(Leavinng AK on to the VI-Kari's Car driving through Canada)I left Alaska on July 30th, 2010. I was heading home to visit the family for a week and a half before beginning my new journey in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Quite a change, right? That's what most people tell me. See, people have this vision of Alaska being covered in snow yearly, with people sitting around ice holes, fishing. They think that the Virgin Islands is 80 degrees year round. These people are wrong, and rather ignorant for placing faith in Hollywood movies to teach them. Anyways, people seem to question why I chose the VI to visit. Honestly, the answer is simple. Because I can. That's it. I haven't research the school to see if the Education Department here is outstanding. I didn't really care in the beginning anyways. I just wanted to see the beauty of some place different.
(Kinsey and Me)Well here I am!
The first day in town I delivered my bags to my room in 90 degree weather (no AC by the way) and proceeded to unpack, meet my roommate Raven, and make note of what all I needed to buy. All I remember of the day is the feeling of my skin burning and the outrageous price of the Taxis. The next day was hard. So hard. All kinds of doubt entered my mind. I felt like I had made a huge mistake choosing the Virgin Islands and I cried. I sat at a bus stop and cried and I'm not ashamed. Because once I got it out, it made all the difference. It had been a while since I had felt out of my comfort zone and this certainly shattered any comfort zone that ever wrapped around me.In Juneau, you can blend in with the background if you want. Often times, if I was feeling shy I could sit in the back of the class and practically be invisible. St. Thomas is not like this. In fact, just walking into a room gets me attention. I am white, and a pale white person at that. I am a minority here. Sometimes I wonder if my paleness hurts peoples eyes because they glare at me. I can be walking down the sidewalk and people will refuse to move over so I can walk by, forcing me to walk in the grass. I try not to let this bother me because the majority of the people on campus are not this way. It is proper to say Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, or goodnight to everyone you see. This seems to make people seem nicer then they are. So what have I been up to? Well, last week was my first week of school. Classes here are much different and I try not to compare the punctuality of professors from Juneau and professor (and students) at UVI for fear it might drive me insane. Island time is a real thing and it's annoying! It should be called "lazy time" because that is the only reason for it. People take their sweet time doing everything! Not everything is bad about the VI though. There are more good qualities to the island then bad.
The beaches are great! I have not had a lot of time to spend in the ocean as of yet, but the time I have had has been great! (Minus the sun burns). I have met new friends from all over. Some from the US, some from other islands and the British Virgin Islands, some from other countries. My classes are very easy so far, which could be good or bad but the professors are very nice. I am also learning a lot about myself. when you are a minority and have to work extra hard just to make friends...well it makes you look deep inside yourself. It's been a humbling experience so far, and everyone needs those.
(New Friends)I have trouble finding time to write in this blog. However, a passing hurricane caused the school to cancel our classes, leaving the majority of us on lock down and bored senseless. The school authorities decided to move the student body into a huge cement dorm called East Dorms, which oddly enough reminded me of a prison. And there I was, left with nothing to do but write. Not that that is a bad thing. Anyways, Hurricane Earl hit the shores of St. Thomas at a catagory 3 and did a little damage: up-rooted trees, knocked out power and cell phone towers, tossed around lots of debris, and of course pounded everything with heavy rain and wind. Overall, we were all thankful to be kept in the prison, i mean safe dorm, even if we did have to sleep on cots. Ha!
(Cots set up in East Dorm)It has been a long few days but classes are to resume tomorrow morning and we are all anxious to start our second week of school.
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