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!
