Ramble On

I just had to pick up a bat with my bare hands and help him out of my room through an open window. I discovered him hanging from my mosquito net when I looked up from reading and then he decided he needed to crawl all over my room. There is also one who is flying against my door and thudding against it repeatedly as I write this. Not okay.

This week was my first real week of being in the classroom and lesson planning. I got my schedule from LP Bateliere and it’s not ideal. But I suppose I can’t really complain. I wanted to have all my hours on Friday so I could have Wednesday and Monday off, but they’ve instead given me one hour of class on Wednesday and then 5 hours of class on Friday. I’m going to see if that works or not, but I’m thinking I may not really have a choice. I narrowly escaped having Saturday classes, and for that I’m eternally grateful. I have two classes I really like at Bateliere. The students are interested and engaged for the most part and they want to participate. This is very encouraging for a first time teacher. With the boys, I’m not sure how much of it is just being nice so they can ask me for my telephone number at the end of class (one boy has now done this at the end of each class I have had with him). I have a new found respect for every teacher I have ever encountered in my life. ...

Dear friends and family, I have way too much time on my hands and am in desperate need of recycled books and movies for entertainment. I will most likely be unable to bring whatever is sent back, so think of it as a donation to me, and future English language assistants in Martinique who are bored when they don't have a car to get anywhere or are out of gas money. I am about to break into the Margaret Atwood and Janet Evanovich novels left here by those behind me, but I don't think they look very good. Anyway, if you all have any good books you would like to pass on to me, I would love it. Even if you just e-mail me a list of good books you have read, I would love to try some new ones, see what people are reading these days. Address to send them to: Karla Petty Chez Madame Ponremy Petit Berry 97212 St. Joseph Martinique Thanks a bunch!

It has been kind of a tough week. Start with some good: I got into somewhat of a rhythm at LP Dillon. I had my second classes with my Tuesday kids and we got a little further. We talked about clothing and fashion and differences between Martinique and France and America. Plus, the classes I had at Bateliere on Friday were very nice, engaged and non-threatening, i.e. the opposite of the first class I had there. They asked good questions and seemed interested in what I was saying. I will be at Bateliere on Friday mornings. Possibly all day on Friday if the other section of teachers ever gets their act together and tells me when they need me. I might end up with a three-day weekend. I guess the hardest things have been getting around, and getting my head around the job I’m doing here. This week I started having to come up with my first lesson plans, my first ideas for creating conversation and keeping the attention of students and imposing my first classroom rules both for myself a...

So on Friday, Sarah Caitlin and I went to Sainte-Anne. It’s referred to as t he most beautiful beach in Martinique. It’s on the very southern tip of the island and true to it’s description in the guide books, has soft, powdery white sand and turquoise waters with calm waves lapping at the shore. We left early in the morning and got there in about an hour. I hadn’t gone running tha t morning because I thought I might be able to go at the beach. Boy, was that a good decision. Before we got to the beach I had seen that there was a good system o f foot trails all around the southern tip connecting several beaches over about 20 miles. It wasn’t all continuous but the beach where we were going, there was a good 5k trail from our beach to the next one up that went across what is known in Martinique as “Les Sables de Petrification” or the petrified sand. It was described to me as a lunar landscape. I was kind of excited to see it and even if I couldn’t run it, I decided I would at leas...

So on Monday the lady who is my supervisor at one of my schools and who has taken me under her wing, Marie-Claude Grangenois, offered to take me around and help me run errands and get stuff I needed. It was when she picked me up in the morning that I really felt like I was 12 again, and I was waiting for my mom to drive me somewhere so I could do something. I’ve gotten so used to being out on my own and doing things on my schedule, not being able to do that here because I don’t have transportation is quite enervating. She was very sweet. She took me to a bank so I could open an account. We went and bought some things I needed for the house, and I got some clothes for teaching because the straps on my tanks tops were apparently not thick enough sometimes. She invited me over to her house for lunch and she had prepared Fricassee de Lambi, which is conch fricassee, and white yams which are like potatoes, and fresh avocados. All of it was delicious. Monday afternoon she brought me...

Saturday afternoon we all got back to the place where we had been staying, packed up our things and were all picked up and taken to our lodgings. I am glad to be back in the apartment. We went on our first grocery story trip and had a good time trying to pick out things we love to eat in France and find some American favorites. We found a good balance between pain au chocolat and breakfast cereal, passion fruit juice and fresh avocados. The fruit here is amazing and the choice of juices at the store is almost overwhelming. It’s fantastic though. So is the fruit. Sunday was a very relaxed day. I went on my first run in St. Joseph which was sunny and quiet at the beginning and halfway through turned into torrential downpour. The rain here is unpredictable and at times, very heavy. It’s refreshing though. I didn’t mind running in it except my shoes were very heavy at the end. The rest of the day we spent organizing and chatting with Marie-Ange and the lady who’s staying with he...

So I’ve finally arrived on the Island of Martinique. It’s beautiful. Made even more so by the fact that when I arrived, after slight confusion and delays, I was informed that I already had a place to stay. I was taken there directly from the airport and shown a lovely room with lots of windows that overlook St. Joseph, which is a small town in the center of the island. It is very hot and there is no air conditioning, but that is highly acceptable. It took me a long time to get here, literally and figuratively. I started off from Fairfax at 6am. After I said goodbye to my mom, my dad and I drove to Dulles, where I was dropped off and started the long process to get through security and to my gate. The flight from Dulles to San Juan was uneventful and felt very long. I was hungry and very tired. When I got to San Juan, I went to Subway and had lunch, checked in for my flight to Dominica, and then sat around reading my guide book. I flew Caribbean Sun airlines from San Juan an...

I think if I cut my hair really short and spiked it out and wore studded black leather, I would look like Billy Idol. As it stands, I think I look more like Dee Snyder in his Twisted Sister days, especially when I take my hair out of a braid and brush it. I've decided that my alter-ego is 80's male rock star: excess ego, excess money, excessive vocal styles, excessive guitar solos, excessive destructive habits... everything to the Nth degree. There are only a few people who know how much enjoyment I get out of 80's hair bands for those very reasons. They are so ridiculous but somehow so entertaining. I had a particularly enjoyable drive to work today because of one such rock star: the aforementioned Billy Idol. Everything about him was (and I stress was because even though he's still alive, he merits the past tense) cliché... contrived even. That whole bad boy image? Sid Vicious had already done it in a much more real, and much scarier way. Even the snarl was unoriginal...

A song that has played not infrequently on my iPod as of late is Jackson Browne's fantastic live version of "The Load Out" which bleeds into a cover of "Stay" by the Five Satins at the end. Such a great song. And what a great time for it to find it's way into the random rotation of shuffle mode. (sidenote: I have a real belief that the shuffle mode is really not so random after all, due to coincidences that were so amazing and unbelievable, I can't call them coincidences. Not while I believe in God anyway. ) I digress. That's a whole other entry waiting to happen. Anyway, the Load Out. First of all, I'm not really sure what the history of the song is. Maybe I'll look it up online really fast and then write it out for you all and it will be like I knew it all along... no one will ever know... Basically, what I'm concerned with is the premise of them only playing that song live. It would seem out of place if they recorded it on an album bec...

More news from the front. I've gotten a series of e-mails from the French government this week. One informing me of the colleagues who will be doing the same job as me in different communes of Martinique, and a few others which included contact lists of past assistants and the assistants who are teaching Spanish, and not English. There are going to be people from all over the world. Lots from Spain, Ireland and England. I also got an e-mail in which I received my contract for 7 months and in which I received the names of the schools were I'll be teaching and the teachers who I will be assisting. I sent them both e-mails immediately. My french is slightly rusty and I'm reaching for words sometimes, but it usually comes back after a little bit. I'll be dividing my time between two schools. I'll find out when I get there what my schedule for the schools will be. I'm teaching at 2 Lycées Professionels (Professional High Schools) so basically they are specialized edu...

Home... Northern Virginia, land of Hondas and insane drivers. I'm fearing for my life on on-ramps and in lane changes up here. Honestly, you'll save 30 seconds at the MOST by cutting me off to be in front. Every one is just so anxious to get where they're going. Enjoy the ride! why else do you have an expensive car that is supposed to make driving an experience and not a burden. Sheesh. When I'm home I always catch up on things that I never do that I should do when I'm in Williamsburg. But Fairfax becomes the place where I wash my shoes and vaccuum my car and sew up loose seams or lost buttons. Being home and having a house to do them in inspires me to take care of the smaller fixes that pop up from day to day. It's also the time when I do my dentist visits, and other maintenance-type errands. I hate the dentist. I have a great dentist too. I've been seeing the guy since I was 5. He's seen me from kindergarten through college; through two sets of brace...

Another doozy from Harry today: "I just found out 'bout 3 years ago they took 'way some of Genr'l Lee's backyard to make the national cem'tary and bury some o' 'dem YANKS in it. If I'da known 'bout dat I'da been laying down in front o' dem dozers!" When I told him that both my father and mother were born in the South and that my grandad was in the army, they all earned instant validation. I was, however, excluded from this validation because I'm a "rebellious young'n" and I don't have an accent. Also, he regards Northern Virginia as somewhat hedonistic and a departure from the true roots of everything south of the Mason-Dixon line. When asked where the group that is coming in today is from, I replied that I didn't know. He then proceeded to make some very derogatory comments and sweeping generalizations about people from different parts of the eastern seaboard. And to tell me that he'd appreciate ...

After a lot of conversations about this in the past week and I guess over the last month, I finally came across what seems to be a sound theory about the mysteries of male and female relationships over a basket of greasy french fries and onion rings at Cheeburger Cheeburger on Friday night. The theory goes like this: Girls don't understand guys because they can't believe it could ever be that simple; and guys don't get girls because they don't think it could ever be that complicated. The incredulity of the simplicity or complexity of the opposite sex is the main reason for the misunderstandings. A good friend came up with the first part of that theory, and I just extrapolated the second part. To a certain extent of course, it's an overly simplified (male) theory. I know that as a woman I see a certain stigma created by men surrounding the complicated nature of women. I suspect that the media has heavily added to the stereotypes that say it's necessarily impossi...

I'd like to take a moment to introduce one of the most colorful characters in my day-to-day life: Harry. He works the 3-11pm shift at the hotel, sometimes the night audit shift (11pm-7am). Harry is older, very set in his ways, and will talk your ear off as long as you let him. He's rockin' the 4-hair combover most days. The first time I saw him drive up to the hotel, he made a good impression because he drives a '91 white VW Golf 4-door. Almost my first car. I went with the red two-door with the CD player instead. Right now Williamsburg is abuzz with the hum of sporty polo shirts, crisp khakis, white visors and polite clapping. The LPGA's Michelob Ultra Open is at Kingsmill this week. We're hosting a number of the golfers and supporters of the event at the hotel. Yesterday, as I was leaving, Harry made it a point to mention to me that I should not be going to the gym as I usually do after work, I should be sticking around in my nice work clothes and try...

Arial, such a go-to font. Too predictable. Perhaps Courier? It's a little typewriterish, not terrible though. Georgia, my Grandma's from there. Great peaches. Lucida Grande, doesn't look much different. Let's see about Trebuchet. Better, closer, warmer. Times, I feel like I'm writing a paper. No can do. I think I used to really like this font. not so sure about it anymore. No one will understand webdings. I think it's important at the outset of an undertaking like a blog to establish a theme which you enjoy and which doesn't have to be changed a lot. I have been thinking about starting one of these again. The main impoetus for actually doing it was finding out that I'll be going back abroad to teach English to French high schoolers starting in October of this year and going through April of next. I liked keeping a blog while I was in France, so I decided to have another go. I'll be able to post pictures on this one, which is good because my environ...