The beginning 2
Goodmorning people
I actually have time to write a bit of a longer email today, i think. I am on a tropical island but it is chucking with rain which actually gives my room a nice breeze! THe reason it is raining and sort of storming all the time is the fact that we get hit by the tropical storms from the hurricanes all the time. Hurricane Frances just past us and gave quite some rain but mostly a lot of rain. rain and more rain. The firts lessson i learned the hard way is that wearing flipflop in the rain is actually not such a good plan and have a torn up knee to prove it... But that's me for you I am sure I will have plenty more cuts and bruises before I leave this place *G*.
Beginning
So lets start at the beginning for those who don't know or don't remember... I am on Sint Eustatius right now for med. school. I got here last week tuesday after my wonderful trip through the states with Floor. Saying goodbye wasn't fun i can tell you... I met Daddy and Karen on St. Maarten airport and from there on we flew (in the tiniest plane possible) in 15 min. to my new home for the next couple of years. Dad was so kind to put me up in the hotel the first night which was really nice! The next day I had to get everything sorted here, which all went a lot quicker then i was expecting from a carribean island; i have a bank account (2 as a matter of fact) got a appartent (more is coming on that) and all the stuff that I needed for that was pretty obtainable. Dad had rented a car and that made everything a lot easier cause even though the island is tiny it is pretty hilly? And to find all the stuff you need you need to look and ask around a lot. So the first few days we spent running (ok maybe not running) around the island trying to get me sorted. On saturday and sunday we finally had some time to explore the island.
Island, called Statia by the locals
I like it.. It is pretty green and all the flowers are my kind of Pink and everywhere you are you can see at least one of the oceans. There is a big vulcano on the island called the quill.(yes it is not allive anymore) It was called the kuil by the dutchies but the english obviously couldn't pronounce that so they called it the quill and that is the word that stuck. Eventhough its' a dutch island all the locals speak english!! Which is very confusing cause most of them actually speak dutch too but prefer not too so whenever I enter a store or run into somebody I do not know what to speak to them; I will start of in eglish to later find out they speak perfect dutch but by then they wont change to dutch with me. If i start of in dutch it will turn out that they dont speak any at all because they came from a different island f.i.
The locals are extemely nice though and because the island is so small news actually travels faster then you can. the first few days people actually came up to me or pulled over to ask me whether i was "het nieuwe nederlandse meisje"; the new dutch girl! And when we came back from the hardware store my landlord had already found out that we had been there! Anyways I am sure you'll hear more about the island in later emails. If you wanna find out more right now here are a couple of websites:
http://www.statiatourism.com/
http://home.hetnet.nl/~kerveltuin/ (dutch)
http://www.eelkes.com/willy/archief/de%20mannen%20van%20het%20eiland.htm (dutch too i think)
http://www.eilandbewoners.web-log.nl/ (dutch again)
School
Will you are surfing you might wanna take a look at my schools site : http://www.eustatiusmed.edu
School is pretty cool. I started last monday and it is really nice. There are 74 new students but I take classes with only one other woman! Thats' because we were the only two who actually choose to do the 6 term program instead of the 5 term. There were 7 of us but the other 5 gave in to peerpressure and moved to the 5 term program the first day! So now I basically have one on one education which is pretty good! So far the classes are not too bad altough I do have to get used to a bit of a bigger workload. The organisation of the school is amazing however and so much is arranged for us (very un-dutch). The other thing that blew me away is the way the "seniors" are taking care of us. They arranged lectures with tips on each course and proffessor on how to get by on this island, they organised a mentor program where each first term has their own mentor. Mine is really nice made me a dvd with more notes and material then I could possibly know what to do with! Then there are dvd/cd's in the libary made by the seniors full with reviews and testqeustions and answers etc.,etc. Tonight the second termstudents organised a party for us the first terms at a local bar/restaurant including dinner and drinks.
Last night I got invited to a party at a seniors house where drunken twister was played and I had my first JELLOshot! wow those are strong...*G* anyways not feeling to good today so might have to stay away from those in the future...
Home
My appartement, I should say studio I have learned is really nice. It is rigth by the admin. building where the computer lab is and next to the only first dorm. In my complex there are 12 appartements of which 9 are filled by first termpeople. It is just one big room, like a hotelroom really with a small kitchen in there. The bathroom is seperate. I have pretty much everything i need in there except a bookcase unfortunately. My studio is on the second floor and all the way at the end on the corner of the building so I have a nice view and no people passing my room all the time. The studio's a linked by a gallery and I have my own balcony at the back. Pictures of my view are attached, pics from room will follow.
Ok I am getting really tired now so I am gonna say goodbye!
Last few notes
My adress is L E Sadlerweg but all mail (if we wanna make sure it gets to me) should go to the university. This is how you adress it:
Sophia Goslings
University of St Eustatius
p.o box 73, Goldenrock
Sint Eustatius
Netherlands-Antilles
Many of you didn't get my previous note on sms and phone. I have bought a local sim-card with a local number for my mobilephone. I can be called on it for free (well for me anyways) and I can use it to call (def. not for free!!) However i can NOT send or RECEIVE sms/text messages from other countries cause they dont offer that service right now. The reason why I haven't called anyone is because the phone company went and still is on strike and the phonecompany sells both the phonecards for my cellphone and the ones for the phoneboxes on the island!!!!!
So if you wanna talk to me the only is to call me!! *G* it sucks i know cause i really wanna talk to some of you anyways that's how it is...
MY number is + 599 524 1868 i have heard that sometimes it is hard to get through and someone will tell you the number does not excist but it does and this is the right number!! so you can all start calling me now.....:-)
ok and if you wont call at least email me (a lot) this is my new emailadress that i will be using cause it is not webbased which makes life a lot easier!
lots of kisses
I actually have time to write a bit of a longer email today, i think. I am on a tropical island but it is chucking with rain which actually gives my room a nice breeze! THe reason it is raining and sort of storming all the time is the fact that we get hit by the tropical storms from the hurricanes all the time. Hurricane Frances just past us and gave quite some rain but mostly a lot of rain. rain and more rain. The firts lessson i learned the hard way is that wearing flipflop in the rain is actually not such a good plan and have a torn up knee to prove it... But that's me for you I am sure I will have plenty more cuts and bruises before I leave this place *G*.
Beginning
So lets start at the beginning for those who don't know or don't remember... I am on Sint Eustatius right now for med. school. I got here last week tuesday after my wonderful trip through the states with Floor. Saying goodbye wasn't fun i can tell you... I met Daddy and Karen on St. Maarten airport and from there on we flew (in the tiniest plane possible) in 15 min. to my new home for the next couple of years. Dad was so kind to put me up in the hotel the first night which was really nice! The next day I had to get everything sorted here, which all went a lot quicker then i was expecting from a carribean island; i have a bank account (2 as a matter of fact) got a appartent (more is coming on that) and all the stuff that I needed for that was pretty obtainable. Dad had rented a car and that made everything a lot easier cause even though the island is tiny it is pretty hilly? And to find all the stuff you need you need to look and ask around a lot. So the first few days we spent running (ok maybe not running) around the island trying to get me sorted. On saturday and sunday we finally had some time to explore the island.
Island, called Statia by the locals
I like it.. It is pretty green and all the flowers are my kind of Pink and everywhere you are you can see at least one of the oceans. There is a big vulcano on the island called the quill.(yes it is not allive anymore) It was called the kuil by the dutchies but the english obviously couldn't pronounce that so they called it the quill and that is the word that stuck. Eventhough its' a dutch island all the locals speak english!! Which is very confusing cause most of them actually speak dutch too but prefer not too so whenever I enter a store or run into somebody I do not know what to speak to them; I will start of in eglish to later find out they speak perfect dutch but by then they wont change to dutch with me. If i start of in dutch it will turn out that they dont speak any at all because they came from a different island f.i.
The locals are extemely nice though and because the island is so small news actually travels faster then you can. the first few days people actually came up to me or pulled over to ask me whether i was "het nieuwe nederlandse meisje"; the new dutch girl! And when we came back from the hardware store my landlord had already found out that we had been there! Anyways I am sure you'll hear more about the island in later emails. If you wanna find out more right now here are a couple of websites:
http://www.statiatourism.com/
http://home.hetnet.nl/~kerveltuin/ (dutch)
http://www.eelkes.com/willy/archief/de%20mannen%20van%20het%20eiland.htm (dutch too i think)
http://www.eilandbewoners.web-log.nl/ (dutch again)
School
Will you are surfing you might wanna take a look at my schools site : http://www.eustatiusmed.edu
School is pretty cool. I started last monday and it is really nice. There are 74 new students but I take classes with only one other woman! Thats' because we were the only two who actually choose to do the 6 term program instead of the 5 term. There were 7 of us but the other 5 gave in to peerpressure and moved to the 5 term program the first day! So now I basically have one on one education which is pretty good! So far the classes are not too bad altough I do have to get used to a bit of a bigger workload. The organisation of the school is amazing however and so much is arranged for us (very un-dutch). The other thing that blew me away is the way the "seniors" are taking care of us. They arranged lectures with tips on each course and proffessor on how to get by on this island, they organised a mentor program where each first term has their own mentor. Mine is really nice made me a dvd with more notes and material then I could possibly know what to do with! Then there are dvd/cd's in the libary made by the seniors full with reviews and testqeustions and answers etc.,etc. Tonight the second termstudents organised a party for us the first terms at a local bar/restaurant including dinner and drinks.
Last night I got invited to a party at a seniors house where drunken twister was played and I had my first JELLOshot! wow those are strong...*G* anyways not feeling to good today so might have to stay away from those in the future...
Home
My appartement, I should say studio I have learned is really nice. It is rigth by the admin. building where the computer lab is and next to the only first dorm. In my complex there are 12 appartements of which 9 are filled by first termpeople. It is just one big room, like a hotelroom really with a small kitchen in there. The bathroom is seperate. I have pretty much everything i need in there except a bookcase unfortunately. My studio is on the second floor and all the way at the end on the corner of the building so I have a nice view and no people passing my room all the time. The studio's a linked by a gallery and I have my own balcony at the back. Pictures of my view are attached, pics from room will follow.
Ok I am getting really tired now so I am gonna say goodbye!
Last few notes
My adress is L E Sadlerweg but all mail (if we wanna make sure it gets to me) should go to the university. This is how you adress it:
Sophia Goslings
University of St Eustatius
p.o box 73, Goldenrock
Sint Eustatius
Netherlands-Antilles
Many of you didn't get my previous note on sms and phone. I have bought a local sim-card with a local number for my mobilephone. I can be called on it for free (well for me anyways) and I can use it to call (def. not for free!!) However i can NOT send or RECEIVE sms/text messages from other countries cause they dont offer that service right now. The reason why I haven't called anyone is because the phone company went and still is on strike and the phonecompany sells both the phonecards for my cellphone and the ones for the phoneboxes on the island!!!!!
So if you wanna talk to me the only is to call me!! *G* it sucks i know cause i really wanna talk to some of you anyways that's how it is...
MY number is + 599 524 1868 i have heard that sometimes it is hard to get through and someone will tell you the number does not excist but it does and this is the right number!! so you can all start calling me now.....:-)
ok and if you wont call at least email me (a lot) this is my new emailadress that i will be using cause it is not webbased which makes life a lot easier!
lots of kisses
posted by Goslings at 22:30
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