A month goes by

Good Day to ALL!!!! I hope this finds you where you want to be.

It has been a month since my arrival here on St. Kitts. The sun always shines here. From that first week of fun in the sun we have now totally made the transition to feeling like I am, in fact, at grad school. We eat, sleep, and breathe academics. Gone are the days of cramming for a test the night before. This is material that we will be using and integrating for the rest of our lives. All of us are desperately trying to start off on the right foot. We've all crammed for tests before but have to now change our game plan.

My class is 101 students. By 7^th semester we will be down to 70, tops. Ross goes out on a limb and gives a chance to the non-traditional students who would not normally get a chance to try their hand at vet school. It's nice to see people from all backgrounds have a common goal and support each other as best they can.

Weekend activities have gone from hikes, swimming, and dinner at the beach to studying and ordering pizza. We've taken to snorkeling out in front of campus after class because it takes too much time to head all the way over to Shipwreck for the good snorkeling. Grocery shopping is not longer a priority. Many of us groan at the thought of going out for the evening because all we can think about is all the work we'll have to catch up on. My hope is this will change soon once we all learn to manage our time and figure out how to learn again. Many have been out of academia for years. My neighbor is 34 and graduated undergrad 10 years ago. He only took a couple summer courses before coming here.

Something that I have found and really enjoyed is called HASHING. It is essentially a "running club with a drinking problem". The Hash House Harriers is a global (and historic) phenomenon. Google it, you wont be disappointed! Essentially, a "trail is set" and marked off. Then the group follows this "trail" and must figure out which direction it goes. This cross country run/hike goes on for over an hour and can be quite strenuous. These are not folks who like to sit around. A different location every time ensures new and interesting scenery. Here it gives a great opportunity to explore the island. Needless to say, at the end is food, beer, songs, antics, and a jolly good time in fabulous company. Hashing is found all over the world and in every state in the US. These boys are showing off their pretty side at the Red Dress Run...ON ON!!!

As far as living in a different culture, the adventure continues. Gradually, many of us are buying cars. Drive on the left. Wheel is on the right. Most are manual transmission. This makes for fun times when you're not quite sure of where you are going, how to make the car go, or what the traffic circles are all about. Stop signs come out of nowhere and many intersections don't even have them. Turn signals are never used and don't really work anyhow. You're never certain if you are getting honked at the say HI or Get out of the way. The streets in town are 1 ½ cars wide and people park anywhere they want. Sometimes we look around in amazement when we arrive at our intended destination. A miracle!! So far it has been a team effort, lol. It's been fun learning to drive all over again =-)

There is certainly more to tell but if I leave nothing to the imagination there would be no reason to visit!!! More pictures have been posted at fuzzpault.com. Enjoy!

Happy Trails

~Laura

First Days in Paradise

Our plane from San Juan had holes in the floor. I could see the water below us as the prop engines droned. Curiously, 3 other Ross students were in my row so we busied ourselves with the usual conversation. The landing approach gives a fantastic view of Ross, the volcano, and Basseterre (the capitol) on the left side of the plane, I was on the right. The airport is small. A huge sugar cane field is at the end of the very short runway. Ross’ name is everywhere on the advertisement boards, right next to Carib (the local cane brew), Kay Jewelers, and of course Coca-Cola. The drive to campus includes a central tour of the capitol, on the wrong side of the road, with lots of honking and swerving, potholes, narrow streets, people and cows in the road, dogs on the side, and waves of all kinds from the locals. The Ross campus is 5 minutes outside of the city on a bluff overlooking the Caribbean Ocean. From my window I can see Basseterre, the ocean, a huge sugar cane field, and the sister island of Nevis. Just out of view is the pasture of donkeys that wake me up in the morning. Not bad.

Orientation is a time for us to do the tourist thing, to explore the island and the amazing culture. It is a time for us to learn where all the good food is, where the bad food is, where the good swimming and snorkeling spots are, how to survive the streets, and feel like this is home before we dive into the books. In a sense, we are cramming a bit more than a simple vacation into 7 days. It is tiring and incredible.

The island’s history is a little rocky. You can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Kitts_and_Nevisevis. St. Kitts has a long history steeped in the sugar cane culture of the Caribbean. Unfortunately, in 2005 all government subsidized sugar production ceased. There new economy will be rooted in tourism. They just built the second largest cruise ship dock in the West Indies. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this yet but economy has to be driven by something and sugar cane just wasn’t working.

The food is nearly everything I could have hoped. The local fruits and veggies are quite wonderful and incredibly tasty. Pineapples melt in your mouth. The carrots have a spice to them. The mangos will be ripe in a week or so. Rice and beans are a staple in the diet. All the bread you can find is baked fresh by 2 bakeries in town. Guava jellies and bananas are on every corner stand. Even much of the meat is local. As wonderful as this all is, there is not enough to go around. The island is not self sufficient with the fresh food and it is very costly to ship it here. The first grocery store we explored had grapefruits from Florida and pineapples from Brazil. All the coffee is Folgers unless you find a tourist gift shop. Expiration dates are considered a suggestion because they would rather sell the food than throw it away. I almost bought cheese that expired over a week before (looked fine to me), dairy is not popular because it goes bad so quickly. As a result, the cost of food is easily twice that of the states. A scrawny cheese burger is $9 at the cheapest bar, fries are extra. A local lobster will run you $50 to $100 at a restaurant and all you eat if the tail. Any imported beer starts at $5 a bottle. You can find Guinness but expect to have $9 less to your name. Thankfully, the local brews are $2 but no quality control makes it interesting.

The locals don’t eat out for obvious reasons and it is mostly the rich visitors and upper class that can afford to shop at the store. Saturday mornings there is a market that cannot be beat. Most students never see it with their own eyes because all the excitement happens at 6 in the morning. All the farmers come with their goodies and at 6 sharp the gates open. Sweet fruits of every shape and color, many of which I haven’t a clue what they are and could never hope to pronounce their name. Meats killed that morning . Some are still whole while others are sectioned to more reasonable sizes. Fish caught the day before. Nuts from the rainforest. Bulk rice, beans, and spices. Tomatoes are in season all year round. And of course, everything that you can fit into a fryer is offered as well. (I didn’t see fried cheesecake but I half expected to find it.) Within an hour the entire market is scraps and leftovers. The flies start coming and the sun is getting high. By 8 there is nothing left but garbage set on the curb to be picked up. Incredible.

To round out our orientation we all hopped on a catamaran bound for Nevis. With icy drinks in our hand and the wind in our hair, thoughts of studying and classes on Monday melted away. A cloudy day gave our scorched skin relief from the sun while we snorkeled in a reef that had colors only of the imagination. Teeming with fishes of so many shapes and sizes; short and fat, long and skinny, spotted, stripped, and spiny. We even got caught in the middle of a school of big bright blue fish that totally surrounded us. Sailing felt great to do again.

This place is magical and I wake up every morning to disbelief that I am living here for almost 2 ½ years. Talk about the best vacation ever.

Happy Trails to ALL!

~Laura

Pictures can be found at: http://fuzzpault.com/ Click on Photos and Laura’s Album

Letters (coming through the Post Office)

Laura Talaga

Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine

P.O. Box 334

Basseterre, St. Kitts

West Indies

Packages send through USPS (sometimes listed as St. Christopher), FedEx, DHL, or UPS. Flat Rates Box will be cheapest. Do not put in anything that looks new or expensive! I have to pay 65% tax on whatever is in the box that looks like I can sell. I will soon have an address of a student’s spouse that lives in Allentown and is coming down every 1-2 months.

Laura Talaga

Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine

Island Main Road

West Farm, St. Kitts

West Indies

Phone

869.668.3486 – this is my island cell phone. This IS an international call but it is possible the phone will be on my person.