question for all those who have "adjusted"

Without doubt the hardest thing is being far away from my 83 year-old father and 7 year-old and 4 year-old granddaughters. I am fortunate enough to be able to travel back and forth fairly frequently.

Accepting that things are going to happen in their own time & learning that I need to adjust, not the whole island. (Not that I've succeeded, mind you.) 🙂 I may be absolutely correct in my assessment of the way things go & I may absolutely know a better way to do it but it is the way it is & will be long after I'm gone. A lot is still the way it's portrayed in Don't Stop The Carnival & I need to remember that nobody sent for me. That doesn't stop me from gnashing my teeth occasionally but it's part of why I came here to begin with.

Learning to adjust to the slower pace of life was fairly easy for me in most ways. I enjoy stopping and letting someone in in traffic and it doesn't really bother me that anything customer service oriented is going to take at least 3x as long here as it would stateside....just take a book or enjoy the scenery. Those are small problems and most rational people can easily adjust and even enjoy the slower pace. The greater problems are the things like medical care, police justice, schooling, etc... But on a normal day what is hardest for me is rock fever. I try to get off every 6 months. When you're on the island it can be difficult and definitely expensive to get off of it. You may think you will never want to leave it but wait until you have no choice. There are no weekend road trips and the island doesn't change much so once you've explored it, you've explored it. I never thought i would be excited by the opening of a staples (or whatever that was in sunny isle) but i was. You'll need a good circle of friends, because entertainment is always the same.

I think the main thing for me was trying to put all doctors, vets, utilities in order. Things are done differently and it was hard to get all of the information at one time. I could have used a St. Croix for Dummies kind of a book. Once things were in place, the rest was pretty easy.

Also, I didn't come here to change anything but myself, so the things that are difficult or that I don't agree with, I just let roll of my back. If I can help, that is great, but I am not on a mission or trying to Americanize anything. I have bucked systems most of my life, and not being in that role of social advocate is wonderful. I consider it a type of retirement.

Best wishes,

Dan

I guess this is a reply from someone who didn't adjust. I thought very hard about this answer and I was quite surprised by the answer.
It was the omni-present animal cruelty and neglect. That, when coupled with the harsh parenting (the slaps in Kmart, the yelling in the street, the piling them in the back of trucks etc.) just depressed the hell out of me. It just wasn't fun or pleasant to be around.
I don't do the "ignore thing" real well and I realized that I couldn't change a darn thing...so we chose to move to somewhere that suited us much better.

Hi Jane,

If you don't mind my asking, where did you move?

For me, the hardest things were:
#1 Moving here in 2005, in the middle of the hottest, most humid, buggiest summer that anybody can remember.
#2 Managing a start-up rental villa and handling a thousand related problems, small and large, in the middle of #1

But a few months later, the weather was perfect, everything was ironed out, we found some great friends and a nice communitiy, and lots of fun things to do. I love the live music scenes here, and being able to take a short drive to a great beach and instantly feeling like I'm on vacation. I still stop sometimes and think, "Wow, I can't believe I live here!"

Well?

Beieve it or not, I have a feeling that we might have the same feame of mind!
We have purchaxed a boat currently on the east end at Independent Baot Yard to live aboard as we also are bringing my(wingman) MUD!
He's a chocolate Lab. and we all look forward to a new life!
I also sound rediculous to alot of people coming from where I originated, but most are aware of who I am and where I belong!!!!!
My wife could be driving around Dallas, TX, in a Mercedes if that IS WHAT SHE WANTS BUT GREW UP IN vENEZUALA AND HAS A GREAT PERSPECTIVE ON THE VALUE OF "STUFF"!
Simplicity is what we want and will be arriving on Tues. Jan 16th!
Here we come!
Please reply asap as we are trying to get rid of all the stuff prior to our departure!
One week from today! I can't believe I am fianlly coming home!

Sincerely,

Bill

Good for you, Bill!

We moved up to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula - about an hour from Seattle. We live in the rain shadow so we don't have the gloomy weather associated with Seattle etc. We have a log home in a clearing in the forest - the San Juan Islands, canada, the Inside Passage etc are all close by boat - we love it here.

Jane,
Most Caribbean islands with a significant population in 2006 have strip malls and rap music. St. Croix is no different. I just came from Jamaica and they have strip malls and a lot of people listen to rap music as well.

Also, I am sorry you were put off by the animal cruelty and the parenting. I guess if you haven't been brought up here, some things may just seem shocking, I understand.

I am hoping to move to Seattle at the end of the year though, because of the lack of opportunities here. I'm looking at a particular software company in Redmond.... I wonder if you can guess who................................................................. 🙂

LOL - I would hope that if I had been born and raised there I would still find cruelty and abuse shocking.

The animal shelters are doing a very good job with VERY limited resources to put an end to animal cruelty. It is here but much less than in other islands in the Caribbean. There is animal cruelty & child abuse everywhere, including Washington.

The cruelty in the islands was much more heinous in its past. Slavery and the abuse associated with it, for example. I guess the sensibilities of Brits have changed through the generations, Jane... which is unquestionably a good thing if it leads to societal changes away from ownership and abuse of other people. While life in the islands does still include acts of abuse, it's far less intensive than it was in generations past. Things may be moving in the right direction even if it's not yet Utopia.

It is not just the Brits that have changed, I hope. I gave MY personal answer to the question that was posed.
There is of course abuse and neglect everywhere, however....the difference comes in community response, shelter support by general populace, resource allocation and overall importance given to the subject at hand.
PS How bad it is in Jamaica does not ameliorate the problem in the VI.

Yes, unfortunally it exists everywhere. In the paper this week here in AZ., there was an article about someone shooting several wild and feral horses. Two summers ago, they found several cases where puppies were taped down to the side f the road on the hot asphalt, (110* days, not sure the asphalt temp). Some were found soon enough to be saved. I hope they can find the people responsible.

Jane, if you think that it doesn't happen where you are now, talk to someone at one of the animal shelters in your area. I'm sure you will be shocked. I think that in a small enviroment, it is noticed or reported more than a large metropolitan area. I raced with a friend who was high up at the Humane Soc. here in Phx, and is now the head of the Humane Soc. in Santa Fe, NM. He tells stories that tears out your heart.

I'm not saying that STX is doing good in this reguard. Everyone everywhere needs to help, whether it be with time, donations, or reporting offenders. Send a donation!!!

Terry, I repeat.....there is of course abuse and neglect everywhere....etc etc.

Sorry Jane, we were both writing our responses at the same time, and I did not see yours until I posted.

STXBob wrote that he sometimes stops and says "Wow, I can't believe I live here!" I had to laugh.. I still do that, too. I'll come around a corner and see the vast expanse of sea and say the exact same thing.

But, in keeping with topic, the hardest thing I had to adjust to were the BUGS!!! I still have to coat myself with bug spray and I still look like I have a flmaing case of measles every time I go out. I guess I just taste good to the little freaks.