March 30th, 2008

Monday, March 30, 2009

To my people,
My apologies for having been slacking on blog entries as of late. My first several weeks I tried to write every week because there was so much happening but post-Carnival it has really, really slowed down, I’ve gotten lazy, the initial hype of being here has kind of settled down, plus I didn’t think anyone was actually reading this…

The weekend after Carnival about 20 kids took the ferry to Tobago for the weekend. There are great pictures on Facebook and I was amazed to really witness how different Tobago was from Trinidad. Since there is so much tourism in Tobago everything is a bit more expensive but as a visitor to this country I felt much more welcome here because they cater much more to international visitors. The beaches were much better than Maracas and we went jek skiing among other things.

Since Tobago, I’ve written papers for both of my Sociology classes one on globalization and the other on healthcare policy in developing countries. I learned an incredible amount from writing both but they were both extremely difficult papers to write… I’ve yet to see grades for either one but have my fingers crossed. As you can probably expect it is extremely difficult to motivate myself while being here in the Caribbean and still attending classes. Students who earn their degrees from UWI generally spend 3 years here and graduate with roughly 90 credits. As you can imagine this results in a much more intense and compact workload in terms of coursework.

I went to a waterfall called Rampanalgas Falls, a waterfall/ natural pool with a rope swing and a nice cliff to jump off of. The trip was offered by the UWI hiking club of which I am official member. I climbed to the top and was told not to jump because the pool was too shallow but I did anyways (much to the dismay of the club president and the friends I went with). Needless to say I lived and didn’t sustain any injuries  (check facebook for pictures)

On Sunday the 15th six of us exchange students got up early and attended a religious ceremony with the UWI Hindu Society. The festival is called Phagwa (pog-wa) and consists of a Hindu chant, and getting covered in paint/ colored powder called Abir. We went to 3 different sites to celebrate the celebration and at all three places there were tons of kids, adults and elderly covered in paint. Still almost two weeks later I am rubbing pink off my knees and ankles as the paint/ powder has died my skin. (check facebook for pictures)

Gradually peoples’ families have been coming to visit so it’s been cool meeting the families of my new friends. They all go to Tobago for a few days while the families visit which has been weird because it seems they leave such a void when they are gone. I have gotten so used to seeing all my friends everyday so when someone leaves for a few days you really notice the void they leave. This has made me realize how close I’ve become to these people in the past couple months and how hard it is going to be to leave them.

On a happier note, Charlie and Mom are going to be here in two weeks and I cannot wait after having seen everyone else’s parents/ siblings. We are planning to go to Tobago for the best time of year (Easter weekend) and a friend of mine’s family is coming at the same time and staying at the same hotel.

I am also excited for them to bring some baseballs and gloves as is Ramon and his Venezuelan friends because that is the sport in Venezuela, not cricket. The Trinidadians on the other hand know very little about baseball and don’t know who Jackie Robinson is! I have been really itching to play baseball, as of late probably since it has been so long since October and I’m gettin the baseball fever. The offseason always seems sooooo long! Luckily I was able to watch some of the World Baseball Classic as well as NCAA tourney (UCONN!) but Red Sox starts in a week or so but im gonna have trouble watching that every night… ECSU baseball is dominating as well.

love and miss you all
-Pat