Providenciales, Turks & Caicos

so, last summer/fall, granger and i were planning on going to bougainville, papua new guinea (which is here) early this year. granger hasn't been home or seen most of his PNG-based family since he left there when he was 11, so we were pretty determined to make the trip. unfortunately, tickets to PNG in january were more than twice as expensive as tickets in february, but the marine corps wouldn't let him take enough time off in february for the trip to be worth it. when it became clear that it just wasn't feasible for us to go, we decided that we had to do *something* else (ostensibly to celebrate granger's homecoming and me finishing my MA, both of which happened at the end of december).

we started off looking at cruises, an idea that granger has talked about for a while. i've never really been super-excited about going on a cruise, so when beth mentioned we should go to turks and caicos instead, i pretty much just said, YUP. granger quickly got on board, and the search began. we (*note - that's the royal "we") ended up finding a nice little apartment that was *relatively* affordable and only about a 5 minute walk from the beach. it was nothing spectacular, but it had everything we needed.

we got to T&C on saturday, 1/14, got our rental car, and bravely took on the left-side-of-the-road driving. i was pretty sure we were going to die within 5 minutes of leaving the airport, but it was actually a really easy mental switch to make (and granger did a FANTASTIC job driving the whole vacation). our car was a dinky little daihatsu charade, which i, of course, instantly fell in love with (in the same way one would fall in love with an ugly dog...). it was also this greenish-yellowish color, which didn't really help it's appearance... anyway, we made it to the apartment (phew!), settled in, went to the grocery store (oops! forgot to tell my credit card company that i was traveling internationally!), and then took a walk on the beach near our place.

on sunday we accidentally explored the entire island (neither of us realized just how SMALL it is), as well as spent a few good hours relaxing/exploring/swimming Grace Bay (the most famous beach of T&C, where all the resorts are). the next couple of days were a mix of relaxing on various beaches, appeasing granger's inability to sit still and need to explore EVERYTHING, eating everything, drinking everything, and enjoying every minute of it. i'd give you play-by-play, but it would read, "we went to this beach, and then we ate this, and then we went back to this other beach, and then we ate this, and then we drank this..." so i'll spare you.

the one anecdote i'll share involves granger and a kayak. on thursday, we decided to rent some kayaks and paddle around Chalk Sound National Park (do a google image search, you'll hate us). we decided to get two single kayaks, and thank goodness we did. not 20 feet from the shore, i hear a big splash behind me and see granger's head pop up out of the water, next to his upside-down kayak. he immediately burst out laughing (so did i, along with the entire staff of the restaurant/resort where we rented the kayaks), hopped back in his kayak, and started paddling again. literally 30 seconds later i hear "OH S*@T..." followed by another splash. i couldn't believe that he'd tipped over again, but lo and behold, there was his kayak, upside-down, and there was granger standing in chest-deep water. i laughed even harder this time (again, so did the staff who could still clearly see us - we couldn't have been more than 50 yards into the sound). granger had a little more difficulty getting back into the kayak (those things are HARD not to tip over when you're getting back in them), but eventually he got back in and we went on our merry way. i thought surely he'd gotten the tipping out of his system, but within the next 30-45 minutes (and i'm not exaggerating here), granger tipped his kayak approximately 10 more times. i stopped counting at 8, so i can't say for sure the exact number... i was pretty sure he was tipping over so much because he's a little top-heavy (have you seen his arms???), and he was convinced something was wrong with his internal balance. needless to say, by the 10th (ok, the 5) time he tipped, it wasn't funny anymore, especially because (according to him), the bottom of the sound was very mushy sand, making it all the more difficult to jump back into the kayak. i learned a few new words, too... after about the 5th tip-over, we decided we'd had enough with this whole kayaking adventure, and headed back to the rental place. once we got there (5 tips later), and granger pulled his kayak out of the water, we figured out that his kayak was full of water, which was why it was so off balance. i guess after the first tip, it got water logged, and then the waves under the kayaks would cause the water to slosh around inside the kayak, and granger would fall over. i think both of us were relieved to find this out, since we were both more than a little worried about what could possibly be wrong with granger to make him tip over so much. we probably should have made a fuss to the rental company that their kayak was defective, but at that point, we (granger especially) needed a drink, so we hightailed it out of there. (*note - granger remained remarkably calm throughout the extended kayak-mishap. if it had happened to me... well, let's just say only one of us would have returned home from the vacation.)

for our drink-seeking quest, we went to a restaurant on Grace Bay and got a little food to share as well as some drinks. after about 30 minutes, we decided that enough time had passed to make the whole thing hilarious, and we spent a lot of time at lunch reliving the epic-kayak-adventure fail.

all in all, it was a wonderful vacation. i'm not sure i'd go back to T&C, since it really is a tiny island and i happen to date someone who needs ADVENTURE all the time. there were plenty of beaches that i could have plopped down on and not moved for 12 hours, but granger requires constant adventure so, alas, we need bigger islands. i know, i know... i sound like a snob ("that tropical island paradise just wasn't good enough"), but it's the truth. still, i cried as we pulled out of our apartment's driveway in our dinky yellow daihatsu...

start of 2012 = bookworm + clutter-be-gone

so now that i'm done with grad school, i have *a lot* more free time. despite the extravaganza of granger's homecoming/christmas/new years/going back to full time at work that has kept me fairly busy since i turned in my final draft of my SRP (which, in case you're interested, happened at 3:07pm on wednesday, december 21st), i have managed to find some free time to start something i've needed to do for a while (organizing/throwing away/recycling/donating stuff i don't need/use anymore) and to take up something i've missed dearly (reading for FUN). last saturday, i started The Purge, as i'll call it, and so far have made relatively good progress. you wouldn't immediately notice a difference looking at my room, but the amount that i have already gone through suggests otherwise. laugh at me if you want, but it feels so good to declutter!!!

and as for reading, i'm about to finish my third book of the year. granted, i'm not reading any high-brow literature (the 'hunger games' trilogy, if you know it), but it is just so nice to be able to get comfy and lose myself in a book! it helps, too, that i have a kindle (thanks for the awesome christmas gift, mom and dad!) which means thousands of books are at my fingertips.

so basically, besides the obvious awesomeness of having granger home safe and sound and being done with school, i'm really glad to be reading and decluttering my life. the latter part will also be good the next time i move, since i feel like i have just been hauling a bunch of junk around with me every time i move...

also awesome, in case i haven't mentioned it, GRANGER AND I ARE GOING TO TURKS AND CAICOS ON SATURDAY!!!!! yup, super excited.

so, how'd i do?

1. Finish knitting the scarf for my mom
2. Visit Monica in Charlottesville
3. Visit Eric & Beth in Alaska
4. Visit Granger in North Carolina
5. Spend a day in Annapolis
6. Spend a day in Harper’s Ferry
7. Travel to a foreign country
8. Read at least 5 books for pleasure
9. Learn and master a new dish (just ONE!)
10. Start learning French
11. Take a class in something fun (read: not school related! something like pottery, wine tasting, or cooking
12. Be a photographer for a day
13. Go to a cultural event each month
14. Expand my musical horizons
15. Work out 2-3 times per week
16. Lose 10 lbs
17. Finish my MA from American University
18. Get an awesome job that I love
19. Get my own place (where I can have a dog)
20. Get a dog

11 out of 20. not great, but not bad all things considered (grad school, anyone?). i think i'm going to do this again in 2012. and, in the hopes of actually finishing it this year, i'm going to try to make them all legitimately accomplishable. here goes:

1. Finish knitting the scarf for my mom
2. Get an awesome job that i love
3. Learn how to coupon
4. Practice my Spanish
5. Start learning French
6. Travel to a foreign country i haven't visited yet - Turks and Caicos!!!
7. Write poetry/fiction
8. Make something (scarf, quilt...)
9. Take pottery classes
10. Take a class in photoshop
11. Get an apartment
12. Make artwork for the apartment
13. Visit Annapolis
14. Visit Monica in Charlottesville
15. Visit a state i haven't been to before
16. Volunteer at least 6 times
17. Read at least 12 books for fun (8 so far: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, The Missing Person's Guide to Love, Dracula, Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit)
18. Consolidate, organize, and get rid of excess stuff
19. Pay off my grad school loans
20. Lose 20 lbs (current weight: 170; goal weight: 150)