Thursday 22 January 2015

Hospitals, Police Officers, Car Accidents


Hey Everyone!

It has been awhile since I have blogged, sorry about that! There hasn't been much happening around here. I was going to post this yesterday but then I had a very eventful day today, so I just added it all together...


My friend Ashley left..boo!! :( It was fun having her around, she helped me get out and explore! On Thursday we went to Nisbet beach, I was able to get some groceries in the morning (I finally bought a broom!! A purple one too) and then I met up with Ashley later on. We had lunch there and it was very expensive, 18US for a wrap. However the wrap was AMAZING! We tried to hang out on the side where the guests go, but as soon as they saw our different towels we got booted haha. But we went to the other side of the beach and there were still chairs we could sit on, just no umbrellas. It wasn't too bad because at this beach it is quite breezy. It was nice and relaxing though. 





On Friday, we went to Pinney's Beach one last time, and it was another great day! I was planning on doing some reading there but that didn't happen. I actually went swimming! Haha, and since we went back twice in one week, a few of the locals remembered us so we got chairs for free and a few drinks! Yay :) 




This dog is named Carib, which happens to be the name of the local beer around here too. She was very sweet and hang's out at Pinney's Beach.


Ashley left by taking the water taxi again at Oualie beach, Madison came along also. There was a bit of confusion with the water taxis, apparently you have to book one in advance. I had called Daisy (cab driver on St. Kitts) the night before so she knew she was coming. We just told the water taxi people about Daisy and then it was okay. Name drop is the way to go! 

Once Ashley left I did some homework and cleaned the apartment. Kyle was studying all weekend because he had his first set of exams on Monday. Saturday night as I was binge watching Netflix, we had our first bug infestation. Flying ants attacked our screen window! It was intense! I busted out the Raid and sprayed the window. It was the weirdest thing, we haven't had bugs in our apartment at all so far, I have been doing well with cleaning. But there they were...I talked to Madison about it and she said the same thing happened to her on the same night! Crazy?!?!? She said it is there mating season and that's why they were out in full force. She also said her entire apartment complex was filled them. They haven't shown up since..weird.. haha.

So Kyle had his first set of exams! He did amazing! I am so proud of him! He got in the high 90's for his two major classes. His class had a little celebration dinner that night, I met up with his classmates later on. They were very nice and wanted to know a lot about us and how we met haha. Most of them are only 21-22, so they seemed pretty surprised to hear that we were married. Some of them didn't even know Kyle was! I guess Kyle is too busy during class to make small talk with his peers :P They didn't even know we were from Mississauga and a few of them live in Toronto too! haha. I guess I need to go to the next block party to get to know Kyle's classmates for him haha. 




He is looking sharp in his new scrubs he got! 

Yesterday, Madison and I went into town, she had some banking to do and I wanted to get out of the house. I actually felt impressed with myself because Madison hasn't spent to much time downtown yet and since Ashley was here I was able to get out a lot so I felt like I knew where I was going. We explored some shops and found this market that had so many fresh fruits and veggies! It was great to see that! We also decided to try out a Chinese Food Restaurant. It's called the "Tea House". There are several different Chinese Food places around town, so we thought we should start trying them out. Well, we won't be going back to that one again. The rice was good? Madison had sesame chicken, and she was not impressed at all. I had sweet and sour chicken and it had an interesting after taste. We sat outside to eat and the view was nice...that's about it. However, it was nice to get out and explore and not feel rushed about having to grab a bus back or rely on someone to drive us home. When it was time to go as we were waiting for a bus, someone recognized Madison from the school. His name is Ziggy and he is one of the groundskeepers. He asked if we were going back to the school and offered us a ride home. Nice guy! 


 Sweet and Sour Chicken
   View of the town from our lunch spot
This is the main square downtown Charlestown

I got back into my routine of working out and studying. Today I went grocery shopping with Madison and Daniel. I think Wednesdays are going to be our shopping day, so I am hoping to be able to budget properly for that. I splurged and bought Kyle a bag of chips for 11.99 EC! Congrats! So friends if you come visit, feel free to bring chips and cookies for us! This week Kyle has been asking who is coming next so they can bring him some snacks!

The Internet has been in and out today, and I have not been sleeping well at all this week. There is this one annoying bird that sits right outside our window at night and chirps allllllllll night. Now I love nature sounds just as much as the next guy, however this bird has no rhythm, so it's all random...and annoying. Plus we get these loud trucks that go by and find it necessary to honk as loud as possible. Hopefully I can get used to this bird. Maybe I should name him, and then I won't hate it as much lol. Suggestions welcome :) 

I have been doing a lot of cooking! While Ashley was here we made lots of great food, homemade chicken wings, steak, fajitas! I made tacos for Kyle last night and today I made my first ever homemade chicken pot pie! It was delicious! Remember when I said there should be a cookbook for 365 ways to cook chicken...well there is! My mother owns it! haha! I should have brought it with me.





Since I have started my program I was feeling slightly home sick. Shout out to my ErinoakKids friends! Miss you guys! I was able to face time with my good friend Magdalena from work. I do miss it! It was nice to be able to connect with her though. I also need to give a shout out to my friend Alecia who had her baby!! Congratulations!!! So happy for you! Thank goodness for technology! It really has made this adjustment a lot easier for me. I am starting to get used to life here, but I also still need that connection from back home (just not the weather;) ). 


Alright so here is where the fun begins: 

Today was a spouses of students lunch at Dos Gringos Mexican Grill. I got to meet a few other spouses. It was fun! The food was okay, I had a burrito, definitely, not like Burrito Boyz from back home though. The other girls were really nice, everyone was a bit shy but one girl is from Edmonton Alberta, so that's awesome. After lunch a few of us wanted to go to the beach, the Albertan has a car so she offered to drive. I quickly changed then met the girls back at Madison's apartment to a very unique surprise...Poor Madison had somehow banged up her knee very badly!!! The cut was very deep! So I quickly went into action, grabbed a first aid kit, cleaned it up a bit then put a bandage on. She wanted to go to the hospital because it didn't look good at all. You would think with all these doctors around they could helps us, but of course they were all in class. So thankfully someone had a car so I helped Madison get all of her papers and we went to go look for the hospital. Yesterday when we were getting groceries we actually drove by the hospital for the first time, so luckily I had an idea of where it was. So we started our journey. On the way, the car broke down!! Haha! Thankfully it wasn't anything serious, just the foot step on the side fell off. But only half fell off and was dragging on the road. So we pulled over trying to get the other hinge off but we're having a lot of trouble. A few people stopped to help us and one of them was able to get the bar off. #nevisnice , that's the saying I learned from Megan (Albertan). Her spouse is in Med 3, but this is her first time she is living on the island. I felt bad for the guy who helped us because he was in his dress clothes. But I was also thankful it wasn't a tire or worse. 




That long bar is what we had to rip off the car so we could keep driving! 

So we continued our journey to the hospital. We almost made it there, but the road was closed!! We had no clue what the alternate route was so we were driving around in circles trying to get to the entrance, then..of course the only police officer on the island pulled us over! Haha! We immediately said we were trying to get to the hospital, he saw Madison in the back and tried to tell us where but none of us understood him, all we got out of that was "buckle up, that's my warning" yikes! I'm sorry but my seat belt didn't work...so we got back to where the road was closed and I just had enough so I got out of the car and moved the pylon myself so the car could get through. We made it! 6 stitches later and Madison survived. No wait time, and it only cost 45EC. 



This was the waiting room. At least there was no wait time! 


She was very brave! First time ever having to get stitches! And in a foreign country nonetheless! 

Madison is also writing a blog, if you want to check it out:
madisonvue.wordpress.com
I'm sure you will get a more detailed view of how she was feeling during the whole ordeal. I thought she was very brave! No tears! I would have been a mess!!

So we all climbed back in the car and started our journey home, thinking that this day was over. ..nope! Of course we have to get into a car accident!! We were waiting to turn right onto a street and some lady backs her car right into us! We were even yelling at her to stop and her friend was too! Seriously!! Poor Madison! She was in the back trying to keep her leg straight and the car hit her side! My goodness! Luckily the damage wasn't that bad. The funny thing was when it happened a police car drove right by us, looked at the scene, then kept on driving. Haha! The lady who hit us at least told us her name and gave us her phone number. I took a picture of her licence plate too just to be safe. I don't really know how it works down here with insurance. Kyle told me that one of the only rules they have here is to file an accident report within 24 hours if you want the insurance to be able to cover it. Hopefully Megan gets it all worked out!




So to sum up, we know what the Nevis hospital is like, what the police officers are like, what it's like to get in a car accident and have your car fall apart. All in a day's work I suppose. 

I'm just glad everyone is okay, it could have been worse. And let's be honest, I'm glad I have an interesting story for my blog :) haha. It's all about the experience. I'm actually impressed with how calm I remained throughout everything. I know if this had been back home, I would have been a stress case. #islandlife 
I think that's it for now. Time to relax and watch Netflix! 

Take care everyone! 


2 comments:

  1. At first, I felt good reading about how lovely your vacation was at the beach: the good food, the Netflix binge watching, and Kyle doing great on his exams. But then, the issue with Madison’s injury and the trip to the hospital took the happiness away, and was replaced with a sense of dread. Speaking of the car accident, were you able to get any financial help from the lady who backed up on you? I hope that they at least covered the repairs for the car. But it was good that it did not further aggravate Madison’s injury, since she was sitting pretty close to where the car had it. Thanks for sharing, Beth. Keep safe!


    Sabrina Craig @ Medical Attorney NY

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sabrina!
      Thanks for reading our crazy adventures! The way the insurance works around here is very different from North America. The car my friend was driving was a rental. I told her to discuss it with the owner, and show the proof. I'm not sure what happened in the end. I doubt the lady paid any money for repairs. The cars on the island are all pretty damaged, and the car we were in was really old, that you couldn't really tell. It just blended in with all the other scratches and bumps!
      Thanks for reading!!

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