crab cakes

8/10/10

My roommate has arrived!

8/9/10

I think I slept for 12 hours last night. I woke up, ate some breakfast and then took a 2 hour nap. I really think my body is adjusting to the heat with sleep because I have never been so tired in my life. We got cable today. 95% of the channels are in Spanish. I wonder how much TV I will be watching. Zack arrived from Austin shortly after and we went grocery shopping again. I bought some homemade cheese, beans and tortillas and I have a feeling my staple food will be some sort of burrito/quesadilla. We will probably be making fresh guacamole everyday, the avocados are DELICIOUS! We took Zack to the beach and we walked along some restaurant docks in West End. He is also a ginger so we look like brother and sister. Tomorrow starts orientation!! WOOT.

8/8/10

11:45pm - Finish packing and weighing my enormous luggage with my mom and sisters, both of which are over the 50 lb limit. Fail.

12:00am - Cell phone is cut off. I am overcome with a sense of exciting terror as I realize that I will not be able to send or receive text messages for the next year. WHAT!?!

12:27 - Sarah and I have a difficult time falling asleep because we are too busy laughing about how Dad attempted the "just dance" Wii game at my going away party. Pictures ARE posted on facebook.

12:30 - Brother sneaks into the house.

12:45 - Set my alarm for 2:45am.

2:45 - Cyclone remix ringtone alarm clock blares. I roll out of bed.

3:40 - Leave for airport, Mom considered wearing her bathrobe.

4:10 - Wait in ridiculously long Continental check baggage line.

4:45 - Haggle with extremely helpful employee about the fees we are about to be charged for my luggage weighing over 50 lbs.

4:46 - Give up. Pay fee. Employee calls me "high maintenance." Interesting.

5:15 - See cute pilot in security line.

5:23 - Can't lift my carry on bag onto the conveyor belt. Note: Start working out again.

6:00 - Board extremely small sketchy plane to Houston.

6:12 - Pilot decides to test my stomach by taking a nosedive after take off. What a weiner. Lights flicker, I thought the oxygen masks were going to be released. Almost had to change my pants.

6:30 - Pass out on window, drool on my shirt. What's new.

7:45 - Meet an amazing couple on subway to the Roatan gate. They know all of the schools on the mainland. Small world. They pray over me as we part ways. God is GOOD.

7:46 - Saw 4 large men with cowboy hats on. I guess Texas really does have cowboys.

8:00 - Find Erin Payne at the terminal. JOY!

8:30 - Find Kelly Swope at the terminal. DOUBLE JOY!

8:31 - SO MANY HUGS.

9:14 - Leave Harrison a ridiculous voicemail.

10:00 - Board flight to Roatan!!!! Excitement and pure exhaustion just exuding from the 3 of us.

This island is absolutely gorgeous. I was able to capture some shots from the plane flying in. It reminds me a lot of Guatemala and Belize with the rolling green hills and rainforest like flora. Nina and her husband Jamie were waiting patiently as we arrived at the Roatan airport. We each gave them at least 3 hugs before we made the struggle with all of our heavy luggage to the van. We decided on a traditional Wendy's lunch and I have never felt so inadequate trying to order a grilled chicken sandwich. Kelly is fluent in Spanish and Jamie doesn't speak a lick of english so it was a lunch filled with awe as Nina translated for Erin and I. Fact: I will learn the spanish language.

Our "luxury" apartments are absolutely stunning. Newly built, they sit in somewhat of a dirt culdesac at the end of a gravel road in Sandy Bay. We unloaded our groceries, took some cat naps and decided to walk to the beach to watch the sunset. We jumped in the Caribbean waters with our clothes on, naturally. It was glorious. The walk back home? Not so much. Note to self: Wear a head lamp. We got locked out of our barbed wire fence gate that surrounds our "complex" (which, was staple gunned closed) so we did some shimmying under the wires. Good thing I am a limbo enthusiast.

First cold shower? CHECK.