My First Fete

In Trinidad there are two words that are near and dear to most Trini's hearts-Fete and Lime. A fete is a party and to lime is to hang out, relax, and often have a drink. Yesterday I was privileged enough to do both! When I was invited out to this event, I was old it was house-warming party...so I am picturing 30ish people in a home with some finger sandwiches and a relish tray, politely makings small talk. That is not what I found...

5pm - I am ready to go, my ride should be here any minute
5:45pm - My ride arrives...my first real experience with "Trini" time
7pm - We pull up to the party after picking up a couple more people. Ah, I should tell you who I'm with - a friend from Davenport has family in Trinidad. Susan and Christian are probably in their mid 30s and we picked up Christian's sister, aunt and parents. Susan's parents met us there.
7:05pm - I realize that this is no house-warming party! The music is blaring and there are security guards at the front gate. Christian promptly showed our tickets and we received food coupons. We found ourselves a little bit of space outside right next to a speaker, and set up a mini table that we brought and stole some chairs from inside the house. There were a couple of tents and porta-poties in the back.
7:10pm - I had my very first Trini beer, Stag. (I later tried the other local beer, Carib). Both were good, they had more flavor than our Busch/Bud/Coors.
7:20pm - I begin to actually look around and I realize that I have never seen so much skin on middle aged people in my life! The party was an older crowd, I was easily one of the youngest people there, with most people being 40-60. Most of the women had on tank tops that you would see only the hottest college girls wearing to a college bar at home. Let's just say cleavage and love handles were everywhere!
8pm - By now I have tried the best of the food - Doubles and Bake. I have a very hard time describing Doubles, which is a very popular street food and perfect drunk food. It is kinda like a really thick chick pea soup in a homemade corn tortilla, then they put different sauces on it. My description does not do them justice, they are very good. The bake was fish and vegetables inside a homemade roll, and was also very tasty.
8:30 pm - Let the dancing commence! I was beckoned onto the dance floor by a lady at least in her 70s who owned the dance floor! Dancing is kinda a salsa walking movement, very hip swinging intensive, and the music is salsa-y with a steel pan mixed in. What I loved about dancing was that everyone was dancing, and I mean everyone. I mentioned that Christian's parents were there and his dad walks with a cane. Once the music was going, the cane was left behind and he was boogieing like everyone else!
9:45pm - I had a white person spotting! Actually a few of them, there were 4-5 white couples at the fete, but they were white Trini's so I still stood out as the strange ghostly American!
11:15 pm - We danced and talked and ate until after 11, when we took some food to go and cleaned up our table.

When it was all said in done, it was a perfect first fete! The dancing was fun and the food was delicious and the company was entertaining. Hopefully it won't be my last!

It's not all sunshine and good food

So the last week in a half, the weather has been beautiful. Waking up with the sun coming up over the mountains, sunshine and cool, sea breezes. But yesterday clouds descended over the mountains. When I woke up and started my morning run, fog lined clouds covered the top of the mountains. By the end of the run, they had climbed half way down the mountains and a light mist settled over everything. It rained harder, then stopped, misted, then stopped, and on and on throughout yesterday and today. You never knew when you wished you had an umbrella or when the sun would come out and scorch everything again. I've been told that it hasn't rained for weeks, so this was much needed and warned that rainy season will have more days like today.

So what to do? Since I have yet to purchase an umbrella (but need to find one soon!), I spent a lot of today here in my little room. Reading, looking up random things on the computer instead of working and watching tv. Then I thought, hey I'll experiment with some cooking. See, almost every cut of chicken and beef I've seen at the store has bones in it, and bones kinda creep me out, so I haven't tried cooking anything but pasta yet. I opted to buy some fish, leaving bones for another day, and try my hand at that. Under the advice of the wonderful Sara Storti, I dipped it in eggs and flour and pan fried it in butter with some lemon pepper seasoning. Sounds fancy huh? Well fish is kinda smelly I think, and not very appealing to the eye and at one point in time I thought I would have to abandon the project and opt for a PB&J. But I prevailed and kept cooking. I also cooked some fresh green beans and made some rice.


This might not seem like a big deal to you, but for me to prepare a whole meal like this, with no outside help (besides Sara via Skype) is pretty impressive. Unfortunately I didn't realize rice took twice as long as fish and ended up having to microwave my meal so everything was hot at the same time. This occurred, of course, after I realized that the burner the rice is on doesn't work all that well and after I dropped a piece of fish in the sink while trying to transport it to a plate.


But here it is, my lovely meal. Fish and white rice...not all that flavorful, next time I'll put on some more spices. The green beans were really good though!


I topped off my night of experiments with a new type of fruit which I can barely say correctly...pommecythere. They aren't quite ripe though, so I think I'll wait another day or two to try the others. But here they make chow...you put the fruit in a little water with salt and pepper (and maybe other spices) and let it marinate a bit. It was pretty good, I'll try it again when they are ripe!

Hopefully tomorrow will be sunny again or at least maybe I can make something with a bit more umph!

Subway, Eat Fresh

So I was on campus for lunch today and I ate, guess where, Subway. That's right, they love their Subway here! It really is pretty similar to our Subway, with a couple extra "local" sandwich options like barbecued shrimp. They have similar topping, but have added pineapple as a suitable sandwich topping...I'll have to try that sometime when I'm being adventurous. What struck me most is the amount of sauce they had AND how many sauces were put on the average sandwich. Each of the 3 people in front of me in line put ketchup, pepper sauce, garlic sauce, mayo, something green and 1-2 other unmarked bottles on their sandwiches. You could eat the sandwich with a spoon it was so drenched in condiments! Maybe one day I'll have a barbecue shrimp sandwich with pineapple and an array of sauces...maybe.

Subway is not the only American novelty on street corners and cafeterias...KFC is huge here. The colonel's head can be seen down many blocks and on billboards. When I finally try it, I'll report back. All major pizza joints are around (Papa Johns, Pizza Hut and Domino's) as well as TGI Fridays and Ruby Tuesdays. I actually ate at a Trini Ruby Tuesdays, which is very similar to home but more expensive. Guess you are never to far from home!

A few more pics

Just a few more tropical pictures! Hope you aren't bored of flowers yet, they are my favorite thing to take pictures of!

Driving...not for amateurs

Driving here is like a professional sport. It is an intricate dance that maneuvers around parked cars, pot holes and idling taxis, hugs curves and climbs steep, winding roads.

First off roads are very narrow, and people are allowed to park pretty much wherever they want. So coming around a sharp turn, it is common for drivers to slam on their brakes to barely miss a parked car, then swerve generously into the other lane, making it back to their side of the road just in time to avoid oncoming traffic. Roads are also not in the best of condition, so pot holes plague most streets, again causing a great deal of swerving.

Secondly, there aren't a ton of traffic lights or stop signs and everyone seems to have the right away. Coming off side streets into the main flow of traffic, you just kinda stick your nose out there and expect the person driving to slow down and let you in. This is especially hazardous during rush hour, when you are never safe from someone trying to dodge out in front of you. It seems as though lanes are merely suggestions instead of guidelines and the ideal driving distance is about six inches from the car infront of you.

And to top it all off, few streets are marked and I've seen one speed limit sign. So I never know where I am and I'm always traveling at lightening speed! So if you think lane markers are silliness and enjoy cutting people off, come and be my personal driver...but if you suffer from intense road rage, maybe try Florida...it's warm there too!

God Showing Off

Walking around here, the colors are so vibrant and beautiful it makes me think that maybe God was showing off a bit! The houses are all yellows, oranges, pinks and greens and the flowers are so bright. The birds are streaked with bright colors too, like nothing I've ever seen in Illinois! So here are some pictures that I took just in the neighborhood around my place, enjoy!

My new digs

This is taken from my bed, it shows my shower, closet, the sink sink which is just out of frame to the left and behind the little wall is a toilet


This one is then taken from the bathroom side of the room and shows my bed and kitchenette area. There is also a little desk next to my bed, if you squint you can make out the lamp. The kitchenette consists of a cook top, tiny fridge, microwave, sink and a couple cabinets. It's real little but just perfect for me! Actually everything from the grocery store comes in smaller quantities, so I don't need too much room...it is the opposite of Sam's Club!


This is my private gate...it lets out onto a street that is also gated at the end. I love the little stairs up to it, so cute, but it is actually kinda tricky to operate!


This shows my front door and little garden area. It is so nice to sit out here, especially in the mornings. It is quiet and peaceful with birds chirping and it isn't hot yet!


The view from the driveway, isn't it beautiful!


So this is my new place. It is quite small but I really don't need too much room, and it has everything I could need. A quick walk down a decently steep hill gets me to a road where I can catch a Maxi Taxi, the best public transportation around. They are minivans really that drive a specific route and you get in with about 6 or 7 others and get out where you want. I haven't taken one yet...I may tomorrow, so that might be an interesting story!

I'm all unpacked and have found a place for everything, my suitcases are make shift drawers under the bed! I have a little tv in the kitchen area which gets all the US channels, it's nice to be able to watch familiar shows, although the 2 hour difference makes things being on at odd times.

It is quite hot out now, so it is perfect time for a little nap...stay tuned!

Arrival

Well I'm here...I have tons to talk about but am way too tired to get into much of it now. Hopefully in the next couple days I'll be able to fill you in on all that is Trinidad. Plus I'll have some pictures, so sorry but that moral of the story is stay tuned!