Oh la la, last time I wrote a blog, our time here in Martinque had just barely started and now I am looking at the last few days I have left here on this island. It is crazy how fast the time has flown but it has been amazing and filled with so many great memories and stories to tell. So I will start with a few of them!
Today We met with a group of law students studing here on campus, all around our age and from many different countries like Jamaica, France and St. Martin. They prepared so nicely for us a great spread of traditional Martiniquian food like Accras, basically fried goodness, pastries and boudon...something I will spare you the details on. It was a little intimidating as I was not expecting to meet so many people at once. They had also prepared a debate to have with us about our view on private vs. public lives of politicians, political scandals and how that affects the people of that country. As I am not much of a debater at all (and really don't know much about politics) I did more listening than talking but it was still very interesting to listen to. I found that the opinions of the women in the group were very similar to ours but some of the men in the group had quite an interesting viewpoint about the what politicians should be able to do in their private life.
Despite political discussions that I am not so familiar with, I was able to indulge in what I really love this weekend-cooking and culture. Carnaval was a huge dose of Carribean culture that I absolutely loved. Mary described it so well in her blog yesterday so I won't go into huge detail but the excitement of yesterday was just perfect. I love the business of festivals, seeing all of the traditional crafts like little dolls with dresses made of banana leaves, traditional clothing and colors and watching dances that we learned from our dance lesson. I was tempted to hop up and stage and join them! Jessica and I even got our faces painted which was great, I wish I could put pitures up but for some reason my camera doesn't work with these computers. Dommage! It was quite the day-8 hours of Carnaval was exhausting...I can't imagine four days of it!
Yesterday also included some cooking lessons from my host mom. She taught Jessica and I how to make Pain au Beurre (directly meaning "bread of butter") which is like a dense sweet bread. I thought it would be much more difficult but the ingredients and steps to make it were very simple. Then again our host mom is a pro and whipped out a beautiful braided loaf of bread like it was no big deal. We'll see how my attempt at home goes. We also learned how to make the best hot chocolate EVER. I don't want to give too many secrets away but a few of them are cinnamon, lime peel and sweetened condensed milk. So good!
I cannot believe our time here is almost over. I really wish that everyone at home that I miss could just come to Martinique so that I don't have to leave! Though we only have four more days after today, they are quite packed with either exciting excursions or just getting as much time from the beach as possible. It is going to be so hard to leave this warm, colorful island but what a great month it has been!
Hailey
Today We met with a group of law students studing here on campus, all around our age and from many different countries like Jamaica, France and St. Martin. They prepared so nicely for us a great spread of traditional Martiniquian food like Accras, basically fried goodness, pastries and boudon...something I will spare you the details on. It was a little intimidating as I was not expecting to meet so many people at once. They had also prepared a debate to have with us about our view on private vs. public lives of politicians, political scandals and how that affects the people of that country. As I am not much of a debater at all (and really don't know much about politics) I did more listening than talking but it was still very interesting to listen to. I found that the opinions of the women in the group were very similar to ours but some of the men in the group had quite an interesting viewpoint about the what politicians should be able to do in their private life.
Despite political discussions that I am not so familiar with, I was able to indulge in what I really love this weekend-cooking and culture. Carnaval was a huge dose of Carribean culture that I absolutely loved. Mary described it so well in her blog yesterday so I won't go into huge detail but the excitement of yesterday was just perfect. I love the business of festivals, seeing all of the traditional crafts like little dolls with dresses made of banana leaves, traditional clothing and colors and watching dances that we learned from our dance lesson. I was tempted to hop up and stage and join them! Jessica and I even got our faces painted which was great, I wish I could put pitures up but for some reason my camera doesn't work with these computers. Dommage! It was quite the day-8 hours of Carnaval was exhausting...I can't imagine four days of it!
Yesterday also included some cooking lessons from my host mom. She taught Jessica and I how to make Pain au Beurre (directly meaning "bread of butter") which is like a dense sweet bread. I thought it would be much more difficult but the ingredients and steps to make it were very simple. Then again our host mom is a pro and whipped out a beautiful braided loaf of bread like it was no big deal. We'll see how my attempt at home goes. We also learned how to make the best hot chocolate EVER. I don't want to give too many secrets away but a few of them are cinnamon, lime peel and sweetened condensed milk. So good!
I cannot believe our time here is almost over. I really wish that everyone at home that I miss could just come to Martinique so that I don't have to leave! Though we only have four more days after today, they are quite packed with either exciting excursions or just getting as much time from the beach as possible. It is going to be so hard to leave this warm, colorful island but what a great month it has been!
Hailey
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