It seems like only yesterday that we had the joy of hosting Ryan's parents for Thanksgiving. They made the long trek to NH from TX with their Australian Shepard in tow to indulge in a home raised goose feast with us and our dear friend Cynthia. Yes, we decided to eat one of our beloved feathered friends for this year's festivities.
Here's Ryan holding our male Chinese goose moments before his last breath.
Cynthia and Ryan inspecting the goose after it emerged from the smoker.
And here he is after slow roasting and being smoked all day.
Aside from eating goose, Ryan, his parents and I had a nice time exploring the Seacoast area. We even went to a Men's Hockey game, which was really fun even though we lost.
It was sad to say goodbye to the Phillips as they packed up not only because they were leaving, but also because that meant my comprehensive exams were quickly approaching.
If you are not familiar with higher education, specifically doctoral degrees, I will gladly fill you in on one of the lovely hurdles all doctoral students must overcome prior to graduation....the dreaded Comprehensive Exams. In some programs, like Physics (which Ryan is in), students must pass a comprehensive test within two years of being admitted into the graduate program. This test typically includes two days of exams covering all types of physics (e.g. quantum mechanics, classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism) that last 6 hours. Believe me, all the folks walking out of these exams looked like they had aged 5 years just from the stress and brain power they exerted over those 12 hours.
In my program, we approach the comprehensive exams in a much less friendly manner (if you can even imagine that!). I was asked to answer five questions written by my committee members over the course of 21 days in the form of extensive literature reviews. So for 21 days I typed, deleted, typed, deleted, sat, sat, sat, sat, and drew weary of writing responses to the questions they asked. From Dec 2 to December 22, I composed 57 pages of response. It was exhausting! This is why I barely remember December. It was full of the same thing day after day. Thank goodness that is over with. Now I have the joy of the oral examination which is slated for next Wednesday.
On Dec 23, Ryan and I were able to enjoy each other's company a little bit...unfortunately we also had to say goodbye to our pups at the same time because they were headed to the kennel. Why would we do such a thing? Well, we were holding two tickets for a fun filled week with my parents in Turks and Caicos!
On Christmas Eve, also Ryan's Birthday!, we boarded the 3am bus to Boston, caught our 6am flight and were on our way out of the country.
With very few hours of sleep, we greeted my parents at the T&CI airport, gathered some essential food from the grocery, and drove to our abode for a snooze. My parents were also deprived of sleep since they flew from Utah on a red-eye. We were all in bed by 6:30 pm the first night.
When we awoke we were greeted with warm sun, ocean breeze, white sands, and crystal blue waters. What a sight! We were on the island of Providenciales, which is the most populated of all the T&CI islands. Since Christmas is the high season in T&CI there were quite a few tourists on the beach, but it never really felt crowded which was nice. We all took life easy lounging around, soaking up the rays, swimming, and reading books for pleasure. We were in hog heaven...especially me since I yearned for some R&R after the exams.
During the week we ate lots of delicious foods including local seafoods like conch (tougher than we expected even raw), grouper, and snapper. Ryan was most smitten with the jerk chicken we found on the street during the Maskanoo parade held on Boxing day. He scarfed down two servings of it in no time.
Jerk chicken from the street vendor
Maskanoo Parade
This is the view from "da Conch shack" where we all threw back quite a few rum punches...oh so delicious. Ryan even enjoyed them :)
We were all also super excited about snorkeling the reefs right off shore. Luckily there were a few protected reefs close enough to our condo to walk to so we all were able to snorkel around.
Caribbean reef squid! They can fly out of the water.
Conch. Alive and healthy.
Flying dad.
This guy is not only a great dad, but also a great scuba buddy.
Stingray. We saw quite a few of these snorkeling.
Brain coral.
Dad (the brain) with the brain coral.
I love this one!
Large starfish...at least 10 inches across.
He and I have now snorkeled in Florida, Hawaii and T&CI together.
love him.
This woman taught me most of my snorkeling skills.
Looking good, Mom!
Heading down to the bottom.
That's me if you couldn't tell.
Snorkel boat trip. We outlasted the entire boat.
Beautiful coral. Look but don't touch.
My gang. One awesome bunch of people.
Ryan and I were truly blessed to be invited to go on such a fun adventure with my parents. We had a lovely time exploring the warm beaches with them. So thank you both for inviting us and being such fun to be around! We're looking forward to the next one (hint, hint, wink, wink). Love to you both!
Now that we're back home we are trying to readjust to the bitterly cold temperatures that recently swept across the country. Luckily we have plenty of firewood to keep our house warm and our power hasn't gone out. Our bodies are slowly coming to terms with the New England weather again, but we oh so long to be back in the warm sun in the Caribbean.
Happy New Year to you all. We look forward to sharing some more of our experiences as we navigate graduate school and life these next three (no more, please, no more than that) years.
