(Pretend today is Wednesday May 4^th)

This past week I’ve been balancing studying for finals with doing things for the last time.

Glimpse of the most beautiful
sunset all trip as I rode the
safari home

Saturday I went to St. John one last time to see my girlfriend’s family. Sarah’s sister, Rachel, is graduating soon and her dad wanted to take her on a trip. They weren’t coming to visit me; it was just a coincidence that they picked here. Unfortunately, it rained most of the morning Saturday so our snorkeling plans got ruined. We did get to go for about 15 minutes, and ended up getting to see a 5 ft. nurse shark. I haven’t seen a shark since I’ve been down here, so I’m glad I got to check that off the list. I’ve been really eager to see them in my SCUBA and snorkel/swimming classes but we never got lucky. When I saw it on Saturday I first thought it was a rock. It was just calmly sitting on the bottom 5 feet below me. I never thought I would be scared, but as I swam over it I saw how big its mouth was and how little my arm was and that was unnerving. It was a nurse shark, so it’s pretty docile, but still. That scenario where it gets pissed off and chomps your body in half always flashes through your head. After that experience we dried off and went back to where they were staying. We played cards and ate lunch until it stopped raining, and then we went to Salt Pond Bay. After snorkeling some more at Salt Pond Bay I caught the 7:00 ferry back to my dorm. It was another fun day.

Sunday I spent the day packing and studying. The semester was winding down and it was starting to hit me. I am super excited to see my friends and family and get back into my routine back home, but I’m going to miss this way of life I’ve gotten used to and the friends I’ve made, and the beauty. I had three days left.

Monday I took all of my exams and packed a little more. They ended up being nothing I should have stressed over, which was a blessing.

Brewer's at sunset

Tuesday was my last time hiking to the rock and swimming in Brewers. John, a local who was in my SCUBA and steel pan classes and one of my good friends down here, accompanied me. At night I got to see the sunset one last time, and she showed off for me. They sky lit up with pinks and oranges as I sat there with some Kenny Chesney playing. Over the course of this semester I've watched the sunset move further and further west. It used to set off the runway (look back at my blog post in January), but now it sets over the mountain. The no-see-ums made sure to tell me bye too. That night I packed more, retook and online test, and hung out on Brewers for a couple hours with Nate, Josh, and Erik. I’m going to miss them.

Wednesday (today) is my last day here. I’m sitting in the airport because I got here three and a half hours early. Traveling stresses me out pretty badly so I like to allow for a lot of time to ease my nerves. I’m not sad anymore like I was the past week or so. Today I am excited. Goodbyes were tough, but I honestly believe I’ll see these people again.

What Carnival looks like

Friday April 22nd
Carnival is a huge two week festival here that shuts down half the city. There are parades, concerts, food, drinks, rides, and traffic every night for two weeks. Friday was the start of it, and coincidentally the first night Erik's friend Christian came to visit him. Christian is from the same university as Erik back in Denmark, who is also on exchange but in California. He, like Erik, quickly became one of my best friends and I hate he only had a week to stay.

Erik and Christian while
walking home in the rain

On Friday night Josh, Erik, Christian, and Mackenzie (NSE girl who is also a fairly new friend) went to Tap n' Still to get burgers before we headed to Carnival. The Carnival celebration takes place every night in this place called the Village. The venue is basically huge parking lot that they closed off. Lights are strung up all around to make the night glow. Along the perimeter of the parking lot are these little huts that all sell basically the same local food and drinks. In the center of the lot is a stage where different bands perform. That night I wasn't familiar with the band, but it was some sort of local island music. We only stayed for a little while, and then decided to leave. Instead of getting a taxi, we walked home, something the two Danes said was very common to do back home. The walk would have been about 45 minutes, but it started raining so we hitch hiked back. It was a fun night.

Sunday April 24th

There was a hammock on the boat.
That's Josh to my left.

Pulling up to the sailboat.

Erik far, Christian near.

Two days later I got invited by Josh to go with him and Erik and Christian to the boat races. That's all they told me when they invited me. I agreed to come, but I honestly had no idea what they were talking about. Around 1:00 we gathered on campus and got a safari to the grocery store, because apparently we needed food to grill. That was cool. I didn't know this was going to be a cookout type situation, but I was all for it. We picked up some beer and brats and walked to this girl's house that was right on the water. I wasn't expecting to get to watch a boat race from a private home, so that was a pleasant surprise. Right when we got there we saw the first race, and it was 4 people each in a very small boat about the size of a twin mattress. They explained to me that this was the smallest of the races. The bigger and louder boats where the people wore helmets was coming later. I honestly was expecting sailboat racing, but this was much better. The final surprise, and the best one of the day, was that we didn't stay at the house. The invite was actually to go on her sailboat which was moored in the bay about 40 ft away from the track. We spend the rest of the afternoon on her boat, grilling, and watching the races. The day was awesome.

Tuesday April 26th

Today was the last day of classes, which I was thrilled about. It also was the day Rock City was coming to play at Carnival. Rock City is a musical group from the St. Thomas. They have been on some pretty big tracks like Locked Away with Adam Levine and Make Up. That concert they put on was pretty crazy. I didn't know they words but all the locals did. I mainly hung back with Erik and Christian and observed. It still was a great experience. Click here to see a little bit of their performance that I put on YouTube.

Thursday April 28th

Today was Christian's last day so we (Erik, Christian, Laura, and I) went to St. John. We played the role of tourists and just went to Trunk Bay via taxi and then hit happy hour at Joe's Rum Hut. Pretty average day, but the company made it fun.

One of my goals in coming here was to meet locals to have an excuse to come back whenever I wanted. Never did I think I would meet two people from Denmark and want to go visit them instead.

Things are winding down and I need to catch you up on the past several weeks in the next few posts.

Sunday April 17th
The weekend after visiting Virgin Gorda I found myself back in the British Virgin Islands thanks to Laura. Laura is a friend of a friend (who is now just a friend) and a local from St. John. Her family owns a boat, and they let her take it and some friends out for the day. She had plans to scoot on over to Jost Van Dyke, and I managed to get invited to go. The boat was nice; probably 30 feet with triple 300 Evinrudes on the back. We met her at the dock in the morning around 10:45 and loaded up the boat and did some paperwork and by 11:15 we were on Jost. That thing could fly.

If you have kept up with my blog you can remember this was my second time to Jost (Sarah and I went for a couple days over spring break). This time was much different than the last. Instead of being on the beach and looking out we were on a boat anchored just past the breakers looking in. Instead of lounging on the beach and drinking painkillers were jumping off the boat and throwing frisbees with Josh and Erik and some of Laura's friends. Instead of spending the night on Jost we were packing up by sunset to get home in time for dinner at the cafeteria. Both trips were very fun in their own way.

Another thing that those who have followed my blog might be questioning is who is Erik. Erik is Josh's roommate who is also an exchange student but he's from Denmark. During the first half of this semester he stayed in and kept to himself because he was working hard writing a thesis. Apparently that's some Danish thing that's required to get a bachelors degree. He finished that in mid February, but then spring break came, and then my family visited, and then he went somewhere for a week. I never really hung out with him until a few days before this trip on a hike up to the rock. Now, he and Josh are my two closet friends here. They are very similar to my friends back home, and that's kind of weird. One of my biggest regrets from this exchange is not hanging out with these two enough.