My Weekend

This past weekend was a bust.  It started out poorly with the beer incident and my mediocre attempt at making shrimp scampi.  I had everything going for dinner - rice and vegetables cooking and oil with garlic cloves heating up - when I realized I forgot to defrost the shrimp.  Shit.  I made a game time decision to simply put the frozen shrimp into the sizzling oil since I didn't have time to defrost them any other way.  This turned into a disaster because the shrimp had lots of frozen water on them.  So, when they defrosted the frying pan became a cesspool of melted shrimp water and oil.  This obviously wouldn't do, so I pulled the hot pan off the stove, drained the liquid off, and added fresh oil, white wine, and lemon juice to the shrimp.  Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to save the dish, the damage was done.  The shrimp tasted nothing like shrimp scampi and instead tasted like plain salt and peppered shrimp.  Not the worst thing in the world, but not delicious either.  Needless to say, I learned my lesson and next time I try to make shrimp scampi I will make sure to defrost the little buggers first.

The other major disappointment from this weekend was my attempt to get to the South Coast to say goodbye to a departing Fulbrighter.  My friend Sunera, who was a 2009-2010 Fulbrighter to Barbados, is leaving for the U.S. on Thursday and organized a farewell get together last night starting at 5pm.  Since the bar we were meeting at is on the South Coast, which can take an hour+ to get to, I decided to try to catch a 4pm bus to Oistins.  To do this, I got to my bus stop at 3:50, hoping that a bus would come by 4:20 at the latest.  The bus didn't show up until 4:45 AND since it was so unbelievably full, drove right past me.  Once again, shit.  I tried waiting for another bus, but by 5:30 I had had it and decided to just go home and tell Sunera that I couldn't make it.  Honestly, my worst experiences in Barbados so far have all been related to taking the buses.  Yes they are an inexpensive way to get around, but they are slow and too often uncomfortably crowded.  I could never live in Barbados long-term without a car.  That is a sad statement given how small the island is. 

Three good things did happen this weekend however.  First, I am basically finished with my second Globalization & Global governance essay.  I still have some editing to do but 95% of the essay is done.  Second, I came across this quote, which I really like:

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” -George Bernard Shaw

Finally, I came up with what I think are some interesting ideas regarding Iran's nuclear program and the rise of China.  I hope to post these ideas once I get caught up with some reading and put the finishing touches on my second essay.

That's all for tonight.  Gotta get back to work.  And remember everyone, be unreasonable every now and then.  Apparently it's good for progress.

Frustrated/Flummaxed

I just had a really annoying experience.  I was heading out to go to the local supermarket called Jordans and I decided that I should see if there is a quicker way down to the main road than the normal way I go.  So I decided to ask this group of locals, all young men, who hang out near my apartment if I could get to the main road by going right instead of left.  They said yes and showed me how to get there, but then told me they needed a six pack of beer from Jordans.  I asked them what kind they wanted and they said "Banks."  Fine, I thought.  Its not that much trouble for me and they did just show me how to get down to the main road via another route.  I thought of asking for money for the beer at that moment but figured I could just get it when I returned.

Long story short, I returned with their six pack but they said they couldn't pay me.  I didn't want to ask why, because I figure the last thing a white person should do is ask a bunch of locals why they cant afford something, so I just asked them if they'll pay me back later.  They said yes (obviously lying) and I walked away pissed off.  Its not the money I am upset about (the six pack was $6.50 U.S.) but rather the lack of respect and what this means for every time I have to walk past these guys on the way to school now.  But on the other hand, I can't tell if I've been had or if this is a normal exchange of advice for another friendly service.  I really doubt this, but we shall see.

Anyway, all you people who are reading this, don't worry about my safety - I've walked past these guys many times without problem.  I don't believe they will start bothering me because of this.  If anything, they're less likely to since I didn't get in their faces about the money.  That said, I do worry about them thinking they can get free six packs off me whenever they want.  Next time I go to the supermarket, I am going to make sure they aren't outside.

Ok, time to start thinking about dinner.  I am going to try making shrimp scampi tonight (my mother's suggestion) so I need to read the recipe and get all my tools together.  I'm looking forward to this because I've grown really tired of chicken and pasta lately!  I hope it will give me a boost of productivity to start my second essay tonight, but we shall see.

The Weekend is Here!

It's Thursday night, which means my weekend has officially begun!  I know, everyone who works for a living that reads this blog, feel free to hate me.  I would too if I were you.

My weekend got off to a great start too; normally I would have to wait until 8pm (when my last class ends) for it to begin, but today my 5-8 class was canceled because they had just done a lot of painting in the graduate studies building and we were told to go home because of the fumes.  So, I got to go home at 5:30 and begin my weekend a couple hours earlier than normal.

This is a good thing cause I'm pretty beat, even though I have class only three days a week.  Its not the classes that get me, its the mountains of reading and all the assignments that are awaiting my attention that are mentally exhausting.  So far I've been doing a pretty good job of getting a head start on my assignments (I already finished one essay) and performing triage on my reading lists.  This weekend I am going to finish another essay (leaving 4 for me to do for the semester) and catch up on some Caribbean history.  For those of you that are interested, here are the essay topics I am doing for my Globalization & Global Governance class.  The first one is the essay I've already finished.

1) Account for the rise of global governance.  What are the challenges to deepening multilateral cooperation?

2) What do you understand to be the salient ideas and assumptions that made for the “Washington Consensus”? (Don’t go past 1990).


My other plans for the weekend are pretty simple.  I'm going to do a quick run to the local grocery store tomorrow and if the weather is nice out, which it hasn't been in a while, I will head out for a quick snorkel.  A swim sounds really relaxing right now and I found out the other week that there's a beach literally 2 minutes from my apartment!  I've gotta go try it out.

The other big piece of news that happened this week is Nora booked her flights to come visit!  She'll be visiting from October 31st-November 7th, which is a good time for me because it's right in the middle of the semester, when I'm likely to need a break.  My plan is to do as many of my major assignments before she gets here so that I can have some free time to explore the island with her.  This means a lot of work now, but it will be worth it once she gets here!

That's really all that happened this week.  Ever since school started life has been a lot less dynamic.  That said, I still like it here even though I am starting to get bored with the food I am able to cook/buy and I am getting frustrated about my lack of cable TV.  I would really like to be able to sit and do my work with football on in the background, but alas, it seems the cable company really just wants me to be extra studious this semester.

One last thing before I go: I was reading Nicholas Kristof's Op-Ed today in the NY Times and in it there was a link to a really awesome movement called The Girl Effect.  You should visit their site (http://girleffect.org/) and watch the first video they made, which is on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw.  If you're moved like I was, I encourage you to donate or spread the word. 

Ok thats enough of my preaching - time to go relax for a bit so I can begin my second essay tomorrow!  Night everyone and hope your weekends get off to as good of a start as mine did!

The Past Couple Days

I last posted on Wednesday and since then some interesting things have occurred.  First, I finished my hellish 9am-1pm, Monday-Friday class, which means I now have four day weekends that I can use to tackle the many large essays I have to write this semester.  Most importantly it means I get to stop waking up at 8am (I'm really not a morning person) and instead I can get on a schedule that better suits me.

Second, last night I went out with a couple of people from my now finished 9-1 class.  We went to Oistins for dinner, where I had grilled flying fish for the first time (delicious!), and then to St. Lawrence Gap, which is where a lot of bars/dance places are.  It was a lot of fun even though most of the places were pretty empty - they aren't kidding when they say this is the slow season!  I was told it will be more lively from December-February, so it might be worth going back sometime in that time span.

The first place we went to was called the Ship Inn and it was only the nine of us and a couple of expat and visiting British.  The place is run by a crazy British guy who would come up to me and my friends, ask us what we wanted to drink, pause for a beat, and then get all pissed off when we took more than two seconds to reply.  I've never wanted to call someone a "wanker" more than I did at that moment.  Normally we would have left, but it was happy hour from 11-12, so all the drinks were half price.  This meant a Jack Daniels on the rocks was only $6 bds, or $3 U.S.  Quite the deal even if the drinks were small.  We left there shortly after midnight to go to a place that had more people and more dancing, which is where we stayed for the rest of the night.

Third, I've finalized my class schedule, I swear!  I am taking five courses this semester and four next semester.  While this means I am going to have a LOT of work this semester, it means that I don't have to come back a year from now to take classes.  Therefore, I can finish all my classes by next semester, write my thesis over the summer, and then leave around a year from now to go back to the U.S. and find an internship to finish out the degree.  Doing it this way means I can write my PhD applications from the U.S., which will be useful if I have to go for interviews, as well as save some money by potentially living at home. 

One thing I forgot to mention on Wednesday was that at the reception after the Canadian minister spoke I finally got to meet the Charge' d'Affaires from the U.S. Embassy.  His name is Dr. Brent Hardt and we spoke for a good twenty minutes about a range of things, including the fact that he just took his youngest son on a tour of Hamilton College!  I tried to persuade him that Hamilton is a great choice for his son, but we'll see if that turns out to be the case.  His son is an aspiring architect, and I'm not so sure how good of a program Hamilton has in that field.

That's all I can think of for now.  I'm sure there are some things that I'm forgetting, but I'll just toss those into the next post.  Have a good week everybody!

Quick Update

Hey All,

So quick update of some interesting things that happened recently.

1) I forgot to mention this the other day, but yesterday I saw my first Barbadian green monkeys.  I was walking up to my apartment and I saw these odd looking creatures with long tails running down the street away from me.   At first I didn't know what they were, but then I realized they must be a bunch of Barbadian green monkeys up to no good.  I believe they had been exploring the trash offerings of a couple of my neighbors.

2) Also, on Tuesday I tried the campus cafeteria for the first time.  I had roasted chicken with Marconi pie (Barbadian form of Mac & Cheese) and steamed carrots.  For a little over $10 bds it was a pretty decent meal.  That said, it wasn't good enough to get me to walk up the hill every day for lunch once I stop having my 9-1 class on the main campus.  But it is nice knowing that there is a decent and inexpensive food source nearby if I should ever need it.

3) Today in my Globalization & Global Governance class we watched a documentary called "Life and Debt" which is about the impact the IMF's structural adjustment loans had on Jamaica after they were implemented in 1977.  It was a really depressing film, but one that I think everyone should see.  It's available on Amazon for those of you that are interested.  (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Debt-Belinda-Becker/dp/B00008NNPK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1284580622&sr=8-1). 

4) I just got back from a lecture at UWI where the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for the Americas spoke about Canada's foreign policy initiatives and interests in the region.  It was an interesting presentation and there is clearly a lot that Canada can do to help the region.  Right now Caribbean-Canada relations are a hot topic in Barbados because CARICOM and Canada are in the beginning stages of negotiating a new free trade agreement.  Normally this would be cause for excitement, but the Caribbean is having buyer's remorse about signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU, and under WTO rules, countries cannot offer preferential trade terms to one country (or set of countries) and then not offer the same terms to another country.  Doing so would open the discriminating countries up to punitive tariffs and quotas.  So, in short, Canada expects the same treatment from CARICOM that CARICOM decided to give to the EU in the EPA, but CARICOM is realizing that its decision to sign the EPA was a mistake and is trying to avoid replicating its terms in another negotiation.  Its a very interesting topic and there will be more to come on this for sure.

Anyway thats all for now.  I have to go make a veeery belated dinner and get ready for a marathon day tomorrow; I am going to have class from 9am-1pm, 2-5, and 5:30-8.  It's going to be brutal, but thankfully this is a one-time occasion.  Also, it will give me the knowledge I need to make a decision, finally, about how many classes I want to take this semester!

See you tomorrow!

Settling Down to the Routine

Hey all,

So there are two reasons I haven't been posting as much as usual recently.  First, when I get home from class at 8pm I am usually too tired to compose anything.  The chance that I can put together coherent sentences is slim (tonight being an obvious exception!).  The second is that I am starting to settle into a daily routine, which while giving my life a bit of stability, is also quite uneventful and uninteresting.  So, I do not want to bore you with petty details such as what I had for lunch today or minor musings about the weather. 

Basically I've just been trying to stay on top of my school work while planning ahead for the rest of the Master's program.  It turns out that my plan to take 4 courses this semester may be up for revision as new information has come to light that might make taking 5 classes this semester and 4 next semester the prudent move.  I should know by Friday what I am doing and will communicate my final plans in another post.

The readings for class are interesting but there's an absolute ton of them.  I would be able to get through more of the articles if I didn't have to prepare each meal, clean, and go shopping frequently.  These things, as I'm sure all of you adults are aware of, really eat into your time and energy (especially in this heat!).  So for now I just do the best I can knowing that this hell-class ends on Friday and therefore I will have my mornings for schoolwork starting next week. 

That's all I can manage for tonight.  I'll try to post some more about cultural observations or what living down here is actually like in the future.

All the best from Barbados,

Stephen

Some Cultural Observations

As promised, here are some observations about Barbadian culture that I've made so far:

1) People here are exceptionally polite.  When students arrive to class in the morning they say "Good morning" as they walk in and everyone else responds in kind.  The first time this happened I lifted my head from the book I was reading because I thought the teacher had walked in and was going to start class.  Nope, just a fellow student wishing me a good morning.  How nice!

2) Barbadians are very very reserved people.  There is none of the gregarious, spicy, jubliantness that most people associate with Caribbean people.  That is not to say Barbadians are boring or bitter people.  In fact they are quite interesting to talk to and seem to be generally upbeat (although there is the typical Caribbean pessimism about the state of public affairs).  But there is none of the cultural craziness that one would find in Jamaica or Trinidad.  There are many hypotheses for the unique Barbadian culture, but most scholars attribute it in some way to the 300 years of uninterrupted British rule over the island.  For this reason, Barbados is known as "the most British" of all the former UK colonies in the West Indies.

3) Barbados is a very religious society.  Most people go to church on Sunday, which makes doing anything else on a Sunday nearly impossible.  I had heard that Barbadians were religious, but it didn't hit me as to just how integral a part of the society it was until earlier this week in my Globalization & Global Governance class.  A student started out making a point about one thing or another, which spawned a group discussion.  When the discussion-originating student wanted to follow up on his comment no one was listening to him so he let fly a local saying "Don't worry, I am the least of the Apostles." I inquired as to what exactly he meant by that and he said it was a local way of saying he's clearly not worth listening to. 

4) Violence in Barbados is a big deal.  I do not mean to say that violence is a problem in Barbados.  What I mean by that statement is that violence is looked down upon and rare, so that when a violent act does occur it is the talk of the country and disgust is rampant.  Now most people in the world consider violence a bad thing.  But in many countries it is part of the culture (beating of wives, honor killings, etc) or becomes just an accepted part of society (see the U.S. and its thousands of murders every year).  In Barbados, violence runs contrary to every aspect of the restrained culture.  So, when eight days ago six people were killed in an attempted robbery, it was the talk of the country.  The front page of every paper ran the story in big print - in the way a terrorist attack in the U.S. would get covered by American newspapers.  And the shock did not disappear after a few days.  Yesterday, at noon, there was a nation-wide moment of silence in honor of the victims. 

5) My last observation, so far, is the tight-knit sense of community here in Barbados.  There is a real sense of common struggle due to the small population, geography, and lack of natural resources.  And, because there are so few people, there is a great expectation placed upon every young person to succeed not just for themselves, but for the country.  People here are immensely proud of the relative prosperity they have built for themselves, but they realize that it could disappear within a generation if there isn't a constant struggle to get their domestic institutions right and promote Barbados in the global economy.  They know that there would be no gentle landing into a comfortable lifestyle if they became complacent with, generally speaking, how things are.

Those are the main observations I have made so far.  I am sure there will be more in the future and I am sure that the above five will undergo varying modifications as my knowledge of, and experience with, Barbadian society increases. 

TGIF!

Hooray for Friday!  Walking out of my 9-1 class today and knowing I had the next 68 hours to myself felt great.  It felt great even though I have no exciting plans for the weekend.  In fact, I have lots of work to do, but at least I can sleep in and hopefully find an hour or two to go for a quick snorkel if the sun decides to show its face (it has been overcast and rainy here pretty much all week).

No real updates other than then usual mundane activities of cooking dinner, getting supplies, and keeping the apartment in order.  I'm going to spend the weekend doing copious amounts of reading and perhaps even begin thinking about the two Globalization & Global Governance essays I have due on October 29th.  Despite the verbose style of many of the writers I have to read, I am excited to learn more about the cultural and political history of the Caribbean.  It's such a unique region.  It is both united and fragmented in so many ways - many different national languages and cultures, isolated by water, with limited resources and populations, as well as varying political status, all united by a common history of slavery, colonialism, and continued marginalization.  Thus Caribbean integration presents a truly vexing problem.  On the one hand it seems impossible.  How could so many differing countries, with the geographic, social, and economic problems they have, all unite into an EU-like organization?  Yet, there is a sense of a shared Caribbean community.  One of my Professors, who is from Grenada, considers herself a "Caribbean Citizen" and I'm sure there are many more like her in the region.  How does one emphasize the commonalities and minimize the differences?  That, to me, seems to be the task at hand and if the appropriate regional leadership materializes, I believe it is entirely possible.

Ok time for me to go and enjoy a bit of my Friday night.  Tomorrow I'm leaning towards posting about some intriguing cultural differences I've noticed so far, so check back if you're interested.

Big News

Today I made a big decision on behalf of my mental, physical, and social health: I've decided to reduce the number of courses I am taking this semester from six to four.  I came to this decision through a long deliberative process and I feel strongly that it is the correct move to make.

During orientation full-time students were told they should take all six courses being offered this semester so that they could be on track to finish the program in 12 months.  I initially followed this advice, despite being alarmed at the prospect of taking six courses, because I figured I should wait to see what the typical workload is per course.  Well, it turns out that each course has lots of reading and plenty of assignments - basically the equivalent of a 300-level social science course at Hamilton.  And on top of this is the arduous task of figuring out the UWI system.  Everything is done differently here from the way it is at Hamilton, so even the smallest of tasks - like getting the course readings from the library - can take several steps through the university bureaucracy.  Last, I have no idea what to expect in terms of teachers' expectations for papers and the style of final exams.  In sum, to be trying to figure out all these things for the first time while navigating an insanely tough course load sounds like a recipe for disaster.

When deciding if I could handle taking six of these types of courses in a 12 week period I first thought: why am I here?  I came up with two reasons: 1) to learn about regional integration in the Caribbean and around the world by completing this Masters program, and 2) to get to know Barbados and the Caribbean by exploring, meeting people, and enjoying my time here.  I came to the conclusion that taking six courses advances the first reason but severely harms the second, so much so that it would cease to exist for the first semester and be severely limited during the rest of the program.  Furthermore, it turns out that taking six courses this semester instead of four would only shorten my time in the program by at most four months, with the more likely time penalty being in the 2-3 month range.  So I was faced with two prospects.  On the one hand I could rush through the program, destroying my mental, physical, and social health in the process, while also likely coming to resent the program and the University and ultimately hating my time here.  Or on the other hand, I could spread out my course load over three semesters rather than two; in the process enjoying my time in Barbados by exploring and meeting interesting people, taking my time to do my practicum and two research papers (read: theses) correctly, and preserving my mental, physical, and social health all at the relatively small cost of a couple months of time and rent.  Also, I know that I will be able to read and absorb more information if I have fewer classes.  In other words, I will learn more by tackling less at one time.

I think the second choice is the correct one, as finishing in 12 months provides no great benefit over finishing in 14 or even 16 months.  I know that the extra time away from home will be hard, but by that time I will be able to travel without restrictions and in general should be able to host more visitors due to my more relaxed schedule.  Also, seeing as my current plan is to apply to PhD programs in the fall of next year, it does not make a big difference if I do that process from Barbados or from New York City.  I will still be back in time to go to interviews and tour schools if I take 16 months to finish this program.

So in sum, I have decided I want to enjoy my time here and learn as much as possible rather than finish as quickly as possible at the expense of my broader experience here.  This is the first, and odds are last, time I will get to live outside of the United States for a significant period of time.  I believe I owe it to myself to get the most from this experience and taking four courses this semester is the best way to do so.  And on that note, I'm off to do some reading on West Indies history!

And on the Second Day, There Were Two Classes

Today was my second day of class at UWI.  I had the 9-1 Globalization and Global Governance class, which continues to pry into my mind and prune it of all sorts of preconceptions and prejudices, as well as a class from 5-8 on Caribbean Governance, which looks like it is going to be very interesting.  So yes, I am enjoying my classes so far.  However, given that I am taking six courses this semester, I am absolutely dreading the workload.  So far I only know the assignments in four of my classes and I already have five 12-14 page papers, three presentations, and three final exams.  I shudder to think how much higher those numbers will be once I find out the workload for my final two classes.

Right now it's 9:50 and I just finished cleaning up from dinner.  In about an hour I will have to hop into the shower so that I can be in bed by midnight and get close to seven hours of sleep.  Man this week is tough.  I can't wait for the weekend, but I know that only means getting to wake up and do lots of reading instead of going to class.  What a wonderful, relaxing, entertaining break that will be!  Perhaps I will make time for a quick snorkeling trip under the pretense of preserving mental integrity.  We shall see.

Intellectual highlights of today include the following: the stunning realization that globalization has not actually ushered in a new type of world-system but rather new ways of conducting business within the same world system; a fierce debate among my Globalization classmates and the professor about Barbados' economic plan of trying to emulate Singapore's service-driven economy as well as building up a global diaspora; and the growing realization that despite the Caribbean's diminutive size, it is such a unique, vibrant, perplexing, and promising region.  There exists throughout the Caribbean the simultaneous love for national sovereignty - driven by the different cultures and histories of each island - as well as a strong feeling of regional solidarity born out of the shared colonial and slave experiences.  Trying to understand it all and make sense of it from a historical and policy-making perspective makes for such an interesting intellectual endeavor.  I have this feeling of standing before a large puzzle that has an unknown number of pieces.  Assuming the puzzle even has a "solution," I hope that my time at UWI will help me figure out how to put the pieces together. 

Ok thats all I have time for tonight.  See you tomorrow!

First Day of Class

Today I had my first class at UWI: Globalization and Global Governance.  It is technically an International Trade Policy course, but Integration Studies students are required to take it.  It is taught by a very nice, passionate, and engaging professor named Don Marshall, who got his PhD at Newcastle University in the U.K.  We spent the first class listening to Dr. Marshall talk about different theories of capitalism and capitalist world systems, with frequent digressions for pointed critiques of everything ranging from cultural colonization to certain worldviews.  My favorite moment of the lecture was when Dr. Marshall used the example of how he "grew up stupid under the Union Jack" as a symbol of cultural colonization and the dominance of certain worldviews.  He recounted to the class how as a young boy he learned many songs, poems, and ditties that had been taught to Barbadians by the British (Jack & Jill run up the hill, Rub a dub dub, etc) during the colonial era.  These types of experiences comprised a large portion of his upbringing, which he now believes was unfortunate because none of his daily life was contained in those songs.  There was nothing about green monkeys, roaming chickens, or chattel houses.  Nothing about the historical injustices of slavery or the quasi-free experience of the post-slavery colonial era.  His mind was programmed to the British world view, which assigned no value to, and thus completely disregarded, the life in Barbados that he and all other Barbadians experienced.  His worldview had been glossed over by the witty epigrams and ditties of exported British culture.  Ultimately his point was that, due to the strength of some countries, many worldviews are shut out from global discussion and repressed in their native homes.  Thus, during the Cold War it was simply Western Capitalism vs. Soviet Socialism.  Lost in that epic struggle were countless worldviews from dominated, marginalized, or ignored states, which were forced to choose between the West and the USSR.  This is a tragedy because not only do countries frequently develop better when allowed to do so in their own unique way, but there is also typically a better outcome when a global issue is looked at from many different angles.  "Beware of the single story," said Dr. Marshall.

Unfortunately the day did not start out as great as Dr. Marshall's lecture turned out to be.  The online course schedule said that the class would be held in the new Post-Graduate Building, which is about halfway down the hill.  Yet when I got to the Post-Graduate building at 9 (class starts at 9:10) I was told there were no classes meeting there due to ongoing construction.  So, where to go?!  I took a gamble and followed the security guard's advice to check the CARICOM Research Building even though he thought I was looking for the International Trade Theory and Policy class.  Luckily the security guard was correct and I got to class just before it was scheduled to start.  Of course class didn't actually start until 9:30, but I didn't know the Professor was going to take his time this morning (to be accommodating for all the confusion over the unannounced move of class), so I had run up the hill in a hurry and consequently was covered in a nice sheen of sweat by the time I reached the CARICOM building.  What a great first impression to make on all my new classmates! 

This unpleasant start to my day was quickly compensated by the announcement by Dr. Marshall that the class would run from 9:10am-1pm every day for the next two weeks.  Now most of you are probably wondering why that would make me happy.  Four hours of class a day doesn't exactly sound invigorating.  But, it is the most amazing news EVER when you falsely believe that class is going to run from 9:10-4pm every day!  This is a huge relief for me because on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays I also have class from 5:10-8pm, so I was worried about eating, keeping my sanity, and getting my work done on days where I was basically in class from 9am-8pm.

So imagine my joy when I walked out of class today at 1pm and realized I didn't need to run around like a maniac trying to get my books from the bookstore and pick up some things at the store before everything closes at 5!  Instead, I was able to casually peruse the bookstore, seeing what kinds of texts the University's professors have selected for a wide-range of topics (many familiar, many more unfamiliar), and then head up to Holetown to get snorkeling equipment (!!!!) and some things I forgot on my grocery store trip on Sunday.

So overall the day was much more pleasant than I thought it was going to be and I am no longer dreading tomorrow because I know I will have a break between classes from 1-5pm.  My long-term outlook for the semester, in terms of major assignments, appears to be short on quantity and long on quality.  Globalization and Global Governance has two 3,500 word essays due in late October, and the other three classes that start this week each have an essay of roughly 3,000 words, a 30-40 minute presentation, and a final exam.  I do not know what the workload in my final two classes will be like, but I hope they are forgiving!  I'm pretty sure that once I get all my books and the reading starts piling up that my posts will become rarer and sparser.  And with that warning I'm off to go read some West Indies history!

I'll Have the Traveling and Waiting in the Heat With a Side of Paintball Please

Today I spent three hours traveling and two plus hours waiting to play 30 minutes of paintball.  This could happen only in the Caribbean!

The traveling was the worst part.  The buses are slow, crowded, and usually stuck behind some old crappy car that spews black clouds of diesel exhaust every time the driver shifts gears.  The waiting by comparison was at least relaxing.  I was able to try a new beverage called Shandy, which is basically Sprite mixed with a bit of beer to create an oddly sweet, super carbonated, and slightly alcoholic beverage (0.9% alcohol! WOOO!) So I was able to pass the time by sipping on an ice cold Shanty while talking politics with CJ (see photo of him showing off his battle wound), who is an intern at the U.S. Embassy but is unfortunately leaving on Monday to go home and start his senior year at Williams College.

The paintballing was held at the main base of the Barbados Defense Forces, which is located just below the airport.  We played three matches on a course comprised of an old, abandoned military bunker, some rusting artillery pieces, and lots of knee high grasses with painful nettles.  We played two games where one team had to defend the bunker while the other attacked, and one game where both teams tried to capture a flag and bring it to a central location.  My team lost every time (not my fault, I swear!) but it was still fun.

So most of my day was taken up by the leisurely pace of island life.  I was a bit annoyed at having woken up at 8am only to waste so much time traveling and waiting.  I wouldn't complain about the pace of things here if I knew that it was going to extend to my academics.  But I know that I will never hear a professor of mine say "Oh yes there is a paper due technically on Friday, but in reality you guys can hand it in whenever you want! Now go outside and have some fun at the beach - class is canceled for the day!"  Instead, classes are going to be long and difficult.  I'm just thankful that I can walk to and from the university.  If I had to take a bus I think my head would eventually explode.

Tomorrow is my last day of freedom, so I am going to spend it like any normal 22 year old would: going grocery shopping! YAY!  One of my two week marathon classes starts on Monday, so I know that I'll have no time to go shopping for about two weeks.  So tomorrow I am going to stock up on as much stuff as possible.  I'm also going to try to buy my own set of snorkeling gear so that I can go whenever I want.

That's all from today.  Now I must go play some mindless video game while I still can.  Before I know it, all my homework will keep me from rotting my brain to mush.  Bah.

Note: The last photo is how I felt at the end of the paintball session.  Crawling through thick, knee-high grass in 90 degree heat while wearing jeans and a sweatshirt = complete exhaustion.

Surprise! It's....A Formal?

I didn't really do all that much today, which I suppose I should relish given that school starts on Monday.  I simply went to campus to hand in my student visa paperwork and check out the bookstore.  I should hear back from the university about my student visa in two months or so.  The bookstore is undergoing some major renovations but the parts of it that are finished are quite nice.  Oddly enough, they sell some really old computer games there: original Starcraft, an old copy of Command & Conquer, etc.  You'd think that video games would be the last thing a University bookstore would sell, but everything's different here in the Caribbean!

The only other thing of significance I did today was to attend matriculation.  It was a lovely affair but to be honest I really wasn't paying attention that much.  Instead I was thinking about my undergraduate matriculation at Hamilton four years ago.  Damn that time went fast!  The other thing that was distracting to me was how formally dressed everyone was.  Almost every guy was in slacks and a dress shirt, some with tie others without, while the ladies were all in dresses and heels.  I on the other hand, was in shorts, a polo shirt (tucked with belt, thankfully), and flip flops; I was damn near close to being the least-dressed person there.  Tellingly enough, the only other severely under-dressed people there were also silly white folks like myself.  There was no dress code indicated on the invitation email sent out last week, so how were we supposed to know!  Also, at my orientation on Monday night, people came in all sorts of outfits so I figured why would it be any different for matriculation????  So, note to self: be prepared for random formal events - people like to dress up here despite the heat.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be much more intense.  Right now I have plans to go paintballing (yes in 90 degree heat!) with members of the Barbadian Defense Force and the U.S. Marines from the Embassy.  I'm trying to avoid thinking about just how badly I am going to get destroyed tomorrow, but I know that between the heat and playing against people whose jobs are to shoot guns at shit, its going to be brutal.  I will charge my camera tonight so that I can take some photos.

So thats all for today.  I know, not very interesting, but tomorrow is likely to be very funny at my expense, so check back in 24 hours!  Also, I added photos of my snorkeling trip to my post from yesterday so check em out.

Goodnight from Barbados!

Snorkeling at Mullin's Bay

Today was a rather simple day, thankfully.  I woke up early to meet a friend (name: Raquel) I had met on the hike up Chalky Mountain at Mulin's Bay Beach, which is just south of Speightstown.  We spent about two and a half hours swimming, laying in the sun (read: burning), and snorkeling.  This was the first time I have ever gone snorkeling in the ocean and it was amazing.  About 15 feet out into the water was a shallow rocky area where hundreds of fish live.  We saw many different kinds - blue, striped, yellow, etc - as well as large schools.  It was quite the experience and has made me determined to get my own snorkeling gear as well as a waterproof camera; there are many "better" places to snorkel in Barbados, including one location where the old British government purposely sunk a damaged WWII naval vessel in the late 1940s to create an artificial reef.

After snorkeling we went to grab a bite to eat at a local joint called Zuma's Pit Stop, which was recommended to us by one of the Jet Ski proprietors on the beach.  I had the roast chicken with macaroni pie (Bajan take on mac&cheese), rice&peas, and tossed salad, all for $15 Barbadian.  Add two Banks to that and the total tab was $20 bds, or $10 U.S.  It was quite a steal given the quality and quantity of food we were given, not to mention the local character (all sorts of people coming in to drink some rum at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Thursday) and imported character (an old British ex-pat who quote "spends most of his life in this here chair," indicating to a special chair right at the bar.

After that it was farewell to Raquel while I went to pick up a package at the post office, which is conveniently located across from a grocery store I frequent.  I was an idiot and forgot the charger to my Macbook Pro and the passport photos for my student visa application at home.  My Dad sent them in this package which got here yesterday.  All in all, a little over a week to send a package from NYC to Holetown, Barbados isn't too shabby.

That was the end of my day outdoors - I was too tired and dehydrated to do anything else.  I took some photos of my time at the beach today but am too lazy to upload them right now (I'm telling you the heat really kills productivity!).  I will add them to this post maybe later tonight or tomorrow after I get back from dropping off my student visa forms and picking up my books at the UWI bookstore.

Thats all for now - see you folks tomorrow!

UPDATE: As you can see I put up some photos from the beach.  And yes, that photo of me and Raquel was the best one we took...yikes!

The Past Two Days at UWI

I had a mini panic attack on Sunday night when I realized that classes at the University could be starting in a week and I still didn't know what classes I was taking, where they would be held, who my professors were, how much money I owed the school, what books I needed, and so on.  So on Monday I went up to the school to try sorting some of these things on.  In the approximately five hours I spent on campus, I managed to pay for my program for the entire year (I think), get an ID card, get the paperwork for my student visa application, set up my UWI email account, and learn my way around campus.  To do these few things required waiting in line for over three hours.  Seriously, almost ever single thing required waiting in a line like one would find at a swamped DMV in the States.  For instance, to get an ID card you first had to wait in line to get a ticket, which they only handed out at certain times of the day, which would then allow you to wait in line to get an ID.  Ultimately I'm happy I went to the campus on Monday because it made Orientation, which was yesterday, a lot less stressful.

The formal part of orientation only lasted from 5-6pm last night because it focused solely on introducing us to key people in the graduate studies program and having the registrar talk to us about some basic regulations.  There was no mentioning of any of the things I had been worried about on Sunday night, so if I had waited for orientation to resolve those issues, I would have been sorely disappointed and very stressed out today. 

I did learn some interesting things at orientation though.  First, the grading system is very different from what we have in the states.  Anything in the range of 70-100 is considered an A. 60-69 is a B+ and 50-59 a B.  Anything less than a 50 is an F.  For courses that consist of coursework (essays, presentations, etc) and final exams, students must pass both parts in order to pass the class.  You can't get a 49 on your coursework an a 100 on the final and still pass.

I also met the program coordinator for my Masters program as well as another professor from the department.  They informed the roughly eight of us who will be taking the Integration Studies Masters this year that Full Time students are expected to take 6 courses (!!!) this semester while Part Time should take 3.  So, per their instructions I am registered for 6 courses.  A normal class meets for two or three hours at night (usually 5-7 or 5-8) once a week for all twelve weeks in the semester.  Two of the courses only last two weeks each though.  However, they meet Monday through friday from 9-4.  So this means that when I have one of these two week classes there will days when I am in class from 9-8!  I don't know when they expect us to do our homework with a schedule like this, but I guess I am going to find out soon; classes start on Monday and for the first two weeks of school I have one of these two week marathon classes.  What's really frustrating is that you only need to take 9 courses for the Masters program.  So, since I am taking 6 this semester I only need to take 3 next semester.  While this means I can look forward to next semester, I wish they had spread it out a bit more rather than frontloading the beginning of the year.  The reason they gave for doing this is so that during next semester Full Time students can either begin their internship or start their thesis, all with the goal of having us done within 12 months. 

So since the academic year looks like it is going to be more punishing than I originally thought, I am enjoying these last few days of freedom by sleeping late and trying to read for pleasure as much as possible.  Right now I'm in the middle of Foundation by Isaac Asimov, which is one of the classics of science fiction.  I read the Foundation trilogy years ago, but after watching the HBO show Rome earlier this month I decided to read it again since Asimov based the entire story off Edward Gibbon's classic "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."  I hope to finish the first book before classes start and outside reading begins to invade my life.

Oh one other interesting thing happened to me the other day: a cock fight took place across from my apartment.  It was really disturbing to hear the chickens screaming and to see a group of people huddled around, yelling at the birds as they pecked each other to death.  I hope this isn't a frequent occurance.