My LONG Walk to Campus

I had said before that I wanted to take you all on a tour of where we live and how we live our life here. I thought I would start out by showing you our walk to school. I actually do this walk a lot more than Kyle since I walk to town for groceries, to bring him lunch and dinner, and just to do daily/weekly chores such as paying for time on our cell phones and going to the bank. He also tends to do this long walk at the coolest times of the day, in the morning and in the evening. I, on the other hand, make this trek as the sun is beaming down on my head as I'm lugging bags of produce and frozen chicken. I don't complain about this too much to Kyle since in my spare time I am usually out by the pool with my friends and he has his nose in a book. Anyway, let our journey begin on the 1.5 mile walk to school...

So this is where my walk begins. This is the walk from our house out to the dirt road that I have learned to HATE!

And this is the dirt road I spoke of so fondly above. The reason I hate this road is due to the fact that it is long and bumpy. It's a great place to twist an ankle and it's a real joy after a hard rain and you're sloshing through mud. Oh and did I mention that there are frequently cows roaming the road? Well, there are and they leave nice piles to step around and the love to stand in middle of the road and stare at you like you are in their way. Whose cows are they you ask...actually nobody actually knows but they certainly are a nuisance at times.

Here is what I see as I reach the end of the dirt road and reach the main road. It's a KFC and a Rituals Coffee (aka Dominican Starbucks). We have been to the KFC twice since we've been here and only eaten there once. They seem to always be out of chicken...go figure. I also love that they never tell you what they do have, they just let you keep asking for different menu items only to say "No". Needless to say I think I only had french fries that were cold and greasy. The Rituals Coffee is pretty good. They have lots of "chillers" that are like frappacinos and a good variety of muffins, croissants, and lunch items like sandwiches and paninis. The only thing I caution to people if they are going to eat there is don't be in a hurry. A coffee and a sandwich could take a good 45 minutes. They don't move too fast around here. I guess it's the whole "island time" thing.

Now we are at the main road. Now that I have made it here I still have another 10 minute walk to campus. I definitely stay on the sidewalk as I walk here since cars here can drive a bit fast for my taste. I also have learned to look closer as I cross the street since they drive on the left side of the road. So instead of looking "left, right, left" I now look "right, left, right". It took me a while, but I finally got it down.

This is the main road again, now we're around campus. To the right is the school and to the left are some apartments and shops. As you can see it's nothing fancy when you are on the outside of campus. There is certainly a separation between the technology and money spent on campus and the poverty across the island. The locals all seem grateful for our presence since Ross University has brought a lot of jobs to the island, but it still a very poor place.

So, now you have seen our walk to campus. Since we will be moving into another apartment next semester, our walk will be shorter. In fact, we will be about 50 feet closer to campus from the KFC and will be just off the main road. This means no more long dirt road. This will make my life a lot easier and as Kyle says, "A happy wife is a happy life".