I have had a few emails from incoming students about what to expect when you come here. Well let me just tell you about our experience. First of all – we brought two 70 lb dogs (actually Ellie is only 65 lbs). That for me was the most stressful. I cried every flight. I was lucky enough to be able to see them both get on and off of every plane. The only reason that happened is because the Lord knew that I would have been an even bigger wreck if I hadn’t have seen that! There was not a direct flight to Dominica from Arkansas so we had to spend the night in San Juan. I am so glad we had to do that because I was so stressed out and I felt like the dogs needed a break. So we flew out the next to day to Dominica. The plane is a small prop plane. I was used to those planes because that’s what we used to fly out on from the town I’m from. So on your dissent down to the island – its kinda freaky. You are extremely close to trees and are flying in between mountains. The pilot even comes on the speaker and says “Americans usually get scared at this point”. And the whole plane was full of Ross students so were all just looking around like “What in the world is fixing to happen”?

So we get to the smallest airport in the world – I really don’t think Im exaggerating – its small. You go through “customs” – which is pretty much a joke and then you stand around with about 100 (at least) other people waiting for them to bring in your luggage. There was a plane that came in about 30 minutes before ours so that’s why there were so many people. So when I say they bring in your luggage – Im not kidding. It doesn’t come on one of those round things. There are two men that bring in each piece one by one and set it on the floor in front of everybody and then if it’s a black piece with no tag about 10 people go see if its theirs. Then you go wait outside for a transport (a 16 passenger van) and they take you to Ross. Since we had two huge kennels we were the LAST people to go. OH – and when we were in the “airport” Justin and another man were picking up Fisher and his kennel to take it outside and the man DROPPED his half. Everyone gasped and I seriously thought Justin was going to punch his lights out. So me and Justin get the dogs outside and then the man has the NERVE to come ask for a tip. Justin said “NO WAY MAN – YOU DROPPED MY DOG”. Oh and another thing that happened while we were in the airport was that I thought that this one guy told me to come with him to get our luggage – so I followed him outside to where the luggage was. A huge guard then proceeded to come up to me and tell me that I couldn’t cross the “line” that I crossed and told me he was going to put me in the office. I just turned around and went and stood by Justin. OOPS!!! So anyway since we have the dogs we were the LAST people to get on a transport. The dogs rode in the back of a pick up truck behind us. Take non drowsy Dramamine on this trip!! It is very windy. Even if you don’t get car sick. So we were fortunate enough that since we had the dogs and the lady in charge of transportation knew our landlord – they took us straight to our house. We get to our house and the electricity is out. So my landlord and I walk back to her house to order Chinese food while Justin and her husband were flipping switches trying to make it work. It came on about an hour later. So there we are – sitting in our house around 8:00 pm (we got to Dominica at 3:30 pm) – finally getting to eat our Chinese take-out. I just look at him and started BAWLING. To say it is a culture shock to come here is an understatement. It is a third world country. It takes a while to get used to but as long as you have a good attitude about it you will be fine. I was miserable until I made an attitude adjustment. And now I love it here!!!

Above is a picture of Justin and the dogs on a beach in San Juan!

Leave a Reply