...well not quite, but it sure feels nice to think about it like that...happy thanksgiving everyone! whoo hoo its a beautiful day today, very nice breeze and sunny with those whispy white clouds out...just gorgeous..kinda wish i would have gone for a little run, but alas ive gotta take it easy with my race comin up on sunday...ill be headed over to st.thomas for a half marathon on sunday and its sure to be a goodtime..
ive been rather busy with school work in the past week or so...finished up two 12 pagers, on relatively interesting stuff (at least i thought so) ha..but i really cant think of much to say right now..its really weird not being home for thanksgiving, although ive been pretty much adopted by fred and sue and their family so ill get another experience to chock up on my belt, but right now im just ready to get back for christsmas..the semester is basically over, i could skate through my final exams and still pull off A's, which is a comforting thought...but im sure ill spend entirely too much time worrying about a couple of them, even though his standards are so low, i would feel bad if i only did a halfassed job on it...wednesday im flyin up to miami and will be back friday afternoon...im pretty excited about that..
id just like to ask everyone to remember our troops around the world who aren't with there families today...granted im not in the same boat as far as being in a war zone (quite the opposite actually) but the fact remains that im here, and family is there, i can sorta understand how they might feel, and for anyone who has been away over the holidays im sure they can echo my sentiments...again its a gorgeous day down here and i think im going to have to do something with it...maybe ill find a way to make it through :)
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
..read part 1 first...it flows better
...in the spirit of my political and historical interests, ive decided to call these.
THE AMENDMENTS TO PART 1
...headin up to miami on wednesday...ill post up later about how all that goes...if your still readin this, just know that its almost over :) ..i just felt i had to share a little bit...and now for some casual observations:
1. its still hot down here...85 is nice, but it gets old when the mosquitos love the weather just as much as you do...glad ive got my lemon-eukalyptus bug spray!...i tend to glisten with a citrus flavor about me..haha
2. running in the morning far outweighs the "fun" of the mid afternoon...especially when you can run to the top of a hill/"mountin' " and see the sunrise over the water..yadda yadda..ok ill stop..but yeah thats a good time, and i wish everyone could experience that..if i could bottle it up and ship it to ya, it would probably taste like pale ale..haha..its THAT good! :) ...in moderation haha
3. i hate lazy people...still
4. classes are almost done...and its almost like they have yet to really "start"..but oh well it happens..
5. go now, get some rest, your eyes are probably bloodshot, and bleary..and as for me, ive developed a serious cramp in my right big toe from holding an awkwardly relaxing position at this desk...such is the life
6. i miss southern cookin'..my own cookin'..cookin' for others..my dog(who wont recognize me until its time for me to come back down here) ..a good number of people..the leaves changing..and the occasional 20oz. iced kalua-n-cream...but im not homesick...cause i think that comes along with a state of depression, and im good to go, but ive gained an appreciation for things "arkansas" that i didn't think i would..still having the time of my life, but ready for the time to change...
7. on that note! they dont change time down here..haha i think its just because everybody is always late around here anyway and time doesn't mean much of anything, so they take the "what the hell" approach, and just wing it...but actually it probably has something to do with our geograpical location being in the tropic zone, thus explaining the constant sunrise/sunset times...with no real fluctuation, there really isnt any need to change the time like back in the states...
8.guess im not done yet haha
9. jolly ole professor roopnarizzle(my nickname for the crazy guyanian devil that he is) seems rather taken with the notion that st.croix and the VI in particular should become independant because "they've always been under some sort of control"...i questioned him on this in class and mentioned that "there has to be some motivation to be independant versus remaining dependant"..here there is no motivating facor...the only position some girl on st.thomas came up with was "we can't vote for president"..but look at how many in the states can and dont..bad argument...and besides, for a territory that gets 100% of the taxes it pays, sent back to itself in the form of FEDaid, what is the point? newly independant nations don't rush to set up a welfare state...newly independant nations rely on the self motivated, and socially concerned leaders to move in a positive direction...down here there is no such leadership to speak of...heck st.croix even wants to split away from st.thomas..and still be under US control..its just not going to work out.."they" dont want it to..roopy is an idealistic cat..but he's funny, so ill let him slide...when we have a test that he gives the study guide out 2 weeks in advance, and even faxes a copy over to st.thomas, tells the lazyasses over there that its in the secratary's office and they should go pick it up..and yet!!!..they saunter into class, late,on test day complaining that they dont have the questions...whats wrong with this picture? are these the type of people who seem independantly minded?...like i said independance takes some will power, a little work etic, of which these islands lack to the upmost degree..its sad really, but i dont see it happening...when/if it does, this island(other 2 will be ok, but not here) will slide down into a 3rd world type of place....
10. remind me to not write any "come to st.croix" travel brochures...haha...as im slightly jaded
11. can't wait for mom, brooks, and grandmomma to come visit in the spring though..as ill know all the good places to go, its gonna be a good trip, and dont get me wrong the island is beautiful, and i love it, its just that my realistic, arguably "progressive" mind seeks to point out the room for improvement..but this experience has taught me quite a bit about how to view the rest of the world...as this island hardly can be called part of the US...bc they can't vote for president...
12.i got curios and copied and pasted this post to a Word document...as of #9 it was 3 1/2 pages, single spaced...so if i can work the technology, ill make this a second post, but if not, and this is the end of one long one..rest assured, that you're done :)
13. miss you guys, ill be home in 30days 23 hours, and 56minutes ...aint technology great?
THE AMENDMENTS TO PART 1
...headin up to miami on wednesday...ill post up later about how all that goes...if your still readin this, just know that its almost over :) ..i just felt i had to share a little bit...and now for some casual observations:
1. its still hot down here...85 is nice, but it gets old when the mosquitos love the weather just as much as you do...glad ive got my lemon-eukalyptus bug spray!...i tend to glisten with a citrus flavor about me..haha
2. running in the morning far outweighs the "fun" of the mid afternoon...especially when you can run to the top of a hill/"mountin' " and see the sunrise over the water..yadda yadda..ok ill stop..but yeah thats a good time, and i wish everyone could experience that..if i could bottle it up and ship it to ya, it would probably taste like pale ale..haha..its THAT good! :) ...in moderation haha
3. i hate lazy people...still
4. classes are almost done...and its almost like they have yet to really "start"..but oh well it happens..
5. go now, get some rest, your eyes are probably bloodshot, and bleary..and as for me, ive developed a serious cramp in my right big toe from holding an awkwardly relaxing position at this desk...such is the life
6. i miss southern cookin'..my own cookin'..cookin' for others..my dog(who wont recognize me until its time for me to come back down here) ..a good number of people..the leaves changing..and the occasional 20oz. iced kalua-n-cream...but im not homesick...cause i think that comes along with a state of depression, and im good to go, but ive gained an appreciation for things "arkansas" that i didn't think i would..still having the time of my life, but ready for the time to change...
7. on that note! they dont change time down here..haha i think its just because everybody is always late around here anyway and time doesn't mean much of anything, so they take the "what the hell" approach, and just wing it...but actually it probably has something to do with our geograpical location being in the tropic zone, thus explaining the constant sunrise/sunset times...with no real fluctuation, there really isnt any need to change the time like back in the states...
8.guess im not done yet haha
9. jolly ole professor roopnarizzle(my nickname for the crazy guyanian devil that he is) seems rather taken with the notion that st.croix and the VI in particular should become independant because "they've always been under some sort of control"...i questioned him on this in class and mentioned that "there has to be some motivation to be independant versus remaining dependant"..here there is no motivating facor...the only position some girl on st.thomas came up with was "we can't vote for president"..but look at how many in the states can and dont..bad argument...and besides, for a territory that gets 100% of the taxes it pays, sent back to itself in the form of FEDaid, what is the point? newly independant nations don't rush to set up a welfare state...newly independant nations rely on the self motivated, and socially concerned leaders to move in a positive direction...down here there is no such leadership to speak of...heck st.croix even wants to split away from st.thomas..and still be under US control..its just not going to work out.."they" dont want it to..roopy is an idealistic cat..but he's funny, so ill let him slide...when we have a test that he gives the study guide out 2 weeks in advance, and even faxes a copy over to st.thomas, tells the lazyasses over there that its in the secratary's office and they should go pick it up..and yet!!!..they saunter into class, late,on test day complaining that they dont have the questions...whats wrong with this picture? are these the type of people who seem independantly minded?...like i said independance takes some will power, a little work etic, of which these islands lack to the upmost degree..its sad really, but i dont see it happening...when/if it does, this island(other 2 will be ok, but not here) will slide down into a 3rd world type of place....
10. remind me to not write any "come to st.croix" travel brochures...haha...as im slightly jaded
11. can't wait for mom, brooks, and grandmomma to come visit in the spring though..as ill know all the good places to go, its gonna be a good trip, and dont get me wrong the island is beautiful, and i love it, its just that my realistic, arguably "progressive" mind seeks to point out the room for improvement..but this experience has taught me quite a bit about how to view the rest of the world...as this island hardly can be called part of the US...bc they can't vote for president...
12.i got curios and copied and pasted this post to a Word document...as of #9 it was 3 1/2 pages, single spaced...so if i can work the technology, ill make this a second post, but if not, and this is the end of one long one..rest assured, that you're done :)
13. miss you guys, ill be home in 30days 23 hours, and 56minutes ...aint technology great?
Part 1..i spared you
hello all...its been a while, but there's good reason..so be ready cause this one could get long and rather detailed :) (....i would never drag something out, its just not like me now is it?)
so whenever it was that i posted my last thing, im pretty sure I had yet to go over to the BVI(british Virgin Islands) to the island of Virgin Gorda..named by columbus who thought it looked like a "fat virgin lying on her back" ..with gorda being the spanish equivalent to fat..and virgin, well some things are univeral..but enough of the linguistic history of how the island got its name, and on to why we went..what they have there are these rock formations called the "baths"..just some big limestone boulders, resultants of volcanica activity in the region oh...a long time ago..but they are HUGE rocks right on the water and seem to invite most any adventurous human, or curios animal(probably a dog, like mine..and yours too...alas i digress) the rocks are formed together with cracks big enough to walk through, crawl through and get stuck in(only if you're really 'talented' can you get stuck) but it was just amazing to walk through there, with the surf crashing against the outside of the rocks, you can hear it, but its muffled and echoing all at the same time(not being a sound wave expert ill spare you the explanation, but just say that its a sound ive sure never heard before) the water was, stereotypical of most of the islands down here, all blue and clear and salty, but here it was even bluer, in part i think because there arent as many tourists that come by..and definately not as many larger vessels i.e. cruise ships, tankers laden with Hovensa oil, etc. *hmm seems like a topic worthy of a term paper, perchance??...ill look into it.. and get back to you after i knock out the 12 pages due in a few weeks :)* but the water was awesome, and after you get through the cavernous trail - it should be noted that 0 signs were posted as far as directions in and out of the cave, but as a general rule, we were advised "if you go as far as you can and dont see a beach, turn around idiot, you're about to get stuck"...and the problem would be bad, as it was impossible to hear much of anything (see soundwave explanation above)- so yeah after wandering through asking folks if this was the way and they didn't know either, it was goodtimes...got to the beach and ended up striking up a pretty cool conversation with an older..ok so he was like 45ish..canadian dude who was chartering a "booat" *canadians :)* and had been there a few days..we struck it off quite well(no i didnt get another boat ride...) and just talked about the people on the islands, and what was interesting was hearing things from his point of view..his observations of the local people were atonishingly similar to my own keen observations of the locals down here..he mentioned how nothing seems to run on time, and there really isn't much motivation to do much of anything, and how he would hate to live down here..haha this is when i butted in to say, sir after 3 months over on st.croix i know exactly what you mean..then i kinda went off on the lack of cleanliness on my island(of which he'd never been to..and probably wont come to now ha) but yeah..very insightful fellow he was, and i think he was impressed to talk to a stateside kid from arkansas who actually had an opinion worth sharing(its a blessing and a curse...i know full well) but yeah, by no means was the convo. the highlight of the trip, just a notable event..we parted with "it was nice to meet you, but ill probably never see you again..good luck in life" haha...not the first time and wont be the last im sure ill employ such an endnote..
..after we got back to st.thomas and spent the night at the UVI over there, I and the two girls from st.croix*washington actually..but we were the 3 who made the trip over* we took the ferry boat over to beautiful st.john..believe it or not, i was ready to leave around 7am..but "some people" need more time to get ready, which confuses me to no end..when goin to the beach, what is the point!?..oh well...we got off the boat and went to talk to the tourist info guy..(my idea btw) after chit chattin with that guy for a while and telling him our situation..*students, poor, hungry, lookin for a cheap, yet awesome time on the island for a day*...my continual good luck stayed true to form..it just so happened i was wearin my Guiness "born lucky" t-shirt, but thats beside the point..point is..he hooked us up with a free day at the Westin villa and resort...but chris whats the Westin?...its only the place where kenney chesney comes to dock his private yaht, books up rooms for his bandmemebers ,and is one of the top10 destination spots in the world..thats it..haha best part is that we got a tour of their time share villas..under the auspices of "a newlywed couple who had recently inhereited a large sum of $$" ..."so mr.cockrell, what makes you want to own a property here on st.john?" ..ready kids? .."ahemm..well janice, im glad you asked, because when i was a little guy *hand up from floor* dad used to bring me down here every year and we would go fishin, divin and just exploring the island...he isn't with us anymore *look at amy..my "wife"..then back to janice*..and i just wanted to see what the options were down here" ..."well mr.cockrell, i have an opportunity for you, let me go grab the keys and ill take you guys on a tour of our property and then we can come back and talk about getting you into one of our villas" ...with that she walked off and amy was freakin out, haha..we were just gonna play dumb tourists and try to get out of there and onto their private beach and bar for the day, then i had the idea to play around a little bit..haha go figure :) ...fast forward "so this is our three bedroom villa, with its private pool, hottub and yard*all fenced in by the way, it was cool , but seemed almost like a little prison thing* two king size beds, and two double beds..it can sleep 10 comfortably, with the couch pulling out*her soft saleslady voice...haha it should be noted that she was on her 11th day on the island and her 8th day workin here..she was nervous as all get out, and i was goin to town on that fact* "so mr.cockrell are you still in school?" "yes mam, we both are, but we had a break and wanted to do a little 'fact finding'" .."a break? what break is it?" ..."oh its fall break" ..she cut right to it "so since you have the money, and you love this villa, you're going to buy today, right? because usually finance is the only reason why people don't buy..but thats not you're problem" ..ahemm*defensive posturing,changed tone* "ahhah no mam, see we are just out looking around, weighing our options..this is a beautiful place, all 3000sq. feet of it, but today we will not be buying"..."i know how it is, i was a student once"(rather piercing tone) ..haha needless to say the rest of the time spent with her was a tid bit awkward, i knew she had an idea we were pretty much just wasting her time, but she was soo nervous that it made it rather comical..talkin to the sales manager exec guy was really cool though, she left the room*procedural* and he was talkin to me like i was a regular prospective customer, i asked some legit questions and he didn't look at me like some "kid" it was pretty awesome..i was honestly surprised at his laid back non aggressive approach into what he did..he respected my..haha "our" rather..decision and we talked a little baseball and then hit up the beach...the free lunch was great too!
...sittin on that beach amongst people who undoubtedly were worth far more(financially) than i will ever be, i couldnt help but think, that these people are getting skrewed...dont get me wrong, the place was nice, but it was sooo over the top, catering to everything, it was just "fake"..and i felt awkward sitting there..but talkin to the guy who rented out the kyaks down at their beach was pretty cool..he was not one of the tourist type, just a down to earth guy who got tired of pullin night shift in michigan and came down to work here,through random friends of friends...that is quite common here...is this long enough yet?? im about done, dont worry :)
it should be noted that st.john is home to a local island brewery "virgin island brewers" and they have a little bar/store right near the ferry dock.. i had met one of the owners several months ago in the race over there..he just called me "arkansas"..haha we didnt get to the name part of the conversation, just small talk, but regardless, i wanted to hit up his shop..and it happened to be happy hour so all was good...their "pale ale" is smooth medium type ale with a almost sweet taste, due to the fact that they use mango in the making of such a drink...its pretty much amazing..and you can't find stuff like that in the states, specially not from the tap,connected to the tank where the make it...awesome!
so whenever it was that i posted my last thing, im pretty sure I had yet to go over to the BVI(british Virgin Islands) to the island of Virgin Gorda..named by columbus who thought it looked like a "fat virgin lying on her back" ..with gorda being the spanish equivalent to fat..and virgin, well some things are univeral..but enough of the linguistic history of how the island got its name, and on to why we went..what they have there are these rock formations called the "baths"..just some big limestone boulders, resultants of volcanica activity in the region oh...a long time ago..but they are HUGE rocks right on the water and seem to invite most any adventurous human, or curios animal(probably a dog, like mine..and yours too...alas i digress) the rocks are formed together with cracks big enough to walk through, crawl through and get stuck in(only if you're really 'talented' can you get stuck) but it was just amazing to walk through there, with the surf crashing against the outside of the rocks, you can hear it, but its muffled and echoing all at the same time(not being a sound wave expert ill spare you the explanation, but just say that its a sound ive sure never heard before) the water was, stereotypical of most of the islands down here, all blue and clear and salty, but here it was even bluer, in part i think because there arent as many tourists that come by..and definately not as many larger vessels i.e. cruise ships, tankers laden with Hovensa oil, etc. *hmm seems like a topic worthy of a term paper, perchance??...ill look into it.. and get back to you after i knock out the 12 pages due in a few weeks :)* but the water was awesome, and after you get through the cavernous trail - it should be noted that 0 signs were posted as far as directions in and out of the cave, but as a general rule, we were advised "if you go as far as you can and dont see a beach, turn around idiot, you're about to get stuck"...and the problem would be bad, as it was impossible to hear much of anything (see soundwave explanation above)- so yeah after wandering through asking folks if this was the way and they didn't know either, it was goodtimes...got to the beach and ended up striking up a pretty cool conversation with an older..ok so he was like 45ish..canadian dude who was chartering a "booat" *canadians :)* and had been there a few days..we struck it off quite well(no i didnt get another boat ride...) and just talked about the people on the islands, and what was interesting was hearing things from his point of view..his observations of the local people were atonishingly similar to my own keen observations of the locals down here..he mentioned how nothing seems to run on time, and there really isn't much motivation to do much of anything, and how he would hate to live down here..haha this is when i butted in to say, sir after 3 months over on st.croix i know exactly what you mean..then i kinda went off on the lack of cleanliness on my island(of which he'd never been to..and probably wont come to now ha) but yeah..very insightful fellow he was, and i think he was impressed to talk to a stateside kid from arkansas who actually had an opinion worth sharing(its a blessing and a curse...i know full well) but yeah, by no means was the convo. the highlight of the trip, just a notable event..we parted with "it was nice to meet you, but ill probably never see you again..good luck in life" haha...not the first time and wont be the last im sure ill employ such an endnote..
..after we got back to st.thomas and spent the night at the UVI over there, I and the two girls from st.croix*washington actually..but we were the 3 who made the trip over* we took the ferry boat over to beautiful st.john..believe it or not, i was ready to leave around 7am..but "some people" need more time to get ready, which confuses me to no end..when goin to the beach, what is the point!?..oh well...we got off the boat and went to talk to the tourist info guy..(my idea btw) after chit chattin with that guy for a while and telling him our situation..*students, poor, hungry, lookin for a cheap, yet awesome time on the island for a day*...my continual good luck stayed true to form..it just so happened i was wearin my Guiness "born lucky" t-shirt, but thats beside the point..point is..he hooked us up with a free day at the Westin villa and resort...but chris whats the Westin?...its only the place where kenney chesney comes to dock his private yaht, books up rooms for his bandmemebers ,and is one of the top10 destination spots in the world..thats it..haha best part is that we got a tour of their time share villas..under the auspices of "a newlywed couple who had recently inhereited a large sum of $$" ..."so mr.cockrell, what makes you want to own a property here on st.john?" ..ready kids? .."ahemm..well janice, im glad you asked, because when i was a little guy *hand up from floor* dad used to bring me down here every year and we would go fishin, divin and just exploring the island...he isn't with us anymore *look at amy..my "wife"..then back to janice*..and i just wanted to see what the options were down here" ..."well mr.cockrell, i have an opportunity for you, let me go grab the keys and ill take you guys on a tour of our property and then we can come back and talk about getting you into one of our villas" ...with that she walked off and amy was freakin out, haha..we were just gonna play dumb tourists and try to get out of there and onto their private beach and bar for the day, then i had the idea to play around a little bit..haha go figure :) ...fast forward "so this is our three bedroom villa, with its private pool, hottub and yard*all fenced in by the way, it was cool , but seemed almost like a little prison thing* two king size beds, and two double beds..it can sleep 10 comfortably, with the couch pulling out*her soft saleslady voice...haha it should be noted that she was on her 11th day on the island and her 8th day workin here..she was nervous as all get out, and i was goin to town on that fact* "so mr.cockrell are you still in school?" "yes mam, we both are, but we had a break and wanted to do a little 'fact finding'" .."a break? what break is it?" ..."oh its fall break" ..she cut right to it "so since you have the money, and you love this villa, you're going to buy today, right? because usually finance is the only reason why people don't buy..but thats not you're problem" ..ahemm*defensive posturing,changed tone* "ahhah no mam, see we are just out looking around, weighing our options..this is a beautiful place, all 3000sq. feet of it, but today we will not be buying"..."i know how it is, i was a student once"(rather piercing tone) ..haha needless to say the rest of the time spent with her was a tid bit awkward, i knew she had an idea we were pretty much just wasting her time, but she was soo nervous that it made it rather comical..talkin to the sales manager exec guy was really cool though, she left the room*procedural* and he was talkin to me like i was a regular prospective customer, i asked some legit questions and he didn't look at me like some "kid" it was pretty awesome..i was honestly surprised at his laid back non aggressive approach into what he did..he respected my..haha "our" rather..decision and we talked a little baseball and then hit up the beach...the free lunch was great too!
...sittin on that beach amongst people who undoubtedly were worth far more(financially) than i will ever be, i couldnt help but think, that these people are getting skrewed...dont get me wrong, the place was nice, but it was sooo over the top, catering to everything, it was just "fake"..and i felt awkward sitting there..but talkin to the guy who rented out the kyaks down at their beach was pretty cool..he was not one of the tourist type, just a down to earth guy who got tired of pullin night shift in michigan and came down to work here,through random friends of friends...that is quite common here...is this long enough yet?? im about done, dont worry :)
it should be noted that st.john is home to a local island brewery "virgin island brewers" and they have a little bar/store right near the ferry dock.. i had met one of the owners several months ago in the race over there..he just called me "arkansas"..haha we didnt get to the name part of the conversation, just small talk, but regardless, i wanted to hit up his shop..and it happened to be happy hour so all was good...their "pale ale" is smooth medium type ale with a almost sweet taste, due to the fact that they use mango in the making of such a drink...its pretty much amazing..and you can't find stuff like that in the states, specially not from the tap,connected to the tank where the make it...awesome!
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