1 week in

---

So I've officially been in Dominica for 1 week! Wow! Better than a lot of other students. After talking to a couple of 2nd and 3rd semester students I found out that a lot of new students come to the island and within a few days decide to leave because it is a 3rd world country. I love the 3rd world country part of Dominica. The simple life. If you're intune with things here you "feel the vibe?", explained Gregory, my Indian River tour guide today. I'm feeling that vibe, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon.

It was a rough start getting here! Holy crap, Caribbean airlines are MISERABLE! My flight was last Thursday, it read Boston-->Charlotte-->San Juan-->Dominica. We get to San Juan late bc our flight was delayed. We hop on another flight that was suppose to go straight to Dominica. We find out it has a layover in Antigua. Once we land in Antigua they make us get off the plane and they inform us there are no more flights to Dominica and we have to stay in Antigua for the night. So I slept in a weird hotel in a country I had never heard of before that night. The next morning the front desk forgot to give me a wake up call! Luckily a travel friend knocked on my door. The next day instead of going straight from Antigua to Dominica we have yet another surprise layover, this time in Guadalupe. So in all my travel adventure included:

Boston->Charlotte->San Juan->Antigua->Guadalupe->Dominica!

On the ride from the Dominican airline to my new school I took two dramamine and passed out. When my landlord came to pick me up I was so drugged up and incoherent I think he thought there was something wrong with me. I fell asleep at 12pm and woke up at 5pm, put my room together and poked around my apartment. New Years Eve in a new country by myself. I would've gone and ventured out, but it was dark out and I was unsure of the area so I tried to fall back asleep to no avail. I rested in bed until about 1 am listening to gospel music. There is a church next to my apartment, and they wanted to celebrate the coming of the new year.

I finally fell asleep and woke up on Saturday to go explore the island. I took a quick tour of Ross University and then met another student and walked through Portsmouth to Fort Shirley and the Cabrits National Park. We walked around and then took a taxi back to Ross.

http://webpages.charter.net/dominica/Dominica/cabrits.html

So green and beautiful here! What I big change from Boston. We got about 15 inches of snow at my parents house before I came here. Now it's 80 something degrees and green. I love the island.

The last week has been fun. My friend, Shawn, from MA visited (poor guy had to navigate his way through the tropical bush and crazy foreign roads/drivers in a rental car at 11 pm...and on the left side). We went on an island tour and swam in the chilly Emerald Pools on Sunday. We also met some Carib Indians of the island and ate some local coconut bread. Our bus driver drove like a crazy man in the rain, passing other buses on turns, and going way too fast. But I enjoyed all of it and we made it out alive so that's really all that matters.

Orientation has been, well, orientation. For the 3 days Shawn was here it rained, but on his last day it cleared up a little bit so we explored Glainvillia and Portsmouth and some local restaurants in Picard. The only good part about the rain was that I was able to get a lot of stuff done; student id, bank account etc. Once Shawn left of course it cleared up completely. Since then I've been printing out all of the powerpoints for my lectures, walking in the beautiful Caribbean sunshine, trying new restaurants and checking out the night life. Local beer: Kubuli = good. Next thing to try is the local rum. I wonder if that was what Johnny Depp was drinking...(parts of Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed on Dominica, im referring to the rum scene).

Today I went on a tour with my new friend Tony up the Indian River as the sun was setting. I wish I brought my camera. Our "rastaman" tour guide did such a great job pointing out the cute iguanas and different birds/trees/fish. I guess parts of the river were in Pirates of the Caribbean. We had a short break from the tour at a reggae bar in the middle of the jungle. They blasted Bob Marley and we drank some Kubuli. It was great.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Indian+River%2c+dominica&view=detail&id=56235E6D280A722CECB2069249866F910043346E&first=1&FORM=IDFRIR

Only one more day of pre medical school life. Classes start on Monday! I'm so anxious to start school and to get into a good routine. Tomorrow is my last day of freedom. I'm signed up for an island tour and I plan on enjoying every minute of it because I know I won't have much time to do anything besides study in the next few months.

Before I sign off, important things to remember during my stay in Dominica:

People/places/events are temporary, enjoy them as they come.
Be flexible when everything goes wrong.
Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God. -Cat's Cradle
"Feel the vibrations, mon!" - rastaman Gregory
If there is a worm looking up at me from the toilet it's bc I didn't thoroughly wash all my fruits and veggies. Wash all fruits and vegetables!!!!!

---