Until today I've never actually explored my place the Yacht Club. This afternoon two of my friends and I decided to go pool lounging/swimming at my place. We met up, threw on our swimming suits and walked to the middle of the Yacht Club where we discovered this pool side right next to the lagoon. It was beautiful!
On Sunday my friend and I went out for dim sum at the one and only dim sum place here on St Martin, called White Swan. It was about a 5-10 minute walk from my place, but it always feels longer because it's so hot and the road is so rough to walk on. Anyways the restaurant is located across the bridge, and this is the view when I was crossing:
The restaurant is called White Swan, and it looked clean and proper, at least for a Chinese restaurant in the Caribbean. We asked for the dim sum menu (only available Sundays) and this is what we got:
We asked for a pot of jasmine tea, but it was very weak and diluted. We made out selections and the food started coming out one by one at the fifteen minute mark. The har gao (upper left) with shrimp filling didn't have as much shrimp as I'm used to, but the rice wrapping was delicate and chewy. The congee was really good, and the fried dough was a great topping that we didn't even have to ask for. The turnip cakes were very disappointing because it was doughy and bland and very very oily. The rice rolls (lower right) were alright. We ordered about 6 dishes, not pictured here is the char siu bao and another steamed bun that had a sweet yellow centre. All in all it was a decent meal. A little pricier than back home in TO, but it is the best and only dim sum on this island!
POSTED ON Saturday, September 7, 2013 AT 1:17 PM \\
This past week has been so crazy busy but fun!! Every morning at 7:30 AM I take the school bus to get to school. It is actually on time and quite convenient since it stops right outside the gates to where I live. I am very thankful for the school bus because walking on the road is just terrible. You can't walk on the main road because there are too many cars going very fast, so you are forced to walk on the side of the road where there is gravel and dirt and huge puddles. Furthermore, the drivers here are very rude and they almost never yield to pedestrians. On Wednesday I took the regular bus to Phillipsburgh to buy an internet box. The busses here are just minivans that have white cardboard signs in front of them to where they are going. You have to wave them down if you want to get on one, and it costs $1.50 for a ride. For lunch I went to the restaurant called Top Carrot right beside my place. They serve only healthy foods including a huge array of salads and sandwiches and fruit juices. Super delicious and super healthy!
Rainforest Salad
Menu at Top Carrot
On Thursday I tagged along with my two friends who have a car and together we went to Cost-U-Less, the Caribbean version of Costco. It was exactly like Costco except there were no food sampling events and there was an entire aisle of liquor. We took almost two hours to find everything we needed. I stocked up mainly on household supplies in bulk. I found foods that I've never even seen in Canada. There were also a ton of furniture and kitchen appliances that I was tempted to buy but I knew I could go without so I restrained myself.
Big jar of animal crackers!! :3
On Friday I went to the gourmet supermarket across the street from where I live, called Garden Market. It reminded me of a Metro back in Toronto, with fresh produce and ready-made meals packaged in plastic containers, and even a hot buffet bar! The only difference was that there was an entire section of alcohol. For lunch I got a meal from the buffet bar of mixed salad, grilled veggies, lasagna, fried fish, berries for six dollars and it was really delicious!
Later that night I went out for dinner with some girls from my class. The four of us made a reservation at Bamboo Bernie's (it was packed so we were glad we made a reservation) and had expensive sushi for dinner. We ordered 2 Maui Wowi Rolls to share, then I ordered a single roll of Spicy Yellowtail. The portions weren't as large as we expected. But it was satisfying. Afterwards we took a bus that took us to a nightclub called Bliss where the AUC students were having their whitecoat afterparty. Us Statia students were well outnumbered by them (there were like 10 of us and 200 of them). A lot of people kept coming up to us and asking where we're from. Somehow they recognized that we weren't AUC students (maybe it was that we weren't wearing semi formal clothing like them). Most knew about our school already. At the end of the night we ended up taxi-ing home together, which was the safest.
Here's to a new island and a new semester!
Mauwi Wowi Roll, Philadelphia Roll, and Spicy Yellow Tail Roll
On Saturday I took a walk down the main road to look for stores and a laundromat. I found what I needed, and more. I found a sushi restaurant (I thought Bamboo was the only place that served sushi), and a bakery that had cute desserts. On my way back I bought a slice of fruit cake and ate it on their terrace-with-a-lagoon-view. It was really good.
Lagoon side view of the Yacht Club
I live there!!
Oh and of course I've been swimming in the pool every day for about an hour. It's really great because no one ever uses the pool so I'm always by myself. The other day while I was swimming I met a cat! She was my only company at the pool!
Until today I've never actually explored my place the Yacht Club. This afternoon two of my friends and I decided to go pool lounging/swimming at my place. We met up, threw on our swimming suits and walked to the middle of the Yacht Club where we discovered this pool side right next to the lagoon. It was beautiful!
On Sunday my friend and I went out for dim sum at the one and only dim sum place here on St Martin, called White Swan. It was about a 5-10 minute walk from my place, but it always feels longer because it's so hot and the road is so rough to walk on. Anyways the restaurant is located across the bridge, and this is the view when I was crossing:
The restaurant is called White Swan, and it looked clean and proper, at least for a Chinese restaurant in the Caribbean. We asked for the dim sum menu (only available Sundays) and this is what we got:
We asked for a pot of jasmine tea, but it was very weak and diluted. We made out selections and the food started coming out one by one at the fifteen minute mark. The har gao (upper left) with shrimp filling didn't have as much shrimp as I'm used to, but the rice wrapping was delicate and chewy. The congee was really good, and the fried dough was a great topping that we didn't even have to ask for. The turnip cakes were very disappointing because it was doughy and bland and very very oily. The rice rolls (lower right) were alright. We ordered about 6 dishes, not pictured here is the char siu bao and another steamed bun that had a sweet yellow centre. All in all it was a decent meal. A little pricier than back home in TO, but it is the best and only dim sum on this island!
POSTED ON Saturday, September 7, 2013 AT 1:17 PM \\
This past week has been so crazy busy but fun!! Every morning at 7:30 AM I take the school bus to get to school. It is actually on time and quite convenient since it stops right outside the gates to where I live. I am very thankful for the school bus because walking on the road is just terrible. You can't walk on the main road because there are too many cars going very fast, so you are forced to walk on the side of the road where there is gravel and dirt and huge puddles. Furthermore, the drivers here are very rude and they almost never yield to pedestrians. On Wednesday I took the regular bus to Phillipsburgh to buy an internet box. The busses here are just minivans that have white cardboard signs in front of them to where they are going. You have to wave them down if you want to get on one, and it costs $1.50 for a ride. For lunch I went to the restaurant called Top Carrot right beside my place. They serve only healthy foods including a huge array of salads and sandwiches and fruit juices. Super delicious and super healthy!
Rainforest Salad
Menu at Top Carrot
On Thursday I tagged along with my two friends who have a car and together we went to Cost-U-Less, the Caribbean version of Costco. It was exactly like Costco except there were no food sampling events and there was an entire aisle of liquor. We took almost two hours to find everything we needed. I stocked up mainly on household supplies in bulk. I found foods that I've never even seen in Canada. There were also a ton of furniture and kitchen appliances that I was tempted to buy but I knew I could go without so I restrained myself.
Big jar of animal crackers!! :3
On Friday I went to the gourmet supermarket across the street from where I live, called Garden Market. It reminded me of a Metro back in Toronto, with fresh produce and ready-made meals packaged in plastic containers, and even a hot buffet bar! The only difference was that there was an entire section of alcohol. For lunch I got a meal from the buffet bar of mixed salad, grilled veggies, lasagna, fried fish, berries for six dollars and it was really delicious!
Later that night I went out for dinner with some girls from my class. The four of us made a reservation at Bamboo Bernie's (it was packed so we were glad we made a reservation) and had expensive sushi for dinner. We ordered 2 Maui Wowi Rolls to share, then I ordered a single roll of Spicy Yellowtail. The portions weren't as large as we expected. But it was satisfying. Afterwards we took a bus that took us to a nightclub called Bliss where the AUC students were having their whitecoat afterparty. Us Statia students were well outnumbered by them (there were like 10 of us and 200 of them). A lot of people kept coming up to us and asking where we're from. Somehow they recognized that we weren't AUC students (maybe it was that we weren't wearing semi formal clothing like them). Most knew about our school already. At the end of the night we ended up taxi-ing home together, which was the safest.
Here's to a new island and a new semester!
Mauwi Wowi Roll, Philadelphia Roll, and Spicy Yellow Tail Roll
On Saturday I took a walk down the main road to look for stores and a laundromat. I found what I needed, and more. I found a sushi restaurant (I thought Bamboo was the only place that served sushi), and a bakery that had cute desserts. On my way back I bought a slice of fruit cake and ate it on their terrace-with-a-lagoon-view. It was really good.
Lagoon side view of the Yacht Club
I live there!!
Oh and of course I've been swimming in the pool every day for about an hour. It's really great because no one ever uses the pool so I'm always by myself. The other day while I was swimming I met a cat! She was my only company at the pool!
