My blogging challenge continues...
Day Two: What has been better than you expected?
EVERYTHING!
Okay, so I'm exaggerating. A couple things in Dominica are not better, but I will get to those later.
A better answer would be adjusting to island life. Before Chris got accepted to Ross, he told me he wanted me to go with him if he got in, so as soon as he got that fateful phone call I began freaking out a little. Prior to this trip, I had never been out of the US (except for Canada, which doesn't count). I started spending hours every night after work reading and re-reading every website I could find about Dominica and life around the Ross campus in particular. There aren't nearly as many helpful websites about Dominica as you would expect in this day and age.
My research made me feel a lot better, but I still had some lingering fears. What if I got bit by 148 mosquitoes every day and caught dengue fever? What if my cats got sick and needed immediate attention? What if I were too homesick and hated it? What if I couldn't understand the locals' accents and had a hard time managing daily life? (This one turned out to be sort of justified, as some people have such a thick accent AND speak so quietly that I can hardly manage a conversation. Chris had to help me through customs at the airport because I literally couldn't understand a word the customs agent said. I don't know how I am ever going to do it on my own.)
We've been in Dominica for about six weeks now and, while it's not America, it's beginning to feel more like home. Sure, things are different... I'm using foreign currency, I don't have a car, and sometimes I see more goats than people on the way to campus. It's totally fine, and I am happy. No culture shock for me! Hooray. And thank goodness for the internet, because I can get my fill of all things American via the world wide web. Plus between Skype, Facebook and email I have almost immediate contact with everyone back home.
Also, I thought not working might make me feel unproductive and bad about myself. Nope. Not working is awesome. Not saying I never want to work again, but I have a lot of time to think about what I want to do when I DO start working again, and that is great. Besides, even little tasks take 10x longer to accomplish in Dominica. Go try to do a load of laundry completely by hand and tell me it didn't take forever and a day.
I should also mention that I get to see Chris a lot more often than I expected. This is a close runner up for my answer to the original question. He spends more time studying at home than at school, but even when he is on campus I can bring my computer and his e-reader and sit in the air conditioning with him. Plus he busts his butt during the week so he has enough time on [most] weekends to watch movies and go out to dinner with me. I came all this way just to be with him, so I'm glad I actually get to be with him! :)
