Hotel Life and Some Week 3 Updates

Hello hello! I'm so sorry that it's been 6 days since my last post. This week has been crazy busy for us. We stayed in the hotel an extra two days while we tried to figure out the housing situation. The realtors weren't able to get a hold of the Lime Tree Bay apartment owners. We found another one bedroom in the complex that was just as good, but not available until Nov 21. So we needed to make a short term plan. Luckily we also found a studio apartment in Lime Tree Bay that was available for the months of November and December. We asked if we could rent just through November and they agreed. So at 11pm Tuesday night we moved most of our stuff into the studio. We slept in the hotel that night and moved the last couple things at 6am Wednesday morning.

We are now (sort of) settled in our new home. We are not fully unpacked since this is yet another temporary arrangement. It's a little discouraging to still have unpacked boxes and things without a "place." But the apartment is beautifully furnished and has an awesome outdoor patio so we are liking our little home. And I can't say enough how HAPPY I am to be in Lime Tree Bay. I'm so glad we held out for it. On Wednesday we finally heard back from the first one bedroom, so we put in another offer on Friday and are once again waiting to hear back. We lowered our offer this time because the second place we saw was the same price and had an enclosed patio. But we liked everything else about the first place so wanted to try there again first. We'll see what happens. Who knows where we will end up!

I meant to write a little summary post on our life in the hotel but I am just now getting the pictures uploaded. We get a lot of comments about how incredible it is that we live in Grand Cayman, and for the most part that's pretty true. But here's a glimpse at the not-so glamorous side...

First the boxes.


We picked these up our 12 boxes at the beginning of our second week in the hotel and they stayed stacked in the living area. Good thing we aren't claustrophobic people! Funny side note - when we got boxes from the Kroger in Cincinnati, they only had feminine hygiene ones left. So most of our boxes have tampon and adult brief brands on them. How embarrassing!

Here's my computer set up...not too shabby.


We've shared pictures from some of the fancy restaurants we've been to, but not every meal can be that ritzy. I got this vegetable lasagna from Cost U Less and we had it a couple nights. A little runny but overall pretty tasty. A typical hotel night would consist of us eating dinner then climbing in bed to watch Community Season 1 on the laptop as we eat Haagen-Dazs straight from the pints (Brent always gets pralines and cream and I've gotten dulce de leche and vanilla caramel brownie).


(Side note - see that KFC cup Brent's holding? We went to KFC one night the first week and Brent saved the cup and kept it filled in the fridge the rest of the hotel time. I think he liked having a straw? Not sure.)

Our pathetic fridge. Let me break this down for you: half eaten lasagna that's uncovered because we have no foil, jar of jelly, bag of baby carrots, and Brent's gross KFC cup. Then there are some stolen ketchup packets in the door compartment. We ate so much peanut butter and jelly during these two weeks! I was so happy when we moved into the apartment and got - yippee - tuna!


We did have a palm tree out our window, which was nice. Not something I saw too often in Cincinnati...


One of our last days at the hotel we decided to go down to the pool and order fun drinks. This is the grill where we ate breakfast every morning:


Check out the hot pool boy:


Brent's piña colada


My Cayman Mudslide (so delicious)


Now we are settled in our studio apartment and getting into a routine. This week has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me. The studio is very nice, but still not a permanent situation. I'm such a homebody...I'm having a hard time living without a real "home." There's been a couple weepy moments this week. I have been dwelling on the things I miss in my Cincinnati world - my nice home office, my fully stocked kitchen, the outlets in my bathroom, a grocery store I know my way around (and I know will stock milk every week) - instead of the awesome things we will only get to experience here.

There were some really great moments this week too. Brent and I went out to eat on Thursday to a restaurant called Deckers. We had a wonderful time together (yummy food too - I have pictures to post later but they were on my point and shoot). We decided to set aside a date night each week to enjoy each other and the fun Cayman restaurants. I love this idea because it will be great to have date nights already built into a routine that we can continue once we have kids. I also got to use the Lime Tree Bay gym three times this week, and spent Friday's lunch at the pool. Laying in the sun I was reminded how privileged and blessed I am to be living on an island. Instead of stressing about the uncomfortable parts of living in a new foreign land, I should be embracing this once-in-a-lifetime adventure!