My trip to Grenada, in the West Indies, back in December 2015-January 2016 was the first time I had ever taken a relaxing vacation. There were days that I did nothing other than sit on a beach or sway from a hammock on the porch of my friend's apartment. This is not how I travel typically! Usually I am go, go, go basically from start to finish...with maybe one day or so of doing "nothing" which still usually involves walking around the city I'm in and exploring. Very rarely do I legitimately spend a whole day doing nothing.
Now, don't get me wrong, we still did a bunch of fun and exciting things, but I was visiting Christine who lived there while going to vet school, and she took up all the planning. She also had to go to her classes, which left me time to myself where I decided to use it as some much needed down time. We explored chocolate factories, local shops, delicious foods, watched for whales (didn't find any, but we saw a BUNCH of dolphins), snorkeled, kayaked for 6 hours round trip to Hog Head Island and back with a lunch stop in the middle, went on a catamaran, hiked to the seven sisters waterfall, drank our weight in rum punch, became addicted to Ting (a Caribbean grapefruit soda) celebrated the new year by stripping to our skivvies and jumping in the water while fireworks burst in the sky, and danced until our feet ached and my throat burned from laughing so much. We played bingo where the prizes were things like chickens and adult diapers, enjoyed Twofer Tuesday at Bananas (a club), and took long, lazy naps under towels on the sand. I met Christine's vet school friends, which felt more like a little family than anything else and spent much of my time seeing Grenada from the back of Christine's scooter. Weaving in and out of traffic at what felt like lightening fast speeds, wind in our hair and the sun on our faces. We even got stuck in a rain storm on the thing while on our way to a fancy restaurant.
Everyone I met, from students to locals, were friendly and welcoming. This began from the moment I got off the plane, landing on the tarmac for the first time in my life and frantically trying to get a hold of Christine- she forgot to tell me where I was staying and I needed it to fill out my forms! A very kind young lady on the plane let me borrow her phone to send a Facebook message, but to no avail. A bit later on at customs, I was panicking to the patient customs agent. She simply asked if I was visiting a student, when I said yes, she proceeded to make the university my place and smiled warmly at me as she told me to have a great day. What a relief because I am a worrier and this had my anxiety level through the roof!
This was a trip that really helped my anxiety actually. I was able to slow down, have fun, and let loose more than I normally would have. This was met with reluctance a few times, like stripping to my undies on New Years Eve to go for a swim for a example and flat out refusal at one point when I had wanted to jump from a waterfall and couldn't (which I still regret, but hey, that's life). But I'm glad I pushed myself past my comfort zone, even if I didn't always follow through. Baby steps when it comes to conquering this crazy fear of heights I have as well as taming my over-thinking brain.
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