The Portsmouth Flood

Hey everyone!

I know I have disappeared for almost a year but Semesters 3 and 4 were a lot busier than I expected so I didn't really have time to focus on updating my stories.  Now that I have officially passed all four semesters (YAY!!) Over the next month or so, I am hoping to write down some of my favorite stories from down here, including the saga of returning back from Amelia's wedding, random adventures in Roseau, and my Dominican Thanksgiving. I figured I would start the blog off again with a big bang....the story of the Portsmouth flood......

For the past week or so we have been getting lots and lots of rain.  Pretty much every day consisted of torrential, side-ways rain.  On Sunday I went to the library at 8am just like it was a normal day.  Around 10am, I received an email saying

 "Picard River has burst it's banks. Please stay inside. Moo Cow trail is covered with water."

The Picard River is the river that runs directly behind my apartment complex, which meant I wasn't going home any time soon.  This posed a slight problem because there was no water on campus, which meant not only no bathrooms but no coffee, no food,etc.  After a couple of hours the rain finally started to let up and I was able to walk home without too much of a hassle.  I came home to find my taps running with water that resembled a thick chocolate milk (definitely not drinking tap water for a while!). While I never actually lost water, some of my friends ended up being without water for 2-3 days.  I kept joking that I was going to start charging money for showers.

A cow just hanging out in the flooded area.  This shows how deep the water got!!
 (I do love that the road is called Moo Cow Trail and that is where the cow was just hanging out.) 

River that runs behind my apartment.  Normally it is a tranquil clear stream and that wall is 8 feet high with about 3 feet of bank before the stream starts. 

 

Here is the news article on the flood (http://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/environment/heavy-rain-causes-flooding-portsmouth/)

Also, as if the flood wasn't a strong enough good-bye from the island, I had a small electrical fire last night.  I was trying to fall asleep but was having difficulty doing so. This turned out to be a blessing because around 3 in the morning I started to smell something funny coming from my front room. I opened my bedroom door to see glowing from my extension cord and I heard a cracking sound.  Thankfully I was awake enough to pull the cord out of the wall and move it into the middle of the room where it couldn't catch anything else on fire.  Now I am just hoping that I make it the next week without any more big adventures.

I saw a boa constrictor!!

AHHH!!  Absolute craziness!   So there are two things I want to see during my time in Dominica. A leather-back turtle and a boa constrictor.  Today, I was able to check one of them off the list.

I was walking up to the gym to drop off my recycling, casually minding my own business.  On the walk up to campus, I walked by a small banana farm.  Now there are normally goats and cows hanging out there but today, I saw a boa constrictor!!  It was semi-hiding in the grass but I did see it!  If I had to guess, it was probably 8-feet long.  I didn't stand around for too long because I didn't want the boa to get interested in me.  I kept on walking (I treated it like the I treat the cows....give it a wide berth and just kind of ignore it).  I really wish I had my camera because it was definitely one of the most amazing things I have seen since coming to the island!

This does make me slightly worried about walking that path at night.  It would be pretty terrifying to be trudging along after studying all day and then....BAM...come face-to-face with an 8-foot long snake.  Nope, not my cup of tea.  I think I might take the long way home for a while.  Give the boa time to move on to a new home.  Also I have the boa doesn't decide my apartment complex would make a great new home.  I know it has nice gardens and all but I really don't want to have having to battle a boa constrictor for my hammock.

My worst nightmare!  Having to wrestle a boa in my apartment!  (picture link)

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Hahaha!  So you know what is the best thing about living on a tropical island?  You can come up with a great April Fools story that people believe.  I successfully tricked everyone today!  So hopefully I continued that trend by tricking you as well!

I loved how everyone reacted differently to hearing my story of seeing a giant snake.  My mom was extremely concerned for my safety,  my sister wanted to know if I took a picture, Carter wanted to know if the snake moved fast and my dad wanted to know if I had seen a parrot yet.  At least everyone believed me haha.

Well hopefully this brought a smile to your face and just remember...........APRIL FOOLS from the sunny island of Dominica!

Dominican Easter

I wrote this Friday but never got around to uploading it from my iPad. Happy Belated Easter everyone!!!
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I was walking to campus Friday morning around 8am and was shocked by how deserted the streets where! Classes didn't start until 10 so there weren't many students out and about. The main thing missing was all the "buses" on the street, the weed-wackers cutting the grass and the locals at the shacks starting to prepare our meals. Also, the IGA parking lot was absolutely empty! It was eerily quiet. (I did like the fact no one was burning their garbage though. It meant I could actually breathe when I went outside.)

It turns out that the entire island basically shuts down for the Easter weekend (including Good Friday and the "Easter Monday"). This poses a slight problem because I normally go grocery shopping Saturday morning. I didn't realize the IGA was going to be closed for so long so I am going to have to get creative with my food choices. Right now it is looking like saltines with peanut butter, some grapefruit and an avocado with have to get me through until Monday when the Subway on campus opens up again.

The worst part of not having food was having to skype my family back home. My mom is visiting my sister for Easter, so I got to hear all about their wonderful Easter brunch plans, how good the popcorn was that they were eating, how they were going to get Auntie Anne's pretzels, etc. Such torture!!!!! I think they enjoyed teasing me.

Another semi-sad thing about Dominican Easter is that they don't have any Easter candy. No chocolate bunnies, Reese's eggs or even Peeps. I was debating trying to make a Pinterest version of some of the candy but then I realize I didn't have any ingredients.

I think this lack of commercialization of Easter is why I was shocked by everything closing down. It kind of snuck up on me. I am so used to the constant easter advertising in the States. So between the lack of Easter candy in the grocery store and my isolation due to studying, I was definitely caught off guard that it was Easter time. But I ended up celebrating my drawing a mustached Easter bunny so it ended up being a good day after all.

Never Order Dominican Takeout

I wrote this last week but never got around to actually posting it.  Its my story of Dominican takeout and how I am never ordering it again.

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I have been so busy studying for the past week that I haven't had time to go to the grocery store. When I have gone, they have been pretty much out of all normal food.  No milk, no chicken breasts, no bread, no fresh vegetables, only weird canned tuna, "paw-paw" and "dasheen".  This resulted in today's very interesting food choices.

My day started off with the decision to try this canned "coffee milk" which a lot of the Dominicans use.  The can was written mostly in French with little tiny English writing.  It was on 69 cents (EC) so I decided it was worth a shot.  YUCK! Not good at all!   I put some in my coffee and it made everything taste slimey.  I looked at the can closer and saw that it was constituted skimmed milk with vegetable oil.  I had to wash it down the sink. So I wasted an entire pot of my Hazelnut coffee (my coffee maker only makes 3 cups at a time which fits in my mug).

For lunch I figured I would try the canned tuna fish I bought. It wasn't a brand I recognized but I figured it was canned tuna so it couldn't be that bad.  Just opening it up, I realized it wasn't going to be good.  The tuna was extremely dark and the texture was punky.  I still decided to give it a shot and mixed it up into a tuna salad.  One bite and I was done. Couldn't eat that one either.  

After exhausting the majority of my canned food options, I decided to try Dominican take-out for dinner.  My options were Chinese, Chinese, Chinese and some more Chinese.  There are no legitimate pizza places that I have heard of, definitely no Thai food, no burger/fry places, etc...just Chinese restaurants.  (I can't even dream of getting a salad or something with vegetables.)  I have heard from friends which places to avoid and which places serve eatable food.  I decided to go with the restaurant that I have heard the best reviews about.  I ordered General Tsos chicken because I figured that would be pretty hard to mess up, after all the places in mall food courts can serve a semi-eatable General Tsos.

My food arrived after an hour and half (faster than the two hours I expected).  I opened my chicken up and was confused at first.  It looked like they had sent me a container of maraschino cherries.  That's how pink the sauce was and how round the pieces of chicken were. I ate some of it.  It didn't taste terrible but it definitely was the strangest-tasting General Tsos chicken I have ever tried.  However, I soon realized it was a mistake to have eaten it.  Within two hours, I threw up.  Not so much fun!  Especially when I was trying to study for my exam.  So needless to say, I am never ordering Domincian Chinese takeout again.

Conversations

With the ability to watch lectures at home and the lack of study space on campus, I have been spending the majority of my time studying at home.  I will occasionally leave to go the gym, my small group session and to the grocery store but the majority of time is spent with my books or computer. My classmates are all pretty much the same...studying at home and briefly come out for their errands and meetings. We all joke that we are dating our computers because we spend so much time on them (all our lectures notes, study products, practice questions are electronic). 

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to actually have a conversation with a fellow EMS member.  Sitting up all night and talking reminded me how much I missed EMS back home.  When you are stuck with someone for an extended period of time, especially if it is during the wee hours of the morning, you learn a lot about each other.  This is how the majority of my friendships in college where made--the long and sometimes very random conversations that take place at 3am. These are the friendships that are actually meaningful, the ones that are built on an initial conversation regarding shared interests, rather than a quick friending on Facebook and subsequent likings of statuses and profile pictures.  It was a refreshing break from the constant deluge of my electronic studying!  It also made me miss those Saturday nights back at Cornell spent talking with my fellow EMSers, waiting for the "drunkies" and sharing totally random stories. 

People often wonder why emergency responders are such a close-knit family.  I believe it is because we actually talk with each other.  We know each other and this knowledge builds the trust that is absolutely essential in an emergency situation. I think this is why I love emergency medicine so much, not just the adrenaline and unexpected nature of the field, but the people.  We are a unique subset who when the time comes, will support each unconditionally.  The adrenaline definitely doesn't hurt though!

***Sorry for the lack of humor in the post!  I will try to come up with a funny one after my next exam. Thanks to everyone who is reading my blog. I am almost at 2000 views!!***

Filtering Water

Special thanks to my mom and dad for sending down an amazing water filter.  After the water situation earlier this semester, we all decided that I probably shouldn't be drinking the tap water.  Since I went to school in Ithaca, the land of extreme recycling, I did not want to keep drinking bottled water especially since Domincia doesn't recycle. (I have noticed that a lot of times, they burn their trash and don't even take to a waste facility.) So the solution...filter all my drinking water!!

You can see the difference between the dirty and clean!

It was amazing to see how much clearer the water was after filtering!  I think the hardest part is remembering to filter the water before you run out (I always like to keep a bottle cold in the fridge).  The actual filter is really easy to use.  I fill it up in my kitchen sink and then hang it from my shower head.  Within 10 minutes  I have 4 liters of freshly filtered water!

Parrot Drawing

After my exam I decided to take a drawing break.  Here is the result....

Parrot!!!!

An incredible act of humanity

One night I was watching the trailers move down my street and I heard a lot of yelling. Not only was there a lot of yelling, all the traffic police started running to the driveway across from my apartment.  I had my camera and I was videotaping the trailers so I turned the camera to the driveway.  This what I saw...

A guy had driven his car up a 2x4 onto a cinder block and was attempting to change its oil.  For some reason he left the car running and didn't put the parking brake on, which resulted in the car coming off of the cinder block and pinning him against the wall.  What the video shows is how the movers lifted the car off of the guy.

After realizing what was going on, I dropped my camera, grabbed my first aid kit and went over to see if I could help.  I was expecting some awful scene and wasn't really sure that if I could actually help but I figured it was worth a shot.  It turns out that the guy was extremely lucky, he only injured his knee.  I had a local run to the bar and grab some ice (I think everyone was surprised when I started barking orders...my crew chief training definitely took over).  I waited with the injured man until the ambulance came and took him to the hospital to get checked out.    Everyone was extremely grateful that I helped out.  I even got lots of hugs!

The whole experience was something you only read about or see on youtube.  It was so surprising to see it happen right outside my window and truly heartwarming to see how everyone ran to help.  

The Trailer Ordeal

Hey everyone!!  Sorry for the delay in making a new post, I was focusing on studying for my neuro/endo exam.  It was quite the marathon...seven weeks of material!!  The exam ended up being 170 questions and 4 hours long!  So glad it is over.  I have been meaning to write this post for a while but just haven't gotten around to it.  It tells the tale of a double-wide trailer being moved down my itty-bitty street.

I first realized something was going on outside when I heard a loud ruckus while studying.  I looked outside my window and saw the head of a tractor trailer.  Now this really surprised me because normally you don't see tractor trailer in Dominica (This might have been the first one I saw).  I had no idea why it was outside of my apartment, so of course I go out on my porch for a better look.   This is what I saw...

The Tractor Trailer

I guess the traffic police?  Not really sure...they just did a lot of yelling 

The trailer seemed to make pretty good progress until all of the sudden the "traffic police" realized it might get caught on the low hanging power lines.  (I would have thought they would have scoped out the maximum passing height for all obstacles ahead of time but I guess that's not how they do stuff down here...)  So the next picture shows their solution to the power lines...remember these are live power lines. 

Yup a guy sitting on the metal roof with his feet on a metal air-conditioner, lifting the power lines up with a piece of wood.  I guess they don't have OSHEA guidelines....

EEK! It made me so nervous.  All I could think was this guy was going to get electrocuted in front of me 

He survived! Whew.  Thank goodness

After successfully navigating the power lines, they ran into a new obstacle.  They road was not big enough.  They were stuck between the Dominican version of a "rock and a hard place" ...aka a french drain that was a foot deep and a shipping container bar (They use old shipping containers to make buildings. Pretty good recycling of resources).  

Oops they are stuck!  (Funny side note..this door leads to my old SGL room) 

 The solution was to cut the roof off the bar.  Dead serious...they procured an electric saw and cut the metal roof right off.  Didn't ask the owner or anything...just whipped out the saw and cut it off!

Beginning to saw.  

 Here is a video of them cutting the roof...

Needless to say this was an interesting experience to watch.  It would never happen back in the states.  My sister and parents got to watch by video-chat and I was entertained by a good 4 hours, watching them try to move 20 feet.  They finally got the trailer through and went along their way.  They did take down the main gate of campus in order to get the trailer onto the main part. It was kinda of like a runaway train that just knocking everything out of its way.  

I think in total they moved 3 trailers and improved a little bit with each subsequent trailer.  There was another crazy thing that happened during the trailer ordeal but that is a topic for another blog post (get excited!).  

Water Crisis

Wednesday afternoon, the water crisis started.  I had just finished drinking my second liter of water of the day (you need to stay hydrated down here) when I checked my email.  What I found made my stomach churn. A lovely (please note the sarcasm) email saying that the water was no longer potable and had been that way since the morning.  This meant that I had just drunk 2 liters of water that was contaminated by who knows what.

For the rest of the night, we got subsequent emails giving us further information about the water.  We received one email which said "do not come in contact with contaminated water under any circumstance." At this point in time, hypochondriac mode took over. I made the mistake of looking up all of the water-borne illnesses. I kept thinking that I was now infested with a parasite, or heavy metal or some other super nasty thing that has been incubating in the volcanic soil of Dominica.  Thankfully there were no actual symptoms of drinking bad water.

I hit the 24 hour mark and still no symptoms.  (Thank you for prophylactic antibiotics!  Kept my stomach all nice and happy).  On Thursday morning, I was at the IGA when it opened and bought two cases of water. I think I bought some of the last cases they had.   We received an email Thursday afternoon, which stated that after testing, the water was safe to shower in and that boiling made it safe to wash dishes with.  I have to say that boiling water for dishes is an extremely annoying, tedious process.  It made the relatively simple task of hand-washing dishes that much worse.  (Boiling the amount of water needed to wash a sink full of dishes took around an hour.)  I have a new-found appreciation for the settlers of the west and people who have to do this on a daily basis.

Now it is Friday and still no solution to the water crisis.  I talked to my maid this morning and she was upset about the situation as well.  She said that her daughters didn't have water at school and that she didn't have the extra money to buy them bottles to take with them.  I ended up giving her two of my bottles so that she would have water for her kids on Monday.   My school has provided a free ration of water for the Ross community. (We each get a 1.5L bottle and a .5L bottle).  

Truck being unloaded.  

One of the trucks with all the empty boxes. 

My 2L of water!  Now I can say I waited in line to get my rations. 

UPDATE--As soon as I got back from picking up my water, I received an email saying our water is clear to drink.  YAY!! However, I still think that I am going to drink bottled water for the weekend until the bad water runs through the system.

IGA's hot commodity!

When I first arrived back on the island two weeks ago, I needed to stock up on groceries.  So I went to the IGA.  I was met with practically empty shelves (we are talking as empty as when people raid the grocery store before a snowstorm or apocalypse).  I couldn't even find milk!  I mean any kind of milk, including fresh milk, powdered milk, reconstituted milk, and canned milk. Normally I can find the boxed reconstituted milk but not this time.

And then the word was spread by text message, facebook, and email that the IGA was getting a delivery of fresh milk!! Fresh milk is a rarity.   We get it maybe two or three times a semester. I think it is imported from Puerto Rico, which is quite the journey for a poor bottle of milk.  I was there when it the store opened at 8am.  I was able to buy a gallon of milk but other people were not so lucky.  One of my friends tried to go the next day and she didn't have any luck!  The IGA was out of milk again!

Basically here in Dominica, you have to jump at every occasion to buy food.  If you see it in the store, chances are it will not be there the next day.  You will see people buying twenty cans of tuna fish or three bottles of grape jelly.  Frozen vegetables are another popular food item (especially if it is frozen broccoli). Right now they only have frozen Okra, which I have no idea how to cook. When the store has boneless chicken breasts, I will buy 8 packages of them because that is my staple food down here.

It reminds me of the stories my mom used to tell me about my grandmother during the wars.  She would stockpile sugar and other hard to get goods.  That is exactly how I feel here.  If someone looked at my kitchen, they would think I was some survivalist because of all the food I have stockpiled. Confession--I have used survivalist blogs to figure out how to use powdered milk and how to creatively use rice and dried beans.  Of course these people were preparing for the upcoming Mayan apocalypse while I am just preparing to survive 11 more months in Dominica.  Surprisingly we have a lot in common!

This is why I was so so so excited to go into Whole Foods and Wegmans when I was back in the states.  It was amazing to not have to wonder if they would have the food I was looking for but instead just be able to walk into the store and have everything there.  

The Trip Back to Dominica for Second Semester

The flight back to Dominica was quite the experience.  Everything was alright until we reached the Antigua airport.   The airport lounge was absolutely packed, standing-room only status.  Passengers were squished shoulder-to-shoulder.  The past three times I have flown through the airport, the little "in-transit" lounge area has been relatively empty.  But this time it was pure chaos.  Four flights, including one trans-Atlantic flight, were trapped in the lounge, waiting for the airlines to announce the boarding of their flight.   What made me really nervous was that there was a trapped Liat (my airline) flight that was supposed to head to Dominica.  I was convinced we were going to have to spend the night in Antigua.

How crowded the Antigua airport was.
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Thankfully after only an hour delay, the boarding of our flight was announced. One mad dash to the plane later and I was on my way to Dominica.  While climbing the steps to board the plane, I saw my bags being placed aboard.  I was ecstatic !  I knew my bags were going to arrive in Dominica.  After all, I had seen the baggage handlers physically place them on the plane.  I sat back and relaxed, figuring everything would be smooth flowing from there.  

All of a sudden the captain told the cabin to buckle up and prepare for "a bit of bumpiness".  After saying that, the plane suddenly makes a sharp turn and the captain comes back on. He tells us that due to "extreme winds" we were not going to be able to land.  We started circling for what felt like an hour.  We went up and down, made sharp turns, and at one point, when I looked out at the water, I swear we were 30 feet above the white-cap covered ocean.  The captain comes back on again.  This time he says the dreaded words "Folks, this is our last attempt to land.  If we don't make it this time, we have to turn back to Antigua or run out of fuel." 

EEKK! I don't know what worried me the most.  The fact that I could see the runway and that we couldn't land or that we were close to having a fuel issue. I kept thinking that we were going to be a real life version of Castaway or Lost. On the final attempt, the pilot did some fancy maneuver and we got closer and closer to the runway.  The landing gear touched down and the plane kept zooming forward.  I don't think I have ever experienced a plane go this fast when it was landing.  But we made it thanks to our amazing pilot. 

Now I thought. Nothing else could go wrong.  I was on the island.  I knew my bags were on the plane with me.  I had a motion-sickness patch on, which meant I would survive the road to campus.  I even had granola bars in my checked bag, which meant I could have something for dinner. Boy, was I wrong.

We were ushered off the plane into customs.  While waiting in line to talk with the customs agent, they started placing the bags on the baggage claim.  And then they closed the door, which meant no more bags were coming.  Only 11 bags were placed on the baggage claim.  My flight had 50 people on it, the majority of which had at least one bag, if not two bags. This was not going to be good.

One of my bags made it off the flight. The Liat personnel said that they could not fully unload the plane because the plane did not have enough fuel to idle on the runway while it was being unloaded.  Since Dominica does not have any fuel, the plane had to take off right away and head for Antigua.  Liat promised that our bags would come in on the next flight. We just had to fill out some quick paperwork and then they would do the rest. 40 minutes later, my paperwork was filled out and I was headed back to campus.  

Saturday--All flights to the island were cancelled or delayed.  No bags. I am still zen at this point in time. 

Sunday--No words on my bag. I couldn't reach the airline. Still attempting to be zen. I kept telling myself that it was island time and that this is how things work on Dominica.

Monday (today)--I receive a phone call at 9am from Liat (and a call later from school) saying my bag has arrived in Dominica.  YAYYYY! Nope, not so fast.  It turns out because this was my second-checked bag, Liat felt that they were not responsible for getting the bag to me.  They wanted me to come to the airport to pick it up. (This would be at least a 5 hour trip that would probably cost me around $150 US, would make me extremely carsick, and would take me away from my studies.)  I told them that it was not possible for me to make it to the airport.  Then Liat said that they could have someone deliver it to my apartment by noon for 20EC (that is cheap!) So I headed home around 11 and waited for that knock on my door announcing that my bag arrived.

Around 6pm, my bag still had not arrived yet. Other people on my flight and people who arrived on Sunday flights had all received their bags. This was the final straw. I was no longer zen.  All I could think of was how I had wasted the majority of my day waiting for my bag to come, when I could have been doing errands and that my bag was most likely soaked because of the monsoon that was going on outside.  I called my school's housing department (This was the department arranging pickups from the airport and that had called me this morning saying my bag was in) and asked them if they knew anything.  They said they had no record of my bag and that they recommended I try calling the airline (which was closed at this point in time).

My envisioned mode of transport to the airport.
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I was beyond frustrated at this point in time. Ranting to my sister about how I was going to have to ride a cow to the airport to get my 50 pound bag (I wasn't making much sense at this point in time) and how all my Christmas gifts were somewhere lost in the Dominica hills, got a lot of my frustration out.  I decided to call the school again and ask if they had my bag. Within 5 minutes of hanging up the phone with me, I received a call saying that someone was bringing my bag over right now.  They even carried my bag up to my apartment!  The bubble-wrap and ziplock bags that I packed everything in did its job. Nothing was harmed!  

Everything worked out in the end (I just gained a few more grey hairs and another story for my blog).  After experiencing no major issues on all my previous flights, I guess Liat felt that I needed to have the true Liat experience.  (People say that Liat stands for Leave Island Any Time).

I guess I am lucky that my bags didn't end up in Europe (True story...This actually happened to one of my professors.  Dominica seems to be a very confusing destination.  My professor didn't get his bag back for months).  In retrospect, I am extremely glad that the pilot had our safety in mind while landing on Friday night.  Zen breaths got me through the experience and now I have lots of bubble wrap to use for stress relief during the semester! 

Christmas Break

Christmas break was awesome!! I got to see tons of friends from college, high school and even one from middle school!  One of the first things I did when I got back to the states was to get a peppermint mocha in the red Starbucks cups.  It was heaven! The barista had no idea why I was so excited.  I guess normal people don't get giddy over Starbucks.

So happy to get my starbucks! 

After being home for one day, I was super anxious to drive again.  So I took off for an epic 5 day roadtrip.  First stop was in Ithaca, where I got to see all of my friends still at Cornell and I got to meet with my favorite Human Ecology administrators. I even went to the December graduation ceremony as an alumni guest!

After Ithaca, I headed to NYC.  I can now check off "driving in NYC" from my bucket list.  I definitely will not be rushing to do it again.  Getting through the tunnels and onto the island was pure chaos! Now  I know why NJ and NYC drivers have such bad road rage. People are scary, scary drivers.   It also didn't help that my GPS hated me. It kept telling me to make this one turn that I couldn't make because of construction and kept rerouting me back to the original place.

Eating beef intestines. YUCK!

Then I was off to NJ to visit my epic, wonderful, amazing roomies from college.  We had tons of fun together. We went shopping, had a wine and cheese night, went to the movies and even tried some exciting food.  We went to a Korean BBQ place that had some interesting food.  I tried shrimp with their heads still on, beef intestines, and beef heart. I figured since I eat strange foods when I am in Dominica, I might as well gives these a try.

After NJ, I went to Philly to visit Amelia and Carter.  It was nice to have to the chance to catch up with them.  Also, they let me loose in Whole Foods which was dangerous! Since I had been deprived of groceries due to living on my third world island. I kept wandering around the store in awe of all the wonderful foods they had.  I behaved myself reasonably well and only bought two random things (a pomelo and egg nog).

11 types of Christmas cookies.

Once I got back to Buffalo, all the Christmas festivities started with the annual Christams cookie baking party!  My friend Krisitn and I baked 11 different kinds of cookies with help from my mom and sister.  All of them turned out delicious!

Then I took my mom Christmas shopping.  We made the mistake of going shopping at Petsmart.  Poor Sindar, my 12-year old German Shepard, received the holiday "present" of a reindeer costume.  I put him in the costume and I don't think he was amused. He lasted only long enough to have a picture taken. Thankfully after I gave him some dog treats he forgave me.