St. Lucia : Been here over a week!

Initially I was writing every day, but there are less and less new things to comment on or add to to the blog. I'll recap you all on week 2 of living on the island!

Monday we had the day off so Tanya, Abby, and I headed out to check out some shops at the mall and then of course hit the beach. We've learned that we will not be buying much in the terms of clothes and shoes here, as they are pretty expensive. A simple cotton dress you could get at Walmart is sold for about 100EC (roughly 40 US). While not everything is not that outrageous, I still think we'll stick to the clothes and shoes we bought if at all possible.

The beach is still definitely a highlight, although sometimes we get annoyed with all the "hey pretty ladies" that we hear from the native males. We have learned not to respond or simply say "no thank you" and for the most part they leave us alone. With 3 off us around we always have each other too, which has been a huge blessing.

On Tuesday we started classroom prep. We cleaned our classrooms and I helped Teacher Robin (my co-teacher) out as much as I possibly could with going through the Reception boxes. Now that the boxes are finally empty, I have been able to set my room up a little better. (Pictures at the end of the blog.) To my surprise I have more materials and activities for the children to use than I thought. Most of these materials are Montessori materials, with the exception of the few that I was able to stuff in my suitcase.

Tuesday was also the day that we were able to see Pastor Tom. It was very nice to see a familiar face again. He brought us to the phone store and we were able to get our phones set up with island numbers! This was a relief as we have been relying on wifi for communication, now we at least have a little money to make calls if need be. Pastor Tom felt bad about not being here when we arrived so he sent us back home with a delicious dinner of macaroni and cheese and chicken that a lady at church made. Let me tell you, it was the best food I had had all week! I'll post a blog on food another day.

The rest of this week was filled with setting up my classroom and teacher meetings. Last night we went to the beach to see the sunset. Unfortunately the sunset was pretty lame, however we did get some pretty tasty drinks during happy hour at Spinnakers (the local restaurant/hut). I think we will be making that a weekly tradition from now on as it gets us out of the house for a little while after dark. It gets dark here around 6:30, so we are not able to do much after that and our bodies still think its bedtime.