Tag Archives: Adobe Illustrator

A Day in the Life of an AUC Spouse

After my last post, A Typical Day at American University of the Caribbean, I was encouraged to tell about my own typical day. This is a little harder than sharing a typical day for Ben, mostly because my days are never the same!

Here’s what my day looked like yesterday:

We woke up at 6:30, a little later than usual, because we had a late-night Skype call the night before. I made stove-top toast for breakfast, and Ben left for class at 7:20.

Making food has extra challenges here! I don't read Dutch...
Making food has extra challenges here! I don’t read Dutch…

I organized my laundry and took it to AUC’s dormitory laundry room. Our apartment’s washer and dryer don’t work well, so I always do laundry at school. One of the washers had leaked, so an AUC employee was mopping the floor. I stopped to chat with her for a while. While waiting for my laundry, I studied Swahili from a textbook I got a couple years ago in Kenya.

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At 8:15, I met a couple friends– other spouses– near AUC and went on a 3-mile run with them. The air is humid and warm, so two of us decided to walk to the beach after our run to cool off. My friend brought her dog with us, and it was hilarious to watch her play in the surf!

Sasha plays on the beach
Sasha plays on the beach

Around eleven, I went home and made lunch. I try to have it ready for Ben when he walks in the door. Today we had leftovers from a school-catered lunch we had on Monday.

After eating, the two of us spent a little time together. Then Ben studied his vital signs checklist while I cleaned up after lunch, blogged, and read my Bible.

At two, a friend picked me up and we drove halfway across the island to the little league field. We parked behind the field next to three containers. These containers look rather unassuming from the outside, but inside, they are filled with all the wonderful things we loved in our childhoods– a labeled shell collection, a train track running along the ceiling, a remote-control robot, science projects, books, a rock tumbler, and so much more! The little league coach has set up a player development and tutoring program for some of the island kids. Some of the AUC spouses come to tutor the kids and play ball with them. While we were there yesterday, I got to work on reading with a three or four kids, play catch with two little girls, and do warm-up exercises with the boys.

tutoring

We left around 4:30 and headed back to our homes in Cupecoy. I went shopping at the Asian market next to our complex and started a dinner of beans and rice. While everything cooked, I answered emails for my freelance art job. Want to see what I do for work? Check this out!

One of the T-shirts I designed for a client (copyright 2015)
One of the T-shirts I designed for a client
(copyright 2015)

At 6:30, Ben and his friend Matt arrived for dinner.

Dinner at the Johnson's
Dinner at the Johnsons’

At 7:05, I ran out the door, a little late for my Zumba class. I go to a free Zumba session twice at week at AUC’s gym. The class ended at 8:00, and I had a little time to talk with friends before going to band practice.

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At 9:00, I arrived at worship band practice. I’m singing and playing in our church’s worship band on Sundays– next week, I’ll be singing back-up and playing the drum. Some weeks, I’ll be helping out by playing guitar or piano as needed.

Practice went late, so it was almost 10:30 before I got home. Ben and I were both exhausted! We talked for a bit, set the alarm, and fell fast asleep.

Creatively Finding Work

The consequence for working for pay as a foreigner in St. Maarten is immediate deportation. However, I can apparently work online through American-based employers. While a two-year vacation on a Caribbean islands sounds lovely, a two-year vacation on a Caribbean island with a job to pay some of the bills sounds even better.

I hoped to get a full-time job this summer, but somehow or other nothing I tried worked out. I think it was by the grace of God, actually. It’s been lovely to spend these days with Ben, since it’s the last time we’ll be able to spend quantity time together for what seems like forever. Also, we’ve had a lot of moving preparations to do. We’ve actually been blessed with quite a lot of paid work, anyway.  We drive two awesome kids home from camp a couple times each week. I babysit two or three times a week, and sometimes Ben comes with me. Ben has a job as a tutor, also. We get to housesit twice this summer. The biggest blessing, though, is the work that will last during our time in St. Maarten. Ben suggested that I try freelance illustrating again. I did it a little before and during college, but he thought I could try to work into a full-time job. So, I bought Adobe Illustrator and started a Cafepress store and put myself out there on a few websites. I was discouraged at first, but not long after we prayed for a design job for me, I got an offer for a part-time job with a printing company. So, I am working for a printing company designing T-shirts. I just finished my first batch of sixty-four and my client loved them. Praise God! Looks like we’ll have a little income while we’re on the island.

Check out my Fiverr gigs and my Cafepress store:

https://www.fiverr.com/brejay

http://www.cafepress.com/thirdculture

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Above is one of my designs on Cafepress. I did the face with digital oil paints and added text with Adobe Illustrator.