Saturday, January 19th & Sunday, January 20th Journal

Saturday (January 19th) and Sunday (January 20th)

Hand with whole team's names that will be hung in the Harmony House :) 

Statue I bought for mom & dad. I think it represents the three of us :) 

Statue I bought for mom & dad. I think it represents the three of us :) 

Bought this for myself.

Bought this for myself. 

Dunns River Falls (Picture taken from Google) 

Ocho Rios 

Kayley (Tri Sigma) 

Ocho Rios 

Kayley (Tri Sigma) 

Ocho Rios Beach

BK :) 

The three Sigmas on the trip! Lauren & Kayley

Saturday

Morning: We woke up and loaded the vans to head to Ocho Rios! The drive was about an hour and a half – two hours. When we got to Ocho, we had a quick meeting to find out who we would room with, then the people who were going to Dunns River Falls (me!) got back in the vans and went straight there.

Afternoon: After Dunns River Falls (we were there an hour or so), we went back to the hotel, got our money, and went to eat and shop. We ate juicy patties for lunch, at a fast food type restaurant. Then we went to the market, and I bought some presents for family and myself. After shopping, we went back to the hotel and sat on the beach. The hotel we stayed at was called “Rooms on the Beach” and the hotel was literally right in front of the beach!

Night: After some beach time, we all went to shower and get ready for dinner. We all ate pizza by the hotel pool/beach. Then we all sat in a circle on the beach, and had two tries to guess who our “Caribbean Comrade” during the week was. (A Caribbean Comrade is like a secret pen pal who you write notes to all week. Guys had girls, and girls had guys). My CC that I wrote to was Mike Yemm, and the CC that wrote to me was Nick Droege. After we all knew who had been writing to us all week, we went around in a circle and said what we have learned from the trip, and hope to take back with us. Then we stayed on the beach, and hung out in small groups talking. I actually stayed up until 3:30 am talking to people!

Sunday

Morning: We woke up Sunday morning, and had a small breakfast that the hotel was serving. Then, we loaded up the vans to go to the Montego Bay airport, which was about an hour and a half away. After we got through security, we had about an hour before our flight. Most of us got more food there, because by then it was 11 am, and our flight was at noon. I had a Cinnabon cinnamon roll! I was so excited (and surprised!) they had it, because the only time I ever get to have it is when I’m in airports, which is usually only every two or three years! I also bought a cool wood carved statue for mom and dad. I will post a picture of it on a different blog post.

Afternoon: We flew out of Montego Bay at 12:15, and got to Atlanta around 2:30 or 3:00. We then had a 6 hour layover, before our flight to St. Louis around 10:00 pm. The time actually went really fast. We mostly just sat around talking, and played a game (that we played multiple times all week) called “Signs.”

Night: Our flight to St. Louis left around 10:20 pm, so we didn’t get to St. Louis until around 11:30 pm. Parents of people on the trip who are from St. Louis picked us up, and took us to the church where I had left my car. Because Columbia is two hours from St. Louis, and because it was already almost midnight, I spent the night at Kayley’s (one of my sorority sisters that went on the trip) house (well, her parents’ house) in St. Louis. We went back the next day, Monday afternoon. Classes did not start Monday because of Martin Luther King Jr. day, so it worked out well!