21 October 2009 Wednesday evening

Can someone please tell me when I became so laid back? And passive? And shy in classes? It’s so strange.

Well, as usual, every day is an adventure. Today’s adventure was a little more exciting than usual. I’ll skip past the waiting half an hour at the bus stop and two terribly boring hours of class and then our professor who is unreasonably physically affectionate talking to Kristen and I with his arms around my shoulders and asking me why I took my braids out, they were so pretty while sort of stroking my pony tail. Yes, strange things like this are a weekly occurrence. No, we’re not comfortable with it. He is, in fact, married. He’s just a touchy-feely sort of guy but as a professor definitely crosses a line. But, like our politician professor, I don’t think there’s much we can do about it. Oh well.
But on to the good part where it started dumping buckets this afternoon. It did the same thing yesterday mid-day. I guess it’s a good thing that it’s been raining because it’s the season for it and it’s been unreasonably warm recently. Or so they say. Yesterday, as I was running to the “country club” for a work out class at Sebastian’s studio, there was a flash and a crash and 5 minutes later, half way there, the sky opened up and in 15 seconds I was soaked. It was hilarious. So I did the class soaking wet with bare feet because I was running through rivers where I usually find sidewalks. I was laughing up a storm. (get it because there was a storm…)
So, I waited it out this afternoon and headed towards Fort de France to buy running shoes and stop to see my marchand. He was starting to pack up on account of the rain when I got there, so I gave him a hand loading oranges and avocados and bananas and whatever else into boxes. I have no idea how long I was there for, helping him and chatting about things but the relevant part of the story is what I walked away with. A quarter watermelon, a small cantaloupe, 3 tomatoes, 2 avocados, a baguette, a bunch of bananas, a handful of small peppers, 5 oranges, maybe 8 pommes cannelles, and a bag of farine de manicot which is a flour made from a root plant of some sort, and 3 red onions. Two FULL, heavy plastic bags full of food and he wouldn’t let me pay him.
As I started climbing the mountain I live on to get to the house, a very kind woman stopped and gave me a ride up the hill. I thanked her at least half a dozen times. Boy, my bags were heavy. Then, I get home to a further adventure. The downstairs, thanks to the insane rain (and the gigantic hill), had entirely flooded. Jobi worked all afternoon to mop it up but my bedroom door was locked and it was like a Christmas surprise you’re not looking forward to. I unlocked the door, turned the latch and stepped into an inch of water. Fortunately, I don’t keep anything on my floor. Jobi, while Kristen and I made/ate our dinner worked away mopping and sweeping. After my absurd house this summer which broke about a million times, it was nice to have a proprietor who does his job and then some.
So that was my fun for the day. Yesterday, as I said, was fun as well. I have a terrifying amount of reading/school work to do and very little motivation to be studious. If all goes as planned, tomorrow is African Dance and then Friday I am going to do body boarding (through the school athletic department) and then baby sit in the evening. If it’s nice Sunday, Florence, Sebastian, the kids and the same crowd (how I got hooked up with babysitting… many of the women take Seb’s exercise classes) are going to a beach on the Atlantic coast and I was invited along.
Not bad, eh?