This past Wednesday, we left Greenville at 6:30 in the morning for our flight to Grenada. We flew to Dallas, and everything seemed to be on schedule until we boarded our flight to Miami. We sat on the plane for about an hour until the pilot told us there were mechanical problems and we would have to get on a different plane. About an hour and a half later, we were finally in the air. However, due to the delay, we missed our connection from Miami to Grenada by 9 minutes. We joined the line of people at the ticket counter trying to find the quickest route to our various destinations. The best they could offer us was a 7:45pm flight to Trinidad, a hotel for the night, and a 6:40am flight from Trinidad to Grenada. We booked those flights, and then used one of our meal vouchers for a nice dinner at the airport.
Our flight was again delayed by about an hour, so we didn't arrive in Port of Spain until after midnight. It took a little while for us to find an agent who could print out our hotel vouchers, but once that was completed, we took a short taxi ride to the same Holiday Inn that we stayed at in December. We finally crawled into bed about 2:00am, and woke up about 2 hours later to head back to the airport. Our flight to Grenada was uneventful, but when we landed, our checked bags had not come with us. No one knew where they were, but we were told there were several flights coming in the next few days, and we would receive a phone call when they arrived.
We made it to campus around 8:30 that morning - exhausted, hungry, and without a change of clothes or toiletries. I didn't want to unpack our closet or carry-on bags because our room needed a thorough cleaning. But I needed to go to the grocery store for cleaning supplies (and food). As it turns out, Thursday was a national holiday in Grenada, and often the grocery store is closed for holidays. We were too tired to drive all the way to the store just to see if it was open or not, so we bought a bagel sandwich from a shop on campus, and went to bed. We slept until about 4:30, when we decided to order a pizza for dinner and watch a movie together. That night, we heard that our luggage had arrived, so Ryan made plans to have a taxi pick him up and take him to the airport first thing in the morning.
Once Ryan brought home our suitcase (the other one should be coming in tonight), I was able to shower and head to the grocery store. For the rest of the day, we experienced several of our new RA responsibilities. Students that were leaving campus dropped off their keys, other picked up their keys for the new semester. I also sat at one of the storage rooms on campus for 2 hours in case someone wanted to pick up their containers. Just as I was about to leave, a girl came by to get three items she had left there almost a year ago. The storage room is a small, concrete room under one of the dorms. It has no windows or AC and is packed from floor to ceiling with boxes. Her items were in the back corner, so we proceeded to crawl over and around boxes to find her things. We heard a couple squeaks, and so we were careful not to step on the ground since it was dark, and we didn't want to step on any creatures. Somehow we managed to drag two heavy duffle bags and a box back across the other containers and outside again. Ryan came down to help us carry everything to her room. I think that counted as my workout for the day!
Later that evening, one of our good friends arrived back on campus, and we went out for dinner with him and another friend. It's great to be back and see friends again! I spent most of today cleaning our room, caulking the cracks in the kitchen to stop the continuous flow of ants, and organizing our things into this new room. I'm looking forward to finally feeling settled in, and being able to enjoy life on the island for the next six months!
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