Hash Hike, Think & Drink, & Sunday Funday

Let's see...I will start with this past Friday. Once again, our beach volleyball team, the VIPerS, won another game! I believe we are now 4 and 3. Vet spouse's are whooping up on these vet students! :) But, we do get to practice during the week, when everyone else is studying. Eric did not sign up for a team this semester, but hopefully he will play next semester (but who knows....2nd semester is supposedly one of the hardest and most time consuming, so we will see.)

On Saturday, Eric woke up at the crack of dawn, camped out in the library, and studied all day until 5 pm. Me, on the other hand, had quite an interesting new experience. Yes my friends, I am now officially a "Hasher". Umm, let me explain. Wikipedia describes Hash House Harriers as such... "The Hash House Harriers (abbreviated to HHH, H3, or referred to simply as Hashing) is an international group of non-competitive running, social and drinking clubs. An event organized by a club is known as a Hash or Hash Run, with participants calling themselves Hashers". Lindsay talked me into partaking in this event, and now I am hooked. For this hash there was a trail for the runners and one for the walkers. I definitely fell into the walker category, along with 4 other friends. It took us ~1.5 hours to hike up the mountainside, through part of a semi- rainforest, and back down through brush, over rocks, and through pokey trees (see picture below for explanation). Once the hike is over, everyone congregates where the trail begins....dun dun dunnnn....and the drinking begins. For those who have never done a hash, you are labeled as 'Virgin Hashers', and are initiated in the most peculiar way. That's right, you get on your knees and are baptized with a cold beer pouring over your head....and then all the "virgins" have to chug a full beer. Crazy, I know...but we can't wait for the next one! So I heard that some people who go on vacation look for Hash House Harrier hikes all over the world. I challenge each of you to seek out an HHH club near you. You would be surprised...one may be right around the corner from you.

a view of the mountainside that we hiked

let the games begin

Emily, Lindsay, & Me

3 Texas girls without a clue what we were in for

mountainside view of a carnival

cruise ship leaving St. Kitts

our walking group...and no they didn't fall into

the river bed...that is sweat folks

these freakish pokey trees (as I call them) were all over the place...I actually stuck my hand out to slow myself down, and found out real quick not to do that again. since when did trees need a self-defense mechanism?

an overview of the vet school campus

dorms to the far left side...classrooms to the right

cattle grazing the mountainside

Overlooking the Caribbean Sea

Initiation

I got in trouble because I wasn't completely on my knees...these

people are serious with their beer baptizing rules

and the beer begins to flow over my head (fresh one just out of the ice chest)

Lindsay's baptism

and then Emily's

...and now we must chug a full beer, while more beer is slung on us...hoping to finish our beer because the rest of it will be poured on us if we don't finish...

"Drink it down, down, down, down, down"

O yes, they have a song for it

Later that night Eric and I went to a 7th semester fundraiser at Buddy's Bar on the Timothy Beach Strip. The fundraiser was titled "Think and Drink Trivia." It was basically like playing trivial pursuit x 150 other students. Lots of fun! Me, Eric, Matt and Lindsay, aka Team Rednecks, did a pretty good job. The guys did most of the thinkin' while we did some drinkin'.

Here are a few pictures from that night.

fun times

no clue

SUNDAY FUNDAY

Eric decided on Sunday to put the books away and get out and play. We enjoyed a nice lunch at Shipwreck and relaxed a while on the beach. Eric then drove me around the whole northern portion of the island, since I missed Uncle Millie's tour during orientation. On the tour, I saw Brimstone Hill from a distance, Mt. Laimigua (St. Kitts' volcano), and lush sugar cane fields that are no longer harvested. I unfortunately have no pictures to share with you of the tour, because we wanted to just enjoy our time without having to worry about stopping for pictures. I am sure I will make that trip again before our journey here is over. We then finished off the night at the Caribbean Cinema for a little "couples retreat". It was so nice to share a whole day with Eric. He now has 4 more weeks of classes and then a week of finals...meaning, I will see him again in 5 weeks! (J/K)

Counting down the days until we fly back home. We miss each and every one of our family & friends. See you all very soon. Thanks and Gig'em.