Journal- August 2003

Journal 2: August 2003

Number of....
Weddings at hotel: 3
Broken nails: 6
Rashes I got due to heat: 1
People who admitted to having diarrhea due to the food: 5
Men who looked good in speedos: a handful
Men who did not look good in speedos: too many
Times I was offered weed: 2
Times inadvertantly flashed by man wearing too-small speedo: 1
Drinks consumed by self: too many to count or remember
Money won in casino: $30
Times thought I would die on airplane: 4
Times I got bit by a mosquito and thought I would die from West Nile: 2
Times checking in at the airport but not actually boarding a plane: 1
Incidents involving broken bottle of rum: 1
Nice people from Britain: loads
People at the Washington Passport Agency that I don't like: about 4

I should have known that this trip would not go as planned when something arrived a week earlier than it was supposed to, but the drama really began on the day of the trip when we got to BWI and couldn't board the plane. In a nutshell, my mom submitted her passport application in early May and they wouldn't issue her a passport and wouldn't return her birth certificate (BC) so we had to travel with a copy of her BC and a notarized translation as she was born in Puerto Rico and her BC is in Spanish. We were assured by the people at Air Jamaica that this would be sufficient, but the lady at the counter informed us that it wasn't. So we stood and watched as the rest of the people in our group flying out of BWI boarded the plane and we had to make the 40 minute drive back home. My sister and I decided that we wouldn't go if my mom couldn't, so we went back to the Passport Agency in Washington where we spent four hours dealing with some of the rudest people I've ever met and they called security on us because Rude Lady #2 thought we were getting "out of line." In the end though, we met with the directors of the Agency who explained everything to us and were able to give us a copy of my mom's BC (which we already had) and told us that all we needed to do was get it notarized and we should be ok, so we did that and went back home. The next day, we went back to BWI and we were all able to board the plane.

Upon arriving in Montego Bay, we were greeted by Jamaicans singing and welcoming us and by an old lady with her ass hanging out of her shorts while all the men (and women) stared and laughed. We got to the hotel around 11am and check-in time wasn't until 3pm so we had a lot of time to kill, which we did by eating, drinking, catching up with the rest of our group and watching the poolside games.

Once we got into the room and settled in, there wasn't anything particularly noteworthy during the trip, just the usual eating, drinking, shopping, listening to music, sitting by the pool and relaxing that goes with being on vacation. Despite minimal amount of time in the sun, I did get a tan. The only other bits of drama during the trip was getting back home (the people at Air Jamaica gave us trouble about getting on the plane again), one of our bottles of rum breaking at the airport, the airline running out of chicken during the flight and having to eat fish, and the flight home being the WORST FLIGHT EVER. I would post some pictures from the trip on here but I don't think I took any. Oops. Other than that, the trip was enjoyable and now I'm looking forward to Vegas in December! :)

My favorite road signs in Montego Bay:

"Arrive alive, don't drink and drive!"
"Road fatalaties- 2001: 153, 2002: 148. 2003: ?" (the numbers are a guess, I don't remember the actual number of fatalaties but they were in the 100's)

And so begins another year at Tech, most likely my last two semesters here. I may need to take some courses over the summer or come back in the fall, but we'll see. I'm finally living in the nice residence hall after living in the crappy ones for three years, but my room now is a little weird so it's bittersweet. I'm living with Virginia again after a one year break so that should work out well, and the other suitmates that I've met so far seem ok but it's still early days. I actually know one of my suitemates, Anne. We're both in Phi Alpha Delta (a pre-law fraternity) so that was a nice surprise. I'm taking a ridiculus amount of credits this semester (18) in an attempt to graduate on time but if the classes look like they'll be too much I'll probably drop one. That's all for now!

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