Day 1

The owls "who'd." The late night walkers finished their walk of shame from the library. The steets were silent. Then out of no where six students, all carrying a plethora of luggages,slowly stroll through the streets. Half asleep we gather at the michigan union. We patiently wait for our ride, prepping ourselves for this incredible journey. Like a big family, we one by one pile into our cars.The journey to airport was short and full of dreams. Upon arriving to the airport we see many other curious faces pondering about the journey ahead of them. Joining this crowd we walked at the pace of snails stroling into the airport. The first thing we notice is this incredible line. Out of nowhere Mary yells "Oh Shit, that's the security line." Sam responded, "Mary watch your language there are children around." But she was right. The line was like the line to Ben and Jerry's on free cone day. We eventually make it past the security line and head towards our gate. We board the plane and take off for Miami.None of us remember the plane ride because we all slept through it. We arrive in Miami and find our plane to Kingston, but no one needs to know about that. As a group we get off the plane and head towards customs. We get questioned briefly and just like that we enter the country. We all exchange our money for Jamaican money and grab our bags from the luggage pick up area. We find Vanessa, the coordinator of our trip, and head out of the airport. We glide out of the airport like hockey players on ice and then it hits us. The HEAT WAVE. It nearly kills us all. We immediatley start drowning in sweat. The first thing on our minds was ice cream. We immediatly drive towards Devon's house where we get this glorious ice cream. It's like god cried into these cones. After devouring our ice cream we embark on our next journey. "OHHHH", "AHHHHHH", "OUCH" is all you could hear coming from within this van. The bumpy roads tossed us around in this car but the scenary was stupendous. Unlike anything any of us have seen before. Some of us even compared it to Jurassic Park. After many twists and turns following the curved road through the mountain, we finally arrive in the famous town they call Hagley Gap. We thank our driver, "Jeffery", and go out to meet our homestay families. We unpack our beloved belongings and then head out to meet the community. The boys immediatley hit the soccer field and safe to say we got our butts kicked. The girls happily watched us get our butts kicked. Even as the sun went down they continued to play and we conitnued to lose. At this point, we started losing even worse becuase it was like playing soccer with no eye sight. It was miserable. Eventually we stopped after the score hit 77-2. We then head back to our homestays and cooled down before hitting the square. Around 8:30, Vanessa took us to the square but the trip was not an easy one. Without many street lights we stumbled and crawled our way into the square. If someone were watching us, it probably looked like a group of drunk people trying to find an ice cream store with blind folds on. But despite the lack of vision we eventaully made it to the music popping, people dancing town. There weren't many shops and bars but the ones that were there were filled with people drinking, playing cards, eating, and overall "JC'ing (Just Chillen')." A great man in our group, whom is not going to named, said that the Jamaican people seemed to be the most relaxed group of people he has ever encountered. In other words, "They JC'd mad hard." We went from store to store, checking out what each store had to offer. The many eyes staring at us with every movement frightened us a little, but we found out a little later it was nothing to be afraid of. The people of the community were extremely welcoming and kind-hearted. They were just curious as to who these people in their community was. However, our stay wasn't very long because of our weak legs and fatigued brain. At about 9:30 we embark back on the dark and treachous journey to our homestays. We make it back with a little more ease because we knew what was coming. We say our "Goodnights" and our "I love you's" and each go to our respective home stays. We prepare for bed and as soon as our heads hit the pillow we are out cold. We dream of the incredible journey we have planned for the next day!