Thursday, December 11, 2008 at 11:02am.
sorry, this first half is a little boring, i just didn't want to forget any of it.
first of all, st maarten is amazing. quite possibly the most beautiful place in the world. actually, it's really interesting too because the dutch/ french rivalry gives it a chicago northside/ southside dicotomy. very neat. although the actual landmass of the island is about the size of, maybe, aurora there are still all these secret hostilities and billboards that say things like "only by being together can we become one." orion who speaks very fluent french keeps forgetting which side we're on and pretty much tries to talk to everyone in french. sometimes this makes sales people and such answer, "you on the dutch side, bra" rather snottily. it's weird. but, apparently he speaks it extrememly well. we were in a jewelry store yesterday and he was talking to the sales girl in french and to me in english and finally she said, "you are not french?" she was so surprised she called the other sales girl over and told her to listen to orion speak french because apparently he has no trace of an american accent. and she said we look french. cool. so we rarely get the 'ol tourist rip-off on the french side, the dutch side is another matter altogether. waaaaaaay ripoff on everything from food to boat rides to bathrooms. when people try that on the french side orion angrily berates them in french like a true native. the highlight of the trip was when we were waiting for a ferry and a group of tourists came up and asked if we spoke english. we were like, ugh, fat lazy americans! it's reassuring i guess to know that we look the part, especially since 90% of the time i feel like a fat lazy american. also, in reading the guidebooks before the trip they said to dress well, and to plan on most restaurants having a dress code, so besides for our beach clothes we're pretty dressed up most of the time. i didn't bring any pants, so i'm always in dresses. it's pretty easy to tell who the tourists are in their khaki shorts and fanny packs sitting in a french bistro at 6:30.
the resort is hilarious. it's so weird to be staying at such a ritzy resort because we spend a lot of time longing to stay at the ratty hotels off the boardwalk tht serve creole for dinner and fresh baguettes for breakfast. we're SO not the resort type. when we first arrived we asked what there was to do in the surrounding area and the front desk told us were at least five miles (downhill) from the closest town. so we called a car rental place and hightailed it out of there. the resort is pretty much set up for extremely wealthy white people who don't want to ever leave the resort. they have "market day" here, which is kind of like the market day in phillipsburg except that the sellers are grossly a carribean sterotype and there's no bartering. the rich people just pay whetever they ask and laugh at their accents. the resort also has their own "island barbeque" and dance parties. they even have a casino night. there are people who come here and never actually leave the resort. i was talking to an old lady in the hot tub and griping about how far away all the real island stuff is and she was like, "why leave the resort for the island when they bring the island to you." ooooookay. i really feel like we don't belong here. all the service people are island dwellers and the male servers will not look me in the eye, and always talk to orion when the two of us are together. the second night we were here they had some big party with caribbean music and O and i were mingling and forgot that we weren't wearing wedding rings because we'd spent the whole day at the beach and servers kept not only looking me in the eye, but openly flirting with me. i realized that they were doing it with all the rich white women who'd come on vacation alone or with their girlfriends. it was like dirty dancing or something: show the rich white women a good time on the island. give them a story to take home. i wonder how much extra they get paid for that. crazy gigalos. it made me sad. (for the women and the servers both).
the guests are so secluded. they have this neat thing called an infinity pool, which is pretty much a pool in the middle of the ocean, but cleaner (no fish or seaweed or sand) like even the ocean has to be purified for these people; they want ocean water, but without all the ocean stuff. also we're the youngest people staying here and people keep looking at us like "how can you afford this?" i don't know. the best thing about the resort is happy hour when drinks are buy one get 2 and they're huge and tropical and guava pina coladas are soo delicious. very nice.
the street signs on the dutch side are priceless. instead of "YIELD" they have neat little circles that say "give preference" too cute. it's so much nicer to have signs that request good behavior instead of demanding it. my favorite is the one by the cul-de-sac that reads: "give preference to the roundabout" simply adorable.
i finally completed my lifelong dream of vising anguilla. the island is so secluded. it's in all the travel magazines as being one of the most beautiful places in the world. one of their beaches is on the top TEN list of most beautiful beaches in the world. i have never seen water like that before. so clear, so perfect. it was amazing. everything was so untouched because the island has all these conservation ordinances and won't let any of the beaches be developed or privatized. so beautiful. we spent the whole day swimming and sunbathing and eating fresh lobster salad and fresh bread. a-maz-ing. one of the best days of my life. and, after spending the whole day there we only saw like three other tourists. there's only one very small hotel on the island and it's extremely expensive. it reminded me a lot of san salvador.
the architecture of the islands is really neat too. it would be cool to do an excavation here, or at least a post colonical historical study. there are all these pre-fab 60s houses next to plantation houses from the 1800s. not to mention a new orleans style french quarter. the juxtaposition of modernity with colonialism is very neat. when i studied the history of these out-islands on my study abroad we talked about how most of them were discovered before america but never settled until they needed them as slave trading posts. they have a pretty awful history, and most of the long time inhabitants are descendants of, like, five original slave families. so to see all these plantation structures and barracks next to huge expensive resorts is a little jarring.
also, everyone LOVES obama here. that's all we see everywhere is obama/biden bumper stickers and obama tee shirts. he's like a deity here. too cool. when we tell people we're from chicago they always ask if we know president obama and when we brag that we were at his election night party they pretty much go apeshit.
it's also weird how much chicago politics carries over. yesterday everyone was going nuts over the G-rod scandal. we hadn't heard about it til we were in the phillipsburg french cafe. weird. i was like "governor blagojevich? from illinois?" huh? i always said that shifty mofo was scandelous. i can't believe he thought he could sell a senate seat to the highest bidder. grrrr.
we drive around the mountains here a lot and get lost. it's all very romantic. it rains a bit every afternoon. so we're learning to work around that. i have pretty awful sunburn, so i'm trying to stay out of the sun between noon and two (which is how i'm sitting in an internet cafe writing this when i should be outside in the ocean). get this, i brought SPF 65 super sport water/sweat proof and apply it every morning religiously and get lobster red first degree burns all over my body. i have to beg and cajole orion into putting on SPF 8 tanning OIL and he turns a delicious brown all over. awesome. also the mosquitos that eat me alive don't seem to touch him at all. i should be miserable, but i'm just so happy to be here and in the sun i can't even complain. also, being in the jungle of san salvador for 3 weeks pretty much taught me how to deal with all this stuff. this sunburn / bug bite combo is a cake walk compared to all that. i'm so happy here.
yesterday we were wandering up and down the old-timey stores in the historical section and in and out of all the jewelry stores and day dreaming and we found this beautiful antique, sweet, rose gold pendant in a heiritage jewelry store. it was so beautiful!! it's a flower made of yellow and rose gold with yellow and white diamonds on a rose gold chain. i love that antique stuff. it was so old hollywood. but it was real diamonds and 18K rose gold and an antique, so EXPENSIVE. so although we both fell in love with it and all agreed it was so me, we reluctantly left it. later that night we were eating at this seafood restaurant on the ocean and when i asked for the check the waitress brought us some champaign, and there, wrapped around my glass was the pendant. orion had gone back and bought it without my knowing and told the waitress to surprise me with it. i was SO surprised (and embarrassed when i accidentally blurted out, "how can we afford this?!") it was perfect. the whole restaurant knew about it, because when orion snuck back to give it to our waitress she showed it to all the other waitresses and they told all their tables, so everyone was waiting to see my reaction and when she gave me the glass and i saw it, everyone started clapping. i have the most amazing husband ever. usually i can tell when he's hiding something or has something planned, but i was SO honestly surprised it knocked the wind out of me. it really is the most amazing pendent ever too, i can't wait to show you guys.
anyway, that's all for now. it's almost time to reapply my sunblock and put my cloak back on so i can go back outside. miss yous, see you next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment