For those of you who have been following Matt’s blog you know that I have a very tough act to follow. However, I will try my best to bring you content that is interesting and will encourage lots and lots of feedback. At least five comments each week. A little ambitious right?

I will admit, I cheated a little as I have told my past lecturers, my last IMC class, my current IMC class, and my friends and family members not wary of the Internet to check out my blog and make comments. So I anticipate at least no less than three comments each week from that group. So guys don’t disappoint me, in front of well… everyone! That leaves only two comments needed from the WVU community, I should be able to get at least that right? Pretty please?

That said, let me introduce myself.
I am your Late Fall Student Blogger Nicola . This December will make three years since I’ve been married to my best friend in the world Conliffe Clarke . We have a beautiful little boy Israel who is almost 2 going on 6, if you catch my meaning.

Thought I’d drop in this family photo for good measure.

I got my first degree at Emerson College in 1999. It’s a brilliant place to study for anyone interested in the Communications field. I wish I could have spent four years there instead of just the two I did. Not only for the academic content I was able to absorb but also for the overall experiences. Not to mention, the friendships I made which I am blessed to still have today. More on that as the semester moves along I’m sure.

Currently I am taking IMC 615 Creative Strategies. This is my fifth IMC course and for all you prospective students out there, this program is as the french say ‘incroyable’. I have learnt so much already that can be applied to my job and my future career goals.

You may be asking where is Wadadli? Well, wadadli is the name used for Antigua by the indigenous people who lived here before Christopher Columbus came to the island in 1493.
Wadadli is also the name of the island’s locally brewed beer aptly named Wadadli Beer.

Here’s one of our promotional tourism videos to give you a taste of the island.

During the period 1995-1999, Antigua endured its fair share of hurricanes, we have however, been blessed these past few years as we have had no major hurricanes affecting us. This year, however, our luck ran out.

As a nation, we followed the advisories of our meteorologists, many employers sent their workers home early last Wednesday afternoon, October 15, 2008. On the following day, Thursday, October 16, 2008 when the rains came down, the lightning flashed brilliantly and the ear-splitting thunder roared, we were all taken unawares by the flooding from Hurricane Omar. In November of 1999, Hurricane Lenny hit Antigua and left significant flood damage. So upon hearing that we’d only be getting the tropical storm rain bands, no one was too worried. Little did we know that the rains bands would leave so much water in its wake.

In some instances it was water, water everywhere.

Hurricane Omar caused persons to lose their homes and other valuable possesions but gratefully there was no loss of life. Here are a few photos of the flooding.

It is often said a picture’s worth a thousand words. No matter how many words I use these photos will do a much better job of showing the flooding we encountered.

Not too worry though, the ones who suffered loss have some recovering to do but Antiguans are a resilent people. That spate of hurricanes mentioned earlier, taught us how to be.

Since I’m taking creative strategies this semester it seems only fitting that I incorporate elements of creative strategies in my blogs for the next nine weeks. Therefore as I close, I will share two things with you. The first, the creative strategy used by our Ministry of Tourism; using a song from one of our popular SOCA bands, El a Kru. This initiative was used during the promotion of the ICC 2007 Cricket World Cup.

Now for the second thing- MY CREATIVE STRATEGY. For the remainder of the sememster I will be sharing different aspects of Antigua with you as a means of encouraging you to visit my blog to learn more about a different culture. I am also hoping to encourage participation through questions or comments. On that note, I leave you this week, with a video of a very popular song by the soca band I’m featuring this week. The song is called EXPOSE. Enjoy it and see you next week!