This Is What It Feels Like To Live

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been able to get on here! I'd love to say I've been super busy doing things at the hotel or around town, but I've really just been busy being social....which, here, basically means sitting around chatting with people. Still not much to do, but with as hectic as my hours at work can get, it's nice to be able to just go and relax with friends.
Last time I posted was Tuesday night, when I was staying at the hotel. Unfortunately, I posted right before dinner and wasn't able to get back on here and tell you guys about it! OH MY GOODNESS. Now I fully understand why people are willing to pay $70 per person to eat here...the food is incredible. The appetizer was this lobster/scallop terrine, then a chilled pear and rhubarb soup, caprese salad, and all that followed by my new favorite entree...black angus bouf bourguinon. Anyone who knows about my obsession with the movie Julie and Julia will understand why that was such a special treat. In the two or three days I will have at home before going back to school in the fall, I WILL be attempting Julia's recipe.
Oh, I forgot one thing. Dessert. Red Velvet cheesecake. I hope I'm not catching you before dinner! The food was absolutely incredible..best food of my life at that point in time, but it now holds second place.

Did you catch that? Yes I went out to dinner again since then, actually at another one of the hotel's restaurants called The Woods. Let me describe this place to you really quickly - you have to walk up Grand Hill about (what feels like) several miles, along a skinny, winding road through the woods to get to it. I walked there with a friend who didn't have a bike, and it was both of our first time going there. I swear we both thought we were lost for the longest time! Anyway, we finally arrived, and the restaurant itself is pretty small. There are probably about 20 tables and it's decorated like a hunting lodge...fitting because that's exactly what it used to be! So as you dine at the tables clothed with white, paper table cloths (where coloring is highly encouraged) you're surrounded by lots of taxadermised deer and moose...but here's my favorite part. At this time of year, when it's still pretty chilly out, they have a huge fire crackling away in the fireplace. The atmosphere alone makes it easily my favorite place on the whole island, and this was before I even tried the food. So, for dinner here - this, by the way, was on Sunday night with about 5 of my co-workers - I had raw salmon with caviar and grapefruit, butternut squash soup, a pear and walnut salad, and tiramisu cheesecake. Yum, yum, yum. This amazing meal (Which only cost $33 before tip! Holy cow!) was followed by bowling. But not the kind of bowling you're thinking of...this place has one lane, it's all wood, and you have to set the pins up yourself. It looks like something straight out of 1885. So fun!

This island has become, in one month, my favorite place in the world. It's like living in a different world.
Could you imagine walking down the street and seeing nothing but horse drawn carriages and bikes? There's no Walmart here. Most of the stores are only open until 7 pm unless it's Friday or Saturday night. It's like going back in time, literally, but not just to the 1800's, which yes, it does feel like sometimes. But I feel like I'm a kid again here. After work, instead of sitting down in front of the tv and just zoning out, I go for walks, hang out with friends on my porch, play cards, board games, go for bike rides. This is probably the only place in the world where the vast majority of people would rather just go walk around outside and socialize rather than sit on their couch eating tv dinners and falling asleep to the evening news. It's taken a lot of getting used to, but I don't miss the "outside world" one little bit. If given the option to work at a hotel exactly like this one but in New York or Miami or London, France, wherever, I don't think I could do it. Part of the magic of this hotel and this island is the fact that it makes you feel normal again. I feel human here, not like some robot in front of a television or computer screen. I feel the wind in my hair every morning when I ride my bike to work, and walk through the lobby of the most beautiful hotel I've ever seen before doing a job I love. I leave there and ride my bike home, change as quickly as possible, and then go outside and enjoy the night. I watch the sunset every night over the straits, and then tilt my head up to see the clearest skies, and the brightest stars I've ever seen. I don't check my phone every five minutes, I don't keep up with what's on television, I rarely get on twitter or facebook.

But who needs all that when you're actually living?