Arrival

Despite a teary goodbye in Raleigh the flight was smooth and painless. Between reading, listening to music, staring out the window and playing games on my Zune I managed to waste the few hours on the plane without too much trouble. After flying to Australia and back (at best a 27 hour ordeal from start to finish) most other flights seem like nothing. I arrived at the airport in good spirits and collected my baggage with ease. The taxi cab overcharged me for the ride to the guest house I was staying at but I didn't feel like arguing with him. Besides, he was polite and helped with my heavy bags so I didn't begrudge him the few extra bucks. After greeting my roommate, Shruti, and checking in with everyone back home I settled down on what apparently passes as a cot down here and tried to sleep. It was a hot night and the "bed" was hard so I didn't get much sleep. Regardless, I woke up in good spirits and was ready to begin the day.

Shruti and I made our way to the University to check it out and meet up with another student who had already arrived. It turned out to be a bad decision. We wandered aimlessly around and only managed to get sweaty, tired, and hungry. Then we gathered with a few other grad students and got in line to register for classes. After 4 hours of confusion, standing in lines and filling out papers I managed to get my loans approved, classes registered, a student photo ID, and a library card. By this time my stomach began to remind me that I had only eaten a meager banana for breakfast and it was now approaching 5:00pm. Luckily I hitched a ride with another grad student, Robert, to Subway and was able to get a much needed sandwich. Robert then graciously took me and Shruti back to our guest house where we both showered and collapsed into a heap in front of our computers to talk to our friends and family back home.

I slept only slightly better that night but still woke up refreshed and excited to go apartment shopping. For the past few weeks I'd had my eye on a cute little 2 bedroom apartment downtown I had found on the internet, so that was first on the list. We ended up deciding that this was indeed the place we liked the best and actually signed the lease and paid the deposit that same day. We are moving in tomorrow night and I will have some pictures before too long.

Orientation was yesterday and it was a very relaxed and fun orientation. We got to meet most of the professors in the science department and they all seem like great people. We also got some much desired information on what our classes will be and how things are going to work in general over the next few years. Today, Shruti and I hitched a ride with Robert to the biggest Kmart on the island. We got a few things we knew we would be needing at the apartment right away and also started inquiring about how to get internet working at our new place. Hopefully we will have it up and running next week. After shopping we went out to eat at a place called Tickles down at the marina. It wasn't exceptional but it wasn't bad either. After a short rest we all went snorkeling. It was good to get back in the water again. Shruti was quite excited because it was her first time. She is from India and has never had the chance to snorkel on a reef. Then we all got some chinese food and went our separate ways.

All in all it has been a good first few days here in St. Thomas. I'm still getting used to the island but already I'm adjusting to the weather and becoming more comfortable navigating my way through the curvy, unlabeled streets. Tomorrow is the big Chili Cookoff down at Brewer's Bay and then we start classes on Monday!