I killed a mosquito this morning. (Okay, so this isn't terribly exciting. I kill a mosquito most mornings. But I'm behind on this diary thing and am dredging up bits and pieces from old emails, so I don't have a huge amount to work with.)
Got an April Fool's email from Offratel, my ISP, saying they're going to start up a free email service of some sort but need to raise our fees to pay for it. Oh yeah, they're so funny.
Someone was playing the drums all weekend in the day and the didgeridoo in the evenings. It was pretty. Won't have it next weekend cause it's holidays and everyone's going home.
2 April
Well, the weather was fine and beautiful and perfect for a picnic... but the teacher who planned to take us didn't call in the morning and she didn't call in the afternoon, and I figured out by the evening that it just wasn't going to happen...
3 April
Got myself decent-sized half papaya for breakfast this morning, from the market. They're about twice as expensive as bananas right now, but still cheaper than everything else (except the mouldy red delicious apples, but I buy the nice fresh galas.)
4 April
Raining today. Somehow I managed to get goosebumps though it wasn't really that cold. Still have mosquitos invading my home. (I shut my main window when it gets dark or rains, but I've got the window in the bathroom open a crack for ventilation and it's incredibly stiff, so I think they sneak through there.)
I may be getting a TV - there's one in all the other studios, which I just found out over the weekend. Two of them had been broken and were replaced yesterday, so Britta suggested I go down to mention that I don't have one at all. The intendant was not at all happy (not annoyed with me, just the situation) - he thought there were TVs in each room. They really should have checked before I arrived, I think. Anyway, he's going to look into it, and I'm going to find some room for one. I figure next to the frying pan isn't a good idea :-) so it's either on the sidetable where the phone is now or on the wardrobe where the onions and garlic and random books are....
Rent's only 21,000 a month (not 22,000), so not too bad. Just got the bill today. I've got enough in the bank for that, though only leaves me with $100 for groceries for until I get paid (end of April). I'll go talk to the guy and see if there's any chance for an advance or for paying part of the rent once I'm paid, otherwise there's the visa card.
Patrice's students are now 'parasites' as well as 'beasts and animals'. Also they're 'completely shallow people who think that New Caledonia is the whole world'. Joy. I wonder if I can get away with never seeing the guy again for the rest of the year?...
5 April
6 April
7 April
First day of teaching by myself
8 April
9 April
10 April
11 April
12 April
13 April
14 April
15 April
Looking around and about
Back to my New Caledonia page, my travels page, or the main page.
I went for a medical checkup today for the stupid insurance people. (First thing the nurse said when I arrived: Bonjour. Second thing (translated): Go and urinate on this strip. -At least she had the decency to compliment my French.) Bundles of questions, and an X-ray of my chest because I've got asthma.
Anyway, so I left, and about two minutes later, while I was putting on sunscreen and stepping into what passes as a footpath here (a strip of really narrow grass - it's one of the best footpaths around) I tripped or slipped or something and ouch, my poor foot! It took a minute to go from painful-numb to just painful so I could figure out how hurt it was. I walked on it until a bus came along, spent almost my last francs on that; in town hobbled around to get more francs, then couldn't be bothered catching the bus so hobbled home (half an hour usually, not sure about today). I know, it was dumb. Also painful.
Got to my studio and can't walk on the floor here, it's apparently even harder than concrete... It spent a few hours getting worse and being impossible to get comfortable (rest, ice, elevation, if you don't count walking home on it...) until I got Britta to find the nurse here. She came and prescribed more of the same, oh very helpful. Blah. It hurts to move my toes so I'm not moving them. Oh, and she gave me this ginormous tablet, apparently calcium or something, to dissolve in water and drink. I swear it was an inch across. And it tasted foul.
The upside is, I've got some crutches.
Managed to make tea while sitting down. That's one advantage of a small kitchen, you can sit in front of the frying pan and reach the fridge and the pantry easy peasy. Tomorrow I've got a class to go to. Also need to see the accounting guy (once I find out where he is in this place) to talk to him about rent.
My foot's a lot better today - doesn't hurt all the time, but I can't walk on it yet. I hope I'll be able to tomorrow, it's annoying to walk with the crutches and I've got a class in the afternoon, as well as other people to meet. Britta went shopping for me - I've gone shopping for her before so she returned the favour.
Random: Just saw "Rugrats" in French. Woo hoo! Yeah, got the TV today. There's two channels (not counting the pay channel which comes in grey and fuzzy but with sound). I found a place to put it: on the sidetable where the phone was. The sidetable's now by my wardrobe, and the phone's next to it, and the zebra chair in front of it between the table and the bed. Watched it all afternoon to, uh, improve my French...
This evening Britta found a kitten that'd been abandoned, it was tiny and scrawny and adorable. We gave it some milk and we're thinking of keeping it clandestinely.
(Apparently we're not supposed to even be cooking in the studios. Supposed to starve during the holidays instead, or just survive on bread and fruit. Cause the cantine's closed then. Evil proviseur (=principal). Most of the teachers know most of us have bought cooking stuff anyway, but it's officially a secret.)
The kitten died last night. :-( I was half-expecting it, it was so tiny.
My foot's better now, I can limp on it but am keeping a crutch to help for a day or two to make sure as I can't put all my weight on it or wriggle it around much. Also have a cream thing from the nurse. Now my other leg and my shoulders are sore from crutch-walking...
Talked to the finance guy; we don't have to pay until we get paid. So that's cool. Got the phone bill today, too; also reasonable, but I've only got so much money in the bank.
I've been watching things like Murder She Wrote and Grace Under Fire ("Une Maman Formidable") and Rugrats and bad American soaps and semi-good French gameshows. And I just saw "Attention au bébé, Mr Bean" in French. It was oddly similar to "Mind the Baby, Mr Bean" in English...
There's a cacophony of bagpipes playing outside my window. Not that I don't like bagpipes, but as a general rule I like them better when they all play the same, distinct, tune. (Later: The bagpipes are getting better, thank goodness. It's almost a tune now.)
Now I just need to hunt down the mosquito who's been buzzing around the last couple of nights and everything'll be perfect...
I was supposed to have four classes. The first two for the general school, and the second two for the lycée professionel. Managed to get all my photocopying and research done for them all before the first at 9:30 (and found a book of names in the school library). The first two classes were more or less the same: about 17 students, noisy as anything, with a few who were very willing to take part and a few who just sat in the back doing nothing. (And one guy who sat in the middle looking perpetually bored.) For those I was basically doing introduction stuff: I started out asking them questions about themselves (including their names so I could take the roll) and then got them to ask me questions, about myself and then about New Zealand. When they ran out I switched to asking them questions about New Caledonia. (For the first class I was supposed to focus on leaving school and jobs, as they'd been studying that; except none of them had (or claimed) any idea about what they wanted to do as a job, which made conversation difficult...) I think I managed to get everyone to say a couple of sentences, at least.
After a one-hour break, I had a class at the lycée professionel. That was with just seven students. We were supposed to be going over a dialogue so that they could perform it in class, but after me reading it out myself, and them reading a couple of sentences each, and then them pairing off to practise it (and I've got far too many classes with odd numbers of students...), and then me listening to each pair, and getting them to repeat each phrase for pronunciation and intonation, it just got rather boring. So for the last fifteen minutes we talked about New Zealand instead; I figure convincing them not to pronounce "work" as "walk" was enough for one day. :-)
For the last class of the day, I arrived and waited for the students. And realised I hadn't brought enough photocopies, and I didn't have my watch, and waited some more. Eventually went up to their normal class and discovered that the teacher had thought they were coming with me on Thursday.... So (due to a whole bundle of Monday holidays) I won't have that class for another four weeks or something. :-)
Got a phone call from Cendrine, the English coordinator, to tell me that I don't have Sylvie's BTS class tomorrow morning; instead I have Christine's BTS class tomorrow afternoon. At least she gave me some warning, I guess...
I was going to walk into town on my foot, since it's much improved, but half-way down the school driveway I figured out it wasn't *that* much improved. Came back to the studio and got inventive with lunch and dinner instead. Got all my daily nutritional needs in. But if I still can't walk tomorrow I'll have to send my friend for me; I'm out of fruit and my veges are down to a potato and a bag of frozen peas. Also need milk.... I really wish they hadn't built the school half an hour from the nearest location for groceries.
Instead of my baguette, I made rice pudding from the recipe on the milk carton. Halfway through discovered that it wanted coconut cream, which I didn't have, so made do with margarine. :-) Almost disgustingly sweet because I was guestimating the weights (don't have any measuring cups here) and put too much sugar in. But very nice.
Managed to get into town this morning to do some shopping for fruit and veges. Quite lucky I could, since Britta was out for the whole weekend. My ankle's still stiff, and my hamstring's a bit achy now, I think because I'm not walking quite normally, but all's sorting itself out. A bit far really, my foot's twinging still, but I needed the groceries.
They're only just getting Easter eggs and such in the supermarket now (not cheap, but I'll treat myself)
Heard faint, familiar music this morning - identified it after lots of thought as La Lhasa's "De Cara a la Pared", a tune played on a Due South episode, which Sasscat and I have really wanted for ages. It's the French VAT Laurent, so now I just need to get hold of him and see if I can borrow the CD and get it dubbed with the school facilities.
Britta's saying that the other assistants are concerned that I'm spending my time profitably on my book. This was translated immediately as meaning that they're worried that I'm spending all my time shut up in my studio. <rolling eyes> I pointed out that I'm kind of a solitary person; she said that some of them are feeling homesick and wanting to speak English. I pointed out that for the last five days I've kind of been having trouble walking.
And it's not as if they've even invited me anywhere (except Britta, today, while my foot's still not right). They've got my phone number. If they want to get together they can ring me up. They could even come and meet me here, shock horror....
Finished reading "Les Miserables":
Il dort. Quoique le sort fût pour lui bien étrange,
Il vivait. Il mourut quand il n'eut plus son ange;
La chose simplement d'elle-même arriva,
Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s'en va.
(He sleeps. Although his fate was very strange,
He lived. He died when he no longer had his angel;
The thing simply happened by itself,
As night arrives when day goes away.)
Stupid foot. Walked on it too long again today. I wish it wasn't so far into town. Though I could have just gone there and back instead of wandering around trying to find the second hand bookstore I remembered from last time. (I found it eventually, or at least I found a second hand place that includes lots of books. Also video tapes - Planet of the Apes in French - and clothes and various household appliances and furniture, most of which wouldn't fit in my studio.) I *will* rest it tomorrow, apart from the stretches it needs.
On the way back, rested on a bench and got myself a Jehovah's Witness. She had a lovely accent (linguistic-wise) which I'd thought was Caldoche, but she was a Kanak woman: it consists of zh and sh -> z and s (among other things. That was particularly noticeable because she kept saying "Zezu" instead of the usual French pronunciation of "Zhezu" for Jesus.) I listened patiently cause the accent was interesting and I didn't feel like walking for a bit.
This evening Britta and I were invited to one of the teachers' place for tea with a couple other teachers from the school; and a family friend who turned up partway through. How do French people manage to talk so fast, all at once, and still understand each other enough to keep the conversation going?!
Half the other assistants were going to go off for a holiday to Poindimié (a small village), but missed the bus. So they ended up here, and I spent the whole day with them -- swimming, chatting, eating a dinner of bits and pieces scavenged from various of our fridges. Got absolutely nothing else done, though I needed to work on some chapters of Bird of Hope for my crit group. Ah well, they'll be going tomorrow until Saturday afternoon.
Yesterday and today, though I'm stretching my foot a bit, I haven't gone into town. Should be okay by tomorrow for going to the supermarket and back, but I won't do more than that on that trip. I've missed my baguette the last couple of days. It's looking like it'll be a nice big shopping spree, as I'm running out of everything at once.
Still not quite right enough today to go to the supermarket. I'll have to tomorrow for food, so if it's not right by then I guess I'll fork out on the busfare and use my crutch for the remaining distance.
Went into town - walked in with my crutch, got bags full of fruit and veges from the market and other bits from the supermarket, and caught the bus back.
Wrote-wrote-wrote for the rest of the day, and finally finished those Bird of Hope chapters.
Britta was supposed to come and tell me when she got back so we could go to Carnaval together this evening. Never heard from her. <shrug> Maybe they missed the bus again or stayed on an extra day. Thought about going in by myself, but it wouldn't be much fun, especially with my crutch.
New Cale trees that spring to mind are the niaouli (local branch of the eucalyptus family), the flamboyant (uh, that's its French name anyway; flaming red-orange flowers, gorgeous), and bougainvillea. Also the typical hibiscus flowers and so forth. There's a pink hibiscus bush at the end of the roof below my window. Purple bougainvillea throughout the school. Red hibiscus, and also a bright yellow flower whose name I knew last time I came here and have now forgotten... But it's the same size and general shape, but with rounder petals, as a hibiscus.
From my window, there's the school sports court below, which is the source of an infinite amount of noise during the day. Just beyond it is a line of trees which hide a small beach; it's a narrow one, and the sea there is very shallow, not wonderful for swimming but at least convenient. On a fine day, the sea is the bluest you could imagine it. To the left are low hills, covered in very green foliage; there's Noumea just visible, and then another hill with some green foliage and some whitish and some orangish cliffs; then the peninsula runs out and it's just the sea. All along the base of those hills you can see a thin white strip of beach.
When I go into town, I'm basically going along the side of a small highway. (Real small esp compared to America; only one lane each way.) I walk at the base of a cliff, orangish rock mostly, but again lots of grass and trees; at one point there's a whole -- grove isn't quite the right word, settlement seems better -- of trees whose leaves are a bright green and in feathery branches. Along that area there's often large cone-shaped (rather than round) snails, and always bits of rubbish here and there. I cross a sideroad, then a bridge (the place I'm at is technically on an island); the trees are a bit darker green at that point. Then there's a long stretch of dried mud that I walk along; I go behind the back of a museum (nautical history or some such) and it's around there that there's more tropical palm-type trees, mostly coconuts. As I arrive in town, there's a moored restaurant-boat flying a whole bundle of signal flags.
I turn right and follow the bay on my right and the main road on my left. That stretch is largely carparks and a few scattered buildings; gravel and shells underfoot. On the other side of the road is the typical sidewalk of Noumea, slabs of concrete with larges cracks in between. The supermarket is half-way down that road; at the end of it and inland a hundred metres is the market: a group of hexagonal buildings with blue roofs. One is dedicated to fish; one has a snack bar in the middle and the rest mostly for souvenirs; the three others are fruit and veges, and are connected by a corridor with tourist stuff on one side and meat on the other. On the weekends there's music playing and it's thronging with crowds; on weekdays it's just plain crowded. I'm not sure how early it opens, as I don't leave my studio before it's light so never get in town before 6am.
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