in the united states, when the holidays come and it is time to take a break from work and school, i feel so relieved and so ready to take a load off. however, i just arrived (one month ago today) and its already time to take 2 weeks off. though please do not mistake this for a complaint. it just doesnt feel like i deserve it yet. most of my students have been on strike for the past week. they are protesting (i cant remember if i mentioned this already) the new retirement age. i think it is the case that you can retire in france at the age of 60 if you have worked for 40 years. now the age is 62. if you havent worked for 40 years you may retire at the age of 65...or now 67. with a pension decrease of 5% per year that you did not work. i think. the truth is...the students are not incredibly informed (this is no excuse for me to remain uninformed) but they use "la greve" (the strike) to get out of school. so anyways i have been working with 2 or 3 students per class for the past few days which is nice...very relaxed. and now i have 2 weeks off. most of the other language assistants in cayenne will travel to Kourou, a nearby city, where there will be a rocket launch on the 28th. i havent decided if i will go or not. likely i will be able to see/feel/smell/etc. the launch from the beach here and it will not be necessary to travel. anyways i have much exploring to do still in cayenne.
so last night i had a long jog on the beach and witnessed the most incredible moon rise i have ever seen. it was full and orange and came up just next to the mother island on the horizon. it appeared transparent for a while and the sky behind it changed the color back and forth from purple to pink to blue. it was far more impressive than your average sunrise. when i came home from my jog i made, what i think i am going to coin as, a green quiche (like green peace?). tons of vegis, all green, which cost a fortune here but were totally worth it. the quiche was pretty good! tom and i had a slice and then we head off on our scoots into the night. we met up with the brasilians (other assistants and our boss of sorts) for a drink or two before heading into town. we had a great night dancing at the Jungle Pub, chatting in our melange of accents, celebrating vacation!
this morning i had my first private english lesson with a girl named alice. she is 13 and will travel later this year to ireland with her class. her english is impressive and she was able to help me a bit with my french as well. we chatted about french guiana and the usa and r&b (everyone here is really into Beyonce, Rhianna, Shakira...etc.) after, i had some coffee and a head into town for the saturday market! the fruit is all local and i am constantly discovering new kinds. while i was walking through the different vendors booths i passed a handsome, dread bearing man at the reunion booth. he let me know, in french, that there were lots of good vegetarian choices there. i asked how he knew i was a vegetarian. he laughed and touched my wrist, which...i only kind of understand. anyways he invited me to have a smoothie with him and his friends. we had pineapple-orange-ginger smoothies and learned about each other. my friend with the dreadlocks is from a village in the interior of french guiana where he teaches math to middle school students. his friends were from martinique (he met them while he was studying there). one owns an organic rum distillery and the other is a physical therapist.
so we talked a while then we went to the fish market, a first for me, and while i was tempted to buy something, i opted against it because i am not quite ready to cook my own yet. anyways the guys invited me over for dinner tonight which i happily agreed to. hopefully they will cook some fish and i will get to taste it! after dinner there is a party on the beach to celebrate the full moon!
so vacation is off to a good start! thanks for reading-hopefully im not boring anyone. thanks for the comments, too! a plus tard.
bisous xx
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