What a difference a week makes!

Last Saturday, I posted a new blog post and called it a day. That night, an online Virgin Islands newspaper did an interview with me and posted a story about my move in the VI online paper the next day. The reaction to the story has been tremendous and I have met so many people on the island responding to the blog and to the news story. It's funny how a story that would probably go completely unnoticed in the states gets so much attention here. Autograph jokes aside, it has been a pretty cool week. Actually, ever since I got here something really good has happened every single week and it made me realize that the highs in St. Croix are very high, but that also increases my expectations. This may also be caused by the vitamin D from the sun as we have almost no dreary days. So now, when something not so great happens, it becomes a very big low even if it isn't something very significant. It's all relative here. On another great note, I did find another place to get donuts here, Thomas Bakery (the other is Seaside)!

I am still going to new restaurants and seeing new things. This week, Rotary had a miniature golf outing at Divi Resort and then we all went to East End Pizza for some actually very good thin crust pizza. Then Yesterday, I went to Blue Water Terrace on the East End of the island with some friends that I was very lucky to make here who also came here from Chicago. It was a very nice way to spend brunch and the food and view was way above average. Every day that I am able to see Buck island while having a meal is a lucky day. Then today I was able to spend the day with one of my new friends from Ridge to Reef which is an organic farm on the West End of the island in Frederiksted. We went to the Renaissance Carambola Beach resort and it was such a nice way to spend the day. The water felt great and the sun was overcast so it was extremely comfortable. Even after two months, I hadn't been to this particular beach before today. We did take the "scenic" route on the back to the farm and that will be the first and last time I take the "scenic" route. It should probably be renamed the point of not return but we made it and we did see some amazing views (do not take the scenic route unless you have a giant four wheel drive vehicle, not a two door car :))!

Then, I went to the slow down dinner at Ridge to Reef and it was amazing. Most of the food was local from the farm or from other local organic farms. The food tasted delicious and I had the opportunity to meet a lot of new friends. The night ended with the Kiki and the Flaming Gypsies in front of a giant bonfire. I don't think I could have asked for a better way to end the week.

The cool thing about doing most everything outside here is that the weekends seem extremely long. By Sunday, I can hardly remember what happened on Friday and there is a very healthy feeling after breathing in fresh air and climbing sand/stairs and eating great healthy (most of the time) food.