I was sent there in Febuary 2002 by my folks. I was at the time living at our house in Sarasota, Florida. Really as far as what I did to get there. I would file that stuff under normal teenager things. I experimented with substances, of course stayed out from morning till the following morning one too many times, had girls over, partied a bit but still did fantastic in school. My folks when I was a teen were extremely conservative compared to the way they are bringing my sister up and were not as one might call it supportive of my actions. The night before I left my dad took me to see Blackhawk down which was strange. He normally when he is even at their house down there is not even home. Normally he plays golf or went out on his boat. Eh so what he wants to hang out. So we went and saw it expecting that in two days we were coming back to NY so I could go back to school. Low and behold at like 250 in the morning my escourts were there. This 6'1 245 pound guy named Chris who I actually stay in touch with to this day and someone else. My clothes were in a tub and my mom and dad were there. I guess they use the fact that your not coherinet at that time of morning normally to avoid resistance. They put you in cuffs for that added security "just in case" and we went to IHOP for some grub. At 0600 we were on a Delta 757 to ATL to catch the morning AirJamaica flight to MoBay flight 57 if memory is still clear. It was named Spirit of Maderville. On another note the service on Air Jamaica was AMAZING. It was still a very degradeing experince but Chris's dad was a NFL football coach of some sort in Chicago years back so we got along pretty well. When we landed in Jamaica and cleared customs I was handed off to people from the school. My parents forwared a "commitment letter" to the school to give to me for the bus ride to St. Elizabeth which was a fairly long one to say the least and hair raiseing as well. When you get to the gates of the school it looks all cheery but I can tell you it was much less. I was sort of in shock still at that point . The kids there are not those you would want your little Johnney to hang out with that is for sure. There were mostly kids from the US there. There were kids from Japan, Grand Cayman had a few, UK, Russia, Canada, and transfers from other schools as well. Once I got acclimated to everything which took a while i became one of the smart asses. I guess some things don't change though. I got in my fair share of trouble there. I spent a cumulative time through my time in Jamaica of about 4 months in Observation for various reasons includeing covering a riot attempt . We almost got closed down at one point because a girl who had just arrived there killed herself. Some pretty serious ****. I do not see why to this day that was a reason to resort to such things but I guess she was not right with herself. Showers there all year round were outdoor with well water. When the wells were dry in drought we took "bucket showers" You pretty much get a bucket and a cloth with cold water out in the outdoor community shower and the clock starts rolling. Food was crap. I did become a lover of Jerk pork, chicken and fried plantains with festivals though while i lived there. THe one thing that stuck with me were thse tapes we listend to. People like Zig Zigglar, Anthony Robbins, Dpok Chopra and Earl Nightngale. That stuff really is amazingly useful in my career thus so far. I had my fair share of ass kicking at that place. Fights were pretty common there. Some of the clientel there was of quite high up stature. The daughter of the ownert of Dart Styrafoam was there. James Carbonele whos grandfather was the pres of Goya or somthing was there. Some kid related to Texas Instremunts was there. I mean serious stuff. Spoiled little brats. There is alot I could talk about. Ask specifics though.
