Sunday, March 29, 2009

I love me some Canadians

Let me tell you about the weekend I had last weekend.  I do realize that I'm going out of sequential order, because I still need to tell you about the great weekend I had diving with my students, but last weekend was so much fun and so chill, that I wanted to get some pictures out of where I stayed.

I guess it all starts with a (non-student) diving weekend about 4 weeks ago.  The usual crew, plus one - our friend Roshan who works for the Clinton AIDS Foundation down here, went back to the Manta Lodge to see what we could see underwater.  When you are not diving, you are basically hanging out in the dining area, near the pool, because there are no TV's or internet access at the Manta Lodge.  After dinner, we met a couple teachers from the Maple Leaf Academy (the Canadian International School here in Port-of-Spain) who were there with one of their students from their school's SCUBA Club.  We were playing cards after dinner and Christal, one of the teachers, tells us that a whole group of them are going to Toco (northeast corner of Trinidad) to see the turtles lay their eggs (a natural phenomenon that occurs here).  Aaron, Katie and myself have all been wanting to do this, so we jumped at the offer.

Christal told us they all rented a house up there that sleeps 25-30 people, so we thought it was going to be a big guest house, which aren't always the greatest accommodations - usually a bed, a small sitting room and maybe someone there cooking for you.  If you get a fan in your room to keep you cool, you're kind of lucky.  As it turns out, we were the lucky ones, but not because of getting a fan.

Here is what we rolled up to...This giant corporate guest house that was built by some company to entertain it's employees (or executives) on the weekends, which is also rented out to the public.

It rests on about 9 acres of land and is on the edge of a cliff looking out to the Atlantic ocean.  It has access to two small private beaches as well as a larger public beach that is within walking distance.

Here is the view of the backside of the beach house.  On the right of the picture (not shown) is a large manicured lawn with a large open BBQ pit.  On the left is another small field and the paths to the private beaches.  Behind me is an outdoor, covered dance area, complete with sink, a place to serve drinks and bathrooms.  This was not really used, but it's nice to add to the impressive list of things that this place had to offer.

Here's the picture of the inside of the beach house.  The backyard/pool is out the doors on the right.  There is obviously enough space to sit and feed the entire group and there is a pool table just peeking out of the corner of the picture.

So it's obvious that the amenities were great.  But what made the weekend one of the best weekends since I arrived in Trinidad was the people that I was around.

Just like when I first met my ISPS family, there was a lot of bonding and everyone was welcoming with open arms.  And meeting another large group of people like that just made the weekend so great.

We did get to see one turtle laying it's eggs, but that was actually the most depressing part of the weekend.  We had a large group with us (20 people went) and we were merged with another group of about 10 people.  But then there was another group of 20-30 people out on the beach also looking to watch the turtles lay their eggs.  So the only one we saw had close to 60 people surrounding it and the magic of mother nature was lost amongst a bunch of people not so in awe of what was happening around them, flashing pictures that was more like paparazzi than capturing memories, and just inconsiderate people.

So I choose not to remember the weekend as the weekend of watching turtles, but rather the weekend of meeting some more incredible people.  

Oh, and also some good times playing Super-Spectacular-Catch in the pool.  Here's my favorite shot of one of my catches.  A great shot, but let me tell you, the landing was not so great and it ended my afternoon of catches.  

Here's a quick video of Aaron and Katie trying to do a double catch.  They never quite got it, but it was fun watching them try.


This video also reminded me of one of the other really cool things that happened during this weekend.  The woman floating on the purple noodle, Pierett, didn't know how to swim, but she had a waist floatie on while she was in the pool.  She also played Super-Spectacular-Catch, but that wasn't the cool thing. 

Before we went to see the turtles, we hiked up to this waterfall.  It was around 5:00, which gave us sunlight, but when we got to the waterfall, the tree cover was making it kind of dark (hence no pictures).  You could climb to the top of the waterfall, maybe about 20 feet up and jump into the pool, which I did a couple times - it was so much fun.  But the really cool thing is that Pierett really wanted to join in on the fun.  So she climbed up and with myself and one other person waiting in the pool below the waterfall, jumped in.  She landed right between us and we took her back to dry land.  It was really cool being a part of her literally taking this leap of faith.  In hindsight, this may not have been the wisest thing to do.  But then again, life is about taking risks and trying to overcome fears and I think Pierett did that this weekend.

Monday, March 23, 2009

More Excuses

I realize that I have been shirking my duty of posting lately, but I am hoping that over the course of the next week or two, that I will get myself all caught up.  Pretty much since Carnival, I have been going non-stop again.  But not in a bad way.

The weekend after Carnival was a weekend of catching up with my rest.  The next two weekends I was in Tobago diving, once with friends and once with the SCUBA Club that I helped with at school.  Then last weekend I was in Toco (the northeast part of the island), hanging out with the teachers from the Maple Leaf School, the Canadian international school and seeing some leatherback turtles lay their eggs.  I feel like I've been on vacation for the last month and a half, and in a mere two weeks, I will officially be on vacation, back in the states. 

I have lots to show and tell, but I need to get it all sorted out first.  So keep an eye out.  Hopefully a few more posts will start popping up a bit more frequently.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Carnival Tuesday (long overdue)

I realize that this is now quite outdated, but I also realize that I owe people some pictures of me in my Carnival costume.

First off, I want to try to explain what Carnival Tuesday is really like. However, my friend Nick put it best when he posted to his experiences on his Facebook page, “no matter what I say, you will never fully understand what Carnival Tuesday is like until you experience it for yourself.”  There are no truer words than those.  But let me try.

On Tuesday, everyone comes out in his or her full costumes and one of the highlights is when they pass the stage.  The stage is basically a big set of bleachers set up facing the road on the Savannah that we all walk by.  We were supposed to be at the starting point at 6:30 Tuesday morning.  But after a long day Monday, Andrea and I decided to try to get there about 8:00 or so, figuring that we wouldn’t miss much.  As we drove in, we got a call from some of our other friends and ran into even more looking for parking.  I guess all our bodies felt the same way.We found out where the band was at and we started walking in that direction, when we got word that Harts (our band) had just crossed the stage.  So there we have it, we missed the biggest event of the day.  Who would have thought that it would happen so early?  But then again, now knowing what came next, it did make some sense.  Because as everyone started drinking and dancing, the extravagance of the costumes was slowly stripped off to essentially what we were wearing on Monday.

Even though we missed crossing the stage, we still got there to see everyone in their costumes.  The music that is played all day long is called “soca” which is a mix between dance and calypso, and they tend to play the same 10 songs over and over and over again.  By the end of Carnival, I had had my fill. Yet oddly, by Thursday, Andrea and I were both looking for a little soca music on the radio.  I guess it just gets in your blood a bit.  The music was starting to pick up and got progressively louder.  The alcohol started flowing a little more and the dancing was starting to pick up.  At this point, it was about 9:00 AM.  So here are a few of those pictures that everyone was looking for.

So what is Carnival Tuesday?  It’s a day filled with drinking.  Some to excess, although most people realized that it was a marathon and not a sprint and paced themselves accordingly.  I saw very few people completely sloppy drunk, even at the end of the day.  But more than drinking, it was a day filled with dancing, laughter, smiles, and some of the most beautiful people in all of Trinidad.

 

It’s also a time where people let go of all their inhibitions and there is incredible safety in numbers with that.  In these skimpy, tiny, ridiculous outfits, there were all body types.  There were tall, short, thin, not so thin, and those that would fall in the “overweight” category.  There was every skin color under the rainbow and everyone was dancing with everyone.  So while we may look like total tools in these pictures, you didn’t feel that way walking through the streets because everyone was dressed up.  Actually, those people not dressed up stood out and looked more awkward then we did.  And really, if this is a ll I have to do to see and dance with all those beautiful women, I’m ok with it.

So here is me and Andrea in our gear at the beginning of the day and then more what I looked like as the day progressed.  Although the best part may be that we are wearing our trainers with this get up.

And I have a bright, shiny quarter for anyone (who wasn't in Trinidad for Carnival) who can guess who this guy is with Andrea and my friends Gina and Rebekah.










Oh, I almost forgot, if you want to see some more, really cool pictures from Carnival, my friend Sam (one of the English teachers at ISPS) is also an amateur photographer and she took some great pictures, which are posted on her blog.  On the right side of my blog, under my Profile, there is "My Blog List".  Under that is a link for "3Limes".  That's her.  Just click on the link and then look for the posts with Carnival in the title and you'll see her pics.  They're great.  You'll love them.

Update: The bright, shiny quarter has been claimed by one of my former students in Indianapolis.  The man in the photo is Lennox Lewis, a retired heavyweight boxing champion (41-2-1), who had defeated the likes of Ray Mercer, Evander Holyfield, and Mike Tyson.