Letters from Grenada

About

My name is Maria, I’m 31 and I live in Grenada, a stunning little island in the Caribbean. I share a house with my toddler son (who happens to be Grenadian), my mother and her mother (who happens to be totally senile). I was born in New York and lived there most of my life.

I grew up in Nyack, New York, a village in Rockland County, the crown jewel (says I) of the Hudson River Valley. (You can, if you like, refer to Nyack as Nyack-on-Hudson, but I don’t.) I went to the Rockland Country Day School for elementary, middle and high school. I lived in Ithaca, New York for four years while I was a student at Cornell University. I studied in Paris for a semester, which was even sweeter that it sounds. I graduated in 1999 and moved back to Nyack, then later to New York City proper.

I moved to Grenada in 2004, following… well… it’s a long story.

Every day has been a small adventure, even days spent at home. I worked here for two years as a project manager and translator/ interpreter. (I speak French and Spanish but never got fluent in Yachtie.)

I gave birth to my son here, under “interesting” circumstances.

I am a HUGE fan of Barack Obama, and am beside myself with joy that he is now our President-Elect. You can read about my election experience here.

I have one brother, Robert. He’s a couple of years younger than me and is tied with my son for the title of Maria’s favorite person in the universe. He’s currently living in Santiago, Chile, where he and his girlfriend Anya are teaching English and terrorizing the locals. Anya is blogging about her experience as an expat at The Secret Life of Gringas.

My best friend in Grenada is YingYang. She’s an anonymous blogger, so I won’t tell you too much about her, except that she’s totally hot, even when she’s trying to convince me to cut of all my hair. She’s the person who answers all my really embarrassing questions about Grenadian politics, culture and especially slang. I doubt this blog would exist without her encouragement. You can get to know her at Blah Bloh Blog.