The Aftermath

Hello, It's Monday, August 30th.  It's 7:04pm and it's already pitch dark here.  I'm standing at the end of my porch, stealing internet from the coffee shop down the street.  I survived my first hurricane.  The hurricane picked up about bedtime last night and it was bad.  I definitely didn't know what to expect but I go some of it on video and will be uploading it to YouTube at the end of the week.  We were all okay with the hurricane until it brought the internet and cable down.  All the stores and restaurants are closed so we're all suffering from island and cabin fever.  So basically, I did nothing today.  But I couldn't really do anything if I wanted to.  The wind is still really strong but it's not raining anymore.  I'm not sure what the damage is to the rest of the island but we were told that Earl is the biggest hurricane to hit the island in nine years.  I'm just so lucky to have experienced it :).  There's a stray cat that keeps rubbing against my leg as I'm typing this.  I'm doing my best to ignore it, knowing that if I give it attention, it'll just stick around.  Tomorrow is our first officially day of orientation, which means we get our student visas figured out.   I can see the volcano from where I'm standing and there's one road on it that cars and go up and down it on.  From my point of view, at night, it looks like airplanes are coming in to land, but it's just the headlights of the cars as they head down.  The hardest part of the island so far is having no addresses, for anything.  Last night, I stayed at my classmates house, which is the pink house next to Sugar and Bobsys.  Make sense?  Yeah I didn't get it either.  We attempted to go out to eat tonight but nothing's open.  And they don't seem to be in any hurry to open anything either. Instead I had Lean Cuisine's  BBQ Chicken Pizza, just like at home, for dinner.  The clouds are still ahead so there's no stars tonight.  One thing I did notice is that there's not any birds on this island.  There's a few seagulls here and there but none that sit in your trees or on your railing. Maybe because it's an island?  I'm not sure but the excess of bugs makes up for the lack of birds.  I've only seen two wild monkeys running around and none near my apartment.  We're all trying to find baby monkeys that we can raise while we're here.  I'm not sure if that's legal or a good idea but we can all dream.  It's hard being here and not being able to connect with the outside world.  There's not really a weather channel here or a website that we can use to get any information so we're all just learning to relax and go with the flow.  The bugs sound really loud tonight, probably because there's standing water everywhere.  I also learned today that either you get a warm shower or you get a shower with strong water pressure. You don't get both.  I feel lucky to get the warm shower, even if it takes me longer than usual.  We all have to be ready to be out the door by 7am tomorrow so I'll have to wake up early.  I miss you all but I think I'm going to learn to like it here.  It's an experience that will teach me patience, understanding, and compassion that I think every American should learn.  Miss you.  Love you.