This week I finally let go of the death-grip that I had on my bank account and allowed myself to enjoy more of what the island has to offer. I tried out a few local restaurants and bars, grasping the culture of the island more and more with every visit. As a class, we took a trip to Marigot, the French capital of the island. There we visited an old fort and did some running around in nearby shopping centers and restaurants. Funnily enough, the French flag at the top of the fort is what made me finally realize that I was in a foreign country. For some reason, the experiences I’ve had so far hadn’t really settled in (I suspect because I slept through the flights I was on). The market was set up on what looked to be a rundown amphitheater, which gave it quite the unique appearance. After some shopping, the group that I was with visited a nearby restaurant. On that note, I really hope that my grandma does not read these blog posts, because at that restaurant I had probably the best lasagna I’ve ever had in my life. On top of the lasagna, I also had my first ever crepe, which was a chocolate and banana filled one.
As for class, we began kicking things into gear. We had a presentation on Thursday where we analyzed the current state of our client, Vacation Sint Maarten. Of course, my group had the best presentation. While doing research for the presentation, we learned several things about the client, specifically about their social media. For example, their Instagram and their Facebook were nearly identical. On top of that, they also stopped posting late last winter. We also began our introduction to Sprinklr, which I did not think I would enjoy at first. However, after some playing around, I figured out that it was quite a useful resource. Access to seemingly infinite information is at our fingertips today, but Sprinklr offers one thing that is just as important: organization.
On Friday, we took a trip to Topper’s where we learned about world-renowned rum. I made the mistake of thinking that the rum we were going to encounter would all be in liquid form. I could not have been more mistaken, seeing as soon as we walked in the door, we were greeted with a display of ice cream including rum as a main ingredient. Not only that, but there were cookies, dips, and even cooking techniques that included rum. Aside from that, there was over twenty kinds of rum that we saw that day. My personal favorite was called Nelson’s blood, which has quite the gruesome backstory as the name entails. Our tour guide informed us that the rum had won international competitions in the past few years. Not only that, but we were able to meet Topper himself, even if only briefly. However, the best part of that day was quite possibly the view while eating.
-Skylar Deavers
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