My house and host

So, I live with an old woman. When I say old, I don't mean it in the way I tease my dad, I mean the woman is 75 and half of her teeth are not her own and I consequently get to see them sitting in a cup in the bathroom. Gross. We live together in the upstairs (en haut) of the house she owns. Downstairs (en bas) there is another family who is really nice and super cute. It's a young French couple with two kids, 10 and 8, who are friends with the kid in the next house over which is separated by a chain link fence. Consequently, Claude, the friend, has a little stoop at the fence where they play and talk together. The other night when I got home, I went down and kicked a soccer ball around with the kids for about half an hour before their mother said it was time to come inside and study poetry.

The upstairs has 3 bedrooms, one full bathroom and one separate closet with just a toilet, a main living room with a TV and the dining room table and a tiny kitchen. There is also a balcony running on two sides of the house where I spend a lot of my time writing, reading, drinking tea and being devoured by mosquitos. It's nice to have my own time out there, instead of having Mme talk my face off. Sometimes, I think I might go insane. She complains all the time and because her hearing is poor, she frequently yells. Her voice always sounds angry or irritated and to make it worse, she rarely speaks in full sentences but instead uses phrases and then repeates herself over and over again when I can't understand what the hell she's talking about. But, it's not so bad. I have my own room and up until yesterday, there was another American living in the house. But, she went home because she hardly speaks French, understood less and only came because her school obligates language majors to go abroad. She definitely wasn't happy. It didn't help that she's engaged and the situation was made worse when Mme took her to the beach where they stayed for 8 hours. Even with 4 applications of sunscreen, she was burnt to the second degree and I was the lucky person who got to play nurse and apply aloe, then burn cream, then pop the millions of blisters with a needle and then cover it with gauze. I assure you, it was not my idea of a good time. But, she left and returned to her fiance and now it's just Mme Mitrail and I, all alone in the house where I can't seem to find a moment of peace. Plus, she always wants to do my laundry. But, I've explained to her many times that I am an adult and now she lets me cook my own food, do my own dishes most of the time and stops folding the clothes I leave on my bed when I go to school.

The downstairs family is really nice, as I mentioned. I asked the husband about finding an old road bike (not looking too good) and the wife, when doing her shopping, looked for a percolator (cafetiere) for me. It's been two and a half weeks and I still don't have the means to make coffee. Fortunately, Mme found a percolater for me in her storage so I have a means to make coffee now. Thank goodness. They also invited me to go to the beach with them Sunday. I accepted the offer.

All in all, seems look to be shaping up. I'm still regularly confounded by the system and continue to wait for this and that. I don't know all of my classes yet but when I do, I'll update on them. The ones I am sure about are looking to be pretty awesome. The education system here is quite different but it is also nationally run. Not like the private liberal arts school I go to. But it also costs a lot more than 500 Euro a year to go there...

Well, back to the library to read my books and prepare for my first presentation. Why did I volunteer to present on the first day of class? I'm not sure.

All my love from the Caribbean,
Bethany