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Right before the wheels hit the ground I always shut my eyes, but this time they were wide open. I didn’t know if it was because I was scared this visual would be my last, or because I was too excited to miss the incredible view.
Students grip their frozen pina coladas, as if their lives depend on it. The safari stops in the middle of the road. The driver leans out the window to talk to a man walking on the street.
Safaris, big open-aired trucks with rows of seats and a tin roof over-head, await University of the Virgin Island students for a tour. St. Thomas, nicknamed “Rock City,” is a mountainous terrain in the US Virgin Islands. Many European powers have controlled the islands, and in the late 1600s the Danish settled there. Out of the fear that Germany occupyed the Virgin Islands as a submarine base, the US bought the Virgin Islands for $25 million right before the country entered World War I. Sugar cane, produced by slave labor, ruled the Islands' economy for the 18th and 19th centuries. Currently tourism drives the economy of St. Thomas.
Drivers behind us honk their horns and drive around us when they get a chance. My driver continues his conversation with the man on the street until another safari driving by us honks his horn three times. Our driver looks over and begins a conversation with him. Traffic is now blocked both ways. My friend Jessica, leans over to me. “Perfectly normal,” she says. "Perfectly normal," I reply back.
The safari pulls up to Coki Beach. The sight is beautiful. I feel like I am walking into a calendar photograph. The smell of salt water swims around the air. The sand is almost white, and warm on my feet. I jumped into the water, it was so clear it reminded me of a swimming pool. Reggae beats pulsed in the background. Just as I was about to swim back to shore to bask in the sun, I pushed off a rock in order to effortlessly glide towards the shore. An intense pain shot through my left foot. I am disappointed to only see some black dots because they hurt like hell. A Rasta man wearing tennis shoes and jeans approaches me, “Ya gotta watch out fa dem urcines. Dey like dem rocks over dar. Me got stung by tree of dem before”, man-man says.
Island Time Melts Away
Photos and
words:
Dorothy Cronin
"What do I do?” I ask in a panic.
“Me, I try to get dem out once, no luck. Just gona hurt ya”, he replies.
“Are you sure they are not poisonous?” I ask, a little embarrassed.
“Dem, noooo. Just give dem time. Dey come out,” says the rasta man. "You from da ship? You need a taxi back to da ship?" he asks. "My friend over der give good price"
“No, I live here now. I go to UVI,” I say.
“What da ya want den, a strawberry daiquiri?” he asks.
“Yeah. Make it a double,” I respond.
I press the hair straightener as hard as I can along my thick frizzy hair. The heat from it makes me sweat even more, but I am determined to look my best. We await the safari for the school field trip to Duffy’s Love Shack bar. It is close to midnight when we arrive. A fish tank of rum punch later, I almost forgot about my urchin sting. My friend Jessica, an 18-year-old from Kansas City, drinks way too much. She points to the bar in hysteria. I glance in to see a cop in uniform taking a shot and walking back to his car with a drink in-hand. “Only in St. Thomas,” I say, and we both start laughing.
Our other friend comes up and snaps a picture of us. I see from the picture that my hair returned to its curly state. I run from table to table scribbling down umbrella drink orders. I wear my rainbow flip-flops and a jean skirt. Sweat ran down my lower back. I almost forgot that it was Christmas today. At the dock there are seven cruise ships, unleashing an extra 15,00 people to roam the island for t-shirts, jewelry, drinks and beaches.
“You don’t look like you’re from here. Do you live here?” says a pudgy women with a Mid-western accent and an oversized tweety-bird t-shirt.
“Nope, I am on exchange here at the University,” I reply.
“Are they, like, mean to you because you're, you know, American?” she replies, lowering her voice. I heard these questions on a daily basis, and the ignorant assumptions annoyed me.
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