First days

I'm here!!! I'm finally here! I'm at the University of the Virgin Islands today (St. Croix campus) because my new boss wanted me to watch a special WebCast. At the present time, I don't have access to a telephone either at home or work. I won't officially have an office until tomorrow, and the phone isn't working right now where I'm currently staying. Fortunately, I've been able to get online via the library's computer lab. Yeah, library computer labs! Long may they live!

Yesterday (9/6/04) was an unbelievably long day, with delays in Puerto Rico that those of us who were St. Croix-bound thought would never end. We finally landed on St. Croix (STX) around 7 pm instead of the original ETA of 5:25 pm. We were lucky, though, in that the flight could have been canceled altogether. Fortunately, the flight out of Dallas to Puerto Rico wasn't full, so I was able to stretch out across 3 seats and nap most of the way. This was a real luxury as I had only had 6 hours of sleep in the last two days.

My landlady is wonderful!!! We hit it right off, talking until past 11 pm. I'm so glad that I will be staying with her as she took me right under her wing. She will provide a lovely transition to my new island life. Before going to bed, I took a quick shower, read a little while, and finally fell asleep in a much darker room than back home . . . no outside lights filtering through a window, like at my house in the states my neighbors' spotlights pollute my sleep every night. Believe me, I loved it! I slept soundly for the first time in ages. And I woke up to roosters crowing!

My room and bathroom were ready for my arrival, which was very nice, and I even have access to my own refrigerator. For the money, I can't beat it, especially since I only have to walk 10 minutes or so to get to work. My landlady very kindly took me grocery shopping today (the day after I arrived), so my frig now contains fresh produce, soy milk, yogurt, pasta, and brown rice. In my cupboard, I've stocked tins of tuna, sardines, and chicken as well as a bottle of olive oil and a jar of pasta sauce. More than plenty for a couple of weeks. Hmmmm . . . I'm getting hungry just writing about food!

For breakfast today, I had a cup of hot tea with milk, a wedge of fresh bakery bread and a little bit of "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter," a sugar apple (a most wonderful fruit!), and another kind of fruit, small and green-skinned like a key lime but sweet [spelled either genip or kenip, depending where you are from in the Caribbean]. Genips require a bit of finesse to eat. After piercing the genip's skin with your teeth, you suck the juice and seed into your mouth. Once you've got all the meat off the seed, you spit it out like you would a pomegranate seed.

At the grocery store today, I ordered a slice of hot, fresh, absolutely delicious, veggie pizza. Then I had another cup of hot tea in the afternoon, this time with a dollop of vanilla-flavored soy milk. For supper, I ate a sandwich of low-fat, low-sodium chicken breast and Romaine lettuce with thick tomato slices on a fresh-baked bun known locally as "titty bread" (pronounced "ti-ti"), I guess because each bun has little knobs or "titties" on both ends. Cute, huh?

Prices are definitely higher here by a long shot. My grocery bill, which included detergent and hangers, tallied up to $93.81. I went into sticker shock! A sampling of various prices follows.

Dannon Plain Yogurt (32 oz. carton), $2.99
Silk Vanilla Soy Milk (half-gallon carton), $3.69
Healthy Choice Deli Thin Chicken Breast (12 oz. pkg.), $2.69
Louis Rich Turkey Bacon (12 oz. pkg.), $2.99
Old-fashioned Quaker Oat Cereal (large carton), $4.49
Fresh strawberries (1 lb. pkg.), $3.99
Fresh tomatoes, $1.69/lb.
Gala apples, $1.69/lb.
Okeechobee large Grade A eggs (18), $1.99
Angel Soft Bathroom Tissue (4-roll pkg.), $1.79

Amazingly, however, because of the very large Indian (Asian) population here, the grocery stores carry a lot of stuff I've never seen in grocery stores at home. Things like ghee, dal, etc. Packages of sesame seeds and other nuts are cheap, too. Who knows? I may learn to cook and eat more Indian-style foods while I'm here. My landlady is originally from Guyana, where she was raised among East Indians. Consequently, she is a fabulous cook. I hope I'll learn a few culinary tricks from her. She fed me a great-tasting dish last night that was a South American version of Chinese chowmein, except with hot peppers, hotter than jalapenos. After a long day of flying with only airline food, it really hit the spot!

I am literally melting away, now that I'm here, thanks to a reduced-calorie diet, more exercise, and the heat. The local people say that when hurricanes are coming through, it feels as if all the air is sucked out of the atmosphere and is pulled into the storm system. Even though it is only in the low 90s, it feels hot, hot, hot! Who would have thought that I would sweat more here than I do in Texas! I guess Texas doesn't have a claim on hotness after all. I understand that the weather will change considerably once late September or early October rolls around. In the meantime, I've given up on wearing makeup as it just melts off my face in no time. And pantyhose? Forgetaboutit!

I'm scared and thrilled at the same time about being here. I had a few moments last night when I thought about packing it in, turning tail, and running home. I realized I couldn't, though, as I don't have a job to go back to at this point, and I have to give this a real chance. The people I will be working with at my new university are wonderfully warm and gracious. Everything will be all right, I'm sure of it, and I know I will have a great time in this new stage of my life. After all, I've been wanting to live on an island for a long time . . . and St. Croix may well be one of the best that I've been on yet!