Bienvenue en Martinique: the story of our lives

10 Septembre 2009

Thinking back to my first night arriving here, I was shocked by what I was expecting and received instead. I dreamed of a beautiful island with tropical forests and foliage, miles of beaches stretching for as far as the eye could see, friendly gentle people with youthful smiling faces waiting to welcome me into paradise. What I got instead that first night: humidity, neon signs, crowded crazy highways and a shock. Not just culture shock; mind boggling astonishment. You mean I’m not going into nature?
As it turns out, Martinique is far from what I expected but that’s not necessarily to be taken as a negative. There is much here that is very frustrating: signing up for classes took nearly a week because although course lists were available (for some fields of study), schedules were not. And once schedules were, they didn’t correspond with what was listed as available. And then, of course, the schedules kept changing, even on the first day of classes. Or, how about today when I went to class and there were no students and no professor. Some students I made friends with explained to me today “that just how it is.”As it turns out, a lot of things are just how it are which is why my friend Kristen and I have started saying “Bienvenue en Martinique.”
Welcome to Martinique where the books you need for your classes cannot be found in a local book store, cannot be shipped from most online sellers and have already been checked out from the library. Welcome to Martinique where, when you can order a book online for € 3,88 but are expected to pay over € 12 in shipping. Welcome to Martinique where the bus schedule clearly states the buses run until 19:00 Saturday nights and Sunday morning but stop at about 13:00 on Saturdays and don’t start again until Monday morning. Welcome to Martinique where the buses stop running at 7 pm on weekdays and it’s not safe to be out at night, especially not for a foreign white girl. Welcome to Martinique where men stare at you, make kissy faces, hit on you in English and go so far as to follow you down the street in the middle of the day continuing to address you for 10 minutes despite being ignored entirely. Welcome to Martinique where it’s pitch black at 7 pm but still hot and humid, continues to be humid all night and is quite warm when you go for a run at 6 am. Welcome to Martinique where they didn’t have wireless access at the school for the first week but kept telling you “maybe tomorrow.”
Our realization, which goes hand in hand with “Bienvenue en Martinique” is “on doit attendre. Et attendre, et attendre et attendre et attendre et…” which is to say “you have to wait and wait and wait…” Basically, we’re running into the delicate intricacies of French Bureaucracy with an island attitude about it. Or how about this: In order to get student bus passes, it took two days of searching for the correct office with lots of vague explanations of how to find it, and once we eventually found it, we turned in our paperwork with the explanation that “the pass will come in the mail and once it does you have to find the (mysterious) place on campus where you can pay the 25 Euro to get a coupon (receipt) which says you paid for the pass. And that makes sense… how?
But, please don’t take this as complaining. Well, it’s sort of complaining. But more, it’s an explanation of a culture intricately different from ours. Ours is not necessarily better but it is more familiar. What’s interesting about the attitude here, too, is the people who are truly Martiniquais and have a more Créole attitude just don’t get frustrated. Kristen’s host mother, Youma, constantly teases her when she furrows her brow or gets upset about things, saying “we don’t do that here. Frustration does not exist.” Granted, it’s not the same with my host but that’s a whole different story I won’t go into just yet.
But, I also want to assure you that despite the ups and downs and frustrations and homesickness, I’m having a really good time. I’ve been to two classes so far and both were awesome. I decided to take some English classes while I’m here to continue with my studies and ended up taking a class on “Anglo-Caribbean literature” with a professor who specializes on Jamaica Kincaid and Caribbean women’s literature. We will be reading Jamaica Kincaid’s The Autobiography of my Mother and studying it through the lens of colonial and post-colonial theory which I studied in depth last semester. The other class is on French literature in the twentieth century. In that class, we will be studying Albert Camus’ l’Etranger, a personal favorite author who I have also studied in depth (in English) and we will be using literary theory in that class as well. As an English major, I love literary theory. As a dork, I love literary theory.
I have also been to the beach twice and boy was it glorious! The water is warm and welcoming, if a little too salty for my eyes and the waves gentle and calm. Kristen and I went on a quest for beach glass the other day and played like kids in the sand. We also threw my Frisbee around so I won’t be too rusty when I get back.
So, a little about my friend Kristen who has been my savior for the past week and a half. She goes to the University of Iowa and studies Spanish and French with the intention of studying comparative literature in grad school. She, like me, likes to hike and do yoga and backpack and be outside and run and bike AND she’s a vegetarian. Furthermore, we’re both here to speak French and really learn about a different culture thus, unlike many of the other exchange students, we speak almost exclusively in French even when it’s just the two of us. How else are we going to learn? But, we also know that there are moments, such as when everything seems to be building up and the tears start flowing where English is needed. It’s a great equilibrium. Her host family is really awesome and we’ve learned some creole words and recipes from them. As classes start and we settle into them, I’m hoping more of my time will be occupied with schoolwork so I won’t feel so bored at times but it’ll also be super nice to have weekends to relax and hike and go to the beach.
I’ll continue to update and hopefully won’t be writing novels like this one but no promises…
All my love from Martinique,
Bethany