Too much has happened since my last blog and I have been really too busy/ exhausted to really write about it so I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff but here it goes.....
Saturday night a bunch of Trini guys brought me, the Wisconsin kids, and a couple of Canadians out to a "social club" aka dive bar right near the school. It was a blast as we took up a huge table and had our own little corner of the restaurant. As the night drew on and the rum was consumed it ended up turning into a dance party where the Trini guys attempted to teach all the white kids the dance native to the island (wining/liming).
Something interesting that happened to me is there was a local there giving a lot of us Americans a hard time. At one point he came up to me and started harassing me asking me what kind of animals I like to fuck and getting really into it. Telling me he has fucked chickens, goats and dogs but chickens are the best because the other two animals are too big and squirm too much. As he continued I started laughing (how else do you react to a stranger asking these things to you)??? He got all serious and was like this is not funny mon, dis is what I do! He then continued and told me I looked like a hen fucker and encouraged me to fuck hens. Im standing by the fact that was just trying to get under my skin but either way it was an experience.
Eventually we the bar closed so we got kicked out and continued to party a little more back in the dorms. I ended up staying up very late practing Spanish with my Venezuelan roommate Ramon and am confident that I will learn a TON of Spanish due to this situation.
The following day (Sunday) I was focused on going to the grocery store as I had yet to get food and was sick of buy water by the bottles. A bunch of us went and walked about 10 minutes to the store and I bought the basics to get my thorough. I also ended up buying a 5 gallon jug of water that I hauled all the way back to the dorm, it wasn't very fun but I should be good on bottled water until after Carnival (mid/later February).
Much to my surprise many of the people I had gone out with were ready to get wild again Sunday night and we had planned to visit Port of Spain but the group decided against it. However we ended up drinking in the dorm and getting wild anyways. These people LOVE their rum its really no joke, its just understood that everyone loves rum.
The dorm atmosphere is really remarkable as I experienced it briefly freshman year at Burr Hall because my hall is a couple hundread kids and Burr was like 75. Occum and Lowrise are just not social places as I like to be in. I miss people hanging out in common rooms and leaving doors open and walking up and down the hall popping into other's doors for a few minutes. Everyone is so welcoming and friendly.
Monday classes started and at the beginning of the day I was really not sure where I needed to be and what was the story in terms of that. I may or may not have missed a class from 5-7 but now I know where they are at and have solidified my schedule.
adsfsdf
Today I will be attending my first class from 1-3 and my second class from 4-5. Then I will be hosting a group meeting, since I am the leader and will hopefully be better prepared that what is to come tonite at the orientation.
miss and love you all, I will try to do posts more regularly but this week is going to be hectic with pledging and the start of classes.
-Pat
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Day 2 (1/24)
To my people who are wondering...
Today I went on an all day trip. I went with two girls from Canada and the 8 people from Wisconsin. We woke up at around 7 and went to a bird sanctuary to start off the day. I was excited to take some pictures of some things so I could show you all how I'm living but the batteries to my camera were dead even though I hadn't used it yet. I saw lots of birds and plants including a peacock (Im not sure if they are wild on the Island or just here) and a Jesus bird that is capable of walking on water, hence the title. I also saw the many unique plants including the lotus flower which is a lily and for a non-flower kinda guy I was impressed, also saw some cocoa plants but thats old news after my trip to Venezeula. The tour guide was real cool and she was so passionate about teaching us how to help sustain the environment and had a very interactive presentation.
After birds we drove more and finally found lunch. After driving around for a while we were unable to find Subway which the group was set on so we settled for Pizza Hut and KFC (real culture shock there!) I had Pizza Hut which was really not all that different from the one at home however, they do serve "Ketchup" which is more like sweet and sour sauce and a hot pepper sauce with everything down here. We then drove around for many more hours just touring the different parts of the Island. We started in the northwest corner, drove south towards the bottom, across to the east side and finally all the way back up the east coast. I'd say I was in the car driving for a total of about 7-8 hours today just lookin out the window. Some cool wild animals I saw were a lizard about 2 feet long, many wild dogs that are real cool and just chill in packs, including many on campus and an oxen that kinda looks like a water buffalo. I think we should start writing to our congressmen to disband dog catching operations cuz it would be so cool to have packs of wild dogs roaming West Hartford center, they dont hurt nobody.
Even though I've done nothing since yesterday to help situate myself I feel much more at ease. As you may expect the Islander mentality is begining to take hold and Im just kinda going with the flow. I've yet to obtain a pillow, fan, food, water, beer, cell phone, and theres many other things that I could use too. I will definatly take less for granted after this week for sure (sleeping on a hoodie and beach towel is really, really not the same as a pillow and fans are so necessary). Its like 90 degrees (30 celcius) and feels like a July heat wave in CT. Getting used to liters, money conversion 1:6 isn't an easy ratio to get accustomed to, km etc is fine and I'm learning quickly.
Mom and Dad, despite all the bad things you've heard about this being party central I've yet to have a sip of alcohol and have really cut back on DA SENSI SMOKIN' JAHHHHH MON!!! (jk on the smoking part). However were going to a club/ bar tonite so that likely to change and I plan to be gettin' silly sometime soon.
Anyways Love ya and Miss ya all!!!!
-Patrick
Today I went on an all day trip. I went with two girls from Canada and the 8 people from Wisconsin. We woke up at around 7 and went to a bird sanctuary to start off the day. I was excited to take some pictures of some things so I could show you all how I'm living but the batteries to my camera were dead even though I hadn't used it yet. I saw lots of birds and plants including a peacock (Im not sure if they are wild on the Island or just here) and a Jesus bird that is capable of walking on water, hence the title. I also saw the many unique plants including the lotus flower which is a lily and for a non-flower kinda guy I was impressed, also saw some cocoa plants but thats old news after my trip to Venezeula. The tour guide was real cool and she was so passionate about teaching us how to help sustain the environment and had a very interactive presentation.
After birds we drove more and finally found lunch. After driving around for a while we were unable to find Subway which the group was set on so we settled for Pizza Hut and KFC (real culture shock there!) I had Pizza Hut which was really not all that different from the one at home however, they do serve "Ketchup" which is more like sweet and sour sauce and a hot pepper sauce with everything down here. We then drove around for many more hours just touring the different parts of the Island. We started in the northwest corner, drove south towards the bottom, across to the east side and finally all the way back up the east coast. I'd say I was in the car driving for a total of about 7-8 hours today just lookin out the window. Some cool wild animals I saw were a lizard about 2 feet long, many wild dogs that are real cool and just chill in packs, including many on campus and an oxen that kinda looks like a water buffalo. I think we should start writing to our congressmen to disband dog catching operations cuz it would be so cool to have packs of wild dogs roaming West Hartford center, they dont hurt nobody.
Even though I've done nothing since yesterday to help situate myself I feel much more at ease. As you may expect the Islander mentality is begining to take hold and Im just kinda going with the flow. I've yet to obtain a pillow, fan, food, water, beer, cell phone, and theres many other things that I could use too. I will definatly take less for granted after this week for sure (sleeping on a hoodie and beach towel is really, really not the same as a pillow and fans are so necessary). Its like 90 degrees (30 celcius) and feels like a July heat wave in CT. Getting used to liters, money conversion 1:6 isn't an easy ratio to get accustomed to, km etc is fine and I'm learning quickly.
Mom and Dad, despite all the bad things you've heard about this being party central I've yet to have a sip of alcohol and have really cut back on DA SENSI SMOKIN' JAHHHHH MON!!! (jk on the smoking part). However were going to a club/ bar tonite so that likely to change and I plan to be gettin' silly sometime soon.
Anyways Love ya and Miss ya all!!!!
-Patrick
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