Diwali

Sooooooo I think Diwali was my next adventure... I'm figuring out dates by looking at my pictures, haha.

Diwali was on October 28th, a Tuesday. Diwali is another Hindu holiday. Professor Ramchand had been looking for somewhere for us to celebrate for awhile, and he informed us shortly before that we had been invited to a home in a small Indian village near Chaguanas.

I had been to the Diwali celebration at Colgate, which is always lovely, but usually is more of an excuse to go get free Indian food than anything else. I can’t understand what is going on, and the significance of the holiday as anything more than the “Festival of Lights” is lost on me. I was definitely really excited to witness and participate in a more traditional variation of the festival. When it came to late afternoon on the day of, we piled into the cars and headed towards Chaguanas (central Trinidad). We arrived at our destination, Cunupia, just in time to watch a family perform the Diwali puja. It was a man and his three sons- I feel awful but I can’t remember their names. They were so welcoming! It was really interesting to watch them. Each person participated in the puja in some way, while making sure to touch the person next to them the entire time. I noticed this immediately, so when given the opportunity I asked about it. They explained to me that touching the person next to you is basically a way of completing each part of the puja without physically doing it. If the person next to you carries out a certain step and you are touching him, there is a connection flowing between you that make you a part of his motions and his motions a part of you. When everyone is in a semi-circle touching each other, that connection moves through each person. In this way, everyone participates. I found that very meaningful- in my eyes it increases the spiritually of each action, because everything you do is being shared in a very personal manner with someone of the same faith. You are acting for and with at the same time.

After watching the puja, we moved next door to the house of an absolutely lovely couple. We sat down, learned a bit about their family, discussed Diwali, had our questions answered, and followed along as a prayer was said. It was so sweet- they printed out the prayer in Hindi (or Sanskrit…? I can’t remember, to be honest. I am not all that great at telling the two apart) as well as English, so that we could hear and understand. The main deity worshipped during Diwali is Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Part of the tradition is that the house must be cleaned and the doorstep swept. However, this must happen before 6 p.m. because after that there is the danger of sweeping Lakshmi out the door.

Then we helped light the deyas. That part was great! Deyas are the bowls I mentioned that we had seen when we went to the potters in Chaguanas. There were so many. They are little clay bowls filled with oil or wax with a wick in them that you light and place around the house, particularly near the road. Their lighting is related to the return of Lord Ram to Ajodhya. He returned to the north of India on the darkest night of the year, so thousands of lights were placed along the path leading back to the temple to guide his way. It was very neat to be able to help light the deyas. Everyone in the area was doing it, so it not only connected us to the holiday and the family we were with, but to everyone else there as well. It really made me feel like we were a part of Diwali, which was amazing

After an absolutely fantastic dinner, we walked through the village. It was BEAUTIFUL! All the lights were shining, people had them positioned in different places and patterns, and everyone was so friendly. People were out in the streets, saying hi as we passed. A young woman let her little daughter come out and say hi to us- she was soooo cute. There were popping firecrackers everywhere, and music and chatter coming from each house. At the end of our walk we were treated to a variety show of sorts by a family in the village. Different members of the family performed acts, ranging from traditional Indian music, to dance, to reading about the history of Diwali. It was really interesting to see from an educational standpoint, but it was also just amazing to witness a family coming together to celebrate a holiday that is so important to them. They were all enjoying themselves, if something went a little wrong they just laughed, there were no snide remarks or intense arguments. They were clearly happy to be in each other’s company and to have us and others as visitors. They even got us up to dance! There was also a group of tassa drummers who wanted to play specifically for us. It was very flattering and the music was amazing!

I learned a lot about Diwali from this trip, both about its history and how it is practiced now. But what stuck with me the most was the sense of community and family that was present throughout the entire evening. People were happy to be celebrating, and also genuinely enthusiastic about sharing their night with us. They sent us home with lots of treats, firecrackers, well-wishes, and invitations back. It’s absolutely amazing to me. I try and think of what would happen if this were to occur at Thanksgiving in the US, or Christmas. Although I’m sure there are definitely many people who would bring in a group of foreign students to teach them about the holidays, it’s still hard to picture it being as easy-going as our Diwali experience was. I feel like it would be awkward, like people would feel as though someone was intruding on their family time and personal holiday. Here, it seems like the more people to celebrate, the better. The holidays are not just for one specific religion or ethnic group- they have become a part of Trini society and have people from every background participating. I know that part of the danger of this is that Diwali is also getting more commercialized and does not hold the religious value for everyone and in each setting, but that is what made our night so special. The people of the village included us, helped us to participate and feel welcome, while still maintaining the history and importance of Diwali as a sacred holiday. That is amazing, but at the same time so typical of our experiences in Trinidad so far. We’ve been incredibly lucky.

Needless to say, I left Cunupia with a new favorite holiday! Not just because it was a fun experience but also because there is so much spiritual significance of the day and the practices. I no longer see it as a day for free Indian food (although that is still always exciting!) but as a festival I can attend, understand, and appreciate.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from Diwali, but I'm sure some of the other girls do so hopefully I'll get them and can show you when I get home. If not, we can always Google it!

Love and miss you all!
xoxo

Ramleela

I really always do have the best intentions on keeping up with this, and then I fail... oops. I know that I'll be home in a few days so I will get the chance to tell everyone stories then, but I figured I'd update a bit anyways. I am all done with exams and papers, but everyone else is still writing our final paper for Ramchand, so I'm just hanging out in my room by myself. Right now I'm waiting for last week's episode of House to finish downloading (my friend has been downloading them and sending them to me over instant messenger) so now is a pretty good time to do some writing! I'm not sure who has power right now and who doesn't, but I hope it comes back on for everyone soon!!!!

In this post I'm going to talk about Ramleela, which we went to waaaaaaaaay back on October 12th... I think... Anyways. Ramleela is a multiple night Hindu celebration. It is the reenactment of the Ramayana, the story of Lord Ram. Basically, Ram is an incarnation of one of the Hindu gods, taking the form of a prince in Ayodhya. He gets exiled from the city and goes to live in the wilderness. His wife, Sita, is kidnapped by Ravana, and Ram must fight to rescue her and then return to his rightful place as king of Ayodhya. There's a lot more to it than that, but you can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana. It is one of the most important stories in Hinduism and in India in general. During Ramleela, characters act out the a different part of the Ramayana each night (over 9-11 nights, depending on where it is being held). The characters do not speak- instead someone reads from the Ramayana as the acting is going on. It is usually a pundit (Hindu priest) or another important person in the religious community.

So, we went to a town called Felicity on the last night of Ramleela, which is the night that Ram defeats Ravana. Felicity is known for how elaborate and bright it's Ramleela is, with really intricate and colorful costumes. It was absolutely beautiful! The 'stage' was a field, and it the Ramleela was acted out over the whole thing. They also had a bunch of food stands and a couple rides for the kids, and people were selling light up necklaces, wands, etc. It was like a mini fair! Just like every other festival in Trinidad, members of the various religious and ethnic groups come out for it instead of it just being a Hindu event.

As for the actual Ramleela, it was a little bit hard to follow. We couldn't really hear the speaker too well and it was kind of hard to tell who was who. Fortunately for me, I read a large junk of the Ramayana (and what I didn't read I Sparknoted) for my CORE India class last semester, so I was able to figure out what was going on a lot better than some of the other girls.

The coolest part of the Ramleela that night was the defeat of Ravana. They build a giant representation of Ravana- I mean pretty huge- and when he is defeated by Lord Ram they light it on fire! The whole thing burns within minutes, and that is when the Ramleela ends. It was definitely really cool, but I was standing pretty close to Ravana and it was really hot too! We also got to meet the pundit, so that was super neat.

Other than that there isn't too much to talk about with Ramleela... I'll post some pics!

This is one of the rides, swings. I didn't get to go on because I let small children go before me and then we ran out of time cause we had to meet the pundit. But that's okay because

it looked pretty unstable.

This is Ravana while he was burning. He was huge. I was standing over 20 feet away from him

and this is still how big he was. No zoom or anything. Ah!

Love and miss you all!

xoxo

Tour of Central Trinidad

So on Saturday October 4th, we went on a class tour of Central Trinidad. Central Trinidad is known for the large Indian population as well as the former existence of sugar cane plantations. Indian indentureship, often known as ‘a new system of slavery,’ began after Emancipation in 1845. Planters no longer had free labor. Africans would still work but demanded land/money, and refused to work when they were not appropriately compensated. As a result, the British colonizers went to the poorest parts of India to find labor. They proposed an indentureship, where people from India would come to Trinidad, work on the sugar plantations for a certain number of years, save money, and then get a free ticket back to India at the end of their service. The colonizers made it sound like a good deal, and many Indians were willing to come due to the overwhelming poverty and political oppression in India at the time. However, the actual conditions for indentured servants in Trinidad were very similar to conditions of slavery. Indian indentureship ended when the Indian government stopped it in 1917, but many of the Indian workers decided to remain in Trinidad because they felt alienated from India. We drove through Central and saw the areas where sugar cane plantations used to be. We also saw a great deal of poverty in that region. It was really awkward to drive through poor communities for the purpose of seeing them- it definitely felt like exploitation- but it was also very interesting to learn how the sugar cane industry effected the ethnic make-up as well as the economy of Trinidad.

We also went to Chaguanas, the main town in Central. We got doubles (sooo good!!) and walked through town a bit. It looks like a really great place for shopping! We went to the market, which is HUGE- way bigger than the one in Tunapuna that we've been to a few times to get fruits and vegetables. Our tour guide showed us around the market and explained different fruits and vegetables that are native to Trinidad. It was super cool, but I definitely did not enjoy walking through the meat section.

(Crabs in the market at Chaguanas.)

The next stop was to see a house where a large part of A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul takes place. It was the first book he wrote that received worldwide recognition, and the character of Mr. Biswas is based upon Naipaul's own father. I haven't actually read that piece of work by V.S. Naipaul, but it was still really interesting to see the house, and now I do want to read it.

(Us with the tour guide in front of the house from A House for Mr. Biswas.)

We also went to a pottery shop, which are pretty common in Central. We learned all about the process of making ceramics. At the time we went, it was shortly before the Hindu festival of Diwali so they were making diyas- little clay bowls used to hold the oil and the wicks that are lit on Diwali. They could make the diyas in like 15 seconds and were making around 15,000 thousand a day. The people at the shop let us try to make something on the potter's wheel. I tried, and my pot turned out kind of okay! I guess I actually did learn something in pottery class in high school. It was really neat to see everything they made, though. We had a chance to shop around for ceramics after, so that was cool too. They had everything from windchimes to water jugs to regular pots for plants.

(Some of the diyas that they had made and me using the potter's wheel.)

After that we went to the Hindu temple at Waterloo, known as Temple by the Sea. It's actually a super interesting story as to how it got built. In 1947, an Indian man in the village built a temple on land owned by a sugarcane company. As a result, it got torn down. The man decided that if he couldn't build a temple on land, he would build it in the sea. Over a period of 25 years, he used buckets and a bicycle to haul rocks to the shore and build the temple. He built a path about 500 feet out into the Gulf of Paria and then proceeded to build a temple. The temple has been fixed up since then, so it isn't in its original state, but it is absolutely beautiful! When we went to the Temple, people were about to have a puja. It would have been totally understandable for them to ask us to leave, so as not to invade their space while during a religious ceremony. However, they were very kind and invited us to stay. They went above and beyond allowing us to observe the puja. They explained the ceremony to us while it was going on- they made sure that we understood and were included. Like I’ve mentioned before, this is pretty typical of my experiences in Trinidad. People genuinely want us to learn about their history, their religion, their lives. It’s amazing.

(Temple by the Sea)

(Inside Temple by the Sea)

After THAT, we went to another Hindu temple, this time dedicated to the Hindu god Hanuman. It is the largest temple dedicated to Hanuman outside of India, and it has a statue of him that is 85 feet tall! We couldn't go inside, but that was okay because there was a ton to look at outside. The temple is really ornate and beautiful, with many different carvings and colors.

(Hanuman's temple and the statue of Hanuman.)

We also stopped briefly at a small museum dedicated to the Indian history and influence in Trinidad. That wrapped up the day by showing us different artifacts and infomation that brought everything we had seen together into one story.

Oo, also, we had lunch at this all-vegetarian Indian restaurant. Everyone complained but Laura and I loved it. Plus we couldn't eat meat anyways because we were going into the temple after. Mmmm, veggie roti!

Okay I have to do some work now, shocking I know. But I will post more soon, I hope!

Love and miss you all!

xoxo

Eid-al-Fitr

...I'm the worst blogger in the history of the world. For the amount of time I spend on hall doing nothing, you would think that I could blog more often. I think that I'm going to try to write more short entries instead of a few really long ones. Hopefully that will help! But then again, who knows.

So, flashback to over a month ago. October 1st (Wednesday) was Eid-al-Fitr, a Mulsim holiday. It celebrates the end of the month of Ramadan, which is the month of fasting for Muslims. It is based on the sighting of the moon, so the date on the Gregorian calendar changes every year. We got up early that day to go to a nearby Eid-al-Fitr service with our professor and a friend of his. It took place on a playing field, due to the number of people participating. They lined up standing shoulder to should and facing east- Mecca- with the men in the front and the women and children in the back. We watched while the service occurred. It was really cool to see so many people united by their faith. They said their prayers and then there was a sermon. It was all in Arabic, so we couldn't understand it, but it was still neat!

After the actual prayer service, food and drinks were served to celebrate the end of the fast. We had doubles, which were so good but super spicy! ("Doubles is a common street food in Trinidad and Tobago. It is a sandwich made with two flat fried breads, called "bara" (hence the name "doubles"), filled with curried chick peas or garbanzo beans, commonly called channa (from Hindi/Bhojpuri "chanaa"). Topped with a variety of spicy chutneys (mango, cucumber, coconut, tamarind) and extra pepper sauce (ranging from a dash "slight" to much more), this delicacy is undoubtedly the most popular fast food in Trinidad and Tobago. It is usually eaten for breakfast, but can be a late night snack as well." -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubles_(food)). We also had ice cream, pastries, cheese sandwiches, and treats. There was also this really sweet drink/noodle thing- I wish I could remember what it was called!- that was really good.

We had the opportunity to chat with the imam, the Muslim spiritual leader who led the prayer. He was very nice and answered some of our questions. We also met a few other people, who were all very excited to share their religion and chat with us.

Overall it was a really nice experience. I don't have any pictures because it was a religious service and I didn't think it was appropriate to take pictures. I think Kismeth has a few from the little celebration after but they aren't on facebook, so I can't get to them right now, haha. I've been really bad at taking pictures here, mainly because it makes me feel like a tourist and I don't like that. We're all going to try to exchange pictures at the end of the trip, so hopefully I will still have some to show you when I get home!!

Love and miss you all!
xoxo

My Birthday!!

Clearly I got distracted, sorry. I had to finish my laundry, go to the grocery store, eat dinner, and do some serious liming (aka hanging out and chatting). But don't worry, I'm back!

So my birthday was last Tuesday, as most of you know. I had class that afternoon, and I was a little bummed out because we had a lecture for Prof. Ramchand's class that night and since he didn't really fill us in on what it was (he just said it would be about the history of Carnival- Trinidad's biggest festival which takes place the two days before Ash Wednesday but is prepared for all year, and especially from Christmas on) I kind of assumed it would be kind of boring. However, as soon as we got there, people came out in costumes with music playing, tied bandannas around our foreheads, gave us some rum punch to 'loosen our spirits,' and escorted us inside in two teams to dance fight. We were with a group known as the Malick Folk Performers, and they proceeded to teach us about the history of Carnival, a Caribbean wide festival that is most famous in Trinidad, through song, dance, and costumes. They started from the very beginning, acting out the emancipation of the slaves, the French influence on Carnival, the traditional characters involved, and the modern day costumes. It was SO much fun! We got to stick fight, dance, play tamboo-bamboo (an instrument that used to be used in Carnival when drums were banned, it's like using a log to hit the floor and then hitting the log with something similar to a drumstick at the same time, to two different beats, which needless to say I was terrible at), see amazing Carnival costumes, and dance some more! It was probably the most fun I have had since being in Trinidad. The people were so friendly, and they didn't care whether or not we were good at whatever it was they had us do, they just wanted us to try it and have the experience of learning about Carnival in a way that is more true to the actual spirit of the festival. I have a bunch of pictures from this one. (PS- I steal most of these pictures from Kismeth and Christine because they are the ones who ALWAYS have their cameras, so thanks girls!)

The first picture is me wearing pieces of the costume from the guy who was acting out the Amerindian influence in early Trinidad.

The second one is a well-known Carnival character, called the Blue Devil. He has fake blood dripping out of his mouth, a bottle of alcohol, and a torch. He puts some of the alcohol in his mouth, then spits it at the torch to make a huge fireball. During Carnival, huge bands of Blue Devils- tons of people all dressed up like this- parade around the streets. So scary. The other picture is him attacking me/giving me a lap dance, I'm not sure which. Either way it was absolutely terrifying, in case you can't tell my from my expression. I thought I was going to have a panic attack. My friends thought it was pretty funny.

The next picture is me attempting to play the tamboo bamboo. I was not very good. The whole two different rhythms thing is not really my strong point. Actually, rhythm in general is not my strong point...

The woman in the pink is wearing a more modern Carnival costume. They involve a lot of bright colors, a lot of of feathers, sparkles, and many of them are decorated bikinis now. They all involve a lot of detail and are really ornate.

The last picture is another traditional character in Carnival, known as the Pierrot Grenade. It is a type of poet who spells things out in rhymes. For example, she would tell a story about putting a chicken in a car, and getting the car to start, and she would end with "Ya put a chicken in de cah and de cah go, dat's the way ya spell CHICAGO!" She also did ones for New York, Japan, and Colgate University. It was really impressive.

So after we learned all about Carnival, we went back to Milner (our hall where we live). When I got there, the Colgate girls and a few of the Dartmouth kids had decorated my friend Laura's room and made me a cake (with those candles that relight themselves, I might add) and they totally surprised me. It was so sweet! They turned on music and we had cake and had a little dance party, it was really fun.

Also on Milner, they have this tradition of 'bouncing' (throwing buckets of water on) people when it's their birthday. So we had been keeping birthdays quiet, but then my friends thought it would be great to tell pretty much everyone on Milner, especially the boys on North Block (the building on Milner that's all guys, and they LOVE to bounce people) that it was my birthday. So I had kind of been hiding from them all day. I went downstairs to talk to one of my other friends, and all the Colgate girls thought that I had been kidnapped by the boys on North Block. So they went to North Block to try and rescue me, and then the boys wouldn't let them leave. I didn't realize what was going on so I just went to find them, and ended up being kidnapped too! So they took me outside and filled buckets of water, and then the boys gave the Colgate girls the water and told them to bounce me. But instead, the Colgate girls bounced the boys and a whole water fight was started. So we had a water fight for a long time and more people kept joining, and it was really fun. (Imagine, having a water fight at the end of September and not being cold at all!) However, we were using a pipe outside North Block for water, and somehow it broke! The water was shooting straight up in the air and it was really late at night and no one knew how to turn it off, so North Block ended up running out of water for the rest of the night and part of the next morning. We felt soooo bad! But it got fixed so it's okay.

Overall it was such a fun birthday, though I obviously missed everyone from home and 'Gate. Thanks so much to everyone who sent me cards, etc! I'll send you thank you notes eventually, I swear! But thank you Grammy and Grampy, and Grammy Sheila, and Aunt Dee and Uncle John, and Sissy, and Mama and Daddy, and Ally, and Hane, and Lea and Jessie and Cait! I really appreciate it, that was soooo nice of you!

I will hopefully write more soon, I still have to tell you all about going to the Eid-al-Fitre service, visiting Chaguanas (central Trinidad), and some of the political discussions in my classes, which are super interesting. Also, sorry about the formatting. I struggle with the pictures/text thing because it looks way different when I'm typing it up than it does when it actually appears on my blog. It's super stressful.

Love and miss you all!

xoxo

Trini Culture

Heya! I'm very motivated today (I've done laundry, cleaned and organized my entire room, made myself eggs- done pretty much everything except my homework...), so I am going to try to catch you all up on my life recently- I know it's been awhile. This might involve multiple entries just so that you all don't get too bored reading one super long one.

So. Exciting thing #1- On Thursday the 18th, we went to Professor Ramchand's office for class to see a Parang band. Parang is a type of music in Trinidad, based in Spanish culture but it has come to include Indian and African aspects as well and the bands traditionally travel around to sing at different houses, though now there are Parang competitions too. (Here's a link to the wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parang.) A man named John Cupid was there to talk to us as well. I had a hard time following what he was saying but the impression I get is that he's a pretty important guy who knows almost everything there is to know about the history of Trinidad, which made him being there pretty neat in and of itself. It's kind of weird because I wouldn't really be that excited about someone who knew a lot about the US, but I feel like in my mind that's because the US lacks anything resembling one cohesive culture. Trinidad is a mixture of many different cultures as well, but there is still something about it that is distinctly Trini- it has music, festivals, dance, food, etc. and the combination of African and Indian, along with Spanish and Indigenous and various other peoples, creates something incredibly unique.

Anyways, the Parang was super cool. They sang in Spanish and even though I tried really hard to understand what they were saying, I only caught a few words here and there. It was really neat for one of the girls in our group, Kismeth, because her family is from the Dominican Republic and she said that a lot of songs they were singing were by a famous singer from the DR. The singers translated the general ideas of each song, though, so that was really helpful. The whole thing was really informative and very fun. The thing that struck me the most was how much the people performing were enjoying themselves. Everyone looked so happy, like they were having so much fun! If one of the dancers messed up a bit, they just teased each other and laughed and continued and it totally wasn't a big deal. People just kept walking into the room and joining the band, there were even two little kids playing as well. I can just imagine a whole houseful of people singing and dancing and laughing. Plus the music is beautiful and the outfits are lovely. They had us dance with them a little bit, and even though I can't dance at all I had a great time trying. The people were so kind and again, they just seemed so content with what they were doing. I think that is one of the things that strikes me most about Trinidad so far. People seem to be so kind and helpful and positive for the most part, regardless of circumstances. I don't think I've ever met so many fun, happy people in my life. I'm so used to people at school or on the streets in the US being tense and stressed and in a rush with something to do or somewhere to be or some drama. It's a nice change to see people who are just taking their time and being happy.

So then the next Tuesday we had class with Merle Hodge, who is a professor at UWI and also a famous Caribbean author. We read a book by her for Ramchand's class. The book is called Crick Crack, Monkey and it's the story of a young girl growing up in Trinidad. It has a lot to do with the effects of colonialism and the dynamics of race in the Caribbean. She wrote the book when she was pretty young, in her early 20s while she was at university. It was really interesting to actually be able to talk with a famous author about one of her books and see her perspective on what she had written, especially after so much time had passed. There were some things we saw in the book that she hadn't really been consciously aware of putting in there.

Then the next day, Wednesday, was a holiday- Republic Day- so we went to Maracas Bay, a really pretty beach about half an hour away by maxi (which is basically a van taxi- we have our own driver for when we go on class trips). Maracas Bay is the nearest beach to UWI. We left around 7:30 a.m., so we got there around 8 and stayed until 12. We couldn't have handled it much longer because the sun is just so hot, we were all getting tired and sunburned. Plus it started to get more crowded around then since it was a holiday. We ended up leaving just as it started raining. It was such a blast, though we did get attacked by sand flies and that was not so fun- a bunch of us had bites the next morning. Overall though, it was really nice to be able to have a day off and spend it at the beach.

To the left is a view we had of Maracas Bay on the way there. If you looked to left from where we were standing, you could just barely make out Tobago on the horizon.





To the right is a picture of the beach at Maracas Bay.




Okay I'm going to write more in another entry in an hour or so, since I should probably do some homework. Then I can tell you all about my birthday!



Love and miss you all!
xoxo

Yes, I'm Alive...

Clearly I am the worst blogger in the whole entire world, sorry! It's the thought that counts, right? So, where was I...

The Monday after our weekend in Mayaro was a holiday (Trinidad has a ridiculous number of holidays, it's excellent), so classes didn't start. We just kind of hung out and tried to get ready for classes. Later in the day, we went to Professor Ramchand's house to have pizza, brownies, and lots of fresh fruit from their fruit trees. We also learned how to play cricket, which I am absolutely terrible at, but enjoyed anyways. This is a (very blurry) picture of Prof. Ramchand pitching during cricket. It was pretty intense. We didn't actually play, we just practiced batting and pitching, as well as learning the rules of the game.

So then classes started that week. We have two UWI classes and then two classes with Prof. Ramchand where it is just the Colgate students. The way the UWI classes work is that we have 2 hours of lecture each week, plus 1 hour of tutorial, which is where we can discuss the lectures and readings, ask questions, etc. My two UWI classes are Third World Political Thought and Latin American Government, Politics, and Development. They're both really interesting. I really like my professor for TWPT- he's very passionate and intelligent. My prof for LAGPD is also very intelligent, but she kind of scares me. She was very strict about 'not pandering to lateness' but then proceeds to show up 10 to 15 minutes late for every lecture. She was also pretty intense about the fact that if we want to talk to her, it must be during office hours- not before or after class, not at the gym, not on the street, etc. It's so different from what I'm used to at Colgate- a small, liberal arts college where we frequently run into professors around town and are encouraged to chat with them whenever we see them- that I was a bit caught of guard. My class with Prof. Ramchand are Festivals and Growing Up in Trinidad in Writing, which is a lit course.

So right now, my schedule is like this: tutorial Tuesday morning from 10-11 (I hope, I have to go sign up for that...), class with Ramchand 2-330 Tuesday afternoon. Lecture 9-11 (though it usually doesn't go past 1030) and 11-1 on Thursday morning, and class with Ramchand 2-330 Thursday afternoon, then a tutorial 1-2 on Friday. So I have nothing on Mondays or Wednesdays. As a result, I have a ridiculous amount of free time and need to find something to do with it all. My final is also 100% of my grade in both my classes, so I don't have any work to do other than reading, so I'm a bit lacking in the motivation department. I am going to start volunteering soon, either at an orphanage or at an children's AIDS hospital (or both, which is what I want to do!). I'm SUPER excited for that, I miss my sidekick (like Big Brother/Big Sister), my 3-year-olds at the preschool in Hamilton, and my mentoring group at the middle school in Sherburne-Earlville, so it will be really nice to work with kids again.

I also started taking a dance class with another girl from Colgate, Gabby. It's an African/Bele/Soca class. We've only been to one and I had a lot of fun, but I am absolutely TERRIBLE. I have no sense of rhythm at all, which I already knew but am re-discovering, haha. Gabby, however, is an incredibly good dancer- she's been dancing her whole life, so hopefully she can help me out a bit. All the girls in the Colgate group can dance in general, and have been dedicating a lot of time and patience to helping Laura (the other girl from Maine) and I learn how. It seems like everyone on this island can dance, so hopefully I'll be a bit better by the time I get back!

That's about all that's going on right now- classes, dance, and hanging out. Liming is a big thing in Trinidad- it's just hanging out and chatting, really doing nothing with friends, so we spend a lot of time doing that. Wednesday is a holiday, so we are all going to Maracas Bay, a really pretty beach, for the day. We also saw a parang band on Thursday in class and Merle Hodge, a famous Trini author who teaches at UWI, is going to talk with us about her book Crick Crack, Monkey, on Tuesday. So I will try to update on all those things soon!!

Also, here is a picture of my room. My side is the right side (the messy one, obviously). There is also a sink in the back corner and we each have a closet and a set of drawers with one big counter on top of both and mirror above it.

And this is a picture of St. Benedict's, a monastery just outside of St. Augustine, it's about a 20-30 minute walk from campus. I've only been up there once, when we ran up there early one morning for grubbing, but it's super pretty and I'm going to go back up soon to take pictures, and I want to try to go to mass there one Sunday maybe.

Love and miss you all!

xoxo