Merry Christmas

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, or a very Merry Day Off if you don't celebrate Christmas.  I am home from Jamaica safe and sound.  I'll write more soon! 

Pictures

I've added a link to my Picasa Albums to the left. Beautiful Jamaican pictures, such as the one shown here, are waiting with just a click! Enjoy!

Bye Jamaica

Well, I can't believe it is already time for me to say goodbye to Jamaica. August seems both a long time ago and just like yesterday, at the same time. It is fitting that a tropical storm is causing the rains to come down this week, since a hurricane happened my first few days. Dean greeted me, and now Olga will send me on my way. Sorry to all you Midwesterners getting pummeled by ice and snow; outside of the rain it as been 85 degrees, sunny, and with a lovely "Christmas Breeze." In short, divine.

I have had an amazing semester here, meeting people, learning the culture, and traveling around the country. I have gotten to see each region in Jamaica, and do things many Jamaicans haven't even done. The picture is from Treasure Beach, a very quiet area in the south of Jamaica. I traveled there last weekend, and it marked my last trip with the IPSL group. We had a great time just relaxing on the beach, playing in the waves, and generally spending time together. I will see the grads in London, but for Alice, Kim, and John, after Jamaica, who knows.

I have to thank many people for my experience here. Mrs. Rattray for opening up her home and cooking for me each day. Her food was great, and through it I really got a "taste" of Jamaica. Geri (Dr. Hodelin), the IPSL coordinator for UTech, my Contemporary Conditions prof., and most importantly (at least to me) my Thesis adviser. She helped me out very much this semester, and also had us over to dinner. Also to Cynthia Onyefulu, Jennifer Hall, and Veronica Salter, profs who have taken us out or made food for us. Dr. Gordon-Bell and Mrs. Samuels, History and Literature professors who taught me a great deal. All the people at Jamaicans for Justice, esp. Louise and Andrea. Tameka who helped me so much, and St. Rachel who took me on a field trip.

I have many more thoughts swirling around, and I think I will try and tackle each topic in a separate post. I am also going to edit and post the Jamaica pictures over break. I know I will have just as many from London, and I don't want too big of a backlog.

My sister (Alexis) arrives on Friday and we'll spend a week relaxing in Jamaica, living the tourists life. Then I'm headed home for Christmas and New Year's before I fly out on January 8th for London. I am sure break will pass quickly by, and I hope I get a chance to enjoy it. If I don't get a chance to see you, have a great holiday and be safe!

Thanks for all your support, and I will post again soon, now that all my homework is done!

A quick update...

I am updating today so I can have two blog posts in November! I have been very hard at work trying to finish up all of my assignments and collect data for my research. The benefit to collecting the data is I am getting to talk with various Jamaicans for across the island. Some people I talked to last week aren't getting running water...for about 10 years! They have the pipes and used to get it, but then something happened, and I guess 10 years isn't enough to fix it?

I am down to one major paper, some revisions, and the data. Yea! After that I will have some more time to edit and post pictures, maybe update this a bit more often. I can't believe that I will be done with the Jamaican portion of the program in two weeks. The time is really flying, and, of course, I am just starting to feel like I am making relationships. I guess it is the drawback to only spending one semester here.

I hope all of you Americans had a great Thanksgiving. The picture above is the eight American students in the Jamaican IPSL program this semester, 4 graduates and 4 undergrads. We took this last Saturday when we got together for Thanksgiving dinner. We all brought something and we even had turkey. It wasn't home, but it was nice!

That's all I have for now. I'll post again when things are less crazy.