FIRST YEAR WITH NO SUPERBOWL:(((

GO STEELERS!!!


But it seems that I will miss my first Superbowl EVER this year, because the local cable company here does not have any NFL rights..DirecTV owns all the NFL rights here. I just emailed the US embassy here with the following email, wonder if they will tell me to shove it. I will post the response I get, if they even take me seriously enough to respond. hahaha Crossing my fingers anyway. I do know a couple of other Americans here, but they have cable, not DirecTV. Just my luck.

Hi,

I am a US Citizen, here in Trinidad consulting for eTecK, and I am trying to find out if there is anywhere in Trinidad, such as a sportsbar, where one can watch the Superbowl?? I haven't met any other Americans here yet, and I am stuck with the local cable TV (which does not have NFL rights and can't show any games). Any ideas? :)) I mean, short of getting DirecTV before Sunday?

Thanks so much!

Jeannie

p.s. GO STEELERS! HAHAHA

Home

Okay, I took a picture of how things look around where I live. Here is a picture of the gate.


I finally memorized the codes...but the only time I need them is when I walk to the mall, because Quincy knows them and always punches them in. I think it took me so long to memorize them because I also had to memorize keypad codes to get into the Medical Data Center, and to also get to another part of the building..yet another code.

Here is my humble abode. I know, it is kinda plain, ain't it...but get this: I think I have the most inexpensive type house in the community, and the cheapest houses start at 1.2m TT (this is according to my investment banker neighbor, who has a house almost just like mine, except his back yard isn't as big as mine). Yeah. Crazy expensive. That is about 200,000 USD, and my house is realllly plain. When you DC / NOVA people start whining about how much your houses cost....hahahaha I do have a pretty big back yard, but not 1.2m worth. Insane. Here is my house.

It comes complete with a razor wire feature on the back yard brick wall. HAHAHA Maybe that is to keep anyone from stealing the huge, black reserve water tank. Everyone in here has them, just in case power goes down or something happens at the water plant, so you will have some water for a little while. There is only razor wire along this section of wall, not sure why...it is only the wall that is near the water tank, though. Hmmm.

See the other wall in my backyard? No razor wire. You don't even get a patio for 1.2 m, what a shame. I need a BBQ grill, but I don't even know where to go get one yet. Putting that on my list of things I must get. The bottom of that pic is messed up, think my batteries were just about down in my camera.

Here is the view from my front porch (well, it ain't really a porch; not sure what you would call it)..


I am at the end of the cul-de-sac. At least that way, it is easy to tell if someone is coming to my house. :)










The house is reallllly plain inside. It is nice, but it is very plain..all tile flooring, no carpet anywhere. I hate that. The LR furniture is not comfortable, but it is the common furniture here. These people generally don't have big, cushy couches like we do in the states. It sucks. I am going to make some noise and see if they get me some new LR furniture.

I hate the curtains. I need pictures on the walls (there are a couple throughout the house, that is it).
















Here is the dining room. The thing that I find amazing is that they have nice windows, but none of the windows have screens on them. With all the mosquitos, that strikes me as strange.


The golf club...at a distance. HAHA I ain't going over there again just yet. I am waiting on word from Ms. Universe that she has resolved the problem. No, this ground right in the front part of the picture is not part of the golf course. The greens at the golf course are nice. I think the golf course is a white person magnet. I mean, I see a lot of Trinis there, but the only whiteys I have seen since I have been here have been on the golf course or in the golf course parking lot. haha Golf sucks.















...and standing in the same spot, here you can see where the mall is.. what you can see is the upper level of part of the mall. The mall actually extends in the other direction, so this picture doesn't do it justice. Also, here is the road that leads out to the main highway, and since little creepy man threatened me at the golf course, now I walk out to the main road and down and over to the mall. Yeah, I know, daring of me. The picture is kind of dark, but these people have the razor-wire thing goin' on, too. All this razor wire is very encouraging. HAHA


















Okay, enough for today. I hope next weekend to actually have a lot of beach pictures, barring nothing happens to my camera or no one else gets the flu. :) The other consultant is leaving, and we are having her a going away thing up at Maracas. Took me long enough to get to the real beach..but it gets dark here around 6:30, and if we drove up there after work, we would probably get there right before dark, so I would rather go on weekends anyway. I could have gone this weekend, but I happen to know that Quincy has his little girl this weekend, and I really don't have to go anywhere, so I would rather he get to spend time with her. She is a cutie, too, 6 years old, I think. Makes me miss my kids even more. Oh, here is a picture of Quincy.

Okay, I am done for today. More later this week.

Please forgive the order...

I had to catch up until today, so the order looks crazy. I am feeling too lazy right now to go back and change the order, so bear with me. From here on out, should be okay. I will put more pictures up soon, too. I am exhausted from being up too late last night. No more liming for me for a few days.

I miss you, Eric, Syd, Booboo, Debbie and Lee, Tammy and Jim, Les and Mary Ellen, Rob and Mary Ann, all the kids, Ginger and Donnie, Mamaw, Uncle Bill, Aunt Judy, Sarah, Billy D. (he is in Baghdad), Karen, Don and Deb, Andrea, Mimi and Chip, Chuck, Dave, Mandingo, Dennis, George, Heather, Hande, Tendai, Derek, Heather M., Bill D., Doug, Ashley, Roni and Mike, Ben, Christy and Randy, Jon, Scouts, my car, driving on the right side of the road (or driving, period), left-sided steering wheels, Patches, Bubbles, Kelsey, my bed, a ribeye (or just meat in general), my Tuesday night "House" fix (no regular Fox here, just Fox soccer and Fox News - at least I still have Shepard Smith..haha)....DVR, the rest of my CDs I forgot to bring, the top half of my bathing suit that I forgot to pack, Coke icees (yeah, have already dropped about 6 pounds..haha), iceberg lettuce, Mexican food, my house, my hair chick Linda, Dish Network, and many more unmentionable things. Wait, what, it has only been 3 weeks? Oh, I am fine. I think I was just blessed with wayyy to much sentiment. If I didn't say I missed you here, and you happen to be reading this, well I MISS YOU, TOO, AND I DIDN'T MEAN TO LEAVE YOU OUT.

:)

Starting the New Job

Jan 9
First day on my new job. Just orientation, nothing too big. Had to get up and give an impromptu speech, since the school administrator and VPs of the overseeing entity forgot that..oops...I might want to address the students as the other instructor was. Soooo...I needed to establish my presence, she she already had been there for a year and a half....and I have to say, first impromptu speech I have given since college. HAHA Yeah, I have to say I nailed it. Does that sound pompous? ;)

Feeling really homesick today, missing family and friends in a big way. :( Yeah, already. LOL Is this going to warp my kids? What about other stuff, will it all be okay when I get back to the states? Am I sure I did the right thing? Who knows.

Can you spell "esophagogastroduodenoscopy?" I know about 20 people who better know how to very soon. :)

Jan 10
First day of class, and I was a bundle of nerves. I have a great bunch of students. Most of them are poor, and they are here because this is a government-sponsored class that is tied in with the University of W.I. and a special government program, and they aren't having to pay for it. I asked my students to write a short essay stating how they came to be here, giving me a little info about themselves, and just whatever they wanted me to know. One of my students, a young Muslim girl, stated that she "loves the toilets at the school." Okay, I will just leave it at that, because I didn't dare ask her what was so special about them, they are just average toilets. I will leave this for you to draw your own conclusions. I have mine.

Jan 11
These people clearly do not know anything about driving. They force each other off the road (most roads are narrow...main highway is okay, but any other road, good luck at winning at a game of chicken). haha Quincy is a brave soul, and at this point, I spend half of the time when I am in the car with my eyes halfway closed so I don't stroke out. The normal driver behavior here is to force your way into traffic and just lean on the horn, the kind of behavior that might get you shot somewhere like Baltimore. :)

Jan 13
We were supposed to go up to Maracas to the beach this coming weekend, but about 6 people at work came down with the flu, Quincy being one of them. Not me, I had a shot..wooohooooo. Glad i got it now! Bummer, no beach this weekend. Will wait until Quincy gets over the flu, cause I sure as heck ain't hiring a taxi or anything, someone I don't know, to take me to the beach. All the locals tell me not to do that, because (just because I am white and everyone here equates whiteness with richness) I would be charged 4 times the normal amount. I have already been overcharged when buying stuff twice since I have been here, one time I let slide, the other I called them on it. That sucks.

I miss everyone so much.

Jan 18
Threatened by the little creep at the golf course (okay, picture miniature Jackie Chan here) with arrest and prosecution for trespassing!
Long story short, the shortcut to the mall from my house involves going outside the community gate, walking through the golf course (of course, completely on the cart path, only for about 2 minutes, to where the sidewalk leads out to the road in front of the mall). On my way back from the mall, this little creep stops me at the edge of the parking lot and tells me that his manager told him to tell me that if they see me trespassing again (hahahaha trespassing..no gates, no fences, golf course is part of the development), they will have me "arrested and prosecuted for trespassing." Now, you have to keep in mind that you could bleed to death before any law enforcement or medical help arrives. In fact, they have been noted to just not show up. I was pissed. I contacted Ms. Universe, and she is supposedly currently working on using her goddess celebrity to pull some strings for me, so now little creep at the golf course better leave me the hell alone. On top of that, seems I have a spy keeping up with me when I sometimes walk to the mall. Quincy's friend is a cop who monitors the mall parking lot from the roof, and he calls Quincy every time he sees me walking to the mall. Nothing wrong with walking to the mall..I mean, it is so close, I am NOT calling Quincy to take me for a 2-minute drive over to the mall when I can just walk. He says cop friend can see me from a mile away because i am so white. haha If you are blonde here, you obviously stand wayyyy out. I can feel my whiteness, like glow-in-the-dark. HAHAHA

Class is going great. School let out early today because of flooding. Maybe that is contributing to class going so great. HAHA We aren't having it! :) I was very proud to hear today that the school officials are so happy to have me here, that I am getting rave reviews, and that the students absolutely LOVE my class. Woohoo. A group of people I don't annoy yet. Give it time. :) I will be their worst nightmare soon.

Jan 25
RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY...
School let our early today due to flooding. There is a river on the way out to the school, and the water floods over into the rice paddies and all across the road.

Jan 26
Drove in to the office, had to go through about 1/4 mile of 2 feet of rushing flood water. Goats everywhere, people stranded because they were stupid enough to try to drive their itty bitty British cars through the water. People just getting out of their cars and leaving them and walking through the flood water. I wish I would have had my camera. Went to the school long enough to see that no students were coming in, then left.

LIMING
The term here for hanging out and doing nothing is "liming." All people do when they are "liming" is drink and talk about what a bunch of drunks the national soccer team is (yeah, woohoo, World Cup contenders this year, I see an inspirational movie on the horizon if they win). They sit around and listen to Soca music, and the same 10 songs play in constant rotation on the local stations. I know them all by heart now. Soca is like calypso and hip-hop mixed, but on steroids and a lot faster. You get tired just listening to it for a little while.

Okay, so I had the experience of my life on Thursday night: Quincy picked up his best friend, a very philosophical, rum-drinking, chain-smoking, cruise ship pan-playing, almost rasta-type guy who thinks too much; they came over for a little while, then they decided they were taking me to get Indian food. Okay, so I said I would go. They take me to seedy downtown Arima, and there it was, midnight....we are on the main drag, and I am the sole whitey for miles. People are staring at me, and a few beggars came up to me and said things that were completely unintelligible....and every time, Quincy would say something back to them that was equally unintelligible to me, and they would get the heck away from me as fast as they could. So we walk down to this street stand where they sell Indian food called "doubles", and I am like, really feeling my glow-in-the-darkness qualities by this point. Quincy and Kirk would not let me get outside of 2 feet away from them, thankfully. Remarkably, for some reason, I was not scared at all. The whole situation seemed a bit surreal. Trash all in the streets, so third-world. I was like, OMG...I cannot believe I am here! haha I wished I had brought my camera along, but I am glad I didn't, because God only knows what might have happened if I had been out on the street taking pictures. I almost felt like I was in some Night of the Living Dead movie, and at any moment, everyone on the street was going to descend on me for fresh brains. :) WHAT A RUSH. HAHAHA Doubles are okay, but I guess I am just not that big on Indian food. What I don't get is that there is virtually NO Mexican food here! I am jonesing for Mexican, and if there is a restaurant somewhere on this island, I am going to eventually find it. The people are really nice here. I have some great neighbors, too. Mostly embassy workers in the neighborhood, but met another neighbor who is in investment banker and is trying to get something going in MT in other islands in the Caribbean, especially Grenada. hmmm.... never hurts to have connections, I suppose. Would be interesting if some big opportunity came out of it.

Sure is quiet around the neighborhood. I miss Booboo and Syd...I think Eric is fine without me driving him nuts...hahaha..but I miss human contact. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss hugs. How cheesy does that sound. I wish I could kiss my kids goodnight in person instead of on the webcam. Booboo tells me that she keeps "her head full of math problems" so she won't think about me and cry. How awful am I? But she tells me she is just fine and I think the kids are probably going to be spoiled absolutely rotten by the time I get back. Sydney is busting her butt to be a DJ online at Habbo Hotel. What ambition for a 10-year-old. :))))))

The Trip...Jan 7 until now....

Jan 7
5:28 a.m.
I think the hardest thing I have ever done is say goodbye to my family and friends to take off to work in the West Indies. The girls wouldn't cry in front of me, but Eric said the minute I got through security and they were on their way back past the ticketing counter at BWI, Shelby broke down. She was trying to be a big girl…and I am almost glad she didn't cry in front of me, because I might have just cancelled the trip. I had already been waffling at the last minute anyway, at least secretly in my head.

1:00 p.m.
I am sitting in the San Juan, Puerto Rico airport…well not exactly sitting "in" it. I am sitting outside. This is the no-sitting-est place I have ever seen in my life. They don't want anyone sitting down in here at all unless you are in the bar drinking. I am told the beach is about a 5-minute taxi ride away, but I am so tired, I just want to sit here on my ass on the concrete. Smokes are 18.00 a carton here, as compared to 48.00 at home (of course, that is duty-free). Okay, yes, I bought some, but maybe it will be the last time I buy any. I am quitting before I come home, or at least I am going to try. I have promises to live up to. LOL Fifteen pounds lighter, 3 shades darker, and smoke-free by April.

Puerto Rico t-shirts at the airport are about 30 USD, so no one is getting a t-shirt. Sorry.

It was funny, on the flight from Baltimore to SJ, they reminded everyone that breakfast isn't served anymore as of Jan 1, but you can buy a "breakfast snack pack" on the plane for 3.00, which contains Wheat Thins, butter, jelly, and raisins. Okay, what the heck do you do with the butter and jelly? YES, I ASKED THIS QUESTION…and of course some major eye-rolling was directed my way by the flight attendant. And don't eat the fried chicken if you ever find yourself in the SJ airport. I don't think FC is a specialty here. There was also something that looked sorta like a cross between turnips and sugar cane, and I did try some. One bite. It was pretty nasty. I think it was called saga or sago or something. I will have to Google it to see what the hell it was, but I won't be trying it again.

Maybe when I come back through SJ on the way back to the states I will venture out into SJ if I have enough time.

10:00-ish p.m. Jan 7
Okay, here I am. I get through customs, which was easier than I expected...no hassles. They already have it in their system because they were previously contacted, and anyone coming here to consult for the company I am consulting for, well... they are treated very well. It helps to have a former Ms. Universe involved, too. Anyway, I walk out of the airport and there are at least 30 taxi guys repeatedly asking if I need a taxi. A coworker was to arrive just before me (had never met her until this time) and I was trying to pick her out of the crowd. This was fairly easy, as she was the only other Caucasian in a crowd of maybe 200 people standing outside the airport exit. We spotted each other immediately, right about the time I saw my driver holding my name card. I am just glad to be on the ground. Boy, it is warm. Wow. No more freezing-cold temps for me for a little while.

The driver informed Denise and me that there was some issue with the house, so we were to stay at the Hilton in Port-of-Spain for a couple of nights. Fine by me. After a 6-1/2 hour layover in PR, I don't care, I am exhausted; however, I don't think we went to sleep until about 3:00 a.m. because we were so wired.

Jan 8
Everything is so GREEN here. Wow.














Rode up to Chaguaramas, and there was a beautiful view of the Gulf of Paria. We almost hit a 5-ft iguana running across the road. Needless to say (and much to the amusement of Quincy (driver)), I screamed, "Oh my god, what the he** was that????" I asked what would have happened if we hit it, to which he replied, "We would have stopped and got it and my grandma would have cooked it....tastes like chicken." Umm, I will pass on the iguana. No lizard for me.
















Bought stuff to take to the house...will take a lot of getting used to the $ conversion, around 1 USD to 6.20 or so TT. For instance, a loaf of bread is around 6.00 TT (1.00 USD). Woohoo...my grocery bill was 430.00 TT. Amazing, never spent so much in a grocery store before. HAHAAA