Me, Miss America, Miss UVI

This past weekend could have been very fun, but I didn't make the most of my opportunities. On Friday a group of people went out at night, which they do most nights, and I decided to stay in. It costs at least $6 to ride two miles in a taxi ($6 is rare, normally is around $8), and I feel like thats not worth my money, so I, being an accounting major, try to limit my taxi rides as much as possible and often times that keeps me in. Normally I don't regret it, but this past Friday I did. While the group was out they met pair of guys who owned a yacht. Those guys invited them to their yacht (because if you have a yacht, you're going to make friends) and apparently everyone had a blast. I, however, was on campus not having nearly as much fun as them. Lesson learned.

I misspoke. Friday afternoon something cool did happen. Miss America 2015 came to the school and talked about domestic abuse. Originally I was just going to see what she was like and say that I've seen Miss America, but I actually got a lot out of it. I never really thought much about the topic before, so I ended up learning a lot about domestic abuse. Also, she seems like a very genuine person, and I wasn't expecting that. When it was over I got to take a picture and talk to her. And yeah, you see that, I got to one-arm side-hug her. I told her back off because I already have a girlfriend.

Sand chair

Coki Beach from the water

Saturday was great! After breakfast we caught a safari ($2 to go literally across the island, but they only run during the day) to Coki Beach. From my experiences thus far, Coki is the best beach on St. Thomas. I still haven't been to Magen's yet, which supposedly is a National Geographic top 10 beach, but I've heard from the locals that it's overrated, but I digress. Coki is on the far east end of the island, so it took about an hour to get there with all the stops the safari makes. Coki is known for it's great snorkeling, so after getting there and lathering up (and waiting the suggested 10 minutes for the sunscreen to soak in, of course) we went to check out the reef. This was the first time I got to use my new snorkel gear that I bought earlier in the week for my swimming and SCUBA classes. The water was so clear! Just look how far back you can see in the picture. For some reason there were so much more fish there too. Also, someone suggested to bring dog biscuits with you to make the fish go crazy, and it worked! It was amazing to see so clearly and to interact so closely with them. It's definitely a must if you're visiting on your own. Beyond the snorkeling, Coki has bars, restaurants, and shops all right there on the beach. I built a chair out of sand and sat on the beach for most of the day. It was perfect. I plan on going again sometime, and when I do I'll put up some good under water pics of the reef and fish.

Sunday was kind of lame. I did a lot of housekeeping stuff and stayed in. I did get quite a bit done, but it was boring. At night I tried to watch the Panthers play, but couldn't figure out a way. The cafeteria and student activities center both have TVs, but they were closed for the night. East dorm  also has a TV, but it was being hogged by residents playing video games. I tried my best to stream it online, but after 45 minutes and some very sketchy websites I just gave up. I heard we won though, so that's good. Definitely going to have to go out to watch them win the Superbowl.

On Sunday a lot of the NSE kids and a few transfer kids went to St. John, another one of the US Virgin Islands. Now there are about 16 NSE kids because some from last semester came back to stay for the whole year.

Ferry ride from Red Hook
to Cruz Bay

The path to the beaches

Cruz Bay

On the west end of the island is a town called Red Hook which is a pretty big port where ferries leave to go all throughout the USVI and BVI. We got there just in time to take the noon ferry to St. John. The round trip ticket only cost 12 bucks and the ferry ride was maybe 10 minutes. St. John is a lot less commercial than St. Thomas and a lot more rural. There seemed to be only shops and restaurants right around Cruz bay where the ferry docked.

The beach we were going to was called Honeymoon Beach and was about a 30 minute walk. I believe we were walking on park service land to get there, but I don't really know. Either way it was a hike though the woods. We had to dodge horse poop, so horseback riding must be a thing people do there.

The beach was a lot prettier than Brewer's. The sand seemed softer and the waster seemed more clear. The light and dark blues of the water seemed to really contrast well with the sand and green palm trees. In the distance you could see other cays and what I was told was Jost Van Dyke.

Solomon's Beach

Honeymoon Beach

Josh, Amber, Will, Emily, and me

After about two hours we went to a beach called Solomon's that was back toward the direction of the boat we had to catch. This one was a lot smaller and more secluded. I found a hole in the sand that looked like a chair. I sat in it and it was surprisingly comfortable! We stayed there an hour or so and left in time to get the 5:00 ferry back home.

Saturday our NSE coordinator planned a trip to the Bordeaux Agricultural Food Fair. This was located in the western part of the island where I hadn't been yet. The area seemed a lot more rural than anything else I had previously seen. The shuttle ride left the school at 1 and only took about 15 minutes to get there.

This was a gated event, with police working security and people out in the road parking cars. That surprised me. When we got in there was one main lane where there were little shacks selling fruits, vegetables, vegan foods, arts, crafts, and clothes. It was very Rastafarian themed with almost everything painted red, green and yellow. Almost everyone that was there was local, old, and rocking dreads. One guy had his locks swinging down by his ankles.

The fair was a really neat experience, but unfortunately for me I was hot and tired and all the vendors were offering was vegan food than I knew probably wouldn't fill me up, nor would I like it. I ended up getting some of this bean ball thing and lemonade and sitting in the shade most of the time. I found a bench overlooking the valley below. The views from the side of the mountain were incredible.

It's Friday and I just finished my last class. What a week! I've spent it getting stuff taken care of and going to class. A few classes got moved around and I had to drop one. It took a while to get everything straightened out, but I think I'm close to getting it all figured out.

Buying books was another issue. I have a mailing address here, which I will post in my heading soon, but I've heard it takes forever to get mail shipped here. Also, if you don't write the address perfectly it will get sent back, so I thought some issues might arise there. I ended up buying most of them at the bookstore, which I hate doing. The others I got as eTextbooks on my iPad.

A few other small issues I've had to take care of: I still haven't gotten a key yet, but I keep getting updates on how that's going everyday.  I went shopping a few times to get everything I needed for my room that I couldn't pack on the plane. Finally, I got all the paperwork done for my student gym membership here.

In total I have 7 classes, which sounds like a lot but it's only 12.5 hours. Last semester I took 18 so I would be able to take less this semester.

Monday
Public Speaking - 3 credits - This will transfer back as my speech class which is a core class I waited to take till I got here.

Swimming/Snorkeling - 1 credit - Just a fun class to hopefully experience this island a little better. It will transfer back as a PE class.

Class Steel Pan - 1 credit  - An introduction to the steel drum, which has always fascinated me since I was a kid.

Hospitality Accounting - 3 credits - Basically deals with the managerial accounting in hotels, restaurants, and bars. Unfortunately, it will not transfer back as an accounting class, but I'm still excited to learn about it. It should be really helpful.

Tuesday
Mass Communications Law and Ethics - 3 credits - I needed an ethics class, so I waited to take one till I got here.

Class Guitar - 1 credit - I borrowed my dad's guitar during freshman year of college and kind of dabbled with it since, but I've never had actual instruction. Hopefully by the time this class is over I'll have a good foundation to build from.

Wednesday
Public Speaking

Open Water Scientific Diving - 1 credit - lecture -This is probably my most fun class. Marine biology is huge here, so this is a freshman level course designed to teach you how to do research underwater. By the end of the class I'll be a certified SCUBA diver. I'm so excited. God is good.

Hospitality Accounting

Thursday
Open Water Scientific Diving - lab - This is the part of the class where we actually go in the water and learn how to dive. We'll take trip to different cays and go to depths of 65 feet.

Mass Communications Law and Ethics

Friday
Public Speaking

Ferry boat

Honeymoon Beach from above

Yesterday (well, two days ago now because it's 2 A.M.) was great yet again. It was Sunday, our last day before classes started. We wanted to get off the island and do some exploring on our own. They easiest way to do that is to take a ferry to Water Island. Water Island is a very small and very rural island right of the coast of St. Thomas. This wasn't that much of an adventure since it's only about 2,000 feet from port to port, a $10 10 minute ferry ride, and a $1 5 minute Safari ride from UVI to the port. This was, however, a starting point to begin our adventures and small trips. Some of us have dreams of going to explore the BVIs, Puerto Rico, and other surrounding islands for days, weekends, or for spring break. Our trip to Water Island was a very small and very short half-day trip.

Honeymoon Beach late afternoon

We left the school after breakfast and got to the port at 11:45. The 12:00 ferry was full so we ended up taking the 12:30 one. The ferry was very short and in about ten minutes we were on Water Island headed to one of the best beaches in all of the USVI, Honeymoon Beach. We were told that it would be packed because Sunday is everyone's free day, and if people don't go to Magen's Bay (the most popular beach on St. Thomas) they go to Honeymoon Beach. I didn't find that to be the case.

Local beach bar on Honeymoon

Honeymoon was located about 5 minutes away from the port on Water Island. The beach was incredible. They had so much to do, all in this quaint and compact little beach. There was a bar, a floating bar, a restaurant, volleyball, corn hole, beach chairs, shade, that ring toss game, and a floating raft! And the coolest part - a sea turtle came and poked it's head out at us while we were on the raft!! I was so excited. I'm definitely going to take my girlfriend and family there when they come visit.


About 5:30 we got on the ferry to go back. Instead of going all the way back to UVI though, one student with a car offered to take me and a couple other kids to Kmart and the grocery store. I got a rug for my dorm room which I'm unusually happy about, some command strips to hang stuff on the walls, and some easy mac since I missed dinner at the cafeteria. It was a great day.

We take a lot of trips to the beach during our free time. The closest beach is the university owned one at the bottom of the hill called John Brewer's Bay. While swimming we can see this huge rock at the top of the mountain behind us. We always look at it and talk about going and checking it out, but two days ago we actually did! If you click on the picture you can see the rock at the top.

From the bottom looking up at the rock

From the top looking down on Brewer's

Only a couple of us went: Hannah (New Hampshire), Josh (not NSE, Missouri), Anna (Indiana), Sam (Massachusetts), Will (Massachusetts), and Nate (Colorado). We left around 10 in the morning after getting some breakfast in us. There wasn't much of a trail. We mostly followed our intuitions and tried to not get off the rocks. The rocks were our path in a way. They eventually lead us to the base of the mountain, but not after passing the old hideaway, a cave, and tons of thorny plants. Seriously, everything had a thorn. And the worst part was the last little bit where the trail ended and we had to bushwhack through all those thorns to the top of the rock. The view was worth it.

The crop of buildings on the left that looks like they make a circle is the university. The airport is in the background. Behind that is Water Island, and the beach in the middle is the school-owned John Brewer's Bay

On the left is the view from the top of the rock looking East. The middle picture is from the top of the NSE students who hiked (Hannah, Nate, Will, Anna, Sam, Me! Josh took the picture since he isn't in NSE). The right is what the "path" looked like when we were coming down (Josh is the guy in the white).

It took us about an hour and a half to climb up and about and hour to climb back down. On the way home we passed a local who could tell we had just been hiking. He told us he was 66 years old and never once been up there because there were some scary stories and rumors associated with it. Something about people going missing. This was unnerving, but I didn't experience anything sketchy while climbing. When we got back we ate some lunch, put on sunscreen and went to the beach for a couple of hours.

That night after I got out of the shower my RA told me my permanent room was ready, so I finished the night by moving two doors down and setting up my new room. The lock still doesn't work, but I'm happy regardless. Baby steps. The view of the city from my room is incredible. Every night I get the pleasure of just staring out into the lights of town. The sun wakes me up at 7:30 every morning and I don't even complain. I'll put up some pictures of my place later.

Today (well, yesterday since it's 2 A.M. right now) the NSE kids and a few transfer students went on a tour of the island hosted by the university. We left after breakfast around 9 and stayed out about three and a half hours. This place is incredible. It seems like no matter where you are you always have a view.

About 20 people went in total in this huge vehicle called a Safari. It's basically an F350 with bench seats and open sides. Normally it's used for transportation from place to place, and not tours, but we're special enough for them to make an exception I guess.  The tour started on the mountain right beside us. This massive vehicle was going up the steepest and narrowest roads I have ever been on. Flying around a turn and seeing someone right there is terrifying. There were several times that it felt like the tires were just spinning and not getting any traction as we were ascending. And the driver would make the sharpest turns possible. It was ridiculous, but he had to. He was taking us to see the best views, and those happened to be on tiny mountain roads in the most obscure places. Everything was nestled away. We would be driving along and seeing nothing but thick overgrown vegetation, and then boom, and incredible view or gift shop hidden on the mountainside was right there.

From the mountain we went to the other end of the island to the prettiest beach I have ever seen called Coki Beach. It was like something you should see programed as the default background on a computer or in one of those tropical island calendars. I didn't know that kind of beauty actually existed outside edited and filtered pictures. It was mind blowing. God is good.

We finished the tour by stopping at Kmart, the main department store on the island. We didn't have time to stay and shop, but I got some essentials that I needed. Still looking for some cheap shower shoes and face wash.

Tonight a bunch of kids on campus got together for a campfire on the beach at the bottom of the hill. The past two days here we have repeatedly heard not to be on the beach late at night for safety reasons and not to have bonfires, but we've also heard to get out and make friends with the locals. I went with the latter advice and tried to make friends, which is incredibly easy here because people genuinely want to get to know you and hang out. A bonfire on the beach in paradise with some locals should be on everyone's bucket list.

Today was orientation. It was odd. It felt like the first day of summer camp back when I was a kid in Boy Scouts. There was a bunch of sweaty people trying to figure it all out carrying around handfuls of stuff in string backpacks. Also, it seemed like not many people knew what was going on. All of the leaders were extremely friendly, but not many really seemed like they knew exactly what they were doing. This complicated some things, but everyone's hospitality was enough to over look the lack of organization.

Overall it was really nice. The University has only around 2,000 students and only about 70 were at the new student orientation today. We were split into groups of around 15. Anyone with any kind of authority treated you like they genuinely cared. The cafeteria staff, the professors, the financial aid employees, the provost, the dean..  everyone was doing their best to establish a personal relationship with you. It was neat. At USC I experienced nothing like that. Here I ate lunch beside the president of the university just casually.

Lunch was supposed to be a welcome party for us. It was very island-y. There were people walking around on stilts dressed in elaborate costumes that looked like they just walked in from the Carnival parade. In the corner was a band playing modern music in a reggae style. They were good and loud. There were balloons everywhere. It was quite the experience.

They never got my room situation figured out. Maybe that will happen tomorrow. Here is a pic of my ID. My hair was sweaty and I had been wearing a hat all day which they made me take off.

We didn't get a campus tour during orientation like I was hoping. Before dinner I decided to do one of my own. As I was walking around campus trying to find the gym, I stumbled upon this view. It almost looks fake. I don't know what to say.

Jan. 6th, the day after I moved in, was Three Kings Day here and the campus was closed. This gave us a lot of free time to kind of explore campus, hang out, and get to know one another again. After breakfast I walked around campus by myself, thinking I would find a quiet space to work on my blog, but I ended up getting distracted by the views and the WiFi to even start.

The views are incredible here and almost 360 degrees. I also discovered that there are a bunch of stray cats that roam around campus. I thought that was funny. After about two hours I went back to my dorm because I thought I might go for a run, but of course as soon as I did it started pouring rain, but in 30 minutes it was beautiful again. I've decided this is a trend here, because it did the same thing on the first day too.

When the rain passed I didn't feel like running anymore. A group of exchangers and some transfer kids went to John Brewer's Bay, a beach at the bottom of the hill that's owned by the University. I tagged along and ended up staying about three hours. It was beautiful. The water was warmer than the Atlantic that I'm used to, but not nearly as warm as it was in Aruba this past summer. The beach seemed really authentic too. I remember in Aruba they raked the beached every morning to make them clean, and there were beach chairs and hotels scattered everywhere. Here it seemed more natural with only a couple of people on the entire beach. There were sailboats anchored out in the bay where people obviously had swam in to enjoy the beach. It actually looked like the pictures I had previously seen, and that made me happy.

Here is my 360 view of John Brewer's Bay. It doesn't work on mobile devices. Above is the short walk down the hill to the beach with Josh and Will.

On January 5th I flew from Charlotte to St. Thomas. It left around 10 and I arrived around 2:30 Atlantic Standard Time. I traveled in warm clothes because it was 30 degrees when I left Charlotte, but as soon as I stepped off the plane it was 82 and I no longer needed them (didn't get a chance to change until later than night though). There was a slight mishap with my luggage. I brought my dad's guitar with me as a carry on, but they had to gate check it when I was boarding in Charlotte. When we landed in St. Thomas I went to pick it up from the gate and it wasn't there. I had to get an employee there to help me out and go find it, which she did! She was very friendly.

Bottom left is the view from the air. Bottom right is the view once we landed in St. Thomas.

The airport was one of those that's so small you have to walk from the plane to the airport. Navigating my way to baggage claim was easy, but once I got my bags it became difficult. I checked two 50 lb bags, had a carry on, and my guitar. The logistics of moving that by myself were not the best. My left hand was rolling a checked bag, and my left shoulder had my carry on. My right shoulder had the other checked bag and my right hand had the guitar. On top of that I was wearing my straw hat. I probably looked completely stupid.

Bottom left is the view of UVI from the runway. All the buildings you see are a part of campus. Bottom right is the entrance into the airport from the plane.

I made my way outside, and ended up splitting a taxi with a transfer student named Josh who was on the same flight as me. The university is neighbors with the airport so the taxi ride wasn't long at all. When we arrived we went to the Student Housing Office as instructed where I encountered more problems. The dorm assignment they gave me when I arrived was not what I previously was told. It took some time to get that straightened out, but eventually they got it reverted back to the original dorm. Then the key they gave me didn't work. I went back to the Student Housing Office to get a different one, and that one didn't work as well. Also, I noticed that there was still someone's things in the closet so I told them I thought someone may have already have moved in there. Then they scratched everything and put me in a temporary room until orientation on the 7th when they will get it all settled. More walking and more moving. I learned Island Time doesn't apply just to punctuality, but also how unorganized people are here.

Other problems that occurred:

Apparently Verizon does not get service down here, which I didn't previously know. Also, no one told me what my WiFi username and password was so my phone was basically useless. I couldn't text the other people I knew on the island and I couldn't get in touch with my folks back home. There were some scholarship issues back at USC that I needed to take care of, but I didn't have a way to do that anymore. The library was closed. The power went off several times. The lights in the bathroom didn't work. The toilet didn't flush. No one told me dinner was from 5-6 so I almost missed that. Also, since school doesn't start till the 11th no one is on campus. There are maybe 30 kids total on campus right now and I know none of them. The period from when the flight landed to dinner time I felt like I was walking into a mistake that was going to take 4 months to leave.

Then some good things started happening. I met a fellow exchanger at 5:00 during one of my treks with my luggage to a different dorm who told me about dinner. So when I finished moving my stuff (I never unpacked since I knew I was just going to have to move it all again in two days) I went to the dining hall and got to eat with two exchangers in my same position, Sam and Anna. That was comforting. Another girl, Megan, a transfer student, let me borrow my her phone to text my parents and girlfriend to let them know I was okay. Then another exchanger showed up, named Will, who has already done the NSE program at UVI once before. He is where I get most of my important information about the happenings here. Without him, the other exchangers and I would be completely lost. At dinner he told me how to set up the WiFi, so when I went back to my dorm room I got it set up. It worked! This made me feel a lot better. I got to FaceTime my parents and they helped me fix my toilet.

Then things got even better. About 9 of the exchangers (there are about 12 total) wanted to go into town. We met up around 8 and got a taxi at 8:30 to head into the closest city, Charlotte Amalie (Ah-MALL-ee-ya... never would have guessed that). There we went to a few bars and got to socialize and get to know one another. One bar was outdoors and had swings instead of bar stools. The warm breeze off the water felt nice and the temperature had cooled down with the night. It was right by the bay where the cruise ships moor and you could definitely tell the bar catered to the tourists. We did this for a few hours and got a taxi home around midnight (not charged by the distance, but by the person.. kinda weird). All the exchangers are really cool people, and I've begun to make friends. I can tell that this semester isn't going to be that bad after all.

I went back to my temporary dorm room and slept like a log on a mattress that had no sheets, in a room that had no AC. God is good.

Let's start from the beginning.

The University of South Carolina has a program called National Student Exchange (NSE) that allows students to swap campuses with other students across the nation. It allows me to pay tuition, get scholarships, and be an in-state student at USC while taking classes and attending another school. This semester I decided to participate in NSE at the University of the Virgin Islands - St. Thomas.

Why St. Thomas? Because it sounded awesome. The beach has always been a love of mine that probably stems back to family trips every summer to Topsail Island. There's something special about the atmosphere of the beach that's highly addictive. The laid back attitude and the warm weather drew me in and now I'm hooked. Unfortunately, I never seem to get to be at the beach as much as I want. I always leave wanting to turn right around and go back. I've had the thought that since I love it so much, why don't I live there? In theory that sounds like it would be perfect, but there's something that puzzles me with this situation. Will the allure fade with time or will I wake up every day just has happy as I was on the first? Similar to how a good song can be ruined if it's overplayed, I don't want to ruin the beach by living there. So the next four months will be a test trail for what could potentially be my life. I hope by the end of my semester in St. Thomas I'll find the answer to that.

Some goals while I'm in the the islands:
1- Find out if the beach is only special because it happens once or twice a year, or if it's special in and of itself
2- Experience the culture
3- Make permanent friends with the locals so I have a place to stay and an excuse to come back
4- Learn the guitar
5- Workout
6- Grow out my hair

One of the requirements of the NSE program is to maintain a blog to document my time here. This is my first blogging experience, so bear with me. My idea is to update as needed, and not on a routine basis. Let's see how it goes.