a few things to read

November 8, 2011

One hot girl

Never in my life have I loved cold water so much! It is starting to get really hot here and today I bought a cold water from one of the shops here. IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!!! I don’t have a refrigerator so I only get cold things when I go out and buy them at a store with a fridge, and since I can get water for free, I don’t buy cold water very often. However, today I was so hot after walking to town to go on the Internet that I had to buy something to drink. Oh my goodness I miss being able to drink cold stuff on a regular basis!

The other day as I sat in my window, I was thinking about my life and how much it has changed and how much it will change over then next few years while I am here in Madagascar. Here are some of the interesting facts about myself that I came up with:

1.      I have not driven a car since July 12th 2011 and will not drive one (unless there is a crazy emergency and PC lets me) until September 2013.

2.      I have not seen my best friends since July 8^th - 9^th 2011 and unless one of them strikes it rich in the next 675 days and flies out here I won’t see them till September 2013.

3.      I have been a teacher here for going on 6 weeks already and only have 2 weeks  (including this one) of instruction, a week of review and then it is exam time. In other words I am almost done with my 1^st trimester of teaching!

4.      This year will be the first time that I won’t be seeing any of my family for the holidays. I have mixed emotions about this, on the one I know that I will be a bit sad and miss them but on the other it makes me feel super grown up, which is a good thing because I don’t feel like a grown up very often J

5.      Gross but true, I have not gone to the bathroom in a regular toilet in 7 weeks. Funny how quickly I adjusted to this kinda big change in my everyday life.

6.      I have not gone shopping in a store larger then my bedroom since July 2011.

7.      I have eaten pasta almost everyday that I have been at site and some how have still managed to lose weight. A dream come true; eat pasta everyday and not getting super fat!

8.      Some days I don’t speak English to anyone but myself. *I speak to people just not in English*

9.      In one day here I walk further then I did in a week at home. To be honest I was lazy in the states and didn’t walk anywhere so it is not that hard to walk more here, plus I walk everywhere here… I have no other way to get around!

10.  I have learned to read military time since coming to Mcar.

11.  I never realized how much I like sandwiches. I have had more then one dream about eating BLT and club sandwiches, I miss them a lot!

12.  I know that answer to that old question “if you were stranded on an island what one book and one movie would you want to have with you?’ let me tell you that one of each would not be enough! I have several books and movies and those are barely enough! But if I had to chose just one of each I would chose the 7^th Harry Potter book, b/c it is long and it is a total escape from reality and Singing in the Rain for my movie b/c it has everything, love, conflict, singing and dancing. And if I had to I could occupy my time by learning the dances. Who knows maybe I will get bored enough here and learn them!

Well that is all for now!

Peace, Love & dreaming of cold drinks and sandwiches

November 14, 2011

And on the main stage….

Hello all!

I hope all is well in the good old USA! Everything is going smoothly here on Sainte Marie, it gets hotter everyday but there haven’t been any cyclone or nasty weather systems moving thru so I will take the heat over those any day!

I wanted to share a something with you all that happened to me today.

First let me start off by saying that if you didn’t know I was a theatre major in college and directed plays at SLHS last year. (To any of my high schoolers who are reading this, I hear you did a wonderful job with your performances, last weekend, I’m super proud of all of you!!) Anyway, theatre is in my blood. So I go to walk into my 4eme class this afternoon and there is a platform running the length of the chalkboard. The board is very tall so I guess other teachers complained and they school built this platform. Which is super great for short people like some of my students and myself. However, as I taught today I felt like I was on a stage! The platform makes it so that I am much taller then the students who are sitting. It is already kind of intimidating to stand in front of a class that only understands every 5^th word out of your mouth, now with this new stage at the front it is a whole new ball game. J The fact that I was acting out a dialogue didn’t really help the “I’m on a stage” feeling either. But, I do have to say that I never thought I would be on a stage again so this is a nice little reminder of what it feels like to be in the spotlight… so to speak!

Peace, Love and I’m standing center stage again!

some pretty pictures

i posted pictures 4 of them on facebook... go look

a little hello from me to you

October 27, 2011

Books!

Hello!
 

I realized that I have been asking for reading material and I haven’t told you all what I have read!

Here is a list of the books I have read J :

Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin (x2)

Something Blue by Emily Griffin (x2)

Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares (x3)

The Help

Eat, Pray, Love (x2)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The World Below by Sue Miller

No place for a Man by Judy Astley

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Thank you for Smoking by Christopher Buckley

Where the Heart is by Billie Letts

The Freedom Writers Diary

I average about 1 book every two days!

As I have said before anything you want to send me to read I will read!!

Peace Love and Reading is fun!

Ps If there are any PCVs that read this and want to swap books I am more then willing to do so, the only one that isn’t mine on here is Eat, Pray, Love.

October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!!

Hello blog readers! Happy Halloween! Even thou it doesn’t feel like Halloween here I am trying to get in the spirit. I drew two jack-o-lanterns on my wall with chalk and I bought a snickers bar to celebrate! YAY!

In other news:

I FINALLY swam in the ocean!! It was wonderful, peaceful and everything I hoped it would be! My friend Sandy invited me to go with her church to the beach on Saturday. I got up at 7 am and walked to her church where there were about 50 kids waiting to go to the beach! After a 10 min ride we were there and it was beautiful. The tide was low when we first arrived to no one could go in the water because there were a bunch of sea urchins in the shallows. After about 2 hours the tide had come in a bit and it was time to swim and swim we did! Walking in the shallows was sort of a challenge because I had to be careful not the step on my of the sea urchins but once I got deep enough I was able to swim with out touching the ground, it was super! I still want to try to find a beach closer to my house but Sandy said that there is a better beach by the airport so hopefully I get that one soon (or any beach soon) because it is starting to get really hot here!

I can’t believe that it is almost November, and that NJ and NY have snow! It is going to be weird to not see snow for two years! The weather here, as I mentioned above, is starting to get really hot, we are about enter in to cyclone and hurricane season so keep your finger crossed that the weather doesn’t get to bad.

That is all for now!

Peace, Love and Ocean Swimming!