A morning of mistaken identities

After the relaxing evening at the Comfort Inn in Greensboro, the 4 a.m. wake up call came a little too early for some. With bagged breakfasts, we headed to the airport. After smoothly getting through security, we started the day by being mistaken for cheerleaders of a college basketball team traveling on the same flight. Regan being the only one qualified, we all had a good laugh. Once everyone was through screening, the group turned around to find Caleb reentering security to be scanned as a man, not a female. He is now “Kayla” to the group. It was a good start to our traveling adventure.

Upon arriving at CLA, we congregated around the iconic granny rocking chairs. We waited four hours until our final boarding time for the flight to St. Thomas. We successfully left the ground and had an easy four-hour flight filled with beautiful images of cloud formations and of course the ocean. The landing was an un-forgetful one!

Asya, a fellow Hollins student, greeted us at the baggage claim in St. Thomas with a big smile and an open taxi that took us to the ferry, which would deliver us to the island of St. John. The taxi ride was an experience that will stick with us forever. The openness provided a nice breeze and a beautiful view of the Caribbean sunset. We missed the six o’clock ferry, but we were thankful to get delicious ice cream while we waited. Once we boarded the spacious ferry, the night sky amazed all of us as we approached the island of St. John.

VIERS manager, Randy Fisher, met us to load our luggage into his truck and wait with us while our professors retrieved the three, four wheeled vehicles which we will have for the duration of our stay. The ride was quite a windy and wet one, but we survived!

We were kindly greeted as soon as we pulled up to the VIERS field station with a hot dinner consisting of caesar salad, spaghetti, garlic bread and delicious chocolate cake. After dinner, we divided ourselves into rooms of four and are anxious to begin our first full day on St. John!