"How do you say 'cowabunga' in Patois?"

The first week of 2011 started with... a lot of work, sleep and... the beach!

We decided to celebrate Friday that Ashley had submitted her first graduate school application!  We ventured up to our favorite Rasta restaurant, Shanty-Man, in Papine.  As you can see below, it overlooks parts of the city - not to mention serves delicious ital (Rastafarian vegetarian) food.  It is the perfect place to lounge and enjoy Jamaica's natural beauty!

Erica and Ash at Shanty-Man

Friday evening was... game night!  I met up with my friend Rani, who is super involved in some of the Indian organizations here (which is how I met her!).  We spent the evening playing Pictionary (which we dominated, by the way) and Taboo, and eating some Jamaican pizza (my first time!) with her family and friends, who were also so so sweet!  It was a really fun and laid-back evening and I'm so excited to have made new friends!

The highlight of my weekend had to be the trip to Hellshire Beach!  Our friends Kimarley and Lenny drove us, stopping along the way in Spanish Town to show us the oldest church in the Caribbean, Jamaica's national archives, and the town center (which was once both the Spanish's and English's capital in Jamaica).

Watching the sunset on the beach!

I still maintain that Hellshire has the best fish in Jamaica :)  Some fried parrotfish with festival and balmy... YUM! We indulged in all of the above, as well as some fresh tender coconut :)

Love coconuts.

Monday was a long day - with everyone finally back from the holidays, my project seems to be in full force again!  It has been a little nerve-racking to think that I only have ~4 months left to fulfill all my grant objectives but... it'll get done, I'm confident!  Monday evening was another session of my business class.  We talked about a really interesting analysis done in 1975 on Caribbean Plantation Economies.  The researchers called the industrialized world/colonial masters of developing countries "metropoles" and called developing countries "hinterlands."  The job of the hinterlands was to produce some sort of staple for export - often an agricultural product.  We discussed how the hinterlands were in charge of the primary production of the staple, but any processing was done at the metropole.  For example, Jamaica produced bauxite and alumina, but England made the actual aluminum.  There was, of course, preferential treatment during trade - exports entered the developed world at lower tariffs and larger volumes, and imports (equipment/capital goods) were accorded preferential entry into the developing countries.  What was most interesting is that even though this theory was introduced over 35 years ago, much of it still seems to apply to the Caribbean.  Aside from a few products where the Caribbean is competitive, the region often depends on some preferential treatment.  Moreover, "final" products are still produced from the metropoles, while the hinterlands only produce the inputs / undertake the primary processing.  The rest of the class, we talked about the forces that have led to such globalization in the 21st century (such as the role of the WTO and creation of regional trading blocs, i.e. NAFTA).  Interesting stuff :)

The rest of this week was filled with dinner guests (Natalie!), meeting professors and doctors at UWI as part of my research, and (of courses), lots of dominos with friends!  I also have been running regularly again, which feels awesome!  The best part is that each trip to the park leads to finding new "running buddies" - though all these Jamaicans are so crazy fast (I really just call them all Usain...).

And I leave you with this, Erica's creation that somehow truly captures the spirit of "Studio 40" (and clearly led to my blog title)...