As a side effect of Ivan’s studying (much of which is done audibly), I am learning some new words.  For instance, solar plexus—defined as a rat’s nest of nerves lodged in your gut, I think—should totally be added to the growing pile of Words that are Fun to Say which I keep in the back of my mind somewhere (Solar Plexus, meet the Philatelist, Serendipity, Apical Meristem and Jubilee).  I am also now aware that when I talk about my trapezoid, I am in fact referring to my trapezius.  For being a liberal arts fart, though, I’d say that wasn’t a horrendous failure.  What is a horrendous failure is the reality that, despite knowing better, I will continue to refer to the muscle as a trapezoid.  And I’ll do it with a straight face.

My trapezoid is so sore and I think I pulled a bisect.  Good thing my husband’s a magician!

We weren’t able to make it to the beach yesterday, so we went today, despite less than perfect weather.  Actually, thanks to less than perfect weather, we had the beaches practically to ourselves.  We weren’t planning on swimming, so the stronger-than-usual waves didn’t concern us.  Plus, the water was still very warm and perfect to walk in, up and down the coast.  In the mountains and over the sea, the sky was roiling, but we didn’t get rained out until we had already exhausted our fun.

Rain or not, we were still having fun.

Here’s a fun factoid for anyone coming to Grenada: the Spiceland Mall is all but shut down on Sundays.  We took a little trip there after our beach outing.  Walking down the mall’s only hall, with the lights shut off, steel-bar storefronts on either side, and the only sound is the sandy slapping of our own flip-flops echoing off the domed ceiling—it really makes you feel like a criminal… or a victim.  I kept whipping my head around, anticipating the accusatory security guard or machete-wielding mugger.  (Apparently I added a little pessimism to my coffee this morning.)  Neither revealed themselves to us, but I like to think that my imagination wasn’t just running rampant and the two do exist, but were enjoying each other’s company at that very moment, perhaps having lunch at the only open food stall in the mall: Grillzz (or something like that).

Hellooo? Anyone there?

IGA was also open.  We strolled through without buying anything, but took the time to express the usual and customary revulsion at the prices of food and related items.  (Nota bene: one can of IGA brand frozen orange juice concentrate was about $15EC, which is around $5.70USD.  For ONE can.)

Of interest: near the Grand Anse bus terminal, we saw Toadstool’s house; we had callaloo for the first time last night; Crazy Cow has moved closer to our apartment; this island has lizards and crabs like Erie has rabbits and moles; even in the rain, this place is utterly beautiful.