After a jammed packed, heavy week of work, we made sure to take advantage of the weekend. This week, we played "tourist" and visited several sites in Ocho Rios, on the Northern Coast.
Wednesday night was my last business school class :( Nothing to share information-wise, since it was a review class, but I realized that I was really going to miss my classmates! They were all so nice to me - giving me advice on where to go for the weekends, teaching me about Jamaican culture, and giving me rides home after class! I am really glad that I took this course - even if I didn't get any credit - because I learned a lot about business from the perspective of a developing country and, moreover, met some awesommeeeee Jamaicans!
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| Caramel/nut chocolate fudge brownies! |
Thursday was a much needed "girls night out!" with the roommates! We made delicious pizza for dinner (with onions and garlic and olives, yum!) and made caramel and nut chocolate brownies for dessert! We took a trip to the wine bar at Devon House, which was really cute! A very romantic setting for our roommate date :) We tried a few of the red wines and had yummy bruschetta to "nibble on" (as the waiter put it). Then we finished the night by finally completing our Jude Law movie, "Repo Man." Quite a gory movie, but I loved the twist at the end...
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| Ash and Jazz at the Devon House wine bar! |
Friday was another work-filled day. Jazz and I took a break to go to the gym (where she made me do a very intense workout video!). In the evening, desperate for a Jamaican "happy hour," we went to Christopher's, a fancy lounge-y bar on the first floor of the nightclub Quad. It was not exactly a happy hour, but fun nonetheless, with chicken nuggets and fries :) And then, we decided to watch what we had grown up thinking as the "staple" Jamaican movie... COOL RUNNINGS!
"Cool Runnings" depicts the true story of the debut of Jamaica's bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics. It remains a heartfelt Disney film, inspiring us to be proud of our country and understand the true meaning of "winning." However, it really felt less Jamaican than when I watched it a decade ago. For example, no one really had a Jamaican accent! They didn't even sound like when our Jamaican friends emphasize their English accents (and tone down the patois). The most "Jamaican" thing I saw in the movie was Red Stripe bottles (which our Jamaican friends deem the "tourist" drink)! But still, the movie had some great quotes!
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| The original Jamaican bobsled team! |
And of course, the movie got us pumped up to... go bobsledding on the North Coast!! Our friends Jody and Holly were able to rent a van, so the two of them, Jody's sister Robynn, Ashley, Erica and I headed to MYSTIC MOUNTAIN, Jamaica's tourist attraction for ziplining and bobsledding! Our Jamaican friends had never been to the mountain, despite being from the area... The funniest part of the afternoon had to be how the "real" Jamaicans were initially the most scared of the attractions! Ash and I had on our sneakers and backpacks and were ready for adventure... while the Jamaicans looked extremely skeptical...
Anyways, the day at Mystic Mountain was AWESOME!
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| The view from Mystic Mountain... The Northern Coastline! |
We went on a sky lift that overlooked the ocean on one side and the rain forest on the other...
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| View from the Sky Lift! |
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| We were pretty high up... | | | | |
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| Ash and me, from the top of Mystic Mountain! |
The first thing we did was... go bobsledding! Ash and I were attached. She "drove" and my job was to...well... just scream loudly! I can proudly say: mission accomplished!
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| Me and Ash in Jamaican BOBSLEDS! |
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| Robynn, Holly, and Jody gettin' ready to ride! |
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| Bobsled Track! |
After bobsledding, we explored the zip-lining! There were zip lines set up across the mountain, that our tour guides took us along. It was gorgeous, riding through the forest and feeling like we were flying!
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| Robynn, Jody, Holly, me, and Ash wearing our ziplining gear! |
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Holly modeling the awesome hair nets we had to wear
(we still aren't sure why we had to wear them) |
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| Eek! I did it! |
Since we worked up quite the appetite on these excursions, we decided to get some YUMMY jerk chicken at the original Scotchies, in Ochi! The food was amazing, as usual :) After the lovely drive from Ochi (where all of us except Jody fell asleep), I spent the evening doing a puzzle with the roommates! After that, we decided to stop by "Chilitos" ("chill-eat-toast", as they advertise it) for some margaritas and JA-mexican food... as expected, it was delicious! And a great way to end a long, fun-filled day!
Sunday was more relaxing. For lunch, Ashley, Erica and I went to the huge Diwali mela (like a bazaar or fair) at Devon House! There were booths for getting henna tattoos; buying jewelry, spices, and clothing; and selling Indo-Caribbean foods and sweets. And of course, there were Indian songs blaring... what was interesting was that it wasn't just Bollywood-esque Hindi songs, but also Indo-Caribbean music, with more Caribbean beats. Overall, it was great to see that so many Jamaicans enjoyed taking part in the Diwali tradition!
For dinner, Ash and I went out for Jamaica's Restaurant Week! Like in NYC (and other major cities), Restaurant Week is when fancy restaurants have discounted, pre-set menus of some of their signature dishes. We tried a place called "Guilt Trip" in Barbican. It was definitely a very romantic setting (for our date!) with candles and tropical flowers and plants everywhere! And the meal was seriously out of the world!! I ate past the point of full... I had: (appetizer) Ceviche of codfish, avocado, sundried tomato & mango with baked tortilla chip, (entree) Grilled filet of bass napped with Jamaican coconut curry sauce topped with pineapple water-chestnut salsa, and (dessert) Chocolate overload: Black forest “contained”; white chocolate Guinness madness; ganache tart. And of course, I got a heavenly-tasting Guavo Margarita (Ashley got a Tamarind Margarita) to complement the meal! We definitely ended the weekend feeling extremely happy and... FULL.
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| Me and Ash at Guilt Trip :) |
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