By: Aaron Snow, 2nd Semester AUC Student, 2004

Welcome to St. Maarten! After living on this beautiful island paradise for the past 7 months, it has opened my eyes to what “island life” really means. Gone are the days of the carpool lane, road rage, snow drifts as tall as you, 3 hour drives to see the family, and Krispy Kreme Donuts. We are now living on a large 37 sq. mile island, in which we don’t have to worry about any of those stresses (I do think that a Krispy Kreme Donut shop would do really well here though!). All we have to worry about is doing well in our classes, and preparing ourselves to take Step 1. What better place to do this than on a Caribbean island between the Atlantic and the Caribbean Oceans, far away from the normal “stresses of everyday life.”

The stresses we mainly deal with, other than school, are almost exclusively related to “island life” experiences, and not really stresses at all. There aren’t many times in our lives in which we will be able to see and enjoy some of the different things on the island. I have created a Top Ten list of “island life” experiences, which I will always hold onto as fond memories of life on the Rock.

#10 experience is the friendly honking (which seems like an oxymoron to me), where if someone is honking at you in “traffic”, it means that they are letting you in, and not because you cut them off.

#9 experience is being able to stop in the middle of the road and talk to your buddy as they are going in the opposite direction, and no one thinks that it’s unusual at all.

#8 experience is picking up hitchhikers, especially the tourists that can’t believe that anyone could actually study medicine on a Caribbean island.

#7 experience is European milk. It took a little getting used to being able to store milk on our shelf for over a year, but it actually isn’t too bad.

#6 experience is the torrential rain this last fall where it rained for 2 ½ weeks straight.

#5 experience is the island car. They don’t really come in a lot of different colors, and most people don’t care what happens to their cars as long as the A/C still works. Heck, you could even put flames on it if you wanted!

#4 experience is being able to take study breaks on the beach, or you can even study on the beach, though it doesn’t seem to work for me.

#3 experience is being able to haggle for prices at almost any place on the island. Wouldn’t it be great if we could go into a BestBuy and talk the salesman down $10-20 for a new digital camera!

#2 experience is Orient Beach. It really isn’t all that it is cracked up to be! Unless of course they sectioned off a portion for just the geriatric tourists, that way we could avoid leaving depressed knowing what 50 years will bring.

#1 experience that will always remain a fond memory for me in the many years to come is none other than Sunset Beach! It is obviously highly regulated by the FAA; otherwise we wouldn’t be able to stand 30 feet below a landing 747, or 75 feet behind one that is getting ready to take off!

I know that I will always remember these wonderfully unique experiences we have on this island, and never forget this time in my life.