Daily update…

Tired after a buy day☺ Slowly but surely I am getting more confident talking to the locals and more confident in my surroundings. Today started off early again, I swear it must be the time change but I can’t seem to sleep in even though I have every opportunity to. Unfortunately I learned that you can’t keep any food out on the counters, even if it’s sealed in a plastic bag. I had the misfortune of leaving some buns in a bag on the counter and woke up to ants swarming all over. I was also surprised to find out that since I’m only staying at the apartments short term I get maid service (so cool!!). It’s a good thing I woke up when I did because 5 minutes later, Mary was knocking at my door wanting to come in. She was slightly older then me so I took the opportunity to swamp her with questions ie: where’s the best grocery store. She also got some raid to get rid of the ants –bonus!
Todays mission was to go and find myself a cellular phone and get to campus to look around a bit. Luckily, my transformer I purchased yesterday works wonderfully and I had a charged camera to work with. I also managed to find all the cords needed to download photos and my flash drive so that I could download all my entries to take to school and post. I was just heading down the driveway when I heard someone calling my name. Alexandria and David offered to come with me and so after a great breakfast of peanut butter toast and fresh bananas –yumm (they taste completely different down here, thick and creamy like you wouldn’t believe) we set off down the street. The apartment has an amazing location, it’s far enough away from the main towns to feel rural and yet it’s only a block away from urban Grand Anse (for those looking on a map, the apartments are right between Lanse Epigne and Grand Anse areas. I bought a cell phone from B-mobile, it’s actually a pretty great deal. They have a student pay as you go phone where you purchase a phone (3 to choose from with increasing prices) and then you get the equivalent of the phone purchase in free minutes. So essentially, you get a free phone with as many minutes as fits into the amount that you purchased. So I got the 199ec phone so roughly 60-70 can $ but I get a rate of 20 cents ec (roughly 7-10 cents can) to call Canada or the us =almost 955 minutes for the full amount I paid for the phone. I was pretty impressed. For locals to have a phone with the same company, if they were to call the US or Canada it would be at least 90 cents a minute. I also found out a bit about internet so once I move into my dorm next week, hopefully I’ll be all dialed in!
Next on the agenda, we went to find the RTT bank in downtown St Georges. It was really neat to see the town, it’s a lot bigger than I thought it was and it has a really upbeat energy to it. The reggae bus to and through town is also really fun because the streets are super windy, bumpy and steep, add a little reggae music and a back seat =you might as well be on a roller coaster. We checked out a couple of the malls and small shops there, had subway for lunch (so far the only American fast food places I’ve seen have been Subway and KFC) we learned that you have to be really careful to watch what people charge you because if you’re a tourist they try to take advantage of you with extra costs that aern’t listed on the board.
I set off on my own halfway back to hit up the campus. It was my first afternoon officially on my own in this new place and it was a lot easier to navigate then I would have thought. The school buses are wonderful. They’re completely free, run every 15 minutes and run past a block away from the apartments right to the doorstep of the school. Everyone on campus is super friendly, I got there around 4 so I had roughly an hour to try and catch up on email, facebook and msn. Thanks to all of you that have written☺ It was so awesome to hear from you and honestly you’ve made my evening. I don’t feel nearly as lonely as last night! I’m on my way over to my new friends place two apartments over for supper… last night was the best chicken curry I’ve ever tasted and today I bought some fruit for fruit salad… yumm…