bite marks in my wrist...

Monday, October 26, 2009 Noon

Everyday of my life is a hilarious adventure. I know I say this just about every time, but it’s true. Sometimes I get aggravated at the adventures when they’re not what I want them to be and sometimes I become overwhelmed because there are too many adventures happening and I just want to relax and do nothing sometimes. I often miss the familiar comfort of the adventures I’m used to having but the fact of the matter is, complacency, as much as people seem to think it does, doesn’t exist. That being said, I have had a hilarious morning and only now, sitting at the library am I getting grumpy because of yet another misplaced stitch in the quilt known as Martinique. I’m a little pissed off because I forgot my wireless key and since my the one built into my laptop stopped working the day before I left, I don’t have the interwebs. Great.
So, my hilarious morning: It started off great with a run and plenty of relaxation and eating breakfast seated on the island our recently completed kitchen. Sunlight was pouring through the windows and these birds kept flying in and out of our apartment. I have a super view of the ocean from the kitchen window and was drinking my local coffee and eating fruit. Life can’t go wrong with a morning like that. When I went upstairs to grab the clean laundry, Youma asked me to help her get the kittens into a cage. No problem- I happen to have a lot of experience with that. The first four were an easy success. She lured them with food- brilliant. Then, there are the two “savages” who don’t like people one bit and wouldn’t come out. After a bit of running around, I finally grabbed one of them by the scruff of the neck and dropped it in with the others. The last one was a total disaster. We finally cornered it and I reached through an ivy-like plant growing over a stationary exercise bike which looks like it hasn’t been used in at least ten years and got a hand on it. Well, that hand was quickly destroyed. The bastard not only scratched me but sunk its jaw into my wrist twice. Quick evacuation to the kitchen and Youma poured clear rum over my hand. Brilliant, classic old-time medicine with all the perks of smelling like an alcoholic. So, we resumed the mission and Youma tried this time but it kitten literally jumped off the balcony, down at least 15 feet and made its escape. Back to the wild with your ancestors, wild thing. If you were wondering where the wild things are, they’re in Martinique.
Youma is letting me keep a kitten and when I leave, she plans to give it away. Of course, I fell in love with the scrawniest, ugliest, smallest most pathetic looking of all the kittens. She reminded me this morning not to have the same mentality when falling in love with a man. Practical woman. After this excitement, I went back to hanging my laundry up and had a fun time navigating the piles of puppy shit laying around everywhere. After getting all my affairs together, I walked 5 minutes and realized I forgot my bus pass. Back up the big hill in the full, warm sunshine of 10:30, unlock door, find pass, relock door, down the hill again to wait at the bus stop for hours and hours and hours of my life. Wish I’d remembered my wifi key, too. Oh well.
Ran some errands (pharmacy to get some sort of cream to get rid of my heat rash? It’s all a little sketchy… then the post office to buy more stamps and find out it will cost 35 euros to send a 1 kilo package with a 2-4 day guarantee. Daieee) and then a bus to campus. French people infuriate me, sometimes. Walked over to say hi to a friend and when I cut across the slightly damp grass, she looked at me like I was crazy and said (in French), “why couldn’t you walk on the concrete path like everyone else.” Turns out, kid, I’m not like everyone else. But you’re not the first one to note it… In fact, kid, it’s what makes most people I know like me. Oh well.
Tell me how I am supposed to study when my mind is constantly reeling with all the insanity of my daily life? Beats me.
I had a great Sunday and a decent weekend. Thanks to babysitting until 2:30 am Friday night, I was super exhausted Saturday and decided not to go kayaking at 8:30 in the morning. Being tired made me super grumpy and when Youma entertained a friend downstairs in our space, my patience was on end. When she cooked steak in our kitchen filling my bedroom with the smell, I almost lost my sanity. But all turned out well. We went to a sweet tropical garden, le Jardin Balata where Kristen and I took lots of silly and rad pictures and Youma spent quality time with an old friend. Old and old. As in, they’d known each other for a long time and the guy was super old. . It was really tough for her to say goodbye when we dropped him off for the bus. He said “adieu” and refused to see “au revoir.” As Kristen said to me, Old people are sometimes depressing. True fact.
Sunday was awesome. Florence picked me up at 7:30 with Lucas in the car and we met up with another family and went for a 3- 3 1/2 hour hike on the coast. It was on the Atlantic coast, super beautiful and we could even make out Dominica in the distance. Hiking with kids is hilarious and something I greatly look forward to later in life. On the drive to the hike, Florence told me they’re going to miss me a lot when I leave. She told me next time I come to Martinique, I know where to go and who to call. She also said that if she goes to France, even, we could meet up there and I could stay at her parents house with her. Super!
So, after hiking, we went to the beach and met up with everyone else. It was sunny and beautiful, as usual. It was Helène’s birthday so we celebrated with Champagne and rum-cream filled éclair-like puffs. So good. I love my Sunday’s with Florence and company. They’re all really good natured and friendly and share and it’s fun to be immersed in French and even though I’m sort of the odd one out in so many ways, I feel welcome.
Weekend a success, morning kind of iffy but it’s pretty hilarious that I was bit by a kitten. Well, back to being a student. I need to figure out how to be a student without the stress part…
Love, Bethany
An important amendment to my post: When we went to the tropical garden, we stopped to get gas and the old German man bought a beer at the gas station. I wished I had my camera when the greatest thing of my week happened (better than being bitten by a savage cat and then pouring rum on the wound): he opened the beer and was drinking it with a straw but wasn’t buckled in so he handed the beer to Youma, who held it in her right hand WHILE DRIVING as he took forever to buckle in. It was amazing. Driving with a beer in hand. Oh, that Martinique. Almost as good as the two year old standing on the floorboards of the backseat of the car in which one out of 6 people was buckled in. LIVE FREE OR DIE. I’m going to say that here, dying is the more likely of the two options.