I am asking this because I, along with psychmajor have booked a return flight from saba as soon as semester 1 finishes. The flight returns to Toronto on 24th of April.
So, do you think that its possible for us to find a home during these days AND move in? How hard is it to find off campus housing?
Is it even possible to move in during the month? I am assuming that we wont be allowed to move in until the start or end of a calendar month.

Also, to the people who choose to cook on campus - did you buy pots and pans there, or did you bring them from home? lol
I am hearing that many grocery items are expensive on SABA. It would be nice to know what exactly is cheap there, in terms of grocery items and meat.

Lastly, what to do people do for water? Is tap water clean enough to drink?

Hi Playarf......
It may be a little tough getting an answer to your question today or tomorrow as they are probably all "cramming" for their 2nd Block on Tuesday...
My son (1st semester) and 3 of his friends have just locked up their places for January’s semester. Their last exam is on the 14th of December and they are flying out of St. Maarten on the 16th which gives them 1 day (Dec. 15th) to move everything into their new place. From what he told me, Laura, from the school will help you try and locate "new digs" for your second semester.
I would check your school syllabus and find out what day your last exam is in April as you may want to allow a day to get your stuff moved over from the residence before you leave the island to come home.
I can’t help you too much regarding cooking paraphanelia (sp) in the dorms, but if you are in Hillside you can see basically what’s available and provided..... (Note: No stove).... Small Microwave, Full sized Fridge (for your beer and bottled water) and a Double Sink... I don't know what Matthew's provides...
My son, along with his friends have been eating out quite a bit and from what he is telling me and his mother (take that for what it's worth), the quality, quantity and cost of food is reasonable..... fresh fish,
meat..hmmm (I understand the "roadkill goat is wonderful... lol), veggies, beverage and dessert for around $7 - $10..(depending on the
beverage(s) lol).... Probably not something you’d do on a regular basis but around exam time it makes sense....
There have been some really good posts in here on what’s readily available at the grocery stores. When I was down in September I noticed that most of the stores carried just about all your basic food staples and they were a little more expensive but not gouging... This is a pic of one of the grocery stores located in "The Bottom" which is about a 5 minute walk (uphill both ways)from the school.. I hope this isn't "spamming"... lol
Hope this helps a tad.... Good Luck

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Finally Off The Rock - 2 years Down & a Gazillion $ in Debt ...

so no cups or dishes already in hiilside eh? another thing to add to the list

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"Don't get your Golgi in a complex..."

yeah, actually there are cups and dishes along with forks, knives and spoons as well. as for housing, i got my housing locked up for next semester the third day i arrived. better earlier than later i guess. but now, it's not too difficult to find housing...there are always fifth semesters moving out, and also new buildings being built. you just have to look really. hope this helps. now back to cramming for block 2.

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I know it sounds funny, but really, don't worry about 2nd semester housing too much. All of my classmates that found housing early, actually ended up moving the first couple of weeks of the new semester! And therefore, everyone else who found housing at the last min are very happy with their places! That's not always true, but it was for my class.

In regards to housing, just be sure to get the updated housing lists and when one place on the list catches your eye, just call the ppl up and check out the place. Don't panic if you call multiple listings and everything is taken, more places will open up, and the housing coordinator is great about updating the list. And don't panic if the list doesn't seem to change often because it will change, and it will change suddenly, too.

Also, be sure to keep copies of old lists so you can compare them. I had looked at the housing list so often and nothing seemed to change, however, one day a listing looked new, but I didn't know for sure. So I took out the old lists and compared them and behold, it was a new listing!

And as for looking at places, don't go for the first place you see, just check it out and see what's included. The locals who rent here are always looking for students to rent houses, so you can be picky, and you can tell them you want to wait a bit before signing. It's always good to check out a couple of places before deciding on where to live.

Also, just ask around. Definately ask upper semester folks if they know of any available places, especially if they know any 5th semester ppl that are leaving, and def. ask the locals. I know of a girl who walked into Big Rock to get groceries and came out with a place to live! Locals are a great source of housing information.

Finally, as to where to live, that's up to you. Many students don't want the hassle of a car, so they opt to live near the school in the area called the Bottom. Other students want to get away from school, and opt to live in Windwardside, St. Johns, or Hells Gate...many of these students have cars, but some, like me, don't have cars. I hitch rides with students and or locals, and I've had no problem doing so.

The best thing to do is to find a place you love no matter where its location and worry about transportation later.

hope that helped.

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*The most violent element in society is ignorance*-Emma Goldman

* Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It is about learning to dance in the rain.

Although AmyAmes is correct that you WILL find a place to stay for Sems 2-5, you might not find a nice place if you wait. One variable that you don't know now is your class size. AmyAmes and I had about 55 people that moved on to 2nd semester and had to find a place. The current first semester class has 70. So, suddenly there are an additional 15 students looking for places. A friend of mine who is currently in first can't wait to get out of his current [off campus] place. The landlord won't fix even basic things that were promised. He's having trouble finding someplace decent.

Another thing to remember - the day you look at a place, understand that it will most likely FOREVER be in that condition. Don't trust a landlord when they say they will fix something. They just might but it probably won't be before YOU hit retirement age or until the next hurricane levels the place.

As for moving in mid-month. Yes, it can be done! The place I found was coming vacant right in the middle of first semester. I had to either occupy it then or look for something else. So, I moved out of Hillside into my current place.

CW (Conventional wizdom) has it that you should be looking for a place to live by 2nd block, and have one lined up by third.

The thing to watch out for if you're moving into a place currently occupied by a 5th is that they may have to stay...and you'll be kind of out of luck.

BTW, read the rental contract very, very carefully. Also, you can sign the contract for a semester, or longer....if you like the place, try longer (and lock the rent in). Downside is that if you decide to move, you loose the deposit.

Also, you can rent a place, and not move out of the dorms until you have a car (within reason...you have to be out before the new semester starts). The hazard of 5th semesters selling cars is the same as renting apartments...

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--Theodore Roosevelt

wow, great information everybody.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Regarding water:
The tap water is from cisterns that collect rain water from off the roof. There are tiny guppies placed in all the cisterns periodically, placed there to make sure no mosquitoes breed in them. This is one of the reasons there is no mosquito born illness on Saba. I've drank the water all over the island and haven't gotten sick, but other students I know have reported getting a little diarrhea after drinking cistern water. But, the water here is generally safe to drink, as most local people drink water straight from the tap. So I think it's largely a matter of getting your immune system settled in. That said, most students drink bottled water.

If you have a lot of allergies, you might consider drinking only bottled water, and purchasing a shower head filter...fairly easy to purchase the internet and delivered to your house in the U.S., but more difficult/expensive to do here. My wife, and at least two other people I know had an allergic reaction to something in the cistern water and this results in chronic idiopathic urticaria. 10mg q.d. loratidine and OTC diphenylhydramine cream prn and hydrocortisone cream prn seemed to help a little, but not enough. The only effective solution was to remove exposure to cistern water. It was easy to switch to drinking bottled water....but one still has to shower.

The house I lived in when I dwelt in Hells Gate had a steel roof, and so the water was very clear and I just filtered it with a PUR pitcher to remove any dirt or organic material. It tasted fine, no problems for most of a year. At one point, my cistern got low, and I had to order water trucked in (you will see trucks with big water tanks on them all over the island for this purpose). Sea water is filtered and desalinated and put into tanks. It cost $245.00 for a little over 2,000 gallons of water. After I had water trucked in my Saban neighbors recommended that I boil the water if I intended to drink it, as some locals have gotten diarrhea after drinking the filtered purchased water. Go figure. At any rate, it was still cheaper than buying bottled water at the time. Now I have moved to a place with wooden shingles, and so the water always has a very light brown tinge out of the tap. So I now drink bottled water, though my landlord drinks from this same cistern and has never had any ill effects.

I think everybody before me covered the housing question very well! It seems this island is getting a bit more crowded...but one of you can have my place in 64 days! Yippeee!!!!

p.s. - Here's a question for you: Why can't we have dengue fever on Saba, supposing we didn't control mosquitoes here?

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wow...thanks for the valuable info!! and thanks to playarf for asking the good questions!!

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