Living like a Crucian

Day 26.

One question that you are guaranteed to be asked when you are in a restaurant with someone else is, "What are you gonna get?" The question will be asked not by the waiter, but by that someone else. I never fully understood that question. My current hypothesis is that people often have difficulties making decisions, and they feel that it might help if they know what other people chose.

I don't have any problems when making decisions. If I am visiting a brothel, and there are 10 women lined up in front of me, it would take me about 20 seconds to decide exactly with which one I will have the sex of the century. What I am not going to do is to call my friend Bob and ask for his advice. An individual opinion is just too unreliable. In the statistical terms, the standard error is too high. I do recognize the wisdom of crowds in some situations, however. For example, when buying electronics, I look up the ratings on Amazon.com. I've also been a subscriber to the "Consumer Reports" magazine for the last 20 years. If 95% of 1 million people have a favorable opinion about a particular consumer item, in all likelihood, you'd be happy with it, too. Same goes for movies. On imdb.com, the top 250 best rated movies are all damn good movies. There are also 100 bottom rated movies, and the chances are, you'd not be able to watch them to the end.

Making a decision about which house to buy is a special case. There is no online service which surveyed 1 million people living in that house, and collected their opinions. When buying a house, the most important thing for me is whether it feels like home.

I have made my decision about STX. I'm not going to live here. It doesn't feel like home to me. This is not to say that it is a bad home, or that I am a bad tenant. It just means that my home is somewhere else. STX feels like a hospital to me. There are great many people here who have been wounded on the continent. Wounded by the Babylon. Babylon manifests itself in different ways: cold weather, marital problems, inability to run the rat race, and the overwhelming sense of dread. People hit the rocky bottom of Babylon and get a concussion. That's when they finally decide to leave everything behind: their homes, their possessions, their relatives, their friends, and the skeletons in their closets. These people call themselves the transplants. What the transplants don't know is that Babylon is omnipresent. On STX, it's just a different Babylon. When this realization occurs, the disillusioned transplants move back to the more familiar Babylon. This typically happens within their first year of living on STX. These transplants become replaced with the new transplants, and this flow never stops. There is a never-ending supply of people wounded by the Babylon.

I feel good about my decision. I know it's the right one. I feel very grateful to STX. I've healed my wounds here, and I've squeezed the pus out of me. I no longer have the clots of pain. The healing process itself was a remarkable sight. The greatest thing that happened to me here is not what I learned about the island and its people, but what I learned about myself and my sickness. It's the happy end of the STX "Hospital Road" for me. There is nothing else for me to do here, but to soak in my own enlightenment, indulging into it. It's called "stinking of Zen".

I think most of the caribbean islands are probably full of these wounded transplants.

Interesting. I always say I feel 'healed' the minute I walk down the steps of the plane and feel the breeze, the warmth of the sun, and the fresh smell of the air. I feel happier while staying on St Croix, more positive, younger-- like I did as a teenager and I had so many possibilities out there. If it's a hospital, check me in!

Wanderer, can you do STT and STJ next? It's been a fun read, and always look forward to seeing a "newbie's" views, particularly when so thoroughly detailed and presented.

Day 26.

One question that you are guaranteed to be asked when you are in a restaurant with someone else is, "What are you gonna get?" The question will be asked not by the waiter, but by that someone else. I never fully understood that question. My current hypothesis is that people often have difficulties making decisions, and they feel that it might help if they know what other people chose.

I don't have any problems when making decisions. If I am visiting a brothel, and there are 10 women lined up in front of me, it would take me about 20 seconds to decide exactly with which one I will have the sex of the century. What I am not going to do is to call my friend Bob and ask for his advice. An individual opinion is just too unreliable. In the statistical terms, the standard error is too high. I do recognize the wisdom of crowds in some situations, however. For example, when buying electronics, I look up the ratings on Amazon.com. I've also been a subscriber to the "Consumer Reports" magazine for the last 20 years. If 95% of 1 million people have a favorable opinion about a particular consumer item, in all likelihood, you'd be happy with it, too. Same goes for movies. On imdb.com, the top 250 best rated movies are all damn good movies. There are also 100 bottom rated movies, and the chances are, you'd not be able to watch them to the end.

Making a decision about which house to buy is a special case. There is no online service which surveyed 1 million people living in that house, and collected their opinions. When buying a house, the most important thing for me is whether it feels like home.

I have made my decision about STX. I'm not going to live here. It doesn't feel like home to me. This is not to say that it is a bad home, or that I am a bad tenant. It just means that my home is somewhere else. STX feels like a hospital to me. There are great many people here who have been wounded on the continent. Wounded by the Babylon. Babylon manifests itself in different ways: cold weather, marital problems, inability to run the rat race, and the overwhelming sense of dread. People hit the rocky bottom of Babylon and get a concussion. That's when they finally decide to leave everything behind: their homes, their possessions, their relatives, their friends, and the skeletons in their closets. These people call themselves the transplants. What the transplants don't know is that Babylon is omnipresent. On STX, it's just a different Babylon. When this realization occurs, the disillusioned transplants move back to the more familiar Babylon. This typically happens within their first year of living on STX. These transplants become replaced with the new transplants, and this flow never stops. There is a never-ending supply of people wounded by the Babylon.

I feel good about my decision. I know it's the right one. I feel very grateful to STX. I've healed my wounds here, and I've squeezed the pus out of me. I no longer have the clots of pain. The healing process itself was a remarkable sight. The greatest thing that happened to me here is not what I learned about the island and its people, but what I learned about myself and my sickness. It's the happy end of the STX "Hospital Road" for me. There is nothing else for me to do here, but to soak in my own enlightenment, indulging into it. It's called "stinking of Zen".

Seriously! "YUCK!"
Okay....I will apologize, in advance, as I know I am going to get flamed but "YUCK!"
This person ingratiates while denigrating, insulting and being downright creepy and really has no idea about life in the VI.
Glad he'll be moving on.

Okay....I will apologize, in advance,

I accept your apology, Alana.

Good luck to you.

After the first half of this thread I scratched Stx off my short list. Then after the next almost half I was ready to move it to the top. So I am back to where I was before reading this. If money was not the object, I don't mean rich just able to handle it, St John would be my first pick. I'm curious why wanderer chose Stx or is it like me because of the cost of real estate on Stx.

A Stolen Life...
http://vimeo.com/37046751

After the first half of this thread I scratched Stx off my short list. Then after the next almost half I was ready to move it to the top. So I am back to where I was before reading this.

Yes, it's been quite a metamorphosis. The island didn't change, of course. I did.

If money was not the object, I don't mean rich just able to handle it, St John would be my first pick. I'm curious why wanderer chose Stx or is it like me because of the cost of real estate on Stx.

Yes, same reasons. STT: too commercial. STJ: too expensive. STX: good middle ground.

Just goes to show that it is only ones perception of experiences, life and their attitudes of how well they will or won't adapt.
Hope wanderer enjoys some place else.

Just goes to show that it is only ones perception of experiences, life and their attitudes of how well they will or won't adapt.
Hope wanderer enjoys some place else.

Why was this comment necessary? Be careful or you'll be snarky again.

Not snarky................Honest!

So you came like Batman...saying..

"...It's not who I am underneath... but what I *do*... that defines me. "

A hospital.??? So, in the end, you leave like the Joker...

I didn't follow all the gibberish... I am a simple guy... If a wall is red, I call it red... I don't need to explain about how it was made with cinder blocks and how the atoms stay together blah blah blah... I found all of that tacky...

I did look at the photos, though, not at the descriptions...

IMHO, this is a waste of space in a server... It will not help in any way, shape or form, anyone who may consider the VIs, specifically STX... It looks just like an all show no go book... It looks more like project of a writer wanna be than a real account of living in the island for about a month...

When I first landed in STX, I didn't like it... Eventually, the island and the simple life won me over... Every time I am there, is where my heart wants to be...

I see this board as an INVALUABLE tool and guide for those trying to find information on life in the VIs, not a place for being pretentious...

Living like a Crucian? You wouldn't recognize a real Crucian even if your behind got a kicked by one..

Rowdy802:
"IMHO, this is a waste of space in a server... It will not help in any way, shape or form, anyone who may consider the VIs, specifically STX... It looks just like an all show no go book... It looks more like project of a writer wanna be than a real account of living in the island for about a month..."

I agree, although I enjoyed looking forward to, and reading the next posts. Some were enjoyable, and others/many were head-scratchers. Seems an interesting chapter for a wanderer writing about journeys around the globe, but probably not a good source for a future PMV-er.
.

IMHO, this is a waste of space in a server... It will not help in any way, shape or form, anyone who may consider the VIs, specifically STX... It looks just like an all show no go book... It looks more like project of a writer wanna be than a real account of living in the island for about a month...

When I first landed in STX, I didn't like it... Eventually, the island and the simple life won me over... Every time I am there, is where my heart wants to be...

I see this board as an INVALUABLE tool and guide for those trying to find information on life in the VIs, not a place for being pretentious...

Living like a Crucian? You wouldn't recognize a real Crucian even if your behind got a kicked by one..

I too have wondered what the point of this exercise has been. But some people have seemed to enjoy it. It is probably more appropriate on a personal blog vs. this forum though.

Swans, thank you for a stunningly beautiful combination of music and imagery of our dear planet.

A Stolen Life...
http://vimeo.com/37046751

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Joanna:
"Swans, thank you for a stunningly beautiful combination of music and imagery of our dear planet."
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you...
It is, in a sense, "Deja vu."
Swan

Being a celebrity is tricky. Mr. W's comments go viral, then the reaction set in. His announced time for departure nears and now the tide is flowing in the other direction. People are reassessing their previous fascination with him and his observations. Reading his daily accounts seems now to have been only a guilty pleasure of which we must now purge ourselves.

I found some of his stuff weird and hard to take but on the whole it also fits into the genre of current experimental film, documentary and journalism - William S. Burroughs let loose in Frederiksted? He is a departure from what's usual on this Board but bottom line he found St. Croix exciting and interesting and that's not bad considering we say we want people to feel that way so much they will want to live here.

Good luck in your travels Mr. W. You're the most fun thing to hit this Board in a long time!

agree pt, this was an enjoyable few weeks

Damn, can I write! This is the most beautiful thing that I ever produced. I think I fell as a victim to the narcissism syndrome.

I decided to look into the thread a bit more and found the post above... And gives weight to my point... If I wanted to do a literary project I would likely start a thread at "Under the Coconut Tree" or some other board... When I read the threads it is next to impossible to get any useful information, hence, IMHO, it was all about the project and using similes, euphemisms, etc...

Some people enjoyed his "writing project" and I do respect that... If I came to strong in my criticism, I do apologize...

I like simplicity... Life is simple, human beings tend to make it complicated...

I am not one to mention handles here, but this thread gave a much better appreciation and admiration to the threads and posts of a couple from STT... I think it is AandA2VI... Sorry to use as an example, actually, a great example of recent experiences, good and bad, on their move to the VI... It is wealth of information and, the lady's energy can be contagious... even if their posts are not about STX which is my location of interest...

I don't post much here but I do follow the threads daily because, even if I did put my plans on hold to buy a property in STX, I may remove the hold soon... In fact, I am arriving again next week on the 27th for a few days to check a few spots and check on my 2 cars...

To Wanderer, I do wish him the best in his search... No snark here please, I do mean it... From he's post of Day 1 I had a feeling STX was NOT for him... It was just a gut feeling... There is a place for him, I hope he hits the jackpot...

Day 27.

My participation in the assembly of the "Interfaith Coalition of St. Croix" yesterday night went well. It actually turned out to be a Bahai congregation, to celebrate their new year. Bahais are all about unification. Unification of cultures, religions, people, and languages. Bahai are cool. As a matter of principle, they don't have clergy, and thing are informal, compared to other religions. They don't eat the flesh of their spiritual leader, they don't believe that the Universe was created 6000 years ago, they don't consider themselves as "chosen people" (the only ones worthy of salvation), and they don't feel like starting wars to prove that their interpretation of God is superior to other interpretations. The meeting was held at a spacious and beautiful residence of one of the Bahai. This dude's deck is large enough to hold about 200 people, with a beautiful view of the sea. The Bahais were hungry, because their new year is preceded by a lengthy period of fasting, so there was plenty of food.

After a short period of reading from the Bahai's scripture (first in English, than in Spanish, to emphasize the unification), people lined up for food and restroom. I strategically selected half a dozen people to engage in the conversation.

I don't subscribe to the Bahai's idea of unification. My motto is, "Divided we stand, united we fall". Consider, for example, what would happen if the United States congress was unified. On the left hand, if all of the congressmen and senators became the democrats, and were let loose, they would push so far to the left that the country would fall into communism. On the right hand, if all of the congressmen and senators became the republicans, and were let loose, they would push so far to the right that the country would fall into fascism. I've tried to illustrate this point on the diagram below (sorry for the sloppiness, I don't have the right drawing tools in here):

The point is, as long as we have anarchists, libertarians, democrats, socialists, communists, fascists, and republicans, we would be just fine as a country. When everyone becomes a member of just one of these groups, we would be in trouble. The green point on the diagram is the sweet spot.

While the Bahai's scripture was read in Spanish, every 10th word was the word "Señor". I figured that the word "God" is translated to Spanish as "Señor", which I found amusing. I strike the conversation with a woman who read the scripture. As it turned out, "Señor" is a respectful way of addressing God. "Señorita" would be just silly. The Bahai acknowledge that God is gender-neutral and age-neutral. However, there is simply no word in the Spanish language to describe such an entity in a respectful manner, so the word "Señor" was chosen as a best available alternative. The woman says that she switched from Catholicism to Bahai, partly because the Bahai treat women better. God looks down at all this nonsense, and says, "LOL". Our conversation evolves into the depths of the Spanish language phonetic structures, the state of the STX educational system, and esperanto.

My next counterparty is a Crucian family, mother, father, and a little kid, all bahn ya. The father is a network engineer, which is close to my profession. We talk shop for a while. Then we talk about the fatherhood, the Crucian dialect, the differences between the "Ancestral Native Virgin Islanders" and the "Native Virgin Islander", and the importance of these differences with regards to who gets the job on the island when a new business is lured in here with incentives. Then we talk about the divisiveness among the Crucians as to what the future of the island should be. An independent country? A U.S. State? A status quo as a territory? I ask him how he would vote if there was a referendum. His vote goes for the statehood.

I came out of this with the realization that if I didn't have my own religion W, I might as well be a Bahai. At the very least, it's not the worst of the choices between Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism.

Day 27 (continued).

There is a small boat anchored about 1/2 of a mile into the sea from the Sandy Beach (Sand Castles). It's been there for the last 27 days. Looks like somebody lives on the boat, 24/7. Who is this guy and why is he there? I figured that's his way of dealing with humanity. He just gave up on humanity. I am thinking that my project for today should be to swim all the way to his boat, start a conversation, and find out what it's all about. But I think I know what he is going to say. I've read all about it in this book.

@Wanderer, Now that you have lived on STX For a few weeks, what are your thoughts? My husband and I are planning on moving down(from Missouri) in a year or so with our son. What is your thought of the prices of food and living, how do you feel living on the island? I'm absolutely excited! Our 3 year old is even excited, but I just like to hear other people views.

Is 'Bahn Ya' a Cruzan thing ? I have heard 'Bahn Here' for a long time elsewhere in the USVI but do understand that the Cruzan accents, words, grammar and intonations come more from a background of field workers and has a stronger Spanish influence than the more urban, 'citified' St Thomian historical demographic.
Just a simple question - not meant to incite flaming or denigration of my understanding or perception but I can stand the criticism if it happens.