Getting up at 4am, I trudged my way through last-minute packing and preparations, bid farewell to my parents and then my sister dutifully drove me to the airport.
I found that apparently, though I had gotten my suitcase to close, I was still 20 lbs over the weight limit for one of my bags. Coughing up $50 USD to pay for extra clothing I hope will be worth it. I think I over-packed slightly in retrospect! ( I swear I needed all those shorts, shoes etc.!)
The American Customs agent was quite brisk and unfriendly, but I like to think they train their agents to not respond to, “Hi. How are you?” Perhaps their seriousness is to reflect the danger of possibly smuggling a bunch of grapes or bananas into the United States. Heehee. That went by without a hitch, and I met up with my future roommate and we traipsed over to our gate. Wandering around the terminal, she attempted to bargain with the salesperson at an electronics retailer as she was purchasing an alarm clock. I needed to learn to bargain, I was told. But, the airport may be the wrong place for that sort of thing, perhaps?
The flight to Philadelphia was short and sweet, only an hour long. I was giddy with excitement and my roommate and I chatted about Saba, medical school and everything in-between on the way. We transferred at Philadelphia Airport to our St. Maarten flight and we began to eye some young students around us. We surmised many of them must be also going to Saba and we eavesdropped casually on their conversation about the Genetics course they were going to be taking. We also dubbed them “NP”’s, as they were sporting something that resembled a nicotine patch behind their ears. This turned out to be Dramamine patches for motion sickness. But we had a good laugh at the time about it.
The St. Maarten flight was long. Luckily, we had an empty third seat in our row and could spread out, but also could not lean back, as our chairs were in front of the washroom. I slept pretty fitfully and started to feel more and more anxious about medical school and Saba. Finally, we were coming in for a landing in Anguilla. The island looked beautiful from up above, but from below was a little dingier than I expected, and I felt nervous (Apparently the French side of the island is quainter from what I have heard). My least favourite part about travel is being a confused woman in a foreign airport. I stuck out like a sore thumb and the taxi dispatchers seemed to hone in on me immediately. “Where are you going? Let me take your suitcase to the cab.” Before I could barely utter my destination, while simultaneously wanting to stay and eat at the airport, I followed my bag as it was rolled away. But all’s well that ends well, and the cab driver dutifully drove us to Doc Maarten to await our 6pm ferry.
We had a good three hours to kill, and after checking in our bags we meandered over to the nearby seafood restaurant. I ordered shrimp, and my roommate, squid and we chatted with our Facebook Saba schoolmates in person. We ran into two of the most infamous of the group, and we got along famously for a while, laughing, chatting and having a couple drinks. We were given multitudes of advice from current students returning on the ferry as they gave their opinion on various aspects of the school. I decided I would take all of it into account, and later form my own opinion. Consensus was: Anatomy was hard, but you will do well if you put in the time. Seems pretty simple, but I doubt it is!
The ferry ride. Oh, before I get there, let’s talk about “Saba Immigration”. Apparently this consists of two women sitting in the ticket area of Saba C. Transport looking at our documents and stamping our passports. I realized we were going to a different country, and how different it was going to be with this first taste. We got aboard the boat, and dropped out bags inside the boat. We started slowly away from St. Maarten and the crew handed out beer and water to the travellers, this I was told was , “Part of the experience. “ Well. I did pay $80 for the ferry, so I think I can have a free bottle of water! Hah. Anyways, my roommate and I went up to the front of the boat, and enjoyed the view for a time. After being splashed numerous times by the starboard water spray, we retreated indoors. Later we went back outside after the sun set and waited out the rocky trip. I forgot to mention the best part. The boat rocks back and forth over the majority of the trip, making passengers inside feel like they are like a cork in a bottle. Most people take motion sickness medication, and I popped a Gravol before the trip. I was informed by the other students on the plane flight of the use of the Dramamine patch for the Dawn II Ferry trip. So we stuck it out on the boat, and arrived in one piece late in the evening at Saba Harbour.
Then, there was another portion of Saba Igmmigration conducted there. This consisted of two disjointed lines, where we were directed to the police officer, who checked out name off while leaning over the police cruiser. We then fumbled for our luggage which had been removed from the boat, and most could barely find theirs, as it was quite dark by this time.
A flatbed truck picked up our luggage, and all the 1st semester students, including me piled into a van to drive to their residential destinations. Going around steep hills and hairpin turns on the European country roads was very interesting, and made me slightly scared. But we put our faith in our skilled cabby and he dropped us off safely at Hillside 2, the purported “better residence” as we had been told by many.
My roommate and I were so happy to arrive, only to become quite sad when we realized we needed to carry our luggage by ourselves up three flights of stairs. We managed, however, and settled in.
Now I am contemplating the life I will live, not only for the next 105 days, but the next 20 months. This is only going to get more interesting.
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