Bonsoir!
Three weeks goes by really fast when you are on the friendly island of Martinique! It has been great learning all about their history, experiencing their culture first-hand, and communicating in their language.
The first week was a little scary trying to understand the French and respond quickly. It was hard to pick out individual French words from their fast speech, and then try to think of a reply quickly and pronounce it correctly. I still don’t understand everything, but I can understand much better and I can respond faster.
I am really happy with my host family. There is a mother and a son about my age, and they are so sweet. I really enjoy our dinners together. She makes a lot of different delicious dishes and he likes to talk about all of the recent news.
During the days my class-mates and I are still keeping busy exploring Martinique. On Tuesday we explored the mountainous north end of the island. We started with a three-hour hike through sugar cane and fields of bananas. During the hike we enjoyed some freshly picked mandarins, learned a lot about bananas, and got to see Dominica off in the distance. It was really cool! The picture on the right shows an early stage of bananas with the purple flower at the bottom. The further down you go, the newer the bananas are. After the hike we had lunch by the water, and then visited rum distillery and a basket-weaving museum.
We spent Wednesday exploring the capital, Fort-de-France, and had lunch at my favorite creperie! Yesterday morning we had language class, then a lecture on myths, traditions, and culture. In the afternoon Nellie, Katie, and I went to a little hotel beach. It was really nice to sit in the sun, do some homework, and take a much-needed nap.
Today was really exciting! We got to meet the most important person in Martinique: the President of the Regional Council, Serge Letchimy! We also got to witness the president and the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer, sign the “Declaration of Intention of Cooperation.” This agreement acknowledges that Martinique will continue to become more involved in the Caribbean.
Now it is time to go fall asleep to the nice insect sounds of the night.
Kaylena
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