I DID IT.

HOLY CRAP I LIVE HERE. I LIVE IN THE CARIBBEAN.

Sunday night, after a painful and tearful goodbye to my family, I hopped on a plane for my new life. 19 hours later I arrived in Tortola. My flights were fine, for the most part. The first leg was AMAZING as I upgraded myself to first class. That's the way to fly, holy moly. I had so much leg room and a lot of wine! Once I was quite drunk I slept like a baby until just before we landed in Miami. The flight from Miami to St Thomas was a bit rough at times and I wished I had some Xanax, but we survived and made it onto the runway in one piece. Yay!

The ferry ride from St. Thomas to Tortola took FOR. EV. ER. (say that in The Sandlot kid's voice) as there were a bunch of drunk airline people with a bajillion bags and crap for a big sailing event that goes on every year. I ended up sitting next to a nice guy that works for Delta who told me all about it. Interesting. But! I made it to the Road Town ferry terminal, my papers got me through, and I met up with Toni (new boss) on the other side! She ran me by a grocery store to grab food to get me through the next morning, then I came to my temporary home, unpacked, ate a bowl of granola, and PASSED OUT.

It was dark when I got to my place last night, but when I woke up this morning and looked out my patio doors I was greeted with the most amazing view of Cane Garden Bay. Pictures to come soon, I promise. Blue water, green hillsides, dazzling sunshine...yeah, I made the right decision. I love it here.

Toni took C, the other new therapist, and I took the government health clinic at 8:30am to attempt to get our exams completed. Yeah...no. :( They took our papers and told us to come back Thursday morning, and told me that I needed another form from my doctor for my TB test. UGGGHHHH. I had to call my doctor and get them to do a document, scan it, and email it to me. I opened it tonight and, of course, it's missing a very vital piece of information (that I KNOW I very clearly told them I needed about 4 times), so I left a message, emailed back, and will be calling as soon as they open tomorrow to have them send that back to me as soon as possible so I have it for my 8:30am attempt #2 on Thursday. We can't do any of the Labour & Immigration stuff until the health exam is done. Welcome to island life!

After our failure at the clinic, C and I walked over to Sole' and I worked my first day! I didn't think I'd be working so soon, but we started training and everything. I have guests on the books for Thursday. YAY. I'm ready to rock. I gave Toni a massage at the end of the day so she could experience my hands (she said it was amazing, for the record) and then we cleaned up and took off. We ran by the store again as Toni needed something, so I picked up some food items to make dinner and lunch for the next few days until I can do a big shopping trip.

C and I decided that we needed to hit the beach tonight, so once we got home we promptly changed into our suits and hiked down the giiiiaaaaant hill to Cane Garden Bay and got our happy asses in the water. Ahh. This is my life now! The only bummer is that we had to hike back UP the giiiiaaaaaant hill, but I just looked at it as an awesome workout. Glass half full, right?

Now I'm sitting outside of the motel office, the only place we can pick up the wifi signal, and enjoying the balmy evening. Through the magic of the internet I was able to talk to my sister for a few minutes, and hopefully I'll talk to Mom tonight or tomorrow. Tomorrow I might try to get my phone set up if I can do that on my lunch hour. I'm hopefully looking at a potential apartment/house this week or weekend, and I'll contact a rental place tomorrow to help with the search as well. In the meantime, I'll continue to thank God for the amazing opportunity and embrace my new home!