Jouvert ends with a Bang

Literally.....

Jouvert was shut down this morning after one shooting and two stabbings. I was listening to the event on the radio and no one could believe that the police were shutting it down. But after hearing why, then most people understood the reason. Of course, the participants were disappointed, they look forward to this event every year and to have it shut down because of a few bad people is a real shame. Here is the story in St. Thomas Source.

Getting around town while Jouvert is going on is pretty crazy. I had to drive Jay to work and drop him off about 1/2 mile away. You can't get to Frenchtown because they have the road blocked off. I had my windows down listening to the music and wishing I was down there with the crowd. But after hearing what happened, I guess it was a good thing I wasn't there.

BTW - pic provided by Capt. John Brandi

UVI Carnival Schedule

I forgot to mention our awesome work schedule here at UVI during Carnival. We got an extra two hours for lunch today to be able to attend the Cultural Fair (so that's a three hour lunch). Tomorrow we are closed until noon so that people can participate in Jouvert (it starts at 4am and goes all morning), then we're off Friday, Saturday and Sunday. WooHoo!!

Friday is the Children's Parade and Saturday is the Adult Parade. Carnival Village has had bands every night this week through the weekend and then fireworks on Saturday. Now if I could just get Jay to go down to Carnival Village with me I'd be set.

Carnival Cultural Fair

Carnival Cultural Fair, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Just got back from the Carnival Cultural Fair. I didn't make it last year so I was looking forward to going this year. It's held at Emancipation Garden which is right next to the area of downtown where all the tent vendors set up. There is a band stand set up playing Calypso music and the youth steel pan group Rising Stars. There were food vendors as well as local arts and crafts.

Getting there was a chore. Traffic was absolutely crazy. Silvia picked me up and we were foolish enough to think we were going to find parking. Jay took a dingy over from work and docked right across the street. He tried to talk me into parking in Frenchtown and coming over with him. But it had been raining off and on all morning. So Silvia and I decided to forego the dingy and try to drive. Ha. Good luck. As we got closer we knew we made a mistake. Crazy traffic. Silvia ended up dropping me off and said she we turn back and try to find something. Of course it was pouring the rain when it was time to get out of the car. Oh well. I found Jay, had some lunch and Silvia still couldn't find anywhere to park. She drive by twice and nothing so she face up and went somewhere else for lunch and then back to work. In the meantime Jay and I met up with the rest of the CYOA crew. Jay had to head back so later when it was time to leave I decided to catch a safari back to UVI. I had never done this before so I got tips on what to do. I had to ask three taxis before I found one that was going all the way to the university. I'm still unsure on how to tell the difference between the safari and a regular open air taxi but I know it's only $2 for safari and about $10 for taxi so you have to make sure and ask.

So it was definitely an experience and I'd go again in a heart beat. Next year I'm taking the safari there and back and screw the driving and parking thing. Gotta go.....carrot cake is calling my name. :-)

Sailing,sailing,.....

Sailing,sailing,....., originally uploaded by captainjay.

Well today I get to go sailing with some forum friends (ScubaGirl,
CAgirl and KellyAnna) so it should be a hoot! I brought a batch of
painkillers so that should go over well. :-). Poor Jay has to work but
he's going to meet us over on St. John when he gets off. We are
meeting a huge group of forum members tonight at the beach bar so that
should be a lot if fun. Lots of pics to come later.

On another note, I know we still need to do a detailed report on
Grande Bay. I promise we'll do it soon.

Friday Beach Pic

Friday Beach Pic, originally uploaded by captainjay.

TGIF! Today was a crazy morning. Having some issues with the cistern
and water pump so that was fun. More detail on that later. Leaving for
puerto Rico so it was a little hectic. I promise to give more detail
on Grande Bay too. Stay tuned for pics from PR!

Road Trip

Tomorrow I get to make a "road trip" with my coworkers to the University InterAmericana in Puerto Rico! I've never been so I'm really looking forward to it. They use the same Banner application that we do and they recently went through a major upgrade. So we're going to check things out to help prepare us for our upcoming upgrade. Hopefully it won't take all day so that we can have some time to go shopping!!!

Carnival Camp at UVI

It's that time again....carnival! I've been helping with making the costumes this year. Still haven't decided if I'm walking or not. I said I was going to do it this year but as the time gets closer I'm
starting to chicken out. The costumes are pretty and at least I'm helping with that part. It's next weekend so I guess I need to decide soon!

The theme for UVI is Let Our Energies Combine for Carnival 2009. The four sections are Sun, Wind, Water and Earth. If you haven't guessed it's referring to alternative energy. It's a pretty cool theme and should catch the judges eye.