We have arrived!

We made it!!! It is now Tuesday night, we have been in Dominica since Sunday afternoon, and are just now enjoying having a place to call home that has an internet connection. The flight to Dominica went well, although landing here is definately an adventure. The runway is very small, and the plane has to circle down over the mountains and the ocean, come down over a mountain, hit the runway and stop before it lands in the ocean (literally). The airport here is one decent sized room with 3 desks in it, one where the Ross University representative sits to welcome you, one for the customs desks, one for the inspection and then the door leading out to a little parking area where taxis and buses await your arrival. We have posted pictures taken on the ride in. Everyone drives on the left side of the road with the driver sitting on the right side of the bus, so that takes some getting used to, but from what we've seen so far, the left side is more of a technicality. On the curvy, narrow road coming in we generally just drove in the middle until another car comes racing around the corner, in which case both drivers hit the brakes just enough to pull off to the left side and bit and allow the other to pass with maybe 5 inches to spare. It is quite the experience.

The first thing you notice here is the humidity. As soon as we stepped out of the plane it was like stepping into a "wet blanket" as Sam describes it. We are hoping that we adjust to that well, right now the most valuable thing we own is the fan we paid about US $30 for. The scenery here is amazing. It is definately a thick, steep jungle. The banana trees took the largest beating from Hurricane Dean, so hopefully that doesn't hurt the locals too much. You can see pictures of them all blown over. Everything else appears to have stood up well despite the hurricane. The people are prepared for them. A lot of the windows across campus still have boards over them, and the beach is strewn with what we imagine to be excess debris, but those are the only obvious signs that we can see of a hurricane passing through. Another thing that I love about the island is that all the buildings are painted in bright yellow, green, purple and pink. They look absolutely wonderful.

We were able to find a good apartment on the second day we were here. The school brought all us new arrivals on a tour of the available apartments, and it was obvious that everyone was going to be fighting for the cheap ones, so we grabbed what we could in a hurry, and lucked out. Although it isn't big it has everything we need: screens and burgler bars on the windows, kitchen, internet, bathroom...the basics. We will try to get pictures up soon. It is very nice and I think we'll really like it. The best part about it is the view. From the front porch we can see down the mountain over part of the "town" and out onto the ocean. Absolutely stunning (Katrina's favorite part). And in the back, there is a nice, healthy avocado tree (Sam's favorite part).

The food here has been good so far, although we haven't found any genuine creole food, which is supposed to be the dominant style. Everything right around campus is geared towards the students, so there is quite a bit of variety. So far we've found lots of chinese, some indian, some pizza and a bunch of "shacks" as they're called that supply basic american food for the students all day long. The best thing we've found so far is the fruit. It's everywhere, and it's amazing! So far we've tried Bananas, mangoes, pineapple, starfruit, guava (not our favorite), passion fruit, avocados (which technically are a fruit, i think), canips, and tomorrow we're going to try bread fruit. all of it is abundant, and very cheap, so we are likely to eat a TON of it.

Although it is an adjustment, I think we are really going to like it here. Sam is really excited to be a medical student, and we love what we have seen so far of the island. I have started working on my class work (and by working I mean, I've logged on, looked at everything i have to do and then started writing this) which started on Monday, and it seems like that should go pretty well too. We'll try to keep you all updated as we continue to explore the island. We have the rest of this week to run around on our own, then next week Sam starts his orientation stuff, and classes will start for him next Monday. It's so exciting!! Thank you all for your prayers as we carry out our new life here...We love and miss you all and are thinking about you! Please comment and send us emails and stuff, so we can keep posted on everything back at home. Bye for now!

Katrina