Update

I'm starting to settle in nicely now, but everything still feels really new and my tan still needs lots of work.

I'm living directly above the school, and my apartment is really nice. I've got a massive bed in an ensuite room and a dining/living room/kitchen in the other room. There's a beach across the road with great snorkelling to be had under the broken peer, and a restaurant/bar for staff right there too. It's closed till the end of october, but apparently it's quite busy when it's back up and running. I should add I'm at the end of the runway so I imagine things will get pretty noisy when tourist season starts up again.
So I'm pretty happy with where they've put me, there are only two things I would change. Firstly, there are loads of mosquitos down this end of the island, and they're vicious! Secondly, they haven't given me a car yet and it's quite a long walk in to town. Hopefully this will all change though..

So even though the job offer I got was for teacher assistant, I'm actually working as a teacher most of the time. The kids arrive at 7 and leave at 5 monday to friday, and on saturday they're with me from 7 till 12. Which is a long time to be with such young kids so I'm actually exhausted by what they've got me doing. The other teacher has been ill several times since I arrived so i've had to take the whole school on my own which was pretty tough. But a new teacher has arrived to replace her called Amy Marshall who is so much better from what I've experienced. So in a month it'll just be me and Amy at the school, I personally think we need a third person down at the school because there are 7 different abilities and the younger children need much more one on one attention. We'll have to see whether Lorenza can persuade my boss to hire another person.
Sometimes I try to go snokelling during my lunchbreak, other times I nap. The sun sets at about 6pm so usually I try to get some swimming in before it gets dark, and the sunsets here are amazing! Today I hiked up to the highest peak, called mount royal. Didn't manage to get any photos though, so I'll probably head up next weekend with my camera. Also I was sunbathing when Rob called to invite me on the trek so I was only wearing flip flops the whole time and they all had hiking shoes! But I made it and it was totally worth it. There's a comments book at the top so I wrote in it that next time I'll wear better shoes.

Emily left yesterday, she's been here for two weeks and it was awesome having her here while I settled in. I think she had a good time too, though she didn't feel like helping in the school much! Mostly sun bathing and swimming one time too she claims! But now she's back trying to set up somewhere to stay in London so she can do her masters. It was pretty tiring having to entertain her after school every day ha! I took two days off this week and we went exploring some of the beaches.

I bought a big knife from the store and every now and then I go coconut hunting. Mostly for the juice because most of them don't have the right ripeness for good flesh. Also there are some guava trees and if you're lucky you'll find some fruit.
The supermarkets are very minimal, but I think I'm going to set up an order system from St.Vincent. There's a vegetable market here too where I buy these delicious big red avocados, they sell other stuff but haven't tried much of it yet. Except for these amazing big green things called bread fruits. You have to boil the cut up pieces for an hour before you can eat them! The taste reminds me of a mixture between potato and roast chestnuts. Delicious!

The island is really weird, I can't explain it by email but basically CCA have kind of taken over the place. The locals can't even get to a third of the island, and it's hard for them to get to a lot of the beaches too, which isn't right because all of the beaches are meant to be public. The wealth divide is pretty staggering; walk up the road from what sometimes reminds me of a shanty town, and through the security gates are villas starting at $5,000,000 for the smallest.

I just got in from snorkelling. There's a killer spot opposite my apartment where the old pier has broken down and become a fish paradise wreck. Today was different to normal; the biggest shoal I've seen in my life of tiny little blue bait fish had swarmed the wreck. I got close and swam down becoming engulfed in the mass. Literally the only thing missing was David Attenborough's smooth voice narrating me through this ocean wonderland. Just as I let my guard down this enormous fish, which I swear looked a bit like a hammerhead shark for a split second, came swimming straight for me out of nowhere through the wall of bait I was surrounded by. It was obviously as shocked as I was because it jetted off hella fast. But that thing was weird man, it's eyes were way too big for it's cube-shaped head. I'll try and found out what it was because I don't know how to describe it. Anyway the sun was setting so I came in.