Bap Bap Bap, I like this song!

What a weekend of awesomeness! Jasmine, the third roommate and fellow Fulbrighter got in on Saturday, so we are finally a full Jamaican family! And thank goodness, she brought an endless supply of Raman noodles and tubs of peanut butter... amazing! Note to anyone who visits me: please bring more of the above because you can never have too much... Needless to say, we had a great meal Saturday night, complimented with the baskets of fruit from the market. We finally figured out how to eat the sweetsop (sugar apple), which was delish.

At night, we decided to venture back out into the Jamaican nightlife. Little did we know, two of the bumpin' clubs are within walking distance from our apartment... these are the clubs that are providing bass-heavy music well into the wee hours of the night, which we can hear from our balcony. First we checked out "Prestige," a simple and classy place. Fun, but did not provide the dance environment we desired. Supposedly, it's more an "uptown" scene. We wanted something "downtown." So we mosied on over next door (yes, downtown can be next door to uptown) to "Quad." Takeaways from the night:

- There must be a switch somewhere, because all of a sudden at 3 am, everyone got on the dancefloor and started dancing it up! Surreal.
- In the U.S. when they play a song we like, we usually scream "yaaa" or "wooo," often (for me) in a high-pitch manner. What do Jamaicans do? They create a gun out of their hands and yell "bap bap bap!" Apparently there is a certain timing for such bapping and if you do it at the wrong time, you look stupid. We did not attempt to bap. We stuck to the "woos."
- They play Katy Perry's California Gurls here! And everyone knows the words! Clearly may not be their jam as much as it is mine, but still exciting and unexpected!
- Certain clubs are only cool on certain nights. Prestige's night was Friday (apparently Usain Bolt was there?), but empty on Saturday. We need to figure out how to get the memo going forward...

Upon arriving home circa 3:30am (which we thought was late, but was told the party was just starting), we ate raman noodles (of course) and happily fell asleep. Only to wake up at around 9am because... we were going to THE BEACH!!

Jazz, Ash and I were so excited to finally get into the Caribbean Sea! With our Jamaican friends Kam and Gregg, we drove down the the southernmost part of Kingston to Port Royal (which actually used to be the home to many pirates, including blackbeard!). From the port, we took a boat over the Lyme Cay, a beautiful sandbar with white sand and many green trees in the middle. My pictures to come, but here's an online image for the meantime:

Yep, it was that awesome... tiny little island with only blue sky and even bluer water surrounding it. Like in the picture, there were a ton of boats pulled up to the coast with surround sound speakers blasting dancehall music (Jamaican tunes with awesome beats). It was a huge danceparty in the water! Quite unreal, I felt like I was in a music video or something. The water was sooo warm, it was like being in the most therapeutic spa ever. And the overly salty water apparently is very healthy for your skin. And mom, don't worry, I wore a hat and sunscreen!

The coolest part was when it began to rain a little after we got there. I have never been in the ocean, super warm and content, while it was raining around me. It was such a bizarre and amazing experience. There was even lightning in the far far distance over downtown Kingston (which we could see from the water) with the blue mountains in the background, which made the scene incredibly beautiful. Probably sounds a little strange, but we loved it :)

And I leave you with 2 (yummy) pictures...

1. All the fruit we got this weekend!


2. The size of the avocado and pits here. Ridiculously large. We didn't know how to measure it or emphasize its massiveness, so we showed it next to a bottle of red stripe.