St. Maarten’s motto is the friendly island, and they for sure live up to that saying in. I have made so many new amazing friends, and felt so welcomed here. Not only by my classmates, and professors which I am so grateful for each and every one of them. I have said it before, and I will say it 100 more times this trip has been the time of my life, and I will cherish all the memories I have made here forever. It’s not only the people from UA I adore, and will have a special place in my heart for, but along with all the people I have met on this island. From Veronic who for sure shows tough love to all of us. The other day someone asked if they could get their eggs over easy at breakfast, and she just stuck her head out the window and said no you get scrambled. Which at first if you didn’t know her that would be scary, but now we know how she is that’s hilarious to me. The first night I did not think she would like us very much because there were so many of us all rushing to her at once. I realized soon that she did care about us, and gave us all magnets that she made herself. She also will get very offended if we don’t get up in the mornings to eat breakfast with her, or come down for karaoke on Monday nights. But it’s just because she cares so much. Even Romona our server for breakfast during the week took a picture of all of us at breakfast one morning for “keepsake” she said. Which melted my heart.
We have also become great friends with workers at the places we have tended to frequent such as Juggies, and the breakfast place Jules. When we go into Juggies we act like we own the place. While we sit outside on the lawn chair’s we just talk to everyone who comes in and out of the store. Sitting outside of Juggies is not only entertaining, but also a great place to do research for our project. Yes, we are hanging out and on a fun excursion shopping, but these are the best times to get our interview in especially for my group. We are focusing on cruise ships specifically. We want to know what draws people off their boat. If they get off on every stop, do they do excursions, what information are they given when they get off the boats. Do they do research before getting off the boat, and if so where do they look for this information. Philipsburg is a port where all the big ships stop at. While we were sitting outside of juggies we got to ask our questions but in a very casual conversational way, but also truly get to know the person we are talking to. It makes doing research a lot easier and more furn. Its amazing because we are asking question for our project, bit also getting to know peoples life stories from all over the world.
- Mary Kay Barrins
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