One week to go...

So since the last blog, not too much has happened. We went to Negril on a day trip with the Falmouth Independent Youth Club aka the club started by our fellow employee Christine. We left around 9:30, stopped three times on the 1.5 hr drive (apparently it's what Jamaicans do), and headed for the beach. I wasn't that impressed with the 7 mile beach as it is called. The beach at Tony's is nicer. We stayed there until around 4 and headed over to Rick's Cafe, a famous restaurant/bar on the cliffs. There are cliff divers there and they jump off and do fancy dives. They looked just like the cliffs in Port Antonio. And lots of people were jumping off too - more guys in speedos. Score. We hung out there for awhile. It was weird being around that many tourists. Very weird. The kids swam in the pool and somehow Gareth and I turned into babysitters. Oh well. After that we went back to our original spot so the ladies could get all dressed up for partying/dancing that night. I forgot to mention it was a holiday, Emancipation Day. I sat on the bus and ate jerk chicken. After about an hour, we went and parked the bus by a club and most of the people went inside to dance/socialize. I took Rommel(Peter's son) to Burger King and then we hung out on the bus. It was 9 or 10 by this point and the younger ones were sleeping. Me and a few other older people stayed on the bus. I read and tried to sleep. Finally around 1, we left and headed back for Falmouth. I was so glad to get back. At least I can say I have been on a Jamaican road trip - definitely different than ours.

Since then, Gareth and I have been plugging away at our work. We went to Good Hope, our favorite place, last Saturday but there was a wedding so we didn't get to swim and just came back. Booo. Dr. Parrent left yesterday for the UK to go see Bigga and Calvin and he won't be back before we leave. We have a busy week this week trying to get our work finished and then prepare a powerpoint presentation for when we are back in DC. I also have a few more souvenirs to buy and we want to go to the beach this weekend. We have enjoyed not having as strict a schedule since Dr. Parrent is out of town - we can work for a few hours, take a break, and work more in the evenings when it is cooler.

Well, at this time next week I will be switching planes in Charlotte. Well actually, I will already be on a plane on the way to DC. Crazy. This place has become like a home and I know I will miss it, but I sure can't wait to be back home in my comfort zone. It was definitely a wonderful experience to be out of that little box I know, but man a big fluffy bed, some pizza or mexican, and a television don't sound too shabby right now...

j

--I held out my hands & asked where I could help & somebody grabbed me & pointed me towards the future & said, You've got your work cut out for you & I said, isn't there anything easier? & he laughed & said you could dig around in the past, but it's just busywork & that made perfect sense so I shrugged & started right where I was, along with everyone else--

East Coast Conquered.

Well Technically the east side of the north coast, but I am still counting it since Jamaica doesn't have a full fledged east coast per se.

We left on Monday around noonish, after Gareth and I had some fried chicken from the pizza shop which sells pizza with sauce that is ketchup instead of real sauce hence why I am in pizza withdrawals. It took about two and a half to three hours to get there on a beautiful drive along the coast. It is so crazy to see the landscape change on such a small island from beachy to more rocky coasts. We got to Port Antonio and went to the Scotia House, our "hostel" like place to stay. It was very cute and quaint. Gareth and I had a room with two twin beds and the room had the cutest door. The handle was literally a foot off the ground. I mean I know we grew and all since these houses were built, but man. It kind of felt like I was staying at Grandma's, if my grandma were Jamaican and did not have hot water (didn't realize how spoiled we are at the Manse).

Then we headed straight for Monkey Island, on which there are no monkeys. Go Figure. Can we say awesome? Beautiful? Breath taking? Questioning it's reality? This island truly is a wonder. And barely anyone ever goes out there. You get to it by walking through the water, at most a foot deep, to this island and follow a little trail to a cliff on one side where you can chill for days and not have to bother with reality. We only chilled till about ten that night. Gareth and Nick caught a few fish and one lobster and Nick went back to town to pick up some more food as the fish were teeny. We made a fire, cooked the fish, and roasted a breadfruit (and yes it is a fruit that when cooked tastes a lot like potato and no I don't know why it isn't called potato fruit). It was pretty dang awesome. Indescribable, although I tried. Perhaps a photo will help.

I can't believe I almost forgot to write how we jumped off the cliff on Monkey Island. It was probably twenty or so feet and you just run off it and jump. Definitely scary to think about but so fun to do. The hardest part was getting back to the rocks - the waves are pretty intense so you have to be careful not to get pushed into the rock. Once you know the way to do it though, you are golden.

So the next day we spent at a place called Frenchman's Cove, beautiful beach, great water, and lots of speedos and Europeans, which I think go hand in hand. There was even a family. We spent all day here and I got a for reals sunburn on my shoulders, but I am surviving. The water was colder than we are used to b/c a stream empties at the cove making that water chillier. But it felt great after being in the sun the whole day. It was a great spot and I know where I am going next time I am in Jamaica. (check facebook for more photos of the whole trip, including speedo documentation)

We headed back to Porty, as it is known by locals, and Nick and his friend headed up the mountain to see some other peace corps peeps. Gareth and I headed into town to walk around some by the harbor and to go to Yosch's, a restaurant owned by a German whitey. He made us a pizza margharita with goat cheese to die for. We, well I, have been craving real pizza for so long and this one was off the chain. So freaking good. We split one and checked our email and then dropped our stuff off back at the Scotia House (which was just up the hill in a historic little peninsula neighborhood called Titchfield Peninsula). Next stop was a jerk shack to try their jerk on that side of the coast; it was good, but I prefer Falmouth's. I really wanted ice cream but the ice cream place funnily didn't have any so I had to settle for a crunch bar ice cream thing from the gas station. We headed back to the Scotia House and crashed - that sun wears you out.

Today we ate breakfast at the same place we did yesterday, which was nice b/c it was a real restaurant, like looked like one back home, which was comforting, as we are both gettting seriously burned out. And yes we have enjoyed our time here, but it's not home. It's a big cultural shock and we have learned so much about ourselves, our culture, Jamaican culture, etc, but after a while, you just want to be around what you know again. Anywho, after breakfast we walked to Monkey Island again. This is not a short walk. Nor too much fun when you are carrying all your stuff on sunburned shoulders with blistered feet. But it was worth it. Good exercise and a sense of accomplishment. Basically we walked a U shape b/c Port Antonio has a a couple harbors and peninsulas. It was a pretty far walk and took us about an hour. Once we got to Monkey Island, Gareth built a little shelter for some shade and was nice enough to let me chill in it while he went swimming. My poor shoulders needed the shade. We were there about two hours and then our chariot came back to pick us up so we trekked back to the mainland and headed back to Falmouth. All in all it was a nice little break, but like before I was glad to get back to our "home." We caught Peter just as he was locking up so we didn't have to go get the keys or anything. He said he didn't miss us much, but he did think about us a few hours ago. I think he was lying and did miss us, but that's just me.

Well, back to work tomorrow and then...two weeks left until we are back stateside. Negril this Saturday and then solid work. And since I just realized how to put pictures on this post, I will stick some in here.

j

--This is a bag filled with dreams & recipes for soup & he's deciding right now which he's really hungry for.--

For Mallory

So I know it's been awhile again and Mallory, I apologize. This update could be super long, but I am going to try to make a list of what I have done since the last update:

-Celebrated July 4th by making jerk chicken, rice and peas, and yam and spending a few hours at the beach. Listened to cheesy American songs as well as the classics

-Did more work on sketchup although def hit a point where I did not want to do sketchup at all at which point we went and helped Peter in the park. Never would I have thought I would enjoy removing nails from pieces of wood.

-Hit the beach a couple times and added to my burn/tan which I must say is coming along nicely. I even have a nice chaco tan from fishing with Peter and it is lovely.

-Speaking of fishing with Peter, we caught 48 fish this past Sunday. I caught 15 butterfish and ranchmen (not their real names I am guessing). I am now a bonafide angler.

-Found out we will get to go to Negril on August 1st. Watch out 7 mile beach.

-May be going to Portland this coming week. That will take care of hitting the east coast and once we hit Negril, we will have seen all four coasts. Sweetness.

-Applied for a job with URS, keep your fingers crossed. I am actually qualified for it and it's in Baton Rouge. Double score.

-I am going to NJ with Mom from August 28th to Sept 5 and I am stoked. I haven't seen Gran in 3 years and my cousins and uncle and aunt in 10. Craziness. South Jersey really is a beautiful place. Just go past all where all the guidos and shore people are and you will see. Yes lots of stereotypes about NJ are true, but I don't care what they say b/c South Jersey is great.

-Just found out today that I will be a published author. Ashley asked me (and Gareth) to write an article for Preservation Architect (the quarterly journal of the AIA Historic Resources Committee) on our experience as ICOMOS interns. What what!!!

-29 days left to go in Jamaica and while I will enjoy the last weeks here, I am so excited to come home and see my peeps and lay on a couch. Yes a couch. Who knew I would miss a couch. I sit on two chairs with a patio furniture bench cushion as my couch. Not anywhere close to a couch. Gareth lays on the floor on a patio bench cushion. He also misses couches.

-Gareth got his hair braided/plaited in cornrows. It didn't last long and he resembled Kevin Federline. It was entertaining.

-I decided that if I were born in Jamaica, I would have been a hills/mountain person. So much prettier and quieter up there. And the people up there are so freaking nice. We went to help this lady with an addition to her home. Before we left we got coconut water and tons of sugar cane. And this coming from a lady who doesn't have that much to give, but still gave us stuff. One of many lessons to take back with me to the states.

-Ms. Sylvie figured me out. She cooks lunch for us and all the guys. She realized I don't eat fish so now on mackerel and saltfish days, she warms up a little leftovers and I get that in its place. She will get a lovely present before we leave. Plus some days I get leftoever curry chicken or brown stew and Gareth is super jealous. But I am nice and give him a little. Poor thing doesn't have the guts to tell Ms. Sylvie he doesn't like the mackerel (I didn't either; I guess I am just easier to figure out than him).

Um. I think that is most of the updates. There are probably more little things that have gone on that I just can't remember. We are doing well on work. About a half a building and some other details on another and we will have finished 6 buildings total leaving only two left to do with four weeks left. Score. That leaves us time to make sure everything is fantastically done. I am so tired of sitting in a chair all day on a computer for probably at least 8 hrs. My eyes aren't loving me for it either. Nor is my back. Or my numb butt. I hope whenever I do get a job that I get to do other things than just sit all day. If not, I guess I will just have to jog around the office and when people stare, I will say tough.

Oh I have also become a music addict. I would like to thank Kelly for that. She introduced me to so many new bands and I didn't get to listen to them all until now as I work. Well this led me to get more of their music and then listen to other groups and now I am addicted. Hi my name is Jessica and I am addicted to great music. So anyone out there who wants some new bands check out the Avett Brothers, the Ray Brothers, the New Pornographers, Neko Case, Feist, The Decemberists (fantastic!!! and new love of the week), Bon Iver (Skinny Love is off the chain), the Hush Sound, Bright Eyes, Mae, etc. etc. etc. Anyone in BR want to go see the Avett Bros on Sept 29 b/c I am there. Oh and Tupelonians, they will be in Oxford the week before I think. Check their website. They are great. Really great.

Well now that I am a self professed music addict with a pretty sweet tan for a Polack, I think I will go jam to some of those sweet tunes. Mallory, I promise you that I will do better on blogging as in I won't wait another 19 days to update. I will try to do it every week for the rest of the time here and well in my stateside life as well except you will be there seeing me like every day so it may not be as fun for you. Oh well.

Respect,
j

--We grow a lot faster than trees, he said, so we miss a lot of stuff.--

Tales from a Terrible Blogger

So I know it has been a long time since I updated. I would like to think that I have good reasons for that, but the only good reason I have for the last at least six days is that the wireless was down here. Besides that my only excuse is that I am a terrible blogger. But I don't feel so bad b/c I figure like five people read this total.

Ok so after the field school kids left, we took a little trip down to the South Coast to document a church in The Alley, Jamaica. It was a great little getaway and we stayed in the Milk River Bath and Hotel, which was darling. They have these mineral water baths that are supposedly more radioactive than anywhere else in the world. It felt like regular water to me, but I guess we will find out in 5 to 10 years if it really did any damage. We ate some good food, saw neat sites, very small rural towns, literally drove across the country N/S from the beachy area here, through the mountains and to the plains of the south coast. While it was nice and we documented a church in 3 days (and I did my first ever hand drawing, a section, which turned out pretty good), I missed the North. I guess I am a Trelawneyian/Falmouthian/like the North coast better.

We got back and there were four of us here vs the normal 30 or so it had been. I moved all my stuff into my new room, first private room in a month, and Gareth and I started documenting more buildings. Since then we have two more done and they look awesome. We have gotten really detailed and added signage, etc. We just started a third one today.

We have also started cooking for ourselves and have done pretty well so far. We have had pasta, breakfast for dinner, mac n cheese, will be hitting some ramen this weekend, and ate out a couple times. The eating out is so cheap it's not even funny. We can get a plate of food that will feed me twice over for 250J, about $3. It's amazing. I am going to be so spoiled once I get back and am expected to pay like $5 to $10 a meal. Cheapskate I will be. We don't do much exciting during the week, just play around on the internet and watch movies, but on the weekends, we go fishing with Peter or find something else to do, like the beach. In a few weeks, we are hoping to travel to the east coast to Portland. They have some good spear fishing (for Gareth) and just beautiful scenery.

I wanted to do something for the 4th like make brownies with american flag decoration on them, but that prob won't happen. Maybe we will have to have hot dogs, although I really don't want to b/c the ones here are really made of chicken and dyed a creepy red color, which would be patriotic....

46 days left in Jamaica and it feels like we have lived here forever. It will be nice to go home, but also kind of weird. I am excited to be back in my country though - I knew I was a homebody before, but am bonafide now.

Things I miss the most (and most of them are food): Tacone, Andolini's, Cane's french fries and sauce, sweet tea, kool aid (and yes I could make it here, but it won't be the same), anything Mom cooks, heck maybe even lima bean casserole, a good selection of books (I have run out and am now reading one on the Mayflower, can we say I need a library???), Kevin, the ease of calling up a friend and not worrying about ridonculous charges, random text messages to Kelly, my bed.

I think that is most of them now. I don't miss tv too much but I really only watch a few shows. I am excited about doing more reading once I am back now since I am not required to do any. I got a sweet cricket shirt at the market, like really sweet. I still want to get a soccer jersey, but that will wait for the Mobay airport (apparently they have a really good sports store there) and while I paid around 7 us dollars for my cricket shirt, i know the soccer jersey will be more and i can deal with that. Over the course of the summer, I will probably have spent around 360 US dollars total. Not too shabby. While I love the cheapness of everything, there are big differences that are harder to get used to. Like living in a male dominated society as a super freethinking independent girl. No one is mean but things are different. Females opinions aren't really taken into account so much and if anyone needs anything, they always call for Gareth, even if I am closer. It's just something I have to get used to for at least the next 46 days. Oh well. I will live.

Oh and while I love carbs, I am getting tired of the amount of carbs here. We thought our country had a terrible diet. At one meal, we can have yams, boiled dumplings (which I liked the first day, but not struggle to get them down, they are very dense), rice and peas, boiled banana (which sadly doesn't have much taste) and roasted breadfruit. Can we say carb overload? I can handle one or two, but once you get above that, I feel like I could sleep for days. I love brown stew chicken though. Mmmmm. And the other bad thing is that there is so much sugar in most people's diets here, especially kids. They drink really sugary drinks and bag juices and the punch (i.e. kool aid) is so so sweet. I always have to water it down like 3/4 water, 1/4 punch. However, Jamaicans walk a lot more places, so they get more exercise. So i don't know who would lose on a scale now.

Ok, well I have to catch up on a week's worth of missed internet browsing....

--doesn't mind carrying a few choice pieces of baggage so she has a conversation starter in almost any social situation--

And then there were two (well technically four...)

So the field school kids are gone. It is very weird not having twenty other people around. I am sure I will like some of the quiet, but I know it will get old quick.

I am watching the LSU - Arkansas game right now. It feels so nice to be able to watch it. I will probably miss the championship games though, unless there is a third game, b/c we are going to the south coast with three other people to document a church, an aqueduct, and any other buildings we can. It will be nice to see some more of Jamaica than just the northern parts. We are going to Alley, a small town, and then on the way home, we are going to stop in Negril and stay there a night to see what it is like. It should be a nice little trip.

This last week was filled with work and play. We basically finished documenting our first building in sketchup. It has more detail than the other buildings we have to do so the others should go faster. We went to the beach several times, including today. I actually think I got some sun today and not sunburn. I dropped down to 50 spf for today and the sun was a little stronger than it has been the other days we have gone to the beach. The field school peeps left plenty of extra sunscreen so Gareth and I should be set for a long time.

I think my favorite thing about Jamaica is the sounds. I have a lot of them memorized and they have become kind of likes sounds of "home." There is the ice cream man who rides around on his bike and honks a little horn. There are the dogs who bark late into the night. There are the honking horns - Jamaicans use their horns a lot when people are walking in the road, or really for whatever reason they like. There are lots of sounds of people talking. My favorite sounds come on Sunday when you can hear singing from several of the churches. If you walk around town, you can hear sermons, singing, etc. It's really nice. I think these sounds will stick with me and when I am home, I will hear a bike horn and think oh there goes the ice cream man...

Tonight we are going shrimping with Peter. We are also going to take the boat to the Rock and get dinner. I am excited b/c they have festival - it's a type of biscuit made with cornmeal that is delicious. Otherwise, the Rock serves a lot of seafood so I had a cheese patty so that I won't be starving and will survive on the festival. After dinner, we are going to take the boat to glistening waters. I am going to bring my camera this time (in a ziploc bag) and try to take pics and video of it to put on facebook so others can see how cool it is. Then tomorrow morning, we leave for Alley...

So far the Manse is feeling more like home. When we get back on Wednesday, Gareth and I are going to set up our own rooms and the studio/living room. Then on Thursday, Jessica and Josi (the other two people still here who we are helping on this project with) leave and it will be just two of us....which will be very weird...

Well, LSU is really laying it on Arkansas so I guess I'll watch the rest of it and then get ready to get on Peter's boat - fingers crossed that his engine doesn't die.

j

--this is a juggling whale & while he can only juggle one thing at a time, you try doing that & holding your breath for six hours & let's see how well you do--

Settling in...

Sorry for the delay in updates...been busy getting settled in (which has taken me a little longer than others I think) and getting into a routine.

I still am waking up at like 5 when the sun comes up, but now I get up, take a shower, and then get back into bed for a little nap before breakfast. It seems to be working out great; I get a nice hot shower and don't disturb anyone else, get back in bed, listen to some music, and have a nice rest before the day starts.

The lime burn at Good Hope was a lot of fun. We ate jerk chicken (which by the way is tourist Jamaican food, not real Jamaican food, they really don't eat a lot of jerk), vegetable soup, breadfruit salad (similar to potato salad), and coconut bread. My favorite was definitely the coconut bread -- think similar to those Hawaiian rolls. We walked around the property which is huge, toured the great house, and swam in the Martha Brae river (see facebook for photos). It was a good day and nice to be out in the mountains where it is quieter for a bit.

Sunday was spent lazing around the Manse and at the beach. It was cloudy though so no sun. I wouldn't be surprised if I came home the same color as when I left. That 70 spf really does work, but I kind of hope it lets a little bit of color through.

Monday was like any other Monday. You'd think that Mondays in Jamaica would be different, but nope. I didn't feel like I got much accomplished yesterday as I worked on doing the courthouse gate in CAD all day. But I finished it today, it looks awesome, and I got a lot of other stuff done too. It was quite a productive day. I actually started putting stuff in sketchup and hopefully by the end of the summer, I will have mastered the program.

We watched the sun set tonight - it was so beautiful. I didn't take any pictures, my bad, but I figure I'll see another one over the next weeks. The clouds looked like they just ended in the ocean. It was pretty cool to see.

I am learning more and more about Jamaican culture, etc. and how it really is much different from the US. It is more aggressive and that is hard to explain, but it is. And not aggressive as in violent b/c they will have arguments and yell and situations that normally at home would result in a fight, here they don't. It ends at the argument. And it is a male dominated society even though the women do so much. They really do basically do everything. But don't start thinking that the men are chauvinists or not nice to girls b/c they are. It's just really interesting to see how different cultures work and it's almost better to accept the fact that you won't understand why they do what they do. I guess it goes both ways.

Tomorrow is market day. Well the main market day. There's a market on the weekends too, but not nearly as many people come in to sell goods. We are taking Calvin with us so that we get the best deals on fruits. Our goals are to get sour sop, sweet sop, and jack fruit. We had some sour sop yesterday and it is a strange texture, but really good. It's kind of custardy I guess you could say. I have had watermelon, pineapple, Julie Mangos, and regular mangos. In order, my fav is the watermelon, Julie Mango, pineapple, and reg mango. The pineapple here doesn't even compare to the stuff at home. I really don't like pineapple at home at all, but here it is really good. Plus. the fruit guy a block from the manse is really good and will get us anything we ask usually. And he is an artist at cutting the pineapple up, it's so cool to watch.

Oh and the height of Jamaican fashion for men is mesh tank tops. There are some that are sold with sleeves, but some very lucky friends of mine may be getting mesh tank tops as souvenirs. Like they wear them in all colors. No joke. I have gotten so used to seeing them though that I don't even do double takes when people wear them. Peter makes them look good. Lila even told us the proper way to wear one i.e. don't tuck it in and don't wear your pants too high when you are wearing the tank top.

Well Sean and I have a "date" at 10:30 - he stood me up last time (he was having computer problems) so I don't want to be late....

j

--What if we all got along & people loved each other & sang songs about peace? he said. Would that be a good world? & I said I didn't know about that, but it would be a good summer camp & he looked at me & shook his head & said, It's no wonder you're leaving us with such a mess. --

The work has begun...

So we started our project for reals yesterday. We are documenting the courthouse here in town using hand drawings from a previous year and cad plans. Now you would think that those would be really helpful, but we have had to do a lot of alterations, and it will probably take a lot longer to do than we originally thought. We are supposed to do more than this building this summer, but this one should take a couple of weeks or so ish.

last night we went to glistening waters where the martha brae river meets the caribbean and there is a lot of phosphorus that when agitated caused the water to literally be bioluminescent. I don't have any pictures b/c Peter's boat tends to get wet on the inside during the trips, but it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. When you swim in it, you leave a trail of light and it's pretty dang awesome. We hit a few spots and the spot with the most phosphorus was full of jellyfish, but Peter saw them right before we jumped in. They were really neat to see too; some were really big, others were smaller, but you could see them floating and their tentacles.

Big news of the day - I slept til 7 this morning and not 5:30. One of my medicines may have helped me with that as it does make you sleepy, but let's hope this trend continues.

Today, Gareth and I are hoping to cut out of work an hour early (I mean we did work during our lunch hour) and go to Tony's - i.e. the beach. I could use an afternoon nap on the beach. Our "office" is an outdoor table in the courtyard of the manse that has sez breezes all day. It's pretty sweet. I am not sure where our rainy day office is yet as we haven't gotten rain while working, but it will probably be inside the manse. Photos will come later. I still haven't taken any pictures yet; just haven't thought about it.

Today was also market day. They call it the bend down market b/c tarps serve as the roofs, but you have to bend down some to get under them. They have literally everything you could ever think of there. One of the girls got some Julie Mangos, and it was delicious. You can also buy underwear (they have Calven Klain - honestly how it was spelled), shoes, and anything else you can imagine. It was definitely cool to see and I will probably be frequenting it for the mangos. There is also a really good fruit stand close to the manse with a really nice guy who could get us the hookup. Walking through the market got me used to being called whitey or hissed at to get my attention to buy stuff. It is actually pretty amusing when the little kids call you whitey - and it's not really an insult, it's just an obvious statement.

On the schedule for the weekend is the lime burning at Good Hope and spelunking in a cave full of bats....

j

--You're not going to see people like this again for a long time, he said & I said I always saw people like this & he looked at me for a moment & said, You're not from around here, are you? --