Your best defense is a good offense

No truer words have ever been said about the driving in Trinidad.  I thought that I was pretty well versed in driving and could handle other aggressive drivers.  After all, I lived in Chicago for a number of years and spent considerable time in Boston for work in the late 90's.  But I don't think anything can really prepare you for this place.

Basically, the only rules of the road are that there are no rules of the road.  Of course I'm kidding...sort of.  The roads are quite narrow and usually pretty curvy.  You drive on the left side of the road (which is actually much easier to get used to than I though it would be), but apparently you can part wherever you want and in whatever direction you want.  There have been a number of instances where I had no idea if I were going down the wrong way on a one-way street because every car is parked going in the same direction.  The only thing that told me otherwise was another car on the same street driving in the opposite direction of the parked cars.

Pretty much every street is a two lane street (one lane for each direction), and that is the extent of the street and pavement.  Not many sidewalks in the neighborhoods, just some driveways and usually a deep gutter to catch the rain.  Oddly, even though on many of the busy streets, people have no issues just pulling over and parking or maybe chatting with someone on the side of the road.  So there are frequently cars pulling into your lane to avoid a parked car.  They don't necessarily wait to make sure that the oncoming traffic is clear; they just dart out and continue on their way.  This is also a frequent occurrence with potholes - even if it's on a blind curve.  I fear the day that my parents come to visit because I'm almost certain this will give one or both of them a heart attack.

First week down

When i first got hired, I was told that I was going to be teaching Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 and possibly one other class.  When I got here, my principal said that I was still in for Algebra 2, but my other courses were up in the air.  He finally decided that I would have 3 sections of Algebra 2 and 2 sections of Introduction to Statistics.  I guess they somehow heard about the infamous "All STAT & A Bag of Chips".

The class sizes are very small.  My smallest is 6 students and my largest is 15.  There are 3 math teachers and 2 math classrooms.  You don't need to be a math teacher to do that equation.  Being the new guy, I travel between a few different classrooms through the course of the week, but I do have my own office, which is quite nice.  Actually, I don't really mind not having my own room because that's the way it's been for me for the 2 years that I taught in Indy, so I don't really know any different.  I also had pretty small class sizes in Indy.  I think the only difference is that this is a private school, so I'm getting some extremely high achieving, very motivated students.

Our class sections are split into alternating 85-minute block schedules and the students only have 4 classes each day.  On Mondays and Wednesdays I have 2 sections that I teach and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have 3 that I teach.  Then on Fridays, we have a modified schedule where we have an extended homeroom and the students have all of their classes for just 35 minutes.  So basically, I get lots of planning time during the course of the week.

I'm still feeling out where my kids are at in regards to their skills and what they have covered in the past.  But all of that will fall into place soon enough.  I'll probably have to start a study session after school at some point for those who are struggling a bit.  But all in all, I anticipate a very good year.  Actually, there have been a few times already where I can't really believe that I'm getting paid to do this.

Mr. Marbles?

I swear, sometimes I really do think I'm Dr. Doolittle.  I was a cat whisperer with Poopers, Angie's cat, Rudy (who apparently wants to kill most people) and Jane Ire's cat, Cat (apparently it doesn't have a name and generally doesn't like people much either).  I have dogs who bark and everyone, come up and start licking me as soon as I walk into a room.  These frogs that keep on arriving on my doorstep.  And then as I was typing my last post, a bird jumped up on the bar outside my window and just sat there and watched me for a bit.  As I leaned to try to get my camera, it flew up to my roof.  Then all I could hear was his little footsteps running up and down the roof.

I think I just threw up a bit in my mouth.

Anyone who has traveled a bit has probably come to realize that not everyone has it as good as we do in the states.  Lots of things are used to their fullest - sort of a waste not, want not attitude.

When I first got here, I had to figure out which bedroom I was going to stay in.  Not a hard thing to do since they both had full bathrooms attached to them, but one had more closet space.  I'm looking around, really kind of tired from a long flight (side note to those not in the loop, I had a flight from Chicago to Miami, a 10 hour layover in Miami, and then the 4 hour flight to TT, customs, etc.).  I know I should be figuring out if I should wash the sheets on the bed before I sleep in them, but after a sleepless night in an airplane and airport, I don't really care.  So I climb into bed to rest my weary head and something is poking me.  I adjust the pillow a bit and lay back down and get poked again.  Ok, what the heck is this?  So I reach my hand into the pillow and get poked about 3 or 4 more times.  I pulled the pillow out of the case and I realize that the pillow is stuffed with feathers.  However, in Trinidad, they apparently do not pull the quills off of the feather before they stuff them into the pillow.  I can just imagine frantic pillow makers grabbing the feathers at the chicken slaughter house..."This is great!  Can you believe that we're getting this stuff for free?  It will be pure profit when we sell these things!"  Needless to say that this little vegetarian went and found some other 'not so luxurious' pillows.

Now we move forward to Wednesday, getting my driver's license.  After spending 4 hours at the BMV, I'm famished.  So myself and another new teaching couple, Ryan and Meredith, decide to go to this little food stand across the street to get some roti - which is a local dish, basically various types of Indian food wrapped in a burrito like shell (utterly delicious by the way).  On the chalkboard by the cashier, today special - Cow Heel Soup.  Mmmmmm.

Now let's fast forward to the Saturday farmer's market.  How cool, lots of local fruits and vegetables.  Sounds like a great way to continue to learn what is local to the islands.  Aaron, Kate (yet another new teaching couple) set out on a little adventure to find this enormous market.  Apparently, this is such a big deal for many of the locals, that they will get there at 6:30 AM.  We opted for more of an 8:30-ish arrival.  You know, being fashionably late.  Anyway, we find this giant market, park the car, and walk into the first building, which is literally a meat market.  On the table of one of the first booths is a full, severed pig head.  A couple booths down, a stack (oh yes, a stack) of pig snouts.  Then there were some entire cow ribs (like in the first Rocky movie).  There were a lot of choice cuts of meat, just sitting on the cement counters at these booths.  I'm kind of curious how all that is sanitized (that's sarcasm if you didn't pick up on it).  There were some live ducks chilling out, probably not really realizing what was going on.  Some tiny little chicks that looked like yellow poof-balls, waiting to get executed.  And so on.  Good times.  Maybe that's why everyone gets there at 6:30.

Once we exited the meat market, and left the many, many, MANY, flies, we moved into the next building.  This was the fruits, veggies and clothing (which I'm sure isn't stolen and is authentic brand names).  The fruits and veggies market was great.  No complaint there, other than not knowing what to buy and what different things looked like.  Everyone was very friendly and helpful.  And I'm sure they didn't charge us silly Americans any extra when we had the conversation that went along the lines of..."What is this?"  "Um, that's an avocado, mon."  "Oh ok.  I'll take one of those."  Honestly, the thing was as big as a grapefruit.  I've never seen an avocado like that before.

Oh...hello.

The first few nights as I was trying to fall asleep, there were these constant sirens going off outside.  I thought maybe it was Caribbean car alarms (not the DEEE DOOO DEEE DOOO BRRRIIIIP BRRRIIIIP WAAAA WAAAA WAAAA WAAAA alarm that we are so accustomed to but more like a bunch of repetitive tweets).  I asked my neighbor Charlie (he and Ginger - his girlfriend, are also new teachers and they live just a couple of apartments down from me) and he said that he didn't hear anything and didn't quite know what I was talking about.  A couple nights later, we were out and I could hear it as we were driving home.  I kept trying to point it out to him but he couldn't hear it over the roar of the maxi-taxi.  So when we finally got back to our apartment complex, I pointed it out to him and he said that he thought they were Trinidadian crickets or locusts or something.

So the week passes and I'm getting used to the crickets (or locusts or whatever they are) and we're over at Nick and Gina's apartment for cocktails and sodas (also new teachers from Vancouver, BC, Canada with their two daughters, Sienna who is 6 and Savanna who is 4).  As we leave, I mentioned something about the crickets to Gina and she said that she believed that they were some type of tree frogs.  So as Charlie, Ginger and I are walking  home (we live only a couple blocks away from Nick and Gina) I'm scoping the trees to see if I can actually pick out a frog from the street lights or moon light, but to no avail.

However, when I get home, I see in the darkness by my front door, a little shape.  My eyes start to get adjusted and I realized that it was this little guy...

So instinctively I said "Hello" and asked him how his night was going.  He didn't say much so I told him to wait there, at which point I went and got my camera.  It was very dark and I had a hard time getting him in the frame but he didn't budge one iota when I took the picture even though the flash was pretty bright.  Of course in the back of my head I envisioned him leaping, with exposed fangs, for my jugular and ending my stay in Trinidad with a horrific, bloody scene on my doorstep.

But instead, he just sat there with that "what up" look on his face.  (This one was for you Ms. Pearson).

Maracas Beach

Maracas Bay is about an hour or two away from Port of Spain.  The road there goes up through the mountains (which consist of very narrow and very curvy) and then this bay just kind of pops out of nowhere.  Then you wind back down the road to get to the beach area.  The waves were fairly big and there was some good body surfing.  The water was as warm as bath water.  Not once was there a "brrr" or a shiver.  For those who do eat animals, there is also a place that is supposedly the best "shark 'n bake" in the country.  Shark 'n bake is basically deep fried shark fillets with lots of various toppings.  Not sure what the toppings were since I did not indulge, but everyone who did have some raved about it.  So if you're ever in Trinidad, be sure you get to Maracas Beach and enjoy the waves and the fine local cuisine. 

I was going to post a picture of Maracas Bay (or the beach) but I forgot that forgot my camera on that trip.  I guess I'll just have to go again and take pictures.

I have arrived!! Wait a...

I thought there would be great fanfare and parades when I arrived at the airport, but the heads of state must have got the dates mixed up.

I have officially been here for one week.  My first week was filled with a lot of new experiences and a great deal of trying to get settled in to my new place.  My apartment is pretty nice and is really close to the school (only about a 10 minute walk).  It's a two story, two bedroom, two and a half bath condo and is furnished with the fine decor of an early 90's corporate apartment.  If you have been to one, you know what I'm talking about.  If not, I'll let your imagination run wild. 

My first week was also spent doing a lot of waiting.  I think the official description is "island time".  But the essence is that things don't move quite as quickly as they do in the states.  That's cool and all (and actually one of the things that I was looking forward to), but it may have gotten a bit excessive the first couple of days.  Please don't take the following as a complaint, because I'm not complaining about living a slightly slower lifestyle, just want you all to get a feel for what "island time" is all about.

We were supposed to have mini buses (called maxi-taxis) pick us up for our first meeting at school at 9 AM Monday morning.  Around 10:00, the bus picked me up.  We met all the other new hires and got a tour of the school.  After the tour, we went to get bank accounts set up.  Someone called the bank ahead of time to make sure that they could manage all 14 of us and they said that they could.  Six and a half hours later, we left the bank, accounts in hand.  We went back to our apartments and about a half hour later, we were on our way to dinner.  The place was pretty nice, but they were trying out a new menu, so they said that dinner was going to be half price tonight.  Cool.  We order.  Three hours later, we get our food.  The conversation all day and night was great though.  We all really started bonding and got a chance to really get to know each other.

Tuesday was scheduled for an 8:30 pickup but we pushed it back to 9 since we were all a little wiped out from the previous day.  I don't know why, we didn't really do anything, but we were all tired nonetheless.  So around 10:30, the maxi-taxi picks me up and we head out to Maracas Beach.  That place was awesome, but I'll get to that later.  The last bit of waiting came at the BMV on Wednesday.  Let me tell you, I don't think any country's BMV moves very quick.  We were there for about 4 hours getting our licenses, and this time there were only 6 of us.

Again, this was not a complaint - just an adjustment.  Really, after the bank, it was all a drop in the hat and we just rolled with it.