the house of nonsense

Wednesday 11 November 2009 9:20 AM

MORNING TIME… is so interesting at this house. I woke up rather late this morning, somewhere in the eight o’clock region but I have a sneaking suspicion I might have needed it. I passed a “nuit blanche” (white night- all-nighter) Monday night working on the most glorious dissertation/presentation, came home and slept for 4 hours yesterday between 2 and 6 pm, woke up, had dinner with everyone then went back to bed around 10:30ish. Not too shabby. Last night we had a really great couscous together with a big bowl of boiled veggies (carrots, zucchini, eggplant, cabbage, squash, etc…) with couscous and chickpeas in a rich tomato sauce and a spicy sauce on the side. Some sort of Algerian spice. It was really great and nice to share a meal with everyone. Kristen showed everyone her Montreal pictures and I can’t wait to be back in sweatpants and a sweater in Illinois, playing in the snow in New Hampshire/Vermont and then playing Frisbee at 11 pm on a rainy Monday night. I love life. I said to Youma that she has a beautiful life here but she’s been sort of bummed about a lot of stuff lately, bogged down and generally dissatisfied. What’s the fun in having a balcony with a view of the ocean if you can’t actually go to the beach and swim? (She recently had surgery on her knee which isn’t healing well…) While thinking about this, and thinking about all the silly things I miss about my life back north, life in general is a beautiful thing. I can be grumpy about not having internet access at home and having to lug my laptop to school and then it overheats and freezes up on me and I don’t like studying at the library, etc or I can realize that I am walking distance to the beach, I live with two amazing artists, two amazing people who I love.
I take comfort in knowing that despite my little sabbatical/leave of absence from my life in North America, it’s waiting for me when I get back. Sure, things will be different. Ford Hall will be up and kicking on the Willamette Campus, who knows who will be dating whom when I get back, the Frisbee team will have new members, a new name and a new dynamic, my friends will have had crazy adventures that I wasn’t part of, my baby (niece) will be walking and talking like no one’s business, but such is life.
And in the meantime, I have a life here, too. This life involves different habits and daily rituals (although drinking coffee is still a part of it), a different education system and studying pattern, mosquito nets, sweating constantly and daily showers. It involves a different language, different friendships, different manners of communication, getting hit on (a lot) and going to the beach. But, it still involves smiling and laughing and frowning and crying and being alive. Sure, I might have potentially had to pull an all-nighter to finish an amazing paper but I would rather do that than have missed Joby performing Monday night or not have gone to Carbet/St. Pierre with Job y and Youma Sunday. I could easily die tomorrow (and I probably wouldn’t be surprised but I would definitely be pissed!) and I would hate to have passed up opportunities to meet and get to know people and see things because I had to “study.” Maybe this isn’t the greatest rational, but it’s all about finding balance, right?
In other news, I went to the study abroad coordinator yesterday to talk about my professor and apparently this is the first time something like this has come up. Which, in my mind, means it’s probably the first time someone has said something about it. Sorry to be the party-pooper Martinique but this lady doesn’t let things like that slide. I would hate for 1. The professor to think that’s acceptable behavior and 2. This to happen to another student or study abroad student, someone who is potentially less… I don’t know I guess more vulnerable than I am? Someone who would have been too intimidated to look their professor in the eye with a very strongly expressive facial expression. But, maybe I’m just super American. Oh well. Wouldn’t be the first time.
So as I said, mornings here are hilarious. I woke up, stumbled out of bed to find Kristen studying or working on something (the usual), some random child running around, and Youma apparently invited the whole town over to clean the house. Which is to say, one person is ironing the clothes and another person is cleaning and now there’s some guy cutting the grass with an electric weed whacker because the ground is way to uneven for lawn mowers. That’s how it’s done all over Martinique. Once a month or so, when the grass is about knee-height, chopitty chop chop. Things grow fast here- including hair. Magical vitamin D. Gotta love it.
So. Five and a half weeks left. I was thinking at some point yesterday that I am going to miss Martinique a lot. I am going to miss Youma a lot. This past week, we spent a lot of time sitting around laughing and being silly and getting to know each other. She’s a great woman. She and Joby are two fantastic people. Seeing Joby perform Monday night was amazing. I can’t even begin to explain. He has 4 musicians who play and he performs spoken word which is a combination of singing and speaking in rhythm. I used my fancy digital camera and recorded a video. It was so cool! Plus, there was free food afterwards- and a surprising amount of vegetarian things. If I can figure out how to upload the video, I will.
UNLIKE Saturday morning. So, I had the exciting opportunity to present, in French, for a meeting for international education or something like that. I still don’t know exactly what it was, but I was asked to just give a 5 minute presentation about myself and where I come from, my home and my school, how I find Martinique, etc. Youma helped me prepare for it and I got dressed up all nicely (I clean up well) and wore heels and it was fun. I also appeared briefly on the Martinique national news Sunday night, no big deal. I’m just some sort of celebrity.
I’ve learned to take the getting hit on in good stride, too. Yesterday, close to the house, while descending the hill, I walked past a guy, said bonsoir and he said to me “Comment elle est belle!” to which I replied, “Ouais, je pense ça aussi!” Which, in English means “wow, isn’t she pretty?” and I said, “yeah, I think so too!”
Sassy and hilarious.
Well, studying approaches as the sun mounts the sky with the full beating down heat. All I really want to do is go back to bed and nap some more but there’s this guy with a weed whacker so I don’t think that’s going to happen too soon…
Happy Armistice day! Let’s end some more wars soon, shall we?