Wow! Have you ever seen the Amazing Race? I feel like I've been on that show for the last three days. It feels like an eternity since I left Florida for Dominica since everything is so different and new, but I guess I'll digress and start at the beginning. I woke up on Friday at 5 AM in order to make a 7:30 AM flight from Orlando to Miami. It sounds early...I agree, but to me it actually seemed late since I didn't sleep at all the night before (a lot of things on my mind, especially when you have to pack your whole life up into three bags). But the flight to Miami and the second flight to San Juan went perfect, and I thought it was going to be smooth sailing from there on out...wrong! Just as a little background: the flights to the island of Dominica are very limited and often get cancelled due to weather, being too dark out, etc. I have heard quite a few horror stories about students traveling to Dominica and being stuck in shady cities and hotels. So around 4 PM, after several delays, our group of Ross students and other travelers were informed that our 2:30 PM flight had indeed been cancelled due to maintenance issues. This meant that we would be spending the night in San Juan. Of course at this time our Ross group (some by themselves and some with family) had made a few introductions to each other and struck up some light conversation, but once we were told about the flight cancellation by the airline workers, our minds began to wander about what the night would have in store for us. And we would have to get through it together. After some time the airline, American Eagle, set each passenger up with a dinner voucher, breakfast voucher, two taxi vouchers, and a one night stay at the Gran Melia of Puerto Rico. I immediately thought it was going to be a dump, but...in the end we were all pleasantly surprised. Gran Melia is a golf resort about 40 minutes from the San Juan airport designed and owned by none other than Donald Trump himself. Let me tell you, the guy may not know how to make the thing on top of his head look good, but he does know how to design a luxurious hotel. Here's the link if you want to check it out:
But first we needed to take a cab ride there and it was an interesting experience. On the way, with six of us Ross students packed into a van, a cop pulled up behind us with their lights on as we were on the highway. All of us immediately told the driver that she was being picked up for speeding, but she kept on driving and even speeded up insisting that she needed to change lanes. Because of traffic, about a minute later she finally did and the cop sped on by. Then she proceeded to tell us that all cops in Puerto Rico must drive with their lights flashing according to law. She said that there was a guy in Puerto Rico who was arrested for committing a robbery. He was taken to trial and argued that he wouldn't have committed the robbery had he known that there was a cop in a parked vehicle close by. Believe it or not, he won and the law was made. Unbelievable.
Side note about the taxi ride: they love Taylor Swift in Puerto Rico.
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| Room at the Gran Melia. Priced over $200 per night |
We finally made it to the hotel around 8 PM in absolute awe after seeing the place. I made a goal for myself right then and there that some day when I am a doctor, I am going to stay at the Gran Melia on my own time and money (and actually get to see it in the daytime!). We grabbed a lengthy bite to eat at a seaside grill and weren't able to get to bed until after 11 PM. That doesn't sound that bad at first, but considering we had to wake up at 3:45 AM the following morning to make it to the airport in time for a 7:00 AM flight and after barely sleeping the night before, I was exhausted. It was sort of tease staying there because we had the whole resort experience at the airline's expense, yet we didn't have time to do anything. Oh well, it could have been much worse.
We arrived at the airport the next day around 5:30 AM; right when the airport was opening up (security wasn't even operating yet). However, we were at the gate at 6:20 AM. By 7 AM we were on the plane ready to take off. It was a pretty small plane with 64 seats and I'm lucky that my legs weren't any longer because my knees were crunched against the seat in front of me. Even luckier, there was nobody to sit next to me, so I could sit sideways and finally get some of that ever elusive sleep. This was my first time flying to the Caribbean and I'll tell you what: I have never seen bluer water or greener land than during that flight. It was amazing and the scenery was beautiful since it was clear blue skies the whole flight. Now, there are two ways you can land at Melville Airport in Dominica: coming from over the water or from over the mountains depending on the wind (there is only one landing strip so wind direction is kind of an important thing). We chose the latter. I wasn't able to get any pictures of our descent, but if you want an idea of what it looked like and what song was playing in the back of my mind as we were landing, take a look at this video:
Jurassic Park!!! Obviously we were in a plane and not a helicopter, but you get the gist. It was pretty much the same thing, minus the dinosaurs of course. You could imagine the round of applause all of us passengers gave the pilots once we touched ground. Descending over millions of dark green trees covering mountainsides was an amazing experience and I'll never forget it. We had reached Dominica, but the trip was not over.
After going through immigration and customs at the airport (literally a "hall"; approximately 100 ft X 100 ft room), we collected our bags and were herded into a Ross transport bus for our 45 minute drive to Portsmouth (where Ross University is located). Let me preface this by saying, our driver honked at least 500 times. Reasons for honking: (1) You honk to tell the vehicle in front of you that you want to pass, (2) You honk back to let them know that's its ok that they can pass, (3) Pedestrians wave at you, and most importantly (4) To warn approaching vehicles around the hundreds of sharp turns that you are indeed coming around those hundreds of sharp turns! We were told to take dramamine before the drive and told to tell the driver if we needed to throw up so he could pull over. Lucky for us, nobody did. After miles of varying terrain (mountains, seasides, jungles) and weaving through small towns around the north side of Dominica, we finally pulled into Portsmouth and made our way to Jenner Hall for our Welcome to Ross University School of Medicine. The Amazing Race was over, and even though I was extremely tired...I sort of got a second burst of energy when I took a minute and realized where I was. Med school. Dominica. The view. Perfect.
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| View outside the door of my room. Looking at Portsmouth where the two cruise ships are docked. The two mountain peaks make up a national park. The buildings on the left mountain are remains from a British colony. |
