Long Weekend

Wow, so it's already here - mid-semester break. I'm not sure how we've already made it halfway through our second semester here in beautiful St. Kitts but we have. I'm not a student myself but since Julie teaches there and many of the events that we attend revolve around RUSVM's academic calendar, I use it as a sort of timeline. (I'm sure if you talked to a student they'd have a different opinion on how "quickly" this semester has gone.)

The mid-semester break is not much of a break really. It's only a weekend with a measly Monday tacked onto it, but we'll take what we can get. I've heard a lot of faculty members bragging about their off-island adventure plans but Julie and I are planning on being homebodies for the break.

My initial plan was to book a room over on Nevis at either Oualie Beach or The Hermitage, or one of the other private resorts. Since Valentine's day was only a week ago I wanted to show off my romantic skills and plan a weekend there but it turned out to be a fail. (Cupid's arrow missed the mark, at least for this weekend.)

Oualie Beach, Nevis

The Hermitage, Nevis.

The fail came because I did what I do best- Procrastinate. I called over to the places mentioned above and I quickly realized this might not be a good weekend to go because i was told it is "tourism week" and "peak tourist season." I think it's great for them but not for me. I definitely plan on rescheduling this event though because everyone that I've talked to that has stayed on Nevis says it's amazing.

Of course the best place to stay on Nevis is at The Four Seasons Resort, but at 700 to 3,000 dollars a night I'll think we'll go with the smaller resort venue. The view is just as beautiful anywhere you stay on Nevis.

The Four Seasons Resort, Nevis

Typical Nevis beach.

Quick Side Note: As I was typing this post I heard screeching and ran out onto the porch in time to see at least ten monkeys running from the neighbors yard with star fruits in their hands. I keep an eye out for the pesky buggers myself since they apparently think we planted the garden just for them.)

Yep, he's enjoying the neighbor's star fruit.

So we go with plan B, We're going to take our scooters over to Nevis on the car ferry on Monday and do some exploring. We have a colleague of Julie's and his wife who plan on joining us with their new scooter too.

The Nevis car ferry. I'm almost certain it was a military landing craft in it's previous life.

Today, Saturday we'll be going to another Hash event. This one is special for two reasons; One it's the post Valentine's Day Red Dress Hash, so men and women will be running in dresses and secondly, the hash will be at Wingfield Estate and Romney Manor which I've just recently discovered in the past week. The estate in my opinion is one of the coolest sites on St. Kitts, but I have some bias here because I'm such a history buff and the estate is chalk full of history. In fact, this past week I spent a day doing a voluntary archaeological dig on the estate with David Rollinson and Caribbean Volunteer Expeditions.      

Wingfield Manor Remnants

The red dress hash will surely be entertaining and I remember reading Renee's blog post last year about the red dress hash and thinking, "What kind of crazy stuff do they do on that island?" If you're interested in what the hash will be about go to the Island Babble website and search the archives for the word "hashes" and "red dress hash" and you can read about and see pictures of the strange phenomenon.

Last year's Red Dress Hash

Don't Ask. Haha.

And no don't even ask if I'll be in a red dress because I won't. I love to get involved with as many events as possible here but you couldn't pay me enough to cross dress, sorry not my cup of tea.

 I also wanted to use this post to inform everyone about the exciting news that a cricket match will be coming to St. Kitts on Feb 27th until March 2nd at Warner Park. The Leeward Islands will be taking on Trinidad and Tobago. We've both been waiting for a cricket match to take place since neither have ever been to one before or know much about it so it should be fun to watch. I can't wrap my head around a sporting event that takes four days but I guess that's normal for cricket. Hope to see you there.

Also check out this video from the last hash, number 298 at Bayfords, Fosberry House.

OK Guys Here is the Video from Hash Number 299, The Valentine's Day Hash. Enjoy, it's a trip.