SPRING BREAK & MORE (Make sure to see the pictures at the end of the post)
Spring Break was this last week and Ryan and I decided that we needed a little break from school ..so we took a vacation and went on a cruise to the Grand Cayman and Jamaica. We have only been on cruises with my family before and were worried that it just wouldn't be the same without a big group, but we still had a blast. It was a 5 day cruise and had 2 full days at sea were we just ate and laid by the pool; it was very relaxing. The boat made two stops: the Grand Cayman and Jamaica! At the Grand Cayman Ry and I went on an excursion to stingray city. For those of you who have never heard of stingray city it is a place in the ocean that is quite shallow, where stingrays hang out and let tourists feed and swim with them. The stingrays do have their stingers, but they don't sting you unless you step on them; which is easy to avoid. The stingrays were huge! We fed them squid and got some pictures with them which are shown below. It was so much fun and they were very beautiful. Me being the worrier that I am, wanted all animals to be treated fairly :)and didn't like how our group was only feeding the one stingray our tour guide picked up, so....Ry and I got extra squid and fed the other stingrays; which was my favorite part. At one point when we were feeding all of them, they smelt the food and just swarmed us. They got so close that Ry had to push them off of him lol. It was so much fun! We then went snorkeling for a while and saw some coral reefs and fish. Unlike Ryan who is an awesome snorkeler and dives down in the water and goes pretty deep; I had a life vest on the entire time lol because I have a hard time concentrating on treading water and breathing through the small tube you have to breathe through. lol It was so much fun though. When we got to Jamaica we decided to walk around and go to the markets and see Jamaica. We had so much fun in the markets, but got hustled by the market sellers. Everywhere we went in Jamaica (well the part we were in) someone was trying to get us to buy something from them. We were just walking down the street to one of the markets and this guy stopped us and said that he wanted to take us to his store. Ry asked where his store was and he said in the market down the street. We then told him that that is where we were going and so he walked with us. When we got to the market, sellers swarmed us wanting us to look at their store and we told them we already told this guy (the one who walked with us) that we were going to his store first. The guy then looked at us and said, "I actually don't have a store I just lead people to the market to buy stuff." lol Then he wanted us to pay him money for walking with us there. lol So...we did. You can't say no, the area was quite poor and they need the money. We shopped in the market for a while and bought things we didn't really even want lol but it was money worth spent. Sometimes we would say no and they would get upset; so it was very hard to say no. We bought a canvas/painting from the market; it is beautiful. We are going to hang it in our family room over the coach. Below are some pictures of Jamaica too! There are a couple of the waterfall there, which is amazing and you can actually hike up it, which Ry and I said we have to do next time! Jamaica was absolutely beautiful and we really want to go back. The rest of the cruise was laying out and eating :)We had an amazing time!
Sorry this post is so long, but we haven't updated it for a while and there is a lot of new info, so here is some more. As for school we both are really enjoying this semester. The week before Spring Break we both were crazy busy with midterms. We were very excited to get them over with. Ryan is doing awesome in his classes and doing a lot of reading for his independent study class. He has a 40 page honors capstone paper due at the end of the year, before graduation and another paper just a little shorter than that, due at the end of the year for his independent study course. He is working hard and getting ready for graduation in May and preparing for the summer when he starts his Masters Program. As for me...classes are going very well this semester. I am taking 15 credit hours and I love my courses. I recently met with my academic advisor and am expected to graduate in May of 2009! ONE YEAR LEFT!!! I am taking two summer sessions which is going to be nuts, but you do what you have to do. ;) This summer is going to be crazy, but before I know it will be May of 2009 and I will have my BA in Public Communications with a minor in psychology. Well that is the latest information.
I hope you guys didn't get too bored hearing all that information. Ryan and I are doing awesome. We love DC and are really enjoying school at American University. We are just so grateful for the opportunity to go to school out here and experience the east coast. Well..we will talk to ya later.
Grand Cayman Stingray City (Us with the one of the stingrays)
I know we are crazy! We were told if you kiss it you have 7 years luck! We'll see :)
One of the many stingrays! They are huge huh!
Ry and I in the Grand Cayman.
Waiting to get on the boat that takes us back to the cruise ship after 6 hours in the Grand Cayman
