Dunn River Falls: DONE! - May 18, 2006

Oh boy.

Where do I even begin???

Well, at first, we all hated Jamaica. It's sketchy, to say the least. There's people with no legs or arms (not at the same time, of course) begging for change, there's children tugging at your sleeves for quarters, there's apparently hookers and drug dealers, but they didn't talk to me. (They bothered the boys instead... fruitless, naturally, since all my guy friends on board are gay.)

Last time we were there two weeks ago we walked around and quickly got back on board. But we heard that it's more fun if you plan an excursion, so, being the little Student Government girl that I am, I wrote on my whiteboard outside my room (now known as Selena's Excursions) that we were going, and a group of 10 congregated in our hallway later that day.

We headed to Dunn River falls, Catherine, Matt, Kelly, Franchesco, Stacey, Mike, Matt (another one!) Jerry, Xavier and I, and had a great cab driver named Wilson, a true Jamaican. Every time we asked him to take e a picture of us, he would say every stereotypical Jamaican thing in the book. "Arie, ya mon, no problem, Jamaica, Cheeseburger in Paradise!" We cracked up every time.

The falls were AMAZING! We held hands in a long chain and navigated our way up slippery rocks and cascading water, and only fell a couple of times! We got tired of staying in line with older, slower people, so we moved into the middle of the falls and goofed off most of the time, screaming "Rhapsody of the Seas!" and "Reblock of the Seas!" (The dancers loving nickname for the ship, at this point) over and over. We were that obligatory loud, fun, young crowd that everyone else in the group laughs at but secretly hates. haha.

The best part was, we got it all on DVD! They had a cameraman with our group the whole time and filmed every funny moment, from Franchesco putting his leg in a hole, to us posing for the camera, to the biggest waterfight of all time- we have it all! We all chipped in and got one to copy for everyone and watched it that night. Hilarious.

After the excitement of the falls, we went to Margaritaville, which once we were inside, made me forget I was in Jamaica and think I was in Key West! There was a school field trip (yes, school field trip... in a bar...) of 5th or 6th graders, and the DJ put on a little dancing contest for them and let me tell you- I've never seen children move like this! (And I'm not sure I ever want to again!) They were doing things adults wouldn't' do in clubs! I guess it's part of the culture here, but it was entertaining, which I guess was the point.

Then, after a lovely meal and wonderful Margarita, Mike, Catherine, and eventually Matt found the slide and the pool that was contained within Margaritaville (yes, the slide went OVER the bar!) and went down the twisty waterslide in every way possible. We felt like we were 12, but it was so fun. We went face first, head first, feet first in a train, backwards in a train, and then Mike and Matt would go first, stop somewhere in the tube, and then Catherine and I would come barreling down and slam in to them, then try to climb back up the tube, only to slip and slide back down in whatever position we ended up in, ending up in the pool in one big pile of singers and dancers at the end. Again, hilarious. (As I'm sure it was for everyone watching us too.)

So, now we like Jamaica. At least the falls and the Margaritaville part of it...