One week down

The first weekend in Bermuda was very eventful. Friday was a nice day at school. The students were allowed to wear bermuda shorts for bermuda day. One of the teachers wore pink flamingo printed shorts with a green dress shirt, a grey vest, and a plaid red/green/yellow tie. She looked a little loud...ekkk It was quite funny. The students mostly wore jeans as they are all complaining that it is cold here.

A speaker came to school to address all the students and entice them to attend a "Theology of the Body seminar." The speaker's name is Damon Owens, he is the founder of this new movement created by Pope John Paul II. So let me paint you this picture...

This man has an Mechanical Engineering degree from Brown, and he did his masters at Berkeley. He worked for 15 years as an engineer and then he decided to give up his career to spearhead this cause. So he is a 40 year old black man from New Jersey. He has 7 daughters from age 2-14, and yes they are all two years apart.

He takes control of the crowd and tries to sell these 14-18 year old kids on coming to this seminar. So he asks the students what are you going to do after high school. And they answer, "College, University, Work." He replies with, "why?" The students answer, " So I can get a good job, to make money and buy things that I need and want." He replies with, "why?" And they say, " So I can have my own place, so I can support my family, so I can have success" He replies with,....(you guessed it) "why?"

Now I don't know how many of you are familiar with a teenager in this age group, but these kids were LOST!!! What is this guy getting at... Truth be told my patiences were being tested as well.

So one kid says, "To be happy" So he exclaims.... YES!!! Happiness everything we do in life is for an ultimate goal of happiness. I have taken existentialism, and classes in asian philosophy. This guy was out there. The students were perplexed, they didn't know what to think.

Once school was finished for the day, I ran back to the hotel and had dinner. Then I returned to school for a mandatory teacher attendance to the introductory session of the "Theology of the Body"

The seminar began by Mr. Owens recounting the story of Adam and Eve. He started with this analogy:

Do you have a dog? Have you ever taken your dog and grabbed both sides of his head and look deep into your dogs eyes. ....(Uhhhh NO, who does that) well try it sometime. Gaze into your dogs eyes, and you know what you'll see.... (you tell me mister I don't have that close of a relationship with my dog...) You will see that your dog will not gaze back. Adam was running around looking for something to gaze back at him. Staring into all these animals eyes, and nothing they were all empty.

Okay as if this wasn't bad enough...

He went on and on for two hours, and then he started to push a "Natural Family Plan." Now I am going to spare the details of this one... you can all figure it out, the guys has 7 daughters.

Once this overly pushy religious assembly had concluded, all the teachers gathered outside. Needless to say, they all invited me out to a social. So I went with the three east coast teachers, plus two bostonians, one bermudian and one portuguese teacher out to a pub for a beer (or three). I wanted to make sure it tasted the same as at home. And it does (please note earlier notions of soberty have been voided) ---gee that was quick.

Saturday was an absolute right-off. Somehow I was able to get the stomach flu on my first official day off. I spent the better half of the day in bed, and I only left the hotel to track down some soup.

Sunday (Today), however has been much better.
I started the day off by going(walking) to a Portuguese Mass, at the church which is affilated with the school. I felt that it was appropriate, and I can brush up on my portuguese while i'm here. The priest however is brazilian. Brazilian portuguese sounds very different from the portuguese I know. So I only understood every third word that he said. I didn't know any of the songs, and they sang the prayer so I was even lost during the one part that I thought I was sure to know. Figures...

After church I faught the wind on the way back to the hotel. I grabbed some lunch, thank you campbells, and I hung out for a bit. At 1 I was picked up be Maria, and her husband Steven to go apartment hunting. (For those of you who know them, Maria is Liz Kelly's cousin) They have all been extremely nice to me.

So we went to this place on the ocean. This apartment was up on a steep hill, that curled into a cliffside house overlooking the ocean. Very picturesque, if you were to cut down all the brush that I would have to look through to see it :P. Oh well at this point I was thinking, how can I complain. This is still the #1 place for me right now I think. It was a studio so tiny, but had all the right things in place. It was private and secure from what I could tell. There was a small kitchen(the size of two recliners), a washer/dryer, a large red shower, and a walk in closet. The tv is as big as my computer screen, and there is cable/phone hookup. At $1800 +++ The landlords were very nice and lived in the remainder of the house, as with all apartments here.

The next place was in the center of the island. Close to the apartment share that I turned down earlier this week. This one was in a safer area apparently because there are more houses on the street. Just my luck, yes it was at the top of a hill again. So this place was about the same size as the earlier one. Cheap furniture, a rusty fridge, a stove as wide as my waist maybe, and no laundry. The laundrymat is at the bottom of the hill, and this place is only $1250. I wasn't all that impressed, but they had a nice looking kitty. There were also four roosters and one hen running around the driveway - "parkway."

So after apartment hunting I was invited over to see Maria and Steven's place. It was pretty nice, and they have many renovations planned. They have two dogs, a pitbull and a german sheppard.
They invited me to their parents place for dinner. The food was enough to feed twelve and six of us were at the table. WOW. I went home with food for the next two days. Soup, chicken, chorizo, potatoes, salad. Plus dessert, lemon meringue pie and tea. All very filling, but that's okay i'm getting plenty of exercise walking a hill for 40 minutes a day with my computer in tow.

During dinner Maria's father (who is a major story teller) decided to give her husband a hard time. He said, " AY, Steven... do you know that the people in africa when they get married they give the father of the bride 200 cows... man you owe me two hundred cows!!!" When it was time for tea Maria was making the tea. She made enough for three cups, for the ladies at the table. While she was getting the milk from the fridge her mom noticed that the kettle was empty, so she refilled it. At this point Steven asked for some instant coffee. So Maria made it, of course not knowing that the water in the kettle was not boiled. "Maria!!! This is cold, you made me cold coffee. -- And you wanted 200 cows, she can't even boil water. Classic. So I feel somewhat at home here, but there is no place like home.

I miss you all.

Love,
"Lisa Michelle"

So there we are you are all up to date. Stay tuned for this weeks adventures, remember there is an upcoming lockdown drill on Tuesday. Plus the apartment hunt will continue. Ciao for now. :)