I heart Ewan McGregor

Yes it’s true. I heart Ewan McGregor. I discovered this love a few weeks ago, when I watched Moulin Rouge two nights in a row (this movie is one of my all-time favorites. If you haven’t seen it, go straight to your local video rental place, or Netflick/Qwikster whatever it’s called now, and rent it. That and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Both of these movies I could watch night after night and never get sick of). My love was further re-enforced when I watched A Long Way Around and A Long Way Down. These are documentaries that aired on BBC w few years ago. They are about the time that Ewan and his friend Charley rode, on motorcycles, from London to New York and then from London to Cape Town a few years later. They are fascinating. In light of my new found love, I decided to re-watch all 6 Star Wars, to see which was my favorite and to see Ewan, of course. Below, after I report on my life in MAD, you will find an open letter to George Lucas, explaining all my likes and dislikes in regards to the Star Wars films (in short, the first 3 are terrible, with a few bright spots, The Empire Strikes Back is the best, and I totally agree with the Ewok line, as put forth by Barney Stinsen).

MAD is going well. School is wrapping up. I give my final 6eme exam next Thursday, and my final 2nde exams on Dec 13^th and 14^th. So close to the end of the first trimester. The first one is always short. I think this trimester, but the time we finally got started, was something like 8 weeks. Not to mention I had to miss a week for MSC (more on that in a second). It will be nice to have a break. For some reason, I have really needed a break at the end of first trimester, but 8 weeks into the other trimesters I’m fine. It’s weird.

MSC was a success. So much better than our IST. The sessions were actually useful and there was loads of new information. One bit of information was unfortunate. The next English stages training will be done in a way that they will become TEFL certified by the end. We can’t get TEFL certification, at least at the moment. Our APCD (head of the English sector) is looking to see if we can take the test at our COS conference in June, since we will have been teaching for 2 years by then. We are hoping that he can make that happen, but the TEFL people could say no, so right now I’m not holding my breath. Teaching isn’t in my future anyways, but it would be nice to have, just in case. I ate a lot of food during MSC. It was insane. At site, I do breakfast and linner, with a snack thrown in on occasion. At MSC, I was eating 3 meals a day, plus 2 snacks. It was crazy, but I had to eat. It was a week where I didn’t have to cook. I can’t turn down food I didn’t make. That would be silly.

Thanksgiving was not Thanksgiving, again. People need to stop posting all their yummy Turkey Day meals on Facebook cause it just makes me sad. My site mate and I made spaghetti with homemade sauce and chicken biscuits, just like the pilgrims did. I also tutored my friend, so I got to watch Mulan as a special Turkey Day treat. We had to change our tutoring session from Tuesdays to Thursdays because, when I came back from MSC, the CEG had changed my schedule AGAIN. We were what, like 6 weeks into school by this point? And 5 points for anyone that guessed they changed it to times I already worked at the high school. I was pissed. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Again. Ridiculous. I am definitely telling the next person to work only at the high school, since they have their shit together. I finally got everything sorted out, so for those interested, here’s my new, hopefully final, schedule: Monday, 10-12 HS, Tuesday, 7-12 (with a one hour break from 9-10) HS and 1:30-5:30 CEG, Wednesday , 7-12 HS, Thursday 8:30-10:30 CEG. Tuesday is a long day, but it gets easier after that. Yay!

My Christmas plans are pretty wide open at the moment. I am still trying to make plans. Im not sure what’s all happening. I’m letting other people plan my life and then I will just tag along. It’s easier that way. We will see what people come up with! And, of course, once I know what my plans are, I will let everyone who reads this know. I probably won’t right another blog post until after Christmas, so you will have to wait in suspense. I know, not knowing what I’m doing is cruel to you, but what can be done? ;)

I have found another Xmas movie to watch, speaking of Xmas. Die Hard. You might at first think, really? Die Hard? But if you remember, its set during a Christmas party on Christmas Eve, so it counts! Gots to get my Bruce Willis on. I have already watched Love Actually and 5 of the Harry Potters. I am making progress! And I am listening to Christmas music as I type this. I definitely have more Christmas spirit than last year, when Xmas was Day X (get it?). Last year was harder, since It was the first time away from my family and I hadn’t been in country that long. It’s still hard this year, but I have been here longer and I got to see my family a few months ago so that helps.

Ok so there’s my life. It hasn’t been really interesting lately. Sorry! I have just been going to school and hanging out. Below you will find my letter to George and my Book list. Toodles for now!

Dear George Lucas,

Hello. My name is Megan and I wanted to tell you I am a fan of your work, in particular Star Wars. I recently re-watched all 6 movies and I was truly blown away by the movies 4, 5 and 6. The way you brought all the worlds together and the characters you created will stand the test of time. The first 3 however, while they do have a few good moments, are overall not that great. The plot is shaky and unclear, Jar Jar Binks makes me want to jump through my screen and punch him, and the fade in and outs are overused, particularly in the 3^rd movie. It was so distracting I could barely watch the movie. Every two minutes there would be a new fade-out. I feel like you were looking at PowerPoint and attempting to use all the different fade outs they provided (and I believe you may have succeeded).

Good moments did exist in the first three movies. Darth Mauls Theme has to be one of my favorite instrumental pieces of all time and the lightsaber battle between Darth Maul, Obi-wan, and Qui-gon (sorry if I misspelled that) was pretty good. The lightsaber battle at the end of Revenge of the Sith was great. I just really liked lava. I thought it added an element of danger that made the battle that much better. My favorite of the three would probably be Attack of the Clones, because Jar Jar wasn’t in it for more than a few minutes, Yoda got to kick butt, and anything with Christopher Lee makes me happy. I am tempted to say Revenge of the Sith but those fade outs really turned me off.

A New Hope, the Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi are excellent. Empire is by far the best. There is suspense, romance, witty lines, lightsaber battles and one of the best twists of any movie. I would never have seen it coming if I hadn’t already seen the movie. I like the Ewoks, even though I know a lot of people don’t (they must have been born before May 25^th, 1973. Watch How I Met Your Mother, Season 7, episode 5 for further explanation).

Overall, you couldn’t have done better with movies 4, 5, and 6, yet, for some reason, you keep going back and tweaking them. Some of the cosmetic improvements are fine (better effects when it comes to things blowing up, etc), but some of them are ridiculous. The versions I watched have you first set of changes, but not the newest. For example, it has Geddo shooting first, but not Darth Vadars “No!”. Geddo shooting first makes no sense. If he is a bounty hunter, you have to anticipate that he knows how to use his weapon. He wouldn’t have become a bounty hunter, let alone lasted long, if he didn’t, yet he misses Han Solo from what, a foot, and by a foot. It’s insane. There’s no way that would have happened. Essentially all you did was make Geddo look stupid. You did not make Han look better, but in my opinion you didn’t need to do that. He’s a smuggler. He obviously is going to defend himself if he’s about to be taken to his death.

In terms of Darth Vadar shouting “No!” at the end of Return of the Jedi, I cannot believe you added that. Watching it without the “No”, just made my conviction that adding it was the wrong move. The moment is so powerful without Darth Vadar saying anything. You watch him realize the good within himself and stop the Emperor. Adding words to the moment takes away the poignancy of the scene.

I hope you will stop altering your movies. Unless you are trying to make images clearer, such as what you did with the explosions, then there is nothing to change. Your movies are a gift to cinema (well the last three) and they need to stay the way they are. Changing events in the movies just decreases the value of those moments. Thanks for listening George, and I hope your day goes well.

Sincerely,

Megan

Books I’ve Read

Looking for Lovedu

Expat: Women’s True Tales of Life Abroad

The God of Small Things

The Book Thief (might be my favorite book I’ve read in country. I cried. Enough said)

I’m A Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

La Le-La-La-La

I don’t have any cool fact to start this blog post I’m sorry. It would be kinda hard to top last blog entry’s beginning though. That fact still amazes me. It just doesn’t sound like any fun. I am now about halfway through my first trimester. In fact, for the CEG I may have only 1 or 2 more weeks of teaching when I return from MSC. They like to give all their exams 3 weeks before the official end of school, so that for the last 2 weeks of school we can correct the exams with the kids (at least that’s what I think they do. I didn’t figure this out until 3^rd trimester last year. This year I will have one day correcting then I will be done. I don’t understand why teachers need 8 hours to correct a 2 hour exam. One of those things I will never understand). I am not sure if everything holds true next year. I will know after MSC. They wont have figured it out til then anyways.

So my students have slid down in my esteem. They were doing so well in the first week of school, being quiet and doing their work. Then the novelty of English wore off and now they are talkative, disruptive kids. I have had to get real mean. Its like they think they can get away with anything cause I am the Vazaha (the foreigner). Nope that’s not how this works. In my 2nde classes, I have yelled at them in my scary Megan voice (the one that only comes out after I have tried repeatedly tried to be nice about a situation that’s not going well) and called out kids individually for talking. In my 6eme, I have had the scary secretary lady, who handles discipline, come and talk to my kids and, for the first time ever, I kicked someone out. This boy was goofing off in the back and had been all class, even though I had asked them to pay attention and to be quiet so I kicked him out. When I talked to the other teachers later they told me I should have hit him. So if you think I was mean kicking him out of class, at least im not hitting him. But that’s the cultural thing to do here. I told them I couldn’t because we don’t do that in America and the started laughing. The boy did apologize (I made him so it in English since we had already learned that). Im not sure what all happened once he left my class, but I do know that he had to get his parents to sign his school book (with all his registration info, school info etc, in it), to make sure they understood what happened and he was crying when he apologized. Im not sure if the secretary lady hit him and I don’t want to know. In this instance, I have to be ignorant, cause kicking someone out of class seems to work, from a showing Im serious and ya’ll need to listen to me sense, and if I know they hit the kids that I sent out of class I don’t know if I could do it anymore.

Speaking of hitting people, my neighbor tried to steal from me again. I swear he might actually be a klepto. Since last October, when he stole from me, I caught him, and then his dad hit him in front of me, he has only come into my house like 5 times, most of those times within the last month. He always came with his sisters, so I figured it was fine. They would just look through my magazines. So he came with his littlest sister and they were looking at stuff on my table, since I didn’t have any magazines. I was reading but also watching them. I saw him pick up watch to look at, among other things he had picked up to look at. Then I got up and started to make lunch, because I had to go teach at 130pm. They left and I went over to my table to move things so I could eat and, low and behold, my watch is missing. I actually said, in my house, by myself, “that motherf***er stole my watch!” I marched over to his house and said “wheres my watch?” he immediately pulled it out from his pocket. I could not believe it. So after I finished teaching I went and talked to his dad about it and told him he was not to come anywhere near my house again. Since then, even the girls haven’t come by. I think the parents put the kibosh for all of them on coming to my house. I wear that watch every day. I think he was hoping I wouldn’t notice it was missing until later, because then he could show it off and potentially sell it. FML.

On to Halloween. I had a very Hanna Baker inspired Halloween. I watched 3 movies that I know she loves and we have watched together: Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. I also wore fun Halloween-y socks I had been sent and ate a lot of candy. Overall, it was better than last year. For Christmas this year, I am going to actually get in the spirit and watch/listen to Christmas movies and music. Last year it was Day X and I did not do anything Christmas-y. Not this year. I am going to watch Love Actually, Elf, It’s a Wonderful Life, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the animated version), The Family Stone, The Christmas Story, all 8 Harry Potter movies (in my defence, ABC Family does the 25 movies of Christmas and they include Harry Potter. If they can do it, so can I) and any other Christmas movie I can rustle up. I also have tons of Christmas music now, thanks to Haley, a PCV in Diego. I have Glee, Josh Groban, The Trans-Siberan Orchestra, Frank Sinatra, The Love Actually Soundtrack (which is AMAZING. If you don’t have it, get it NOW), and Harry Connick Jr. None of this can start until after Thanksgiving. Even though I wont be having a real turkey day, Christmas cannot start til T-day ends. That’s the Megan rule and im stickin to it.

I think that’s about it. I have just been teaching so I’ve been boring. I should have some good stories from MSC and I will post my Xmas plans (for the actual day. I am going to be travelling somewhere, but where at the moment is unclear. My friends and I have to talk about it at MSC) as soon as I know them. Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving and Go Dawgs! (wish I could be at the Apple Cup).

Book List

Cleopatra: A Life

The Emperor of Lies

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky

The Red Badge of Courage

Have I got a fact for you

Here it is: strong evidence suggests that one of Hitler’s favorite things was to have women poop on him. Im shocked Im just finding this out. You would think something like this would have come out years ago. And by come out, I mean come out to the general public. Im sure lots of people knew. This interesting tidbit of information came from the September issue of Vanity Fair, from an article on how Germany owns Europe, do to their suave money management through the last few years. Anywho, a fact like that cannot stay buried. It’s too fascinating.

On to recent history though. School has started again here in MAD, and boy, is the administration of the CEG trying to give me a panic/heart attack. Every time I go, to teach or to check-in, my schedule has changed. It’s ridiculous. I will get to that story in a second, but first some groundwork leading up to my stress-filled days with the CEG. I am teaching 11 hours this year at the high school (4 hours for 2 classes and 3 hours for the third. I have no idea why one class is only getting 3 hours) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. I have had this schedule set since the beginning of October. I come back to site from Diego and I go to the CEG to set a schedule with them. I stand through their first meeting, of which all I understand is that this year there are 4 6eme classes, not 3 like last year. Then we break up into groups according to grade, so I talk to the other 6eme teachers. Nothing is concluded by the time I have to leave to go teach at the high school so I tell them I will be back the next afternoon (in terms of time, this started on Monday, October 10). So back I come on Tuesday afternoon, right when I told them, and there are only like 8 other teachers there. The CEG has a teaching staff of like 30. My hopes were not high that this was going to go well. Well after dinking around for a good 20 minutes we finally get down to brass tacks. I put up a schedule on the big chalkboard and we move it around a little bit, and I end up with a CEG schedule of Monday and Tuesday afternoons, teaching 2 of the 4 6eme classes (what no one decided to tell me was that this year we are teaching 4 hours for each subject. That means I am teaching 19 hours this year, when I thought I would be teaching 17. Well really 15 if you include the high school. Its more than we are supposed to, but It’s not a big deal. I will deal).

So I leave, thinking everything is fine. Well silly me. I should have known that that wouldn’t be the case. I go back to the school on Monday afternoon and they have changed my schedule, without telling me, to Wednesday mornings and Friday mornings. I was not happy. I had specifically told them multiple times I could not teach in the morning since I was already teaching at the high school, which at this point had already had a week of school. And I couldn’t teach Friday since we are supposed to try and keep Friday or Monday open in case we need to go talk to the bank etc. So then we had to change my schedule again. Turns out the physical education teacher wasn’t there so they gave me her slot for that day (yes even in MAD there is still PE. At least 2 hours a week. And they have to walk EVERYWHERE. No wonder, and I include myself in this, Americans are so unhealthy). Then we changed my Tuesday afternoons to Thursday mornings (the reason I couldn’t teach Tuesday afternoons? Having students take the same subject 2 days in a row would make them too tired. OMG). So I went back on Thursday and what has happened? If you guessed that they change my schedule again you get a gold star. Im back to Friday mornings. Well that was not ok. So I had to talk to the vice-principal again and get it changed. Now I am teaching Wednesday afternoon, which will make my Wednesday hell, but that’s ok (I work 7-12 at the high school and now 1:30-5:30. Ya I know). The reason they didn’t want to give me Wednesday afternoons originally is they have this thing called Aps on Wednesday afternoons for all the grades but 3eme (the 9^th graders). I have no idea what that means. I assume it’s some sort of admin thing. So they took the Aps away from 2 of the 6emes (only for 2 hours), but now they don’t have class on Friday, which I would prefer if I were them.

I hope my schedule is now worked out. I only taught on Monday at the CEG this last week, since I thought I was teaching on Thursday and I couldn’t do Friday this week (just for the week to keep it at 4 hours) because I had to come to Tana for our VAC meeting, which is where I am now. I have had a headache for like a week cause of this schedule crap. It just baffles me how no one seems to listen to me when I speak. I know my Malagasy is faaaaaaaaaaaaaar from perfect but I speak it well enough that if you pay attention and inference, you can understand what Im saying. I am speaking like 4-year-old level Malagasy. The vice-principal routinely looks at me like I’ve sprouted horns from my head.

This was kinda a long rant and I don’t want ya’ll to think that everything is messed up. Teaching at the high school has been really nice so far. My students are funny and everything has been going really well. I am giving my first exam next week. This first trimester is super short, especially since I have to miss a week for our MSC (mid-service conference) in November. I only have like 6 more teaching weeks for this trimester. I have to give a test in the third week or I will only have one grade. I hope my students don’t hate me! The schools are doing a new thing this year. They are giving everyone a 5 day weekend for the All Saints day holiday (which is Nov 1). It’s on a Tuesday this year, so I figured we would get Monday off, but Friday was a nice bonus. Not that it matters for me but it’s still nice.

So schools chugging along. I can’t believe I am already into my second year. The first year seemed to go so quickly, this summer especially, what with all the visitors and going to Diego. Man I wish I could have stayed up there and taught at the university. Those students cared (well more than my high school or CEG, but it’s a new year so maybe these students will care more) and it was so nice, weather-wise, up there. I have a lot of events happening though January, so these nest few months will fly. Once Second trimester starts though, I don’t really have anything to look forward to until my Easter Break. I have some big plans in the works but I wont divulge them until they are set in stone. They are very loosey-goosey at the moment and Im afraid if I write them down then they wont happen!

So the other big thing that has happened is my birthday! Thank you to everyone who sent me something: My parents, Joe, Brian; Dolores, Dick and Colleen; Chrissy, Rachel, Katie, Bebe, Corliss, and Brenna, and Hanna (H, as Im writing this I haven’t gotten your package yet, but I know I will! I will let you know when it gets here). I really appreciated those packages. And thank you to everyone who wrote on my FB wall. This year I went into Antsirabe for the day, because the PCV who lives in Antsirabe has my Bday too! She wasn’t in Antsirabe last year, which is why last year I stayed at site. We ate a lot of food, and drank some better than expected MAD-made wine. It was nice.

Well that’s it for now. I will post again before my MSC conference, which will be in November. Happy Halloween to everyone and post pictures of all your costumes! Can’t believe I am missing another Halloween. Only my second favorite holiday , behind Thanksgiving (I mean, who doesn’t love a holiday where all you do is eat, drink beer, and watch football? It’s the perfect holiday).

Also, real quick, here is a list of things I don't need people to send me anymore, since I have so much of it! baby wipes, hand sanitizer, kleenex, lotion, body wash, razors, basically any and all bath stuff. I have tons of bath stuff!

Book List (short this time cause I have been reading a lot of magazines)

The Reliable Wife

The Rooftops of Tehran

Is America a place?

That sentence was actually uttered by one of my C level university students (a junior) during one of my classes. The assignment was to write a paragraph about where in the world you would like to visit. America would qualify, if you knew it was a place. It took everything I had not to make a remark or smirk or laugh. I just couldn’t believe she was asking me that. She later asked me, after I had told the class that their homework was to write an essay on why I should visit Madagascar and then used Seattle as an example (and by example I mean I outlined a whole essay on the board for them to see), if Seattle was a place. I kinda get the feeling that she doesn’t know what a place is.

The other blog title for this entry could have been ‘why, hello there invasive diarrhea. How nice of you to stop by’. Ya I got that. Its my first real big illness I have gotten in country. I thought I had malaria. I had the chills, my body ached so bad I couldn’t move, had a low grade fever and like clockwork, every 3 horus I had to use the bathroom. Turns out, not malaria, but invasive diarrhea, which I got from eating street food. This happened my second week in diego so no more street food for Megan after that. That was a bummer, cause the street food sandwiches are so cheap and tasty. I should have known though. Other people have gotten dysentery from that kind of food. I was just holding out hope that I would be lucky and miss out on any illness. No such luck.

So this past month (all of September), I have been in a city called Diego, in the far north of the country. If you are trying to find it on a map it might be called Antsiranana. That’s the Malagasy name and the one that is more commonly used on maps. It’s the furthest city in the north and its wonderful. I never wanted to leave. There is so much to do there, so much to see, so many cool things to buy. I was up there for a reason however, beyond sightseeing. I was working at the university. I taught academic writing to C and D level students (juniors and seniors), in a workshop style, for a month. I mostly taught the D students, but the C class got 8-ish hours of my time every week. In total, I worked about 2o hours a week, which is more than I thought I would be teaching, but it was fine.

The students were fine. I got to know my D students more, just cause I saw them so much more. I actually knew their names. Since I saw them more, they had more assignments to do. They had to write a research paper for me at the end of the month, where my C students just had to write an essay. Every class period started out with all students writing a paragraph about the topic of the day. I had them write about why they chose to be English majors, what they wanted to do after they graduated, where they wanted to go in the world, what super power they would have, yada yada yada. Then after they finished, we went over the mechanics of writing. One day it was paragraphs, another citing sources, another capitalization. Then they usually had some time at the end (these were 4 hour block classes for the most part) to work on their papers that were due. When my D students were writing their research paper I gave them class time to research, just to make sure they actually researched.

I did have to fail half of my C class. My D class everyone passed, except the 2 students who never came to class. They failed. But my C students were a different matter. 5 people didn’t turn in their final paper, so they failed and then 6 people copied and pasted information from online onto their papers. The topic was why a visitor should come to either Diego, Nosy Be (an island that a lot of people vacation on) or to Madagascar in general. So these 6 brainiacs thought I wouldn’t notice that they were writing in perfect English and that the words they were using were words I knew they didn’t know. When I talked to the whole class about this, I told them they should be making mistakes, that even great writers make mistakes and as non-native English writers there are very specific mistakes they should be making. When I don’t see those mistakes and instead see perfect English, little warning bells go off in my head. 2 guys approached me after class to talk to me about their cheating. One guy apologized and asked if he could re-write it and I said no. The second student started arguing with me about how I should have given hi partial credit cause he only plagiarized a paragraph and a half out of 5. I said no, that’s not how this works. He had lifted his whole first paragraph from one source. He kept telling me I needed to give him partial credit and I kept saying no. He finally gave up.

Diego the town is really cool. There is a brand new hotel there that has a swimming pool you can use, and I did. Twice. There is also a beach about 20km from Diego that we went to twice as well. I say we because there is another PCV in Diego who is teaching at the university. She is still teaching there through December. We did a lot of stuff together. (wow sorry my English isn’t the greatest at the moment. I guess all the intense English teaching the last month has fried my brain). I also went to my friend Jasons site for a festival. Well it wasn’t really a festival. The town was christening a new monument for women in the town. They even slaughtered a cow right in front of us. It was off to the side a little bit, so we didn’t actually see the animal die, which I didn’t want to anyway, but we saw the pieces of cow being carried off to be cooked. Yummy. We had to sit up with the mayor and other dignitaries, and it was real hot that day. Way too hot to be sitting out but at least we were under some shade. The town had a concert that night but I didn’t go. I was too sleepy.

Well below you will find my book list eventually (I am posting it without the book list cause the list is upstairs and I am being uber lazy right now, but eventually I will get up, get it and type everything out). Have a happy day!

Shock Wave

Lamb: the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Hunger Games

Catching Fire

Mockingjay

Sarah's Key

Why do Men Fall Asleep After Sex? More Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Whiskey Sour

A short History of Nearly Everything

Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need

The Bourne Identity

Coyote Blue

I am Nujood, Aged 10 and Divorced

Mozart's Blood

The Irresistible Henry House

You know you had a good vacation when you gain 10 pounds

To be fair, Im not sure I did gain a full 10 pounds but I definitely gained weight. But that’s what great vacations are supposed to do so im happy and content with it. It just means I need to go back to my two meals a day schedule (which I do cause im lazy, but it seems to work out ok) and I need to start walking again. I get a little bored just walking around my town but I need to do it. Well now that I’ve confessed my deepest secret, its time to tell ya’ll about my fabulous vacations.

First up though, I had to kill about 3 weeks from the last day of school/school-related activities till my parents came. I went to Tana for the 4^th of July, which was fun. I got a hambuger and a coke for lunch, just to feel uber-American, then went over to the Marine commanders house for dinner and 4^th of July festivities. It was bittersweet since the Marine commander and his wife, who have been nothing but wonderful to any and all PCV they have seen, were leaving to go to mainland Africa a few days later for a new job. I also managed to get some work done, a few PC documents I need to do. Then I went back to site and cooled my heels for 2 weeks. I read, watched movies, typed up the 6eme guide that I am going to start working on next month, and took a few hikes. Also made a lot of food and I still worked at the hospital on Thursdays. I left 5 days before my parents came to go to Tana to get my teeth cleaned and finish all my last minute errands. Good thing I went as early as I did since my dentist appointment got screwed up so I had to go back 2 days later. Not really sure what happened but the office is close by downtown, where I had things to do, so it wasn’t a huge inconvenience.

My parents got here finally and it was so exciting to have them here! Or course their flight was late so we didn’t get back to the hotel till about 2am. And we had to get up at 530am to go to my site (I usually get up at 6am but my parents wanted the extra time just in case). It was a shock for them to see the condition of Tana and this was just driving from the airport to the hotel. They couldn’t believe the state of the buildings or the amount of trash in the streets. It is shocking if you’ve never seen anything like that before. They were happy to have made it to Madagascar though, and excited to see everything.

We had fun at my site. We walked out to the high school and up this big hill so my dad could take really good pictures and made a lot of food. Christiane, my site mate, came over to help with the food and to meet them. My parents stayed at my house and I stayed with C. there is a hotel in town but there’s no reason to go there if there’s not more than 2 extra people coming to my site. after my site we headed to Fianar, since we were doing the RN7 trip. RN7 is the major highway south of Tana. It goes from Tana to Toliera in the southwest. Lots of tourist take RN7 cause there are so many interesting things to see right off of RN7. Anyway we picked up James, my friend who lives in Farafangana, and his brother, who were going the same direction we were and we figured we would give them a ride and save them money and time. And keep their legs from dying in a cramped taxi brousse (I did make my parents take not one, but two taxi brousses while they were here. We took them to get to my site and then into antsirabe where we were meeting our driver. They were a little shocked that that was how I got around, especially when they saw the brousse station in Tana, which is awful. Everyone is yelling at you, trying to take your bags so that you will take their brousse etc. Its not to obad when you go to my site, since there are only like 4 brousses that go daily and they all work together, but getting to my brousses means you have to go through the Antsirabe brousses and that area sucks. I refuse to go from Tana to Antsirabe if I can help it. That’s how much I hate it).

Anyway we meet up with my friend Amber in Fianar and went to the really good chicken place, where you pick out your piece of chicken and they grill it right in front of you. Yummmmm. Then Amber cam with us to Anja reserve, which is about an hour and half from Fianar and about 15 minutes from Ambers site. There are tons of ring-tailed lemurs at Anja. In fact, that might be all they have there. Anyway they were awesome and my dad got a tone of good pictures of them. They are so cute! We had to stop at Ambers house on our way, since my mom had tweaked her ankle and I need to wrap it for her. I have become a pseudo expert from watching Hanna wrap my ankle all those times. Thanks girl! After the reserve we went back to Ambers site to see her house and eat lunch then we headed out to Isalo national park, which is basically halfway between Fianar and Toliera.

Isalo was amazing. I had heard only good things about it and the park did not disappoint. We stayed at a real swanky place since all the other places my mom had tried to make reservations at where full. We eventually found out that the next day was the Isalo Rock Run, where people run something like 100km and have to sleep in the park and everything. It takes the fastest person like 22 hours. Doesn’t sound fun to me, but to each his own. So this hotel was insane. The rooms were so nice and the food was amazing. And to top it off we got the resident rate cause of me. Score! We spent 2 nights there and just loved it. The park was gorgeous. It is a desert park, not lush rainforest, and had some crazy rock formations. We spent something like 4 and a half hours walking around. Our guide was really nice and informative. We saw lemurs, but this park was more about the scenery then the animals. After Isalo we went to Toliera, were we just had lunch, then headed to Ifaty, the coastal beach town about an hour north of Toliera. We were only there a night but it was nice to just lie on the beach the next day. We were thinking about going to this park nearby to see trees and such, but we were too tired and low on money (we didn’t realize our money situation until we got out there. Oops). We could have gone if we wanted but it wasn’t worth it. Then we flew back to Tana and met up with BRIAN! We spent my mom’s bday together and went to 2 good restaurants and then my parents flew to South Africa the next day. It was a great trip with the fam. The only bad thing was my parents had one of their suitcases stolen, but our driver filed a police report and we (well they) are moving forward filing a claim in America. My dad lost a lot more stuff than my mom and all their souvenirs, but I have been steadily replacing the souvenirs. I have replaced about ½ of them so far. The rest will come.

It was so exciting to have Brian here. He was here for like 3 weeks and I think that was the longest time we have ever spent together. Our relationship is weird. We may have been together 2 years now but in total we maybe have spent 4 months together. I think brian has done the math. At least we know we are really good travelling together. We are very go with the flow, though brian might say im not as go with the flow, though here you really have to be. We didn’t go as fancy as I went with my parents. We broussed everywhere and stayed in cheaper places. It was so much fun. We stayed at my site for a while and walked, did laundry, read, played cards and watched movies. We watched all of Game of Thrones, which I highly recommend to everyone. It is amazing. Brian and I are going to read the books together, since I just got like 1300 kindle books from one of the new trainees and it included those books.

Our big adventure was to Ile St Marie, the island off the east coast of MAD. It is amazingly beautiful and its whale-watching season right now so we saw a ton of humpback whales. But I am getting a little bit ahead of myself. We stopped in Foulpointe for a night on our way up, which is where my friend Bobette lives and we had crab curry that was to die for. It was so good. And it was just a split second decision to get it. We were both a little hungry and wanted an appetizer so we got beer and crab and we so happy. Fouplointe was a nice sleepy beach town and it was good to see where Bobette lives. Then it was off to Ile St Marie. We stayed at a hotel called Le Libertalia and it was so relaxing and chill. We never wanted to leave.

The first full day we were there we went on a whale watching trip, which was so cool. We saw a mom and her baby and the baby just wanted to jump all over the place. We also followed a pod of 6 whales for a good 45 minutes all over the place and one of the jumped so close to the boat I think some water splashed the side. It was crazy and no one saw it coming. The whales had all been on the left side of the boat so that’s where most of us were looking and this whale jumped on the right. We all saw it cause people shouted “whale!” as soon as it started to jump. Lots of tail and flipper slapping. Later in the week we also saw a lot of whales jumping from our hotel, which had this cool jetty you could walk out on and get a really good view of the water. It was crazy to see all these whales. Its whale mating/birthing time, which was why there were so many. Our boat was all French tourists and a French guide so we just sat there and talked to each other. Which is pretty much what happened all week. Most people we ran into were all French tourists.

We had a few days of just laying out, getting our tan on, and relaxing. It was so nice to just be for a while. We walked into town a lot, which was only 2km from our hotel. Had a lot of great food, in particular we ate a lot of seafood. We were on an island and I do not trust seafood far from the body of water it lives. As a result I don’t eat seafood at site. no thank you. Brian and I had a crazy adventure one day, though it was mostly brains adventure. We were out looking at whales and all of a sudden a pirate ship just showed up out of nowhere. We never saw it coming. They all were mean-looking and I swear I saw one who looked just like Captain Morgan. It was nuts. They had harpoons and were about to start throwing harpoons at the whales, which included a little baby. Well brian, being the lover of animals he is, just wouldn’t let that happen and as the first pirate through his harpoon brian leapt from the boat and grabbed it with his bare hand and landed right in between 2 whales. The pirates were terrified. They had never seen someone leap like that. Brian came out of the water looking very threating and started yelling at them. The pirates hightailed it out of there. The whales were so grateful they named Brian Protector of Whales and gave him a crown of seaweed. For his troubles brian did get a nasty cut in his hand which required stitches, unfortunately. The hospital was very fast though and they stitched him up real fast. And all for $25. Can you believe that happened? I still can’t

Brian and I had a wonderful time on Ile St Marie and we never wanted to leave. Alas, we had to leave and get back to Tana so brian could catch his flight. It was heart-wrenching but it had to be done. He left a few days ago and I miss him fiercely. I want him back. I don’t know when I will see him next. I enjoy being a PCV but I miss brian so much. I am down to under a year of service until I can COS (close of service) so I will be home soon. Ish. I have a to preoccupy myself til then though. I am leaving in a few days to go to Diego, in the far north of the country, to teach at the university up there for a month. I am also working with an NGO, helping them with the schools they sponsor in Diego. It will be a quick month I think. I have never been to the north and it will be exciting. Plus I will be doing work, instead of just sitting at site twiddling my thumbs for a month. I have to be back at site by no later than October 2^nd, because school starts the 3^rd. Then in October I have VAC, the volunteer meeting, then in November there’s our MSC conference for a week, and after that my friend Katie is trying to come to site to help me do a world map on one of the schools walls. I haven’t figure out which one yet, but I will do that in October. We haven’t gotten permission yet for her to come but I really want her to since she will have done 3 world maps by then and as most of you know my brother got all the artistic genes in the family. People tell me its easy but I know I would mess it up. Then its December and another xmas trip to plan. Not sure what im doing. Depends on who alls here. Then its 2012! Don’t’ have any big plans in 2012 yet. My godfather might be coming to visit and I want to do this river trip to Morondava, but those are the only big things that would be happening then. I think next summer I want to do training, helping out with the newbies who come. I think that would be fun and then I wouldn’t have to search for something to do next summer. Well unless I don’t’ get it. But I have to have the attitude I will.

Well im sure everyones eyes are bleeding by this point and I need to actually get dressed and get about my day. Gots lots to do today. I do want to add that in honor of Shark Week, which I am missing for the 4^th year in a row (I can’t catch a break!), I watched Jaws. True I watched it a few days ago, so Shark Week was already over by then, but I was on vacation. I think the sharks would understand. Hope everyone is having a great summer, kicking butts and takin names. I will post again sometime in September, before I head back to site. Later!

Books

The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty

The Virgin of Small Plains

Murder in the Marais

A Thousand Sisters

The Secret Lives of Dresses

The Other Queen

Girls in Trucks

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory

In A Sunburned Country

The girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing

Family Ties

The Things They Carried

One Day at a Time

Shes Come Undone

Where Men Win Glory: The Pat Tillman Story

Island of the Sequined Love Nun

The Oregon Trail is alive and well

Dysentery? Check. Malaria? Check. Giardia? Check. Scarlet fever? Check. Crazy animal/insect bites? Check. Daily struggle to find and clean water? Check. Not showering as often as you would like, since it’s out of a bucket and freezing? Check. The same food over and over again? Check. The only thing the Oregon Trail has over MAD is I haven’t had to circle my wagon and defend against a Native American attack, though the equivalent, taxi brousse robbery at night, could very much happen. Not that I’m expecting it to anytime soon since we aren’t allowed to ride taxi brousses at night. Man I wish I had that computer game. If anyone has a copy that would work on Windows 7 I would love to have it. Also Rollercoaster Tycoon. Two great games.

(this blog could have had a lot of different titles. It has been an eventful 3 weeks. The alternate titles? I shot the moon! (first time I have ever done that. It was so exciting! And in my first hand of the game. I have tried a few times to do it but always missed a heart or two. This time I didn’t even try and voila! Ps. This is in regards to Hearts) or Wankle strikes again! (I stepped on a rock funny. I am totally fine. Ankle swelled a little but lets be real it’s always a little swollen. I need Hanna and her ace bandage skills! Takes me back to AXO’s formal when Hanna had to wrap my ankle. Good times).

So one last little recap of Fianar. It was great! Amber and I got a lot done re-writing the 2nde guide, so it was a good trip. The next weekend was our VAC meeting which was great because Shayla, my friend who is way far away yet still part of my VAC region, actually got to come to VAC. I hadn’t seen her in 6 months so I was excited. This VAC was also fun cause we have 7 new people in our region from the March group that just finished training. They seemed cool. None of them are close to me so I don’t know if I will see them a lot outside of VAC, but its good to have more people in our region. And I think we are going to get more people after the July group finishes too. We went to a new restaurant in Antsirabe that I have seen and known about but never been to. It was good. We all went out Saturday night to the only club in Antsirabe. I use that term very lightly. It was fine. I am not a fan of drunk Malagasy’s. Most are not fun, keep to themselves drunk, at least around Vazaha’s. They tend to get rowdy and fight more than I remember drunk American’s doing and it just gets uncomfortable. It was good to hang out but I wasn’t feeling too good so I left earlier than everyone. Turns out the reason I wasn’t feeling good was that I had strep. My friend Brianna got strep AND scarlet fever. Glad I escaped the scarlet fever, though I have a sneaky suspicion that I gave her the strep. Sorry Brianna!

Faratsiho is fine. I am officially done with school! I turned in my grades for the lycee and all I have left to do is give the CEG my grades for my 6eme kids. Its exciting to be done. I have accomplished something! And though my kids don’t care, I do have a few that do and I can tell they have learned something. One girl essentially got me through the school year. She never got below a B average on any test and most of the time had the highest test grade in the class. She even got a perfect score on the last exam. I was so proud of her! It made me feel so good that someone was listening. It was exciting to have someone actually study and pay attention and learn the material. There were a few others, including the woman I tutors sister, who did pretty well and didn’t fail everything. My 2ndes were better, grade-wise, but there was still one very quiet guy who did the best who got me through the semester. He was just like the girl in my 6eme classes. I hope things stuck. I did find out that the 2nde class I teach is the bad class, the class with the worst grades overall out of all the 2nde classes (there’s 4). Once I found that out, which was sometime this trimester, it all made sense. Of course I taught the bad class. That’s my karma.

I am getting all the final reservations for my parents trip. Doing a lot of errands for it the rest of this week. I am excited that they are coming. It will be interesting to see how they like MAD and how they get along here. And exciting news BRIAN GOT HIS TICKET TOO! We are going to go to Ile St Marie. I am not sure exactly what his ticket deal is, since he texted me 12 hours ago about it and hes been at a wedding but I will find out. YAY!!!! I am so excited!!!!

One year down, one to go. That’s not really true, in terms of actually time, but that’s what it feels like since teaching is my primary assignment. I only have one more year of teaching left. I won’t know what I’m teaching next year til the end of September or beginning of October but I want to work primarily at the lycee, since this year I did mostly the CEG. Trying to make it fair. I am movin and groovin!

Book list:

The Bitch

Unaccustomed Earth

The Wedding

Let the Great World Spin

The Scent of Rain and Lightning

The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

We made mac n'cheese yesterday and it was bomb

This weekend I am in Fianar, working with my friend Amber on re-doing the 2nde curriculum guide. It needs new exercises, more explanations and more Malagasy translations. At least its better than the 6eme guide, which has nothing in it (my goal is to re-do that one this summer/next year). All the other curriculum guides are much better, even the ones for the grades we aren’t allowed to teach. I don’t know how 2nde and 6eme, the two grades PC teaches in the most, got the shaft. Amber is also going to help me grade 130 tests. Yay! For me. Not sure if Amber feels the same way but she agreed to help. Its just 6eme so its easy to grade. Just takes forever.

I am still chugging along with school. This trimester I have had a lot of days off so far. I was gone a week for the Education Program review, I had 3 ½ days off from my CEG because they were having some sport festival (and of those 3 ½ days off, I would have had class everyday but one so that was nice, even if it is putting my classes behind in my master teaching plan) and this month I have at least 2 Mondays off, one for Pentecost and one for the National Holiday, June 26^th (their version of our 4^th of July. And I think I have it off. Pretty positive). Its on a Sunday this year. My high school told me I had it off and they are the only place I work on Mondays, but then this week they told me I have to be done teaching by June 20^th, which is the Monday before. And I know my CEG is giving their finals the week of the 27^th I just don’t know which day the English final will be given. If I was a betting lady I would say the 30^th, since the last 2 trimesters its always been on the last day of finals and it looks like my CEG will have finals on Monday the 27^th. I will just be in my house though. I have almost finished the curriculum for my 2nde students so its not too big of a deal to end so early, but it does mean I can’t give them the oral exam I was planning. I don’t have enough time to prepare them. I wish I knew all this months in advance, instead of a week and a half before. Makes life a little frustrating.

Site has been fine. I had a bad stomach thing for a day that completely knocked me out. I think my body was protesting the return to food I cooked myself, since I had such good with the Mintons. That sentence probably doesn’t make much sense without the back story so let me tell it. My friend Katie’s parents and sister came to MAD right after the program review so I took my personal leave days and came to Tana to meet them. I also had this weird rash on my ring finger on my right hand that I needed to get checked out (im fine). Anyway, they were awesome people and they took me out for a few very nice meals. I wish I could have an American salary here because you can live like a king. I got delicious duck one night and it was $8. Ya you read the right. Crazy! The Mintons are from Baltimore so we knew a lot of the same places. It was a great weekend. And it was great to see Katie, who I talk to a lot but hadn’t actually seen in 5 months.

I also am tutoring another woman and her friend, though the friend hasn’t come yet. She speaks pretty good English and just wants to practice since next year she is going to work at a school in the area teaching English. There is a shortage of English teachers so even though she doesn’t have a teaching degree she is going to teach. Like me ;). She also told me a really interesting fact about the schools in Faratsiho. They are not that hard. She wants her son to go to school in Antsirabe because the schools there are so much hard/better.

We got our dates for our MSC (mid-service conference) and the dates aren’t till the end of October, more than a month after our actually halfway point. It sucks cause its another month I won’t see people and I have to miss the first 2 weeks of school to attend, so my first trimester will only be about 6 weeks long. And I want to go to our MSC. I want to hear about other teachers first year and get some new ideas for exercises, group work, etc. It will all work out though. I hope. And to be fair, I don’t actually know when school starts next year. They haven’t set the date yet, im just going based off last year. They also want us to bring our counterpart, our person in our towns that is supposed to be our contact person for any town related issue, but I know mine wont be able to go to MSC if its the first 2 weeks of school. Hes the principal. He can’t just take off for the first 2 weeks of school. And there might be trouble for the health sectors counterparts because my friend Katie says her counterpart, who is the doctor for her town, can’t leave town cause hes the only doctor around. Theres no one else and he serves like 8,000 people. We will see what happens.

[****NEWS UPDATE*** so apparently they have moved our MSC date to Nov 6. which is still bad since it still means missing school. I am unclear how long it actually is and whether its with the health sector. If its not with the health sector I am going to be very very unhappy and displeased. ]

The big news in my life is that my parents are official booked to come see me in MAD! It is so exciting. I have a crazy time planned for us. We are going from Tana to Toliera and back. Yay! Then my parents are going to South Africa so they can do a safari outside Jo’burg and then on to Cape Town. Wish I could go with them cause it sounds amazing. Brains trip is still being planned, but we will figure it out eventually. He has to figure out what the best time would be for him with work and all. Im confident that in a few weeks his ticket will be booked too.

Here are some numbers I thought everyone would find interesting. I will post some more numbers (6eme numbers) next time. Enjoy! Also my book list is below the numbers. And also if you want to make a comment about my blog please do. I like to read comments and it lets me know that people are actually reading my blog.

2nde Class

46 total days teaching

69 total hours (25 2 hour classes, 17 1 hours classes, and 4 30min classes)

Started: October 18^th, 2010

Ended: June 20^th, 2011

9 Units (material covered)

53 students started school (26 girls, 27 boys)

49 students currently (26 girls, 23 boys)

Oldest student: 20 (birthday August 8^th, 1990)

Youngest: 14 (birthday January 1^st, 1997)

Faratsiho

47km from my town to RN7, the major highway. All dirt

78km to Antsirabe, my banking town

5,000 people (approx. in Faratsiho)

12 hours (amount I teach per week)

1 morning (I work at the hospital with my site mate)

4 pounds of brown sugar I have consumed since being here (and I didn’t start eating it til like February or March)

1 time a week (how many times I thoroughly clean my house)

2 paintings I own

1 time a month I have a person wash my sheets/towels/big items

0 times I have ridden my bike (I am going to give it back to PC)

3.5km to my high school (walked twice a week)

#### of books I’ve read (you will have to count them, but it think it might be in the 60s)

Book List

Beatrice and Virgil

The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa

Me Talk Pretty One Day

The White Queen

One Day

Emma’s War

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Glass Castle

The Imperfectionists

The Guernsey and Potato Peel Pie Literary Society

I Love America

Wow it has been a long time since I posted a blog. I am really sorry ya’ll. I promise from now on I will be better. I will be able to type up my posts before I get to a place with internet so I won’t have to spend all that time on a French keyboard, struggling to remember that A is not in the same place and M is way far to the right. Though I was getting pretty good at using a French keyboard. So on to news…

I’ve made it back to MAD. Not going to lie a little sad I’m back cause I had such a great time in the USA. I really do love America. If you are ever having any doubts about America and its awesomeness just go live in a developing country for 9 months and you will return with brand new appreciation. Before I get into my state-side visit, let me tell you about my last days of school (at least for the 2nd trimester) and finals. Yay!

I ended up hosting 4 newbies at my site and it was a lot of fun. They were all cool and very easy to talk to. It was a little frustrating that we didn’t arrive at my site til about 730pm on Saturday, which meant we couldn’t really have dinner that night and we missed market day. Plus by the time the newbies got to Tana and then we got to the taxi brousse station there were no longer any direct brousses to my site, so we had to go to Antsirabe and then transfer. It was an odyssey. I hope that next time, if there is a next time, since this was a trial run, we get them for more than a day. It’s so much traveling for such a short period of time. My sitemate and I made them pancakes and janky Chipotle burritos (they are time consuming to make so I actually don’t know when I will do it again. I have to have a whole Saturday free in order to even try to attempt to make them) and we showed them some of our town. That was the other frustrating thing. We got them on a Sunday and lots of things are either closed all day or in the morning when people attend church. I feel like we couldn’t show them a true representation of what a site could be like. Overall it was a good experience and I think that other stages who come should do it too.

So the last few weeks of school were pretty uneventful. I had classes to teach and rowdy kids to corral. All in a days work. I gave my finals, which meant the week before I left I had 250 tests to grade. Joy. I actually had a better pass rate for my 6eme kids this time. Instead of 90% failing, only 75% failed. We are making progress! I did have one kid just write the test down, not answer any of the questions, and turn in his paper. That at least made my job easy. My head was spinning by the end and I was exhausted. These weren’t short tests either since it was the final. My CEG once again gave their exams 2 weeks early, so that gave me some extra time. I still don’t know what they do those last 2 weeks, cause the students still go to school. No one has ever told me what happens or told me I need to be there. It’s all very mysterious.

So I submitted my grades and made my way to Tana, where I was obviously super excited to get my vaca started. I headed out to the airport only to find out that Air Madagascar, my flight carrier, had changed my flight by 20 hours to the next day. THE NEXT DAY. Who does that? Needless to say I was pissed. You would think that this kind of drastic change would warrant a phone call a few weeks in advance. Nope. I got an e-mail about 32 hours before my flight, and a text the morning of and finally, a phone call while I am waiting in-line at the airport the night of my flight asking me if I knew if it had been changed. With the e-mail and the text I didn’t look at the date, which was my bad, but I didn’t expect the date to change. I was excited that my flight was going to get into Paris 4 hours earlier. Which of course, wince it was a different day, it didn’t. I will never fly Air Mad again. It was a disaster. If I look for a silver lining, they did put me up in a hotel back in the center, so I could hang out with other PCV’s the next day and they paid for my meals (at the hotel, which meant I only had dinner since I headed out real fast in the morning but still free dinner. And a mini beer).

So you may be asking, well Megan, what did you do about your connecting flight? Well I called my dad crying and my parents took care of changing it. I had first called Brian bawling, which is not how you want to start any conversation. Not to mention by emotional state did not help the way his day was going so no good. I eventually made it to the US though, it was just a day later then I had anticipated.

America was amazing. I ate a ton of food and definitely gained weight, though I would have considered it an offense to nature if I hadn’t (I heart you Chipotle). I was mostly in the DC area with Brian, but I did cruise on into Seattle for 3 days to see the fam and the other Fam. I didn’t do anything real epic, like go to Disneyland or Gettysburg, but it was so nice to just chill and hang out with people. I didn’t need to do a big thing. It was incredibly hard to leave. I think I had forgotten how hard it had been the first time and this time I didn’t have something new to distract me. I had my MAD reality to remember and Brian standing in front of me. Ultimately I had to come back (I left my pillow here! I have a real weird attachment to that thing. One time, I left it in Vegas and I had the hotel mail it to me. I know). I couldn’t stand the disappointment of my family and friends if I had quit then or anytime in the future (even though I know they would understand or at least pretend to to my face, which is all I ask). Also, my parents and I planned out their whole trip and I really want to do it too, so I couldn’t not come back (also on a practical money side I paid for a round trip tix so I needed to round trip it). I cried at the airport, but I really broke down once I got into the cab in MAD. It was 330am, I was alone and exhausted. All I wanted was to cuddle with my man, but no, he was half a world away. You know, if Brian was here, I may be able to live here forever. Well him and Chipotle.

I am back at site right now (I got a mini comp so I can type blog posts at site and not have to worry about French keyboards. Yay!) and school has started again. Nothing new going on there, though my horrible 6eme 3 class actually behaved this week. It was a miracle. You know if they just were quiet I wouldn’t dislike them so much. By the time I post this I will be in Antsirabe for an education program review meeting. Now that I have caught everyone up on my life, I need to post the books I’ve read. There haven’t been that many lately, what with tests and people, but I have read a ton of mags so I will write down all the titles of mags I’ve read since coming here.

The Known World
Plague Ship
Treasure of Khan
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million and Bucked the Medical Establishment in a Quest to Save his Children
The Lost City
Little Altars Everywhere
Sing Me Home

Mags: People, US Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, Discovery, Life and Style, Vanity Fair, Star, Brides, Bridal Guide, Self, Glamour, Lucky, Cosmo, Martha Stewart Weddings, Martha Stewart Destination Weddings, Sports Illustrated, In Touch, Reader’s Digest

P.S. so I wrote this a few days ago and since then I have gone to Antsirabe for an education program review and am now in Tana. Every 5 years they review the education program to make sure things that are being taught in training are still useful. It didn’t take too long to go over and wasn’t exactly what I was expecting for a program review but I am sure everything will turn out fine. I am in Tana right now for my short term personal leave and I had to get a flu shot, which still hurts a little. Plus I had a rash on my finger that I needed to get checked out. Actually it was fine and I was already doing what I needed to be doing to make it better but I figured when in Rome… My friend from the south was also here and I helped her sell scarves. She works for a silk weavers co-op and they make beautiful work. We sold in a 5 hour period approx. $500 and got free food. I even put in a special order for my own scarf, since I didn’t want to take away from the sales that were happening. Plus I wanted a different color. The silk weavers can literally do anything as long as they have a picture. If anyone is interested in purchasing a scarf or anything else (bags, belts, bed covers etc) let me know! They are awesome. In a few hours I am heading to dinner with my other friend, Katie, from Diego, cause her parents landed in country about 2 hours ago. It will be fun. I am basically waiting for a call from her to head on over to their hotel. Hope everything is going well in America and I promise I will have a other blog post soon!

My new obsession? Pretzel M&Ms

I feel like, once again, I have nothing new to report. I just chug along out here, teaching, reading, walking and watching movies. I have to say I have been very good about my movie watching. I only watch movies when its dark out and I haven’t cracked. I have read a lot of books, which I will post at the end of this blog. Lets see, what are a few new things I could tell you.

First, I gave my 6eme kids a test and, surprise surprise, 95% of them failed. What a shocker. Not. These kids just don’t care. I took to giving out little prizes to the top tester, hoping that would motivate people but no. I gave a test to my 2nde students and only about 45% of them failed, so I count that as a success. There is no impetus to learn here. Parents aren’t pushing their kids to do better (at least, it doesn’t seem like they are) and the kids don’t have any desire to do better for themselves. I have a few standout students who work hard and do well, but they are few and far between. A lot of kids (about 15-20) in total from all 4 of my classes have dropped out of school. I don’t know why and no one has said why. One guy who dropped out was one of my troublemakers and since he left class has been a lot calmer.

I have to give my final for my 6eme classes in just under 2 weeks, on April 1st. I am very confused why we are ending 2 weeks early (class is supposed to end on April 15th) but I have learned to just go with it. At least this time I wasn’t surprised since I decided to ask last week about the finals. I had a feeling they were going to do them early again. Maybe people just really don’t like teaching. I don’t like that I am losing 2 weeks from my curriculum. I have lost a month so far and by the time the school year is over it will 6 weeks. I could have done a lot in 6 weeks.

We had our VAC (volunteer action committee) meeting at the end of February and it was a lot of fun. These meetings are a chance for us all to get together, talk out any problems we have, and get information from our VAC rep about whats going on with PC. It was good to see a lot of other volunteers, from our stage and other stages. We have these meetings every 4 months so the nest one is in June. Yay!

So a new group has arrived in MAD. They are all environment and SED (small biz) people and they arrived March 2, if I’m remembering correctly. I will actually be hosting 4 or 6 them in a week and a half (well me and my site mate) so they can see how we live. We are going to cook them our tomato pasta sauce and garlic bread (our oven has a toast function and we made garlic bread the other day and it was sooooo good). I don’t have that many details yet but I am excited to meet some of the new people. No one will be in my VAC region so I may never see them again, but that’s ok. Its still fun to meet new people.

March Madness is going on right now and I filled out a bracket. I have no idea what happened this year so I pretty much picked by who I know from there, whose name I liked, ya know, typical girl stuff. I am glad I sent with my gut and didn’t pick Villanova. They broke my heart last year so I couldn’t support them and they last this year too. At least my heart is still in one piece, though Georgetown put a crack in it. I am curious to see how I do. I had so much fun last year and this year is veryyyyyy different.

I am all set on going coming back to the States in April. I will be in DC from April 13th to April 29th, with a 3 day cameo appearance in Seattle from April 18th-22nd. If you are interested in booking time with me in either of those 2 locations please contact Brian for DC and my Dad for Seattle (I am that classy that I need two different event planners. Hehehe). Priority will be given to those people who have made an effort to stay in touch with me while I am halfway around the world. J.

Well I think I am done right now. I will post again sometime in the future. I will be back in the US of A in less then a month and I can’t wait. Chipotle here I come!

Here are the books I’ve read:

Tortilla Flat
Black Friday
How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
Plainsong
Trail of Feathers: In Search of the Birdmen of Peru
The Lonely Polygamist (Brian and I read this one together, though he may not be quite done with it yet)
One for the Money
About a Boy
My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-up
The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman, and the Destruction of Hitler’s Germany 1941-1945Eeeee eee eeee (DO NOT READ. It was horrible)

Just call me the Muffin Lady

Happy February! hope everyone had a nice VDay (I, unfortunatly, had to spend my away from my valentine) and presidents day. its the same old same old here. I have been teaching, sleeping, watching movies, reading up a strom; and just hanging out with myself. my site mate and I did buy an oven so we are now official bakers. i have made 2 batches of peanut butter cookies and ly site mate has made like 11 batches of chocolate chip cookies. i htink my cookie quota was reached for february.

Teaching has been interesting. i dont think my 6eme kids had ever seen an analog clock before last week when i taught them. i was a wee bit caught off guard by that, since i thought i would just have to teach them the number in english, but no. wrong. I had my older kids write a dialogue for their last test and some people wrote really good dialogues, but didnt include any of the things i asked for so they failed. i felt bad but they didnt do what i asked. then another girl wrote/i know copied a dialogue about yearbooks for the assignment and i know they dont know what a yearbook is. i have to give my little ones another test this week, so it will be another round of grading tests where most people fail. I literally cant make my tests any easier. they just dont study.

So this last week i lived through a cyclone which was pretty cool. very wet, wind, and cold. its lasted like 4 days, cause it came through once then boom-a-ranged back once more. so now i have lived through a coup and a cyclone. wonder what other C events I can live through? Cattle stampede? Collapsing building? Car accident? Corruption scandal? so many possibilites! i have been cooking a lot recently and have perfected a tomatoe spaghetti sauce. its so yummy. its spicy and has got a kick to it. i am going to make imitation tacos this week so Im hopin those turn out ok. not that I have the oven I am going to make banana bread and other delicious things. i have read a lot but i am going to put up that list next time I blog, which will be the first weekend of march madness. gots to check how my teams are doing. plus by then I will need money.

wow im kinda boring. sorry my life isnt more exciting to read about. let me try and think of a few more things to tell yall.... Im coming back to teh states in April! i am very excited. i will be mostly in DC with brian but I will be making a 3 day cameo apperance in seattle. I wont have a lot of time but enough to see those people that really matter. i cant wait to get my grub on. chipotle, CPK; Wendys; 5 Guys, Matchbox, Panda Express here I come! plus a host of other places. I am going to ea till i burst. my tummy will be happy while im eating but probably not too much a few hours later but if will be totally worth it. PCs 50th anniversary is coming up so there will be some sort of party here for that so that will be fun. god I really dont have much else. i know I will get back to my site and say ugh i forgot to say that but cest la vie. I miss everyone and i hope everything in the states is peachy keen. I am going to post my predictions now, which i made back in august, for my 2 years here. I have been meaning to post it and i finally remembered to bring the sheet this time! if there is a name in parenthesis after the prediction it is that person own specific prediction. all the rest were general consensus

1. Lindsey Lohan dies
2. Prince William gets married- holla got that right!
3. Angelina Jolie has another kid, natural or adopted
4. Major natural disaster in usa, hurrican katrina sized
5. USA sends troops to another country
6. A USA political figure gets assassinated
7. Bill Clinton dies (katie)
8. Attempted, but failed, attempt on Obamas life
9. Pope dies
10. Fidel Castro dies
11. Terrorist attack in France (katie)
12. Major terrorist attack in the USA
13. Earthquake high than 6.0 in Cali (josh)
14. A horse will win the triple crown
15. New major social networking site will make it big (james)
16. Mt Rainer blows up
17. Jennifer Aniston has a baby
18. A Seattle sports team will win their respective sports championship

New PC Volunteers, this ones for you!

hello new March Stage! You only have a few more weeks til you leave the USA to come to good ol MAD. please eat lots of Chipotle for me! Here is a list of things to bring, things that are your choice, and what not to bring. I hope this helps and see you in MAD!

BRING

Deodorant: you can only get the rolling kind in country, which I personally hate and dont think works
Sweatshirt: it gets cold, especially in Mantasoa and in the highlands
Sleeping Bag: doubles as a blanket and very very useful
Jeans: at least a pair
Tie (boys): for swearing in
Solar Charger: make sure its compatible with the electronics your bringing
Digital Camera: kinda a no brainier
Headlamp (2): you WILL need this, even if you have electricty. I do and I still use mine every night. they are just so practical. i recommend 2 just in case yours breaks
Books: you will have lots of free time
E-Reader: ditto above
Rain Jacket: it rains a lot here, especially in the highlands. there is a rainy season
Dri Quick Towel: good for trips to visit friends. you can get bath towels in country
Double FItted Sheet: no fitted sheets in country, unless you want to pay out the nose for it. bring one and you will be so happy. regular sheets are easier to find and cheaper. I brought one from home but not a must
Favorite things from home: cause you will be homesick
Batteries (AAA): not easy to find here
ONe NIce Outfit: for swearing in and any other special occasion
FLat, nice, closed toe shoes: practical and then you dont have to bring heels!
Duct Tape: also good to have
Flash Drive/External Hard drive: to move documents etc? most important you bring the external hard drive if you have a computer cause there is a lot of movie sharing
Hair Control Devices: you will not be washing your hair a lot fo you need something to keep it tamed
Travel Mirror: so you can look at yourself
Travel Alarm Clock: to wake up for events
Sewing Kit: to repair clothes. I already have clothes with holes I have had to sew
Lots and Lots of Underwear: take whatever you were going to bring and double it at least. I would even say triple it
Ziplock Bags: to keep out bugs from food

YOUR CHOICE

Computer: I dont have on and I have gotten along fine. I am, however, going to get one to bring back here because they are useful to have. you wont die without one though
Make-up: i never wear any, some people wear a little everyday here. its up to you
Rain Boots: i like having mine
Umbrella: you can buy here, but if you have a small one already you might as well bring it
Diva Cup (girls): now these freak me out so i dont have one but people who do swear by them.
Pads (girls): very very hard to find so if thats you thing, bring a supply
Tape/Glue: cheap and small, so easy to pack if you have space
Gum: love me some gum and really dont like the gum in MAD
Food: like bars, powered drink mixes stuff like that. comfort food
Pens: you will get some but not right away so bring a few to get started
Jewelry: just a few pieces for formal occasions
Pillow: i love my pillow so i brought it but I was one of the few who did. bring if you are really attached, like me!

DONT BRING

Bike Helmet: PC will give you one
Lots of CLothes: you can buy stuff here thats funny and cheap.
High Heels: everythings a dirt road. nuff said
Cell Phones: you will get one here for cheap
Short Shorts: shoulders are ok to bare but knees not so much. i have not felt comfy wearing short shorts anywhere. that being said, bring a pair of running shorts for loungin around you house or working out inside your house
Mosquito net: you will get one from PC
Lots of 1st Aid: you will get from PC
Lots of hygiene products: you will get from PC/ easy to buy

Hope this helps!

They changed the Zodiac signs? Im not a Libra anymore? but my tattoos for life!

Hello family and friends! this will be a real short blog post cause i am only in town for a few hours to pick up stuff then its back to my site. It will be a real long day by the time I get back!

First, the mail. Apparently, there was a delay for some reason but I called PC today and they said the issue, whatever it was, just got resolved, so mail should be going to the USA this week. incoming mail was affected too, but not packages, which i found strange but Im not the leader. so I got aunt danas and moms packages today (thank you!) and no letters. the following people have letters coming (this is on top of the people I wrote on my last blog): Hanna, Erin, Erin, Diana, Laurie, and Brian. hopefully everything will get to you, but we shall see

Second i forgot to write down the books ive read so here it goes!

Handle With Care
Matterhorn
Dead Until Dark
River Town
The Art of Racing in the Rain
The Magicians Assistant
A Gate at the Stairs
White Tiger
Peony in Love
No Place Left to Bury the Dead
Bitter is the New Black
Unlikely Destinations: the Lonely Planet Story
The Emperors Children
Where the Heart Is
The Secret Life of Bees
Seabiscuit
Nine Hills to Nambonkaha
The Rossetti Letter
Never Let Me Go

School is going fine. just cruisin along. I will write more about it next time. I will post again the weekend of Feb 25 so come back and check then! miss everyone!

Friends and Family Beware: Peace Corps taught me how to pickpocket this month.You have been warned

A lot has happened since I last blogged so this could take awhil. Then again, I am feeling really lazy right now so I might not be able to make it that far. Here I go!

I got to Tana on Dec 9th, where I stayed in a hotel for 2 days cause there wasn't enough room in the MEVA. I ate a lot of hamburgers, at a place called Speedy burger, which is like burger King. it was so good. Well not really, if I compare it to America, but I try not to do that cause then everything is worse. I also went to the Cookie Shop, which is the American bakery here in Tana. They have bomb brownie sundeas. i get one everytime, though they are really expensive. good thing I dont make it Tana that much, otherwise I would be broke. We also all went out to the club in Tana, called Le Bus, which looks like an American club in Seattle. There was virtually no one there but PCV's, which was fun. The few Malagasy people who were there all crowded around the mirror, watching themselves dance. It was funny to watch them, watching themselves. I got a hoot out of it.

We left Sunday morn for IST (In-service Training). It was 6ish days long. There were a lot of seminars, half of which I didn't go to (dont worry we weren't required to) and lots of eating to be had. It was great to get some pseudo american food, but it made a lot of tummies a little rumbly. There was a lot of reading/hanging out to do, since I hadn't seen all my friends since Sept. There were a lot of stories to catch up on, a lot of horror stories to here. IST pretty much ended on Thursday night, since Friday morn we headed out to Tana to take a tour of teh Embassy. Its brand new and looks like America. It was so exciting to see it and hear different speeched from the different departments. All the embassy people were really cool and they all want to help us out however they can. I got all the info I need to take the State dept exam next summer. well this summer, since its now 2011. (PS Happy New Year!). and the best part? we got to swim in the Embassy pool! It was so nice. I actually felt like I was back home at an outdoor swimming pool (though technically the embassy is america so i was there).

Sat morn a group of 10 of us headed out for our vaca/biz trip. We hired a private taxi brousse to take us to Fianar, which is about 9 hours south of tana. Private is the way to go. you can have them make stops whereever you want, or not have them make stops (regular taxi Bs stop all the time. drives me nuts). you have way more room and you dont have to worry about anyone stealing anything. its magaical. so we spent the night in fianar and then headed to ranomafana, to hit up a rainforest. We meet up with another PCV who lives in ranomafana and he took us to this awesome waterfall. we hiked up onto the actually waterfall and it was so beautiful. then, since its was raining and actually a trifle cold, we went to the hot springs, which is somthing else Ranomafana is known for. it was nice and toasty and we stayed for about an hour. then it was off to dinner and then bed, cause we had an early morning wake up call to go to the rainforest where we ended up seeing.....

LEMURS! yes ladies and gentleman, i finally saw a lemur. more then one, actually, and 2 different types, the golden bamboo lemur and another one that was red/brown. we had to hike up far and wide to see them, but it was worth it. we also had a lemur spotter, as well as a guide, who ran ahead to try and spot the lemurs. hence the name lemur spotter. it was so exciting to finally see a lemur. I felt like my experience wasn't complete/official till I saw one. we were in teh park for about 2 hours cause we though thats how long we had, cause our brousse to farafangana was supposed to come pick us up. 2 hours after the car was supposed to come it finally showed up. this one wasnt a private brousse, but it was mostly us so thats nice. Though no space since we were all squished. thast ok though. i did feel a little bad for the people around us, since we probably smelled from our trek through the jungle. oh well what can you do.

we finally made it to farafangana, where we had our biz. we got in late, so we went straight to the bungalows to stay. now my friend James, who lives in farafangana, told us they were nice and that everyone stayed there when they came. we should have known not to listen to a boy. They were fine bungalows, if i was only staying there one night, but we were going to be there 7 and this place was not acceptable. there was no running water, which wasn't that big of a deal, but the bathrooms were gross and really far away, the mosquito net did not cover the bed, it was dirty, you couldn't hang out there, and there were no outlets. now i know that last sentence may make me sound really prissy, but i would have stayed there if i was only there a night. one night vs 7 is a big difference. oh and there was no fan and its hot hot hot in farafangana. so us girls made an executive decision the next morning to change hotels so off we went (this decision didn't sit too well with teh boys, but they were staying at James house, where there was a fan, outlets, running water, and a decent bathroom). the reason this was a tiny issues was the new place was more expensive but like $10usd more expensive. a fan is worth that to me.

We had monday to relax and hang out in farafangana and then tuesday-thursday we had english club. not as many people came as James had expected (he set it up, what with it being his town and all) so we were able to do individual lessons. it was fun. my girl who I tutored the whole time was the most mahay (best, knowledgeable etc), though she wasnt that good. I'd liek to think I helped her out, at least a little. the boys went up to another PCV's site about 2 hours away for a night to install handwashing stations and give health presentations. since english club was in teh evening we had all day to tan and hang out, which was nice and fun to do. I did get a sunburn, even though i was real good about putting on sunscreen. probably the best I have ever been about it. the sun is just so strong here. on the plus side I am now real tan, which I like because I no longer have funky tan lines. we had a lot of good meals (though the buirgers we had were not tasty and did not sit well), a few laughs, and lots of sleep. 2 of the days we didn't even leave our hotel room to go to teh beach, since we were so burned and hot.

On christmas, which we called Day X since we were all sad panda bears, was ok. definitely very different then being in the states. that was one of the days we didn't leave the hotel, since we know that that night we were going to have a bonfire on the beach. we ate at the hotel as a xmas treat (which then turned into eating our breakfast there every morning) and read in our rooms. I also opened presents from my mom that she had sent, that i had carted all the way from my site just so I could have something to open on Day X. that night we did go and have a bonfire. Abe, the PCv whose site people had gone too, had come down the day before so he hung out with us too. my friend shayla and i left at about 2 but everyone else stayed to watch the sunrise (when they came back they said it wasn't that good so im glad i missed it).

we headed out of farafangana on teh 28th to go to montakara, another beach town about 3 hours north. we spent the night there and then caught the train to fianar. that train is the only passenger train in MAD and it was really fun to take it. It took us about 12 hours to get to Fianar (and if we had broussed it would have only taken us 5-6hours), but it was so much better. we had tons of space, food we could buy at every stop, a bathroom on the train (which is just like Indias system where you do your biz on the tracks) and a beer guy who would bring us cold beers when we wanted them. it was the life. i will never take a brouse back that way. i will always train it, though the chances of me coming back down this way aren't the highest, since there are a lot of other places to see.

so right now I am in fianar, which is where I spent new years. A lot of the poeple I went to the beach went actually headed back to tana early. 2 b/cthey had to fly back to their site, one b/c her house got broken into and all her stuff stolen so she has to deal with that (I feel really bad for her cause she had xmas packages waiting for her at her house. PC should be moving her though, cause who would want to stay there after all the stuff gets stolen), 1 had a med thing and 1 was already supossed to be going. the group quickly dwindledm but thats ok cause other people showed up. there were about 12 people together for new years. we went to a brothel for samosas and brochettes, which are little meat sticks. the brothel is the only place close by to go so off we went. I was back at the MEVA, where I am staying, by like 1130 cause we want to put our pjs on and countdown to the new year with youtubed music videos. i know i am so hardcore. things werent that hoppin here so it was no loss. the last 2 days i have been reading, using the internet and watching season 3 of true blood (everyone in that show has lost their minds. ppl be nuts).

I leave tomorrow to head back to site. I do and dont want to go back to site. I do cause i want to cook for myself and have my own space and not live out of a bag. I eat way healthier at site, cause i actually eat fruits and veggies there and i haven't been walking as much, what with all the sitting around and poor eating. i dont want to go back cause i will be alone at site again, and i will have to teach. My one class is about to get a rude awakening if they dont shape up. should be fun. my english club is going to start this month too and I need to find a malagasy tutor. I have realized that my malagasy is not up to par, which is probably b/c i haven't been studying. that all has to change. i need to step it up. well thats been my last month. next month I will have more stuff and hopefully I will have some good stories from class. I miss everyone and keep sending me things/letter! Mail makes my week!

and the title of this blog? totally true