Kaitlyn in St. Croix

      Like I mentioned in my last blog, a  few of the NSE students decided to take a trip over to Puerto Rico. We left early Friday morning and headed over to San Juan. Our first stop was the mall, we were so amazed! We haven’t seen a mall and food court in so long, so we were definitely excited! It felt so good to see so many people. St. Croix is small so you run into a lot of the same people, on and off campus.      We spent the rest of our day checking out the town. For dinner, we had a delicious Italian restaraunt. Our Airbnb was so nice and spacious for the 4 of us! On Saturday, we got up and went to San Juan National Historic Site to take pictures and walk around. We went to the beach and the waves were strong. I hadn't realize how different St. Croix's beaches were from other beaches. The beach we went to was what I am use to, no rocks and you gradually walk out to the deep parts. That night we went out and had a place called Raices for di...

     A few NSE students decided to go to Puerto Rico because it is a short flight (40 mins) away. We booked our flights and got all packed up. My week was pretty hectic. Aside from packing and getting excited for my trip, I had lots of work to do. I had to do a presentation that had a total of 80 slides for one of my classes. It wasn’t too bad because there’s only one other student in the class and I did well, just wish I didn't have to present on so much information at once.       I also received a scholarship from my church, so this was great news! I’m most excited for the mall next weekend in San Juan. I know we will have a blast! My other classes are going well. I try to call home to my family pretty often, or atleast shoot a text. The days feel so long here, but also go by so fast at the same time. I got to go to the grocery store and get some watermelon, I appreciate small things such as this. The cafeteria doesn't have a wide variety of fruits...

     We had a pajama themed movie night! We all dressed in our favorite pjs and headed to the local cinema on Tuesday. We saw The Addams Family, I have never seen the original but I enjoyed this one. I mentioned this in a previous blog but I love the movie theatre prices and food selection available here. Our dance midterm was both a written test and a choreographed dance. I was not too excited for this because I know very little about dance. However, I enjoyed the assignment and got wonderful feedback from my professor.       Recieving mail here has been pretty dificult, but I ordered a package from Amazon and got it in a few days so that was great! However, i'm still waiting on a package my dad mailed from back home. This has been one of the best week since I got here. It just felt very refreshing and I got some much needed sleep. On Saturday, we went to the beach, I got to have Louie and Nacho's again. When I find something I like, I pretty much...

Midterm week is finally here! It's actually more like two weeks, this week and the next because my assignments and assessments are kinda spaced out. I haven't really done much this week besides study and go to my classes. It's crazy to think that i've been here for almost two months. I found a local tattoo shop and went to get the ankh symbol on Wednesday. This is a pretty common Ancient Egyptian symbol, it means life. I took my first exam on Thursday night, it was much more difficult than I imagined. It was about 100 questions with everyhting we've ever discussed in class, every class example and all. My other classes are going pretty well! I enjoy projects and I've actually had quite a few in all of my other classes. This was a fairly slow week. I got Covid tested again on Saturday, we are tested every two weeks and I was negative! I hope to plan some day trips in the near future and more outings as my time here winds down.

Another week closer to midterms! This week we had a Resource Pop Up Fair so I was happy to see more people. Coming from such a large school and seeing so many faces everyday to seeing the same few people is certainly an interesting experience. I also miss having reliable trasnportation and being around many restaraunts. Nonetheless, my weekend was very exciting! On Friday, we had a large movie night (the girls in my suite and the suite across the hall). We watched Lady Bird, a coming of age movie about a highschool girl who had issues with her mother. I enjoy living in the dorms because we get to go to one another's suites and hang out all the time. On Saturday, we woke up bright and early and headed out to the thrift shop. Suprisingly, we were all able to find some items. The shop wasn't very big but I would say there was a decent selection of clothing. I got a orange button down shirt, two piece tan set, some scarves, and a black purse all for only $12. We will definitely b...

No class on Monday made the week fly by! Some of my classes were cancelled for some reason this week, so this was a pretty chill week. I had one of my first major assignments, which was a group powerpoint presentation on a research topic. We presented via zoom and everything went geat! On Friday, I went out to a local lounge in Christiansted, my friends and I did karaoke. Well they did all the singing and I was there to laugh and cheer them on. I also experienced Point Udall and got to see shooting stars for the first time. Point Udall is the easternmost part of the United States. I was totally convincved shooting stars was something that only occured in movies. On Saturday morning, everyone went zip lining, but I stayed in for some much needed sleep. I love how the university offers so many events and activities. I know its not the same because of Covid, but they try to make sure we still are having fun. Classes are going great so far. I miss football like crazy, both UofSC footb...

 All I could think about all week was the long, relaxing weekend ahead. On Friday night, we had a movie night in one of my friend's suites. They wanted to watch Twilight and I had never seen it, so we watched them all. Surprisingly, I enjoyed them a lot! I generally stick to two movie genres: comedy and romance. I need to branch out and watch other movies because I'm sure I miss so many great movies. On Saturday, I was finally able to take pictures for Instagram, after being here almost a month. This was my way of letting friends and family I haven't spoke too that I'm doing just fine.  On Sunday, I went to the beach and had a relaxing evening. Monday was the Island Tour sponsored by the university. We started our morning learning a cultural dance. I was lost for a while, but eventually caught the hang of the dance and had fun. We toured a local farm and learned lots of neat information about their crops and processing. After lunch, we got to give beer to the beer drink...