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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)