Carnival Food Fair

Today was the Carnival Food Fair. I spent a good two hours wandering among the booths and tables. Even though I've tried tons of new food since we moved here, I tasted many, many things for the first time today! I wandered down to the food fair with some people from work. Shortly after I got there I called Dave and told him the fair was just as exciting and interesting and that he should come down to enjoy as well. One of the big draws of the Food Fair for Virgin Islanders is the opportunity to see old friends who have moved away from the islands who always come back for Carnival. The Food Fair turns into a reunion of sorts. Here I am with the magistrate judge's law clerk, my friend Monica.

While waiting for Dave, my boss bought a saltfish cake for me to try. (I'm holding a bit of it in the above photo.) For those of you who have visited us, it is similar to a salmon ball. Basically it's saltfish turned into a lightly fried ball of food. It had a little spice to it, and when Dave tried one after he arrived he observed that saltfish is usually the most spicy local food. It was very good and flavorful. Dave had two more saltfish cakes, sampling them from different food booths to see how different cooks make it. I was told there were over 200 booths or tables. We definitely didn't get to all of them, but we sampled a good amount of food from many of them.

I bought some stewed tamarind preserves and stewed gooseberry preserves. This is one of those things that you have to buy from the right person. Luckily, everyone I work with told me to go to the same person - Ms. Henley. At this same booth I got a piece of hard lemon candy too. I have no idea what it's called, but it is good! I also enjoyed a banana sea moss drink this afternoon. Someone had told me sea moss is supposed to enhance male potency, but it was the only frozen drink for sale that I'd never had before that sounded interesting, so I tried it anyway. It tasted a little like a banana milkshake. Dave had a taste once he arrived and said it tasted like pancake batter. I also had a sip of my coclerk's sugar cane juice, which tasted a lot like sugar water to me, but it was good. One other beverage I tasted was some homemade mango wine. It tasted a lot like pureed mango with some seriously strong liquor. I didn't buy any!

After Dave arrived, we went back for the saltfish cakes to be our real lunch. We purchased some cassava bread from the same booth. Dave tells me it's a staple in some South American countries. It was very flat and dry. I think it'd be good with some jam. It didn't have a whole lot of flavor, and it's pretty pricey. But now we can say we've had it! After dinner tonight I tried a bit of the tamarind preserves on the cassava bread - the preserves are yummy and help the cassava bread. We ate our lunch in the shade near the post office where the Rising Stars Steel Orchestra was playing on their two story "float" again. (Yes, the band is made up of school-aged children, but there is no school Wednesday through Friday this week, in celebration of Carnival.)

We also bought "potato pudding". Really it's sweet potato pudding and it's more similar to bread pudding than a creamy pudding. It's dense but good, and we've got some leftover. My favorite new dessert that I tried today though was a tamarind ball. We found a place selling huge tamarind balls for $1 each. The seller described them as hot but not too spicy. It's got some very good flavor; it's tart but it also has little kick. There are seeds from the tamarind in the ball though, but lots of seeds, so it's obvious they use a lot of tamarind in them. I'd actually tasted it before in a small package we bought at the grocery store, but they were nowhere near as good. The ones at the fair were fresh and flavorful. I hope I don't have to wait until next year to get another one!

If you remember, last holiday season, I posted the V.I. version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. On the eleventh day, the song goes "my woman gave to me, eleven benya." Today I asked what something was, expecting "banana fritter" to be the answer, but the answer was "benya!" Of course I had to buy that too. It tastes a lot like a banana fritter but it had raisins in it too, and it was a little more bread-like, and less fried. I just had a little nibble though as I was getting pretty full.

Actually, it wasn't too long before I had acquired a decent sized collection of barely-eaten food that Dave and I had tried during the day. I brought it all home though so we can continue nibbling and tasting over the next few days. Did I mention the banana and pumpkin fritters? Usually banana fritters are my favorite and I just can't get enough of them. Well, this time the pumpkin fritters won hands down. A few hours after I went back to my office, I heard that one booth had the best conch ever and it was dirt cheap. So my coclerks and I headed back to get a taste of that and some more pumpkin fritters. It was too late though - both were long gone. We had first arrived at the food fair just before 10:30 a.m. so we hadn't had that problem during our first round. But now we know for next year - be sure to get everything you want early before the cooks sell out!


The Food Fair isn't just about food - there are lots of local arts and crafts as well. Lots of people were selling sandals, scented candles, shirts, hats, and jewelry of all sorts. One of my coworker's mother makes and sells dolls in traditional dress. The mother was at the fair wearing the same traditional dress as her dolls.

All in all, the Food Fair definitely lived up to my expectations. It was a really fun day. I just wish it lasted through all of Carnival instead of just for one day. It's tough to make choices about what to eat. We didn't make choices - we just bought it all!

Well, tomorrow is J'ouvert, so we have to get to bed early. The J'ouvert Warm-Up starts at 12:30 a.m.!!! J'ouvert itself begins at 4:00 a.m., but Dave and I don't plan on making our appearance until around 6:00. I've been informed it'll last until around 10:00 a.m., so I'm hoping that's true. The non-stop weeklong party continues ....

Carnival Village Opening

The Carnival Village officially opened on Monday. The Village is basically like a carnival fairgrounds. There are rides for the kids and a couple of game booths like at your standard fair. There is a huge bandstand as well. Last night they had lots of VIPs on the bandstand for the opening of the Village, and many of them spoke, including the Lieutenant Governor and the Carnival Queen and Princess. The Village is dedicated to Nick "Daddy" Friday - the late Jam Band leader who passed away last fall. Jam Band is a very influential band in the Virgin Islands. The band performed last night at the Village but it was past our bedtime. We did hear the All Stars Steel Band playing though before the ceremonies. We heard the U.S. national anthem and then V.I. national anthem for the first time (both steel drum renditions, of course). The anthems were followed by a prayer which included thanking the lord for women and the pageant contestants.

The most important part of the Village includes the 30-some food and drink booths. Together with the band stand, they form a big square around the majority of the parking lot - leaving the center open for dancing, singing, chatting, walking, etc. (The carnival rides and games are outside of this area.) Today's paper has a summary of all the booths and what their specialties are. Over the weekend I saw quite a few of the booths being setup and painted. There was a contest to see which booth could best represent the theme of Friday's Roadmarch Kingdom. According to the Daily News, "Top Secret, Booth No. 11, was judged best booth for its intricate painting by Pinto of Friday at J'ouvert commanding packed streets of revelers ...."


We ate dinner at the Village, eating at Booth 28, which is run by the same family that owns the beauty shop where I got my hair done. The family is known for making good food. (Some of them were cooks for the christening party we went to last fall.) We split a turkey pate and then went back later for a saltfish pate. Very, very good, and quite filling for the $2 or $3 each. Here's a photo of Dave enjoying a pate in front of the booth.



Wondering what other types of food we can find in the Village? Here's an idea of some of the foods we can find at the booths this week: kallaloo, chicken wings, pelau, saltfish, pigtail, whelks, dove pork, corn pork, conch, mutton, flying fish, green bananas, stuffed shellfish, tacos, roti, conch soup, salmon balls, dumplings, macaroni, red peas soup, stewed oxtail and wings, souse, curry chicken, goat water, chicken soup, pasteles (although the booth that is rumored to have these denies it. I'm hoping someone's got them!), quesadillas, potato stuffing, conch chowder, souse, roast pork, tamarind balls, peas and rice, bull foot soup, and my personal favorite - Johnny Cakes! The photo to the left is of a woman at the Barbados Association booth rolling out the dough for johnny cakes. I had to wait awhile to get my johnny cake, but it was hot and fresh. Definitely worth it!


All the booths have their own liquor too. Mostly it looked like the same stuff we've seen everywhere else. But a few of the booths have specialties, like coquito. Local non-alcoholic drinks include soursop, passion fruit, maubi, sea moss, golden apple and peanut. We tried maubi for the first time. It was a little too bitter for my tastes - although I was eating cotton candy at the time... The coquito I tasted today at lunchtime - it's like Ponche Kube - a creamy, milky liqueur that is popular around Christmas - similar to eggnog. After work I had a drink of pineapple juice with pineapple rum, not bad!


Today I went to the Village twice - for lunch and dinner. I had planned on not eating there at all today, so that I won't gain 5 pounds this week before the Carnival Mile race on Saturday. But, peer pressure prevailed. Everyone at work was going over there and convinced me "Carnival is only once a year!" For lunch I got conch from the National Guard's booth - which has a reputation for tasty food. (It's all about knowing who's got the good food!) Here's a photo of the crowd in front of the Barbados Association's booth. Everyone is eagerly waiting for their famous flying fish at just $2.50 a piece. Believe it or not, one of my coworkers in this photo waited about 45 minutes for his flying fish before giving up. We'd heard the wait was an hour long, but it just doesn't look it. . . . Unless you've noticed how lines can move at island-time paces... Dave really wants to try some flying fish, but so far when we've gone to the Village together, they've been closed or so far behind in orders (over 100 fish orders) that they're not taking any new ones. For dinner, Dave and I split whelks (sea snail) with potato stuffing, fungi, some veggies, and pumpkin rice. The pumpkin rice was mostly rice with a tinsy bit of pumpkin mixed in. The idea sounds good but I'd make it with more pumpkin! Dave also had a saltfish pate from a different booth. I think #28's pates are my favorite still! The dough is so good, it's almost like a stuffed johnny cake.

Tonight we saw the Pre-Teen Tramp where school aged children get to join in the festivities with dancing and bouncing in the streets. The Rising Stars Steel Orchestra played on Main Street. We thought there was some sort of parade since we'd heard they'd go from Market Square to the Village (about 3/4 of a mile). But we didn't see any parade coming along, so we walked along Main Street towards Market Square and found them. The steel band was setup on a double deck float of sorts. They were moving, but so slowly that I didn't even notice the movement at first. They were super loud and sounded great. Behind them we saw some kids dancing and bouncing, and then there was a much smaller truck with some equally loud quelbe music being played and amplified with speakers. A couple hours after the pre-teen tramp is the senior citizens quelbe tramp, but we were partied out before then. Quelbe is made with instruments like the triangle, ukulele and guiro (made from a go squash). The only group I've heard that was labeled as quelbe (Ten Sleepless Knights) also included singing that seemed a bit frantic to me. It's a similar pace to calypso music, I think.

Tomorrow is the eagerly anticipated Food Fair! I'm very excited about it. Over 200 tables will be setup with everyone selling food or crafts! The local government's carnival vacation starts tomorrow at noon, so I plan on being at the fair well before then to get my share before it gets crowded!

Braids and Carnival Preview

Yesterday morning I got my hair braided! Monica, my friend from work, gets her hair braided a few times a year. Of course, most West Indians have wonderful hair that lets them keep the braids in for months at a time sometimes! She suggested I go to her salon and she called them to say she was sending me. She told them they'd know me when I walked in, and they did!

Getting hair braided can be an all day activity and it starts mighty early. I got there at 7, as instructed, though on Saturdays it's a first-come, first-serve. Lucky for me, since I wasn't getting hair extensions put in (I think I was the only one), someone took me out of order and it started around 9am. My braiding took until 1pm! Wow, it took a long time. It's a very tedious job. I've got 65 braids in my hair!


I really like how it looks and that first thing in the morning, it already looks nice. It's also a big help to keep my hair off my face because it's definitely summer again. It was a bargain price-wise, but i'm not sure if I can endure sitting still for four hours again if I want to do it again sometime. One of the women was super nice and told me all these great things to do this week during Carnival.



This year's Carnival theme is Glamour and Glitz in 2006. Last night was the end of pre-Carnival calypso activities which started about a week ago. Calypso is Caribbean-style music with satirical lyrics. A lot of politics and commentary on local events. A bunch of calypso singers from all over the Caribbean performed at the stadium but we went to bed early and missed it. This is a week of lots of late night activities! Earlier in the week they had the younger calypso players. The Carnival Queen was chosen (I assume the King too?). Also the King and Queen of the Band were selected. I'm not entirely sure what that is, but the pictures of the winners on the front page of the newspaper were amazing - very glamourous and glitzy. (Click on the links above for photos.) Carnival Princess was chosen two weeks ago, and I know a Carnival Prince contest exists but I don't know when it was/is. Yes, the Virgin Islanders love pageants!

Tonight is the Steel Band Jamboree. Tomorrow at 5pm is the official opening of the Carnival Village. The Village is located in the large public parking lot somewhat close to where I work. Since the parking lot is in use, people have to park anywhere they can. Lucky for us, my spot at work is a prime place for the carnival happenings. Wednesday is the Food Fair. Wednesday night/Thursday morning is Jouvert (music parade). Friday is Children's Parade (and a holiday for the court!). Saturday morning is the Carnival Mile running race, followed by the Adult Parade. As we experience these for the first time, we'll post photos and explanations!

St. John Practice Swim

Over Memorial Day weekend, the Beach-to-Beach Power Swim Race is taking place on St. John. The race includes three different distances to choose from - each has the swimmer finishing at a different beach (all on St. John). All swimmers start at Maho Bay. One mile swimmers finish at Cinnamon Bay - the first beach to the west of Maho. Intermediate distance swimmers finish their 2.25 mile swim at Trunk Bay. Long course swimmers complete 3.5 miles at Hawksnest Beach. The race is sponsored by the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park, among others.

This morning Dave and I participated in a practice swim, which was the one mile course. I'd called the Friends of the VI National Park earlier in the week to find out more information about the practice, after seeing a blurb about it in the paper. They told us to take the 6:30 a.m. ferry from St. Thomas and offered to pick us up at the ferry in St. John. The race organizer also offered to let swimmers place backpacks, shoes, etc, in his car which he'd drive over to Cinnamon for us.

So this morning, a fellow swimmer picked us up around 7 a.m. along with one other St. Thomas swimmer. Along the long, windy, steep road to Maho, we saw a biker and a runner. The biker ended up showing up for the swim. She's about our age and has never swam much but is interested in doing the St. John triathlon so she figured she should start. She gave me some tips on getting a bike here and I gave her some open water swimming tips.

There were three kayakers along the way for support, and they asked us to buddy-up for the swim. For the record, Dave and I both left our buddies behind. oops! so don't trust us as buddies in the future I guess... Chelsea (the biker-swimmer) asked if she could buddy with us, but I knew I couldn't keep up with Dave so he found another swimmer by looking for someone who planned to finish in about 30 minutes. Right after we started, it was clear that Chelsea and I were at very different paces. Lucky for me, an older guy (Bryce from St. Thomas too) wasn't very far ahead of us (at the very end of the pack) and seemed about the same pace as Chelsea. So, after arranging it with the two of them, they became buddies and I went solo. It was a fairly easy swim, just some mild swells as I rounded the point between the beaches. After I finished - in 34 minutes - I swam back to see how Chelsea was enjoying her first open water swim. Dave had finished first in 26 minutes. But this wasn't a race, right?

St. John is quite different from St. Thomas. There is a lot more open space because so much of the island is National Park. People are also a bit more friendly, probably in part because so few people live on the island that they see each other all the time. Everyone seems to either hitchhike a lot or give rides a lot. That was evident when the race director was heading out of Cinnamon with 3 swimmers sitting on the tailgate as he said to the four of us from St. Thomas, "You're all good to get back to Cruz Bay? I'm sure you can hitch a ride." We started to walk back towards Cruz Bay (the town where the ferry is) and within 5 minutes someone came along and offered us a ride. She'd actually been one of the kayakers for our practice swim. She's usually stationed at the last beach for the race, so she told us a little about what it's like at the end too.

The swim this morning didn't seem that long to me, but we did have the current working with us. It was a decent workout though and it made us hungry! After getting back to St. Thomas, we felt it only appropriate to gorge ourselves at one of the resort champagne Sunday brunches. After various difficulties (some of the resorts apparently don't do Sunday brunch in the off-season!), we ended up at the Marriott where we ate lots of fruit, salads, omelettes, waffles, key lime pie and other delectables. They even had a whole roasted pig! Strangely, they also had plantains available but they were labeled as sweet potatoes. Maybe they think some visitors to our islands don't like new foods? Dave had soursop juice along with the champagne but other than that, this brunch was a fairly standard one you could have anywhere in the states. For anyone keeping track, the Ritz sunday brunch is our favorite, followed by the Marriott. The Ritz regular brunch is highly ranked as well - for me it's about the same as the Marriott. Best Western is on the bottom, even though it includes our favorite steel pan player, Aben Marrero, the food just isn't quite as good.

Carnival officially kicks off tomorrow, though various events have already taken place. Expect a few more posts soon about the festivities!

British Virgin Islands Trip

On March 13, we went on a tour to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) with Limnos Charters. We boarded a fairly good sized boat (53' catamaran) along with about 45 other people and then went to St. John to pick up a few more passengers. Then we headed to the BVI. The captain took us north of St. John and south of Tortola (BVI). We went all the way to Virgin Gorda - one of the furthest BVIs - to see the famous Baths.

The Baths are a British National Park. It's an area along the beach filled with huge boulders. There are lots of "rooms" and pools created by the boulders. Here's a picture of Dave and me in the largest cavern, called the Cathedral. We walked along a trail of sorts squeezing between boulders and practically crawling in some places. (It was great for us claustrophobes, right Dad?) Eventually we came out to a large open area with a beach and more boulders. We swam around there for a little while. I liked snorkeling there and thought the coral attached to the boulders was pretty interesting. I swam between two boulders but after I went through it I decided it was probably safer not to do it again because they were pretty close to each other and the currant was a little unpredictable. The photo below is of Mom, Dave and me.

After our visit at the Baths, we got back on the boat to go to Norman Island, another BVI. It was a pretty day for sailing and it was fun standing on the top deck feeling the warm sun and nice breeze while passing the various islands. (It was especially enjoyable because I took the day off work for the trip!) Along the way, we ate lunch and enjoyed the open bar. Rum punch was a popular choice. The crew told us about the islands we were passing, but I don't remember the details other than some pirate left some people on one of the islands with just rum and guns - must have been Dead Chest Island (from the story of Dead Man's Chest). Legend has it that Norman Island is the island written about in Treasure Island.

At Norman Island, we jumped off the back of the boat for snorkeling. Norman Island is home to Norman Caves (coincidence?). Dave, Dad and I swam to the various caves and explored a little. Mom stayed on the boat to guard our fair share of the rum. (Thanks, Mom!) Some of the caves had purple coral in them. The water was fairly shallow inside the caves, but outside the caves it was pretty deep. Dave practiced his free diving a little bit and would point out various creatures to me, and sometimes he'd bring them up from the bottom for me to see. (Don't worry, he puts them back.) In the photo below you can see one of the caves.

After Norman Caves, we headed back to St. John to go through customs. For some reason they require boats returning to the US to go to St. John before continuing on to St. Thomas. Along the way, I got to drive the boat. All the kids did! I was the oldest kid though.... We had a really good time and got to see a lot of the BVI in one day. We even had energy left to go out to dinner for my parents' anniversary. If you come visit, you too can go on the BVI day trip and see these neat things too!

Whale Watching and Black Cake

One of the great things about living in a small place is there are two small airlines that serve as the main way to commute between St. Thomas and St. Croix. A few people in the court work on both islands, like the main librarian. So they fly to the other island a few times a week. Most use the Seaplane (Seabourne Airlines0 but one uses Cape Air and he can show up 5 minutes before the flight is scheduled to take off and they save his seat for him and he just walks on the plane, even though check-in is theoretically 30 minutes ahead. The Seaplane workers are a little more strict, but check-in is 45 minutes with them and 30 is usually fine. There is no security to get through either.

About a month ago I went to St. Croix for the day on the Seaplane (for work). I was told that recently passengers had spotted whales migrating through the channel between St. Croix and St. Thomas. Now, on a normal airline, they'd let the passengers know just so you'd have something to look for during the 20 minute flight. On the Seaplane though, it's a group effort. If someone sees a whale, they're supposed to notify the pilots who will then circle around so everyone can see it! Also, they'll even fly lower - at 500 feet - if passengers (or the pilots) want to whale watch. (They also fly low if there is a scuba diver on board, to help her avoid decompression sickness.)

I'm heading to St Croix on Monday for a few days, but it seems like whale watching season is over here. But, they've always got tasty food on St. Croix, so the trip should be exciting even without whales. Speaking of tasty food, one popular item here is Black Cake. It's served for special occasions like weddings. Since my parents had their 35th anniversary while they were here, I picked one up for them when I was on St. Croix the week before. Why St. Croix? Because I asked someone where to get the best black cake, and the answer was from a specific woman on St. Croix. It is a very dense cake, and yes, it's black. It's made with rum and dried fruit (currants, figs, cherries, etc), but there are no fruit chunks in the cake as the fruit is blended. Everything soaks in the rum for awhile - sometimes a day, sometimes a month. The cake is heavy and rich, so just a few bites is plenty, and a glass of milk is helpful too.

Transfer Day

Friday was Transfer Day - a local holiday celebrating the transfer of the Virgin Islands from Denmark to the United States. The transfer took place on March 31, 1917. By next year - the 90th anniversary, the local government hopes to have a Transfer Day monument. This year there were a number of celebrations around the territory - speakers, singers, bands, and dancers. But it's one of those local holidays that the federal employees don't get as a vacation day, and I was a bit busy at work so I missed it all. We'll make an effort next year since it seems celebrations will be even bigger!

To celebrate transfer day on the blog, I thought I'd point out a few random factoids about living here that make it different from the U.S., even though we were transferred to be a part of the U.S..... Some of them we may have pointed out before, but they are worth repeating. [Most of the links in this post point to articles in the V.I. Daily News.]

• The Quaker Oats we buy at one store curiously says "Made for Export Sale Outside of the United States Only"
• Road names here don't exist for the most part. Construction just began in front of the federal building and you should have heard the discussions while people were trying to explain the detours. Some of the roads would now be one-way roads only. See, people use their own names for roads, so on multiple occasions I heard "Droningens Gade? i thought the road behind Veterans was called Norre Gade?"
• Speaking of construction, there are pot holes all over the roads. Everyone just drives around them, so it's good to know where they are, as it helps to know when on-coming traffic might swerve into your lane.
• Speaking of driving here.. Our roads are steep and narrow. After picking up Dave's parents at the airport and bringing them to our house for the first time, as Dave turned from the main road onto our road, the road drops down the steep hill quickly. Dave's dad thought we'd driven off a cliff. On a similar note, our driveway is a loop, with the ingress is uphill and the egress is a steep downhill. At least once the ingress was blocked and I couldn't get the car up the egress. It definitely couldn't be done with more than two people in the car.
• Passing someone over double yellow lines is a common activity. All the roads that have a painted line in the middle have a double yellow. Before I moved here, I'd done it maybe two or three times in my life. I probably do it two or three times a week here. You have to be careful though when passing the big trucks!
• Drivers frequently stop in the road to talk to a pedestrian or another driver they recognize. Since the roads are narrow, there is no point in pulling over, as noone could get by. Cars behind the chatty driver either sit patiently - really, no honking - or if the opportunity is available, crossing the double yellow of course.
• St. Thomas only has one movie theatre. The good news is you can just call one place or look one their website and that's all your options. No endless decisions or paging through options on movies.com. And the website even has some movie reviews. I like to pretend i can read spanish and try to choose a movie based on which one has the most "buena"s in the reviews.
• We have our own olympics teams, but only one representative in the 2006 winter olympics - Grandma Luge!
• Not even the locals plan to visit the doctors here. Locals seem to use doctors here just for when they suddenly get sick. Planned visits or checkups are done on Puerto Rico or Florida, or in the states while visiting people.
• Why do the chickens cross the road? I don't know but I see them do it all the time. Chickens and roosters are everywhere. That's why we give our guests earplugs...
• Beer is cheaper than soda in quite a few restaurants. Sometimes $1 for beer and $2.50 for soda.
• There are bars where you pour-your-own drink, however strong you like.
• We like it when it rains because that's our water source. Yesterday someone on our street was getting their cistern filled up by the water truck. Then, last night, it rained.
• The public schools all have uniforms. One or two private schools don't have uniforms.
• We're closer to South America than Florida.
• Last week it was hazy because dust from the Sahara Desert had blown over the Atlantic Ocean and was hanging around. Sometimes the haze is from Montserrat's volcanic ash.
• Stores are often out of things, so if you see something you want, buy it, because when you go back for it later, it won't be there. K-Mart has been out of 16 of its 20 Bonne Bell Lip Smacker flavors since Christmas (including watermelon!).
• On a similar note, restaurants are often out of key ingredients but don't think to mention it until it's time to bring your food to you. Dave heard once "Sorry, we're out of guacamole for your guacamole burger, would you like bacon instead?"
• Gas stations don't have pay-at-the-pump. It's cash only!
• For those of you who visited us this winter and thought the water was too cold for swimming - the coral sadly disagrees. About one-third of the coral in monitored areas in the USVI and Puerto Rico has died recently because the water has been too warm, according to a CNN article.
• It's 83 degrees and we've got 65% humidity right now. The heat index is 87. It's only the first weekend in April. Summer is here again.
• We don't have air conditioning. In the summer (i.e. mid-March to mid-November), I am really glad to have an indoor desk job with my own thermostat in my office. On the weekends, around 1pm, it's too hot to be at home, so we go swimming, shopping, or to the ice cold movie theatres. Upon leaving the movies, condensation forms on your toes as you step outside and eyeglasses get fogged.
• While we still have to file our federal tax forms, we mail it to the V.I. Internal Revenue Bureau on St Thomas. Taxes are calculated the same, but the money stays on the island. No taxation without representation I guess.

I'll work on a photo post later this afternoon. I know it's long overdue! Happy April!