We're gonna miss this...

Inside Titou Gorge. If there are any Pirates of the Caribbean fans out there, this is the scene in Pirates II where OB and JD are getting arrows shot in the water at them from above. Does anybody know what I'm talking about?? The second picture is of us forming our single-file swim line to go through the gorge. I was our fearless leader.

Wow! So much has happened in the last week and I know I'm going to leave things out. There were SO many pictures I wanted to post, so I ended up making another slideshow for your viewing pleasures. Ryan's last day of class is next Friday!!! Then all of the tests/shelf exams start. I can't believe we will be coming home in 31 days and not returning to the island! While we are so ready to be back in the U.S. (TN, specifically), we have made so many wonderful memories here and have made many lifelong friends. Ok, let's start with the RSO Farewell Banquet. Last week we all went to dinner at a restaurant in Portsmouth to honor the spouses who are leaving the island. It was so much fun spending time with the people who have been my "support group" for the past 15 months! Friday night the Spartans played in the championship game, which they won...again! :) Ryan has really enjoyed playing football with these guys and it has been a great stress reliever for him. Saturday morning we headed to Roseau so I could finally show Ryan some of this island that he's been living on, but never really seen! We picked up some friends and went to Titou Gorge. This was my 4th time to go. As always, the water was freezing, but I must be used to it because I jumped right in and waited as the others slowly climbed into the icy water. Usually the TG is a fairly easy swim and there are a few places inside that you can touch so you can stand and catch your breath before swimming to the waterfall. Not this time! The water was much higher than usual and the current was very strong. Swimming against the current was exhausting. Add that to the fact that we couldn't touch at the first stop (where we usually can) and you've got a few panicked swimmers! Some people went back and stayed. Some people went back to catch their breath and then came back. It was a lot of fun and we carved our names on the rocks. The waterfall was so strong that you couldn't even swim to the small cave. In fact, the water was so high that the small cave was not really even there! After TG we went to Screw's Sulfur Spa to warm up and get refreshed. It was fabulous! We jumped from warm springs to hot springs and ate a lot of fresh fruit (I love guava now - never tried it until this semester). We went back to Fort Young to start getting ready for the 4th semester banquet. I loved getting dressed up! I've always liked having a reason to get dressed up, I just usually never have one here. My feet, however, were not happy with the high heels. they have become very accustomed to flip-flops every day for almost a year and a half. We took a bus ride up, up, and up into the mountains to the place where we were having the banquet. The people who planned the banquet did a wonderful job. It looked like a wedding reception with big white tents and very pretty table decorations. The food was great and they put a slide show together of our class' time on the island. They also gave out some superlatives. Ryan won "Most likely to return to Dominica for a vacation". I'm not so sure about that one, but I guess never say never! There was a DJ and lots of dancing. For the few hours we were there we completely forgot we were in Dominica. It was a wonderful night.

Last week my brother emailed me to remind me of how much I didn't like Dominica when we first moved here 15 months ago. I kept saying that I wanted to "fast-forward" through the next year and hurry up and move home. Not that I'm not glad it's time for us to move home, but I definitely am going to miss many things about our life here. Adam emailed me a few lyrics from Trace Adkins song, You're Gonna Miss This. Here are a few words:

You're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times, so take a good look around

You may not know it now, but you're gonna miss this

I have some videos from the football game that I'll try to post later. They're not posting right now for whatever reason. The picture below is of a school bus that was smashed by this tree in the big hurricane of 1979. The Dominicans parked the bus there because it was considered the safest place for it! Whoops!

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