The Last 6 Weeks or So

Ok well let's see.  For starters we had the white coat ceremony.  It was accompanied by a torrential down pour as you can kinda see it took out a tree right outside.  Umm so the president showed up, which basically means I'm kinda a big deal haha jk.

And then I did this thing called studying and a lot of it.  Look here's proof of me studying.

studying and skyping with magic :)

Oh and there was a whole lot of rain.
See. Rain! http://dominicanewsonline.com/news/all-news/general/photos-heavy-rainfall-causes-flooding-across-dominica/

Then today I walked down to the beach to get the sunset.   That is basically it

on my way to the beach

 

Island Tour

Ok last fun post... school starts tomorrow.
Today I went on an island tour which stopped at Trafalgar Falls, a sulfur spring, an overlook of the capital, the botanical gardens and Scott's head which is the southern most tip of the island

Trafalgar Falls

Sulfur Spring

Overlook of the Capital

Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Scott's Head

Scott's Head

Scott's Head

There are two falls but they are too far apart to get both in the same picture



















This is a boiling sulfur spring. Smells terrible













Roseau














So this is in the botanical gardens.  Hurricane David knocked this tree over and it crushed a school bus

























On the left is the Caribbean Sea and to the right is the Atlantic Ocean

Animals

So Dominica is referred to as the Nature Isle of the Caribbean and basically there are a zillion animals running around.   There are over 170 species of birds including two types of indigenous parrots, twelve species of bats, an enormous amount of interesting insects of all colors and sizes, boas, iguanas, opossums, agouti, frogs (including the almost extinct mountain chicken), and crabs.

In the sea, there are thousands of fish and coral, many species of whales, turtles and dolphins, which makes it one world's top diving and marine wildlife destinations.

I live in an area known as moo cow trail.  The place down the street is called lizard trail.

So far I've seen white crabs, yellow crabs, tiny little red crabs, iguanas, crazy bugs, millipedes, cats, dogs, cows, lots of birds, tons of crazy fish and a stingray!

First Week.

Saturday, August 27th
en route to Dominica

Harrisburg, PA → Washington D.C. → San Juan, PR →Antigua →Dominica
So after being delayed in Antigua for a while and arriving late I am comforted to find in my welcome to Ross bag an orientation schedule, tupperware, an LED light and a RAPE WHISTLE! wonderful.

Sunday, August 28th
Boring  wireless computer configuration and campus exploration

Monday, August 28th

Start of orientation.  Got my white coat and then stood in line for three hours to get a phone... gah carribean time!
Attended a lecture on the history of Dominica
What did I learn

• It's named Dominica because Columbus discovered it on a Sunday (Sunday in Latin)
• It has the most volcanoes per square mile of any place in the world
• Is home to the only native Caribbean population territory (similar to reservations in the US) in the world.  Silly colonialists basically white out the entire native Caribbean population with disease
• It's the second poorest country in the Caribbean
• The capital was originally in Portsmouth (by me) but the British had to abandon the city due to malaria brought over during the slave trade.  They moved it to the south to a town called Roseau

 

Lowlight of the day. ANTS! They infiltrated my cereal.
Note prices are really weird here: shredded wheat costs 22EC around $8. When I went back to the store to get replacement food I got a pineapple fruit bowl, a cadbury fruit and nut bar, chicken nuggets, frozen brocoli and 4 bananas for 21.27EC.  I guess I won't be eating cereal anymore.


Tuesday, August 30th
More orientation followed by my own beach exploration

me

The Beach

Cabins

Zoomed In

So I turn around from my spot on the beach and start to look at the cabins.  Apparently they filmed a good chunk of the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean in Dominica and a lot of the Cast and Crew stayed in the cabins right by the school








This is Jerry Bruckheimer's cabin. Gore Verbinski's is right next door

Sunset

Wednesday, August 31st
Orientation followed by a trip down the Indian River

This is where they filmed all the witch doctor/ swamp scenes for the pirates movies This is where they filmed all the witch doctor/ swamp scenes for the pirates moviesThis is where they filmed  This is where they filmed all the witch doctor/ swamp scenes for the pirates movies

Later I went to the gym and lost my house key :(  Shockingly someone found it and I got it back the next day... wooo!


Thursday, September 1st
More orientation.  Lectures included disaster planning by the school's Hurricane Watch Officer.
Also went to Mexican night at the local bar. Yay for dollar tacos! and I caught another sunset from their balcony.

 

Friday, September 1st

Last day of orientation and more random exploring.  I hiked to the top of a near by hill, climbed a tree and got my very own avocado :) 

Banana Trail

Hillside

Avocado Tree

Victory

School

School starts Monday!
Here is the link to my schedule of certain death of certain death for my first semester if you are interested.

The Main Gate

 I don't know why it's so ratty looking I feel as though they should invest in some power washing :)

Campus Map

 

 

 

Campus

Campus is all of the white buildings

Address

Ok so I forget exactly who all wanted my address so here it is.

Georgia Perry
℅ Ross University
P.O. Box 266
Roseau
Commonwealth of Dominica