Hello everyone!
Thought Id just do a quick update for you all...i dont even remember the last thing that I posted...Well i guess the last time i wrote was for the PLU blog so you should check that out via this link: http://plu-martinique-2012.blogspot.com/ and look for the one that i posted on the 23rd.
Soooo lets see where to begin... On Saturday we drove to a beach thats basically a real life postcard beach. It was goregous, white sand and palm trees, calm blue water...actually thats like the description of everywhere here. But it was super nice.
Yesterday I got to experience a bit of carnaval. So Carnaval is a big deal here and its basically like a huge party that never ends, well until Lent begins that is. Yesterday there was a pre-Carnaval parade in Fort de France. Hailey and I went with our family and with Talina, the granddaugther that we did not know existed until this weekend. Ha. Ya so long story short but theres this guy who randomly shows up at our house but we werent sure if he was our brother cuz our other host brother called him a friend but it is now 99 percent certain that hes a brother since his daughter is the princess granddaughter. Shes 5 and shes the bigggest chatterbox ever, made me feel a bit dumb cuz i couldnt even keep up with her, not even when we played a say-the-alphabet game. Ha. But she was our pal for the day. We got our faces painted when we got there and then wandered around looking at all the vendors selling foods and crafts. Watched some bands and traditional dancing. Then we waited a longggg time for the parade to start and once it started we waited a lonngggggg time for it to end. It was a parade of bands and each band had a group of dancers out in front. The bands were more like a drumline with maybe a saxophone or two. The best part were the costumes! They were so colorful and creative! We saw one group covered in chocolate, one with big peacock feathers, one with big spiral dresses, all sorts of different things! There were also a log of men in drag which i dont quite understand since homosexuality is not accepted at all here. And the people watching was very entertaining. There were tons of people there and it was like a big party. I cant imagine how nuts the real Caraval is - aparantly it goes on for 4 days and its nonstop dancing and singing and drinking all day every day.
Then last night we got home late and then ate Christmas dinner! I had asked our host mom earlier in the week what they eat for Christmas and so she made it to show me which i felt kind of bad about because its so much work for us to make our christmas dinner and i didnt want her to go through that again but she actually always spends that mugh time cooking so maybe its not that big fo a deal. We had some meat that i think was lamb with some sort of mysterious beans that she cooked all day long and rice. Ill never escape rice. We also had some pastries filled with fishy mixtures. Oh and that mroning she showed us how to make her special bread and hot chocolat so Ill bring that home and hopefully cook it for you all some day!
Lets see what else...theres the story of the president. Whoa. K so on Friday we went to tour the conseil regional. So i have to explain this a bit...Martinique is a part of France and in France there are regions and then the regions have departments within them but Martinique decided to be confusing so theyre both a department and a region but the region is still more important and i met the president of the region who is basically the most important dude here. My host dad told me he also used to be the major of Fort de France. Hopefully that made sense...now for the story. So we had a tour of the building and an elected woman, kinda like a congresswoman, showed us around and talked with us. We took a picture with a painting of Aime Cesaire who is like their hero here and then we thought it was the end of our tour. Wrong. We were just standing in a hallway when suddenly theyre like hes here hes here and reporters show up out of nowhere and bahjam theres the president and hes shaking my hand and asking us where were from. Whoa. Then next in line is the Prime Minister of Antigua who I also shook hands with and then more people who i couldnt figure out. Then we went into a room and it was a press conference! They signed a something that they called historical, i think it was to have closer relations between the two countries, and there were tons of reporters. They took tons of pictures and videos of us as if were celebrities or something and the president and the prime minister both said welcome to the American students and the beginning of their speeches! Afterwards we chatted with the president. He was really friendly and personable, like he is actually a real person! Who woulda thunk? He invited us to this spectacular show tomorrow night and said thatd hed get us tickets to get in. Whoa. He even said bye to us again when he drove past us and we were standing outside. So basically were buds with the president.
Today was the first day of school for the rest of the university. We found out that its against the dress code to wear shorts and so we got in trouble but oh well im only here on campus for 2 more days. We met some law students today. They are in english class so they spoke to us in english and we had an interesting discussion about the private life of politicians. They got really heated and I dont think it was the best way to get to know them but thats alright. I talked with a nice girl I was sitting next to and we ate tons of food. OHMAN i cant believe I havent blogged about this yet. So one of the specialties here is this thing called boudin, its like a sausage casing filled with mysterious red/brown mushy stuff. I ate it the first day I was here when i was living with that other family. Well we found out that its actually made of cogulated pigs blood. No lie. So today they served us traditional foods from Martinique and that was on the plate. Everyone else in the group freaked out about it but I decided to just adopt my dont think just eat policy and be polite and eat it. But ya, if you ever come to Martinique I wouldnt recommend the boudin. Anyways, we hung out with a couple of the students more afterwards and it was nice to just chat with them.
Unfortunately now is the time when the educational part is kicking all our butts. We have a big final exam on Thursday and then were all working on projects that are due before we board the plane home. I kinda wish I could just not do mine and not board the plane home. Haha. But mine is on the viewpoint that people have of the environment and im using the study i did in Madagascar as a comparison. So its an interesting topic for me its just that it has to be 10 pages long handwritten in French. Boo. So im going to get to work now.
Im not sure if ill be able to blog again before I leave but if i dont then ill try to throw one last one up while Im home. Thanks for reading about my adventures again! I cant believe that one year ago today was my first full day in Madagascar! Time flies! Seeya soon!
Jessica
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Livin the Good Life
Salut mes amis!
Well basically life is good. A little awkard at times but good. Spent the weekend with my new and wonderful host family. Im living with my friend Hailey so that makes the awkward moments or misunderstandings less difficult. But I guess i need to rewind a tad...
So on Friday we went kayaking! Youre probably imagining beautiful calm blue water and scenic views right? Wrong. Change that image to a torrential downpour. Ha. So the rain is nuts here. Its like a sneak attack when you least expect it it starts dumping rain. Usually it doesnt last very long but it rained pretty much the whole time we were kayaking. We were drenched. It was pretty epic. The waterer wasnt super clear or blue but it was still beautiful. For the most part we were in a mangrove - SUPER cool ecosystem! Theres trees in water with roots sticking up like snorkle tubes, little crabs everywhere, and it all functions as a sort of filtration system, basically its awesome. Its a type of ecosystem id really like to look into studying more or researching or something. After the kayaking we went to a beach but it was still rainy on and off.
We all spent the weekend with our host familys. Hailey and I thought that we were going to get dropped off at a shopping center on Saturday. Ha. We got in the car and just kept going all these different places we were not expecting...for example: an eyeglass shop where we helped her sister pick glasses, an overstock-type store, a random mans house to buy fish, outdoor markets, their other house (ya apparently they have 2 houses) where we picked fruit, and finally to our Moms sisters house where we talked and ate lunch. We looked on a map and basically we got a whole tour of the south. It was so nice, just driving not knowing what will come next and watching all the beautiful green mountains and crazy blue coastline. Our parents are very kind and would always stop to let us take pictures and tell us about stuff. Im really glad i switched houses to live with them. My host dad was a math teacher and he drives a fun snazzy sports car. My host mom works at the hospital and she is a wonderful chef. We have 2 host brothers but one is around more than the other, his name is Jean-Yenn and he works at a bakery, hes very friendly and he usually eats diner with us. They said theyve hosted students for the past 20 years so they know what theyre doing.
On Sunday we were going to go to this nice beach but you have to take a ferry to get there. Our host dad dropped us off but then we discovered that there were no ferries going. Zut alors. So we went to a beach behind a nice hotel, we had already gone to this beach earlier in the week but this time we went with our host brother. It was luch more crowded this time and full of topless old european women, whoa. Also a very persistant man kept trying to practice english with us. But it was still a nice time. Afterwards we just sat on the veranda and worked on homework and then watched a movie. Pretty relaxing evening.
This morning we had french class and then a man came to teach us about traditional music here. It was pretty interesting and it made me miss playing bass and bass clarinet... now its our lunch break and afterwards we have a dance class - ha that will be entertaining!
Overall things are great here! The people are very nice and were trying to explore as much as we can. Its nice that they have a bus system because then we can almost always find our way around. Its crazy that its already been a week and theres only 3 more to go! Time is going very quickly, but its all good. Ill try to figure out how to post pictures...or some of my friends have put some up on facebook so you can see what Im up to there.
Have a great week everyone! Lots of love!
Jessica
Well basically life is good. A little awkard at times but good. Spent the weekend with my new and wonderful host family. Im living with my friend Hailey so that makes the awkward moments or misunderstandings less difficult. But I guess i need to rewind a tad...
So on Friday we went kayaking! Youre probably imagining beautiful calm blue water and scenic views right? Wrong. Change that image to a torrential downpour. Ha. So the rain is nuts here. Its like a sneak attack when you least expect it it starts dumping rain. Usually it doesnt last very long but it rained pretty much the whole time we were kayaking. We were drenched. It was pretty epic. The waterer wasnt super clear or blue but it was still beautiful. For the most part we were in a mangrove - SUPER cool ecosystem! Theres trees in water with roots sticking up like snorkle tubes, little crabs everywhere, and it all functions as a sort of filtration system, basically its awesome. Its a type of ecosystem id really like to look into studying more or researching or something. After the kayaking we went to a beach but it was still rainy on and off.
We all spent the weekend with our host familys. Hailey and I thought that we were going to get dropped off at a shopping center on Saturday. Ha. We got in the car and just kept going all these different places we were not expecting...for example: an eyeglass shop where we helped her sister pick glasses, an overstock-type store, a random mans house to buy fish, outdoor markets, their other house (ya apparently they have 2 houses) where we picked fruit, and finally to our Moms sisters house where we talked and ate lunch. We looked on a map and basically we got a whole tour of the south. It was so nice, just driving not knowing what will come next and watching all the beautiful green mountains and crazy blue coastline. Our parents are very kind and would always stop to let us take pictures and tell us about stuff. Im really glad i switched houses to live with them. My host dad was a math teacher and he drives a fun snazzy sports car. My host mom works at the hospital and she is a wonderful chef. We have 2 host brothers but one is around more than the other, his name is Jean-Yenn and he works at a bakery, hes very friendly and he usually eats diner with us. They said theyve hosted students for the past 20 years so they know what theyre doing.
On Sunday we were going to go to this nice beach but you have to take a ferry to get there. Our host dad dropped us off but then we discovered that there were no ferries going. Zut alors. So we went to a beach behind a nice hotel, we had already gone to this beach earlier in the week but this time we went with our host brother. It was luch more crowded this time and full of topless old european women, whoa. Also a very persistant man kept trying to practice english with us. But it was still a nice time. Afterwards we just sat on the veranda and worked on homework and then watched a movie. Pretty relaxing evening.
This morning we had french class and then a man came to teach us about traditional music here. It was pretty interesting and it made me miss playing bass and bass clarinet... now its our lunch break and afterwards we have a dance class - ha that will be entertaining!
Overall things are great here! The people are very nice and were trying to explore as much as we can. Its nice that they have a bus system because then we can almost always find our way around. Its crazy that its already been a week and theres only 3 more to go! Time is going very quickly, but its all good. Ill try to figure out how to post pictures...or some of my friends have put some up on facebook so you can see what Im up to there.
Have a great week everyone! Lots of love!
Jessica
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Well its not Madagascar but it sure is an adventure!
Hello again everyone!
So if you dont already know, im spending the month of january in martinique a department of France this is an island in the Caribbean! Its for french credit and im here with a PLU prof and 5 other students. Id change the title of my blog but thats too much work so just pretend its called my Martinique adventures.
We arrived late Saturday night and got picked up right away by our host families. My host mom immediately grabbed my hand and then interrupted our prof and said ok can we go? Then things kind of continued like that...she is a very authoratative person and she is very very controlling. On Sunday i sat around the house and people came over because it was ephiphany, dont know if i spelt that right. its a big deal here and everyone eats this pastry cake with a little plastic king in it and if you get the king then you are the king of the day. my mom got the king but shes already the queen of the house. she is an older woman and all her kids are grown and gone its just her and her brother who only sits in front of the tv with the bug zapper. well by tuesday she had gotten REAL controlling and said i couldnt go out with my friends and wouldnt let me take the bus and tried to make me take a sweatshirt to the beach so i told my proffessor and she wanted me to change houses. so i moved out which was super awkward. she said im like her daughter and she had cried all day but i was sick so we used that as an excvuse. today i alm moving in with my friend hailey and her family and they seem very nice so that will be better.
So ya i was sick, surprise! I went to the doctor which was one little room with a nice outdoor waiting patio and she gave me medicine and i rested at my proffesors apartment. i staid with her on tuesday and wednesday night and she took care of me. Im feeling pretty much better now so hopefully thqt lasts.
So its really interesting here. Theres certain things that remind me of Madagascar but overall its very different. everyone speaks french which is nice, i havent heard very much creole. the houses are all fairly nice and are crammed on hills. roads are tiny and people drive like maniacs but we take the bus a lot. the ocean is goregous! i can see it right now as im typing at the university. ive only been to one beach that was pretty rocky but were going to find a beach this afternoon. the food is good, minus that its probably what made me sick. they eat a lot of warm food like soup which is weird cuz its so hot here. ill update food once ive eaten more. OH but yesterday i had the best mango gelato!
Yesterday we had a funpacked day. we started at a museum that explained the sugar cane production, thats basically why martinique became a french colony and they were part of the slave trade until 1948 :[ Its pretty sad but its good to be informed about it. then we switched it up and went zip lining! oh man that was so fun! it was more like a 2 hour obstacle course because you had to cross crazy tightropes going upwards in order to zip down and we were up pretty high in the trees. im kinda weak from beign sick and it took all the strength i had but it was worth it. If i can ill post some pictures soon. then after that we went to another museum type thing on slavery. this man basically took a machete and cut down some forest and built replica slave houses and stuff. its been rated one of frances best attractions and its been on national geographic i guess. it was interesting, they looked like the huts in Mada. The guide was the man who built it and he talked SO fast that we couldnt really keep up so Madame, thats what i call our prof, and our bus driver helped trqnslate for us. then afterwards we went to the town of Trois islets, a little coastal town, and walked around and got ice cream. it was a very nice day.
Hope everything is going well there in the states! theres another blog through PLU that we are all posting on...i dont know the link but ill try to get it for next time, maybe its on PLU's website?
So ya this is a pretty frazzled entry so hopefully ill be more settled for the next one. Overall life is good here, its very relaxed and chill. Time seems to be going quickly and im only here for the month so im trying to do as much as possible. The other Lute gals and generally all the people here are very nice so were sure to have fun!
Talk to you all again soon! :)
A la prochaine fois! (until next time!)
So if you dont already know, im spending the month of january in martinique a department of France this is an island in the Caribbean! Its for french credit and im here with a PLU prof and 5 other students. Id change the title of my blog but thats too much work so just pretend its called my Martinique adventures.
We arrived late Saturday night and got picked up right away by our host families. My host mom immediately grabbed my hand and then interrupted our prof and said ok can we go? Then things kind of continued like that...she is a very authoratative person and she is very very controlling. On Sunday i sat around the house and people came over because it was ephiphany, dont know if i spelt that right. its a big deal here and everyone eats this pastry cake with a little plastic king in it and if you get the king then you are the king of the day. my mom got the king but shes already the queen of the house. she is an older woman and all her kids are grown and gone its just her and her brother who only sits in front of the tv with the bug zapper. well by tuesday she had gotten REAL controlling and said i couldnt go out with my friends and wouldnt let me take the bus and tried to make me take a sweatshirt to the beach so i told my proffessor and she wanted me to change houses. so i moved out which was super awkward. she said im like her daughter and she had cried all day but i was sick so we used that as an excvuse. today i alm moving in with my friend hailey and her family and they seem very nice so that will be better.
So ya i was sick, surprise! I went to the doctor which was one little room with a nice outdoor waiting patio and she gave me medicine and i rested at my proffesors apartment. i staid with her on tuesday and wednesday night and she took care of me. Im feeling pretty much better now so hopefully thqt lasts.
So its really interesting here. Theres certain things that remind me of Madagascar but overall its very different. everyone speaks french which is nice, i havent heard very much creole. the houses are all fairly nice and are crammed on hills. roads are tiny and people drive like maniacs but we take the bus a lot. the ocean is goregous! i can see it right now as im typing at the university. ive only been to one beach that was pretty rocky but were going to find a beach this afternoon. the food is good, minus that its probably what made me sick. they eat a lot of warm food like soup which is weird cuz its so hot here. ill update food once ive eaten more. OH but yesterday i had the best mango gelato!
Yesterday we had a funpacked day. we started at a museum that explained the sugar cane production, thats basically why martinique became a french colony and they were part of the slave trade until 1948 :[ Its pretty sad but its good to be informed about it. then we switched it up and went zip lining! oh man that was so fun! it was more like a 2 hour obstacle course because you had to cross crazy tightropes going upwards in order to zip down and we were up pretty high in the trees. im kinda weak from beign sick and it took all the strength i had but it was worth it. If i can ill post some pictures soon. then after that we went to another museum type thing on slavery. this man basically took a machete and cut down some forest and built replica slave houses and stuff. its been rated one of frances best attractions and its been on national geographic i guess. it was interesting, they looked like the huts in Mada. The guide was the man who built it and he talked SO fast that we couldnt really keep up so Madame, thats what i call our prof, and our bus driver helped trqnslate for us. then afterwards we went to the town of Trois islets, a little coastal town, and walked around and got ice cream. it was a very nice day.
Hope everything is going well there in the states! theres another blog through PLU that we are all posting on...i dont know the link but ill try to get it for next time, maybe its on PLU's website?
So ya this is a pretty frazzled entry so hopefully ill be more settled for the next one. Overall life is good here, its very relaxed and chill. Time seems to be going quickly and im only here for the month so im trying to do as much as possible. The other Lute gals and generally all the people here are very nice so were sure to have fun!
Talk to you all again soon! :)
A la prochaine fois! (until next time!)
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