Loquats, Southern Strangers and Stain Glass Nudes

A little bit about Bermuda.

In Bermuda all the houses have names. Some are the names of places like The Netherlands and Bayridge. The Cliff, Lemon Tree, Blue Rocks, Amber, Looking Glass, and Mango Hill are just a few of the ones I've seen. Dimensions and Serendipity would suggest that a house could elude to be circumstantial, giving the name a somewhat abstract appeal. Some simply describe the location like Windy Cottage. Others are named after people like Irwin, Evelyn, and Tucker's Villa.

My house is called Shadow Lawns. I know it sounds somewhat mysterious. There are palm trees lining the walk to the main house by they are by no means creating large ambiguous shadows. In the back yard, is the tree that I think this property is named after. It is a large bare branched tree (Royal Poinciana I believe) that cast creepy finger-like shadows at night. From May to Sept. this tree supposedly will blossom with scarlet flowers. Right now the loquats on the loquat trees are just about ripe everywhere on the island. I picked one off a tree this morning to try and they are very tasty. They start out on the outside tasting like a pear but they are juice on the inside like a plum. They are a yellow-orange colour and there is a tree at the center of the school that I work at.

I had a fantastic day exploring Horseshoe Bay Beach on Wednesday. This beach is absolutely gorgeous. I took about 30 pictures and I will be sure to email you. I went to the beach with the intention of relaxing by the ocean, reading a book and taking in the breath-stealing beauty of Bermuda. After about an hour of hanging out I decided to go exploring. I walked the coastline of the beach to the end where there is a cove. I was in there taking pictures and looking around for washed up tressure when a man asked me to take his picture. This guy had grey flowing hair and was probably in his sixties. He had an extremely southern accent. He wanted to take the picture to make his wife jealous. He wanted to email it back to her and make her feel remorse for not joining him in his journey.

After taking his picture three times, and a video of him. He returned the favour for me. I started to explore further on my own, and I found a lookout point not far from the cove overlooking the shoreline for miles. Mark (the southern guy) was still in the cove below me, so I waved a hello. He decided to venture up and was very greatful to me for once again taking his picture. He works for a reinsurance company which is a huge industry here in Bermuda. He is also a real estate agent in Mississippi. He was only down for a couple of days but he was very friendly. We parted ways and I continued on this walking path that joins Horseshoe Bay Beach with Warwick Long Beach (the largest beach on the island). I didn't make it all the way there but I will someday soon. The trails would be great to ride on if you had a peddle bike. I was hunger so I turned back for home.

I went golfing yesterday at Belmont Hills Golf Course. I played pretty will with borrowed clubs and no practice. I think minus a few mental lapses I wasn't far from being "on my game." I rode in a cart with Jackie, the health and social science teacher. Half way throught the round she told me how courageous and brave she thought I was for coming down here. That thought had never really occurred to me, I felt anxious, nervous, and even afraid at times. I was pleasently surprised to hear that, I just want to teach. Shortly after Dustin asked me if I took lessons because my swing was quite natural. I told him that I had some unofficial lessons from my coach, SPK. So then we started talking about hockey. He is a nice guy, newly married with a two year old little boy named Hudson. Dustin is one of the Physical Education teachers at the school. I had a birdie on the 18th hole, my best of the day I outdrove everyone and stuck a seven iron over 150 to the green. Then I sunk a 10 foot putt. I was pretty happy! I only lost one ball all day in an errand play, but I found one also so I came up even.

This morning, I went for a hour run to Church Bay Park, there is a little beach here, but the views of the rocks along the coast are the real appeal. There are picnic tables and benches overlooking the ocean here. There is a resort just before it called The Reefs. The little villas are quite cute and there is a practice putting green on the property which I thought was a neat idea. I have yet to see any mini-golf places here on the island but I guess that is an American concept. In Florida mini-golf was a reason to create a minor theme park.

I went to the Bermuda National Art Gallery today. This grand building is next to the Bus Terminal and I had been meaning to venture in and check it out. The gallery is also the location of City Hall in Hamilton, Bermuda. Two exhibitions are currently running at the art gallery, David L. White and Vivienne J. Gardner's collections. White's collection was comprised of mostly scenic landscapes depicted in watercolour, and oil pastels. They were very pretty but they resembled the usual tourist fair here in Bermuda. The oils were very well done and I like the images of people. He had one with a man sleeping on the pier and another with a woman sweeping the front step called "The Green Door."

V. Gardner's collection was awe inspiring. She is a little old woman who has been creating stain glass artwork for years. She creates pieces for churches and private homes. I really enjoyed seeing the compositions that she has created with sketches or etches done into the glass. These resembled a sketch on an x-ray machine. She had one of a tiger, and unicorn, and one of a nude woman. They were very interesting and extremely vibrant. I wandered around downtown for the remainder of the day. Then I did some shopping and returned home for dinner.

Congrats to the Canadian Women's Team!
Go Canada Go!!! I really hope these boys can pull it together for the next two games.
Let's go LOUUUU!

I'm excited... FORE!

Sunday...

I woke up Sunday morning and finished my book (Jane Austen Ruined My Life, by Beth Pattillo). I really enjoyed this novel because it helped me to realize a simple truth. Life is about exciting new beginnings and not happy endings. Today I picked up a follow up novel, another fluff piece that I think will be fun to read on the beach. The new book is called Summer School by Domenica de Rosa. This book is about a woman who runs a summer writing seminar at her estate in Tuscany. So far it's quite good.

After finishing off my book on Sunday morning I decided to go out for lunch. I walked up the hill to Gibb's Lighthouse. Next to the lighthouse is a little restaurant called "The Dinning Room." This is owned by a very successful restaurant group here in Bermuda. They only serve breakfast and lunch. I walked in and asked for a table of one. The place was very quaint, dark colours, with white linens and views of the ocean from all sides. The waiters were speaking in Italian, and the place was very busy. I ordered my chicken sandwich, which was phenomenal because it had pesto sauce, with bacon and tomato severed on grilled focaccia bread (mmm...). After I placed my order I saw a friendly face enter the restaurant. Alannah (the music teacher at school) and her boyfriend Michael came into the place. They sat at the table next to mine and joined five others for their monthly brunch. They asked me to join, so I did.

There were two couples, Yans(Australia) and Rita(England), Janina(Vancouver) and Steve(Ottawa) and Steve's nephew from Calgary. They were all very nice people, and all the guys play in Mike's band. They kept bringing up songs during lunch that they were reminded of in conversation that they thought would be interesting to add to their setlist. The conversation went on for about three hours. I really enjoyed the social interaction and the food. I will go back there for sure.

Later that evening I ventured into town on my noble steed (the bus), and I went to a local pub to catch the game. I love the fact that the only decent sports bar in town is in the back of an Irish pub. Outback is the name of the bar at the back of Flanegans. When I got there it was swamped with Canadian hockey jerseys. I found the one person in the bar that I knew, Jen who had invited me out. She was very surprised to see me, so I bought some beer and I sat down. She was sitting at a packed table of people. The place was so packed that we had to share a chair... aka one cheek on the seat for each of us. Jen only knew the other Newfy in the group and the others were made up of a couples softball team. The girl next to me ended up being from Belleville. She went to school in Ottawa and has been here for the past four years. She loves it here with her American husband. The hostility surrounding this game at the bar was awesome. :P Anyways so you know how the game ended. I jumped back on the bus and came home.

Yesterday was a quick day at work. I had a few parents drop in to my class to ask questions about my math club. I had one parent-teacher meeting and it was an interesting event. She is well aware of where her son is with regards to being "lazy." So she tries to do all his planning/organizing for him. She was making excuses for him like, he is a November baby... and so he is behind all the others because he is young.

Anyways, my lunch again was out of this world. I went with a group for Indian food at House of Indian. They serve a lunch buffet and the butter chicken and naan bread combination was outstanding. I was so full I had to take a nap when I got home from work. As you can imagine I skipped dinner that night as well.

Today we had a Professional Activity where we learned how to teach inquiry-based curriculum. This was a refresher course for me so I felt confident offering my opinion and ideas. I am so excited to golf on Thursday. Dustin the Physical Education teacher is a member at Belmont Hills (a higher end private course on the island) and he got Jackie and I in to play. I am going to borrow clubs so who knows what my performance will be like, but either way I'm Super Excited.

A bad day to be a duck

A little bit more about Bermuda...

The Bermudian accent is quite unique, it is a cross between a Jamaican and English accent. Students often "axe" me questions in class. I have some students who axe me to go to the "Lu" others want to go to the baaathrm. They generally speak quite quickly all the time, but they move slow. Everyone is always late, what they call island time. The school is extremely loud all the time. Students shout down the hall at each other, and they all try to talk over one another. One teacher from Brooklyn, Annette, likes to yell at her students all day. Her class is two over from mine and she teachers grade 5/6. She grabbed one boy by the ear and dragged him into my room this week so the child would spit out his gum. No gum, but cellphones are okay as long as you keep them in your locker. I got an email on Thursday to look for girls who had their nails painted, because during mass the VP noticed that some had colour on their nails. This to me seems a little too controlling. I think there are more serious things for me to spend my day doing other than checking out manicures in class.

~ Teaching perhaps ~ Privates school are great for plenty of reasons, but in maintaining order you must also teach respect. I find that this school is trying to maintain order in an environment where the students don't respect the teachers. I try to demand it, and take control of situations when confrontation occurs. The school however has adopted the pass the buck theory, where you just give them conduct points and then the principal deals with the issue. This diminishes the power of the individual teacher as they are made out to be tattle tales. I enjoy the public systems theory of each teacher dealing with the problem and as a last resort send the child to the principals office. I think the private system is worried about protecting their investments and rightfully so, but it is definitely something to consider when choosing education for your child.
This is a very different private school environment then what I experienced at Albert College over the past two summers. The students that I've had there were absolute angels, and they all wanted to learn.

The bus is an interesting mode of transportation, where else can you find a collage of personality and a jigsaw puzzle of appearances in one place. Two women were chatting on Wednesday and they were both Irish. Their accents were so thick that I could barely understand what they were saying as I ease dropped on their conversation. I was only paying attention because one of the girls was new to the island and I wanted to hear any advice that might apply to me as well. In the morning the bus is packed. The aisle are full of people standing, I don't know if I'll enjoy the bus in the summer with the smelly people and hot conditions. I like to listen to music or read my book while riding on the bus. I am always sure to say hi to people, but I have yet to have a conversation. Everyone keeps to themselves and minds their own business on the bus. I think it's fun for now.

Jackie, the health and science teacher, picked me up three times this week when she saw me waiting for the bus in the morning. Janet the Language Arts teacher has been gracious enough to give me rides home from school several times this week as she passes by my area on her way home to Somerset. The staff at the school is extremely nice, and everyone seems to get along. When she brought me home yesterday there were six young boys chasing away the ducks from the pond on the seventeenth hole. They were throwing things at the ducks and trying to attack them with sticks. I walked over to talk to the leader of the pack. He said that his dad was the course manager and he had told him to get rid of the ducks. "They poo all over the course," said the kid. I told him to have fun but try not to kill any of them. He said that they were trying to hurt one so they could catch it. "My dad will give us $20 for every duck we catch." They were out there for another few hours tormenting those poor ducks.

Today has been the most relaxing day thus far here on the island. I woke up this morning and started to clean the apartment. I did my laundry and I read a book by the pool while waiting for it to finish. After that I went for a run. This time instead of my usual loop I went farther down south shore to horseshoe bay, an absolutely gorgeous little beach. I cut through a path back to the Fairmont Property grounds to where their private beach is. From there I made my way up the steep long hill up to the top of the resort and then I cut through the golf course back to my place. I got lost around the 18th hole where I found two golf balls (Callaway Big Bertha and a Tit-less Pro V1). I was scanning the edge of the course on the way to the house and sure enough across the street from my place there was a dead duck in the woods. The duck had a few broken wine bottles around it so I'm not sure who murdered the duck but it was so sad to see. There was only one duck left in the pond area. Poor little duck...

Adopted family weekend

A little bit of Bermuda:

One of the local celebrities on the island is a man by the name of Johnny Barnes.

=== He was born John James Adolphus Mills in 1924, he is a Bermudian native who is found every morning from the hours of 3:45 to 10 am waving to passing traffic on the way to Hamilton Monday-Friday. He is a the Foot of Lane roundabout regardless of the weather, and he stands there saying " I love you, I love you" as he blows kisses to the cars stuck in rush hour. He was a railroad electrician until it closed in 1948 and then he drove a bus for a living. One day on his way to work he just stopped and started waving at people. He is called the friendliest man in Bermuda and legally changed his name to Johnny Barnes in 1997. This man is so famous here, that they even gave him a statue near the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. The statue is of him with his hands in the air and a big smile on his face. ===

See video link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nveq-kwVu3g

I wasn't all that impressed with the Olympic opening ceremony, especially from an American station. The ladies at work today were making fun of all the sob stories they were telling about the athletes. The triumphs of dreams once lost and limbs once broken..... ya okay we get it. LOL I like those stories because I like to hear about their athletic backgrounds.

This past weekend the weather was still pretty damp, rainy and super windy. On Saturday morning Maria took me to the market in Hamilton. The market has mostly vegetables, a tea table, a flower stand and a jewelry table. The market is in the main parking garage for downtown Bermuda. I bought some fresh lettuce and Bermuda banana's. They are sweeter and smaller than regular bananas. After the market we went out for a late breakfast. It was nice to sit and talk over eggs and breakfast potatoes. The morning was rainy, so we rented a couple movies and went back to Maria's place to watch them. Her husband was out for the day and I was more than grateful for the company.

Sunday was sunny.... finally. I woke up early and I went for a jog around the neighbourhood. To the ocean around the resort and back to my place. During my run it started to rain, but I didn't care because the sun was still shinning. I then went to church with Maria and her husband Steven. At the mass they were baptizing a little baby called Gabriella Rose. It was nice to really see the natural community. The priest at the church, Father Paul is from St. Catherines. He comes to the school every Thursday to teach the elementary students.

We then went to St. George to have lunch with Maria's parents. I brought my computer to their house and we looked at family pictures. I showed her parents Vavo & Vavu's wedding picture and they were identifying all the other people in the picture. We then went on google earth and took a little tour of the islands in Azores where they used to live. We looked up everyone's addresses on google earth and chatted about life and geography of Portugal. After the history lesson, we made malassadas. Outside they had a BBQ set up with a large frying pan. So we filled it with oil and I helped shape with Angelina (Maria's mom) and Steven did the frying. When she shapes them she pokes a whole through the middle so that the oil will cook through the entire donut. This is different from Vavo's methods of making them, plus they only let the dough rise for about four hours because air is so humid so the yeast grows faster here. I really enjoyed the cultural weekend... It's Carnival season, and it was Fat Sunday after all.

I brought some malassadas into work this morning and they were very impressed that I helped make them. They didn't know that I was portuguese. Apparently I add to both majorities in the school now, Canadians and Portuguese. We had a "Rain" fire drill today at school. What an interesting concept. In case of fire please look out the window to check the weather before running over the children to flee the burning building... I mean... escort them to a safe place. :P
We had to go to the church across the street rather than going to the park. I say just bring them to the church regardless of the weather. Air conditioning in the summer and shelter in the rain. I think they should just have one location as I would hate for there to be sunshower that renders the students hopelessly lingering in limbo trying to decipher the proper destination for evacuation.

Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday). We have our first school mass on Wednesday for Ash Wednesday. That should be an interesting experience. Next monday is parent teacher interviews, then tuesday is a P/A day. Wednesday-Friday is vacy.... Yahoo!!!

Until next time, Ciao for now...

Hurricane force winds

Wow so it's been a crazy day. I woke up this morning and there were branches flying through the air and smacking against the windows. The power went out, so I had no access to a phone or a radio. After eating some cereal, and grabbing my lunch. I decided to brave the storm and I ventured down the hill to wait for the bus.

After half an hour of waiting at the bus stop with two other British professionals, some random woman offered all three of us a ride to town, so we jumped it (safety in numbers). Naomi was very nice and while we were driving and listening to the radio we had a few laughs. The host of the radio station was making fun of all the people waiting for buses today because the buses were cancelled. All those poor souls are out there sittig in the cold waiting for the bus and it's not coming. At this point I still didn't even know if the school would be open. Just as we were pulling into Hamilton an announcement came on the radio stating that there would be only two schools open today, and MSA was one of them.

So after she dropped us all off, I hiked to up the windy slope to school. In the town bikes had fallen over, and a party boat was sinking in the main harbour. Most of the teachers were there, but no one looked surprised to see me. Both principals asked how I got into town, and were surprised to hear the result. Half of the students were absent because they closed the causeway from the airport and other side of the island. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Very high winds, rain, damp cold and no heat. Same conditions are predicted for tonight so hopefully it will be gone by the morning. I will be hiding in my bed trying to stay warm.

This has been an exciting three weeks of my life, and for some reason this place is not growing on me. I gave demerit points today to one of my grade 9 students. She interrupted me three times during a lesson so I just gave her the paperwork to fill out and I told her to put it on my desk.... Sure enough she wrote that the reason for the demerit points was "constant talking." I dislike the concept of merit/demerit points, because the student doesn't usually feel any remorse for their actions. The student's final score goes on his/her report card, but I'm finding it hard to find something worth giving a merit point for and that's pretty sad. (I refuse to lower expectations of students)

I would have loved to give merit points to Naomi who picked me up this morning, or Maria for once again helping me out by driving me home after school. The reality is that life isn't about the points, it's about being happy with yourself at the end of the day. Taking responsibility and being accountable, these concepts are being lost with a lack of structure in these young people's lives. A +/- score sheet is just going to tell you your average, not hand you a consequence. They all have iphones/blackberries, and they are constantly needing a "connection." I consider this to be a challenge, but I used to be mesmerised by computer class.... maybe I was a nerd.

Care to comment? Why does a 14 year old need a blackberry? :)

YA Internet

Hello again.

So I have moved into my new apartment and I am settling in quite nicely. I finally got the internet which is so expensive here. Not like that should be a surprise, but I miss the convenience of home. Things we take for granted because we have never been without it.
For instance, a good real cup of tea... the water here is super soft and tastes funny.
Yesterday I bought a water filter and installed it on my tap in hopes of at least having some "cleaner" water. It tastes slightly better, but that may be my imagination attempting to justify my purchase. Either way it's not what I'm used to.

I was walking home from the bus today and some random nice looking woman in an SUV gave me a ride up the road... normally I would think she was a weirdo and brush her off. I think she noticed that another guy was walking up the hill and she was scared for my safety.... so much for don't talk to strangers. Here people honk at each other all day, not to say or imply mean remarks, but rather to thank one another. They are constantly honking.

I walk down the street and strangers have conversations with you. People greet everyone on the bus when they get on. Not just a nod, but a " hey, how are you?" For the first week I was caught off guard but the locals convinced me that everyone does it.

I am exciting about some developments in the classroom. I am starting an after school computer math club ( nerd much, I know) for the middle school students. This way while they wait for their parents to pick them up, they can be having some fun with math. I'll let you know how it turns out. All the sports teams are spoken for.... I feel like I have to do something.

Two weeks today and it's "Spring Break," which means I get a 5 day weekend (wed-sun).
I am looking forward to exploring the other tip of the island. My adopted family is having me out for dinner again on Sunday(fresh malassadas...don't worry vavo they aren't as great as yours) and they live in St. George. That is one end of the island.

I live out towards the other end of the island called Southhampton. Dockyard is the other tip of the island, and there is another light house there, some shops, and the new mural that was painted as a tribute to the settlers of Bermuda. The mural was finished this year, and took four years to paint. I intend to wait a few more weeks and then I'll make a day trip out to the otherside.

On Sunday, after I finished my laundry I went for a walk oceanside. I thought it was a nice cool sunny afternoon. I did a little exploring, and walked up and down the road. There were some roosters and chickens walking about. They do that here, they are wild and Maria calls me the rooster girl because she says she only sees them when I'm around hehe. Anyways, my walk was great. I took some pictures and timed out the path to the bus stop. ... but all of a sudden without warning it started to pour. A beautiful sun shower... so I ran home in my flippy floppies. I was soaked, and spent the rest of the day inside as it rained.

Where I live in the little pool house is tucked in the backyard of a large range style home. The home is opposite the 17th hole of the Southhampton Fairmont Hotel's golf course. This is one of the highest points on the island, and I found out at school today that there is a cute little restaurant at the lighthouse around the corner and up the hill from my apartment. They serve all day breakfast on Sat. and Sun. which is essential information considering nothing is open on a Sunday here. There is another restaurant 5 min. the other way called Henry VIIIth and they supposedly have a great brunch... runs at about $35 however. Steep eh?

Needless to say I'm not going to starve, but I am saving my pennies.
Hope all is well.
I miss you all. xoxoxoxo Lisa.

Finally, I have an apartment

You can all take a sigh of relief, because I am no longer homeless. I decided to take an apartment. The very same place I fancied back in December, when I was planning to move to Bermuda. The place the the crazy real estate agent (who was off her rocker) tried to get me to sign a lease for that would put me under over $5000 for advance rental fees. - Did I mention I'm renting for 5 months.

Anyways, truth be told the fact that she was pushy is probably what led to me to negotiate my rental costs. I went to see the apartment, and as i had seen previously it is adorable. A little cute and charming pool house tucked behind someones large ranchstyle home. This place has all the little touches that make it feel like a "home" away from home.

I went to check out another place up the road in the same area. This one was at the top of yet another hill. I will have buns of steel walking all these hills, it almost reminds me of brant lake. So up the hill we went to this little home, and the owner took us (Maria was so nice to drive me around again) through the blinds on a sliding door into the apartment. Immediately you see a bed with mattress, side table, all on a carpetted floor with no stove, a bar fridge, and a microwave. The bathroom was small and there was no laundry. This is why it is important to check out places before renting them. Or just moving. (p.s. this place is $1700 a month including electricity, water, and cable i think)

After all of this I was still stuck on the little pool house. I wanted to live there but not at that price. So I called up the landlord, and expressed my desires to make it work. She called me back yesterday and it was a done deal. She granted my request, I just have to pay for internet, and long distance of course. I'll let you know how moving day goes.

Oh happy day! Start booking your tickets people, keep in mind I don't have a couch so you can't come all at once, unless you don't mind sleeping on lawn chairs next to the pool. I will be home from April 1-10.

As for school, I am definitely getting into the swing of things. I am planning and trying to get ahead of the game. I miss you all.

Happy Birthday Vavo Antero...not like you have internet, but I'm hoping someone will pass that along. Until next time, may all your days be sunny...because it's raining cats and dogs here.