UWI, Cave Hill (pronounced "u-wii chill")

If there are too major things about my dorm that have gotten to me so far it is the weather and the water. First off the weather is crazy, it's so hot that even my friends from Belize think it's sweltering here. At night I can't even put a blanket over me and there is no way my shirt stays on throughout the night. Today was the hottest day yet and we also had the biggest storms and most cloudy weather yet... Not much of it makes sense, but I'm getting used to it. Despite the heat I can sleep the night through with only waking a few times for water. Luckily the water here is amazing, there is some sort of phenomenon here where the ocean water goes through the island and seeps up through the limestone which purifies the water, this means the tap water tastes amazing and having a sink in my room is amazing due to the heat. The first night I had to stick my head under the faucet, but since then I have realized that using a cup makes much more sense.

I woke Friday morning at 8:00 for the 9:00 school orientation. The orientation didn't start til about an hour after schedule and it ended an hour and a half late, island time is crazy, no one rushes anything or has any schedules except us Americans, haha. After orientation we went on a guided tour of the campus which was informative, but I pretty much forget where everything is already, but I do know that the school is quite beautiful. From one of the buildings there was a nice overlook where I learned that in Barbados buildings are not allowed to rise above the trees as to keep the beauty in tact. The only exeptions are The Grand Barbados and Marriot hotels, which I found a bit funny, but it is a very tourist driven society so not too surprising. We then went fora quick shopping trip at a local mall, which was an intersting experience all together.

Last night (Friday) was Fish Fry night down in Oistens and our liason said she would meet us down there and buy us food which was awesome. So the 10 Californians, 1 New Yorker, and 4 Canadians took taxi / busses about half an hour away to where the night life is crazy and there are tons of little restaurants frying and cooking up all kinds of fish, chicken, steak, and other animals. After dinner we went over to the stage where there were huge speakers piked on top of each other blasting reggae, dancehall, and all the other popular island music and we danced for the rest of the night. I'm glad I am not an American girl because the Barbadian men are all attracted to and make lude comments at them all the time, we've learned that it's a cultural sign of kindness and respect as opposed to how disrespectful it would be in the states, but it still seems a bit creepy at this point.

We got back to the University around 12:30 and went down to the beach and layed in the ocean for the next two hours as the rain poured down and we watched lightning in the distance.