This past week was busy. I stayed at school until 6 p.m. Mon - Wed because I was a little behind. I also decided to go to a bar by my house on Tuesday and for the first time in my life, I went alone. I figured that I would meet someone that I knew and if not, at least I would have good live music. It turns out that both things happened. I saw a teacher from my school that I had never really met and so talked with her and her friend. Soon her friends came and I had 8 new buddies to chat with for the night. The music was great too! His name is Juni Juliet and he covered songs by John Legend and Earth Wind and Fire to name a couple groups. He did many others and I really liked it because I could sing along heh heh.
Thursday, I played soccer with the guys and played really well. I was even invited to play with a Dutch team on Mondays and Thursdays. Unfortunately, I twisted my ankle and so it swelled up pretty big and I was limping around school Friday. I really like playing soccer but I'm not too big of a fan of playing on concrete because it is such a hard surface to run on. I haven't decided if I'm going to play with the Dutch team because I don't want to train. I just want to play. The only real good thing is that they play on Astroturf and that would be really nice. Anyway, we'll see when my ankle heals some more.
Friday night a bunch of us went to Moon for Happy Hour and to see Victor DJ. He is really good. If you want to check out his music go http://www.340mps.com/. I love Moon as a hangout. I went swimming again and chillaxed. Afterward, Debby and I went to Mambo beach for some dinner and a Reggae concert. The music was really good but unfortunately, there weren't many single females there and so I mostly helped Debby spit game.
Saturday, we had Thinking Map training from 7:30-11:30. It was compulsory for all new teachers and none of us were terribly excited about spending our Saturday in school but we really made the best of it and had a good time. I learned a few things that I want to do in my class so I'm excited about that.
In the afternoon Dave and I went to Erika's birthday party and met a bunch of her Dutch friends and I learned to say a "bad" phrase in Dutch. Little by little I'll be learning haha. Gaston, his wife and girls were there and we had a fun time playing pool games.
Sunday, we left around 7 am to go to the Boathouse to board the Jona Lisa. Mike, Gretchen, Dave, Brian, Gina, Dvora and I all bought tickets to go to Klein Curaçao, which is a really small uninhabited island about a mile off of Curaçao. IT WAS AMAZING!!!! On the boat ride there, Brian, Dave and I were on the skiff and saw lots of flying fish! That was the first time I ever saw that. They had so much hang time too. The longest hang time that I counted was 10 seconds. I tried to get pictures but they were too far away for my lens.
The snorkeling there was incredible too! Well, just look at the photos - the water was super clear and not rough at all. Underneath our boat were hundreds of multicolored fish. We snorkeled from the boat to the beach and on the way I spotted a slightly oddly colored rock and was going to pick it up. When I was a foot away I saw the "rock" blink an eye and decided I shouldn't touch it. It was a serpent of some kind hidden in the sand! Later I spotted a crab. He was being chased by 2 flatfish. He was just walking along the ocean floor and the 2 flatfish kept trying to sneak up on him, blend in with the sand and nip at his legs. Fascinating!
I had been snorkeling for about half an hour and decided I should probably go to the beach and see what was on the actual island. Every else had went looking for drinks and so Gina and Dvora were in the only ones in the hut with our things. They were going to see the lighthouse and the wrecked ship and so I went along. Have you played “Where’s Waldo?” No words for that - just look at the pictures. Hahah.
When we came back, I went snorkeling by myself again and saw more flatfish, puffer fish and so many other colorful fish I have never seen before. And then... I saw a turtle! It must have been Donatello because he was really smart and swam away. I knew immediately it wasn't Michelangelo because he definitely wasn't a party dude. I went further and further until I got to the part where the light blue water changed to dark blue and it was somewhat scary because at one point you see the bottom of the ocean and the next... nothingness! It was there that I spotted a grouper fish that was probably 4 feet long. I wanted to touch it but decided it probably wasn't a good idea. I really need an underwater case for my camera so I can take some pictures.
I saw that everyone was going to the boat and so I knew it was lunch time. It was goooooood. Chicken with rice and peanut-butter sauce. We chilled for a while on the boat and then I went snorkeling again but this time Mike came along. We saw a stonefish and I snapped at it to spook it. I just looked it up online and apparently that wasn’t a good ideas as it is “the most venomous fish in the world.” Hmm… the things we learn after the fact haha. And, on the way back to the boat I saw the other 3 Ninja Turtles. Turtle Powerrrrrrrrr!
On the way back home, Mike and Gretchen took me out to dinner. We had Surinamese food, which was composed of ribs, chicken and potatoes with tortilla-like bread. I really like Mike and Gretchen a lot. They are always looking to include people and just really nice and genuine.
Well that weekend went by real quick-like. This week, I'm presenting at the UNESCO conference in front of around 150 tech people from around the Caribbean. We have to show them how we are incorporating technology in the school. I'm excited about it and I think they'll be impressed with us.
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