As I'm posting to my blog, I'm sitting on a deck that overlooks the Caribbean Sea. On December 29th, I left home and headed to Texas, via Oakland. I had a great time in Texas meeting Farley's family. There were all so kind and I felt right at home. We were only there for a few days before leaving for Fort Lauderdale; however, we managed to go to Mexico, launch off heavy duty canister fireworks, and eat TONS of great food. By the way, those Texans take their fireworks for New Year's seriously.
Next we headed to Fort Lauderdale to send off barrels. For those of you who don't know, one can send a 75 gallon barrel to Dominica for about $110.00 and it can weigh as much as you want. Farley and I sent three barrels of lights, kitchen supplies, food, and other supplies for the island. I thought it would be stressful getting all of our supplies and such, but it wasn't so bad. It took us a few hours to package the barrels, but we also took things out of their cardboard packages to make room for more things. I'm glad that Farley didn't see, but I fell head first into a barrel - they are that big. Thankfully, my foot reached a step and I climbed out before he noticed. Honestly, I had the hardest time getting my luggage down to the weight required to go to Dominica. Thank Goodness for Farley. I might not have gotten all my hairspray down to the island with out him!!
The flight to Dominica wasn't as horrible as I anticipated. I thought that I would get sick, but I was fine (I did take an anti-motion sickness medicine before leaving San Juan though). We were lucky in that all of our luggage arrived!! Many students were not so lucky.
The ride across the island was beautiful and a bit long. We went past areas that the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. In fact, Johnny Depp lived just down the road from me during filming. Speaking of housing, we have great housing!! We are staying in the Portsmouth Beach Hotel in studio apartments, but we are basically on campus. We have the Caribbean Sea approximately 50 feet from our door and the beach is a beautiful soft black sand. I can lay in bed and see the ocean, listen to the waves and feel the cool Caribbean breeze.
The people are so incredibly kind and personable in Dominica. We took a bus into Portsmouth the other day, which is the next town over, to do some shopping. I have been incredibly impressed about how easy everything has been (so far). There have been thousands of other students that have come before us, but I'm still impressed with the organization.
There are some interesting things about Dominica so far. First, all the power is pre-paid. It is weird to see 228.4 units of power on your meter. It is hard to gage how much one will use, but it is okay. We can take our laptops, cameras, and cell phones to campus to charge them (free of charge), which is nice. The water is directly from the streams in the rain forest at the center of the island. The water taste great, but we were advised to only drink bottled or water from campus as it is tripled filtered (that is until our pur water filters arrive). The stores all look like a cross between a dollar store and a convenience store except everything is $100.00 EC (which is about $30.00 US). Once you figure out that the basket of fruit you bought is really only $5.00 it makes more sense!! Finally, the last interesting thing is getting used to the bugs. They don't call Dominica the nature island for nothing. There are critters all over the place (but thankfully not in my room). There are dogs, cats, ducks, goats and even cows running free (in town more of the dogs and cats than anything else). Also when walking at night on the beach, you must be careful not to kill a crab as they are walking around.
So far, I love Dominica. I might not love it as much once the studies start and I'm sure it will get old, but I'm so lucky to be hear. I was afraid to come, but I'm so glad I did. Besides, I never would have tasted the wonder of the Caribbean "Nice Biscuits," which are basically like an animal cracker, but have coconut and sprinkled sugar on them. YUMMY!!
P.S. See bottom of page to see my view - it'll be hard, but I'll have to grin and bear it!
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