St. Lucia!

True to form, now that I am visiting another country, I feel the urge to blog again. This afternoon I flew into Hewanorra international airport pre-sunburnt. Living in St. John, NB I've become as fanatical a weather watcher as any retiree. Any forecasted sun causes me to rearrange my week so I can be outside for those few hours - unfortunately, I only had to rearrange my week twice since February.

Having blanched to a glow-in-the-dark white this past winter I was grateful to see sun again for the few days I spent in NY this past week. It was the first time in 8 years that I'd been in NY not working for WYA as either intern or staff - it felt weird to stop by the office and be the distractor rather than the distracted. WYA invited me over for a delicious BBQ to catch up with the staff and meet the interns and it was great to see how much progress had happened over this past year - and also what hadn't changed (still problems with the air-conditioning...).

For my last day in NY Anna, Clare and I visited City Island which is the Bronx equivalent of the Hamptons. We wandered all over the island in search of imaginary dream homes and sandy beaches. We found the homes, delicious butter soaked shrimp and lots of sun - so much so that at the end of the day Anna and I looked like freshly baked lobsters. By evening I was already in pain which made carrying my backpack through the airport difficult today. It also meant that arriving to St. Lucia and easily 35 Celsius + humidity I still kept my jacket on to prevent further burning.

St. Lucia is gorgeous and honeymoon destination extraordinaire - over half the plane consisted of newlyweds. The country is gorgeous; palm trees, banana plantations, rainforest in the middle, rolling hills and of course the beaches reaching out into aquamarine water on every side! All the St. Lucians I've met so far have also been incredibly hospitable and I hope it continues, for purely selfish reasons.

Tomorrow I meet the hospital director and discover what will be expected of me during my elective here. I'll likely leave most of those details out of future blogs due to confidentiality and of course courtesy for most people who find medical stuff gross. In the meantime I'm off to sleep to the sweet sound of the loudest crickets and frogs I've ever heard.