Thanksgiving, Saba, and more

Thanksgiving
Last week we had an American Thanksgiving in Statia! It was a lot of fun because everyone joined in the festivities. The non-American individuals were quite skeptical of the baked yams with marshmellows. They didn't know whether or not they were supposed to be eaten with the turkey or afterwards with the pie. So it was quite entertaining to have 3 different British people come up to me and ask me the same question. Then they also started asking me whether or not this was a once a year thing, or not. So all in all, they really liked it, but they were skeptical and decided in the end that it should really be eaten with the pie instead of with everything else. C'est la vie. The turkey turned out wonderful, Shizu cooked it. And I made three pies, along with various other sides so we had plenty to eat. It was a really nice time!

Saba:
Saba is a neighboring island that is a litle bit smaller than Statia. It holds the worlds smallest airport runway, and the pilots have to take special training lessons every couple of months to make sure that they are up to speed with the taking off and landing procedures. Saba looks like a little rock that juts out of the ocean. It is very rocky and very hilly and has little to no coast line for beaches. However, there is some excellent hiking. There is a lot of culture in Saba including hand-made lace and molas created by indigenous people. However, there are also a lot of people from Scottish descent. The town itself is very interesting because it looks like a scene out of Pleasantville. All the houses look alike. They have red roofs, white sides, and green shutters.
The place that we stayed is called the El-Momo which is run by a ex-pat German man and his family. The place was georgeous with each little room being it's own stand-alone house/bungalow set into the hillside. The vegetation on Saba was extremely lush because they get quite a bit more rain than Statia. A small group of us climed to the top of Mt. Scenery on Sunday and it was absolutely georgeous! It looked similar in vegetation to a rainforest and there wer a ton of orchids and bromeliads growing everywhere. Unfortunately, when we left the hotel it was raining, so I didn't bring my camera and I have nothing to show for this amazing hike. However, hopefully I'll be going back to Saba in a couple of months and I'll be able to get some pictures then.
There was a really beautiful shop in Saba run by this woman who made all her own glass. It was awesome! She had spent 10 years perfecting her glass mermaids, and they were absolutely beautiful! I was chatting with her for a while and I told her I basically knew how to make beads, etc. and she was really nice and let me make one! As it turns out, she was originally from Grafton, MA which is right around the corner from
The food was also much better on Saba and they had a couple more grocery shops than in Statia, so all in all it was a really good trip.


Johan Cruyff:
The famous Dutch soccer player, Johan Cruyff came to Statia to dedicate the soccer pitch on Monday. It was awesome! (He's the guy wearing pink- and yes, he's an old man now). Everyone in town seemed to be out for the dedication. Statians don't really like rain, and they even stayed out in the rain. All of the schools have a soccer team and all the little kids were running around for ten minute games with an official referee. They were loving it! Some of the schools are going to be in the "international" league and go play on different islands. There are two really really good players and they are so excited to travel and play. They're also great team players so they're a lot of fun to play with in general.

That's all for now, I'll have to post about my diving adventures later. I hope everyone is doing well and best wishes from the Caribbean!