What I've Learned..

So here it is some 3 days before I head back up to the frozen northern land of arkansas...ahemm, 32 my friends is much colder when one has been living the past 7 months in an extended form of summertime...eesh, ahh well, i will be home though...but while i've been down here there are a few things i have learned:
1.Everything is relative....everything: take the combination of the words "good food" for example..while i love some rice every now and then(once a week at most) when it comes twice a day, 7 days a week, and is often the most appealing food choice, i refrain from calling that "good food"..but then again not everyone can say they've adapted as well as i have down here, in fact there are certain things that will have me looking forward to coming back down...every morning they cook this fresh bread stuff, hard to compare it to much, but its like a big dinner roll, though it looks kinda like a short fat snake that just ate a horse (its big in the middle, but has small little ends) they call it "teetty bread"..i just say ill take a bread..but anywhoo its nothing special,but as im an early riser, i always get the freshest ones outta the oven..goodtimes..oh and they are good with honeynut cheeroes in the middle..only when there isnt any milk(which happens a lot) ..when not stuffing cereal in my bread, its also good to know that coffee works just like milk would in moistening up the cereal so itll go down the hatch easier...i still like taters and chili, but i guess they haven't thought to combine the two lately :)
2. Some things are universal: Even though this is supposedly a "U.S. territory"...anyone who spends more than 1 day on island would beg to differ haha..its nothing i can compare it to, but parts of it are really really cool....I've noticed that no matter where you go, education is the key to everything..even as many here don't plan to leave the island(which is truly sad to say) one would think that achieving the best for themselves would be important to them..not quite...i caught wind of a little fun fact about the job market in STX, and the short and sweet of it is basically that there are more job openings than can be filled, not because the labor source is here, but because the labor pool isn't qualified, can't be taught the skills for the job because they are lacking the basics to even build on...so the problem of education on island is effectivly damning the future of the island itself in that: it becomes ever difficult to court foreign companies to come and begin development on the island when there isn't an attractive labor force to sustain it...there are currently territorial politicans and administrators who do not have a college degree...problematic dontcha think??
3. You get out what you put in: now this wasn't anything really "new" to learn, and i knew it was true, but never before have i experienced it quite as much until i got here...granted its a beautiful island, with beautiful beaches, the problem comes in that its often not super easy to get to the aforementioned spots or even into town for that matter...so what to do?? give up, go home, or continually complain about everything..nah, its good to complain every now and then, but at some point you have to find something good about the situation; you have to "put in" the effort to make things work out..and from my experiences they usually do...being friendly to most everyone i meet has led me to spend thanksgiving with an awesome family, gotten me hooked up with a sailboat ride for the ages, a hook up with the RA position for next semester, and the chance to get my special cereal and milk in the cafeteria! haha..just little things, but im convinced that one's attitude has a huge affect on practically everything.
4. Sunscreen is optional: ....once you get past the initial "ouch" of being burnt pretty bad the first time, you develop a decent base to where it takes quite a bit of sun to getcha good and fried...so there is hope brooks..