Looking out at nature, it was clear that there weren’t any typical sights we were used to seeing at home. Everything from the plants to the ocean was so different, and it was really exciting to get a sense of what the rest of our time here would be like.
School —> Philadelphia Airport
The day began at 2:00 a.m. when the students arrived at MFS to check their passports, bags, and load themselves onto the bus for their first flight.
The bus then arrived at the Philadelphia airport at around 2:30 a.m. and all the students waited patiently in the very long TSA line until 3:30 when it opened. As we waited, games of UNO were played, and chatter about the excitement we had for Martinique.
We had a small window of time after TSA before we needed to board our plane; luckily we made it on time and everyone was ready and situated for the first flight of the day. The flight was then from Philadelphia to Miami — a 2 ½ hour flight where the majority, if not all, of the students slept through.
Miami —> Martinique
We arrived in the Miami airport at around 7:30 a.m. and the next/final flight was just 3 hours away! Everyone was hungry and still extremely tired from waking up so early — so many students spent their time in the Miami airport getting food and snacks for the next flight which would be ~3-4 hours long.
Time went quickly, and we were on our next flight heading towards Martinique quickly. Similarly to our first flight, the majority of us slept through this one too because there’s not much else to do on a plane.
After our flight when we arrived in Martinique, every student was able to receive a stamp on their passport and thus were allowed in. 🙂
Once we arrived at the hotel, we all went outside to enjoy the scenery and spend time in the sun. For most of us, this was the moment we truly realized that we were in a completely new place.
Looking out at nature, it was clear that there weren’t any typical sights we were used to seeing at home. Everything from the plants to the ocean was so different, and it was really exciting to get a sense of what the rest of our time here would be like.
After we spent some time outside, we went back to our rooms and got ready for dinner. This was the first time we got to be around so many other people in the same room, so we heard lots of French being spoken. Even all of the food labels were written in French. It was really interesting to experience that, and I think it motivated a lot of us to work on our French skills to be able to communicate with others later on in the trip.
Our reflection was the last part of our night where we all got to sit together and share some of our favorite parts of the day. A lot of us had similar answers regarding the scenery, the warm weather, and the excitement that we were brought today which has us looking forward to the rest of the trip.
