Grenada | Stefanie & Tyler

August 14, 2012

Past 6 weeks in Review

Wow – I can’t believe how bad I have gotten about blogging. You would think considering I had way more free time during the last term I would have blogged more, but I guess our life just felt too boring. Or I took too many naps – I am choosing not to say which one.

The last 6 weeks have been a whirlwind of stuff really. Another term at SGU completed. Another class passed, another step closer to my M.D. Today was the start of Term 4, arguably the hardest term and I have been in a way looking forward to it and in a way dreading it. I mean the workload and that looming 13 credit class are terrifying, but there is always this “right of passage” feeling to hard things. Plus this is supposed to be the real start of learning all of the really cool stuff that you use all the time as a doctor. Sure I have learned a lot, but now we get all of the stuff we need to know to diagnose people and treat people – real medicine stuff.

The last 6 weeks have mainly consisted of one very rushed trip back to Cali for a friends wedding. While the wedding was a blast, it was quite stressful and exhausting and left me really behind in school. But I will say worth it. Then it seemed like midterms came and went and then Tyler’s whole family came to visit. We spent so much time hanging out with them, having them over for dinner, lounging on the beach with them, and of course trying to watch the Olympic games but failing (long story). We were sad to see them leave as we always are. We love when people come visit, gives us an excuse like we are on vacation but we still get to sleep in our own bed. Plus, I wanted to steal the fridge from their hotel room so bad I might have to organize a night heist at some point. They apparently make a whole line of retro appliances that I now definitely want for our future home. I will totally make it work with our modern, eclectic, indie chic style vibes. I may have to smash our fridge with a bat so it “breaks” so I can buy one.

Anyways, enough about that. Pretty much after Ty’s family left it was time for us both to get back to work and catch up and then finals came and the term was over. I swear, 6 weeks have never gone by so fast!

I also got older. A whole year older. My birthday fell sadly on the day before our final, so I studied most of the day. So I declared Friday my birthday Part 2 and did all the requisite celebrating. Massage, made cookies, and went out with friends. Tyler and my dear friend Kelsie put it all together and we had a great night with some of out closest friends here in Grenada. Not a bad night!

The whole group at my birthday dinner!

With Kelsie and Tyler - two of my favorite people on earth!

That basically sums up most of the last 6 weeks. Stay tuned for some “belated posts” that were left half-written on our blog for too long but include photos and stories from too many fun adventures to pass on posting.

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June 30, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Hashing – Round Two

It was a nice and simple hash. Mellow, just a long walk along the road.

Then we reached the split point for the iron man finish. We asked, unsure. They said it was shorter. Fun, adventurous, not too hard. We believed them. Off we travelled.

At first it was jumping over rocks and walking through actual bush.

Then came the steep hills.

We slid down muddy slopes on our butts, trying to avoid the trees.

Then I almost died while trying to hope across a ledge.

Post almost dying and the man who caught me standing behind me.

Then more slidding.

Then the river – it seemed we kept traversing and traversing this stream. We wished for bathing suits instead of hiking clothes. Why did we not come prepared for a swim?

It was harrowing, that is for sure. I think we might think twice about the next time we see an iron man finish.

Major plus side though – we finally tried Oil Down (the national dish) for the first time and it was delish!

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June 28, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Raspberry Almond Muffins

I have certainly been on a big baking kick lately. I think it has been partially brought on by the responsibility of making snacks for CSA every week this summer. So today I decided that some breakfast muffins sounded great. Usually Tyler gets a hankering for blueberry muffins and I generally make them from a mix. Fresh blueberries don’t come here, frozen ones (if I can find them) are way overpriced so I cheat. But today I decided to make some from scratch using a recipe in my trusty cookbook. I am not a fan of plain muffins, so I course picked a jazzed up version. I actually was thinking of making apricot almond muffins but part way through I realized I had eaten most of the dried apricots I had (oops!) and then remembered I had some delicious raspberry jam I should use up – so really it worked out great.

What You Need:

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. almond extract
8 Tbs. butter melted and cooled
1/4 cup raspberry jam or preserves

Preheat oven to 375 and line or spay your muffin tin. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. In another bowl whisk together eggs and yogurt and extract in a large bowl.

Gently fold in the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients until just blended. Fold in the melted butter. The batter is very dough-like rather than soft and runny.

The batter - it comes out really doughy.

Into each muffin cup spoon about 2 Tbs. of batter. Add 1 tsp. of raspberry jam to the center of each muffin. Top muffins with remaining batter evenly and bake for about 20-25 mins or until golden brown and tester comes out clean.

For added pizzaz, I usually add a light sprinkling of sugar to the top of each muffin right before baking. It is something I learned to do as a kid when my Grandma taught me how to make muffins from scratch. I don’t know if she necessarily taught me to do it that way or if my 9 year-old self just thought homemade muffins just were not sweet enough. Now I do it for the little crunch it gives on top.

Out of the oven goodness - nice and golden

Enjoy!

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June 25, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Cherry Cream Tarts

Sometimes I find recipes in very strange ways. I am a firm believer that you never know that if the back of that pasta box or the inside of the butter tub might have something worth trying, or at least worth taking inspiration from. Well this recipe probably came from the strangest place possible, a My Little Pony coloring book. No joke! Almost two years ago now I was volunteering at a hospital working on the pediatric floor and I used to photocopy coloring book pages for the children to color on. While flipping though the My Little Pony coloring book I stumbled upon this recipe, read it, and decided it was worth saving, It is still scribbled on a cut up sheet of fax paper I stole to write it down on. I really need to get a fancy smancy recipe box with cards, but that is another story.

I tried this recipe out then and made them for my husband (then boyfriend) as a fun dessert and he loves them. They are the perfect serving size of a delicious cheesecake-like dessert.

What You Need:

2 8oz. packages of cream cheese
1/2 cup + 2 Tbs. white sugar
2 eggs
1tsp. lemon juice
1 1/8 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 pinch cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
1 21oz. can cherry pie filling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins. For these I actually like the foil liners as they really help when you eat the cream tart out of them. I am sure regular ones work okay though. But you have to line!

To Make Filling: Cream with an electric mixer the cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar. Slowly add in eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice and mix well.

To Make Crust: Combine crumbs, 2 Tbs. sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in butter until crust forms small crumbs. I usually use my hands.

Put on spoonful of crust into each cup then add layer of filling. Bake for about 25-30 minutes so that custard is firm but springy to touch. It usually puffs up and then drops down some as it cools. Spoon cherry fulling over the top and then chill.

Out of the oven - ready for filling

All done - and tasty!

Enjoy!

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June 24, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Why is it so hot?

Tyler and I were hanging in the apartment the other day and I was sitting on the edge of the bed and he placed his hand on my back and then pulled his arm away. It was because my back was literally wet with sweat. Then the other day Tyler and I were sitting at the kitchen table and we both were noticing seat literally running down us. I ended up switching into a sports top to wear less fabric while I was cooking and change before we left to meet our friends later that day. What do these stories say – it is HOT!

In Grenada, we need the rain. When the rain leaves it just gets hot. I mean we now are in the warmer months where the heat index rises, but we are supposed to get rain to cool us off. But not lately. It seemed there for a bit it was raining all the time, but now not so much. I mean it feels odd to watering my potted plants almost daily because the sky isn’t helping me out at all. But on the plus side, they are growing like weeds. The mint plant has sprouted two babies and the basil plant is as strong and tall as ever. We will be drinking summer mojitos in no time!

Anyways, thats my little blurb for the day. Ta Ta.

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June 20, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Scrappy Part II

Such a handsome boy!

So you remember Scrappy, the adorable stray dog we befriended? Well, last night he found us at the beach as we were leaving for dinner. We were walking back to our car and we saw this dog that we thought looked like Scrappy. We couldn’t tell and we hadn’t seen him in a few weeks despite looking for him. But then he stretched out his legs really big and let out a huge puppy sigh/yawn and we knew it was him.

Since last time we saw him we decided that if we found him again we would go buy him something, Tyler graciously let me go run to IGA to buy the dog some food and bones. But little ol’ Scrap likes me better and wouldn’t stay with Tyler long enough to let me leave, he would just bound after me. So I stayed with him in the grass and Tyler went to the store. All-in-all we gave him a nice tasty can of dog food and bought him a box of bones and a raw hide bone. He was the happiest little dog in the world. I gave him the bone to chew on for a while but I took it with me when we left so he would have it again…and I was really concerned he would eat too much and get sick.

We ended up spending a couple hours sitting in the grass playing with scrappy. He was so hungry he scarfed down his food and kept trying to get in the car to search for more bones, but he finally gave up and settled for belly rubs.

Who loves his belly rubbed? I do of course!

We had to leave him behind again which was the saddest thing. He followed us in our car down the road for a bit, but he eventually gave up and went back to pick up the bones we left him in the grass. We so wish we could keep him. I am still thinking that if I keep seeing him I might just stick him in my car and take him to the vet and see how much it costs to get him checked out. Living with us sure has to be better than being all alone. He is just so friendly, should be an easy dog.

I even saw him again this morning at the beach. We were on our way out but I had my trusty box of bones so I gave him some more. If we run into him again when we have more time maybe we will get him another can of food. We are basically adopting him, but we just can’t take him home. 🙁

Anyways, here are some more pictures of him we took. Enjoy!

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June 13, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Mayan Chocolate Brownies

I really felt like baking yesterday and my heart was feeling chocolate. So a natural inclination was brownies. But as I was searching around, I found some recipes for spicy chocolate brownies. And so my Mayan Chocolate Brownies were born. Despite taking several hours due to a prolonged propane tank situation, they were baked and turned out delicious. The recipe I used was based largely on one in the Whole Foods iPad app, but I modified it a little bit. I added more “spicy” because I wanted the flavor to really push through the sweet brownie, and I loved that this recipe kept them from being too sweet. It really is not that spicy, but if you are nervous you could use less cayenne. I think next time I might try it with some of the local chili powder too.

What You Need:

This is the good stuff

2.5 ounces unsweetened chocolate (the Grenadian Chocolate company 100% cocoa bar worked marvelously!)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 + 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. fine sea salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 and prepare an 8 inch pan by lining it with aluminum foil leaving enough to hang over two of the edges. This was different, but it made getting the brownies out super easy and no washing the pan! Butter the foil.

Melt the chocolate (chopped into pieces) and butter in a small saucepan on low until almost all of the chocolate pieces are melted. Remove from heat, stir until rest of chocolate melts, and allow to cool.

Whisk together flour, spices, baking powder, and salt. Pour chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and stir in sugar and eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture and stir just until smooth. Pour into a prepared pan and bake until top is dry and a tester comes out without any raw dough, about 25-30 minutes. My oven is hot and I baked them about 25 minutes – I really wanted to preserve the moist centers and I think they came out perfect.

Allow to cool then remove from pan via the foil and then you can slice them up and a cutting board. I made the brownies into sundaes with some vanilla ice cream for a delicious summer treat!

Oh, and this also marks the first post where I am trying to stop being lazy and use our nice camera. Now naturally I tried to take most of these pictures at night and we still don’t have the best kitchen lighting, but I have hopes that they might improve. We will see.

Enjoy!

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June 13, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

The Move

So, this post is delayed but I kept being lazy about composing a photo tour. But finally, I finished it.

Just look at those walls.

Tyler and I decided not to move after my first Term because the stress of trying to find a new place, move, and then make a trip home for the holidays was just too much. So after enduring another 4 months in our old place, we decided that we needed to ensure we found a really awesome new apartment to live. You do remember we lived in a lime green mailbox right? If not, there is little photo to remind you. But really, that doesn’t do it quite justice as that is a picture in its prime. Right when we moved in, before we acquired the rest of our stuff (ie. school books) and before the walls started to peel off. But anyways, that is behind us now.

So our new place is now off of the main road (and down a perilous dirt road, but more on that another time) and right on the water. We have fruit trees, and couches, and more than 2 plates, and even a door that can separate two complete rooms. It is magical. But in all seriousness, it is a beautiful place. We absolutely love it here. It has room for us to entertain guests, room for us to both be working and doing things in the apartment at the same time without getting on each others nerves or in each others way. And to make things better, we get terrific breeze, have lots of bright open windows, and a patio we can sit on. And there is even a deck and a pool on the property. That is technically part of the main house that we do not live in, but we will likely share it with whoever is here anyways. So we are excited about it all!

So now, if you were not sure you wanted to come visit us before, you will be now. So please, go through our photos and enjoy your virtual tour! 🙂

This is our front porch patio

Then we have our backyard – the fruit trees and flowers we see while sitting on our porch.

Then we walk to the fence and see the Bay we live on. Just look at all those boats parked in our backyard.

Alright, lets take a look inside. This is the kitchen.

And here is a view of the dining room with the kitchen in the background and with the living room in the background.

Then we will move to the living room. Just look at all that seating. And our beautiful map of course on the wall. That white table will be my first big painting project, but more on that later.

And we must show off the lovely little shelf unit with all of our fun stuff we have collected. This part of the apartment provides all of the color and character. And yes, we are in love with that painting. This is also where the majority of our Grenada stuff is.

Now lets move to the other room. This is our bedroom/office. First lets look at the desk. So excited to have such a nice dedicated work and study space.

Now here is a view of our bed and the sweet little couch and shelving unit in our room.

And of course here is my personal favorite, the huge closet! I know, looks small to you. But this is about 3x the space I had before.

And the last room on the tour is the bathroom. I was so excited to put up the shower curtain I got for my bridal shower – it is so much better than what was up when we moved in.

And that concludes our tour. We love our new apartment so much. We love having extra space and we love that we were able to make it so homey. I mean the curtains are a little ugly and the couches have an interesting patterns that we just pretend isn’t there (hence the use of colorful stripped pillows anyways). We love it. And I am becoming more and more obsessed with finding little projects to help make it look a little better by adding small touches. Can’t wait to see with a whole apartment filled with all my own stuff where I can paint walls and furniture to my hearts content. One day! 🙂

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June 11, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

French Lemon Yogurt Cake

I finally caved and bought a subscription to one of my favorite cooking magazines, Bon Appetit. So it only makes sense that I would be taking some of the recipes, or the inspiration from them, for a spin. I am saddened that all of their amazing sounding salmon, clam, and steak dishes might have to wait to be back in the land of large supermarkets that stock everything, but I always love more things to try. So I found this cake and even though I just got a mixer (hallelujah!) I didn’t even need it. This was so simple to make, and is basically a pound cake. Which is great because you can’t really go buy pound cake at the bakery here like back home.

What You Need:

nonstick spray
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs. grated lemon zest
3/4 cup whole milk yogurt (recipe calls for Greek, but plain regular whole-fat yogurt worked fine)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Oven is heated to 350 (my new oven still runs hot so I have to be careful, I overcooked and burned the edges of the first one). Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and dust with flour to coat. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl rub the lemon zest with the sugar. I love how the Grenadian green lemons produce a fun color to this.

Then mix in the yogurt, vanilla, oil and eggs and whisk to blend. Carefully fold in the dry ingredients just to blend and pour into prepared muffin pan. Be sure to smooth the top so it comes our pretty! Bake until golden brown and tester comes our clean which should be about 50 minutes. Then just let it cool.

The cake tastes great plain – I even served it for snacks at church one week. But since I was feeling like a special treat I bought some frozen berries from the store and made my homemade whipped cream (with my mixer!) and we made berry shortcake. Tyler was in little piggy heaven!

Enjoy!

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June 11, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Sangria

I love sangria. To me, it is the perfect hot summer treat. And since we now live in the Caribbean, it is hot and summery every day. I found the inspiration for this Sangria recipe from the Whole Foods iPad app. I know that sangria recipes usually call for the addition of some sort of liquor (this one for triple sec) but I actually left it out. I like that this way I can drink more of it. I have been now intrigued by all sorts of other Sangria recipes that I hope to be trying out soon.

What You Need:

1 bottle red wine (something aged in metal barrels, and no need for anything expensive)
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 small orange sliced thinly
1 lemon sliced thinly
2 malay apples or frech cashews, sliced (recipe originally called for peaches but those are no local and I loved what these apples added)
1-2 lemons worth of juice
1 cup club soda

In a large pitcher (or a mason jar) combine everything except the last two ingredients together. Be sure the sugar is dissolved into the wine before adding the fruit pieces. Let sit in the refrigerator anywhere from 2 hours to overnight. Just before serving, stir in the lemon juice and soda and serve over ice. If you want a sweeter take, ginger ale will also work in place of the lemon juice and club soda. I think the recipe originally called for lemon italian soda, but I just made my own.

Enjoy!

Update: With malay apples being out of season, I have recently started using fresh starfruit from my backyard with amazing results. Feel free to experiment with this part.

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June 11, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Our First Hash

Us and some of the Foster family we hashed with.

It was not long after arriving in Grenada that we learned of the “secret” sport of hashing. So it quickly made it onto our bucket list of things to do, but like most things we never really go to it. Many of the hashes are not on our side of the island and I am just too busy during most weekends to get away. But finally we made plans and stuck to it and went this Saturday. And what a BLAST!!

Basically hashing is an organized hike open to anyone who comes that takes you up through the backwoods and forests of Grenada. And to make things more interesting there are false trails and shortcuts and all sorts of goodies like that to make it all more adventurous. And our course a trail of paper globs to keep your from disappearing into the abyss. This particular hash had us climbing straight up the muddy slopes of a mountain through the rainforest and then back down through some villages of St. Paul. We loved it. Honestly, we can’t wait to go again. We were dirty and sweaty after our little hash, but it was so cool to see. And we even found some cocoa pods in the forest that we brought home to enjoy as a snack. Tyler and I are addicted to the fruit around the beans – tasty. We will certainly be repeating this adventure again soon.

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June 11, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

An Ode to Scrappy

It was a sunny weekday morning and Tyler and I were indulging in our typical workout routine. Tyler went to the beach for a swim and me to the gym. As I walked to the beach after my workout to meet Tyler I saw the little ball of fluff curled up next to Ty. And then the story was told of how Scrappy was wandering down the beach and bounded towards Tyler with friendliness and love and decided that Tyler was his new best friend. And so I met Scrappy and his little doggie eyes melted my heart. And unlike most stray dogs in Grenada, he was actually friendly and adorable.

So as Tyler and I began to get up to leave, Scrappy began to follow us. He was certain that we would make a wonderful little family to join. So he walked with us all the way back over to where the car was parked. And as Tyler said, he was such a good walker. He didn’t even need a leash and he never left our side. And as we got the car in hopes of heading back home, little ol’ Scrap just hopped on in. He jumped in my lap and kissed my cheek, getting pounds of sand and dog hair all in our impeccably unclean car. But alas, we could not keep sweet Scrappy. He probably had parasites anyways. So we parted ways. But now everytime I go to the beach I look for him. I think he misses us.

Moral of the Story: We really need a dog!!!!

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June 7, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Umbrellas Late-Night and Belmont Estate (again)

So last night our new Greek friend invited us to come have a drink with her and a German couple down at Umbrellas, one of our favorite beach-side bars. Tyler’s love of Germany encouraged her to invite us along to meet them and it continued our trend of befriending the foreigners here in Grenada as opposed to the other med students.

But as the night turned out, we ended up a huge group of mostly med students who were finishing clinicals by working at the hospital in St. George’s (just about to graduate), Tyler and I, our Greek friend who is also doing rotations at the hospital, and one other student who is also in my term. He remembered quite vividly an incident where I apparently “shushed” him during an exam and he now holds it against me. I will likely never live it down now. But anyways, we had quite a blast. It was great for me to talk to so many people working in the hospital, but more than that we just love meeting people. Especially people who are not from America.

Today we travelled to Belmont Estate, where the grow the cocoa beans. Since it is one of my favorite places I wanted to be sure the Greek student got to see and experience all it had to offer.

Me, Tyler, and Anthia

It was great! We of course enjoyed the delicious local food (and ate way too much) and ate lots and lots of cocoa samples. I think I eat more than the 5EC cost of my tour in sample chocolate every time! This was my third time at Belmont and my third time taking the tour so I am practically qualified to give it. The tour guide had me try and name all the fruits and spices they had out – I didn’t do half-bad. I just always forget the few that are really really weird. But even though I have been on the tour a lot, each guide always adds some more extra. Tyler and my favorite part is eating the raw cocoa fruit out of the pod. The fruit is so tasty and after you eat it, you can totally catch the subtle fruit flavors in the cocoa you eat. Changes how you view chocolate. We joke that if we could only buy the cocoa pods, we would crack one open and suck on it for a snack in the afternoon.

This time we asked the tour guide about one of Belmont’s little secrets, the monkeys. He took us up to see some of the animals, including the monkeys! I was so excited. We were also supposed to go see the goats and get to bottle feed the little babies, but unfortunately we had to leave since Tyler had a conference call to make it back for in the evening.

All in all it made for a great day! So excited for the next time when we journey up there again! I guess if we befriend some Northumbria GSP students or anyone else new to the island. The guy that led our tour was also super nice and spent quite a bit of time talking to us about Grenada and gave me some recipes for making provisions and saltfish and told us about the awesome foodstands. We told him we wished we could live in his village, sounded so awesome. It was a great day!

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June 6, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Summer Adventures Thus Far

So I should probably take the time to blog about our move and post up pictures of the beautiful new apartment and all of that, but that is just so much work. After trying to get through all the pictures from our vacation, I just want to write about adventures.

Summer so far has been great! It is so nice to have time where I am not supposed to be doing something every minute of every day. I have been able to cook every meal again and that has been fantastic! Tyler is loving having me home to make delicious lunches for him most days and he is loving eating my home cooking every night instead of having to resort to quick food near campus because of exam studying.

Also, since getting into our new apartment we have been able to have dinner parties again which is pretty much the greatest thing ever for us. We just love to to entertain people. I love to make lots of food for a crowd and Tyler loves offering our home up and we love bringing people over to share with them all of the quirky things we have collected that now fill our new home. Honestly, having a new place with more than two plates, more than two chairs, and a couple couches is probably the best thing for our sanity, our marriage, and for building our community here than we could ever imagine. We have already bonded close with a couple people who are here for the summer and are not super busy studying for term 4 or boards that we probably would never have gotten to know so well otherwise. And people here often appreciate a place to come to get some good home cooking and we love blessing people with that.

On Sunday we met a girl who is here as an exchange student working at the General Hospital for 3 weeks from Greece. She is here by herself and living on campus with everyone that is studying hardcore for exams. We got introduced to her at church and were able to have her over for dinner which was such a blessing. It is so great getting to know her and blessing her with some friends she can hang out with, people who can share with her more about the island, and meeting a couple who genuinely loves living here and is willing to bring her along on our adventures. And it forces us to go and make plans to do fun stuff so we are pretty excited to start spending more time enjoying what Grenada has to offer anyways.

The last big thing Tyler and I have been doing this summer is we volunteered to take over leading the weekly church services through CSA. We signed up for it mostly because we knew we were the only ones that would be here all summer with no obligations, but I know I have found it much more rewarding that I would have expected. The group is smaller and people spend more time socializing and it has allowed us more time to feel a part of the group rather than feeling like we say every week in a large room with a bunch of strangers. And of course, if we were not the ones up front leading on Sunday I am positive we would not have gotten introduced to the Greek student and asked if we could show her around.

All in all, summer is off to a marvelous start. And my new sticker for my new laptop finally arrived and today should be the first day of my summer USMLE studying. So all in all, a great day! More soon!

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June 4, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Vacation in Carriacou – Part 3

So when first researching this trip, we learned that we could take a day-long snorkeling trip on a ship that was used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies up through the Grenadines and the Tobago Cays. If you know me just a little, this was quite possibly the greatest news I could have received. So we immediately started looking into it and lucky for us, we got on a trip. As you know from the story in Part 2, we were weathered out from our scheduled day buy found out that there was room on a different trip scheduled for Friday.

So we made the arrangements again and got ourselves up early, sunscreened to perfection, and made our way to the other side of the Island. Fortunately for us, our speed boat driver Rameez was already there waiting for us. Challenge one was at least overcome.

The weather was better, but certainly not storm free. Upon getting into the speedboat and taking off to meet the ship in international waters to avoid the hassel and time of going through customs and immigrations (afterall we were never really going to step foot on land so we thought), I immediately began to regret this decision. It was probably the most terrifying thing I have ever done. The waves and the rain and Rameez’s “need for speed” had me terrified and in a panic. Tyler eventually asked him to take it a little easier on the waves and that helped, but I was praising God for bringing me safely to the dock of Union Island.

So we ended up on Union Island safe thankfully, only to be informed that due to overcrowding on the tiny 8 seat plane, we would need to wait for the rest of the passengers to arrive. So we were given instructions to explore the island. We instantly wished we had our passports because now we had time for customs and we both really wanted our stamp! But alas, we were illegal immigrants wandering around the cute little island that is part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It was actually an adorable little town and we had a ton of fun exploring it.

On the dock - only a little worse for the wear.

Our boat floating off shore - Capt. Jack would be proud.

After exploring Union Island we met up with the captain and he took us aboard the Satori (our ship). We got there before anyone else so we enjoyed walking about and had some delicious breakfast snacks on board. Then as a giant rainstorm rolled in we went below deck with the crew. It was cool to see all inside. They fit 3 full-size bedrooms on the thing! The crew were actually really cool and we had some fun hanging out with them before setting sail. We set-off a little late, but it was still so worth it.

Once we met our fellow mates, we set sail for Mayreau which was our first stop. This island is inhabited, but not by very many people. There is only one village with about 300 people. The captain said they just had electricity brought in like 10 years ago.

Then we set sail for the Cays. The Cays are known to grow a special grass that apparently is like crack to sea turtles and it is supposed to be the best place to see them. Boy are they right! I could not believe how many there were. When we first walked into the water and put our head down, we saw about 8 of them all around us. We basically startled them by walking in. We would swim with one or two we saw, and when they got too fast, we would just wait a minute or so and another one would swim up. It was incredible! And to top it all off, they filmed some of the Pirates movies in the Grenadines and we were able to see the island that Jack Sparrow was marooned on in the films. So awesome! Our nerdy hearts were filled to the brim. After swimming with turtled for a while we headed to the reefs to see what kinds of fish and other sea life we might spot and then headed back to the Satori for lunch. A yummy Grenadian lunch with lots of rum punch to go around followed by rum cake and of course, coffee and rum! The rum is never gone down here.

After that we made on last stop to a resort island called Palm Island. It is one of those islands that all it is is a resort and people pay like upwards of 600 dollars a night to stay there. In fact, we found it a little boring. But I guess it was cool to see. Not sure what is worth all that money since the beaches were were staying at seemed just as nice. But, oh hey. Our speedboat guy came and met us at Palm and we jumped in his little black boat and headed back to our little Carriacou. The trip back was a little less terrifying and I think I enjoyed it more. Our night ended with a delicious fresh fish meal cooked by the wife of the guy who owned the house we stayed at. We figured after all that swimming in the sea, we would want nothing more than to eat the deliciousness inside it.

And sadly all good things come to an end so we unfortunately had to fly out on Friday. So we headed to the airport, were the only ones there, went through the most pathetic excuse for airline security, and boarded our tiny little plane. We were the only 2 passengers – what a great deal! We were able to catch some sweet air shots of Carriacou as we took off. And that was the end of quite possible the best vacation ever. I suppose we will likely top it eventually, but whenever we travel together we always make the best adventure out of it. That is why I love Tyler, he makes everything a million times more fun. 🙂

The hillside we stayed in - look for the blue house!

Article

June 4, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Vacation in Carriacou – Part 2

After a fun day on Sandy Island, Tyler and I decided that checking off another island from our list was a must do. So we booked a ferry ride to Petite Martinique, the third Island of Grenada’s tri-island state. It is significantly smaller than even Carriacou and only about 700 people live there. We basically took the ferry from the docks of Carriacou, got off at PM, at lunch and walked the main beach, then took the ferry back. And that was the highlight of the island. But we did decide to take some cool pics with our Toms flag as we figured this was one of the best far-corners-of-the-map kind of places we could take it to.

We were pretty exhausted after a couple days of Island hoping. We ended up decided to lay low and hang around the little inn we were staying in more the next couple days. We even made some delicious homemade pizza on Tuesday night to enjoy with our anniversary wine. I was given a wonderful bottle of wine at my bachelorette party and Tyler and I, since we couldn’t eat a piece of cake from the big day (or what we decided would be a cupcake from the same bakery) we settled for opening the bottle. So not only did we shlep the bottle all the way to Grenada, but we packed it up and flew it with us to Carriacou. Amazingly it made all of the trips fine and it was delicious! Happy 1 year to us!!

Wednesday we were planning on going on this epic pirate ship boat ride (more on that later), but the weather just did not cooperate. I have decided that we left for Carriacou and it was dry season and came back during wet season. After 3 days of picture perfect Caribbean weather, the skies decided that a least 2 days or fairly consistent torrential rain was in order. However, we were never informed that the weather would hinder the boat trip so despite the fact that the weather was awful, I put on my adventure face and got ready for a day of sailing and snorkeling. We arranged the taxi driver who was just barely able to make it up the road to where we were staying thanks to the mud, and hiked up the muddy driveway he couldn’t make it down to meet him. We proceeded to have him drive us half-way around the island to the north where we were supposed to meet a guy who would take us by speedboat to meet up with the ship moored outside Union Island, only he didn’t show. After we stood out in the pouring rain for a good half-hour, we called the lady who organized the trip who found out for us that the speedboat driver was waiting for a break in the weather (did I ever mention that Grenadians hate rain??) that never came. We were pretty certain we would not meet up with the boat in time, so, quite wet and disappointed we headed back to our side of the Island.

We spent some time walking through downtown Hillsborough, the only real main city in Carriacou. And even found the most adorable little family of puppies that Tyler wouldn’t let me pet for fear I might try and smuggle one home. And to top off the day, we had to walk the lovely dirt road back up to the place we were staying at. We had mud stuck to our shoes no lie about 6 inches thick. It was quite a feat. I decided that we should have just stayed in bed, it would have saved us the heartache. But we did our best to redeem the night by playing endless hours of monopoly, watching movies, and eating pesto pasta. That almost made up for the mud – but not quite.

Here are some pictures from a little exploring we did on Tuesday…

Enjoying the view from the top of the jetty we hiked to.

…And some more pictures of the town.

Close-up of an awesome hand carved wooden statue from the museum

Article

June 2, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Vacation in Carriacou – Part 1

There is no better way to celebrate finishing the first year of medical school and a one year wedding anniversary than travelling to a small, quiet and remote Caribbean island for sand, sun, and fun. However, since we live on a small Caribbean island we decided to travel to an even smaller one!

Tyler and I spent a week in Carriacou at the end of May. Carriacou is part of Grenada and is not too far off of the northern shores. We decided to fly because we were hoping that our adorable little 8 seater plane would allow us to get some great overhead views of Grenada and the other small, uninhabited islands as we flew over.

Look at how little our yellow plane is compared to that big Delta jet!

Tyler and I found this little place to stay at that was way up in the hills and away from everything! It was basically someone’s house that used the bottom level as a little inn. We actually met the guy at the dentist who owns the place a while back, and it was funny that we ended up coming to stay with him afterall. Our room had a balcony that overlooked the water with a terrific view of some of Carriacou’s cays and then you could even see the southern-most part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Union Island.

We arrived into Carriacou early on Saturday morning. It is only a 20 minute flight from Grenada and the airport is smaller than small, so we were walking along the private white sand beaches of where we were staying less than 2 hours after take-off. Our first day we spent mostly exploring Paradise Beach and napping – my favorite pastime really. Oh, and reading. Feels so good to read fun books again!

On day two we headed out in a random guys little power fishing boat out to a little tiny island that was maybe a mile off of the coast of Carriacou. We were staring at it from our balcony and decided that we should go there. We were the only people on the island for the whole day. So we snorkled, at a picnic lunch, and enjoyed marooning ourselves on a private island for a day. It was such a blast!

Here are some pictures of our views while flying…

Prickly Bay - where our new apartment now sits on.

…and here are some more pictures of our Sandy Island adventures. We even saw a sea turtle, which was absolutely amazing!

Article

May 17, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

School is out! Now Time for Fun.

Another term down. In fact, a whole year down.

It is hard to believe that my first year of medical school is finally finished. It was a long and brutal road the last 18 weeks. But I am proud of how I did and I feel like I truly glorified the Lord by working to the fullest of the abilities He has blessed me with to finish the term strong. And I am so grateful for my amazing husband who stuck it out in the trenches with me even when that included late nights in freezing cold study halls (yes, they way overuse AC here).

We were blessed to celebrate our 1 year anniversary too – of course right in the middle of exams. But that is okay, we took it in stride and we leave Saturday on our 1 year anniversary trip! We could not be more excited. We have such a fun and exciting adventure planned of exploring all around our little Caribbean paradise.

This last week Tyler and I have been taking it easy. I have been napping, a lot. And indulging in all of my favorite post-exam activities like getting my requisite massage and a mani/pedi. And of course my first trip to the beach in ages (so sad, I know) left me a bright red lobster and from what I can tell I am starting to peel at the moment. My back still hurts, but oh well. That is what happens when you don’t put on sunscreen. I wasn’t exactly planning on being there for as long as I was.

I also took a trip around the island up to Belmont with a bunch of friends from school that had not left the island left. It was my first time really driving in Grenada so me and our new car got some time to bond. I unfortunately don’t have any pictures from this trip, but it was a blast – rain and all! We have an amazing lunch and got to stock up on some more delicious chocolate.

Tyler and I have been trying to get out together as much as possible. We are being so healthy and he is going swimming in the morning while I go the gym and we even made it down to the beach for a nice sunset drink and stroll last night. It feels so nice to not have to be working at all hours.

Here are a few pictures to enjoy. More to come after vacation!

Love this guy!

Article

May 4, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Worst Week Ever – 2 weeks later….

I just walked out for a minute. Really. As long as it took to walk from the study hall to the library where the clean bathrooms are and come back. And it was gone. My beautiful, wonderful, still new feeling laptop was gone.

Yep, my poor laptop was stolen from the study hall what was now two weekends ago. In the time that my study buddy and I stepped out for a quick break and someone swiped it. Surprising considering the hall was full, and everyone knows that I am the girl with the laptop with the ridiculously awesome and ridiculously cute monkey sticker on my computer. So our weekend and really, the following week, went straight down the toilet. The process of reporting the theft and figuring out what to do was nothing less than awful. Plus I lost tons of work that I had done – sure made me wish I hadn’t chose to be so productive that week and stay up so late that I was forgetting to back-up my computer at night.

Long story short, and an unexpected flight to Florida for Tyler, I have a shiny new macbook and the studying carries on. I am even getting over all the upgrades since switching to Lion and my computer is starting to scare me less. I was so blessed during the whole ordeal that one of my classmates let me borrow his laptop for a few days while Tyler was gone. And since we had just upgraded my dropbox account to the fancy paid version, I was able to start using cloud syncing as what is now my third backup system, just in case.

But, life moves on and even though it was two weeks before finals began and I was computer-less, finals didn’t stop coming closer. Test 1 was today and it went well and the study marathon is on. So hard to believe that in just 10 days I will be 1/4 of a doctor!

5 more tests to go and then a much needed break will be had. And in 2 weeks from tomorrow Tyler and I fly off to Carriacou to celebrate our first anniversary! So excited. 🙂

Now back to studying.

Article

April 5, 2012

by Stefanie Paulson

Fruit n’ Nut Baked Oatmeal Bars

These are seriously my new favorite thing! I am a sucker for baked oatmeal – I fell in love with it in college. I had all-but forgotten about it until while looking for make-ahead breakfast ideas I stumbled upon a recipe here. So with a little experimenting and searching the stores for all the dried fruit I could find, I created my own version of these tasty little bars and baked up a batch. Wrapped them and froze them and they soon became my go-to quick breakfast. While it was hard to beat the unbelievable taste of the quiche I made, these take a fraction of the prep time.

What You Need:

2-1/4 C quick cooking oats, uncooked, or 2-3/4 C old fashioned oats, uncooked
2/3 C brown sugar
3/4 C raisins and/or dried cranberries (substitute any other dried fruits you want)
1 apple, peeled and sliced (substitute other fresh fruits – I used malay apples (french cashews) or jared fruit I found at the store for a cheaper alternative to fresh apples)
1/4 to 1/3 C nuts, chopped (walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts…, or even better a mix of all)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3-1/3 C milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

I usually added more dried fruit and nuts than the recipe called for, more like a cup of dried fruit and maybe 1/2 cup cuts. I loved the added hearty feel they gave the bars. To make them you simply mix together the dry ingredients, add in the wet, make sure to stir in all the toppings, and then pour into a baking dish. I found that if I wanted to make portioning easier I could bake the bars in a muffin pan and then they were already divided. But if you opt to go that route, make sure you try and evenly distribute the solids to liquid ratio. Once the mix is in the baking dish, top with the sliced fruit and bake in a 360 degree oven for about 55 minutes or the center is set in the middle. For an added touch, top the bars with a little shredded coconut and it adds a fantastic little hint of sweetness and texture.

I would freeze these and reheat for breakfast. Perfect as is or if you are serving for a crown or feeling fancy, heat some milk gently in a sauce pan with a cinnamon stick and a dash of vanilla extract and you have the perfect breakfast treat.

Enjoy!

Stefanie & Tyler

A pediatrician and a graphic designer, madly in love, embarking on a God-sized adventure.

All Posts Tagged ‘Grenada’

Past 6 weeks in Review

Hashing – Round Two

Raspberry Almond Muffins

Cherry Cream Tarts

Why is it so hot?

Scrappy Part II

Mayan Chocolate Brownies

The Move

French Lemon Yogurt Cake

Sangria

Our First Hash

An Ode to Scrappy

Umbrellas Late-Night and Belmont Estate (again)

Summer Adventures Thus Far

Vacation in Carriacou – Part 3

Vacation in Carriacou – Part 2

Vacation in Carriacou – Part 1

School is out! Now Time for Fun.

Worst Week Ever – 2 weeks later….

Fruit n’ Nut Baked Oatmeal Bars