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!!!
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