New Caledonia Diary - April part 2

16 April
Turns out they didn't go Poindimié, for various reasons. But they didn't *tell* me they didn't go off until today. I really scratch my head about them: on the one hand they tell me they want me to do things with them, and on the other they keep doing things without me. It's bizarre.

Was thinking of joining them in town for lunch, but lost track of time, and my foot's a nuisance, and couldn't be bothered... Stayed at the studio and procrastinated instead of preparing for my classes.

Watched "Pinkie and the Brain" today! ("Minus et Cortex" in French.)

I had a pea and cucumber omelette sort of thing tonight. So it wasn't great cuisine, I just tossed stuff in the frying pan, but it worked okay.

Sylvie's BTS class still hasn't got a classroom. Last week I asked the coordinator about it; she asked the vice-principal; he said he couldn't find anything. I told the teacher, who promptly moaned it wasn't her job to find a class. I phoned the coordinator, who said she'd talk to the vice-principal again. I didn't hear anything from her for several days so went to check myself; he said he'd given her a room but couldn't remember which one - and wasn't sure that it was for the same time that I have written on my schedule. Now it's holidays and I still haven't heard from her, so I'll have to phone her up and ask, and goodness knows how I'll tell the kids. Not that I've been given a list of their names, either, despite asking....

17 April
I went to the nurse this morning to tell her my foot wasn't better after 10 days. She said it's normal, and it's going to take 3-4 weeks. (This after 'It's not serious' when she visited me the first time.) She thinks a ligament got pulled, and admitted the possibility of it pulling a bit of bone with it. An X-ray would cost 25,000 francs (~NZ$500) which she thinks is too expensive as I don't have social coverage (I pointed out I have travellers insurance but it didn't seem to change her mind.) I'm supposed to keep my weight off it, elevate it and keep ice on it.

Okay, it's currently swollen, and there's a fading bruise in the centre of the sole. I can straighten the ankle fine; pulling my toes up doesn't hurt much anymore (used to hurt on the outer-top); twisting to either side hurts on the outer-back side of the ankle. When I walk on it - right now it feels almost normal but it has been hurting on top when I've been lifting my foot. And it hurts on the sole if I step so the centre of my foot's on a large stone or a ledge. Right now, pacing my studio a bit, it feels almost better. But it's felt almost better before, and it's still swollen.

18 April
My clock went weird on me, giving the time as two thirty when it was ten past seven. Strange... Thought it might be the batteries, but it seems to be working just fine now.

I had three classes today: the first two I had to go to their main classroom to fetch them, as both they and the teacher had forgotten - despite the fact that I'd written up on the blackboard which groups should go where when. Asked the teacher (the 'beasts and animals' guy) if they can come straight to my class next week; he nodded willingly but I don't know how far that goes. The first class was pretty loud, the second pretty quiet; they both had some students happy to talk and others just sagging in the background.

For my third class, I'd had no word on what to expect - this was the BTS class I got rung up about last night. I was thinking a few people, and we could have some sort of introductory conversation. But when I arrived, Christine came along and handed me a half-page text and some instructions about how the students were supposed to be presenting it. So basically I was giving 2 students an oral test (though only taking notes about them, rather than actually marking them) without having any advance warning whatsoever, not to mention preparation... Ah well. At least *they* were more or less prepared.

After that class, a student who I met briefly in the classroom beforehand came back, as she wants to practise her English. Her name's Ann; she also brought her not-quite-boyfriend 'Testu'. We sat around under a niaouli tree (the local eucalyptus) for a while chatting in mostly English, and I got a couple of predictable mosquito bites before Ann had to go to catch her bus.

19 April
Went into town to see a doctor about my ankle, to make sure it really *is* nothing serious: started off at the NZ consulate to see if they knew a good place to go. I arrived just as they'd closed for lunch, but the secretary was nice, letting me in and chatting for a bit. She suggested I go to the hospital, as it'd be worth the waiting there if I did need an X-ray done.

So I spent an hour or so in the waiting room at the hospital, catching up on writing notes to a couple of teachers. Then got wheeled around in a wheelchair from place to place - first an examination by a doctor, then various nurses taking me to get the X-ray done and somewhere else to wait and random places in between, and then another doctor came along to say it was just a sprain, at which point I got to use my crutch again, pay the bill (a *lot* cheaper than the school nurse had suggested) and leave. Rang Fiona to see what people were up to, and she invited me to dinner after I'd done my other errands.

I went first to Champion - the second supermarket here - and discovered that meat, apples and easter eggs were all vastly cheaper there, though milk and bread are more expensive. I went on to the library to get my library card at the student rate (innocent whistling...) but I couldn't get out the book about coins I wanted as it was reference only or something. Did get a science fiction anthology though.

Followed that with a trip to my favourite supermarket Casino for milk and bread, and lugged everything up that dang hill to Lycee Laperouse for dinner with Liz and Fiona. Arrived completely exhausted: a full bag on my shoulder, two bags in one hand and a crutch in the other, and the baguette being awkward. We had a nice dinner of chicken franks and potato salad and some other yummy bits and pieces while watching Friends.

Left at about six and almost missed the bus -- the last leave at about six thirty. Lucky I didn't miss it, as I could hardly walk with all my bags and crutch, and would have had to find an ATM for taxi money if I had. It was hard enough just coming up the school drive... Must shop in smaller lots in the future...

20 April
Just had one class today. I hadn't heard from the teacher about what I was supposed to be doing, but I guessed the usual introductory conversation and the kids said that's what the teacher wanted them to do, so that was fine. I think I'm getting better at it -- asking why they like their hobbies/music to avoid the single-word answers, and am starting to get a better range of questions for them.

I got bored with drinking water today and have a bottle of lemon juice past its official use by date sitting in the fridge, so reinvented the wheel and made up a lemonade recipe (a teaspoon each of sugar and lemon juice for every cup of water). Yumyum.

21 April
I don't think I'll ever get used to getting up in the morning, walking half an hour into town, finding an ATM for some cash, wandering through the market to find the cheapest bananas, getting a baguette from the petrol station (US: gas station), waiting for a bus back to school, putting my groceries in the fridge, getting changed, and then going down to the classrooms for my 7:20am class.

(It starts getting dark at 5.30pm; it starts getting light at 5.30am. It was still almost completely dark when I left at 5.30 this morning, but the sun comes up so quickly that you can look at the ground for a few seconds and the sky is noticeably lighter when you look up again.)

(Yes, Good Friday here isn't a public holiday. Britta apparently tried to explain why it is in NZ and Australia, without a great deal of success. Seems very strange, when France is such a Catholic country...)

My keys don't work for the classroom we were in this morning; it's inside the workshop building and has a special key, so I had to get someone to fetch a teacher who had the keys. The class wasn't too bad; not too brilliant as they expanded to fill every available bit of space in the room, which was large. Eventually they figured out they couldn't hear me if they did that, though, and moved closer. I did the usual introductory thing of asking them questions one at a time, getting them to ask me questions until they started running out, and then asking them questions again, about New Caledonia, until the bell rang. Didn't work as well as yesterday, but not too bad.

22 April
Got up late, walked into town; as I arrived my foot started twinging again, so I used the crutch from there. At the market I got a papaya, a lettuce (only 250/kg now) and two tomatoes. Then went on to the supermarket, where it was chockablock of people and the cheapest (non-chocolate) eggs were sold out. Not a big deal as the next cheapest are only 5 francs (out of about 300) more expensive). Bussed back to the studio to save my foot, and because it was very hot by then, nearly the middle of the day.

Saw Fiona et al in Britta's studio so popped by there; then went to put my groceries away, and when I went back they were gone. Went and wandered on the beach a bit, then read my French sf book.

Had salad for dinner, and made a lovely meat recipe with some of the leftover tomato and some cheese mixed up into my mince. Yummy yummy.

23 April
Had a yummy pikelet and papaya breakfast; ate my chocolate egg with lunch. Did lots of DuSC update. (DuSC: alt.tv.due-south.creative -- I maintain the fanfic archive for the group, especially when I catch up and put up 15 stories at a time...) Also wrote some scraps of fanfic.

24 April
Another 15 stories for DuSC - pretty tedious, but nice to finally catch up. Britta came by to give me three chocolate eggs, and we talked for a while. She said she's planning to go into town with Fiona on Wednesday morning, and invited me along - sounds good, especially if we go early and can get to the market.

25 April
Raining first thing this morning - coming down outside like a waterfall. Luckily I didn't have to leave shelter until it'd stopped. :-)

Just had two classes today, as one was cancelled due to a test, and two I still don't have a room for yet. The first class I had, I had to remind the 'beasts and animals' teacher *again* to send the kids to my room; the second class he finally remembered by himself. (Not that he should have to; I told the students very clearly before the holidays, even writing it up on the blackboard.)

The classes themselves went okay - they started off very quiet and hesitant, but slowly warmed up through the class, and finally they were almost all participating fully, which was good. The second class particularly seemed to go well.

At four thirty went to meet Ann and 'Testu' (Jeremy); another friend of theirs, Lily, was also there. We just hung out a bit, listening to CDs (including one of a French singer and also 'Cruel Intentions') and talking a mixture of English and French.

Got a call from Fiona in the evening inviting me to meet her and Britta in town for lunch. I'll be going in to get several other things done too, so that'll be handy. I'm planning a chatroom session with Sasscat, but there should be time afterwards to get to the final hour of the market for fruit and veges and then do my other errands.

26 April
Chatted with Sasscat for an hour, despite my ISP cutting me off after ten minutes. I'm starting to wonder if that might be happening because of incoming phone calls; should ask Fiona and Britta if they've tried to call.

Eventually I had to go to catch the bus -- that's a cute little thing with vinyl seats and the driver's favourite music turned right up, and the door usually open while driving along for ventilation. I got out at the hospital first and got my ankle X-rays from last week (I should blu-tack them somewhere in my room for decoration :-). Next stop was the market for bananas and a few veges; then the library to return a book and get out a couple more. Including a really cute "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" book in French ("Buffy contre les vampires").

I stayed at the library to read until it was time to go and meet Fiona and Britta. Found the cafe easily enough - "La Luna", decorated with moons everywhere - and actually arrived about three seconds after them. Just had a drink and split a ham sandwich (a 'sandwich' being half a baguette) with Fiona, and then we wandered back to the library. I found a great book about coins there which I'll have to get out sometime when there's room in my bag: it's huge! I read a... very strange cartoon book... not exactly Asterix, shall we say...

At about one thirty, I figured the NZ consulate would be open after lunch, so went up there. Gave them my form with all my contact details, and they gave me an invitation to the ANZAC day celebration on Friday, which some NZ officials are flying up for, making them very busy... Don't know if I'll be able to go, as I have a class until 10h30 which is when the ceremony starts in town, but some of the other assistants will be interested.

Went to the supermarket for a few last things before going home (and found a music exercise book in Tati's, which I can use to scribble down some tunes, including the two lines of the not-quite waltz that're in my head), and met up with one of the secretaries and her mother, who gave me a lift back to my studio as they live up the hill from me.

Alas, my diary ran out around the 27 April... However you can go back to the first part of April, read about my ongoing fight with French bureaucracy or follow my visits to the New Caledonian Museum of Noumea and the Tjibaou Cultural Centre.

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