Of course the night before we left we had a million things to do and still had to finish packing the 3 large suitcases we were flying with personally. We had previously sent 4 suitcases with my dad to give to people that would be flying with us whom we met up with in a plane in Houston. 

So we were up very late, trying to play jinga with our belongings that we would need in the following week, as the 4 other suitcases would be sitting on a charter in Florida for a week before coming to the island.

Started out very early with a family trip to Bush. Rog-dad had to stop for kollatchies (some kind of pastry) at 4:45am. We made it to Bush and had the nice experience of checking in large bags, thankfully we were First class so we had 20 extra pounds per bag, thank god. 

Florida terminal was small, which was a precursor to the next.  We hung out in the bar for 3+ hours, made some last minute stateside phone calls, played gin. Then we got on the SMALLEST plane I have ever been in! they had to take the last 3 seats out of the back due to all the luggage we had. It was the 4 of us and 1 ex-pat, who happened to be bringing back a trombone?!?!  We had to load the plane according to weight and size. And the co-pilot was in TRAINING!!! Oh yay!

I have told some of this story in one of my first blogs but I believe that was more about Greenwood and not the trip over here.

So I have to sit next to the door hatch and not in the seat next to window for weight balance. So I was unable to see a lot of the islands on the long 1.5 hour flight. However, I did get to experience turbulence and discovered why the ceiling was padded! Not to scare anyone off from flying direct Florida-Cat.

We land and load up in a brand new truck. First stop at the food store to get beers. Then we meet the owner of fuel station, Jaccion. Just past his station is a beach front in Old Bight, a beautiful scenery. Then we make our way to a bar. Now mind you the truck bed is overflowing with luggage and the  cabin of truck is loaded with carryons with laptops, cameras and money. And we leave it all just hanging out, windows down, walk past a few folks hanging around outside and head indoors.

All my California instincts are screaming that this is wrong, you can’t just walk away from this truck!!  Basically I am freaking out at this point, culture shock has set in fully. I cannot relax.  I am beginning to think we are at the end of the world. We are just half way to our destination by this time.

My mind is in overdrive. I can’t get a land grip on anything we are driving past. Then we come to the round-a-bout, wth is this? I get so turned around at this point that I start to panic all over again. It looks as if we are driving to no-man’s land on this small island, all I see is bush and more bush.  We have landed in another world. What did we get ourselves into?

Turns out- the best thing we could have ever done.

Sure there were many bumps along the way, a month I don’t care to recall or think about. Many Island lessons to be learned, and still learning. A great number of new lifelong friends have been made. We have learned to work on a large project while guiding operators on heavy equipment.  The art of fishing while trolling has definitely played a large part of Cdubs life and mine in the smaller format i.e. I clean the boat, But I can help out in the cockpit. I have taught Cdub how to play/ learn the rules of tennis this past year, we have not had the chance to play much in the past 2 months but we will.

I have definitely learned how to relax and to calm down and not let the little things get to me. Once removed from the city everything changes. For example, no more rush hour traffic, picking up dry cleaning, working the 8-5, cramming in as much face time with your partner before the next day of work grind, living for Friday afternoon, dealing with co-workers on daily basis, spending $ on trivial things, i.e. coffee, lunch.

There is a flip side to all of this, I DO miss a lot about living in a city. This list could go on forever, but a few pop to mind, FOOD, would kill to have crepe from crepe’s a go-go in the Dub-c, movies, live music, culture i.e. museums, close friends, convenience of many things, like contact solution, shampoo, band-aids, chocolate and being able to run out and replace a pair of flip flops that just broke.

I had a ridiculous list a few months ago, wont bore you with that but it was good and eye opening. Stuff you don’t think about, take for granted, we can’t even begin to get over here, not even from Nassau. 

And you can forget about getting a pedicure or a haircut while here. I have adjusted, i.e. get hair cut ever 3+ months, ya go short to cope with this, and toes, well get a pedi when ya can and then try to maintain or just go natural. I know scary huh?

I would not trade this for anything in the world. We are living in a beautiful remote place, have an amazing job and experience to go with it, have made incredible friends and grown in general. This was a huge leap of faith for the both of us and we have learned so much about each other and our selves.