I know this has all been said before, but this is for the newbies.
If you have room you may want to bring a good electric fan. (If you are staying in the dorms first semester, this can wait until you return for second semester to bring a fan down, as the dorm AC is very good.)
I had a Honeywell turbo desk fan from Wally World that was fan-tastic. Many places do have air conditioning units, but unless electricity is included in your house/apartment rent when you move out of the dorms, electric bills will eat you alive if your rely on an AC unit. Another option is to by a fan at the Cost-U-Less on St. Martin, but they charge a lot for a simple fan, with less choices (as it goes with everything down there.) Sure, some people will say "The weather is so nice on Saba I don't need a fan." That's because their room-mate has a fan, or they don't pay the AC electric bill - and then the landlord wishes the student had a fan.
Another item of comfort for the literate: If you like to read books on real paper for enjoyment bring a few books with you. There is a free book exchange shelf in the library that waxes and wanes. The library has a very small fiction/ non-medical section for check-out, as well. If you dig Clive Cussler novels (
), you're in luck there. There is no bookstore on Saba, and only one or two on St. Martin that are out of the way. No Borders or Barnes and Nobles down there. You can order stuff from Barnes and Nobles and Amazon.com, but it takes 2 weeks to get your order, and shipping can be pricey. As a last resort I sometimes read e-books downloaded from the internet, but nothing beats the feel of a bound book.
While I'm thinking about books, order all your textbooks from Barnes -and-Noble at "ttp://www.bn.com/amsa", leave off the quotes and add an h to the front of that address. I do this to circumvent a troublesome ad that replaces that address if I type it normally here. You'll get a 10% discount (sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less). Unless you like to keep using University Books online because you like the school getting a cut of the profits, and you get a free pen. No, you don't have to be a card-carrying AMSA member to use bn.com/amsa.
Don't take any books down there with you in your luggage. They are heavy, take up space, and if you give Amazon or Barnes and Nobles the correct address your books
will be at the school waiting on you. Don't know the correct address? Here it is:
Your Name
C/O Saba University School of Medicine
The Bottom
Saba
Netherlands-Antilles
Dutch West Indies, The Caribbean
I shipped a LOT of stuff to and from Saba in the two years on the island, and never had anything be late or lost from UPS, Fed-Ex, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble with this exact address. If you address things this way your crap
won't end up in Venezuala or Curacao or Holland like a lot of people's stuff does. Don't worry about the lack of street address, nobody needs it, just put "The Bottom". Everybody on the island knows where the school is.
By the way, tell your friends and family to forget using the U.S. Postal service to send anything down there unless you want it one month or so from the day they sent it.
Another thing flashes to mind...bring your digital camera. I know you attention-whores out there pack that first, but Saba and St. Martin are beautiful too, and this is what I miss the most about the island. Though I have many, many pictures I always wish I had more. Film cameras are even more worthless down there than they are becoming here as there is no place I know of to develop film down there.
If you bring print photos of loved ones down with you, it might be a good idea to laminate them or otherwise protect them from the moisture that can ruin them. Sometimes mold will grow on pictures if they are not protected from the humidity.
Speaking of mold: don't bring down ANY leather except shoes you wear a lot. I have very expensive one of a kind hand-made cowboy boots that grew a forest of mold. Forget about the leather jacket...you won't need it anyway. Just have a light wind-breaker and hat.
Finally, if there is some brand of soap or personal item or whatever you can't live without, bring it with you! For example, right now I love Bert's Bees Lip Balm. Guess what - I've never seen it on Saba...so throw an extra tube in the suitcase. If you have any questions about what's available on the island or not, don't hesitate to post here for somebody, or you can PM me...but wait...the last time I said that somebody asked me about ultra-something-or-other feminine product, so keep in mind I'm a guy, ok?
~W