Trip to Roseau

This morning, a few of my friends and I went to Roseau. Every Saturday morning, Ross provides free shuttle service from campus to the main "city" in Dominica, which is an hour away. We left at 8:30am, got there at 9:30, and had to leave at noon. It doesn't sound like much time for a place that's an hour away, but there's really not much else to do and see in Roseau besides the grocery stores, Saturday morning market, and KFC. There probably are more things to see that I just don't know about.

I should have taken pictures of the scene, but my hands were constantly occupied with groceries. Our first stop was Rituals Coffee House, which is basically a bootleg Starbucks, but I actually feel like it's an upgraded version. They have smoothies, more pastries, and a decent selection of hot and cold sandwiches. It's actually a pretty nice place. I got an apple fritter, which was twice as good as the apple fritters at Starbucks. We ended up going back there after all our groceries, so that's when I got an egg, cheese, and bacon bagel sandwich - yes!!! Definitely not as good as a New York one though, but it'll pass. I also got a pineapple-coconut smoothie which was delicious.

We also went to the grocery store, IGA. It's not bad for Dominica standards. They sell a lot of American products that are surprisingly not TOO marked up. Everything there was definitely cheaper than the little "grocery stores" around here. By the way, for you Filipinos, the grocery stores around campus are about the equivalent of a Filipino grocery store back in the States, except they sell very little refrigerated/frozen goods. So I bought a small tuna filet. I really wanted to get some ground beef but didn't see any. I also picked up some other random things, like Hunt's diced tomatoes for my amatriciana that I'll be making for Valentine's Day, white rice, Pringles, etc.

After that, we went to the Saturday morning market. Everything there is so cheap and really fresh. I got some small onions which are really dirty, so I hope they're ok. I haven't cut one open yet to see how they are. I'm kind of mad though because after I bought those, I saw a ton more stands that had much bigger and better-looking onions. Next time I go to the market, I have to buy more "exotic" things rather than bananas, onions, and haricot verts.

Anyways, I'm hoping to go back to Roseau at least one more time before the semester ends. I want to try to spend less on food and cook more at home. Another goal for the semester is to do at least one island thing. There actually are a lot of places to visit and things to do on this island. You just have to go out of your way to do it. Not to mention, it's kinda hard to find people to do fun things with around here. Hopefully, people will come through this semester.