As I mentioned before, I live in dorms, but they are off campus and require a 10 minute bus ride to get to school. St George's University (SGU) feels bad for those of us who live in Grand Anse because we have older dorms which are relatively far. They also don't want to pay for the utilities for the buildings we live in, so they are trying to move all of us from Grand Anse to True Blue (which is on campus). So my roommate got an email that said she was the next to move and had to pack and go to True Blue by the next day. We all packed using space bags, so without a vacuum it's nearly impossible to pack all of our stuff into our suitcases again. So we went to the housing office and asked them if she could stay and they informed us that not only did she have to move, but all of us were eventually going to have to move to True Blue. They told me that I was next, but they couldn't tell me exactly when. So it was likely that I would have to move while studying. Keep in mind that the only way to get to campus is by bus, so I would have to wait for the bus each time I took a load to campus.
So we started looking for off campus housing. Four other people in my dorms were also interested in moving out considering housing was being so inconsistent. So I contacted a real estate agent and he took us to a beautiful four bed, three bath house in the next housing community over. While it was beautiful, it was in an inconvenient place. The place is called Lance Aux Epines. To get from there to the grocery store (which is where I live), you'd have to wait for the infrequent bus, ride it to a certain stop, get off, cross the street (treacherous), wait for another infrequent bus and then get off at the grocery store. Then to go home you'd get to go through that whole fun house backwards! We looked at a few more houses in Lance Aux Epines. One of them required you to climb up a super steep, long dirt road that was full of potholes. Because of all the rain and our loads of books, we decided that wasn't the most opportune place to live. The second place had huge dead bugs everywhere! They were all over three inches long and the place was so dirty! The third house was nice, but a little expensive, and the landlord seemed like a drug dealer. So we politely declined all of those houses.
As we came back from our house hunt, hot and tired, we found apartments in Grand Anse. They were across the street from our dorms, so they're in the prime location and they were reasonably priced. So I signed my lease and moved in. I now have my own studio apartment which is pretty good sized. It has a balcony and a small kitchen. My bathroom is also small and I don't have very good hot water or water pressure, but that's normal for Grenada. I just bought myself a nice fan so that I don't have to constantly use my A/C. Electricity is very expensive here.
A random piece of information: I have an address, but it is extremely expensive to ship anything to Grenada, and then once I get it I have to pay taxes on whatever you sent me. Customs opens your box and determines how much you pay. A guy told us that last year his grandma made him cookies and it cost her $50 to ship them. When he received them, he had to pay $20 in taxes. So those were $70 home made cookies! Be thankful for the USPS!
Today was my first day of class. It wasn't too bad. One of my professors should be on the show hoarders; she has 17 dogs! She also has a bunch of birds and cats but she didn't talk about them much. Another one of my professors was born and raised in Tanzania and his first language is Swahili. He's very difficult to understand, but seems like a very nice man.
There are wild dogs that roam the island. Most of them seem to be nice, but they all have mange, the females are all pregnant, they all have heart worm and a tic borne disease called. These diseases cause all the dogs to die at a young age. None of them are very adoptable.
There are many excursions on the island available. I have been to a few bars and restaurants, but I have yet to try much else. There is snorkeling and diving. There is a tour of the Grand Etang, which is a rain forest and you get to see waterfalls. There is a fish fry every Friday and you can ride a catamaran up the coast for about an hour to see them cook up fish and taste it. There is a running program on Saturdays that picks you up in a bus and drives you for a while. Then they drop you off in the forest and you follow the leader and run for a while. Your eventual destination is a bar with good deals on food and drink. Carnival comes in February and August. It's Grenada's equivalent to Mardi Gras. Everyone says it's so much fun! I have yet to try any of these adventures, but when I have free weekends I will!
Whelp, it's about time for bed for me. I have to wake up and go grocery shopping and then go to class.
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