My goodness it's been a while.

I guess it's been a good 4 months since I last posted. Holy smokes! Where has the time gone? Well, not much has happened, but at the same time, quite a bit has happened.

In the category of not much happening...In my last post (back in August), I was training for Coast 2 Coast, an adventure race that consisted of running, biking and kayaking across the entire northern coast of Trinidad. I was in a 3 man team where I was going to be doing the running legs of the race. However, during the training, I was out on one of the trails that I would be running in during the actual race, and as I was coming down off a rock that was in the middle of the trail as we were going downhill. I jumped down at a slight angle to try to slow myself down and some rocks under foot came loose as I landed and I sprained my ankle pretty bad.

It was swollen for a little over a week or so and I finally went to an orthopedic doctor who took some x-rays of it. He confirmed that it wasn't broken, but it was a Type II sprain. I don't know what that means, but there there are only three types of sprain and I was in the middle. Ultimately, I had to start going to rehab and here I am, 3 months later, still with a swollen ankle and still going to rehab to try to rebuild my ankle strength.

The byproduct of this sprain has meant no ultimate frisbee, no hashing, no running (or training for the half and full marathons down here in Trinidad), no yoga, no hiking, etc. etc. etc. My days have been quite inactive, although I am slowly able to start running on a treadmill now. I'm still in physical therapy and expect to not be fully back to into all of my activities until after Christmas (at the earliest) and most likely later than that.

So what has been keeping me busy is my class load. This year I am teaching two new classes: Pre-Calculus and AP Statistics. Pre-Calculus thus far hasn't been too bad, but in the coming month or two, we will be getting into topics that I was never very fond of when I was in school. So this will be quite the challenge for me, to re-learn it and be able to make it more engaging for my students than it was for me when I was in school. AP Statistics is a very in depth statistics class, and I have been told is more in depth than most college introductory statistics classes. This too has topics that I haven't taught before, but I am really enjoying teaching this class as I find it incredibly applicable to every day life. Don't get me wrong, I also enjoy teaching my other classes as well. I think AP Stats just offers unique content and a unique challenge for me. So it stands out as far as topics and research.

The other thing that has been keeping me busy the last few months is organizing and sorting out my resume and job search. My contract is up this year so I had to get all of this together. I never planned on trying to extend my contract here. As a matter of fact, I had intended to go to some South American schools for a few years, then jump over to Europe (hopefully the UK), and then possibly head back to the states. But some of these plans changed in the last 4 months as well.

As it turns out, when I was back home this summer, Angie and I spent a little time together (and I mean a little - something like 2-3 days). And through the course of those 2-3 days and numerous phone calls and e-mails, we realized that we needed to try to move this relationship forward instead of continuing to put it on hold. So now my plans (and job searches) are focused on England. Angie just started a 3 year contract doing social work in Essex County in England, which is just outside of northeast London. I'll be trying to get into one of the international schools in England. But if that doesn't work out, I'll look to get into one of the local schools. Fortunately for me, there is a shortage of maths teachers in England right now and we are in high demand. So hopefully the job search will be a short and prosperous one. I knew that getting a maths teaching certificate was going to be useful in finding jobs. Here's one time that I actually had some good foresight.

So that's a quick nutshell of what I've been up to. Sorry for those faithful followers of my Gouda Life and who have been really bugging me to update my blog (you three know who you are) and all those other people who also check my blog regularly but haven't been as vocal to me to update. I am hopeful now that I have broken my dry spell of not writing that I will get back into the groove again. We'll see though. It's hard to write and post things when I'm not actively participating in them (Coast 2 Coast, half-marathons, etc.) but rather supporting my friends in them.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Be on the lookout for pictures and stories from my trip to the Bahamas for Thanksgiving. If you don't hear from me before then, you will definitely hear from me when I get back from that.

Oropuche and Pitch Lake

As I mentioned, I've been doing a little swimming and snorkeling since I got back to Trinidad (as well as running, hiking, yoga, and ultimate frisbee). Aaron, Katie, myself, and a few other folks from school are also training for this event called Coast to Coast. Coast to Coast is where individuals or teams, Aaron and I are a team, run, bike and kayak across the entire northern coast of Trinidad (more about that in a later post).

Neither of us have really done much kayaking in the past, so we have been looking for ways to break ourselves in. Aaron, always being the source of our many, many adventures, found an eco-tour on the south part of the "bite" of Trinidad. So off the three of us went, along with a friend from ultimate frisbee, John and his girlfriend, Anika.

We got to the southern coast around 7:30 AM and after going over some quick tips, we were off. The kayaking was just the means of going on this eco-tour, which took us down the Oropuche river, to the Oropouche Lagoon, which was kind of like a swamp. As we were heading towards the swamp, there were two paths that we could take, the easy way and the slightly more difficult, but interesting way. Not fearing a little challenge, we took the difficult way.

This path was quite scenic and also a bit foul smelling. It's down in one of the large industrial corridors of Trinidad, where a lot of mining of natural gas and oil takes place. The water was definitely not the cleanest we have seen either. But that was not the difficult part. The difficulties were that the river got very narrow and there was also a bit of overgrowth where we actually had to chop through branches to get the kayaks through. The end result was that we got to this somewhat secluded place and got to see some interesting birds. Aaron has become quite the bird watcher, and I can kind of see why. We saw some pretty cool and colorful birds - a couple were photogenic, others not so much. Katie took these two pictures.

After checking out the birds for about 20 minutes, we had to head back, as the tide was going to start rising and would cause some additional complications for our return. So on we went. Getting through the overgrowth was a bit easier, although there were some hiccups here and there. The interesting part was almost immediately after we cleared the overgrowth and the canopy that it provided, because it started to rain. Now it is rainy season here, so we shouldn't have been too surprised to be caught in the rain. But the thing that was a bit surprising was the type of rain that we were caught in. Thunder and lightening is not all that common here, at least not in the north where I live. But this was a pretty hard and steady rain with both thunder and lightening. The fact that it was lightening and that we were in a river was not really my concern. Rather the fact that I was holding an aluminum rod/paddle was.

Needless to say, our kayak back was a bit more expedient than our casual drift into the swamp. But it was without incident, which we are all pleased about. No one capsized (although there were a couple near misses). We got the kayaks loaded up on the truck and headed back to the tour guide's house to drop off the kayaks off, change clothes and went and got some food.

After lunch, we went for a short hike, to try to see some toucans, macaws and red howler monkeys, but it was too hot and none were out to be seen. We parted ways with the eco-tour guide and since we were in the south, we decided to go to the pitch lake. This is essentially a natural opening where pitch (the stuff used to make asphalt and fill cracks in roads) comes up from innards of the earth. It doesn't look like much as you look at it from a distance or as you try to take it in from a wider point of view.

But as you get closer, it actually becomes quite interesting. You can walk on it, because the outer layer has "hardened" a bit. I say that in quotes, because during the day, when the sun is out, if you stand in a spot for a minute or two, you can actually feel yourself sinking a bit. Not a lot, but you definitely leave indentations where you stood. Another really cool thing is that there is a lot of different minerals coming up in the pitch. There are sulfur pools that people soak in for healing purposes, there are spots of iron, where the pitch has a slightly redder tint to it, and there are spots where natural algae form. But all of it comes from these cracks in the pools that you can see in this picture.

These pools are sometimes shallow and sometimes very deep, depending on the cracks in them. It was very cool to be right there and be at a place where you are basically seeing the opening to the inner layers of the earth. I've been to two volcanoes before (Mt. St. Helens and one in St. Vincent - which I should post some pictures from now that I think of it), but those are such huge openings and because they are not currently active volcanoes (in the sense that lava is flowing from them) there is a lot of hardened lava/rocks and growth so it doesn't really feel like you are looking at the openings that you are.

Every once and a while, our guide at pitch lake, would direct us to not work in a particular place and tell us to follow his path because he didn't want us to fall into a weak spot. It sounds like most of the weaker spots were around the far outside edge, but better to be safe than sorry. We did find one spot where there was an opening to some actual liquified pitch, and our guide was nice enough to show us what it looked like in it's natural state.

Kind of cool, huh?

Snorkeling in Macqueripe Bay

Among the things that I have been doing to fill my time during the last couple of weeks before summer break is over is that I have been swimming and snorkeling in a small bay about 20 minutes from my house called Macqueripe Bay. Sometimes Aaron, Katie and I go here after a hike to cool off and do a few laps and sometimes we just go to see if we can see any marine life.

From what I have been told by some locals and people who have lived here for a few years, Macqueripe used to be one of the nicest beaches in northern Trinidad. It's a very small beach & bay, but as they say, size isn't everything. But then some brilliant politicians decided that it would be good to develop some of the area around Macqueripe, as long as there wasn't a lot of clear cutting of the trees around the bay. Contracts were handed out to a company and the first thing they did was clear cut a bunch of trees, which then caused a considerable amount of run off from the land into the bay, thus dirtying up the water and reducing the visibility considerably. But sometimes you get some good currents and you'll get a day with somewhat decent visibility.

Anyway, the first time that we all went to Macqueripe after we got back from our trips to the states, Aaron, Katie and I went out to snorkel and see if we could spot anything cool. Unfortunately the visibility was quite poor and my mask kept fogging up. So as it got harder and harder to see, I would have to pop my head out of the water, wash out my mask and then go back in.

One particular time, I couldn't tell if it was the visibility or my mask starting to fog up, but I came up on this really big rock that was a little fuzzy. I was about to pull my head out of the water to clear my mask, when I noticed this huge (about 5 feet wide) white thing slowly rising up from behind the rock. I stopped kicking and just froze. My heart started racing because I had no idea what it was. Then it leveled out and swam down below and in front of me and I realized that it was a spotted eagle ray. In my snorkel, I said out loud "uhlh grnnp". It's hard to talk with the snorkel in. What I actually said was "holy crap" and the noise of my grumbling voice must have startled the eagle ray and it shot off.

This is a picture of what I saw. Not a picture that I took, but one that I found on the internet. As you can see, the bottom of manta and eagle rays is all white. This is because if predators are below them, as they look up, they will blend in with the light that the sun reflects off the surface of the water. And if predators are above them, then the spots (or other patterns on the different types of rays) will blend in with the surface of the ocean floor or coral or whatever.

I can't even begin to tell you how cool it is to see this stuff in person.

End of Year One

I have officially finished my first year teaching internationally. What an incredible year it has been. I have done and experienced so much this last year that I can only imagine what the next year will bring. But the end of the year does not bring all good things. As this year wrapped up, I discovered something unique about teaching in an international school - the mobility of so many staff and students.

This is probably pretty obvious to anyone who has given it an ounce of thought. I mean, I know that I'm only going to be here for another year and then I'll be moving on as well. But what I saw on the last days of classes, was not a celebration of the coming of summer and 6 weeks of no studies, no tests and no homework. Rather it was a mourning of the loss of best friends, boyfriends and girlfriends as their families move to another part of the world.

I had three guys defy the dress code by dying their uniforms black in tribute to their friend who was moving to Rio. I had the dream couple that everyone knows and loves see their relationship go from a few miles between them, to having the entire Pacific Ocean part them. I consistently saw tears flowing in the hallways and on the last day of school, one of my most vocal, confident and outgoing male students had to leave the awards ceremony because he was having an emotional breakdown from seeing all his friends for the last time.

I also felt this a bit. While the majority of my very close friends are the ones that I started with at the beginning of the year (thus will see them again next year), one of my good friends left the country for her new job in Africa at 6:00 AM the day after the last day of school.

What this made me realize is that in an international setting like this, bonds are formed very quickly. I think everyone involved knows that we are in a mobile setting, so there is always a sort of feeling of isolation as they move from continent to continent, country to country. But having these bonds form quickly helps ease that blow a bit, even with the knowledge that the time together is limited.

I believe that everyone has a "home" that they will always identify with. Mine of course is and always will be Chicago. But I also believe that home is wherever you make it. Right now, my home is Trinidad. And as much as I love it here, I realized today that I don't think I would love it as much if my mobile "family" were not here with me.

Krav Magouda

Amongst the many, many new things that I have been trying since moving to Trinidad (hiking, yoga, ultimate frisbee, hashing, scuba diving...), I have also recently taken up Krav Maga.

Krav Maga is a self-defense technique that was started in the ghettos of Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the 1930's by a man to help protect the local Jewish community against the Nazi militia.  It has since been adapted by the Israeli military and police as the preferred method of hand-to-hand combat.  Because of the effectiveness with the military and the police, it has now spread world wide and is being taken back to it's roots to help civilians protect themselves against the unsavory elements that are found in most cities.

I have always wanted to learn a martial art for self defense, especially as I started working in schools.  I wanted to be able to know that while I have never been in a fight, if something went down at my school between some students (or by a student against me) that I would be able to protect those involved until more help could come along and get the situation settled.  I don't know if Krav Maga actually counts as a martial art, but it will definitely help in a bad situation.  The main point of Krav Maga is react to a threat, control the situation, counterattack (if necessary), and disengage from the situation - all within 3-5 seconds if possible.

I realize as I start to travel more in less developed countries, that I am a bit of a target.  While I am learning how to fight (for the sole purposes of getting away from an attacker) it has made me so much more aware of my surroundings and has started to prepare me for a possible attack.  I see the possibility for situations turning bad much easier and I'm much more aware of not putting myself in bad situations.

The great thing about Krav Maga, at least with the group that I'm learning with, is that when we learn new techniques, we are then put into fairly real situations to see how these techniques work.  I've been accidentally hit in the jaw by people in class, kicked in the junk, and I almost always come home with new cuts and scrapes.  But tonight was probably the most "real" it has ever been in class.

After we learned some techniques for breaking a choke hold that someone might put you in, we were put in a real situation, repeatedly, so we knew how it would really feel if it actually happened to us.  The situation was that someone knocked us to the ground and as we were lying on the ground, they were trying to get a choke on us while we were on our back.  We were to fight it and they were to do their best to get the choke hold on us.  Now they weren't really choking us, but they were holding our necks fairly tight, so we had to really fight to get out of the situation.

No one really got hurt, but I actually felt like what it would be like to be attacked by someone, because no one was holding back.  I have never been in a fight and I hope to keep it that way, but I'm starting to gain the confidence that I would know what to do if something did go awry and that I would get away and not become another statistic. 

Fusion 2009

This last weekend, a bunch of friends and I participated in something called Fusion 2009, which was sponsored by the Port Authority here in Port-of-Spain.  Fusion is something along the lines of an adventure race.  Adventure races are done either individually or in teams (in this case teams) and it requires multiple events and multiple disciplines (running, biking, etc.).

It all started about 2 weeks ago.  Aaron saw an ad in the paper talking about this race and sent out an e-mail to a bunch of us asking if we wanted to give it a try.  We were all intrigued, as last year's Fusion apparently started with a run where teams were tied together, followed by a 17 mile run, followed by a 2 hour hike, and finished with a quick 5k run around downtown.  That is all that we knew about Fusion and had no idea what it would be like this year, because with these races, they tell you what will happen on that leg of the race about 10 minutes before you start the leg.  So we really had not idea what we were getting into.

We did a crash course in getting ourselves ready for this by scheduling hikes, yoga, runs, and what not for the 10 days leading up to the race.  Yes, we only trained for 10 days after hearing what last year was like.  We split ourselves up into two teams based on the anticipated pace that each person would match up with and away we went.

The race started in the NE of Trinidad at 5:45 AM Saturday morning (with an informational meeting at 5:00 AM).  We stayed at a little guest house about 30 minutes away from the starting line, so to get ourselves a little breakfast, and get to the start on time, we were up by 3:30 AM.  As we were driving to the start, we literally woke up some roosters.  It was a nice payback for once.

As we were milling about the starting area, we looked around and we noticed that we were the only two teams who were not in matching uniforms.  We also noticed that we were the only ones without a lot of gear with them.  We were just a couple of rag-tag teams, thrown together at the last minute, completely unprepared for what we were about to get into, and it showed.

The first event was called "Divide and Conquer".  Every team had to split in half and send two people to a mental challenge and the other two to 'get wet'.  My team consisted of me, Nick, Charlie, and Tara (a friend of ours from ultimate frisbee who filled in for another friend at the last minute when he found out that he was going to be traveling for work.  Tara only trained with us for about 4 days.).  We decided that Tara and Charlie would do the mental challenge and Nick and I were going to do the 'wet' leg.

The whistle was blown and we were off in opposite directions.  Nick and I started running up the road and within about 5 minutes were directed into the woods, where we were immediately greeted with someone passing out life vests.  At this point I thought "oh crap!" and apparently Nick was thinking "YES!".

The trail was pretty straight...downhill.  The ground was wet from some early morning sprinkles and I slipped a handful of times.  It was a little worrisome because I really didn't want to start out with losing my balance so much.  And I'm sure that Nick was rolling his eyes as well.  We wound our way down the hill and hit a shallow river.  Fortunately this isn't anything too bad now that we've started hashing.  However, the shallow river got deeper and deeper and the life vests started to come in handy, especially if you have every tried to swim with shoes on.

We kept going, slowly passing people and we hit a checkpoint where they gave us a red rope to signify that we got to the checkpoint and told us to go back to the starting line.  So back up the river we went and up that long, steep, wet hill that was so slippery coming down.  It wasn't much easier going up either, especially with this guy who was running by us, constantly yelling at his partner, telling him to hurry up, this is what we trained for, where are you boy? etc.  The last statement was probably the most accurate, because the only people in sight were me and Nick.  Fortunately, this guy finally figured out his partner was no where to be seen and went back for him. 

Nick and I soldiered on, running down the road and as it turned out, we finished in 4th place out of everyone who went on our leg.  And then, as it turned out, Tara and Charlie were the first to finish their puzzle and second to finish their leg.  We were quite shocked that we finished so well.  All in all, this first leg took us about 1:30.

After about an hour rest, waiting for the other teams to finish, they sent everyone on their way to the next starting point, about 45 minutes away at Las Cuevas beach (actually it was on a road above the beach, but anyone looking at a map can now orient themselves a bit).

This next leg was the hard leg.  It was basically a hike up a mountain on the north coast called El Tucuche.  Apparently this mountain is the second highest peak in Trinidad, with a summit height of 3071 ft.  Giving a rough estimate that our starting point was bout 70 ft above sea level, we hiked up 3000 ft in this leg.  Now to give you some perspective, a story in a building is generally 10-12 ft.  So this would mean that we were about to hike roughly 250 stories (and it felt like it).

This leg started with a "burn" (a steep climb that makes your legs work so hard that the lactic acid buildup feels like it's burning in your legs), followed by a long climb, followed by a flat river run to a checkpoint where we would have to answer some puzzles/mind benders, followed by another burn, another shorter climb and then a 3-4 mile flat run to the end of this leg of the race.  It was not pretty and it was a little intimidating.

Since we all didn't have this great gear, like hydration packs, we had to put all our water and some trail mix into a backpack and trade off from person to person throughout the hike.  Keep in mind that unlike marathons, mini-marathons and what not, there were no water stations in this race.  You had to provide everything for yourself.  And considering that it was around 90 degrees and we were carrying water for 3 grown men, we had the odds stacked against us because someone was going to be carrying all this extra weight.  

We started out and our goal was just to keep a steady pace.  We jogged along until we got to the first burn and just kept going at a slow-to-medium pace.  We slowly passed teams and after about an hour and 15 minutes, we came across the quiz checkpoint. 

Here the questions each had a time penalty attached to them.  If you got a question wrong or skipped a question, the time penalty would be added to your finishing time.  There was one question that consisted of finding the next letter in a sequence, a logic question sorting out information about people's names, ages and places that they got playing chess and scrabble, a question about a ladder during high tide, and a fill in the blank to write out a word.  We felt very comfortable about all except the logic chess/scrabble question.  They all had 9 minute penalties and the logic chess/scrabble had a 7 minute penalty.  We thought we would spend more than 7 minutes on that question, so we just filled in an answer and were on our way.

After the questions, the burn and the steady climb were tough, but not as bad as the first burn and climb.  Then before we knew it, we were on a flat straightaway.  As we were going, we had to occasionally take 5-10 seconds to stop and look at the view, which was just incredible.  We looked out onto valleys of trees surrounded by mountains, on a clear day.  It felt like the valleys went on forever even though they were surrounded by mountains.  The colors were so rich and vivid.  I haven't seen constant shades of green like that since I arrived on the island.  The sky was cloudless and was such a rich blue.  Nick had said at one point that 'it was nearly a religious experience' and I would tend to agree with him.  I wish I had my camera with me.  Maybe I'll find the trailhead and try to hike back there some day.

So after taking the moment to take in the view, we were back on our way.  Fortunately, it remained a nice flat path and we quickly approached a bend.  As we rounded the bend, we started a slight descent.  Then before we even knew it, we heard clapping and cheering.  There had to only be 30 people waiting for us, but it sounded like a thunderous applause.  It reminded me of finishing a marathon, with the feeling of incredible accomplishment, pushing myself harder and farther than I have before.  And to top it all off, we again came in 4th place.

We went straight back to the car and were talking with Tara and Katie (she didn't run for her team on this leg) and they were shocked at how quickly we finished.  They were the ones to tell us that we finished 4th and that they had only arrived to the finish line about 30 minutes earlier (our finish time was about 2:27 minutes or there about).  

As we were chatting, we made note when the next team came across the finish line and it was more than 7 minutes after us.  So we were thinking that if the first 3 teams were not the first 3 teams from the first leg, that we would actually be in 3rd place overall.  Only time would tell.  The other teams came rolling in, some strong, some looking quite tired and weakened.  But everybody got a lot of applause, cheering and support.  It was definitely a challenge to remember.

After a bit, we were told to meet at the savannah for the final leg of the race.  This last leg would be a run around the savannah (a little more than 2 miles) and then down a few streets of Port of Spain, to finish at the port authority offices. 

As we were waiting to start, we killed the time by stretching and discussing the questions on the quiz during the second leg of the race.  The other team of my friends answered one way (the same way we originally answered - but then we changed our answer).  So now the question was who was right and who would get the time penalties.  Also, as we were waiting the organizer of the race was walking around from team to team, telling them the standings.  He didn't give out times or anything of the sort, but confirmed that we were in 4th place.  He pointed out the team that we needed to beat in this last leg if we wanted to take 3rd and also told us that 2nd place was out of the question for us.  So we set our sights on that 3rd place team.

This leg our entire team ran together and they told me that this was "my leg" since I was the road runner and that I was to bring us home.  They told me, "set the pace and we'll be there."  So that was my job - to have us finish strong, but not burn us out.

The horn was blown and we were on our way for the final leg.  We started out a couple people behind the 3rd place team and I noticed that one of their team members was already falling behind their front runners.  So I increased the pace just a bit, but not too much, knowing that we would get them in the long run.  We quickly passed their slowest person and were slowly gaining on their fast team members.  Nick kept pushing me to go faster, but I had to hold him back because I knew we would lose Charlie and Tara as well as the 3rd place team. 

About one-third of the way around the savannah, we passed the 3rd place team.  After we got to approximately the 2/3 mark, the 3rd place was no where to be seen and we were still holding strong as a team.  We rounded the savannah and started down the final stretch on the streets of POS to the finish line.  We stayed fairly close as a group and we rounded a couple corners and there was the finish line.  Nick and I turned around and started running back to make sure that we all finished together.  Charlie and Tara were with us in a matter of seconds and we all sprinted to the finish.  Our eyes were focused on the finish line and our friends and family waiting for us and our ears were filled with cheers and clapping from the crowd.

We finished 3rd out of all the teams in the race.  The 3rd place team that we had passed came across the finish line about 4-5 minutes later and now it was just a matter of whether we cut down the time difference enough to make it into 3rd place overall.

After a short bit, Aaron, Katie, Mark, and Karen came running across the finish line and they too were greeted with great fanfare from the crowds and friends and family.  We filled them in on the finish situation and we all anxiously awaited the final results.

So here we are...the moment of truth.  The race results began with Team Spirit and the the winner of the all female teams and then they started the slow countdown from 9th place on up, each of which received a prize package for their efforts.  So it comes down to the 4th place team announcement, and at 4 hours 37 minutes, the 4th place team was...The Ultimate Frisbee Players (my team).  It was kind of a bummer, but we felt like we did really well considering this was our first time.  They then announced the 3rd, 2nd and 1st place teams, all of whom received not only a trophy, but also one of those big checks like they always show on game shows and Publisher's Clearing House commercials.  How cool would it have been to actually get one of those big checks?

Anyway, as we were listening to them announce the top 3, Mark leaned over and said that if he heard correctly, we only lost by a little over 1 minute.  WHAT!?!?  That can't be!!  So after all the announcements were done and everyone was on their way, I went up to the organizer and asked him the times and he said that we finished in 4:37:57 (hrs:min:sec) and that the 3rd place team finished in 4:29:21, which was a difference of 8:36.  Ok, that wasn't as bad as 1 minute.  But wait a minute...that question from the second leg of the race that we were discussing...we got that wrong (actually both our teams got it wrong).  So that means we had a 9 minute penalty tacked on to our final time, which also means that if we did not miss that question, we would have made 3rd place by 24 seconds.  24 SECONDS!!!  Nick reminded us that there are olympic athletes are beat by fractions of a second, but I'm no olympic athlete and this was a hard pill to swallow.

So this little rag-tag group, thrown together at the last minute almost pulled off a decent upset.  We learned a lot from this experience and all of us have ranked it in the top of all experiences since we have moved here.  Next year though, watch out.  Because we're going to train hard and we'll get that big check.

Oh, and here is a picture of our 4th place prize basket.

Yes, those are boxes of Uncle Ben's rice, aluminum foil and cake mix (along with outdated warm yogurt, canned sausages, and Nutella - at least we got Nutella).

Modern Marvels

I believe that I have stated in the past that Trinidad driving is something a little different from other places.  You need nerves of steel and have to have a lightening quick reaction time to avoid potholes as wide and as deep as your tires or to avoid cars swerving into your lane to avoid potholes in their lane.  And on top of that, many of these cars are driving at excessive speeds.

With all of this also comes an incredible amount of traffic and congestion in the streets.  The rules of the road are really just guidelines.  Cars will cross into the oncoming lane, in traffic, to park on the wrong side of the street because they see a parking spot.  On streets where there is a steady flow of traffic and cars are driving along at 50 km per hour, someone will come to a complete halt, nearly causing a pileup, so another car can cross the street, even though there will be a break in traffic in a matter of seconds.

While I'm becoming adjusted to it, and just accept that this is the way that it is, there are still times when you get completely frustrated and there are times when you have to take a look at around and realize what is going on.

On May 1st, Trinidad completed what I believe is the first flyover in the country.  For folks in the states, a flyover is basically an overpass on the highway.  There is one point going from Port of Spain to San Fernando, a city south of POS, where there is always backed up traffic.  To alleviate the problem, the government started building the flyover.  I believe that it took 5-7 years to build (I have not confirmed that timeframe), but do know that it was extremely over budget and 2 years past the initial deadline.

Here is a picture of this incredible feat of modern engineering, taken from a video that I found on YouTube of someone driving on it.  That's how big a deal this is.

So some friends and I were going to a hash near Chaguanas, which is between POS and San Fernando, and we had the pleasure of driving on this new modern marvel for Trinidad.  We approached the flyover and expected to continue to zip along to our destination.  However, once we actually got on the flyover, the traffic came to a screeching halt.  

What caused this?  Well, along the shoulder, there were a string of cars pulled over with everyone out taking pictures.  And then we saw the flashing lights.  We approached a police car, which was also pulled off on the shoulder and a big black, tinted SUV stopped in the left lane.  We were all diverted into the right lane and as we passed, we saw that the police were also standing on the shoulder looking around at the view, and the SUV had a police light on the top of it, with no one in it.  

So in a nutshell, this great innovation of traffic flow was stopped so people could take pictures, including some police officers, who couldn't be bothered to pull onto the shoulder, but instead decided to park in the middle of a lane on a highway.  Only in Trinidad...