Oh Hi There :D
Oh my goodness, I am the most terrible correspondent ever! Hello all!
HAPPY BELATED CHRISTMAS, AND HAPPY PREMATURE NEW YEAR (OR INDEED OLD YEAR, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY CELEBRATE HERE)
The parentals and the sister-blister are here at the moment, they arrived on Christmas Eve, which is a big giant heap of awesome, so yay on that front. We spent Christmas up in the north of the island at Marianne beach in Blanchiseusse (bless you) with the wonder that is the boy house mate and a friend of his who is also over from the UK. It was hot, sunny, beach-like, and probably the least Christmassy Christmas I have ever had, but it was wonderful. We ate Trinidadian food, sun bathed, swam in the sea, swam in the river, and not a snowflake in sight (except on the wonderfully hideous mini christmas tree sister had brought with her. Good work, sister!)
Also, in other breaking news, for the first time in my life ever I wore a bikini to the beach, and I wasn't even all that cripplingly self conscious. This is rather a shock to the system, and may take some time to process, but hell while it lasts I'm loving it!
Um, updateyness...
Work is going well. It can be frustrating, and it can be repetitious, and I can rail against a system where women have little respect and homosexuals have no rights at all, but in the end it's what I want to do and that has only been cemented by the experience.
House is interesting. Boy house mate and I are scary brain twins in a Star Trek mind-meld omgwtf-happened-to-you-two sort of way. Not at all what I was expecting, but he's one of my best friends now, and I wouldn't change it for the world. Girl house mate and I can sort of tolerate each other. The less said the better. Which is a policy I shall revisit and alter the next time she annoys me, but just now she's out of the country, and all the more likeable for that!
Trinidad is incredible. It's a stunningly beautiful country, with weather that defies all British logic. The people are generally very friendly, kind and helpful. The human rights are shoddy, and the political and structural corruption take my breath away. Boy house mate had to go into a police station to report a car prang (fender bender, no big deal) and I wasn't going to let him go in there alone, because too many people go into police stations here and are only seen again days later, sporting new and interesting bruises. I appreciate that the policing in the UK is less than ideal on many levels, but after this I can't see it in the same light. I'm being radicalised by the experience, pushed into a stance that is even more defensive of human rights than the one I was in when I got here, and I've always been a limp leftie liberal!
The gay thing. It needs its own paragraph. I was talking to a local guy, who claims to be interested in gay rights. The conversation started with him telling me it's only illegal to have sex if you're a gay man. Nuh-uh. The penalties are very different (25 years for penetrative anal sex, 5 years for any other sex act performed between persons of the same sex) but ALL same sex sex acts are illegal here. His response: yes yes, but that's not what I'm talking about. Watch me begin to fume, people. He moved on to talking exclusively about the right to have penetrative anal sex, and how that could be argued for. Badly. Then ended with listening to a local song, to which the lyrics (I para phrase) are "I caught my wife having sex with a girl from school in the back seat of my car, and that's brilliant", to which Mr gay rights responded that he wished his wife were having sex with another woman in the back of his car. I questioned this, to my mind, peculiar desire, and his response? "She wouldn't be any competition for me, would she?" I walked away. He couldn't understand what he'd said to offend me. There are no words.
The hunt for the great british pupillage begins again in earnest when the parentals leave on the 4th. Cross something for me, lovelies, it's a big year for me. I'll be coming home on the 28th March 2010, and I want to see as many of you as possible as soon as possible! Make it happen :D
Love to all, and I shall attempt to be in contact rather sooner than last time!
<3
HAPPY BELATED CHRISTMAS, AND HAPPY PREMATURE NEW YEAR (OR INDEED OLD YEAR, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY CELEBRATE HERE)
The parentals and the sister-blister are here at the moment, they arrived on Christmas Eve, which is a big giant heap of awesome, so yay on that front. We spent Christmas up in the north of the island at Marianne beach in Blanchiseusse (bless you) with the wonder that is the boy house mate and a friend of his who is also over from the UK. It was hot, sunny, beach-like, and probably the least Christmassy Christmas I have ever had, but it was wonderful. We ate Trinidadian food, sun bathed, swam in the sea, swam in the river, and not a snowflake in sight (except on the wonderfully hideous mini christmas tree sister had brought with her. Good work, sister!)
Also, in other breaking news, for the first time in my life ever I wore a bikini to the beach, and I wasn't even all that cripplingly self conscious. This is rather a shock to the system, and may take some time to process, but hell while it lasts I'm loving it!
Um, updateyness...
Work is going well. It can be frustrating, and it can be repetitious, and I can rail against a system where women have little respect and homosexuals have no rights at all, but in the end it's what I want to do and that has only been cemented by the experience.
House is interesting. Boy house mate and I are scary brain twins in a Star Trek mind-meld omgwtf-happened-to-you-two sort of way. Not at all what I was expecting, but he's one of my best friends now, and I wouldn't change it for the world. Girl house mate and I can sort of tolerate each other. The less said the better. Which is a policy I shall revisit and alter the next time she annoys me, but just now she's out of the country, and all the more likeable for that!
Trinidad is incredible. It's a stunningly beautiful country, with weather that defies all British logic. The people are generally very friendly, kind and helpful. The human rights are shoddy, and the political and structural corruption take my breath away. Boy house mate had to go into a police station to report a car prang (fender bender, no big deal) and I wasn't going to let him go in there alone, because too many people go into police stations here and are only seen again days later, sporting new and interesting bruises. I appreciate that the policing in the UK is less than ideal on many levels, but after this I can't see it in the same light. I'm being radicalised by the experience, pushed into a stance that is even more defensive of human rights than the one I was in when I got here, and I've always been a limp leftie liberal!
The gay thing. It needs its own paragraph. I was talking to a local guy, who claims to be interested in gay rights. The conversation started with him telling me it's only illegal to have sex if you're a gay man. Nuh-uh. The penalties are very different (25 years for penetrative anal sex, 5 years for any other sex act performed between persons of the same sex) but ALL same sex sex acts are illegal here. His response: yes yes, but that's not what I'm talking about. Watch me begin to fume, people. He moved on to talking exclusively about the right to have penetrative anal sex, and how that could be argued for. Badly. Then ended with listening to a local song, to which the lyrics (I para phrase) are "I caught my wife having sex with a girl from school in the back seat of my car, and that's brilliant", to which Mr gay rights responded that he wished his wife were having sex with another woman in the back of his car. I questioned this, to my mind, peculiar desire, and his response? "She wouldn't be any competition for me, would she?" I walked away. He couldn't understand what he'd said to offend me. There are no words.
The hunt for the great british pupillage begins again in earnest when the parentals leave on the 4th. Cross something for me, lovelies, it's a big year for me. I'll be coming home on the 28th March 2010, and I want to see as many of you as possible as soon as possible! Make it happen :D
Love to all, and I shall attempt to be in contact rather sooner than last time!
<3