I am lying in bed in this flat for the very last time on a Saturday morning- I can't quite express how much I won't miss this living situation! Goodbye foam mattress with wooden planks sticking in back, and goodbye maggots searching for my food, and goodbye mould growing on most of my things... Yes, this time next week I will be chilling in Paris (hopefully with a certain Ravster) awaiting the Eurostar to bring me home!
I am half way through my "last days" at the schools, although having 5 different ones, this is taking some time! I got a surprise on wednesday, when one of my classes had organised a suprise party with balloons party poppers drinks, cake and even presents! I know have lots of children-made jewelry and some souvenirs of Guyane- saves me buying them! They even made me a card with a picture and all of them had signed it. Nice! I was buzzing as I walked to the next class... what was in store.... Well, turns out what was in store was a fight between 5 boys, no-one listening and a teacher that didn't care... classic French Guiana- oh well, it was nice when it lasted.
My second last -day, they didn't even know it was my last day until I told them at the end - no party there then! And on friday, turns out I was in charge of making the party for myself! Phew- good job I had thought ahead and bought some balloons, speakers and sweets (albeit not enough for everyone- they are well expensive here- poundland really needs to step in!). We played musical bumps, statues, the balloon game and pin the tail on the donkey and generally had a fun time dancing to one direction and shakira. Apart from the youngest who, for some reason couldn't understand the concept of a game and deciding lying, cheating and arguing was a better option. Well, that made my sweet dilemma easy enough!
Two more last day to go, monday and tuesday and then some private tutoring on Wednesday then I am Outta here (here being St. Laurent) for two days chilling by the pool at Olive-dogs and then the plane on friday. I could lie and say Im going to be sad and miss it- but, er, Im not going to. When the kids ask when are you coming back, how do you tactfully say, "err, never". Don't get me wrong, there have been loads of great things about this year- they just have mostly happened in the holidays, in others places that are not st laurent :S Maybe im being harsh- but the situation here is basically impossible to put into words (apart from the 1000s I have made you poor loyal readers get through). It has deffo been a unique year abroad but all I am thinking about is getting home!
I've already started packing, bit by bit everyday to get me excite- im going for the tactic of throw away as much as poss a) coz its rank and b) to give me an excuse to go shopping when I get home. The hair straighteners have been ordered, the make-up situation will be sorted and soon enough I will feel like a real person again! Im off to the market today for a last lunch of 'nems' (springrolls) and juice... Tonight is the choir concert with a meal after, and then the final countdown begins until thursday morning when I hotfoot it to Cayenne.
Can't wait to see people! Ahhhhh!
Polly J is on her way :D
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Shopping in the Jungle and a classic 43 hour delay
I have finally made it back to French Guiana after leaving Manaus, our supposed final destination on sunday afternoon. Turns out- if you thought leaving French Guiana was difficult, getting back to it is even worse! Anyway, Manuas /Manaus, I still don't know which one is which was a cool place to end our mini-Brazil adventure. Finally a hostel with other tourists! Much though I love Olivia and PollyA dearly, after 10 days mostly on a boat, a bit of conversation with some randomers was refreshing. To celebrate our first night we headed out in search of a cheeky glass of rose, only to be told by the most popular bar in the main square, No, we don't have any. What do you have, we asked? Beer. Anything else? More beer. Anything else? Well, I guess we could do you a Caiprinha and I push. Beer it was then. I hope you all have the rose chilling in the fridge for when I get home!
The next day we checked out the famous Teatro Amazonas opera house. The guide was dry-ola and the Opera they were rehearsing was interesting at best. It seemed to involve some sort of lesbian marriage of cats and some men drinking beer inbetween-Weird. The actual theatre was very european and luxurious though, weird in the middle of the Amazon. We spent the rest of the day drinking weird fruit juices and eating more fatty coxinhas, checking out the banana market (with no bananas) and a park with its own species of monkey! Our guide in the park was banterous and without him we would never have spotted the alligators, turtles, sloths, monkeys and iguanas that he pointed out. He was also a big fan of english football... He looked a bit confused when I told him my team was Hull. He paused for a second, "ahh yes, hull city, the tigers! They play in Black and Orange." It was a proud moment... although admittedly I should have mentioned that its Amber, not Orange. He then continued to walk us through the jungle trails singing you'll never walk alone and something about bubbles which is apparently something to do with west ham. It was most surreal.
PollyA left us on the friday night after giving me a cheeky haircut and then we were down to two :(
Most people were confused why we had come to Manaus and didn't want to do a jungle tour. Er, coz we live in the jungle, thats why.. A week on a boat was my cultured ness for this holiday and in Manaus we wanted to make the most of being in a big city for a change- cue shopping day! I am now fully stocked up on coloured jeans and flip flops for when I come home- Hope there is room in the rucksack.
We left Manaus on Sunday after a cheeky few hours at another river beach as you do. Met Lucy at the Belem airport at 2 in the morning and slept there. Was rudely awaken at 8:15am by a security man or someone who told us, it is inappropriate to be lying down at 8.30, apparently you should be sat up by this time. He proceeded to demonstrate what sitting in a chair looks like. Thanks. When he found out we were English the conversation got even more ridiculous when he went on a rant about how the English are renounced for being proper and eating small sandwiches and being ladylike. OH how we have ruined the reputatin of our nation :S We trudged to check-in, only to find the flight had been cancelled. TYPICAL!!
Instead of a big apology from customer services, what we got was a grunting lady that handed us a piece of paper and pointed us to a taxi. When is the plane going to be, we ask? She looked as if this was the most stupid question anyone could ask! Maybe at 12 tomorrow, but maybe before, or perhaps after. IDeal. Thanks for clearing that one up! The upside of all this is the hotel we were sent to was the Hilton with free food, internet, gym, pool, etc. I had an actual bath and felt the cleanest I had felt in months! We made the most of all the buffets, but then had to spend the same amount of time making the most of the gym to avoid feeling guilty.
We awoke early the next day ready for the 12 (supposedly) plane. At 10am the hotel kindly informed us that we would be staying another night and the plane would leave on wednesday at 7, only a casual 43 hours later than planned. Right, back to the pool.
It was great having an extra little bit of holiday, however, it did mean I missed some work and private tutoring and classic me I had no way to contact the people so I hope they are not too angry. But anyway! I am back now, and frantically trying to think of some ideas to keep my classes entertained for the last two weeks. 14 days from today I will be saying goodbye to st. Laurent for the last time- and I have to admit, I will not really be sad in the slightest. So excited to see everyone and feel like a clean person with a social life again. !!!
The next day we checked out the famous Teatro Amazonas opera house. The guide was dry-ola and the Opera they were rehearsing was interesting at best. It seemed to involve some sort of lesbian marriage of cats and some men drinking beer inbetween-Weird. The actual theatre was very european and luxurious though, weird in the middle of the Amazon. We spent the rest of the day drinking weird fruit juices and eating more fatty coxinhas, checking out the banana market (with no bananas) and a park with its own species of monkey! Our guide in the park was banterous and without him we would never have spotted the alligators, turtles, sloths, monkeys and iguanas that he pointed out. He was also a big fan of english football... He looked a bit confused when I told him my team was Hull. He paused for a second, "ahh yes, hull city, the tigers! They play in Black and Orange." It was a proud moment... although admittedly I should have mentioned that its Amber, not Orange. He then continued to walk us through the jungle trails singing you'll never walk alone and something about bubbles which is apparently something to do with west ham. It was most surreal.
PollyA left us on the friday night after giving me a cheeky haircut and then we were down to two :(
Most people were confused why we had come to Manaus and didn't want to do a jungle tour. Er, coz we live in the jungle, thats why.. A week on a boat was my cultured ness for this holiday and in Manaus we wanted to make the most of being in a big city for a change- cue shopping day! I am now fully stocked up on coloured jeans and flip flops for when I come home- Hope there is room in the rucksack.
We left Manaus on Sunday after a cheeky few hours at another river beach as you do. Met Lucy at the Belem airport at 2 in the morning and slept there. Was rudely awaken at 8:15am by a security man or someone who told us, it is inappropriate to be lying down at 8.30, apparently you should be sat up by this time. He proceeded to demonstrate what sitting in a chair looks like. Thanks. When he found out we were English the conversation got even more ridiculous when he went on a rant about how the English are renounced for being proper and eating small sandwiches and being ladylike. OH how we have ruined the reputatin of our nation :S We trudged to check-in, only to find the flight had been cancelled. TYPICAL!!
Instead of a big apology from customer services, what we got was a grunting lady that handed us a piece of paper and pointed us to a taxi. When is the plane going to be, we ask? She looked as if this was the most stupid question anyone could ask! Maybe at 12 tomorrow, but maybe before, or perhaps after. IDeal. Thanks for clearing that one up! The upside of all this is the hotel we were sent to was the Hilton with free food, internet, gym, pool, etc. I had an actual bath and felt the cleanest I had felt in months! We made the most of all the buffets, but then had to spend the same amount of time making the most of the gym to avoid feeling guilty.
We awoke early the next day ready for the 12 (supposedly) plane. At 10am the hotel kindly informed us that we would be staying another night and the plane would leave on wednesday at 7, only a casual 43 hours later than planned. Right, back to the pool.
It was great having an extra little bit of holiday, however, it did mean I missed some work and private tutoring and classic me I had no way to contact the people so I hope they are not too angry. But anyway! I am back now, and frantically trying to think of some ideas to keep my classes entertained for the last two weeks. 14 days from today I will be saying goodbye to st. Laurent for the last time- and I have to admit, I will not really be sad in the slightest. So excited to see everyone and feel like a clean person with a social life again. !!!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Boats, Boats, bit more boats, plenty of rice and a fair bit of staring.
So, luckily, i've managed to find time in between our double lives as Macklemore impersonators to write this update... btw- if you don't know what I'm on about, check out what we have basically done for the past week...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnwP75YZycY&feature=youtu.be
ANYWAY BRAZIL! Its all been a bit of a blur of random fruit juices, locals staring and various fried goods from dodgy looking stands. But in between we have managed to do some exploring and travel what must be AT least a few thousand (feels like it at least) miles up the Amazon. I do not doubt that it is in fact the biggest river in the world. And most probably the brownest.
We finished off in Belem with a tour of the Teatro de Paz, a grandiose European style opera house in the middle of a not so european city. As it was wednesday, the tour was free (my fave kind of tour) AND the tour guide happened to be called Pollyanna. After her telling all her friends about her new friend and her name and various photos, we finally got round to the tour. After a longish talk about all the different types of rubber and wood that went into the flooring (thrilling)... and an analyse of the wallpaper which was in fact paint in the style of wallpaper (actually quite thrilling).... we finally got to see inside. Luckily there was a rehearsal going on so we checked it out and between us music students, we still had no idea what piece they were playing :S
Then it was time for the boat. Of course we got there at 3pm and of course it didn't leave til well gone 7pm and of course Polly A attracted the weirdest half blind crazy man in the docks to come and shout at us for a while. Luckily we were stealth-like when we boarded the boat and waited until we saw him turn left then snuck right and hung up our hammocks in the middle of a friendly looking family, so close together their was some serious spoonage going on... and I'm not talking about me with Polly or Olivia. And so we settled in for a good three nights sleep. Luckily in all the confusion getting on we had managed to plonk ourselves right in front of the toilets- win!
Did I mention the delicious food selection that was available. Oh wait, it was unidentified meat and rice and spaghetti, or, a pot noodle. for breakfast, noon and dinner. Nom. And so it began, plenty of bananagrams, cards (a man tried to buy Polly's harry potter cards... she was not having any of it!), bit of tanning and some stunning stargazing. Me and Pollz are convinced that we saw Mars... well, a reddish looking star at least, and some shooting stars! We went past plenty of little villages and the villager all canoed out to the boat in the hope that we would throw them some food/ toys/whatevs. Sadly we didn't get the memo so we hadn't bought anything for them so there were a few awkward moments of either pretending to be asleep or using the failsafe 'Alemania'... got them every time. There were some good moments- occasionally the music in the bar would change from truly awful to merely vaguely appalling and we could stand to sit up there and eat our carb-heavy dinner with a cheeky coke- the treat of the day.
After three nights in the hammock we were pretty happy to stop off in Santarem for a couple of days. A smaller and much more chilled city than Belem. We went for a fruitless long trek back to the port to try and buy boat tickets, and came home sunburnt, thirsty and hungry. Cue more fruit juice and more fried goods and we slept pretty well in the beds. Until the diarrhoea started sometime in the early hours but we don't' need to go into that...
The next day we visited Alter de Chao a very surreal river beach and clearly the playground for rich Santerem-ians ... we even saw one guy on a jet pack water thing- ridic! Between us we spent most of the time napping under the table in a little bit of shade and downing the Fanta- and filming the video, of course! Cheeky local bus back and we even managed to get off at the right stop!
Well, after almost a full 48 hours on land we were clearly getting bored and ready for another boat so we headed off in a river taxi via the meeting of the waters to the port. The meeting of the waters is where the Amazon river meets another river, the rio negro (black river). Funnily enough, this one is black in colour, unlike the muddy yellow brown of the amazon. Weirdly, when the rivers meet they run side by side for what seems like a long time without the two types of water merging. There is literally a line in the middle of the river where the colour changes. Banter.
Back on the boat. This time we seemed to be in a very small minority of young women on the boat which meant we had to put up with three days of whistling, shouting and hello, hello, good morning, and a whole lot of staring. Ideal. Luckily there was plenty of unidentified meat and rice and spaghetti to take our minds of it. One day they asked if we wanted chicken or beef- oh the excitement! we chose chicken... only to be told that sorry, it was a mistake and that, come d'habitude they only had beef. Ideal. More banangrams, fanta and Polly A taking the role of chief reader of a suspense mystery on her kindle kept us sane. Apart from the casual locust infestation that occurred on the last night :S
Luckily, the first night, I was half asleep when I discovered that what had been itching in my hair was it fact a Grimola locust. I threw it away and thought that was the end of it. Not so lucky. The next day they were back and there were more and the locals took great delight in our squealing and jumping out of the hammocks every time one came near. We were just falling off to sleep when one joker thought it would be funny to take the locust made of grass off of his hat and put it on Olivia's head. She went mental! So much so that they decided to do it again and film it. She could be appearing on Brazil's version of punked anytime soon!
I think that about brings you up to date... the boat was a casual 9 hours late to Manaus but we made it and have found a really nice hostel with delicious free breakfast and the obligatory roof terrace. Polly A is leaving tomorrow- very sad times!!!!!!!! But also, only three weeks until I am back in England, can't really believe its actually happening!
Sadly Polly A is taking the apple store with her so no more wifi devices for me so will probs have to update when I am back in St. Laurent..
Obrigada for reading (that means thank you... the only word i have learnt in Portugese. )
xx
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Holidays, Hammocks and getting Hammed.
Been a busy week for the two Polly's on this side of the ocean. And by busy, I mean a lot of time spent on planes, trains, automobiles (well, mostly boats actually) and a lot of eating various fried foods. NOM. We left St. Laurent at the nifty speed of approximately 40km/h. The people we had agreed to drive to Cayenne in our taxi ad been very french vis-a-vis the size of their luggage, so it turns out two small bags meant two largish suitcases. The peugeot 206 was not a happy bunny and it took us a while to get there...
Iles de Salut were again beautiful on Friday. Bouncy catermeran (however you spell it) journey, leading to general sogginess for most of the day, but whatevs. Spent the night at Olivia's preparing for Brazil by drinking rum and swimming in her pool- classic. Returned the car early on Saturday only to be greeted by a banterous man from the congo in a jeep ready to drive us to the border. Luckily he slowed down to a casual 140km/h when taking sharp corners, so we arrived alive- just about. Yet another cheeky canoe across the border (a new! border for me this time!) and we arrived in Brazil! Happy days, the holidays have begun.
We struggled with our bags (mine and olives being probs about 10kg, a certain other member of our party dragging up the rear with her 37,000kg .... ) and made it to the border stamping place. Haven't a clue want went on but we got a free glass of water out of it and the man stamped the front cover of my passport as there is no room inside. Jokes. We passed the afternoon sat by the river eating bbq and fruit juices for a fraction of the price of what it would cost back in french land just a 10 minute drive away.
Night- bus left at 6pm. Luckily our friend Lucy had gone to the office a few days earlier to reserve us tickets. Apparently such a motley crew of sweaty English people don't rock up too often, so the women handed us a note and said (blahhhhhblahhhablala) which I believe meant oh, this use be for u! and handed us a note from lucy which had been stuck to the bus station desk for 4 days!
Do not be fooled, portugese may be written a bit like spanish, but with the russian mafia accent that it comes with it is completely impossible to understand anything! its the first time I have been in a country without even the basics of the language for a long while and its very strange and frustrating. The whole place has pretty much been laughing at us.
The bus was bumpy but generally uneventful and we arrived to Macapa bus station at 5am. I here experience my first bus station shower, and came out, at 6, refreshed, clean and ready for a 24hr boat journey to the next place. We headed to nearby Santana the buy the boat tickets and discovered that once that was done (the time was now 7am and the boat left a 2pm), there was not a lot else to do in the town. We checked out every bakery in town and every sleazy man in the town (every man) checked out us. We were all ready to get on the boat when 2pm rolled round but the man from the tour office casually informed us it was running a couple of hours late.
It arrived- at last, and we got a good spot for the hammocks. Not to near the engine, or the toilets, or the bar. Right in the middle of the second deck . I was protected by pole which meant no one could hang theirs next to me but Polly A wasn't so lucky and soon her hammock area was swarming with dodgy looking creatures, most of whom spent the whole 24hrs drinking beer and eating toasties from the bar.
It was pretty cool the whole chilling in a hammock staring out at the amazon business lots of green, lots of river, much what you would expect really! Tomorrow we are embarking on a 4-day version of the same thing- will keep you posted as to how that goes!
We arrived in Belem last night, dropped off our stuff at the hostel and headed out for some food and a beer. Luckily there were some russian (sorry portugese accented ) banterouses on another table who invited us to sit with them. We declined, so they took to sending us drinks over the whole night. Later on we ended up sat with them and the free beers turned into free cocktails. All in all a bargain of a night- Luckily Polly J can hold her alcohol enough to find us a taxi back to the hostel- as the others apparently don't remember a thing. Good work team.
Had the day in Belem today- sneaky trip to the cinema this afternoon to see os, lots of cheeky fried food and ice-cream and NO more caiprinhas. Tomorrow we set off for a place called Santarem which is supposed to take about 4 days or something something. Wish us luck!!!
Iles de Salut were again beautiful on Friday. Bouncy catermeran (however you spell it) journey, leading to general sogginess for most of the day, but whatevs. Spent the night at Olivia's preparing for Brazil by drinking rum and swimming in her pool- classic. Returned the car early on Saturday only to be greeted by a banterous man from the congo in a jeep ready to drive us to the border. Luckily he slowed down to a casual 140km/h when taking sharp corners, so we arrived alive- just about. Yet another cheeky canoe across the border (a new! border for me this time!) and we arrived in Brazil! Happy days, the holidays have begun.
We struggled with our bags (mine and olives being probs about 10kg, a certain other member of our party dragging up the rear with her 37,000kg .... ) and made it to the border stamping place. Haven't a clue want went on but we got a free glass of water out of it and the man stamped the front cover of my passport as there is no room inside. Jokes. We passed the afternoon sat by the river eating bbq and fruit juices for a fraction of the price of what it would cost back in french land just a 10 minute drive away.
Night- bus left at 6pm. Luckily our friend Lucy had gone to the office a few days earlier to reserve us tickets. Apparently such a motley crew of sweaty English people don't rock up too often, so the women handed us a note and said (blahhhhhblahhhablala) which I believe meant oh, this use be for u! and handed us a note from lucy which had been stuck to the bus station desk for 4 days!
Do not be fooled, portugese may be written a bit like spanish, but with the russian mafia accent that it comes with it is completely impossible to understand anything! its the first time I have been in a country without even the basics of the language for a long while and its very strange and frustrating. The whole place has pretty much been laughing at us.
The bus was bumpy but generally uneventful and we arrived to Macapa bus station at 5am. I here experience my first bus station shower, and came out, at 6, refreshed, clean and ready for a 24hr boat journey to the next place. We headed to nearby Santana the buy the boat tickets and discovered that once that was done (the time was now 7am and the boat left a 2pm), there was not a lot else to do in the town. We checked out every bakery in town and every sleazy man in the town (every man) checked out us. We were all ready to get on the boat when 2pm rolled round but the man from the tour office casually informed us it was running a couple of hours late.
It arrived- at last, and we got a good spot for the hammocks. Not to near the engine, or the toilets, or the bar. Right in the middle of the second deck . I was protected by pole which meant no one could hang theirs next to me but Polly A wasn't so lucky and soon her hammock area was swarming with dodgy looking creatures, most of whom spent the whole 24hrs drinking beer and eating toasties from the bar.
It was pretty cool the whole chilling in a hammock staring out at the amazon business lots of green, lots of river, much what you would expect really! Tomorrow we are embarking on a 4-day version of the same thing- will keep you posted as to how that goes!
We arrived in Belem last night, dropped off our stuff at the hostel and headed out for some food and a beer. Luckily there were some russian (sorry portugese accented ) banterouses on another table who invited us to sit with them. We declined, so they took to sending us drinks over the whole night. Later on we ended up sat with them and the free beers turned into free cocktails. All in all a bargain of a night- Luckily Polly J can hold her alcohol enough to find us a taxi back to the hostel- as the others apparently don't remember a thing. Good work team.
Had the day in Belem today- sneaky trip to the cinema this afternoon to see os, lots of cheeky fried food and ice-cream and NO more caiprinhas. Tomorrow we set off for a place called Santarem which is supposed to take about 4 days or something something. Wish us luck!!!
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
The Polly-vasion begins...
The countdown to hometime has begun, Polly A est arrivee'd and life in SLM is looking vastly up (aside from the worrying smell of mouse wee that is apparently reeking out my hallway. :S) I headed to Cayenne on friday in a classic car pool to prepare, and also to go out big-style in Cayenne at the one acceptable nightclub. Turns out, it's closed on friday's during lent (you what??)... so like most things in French Guiana it was an epic fail. Still woke up with a vodka headache though- I am deffo loosing my tolerance drinking-style. Got up nice and early, well, 11, and headed to the market for some cheeky Brazilian food to prep me for the voyage that is commencing this very saturday.
Huge strike of luck in that Katherine, one of the other assistants was casually off to the airport to head to La Reunion (!), and I ended up sneaking a lift with her, meaning I could meet her at the airport as a surprise. Turns out it wasn't as surprising as it would been had I not sent her a drunken fb at 4 in the morning announcing that I might be able to come. Either way, I was there and saved her from negotiating a car rental, 3 large bags and a 15km drive back to the centre of cayenne all on her lonesome. After her allowed 20 mins disco snooze, she was back on top form, driving a carload of assistants over to Remire-Montjoly for Lucy's birthday party.
The house for the party was ridiculously nice and we made ourselves at home by the pool with some tasty bbq'ed burgers. I did warn Polly that this was just a little bit not the same as my normal lifestyle in SLM. Everyone around the table laughed. I don't know what they are talking about! I am living the life of luxury.
Lolcano. The highlight of the night was heading down to the beach at midnight to watch some HUGEEE sea turtles laying their eggs. Apparently seeing the big ones is very unusual- now- I don't know how big they get, but I'm pretty sure we saw a BIG one. He was like 2m long and tres wide. Clearly not loving life while he was laying his eggs. Pollz sais she even saw a turtle tear. Turns out even the biggest most increds sea turtles are not enough to keep you interested when its almost 2am and you are jetlagged (Polly A) and hungover (Polly J). We rounded up the troops and snuck back for a good nights sleep.
Sunday we were determined to make the most of the car so headed out to check out some beaches. Pollz lasted approximately 6 seconds before the first "I'm sooooooo hot" was uttered. Hasn't really stopped since if I'm being honest! We drove to Roura to go canoeing. The place was closed. Classic. A tourist destination shut on a weekend- coz that makes sense! We had a chilled picnic on a jetty and then due to my amazing directional skills we ended up at another canoeing place and after a couple of hours training for Rio 2k16, me and Pollz decided we had got caught in one mangrove too many and headed back.
We picked up a cheeky Macdo (WORLDS SMALLEST STRAWBERRY MILKSHAKE) on the way home, packed up our things and went on our way to pick up the randomers we were driving 3 and a half hours across the country. I am always using these car pool things when I come to Cayenne so I thought, If we have a car, why not give back to the community (Read: why should we pay for petrol when randomers can cover the cost?) At first they looked a little apprehensive when our car rocked up. " It's YOU driving to St. Laurent ?? Yes... well, be careful!" What have they never seen two white english girls (one a lot whiter than the other) driving half way across Guyane in a peugeot 206?? On second thought, probs not. We made it there though! Conversation was a little tense for the first hour or 2, but after a misunderstanding and Polly A thinking one of our high-school aged companions was actually the headteacher at the school- they were cracking up all over the place. They guy even asked if he could come to Brazil with us. I told him that sadly, its a girls holiday, so he threw all his crisps over the floor as he was eating them. Great.
We rounded off the weekend with an hour at choir (Pollz bagged a solo and doesn't even speak the language- not bad!) and an hour marking english tests at the bar on the boat.
The last three days have been spent in St. Laurent. Im showing Polly the delights of being an English teacher here, she has been asked the same simple questions by about 9 classes so far... only 2 left this week as friday we are off for Good Friday. Tomorrow she is private tutoring by herself as I am busy with another student. She has so much more of a clue about grammar than I do!
Today was fairly eventful. We went to the market this morn and filled up on delish roti, spring rolls, rambutan, and some other unidentified goodies. We then drove to the beach for a nice afternoon tanning, reading and playing cards. Well... the burning sun stopped any tanning from being possible, the gust of wind stopped any chance of playing cards and the weird men who kept coming over to talk to us stopped any reading that could have happened. We are talking seriously weird. The first one offered us some fish from their bbq- it looked rank, so that was a no. He explained how he was smoking tobacco and not weed- hmm, his unfocused dilated eyes told another story. He finally gave up when it was clear Polly A did not speak French and was more interested in her rambutans than him. Not for long though. The moment that the towels were down, suncream out and shades on, he said over his friend, who luckily (not!) for us, was from Guyana so spoke English. From then on, a very surreal 30 mins ensued. He started by asking me to explain the history of his country. Im sorry, I don't know. But you must know! You went to some big international school (did I) In my country they do not teach us.... we then moved onto his family in England, who apparently never write to him. No seriously, NEVER. he started CRYING. like awkward baby crying. He then got over it soon enough to offer us his amerindien things.
Im not an expert, but Im pretty sure that going to his house for him to give me something that will "show me the world" is not a great idea. I said no politely a couple of times, and then no a little less politely a couple more times. After much fist pumping and hand kissing and general awkwardness he finally left us alone. Unfortunately we had to walk past him again to get the car, which we did fairly sharply when we saw the third one in the group coming to try his luck.
We escaped to another beach, where we put up with a brief sandstorm, a serious ocean current, some dirty water and almost got involved in a random film about SOMETHING that was going on. It all got too much and we retreated to the car- where the SAME weird man was waiting for us. We exited quickly.
Pollz let me steer the car at 130km on the way back- brave lady! We stopped for a drink in the sleepy town of Mana before they kicked us out of the restaurant as it was time for their lunch break and headed back.
We have another couple of exciting days left in Guyane before the brazilian adventure begins on saturday. Who knows where the next post will be from!
xxx
Huge strike of luck in that Katherine, one of the other assistants was casually off to the airport to head to La Reunion (!), and I ended up sneaking a lift with her, meaning I could meet her at the airport as a surprise. Turns out it wasn't as surprising as it would been had I not sent her a drunken fb at 4 in the morning announcing that I might be able to come. Either way, I was there and saved her from negotiating a car rental, 3 large bags and a 15km drive back to the centre of cayenne all on her lonesome. After her allowed 20 mins disco snooze, she was back on top form, driving a carload of assistants over to Remire-Montjoly for Lucy's birthday party.
The house for the party was ridiculously nice and we made ourselves at home by the pool with some tasty bbq'ed burgers. I did warn Polly that this was just a little bit not the same as my normal lifestyle in SLM. Everyone around the table laughed. I don't know what they are talking about! I am living the life of luxury.
Lolcano. The highlight of the night was heading down to the beach at midnight to watch some HUGEEE sea turtles laying their eggs. Apparently seeing the big ones is very unusual- now- I don't know how big they get, but I'm pretty sure we saw a BIG one. He was like 2m long and tres wide. Clearly not loving life while he was laying his eggs. Pollz sais she even saw a turtle tear. Turns out even the biggest most increds sea turtles are not enough to keep you interested when its almost 2am and you are jetlagged (Polly A) and hungover (Polly J). We rounded up the troops and snuck back for a good nights sleep.
Sunday we were determined to make the most of the car so headed out to check out some beaches. Pollz lasted approximately 6 seconds before the first "I'm sooooooo hot" was uttered. Hasn't really stopped since if I'm being honest! We drove to Roura to go canoeing. The place was closed. Classic. A tourist destination shut on a weekend- coz that makes sense! We had a chilled picnic on a jetty and then due to my amazing directional skills we ended up at another canoeing place and after a couple of hours training for Rio 2k16, me and Pollz decided we had got caught in one mangrove too many and headed back.
We picked up a cheeky Macdo (WORLDS SMALLEST STRAWBERRY MILKSHAKE) on the way home, packed up our things and went on our way to pick up the randomers we were driving 3 and a half hours across the country. I am always using these car pool things when I come to Cayenne so I thought, If we have a car, why not give back to the community (Read: why should we pay for petrol when randomers can cover the cost?) At first they looked a little apprehensive when our car rocked up. " It's YOU driving to St. Laurent ?? Yes... well, be careful!" What have they never seen two white english girls (one a lot whiter than the other) driving half way across Guyane in a peugeot 206?? On second thought, probs not. We made it there though! Conversation was a little tense for the first hour or 2, but after a misunderstanding and Polly A thinking one of our high-school aged companions was actually the headteacher at the school- they were cracking up all over the place. They guy even asked if he could come to Brazil with us. I told him that sadly, its a girls holiday, so he threw all his crisps over the floor as he was eating them. Great.
We rounded off the weekend with an hour at choir (Pollz bagged a solo and doesn't even speak the language- not bad!) and an hour marking english tests at the bar on the boat.
The last three days have been spent in St. Laurent. Im showing Polly the delights of being an English teacher here, she has been asked the same simple questions by about 9 classes so far... only 2 left this week as friday we are off for Good Friday. Tomorrow she is private tutoring by herself as I am busy with another student. She has so much more of a clue about grammar than I do!
Today was fairly eventful. We went to the market this morn and filled up on delish roti, spring rolls, rambutan, and some other unidentified goodies. We then drove to the beach for a nice afternoon tanning, reading and playing cards. Well... the burning sun stopped any tanning from being possible, the gust of wind stopped any chance of playing cards and the weird men who kept coming over to talk to us stopped any reading that could have happened. We are talking seriously weird. The first one offered us some fish from their bbq- it looked rank, so that was a no. He explained how he was smoking tobacco and not weed- hmm, his unfocused dilated eyes told another story. He finally gave up when it was clear Polly A did not speak French and was more interested in her rambutans than him. Not for long though. The moment that the towels were down, suncream out and shades on, he said over his friend, who luckily (not!) for us, was from Guyana so spoke English. From then on, a very surreal 30 mins ensued. He started by asking me to explain the history of his country. Im sorry, I don't know. But you must know! You went to some big international school (did I) In my country they do not teach us.... we then moved onto his family in England, who apparently never write to him. No seriously, NEVER. he started CRYING. like awkward baby crying. He then got over it soon enough to offer us his amerindien things.
Im not an expert, but Im pretty sure that going to his house for him to give me something that will "show me the world" is not a great idea. I said no politely a couple of times, and then no a little less politely a couple more times. After much fist pumping and hand kissing and general awkwardness he finally left us alone. Unfortunately we had to walk past him again to get the car, which we did fairly sharply when we saw the third one in the group coming to try his luck.
We escaped to another beach, where we put up with a brief sandstorm, a serious ocean current, some dirty water and almost got involved in a random film about SOMETHING that was going on. It all got too much and we retreated to the car- where the SAME weird man was waiting for us. We exited quickly.
Pollz let me steer the car at 130km on the way back- brave lady! We stopped for a drink in the sleepy town of Mana before they kicked us out of the restaurant as it was time for their lunch break and headed back.
We have another couple of exciting days left in Guyane before the brazilian adventure begins on saturday. Who knows where the next post will be from!
xxx
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Polly the Private Tutor... :S
Now, I am sure you are all dying to know how I am getting on with my injuries. Well, luckily I am looking a lot less like an invalid and a lot more like a normal person... well, normal-ish. The foot is pretty much fine. Definitely a lot lumpier than it was before but whatevs. The elbow is swinging freely as I've given up with the sling. It doesn't hurt unless I try and do something crazy like touch my shoulder (I'm getting there). Only problem is that it does not straighten at all... bit of a weird 30 degree angle going on. Not ideal. The doctor keeps telling me, it'll come, it'll come... but as to how, I'm not really sure. I did some classic googling and found a couple of trusty NHS sheets about exercizes to do for this type of situation. Seems like more help than I am going to get here....
I am, weirdly, seeing the doctor practically everyday now though. Not for medical issues- that would be too simple. This week I have embarked on an exciting new world of private tutoring. Ok, this is not really very exciting, but hey with the extra 10 hours a week work, charging 15 euros an hour I have paid for my Brazil holiday nicely! I posted an announcement on the website for all things Guyane back in January, but, things being as they are here, there was little interest. A couple of people called asking for more info and never phoned back. So, I don't know what happened last week but all of a sudden my phone was ringing practically off the hook (well, you know, a couple of calls a day... which is more than in a normal month)! I'm happy for the interest but, the timing is not great. If I had started earlier I could have earnt loads! But as it stands, Polly A is arriving on Saturday for 3 weeks of absolute banter, and then I only have 2 and a half weeks left of this adventure before I head back Angleterra-side. In short, I was getting pretty used to finishing work at 11am and pretty much wasting the rest of the days napping and generally not being very productive.
Yesterday, I worked my normal school hours (8-11), had my weekly French lesson at 3, followed by three hours of private tutoring. I got home at 7 absolutely knackered. What is wrong with me? That is 7 hours work in total with a break (nap) of 4 hours in the middle. Pizza hut would be laughing at me- the thought of pulling one of my old 11 hour shifts with a 20 minute break is very scary.
I'm teaching a 6-year old (the doctor's daughter) who has a better level of English than most of my 11-year olds in the school. Now anyone who knows me, will know how completely anti-private school I am, but, maybe, here in St. Laurent the situation is a little different. She's very sweet, but I feel like 4-5 hours of English is quite a lot. Often, she'll ask me if she can go and play with her friends..... I want to say yes, but instead I have to be like, NO, we are learning about the family. Shes 6, and speaks fluent french and arabic, and basic english and spanish. Leave her alone!
I am also teaching 2 sisters aged 12/13 who find the work at school too easy and speak really good English. Teaching them is strange because we can do activities that just aren't possible with the school kids. But stressful as it means I actually have to plan for the sessions instead of just thinking, ermmmm, lets play bingo!
My third student is a 14 year old who is really struggling. She probably has the level expected of my 10-year olds. If you look through her english book you'd think she was super advanced though. I asked her about all the long paragraphs and she explains that she copies them all off the board and doesn't understand a thing. Great teaching going on there!
I never thought I would say this, but lately I have been wishing that we had learnt grammar at school. When I get asked WHY for the use of a tense/ irregular verbs/ or in fact anything. My ususal response is, don't worry about that we will do it next time meaning a) I hope they forget and we don't have to worry about it, or b) quick google so I actually have an answer to give them. When in doubt I go with the classic, well, sometimes you just have to learn the rules and there is no real way of explaining.....
In other news, I did a test this week with a couple of my classes. This did not go well, especially when I had tried to make it easy-ish. The highlight was: how are you ? answer: Je ne mange pas du pain (I do not eat bread). I also enjoyed: I hame na dege as an answer to the same question... I totes agree. Oh dear. I worry for them. They have a 3 hour test in English at the end of the year, wayyyy harder than this test. They will not do well. And its not their fault. They are supposed to have 2 english classes each week, but in fact, in most cases, their 45 minutes with me is it. The teachers don't have a clue what they have been doing as they treat it as a snack break, and then, they ask me for my curriculum I have followed for the year.
Ha! sorry.... curriculum? Someone was supposed to give me one? Because, er, that never happened. PollyJ has been living by the curriculum of what I feel like planning on a Sunday. They know I am not a teacher, nor am I supposed to be the principal teacher. Im doing my best, but I really feel like it's just not making any difference because the things I teach are not being reinforced/repeated at all.
Rant over... 3 weeks 2 days of teaching left, and for one of those weeks my lesson plan is: this is my friend Polly A, please ask her some questions in English....
Next blog should hopefully be much more exciting, if Polly A and the rental car make it in one piece to Cayenne on saturday :S One week and a half til Brazil, it's come sooo quickly!
I am, weirdly, seeing the doctor practically everyday now though. Not for medical issues- that would be too simple. This week I have embarked on an exciting new world of private tutoring. Ok, this is not really very exciting, but hey with the extra 10 hours a week work, charging 15 euros an hour I have paid for my Brazil holiday nicely! I posted an announcement on the website for all things Guyane back in January, but, things being as they are here, there was little interest. A couple of people called asking for more info and never phoned back. So, I don't know what happened last week but all of a sudden my phone was ringing practically off the hook (well, you know, a couple of calls a day... which is more than in a normal month)! I'm happy for the interest but, the timing is not great. If I had started earlier I could have earnt loads! But as it stands, Polly A is arriving on Saturday for 3 weeks of absolute banter, and then I only have 2 and a half weeks left of this adventure before I head back Angleterra-side. In short, I was getting pretty used to finishing work at 11am and pretty much wasting the rest of the days napping and generally not being very productive.
Yesterday, I worked my normal school hours (8-11), had my weekly French lesson at 3, followed by three hours of private tutoring. I got home at 7 absolutely knackered. What is wrong with me? That is 7 hours work in total with a break (nap) of 4 hours in the middle. Pizza hut would be laughing at me- the thought of pulling one of my old 11 hour shifts with a 20 minute break is very scary.
I'm teaching a 6-year old (the doctor's daughter) who has a better level of English than most of my 11-year olds in the school. Now anyone who knows me, will know how completely anti-private school I am, but, maybe, here in St. Laurent the situation is a little different. She's very sweet, but I feel like 4-5 hours of English is quite a lot. Often, she'll ask me if she can go and play with her friends..... I want to say yes, but instead I have to be like, NO, we are learning about the family. Shes 6, and speaks fluent french and arabic, and basic english and spanish. Leave her alone!
I am also teaching 2 sisters aged 12/13 who find the work at school too easy and speak really good English. Teaching them is strange because we can do activities that just aren't possible with the school kids. But stressful as it means I actually have to plan for the sessions instead of just thinking, ermmmm, lets play bingo!
My third student is a 14 year old who is really struggling. She probably has the level expected of my 10-year olds. If you look through her english book you'd think she was super advanced though. I asked her about all the long paragraphs and she explains that she copies them all off the board and doesn't understand a thing. Great teaching going on there!
I never thought I would say this, but lately I have been wishing that we had learnt grammar at school. When I get asked WHY for the use of a tense/ irregular verbs/ or in fact anything. My ususal response is, don't worry about that we will do it next time meaning a) I hope they forget and we don't have to worry about it, or b) quick google so I actually have an answer to give them. When in doubt I go with the classic, well, sometimes you just have to learn the rules and there is no real way of explaining.....
In other news, I did a test this week with a couple of my classes. This did not go well, especially when I had tried to make it easy-ish. The highlight was: how are you ? answer: Je ne mange pas du pain (I do not eat bread). I also enjoyed: I hame na dege as an answer to the same question... I totes agree. Oh dear. I worry for them. They have a 3 hour test in English at the end of the year, wayyyy harder than this test. They will not do well. And its not their fault. They are supposed to have 2 english classes each week, but in fact, in most cases, their 45 minutes with me is it. The teachers don't have a clue what they have been doing as they treat it as a snack break, and then, they ask me for my curriculum I have followed for the year.
Ha! sorry.... curriculum? Someone was supposed to give me one? Because, er, that never happened. PollyJ has been living by the curriculum of what I feel like planning on a Sunday. They know I am not a teacher, nor am I supposed to be the principal teacher. Im doing my best, but I really feel like it's just not making any difference because the things I teach are not being reinforced/repeated at all.
Rant over... 3 weeks 2 days of teaching left, and for one of those weeks my lesson plan is: this is my friend Polly A, please ask her some questions in English....
Next blog should hopefully be much more exciting, if Polly A and the rental car make it in one piece to Cayenne on saturday :S One week and a half til Brazil, it's come sooo quickly!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
How not to get a good nights sleep...
Now, my humble abode here in SLM has never been known for its amazing making-sleeping-easy-ness... however, I normally manage to get my 8 hours... or potentially 16 if we are talking about this last week when I have been off work due to the silly bicycle incident. But seriously... last night, I had not managed to get in my usual afternoon disco-snooze, and the cast had made comfortable sleeping positions difficult, so I was very much looking forward to going to bed after a film. Apparently this was too much to ask for...
1) I knew it was a bad sign when I came home from work yesterday morning and the FAN had finally given up life. It had been struggling for a while, taking longer and longer to warm up to full speed when you turned it on. As such I had left it on solidly for a week... probs not the best idea, but it worked, for the week. And then it did not work, thus, no nap for PollyJ as it was just too hot. As I am a massive cheap-skate I seriously contemplated trying to survive til the end without a fan... I have since changed my mind.
2) The bed has always been hideous. It was brought because it was the absolute cheapest option, and I can see why. It's not helped by the fact that I only have a foam mattress to put on it, so I have the lovely feeling of the wooden planks all down my spine most nights. This I have learnt to cope with, but, when not one, but two of the planks broke yesterday meaning half of me and the mattress sank towards the ground whilst the other half stayed up... I got to the point where I felt the wooden floor would honestly be more comfy.
3) In my attempt to combat the lack of fan situation, I left the curtains and the "windows" (ha! slats of plastic in a frame... not able to fully close anyway) open. Great idea. Until the mosquito population of the Maroni Massif descended on my chambre for a fiesta. I am looking forward to the forthcoming dengue fever- apparently there is an epidemic in Cayenne... its only a matter of time...
4) I also left the door open to get some air. My housemate was having a rather loud and apparently bad signalled conversation with his fam in africa so already not ideal but I persevered. The buzzing of the mosquitos were drowning it out anyway.
I was almost asleep... half way gone AT least. And then I heard a rustle from my food shelf. Oh, its my friendly neighbourhood lizard come to say hello I thought. I don't really like him but he is not too bad and there is no way to get rid of him as he can slither under the door. The rustling continued, a bit louder than usual, enough to make me get up and put on the light. To my surprise I was greeted by a MOUSE face peeking out of one of the legs of my table. It was way to furry to be my lizard friend. NIGHTMARE. We had known that there was at least one mouse in the house for a couple of days but up until this point I had thought that my room was a safe zone, appaz not. I stood up to scare it, and it ran under the bed. GREAT.
I then spent an hour pulling out everything from under the bed out in the hall- DO NOT want a dead mouse in my rucksack when I leave in May. I tried to fix the broken bed in the process. By this time it was distinctly past the starting time of 11pm. By the time I was fairly sure the mouse was not near the bed, it was pretty late. Even then I was lying awake for hours due to heat, the bites, and the noises seemingly everywhere.
I finally must have got to sleep sometime around 3. Just in time to be woken up by my housemate going for her early shift at the hospital, because I had left the door open...
Loving life.... Even worse... I had the torture of explaining a fry-up to four classes this morning without being able to eat one :( !!
I have since brought a fan... seen the mouse in the kitchen and covered myself in repellent... I am finally ready for a nap... can't wait to see what disturbs me next!
Friday, March 8, 2013
Update on the invalid
So, woke up Monday morning aiming
to go to school, took one step out of bed, thought, oh no, foot still hurts,
off to hospital we go again. This time I was prepared, and took a milkshake and
a croissant to keep me from starving through the potentially very long wait. I
managed to time it immaculately well, however, because, when I was hobbling
over to the “urgences”, one of the guys from choir, a doctor at the hospital,
shuffled me through a separate door, examined the foot, got me a meeting with
the specialist and within an hour I had had an x-ray of my foot an argument
with the payment man about how my travel insurance was actually valid and
another appointment with the doctor. Luckily, according to him, nothing is
broken in the foot, however 5 days on it is still very sore and it a very
impressive shade of purple. He also took a look at the elbow x-ray, and, though
I’m not entirely sure, it sounded like he said something to the effect of, this
is not broken, I don’t understand why they have put a cast on it. So who knows,
maybe he will take the cast off when I go and see him again next Monday? He
also signed me off work for the week which is the reason I have been asleep for
approximately 18 of the last 24 hours. I still have bags under my eyes, how is this
possible!
So, today I am trying to make an
effort to not do absolutely nothing. However, the internet is down which means
no access to online dictionaries which means pretty much all my uni work is out
of the window. But it also means downloading films are out of the window-
nightmare! I am trying to read water for elephants in French, I guess I will
have to crack on with that. I’m also very afraid of losing the tan from being
inside all week, might have to have a nap in the courtyard a bit later on. My
life is like actually so hard! I really need to get some food. A packet of
super-noodles, a tin of tuna and some flour and one egg is not going to sustain
me for much longer. However, the supermarket is too far to walk and the local
shops are just so pathetic. They have tins of vegetables and potentially some
cheese if you are lucky and that my friends, is pretty much it. That, teamed
with the fact that even when I have the food, it is pretty much impossible to
cook anything nice with one hand/ eat it, so I’m pretty much wasting away here.
I do think that microwaveable popcorn is a potentially one handed affair so
might have to crack on and buy a few packets.
I wish there was more to report
but sadly it seems the highlight of my day today will be trying to wash my hair
with one arm. There are only so many days in a row where using dry shampoo is
acceptable. So-hope to have something more exciting to say next week! Bye for
now.
Monday, March 4, 2013
The one where Polly breaks her elbow
Hey viewers, I'm back. Wish I had a Banterous topic for today's blog, but alas no. Instead we get to talk about many hours in a hospital, falling off things and organising insurance in a foreign country. Great fun. At least it'll be short as I am only able to type with my left hand. What a mare.
So, Saturday afternoon. It hadn't been a particularly eventful saturday, so I went for a run to make e feel like I had done something worthwhile with the day. I was fairly impressed with myself...managed to do almost a full hour! I came home, decided there was still a good hour of sunshine left and rushed out again with my book and sunglasses to watch the sunset. On the way my mudguard check catching making a loud squeling noise so I tried to kick it back into place. My flip-flop got tangled in the wheel, along with my foot and splat. MAN DOWN. Some kids asked if I was ca va? I was like of course, ca va tres bien whilst thinking ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
I made it home, and paced around the room for a bit. im fine, sleep it off.... and this was a great idea until I looked in the mirror and noticed my right arm was deffo not doing the same as the left. Had it always been this bent??? hmm probs not. I hobbled along t the hospital (not eating as I foolishly thought there would be a cafe, or at least a vending machine. ha! After 3 hours of waiting, I shuffled along for an x-ray having not even spoken to a doctor. After another hour or so, someone arrived to let me know it was a little bit broken. I mean what is that?? Surely it is or it isn't... 2 more hours and I was having a cast put on my arm. By this time it was 2 in the morning and I was delirious with starvation.
Hobbled home amongst the drunkn hobos, to find the 8ft gate (only entry to house) locked. I should point out that this door is broken and has not been locked for months! great work, whoever had that good idea! I cried hysterically for a bit, called a couple of people to no avail, did some serious gate banging and shouting...nothing. I did not want to sleep with the hobos, and foolishy, seeing the neighbours dustbin hanging about, i thought, yeah, i can climb this 8ft gate with my arm in a brand new cast. It must have been quite a sight to see me dangling with both legs over the gate arms flailing, but somehow i managed to pull myself upright. So now, im sat on an 8ft gate, with one arm, and I have to get down.
In an effort to protect the arm I landed heavily on the feet and had to hop upstairs. But I was in, and there was some stale banana bread and an uncomfortable nights sleep waiting for me....
THIS saga is not quite over but my left arm is tres tired. More tomorrow if I can be bothered :)
So, Saturday afternoon. It hadn't been a particularly eventful saturday, so I went for a run to make e feel like I had done something worthwhile with the day. I was fairly impressed with myself...managed to do almost a full hour! I came home, decided there was still a good hour of sunshine left and rushed out again with my book and sunglasses to watch the sunset. On the way my mudguard check catching making a loud squeling noise so I tried to kick it back into place. My flip-flop got tangled in the wheel, along with my foot and splat. MAN DOWN. Some kids asked if I was ca va? I was like of course, ca va tres bien whilst thinking ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
I made it home, and paced around the room for a bit. im fine, sleep it off.... and this was a great idea until I looked in the mirror and noticed my right arm was deffo not doing the same as the left. Had it always been this bent??? hmm probs not. I hobbled along t the hospital (not eating as I foolishly thought there would be a cafe, or at least a vending machine. ha! After 3 hours of waiting, I shuffled along for an x-ray having not even spoken to a doctor. After another hour or so, someone arrived to let me know it was a little bit broken. I mean what is that?? Surely it is or it isn't... 2 more hours and I was having a cast put on my arm. By this time it was 2 in the morning and I was delirious with starvation.
Hobbled home amongst the drunkn hobos, to find the 8ft gate (only entry to house) locked. I should point out that this door is broken and has not been locked for months! great work, whoever had that good idea! I cried hysterically for a bit, called a couple of people to no avail, did some serious gate banging and shouting...nothing. I did not want to sleep with the hobos, and foolishy, seeing the neighbours dustbin hanging about, i thought, yeah, i can climb this 8ft gate with my arm in a brand new cast. It must have been quite a sight to see me dangling with both legs over the gate arms flailing, but somehow i managed to pull myself upright. So now, im sat on an 8ft gate, with one arm, and I have to get down.
In an effort to protect the arm I landed heavily on the feet and had to hop upstairs. But I was in, and there was some stale banana bread and an uncomfortable nights sleep waiting for me....
THIS saga is not quite over but my left arm is tres tired. More tomorrow if I can be bothered :)
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Off to the Home of Blue Curacao (thats Cu-ra-Souw not Ku-ra-kow)
Before leaving for Curacao, I have to admit, that, like most people, I had pretty much no idea what/where it was. Except that Blue Curacao is a main ingredient in a blue lagoon cocktail, on in fact most cocktails that are blue in colour. Well. That was good enough for me, and after yet another canoe/border-crossing/taxi/hostelinparimaribo/taxitoairport scenario we were on our way. Well, after a 2 hour delay which the check in desk neglected to tell us about. One guy told us he thought it was delayed 2 hours, another man in a shop said we were lucky it was only two, and that normally its at least 4! We did the only reasonable thing: bought a bottle of cheap rum and played some cards.This delay was actually rather annoying as it pretty much messed up all our arrangements for the first night. Kaia (one of the two drivers in the group) missed the pick-up for her rental car, couldn't get hold of anyone so we had to get a taxi... when we rocked up to the apartment, turns out it was a gated community that you couldn't get into without a remote-control , and in actual fact we didn't even know the number of the house, even if we could get inside. All we had was a number of a man in the phillipines that owned it- useful! Some of us snuck off in the one successful car-rental to provide everyone with big macs for what could be a long night sleeping outside the gate, but LUCKILY in our absense, a woman appeared at the gate with a key and all was good. Sadly in the kuffufle we missed the last night of carnival parade- not that best start!
I started the next morning as I meant to go one- cheeky bit of yoga by the pool. Shame this was the only time I did any exercize the whole holiday! Later on the others arrived having successfully rented a second car and we trundled off to check out a nearby beach for a swim in the clear blue caribbean sea- a world away from the manky brown of the Maroni river- thank god! I got sunburnt- classic, and as a result I had to wear my hair in pigtail plaits to disguise the redness, which turned me into my dutch alter-ego Helga who made various appearances throughout the week. (Curacao is a former dutch colony, part of the netherlands antilles, as such ALL tourists are beautiful, tall, tanned, dutch people, unless they are one of the thousands of americans rocking up on a cruise ship most days.)It's all very good that I fitted in, being tanned, and having (mostly) blond hair these days... however it is unfortunate that Hello is the same in dutch- meaning that, even if I put on my most english accent on when I said it... the response would almost always come in dutch. "Hello, rose wine please" thus became my opener to avoid any confusion- bit awkward when you forget that this only really works in a bar-like situation :S
The second day was Kaia's birthday which we celebrated in a restaurant serving iguana stew after a long hard day exploring beaches, and caves and testing out the underwater camera. The owner was awesome, and the menu was a "walking one"- basically he told you what you wanted and you said yes, thankyou! The dessert was a rather dubious green, chemical looking cake, which was apparently strawberry flavoured. Hmm... tasted more like spray paint to me but whatevs .
Friday was a very expensive, yet very nice day trip.... (Im not sure I could ever say it was WORTH it, given the $100 price-tag. For that there would have had to have been a submarine ride, or a helicopter to nearby Venezuela. It was great though- the highlight being the lunchtime BBQ. Seriously the first time I have eaten meat other than Ham slices since Miami at christmas. Nom Nom. Spent the afternoon snorkelling with sea turtles and reading my book on a sunlounger under a palm tree. LIFE IS HARD. We weren't feeling too tired after the two-hour boat trip back to the main island, so we attempted a night out. Now, I don't know where all the dutch tourists were hiding, but they deffo weren't in the beach clubs we were in, or in the town centre in the popular bars, or at the casino.... Faux Pas. At least we TRIED to have a night out. in the end I got some Mcdonalds nuggets, lost $6 at the casino and snuggled up watching that 70's show dubbed in Spanish. Good one.Saturday we checked out Willemstad- the city on the island, and joined the herds of cruise-shippers that were lurking in every bar, attraction or souvenir shop. I bought some sexy travel trousers to add to the collection, had a $3 lunch at a Venezuelan place and hung out on the floating bridge which swings open and closes when boats want to come through. A bell rings and then a buzzer rings warning you how much time you have until it swings over far enough that the end is dangling in the middle of the sea, causing people to run and attempt some pretty snazzy jumps to make it over in time. Seriously- I have never seen caribbean people move this quickly! That night we actually had our first, and pretty much last successful night-out at the open-air club called Bermuda. I was loving the rose and woke up feeling rather ill and with a lot less money left than I was expecting. Apparently there was lots of sean-paul and I had a lovely time :D all good.... except for the fact you had to pay for the toilets, despite having paid for entry. RIP OFF. As such Sunday was pretty much a write off, laying on the beach recovering day. We had a fairly early night as Monday we were attempting a mountain.
Ok, so it wasn't massive, but it was called a mountain, and it was the highest point of Curacao, and yes, I attempted it in flip-flops, which was fun at the end when it became more rock-climbing than hiking. The dutch tourists took great delight in this and we had many conversations which consisted of them speaking dutch, pointing at my feet and me smiling, and giving my best "I know right, How silly am I?" face, without admitting that I don't actually have a clue what they just said. After the 2 hour walk, and some driving around the national park to make the most of paying to enter, the shit hit the fan slightly when one of our tyres decided to completely pop and leave us stranded half way up a big hill in the middle of nowhere driving on the rim. Bueno. How many english assistants does it take to change a tyre? Apparently more than 5, as none of us had a clue. We drove on the rim a bit further, then, after remembering that it was a rented car and that we shouldn't take too many chances we gave up, and me and Hannah power-walked to the welcome desk in the midday heat. Only to find that shortly after we arrived, sweating profusely, the car rocked up with a spare tire, courtesy of some nice men more capable than us in another car. A cheeky trip to a tire shop to find a tire that looked like ours without mentioning a thing to the rental company (tires are NOT covered on insurance!) and we were back on our way (after a much-needed smoothie to recuperate).
The rest of the time was a bit of blur between cocktails in jazz-bars, lazy days on beaches, MORE travel-trouser buying and before you know it we were back at the airport. BOO. I saved the day for a french couple when I translated for them that their flight was cancelled and that they would have to wait until the next day. Apparently the airline was in the process of sorting them out a hotel. Ha! Bad luck!---- Awkward moment, when, 5 mins later we arrive at the front of the queue to find that their plane was in fact our plane.Banter. Annoying for some, but JUST what I was hoping for! A free taxi ride, to a free hotel worth $230 in the city centre, with free food for lunch, dinner and breakfast. WHAT A HARDSHIP. I wish my plane would get cancelled more often. I used the extra day to check out the cinema (zerodarkthirty- well tense!) and attempt another night at the casino. This one was more successful, $5 up, free beer and burger... whoop! But all too soon, I was forced out of my ridiculously comfy king-size bed and it was time to ACTUALLY get the plane :(
28 days til Polly A arrives, 4 weeks of more getting fit and healthy and being bored before the banter bus gets rolling again !
Friday, February 8, 2013
Carnaval and other unrelated Guyane banter
The holidays are finally here! I know, I know... whats that you say? It seems like yesterday I was raving it up in Miami? Well, it wasn't quite yesterday, but it was only 5 weeks ago. Definitely time for me to be off again- This time to Curacao! Working for the French government does have its perks! (albeit not many). The holidays are for carnaval, and EVERYONE gets a 5-day weekend to celebrate. The three biggest days of carnaval are monday tuesday and the finale next wednesday. I am missing all of them- oops. I LOVE the idea, a huge street party once a week for weeks on end culminating in a week long party, costumes, dancing, drums, etc. BUT its just putting the ideas into practice that poses the problems. I don't want to be rude about my adoptive territory, but, its hardly RIO. Donning a sweaty, not to mention hideous polyester costume complete with mask and then being forced to pick old lechy men to grind with is not my idea of a banterous friday night. And although the parades are fun, Im not really sure how a group of 'hoodlum's wearing gorilla masks running in the streets and making as many children cry as possible fits into the theme. RANT over.
There are a couple of Carnaval pluses! The galette de rois, a pretty tasty almond flavoured cake which has a little toy hidden in one slice and if it's in your slice you get to wear the king's crown which comes with the cake. Erm... I have been working a lot less these past couple of weeks: apparently English class with PollyJ just doesn't make the cut when there is carnaval-related cutting and sticking to be done! Today, I went to the carnval party at one of my schools- much more my level than the awkward adult ones. I arrived just as the procession was starting. Each class had a different theme, supposedly to do with nature, so we had elves, trees, lots of leaves, etc. One particularly banterous teacher had decided it would be a great idea to make his class wear swimming gear and then paint them entirely blue. It was quite a sight! We paraded around the dirt tracks of the village to an audience of about 25, most of whom decided they could watch from their hammock as opposed to bothering to get up. After the tour, they sang a song- and then out of nowhere, everyone whipped out a bag of flour and it was a full-on war!
Apparently, teachers should be treated with respect, whereas English assistants are fairgame!
Some of my students were nice enough to give me some of their flour to be able to retaliate but the damade was done. I definitely got some very weird looks when I biked home looking like this!
In other news... I am becoming worryingly Caribbean in my attitude in some ways. Please do not read the following and think, hang on, I think the word she is looking for is LAZY. its not. its Caribbean. So there.
I don't know whether its the heat, the lack of things to do, the invitingness of the bed, the lack of working hours, or the rain, but recently I struggle to accomplish even simple tasks in a day.
Seriously- In England, if I have things to do, I can generally get them all done super fast in an errand-hour/ occasionally afternoon.
Here= different story.
What shall I do today ? Some lesson planning? A blog perhaps? That insurance form I have been meaning to do since November? The bank transfer I have needed for 3 months? The answer is probably that none of these things will get done. By 10pm, If I have managed to eat at least 2 meals, do a songs worth of sit-ups and have a cheeky skype, I feel the day has been fairly productive. Yesterday, I even squeezed in a jam tart- and a two hour skype with wine involved. Productivity through the roof.
The thing is: yes, I should crack with my year-abroad essay, I should probably think of a topic for next weeks lessons or plan the trip to Brazil in April. However, the essay isn't due til June, the kids will never notice if I put in 3 hours planning or 3 minutes, and if I rock up in Brazil on the 1st April, everything will probably be ok regardless of planning. I have never been a one for deadlines- I hate the idea of leaving essays til the last minute, and when I want, I can be quite organised. But here there is just NO motivation. This week there has been NOTHING that actually needs to be done THIS WEEK. I feel I have learnt that though I am not a fan of routine and monotony- Some semblance of structure/ purpose in life is probably useful! (I am sure I will eat these words when I am a final year student with lots of deadlines and things to do, people to see, places to be... )
Today I actually managed to put all my insurance forms in one plastic wallet! Who knows, maybe sometime after curacao I will get round to photocopying them?
In the meanwhile, I will be lying on the beach drinking a blue lagoon- blue curacao is clearly from curacao??? right??? SO, potench I will too busy to write a blog next week- hope you can all cope!
There are a couple of Carnaval pluses! The galette de rois, a pretty tasty almond flavoured cake which has a little toy hidden in one slice and if it's in your slice you get to wear the king's crown which comes with the cake. Erm... I have been working a lot less these past couple of weeks: apparently English class with PollyJ just doesn't make the cut when there is carnaval-related cutting and sticking to be done! Today, I went to the carnval party at one of my schools- much more my level than the awkward adult ones. I arrived just as the procession was starting. Each class had a different theme, supposedly to do with nature, so we had elves, trees, lots of leaves, etc. One particularly banterous teacher had decided it would be a great idea to make his class wear swimming gear and then paint them entirely blue. It was quite a sight! We paraded around the dirt tracks of the village to an audience of about 25, most of whom decided they could watch from their hammock as opposed to bothering to get up. After the tour, they sang a song- and then out of nowhere, everyone whipped out a bag of flour and it was a full-on war!
Some of my students were nice enough to give me some of their flour to be able to retaliate but the damade was done. I definitely got some very weird looks when I biked home looking like this!
In other news... I am becoming worryingly Caribbean in my attitude in some ways. Please do not read the following and think, hang on, I think the word she is looking for is LAZY. its not. its Caribbean. So there.
I don't know whether its the heat, the lack of things to do, the invitingness of the bed, the lack of working hours, or the rain, but recently I struggle to accomplish even simple tasks in a day.
Seriously- In England, if I have things to do, I can generally get them all done super fast in an errand-hour/ occasionally afternoon.
Here= different story.
What shall I do today ? Some lesson planning? A blog perhaps? That insurance form I have been meaning to do since November? The bank transfer I have needed for 3 months? The answer is probably that none of these things will get done. By 10pm, If I have managed to eat at least 2 meals, do a songs worth of sit-ups and have a cheeky skype, I feel the day has been fairly productive. Yesterday, I even squeezed in a jam tart- and a two hour skype with wine involved. Productivity through the roof.
The thing is: yes, I should crack with my year-abroad essay, I should probably think of a topic for next weeks lessons or plan the trip to Brazil in April. However, the essay isn't due til June, the kids will never notice if I put in 3 hours planning or 3 minutes, and if I rock up in Brazil on the 1st April, everything will probably be ok regardless of planning. I have never been a one for deadlines- I hate the idea of leaving essays til the last minute, and when I want, I can be quite organised. But here there is just NO motivation. This week there has been NOTHING that actually needs to be done THIS WEEK. I feel I have learnt that though I am not a fan of routine and monotony- Some semblance of structure/ purpose in life is probably useful! (I am sure I will eat these words when I am a final year student with lots of deadlines and things to do, people to see, places to be... )
Today I actually managed to put all my insurance forms in one plastic wallet! Who knows, maybe sometime after curacao I will get round to photocopying them?
In the meanwhile, I will be lying on the beach drinking a blue lagoon- blue curacao is clearly from curacao??? right??? SO, potench I will too busy to write a blog next week- hope you can all cope!
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
A Standard Week in My Ridiculous Life
So, as many of you are wandering, I'm sure, what on earth I actually do with my days given that my work schedule is 12-hours a week, (if that) I feel now is the time to give you a sneek peek of the life of PollyJ here in SLM. Don't get too excited.
Monday- We start the week at a classic 7.00am. This is something I will NOT be adapting back in England life. Don't worry, there is plenty of snooze-ing done, usually until the last possible moment, as in, out of bed 7.47am- leave house at 8. If there is no time for breakfast, a strawberry milkshake from the "chinois/ corner shop" will have to do. 8.15- My first class of the week. This lucky class get to test out my lesson plan for the week, before all the other classes, generally meaning its in need of a bit of improvement. But, I like these guys- generally good banter. UNLIKE class number 2. I generally have some chocolate in the break to psych myself up for it but it doesn't do much good. They are the worst of the week consistently. I walk in, teacher walks out for a snack, chat, and general free hour. Kids go wild. I sit and wait... sometimes for half the class. We get round to the date, I send a couple of people out. I ask "how are you?" they reply "yes". I explain that this doesn't make sense and the class is finished. Teacher has not returned so I leave them and go next door. To the young'uns- meaning they're cute, but they don't understand. If, after an hour someone stands up when I ask who is wearing 'green' we have done well.
And that's it for the days work. 11am- I'm out of there! Sometime between 11 and 6 I will fit in the weekly food shop. More and more depressing as the weeks go by. I just cannot live permanently in a place where bread, milk, eggs, salami cheese and juice with the odd tin of veg costs 30 pounds. Thing is, even if I had all the money in the world, there is nothing to spend it on. There just isn't the choice. And that's when the shop is full! Often, there are whole aisles empty, waiting for a delivery from France. There was cheese-gate at the beginning of January and Peanut-butter-gate has been ongoing for a while now. 33 types of pasta does not make up for the fact that there is only one type of sauce for the pasta... tomato.
Sometimes I teach a private lesson on Mondays, but if not thats about it until Yoga at 6. Thankfully the easy class is on Mondays, so its mostly stretching, ommm-ing, lots of lying down, namaste, au revoir. My kind of exercize. Monday night is normally write blog night, epic fail this week as you can see.
Tuesday- Same thing, three hours at a school 8-11 (My favourite school). The teachers are organised, they tell me what to do, and they control the class when they don't listen. Sort of, like, what they are supposed to do! Sometimes I even get an e-mail the day before informing me of what I will be expected to do- what a treat! In the afternoon I do a class with some adults - primary school teachers who have to learn English to be able to teach it in their classes. Sometimes 1 person shows up, if we are lucky, 3. I bore them with my poor grammar knowledge and a banal role-play that I have been told to do, everyone leaves, thankful it is over for another week.
Tuesday evening is a bit of a loose end. No yoga, pool closed, not even the juice place by the river is open! Awkward. I'll watch a film, faff around or maybe go for a bike ride. Or, do some baking, which is planning to get into as of now.
Wednesday- Another 3 hours at school- yet again a different one. I teach 4 classes for 40 mins each, although normally at least one teacher is absent. They don't replace teachers here. They tell the kids not to come, and if anyone shows up they get lumped in with another class to do some colouring. great solution. Sometimes, the kids have been naughty and are not allowed to have an English class- even less work. Either way, I end up doing not very much. I head to the market when I'm done, tomatoes, bananas, lettuce, and for a special treat Peppers! are usually on the list. Again, fairly uninspiring, same stuff every week, although there is a stall that does a nice slice of raspberry tart!
Wednesday lunch is the first swim of the week- I always aim for 100 lengths but, generally I consider anything over 80 lengths to be an acceptable amount to justify the raspberry tart. Lots of faffing, and soon enough its 6pm, yoga class number 2. No relaxing here. The poster is put up on the wall. You do 5 sun salutation A, 5 sun salutation B and you are off. You follow the postures on the poster, nobody talks, and the teacher comes round and sometimes moves you into the right position. The best part by far is the lying down at the end- if you rush through the positions, sometimes you can even fit in a cheeky nap!
Thursday- The dreaded hour of 6.30am is seen once a week as I have to be teaching by 8 but the school is a half an hour bike ride away. I teach some more little ones. We played simon says on the first day, and everything I have done since has been a let down for them. The teacher told me to just send people out if they misbehave, even if I only have one person left at the end. Its quite fun. How are you? Yes! Are you tired? Yes! So you want to sleep? No! You're hungry? No, who want's food? Yes... and so on... ridiculous.
I have an hour break between classes so I sit by the river, eat a precious apple (literally a euro each)- and then its back on the bike to go half an hour further down the road. I reach the school sweating ridiculously having had to walk up the biggest hill in the area because I have still not succeeded in biking all the way to the top. 45 minutes of heads, shoulders, knees and toes has pretty much kept me going since october, although we did make snowflakes at christmas for a bit of variety. 11am and I'm off back to SLM, a delightful hour on the bike in the midday heat.
At the beginning of the year I would sometimes go to the cinema on Thursdays, but, sadly, it has closed down, because they don't even make films in the format the the cinema runs on anymore. I mean, seriously. Occasionally they show old documentaries but not often. If not, its a cookie and a juice by the river and some book reading. Thrilling.
Friday- Time for a lie-in. Today I can snooze until 8.40am because I don't have to leave until 9! I make it to the school for half past, but luckily the break always goes long and I only end up having to teach for about 20 minutes. Its the same class as thursday. The only class I teach two times a week, and the ones that understand the least. I am also their ONLY english teacher. Given that I have no idea of the curriculum for their age (or in fact any age I teach)- one can only hope some of it will be relevant in the future. As we only have 20 mins, I never plan much apart from, er, finish what we did yesterday. The day break finishes on time I am up shit creek. Oh wait- we are in Guyane. The break will never finish on time.
I then teach two of the nicest/ highest level classes of the week which is a nice end to the week and then bike home at lunch time in rush hour! (ha!) Seriously, there is a bigger rush hour here at lunchtime than there is in the morning or the evening. People must seriously be craving crepes and baguette!
If it is an exciting weeked (probably not) I will then hitchhike/ taxi/ carshare to somewhere more exciting and see some other assistants. If not, the friday night highlight is another 100 lengths at the pool. Before christmas we used to go out to some bars for a boogie, but to be honest it's the same thing every night, and I do not want random old rasta's grinding up on me and stinking of weed, paying paris prices in a shack in the middle of nowhere. So... I haven't been for a while.
Saturday- Definite lie-in, this time a proper one as I have nothing to get up for :D Then its off to the market to stock up on raspberry tart. Sometimes I go crazy and get a couple of spring rolls, a samosa and call it a picnic! whoop! Movie in the afternoon perhaps, bike ride and some more cookies and juice in the evening! possibilities are endless
Sunday- Another lie-in, obvs. Then another 100 lengths. Go me. Then its lesson planning day. I don't know why I always leave it last minute but I do. Every week I plan to do something exciting and different, every week it gets to sunday and im like, hmm, ok lets do... the alphabet. Planning done. I generally have a marathon skype afternoon with however is available and then... as it is carnival season, around 4-5 the parade starts, it gets to loud to hear so I go outside grab an ice-cream and watch.
Sunday evening is choir time- we have a concert in April and already know all the songs, but seriously I doubt we'll be ready. The level is, shall we say, not quite university standard. On the plus side, its something to do and everyone is friendly :D
And that my friends, is about it. Im sure you're all wildly jealous. NOT. Hope my life hasn't been to boring for you :D xxx
Monday- We start the week at a classic 7.00am. This is something I will NOT be adapting back in England life. Don't worry, there is plenty of snooze-ing done, usually until the last possible moment, as in, out of bed 7.47am- leave house at 8. If there is no time for breakfast, a strawberry milkshake from the "chinois/ corner shop" will have to do. 8.15- My first class of the week. This lucky class get to test out my lesson plan for the week, before all the other classes, generally meaning its in need of a bit of improvement. But, I like these guys- generally good banter. UNLIKE class number 2. I generally have some chocolate in the break to psych myself up for it but it doesn't do much good. They are the worst of the week consistently. I walk in, teacher walks out for a snack, chat, and general free hour. Kids go wild. I sit and wait... sometimes for half the class. We get round to the date, I send a couple of people out. I ask "how are you?" they reply "yes". I explain that this doesn't make sense and the class is finished. Teacher has not returned so I leave them and go next door. To the young'uns- meaning they're cute, but they don't understand. If, after an hour someone stands up when I ask who is wearing 'green' we have done well.
And that's it for the days work. 11am- I'm out of there! Sometime between 11 and 6 I will fit in the weekly food shop. More and more depressing as the weeks go by. I just cannot live permanently in a place where bread, milk, eggs, salami cheese and juice with the odd tin of veg costs 30 pounds. Thing is, even if I had all the money in the world, there is nothing to spend it on. There just isn't the choice. And that's when the shop is full! Often, there are whole aisles empty, waiting for a delivery from France. There was cheese-gate at the beginning of January and Peanut-butter-gate has been ongoing for a while now. 33 types of pasta does not make up for the fact that there is only one type of sauce for the pasta... tomato.
Sometimes I teach a private lesson on Mondays, but if not thats about it until Yoga at 6. Thankfully the easy class is on Mondays, so its mostly stretching, ommm-ing, lots of lying down, namaste, au revoir. My kind of exercize. Monday night is normally write blog night, epic fail this week as you can see.
Tuesday- Same thing, three hours at a school 8-11 (My favourite school). The teachers are organised, they tell me what to do, and they control the class when they don't listen. Sort of, like, what they are supposed to do! Sometimes I even get an e-mail the day before informing me of what I will be expected to do- what a treat! In the afternoon I do a class with some adults - primary school teachers who have to learn English to be able to teach it in their classes. Sometimes 1 person shows up, if we are lucky, 3. I bore them with my poor grammar knowledge and a banal role-play that I have been told to do, everyone leaves, thankful it is over for another week.
Tuesday evening is a bit of a loose end. No yoga, pool closed, not even the juice place by the river is open! Awkward. I'll watch a film, faff around or maybe go for a bike ride. Or, do some baking, which is planning to get into as of now.
Wednesday- Another 3 hours at school- yet again a different one. I teach 4 classes for 40 mins each, although normally at least one teacher is absent. They don't replace teachers here. They tell the kids not to come, and if anyone shows up they get lumped in with another class to do some colouring. great solution. Sometimes, the kids have been naughty and are not allowed to have an English class- even less work. Either way, I end up doing not very much. I head to the market when I'm done, tomatoes, bananas, lettuce, and for a special treat Peppers! are usually on the list. Again, fairly uninspiring, same stuff every week, although there is a stall that does a nice slice of raspberry tart!
Wednesday lunch is the first swim of the week- I always aim for 100 lengths but, generally I consider anything over 80 lengths to be an acceptable amount to justify the raspberry tart. Lots of faffing, and soon enough its 6pm, yoga class number 2. No relaxing here. The poster is put up on the wall. You do 5 sun salutation A, 5 sun salutation B and you are off. You follow the postures on the poster, nobody talks, and the teacher comes round and sometimes moves you into the right position. The best part by far is the lying down at the end- if you rush through the positions, sometimes you can even fit in a cheeky nap!
Thursday- The dreaded hour of 6.30am is seen once a week as I have to be teaching by 8 but the school is a half an hour bike ride away. I teach some more little ones. We played simon says on the first day, and everything I have done since has been a let down for them. The teacher told me to just send people out if they misbehave, even if I only have one person left at the end. Its quite fun. How are you? Yes! Are you tired? Yes! So you want to sleep? No! You're hungry? No, who want's food? Yes... and so on... ridiculous.
I have an hour break between classes so I sit by the river, eat a precious apple (literally a euro each)- and then its back on the bike to go half an hour further down the road. I reach the school sweating ridiculously having had to walk up the biggest hill in the area because I have still not succeeded in biking all the way to the top. 45 minutes of heads, shoulders, knees and toes has pretty much kept me going since october, although we did make snowflakes at christmas for a bit of variety. 11am and I'm off back to SLM, a delightful hour on the bike in the midday heat.
At the beginning of the year I would sometimes go to the cinema on Thursdays, but, sadly, it has closed down, because they don't even make films in the format the the cinema runs on anymore. I mean, seriously. Occasionally they show old documentaries but not often. If not, its a cookie and a juice by the river and some book reading. Thrilling.
Friday- Time for a lie-in. Today I can snooze until 8.40am because I don't have to leave until 9! I make it to the school for half past, but luckily the break always goes long and I only end up having to teach for about 20 minutes. Its the same class as thursday. The only class I teach two times a week, and the ones that understand the least. I am also their ONLY english teacher. Given that I have no idea of the curriculum for their age (or in fact any age I teach)- one can only hope some of it will be relevant in the future. As we only have 20 mins, I never plan much apart from, er, finish what we did yesterday. The day break finishes on time I am up shit creek. Oh wait- we are in Guyane. The break will never finish on time.
I then teach two of the nicest/ highest level classes of the week which is a nice end to the week and then bike home at lunch time in rush hour! (ha!) Seriously, there is a bigger rush hour here at lunchtime than there is in the morning or the evening. People must seriously be craving crepes and baguette!
If it is an exciting weeked (probably not) I will then hitchhike/ taxi/ carshare to somewhere more exciting and see some other assistants. If not, the friday night highlight is another 100 lengths at the pool. Before christmas we used to go out to some bars for a boogie, but to be honest it's the same thing every night, and I do not want random old rasta's grinding up on me and stinking of weed, paying paris prices in a shack in the middle of nowhere. So... I haven't been for a while.
Saturday- Definite lie-in, this time a proper one as I have nothing to get up for :D Then its off to the market to stock up on raspberry tart. Sometimes I go crazy and get a couple of spring rolls, a samosa and call it a picnic! whoop! Movie in the afternoon perhaps, bike ride and some more cookies and juice in the evening! possibilities are endless
Sunday- Another lie-in, obvs. Then another 100 lengths. Go me. Then its lesson planning day. I don't know why I always leave it last minute but I do. Every week I plan to do something exciting and different, every week it gets to sunday and im like, hmm, ok lets do... the alphabet. Planning done. I generally have a marathon skype afternoon with however is available and then... as it is carnival season, around 4-5 the parade starts, it gets to loud to hear so I go outside grab an ice-cream and watch.
Sunday evening is choir time- we have a concert in April and already know all the songs, but seriously I doubt we'll be ready. The level is, shall we say, not quite university standard. On the plus side, its something to do and everyone is friendly :D
And that my friends, is about it. Im sure you're all wildly jealous. NOT. Hope my life hasn't been to boring for you :D xxx
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
The Chickenman
It has been an especially dull week in the land of St. Laurent Du Maroni -and trust me, to be especially dull takes some doing... As such we shall have to turn to the children of my numerous classes to provide the entertainment for this blog-post. For some bizarre reason, the three CM2 (year 6) classes I teach on a tuesday morning were all on top banterous form. I'm hoping some of these quotes don't end up being "had to be there" moments... that would be awkward!
The first classic came when I was asking the children if they had any interesting pets at home (other than the 8 dogs and 3 cats- apparently normal for a guyanese household). The quotes are obviously all translated. If they could speak English this well by age 10 I wouldn't need to be assisting them! Teacher: Jean-Claude, you have a parrot, don't you? Child: No. Teacher: Yes, you do, I'm sure you do. Child: Yes, but he's dead. Teacher: (laughing)... Ha, I know its not funny, but still... Child: Miss, it's not funny. What can I say! He drank some hot water and he died! Cue awkward silence in the class.
Who knew a bit of agua caliente could pose such problems to our parrot friends! Shortly after, another girl explained that she did have a dog but not anymore. I didn't want to get into any more dead parrot situations but still, I had to ask: "did he die?" "No miss, he left." "Why did he leave?" "How should I know miss, he's a dog, he's got to live his life, you know?" Fair enough. Sounds like my kind of dog.
I was then given the interesting task of having to explain the words for chicken both female and male. Chicken was easy. They knew that one. Hen I could explain. And then we came to the male one or, the boy chicken as I referred to it as I forgot the french word for male. Hint: its male. One particularly loud boy in the front row, who I have often seen at the bar in the local discotheque (he is 10!), shouted out "Chickenmon" jamaica style. "Er, no, sadly its not chickenman" I explained, although I kind of wished it was as it would save me the embarassment of having to explain the word Cock. The worst part about this, is that, as they don't speak English, this word means nothing to them, apart from male chicken after today. But for some reason, it made me feel really sheepish as if I was teaching them a bad word. Sometimes I think the kids have a higher mental age than me. Particularly when they correct my french grammar. "Me: are you happy?vous etes heureuse?.... Child: Er, madame, it's actually heureux" Well, you know what? You don't see me correcting every single word of English you speak which is wrong, do you! I just smile and pretend I understand. (BAD TEACHER).I did get to teach them another cheeky word later on in the class: FART Because, quite frankly the smell was too bad to ignore. Lets hope they don't tell the teacher.
When asking a simple question to a 9-year old, you can never expect a simple answer. When you pick them to answer a question, they have the floor and they want it for as long as possible. So.. How many dogs do you have? Clearly, I require an answer such as 2, or in the case of this crazy country, probably 9 or so. Even the teacher has 7! What I will get however, is the life story of each dog, living or dead, the dreams, fears and future career plans for each animal. This is great, sometimes, when I have been too busy napping on a sunday (often) to fill a full 45 minutes with my lesson plan. However, when I actually want to move onto another subject than animals (which we have been doing for 3 weeks now), its not ideal. Thank god for the kid with the big glasses and the mullet who sits in the front of my third class. When I asked Toya (tres chatty) how many dogs she has.. .she replied... 7, but
nowitsonly6becauseoneranawayandtheotheronedidthistheotherday.... blah blah, He tapped her gently on the shoulder and explained: "er, Toya, If i'm not mistaken, I think she was asking you for the exact number of dogs, not their life story, thanks." LEGEND.
I'm well aware that these various musings on children and domestic animals may be completely boring and pas de tout funny and maybe its just me chuckling away, but to be honest, I am a little worried for my sanity. The most adult conversation I have had this week was with the 12-year old who has been stuck in year 5 for three years now. Oh, and the weird guy at the park, who came and sat leaning against me on a park bench (er, inappropriate) and proceeded to tell me how beautiful I was, how much he liked my style and that he wanted to be with me, and oh, maybe I could help him find a job as well. I had a snotty nose, greasy hair, I was practically wearing pajamas- as I do most days these days- and thought that putting my headphones in, and writing in a notebook facing away from him would give off the "I'm not interested" signal. When that failed, I asked him politely to let me do some work. He was STILL not detered. in fact, he asked me if I was scared of him. Great chat-up line! "Ok madam. I will sit right here, on the other bench and wait for you to be finished and then we can talk." He waited over 45 mins where I did not so much as glance at him. Needless to say, when I finished I got on the bike and biked quickly and in a weird way so he couldn't follow. Not cool.
I suppose i'm just getting a bit frustrated being stuck in this town. The first week after Miami was ok because I needed some downtime, but now we are three weeks into the term, and I have not been inside a single moving vehicle, meaning the whole time has been spent in the same 1km2 of the town centre. Oh, and my 2 far away schools which I have to bike to, but even then it was raining and biking in the rain gave me a cold this weekend. Not ideal. If I have a problem like this home (which, to be honest) I wouldn't have, I would call some friends and DO something. 2 problems... don't wanna sound like a Billy, but to be honest I can't really say, aside from other assistants who mostly live 3 hours away, I haven't really made any friends. 2nd problem: Even if I had, there is NOTHING to do. Thank god for Skype and Utorrent. You know its sad when you go to an all-day choir rehearsal and one of the teachers of your classes takes you and explains that, she's not feeling great as she went to bed at half 5 after a carnaval party. She is 35. I am 21. My friday night was spent doing 100 lengths at the swimming pool, making a jacket potato, downloading a gossip girl and getting to bed by 10 because I had to be up at half 8. What is that about?!?! I can't even rely on yummy food to get me through as none is available. I was watching the comic relief bake-off thing today (a program I would NEVER watch at home) and was actually salivating at a victoria sponge!
Bring on the Caribbean... 13 days of teaching and 3 weekends to go! Ha.. I guess my life is not such a sob story after all.
Peace out,
Polly xxx
Monday, January 14, 2013
The Things I Have Learnt
Things
I Have Learnt So Far This Year… (In No Particular Order)
·
How to fix a bike chain that has fallen off.
·
How to accidentally delete the start bar and
sound card on the laptop, and then also have to learn how to get it back.
·
That St Laurent Du Maroni has the only
still-operating Wooden (yes, Wooden!) hospital in the whole of France and its
territories.
·
How to make a better than average crêpe without
any weighing scales!
·
That napping the majority of the afternoon in a
tropical country is completely acceptable.
·
The first half of the first series of poses of
Ashtanga yoga.
·
That paying 6 euros to get to Suriname and back
to save 3 euros on a loaf of bread is completely justified- on principle alone.
·
How to negotiate A and E on my own in a foreign
language (still haven’t got the bill-whoop!)
·
Why people who travel South America always seem
to miss out the Guyanas- ouch :S
·
That Guyane has the highest birth rate in not
only France, but the whole of the Americas! (the average birth rate is 4! Children per
woman, compared with 1.9 in metropolitan France.
·
How to discipline my students in Nenge Tongo,
the local language. Sidon. Tapu U Mofu (sit down, and shut your mouth J)
·
How to write as much as possible in a text using
abbreviations and txt tlk to avoid going into two text messages which will cost
22c instead of 11!
·
It is possible to get sunburnt even when there
is a tropical storm going on.
·
Your mail will still be delivered even when
someone put a firework in the box destroying it. You just have to hope that you
get to the letter balanced on a shelf by your gate before someone else does.
·
That speaking to a person at the post office to
pay for posting postcards can save you 7c per postcard compared to stamps from
the shop- win!
·
That the
Indian food section of the supermarket here consists of one lonely jar of
chicken tikka masala, overpriced, like everything, at 4 euro. I will live
without and enjoy a nice pasanda with pashwari nan, 2 bargi’s some pakora and
mango chutney when I get home- not that I’m craving it or anything.
·
That pay-as-you-go phones still exist and that
here, they are an absolute rip-off.
·
That sometimes, shops can run out of phone
credit for a specific company. How do you run out of a thing that you can’t
even see... what?
·
That 60% of the population here are under 25,
55% of the working-age population are unemployed and that the growth rate per
year of the population is 3.7%
·
That when you introduce yourself as Polly to
French-speakers they will generally hear Pauline, and, being British you will be
too polite to correct them.
·
How to control a class of 30 7-9 year olds so
they learn lots of English and behave perfectly every class. Ha! Just kidding,
still very much working on this one.
·
That NOTHING you would like to get done at a
certain time can get done at said time due to weird, restrictive and annoying
opening hours. Particularly between 12-4pm when sleeping and eating are the
only acceptable activities. If you are on the street at this time, not sleeping
or eating, you will be looked at weirdly and told “bon appétit” as if you are
surely on your way home to eat tout de suite.
·
How to fill out an immigration/ customs form
without having to consult my passport for any details as I know them all off by
heart.
·
That some of my 10 year old students can have a
very basic conversation in English (probably their 3rd language),
whereas other people in the same class cannot write their own name in any
language. Yay French school system :S
·
That a Cosmo magazine, with 1.50euro plastered
all over the cover, turns out to be approximately 15.64 euro when you add on
the costs of importing and overseas department prices rises, meaning no Cosmo
for Polly J.
·
That any Caribbean song must mention the words
“wind up your body” at least 62 times to be successful.
·
That the bus stops and taxi stands dotted around
the town are all lies, there to deceive tourists and visitors that this is a
place where public transportation exists. It doesn’t.
·
That the mini keyboard I bought to help with
some sight-singing plays a semi-tone below the actual pitch it is supposed to
be. #Musicstudentproblems
·
That unless you want to buy a 10-pack of toilet
roll approximately everyday, you need to hide it in your room, away from your
male flatmates. Awkward, when you’re on the toilet and then realise that you
have forgotten- again :S
And finally I have learnt.....
· That, although I have learnt a lot of things so far on this year abroad, I have not learnt much of the things that I am here to be learning such as: How to speak French, how to tell off a student (they are normally just having banter), how to appreciate a fine French red wine (give me rosé any day!), or how to write a year abroad essay... I’ll start soon... obviously... I think I’ll just have a cheeky 3 hour nap then make a crepe and go to yoga. But after, defs...
That is all for now readers,
Polly (or Pauline, whatever you’d prefer...) xxx
And finally I have learnt.....
· That, although I have learnt a lot of things so far on this year abroad, I have not learnt much of the things that I am here to be learning such as: How to speak French, how to tell off a student (they are normally just having banter), how to appreciate a fine French red wine (give me rosé any day!), or how to write a year abroad essay... I’ll start soon... obviously... I think I’ll just have a cheeky 3 hour nap then make a crepe and go to yoga. But after, defs...
That is all for now readers,
Polly (or Pauline, whatever you’d prefer...) xxx
Monday, January 7, 2013
Trop de champagne, pas assez de yoga...
In the wise words of my yoga teacher, too much champagne, not enough yoga. Pretty much my sentiments for the past 10 days, except replace champagne with vodka and not enough yoga for no yoga, no exercize and lots of American food. It has been a very DIFFERENT christmas to normal, and although I am seriously looking forward to mince pies, gravy and a large tub of celebrations next year, maybe a ham and pineapple pancake and a bike ride around town aren't the worst way to spend Christmas. Thankfully internet arrived chez-nous just in time for major skying-seshes to occur on actual Christmas day, that, coupled with the new Michael McIntyre on DVD made it fairly bareable. Oh yeah, and the fact that I knew I was flying to Miami on the 28th may have also helped...
Started my holiday at 2.30am on a bus to the airport. Something must have gone wrong with the planning because I arrived at the airport at 4am, for a 8am flight, in an airport where security takes approximately 3 minutes. I made myself comfy on the concrete floor, had a nap, and by the time I had woken up it was nearly boarding time! After a cheeky connection in Aruba and a spicy chicken sandwich, we were touching down in MIA... and I was properly back in civilisation! It happened to be raining at the time, which panicked me slightly but I put on a brave face, took a bus to the hostel and settled into the city for a few hours waiting for Sando to arrive.
...Which he finally did... at half past midnight! Meaning I had been up almost 24 hours... we still managed to go to the seafront and grab a beer though... I mean, I'm in Miami! The days sort of all blur into one with a delightful mixture of beach, food, more beach, nap, Party!, nap, beach, PArty! Party! NAP. Just what I wanted after three months in the amazon. The first two nights we went out with the hostel (apparently THE way to gurantee being let in, lets just say, Miami bouncers are slightly stricter, than, say, the willow. I wish I could remember the first one, although I'm sure it was great. Sando gave up on the second after queuing for over an hour, but I persevered, made some friends in the queue, snuck in through a fire door whilst they were letting people in after a fire alarm, and partied away at Nikki Beach.
The next day was New Years Eve! We were lucky enough to meet some really cool people in our dorm that spoke french (Sando was loving that, not- at least there was a token German as well) Better still, they had a car and together we checked out downtown Miami, including a variety of not very interesting sight-seeing spots, lots of VERY tall buildings, riding around and getting lost on the worlds SEEMINGLY most simple metro system. Oh yes, and an ill-fated walk to Little Havana, which ended up in us giving up after walking 2 blocks and sitting in Wendys for 2 hours eating burger after burger. We did get to Little Havana eventually, in the car (much more suitable) but sadly it wasn't very exciting. It seemed to be just a run down high street with signs in Spanish (whoop ?) We collectitvely decided our time would be much better spent napping in prep for another big night.
Most club tickets were going for at least 200USD! and even the hostel offering was 100! Hmm, I don't think so. Fireworks on the beach sounded like a perfectly good free option to me. It definitely turned out to be the best idea. After a brief incident where I lost Sando at 5 to Midnight, we found eachother, watched the fireworks and tried out the water (COLD!- or boiling, if its Sando you talk to. He has obviously not been living in the caribbean for 3 months. Next stop Ocean Drive. The strip was PACKED with people, families, partiers, drag queens, the lot! Perf for a bit of street Salsa dancing. (I taught James, according to him, he is awesome, ask for a demonstration :p) Bought a cheeky 11 dollar slushie-- it did have alcohol in it, don't worry I haven't gone completely crazy, and continued dancing down the street until we danced our way into a bar/club thing on the beach for free! Well, free for me, and it would have been for James, if he hadn't decided to shimmy into some guy and knock his beer over. He offered to buy a new one... bit awkward when it turns out a budweiser costs 12 dollars! Luckily he didn't let that deter him from the crazy dancing.
Don't know whose idea it was for a 5am swim, but it definitely wasn't mine. I did get involved though. My shoulders just about went under for a second before I decided that this was ridiculously cold compared to the bath-like temperatures I am used to here in Guyane. I really enjoyed waking up hungover AND soaking wet- what a start to 2013. 1st January could have been great, if James hadn't decided he was hatinglife2k13. I mean seriously, it was like he had never stayed out late and drank before. "Polly, I mean, I don't know whats wrong with me, I just feel so tired and moody." Hello! welcome to the world! Its hard to decide between my two fav quotes of the day, the first being "Polly, I think its best if we just walk home in silence, because anything I say is just not going to be very nice..." Closely followed by, "Polly, what is the definition of morose? "Me: its what you are being right now... " James: "Yeh, I thought so. He managed to pull himself together enough to catch a midnight showing of Les Mis at the cinema (we did sneak a nap first, however it was still touch and go whether he would make it past the trailers awake or not :S) We both liked the film, but the general consensus was that it was too long- whether this is because it was actually too long, or whether its because it was 3am New years day and we had slept 4 hours and drunk lots, we are undecided.
Another beach day- tanning for me, suncreaming for James, why he only brought factor 15 with skin the colour of his I do not know! The water was actually fairly nice in the day! And, it gave us a chance to check out the planes constantly flying overhead with signs telling you where to go out that night. I didn't want to risk another day of Morose-James so we took a night off for a change, after going out with one of the other assistants, also on holiday in Miami for dinner and drinks.
Only an hour on the beach the next day as we headed to the everglades for the afternoon. The 'gators were cool, but the most amusing part was the southern accent of the tourguide and watching as the chinese tourists' hats flew off into the swamp despite being warned to take them off. Ha! The air boat ride was fun, and the whole everglade situation is fairly weird, like a masssssssivvvvvve shallow river/pond covered with grass and man made gaps for the boats to get through. I feel at least we saw some (:S) nature in the week. After a night off, there were no excuses for missing another so, after an hour or so chilling in the jacuzzi at the hostel (I know, right?!) we got ourselves ready headed off in the hostels party bus to the club, got some free drinks and then snuck off to find something better. Don't know how we pulled it off, but we ended up being led into a lift by some guy, sent up to the top floor, where, the doors opened and we found a dj rocking up the balcony- overlooking south beach! Not at all bad. Vodka was 15 dollars, so we snuck to a shack on the street and then came back, but all in all good music, good views, good fun!
The last full day in Miami was obviously reserved for more beach as well as some souvenirs- who doesn't need a oop oop oop Gangnam style t-shirt?? We rented bikes in the afternoon and biked up the beach then saw some more sights and panicked to get them back to the place in time. Cheeky nap (as always) and then, time for a bit of culture! We took a picnic to the park to watch an the Orchestral Academy on the big screen outside of the concert hall. How tres sophisticated. I also had my last 7/11 slushie of the week- they will be sorely missed! Oh, and a Mcdonalds cheeseburger- just to check that they taste the same in America as in England- honest! Obviously we ended the holiday in style, back on the party bus to the 2nd biggest club in Miami and in my opinion the best club of the week, Cameo. The music was good AND the Dj was mixing well, that, like, never happens! It was great but James dragged me away at half 3.. something about me having to get up and pack at 9 to leave for my flight at 10, what a nightmare!
Lets just say the flight was not too fun. I feel asleep before take off and then was rudely awoken by a women with a baby who was apparently in the seat next to me :S Even the cheese sandwich was terrible. Sort it out Caribbean Airways! Finally rocked up back in Paramaribo at 2am, slept in a hostel there the night before getting back to SLM (st. Laurent du Maroni- for us cool locals lol) 5 weeks to go til the Caribbean.... 24 days of teaching- not that Im counting! Hope everyone is loving life 2k13 :D
Adios xxx
Started my holiday at 2.30am on a bus to the airport. Something must have gone wrong with the planning because I arrived at the airport at 4am, for a 8am flight, in an airport where security takes approximately 3 minutes. I made myself comfy on the concrete floor, had a nap, and by the time I had woken up it was nearly boarding time! After a cheeky connection in Aruba and a spicy chicken sandwich, we were touching down in MIA... and I was properly back in civilisation! It happened to be raining at the time, which panicked me slightly but I put on a brave face, took a bus to the hostel and settled into the city for a few hours waiting for Sando to arrive....Which he finally did... at half past midnight! Meaning I had been up almost 24 hours... we still managed to go to the seafront and grab a beer though... I mean, I'm in Miami! The days sort of all blur into one with a delightful mixture of beach, food, more beach, nap, Party!, nap, beach, PArty! Party! NAP. Just what I wanted after three months in the amazon. The first two nights we went out with the hostel (apparently THE way to gurantee being let in, lets just say, Miami bouncers are slightly stricter, than, say, the willow. I wish I could remember the first one, although I'm sure it was great. Sando gave up on the second after queuing for over an hour, but I persevered, made some friends in the queue, snuck in through a fire door whilst they were letting people in after a fire alarm, and partied away at Nikki Beach.
The next day was New Years Eve! We were lucky enough to meet some really cool people in our dorm that spoke french (Sando was loving that, not- at least there was a token German as well) Better still, they had a car and together we checked out downtown Miami, including a variety of not very interesting sight-seeing spots, lots of VERY tall buildings, riding around and getting lost on the worlds SEEMINGLY most simple metro system. Oh yes, and an ill-fated walk to Little Havana, which ended up in us giving up after walking 2 blocks and sitting in Wendys for 2 hours eating burger after burger. We did get to Little Havana eventually, in the car (much more suitable) but sadly it wasn't very exciting. It seemed to be just a run down high street with signs in Spanish (whoop ?) We collectitvely decided our time would be much better spent napping in prep for another big night.Most club tickets were going for at least 200USD! and even the hostel offering was 100! Hmm, I don't think so. Fireworks on the beach sounded like a perfectly good free option to me. It definitely turned out to be the best idea. After a brief incident where I lost Sando at 5 to Midnight, we found eachother, watched the fireworks and tried out the water (COLD!- or boiling, if its Sando you talk to. He has obviously not been living in the caribbean for 3 months. Next stop Ocean Drive. The strip was PACKED with people, families, partiers, drag queens, the lot! Perf for a bit of street Salsa dancing. (I taught James, according to him, he is awesome, ask for a demonstration :p) Bought a cheeky 11 dollar slushie-- it did have alcohol in it, don't worry I haven't gone completely crazy, and continued dancing down the street until we danced our way into a bar/club thing on the beach for free! Well, free for me, and it would have been for James, if he hadn't decided to shimmy into some guy and knock his beer over. He offered to buy a new one... bit awkward when it turns out a budweiser costs 12 dollars! Luckily he didn't let that deter him from the crazy dancing.
Don't know whose idea it was for a 5am swim, but it definitely wasn't mine. I did get involved though. My shoulders just about went under for a second before I decided that this was ridiculously cold compared to the bath-like temperatures I am used to here in Guyane. I really enjoyed waking up hungover AND soaking wet- what a start to 2013. 1st January could have been great, if James hadn't decided he was hatinglife2k13. I mean seriously, it was like he had never stayed out late and drank before. "Polly, I mean, I don't know whats wrong with me, I just feel so tired and moody." Hello! welcome to the world! Its hard to decide between my two fav quotes of the day, the first being "Polly, I think its best if we just walk home in silence, because anything I say is just not going to be very nice..." Closely followed by, "Polly, what is the definition of morose? "Me: its what you are being right now... " James: "Yeh, I thought so. He managed to pull himself together enough to catch a midnight showing of Les Mis at the cinema (we did sneak a nap first, however it was still touch and go whether he would make it past the trailers awake or not :S) We both liked the film, but the general consensus was that it was too long- whether this is because it was actually too long, or whether its because it was 3am New years day and we had slept 4 hours and drunk lots, we are undecided.Another beach day- tanning for me, suncreaming for James, why he only brought factor 15 with skin the colour of his I do not know! The water was actually fairly nice in the day! And, it gave us a chance to check out the planes constantly flying overhead with signs telling you where to go out that night. I didn't want to risk another day of Morose-James so we took a night off for a change, after going out with one of the other assistants, also on holiday in Miami for dinner and drinks.
Only an hour on the beach the next day as we headed to the everglades for the afternoon. The 'gators were cool, but the most amusing part was the southern accent of the tourguide and watching as the chinese tourists' hats flew off into the swamp despite being warned to take them off. Ha! The air boat ride was fun, and the whole everglade situation is fairly weird, like a masssssssivvvvvve shallow river/pond covered with grass and man made gaps for the boats to get through. I feel at least we saw some (:S) nature in the week. After a night off, there were no excuses for missing another so, after an hour or so chilling in the jacuzzi at the hostel (I know, right?!) we got ourselves ready headed off in the hostels party bus to the club, got some free drinks and then snuck off to find something better. Don't know how we pulled it off, but we ended up being led into a lift by some guy, sent up to the top floor, where, the doors opened and we found a dj rocking up the balcony- overlooking south beach! Not at all bad. Vodka was 15 dollars, so we snuck to a shack on the street and then came back, but all in all good music, good views, good fun!
Lets just say the flight was not too fun. I feel asleep before take off and then was rudely awoken by a women with a baby who was apparently in the seat next to me :S Even the cheese sandwich was terrible. Sort it out Caribbean Airways! Finally rocked up back in Paramaribo at 2am, slept in a hostel there the night before getting back to SLM (st. Laurent du Maroni- for us cool locals lol) 5 weeks to go til the Caribbean.... 24 days of teaching- not that Im counting! Hope everyone is loving life 2k13 :D
Adios xxx
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