Greetings from Trinidad

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Here is a little snapshot of things seem to be like in Trinidad so far:

I had an awesome day going to a little township next to the university called Tunapuna! We bought some supplies that we all needed to make our stay a little more comfortable, which was very nice. We went to a small department store, and they basically shut the whole place down for us and have personal shoppers available to us at all times while we were in the store. We felt a little embarrased by the special treatment, but it was definitely helpful:)

After Tunapuna, our driver Sam (he owns a 20 passenger bus that is perfectly air conditioned), took us to Maracas Bay and it was just stunning. On the way, we stopped on top of the mountain that we were driving over at this little candy stall. The candy in Trinidad is very different! It is actually pickled fruit. So when you get to the stall, you see all these jars of amazing pickled fruits and veggies that are all sweet and spicy in a more savory way. It is just lovely stuff. Everywhere you go there are people listening to music and just 'liming' or 'hanging out'. The local people are very friendly to us, and a couple of locals who were liming at the mountain summit with no place to be and all the time in the world to get there insisted that we have a drink with them before we carried onward. So we had a little cheers, and off we went:) We had a great time playing in the surf, walking on the beach, and having bake and shark for lunch. This time it had a lovely Tamarind sauce on it and it was totally delicious!

The residences are quite interesting too. Arriving in Trinidad, the first thing I noticed was that the air smells thick like soft decaying foliage mixed with an overtone of high priced tea and spice. After it rains (which is very intense rain that falls horizontally and with fury for about 20 minutes per day), the water evaporates in the heat so quickly that you are sure that you must have gills because the air is so wet that you are breathing. It doesnt even seem like breathing.

I often wonder how I am going to get through these three months. It is not easy to adjust here. I have to walk to the grocery store, which is about as far away as extra foods is from our apartment. It is not too far, but it is hot, and I have to cross a highway that has no rules about stopping for pedestrians. Every so often you will see some white lines painted across the street that to a Canadian would seem very much like it would function as a cross walk. Not so. They merely indicate that this is a place where pedestrians are often known to cross. That seems very dangerous to me. Anyways, once we are in the grocery store it is fine. The store is called Hi Lo foods and it is exactly like Safeway. It is a pleasant experience, but it is soooooo sloooowwww!!! The people seem to operate on a much less urgent sense of efficiency and nobody seems to mind at all. It is bizarre. I thought I chose the shortest line, but even so, it took me half an hour to buy my food. We don't have any cooking equipment yet (we are getting it tomorrow) so we can only eat foods that dont need to be cooked. That doesnt matter anyway because the kitchen stoves are out of gas, so they dont work.

The bathroom is another thing. During our floor meeting, the "block rep" curiously named "wrap it up" strongly emphasized that the toilets must be flushed when we are done. Problematically, they don't really work properly (as with many things) and about 50% of the time they don't flush. Alas, one need not worry about this as we have been instructed to merely dump a bucket of water into the toilet in order 'to give it a boost'. The second issue with this seemingly flawless solution is that there is no bucket in the bathroom. I did see a little bucket outside, but it appears to have been part of an informal architectural remedy for a sagging staircase (evidently, being sued is not a worry for the university). So yes, using the 'WC' is always an adventure. There is nothing worse that eliminating the excellent chick pea and cauliflower curry one had for lunch, pushing down the toilet handle then hearing the pathetic watery burp of defiance, as the toilet experiences performance anxiety.

The shower is great, however, even though it is just a pipe sticking out of the wall. The water pressure is amazing, and there is no way that I will end up with product build up in my hair. Perhaps in an effort to coordinate the shower stall aesthetically, the drain is nothing more than a hole in the floor that is incidentally perfectly in line with the protruding pipe from the wall. I enjoying showering, even though it seems futile since skin never ever feels fresh.
October 1st was our first night of hazing (which lasts about a week aparently). They call it "Grubbing", and we all have to perform fairly embarassing acts in order to appease them. We are not allowed to walk on the grass or use the cement walk way leading to the common room until we have been initiated properly and assigned a completely humilating hall name.