hey there,

i was wondering if any of you from SABA can fill me in on a few questions i have.

1. how do u call home? by cell phone? or by international phone rates? using calling cards? (this is assuming you are from the mainland)

2. how is the weather there during hurricane season. is it heavily affected? has there been incidents where an emergency plan was executed?

3. internet access. is it provided by the school, or is there a local carrier you subscribe to? how fast is the internet (can u give me download/upload numbers?) what kind of internet is it (satellite/DSL/cable/phoneline)?

4. i realized the island is pretty small. how do you get there by plane (say, i'm from california, LAX area).

5. what things can i bring? food? heavy items (such as desktop computer + printer?) bicycle? cooking supplies?

6. what stores are there? is there anything like a wal-mart? or where do u buy essential things like light bulbs or paper?

thanks for reading. any tips or info is appreciated.

venomshockx

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One thing that is nearly impossible to get here is clothing, so bring what you need.

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PGY-1 Psychiatry

[QUOTE=venomshockx]hey there,

i was wondering if any of you from SABA can fill me in on a few questions i have.

1. Pretty much everyone on the island has a cellphone from UTS - they range from about 50 to 250 bucks and then you add on a ''chippie" card which is basically a phone card which adds money to your acct. As Howard says, you can buy those, give a quick call home and tell them to call you back at your phone number (the U.S. has better calling card rates); there is another option though: UTS offers a pre-paid 'call-back number' which is basically a local number you call from your cell phone - which calls you back (*receiving phone calls on your cell is free) so you're not charged anything but the price of the card for the call-back number. Its cheaper than calling using the chippie cards and best of all, doesn't use up valuable minutes/guilders/cents that you could be using to text your friends re: lunch plans for the day.

3.
The internet is ... improving. Our new head librarian is apparently pushing for increased bandwidth at the school - and maybe even wireless one day. In the meantime, its like a 56K connection - painfully slow at times - and other times doesn't even work. Its gotten reliably better in the last few weeks of school - i would dare to say nearly cable-speed. Apartment-wise you have to pay a ridiculous 500 dollar deposit on top of the $50 a month subscription to the local (monopoly) company for a speed thats probably around 56K. Buuut its worth having internet and if you can go in on it with others - thats the best deal. Not worth having it in the dorm though - just walk down to the school.

4. i realized the island is pretty small. how do you get there by plane (say, i'm from california, LAX area). There are direct flights to St. maarten or flights to puerto rico to st. maarten. from there you can take a winair flight or the edge ferry. Flight = 20 minutes ferry = 1.5 hours. Price difference is like 20 bucks...

5. If you're living in the dorm: bring FOOD. THere are some good grocery stores but if there's any type of food you can't live without and can bring, bring it with you. Laptop is key - esp. in class - desktops would be too much of a hassle. Definitely bring a printer - a cheap HP from walmart does the job very well - bring lots of ink cartridges though. Cooking supplies are all readily available on the island - a bicycle is not at all recommended. Ya just won't use it.

6. what stores are there? is there anything like a wal-mart? or where do u buy essential things like light bulbs or paper? Ha. A wal-mart, don't we wish it. Essentials are bought in the grocery stores - there's 'my store' in the bottom and 'unique,' 'JR's', and Corner Imports up in Windwardside. THey have a pretty good selection. THings can be pricey though - even if converting from dollars to guilders. They won't be walmart prices but fairly equivalent to regular non-discounted U.S. prices.

Hope that helps...