Les premières semaines

Hello ya'll! I decided to set this blog up because many people have asked me what life is like Guadeloupe, and I have tried to respond to everyone via email but this might be easier. Plus I can post some pictures (courtesy of my roomate until I get a camera of my own).

 A beach along the western coast near a town called Pointe Noire

A "porcelain rose" 

A typical view of the countryside

As of today, I have been in Guadeloupe a little more than 2 weeks. Where to begin....After a week-long stint of couch-surfing at the place of some other language assistants I contacted through facebook, I moved into my current apartment with my current roomate and buddy Marina, a Spanish language assistant. She was the one who found the place, I basically took a look at it and then a few days later, we moved in. It is actually a really nice place and it's cheaper than any apartment I had in Pittsburgh!! Of course, it's not exactly on the beach and there isn't much to do where we are. But don't let that deter you from visiting me!! We have to take a bus about a half hour away to get to the beach, but it is really close to both Marina and my schools where we're teaching(the apartment building is literally right next to two of my schools), and on this island, you either live within walking distance of your schools or you buy a car. The bus system is not very reliable for going any distance, and doesn't run at all on sundays. We're thinking of renting a car on the weekends pretty frequently just so we can get to the beach more easily, but buying a car would be kind of a pain.  Marina and I also live with a Guadeloupean guy too who's a law student here, who told us he would show us how to dance to zouk, the local music here. We'll see how that goes....

So far my experience here has been a mix of good and bad. I was sick for about a week, which means I now have to catch up a little bit with all the documents and stuff the French government needs from me. I am feeling much better though, thankfully. I have definitely never lived anywhere like this in my life, and it's taking some adjusting to. Physically, I have to be super careful about putting on sunblock every day, which I was already careful about in Pittsburgh, aka the city that gets no sun. My skin is this odd blotchy red color, especially my hands and feet, (very attractive, I assure you) and it itches all the time, so it's pretty uncomfortable. Not sure why this is happening. I also have never sweat this much in my life. I see people walking around in long skinny jeans and, I'm not kidding, turtlenecks!! I sweat just looking at them! In addition, I have a lovely array of mosquito bites that adorn every inch of my body. It's like they sensed that someone new arrived with fresh blood for the taking.  

 

 I am also adjusting to a very different culture. On my second day here, I went into town to try to set up a bank account (unsuccessfully) with my contact person, Anny, who has helped me out a lot in these beginning stages. We ended up going to one of my schools too, which I was not aware we were going to do, but I had no problem with it. Eventually the headmaster of the school called me into the office and proceeded to give me a lecture about the ways that women, especially white women, should dress in order to be respected in Guadeloupe. I was wearing a tank top and shorts at the time, and here, you cannot wear those things (if you're white) unless you are going to the beach. I see lots of women my age wearing the kinds of clothes I normally wear when it's 90degrees and humid outside, but they aren't white. The headmaster told me that if you don't dress conservatively, you will be harassed when walking down the street and you won't be respected at school. I took this information seriously, as new as it was to me, and told myself I would just have follow the customs, even I didn't agree with them, and would have appreciated knowing that I can't wear shorts here before getting here (I mostly brought shorts for bottoms).  As it turns out, the headmaster may be right, however in every other circumstance in which I have walked somewhere either alone or with Marina (who's white too albeit not as pasty as me), I have been harassed and yelled at by men in the streets, regardless of the fact that I am dressed conservatively and "appropriately". The worst was this past sunday, when I decided to go for a walk because I was really bored. It was broad daylight, about 3pm here. Every guy I passed would either sneer at me, stare at me and then try to start a conversation with me, yell at me from across the street, or making disgusting kissing sounds at me, or honk their horn at me. They will do it if they're in a car and have to lean out the window, or if they're on a scooter and nearly crash into a car in front of them. No joke, the driver of an ambulence honked his horn at Marina and I when we were waiting at a bus stop the other day. The worst was a guy who used his hand as a gun and then pretended to shoot me while making the sound of a gunshot. It was awful. It takes so much for me not to yell back at them, or at least defend myself, but I know if I were to do that, it would only make them happy. I am trying to take this as a learning experience, and find out why this is happening. I know that there is a lot of anti-colonial and anti-French sentiment here, and I could pass for a French person, so that might be where it's stemming from. It definitely hasn't been the most welcoming time though, and it's very frustrating just to walk down the street alone, and I know that the same does not happen to the black women here. I can honestly say I have never judged a person based on the color of their skin, largely I think thanks to my upbringing and my parent's open-mindedness about different cultures, but now I know the horrible feeling that comes from knowing someone disrespects or even hates you solely based on the color of your skin. There are also some cultural differences, like the fact that people are very blunt and will tell you how they think of you. I remember noticing this in France too. My contact person has made several comments on my clothing at various times, like, "make sure to pull down your shirt there", and has also told stories about me in front of my face to other teachers. Like the story of how I didn't take the apartment she originally found for me, which she was obviously not very happy about. It was my second day in Guadeloupe, it was the first apartment I had seen and it was honestly a bit depressing, and most importantly, I didn't have the 500 euro security deposit in cash that the lanlord needed in order for me to move in. None of this info was relayed in the story she told, however.

Anyway, enough about the bad...the beach here is absolutely gorgeous, and the water is the perfect temperature. And there is world-class diving and snorkeling on the other side of the island, which I'm really excited about. I'm really lucky to have my roomate Marina, who is one of the nicest people I've ever known, and exhibits that warmth and friendliness aparently very typical in Spanish culture. She has helped me out so much too. SHe speaks French fluently, and is also studying English and already speaks it very well. I'm learning a little Spanish too! I know how to say,"My name is Mimi, what's your name?" and two other sentences haha. We have met some really nice people so far, including a lady who gave us a ride home from the bus stop becasue she saw that we were waiting at a bus stop on a saturday evening, when not many busses run. All of the teachers I work with at school have been really nice so far, including one that I have a big crush on heh :) And the students seem like really nice too, and very inquisitive. Some of them are actually excited to learn English from an American, so thats pretty neat. You can see the High School Musical and Hannah Montana logos on everything at school, and some of the students have asked me cute questions like,"Do you know Justin Bieber/Barak Obama/Miley Cyrus?". I start teaching next week, so we'll see how it goes!