day eleven - turtles and rapso.

getting up to catch the ferry back to trinidad at 4am in the morning was about as fun as going to the gynecologist. NOT FUN! at all. zero percent 0%. i was so tired. i got about 3 or 4 hours of sleep. i just wanted to go to sleep. it didn't even matter that everyone was late getting out of their rooms because the bus driver was late too. when we finally got to the ferry station though, i was really happy because the line was not as long as it had been when we were going from trinidad to tobago. it was fast too. remember, last time, i was worried that something would get stolen... so this time, i checked my luggage in. they attached a band to my luggage and then gave me a correlating sticky note on my ticket so i could pick it up when we arrived. afterwards, i sat down for about an hour and, just as the sun was rising, it was time to get on the ferry. goodbye tobago!

before, on the way to tobago, i noticed that the chairs by the window laid back. I WAS DETERMINED TO GET ONE OF THESE SEATS ON THE TRIP BACK TO TRINIDAD. lol. it just so happened that dr.turley wanted a window seat too, so i followed her, and we ended up getting two good seats with plenty of leg room. the only thing i didn't like was that it was FREEZING on this ferry. i could feel the cold air just blowing on me. it was so cold, and i had on a little sun dress. i brought my legs up to my chest and stretched my dress over my knees and down to my ankles... and then i took the scarf off of my head and covered my arms. it wasn't much, but it was enough for me to go to sleep for most of the trip back to trinidad. 

when we arrived in trinidad, i had to go pick up my checked-in luggage. checking in my luggage was pretty much a waste of time. i had to basically hunt down my luggage with the rest of the people who had checked in luggage. they had put all the checked luggage on these tables in a cage-like fenced in area. so, you have all these people... in a cage... trying to find their bags. and it was a waste of time because the guy at the door who was supposed to check and make sure that the people who came in there picked up their luggage and no one else's (by checking the little sticky note).... DIDN'T EVEN REALLY LOOK AT MINE. and i dont think he really looked at anyone else's either. he was too busy chatting. so.. really, anyone could come in there with an old ticket and take someone else's luggage.

when we got on the bus, we were informed that we would have to make-up the old rapso class that we had missed because the professor never showed up. i was not happy about that at all. i was so exhausted. i did not feel like making up something i hadn't actually missed... i had sat in that classroom for almost two hours waiting. but, what was i going to do? i had to go. so... i went back to my dorm room and quickly fell asleep. i'm not really good with naps though (even my kindergarten teachers couldn't wake me up from nap time). i just get so deep into them. so, when i had to wake up for class at 1pm, i was not happy at all. luckily, the lecturer was there and on time.

our lecturer was omari ashby and the lecture was over the old rapso tradition. omari was a rapso poet himself and even had a hit record in trinidad and tobago in the 90s. he explained that rapso is a musical genre that believes in the power of the word and the rhythm of the word. it acknowledges the meanings behind words but also acknowledges that part of a word's meaning is in how you say the word. words have rhythm, vibes, and power. as someone that uses made-up words and phrases on a regular basis, i knew exactly what he meant ("basidy".. lol). rapso is kind of like "spoken word" is in the states, but it has trinidad/tobago at its heart.. so, i wouldn't go too far with comparisons.

the most impressive thing we talked about was the history of it because it has african roots. are you familiar with griots? griots were storytellers, musicians, and general all-around entertainers in west african societies. they also were keepers of oral history and were responsible for passing down the history of the villages. of course, during slavery, the people who captured and sold slaves weren't asking "now, what was your previous occupation?" lol. so, some griots were spread around through the slave trade and some of them found themselves in trinidad/tobago where they split into three characters: pierrot grenade (who would make games with words and had a kind of tongue-and-cheek way of making fun of people who use big words), ?shanquil? (who was a call-and-response leader and carried the chants. they were important during labor movements/emancipation), and the midnight robber (lyrical battler.. instilling fear in others using words to see who was the baddest!). all of this, of course, reminded me of hip-hop.

you know... it still amazes me how connected we all are. during slavery, people literally tried to strip away EVERYTHING the africans had... physically.. mentally.. all of it. i mean, the goal was to have the perfect servant for whatever you wanted.. so, to have a robot. they tried to turn humans into robots for hundreds of years... for generations. in america, we always feel so stripped, and.. don't get me wrong.. african-americans are DEFINITELY americans. we are very american. but we have some african in us too. when i see all these veins connecting black people all over the world.. and see traces of our past in our present, it makes me really happy. i mean, that's why i study this stuff in the first place. one thing made me really sad though... omari stressed that music of struggle was at the forefront of every social movement in trinidad/tobago. where is that music at now?

after class, i headed back to my room to chat online with friends and catch up on my news (amy winehouse's death has weighed really heavy on me, but i've tried not to let it get me down). i think i ended up taking another nap too. but soon, it was time to go see some turtles!!! i was actually excited about this. turtles are the only reptiles i can actually deal with (lol), and i got to spend some time with them when i volunteered at the tennessee aquarium in highschool. they're pretty chill animals. trinidad is one of the few places on earth you can see leatherback sea turtles nesting. nearly 80% of all leatherbacks nest in trinidad, so it's a really special thing to see. we headed to matura beach... the trip there was very long and the road was like most roads here... narrow, winding, and scary. then shannon made a joke that the driver was taking us into a remote area to kill us (i mean we were driving on a dirt road at that point!). i laughed it off... until the driver tried to joke around and turn off ALL THE LIGHTS, including the ones inside the van. it was pitch black. my heart started pounding so hard. i was thinking... "well.. i dunno who ima dive over to get to the door but i hope i don't hurt anyone.. " lol. he turned them back on and started laughing. we all shared an uneasy laugh.

when we finally got to the beach, we paid (30TT$) and waited for our walk to begin. our guide walked us down to the beach, along with groups of other people, and we followed him up and down the beach keeping our eyes out for any turtles coming to shore. the turtles only nest at night so we had to walk up and down the beach in the dark with only the stars to light our way. it was quite nice actually. i enjoyed myself. the other people in our pack were really annoying though. they were being loud and flashing their flashlights and cellular phones everywhere, which the guide had told us would scare off the turtles. our chances were already slim since the peak season of nesting is in may and june. so, with them making all kinds of racket, it's no surprise that we didn't get a chance to see any turtles nesting.

i did get to see three shooting stars though! and there was a bat harassing us all night... circling around our group. it was so scary. i kept ducking low to the ground so he would get near me. he was attracted to the flash lights. when we thought it was time to leave, our guide went back to where we started and uncovered a bowl full of little baby turtles that had been spotted and caught earlier. THEY WERE RIDICULOUSLY CUTE. i wanted to hold and cuddle one... but once they started going around, i felt so very bad. it's like... this little baby turtle.. first day above the sand... and all these people are holding it.. and passing it around.. poking and prodding at it.. rubbing and kissing it... flashing bright lights in its eyes. and the entire time this is going on, the little cute turtle is waving its little flippers trying to get away. just flapping as hard as it could and getting no where. little kids were dropping them too. it just seemed eerie and a little bit sad. by the time the turtle got around to me, i hadn't shaken the feeling. so, i didn't even touch it at all. all i could think about was "when are you letting them go (traumatized into the ocean)?"

folks were ready to go before the tour was actually completely over, so we left. and, i slept the entire ride back to campus.

day ten - HEAVEN (tobago)

i woke up early the next morning so that i could go on the trip to see the waterfall at argyle falls. the drive there was full of twists and turns (like just about every drive we've taken.. lol), but the views from the bus were beautiful. we drove right along the coast.

when we got to the argyle falls center, i was so happy because we were told that it would be 60 TT$, but we ended up only having to pay 40TT$. :-D our guide was this quirky little black lady who i could tell took a liking to me because she would just take my camera and tell me to do different poses. lol. like, she had me run down some stairs.. lol.  it was kinda weird, but i liked her. she was really sweet. she asked shannon and i what word we would use to described tobago. i said “beautiful..” … shannon said “amazing.” the lady was like, 

“those are nice words.. but the word i would use is ‘heaven.’”

i was blown away by her answer. she was absolutely right. it was heaven or the closest i've ever been to heaven. she took us through the forest telling us the history of the land, which used to be a cocoa plantation. i felt completely in my element. i love being outdoors. i love going on trails. i was already really happy.. and then, i saw the waterfall. it was absolutely gorgeous.

kenwyn’s fiancé, yakira, convinced me to go behind the waterfall with her (remember my “checkered past” with water.. lol). she held my hand and guided me under it. she’s so nice, and i’m glad she was there. i’m glad i went underneath the water fall too because she was right... it was the best view, even with the water splashing into my eyes. and, the water felt so good on my skin. i felt like i was being baptized by nature… and i loved every minute of it. i sat under the waterfall for a long time just thanking God that i was there. i really did. and i said some prayers. it’s something about being in nature… i can get more spiritual in a forest than i ever can at church.

 

after we were done at the falls, we went back into the main lobby and i got a gatorade and some corn bread! yes, stores sell cornbread as a snack. it tasted kind of like when my mom adds extra cornmeal to "jiffy". it was the perfect snack really. lol. WE NEED IT IN THE STATES! 

we headed back to the room and i tried to get some blog posts up. then, shannon and i headed down to the beach. the sun kept ducking behind clouds and a lot of seaweed had come up on shore. so, the beach wasn’t as nice as it had been the day before. i went in the water with all the other people who were splashing about. i looked down in the clear blue water and a school of little fish were just swimming right next to me. i thought fish were afraid of people! i guess not. i was like, “um… not for me.” lol. i like to eat fish not swim with them. so, i just laid down on my towel, listened to the music that someone was blasting, and ate sugar cake (the sugar/coconut mixture that i am pretty sure i’m addicted to). shannon gave me her sweet mangoes, because she didn’t like them. i was really grateful because i liked them… they tasted like sweet potatoes. 

after an hour or so of beach time, we headed back to the room to eat some more church’s chicken. then, we met up with the group to head to a souvenir shop. there was some nice stuff there but i was too poor to buy anything so i just looked around. afterwards, we headed to a restaurant that had really good cake and icecream. although i love icecream, i wasn’t about to spend any money on dessert when i was still full from earlier. i did want a beer though so we went to a little mini-mart to get one. i thought maybe we would lime, but we had to be up by 4am the next morning to catch the ferry back to trinidad. it just seemed kind of foolish to lime and then do all that traveling. so, i headed back to my room to get a couple of hours of rest.

day nine - why do i get to see this?

after going to sleep at like 3am from liming the night before, it was kind of hard to get up the next morning. (kenwyn told us 10am after we limed even though lavergne had told me 10:30am). while we were just about to leave the room, lavergne came around and told us we would be leaving later. -_- i coulda used those extra minutes of sleep... but whatever. i made some toast (which i was really excited about because i haven't been around a toaster in a while) and chilled out. when we finally made our way to the beach, which was like a block away, i was amazed by its beauty.

clear blue water... soft sand... little colorful beach umbrellas. it was like something from a postcard. along the right side of the beach, there was a line of boats. these boats have glass bottoms (so you could see the ocean floor) and took people out to the coral reefs. we waited a minute and then made our way on to one of the boats. we waited a while for more people to get on the boat and for the crew to get the boat ready to leave. while we waited, the boat was going up and down over the waves. i wasn't getting sick BUT i could see how if i had to do that for a long amount of time, i would get sick. so, i asked lavergne if she had anymore of that seasickness medicine just in case. all she had was pepto bismol. i took a swig of it and then we were off to the reefs.

i had to snorkel. and the only reason i had to do it was because i was in tobago... with the opportunity to do it. if i didn't do it, i'd be a complete loser. but me and water/swimming have a "checkered past". i almost drowned when i was really little in a pool. my mom had to dive in and rescue me out of the deep end of the pool where i had accidently jumped in. then, i remember my mom's family went to whitewaters water park... i was in the wave pool with all my cousins for about, i swear, 5 minutes... and my floating tube flipped over after a wave came and i took in a lot of water and ended up having to sit with my grandma for the rest of the day on the sidelines while everyone else had fun. and she wouldn't let me go back in. lame. i've never really been able to "swim".. i have my own technique which i like to call "staying alive." lol.  and let's NOT forget my run-in with swimming in the ocean for the first time in south africa where i freaked out. i still feel bad about that (sorry jayden for almost drowning you). so... yeah..... i was super nervous but i knew i had to at least try. 

the boat stopped at the main part of the buco reef. the crew let out a lifesaver with a roap attached and people slowly began to get off the boat at different spots along the rope. i waited until the very end because i wanted to be as close to the boat as possible. lol. when i got in, it was... okay. the water was warm and salty. i was close to the boat and holding on to the rope for dear life. this guy on the crew told me to close my mouth and look down in the water. IT WAS CRAZY. there were fish and coral right under neath me. brain coral is my favorite type of coral and it just so happened i was right above one. i looked down a couple of more times then i was like.... "okay... ready to get out of here." i lasted about 3-5 minutes in there. lol. i mean, it was cool and all... but #1, we had on these 1/2 a life vests that they had us wrap around our waists.. i'm thinking "this is not the correct way to wear these." lol. #2, they wanted me to go further out from the boat along the rope... and give the rope some slack. NO. lol #3 im in the middle of the ocean. #4 there are living things underneath my feet and i couldn't tell how far away they were. through the goggles and water, they looked so close that i was afraid i would touch one and i know the people who had jumped off the boat into the water had scraped some of the coral (which actually damages the coral). i'm not trying to touch any coral and i'm definitely not trying to touch any fish. #5 remember those "bake and sharks" i was eating at maracas beach? yeah... there are sharks in the water. #6 i looked at it a couple of times.... ok. i'm amazed... and now i'm over it and ready to get out of the water. and really, it all boils down to #7 i'm not confident enough in my swimming to really be out in the ocean.

 the day before when i was in the pool, i realized that i hadn't gone swimming without my boyfriend since we had been together... so, excluding my freak out in south africa, for over 6 years, he has always been in the water with me. and he's an excellent swimmer.. he loves to swim. he wants to go as soon as it gets warm outside every year.  and when he's there swimming with me, i know he's not going to let me get hurt. so, i'm more confident.. i'll go into the deep end. i'll try to do some laps. i'll try to keep up with him (which is impossible because he's 1/2 merman... lol). even before we were dating, i'm pretty sure he and arielle and random other friends were always there when i went swimming. but he's not here. and neither is anyone i can trust to actually care about my well being. so, was this the time to try to stunt in the water? not for me.

after i got out... all the crew members and some of the people from my trip were calling me a "chicken." which i thought was pretty messed up considering i actually did get in the water.. did look at the coral. i didn't do it for long but i did do it while others didn't do it at all. after being called a chicken, i decided to get back in... but i didn't stay for long (maybe another 5.. lol) because of all the reasons previously stated. the buco reef is amazing. you don't have to get in the water to know that... let alone stay in there for a long time. i was amazed.. and then i was ready to move on.  

after everyone got back on the boat.. we went to an area they call a "pool in the middle of the ocean." in the middle of the ocean, there's this really turquoise, clear water and its only about 3 feet deep. it was absolutely gorgeous. and i enjoyed myself here. it was one of those "why does insignificant me get to see such beauty?" moments.

after the pool.. i went on top of the boat for some sun as we headed back to shore. the crew handed out some coca-cola and sprite and a handful of chips. it wasn't much but it hit the spot! when we got back to the "bed minus breakfast," there was just enough time to shower, eat, and dress for the old time wedding at the hertiage festival. we got there just as the procession was getting close. the old time wedding is a reenactment/performance of the weddings that were performed during slavery. i still find it quite interesting that in tobago, "heritage" seems to equate to slavery... i had hoped it would be some concrete african traditions but you really have to play "blue's clues" to find the connections. 

as soon as they were about to begin the play, it started to rain. it was subtle at first, so many didn't move, but all of a sudden it started pouring and the wind came! i ran under the tent where the electronic sound system was (bad idea now that i think about it.. lol). the wind blew the rain right in on me.. so, 1/2 of me was dry and 1/2 of me was completely soaked and dirty. after the rain left, i grabbed a nice seat in front of the crowd, because the heritage festival is supposed to be a part of my research project. so, i was trying to get some good footage. i was getting so annoyed though for many reasons.... there was a lady sitting next to me just snorting and gulping back her snot... this is the second time this year i have found one of these snorting people.. JUST BLOW YOUR NOSE! eww.... even though i was soaking wet, i was okay with the rain. i did want one of the free umbrellas they were giving out though because the rain would come and go. when i went over to the booth, i saw the attendant give away 2 umbrellas to one person and then tell me she didn't have anymore. then later, i saw her give out some more. -_- ... it also seemed like people would just find my line of sight and stand directly in my way. no matter where i went. it made it hard to get footage of the events and i have a audio/visual portion of my research to do. i don't want to turn in some sloppy work. people would literally get to me and decide that that's where they wanted to stop....there were kids just sitting in the middle of the stage in my way. GET YO KIDS OFF THE DAMN STAGE! my momma woulda gave me a whooping if i was up there all laid out on the stage... every time i would get up to take a picture or video (i would have to get up when people kept standing in my way), someone would steal my seat! i'm like.. "YOU JUST SAW ME GET UP.. AND U SAW WHERE I WENT.. YOU SAW WHAT I WAS DOING.. AND YOU REALLY 'BOUT TO JUST SIT DOWN? FORREAL?" it happened at least three times. and i would have to go search for another seat. i was really frustrated. if it weren't for the play, i probably would have let it get to me.

but the play was really good and i really got into it. there were these two women, one of them the bride's mother and the other her friend, who were talking about their relationships. the mother of the bride's husband beat her and her daughter and didn't care about them at all. he was mean and left them. the other lady bossed her husband around but he loved her and loved to please her (and, she was given him that good loving.. [i'm so serious. lol]). she was big and loud and didn't take any mess. they were telling the story in flashbacks.. and when they got close to the present, the wedding, the mean husband shows up and says he heard his daughter was getting married. he's all remorseful and wants his family back. but, the lady is like "no.. you need to go! you don't have a family..." and the big bossy lady tries to help her, but she's like "naw.. mind ya business. i can handle it." so.. the story is laced with all these morals and lessons. it reminded me of "nollywood" films from nigeria and was really good. in between the story, there would be dancing that was done during the slavery weddings. some of them were ones we had learned the day before. remember "what billy do make dem put him in jail oh?"

i was still trying to capture moments of the play when lavergne and the rest of the crew were getting ready to go. i was slick amazed... cause i knew it wasn't over... we hadn't actually really seen the wedding yet as far as i could tell. lavergne said she'd never seen the entire thing before. so, apparently it goes on for a long time... but dang, i thought we would have stayed longer. it seemed like an hour and 1/2 went by and then it was time to go. the drive there seems like it took longer than we were actually there. i wasn't even able to get a lot of footage. and also, like... they know my research project is the tobago heritage festival... the festival has events going on for a couple of weeks. we were on the island for 3 days and only did 1 event (even though our schedules say "cultural event" during the night time slots on some of the days.. and they had us write in "pageant/play" under one night, and we didn't do that either) AND we didn't even stay that long at the one we actually went to. it's kind of fucked up because my paper is really not going to have the observational evidence that it needs to be successful. i kind of feel like i got screwed over. the social coordinators are supposed to help us get those kinds of things together... gimme a calendar of events.. suggest ones for me to go to... organize some travel for me... drop me off at the tobago library... at least let me stay long at the one we're at. i mean really.. damn? i'm going to have to contact a few of our lecturers who are from tobago to get some information.. and even then, i feel like it still won't be good enough.  i don't like turning in sloppy work especially because it's the director of my program who is going to be grading these.

we i got back with the group, they were complaining about... i really don't know.. i guess the whole event. and they didn't know what the play was about. so, i'm sure that's at least a part of the reason why we left. because, if everyone was openly having a great time, we would have stayed longer. anyways, we went back to the rooms, chilled, and went to sleep. if you're wondering what i've been eating, it was that church's chicken! lol. the sides taste the same as they do in america but the chicken is not as greasy and is a little spicy. it's good. i'm still mad about those baby-sized sides though. 

papa.... paparazzi.

so, we made the "trini scene" when we were at "woodford cafe" liming. i'm in a couple of photos.

http://triniscene.com/tsv7/galleries/?page=iframe&id=GAL0B4138

edit: and also the woodford cafe facebook page. smh.

at least i'm gettin down tho.. lol. 

day eight - TOBAGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my my my. when i woke up, i got to see a glimpse of the beauty of tobago. our "bed minus the breakfast" (called "store bay holiday resort") is very nice... painted yellow with lush tropical greens and brightly colored flowers everywhere. even though there are goats in the backyard (and chickens... saw a chicken just walking around the lobby), it is very nice. my room has a big kitchen and huge shower.

we had to get up super early for our workshop. we hopped on a bus and headed to a local school. i wish i could tell you our teacher’s name but it was slick really difficult to figure out. if i tried to type what i heard.. it would probably look like “sdfjbskdfehgor eoeterbsdvk.” lol. so yeah.. i’ll just skip that. but she was really nice and really informative. it's my own fault for not getting her name down. she said it a couple of times and i was too afraid to ask her to repeat it again. our workshop was a music workshop! we learned some of the traditional tobagonians dances and songs that would be performed at the tobago heritage festival. my research project while here is to basically see how tobagonians perceive themselves to be linked to africa and how the heritage festival fits into that story. however, their traditions, so far, look a lot like connections to slavery and not necessarily africa to me. some of the funeral dances looked definitely african. besides the fact that many african societies would dance and try to celebrate someone’s death, the moves themselves looked african. however, a lot of the jigs and stuff we learned, displayed definite traces of its colonial past. most of the dances and songs we learned were going to be performed during the "moriah - old time wedding," which is a reenactment of the wedding rituals performed during slavery. the workshop was so much fun though. we learned a song or two... this one is done in "call-in-response" form (african tradition that you find a lot in american jazz, blues.. and in black churches)...

"billy gone a jail oh

billy gone a jail oh

billy gone a jail oh

billy gone a jail oh

what billy do make dem put him in jail oh?

me no know boy, me no know

what billy do make dem put him in jail oh?

me no know boy, me no know"

we also danced. 

after all that dancing, we were so hot and tired. we went down the road for some cold drinks and waited for our bus to arrive. i was so hot and thirsty. i went ahead and spent some money and that was the best gatorade i've ever had. after the bus showed up, we went to "fort king george," an old fort built by the british. it offered great views of the island and some history on the area.

after the fort. we came back to hotel to chill for a while. shannon and i went to the really nice pool and splashed around for a few hours... and then.. IT WAS CHURCH'S CHICKEN TIME! guess who was at the register? the same chick from the day before who was basically a bitch to us. and she was a bitch this time too. just had a real attitude. and the church's chicken was definitely a slick sham.. because, shannon and i got the 10 piece with 5 sides. they didn't have okra on the menu but i'm thinking.. "family meal.. yes!, i want mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, biscuits, cole slaw, and one of these random other items... jalapeno poppers or something." the corn on the cob and random items were "add-ons"... not sides.. apparently.. and they didn't even have any more cole slaw. and and and... the sides weren't family sized styles i would expect from a family meal... no... they were individually sized sides. -_- they gave us 3 individually sized  mashed potatoes and LITERALLY 2 biscuits. TWO. ... those little sides... and then we got 10 pieces of chicken. what kind of unbalanced offering is that? we got enough chicken to last for days and days but we been having to basically taste the sides... i been eating my biscuit in 1/4ths. lol. it's kind of a mess.

we ate and chilled out. i then we went liming. the walk was pretty far and when we got there, there was a cover charge of 40 TT$ (not a lot america.. but im broke in tobago... so........ that's a lot. lol). the club was called "the shade" and it was like an outdoor nightclub under a large gazebo. it was really awesome. of course, i had to get on the dance floor. no one was really dancing at first and i was afraid it was going to be like woodford cafe... however, after a while, everyone was dancing. and it became a situation of too many guys... not enough girls, and your scared to dance almost because guys are like stalking yah... if they see you moving to good to a song, here they come! but, we had a blast... and i'm starting to really like a lot of the caribbean songs. I LOVE TO LIME! that's all i can say... 

day seven - blah

day seven kind of sucked. so, we went to class like usual. and, like usual, the lecturer was late. the class was supposed to be about “the old tradition: rapso”… whatever that is. why don’t i know what that is? because whoever was supposed to teach our class didn’t show up at all. so, we sat in the room waiting for over an hour… maybe even two hours. it was kind of ridiculous. i don’t know who gave us word that we could finally leave, but when we got it, i was glad to get back to the room so i could finish packing for our trip to tobago.

i finished packing…ate the rest of my leftover chinese food (i still couldn’t bear to eat any of that “chicken.” it looked even more weird the next day.)… and hopped on the bus. we went to the ferry station in port-of-spain. it was just as miserable as traveling always is. the station was packed full of people. and it was so hot. we had to stand in long lines and my luggage was really heavy. and then, when we finally got on the ferry, some officers made me put my luggage bag on a cart because i guess i had too much stuff (the only other thing i had was my book bag -_-). so, i was worried that my stuff would get stolen. and on top of all this, lavergne gave us sea-sickness medicine at the station, but i think the medicine itself made me feel a little sick. the ferry itself was really nice though. it was the nicest ferry i’ve ever been on. it had low lighting, with lots of tables and chairs. there was food offered (although depending on what time of day, it could be crappy. it was crappy. lol). there were flat screen tvs, but they were all playing “the three stooges meet hercules”.. lame. so, i mostly just read my book, assata shakur’s biography. there was a couple of rough patches, but for the most part, the ride was smooth. i didn’t even realize we were moving at first until i looked out the window. and the view was AWESOME. i also went to the back of the ferry for even more views of the trinidad coastline.

when we got off the ferry in tobago (at about 7pm), i went down and got my stuff. what was the first thing i saw when i got off the ferry? a red shining kfc. lol. it gave me a brilliant idea… our coordinators had warned us the day before that food on tobago was more expensive because it was more touristy. my plan was to buy a bucket of chicken and sides, a family meal, and just eat on that every day. we hopped on a bus and it took us to our “bed and breakfast” (MINUS THE BREAKFAST.. which they don’t have. lol! i’m laughing now but when i found out, i was crushed. i thought i was going to save some TT$. so.. you’re a bed and breakfast without breakfast? so… you’re just bed? lol). as we made our way to our rooms… we could hear a whole bunch of random “BAAAHHHHHHHH”s. goats. there are goats in the backyard of our “bed minus the breakfast.” lol.

everyone was pretty hungry so we dropped our stuff off in our rooms (i share a room with shannon), and walked around the area to find something to eat. i saw a church’s chicken and immediately thought, “that’s the move.” instead of stopping though, i continued to walk with everyone else to see what else the area had to offer. after about 20 minutes, shannon and i went back to the church’s chicken. we went inside and stood looking at the menu. a worker gone say “y’all ordering 2 separate orders?”.. we answered yes… “well, we’re closed.” um… then why did you let us stand here, look at the menu, and ask us how many orders we had? we ended up in a little mini-market next door. i wasn’t really trying to buy anything but once shannon got this breakfast for dinner idea, i picked up some bread and bacon. we ended up saving it though. i ate a pb&j and went to bed. 

day six- disgust and deliciousness

lesson on gender/sexuality in trinidad/tobago: yesterday's lecture came from dr. charleston thomas, a young, cool rasta and he was super intelligent.

"i am me. disgusted by the world, so i have alienated myself."

he came to talk to us about gender and sexuality in trinidad/tobago. instead of just straight talking about it, he used his own life as a guide. his whole premise was that trinidad/tobago is an environment that challenges certain ideas such as a patriarchal society and the nuclear family.

"your responsibility is to prove that they have lied to us by disproving the lies."

with the concept of a patriarchal society, the notion that men run society, he talked about how in tobago, women run the society and that most leaders and prominent people in the society are women. there was even a gang of women that would steal and sexually harass people called "the dirty dozen." and within is family, his moms and aunts would make decisions. they decided if and where he should go to school, not his dad. so... how can we say there's a patriarchal society here when clearly this is not always the case? he also revealed the issues with the whole idea of a nuclear family (mother, father, and children) being the ideal. because it's called "nuclear family" in the first place, with the added word in front of family, must mean that before the word "nuclear" was added, family always meant many people/families. he said that the nuclear model was brought about during the victorian era because it is the most efficient way to produce more laborers/children... but it doesn't make sense in a non-urban space. to say someone has an absent father is a really awful and incorrect thing to say here because many work away from home. he said that the mother/father roles are basically bullshit. he described how he was raised more by his uncles than his father (who is known for raising others in the community). and he didn't find out that some people he considers his brothers/sisters weren't even related to him until he was like 15. he has people who are second mothers.. and third mothers... and he also said

"who says a woman can't do the fathering when it has been done so many times?"

so, the nuclear family idea only has external purposes... it's just for show. what matters is what each particular family needs. if the needs are being met, then who cares who is there and who is not there? he also talked about homosexuality.. about how the invention of the nuclear family was the invention of homosexuality because in the past, many societies had homo-erotic rituals. he thinks that homosexuality is a part of "body memory"... for example, he said people of black ancestry, when they hear a drum pattern, they have to move/dance or at least the drum rings somewhere in their heart. that's "body memory".. our bodies are remembering how our ancestors used drums to communicate and entertain in africa. so, he believed homosexuality was people's bodies remembering the homoerotic rituals of the past, before the victorian era. his whole point was that the caribbean is a sight to rethink a number of things. it was all quite interesting.

after the lesson, lavergne dropped jermaine and i off at a nearby chinese restaurant to get some of the alleged delicious chinese food i had heard so much about. it looked a little sketchy in there… but i got something anyways. i got noodles, rice, and chicken. the rice and noodles were okay. the chicken looked suspect. i only  ate the pieces that i could easily recognize as chicken. i saved some of it for another day… and i’m going to try to eat it all including the weird chicken cause i thought, “i’ve eaten shark and termites… so… even if it is some animal i don’t eat.. i'm past the point of no return already." lol.

afterwards.. i just chilled in my room a bit, trying to write this blog with the unreliable internet. we were supposed to catch a university student shuttle to a steelpan yard at 3pm. it's about 2:52pm. i knock on treena's door to give her her camera batteries that have been charging on my computer. she doesn't answer so i leave them by her door. i head downstairs. no one is there. i’m like “i know these fools didn’t leave me.” i go to the front lobby.. no one there. i come back to the flat, knock on everyone’s doors… no one. go down to jermaine’s door.. no one. so, i basically got left. i ask the front desk people where the university police station is because i know that that’s where the shuttles will be and i know that it's some where directly across the street from our dorm. and i head that way. i see the other students basically walking around in circles, trying to figure out where to go. “hey, danielle! do you know where we should be at?” and i basically said, “well, i thought y’all would know where y’all was going since ya rushed out the apartment and left me.” i was really pissed off… cause i have taken folks to the airport...let people use up my bug spray and anti-itch cream..  gave them change if they needed it.. helped them find stuff they were looking for.. and DEFINITELY have walked with them to places they needed to go just so they could have someone to walk with. i have done something i didn't have to do for everybody on this trip. and, i did all this trying to be a good friend (and also because walking somewhere alone is against the rules of the trip.. and it’s the group's responsibility if anyone is late or gets left behind, and i wasn’t even late, nor have i been even close to being late for anything this entire trip. not even close.). so…  what the hell was i supposed to do? what if the shuttle would have actually been there and left? what if after i was left behind.. i tried to make it and fell on a sidewalk or got robbed or raped or hit by a vehicle crossing the street? i had neither of the two cellular phones they gave us to call the people in charge. they had them. no matter how i try to look at it.. from all angles... all i see is 

"fuck danielle."  

and it's messed up because (forget about the rules) i would have NEVER left anyone behind. ever. and i would have never thought that i would get left considering everyone’s always preaching really strong activist talk and about equality and all that … but how you gone help the other man, when you can’t even knock on a sista door to say you’re leaving? can’t even help the person right next to you? disgusting. but it’s all good... cause i'm only here to have a good time and learn. 

and i'm kind of happy about it all because it makes me feel like i’m just in tune with the trinidad vibes. all the students want to leave so early.. but it’s like… why when the professor/bus driver/ lecturer/social coordinator/etc. is going to MAYBE be on time (which has rarely and possibly never has happened in all the days we've been here) and is more likely going to be 10-15 minutes late instead?? i just see it as such an american thing… rushing off to be somewhere. trinis are not this way at all. you slow down. they get there when they get there. they haven’t been an ounce impressed with us being on time. no one has been like "wow.. you guys are on time!" so.. what you rushing for? i wish everyone could feel the island vibe. one doesn’t have to be late… but dang, can we at least not have to wait outside in the heat for every outing for 10-20 minutes or in a hot room that won’t get cool until 20 minutes later when our lecturer will actually arrive? i'm starting to break out in heat bumps on my chest (ugh!) and i’d rather wait in my room where it's nice and cool. if that means i'm going to be getting left behind, i'll just have to deal with it. it's clear to me that i'm on my own which is fine. 

anyways, after about 5 minutes, a man came out of the police station and took one of the shuttles and drove us to one of the many steel pan yards in town. when we got there, we got right down to it. our teacher broke down the history of the steel pan... musical notes... and then steel pan techniques. IT IS VERY HARD. cause, it's not like you just hit the pan.. you have to know where to hit it to get the particular note that you want. you have to know how soft/hard to hit it. and, really you're not hitting it.. it's more like you're rolling the sticks over the pan really fast...multiple times for each note. and those little sticks are hard to hold. the whole process is difficult but i think i did a pretty good job. i was on the soprano pan and i really loved the sound it made.

our class seemed to end a lot earlier than we expected. we didn't even get to learn a song. :-( we left the yard and then chilled in our rooms. later, lavergne came to pick us up to go to dr. turley's apartment to eat. dr. talley and dr. turley cooked us a trinidadian feast! it was so delicious. like, i cannot stress enough how good it was.  you know how it is when you're eating and your stomach says "that's enough!" but your tongue is like "more more more!"? that's how good it was. goat curry.. spicy mangoes.. chickpeas and potatoes.. rotti... chicken... and more. it's was all delicious. and the rum punch was good too (20% alcohol :-D ). we also had coconut and rum raisin ice-cream. i had both of course. then i chilled and talked to lavergne and her family about some aspects of the trip and played with her adorable son, liam. we all caught "the itis" (you know, where you eat and want to go to sleep. they have a word for it in trinidad too but i can't remember what it is that they say) and headed back to the dorm for sleep.


we're going to TOBAGO today (day 8). i'm really excited. i can't wait to lay out on the beach.

day five - mas and MORE LIMING, MY NEW FAVORITE THING!

day five's lecture was taught by kenwyn, our social coordinator. it was a lesson on carnival (he was late, of course.) carnival is maybe what trinidad and tobago is best known for. but kenwyn's entire lesson was about the fact that their are many misconceptions about carnival. 

brief lesson: carnivals aren't just a trinidad thing... nor a brazil thing... nor caribbean thing... nor new orleans. there are many carnival around the world and some trace its origns to somewhere in africa (i can't remember where), not in france like most of us think. kenwyn feels that people don't drift towards carnivals to be deviant (with all the sexual energy). he thinks that having sexuality and spirituality separate is a western idea.. carnival combines those things and thus people naturally gravitate to them because that's the way things were before the victorian era and european conquest. carnivals happen before lint usually.. so it acts as a rebirth and a celebrating of life. then he brought down the scope a little further to say that the trinidad carnival is special because of the concept of "mas".. which is a play off the words mask and masquerade. it's a concept of improvisation.. a concept of mastery or dominance. the idea is you're concealing yourself behind a costume to reveal some message (but if someone says you're being an "ole mas," that means your being a spectacle... the negative kind. lol.). so, in that way... carnival acts to reveal trinidad ... it's trinidad's mouthpiece. and it's been revealing how special a place trinidad is. trinidad has a mystical way about it because it has this carnival and because there's so much trauma in the country's past. i mean, he really broke it down and made it sound beautiful to me. like more than just eye stimulation. i really wanna come back for it. he described different costumes and what they really meant, like they used to have these really horrible barracks that men used to have to live in (i didn't catch why).. and a horrible case of rabies broke out because the place was just unsanitary and the men were being bitten by bats. so one group dressed up bats. and they also had men dress up as a women with a big butt and breasts... to make a commentary on the fact that rich men were going down to the barracks and soliciting young men. in the latest years though.. it's mostly participated in by women and they are slick very naked... no one can tell if this is a good thing (sexual freedom) or a bad thing (a consequence of commercialism). but, he said he had one student who said she would cry if she didn't get to be naked during carnival. dang. lol. it was a great lecture. i enjoyed and i felt so special for getting to come here and pick up the island vibes.

kenwyn had to cancel our workshop though... we were supposed to make our own mases some how. but he canceled so we all went back to the dorm and chilled. later on (they were super late!), he, his friend, and his fiance came to pick us back up for some liming!!! i love to lime. they were late, of course. so, by the time we got going, we had no time to stop and get something cheap to eat or we would have had to pay to get into the cafe. the place was called woodford cafe... it is this apple bee's type place that had a bar and a stage. the place was super expensive. i ended up having to pay 113 TT$ and all i had was 1 small ceasar salad, 1 side of mashed potatoes, and a BOOTY JUICE! lol! how could i not get it? it was called "booty juice"! if there's something on a menu called booty juice, i gotta go for it! lol. it was a shot of some kind of mixture of alcohol. 

the great thing about this woodford cafe was that they played music really loudly. it was dance music. some britney spears, nicki minaj, rihanna... and then a whole bunch of stuff that sounds vaguely familiar (i haven't gone out dancing in a while.) some trinidadian music was played too. too many good songs started coming on. i don't like britney spears. but i do like a few of her songs. i like "dance until the world ends" (because it always reminds me of arielle's recent birthday where sarah almost got arrested... lol. tyner academy 2005!). so, it came on for the second time and i couldn't let it pass me by. i had to get up so i did... i just couldn't help but dance. that was already the longest i've ever sat while music was playing without dancing or doing something. it's my weakness. lol. i think dancing is fun.. so it's like "why don't you want to go have some fun?" i don't understand it.

 i was the only person dancing on the dance floor. and when i got up and started dancing, i realized that there was another side of the bar where lots of people were. and they were ALL looking at me. i had EVERY EYE. i hate to swear BUT I DO.. i swear! they were looking like "wtf is she doing?" lmao! every man and every woman was looking directly at me. if i would have known  all those people were over there, i might have thought twice before getting up to dance but it was too late.. i had already gotten up.. couldn't turn around! i'm glad i did it though... nice to set the mood right away. the mood i was trying to set? i'm not from here and i'm swagging hard on you AND on your own territory! HA! lol. after a few songs, the rest of the girls joined me and we danced for hours, just us, alone together on the dance floor. there's probably pictures of it floating around on the internet somewhere because we had some paparazzi's constantly taking pictures of us.

then finally, the band we came there to see, a trinidadian band called "karma", took the stage. they were amazing. they had me "wining" (you know.. ? the dutty wine... but not as wild & "dirty". wining is not jamaican by the way. trinidadians claim to have given it to them. lol. they have been mad because they keep seeing people on BET [yes.. "black evil television" lol] thinking it's jamaiccan.).  the band was so close and calling us out when they saw us getting down and just really interacted with us.. because we were basically the only fun...dancing.... "crunk" (what a great, descriptive word when you really know what it means!) people there. we were getting down! 

towards the end of the set, i started to get tired. everyone made a move for the table. kenwyn got the message and we left as the show ended. i love to lime. and i slept so good.

day four - "young woman vs. wild"

before coming to trinidad, i was looking forward to going to class because i’m just a nerd like that. but, after dr. turley informed jessica and i that class would run from 9am to 5pm, with a lunch break in the middle, i was dreading it. that’s too damn long. so, when i woke up yesterday morning for class, i wasn’t in the best of moods. i went to go wash my face and what do you know? the door knob i had expressed concern about on the very first night we were here was broken and i was trapped in my room. “OH.. GUESS I’M NOT GOING TO CLASS!” lol! so much for trying to be on time too. after 15-20 minutes of the other students trying to rescue me, jermaine was finally able to get me out. i had decided to wash my face with a wet wipe and put my clothes on while they were trying to get me out so as soon as the door was opened, i was ready to go.

we made the short walk to the creative arts building and figured out which room our class would take place in. in past years, other visiting students would be in class with us. but this year, it’s just our group. our professor, dr. regis, was of course a little late (trinidad time never fails). his lesson was over “the peopling of trinidad and the festive calendar.” and, as much as i didn’t want to be there at first, i actually enjoyed the lecture! it helped me understand the population. remember before i said that everyone was some kinda shade of brown… to be more descriptive, i’ve been seeing some people who look like indians… some look hispanic.. some look african… i saw some chinese people… and everyone’s features look mixed up … like, this place is the real melting pot! i even saw some white people at the beach and they weren’t tourists. they all have the trinidadian accent. the lecture basically explained how all these different people came to call themselves trinis.

trinidad history lesson (i'll make this brief):

he began the lesson with 1498, when christopher columbus, on his 3^rd voyage, “discovered” trinidad. of course there was a small population of natives here already. but, because there was no gold or silver here, the settlement the spanish had here was lethargic and not really important.

“they must tell it like it really was. christopher columbus was a pirate, a hustler.” - dr. regis

(but can you spot columbus's ships--the pinta, nina, and santa maria-- on trinidadian money?.. it's above the phrase “together we aspire. together we achieve.” that's kind of problematic.)

at first there was tobacco grown here, but the people of virgina complained that it was undercutting their business … (first time the USA played a part in the politics of the islands). when the Dutch brought sugar cane to the islands though, the sugar revolution would start. i could spend a whole day learning about the sugar revolution. sugar back then was like oil is today. a “hot commodity” doesn’t even remotely get close to how important it was and what nations would do to get it. to keep this brief, eventually you get a handful of spanish… a few native americans…. a few white and black french planters… masses of black slaves (some from other islands already)… white british planters and black english slaves… in 1806 the chinese started coming.. after the british ended the slave trade, they would capture other nation’s slave ships and send the africans to trinidad. after the war of 1812, african-americans who had fought on the side of the british came to trinidad and started “company towns...” in 1813 slavery ended in the british islands.... and to get needed labor in 1845 the indian migration started. in the late 19^th/early 20^th century syrian and lebanese people began to migrate here. venezuela is closer to trinidad than tobago is .. and migrants have come from venzuela to live here as well. after world war 2, spatial segregation began to disappear and people began mixing (sexually and culturally [culturally through events and food]). and this is why i see a whole different mixture of people here. and they all call themselves trinis. i think that’s beautiful. tobago has a really different history though. many european countries owned the island over the years… many more than owned trinidad. however, the population is still 95% african. i can’t wait to go there on thursday!  

after class, i took a short, sweet nap and then we took a long drive to the asa wright nature center in the rain-forest of trinidad. we took a guided hike. and just like with the beach, i can show you better than i can tell you.

crazy tall bamboo... bright plants.... beautiful birds... i felt totally in my element! some people didn't enjoy it though... the outdoors isn't for everyone i suppose. but i loved it. what i didn't like was there was a group of kids in our tour group. i just wanted to spank all of them. they were so rude. and their guardian was rude too! he was talking on the phone while the tour guide was trying to give us information about certain plants and birds. how triflin!

the highlight was that i got to eat a termite!!! check out the video! 

after the tour was done, we all kind of ran back to the center on our own. about midway through, it started to pour down raining! this couple passed us... and then the guy slipped and fell on some rocks. LOL! like momma always says, "slippery when wet." lol. i was almost to the center when i saw a big long lizard (i think a tiger lizard) on the ground walking around. i got up those stairs and into the center so fast!! lol. the picture really doesn't do him justice. he was at least 3 feet long.

after our rain forest adventure, we headed back to town to get something to eat. i had a double (remember? spicy and filled with chick peas) and a really delicious local soda called "solo." i thought i was getting orange, because it was colored orange... but the flavor was actually banana and it was quite good. i still haven't had anything disgusting here yet. everything is just really delicious! 

day three - maracas beach

we got up early to catch our taxi-bus to maracas beach, which is located in the northern coast of trinidad. it's a very mountainous drive. ups and downs and tight curves. about two-thirds of the way there we stopped at this area on the side of the street to take pictures of the scenery and stop at a independent vendor stand that sold "treats" such pickled mango (spicy!didn't really like this that much).. pickled pineapple (spicy n sweet. i liked it), tree nuts (was similar to grapes but with a rind and pit).. and sweet cakes (some kind of delicious coconut and sugar concoction).

 as for the beach... i can show you better than i can tell you.

 after a while though, the clouds that were beautifully drifting across the mountains began to drop rain on us so i went to go eat lunch. while there were many options, hamburgers and such... the thing to eat at maracas beach is the "bake and shark." no one knows why it's called "bake and shark" because it's actually fried. the bread and the shark are fried. it tastes DELICIOUS though... like your everyday fried fish sandwich. i didn't know it at the time, but the guy from the show "bizarre foods" went to the same exact place we did today to eat the "bake and shark." and even he called it "the best fish sandwich" he's ever had and said it was one of his favorite foods ever!

he kind of disses me in the video though.. because i definitely ended up putting mustard on mine. lol. i tasted all the sauces... but the first one i tasted was so spicy that all of the sauces i tried after it tasted spicy too.. lol. so i just put mustard, cole slaw, and a pineapple on mine. it was definitely delicious though. i still can't believe i ate shark today!

day two - liming

today was a "free day" with very little scheduled activities. i thought i would sleep in late but i woke up around 9:30a and did the usual... ate breakfast (a simple banana), took a shower, and listened to music. then, treena and i called up our social coordinator lavergne to get directions to the mall. jessica, shannon and i had one thing on our minds... the new harry potter film. i got the directions and began to get ready. we were a little concerned about our navigation skills though. this is still only our 2nd day in trinidad. luckily one of our professors, dr. turley called us up and said that she wanted to come to. so, we got dressed and dr. turley met us outside of our dorm.

now, even though we had directions, we still got a little bit lost. we caught a taxi-bus but it was going the wrong direction and we didn't find this out until a few minutes into the ride. even though we wasted a little money (just 3 TT$ a piece), i'm glad we caught that taxi-bus because the owner had the interior totally pimped out. i'm telling you, these taxi-buses are 1000% better than the ones in south africa. and on our way up the street, we saw a butt-naked man... who i think/hope was washing his butt... although, i didn't see any water. i did unfortunately see all his business. 

the taxi-bus took us to an intersection where taxi-cars pick people up. the taxi-car thing is interesting to me because you really cannot tell the difference between a taxi-car and a regular car. taxi-bues are all white with red stripes on them. taxi-cars are plain cars.. some are nice. dr.turley told us that the way you can tell if a car is a taxi or not is by the driver. if the driver honks at you and then points in a direction (the direction he's going) than it's a taxi. it's still a little sketchy to me. but, our driver was cool. he didn't try to over charge us and took us directly there. people drive a little bit crazy here though. the traffic gets bumper to bumper and people drive so fast ... and weave back and forth in and out of the lanes. we got to the mall safely though and headed upstairs to the movie theater which was just like any movie theater you would see in the states in any mall. they were only playing american films. any american film that you could go see at the movie theater at home was there. and the line was super long. we were worried because we were working with a limited amount of time. we thought for sure that harry potter would be sold out and that we would be late for our planned dinner activity. but, as we got closer, i saw a sign that said that transformers was sold out for like.. the entire day. and i figured that everyone was there to see transformers, not harry p. i was right. by the time we got to the window, it was like 1:55... harry potter started at 1:30pm, but there were still tickets available. we bought them and tried to get in to see the film, but jessica and dr. turley got caught with their cameras in their purses and had to sign them in and leave them with the workers. it was such a hassle but when we finally got into the theater, the film hadn't even started yet. we sat through the "captain america" preview and then the movie began. PERFECT TIMING. and the film was great! amazing! it was really good. usually i feel embarrassed about liking harry potter, but i can't be ashamed for liking that film. it was really good. the whole franchise is the perfect story. i was blown away. 

afterwards, we spent 30 minutes in the mall because jessica and shannon had a few quick errands to run (side note: i forgot to get some milk!). while we were there, we caught a group of children playing steel drums. they were great. apparently they were trying to raise money for their trip to washington d.c.

when we got back, i was starving and tired. i made a nice peanut butter and jelly sandwich and took a quick nap. some of the students were under the impression that we were going to be met by our coordinators at 5pm... lavergne told me 6pm though... and then kenyen told dr.turley 6:15pm. they didn't get here until between 6:30pm and 6:45pm. smh. 

after they finally arrived, we got on our taxi-bus and took a tour of st. augustine and neighboring towns. after our tour, we went to st.james. i'm still not sure if that's just the name of the street or of the town we were in, but it was liming time! liming means chilling or hanging out. you can drink alcohol on the streets here so there's all these bars that play music... and they're open, with no divider between the outside and indoors... so basically there's a big party outside on the sidewalks and streets. the sidewalks are filled with people trying to sell whatever they can make too. while most of our group opted for rotti for dinner, which is some kind of tortilla filled with curry stewed meat and veggies, shannon and i went a little further down the street and got a "double." it was so freakin' delicious! a double is some kind of tortilla filled with chick peas and some kind of sauce all wrapped in wax paper and put in a little paper bag. it's really messy but very savory and very spicy. and and and... it was only 4 TT$. lol. it was very spicy even though i had gotten the mild option (when they ask you how much peppers you want on it, if you don't want diarrhea, as dr. turly warned me, you say "slight"). coupled with a beer, it was very filling, but the social coordinator told me that usually people eat two or more of them. i still can't get over how good it was.

another vendor was selling homemade ice-cream. i couldn't resist since ice-cream is like my #3 favorite food (#2, potatoes.. #1 cereal!). although he had many flavors i'm used to, i had to try the guinness beer ice-cream. it was actually quite good. it had the flavor of butter pecan but with the after taste of beer. we limed for an hour or two and then headed back to the dorms. tomorrow we have to get up bright and early for a trip to the beach... so "good night."