Pre-Departure

Today was my third day of pre-departure classes and I am getting more and more excited and nervous as Friday approaches. Yesterday we spent some time learning the music cultural model and getting to know one another through ice breaker games, etc. It's important as a group to really form some sort of bond in order to have each other's backs while we are in a foreign land. As Professor Price put it, all of us will be "fresh meat" on the island, so we need to protect one another at all times. He also emphasized the importance of the image that we project to the community. On such a small island, everyone knows one another and the best thing that we could do to ruin our reputation and credibility as researchers is to give off a bad impression and be disrespectful to the locals. I have a feeling I will always need to be watching what I say and do, because you never know who will provide useful information when it comes down to our project. The professor told a story of how the lady that cleaned their apartment rooms one year ended up being a huge contact to them later down the road. Anyone that I meet at any time could provide valuable information for my research project, so I guess I will always have to be on my best behavior...of course, never a problem ;)!

In today's class we were finally split into our research groups and given our rooming assignments. I'm really excited about my group; it seems like all of our strengths and weaknesses compliment each other very nicely and that we will be a really well-rounded group. A professor came in to teach us some basic video shooting and editing skills, including shooting B roll and using editing software. Each group was given the task of creating a short 3-minute clip that captured life at Northeastern. We were free to roam around campus for an hour and practice our skills. Then, tomorrow we will meet to edit it in the morning and then present it to the teacher for recommendations. Our group decided to go around and ask random students that we could find on campus their views on Northeastern's dining, housing, and social life. It was actually great practice for when we would have to go out and do it professionally once we got to the island, and we got some really interesting (and surprisingly kind of negative) responses.

On a side note, I decided to look up the inns that we will be staying at in Grenada (there are two). I'm very terrified to stay in the first one; the title of the last review was "Worst place to stay in Grenada." People were just listing horror stories about mosquitoes, uncleanliness, etc. I have no idea what to expect really but it sounds like it won't exactly be a luxury place to stay by any means. I'm planning on posting a few video blog posts, so I'll try to capture it once I finally get there. Tomorrow is my last day of packing and saying goodbye to everyone then I'm off.