It's the end of the first week of exams (finals) and I finally have some free time for a few days, and since I have been so neglectful to my blog I though I would update with at least one post today. I had an exam this past Monday and one on Tuesday that I feel I did pretty good on, my next (and final) one is coming up on Friday then I'll have 8 days until I fly home on the 20th and get to see everyone again. It'll be very bittersweet because as much fun as I am having here, it's going to be really nice to be back in the States with everyone I miss. I'll be sure to spend my last few days on the beach as much as possible soaking in the (88 degree average) sun until I come back to the cold of winter.
Since my last update I have been into a usual routine and haven't meandered off more than usual except for a few events. The first of which events was Halloween. Halloween isn't that big in the Caribbean at all and many of my hall mates looked at me funny when I asked if anyone was dressing up. Being the Americans (and Canadians) that we are however, we had to celebrate and knew there was at least one place on this little island that would be holding a Halloween party, at least for the tourists if not anyone else. There was another big event going on over the weekend (which I will get to in my next little paragraph) which was a music festival we had tickets to for the actual night of Hallween, so we decided to just go to anyway all dressed up. Turns out about half the people at the show that night were dressed up, I had a few of my friends mess around with makeup for a quick "costume" which you can see at the link. The next night was the night that we were planning to have the actual Halloween celebration. A club that we go to every so often (Boatyard) was having a Halloween night and costume contest so we went all out for the night. I had been planning a costume with a friend for a few weeks before so we were excited to show our costumes off for everyone else, to which everyone seemed to enjoy. But there is bad news. My costume consisted of no pockets so I had to carry my camera around all night. Not really thinking, I placed it down on a table for a second and the next thing I know it had dissappeared. So yet again, my camera troubles have escalated, but luckily this was a camera that was about 5 years old at this point and has had troubles working for quite some time. Halloween was fun, but that kinda put a damper on the night and I have no pictures to show from the celebration. The only picture of my costume can be found here, so prepare yourselves to laugh at the ridiculousness.... costume #2
The music festival that I referred to earlier was something that I had been particularly excited about for quite a while, a 3 day festival held by Virgin to celebrate however many years of flying to Barbados. The festival was to cosist of local acts and British acts who flew over for the show. The first night of the festival was Halloween and went til 1am. At around 8ish we decided to go over to where it was supposed to be. We rode a taxi a while to where the driver said was as far as he would go and the festival was around the corner. We then found out that he was completely lying to us and that we were still a long ways from the show. We took a ZR (kinda like a mini-bus) over in the general direction until the driver told us we should get off. After we got off at the stop we walked down a road for a while until we realized we had no idea where we were. We didn't hear any music so we just wandered around in the dark streets for a while. Eventually some random guy told us he would drive us to the show. Slightly sketched out and in our Halloween best, we decided just to go for it at that point since we were running out of options. Luckily for us he was actually a very nice guy and got us to where we were going. Sadly, at that point it was already 11:30ish and we only got to see two bands. Day two consisted of a noon til midnight show, so we showed up around 1. From 1 til 6 only one band played, and at that point I had to go for Halloween stuff that night. Needless to say, the day didn't really go as planned. Day 3 was the last day so we just spend the entire day from noon til around 10ish at the festival, there were alot of good bands that made up for the other two days that didn't work out as well.
But the most exciting thing that has happened recently was the visit from my family! My mom, sister, and grandparents all decided to take almost a week off to come down and visit me and see how I've been living. It was a well needed visit, because it was about that time that I hit my first real homesick spell and was ready to see some farmiliar faces. Spending the weekend at the hotel with them was a very interesting experience, it's very different living as a student in a country vs. as a tourist, locals treat you very differently. Among the various activities we did were a tour through underground caves, lounged on the beach... alot, ate copious amounts of food, and without me they did the Island Safari Tour on the jeep that I did earlier this year. It was a short visit, but it was well needed. They also let me borrow Alicia's camera, so my next post will include pictures.