So it begins....

Here's me making a second attempt to blog. Perhaps vlogging would be easier...but I aint cute in the morning. No ones wants to imagine morning breath.
School
Classes have begun. I....AM...a GRADUATE STUDENT!! WHOO! WHOO!! Yea!! Excitement caaaa dun! I'm rated "PG" now! (Please see picture below for explanantion).

Now that that bit is out the way...I can begin. So far classes have been pretty good. My earliest class is at 2pm, so for now I have my mornings (and early afternoons occassionally) in bed. Great. And my classes seem to be aight. No strange doctrine or anything. Mostly things I've seen before. But jeez...did it all have to come together??! Over and over since I've been I hear people saying they hear this masters is hard/nuff work/mek people bawl..but jeezam! "Mek di readin haffi bi suh much?" lol.
Aah well...guess I should've expected it. At least its interesting. If it was alot AND was boring then that would've been problematic, to say the least. And with all this talk of research and the resources I have available I feel like playing ring games 'cuz "I'm sailing in the wind. I'm sailing in the wind. What a wonderful feeling. I'm haaaappy as can be...." Pretty much overwhelmed with the amount of things and places I'll have to be sifting through. How DO the MPhil's and PhD's do it?!!

Trinidad
I've been slowly making my way from place to place. Maxis and I have been making some headway in our relationship, and as such pretty soon I hope to be making my way across the island with only a google map with the place names written down. One can only hope that I can pronouce them correctly.

A Maxi (taxi)

Case in point: Google Maps (and the signs in the place) say "San Juan". Trini people say "Saawha". How d hell mi supposed to know whe' Saawha deh? Aaah boy. And I bet if I ask the bus...I mean Maxi...driver...he won't know any "San Juan". I was hearing about another place, too. A place the people couldn't even spell. It's pronouced "Kweyzie" (by them). I hear it's spelt "Croisse" (french, it seems. That's one person's guess, anyway). These people are gonna get me LOST!!
And as for crime in Trinidad vs crime in Jamaica....*LOUD HISS*. The people from West, East, South Trinidad and Tobago are as afraid of this side as people from cou...ahem...rural Jamaica are of Kingston. In fact...even more!!
One taxi man who was chartered to carry a group of us to church (it bun mi fi pay dat money, you know! I don't like charter when regular taxi is cheaper. Cyaa afford that lifestyle just yet) gave us what anyone would consider a rather apt description of the common criminal here. "He eye white and he ha' slippaz on he feet". So now that I know EXACTLY who to avoid...I can go wherever I want now - just start running if I see someone who fits that description. And to top things off, I'm told (repeatedly from different sources) that the area the hall is in isn't a great area. I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same (c.f. Papine/ August Town and Mona).

Anyways....that's it for now. While I work towards avoiding white-eyed men and learn to traverse the passageways that exist in this land of grad student life,I'll keep it fresh!

Week One

So...Week One of my week in the land of the Trinbagonians.

Map of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago

Jamaica
Sunday was FUN. And kinda hard, too.
So...the preface to the trip goes as follows
Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare - Me, Mummy, Daddy, Sandrie and Terrica.
Flight was at 2:05pm - which means check in by around 11.
Got there about 10:30 am and went to check in on time. Now...we're allowed a max of 50 lbs in each bag, and as far as we were concerned...it's impossible to fit all of my _ _ yrs. into 2 bags 50lbs each and a carry on. SO..definitely went expecting to be overweight (with my bags, ofcourse). Only fi' fin' out seh mi only allowed 70lbs a bag on d plane. AND that I gotta pay overweight per bag...not overall. Funny thing is...both ma bags were overweight (no surprise there). One bag was 57lbs. The other was 60-odd lbs.
My parents being smarter and wiser than I...and Sandrie being all street-smart thought of putting all the extra weight in one bag (and thus pay 1 over weight) and so we had to remove stuff (including the 2 lbs of rice and tins of sardines - Mummy and Sandrie made sure I had breakfast and maybe dinner for at least one day) to make sure the bag was 50 - yes, EXACTLY 50 - pounds. The other one weighed about 68lbs. Good stuff, eh?


So...I'm checked in and everythings cool. Sitting and chatting and having fun. Rhonda got to the airport around 11:45 and did her stuff.
Parents left a lil' before 1pm...didn't wanna have to pay for another hour of parking. Said goodbyes. Proud of Ms Lady...and went in side. Terrica and I switched bags and so I carried her stuff through the scanners (red flags, eh?!) heels and all. The people just laughed ans let me through. She was the butt of jokes as well..cuz those two pounds of rice jumped out on the screen. They let her through with no prob, and we had an uneventful trip.


Barbados
My flight was booked in such a way that I would come off in Barbados...wait there for 3 hours. Then board the flight coming from Jamaica and head to Trinidad. Rhonda and Terrica stayed on the flight they were on and went straight to Trinidad.
Came off the plane...called Ross...and told him I'm in his country. Decided that I wanted to see some of it..and so the troubles began.
Airport policy says that I can't leave the airport.
The C'bbean Airlines attendant says she'll keep my boarding pass while I try.
Immigration tells me they have to see the boarding pass, and that I have to come with the attendant and watch while they tear up the boarding pass (which is my LITERAL ticket out)
I head back to the attendant (I aint telling her she needs to tear up my things though...HELL NO). I only tell her that she needs to accompany me.
Note well..everytime I walk...it's  3- 5 minute walk from one end of the airport to the next. Count them...3 times so far. That's 15 mins.
Walked back over with this other attendant who was sooo nice. THIS time...we went past some doors that I never thought I'd cross...and the attendant was laughing at me - the doors which people pass when they're getting body cavity searches; where the FBI carry the drug mules; where they people who go behind those doors come out with handcuffs on, not in, hand. I was going to see the Head of Immigration. She told me I could go..but if I did and missed my flight...I'd be on my own. I actually thought..."hmm...is it really worth it? Are Klive and Ross worth the risk?" Then decided that since I'd already done the work...ofcourse I was gonna go!!
I got outside...hail up d  I-drens and instead of coming straight inside...as I thought was the plan....jumped in the car and rode off. Mi a run whe!! lol. Fun stuff
We went along the road and drove around for about an hour seeing the sights and getting a quick tour.
They dropped me off at the airport and I signed in. GOTTA get back to Barbados. Need to take a comprehensive tour and get some of this famous "Chefette" food.


Trinidad
Landed in Trinidad and noticed a trend when I got to Customs...all the Jamaicans were sent to the line where the scanner was. Everybody else (well...actually..just mostly everyone else) went through without a hitch. The other J'can students were laughing about it. Funny thing, though. After they got scanned...and told the officer they were students- that was it. Noo....not so for me...I got ma bags searched!!
Ah well..the dude was cool and let me through aight. Headed throught and found my way to the hall with the help of my fellow J'cans. We took chartered a maxi taxi (ie a mini-bus) to the hall (which is off-campus, by the way. It's about 10-15 mins walk or 3-5 mins  drive) Tings good!!

Video of Sir Arthur Lewis Hall of Residence

Monday was shopping at the mall..but the interesting day was Tuesday night ...(Independence Day Celebrations). We headed to the Savannah in  Port of Spain to see the fireworks. They were scheduled to start at 8pm; we got there at about 4.30pm (waaaaay too early), and they ACTUALLY started at about 9:05pm. Pretty lights..awesome sound - GREAT NIGHT.

Wednesday was an impromptu trip to a river. Ofcourse..since I had no appropriate clothes I stayed out of the water. NOT! I stripped and jumped in!! Was cold...but fun!

Friday was also another great day...went to Arima, Trinidad. Got some good sights in and saw Stacey Q and fam. Missed the bus stop on the way back thought cuz  both Rhonda and I fell asleep (like eediat...we go drop asleep in the people dem country like wi a big boss 'roun 'ere.) We passed our stop but woke up just in time to see UWI passing by. The bus pulled over at the stop to pick up somebody and we hopped out. THANK GOD!!

Church was also great! A/C (again) and carpteted (yay) and a GREAT sermon. People seem really friendly, too. Good stuff!

Look for me on Foursquare and Twitter. Gonna keep ma (currently 0) followers posted.

Tek care & walk good!!