Thursday, January 17th began my new adventure from living in Iowa to living in the Virgin Islands on St. John (rough life I know). My plane left from Des Moines at 5:40 in the morning, so for most of you, you know that was very hard for me to be in Des Moines by 3:45. Don't worry we made it! I met Jennifer who is my advisor! She is only here for a week making sure we get out feet on the ground! We made out first flight out of Des Moines and met up with Bri and Emily in Atlanta where we got on our next flight headed to St. Thomas!
We made it to St. Thomas! From there we waited for our bags hoping they made it too! After getting our bags we jumped in a taxi and headed to the Red Hook Ferry! Once to the Ferry we got our tickets and waited to get on! We also met some Cyclone fans when we got to the Ferry! (Roll Clones!) The Ferry ride is about 15 minutes to St. John and Doc picked us up in Cruz Bay.
We went up to our dorm and got all of our bags in the dorm and went back down into Cruz Bay where we ate at Gringos! I got a Taco Salad made in a taco bowl! (it was sooo good!) We went back up to our dorm to go to bed for our first night in St. John!
Friday, January 18th, we got to sleep in since we had traveled the whole day before! We started our day by touring the island a little bit. Doc took us on a really steep road (he is the only one aloud to drive on it). We were out and about and stopped at Harrith's House one of Doc's good friends. He let us look around at his garden and even fed us while we were there! It was a first for a lot of things I got to eat passion fruit, star fruit, soursop, corn and bush tea. The corn we got to eat looked like mini field corn in Iowa and was very starchy.
We had to get back to the school so Doc could teach class. We were able to help the kids in his class pull weeds in the garden, plant tomato's, and do a few other things. This program is like a Farm to Table and it helps with their snack program. After this we headed to the beach!
I have never seen the ocean before until I was flying over it! We went to the beach for a little but where I got to see some fish under water and just hangout for a little bit in the sand!
Saturday, January 19th, we woke up got into the car and headed to the Barge to go to St. Thomas! This was a first for me as well. Doc backed the car onto the barge and we waited to take off! This was not my favorite as we could not see over the sides! Once we got to St. Thomas we headed for the Ag Fair. This is like a very small farmers market where all of the farmers bring in their produce and sell it, There was a little bit of live music as well. For the first time I had BBQ Tofu which wasn't too bad! Doc bought some different plants to start growing and I got some fresh Fruit Punch and got to drink from a coconut!
