A Caribbean Perspective of Knoxville

Caribbean near Tulum. Photo: mdanys

This is a guest post by Amelia Daniels. Temporarily on loan to the British Virgin Islands, Amelia is one of Knoxville’s young professionals turned expatriate. Amelia is a public relations practitioner with Ackermann PR. Married to Michael Daniels, she is documenting their experience living on Tortola through her blog, Our BVI Adventure.

It’s been six months since we made the decision to temporarily leave Knoxville. Even if we were swapping Tennessee red clay for the white sands of the Caribbean, it was difficult then and it still is. Knoxville is where my husband, Michael and I established our careers, bought our first house, and made life-long friends.

There are so many things we miss about Knoxville, but before we get into those, here’s the why and how we ended up 2,000+ miles from home on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.

My husband, Michael accepted a position with Pusser’s West Indies, LTD as the director of retail and international sales. Pusser’s is a lifestyle brand with locations around the world. Maybe you’ve been to one of the four Pusser’s outposts in the BVI, tasted Pusser’s Rum in Munich or shopped at the Pusser’s in Annapolis! He is tasked with expanding the brand through the clothing line in the U.S., which is what inevitably will bring us back to East Tennessee.

While we are enjoying island life immensely, we have our moments…moments when we want nothing more than to be in Knoxville.

So what do we miss the most???

Driving on the right side of the road for starters! Never again will we complain about drivers on Kingston Pike!

Having breakfast at Long’s on Saturday mornings, then taking a walk around Northshore Park with our dog Milly.

Experiencing all that is the Dogwood Arts Festival!

Watching local news! We have one weatherman here for all of the Caribbean and he has a stuffed parrot on his shoulder that he talks to during his broadcast. No joke!!!

Doing Pilates with my friend, Alyson at Mind, Body Kinetics under Geri’s supervision of course!

Eating lunch on the patio at Aubrey’s with my co-workers from Ackermann PR. {While I continue to work remotely for APR, those lunch meetings just aren’t the same over Skype.}

Attending Junior League’s Derby-themed Spring Gala – I’ve never met a hat I didn’t like and just hated to miss the opportunity to wear one, for a great cause no less!

Picking up fresh seafood from the Shrimp Dock and getting insider tips from Captain Paul about how best to boil the potatoes, corn, lemons, shrimp, and crab.

Come fall, tailgating with friends on top of G-10…

Hearing people say “y’all!”

More than the places and the parties, we miss the people. Knoxville undoubtedly has some of the greatest people on Earth and we are fortunate to call many of them friends. To those friends, we miss you very much and we look forward to being back there soon!

Amelia and her husband, Michael