My first week on the island! :)

The first animal we helped save, and we've only been on the island for 2 days! =D

So to start off, my plane was to depart at 17h10 from Montreal to JFK, my best friend, my bro and my dad saw me off, which was very nice.  Right before leaving my dad gave me a nice card signed by himself and my step-mom Lillian, although she wrote my name JOHNathan, Grrrrr, I still do not know how many times I have to remind my own family, that there are not TWO H's in my name, but oh well, c'est la vie, maybe when I finally have a doctorate in veterinary medicine they will finally write it properly.   My dad gave me a beautiful trio of gifts, one a gorgeous pen to write with, the next, a beautiful bracelet that I have worn much since getting it, and a bad ass watch, which to be honest, I would not dare wearing here in St. Kitts, as the last thing i would want to locals to think is that I actually have some money.

Apparently Kittitians have this view of white people that we are all rich, and have lots of money, which is understandable as that is all they see on tv, and that is all they normally see when a bunch of white people come off of those massive cruise ships and dock here for a couple of days.  What they do not realize is that most students, have ZERO money, so its hard trying to bargain with them sometimes, but if there is one thing I will be extrememely good at by the time I leave, it is bargaining.  As it seems you can pretty much bargain over anything over here ;)

So back to my initial departure, well I can of overestimated the amount of time needed to get through baggage claims, and we arrived way to early at the airport, so I then spent the next 2hrs and a half lounging around the airport, waiting for my plane to leave.   Finally the time comes, and I get boarded onto my plane, and take a nice little flight to JFK which at night is not very impressive, but it was nice to fly over the city and see all the lights as we landed.  Then as I land, and this is what I see.........

Booo, one of my bags missing....waited a good 30mins, did they ever show up? Nah ah!  So one 2hr flight, and one 75lbs giant blue bag missing :S

So after spending the next 13hrs here!!! annoyed by the fact that I was missing a bag, not able to really sleep on the UNCOMFORTABLE chairs in the airport, plus the few cots they did leave out were being monopolized by people who were not even sleeping.  Then after a few hours, I finally asked, excuse me, will you be using that, as I could get some rest, they decide to finally lie down, and sleep....grrrr.   Finally, tired as shit, I got boarded onto my plane to St. Kitts; which I have to say thankfully, I had my Ipod, because the music helped in passing the time, plus I brought the Cleric Quintet, a series of books I have been wanting to read for quite some time, but never had the chance.  Although I think the rest of the book may have to wait until after this semester :P

 Once on the plane, i pretty much pass out, for like 3hrs, and then spent the rest of the time staring out of the window.  Which I have to say the view was beautiful, this was view as we were intially coming in, what a nice way to greet me to the island.

The view of the island as we approached.

 Us landing!

We landed!!!!!!!  A small airport, but I guess it does the job!

I get off the plane, and it takes about a good hour and a bit to get the 200 something people through customs, which they warned us about, everything here on the island moves veeeeery slowly.  You will just have to get used to it they say, which I have say, I am quite thoroughly enjoying the pace of things over here.

Our bitchen OL!

 So once through baggage claims, with one bag still missing, I met up with a group of Ross OLs (orientation leaders) and a bunch of other students, and they greeted us very warmly and began to show us around.  They had a lovely pre-programmed schedule for all of us, with some free spots for us to do as we wished with our OLs.   We got grouped together according to living areas, and I have to say our Orientation group rocked!!!  Not to mention, I have to say our OL was probably one of the better ones around.  He infomed us thoroughly of everything, allowed us to discuss and make decisions as a group as to which activities we felt like doine, although of course some of them were mandatory.  Which I have to say, our first week here was a real pleasure, they took excellent care of us, and made sure we at least felt somewhat comfortable in getting to know our surroundings, so that way when the first week of school hit we did not feel lost or too lonely.  Not to mention the groups helped build some minor 

friendships which Im sure will last til we leave this island :)

My first real picture of the island :)

My OL group!!!  =D

Trying on our white coats, so what size we needed.

One of the group of turtles kept at school, one of them is a bully :P

An Egret, there are lots of them
awesome birds!

Mmmm subway anyone?
There is also a Dominos! :O

The lovely pink Insurance building

The local police

A local dog, there are soooo many
just roaming the streets! :S

A lovely garden in the middle of the city.

One of the many churches on the island
more per capita than any other state!

The volcano!! Bah Bah Baaaaah!

The boat we spent the day on for our first saturday on the island, a beautiful catamaran trip!
Plus I got to go snorkeling!!! :)

A sign telling people about Diabetes and HIV

Black Rock - made by volcano!

One of the many goats roaming around

I liked the positive nature of it!

Brimstone - this bad boy sunk close to 500 naval ships

View from Brimstone to the ocean

Our day of ziplinning, was a lot of fun, but I think tourists are getting giped; $85 US = Dang!

Our cool ass Taxi driver that we had for the week......SHOWTIME!!!!!

A cute monkey, there are more monkeys than people on the island :S

The oldest tree on the island, close to 250yrs old

A couple of buddies of our OL, I have to say they made the week,
all that much more interesting, plus they enjoyed giving out free beer!!!
Thanks Jimbo; thanks Whin! =D

There you have it, my/our first week on the island in a nut shell.  I have to say that first week was awesome!!!

Hopefully from this point on, I can post daily to help keep things flowing a little better, although I will post some pics of my kicking house later on ;)

Cheers! =D