So last night, after coming back from a long day (including hospital rotations and OSHA training), the guys whose rims/tires I damaged with that nasty pothole stopped by, along with my landlord to mediate. He said that this has been going on too long (almost 2 weeks now), and he just wanted to settle it. Of course, by "settling it," he meant that I should just give in to his demands for 1,000EC (~$400US). My landlord actually stood up for me, saying that this guy was being completely unreasonable, and just trying to take advantage of the situation, since if he submitted the claim to his insurance he would be getting 1 used MAG rim, value depreciated. We finally agreed on a number that was pretty much half-way between what I thought was fair, and what he was demanding. While it was a little more than I wanted to spend, it was definitely worth it. I really can't deal with the guy coming over every night to argue for hours when I am trying to study. I just hope it was enough so that he doesn't try and rob the place while we are not here. (Not that he would get that much anyways, as I always carry all valuables (including my computer) on my person, at all times.) I'm just glad it's over though.

In other news, my landlord took the opportunity to change out the vehicle we were renting from him. Since the whole pothole incident, he gave us his personal vehicle (a 2-door Toyota RAV4) to drive around, while he procured us another vehicle. He bought us a 4-door Nissan Bluebird (aka Altima in the US). With the exception of the steering wheel being on the opposite side, it's pretty much identical to the car that I have been driving at home since High School. I think this car will work out better for us that the SUV for a number of reasons - 1) we have 4 people sharing it, and it has 4 doors (getting in and out of the RAV 4 was a pain), 2) it has a truck with a vertical wall, so that our groceries do not fall out the back when we open the trunk on our steep driveway, and 3) it's cheaper to rent, and should be better on gas mileage too.

And for a final bit of news, I will be leaving St. Vincent at 5:55PM this evening (if the plane is on time, yeah right) to head back to Grenada for a free vacation to teach/lecture/coordinate CPR to the new 1st termers for the weekend. My SVG cell phone should work there, but in case it doesn't I will put my Grenada SIM card back in, so try me at the old number if the new one doesn't work. Good thing is that all I do this weekend is 1 lecture and then I just get to sit around "coordinating," which means I will have plenty of time to get caught up on the studying, and I should be able to earn enough money to make back what I just spent on my new rim/tires.